Men seem encouraged or even pressed to undergo the Trial by what follows viz. He who doth the Truth cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God Hence he whoso fears to bring his Works to the Light as to put them rather in a secret Place and smother them seems convinced or under a strong Suspition that they are not wrought in God For he who doth Truth comes willingly to the Light for the Manifestation of his Deeds And we would have it taken and accepted as the true and only Design of making this Argument publick believing it a Discovery of Truth wrought in God without any crooked Biass or Design and not unfit or improper to be set upon a Candlestick that Men may have Opportunity to see and discover and to examine its Light viz. the Truth of it and may use it accordingly Having made such Search after Souls as we are able we go on to enquire concerning other Spiritual Operations in Man And do say that we have taken the Occasion of this Enquiry from the Book before-cited called Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts Perusing what he said there concerning the Soul I met with Doctrines about the Operations of God's Spirit acting in Man such as were very different from my own Apprehensions and thereupon entred into a Design of enquiring farther into the Truth of what there is asserted and to approve or endeavour to confute what we there met with concerning this Subject as it shall appear agreeable to Truth or otherwise deviating from or opposite unto the same Page 47. He says This Spirit works in all Believers and either in them only or eminently above all others Pag. 48. But this is not discoverable to those who have had a pious Education and have pursued that Course from their Youth They cannot discover the Spirit 's Renovation in themselves but are left to make such Discovery of Renovation in others who have been changed from Evil to Good Without Christ's Spirit we can do nothing and better have no Souls than be void of that Spirit Hereupon I observe That those who cannot discern this sort of Spirit working in themselves seem to be very incompetent Judges of its working in other People or of knowing that such Change was wrought by that Spirit They may guess and mistake but we deny that they can know it We agree that no Man can act any thing without God's Assistance for in him we live move and have our Being We cannot do a good Work nor any Work without him and our Dependence is upon him both for Life and Action And this Divine Energy Men may call the Spirit of God within us But we deny that this is peculiar to Believers more than to other People although it seem often confounded with the Holy Spirit of God and of Christ Pag. 49 He says Heaven is the Summ and End of all the Spirit 's Operations viz. Man's Salvation purchased by Christ and given by Covenant Take up the Cross forsake all and follow me and thou shalt have Reward in Heaven For this he quotes Luke 14. Ver. 26. 33. The Words are Those who do not forsake all cannot be Christ's Disciples And he quotes Luke 18.22 where the Words are Sell all and distribute and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven How far these Words prove his Assertion we leave to Judgment It follows God sends his Spirit to good Purposes and to illuminate and make Holy And we grant where it comes it doth so But to know where or in whom this Holy Spirit resides will be the Difficulty between us Pag. 50. He quotes 16 Texts of Scripture to prove God hath promised this Spirit to Believers in a Special Manner I have perused them all and do not find one of them come home to his Assertion viz. That God will give to all Believers his Spirit in a Special Manner And yet that they are all under the Conduct of that Spirit and are moved and led thereby we do grant but do say that it works generally by Natural Ways and Means of Illuminating the Understandings of Men and their Faculties of Perception inclining their Judgments and thereby their Wills regulating their Affections quieting their Passions subduing all to the Obedience of Christ by Natural and therefore Imperceptible Working in them upon them and by them so as the Working may not be perceptible to themselves or others who converse them But the prime or sole Appearance of this ordinary Conduct of Gods Spirit must be sought for and found in the Fruits not in the Leaves the Bustling Noise or Rattling Professions or Contendings about or for Religion Galat. 5.22 Gives us a Catalogue of these Fruits The Fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance Where these Fruits grow and flourish and the Works of the Flesh here mentioned wither and die Men have great Reason to conclude the Person so walking is under the Conduct of God's Holy Spirit because it is beyond Humane Power to produce these Effects without the Divine Assistance or Aids from Heaven and thus we join with our Author at the Journeys End although we travel in different Roads towards it We both say God's Spirit conducts and leads Believers in a particular Manner but we do not agree about the Manner I say The ordinary Working of God's Spirit is by Natural Means perfecting and regulating the Man's Powers and Actions till they arrive to a Conformity with their highest Intention and the Will and Appointment of God unperceivably in the Operation or Conduct both to other People or even to the Party upon whom this Grace is bestowed for that it is Naturally effected and so without any violent or perceptible Motion or Action and therefore cannot be known but by the Evidence of Fruits Our Author By God's Spirit gives to Believers in a Special Manner agreeing in general with those of his Practices doth intend such a perceivable and vigorous Working of God's Spirit in Men as excites their Zeal and Concernment for the Gospel-Interest and what they believe tendent and conducing to the Glory of God although in their Proceedings to such Purposes there appear neither Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness nor Meekness and although there do appear Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions and such like This Tenet I pretend to oppose as an Erroneous and Dangerous Doctrine opposing our Lord's Direction By their Fruits ye shall know them The Pharisees and Jewish Nation of Christ's Time were as zealous for God and his Law as the most Devoted of our Time can shew themselves for the Gospel Their Hatred to him grew the most apparently from his not strictly observing the Sabbath Day and not Washing before Meat and other Religious Practices then used and his Pretending to introduce a New Mode of Religion different from that given by God at Mount Sinai But they proceeded in Opposition by Unjust and Faulty Methods
is very unwilling to do just as Men are to die And he proposes 10 Similitudes in this Supposition which seem not well grounded nor weighty Pag. 845. Quotes Texts of Scripture urged against his Tenet and answers them but Three in all Then he comes to the Opinion that Souls departed do sleep till the Resurrection void of all Operation till the Resurrection and then the Bodies rise from Death and the Souls from their Lethargy This Sleep says our Author is plain Death as that of the Body is called Sleep Pag. 846. He says Sure it is good Souls separated do go into Heaven and enjoy the Vision of God and the evil do go into Hell but they are not compleatly Happy or Vnhappy till the Resurrection But from whence he takes this Rule he shews not nor offers Proof of it It is an absurd Thing and against God's Wisdom That the Form of any Body should alwaye subsist separately from that Body I say if this be absurd it is very near of Kin to Absurdity That it should subsist at all without its Body It was objected to him That if Souls went to Heaven at the Death what need was there then of a Resurrection He answers The Form or Soul could not always subsist without the Body Why not say I as well as do so for Hundreds or Thousands of Years Says he It would be absurd and against God's Wisdom I do perceive this Consequence and he doth not offer to prove it therefore I think it no more absurd in the one Case than in the other Pag. 847. Says The Separation of the Soul and Body is by Violence and Nullum Violentum est Perpetuum I say nor Diuturnum Cites 1 Cor. 15.19 If there be not a Resurrection Christians are of all Men most miserable How can that be if good Souls go to Heaven at the Death and there behold the Face of God He answers This Saying concerns only the Bodies of Christians and not their Souls Their Bodies says he would be most miserable Not more miserable say I than the Bodies of other Men and therefore not of all others the most miserable He cites Psalm 146.4 When the Breath of Man goeth forth he shall turn again to his Earth and that very day all his Thoughts perish So Psal 78.39 Mans Spirit as a Wind passeth away and comes not again Pag. 848. He will not allow Spirit in these Places to signifie the Soul but in Places making for him it must do so as when Stephen says Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Cites Psal 115 17. and in other Places The Dead praise not thee O Lord nor all they that go down into the Silence But the Living do it So Isa 38. he answers Souls after Death do praise God proved Rev. Chap. 5. and Chap. 19. and opposes this Trance to the other Texts Pag. 849. Cites Job 17.16 Also in the Grave the Weary are at rest and fear no Oppressor Therefore bad Souls not punished Pag. 850. He closes his Treatise of the Soul with a long Definition of it according to his Mode and with all the particular Qualifications which he hath before designed for it We may now observe in short upon this Author that he was very much inclined and bent to maintain the Immateriality of the Soul as a thing without which there could not be a future Reward or Punishment a Mistake wherein all are involved or pretend to be involved who maintaintain his Opinion We see he hath been very laborious about it hath read all that he could find written of it and studied and delivered to us a Multitude of Arguments about it and hath shewed Learning Judgment and Industry to a high Degree joined with Integrity or a good Meaning and Belief that he did well and bestowed his Pains upon a Subject that deserved them and that it was a very Needful Truth which he supported But with what Success he hath done it must be referred to Judgment after Perusal of the Answers which have been offered to his Arguments upon the Differences arising between the Opinions of the Author and the Answerer upon many Occasions or Particulars and because we have very much studied and affected Brevity in both our Observations and Answers it need not be doubted but that those who are desirous of a more full Satisfaction upon this Point will think our Author worthy of their own Perusal concerning this Subject and many others Franciscus de Oviedo a Jesuit wrote a Body of Philosophy and in it Of the Soul Printed in a large Folio at Lions Anno 1640. and therein Fol. 6. N. 17. He joins with others in finding Fault with Aristotle's Definition of the Soul because he doth not tell us Quid sit Anima but Cujus sit Our Author offers to mend that of Aristotle by a Definition of his own viz. The Soul is the Constituent Act or Moving Power of a Compositum that is able to exert or exercise Vital Actions I say this seems a Difference without a Diversity or but one pretended and it may be collected that a Soul hath no proper Genus or such Specifical Difference of its own whereby it can be defined or known nor that it can be conceived otherwise than as it is a Constituent Part of a Compositum by the Conjunction of a Soul and a Body Whence we pretend to infer That the Soul in its Nature is not a Substance subsisting by it self or in Separation from its Body nor can be otherwise defined or understood than by its Reference and Relation to a Body Both our Definitions call it the Actus Primus of the Compositum or of an Organical Body so as we have no Conception of it at all save by the Relation which it hath to the Body or to the Man and without that it is to us unintelligible and thence it seems a Separate Subsistence cannot be Natural to it or at least to our Conception or Knowledge of it Fol. 8. N. 2. He says There is no Degree of Reason in Brutes and but some Degrees of Sense and in Brutes we find no Degree of Intellect or Sign of it but all they do is by Instinct To the contrary of this we have said before that Beasts do know by single Intellect and are taught to remember Duty and deny their Appetites and obey their Teachers and other Men in Things which they have learned and use both Obedience and a Rational Subtilty in them He says every Soul is the Act of a Mortal Body that an Angel is a Simple Compleat Substance but the Soul is an Incompleat Substance ordained to be totally Compounded with the Body with which it is united that by Means of the Material Organs it may produce Sense and Intelligence in such Bodies as have them This I take well enough to agree with a Material Soul Fol. 10. N. 15. He says it is objected The Humane Soul doth so communicate it self to Matter as that still it keeps its own Subsistence He
Chap. 19.25 he says I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the later day upon the earth and that my person shall be destroyed yet that after this I shall see God in my flesh and I shall see him with mine own eyes Here is a clear Testimony of the Resurrection if this Book may be admitted for Historical and acquitted from the misprision of being only Parabolical It seems to me rather to be Historical and one of Moses his Writings in the Forty Years time of his sojourning with Jethro in the very part of Arabia where the Land of Vz is described The Fact might be famous in that Time and Place and the Revelation made of the Causes whence that Trial began so as it might deserve to be recorded by a worthy Pen to all Posterities and we find Job ranked by the Prophet with Noah and Daniel and James 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen what end his afflictions had Whence is seems the more likely that this Book is a true Relation and History and not a bare Invention or Parable Our next Proof is Psal 16.11 Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption And this is quoted by St. Peter Acts 2.27 as an Evidence of Christs Resurrection and so visibly it is And from Christs Resurrection Paul infers a general Resurrection so as iâ—mediately this is taken for a Proof of the Resurrection of the Dead generally Eccles 11. Solomon bids the young Man Walk in the ways of his heart and says though he live many years and rejoyce in them all yet remember the days of darkness for they shall be many and know that in the end God will bring thee into Judgment 12.14 For God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or evil It may be paraphrased Young Man thou mayest at thy liking and peril follow the ways that please thee but remember that there will come days of darkness many such days after the end of which thou shalt be brought into Judgment before God for all things done in thy life time for God hath appointed to bring every work into Judgment whether the same be good or evil Thus paraphrased this Text seems to be a likely Proof of the Resurrection of the Dead So Isa 26.19 Thy dead men shall live with my dead body shall they arise This Text sounds in the words of it like a strong Proof of a Resurrection but upon consideration of the Context both before and after no intent of treating concerning that Subject appearing we shall only propound the Text as an Expression favouring that Opinion So Ezek. 37. his Vision of the Dry Bones rising into an exceeding great Army we pass for a Parable and as an Illustration rather then a Proof of the Resurrection Our last Text for Legal Proof is out of Daniel Chap. 7.9 He beheld till the Thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit like a clear and plain Description of the Last Judgment and yet by the Context both before and after it seems pertinent properly to the Times of our Lords first coming Chap. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and others to a like punishment Here if the word many might be changed for all or be accounted to intend all this Text would be a full Proof of the Last Resurrection and Judgment Upon which Daniel is told ver 13. Go thou thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest viz. in death and stand in the lot at the end of the days viz. at the Last Day or the Day of the General Resurrection These are the Texts which we find in the Old Testament evincing the General Resurrection of the Dead somewhat dark and mystical the only clear Text being that of Job and that put under the suspect or prejudice of being Parabolical and so no undoubted Proof of the thing for which it was alledged Those of Exod. and the Psalms are more authorized by their being quoted in the New Testament then by their own proper Intrinsick Light And those of Solomon and Daniel may have some reasonable Exceptions against them Whence our Point of the Resurrection may be concluded to have been not very conceivable or with any firmness believed before the Work of our Redemption was perfected The Apostles questioned among themselves What the Resurrection from the Dead should mean and 2 Tim. 1.19 Paul says Christ brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel intending not a Separate Subsistence of the Soul for that had been accepted and believed by Jews and Gentiles from a great Antiquity by Jews from Saul's time and by the Greeks from the times of Orpheus and Pythagoras but Christ brought that life and immortality to light which springs from the Doctrine of the Resurrection and the State thereunto subsequent and that we say is so clearly delivered in the New Testament as there seems to be no possibility left of Doubting concerning the same And to those Proofs out of the New Testament are we now arrived Upon a Survey of those Proofs we make choice to begin with St. Paul's 1 Cor. 15. as that which most opens the whole State of the Case concerning the Resurrection there that Apostle says It is as true that there shall be a Resurrection of the Dead as it is certain that Christ was raised and if this be not true and the Resurrection consequent then our Preaching is vain and your Faith is also vain we are found false Witnesses and ye are yet in your sins and they who are Dead in Christ are perished this cannot stand with a Separate Subsistence of Souls if we have hope in Christ only in this World we are the most miserable amongst Men without notice taken of the Separate State of a Soul but now Christ is risen and they that are Christs shall rise at his coming If the Dead rise not why are others baptized for them and why do we put our selves in jeopardy every hour but in hope of such a Resurrection but the Trompet shall sound and the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and those who are then alive shall be changed in a moment of time therefore continue stedfast unmoveable abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord but it shall be recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just We take this Text to prove the Certainty of a Resurrection and the Necessity of it for that without it the whole Profession and Practice of Christian Religion is vain and all our labour in the Lord would be lost without mention or hint in all this that there is a Separate State of the Soul wherein it is capable of Future Rewards or Punishments but the whole stress of Future Recompences is laid here upon the only Faith and
draweth nigh 1 Pet. 1.4 and 5. Ver. We are begotten by the Resurrection of Christ to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time not already participated by Souls in separation Ver. 9. Receiving seems in the last time the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls viz. their persons or their selves Chap. 4.5 The Wicked shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead Ver. 7. The end of all things is at hand be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer Ver. 13. But rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy seems not before that time Chap. 5.4 Those who do well when the chief Shepherd shall appear shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away 2 Pet. 3.8 9 10. A thousand years are with the Lord but as one day therefore he is not slack but would have all come to him yet the day of the Lord will come in a terrible manner and we must wait for and haste to the coming of that day and look for New Heavens and Earth according to his promise and seeing you look for such things keep your selves without spot or blemish without mention of a Soul or its expectations 1 John 2.28 Now little children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming Chap. 2.3 We are the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every one that hath this hope purifieth himself even as Christ is pure Without mention of an intermediate State betwixt Death and the Second Coming of our Lord. Revel 17. Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him even so Amen The thing is certain Chap. 3.5 I will confess the name of him who overcometh before my Father and before his Angels Chap. 20.4 Judgement importing a first Resurrection Ver. 11. and 12. The Form of the Last Judgment related where the Dead both small and great were raised and stood before God and had Doom and Judgment according to their deserts 1 Cor. 4.5 Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden works of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every deserving man have praise of God Heb. 6.2 Says Let us go on to Perfection to Doctrines of the Resurrection of the Dead and of Eternal Judgement Our Lord directs Search the Scriptures and we have followed his direction upon our present Point Not for that it is doubted that men do disbelieve or even question the truth of our Article concerning the Resurrection of the Dead but to the intent that it might more clearly appear how much better and more strong Evidence there is for this Point and the Retribution to be expected at the Resurrection Then there is for the Separate Subsistence of a Humane Soul as a Subject for the Rewards and Punishments to be expected in a State future to this Life We may perceive the Resurrection is Ordained and Appointed to the very intent that future Recompences for things done in this Life may be fitly Awarded and fully Executed Whereas we find not one Text in Scripture that says in express terms Man hath an Immaterial or Separately Subsisting or an Immortal Soul nor that tells us Recompences shall be made to it in a future State nor doth Doctrinally so Teach viz. doth utter the words from whence such Collections are made with intent to teach that Doctrine but the words whence such Collections are made are all spoken intending to Teach some other more main and principal Point and the Point concerning the Soul is but by Collection from the Expressions principally intended to teach some other Points of Doctrine So as these different ways or mediums of Rewards and Punishments future to this Life being placed and considered together Magis illucescunt that clearness and certainty of the one seems more lucid and eminent by being compared with the darkness and in certainty of the other Also the one being so clear and certain it seems very needless and somewhat Incongruous to introduce another means or medium of future Recompences neither clear in it self nor plainly asserted or precisely Taught in the Scripture as a Christian Doctrine nor yet received as an Article into any of our most Ancient and approved Creeds Whereas the Reception of our Article of the Resurrection into every one of them fixes the same in the Christian Religion like a Rock immovable And we Read that he who builds his house upon a Rock is wise but he who chuses to build upon the Sand is otherwise and what can Men otherwise think of one not able to support himself and in want of Direction and Relief being in reach or compass of a firm and strong Pillar will chuse to lean himself against a Post which if it be not rotten yet may be reasonably reputed both feeble and suspicious The censure due upon such a choice shall be left to the Consideration of every Man And thus it seems we have shewed and proved the Resurrection sufficient to answer the Worlds Expectations concerning Rewards and Punishments in a State future to this Life and that therefore there is no need of introducing a Separate Subsisting Soul to that intent And we proceed to our Authors Third Topick or Ground of Argument for proving the Separate Subsistence and Immateriality of a Humane Soul viz. to examine the tenor and intent of such Texts of the Scripture as are or may be found out and alledged to that purpose intending to offer such Answers to them severally after each quotation as shall readily occurr not presuming a likelihood to make them such as may satisfie and convince minds pre-possessed all the times of their lives that the thing is so and may be or muft be so proved it shall be enough to suppose they possibly be made such as that People who are desirous or willing to put off as much as they can the prejudices of their former Opinions in this Point drawn from their earliest Education and suck'd in with their first Milk If such Persons do not perceive the Answers made to be unreasonable fictitious or very trivial there will enough be obtained to satisfie an Expectation limited within narrow bounds and that hardly can rise to the hopes of so easie a passage under the Censures of any who shall happen to peruse the same it seems less hazard then a hard censure cannot be hoped for
And it seems this Crying by the Souls was in the same manner as the Blood of Abel's Cying from the Ground against his Murtherer and as all Notable Actions good or bad do depend for Recompence upon the Effects of God's Divine Providence Justice and Power and so we leave it Luke 23.43 Christ says to one of the Crucified Thieves Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thorn be with we in Paradise This could not be performed in their Bodies for that our Lord's lay in the Grave till the Third Day therefore it must be fulfilled in their Souls separated from their Bodies To this Objection the Answer may have Two Parts First We quote Matth. 27.24 The Thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his Teeth And Mark 15.32 They that were crucified with him reviled him Both these Evangelists agree that they both the Thieves that were crucified with him reviled him S. Luke is commonly taken for the Pen-man of S. Paul by whom this Gospel is believed to have been dictated But neither of these are taken to have been Eye-Witnesses or that they were by and present at this Fact S. Mark is taken to write from the Mouth of S. Peter although it might possibly be from the Apostle S. Barnabas either of which Apostles were likely to be Eye-Witnesses of the Fact then done And S. Matthew was himself both Apostle and Evangelist and likely an Eye-Witness of the Fact and there is an Old Rule That one Eye-Witness is better than two Ear-Witnesses of any Fact We conclude then that here are Two Witnesses against One and that One but an Ear-Witness of that Fact And therefore there is a Ground to question the very Truth of S. Luke's Relation seeing he wrote but by Relation and what he says stands not of it self and can with great Difficulty be made to stand in Agreement with what the other two Evangelists have delivered Secondly We say to the Words To day thou shalt be with me they may be expounded from other like Expressions Heb. 3.7 cites Psalm 95.7 To day if ye will hear his Voice Ver. 13. Exhort one another daily whilst it is called to day Here it seems the Word Day is not limited to an Artificial or a Natural Day but signifies a present but yet a competent Time Luke 19.42 Christ wept over Jerusalem saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy Day viz. hadst known that Time of my present Call unto thee here exprest by the Word Day So The Son of Man must be Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth And yet we know Christ lay in the Grave but Two Nights viz. Friday and Saturday Nights and for Days only one whole one viz. Saturday for he was buried on Friday at Even and rose very early upon Sunday Morning Whence it seems the Words To day shalt thou be with me need not be limited to a precise Day Artificial or Natural but may be reasonably intended to signifie within some short Time after that Promise And that we may the better account for the same there shall be cited Jo. 20.17 Our Lord lately risen says to Mary Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father And the same Day at Evening Ver. 19. came Jesus and stood in the midst among his Discipler And Luke 24.39 he says Handle me and by Feeling perceive and see that I have Flesh and Bones which a Spirit hath not Hence may be collected that betwixt his appearing to Mary that Morning and to his Disciples in the Evening he had ascended to his Father and returned Matth. 27.52 When Christ died The Graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after our Lord's Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Amongst these we have reason to suppose was the Body of this Thief as well as his Soul the Flame of Life re-kindled in him as well as in those other Saints and of our Lord himself and that he the Thief and the other Saints then rising did make this Ascent with our Lord upon Sunday next after the Friday Night of his Suffering And this I conceive was enough to satisfie our Lord's Expression of To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise in so short a Time as it may be counted present or to day And this Resurrection might occasion some to think as 2 Tim. 2.18 that the Resurrection was past already and was not in Future to be expected Luk. 23.46 Jesus cried with a loud Voice and said Father into thy Hands I commend my Spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost And to this we join Acts 7.59 They stoned Stephen calling and saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit This Objection from recommending the Spirit of a Dying Person to God and Christ Men say imports a Spiritual Being or a Soul in Man which is capable of a Subsistence and hath such a Subsistence in a State separated from the Body The Objection is of the same Nature with that from Solomon The Spirit returns to God that gave it and requires some Repetition of what was thereunto answered And for findding out the Sence and Intent of the Word Spirit Places of Scripture shall be quoted 1 Sam. 30.12 When the starved Egyptian had eaten some Figs and Raisins his Spirit came again to him seems his Spirit of Life his Vital Spirits Ezra 1.5 They stood up whose Spirit God had raised to go and build the Temple seems to intend their Inclination and Affection Job 20.3 The Spirit of my Vnderstanding causeth me to answer seems the Eagerness of his Desire Chap. 21.4 Why should not my Spirit be troubled viz. why should not I be troubled Psalm 51.17 The Sacrifice of God it a broken Spirit there is paraphrased by a contrite Heart 143.4 My Spirit is vexed within me and my Heart within me is desolate Prov. 18.14 The Spirit of a Man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear viz. a good or bad Conscience Chap. 25.28 He that hath no Rule over his own Spirit it like a City broken down and without Walls Here Spirit must signifie Affections Eccles 8.8 No Man hath Power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit seems Men's Passions Prov. 20.27 The Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord searching the inward Parts of the Belly viz. Man's Reason and Knowledge is the Candle Psalm 31.6 Thou art my strength into thy hand I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me God had saved him in his Troubles and therefore he again commends himself to God under the Term of his Spirit Dan. 5.12 An excellent Spirit Knowledge and Vnderdeastanding was found in Daniel The latter Words expound Spirit Acts 17.16 Paul's Spirit was stirred in him at Athens he was moved and provoked Chap. 18.25 Apollos was fervent in Spirit or was Zealous 1 Cor. 5.5 Deliver the Man to Satan that the Spirit
may be saved in the Day of the Lord viz. that at the Resurrection the Whole may be saved Spirit put for the Whole Man Chap. 7.34 The unmarried Woman is holy in Body and Spirit viz. Soul and Body together holy in the whole Compositum Ezek. 11.19 I will give them one Heart and put a new Spirit and a Heart of Flesh within you Chap. 13.3 Wo to the Prophets that follow their own Spirit and have seen nothing Ver. 17. They prophecy out of their own Heart And thus we see Spirit put for the Person the Heart the Affections the Passions for Mind Understanding Knowledge Reason Conscience viz. for Man and every of his Sublime and Spiritual Parts or Faculties but most properly and especially for his Breath As Job 12.10 In the Hand of God is the Soul of every living thing and the Breath of all Mankind Ch. 34.14 If God set his Heart upon Man if he gather unto himself his Spirit and his Breath all Flesh shall perish together and Man shall turn again to his Dust Psal 104.29 When thou takest away their Breath they die and are turned again to their Dust when thou lettest thy Breath go forth they shall be made and thou shalt renew the Face of the Earth Gen. 2.7 By God's breathing into Mans Nostrils the Breath of Life Man became a Living Soul Rom. 14.7 None of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself but we live to the Lord and die to the Lord whether therefore we live or die we are the Lords Hence it need not seem strange that a Dying Man should recommend his Person to the Lord by the Term of his Spirit for the Body as well as the Soul is under the Knowledge and Provision of Providence When good Men lie down to sleep they customarily recommend themselves to God and going to sleep in Death makes such a Recommendation both the more earnest and the more solemn and cannot reasonably be intended of the Spirit only but of the whole Compositum by that Term and God will raise them both up again at the Last Day both Soul and Body John 6.44 The Man that comes to me I will raise him up at the last Day the whole Man both Soul and Body Psal 31.6 Into thine Hands I commend my Spirit thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth David spake this when he was in a way of Living and had both a Body and a Soul and apparently sought God's Protection for them both viz. for his Person under this Term of Spirit Jo. 11.25 He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live viz. the Compositum of Soul and Body Our Lord knew he should have a speedy Resurrection and foretold it to be within Three Days Time both of Soul and Body And it seems that by this Term of Spirit he recommended them both to the Protection of his Father and that S. Stephen did the like to our Lord Whence here appears no Necessity of Inferring a Separate Subsistence of a Humane Soul from these Texts which plainly did not intend to teach the Doctrine and it seeems may be very well satisfied by another very different Construction of them Joh. 6.40 It is God's Will that he who believeth should have everlasting Life and I will raise him up at the last Day Soul and Body without mention of an intermediate Estate And we do not accept our two quoted Texts as a sufficient Proof of that Point Acts 2.27 Thou shalt not leave my Soul in Hell or Death is construed to comprehend the Body also and both were raised accordingly Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth Evil this comprehends the Body also So Chap. 13.1 Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers Whence we conclude that by recommending the Dying Spirits intended the Dying Bodies also and was intended of the Whole Man or the Person then departing out of this World 2 Cor. 5.1 If our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens And desires to be clothed upon with that House Groans to be clothed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life yet would not be unclothed whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord walking by Faith not by Sight we desire to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord for we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether good or bad We read Rev. 22.12 I come quickly and my Reward is with me to give every Man according as his work shall be Ver. 20. Surely I come quickly Amen even so come Lord Jesus Heb. 10.37 Yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Ver. 35. 36. We must wait with Patience and Confidence till the Time promised do come James 5.8 Be ye also patient stablish your Hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh 1 Pet. 1.5 Who are kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the last Time as if the last Time was near Chap. 4.5 Men shall give an Account to him that is ready to judge the Quick and the Dead viz. in a short Time coming 2 Pet. 3.12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the Day of God to Judgment 1 Joh. 2.28 Abide in Christ that when he shall appear ye may have Confidence and not be ashamed at his coming as if he were expected to come in their Time So 1 Tim. 6.14 Keep this Commandment without spot until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ as if Timothy might live to that Time And elsewhere The coming of our Lord draweth nigh 1 Joh. 2.18 Little Children it is the last Time And The Time is short he that is holy let him be holy Rev. 22.11 And he which is filthy let him be filthy still as if Christ's coming to Judgment were even then at hand 2 Pet. 3.9 Men then said that Day was slack in its coming and Ver. 4. that the Promise of his coming was over-long delay'd From all these Evidences it appears that the Church at that Time did believe the coming of our Lord to Judgment to be nigh at hand and that when he should appear we should be like him and that then as Philip. 3.21 Our vile Bodies should be changed and fashioned like his Glorious Body 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed And to this Change it seems S. Paul's Words in our Proving Text are to be applied He would not be unclothed but clothed upon with the House which is from Heaven that so he might not be found naked but that Mortality might be swallowed up in Life Whilst we are at home in the Body viz. our Natural Body we are absent from the Lord
and therefore we are willing rather to be absent from this Body to have it changed into a Spiritual Body and therein to be present with the Lord And however in the one Body or in the other we labour present or absent to be accepted of God for we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ sooner or later that every Man Body and Soul may receive the Things done in his Body viz. when he was alive according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad And this seems to apply all that he had before spoken as designed a Relation to the Resurrection and the Last Judgment and not to make or afford any Proof of the Separate Subsistence of a Soul after Death of the Body Philip. 1.21 For me to live is Christ and to die is Gain what I shall chuse I wot not for I am in a strait between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Nevertheless to abide in the Flesh is more needful for you This sounds as if upon Death of the Body something were still left in such a State and Being as should immediately thereupon go to be with Christ and this can be no other but the Man's Soul subsisting in a State of Separation We read Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them 2 Tim. 1.10 Christ abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel Whence Death now to the Godly is but a Sleep or Resting in Christ Acts 7.60 Stephen cried Lord lay not this sin to their charge and when he said this he fell asleep 1 Cor. 15.6 Christ risen was seen of five hundred Brethren of whom then some were fallen asleep Ver. 18. If there be no Resurrection then they who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished Ver. 51. We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed 1 Thess 4.15 We who are alive at our Lord 's coming shall not prevent them who are asleep Ver. 14. But those who sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him 2 Thess 1.6 It is righteous with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with us when Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels seems this Rest with us must be future to this World and most likely in Death Heb. 4.3 We who have believed do enter into Rest Ver. 9. There remains a Rest to the People of God Ver. 10. A ceasing from our own Works as God did from his and we must labour to enter into this Rest seems properly a Dying in the Lord. And Job testifies There the weary are at Rest Upon the Evidences thus quoted by us it seems our Proving Text may be construed in this manner I know that to die is Gain and for me to depart out of this world and to be at rest in Christ and in expectation of a joyful Resurrection is far better but for me to abide in the Flesh is more needful for you And this Consideration puts me into a Strait between two Things so as what I shall chuse I wot not and doubtless it is better and far more easie and desirable for a godly Man to sleep and be at rest in Christ than to be in the Troubles Temptations and Persecutions of this World as S. Paul was when he was in it Daniel 12.13 the Angel says to him Go thy way till the End be for thou shalt rest and stand in the Lot at the End of the Days And this hath been the Lot of the Godly in all Ages and the Wisdom of the World hath been able to teach that the Day of a Man's Death is better than that of his Birth and if generally how much better then must it needs be for a good Christian to depart and be at rest in Christ Lying down in a sure Faith and stedfast Hope of a joyful Resurrection when the Lord himself shall defend from Hevean with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God for then the Dead in Christ shall rise first and be caught up into the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall they ever be with the Lord. What Earthly Thing can be compared with such a State so much Joy and so great an Assuranee No wonder then that our Apostle calls his Death a Gain being then in a Condition so to die and so he continued as he says 2 Tim. 4.7 I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that Day and not to me only but unto them also that love his Appearing But it seems he did not expect it before that Day the Day of Christ's Second Coming to reward every Man according to his Works And we conclude the Apostle in our Proving Text intended rather a going to rest in Christ than a going into Heaven to him in the State of a Separated Soul Heb. 12.22 Ye are come to an innumerable Company of Angels and to the Spirits of just Men made Perfect to God the Judge and to Jesus the Mediator and to the heavenly Jerusalem Some have raised an Argument of the Souls Separate Subsistence from this Text. The Words Ye are come in the present Tense spoken unto living People cannot be literally intended unless the Words be intended of the Doctrine viz. You are come to a Gospel or Doctrine which teaches to believe and expect such Things in future Times or you are come to such Things in Faith which is the Evidence of Things not seen better things than appeared at Mount Sinay So 2 Pet. 3.12 Look for and haste unto the Coming of the Day of God wherein all shall be burnt up as in Noah 's Time it was drowned But we look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness And seeing ye look for such Things what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness without spot and blameless This expounds how we come to the Heavenly Jerusalem viz. to that Doctrine Faith and Expectation to be fulfilled and enjoyed at the Coming of the Day of God without any mention at all of a Soul in the State of a Separate Subsistence or discoverable Intention concerning it 1 Pet. 3.19 Christ was quickned in the Spirit by which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison when Noah prepared the Ark. To this we say the Text is very mystical and obscure and so every Part and Sentence of it And what is here meant by the Spirits in Prison or the Preaching to them we humbly confess Ignorance and that we do not know Therefore the Text and Consequences of it shall be left to Consideration of the more Learned better versed in the Writings of Fathers and Commentators but till the Meaning of it
not let the World be judge For our Lord 's main scope and intent in this Text appears clearly to be The Warning of his Disciples not to fear Men for that they could only punish with Death and no farther Not to fear them so much as God who can punish beyond Death by casting into Hell The Contents in both Evangelists express That our Lord exhorted his Disciples to preach to others what they had heard of him he bids them not be afraid so to do for that Men can only kill the Body and do you no more harm but God can punish after Death and cast you into Hell and this we ought to fear more than any thing that Man can do to us That St. Matth. hath worded our Lord's Expressions otherwise is true but that our Lord's intent here was to teach a Separate Subsistence of Souls after Death appears not in St. Luke's words nor in the Contexts of either of the Evangelists And the wording of it in St. Matthew's Text seems to me but the result of that Apostle's Judgment perhaps according to the Common Opinion of that Time And however here being two Relations of the same Thing and of equal Authority it seems Men may accept which of them they think most likely or most true without much apprehending the abuses which Atheists or Prophane Persons may make of it Parag. 11. You say I make Matthew and Luke to disagree again Yet the Case is no more but this Matthew says Two Thieves were crucified with our Saviour and those Thieves also which were crucified with him reviled him And Mark says the same thing viz. They Crucified Two Thieves with him and they who were Crucified with him reviled him Luke only relates the matter of the Thiefs Conversion which he had by hear-say Thus the difference which there is amongst them is not made by me who only relate the Case as it is leaving it to others to adjust such difference as there appears amongst them I do not deny the truth of St. Luke's Relation only say it may be questionable upon these differences But for Answer to the Objection from the Thiefs being that day in Paradise I say That the Crucifixion and Death was on Friday Evening and the Resurrection upon Sunday Morning and this Thief might and likely did rise at the time of our Lord's Resurrection Matth. 27.52 The Graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and went and appeared unto many And there is a great Concurrence of Opinion That the Old Patriarchs had part in that Resurrection This being granted I hope shewing the Sense of the Word this day is to very good purpose for this Promise to the Thief might be literally fulfilled if he rose at our Lord's Resurrection I wonder how you mist of this effect of my Answer fully exprest in my Treatise and yet it seems you did miss of it for else you would not have proceeded as you do in this Paragraph Paragraph 12. You say You wonder how I can conceive that the Parable of Dives was delivered to dilucidate our Lord's Doctrine in the 15th verse of that Chapter viz. That what was highly esteemed in the sight of Men may be an abomination in the sight of God I will tell you how I come to conceive so This Doctrine our Lord delivers ver 15. and ver the 19th begins the Parable distanced only by three intermediate verses and the Parable is very proper and significant for that purpose For what in Man's sight is more glorious and happy than the State of Dives and what more miserable than that of Lazarus and yet in God's sight and knowledge their State was directly the contrary But say you Christ delivered this Doctrine to the Pharisees I grant it and so for ought that I can perceive he did that Parable nor do I find any cause for you to doubt of it You are willing to suppose which I think is to grant that it is a Parable and you wonder that I should say Parables are a sandy Foundation for the building of Doctrines upon For say you Our Lord spake to the multitude in Parables and without a Parable spake he not unto them To this I answer His Disciples wondred at it and enquired why he did so and he told them the reason viz. That seeing they might not perceive and hearing they might not understand and be converted for God's appointments were to be fulfilled by means of their ignorance Acts 3.17 Peter tells the Jews concerning our Lord's sufferings I wot that through Ignorance you did it as did also your rulers but God so brought about what he had foretold by the mouth of all his Prophets So Paul Had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of glory But when our Lord and his Disciples were by themselves together he expounded all things unto them and did manifest himself unto them and not to the world but all was delivered in Parables to them who were without John 15.15 Ye are my friends for all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you and I heartily wish our Lord had expounded this Parable unto them Parag. 13. You demand What could move Paul to desire death rather than life I answer He was at Rome when he wrote to the Philippians such an one as Paul the aged and a Prisoner of Jesus Christ in continual expectation of Martyrdom Chap. 2.17 If I be offered up as a sacrifice I will joy and rejoyce with you and I would have you do so with me Your self may if you please contemplando put your soul into his souls stead as Job says or imagine your self to be in his Case I judge you would have no cause to desire a long or a longer continuance in that condition If it were not as he says for the opportunity and power to profit other men he says For him to die and be with Christ would be far better 1 Thess 4.14 As Jesus died and rose again even so them also who sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him but howsoever in such a Case you might judge I think for my self that if I were in that Case or a far more easie state of Life yet infirm and aged as I am and had withal so great assurance of a blessed joyful Resurrection as that Apostle had viz. That a Crown of Righteousness was laid up for him and to be given him at that day I think that I should make little doubt in the choice but fully desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ in the sense of resting or Sleeping in Christ to be of that number who being asleep in Jesus God will bring with him for that blessed are the dead who die in the Lord for they rest from their labours And so Job says There the weary are at rest freed from oppressions pains and sufferings You mention a mans becoming a prey to worms as a terrour of Death but I esteem
Humane Powers and Faculties have done I say they are all acted alike viz. by the Natural Contexture of Soul and Body And I thence infer that if the Humane Soul were Intelligent she would not act these Affections and Passions with the Force and Violence with which oft-times we find them to be acted but would rather chuse to act them moderately and no farther than might stand with Terms of Discretion and so as to restrain and keep them ever under Power of her own Government and Regality And because she doth not and I think cannot do this I conclude she seems to me not Intelligent but Material 6. Paragraph In the Matter of the Fathers Opinions concerning the going of Souls to Heaven upon Death of their Bodies I undertake not to speak upon my own perusal of the Fathers but as I find them Cited by other Writers I have from Peter Martyr quoted to you Irenaeus denying Souls passing to God or Heaven before the Resurrection and there Tertullian is quoted to the same purpose viz. that Heaven shall not be opened till the Resurrection Dr. Willet in his Synopsis Papismi Fol. 402. He says We confess most part of the Fathers especially the later sort of them to have been in this error Fol. 403. He says Bellarmine Cites 14 Fathers to this purpose Nay and Our Lord Joh. 14.2 3. says I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also Seeming to infer a Rest till Christ's Second Coming As Revel 14.13 Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them 1 Pet. 4.13 Rejoyce as being Partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed ye may be also glad with exceeding joy So 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing all the Earth and the Heaven about it shall be Burnt up what Holy Persons ought ye to be looking for and hasting to the day of God 1 Cor. 4.5 Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to Light the hidden things of Darkness and then shall every deserving Man have Praise of God 1 Cor. 1. Vers 7 8. Waiting for the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 2.28 Abide in him that when he appears you may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his Coming Chap. 3.2 We know not yet what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him Joh. 6. Our Lord promises four times over to raise his Servants up at the last Day And he tells Martha her Brother shall rise again She Answers I know he shall rise again at the Resurrection of the last day All these places refer to and rest upon the Judgment of the last day or Christ's Second Coming without taking notice of any Intermediate State Nor do I meet with any Scripture asserting any Intermediate State Place or Judgment between Death and the Resurrection of the last day True it is That those who believed the Subsistence of Souls in a State of Separation from their Bodies were forced to invent some places and modes of that Subsistence Whence Heathen Divines or Poets framed their Elisiums and Fortunate Islands their Habitations of Dis and Tartarums And so have the Mahometans done and so a great part of Christians maintain their Limbus's patrum puerorum Purgatory sinum Abrahae from the Parable of Lazarus and places of other Tortures for wicked Souls but without being able to make out or prove such places or such things either from Reason Scripture or other solid and credible or faithful Ocular Testimony or Relations whatsoever And if you know of any such Proofs of those or the like places I shall be very glad to receive the Communication thereof from you You say The Fathers did not think that Souls go not to Heaven before the Resurrection You avoid saying They did think Souls went to Heaven before that time I have named to you Irenaeus and Tertullian who thought they went not to Heaven before the Resurrection And your own Second Paper Parag. 7. say The Fathers owned a middle State which was neither Heaven nor Hell and that good Souls were in a State of Rest and Happiness but not in Heaven or the full Fruition of it The Fathers owned an Intermediate State for good Souls between Death and Heaven Our Church or the greatest part of it say They go presently upon Death to Heaven I desire to know a Reason of this Difference in Opinion viz. why we differ from the Fathers in it To this you Answer These Opinions agree well enough This gives me little Satisfaction in the Point viz. your telling me they agree well enough because I see plainly there is a wide Difference between them and still I want a Reason of that Difference 7. Paragraph You had quoted to me Solomon's Saying The Spirit returns to God who gave it as the strongest Text you could find for the Soul 's Separate Subsistence To that Text as proving this Point I sent you Three Objections never propounded to you nor Answered by you before They appear to me very Material and such as you will with great difficulty be able to make a reasonable and substantial Answer unto and therefore I desired you to bestow an Answer upon them instead of which you tell me you have said enough upon that Text before approved by the Learned of your Town as a true and Unanswerable Explication of that Text. To this I reply Those Learned were Men agreeing in Judgment with your self in our disputed Point and apt to approve what was said by you in the Confirmation of it But now if you please to Communicate these Objections to those Persons and make such Answer to them as they shall approve it will oblige me much and add great strength to the force of your Argument from that Text which I think my Objections do overthrow so long as they stand in force and remain unanswered And I allow you to think as the Jebusites expressed 2 Sam. 5.6 They challenged David conceiving as in the last clause of that Verse 8. Paragraph You say You have lately had occasion to consider a Text of Scripture which you think directly contradicts and overthrows my Opinion viz. 2 Cor. 5. Vers 6. and 8. Knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord and are willing therefore to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord And I grant That these Words absent from the Body and present with the Lord taken singly as recited in these Two Verses seem strongly to import that a Man hath something which being absent from the Body may be present with the Lord But it is a granted and well tried and approved Rule that for the Understanding and sound Exposition of
and casting them to the Earth or Jerusalems coming down out of Heaven and therefore this is no firm Foundation for the Souls Immortality Pag. 92. He says John saw those Souls those Spiritual Immortal he should have added Invisible Substances separated from their Bodies And these Souls says he All that had died for Christ from Abel till that time John saw in the Spirit in a rapture not under a Material Altar but Christ was represented by this Altar and the Souls were at the foot or basis of it Whereas the Text says under it The Truth is he says what he will concerning it The Souls which John saw he will have to be the very Immortal Substances separated from their Bodies but the Altar was a Parable and the Souls not under it as they might under the Mosaical or Solomon's Altars which were hollow and covered with Boards but at the Foot of it this seems a meer Invention of his own I say all this was but a Figure and Teaches no more but that they who were Martyred for Christ still lived to God under his Care and Knowledge and should be Rewarded as 2 Tim. 4.8 And in the mean time they sleep in Christ and rest as in Daniel the last verse and shall stand first in the Lot at the end of the days He makes the Things which were Visible in Nature to be Figure For he says There was neither real Altar nor White Robes but the Souls which are in Nature invisible he will have to be real it seems without Success Pag. 95. To prove the Soul is Immortal he says 't is Immaterial I say the one as much as the other and he might as well say 't is Immaterial because it is Immortal Pag. 96. Says The Appetite of the Mind is unlimited and never says it is enough I say the Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing so the Fire and the Barren Womb never say it is enough and yet these are all Material Pag. 97. Says Age makes no decay in the Soul I say it doth and both must refer our selves to the common Experiences of those who live to very great Ages and such as Converse with them Pag. 98. He propounds a Simile of a Musician and his Instrument But these I say are different Subjects and not Indentified in the same Subject as the Soul and the Body are and therefore goes not in Proof of his Point He says from Hypocrates The Soul's Essence cannot be changed I say this intends it will be still the Soul notwithstanding the Alterations by Meat Drink c. He here cites divers Texts promising Blessedness Future to this Life never taking notice of the Resurrection which answers them all but as if without the Separate Subsistence there could be no means of Future Rewards and Punishments which Error I take for the Original of the Immaterial Opinion Citing in Confirmation of Recompencing at the last Day Our Lords own Words four times repeated by him John 6.40 I will raise him up at the last Day without mention of any thing Intermediate or before that Day Pag. 99. The Promises here cited by him shall not fail but be fullfilled at the Resurrection He says Though our Bodies die yet they shall live again and I say the same of our Souls And his Quotation Rom. 8.11 agrees with me and Vers 10. which mentions a Difference intends between the Sensual Powers and the Rational Mind He cites Matth. 22.32 and says If the Patriarchs perished in Soul as well as in Body How can God be their God for he is not so of those who are utterly perished To this I say Neither their Bodies nor Souls are utterly perished for they shall both rise again the Brutes are termed the Beasts that perish viz. utterly for that no Resurrection is granted to them Pag. 100. Says How shall the Wicked be Eternally punished if their Souls have not an Eternal Duration I say as before by the Resurrection and Last Judgment and then their Bodies shall be as durable as their Souls He began this Section Pag. 94. by citing a third time Matth. 10.28 and I grant it to be his best Weapon viz. the strongest Text if not the only strong One for Proof of the Souls Separate Subsistence Now Pag. 100. He produces the strongest of his Rational Arguments for the same purpose and which also I grant to be of great Weight Pag. 101. He says The Souls Immortality hath been generally held by all Nations and Ages and thence seems likely to be a Natural Notion to all Mankind The first Assertion viz. It s Universal Prevalency amongst Men I grant not so the Second it may be demanded Whence could it so come to pass if not from Nature I say from an Humane Frailty and Ignorance of Gods Appointment People saw many times good Men Afflicted and the Wicked Prosperous in this World so living and so dying Hence arose a Rational Inference ergo There are Rewards and Punishments Future to this Life and those must be applied to the Body or to the Soul but not to the Body soon Corrupted and turned to Dust ergo to the Soul only And that so it might possibly be the Soul must have a Separate Subsistence after Death of the Man This Argument might reasonably induce Mankind to entertain the Belief of this Opinion But since the Christian Doctrine hath been received and the Belief of the Resurrection and Last Judgment accepted that Doctrine consented unto gives a Satisfactory Answer to that Argument drawn from the Congruity that reasonably there must be Recompences Future to this Life Still it may be insisted That Christians since the Resurrection revealed have as generally received and believed that Old Opinion of the Immortality And I grant that too and say they might have these Inducements so to do First They found this Opinion already rooted in the Minds of Men. Secondly They Read in St. Matthew's Gospel his Text Chap. 10.28 whose Allowance of the Separate Subsistence of Souls might likely enough pass that Opinion amongst the First Christians which were of the Jewish Nation and Read principally if not only that Gospel for that it was Written first or before the other Three and was Written in Hebrew their own Language whereas the Others are Written in Greek which the Jews generally did not understand As Acts 21.37 The Chief Captain says to Paul a Jew Canst thou speak Greek And apparent it is That the First Christians and Teachers of Christianity were Jews and such as Taught but what they had Learned were likely enough to Teach this Doctrine but St. Paul and the other Apostles were not such Teachers He says Galat. 1.12 For I neither received the Gospel of Man neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ And by such Revelation he Dedicated to St. Luke that Gospel passing under Luke's Name Published divers Years after that of St. Matthew and in the Grecian Language And that Doctrine
a Soul to desire to be dissolved if it thought it self should be extinguished I say No madness at all but a very reasonable and wise Choice viz. a desire to part with a troublesome and suffering Life for the rest of Death or sleeping in Christ in an assured Hope of a joyful Resurrection and of then receiving a Crown of Glory as Paul's Case was And if our Author were of another Mind 't is a signe he loved Life better than ordinary He hath also before said That the Grave was a good hiding place from the Storms of the World Which I there agreed and so do most People Pag. 310. Cites 2 Tim. 4.8 A Crown of Life will be given to all who love Christ's appearing I ask When shall this be done The Text says At that day The Author says This intends the Day of Mens Deaths No say I for that Day intends one time appointed whereas Days of Deaths are divers and various therefore the Day here intends the Resurrection P. 313. Says In Death the Soul attains its Rest I say the Man attains his Rest in hopes of a future happiness or fears of what may follow at that Day Pag. 314. Says Death finally and certainly cures seven several very great Humane Maladies And therefore say I is much more desireable than a troublesome or afflicted Life Pag. 326. Says Little do Believers think what Visions of God and ravishing Sights of Christ the Souls of their Friends have when they are closing their eyes with Tears I say Little doth our Author know for their Information in such Cases or for their Comfort 1 Thes 4.13 Paul comforts People in such cases by the hopes only of a Resurrection which gives me a great Assurance that he either knew not of our Author's Opinion or did not believe it He adds Evil Days should make God's People willing to accept of a hiding place in the Grave as a special Favour from God And I grant it and believe it often doth so Pag. 322. Cites Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their Labours And that might make Paul desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. viz. To rest or sleep in Him Pag. 329. Cites Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all Men once to die and after that the Judgment I say this intends one Judgment viz. the Last and that no intermediate Judgment can be proved Pag. 334. Cites 1 Pet. 3 19. He went and Preached to the Spirits in Prison And he says There are Difficulties in this Text and that Aestius reckons no less than Ten Expositions of it And says It is a very difficult Scripture in the Judgment of almost all Interpreters Pag. 335. Says What is called a Soul whilst in the Body after Separation is properly called a Spirit I deny then that ever it can be properly called a Spirit Pag. 339. He says Conscience is the Judge and prime Guide of the Soul I say of the Man He says The Will as potent as it is moves not until the Judgment comes to a Conclusion And this I Agree Pag. 340. He says Every Soul comes to its particular Judgment immediately after Death To Prove this he Cites Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all Men once to die and after that the Judgment How this proves every Man's particular Judgment at Death I do not perceive It seems rather all Men must die before this Judgment and when all are dead then this Judgment But there is no Application of it to a particular Judgment Then he Cites Proverbs 11.7 When a wicked Man dieth his Expectation shall perish and the Hope of unjust Men perisheth I demand How this proves a particular Judgment after each Man's Death Then he Cites Matth. 7.22 Many will say to me in that Day Have not we done great Works in thy Name Then will I profess to them I never knew you depart from me Thus he proves a particular Judgment Many will say in that Day the Great Day and then I will say to them to those Many Such Scriptures as these he is forced to use for Proof of his particular Judgment Not that likely he or any Man can think them good Proofs of the thing but because this sort of Judgment is indispensably necessary to a Separate Soul's going to Heaven or Hell Without this sort of Judgment there can be no Truth in their Tenet and therefore they must Prove or Yield They cannot do it and I think he were as good not have offer'd at it as to have done it in this manner But neither I nor it seems He could tell how to do it better Pag. 350. Cites Heb. 4.3 We which have Believed do enter into Rest. I say this intends Rest from their Labours as the Revelation expresseth it and I do not find Heaven in it Pag. 359. Says Nothing more sure or awful than the Day of the Last Judgment I Agree it Pag. 361. Cites Matth. 16.26 What is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or What shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul Our great Difference upon this Text will be what is here intended by the Word or Term of Soul I say That as in a vast number of other Places so in this Place the Word Soul intends the Man's Self or his Person or Life Ver. 25. He that will save his Life shall lose it but he that loses it for Christ's sake shall find it Then follows our Text with Connexion For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or Life And what shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul or Life Once lost it cannot be redeemed or recovered nor recompenced by any thing of this World yet He that loseth his Life for Christ's sake shall find it for he shall be recompenced at the Resurrection of the Just and as Heb. 11. 35. People were Tortured not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection Pag. 362. He Quotes a Saying To win Venice and he hang'd at the Gates of it What good would it do any Man So says he of getting a vast Treasure with the Loss of ones Life And I Agree and say when a Man is dead What good can all the World do him And this I take for the true Meaning of this Text And our Lord shews how one that loses Life for his sake shall find it Ver. 26. For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works and this seems to sound strongly in Exclusion of the particular Judgment before spoken of Pag. 363. He magnifies the Expression or the Term Soul in this Text and says That Rocks of Diamonds are not worth it I say they are not worth any Man's Life to him and this the Devil knew when he said All that a Man hath will he give for his Life
dead sleep nor can those who act freely and fully and enjoy or suffer in a high degree be properly said to be at Rest Ergo If the Soul do subsist in this manner after Death of the Man the calling of Death a Sleep and a Rest appears at least a very improper sort of Expression To Prove the Minor viz. That the Scripture calls Death a Sleep and a Rest in very many Places seems to my self a needless Trouble or Undertaking for that all who are conversant in Scripture know this thing to be true But deploringly I again consider that a great part or a greatest part of People are not so well verss'd in this Book as to be without need of Proof in this Matter And for their sakes I take upon my self the Labour of somewhat a troublesome Induction of Particulars In Proof of this Truth therefore I quote Job 3.13 Why died I not from the Womb For if so I had now been still and quiet I should have slept then had I been at rest Ecclesiast 11.8 If a Man lives many years and rejoyce in them all yet let him remember the days of darkness for they shall be many Add to this Those who sleep sleep in the Night and then this Text seems to Prove a long Sleep Job 14.12 Man lieth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the Dust of the Earth shall awake some to Life and some to Contempt Mat. 27.52 Many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after his Resurrection Amongst which say I supponendo was the Crucified Thief Joh. 5.28 The hour is coming in which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth Chap. 11.11 He saith unto them Our Friend Lazarus sleepeth but I go that I may awake him out of sleep Ver. 13. Jesus spake of his Death and then told them plainly Lazarus is dead Act. 13.36 David after he had served his Generation by the will of God fell on sleep and saw Corruption 1 King 2.10 So David slept with his Fathers and was buried in the City of David So Chap. 11.43 The same for Solomon 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Chap. 15.6 Christ was seen of above 500 Brethren at once of whom some are fallen asleep 1 Thes 4.14 Those also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Ver. 15. And we which are alive shall not prevent them that are asleep Ver. 16. And the dead in Christ shall rise first These are a Proof That Death and Dying are in Scripture very often termed a Sleep and Sleeping As to Deaths being there called and counted a Rest I quote Job 3.17 There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest Dan. 12.13 Thou shalt rest and stand in the Lot at the end of the days 2 Thes 1.7 God will recompence Tribulation to them who trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels Heb. 4.1 There is a Promise of entring into his Rest. Ver. 3. We who have believed do enter into his Rest as he said Ver. 6. And some must enter therein Ver. 9. There remaineth therefore a Rest for the People of God Ver. 10. And those that enter into Rest cease from their Works Revel 14.13 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them And thus appears That Death in Scripture is often called a Rest and accounted so The Scripture speaks thus of Death in very many Places and even of ordinary Custom and Course and either the thing so delivered is proper and true or the Speeches are improper and misleading If the Soul subsist act and suffer after Death as before is said the Scripture speaks improperly of Death But if there be no Separate Subsistence of the Soul after Death of the Man then these Scriptural Expressions concerning Death are proper and true I have a great Inclination to believe that the Scripture speaks properly and truly than otherwise And therefore do conclude these Expressions are proper and true and that the Soul hath not such a Separate Subsistence as above is described but rather that it is Material and Extinguishes with Death of the Man My Second Argument for positive Proof of this Tenet rises from many particular Places of Scripture to be alledg'd and produced in nature of a Sorites each proving by its self and all fortifying the Tenet intended to be Defended In which I begin from a Scripture which discourses most copiously upon the State of Man after Death above any other Text whatsoever Part of the Works and Doctrine of the Apostle St. Paul viz. his 1 Cor. 15. he begins there Ver. 13. and says If there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen and then viz. consequently if no Resurrection our Preaching is vain and your Faith is also vain and we are false Witnesses and you are yet in your sins and they who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished Upon this I Argue If the Soul enjoy a Separate State and go to Heaven at the Man's Death then How could these dreadful Consequences follow upon the Failure of Truth in the Doctrine of the Resurrection For if the Soul go to Heaven at the Death that would enjoy Bliss and Happiness in an high degree though there were no Resurrection at all But our Apostle here concludes all Christianity to be in vain without a Resurrection And the next Verse viz. 19th he says If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ we are of all Men the most miserable but Christ is risen and by him came also the Resurrection of the Dead Which seems plainly inferring That if there be no Resurrection then our Hope in Christ can extend only to this World and the things of it and then we should be more miserable than other Men who give themselves more liberty in the Enjoyment of them He goes on through this long Chapter to Treat of the Resurrection and the Manner and Benefits of it Ver. 58. He concludes Abound in the Work of the Lord forasmuch as you know by this my Discourse of the Resurrection that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord. Thus he discourses fully and largely upon the Resurrection without a Word speaking or a Hint giving concerning a Separate Subsistence of Souls or a particular Judgment or any Appertenant to a State intermediate between Death and Judgment final I proceed in the Works of this Apostle and quote him again 1 Thes 4.13 He would not have them sorrow for their dead Friends as others who had no Hope did For says he We believe that Jesus died and rose again and even so also those who sleep in
Jesus shall God bring with him and the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the Voice of the Archangel and with the Tromp of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then the Elect living Persons shall be Translated and caught up to the Clouds and both sorts together shall meet the Lord in the Air and so shall they ever be with the Lord. Here we may perceive or collect That St. Paul directs to look after the Resurrection for Comfort at or immediately after the Death of the Party Had he known or believed a Separate Subsistence of Souls and a going to Heaven of the good immediately after Death of the Party Our Author gives it us in these Words Pag. 326. Little says he do Believers think what Visions of God and Ravishing Sights of Christ the Souls of their Friends have when they are closing their eyes with tears It seems strange St. Paul did not know any thing of this delightful Scene and pity it is doubtless that he was ignorant of such Ravishing Enjoyments and the quick attainment of them Acts 20.20 He kept nothing back that was profitable to his Auditors Ver. 27. But declared to them all the Council of God Had he known or believed the Separate Subsistence or the particular Judgment or the immediate going to Heaven by Angels or the Ravishing Sights and Joys so soon accruing he would not have kept back all or any of them from his Proselites the Thessalonians But we have Reason to think he would fully and freely have communicated the same to them and have raised Edifying and Comfortable Exhortations if he had found or known of sound ground to erect them upon Our Ministers and People fetch not their Comforts so far as the Resurrection but fetch them from Heaven immediately and hope with as much likelihood that all their Friends Souls go thither by the Conveyance of Angels But because St. Paul here gives us no Encouragement to believe them for my Part I cannot do it but fix my self for Comfort in such Cases upon the Rocky Ground which our Apostle here gives us the Certainty and Assurance of a General Resurrection and Judgment Our Apostle's former Text 1 Cor. 15.32 says thus What shall all the Afflictions that I have undergone profit me if the dead rise not But if the-Case be so Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die and there 's an end casting the whole Expectation of Recompences future to this Life upon the Resurrection without mention or regard of any Intermediate State Rom. 2.5 Thou treasurest up unto thy self Wrath against the Day of Wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God Ver. 6. Who will render to every Man according to his Deeds Honour and Immortality to some but Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish to all who work evil c. to Ver. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Plainly the Day of the Last Judgment so as Recompences shall then be distributed according to what Men have done here and only then for any thing that appears in this Text without mention or regard to an Intermediate State 1 Cor. 1.7 8. Ye come behind in no Gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus who also shall confirm you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Plainly intending his Second Coming to Judgment as the only known Time for the Expectation of future Recompences 1 Cor. 4.5 Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden Works of Darkness and manifest the Counsels of Hearts and then shall every deserving Man have Praise of God Plainly denoting the Resurrection as the Time of Judgment and Recompences 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body whether good or bad Still without hinting any other Time or Place for future Recompences Philip. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord of Glory who shall change our vile Body and make it like his Glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Still no mention of any Expectation future to this Life till our Lord's Second Coming 2 Thes 1.7 It is right for God to recompence harm to them which trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with us when the Lord shall appear from Heaven with his mighty Angels Chap. 3.5 The Lord airect your hearts into the Love of God and unto the patient waiting for Christ His Coming again 1 Tim. 6.14 Keep this Commandment until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ which in his times he shall shew as the only time for Recompences 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing viz. his Second Coming And this applies Chap. 1.12 I suffer without being ashamed for I know whom I have believed and that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day And so Ver. 18. The Lord grant to Onisephorus that he may find Mercy of the Lord in that day Chap. 4.1 I Charge thee before God and Christ who shall Judge the Quick and Dead at his Appearing and his Kingdom All harping upon the same string viz. the Resurrection and General Judgment without one word mentioning a Particular Judgment or an Intermediate State Tit. 2.13 Teach to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ No mention of the Hope of a Blessed Intermediate State Heb. 6.2 He will go on to the Doctrines of the main Duties to be performed in this world and to the Resurrection of the dead and that of eternal Judgment for the world to come as the only considerable things Chap. 9.27 It is appointed unto Men once to die and after that the Judgment The Last Day or Judgment Not Two one Particular and the other General No mention of more than One Chap. 11.35 Others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain What Not an immediate going to Heaven of their Souls but a better Resurrection Chap. 12.22 Ye are come to the Heavenly Jerusalem to God and Angels to the General Assembly and Church and just Spirits made perfect And see that ye refuse not him that speaketh in the Gospel whose Voice then shook the Earth yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also Heaven which signifies the removing of them at the Last Day aad then we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot he moved And then enjoy the Heavenly Jerusalem God Christ Angels the Assembly of the Church perfected unto which things
we are now come in Faith Hope and Expectation having received a full and true Declaration of them We have thus traversed the large Fields of St. Paul's Epistles collecting Evidences concerning his Doctrine and Opinion touching the Future State of Mankind after a Death in this World The Texts of his which have been quoted treat particularly of such Future State and intend to teach concerning the same delivering thereupon according as in the said Quotations hath been expressed Before have been quoted on the other hand Four Texts of his said Writings alledged in Proof of the Immateriality viz. 2 Cor. 5. Ver. 6. 8. and Phil. 1.23 and Heb. 12.9 and Heb. 12.22 To these I say none of those Places treat particularly of the Future State of Mankind or intend to Teach or Examine what the same shall be Next I say that of these four Places none speak Provingly But Phil. 1.23 viz. His desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ I say the Question made thereupon is concerning the Meaning or Sense of the Expression of being with Christ It intends a State more desireable than that which at that time he enjoyed I take a sleeping in Jesus to be so viz. a more desireable State than that which at that time he enjoyed That this is a Blessed State we read Revel 14.13 after mentioning the Patience and Faith of the Saints under Persecutions the Text says Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them And that it is a State cared for by God and under his Protection appears Rom. 14.7 None of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself Ver. 8. 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 Lord 's Verse 9. For Christ died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Ver. 10. We shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ So Chap. 4.17 God who quickneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as though they were and so he is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob for all live unto him though the Body turn to dust and the Soul expire yet neither of then are lost Joh. 11.23 Our Lord says to Martha Thy Brother shall rise again She Answers I know that he shall rise again at the Resurrection of the Last Day He Replies I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whoso liveth and believeth in me shall never die Viz. So as to fall out of my Care or Protection or Knowledge thy Brother shall rise again speedily and for others Joh. 6.39 Of that which my Father hath given me I will lose nothing but will raise it up at the Last Day Ver. 40. All who believe in me shall have Everlasting Life and I will raise them up at the Last Day Which Paul to Tim. calls That Day So Ver. 44. 54. All speak of raising Believers up at the Last Day to receive Blessings and Rewards whereas the rising of the Wicked shall be attended with a Second Death This intends an Answer additional to Paul's Desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ And touching the whole Course of this Apostle's Writings concerning a State of Mankind after Death my Quotations make it appear That either he knew of no Intermediate State betwixt Death and the Resurrection or else he did not Acknowledge or Believe it For his Knowledge that there was an Opinion in the World of Souls Subsisting in a Separate State from their Bodies there are great Probabilities as that Solomon's Text The Spirit returns to God And St. Matthew's Text of Cannot kill the Soul And both Heathen and Jewish Opinions to that purpose it seems could hardly escape his Knowledge But most likely it is that he did not acknowledge or believe the Truth of that Opinion for that in any of his Writings upon that Subject he doth neither relate to it nor mention it much less doth he confirm or approve it but puts all Expectation of Rewards or Punishments Future to this World upon the Score and Account of the Resurrection And upon the foot of that Account I leave it with this Apostle intending to Examine what other Apostles have written to the same Purpose I proceed to the Epistle of St. James and quote out of it Chap. 1.12 Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him In Words very like 2 Tim. 4.8 and of the same Import and that applies the receiving of the Crown to that Day or the Last Day So Chap. 5.7 Be patient Brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Ver. 8. Again Be patient for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Gives no Expectatation of Recompences till the coming of the Lord. I go on to St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.4 You are begotten to an Inheritance incorruptible reserved in Heaven for you Ver. 5. Who are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time Does not say to be revealed at the times of your Death So Chap. 5.4 When the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away Agreeing with Paul and James just before Chap. 4.5 Those who speak evil of you shall give account to him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead This must intend the Resurrection for that no Judgment shall pass of the quick and the dead together till that time Ver. 13. Rejoyce in as much as ye are Partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed you may be glad also with exceeding Joy This proves to my understanding that the Ravishing Joys of a newly departed Soul were unknown to this Prime Apostle 2 Pet. 2.9 The Lord knows to deliver the Godly and to reserve the Vnjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished So Ver. 4. Evil Angels are delivered into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment Jude Ver. 6. Those Angels are reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the Great Day This shews what sort of Judgment was before intended Chap. 3.12 What manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein all shall be burnt up but we look for new Heavens and Earth and seeing ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in Peace without spot and blameless Thus he exhorts to a Holy Life from the expectation of the Great Day of Judgment and Dissolution of the Earth Sky and Elements about it without a word of Separated Souls or a particular Judgment or an Intermediate State between Death and Judgment
Second Observation concerns an Objection which hath been and may be made against my pretence of the Souls Extinguishment at the Death of the Party It is demanded If the Old Flame of Life be extinguished in Death and a-new kindled at the Resurrection how can that which riseth be the same with that which died And if not so the new must be rather taken for a Creation than a Resurrection To this I answer by another Question concerning the Body How can that Body whose Flesh and Bones are eaten by Wolves or Dogs as Jezabel's was or burnt to Ashes and those scattered in the Wind or upon the Water rise the same again at the Last Day To this Query St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. gives an Answer which it seems will serve both Cases alike ver 35. How are the dead raised and with what Body do they come He answers That which thou sowest is not quickned except it die and thou sowest not that which shall be For Example Wheat the Grain sown first corrupts then fructifies and God makes the New grow out of the Old and God gives it a Body viz. to every seed it s own Body and thence Wheat rises from Wheat and Barly from Barly plainly declaring that in the Resurrection the New Body shall be the same with the Old in Substance Flesh and Blood Skin and Bone Head and Heart Brain and Breath Limbs Members Muscles and all Organs proportionable to the Old as one Grain of Wheat or like as one Egge to another This I take for the Sameness of Body which the Apostle here describes to us and such a Sameness will the Soul easily obtain viz. a Flame of Life as much the same with the former As a Flame in one part of a Fire kindles and produces a Flame in another part of the Fire singly there are so many Flames and yet all are but the Flame of the same Fire and may well enough be called the same Flame full as well as the Ear of Wheat and all the Corns of it may be called Wheat and the same Wheat with that which was sown And this Solution it seems may serve for the Souls as well as St. Paul's Wheat for the Body and one of them shall be as much the same as the other But to my Apprehension the Sameness intended in the Resurrection is not so much or properly applicable to the Soul or the Body as to the Person The Body suitable to the former and like it as one Grain of Wheat like and proportionable to that from which it springs So a Flame of Life of suitable force brightness and activity to the former and fit for that Body where it is kindled these will in the Person produce the same Faculties that were in the former Person viz. The same Vital Powers Sensitive Powers same Inclinations Affections Desires Natural the same Rational Powers Perception Understanding Phancy Judgment Memory Will Conscience And these will make the rising Person altogether the very self and same Person with that which died more the same than an Old Man is the same with what he was when Young or a Child Compare a Child of four years to a Man of fourscore they are known really to be the same Person by Collateral Evidences but none by having known the Child can expect by his Senses to discover the Old Man to be the same Person nor can the Old Man himself evidently know or make Proof by any thing in himself that he is the same Person so great Differences grow in time between the one Age the other But the Person rising at the Last Day may likely be as much the same with him that died as the Man waking after a long Sleep is the same with him that lay down to take his Rest There will be Body Soul and Person without difference and the same Powers Vital Sensitive Rational Inclinations Affections Cogitations and Knowledge all which make effectually and really the same Person and more the same than the Old Man is with the Young and yet those are really the same Person also 3. My Third Observation shall be concerning such Texts as those who maintain the Immateriality and Separate Subsistence of Souls do Alledge both out of the Evangelists and the Apostolick Writings for the Proof and Support of that Opinion Viz. Mat. 10.28 Are not able to kill the Soul Chap. 16.26 Gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Luk. 16.19 The Parable of Dives Chap. 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Ver. 46. Jesus cried Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And Acts 7.59 Stephen's Saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit 2 Cor. 5. Ver. 6. 8. Absent from the Body and present with the Lord. Phil. 1.23 To depart and be with Christ is better but to abide in the Flesh is more needful for you Heb. 12.9 Ye have been obedient to your fleshly Fathers and shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits Ver. 22. Ye are come to Mount Sion God Christ and the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect 1 Pet. 3.19 He went and preached to the Spirits in Prison Rev. 6.9 The Souls under the Altar Here are 11 Quotations Alledged to Prove the Separate Subsistence of Souls and their Immateriality And some add to these Mat. 17. Moses and Elias appearing at the Transfiguration which makes them up a Dozen I have made and do make one General Observation upon them all viz. That they are all spoken or delivered in a transient manner not principally intending to teach the Immateriality or Separate Subsistence of Souls not in Places where the Contexts before lead to a Discourse concerning the Nature or State of Souls or what becomes of them after Death or between that and the Resurrection so as there is not a Design in any of these Texts principally to teach that Doctrine Nor any clear Intention apparent to teach at all this Belief For Instance The Absent from the Body and present with the Lord or the To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Or the Receive my Spirit Or the Be Obedient to the Father of Spirits Or the We are come to God Christ and his Church Or the Preaching to the Spirits in Prison Or the Souls under the Altar Or the Appearing of Moses and Elias at Tabor I demand what do these Texts of themselves teach concerning a Separate State or Subsistence of Souls There is no previous Discourse in their Contexts leading to speak of the State of Souls or inducing to teach concerning them nor apparent Intent in any of these Texts so to do But Men possest with an Opinion of the Separate Subsistence do draw and beat out of these Texts that which doth not naturally flow from them nor that they ever intended to teach so as the Doctrine squeezed out of these Texts for the Nourishment and Support of their Opinion tastes strongly of the Husk and Skins of them and are rather violently forced
53.10 Thou shalt make his Soul an Offering for Sin viz. his Person For none will deny his Body to have been made a visible Offering for Sin one as well and as much as the other his whole Person was so Psal 31.5 Into thy hand I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me David was then alive and in Condition to write this Psalm and had a Body as well as a Spirit and under the Term of Spirit commended his Person or himself to God Luk. 23.56 Our Lord did the very same he knew his Body was to rise early upon the Third Day yet Cryed Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Recommending by that Term himself or his Person Soul and Body So David My Soul is among Lions deliver my Soul from the Sword the Lord is with them that uphold my Soul viz. Deliver me uphold me So Jonathan loved David as his own Soul viz. as he did himself his own Person And this Form of Expression seems agreeable enough to Reason and common Practice in other Cases Pars pro Toto As we use to say Sweet Soul and dear Heart Forma dat esse rei And so Men frequently use by the most noble Part to express or denote the whole And hence I conclude that the last Part of Moses's Text here is well Paraphrased And Man became a Living Person without intent to speak of a Soul by its self or otherwise then as in conjunction with the Body it helped to make up the Person And because this is a Material Point and beats hard upon our Opponents Foundation another Parallel Text shall be cited for Illustration and Confirmation of the same viz. Ezech. 37. The Prophecy over dry Bones which thereupon came together and the Sinews and Flesh came up upon them and the Skin covered them above but there was no Breath in them Then he was commanded to Prophecy over these Bones yet not to call for Souls or Spirits for their Animation but to say to the Wind Thus saith the Lord God Come from the four Winds O Breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live And thereupon the Breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great Army Here it seems we have a Specimen of the First Mans Creation viz. His Body was first made ready for that Animating Breath which should first tine and kindle the Flame of Life in his Body then made ready for it And this Flame constantly fanned by Respiration and un-put out or extinguished by any violent or other means seems to be the Actus primus Corporis Organici Whilst that continues flaming and glowing the Person lives when that is extinguish'd the Person dies beyond Remedy and being once extinguish'd in all Parts of the Body it cannot be again re-kindled but by fresh Fire from Heaven or a Divine Power Our Author Pag. 252. He says The Radical Moisture which is daily consuming by the Flame of Life must needs be spent e're long And I say that if this Flame be not fed and nourished by Food and Viands competent and of suitable Nature this Flame must first diminish then decay and lastly be extinguished as daily Experience teaches in Times of Scarcity and Famine and the like distressing Accidents So as this Vision gives us some Traces whereby the manner of Adam's Creation and the Infusion of the Breath of Life into him may guessingly be collected And as it directs backwards to the Creation so it doth it forwards open some Prospect towards the manner of our expected Resurrection in which after the Body shall have been made ready and compleat for the Reception and Nourishment of it the Animating Breath shall again kindle in it the Flame of Life as by God shall be appointed for the Actuating such Raised Bodies and as it did before their former Dissolution And this Flame will be of the same Kind and Nature with the former and as much the same as the Bodies then Rising will be the same Bodies with the former before it was a body with such Organs acted by a Natural Flame of Life and the same shall it be after the Resurrection with this Change to the Blessed that their Natural Body shall be made a Spiritual Body By this Counter Exposition of Moses's Text before recited I pretend to have battered and shaken or even to have overthrown the First and one of the Main Foundations of our Author's Opinion upon which he principally insists and grounds himself in the first 46 Pages of his Book And I now proceed to propound an Argument in direct Opposition to his Opinion and all that he hath said in maintenance of the same Thus then I argue That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh but the Soul as well as the Body is generated and comes of Flesh Ergo The Soul is a Material and not an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit The Major of these Propositions is apparently agreeable to the Course of Nature and John 3 6. sufficiently supported by our Lords own Assertion The Minor I prove by Gen. 5.3 Adam begat a Son in his own likeness after his Image Hence I argue Adam after the breathing into him of the Breath of Life became a Living Person and continued to be so at the Procreation and Birth of his Son therefore the Procreation of a Son in his own likeness intends That the Son was generated a Living Person but so he could not be without a Soul or Spirit James 2.26 The Body without the Spirit is dead and Nature agrees viz. That one cannot be a Living Person unless he have the two Essential Parts which constitute the same viz. Body and Soul It seems clear That when Adam begat a Son he begat a Living Person and that so he could not be without a Soul Ergo Adam begetting a Son in his own likeness a Living Person begat his Soul as well as his Body And for a farther Proof of my Minor Proposition I argue again from Gen. 1.28 and 9.2 God says to our First Parents Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and bring forth abundantly in the Earth Hereupon I say That if Man do not beget a Son in his own likeness after his Image viz. a Living Person as Adam is said to do it could not be in the Power or Nature of Man to replenish the Earth with other Men or Persons like himself or of his own Kind and Nature And to believe or maintain otherwise crosses not only the import of these Texts but the common experience of Mankind also and the Evidences appâ—aring every day for Children are born all the World over with their perfection of parts little indeed but magnum in parvo potentia and perfectly Living Persons in the likeness of their Parents and the very Abbreviations and Epitomes of them Some say but they are but vain words That the Parents procreate the Body only but the Soul a Praeexistent Spirit lies hovering in the Air