therefore might judge all things But we cannot allow the present Pretenders amongst us to apply this to themselves or to any of theirs Ver. 16. Says We have known the Mind of Christ viz. by Revelation of the Spirit not only by the Letter Nay from the Spirit in them by whom the Letter of what we call Gods Word was dedicated and framed Eph. 3.3 Ye have heard of the Grace of God given me and that by Revelation God made known unto me the Mystery viz. that Mystery intended in our present Chapter Col. 1.26 Even the Mystery which hath been hid from all Ages and Generations But was then made manifest to the Saints of that Time Eph. 1.17 I pray that God will give you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation the Eyes of your Vnderstanding being enlightened that ye may know the Hope of his Calling and the Riches of his Glory Galat. 1.16 It pleased God to call me by his Grace and to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him Ver. 12. I neither received the Doctrine of the Gospel from Man nor was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ Nor did he then consult with other Apostles or his own Flesh and Blood about it but went into Arabia far from other Teachers Acts 8.26 The Angel of the Lord spake to Philip saying arise and go towards the South with other Directions Ver. 29. The Spirit said to Philip go near and join thy self to this Chariot Ver. 39. When they were come up out of the Water the Spirit of God caught away Philip and the Eunuch saw him no more Act. 10.19 While Peter thought on the Vision the Spirit said to him behold three Men seek thee arise and go with them for I have sent them So Chap. 11.12 The Spirit bad me go with them nothing doubting Act. 13 2. As at Antioch they ministred to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the Work whereunto I have appointed them Acts 16.6 Paul was forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia Ver. 7. And they essayed to go into Bithynia but the Spirit suffered them not These Texts have been quoted to evince and declare the Manner and Efficacy of God's Communicating his Spirit in those Times Of which sort our present Pretenders to Endowments of the Spirit have not a Face to challenge any thing We return now to Examination of our quoted Text and Chapter and say That the Wisdom of which St. Paul here speaks is the Wisdom of God in a Mystery ordained before the World unto our Glory called Eph. 1. The Mystery which had been hid from Ages and Generations but was made manifest to the Saints of that Time Mentioned Matth. 16.17 Peter says to his Master thou art Christ the Son of the living God And Jesus answered Flesh and Blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven The Redemption of the World by Christ and that Jesus preached to the People was Christ was the Mystery of St. Paul intended in this Text. The Princes of this World had no Knowledge of this Mystery for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory This was not a Thing that could enter into the Senses or the Heart of Man to conceive But God had then revealed it by his Spirit to the Holy Apostles and Disciples of that Time who had received the Spirit of God that they might know this Mystery as a Thing freely given to them of God of which they spake in Words taught by the Spirit But the Natural Man or the Reason of Man could not find out or were not capable of receiving this Mystery by any Helps of Nature or Reason for this Mystery would be Foolishness to a Natural Man and could not be known by Natural Means or Grounds of Reason but must be Spiritually discerned by Revelation of God's Spirit For the Things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God As our Lord to Peter Flesh and Blood hath not revealed this to thee but my Father hath done it A Thing which no other Means had Power to do Not Man's Nature or his Reason Nothing could discover this to Man but the Revelation of Gods Spirit Every Parcel of this Mystery is above the Natural Man's Capacity and Comprehension What Eye had ever seen or Ear heard or what Heart had ever conceived That a Woman should bear a Child without the Assistance of a Man The Virgin demands How can this Thing be seeing I know not a Man The Natural Man could not receive this small or least Part of the Mystery of Man's Redemption but it would appear Foolishness to him Not to speak of the Trinity and Second Person in it united to the Nature of Man and chusing to appear in the Form of a Servant to undergo Contempt Want Pain and Death and rise again by his own Power and that his so doing should be Expiatory for the Sins of Men and be so accepted in the Sight of God the Natural Man receives not cannot naturally receive the Things of this Mystery for they are Foolishness to him nor can his Reason know or conceive them because they are and must be Spiritually discerned viz. must come to be first known by the Revelation of God's Spirit only Our Apostle's Text thus applied is not only firm and true but also plain and clear intelligible and rational which Men take upon them to confound by taking a dictum secundum quid for a dictum simpliciter and applying what the Apostle speaks concerning this great Mystery and concerning the first and eminent Revelations of it to all Occasions Persons and Times without observing the Measures of Difference which ought to be made between them concerning which we say That although at the first Times of making this great Mystery known to the World there was no Way of Producing that Effect save the only Revelation of God by his Spirit and the same was performed accordingly Yet in a short Process of Time it came to pass that this Mystery was Taught Accepted and Believed by Natural Men upon Reasonable Grounds and without being counted Foolishness amongst them viz. when God by his Spirit had revealed this Mystery to Peter Paul and the rest of the rest of the Disciples of our Lord and other Christians Then they preached the same to other Men and declared this Mystery to them Mark 16.23 They went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with Signs following Their Auditors Natural Men had Reason to consider the Teachers the Doctrine and the Signs following The Teachers were Men Sober and Pious not seeking Worldly Interests ready to suffer for Justifying the Truth of their Doctrines and without Exceptions in the Course of their Lives The Doctrine was Sublime said to be revealed by God the Facts delivered of our Lord's Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascension and Descent of the
it Hence we may perceive that our Author instead of proving by Reason or from Nature That the Humane Soul is an Immaterial Self-subsisting Spirit is turned about to vain Jangling and with a wilful Blindness such as will not see he balks the known and ancient Opinion of the Primitive Fathers of the Church before cited by himself viz. That the Humane Soul was a Material Spirit kindled by our Creator in the Body of Man when he breathed into Adam 's Nostrils the Breath of Life and thereby made him a Living Soul We read that when Prometheus had framed and made a perfect Humane Body he could not enliven it for want of Heavenly Fire which he therefore stole from Jupiter and was condemned to have his Heart eternally torn and devoured by the incessant Gripes and endless Voracity of a Vulture or Raven Whether this shadow to us Lucifer's Offence in such Atempt we dispute not but apparent it is that this is the adequate Emblem of a guilty and tormenting Conscience for a Crime of the highest Nature and Provocation that possibly can be committed Ezek. 37. we meet with an Adumbration of such an enlivening Breath God directs his Words Say to the Wind thus saith the Lord Come from the four Winds O Breath and breath upon these Slain that they may live And the Bodies arose and they lived accordingly 1 Cor. 15.44 There is a Natural Body and there is a Spiritual Body The first Man Adam was made a Living Soul and the last Adam a Quickening Spirit For the truer Understanding of what is meant by the Term Living Soul parallel Expressions of Scripture shall be cited to that Intent Gen. 7.22 All in whose Nostrils was the Breath of Life upon the dry Land died in the Flood For the Use of the Word Soul Levit. 17.11 Ye shall have a holy Convocation and ye shall afflict your Souls viz. your selves 1 Sam. 10. Hannah was in bitterness of Soul and prayed and wept she was sore afflicted Ch. 2.16 Take as much as thy Soul desireth viz. as much as you will Ch. 18.1 The Soul of Jonathan was knit with the Soul of David and he loved him as his own Soul viz. his Affection was knit to him and he loved him as himself Ch. 25.29 A Man is risen to pursue thee and to seek thy Soul viz. pursue thy Person and seek thy Life Ch. 30.12 When the Egyptian taken at Ziklag had eaten his Spirit came again to him viz. his Vital Spirit 2 Sam. 30.39 The Soul of David longed to go forth unto Absalom Next Verse David 's Heart was towards Absalom seems the Heart Affection Life Person used to be expressed by the Term Soul Job 12.10 In God's Hand is the Soul of every living thing and the Breath of all Mankind Ch. 16.4 If your Soul were in my Soul's stead viz. if you were in my Case Ch. 21.4 Why should not my Spirit be troubled viz. why should I not be grieved Ch. 30.15 Terrors pursue my Soul viz. me And my Soul is poured out upon me viz. I am exceedingly afflicted Ch. 33.30 To bring back his Soul from the Pit to the Light of the Living viz. save his Life Ch. 34.14 If God gather to himself Mans Spirit and his Breath he shall turn to his Dust. We have proceeded thus far of the Bible to collect Texts to our Intent and should we go through the Psalms and forward it would be hard to recite the Collections and it seems the Texts cited are enough to establish the Sense of our Expression Man became a Living Creature or Person And thus by the Breath of Life derived from Heaven was the Flammula Vitalis the Promethean Fire enkindled in the Blood Spirits and Parts of Man's Body and by Breath it hath ever since been refreshed and maintained and when God takes this from us we die and are turned to our Earth and all our Thoughts perish our Fancies Intellects and Memories our Learning and Abilities as well as our Love and our Hatred our Passions and Affections The Vital Flame kindled in the first Man passing intermixed with the Seminal Substance and Prolifick Virtue and received in Habitacles fitting and proper for its Fomentation and Nutriment is first fermented by the Prolifick Energy or Internal Principle of Inclination to be coagulated and knit one Part of it to the other and by Fomentation is strengthened whence arises a Power of assimilating to it self such Nourishment as comes within the narrow Sphere of its Activity which being by its own Tendency to Heat and the Natural Warmth and Fomentation of its Receptacle compacted to and settled in a terminated Consistency and somewhat a fixed Unity of Coherence the Formation of Parts doth consequently commence and as Men have by a daily Observation found it in Eggs under a Hen it likely doth proceed viz. Two harder Accrescencies are principally framed and compacted viz. the Primum Vivens and Vltimum Moriens the Triangle of our Hearts and the Circular or Globular and Chief Member of our Bodies the Head and these are presently knit together first by small Ligatures Strings and Films and from those two Parts as Principal Pillars and Fountains of Life Motion and Action there are extruded and produced first the Fibres and Nervous Parts and Ligatures of the Body then the Arteries Veins and Muscles and lastly the Flesh and Bones and such Blood as may be required in an Embrion State or a Chile analogous thereunto proper to nourish and apt to be converted into Blood and to catch and maintain the Vital Flame which shall be kindled upon the first Breath and Fanning of the Ambient Air at its coming into the World And like to this is the common Fate and Form of all other Animals and the Production of Living Bodies whatsoever if we shall examine them and begin with Vegetables and take for Standards the Acorn and the Mustard-seed they and whatsoever other Seed it be if it fall upon unnatural or barren and unhospitable Places viz. into Waters barren and dry Sands upon bare Rocks or salt Marishes or the like the Seed missing and failing of a Sutable Receptacle and agreeable to its Nature cannot be expected to fructifie according to its Natural Inclination and Power but must needs prove abortive unfruitful and improlifick But where Seeds fall into good and tolerable Grounds agreeable to their Seminal Virtues Inclinations and Powers and wherein they may meet with a Nutritive Reception there they are first somewhat melted or softned and then they ferment and finding a sutable Fomentation in their Recipient they germinate and sprout and as the Sprouts bear upwards so from the other end of the Acorn proceed Fibres or thin very small Strings moist and somewhat glutinous or clammy Threads impregnated not only with its proper Juice but indued with a catching and penetrating Quality enabling it to fix and fasten it self in its hospitable Recipient where finding still a friendly and benigne Fomentation and Acceptance it
Samuel in Shiloe by the Word of the Lord without such Revelations of God as are miraculous or are derived from that Original it seems so extream hard to find out God as that no Man by Force of Natural Wit or Intellect can have the Power to do it and if the Soul of Man be an Immaterial Spirit it will fall under a like Difficulty Pag. 30. He supposes Cogitando as it seems that God had made a Compleat Body of a Man without inspiring him with a Rational Soul but placing about his Heart an inkindled Heat or inlucid Fire This like the Fuming of moist Hay or the heated Steems of working New Wines would says he effect in the Bodies of Men all that can now by Men be performed except only their Power of Cogitation and that without the Co-operation of any Soul at all And the like he supposes may be done also in the Bodies of Beasts but he found not in his Cogitations that this was enough to produce Reason in Man but he dream'd that the same was fully supplied to Man when God had created for him a Rational Soul and had joined it to his Body after a certain Manner such as the Author had invented for him Pag. 34. The Animal Spirits are like the most subtil Winds or more like the purest Flames which continually and plentifully ascend from the Heart to the Brain and by these are the Bodily Members moved Pag. 36. Says The Automata made by Man must all fall short in two Points 1. Nothing can be made to answer properly to unforeknown Questions 2. Nothing can be made to act Motions beyond what were specially intended Not to answer accidental or all occasional Motions He says That Beasts cannot speak comes not from Defect of Organs in them witness Magpies and Parrots But we do not admit these Witnesses for Proofs But says he Men who are Deaf and Dumb will find and learn Signs to express their Minds a plain Sign that Men have Reason and Beasts have not And we allow the Sign and grant the Thing And he grants some Beasts excel others of their own Kind in Sagacity Apprehension and Docibility and so some Kinds excel other Kinds in such Qualities This say I seems a clear Proof that Beasts are not Machines but have Perceptive Souls and are Voluntary Agents knowing both what they do and having an Intent and Design in the doing of it Pag. 37. Says The Humane Soul cannot be Ex traduce or grow out of Matter but must needs be created Then says That the Soul is a thing of great Concernment and the Error which is great next to the Denial of a God is the Belief that the Souls of Men and Beasts are of the same Nature and consequently that nothing is to be hoped for or feared after this Life no more than for Flies or Pismires It seems the Mans Cogitations upon this Subject were extreamly erroneous and as much deceived as his Senses ever were or ordinarily can be in any competent Sphere of their Activity as a Christian and Learned It seems not to be imagined but that he had perused S. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians and had in the 15th Chapter thereof found written what that Apostle there delivers concerning the Resurrection of the Dead and without the Mention or least Hint of a Soul Separately Subsisting he puts the whole Weight of Christian Religion upon the Belief of a Resurrection of the Dead The Apostle says Such Resurrection is as certain as it is that Christ is risen And if that be not true and certain nothing in Christian Religion is so But our Preaching is vain and your Faith is also vain Nay and we are evinced 〈◊〉 be false Witnesses and you are yet in your Sins and can have no Benefit at all by Christ and all who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished If Mens only Hope in Christ were in this Life they were most miserable but the thing is not so for Christ is risen as the first Fruits and at the last Trumpet the Dead shall be raised And he tells us how and with what Bodies and concludes Abound in the Work of the Lord as knowing your Labour shall not be in vain for most certainly this Resurrection shall come So Matth. 24. Ver. 30. and to 33. Mark 13.24 Luk. 21.28 And when that comes then do you Christians and of the Good look up and lift up your Heads to the Clouds and above them So 1 Thess 4.14 Those who are asleep in Jesus will God bring with him and the Dead in Christ shall rise first and then shall be ever with the Lord. Mat. 25.31 shews us the Method and Proceeds of the Last Judgments and the Rewards and Punishments then to be expected without Word or Mention of a Separate Self-subsisting Soul or any thing concerning the same We need not take the Pains to try our Author's Cogitations by these Texts of Scripture because the Clearness and Wideness of the Difference needs no Dilucidation but are apparent at the first View We proceed to his Treatise De Passionibus in the very Entrance to which we take for observable That what God hath put together viz. the Soul and the Body whilst they are in Composito our Author Des Cartes endeavours to separate and pull in sunder taking all Sorts of Cogitation from the Body and because there is a Body of very great Motion and Heat viz. Fire therefore he will take all Heat and Motion from the Soul and bestow it upon the Body both which Assertions or Propositions we do utterly reject and do say That the Soul doth not nor cannot understand nor consider without the Animal Spirits and Organs of the Body nor hath the Body Heat or Motion without the Soul and the Energy and Efficiency thereof nor can have them without that Assistance and Conjunction Artic. 5. Says Men have thought that Heat and Motion depended upon the Soul and yet he shews no Reason to think otherwise and therefore Men may think so still and it seems will do it Art 6. He says Death never comes by any Defect in the Soul I say That is more than he knows though it should be an Immaterial Spirit but if a Material one then it certainly may cause Death by its Deficiency Art 8. Says There is a continual Heat about our Hearts as long as we live and this Fire is the Corporeal Principle of Motion in the Body And we say the same of the Animal Spirits and Corporeal Flame which is the Material Spirit Art 9. is granted Art 10. Says That the Animal Spirits are most subtil Bodily Particles extream rare and thin moving most swifty and like the Flames of Fire and never are at rest these rise in great plenty from the Heart to the Brain where they are in continual Action and they pervade the whole Body and all its Members and move every Part of it as Occasion may require And for this we are at Agreement with
upon an undertaking to row against the Stream and general Opinion as well of past Ages as the present time 1 Sam. 30.6 When David was in very evil case he incouraged himself in the Lord his God he it is who hath required that Men should be Valiant for the Truth upon the Earth And Esdras 4.35 Great is the Truth and stronger then all things those who know that their aim and design is no other but the bringing the Truth in this Point to Light to the end that Gods Truth viz. the very Truth thereby may be exhibited and discovered may it seems go on in it without being terrified or bearing an astonishing regard to the censures of Men. We shall proceed therefore to Execution of what hath been declared to be intended Also where two or more Texts are cited unto which one same Answer may well be applied such Texts are designed to be quoted together or at once that the same Answers may not be often repeated And whereas heretofore those Texts intended to prove Recompences in a State future to this Life have been often applied to prove the Self-subsistence of a Separated Soul Here will be care taken to detect and avoid that Point of Misapplication We begin then from the Beginning of the Creation and the History of it viz. Gen. 1.26 God said let us make Man in our image after our likeness Ver. 27. So God Created Man in his own Image Chap. 2.7 God breathed into Mans Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man became a living Soul We have before proved it the ordinary Use of Scripture to express the Person by Name or Term of the Soul and here Man became a living Soul intends a living Person both Soul and Body Zanchius puts a very great Stress and weight upon Gods breathing into Mans Nostrils the Breath of Life for the Proof of a Separately Subsisting Soul in Man To this we say there is not that clear Sense in the Text which seems to import no more but that God gave to Man his Breath and Life and so he did to the Beasts of the Earth and kindled in their Bodies their first flames of Life Propagated from those Originals to all future Generations each Generating its like both amongst Men and Beasts And as concerning the Image of God in Man what and where it is we leave to be disputed as it hath been from those Ancient times till this time without being able to attain a clear Determination That Text Gen. 7.22 All Terrestial Creatures in whose Nostrils was the Breath of the Spirit of Life died in the Flood seems to Paraphrase the Breath of Life breathed into Mans Nostrils and to expound it in the sense before given of it 1 Kings 17.21 The Prophet Elijah Prays My God I pray thee let this Childs Soul come into him again Thus it may be Paraphrased Lord kindle again in this Child the Flame of Life which is now extinguishable restore him to Life again but the mode of speaking here used by the Prophet was agreeable to the common Opinion of his time which was long after that of Saul A like thing we Read 1 Sam. 30.12 concerning the Egyptian found at Ziklag When he had eaten his Spirit came again to him viz. the Flame of Life almost extinguished for want of Fewel was again revived and inabled for action by fresh Food and Nourishment and as the Childs Soul came into him again and he revived so this Aegyptian's Spirit came again to him when he had eaten and he revived And 2 Kings 13.21 a Dead Man let down into Elisha's Grave at the touch of Elisha's Bones the Dead Man revived whether his Soul returned or his Flame of Life was rekindled there is no Ground here to dispute or need to do it Job 12.10 In God's hand is the Soul of every living thing and the breath of all Mankind Here man is ranked with every living thing as to his Soul and Soul and Breath are taken for the same things and of a like Subsistence Chap. 34.14 If God gather to himself Mans Spirit and his Breath he shall turn to his Dust here Spirit and Breath pass for the same thing Chap. 33.30 Bring back his Soul from the pit to the light of the living viz. save his Life or revive him Psal 49.8 It cost more to redeem their Souls viz. their Lives or Persons their Riches could not do it Ver. 15. but God hath delivered my Soul from the place of Hell for he shall receive me viz. he shall deliver me yet from Death and the Grave and hide me as in the secret place of his Dwelling receive me under his Protection Psal 56.13 Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death viz. hast saved my Life so my Soul trusteth in thee and my Soul is among Lions and my Soul thirsteth for thee and my Soul followeth hard after thee he holdeth my Soul in Life and my Soul which thou hast redeemed and 72.14 He shall redeem their Soul from deceipt and violence 73.19 Deliver not the Soul of thy Turtle Dove to the Enemy 86.2 Preserve my Soul for I am holy ver 13. Thou hast delivered my Soul from the lowest Hell and my Soul is full of troubles and Lord why casteth thou out my Soul 89.48 What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave and bless the Lord O my Soul And he satisfieth the empty Soul and filleth the hungry Soul with goodness and their Soul abhorred all manner of Meat and those who speak evil against my Soul All these and abundance more places of the Psalms do under the Word or Term Soul intend and signifie the Person the Life the Affection of the Party Praise the Lord O my Soul These and many other Texts sound to common Readers as Proofs of a Separately Subsisting Soul of Man but that Opinion may be past for a clear mistake and an apparent mis-conception Prov. 11.25 The liberal Soul shall be made fat viz. the liberal Person Chap. 13.4 The Soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing but the Soul of the diligent shall be made fat viz. the diligent Person 14.25 A true Witness delivereth Souls People Men. Chap. 16.24 Pleasant words are sweet to the Soul 19.2 That the Soul he without knowledge it is not good viz. the Person Chasten thy Son and let not thy Soul spare for his crying Do not thou spare The full Soul loaths the Honey-comb Thus far we have added to our former proofs that Soul is very often put for Person and we now expect that shall pass for a granted Truth and it may still be confirm'd by more Testimonies than all that have yet been Cited Eccles 8.8 There is no man that hath Power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of Death Here Spirit seems to intend Breath or Life Chap. 10.4 If the Spirit of the ruler rise up against thee viz. his
be found therefore most likely he died in the Mount and was buried but so unknownly as they counted it by Conjecture also to be God's own doing But there was then no Witness of that Fact nor any Revelation since concerning it till this Appearance of that Prophet at our Present Transfiguration and that seems to favour rather Moses his Translation more than his Death and Burial Although the Letter of the Text stand for the Later we leave the Truth as a Mystery and accept the Proof as Mystical and therefore not to be confided in or relied upon for the Establishment of a Doctrine whose Verity and Certainty is now controverted and expected to be better proved than by mystical and untrialable Arguments Matth. 22.32 God declares himself the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. And our Lord says He is not the God of the Dead but of the Living Ergo Abraham Isaac and Jacob are Living and do Subsist in their Separated Souls for their Bodies are long since turned to Dust and are not To this we answer That all Persons who have lived do live or shall live may be well enough said to live unto God with whom Things past and to come may be well enough said to be present for that Time cannot work or have any Effect upon Him his Being or his Knowledge And therefore Luke 20.28 relating the same Fact says God is not God of the Dead but of the Living Adds the Reason For that all live unto him All who have lived and shall live as well as those who do live those who have lived and shall live do live unto God although they do not live unto Men nor have any present Subsistence either in Soul or Body If our Lord had intended their living to God in a State of Separated Souls the Intent might easily and would likely have been declared by him But the Matter then argued did no way concern the Point of a Soul 's Separate Subsistence But the Answer was only intended to the Query put to our Lord by the Sadduces who denied the Resurrection They propounded a Case of Seven Brothers having all one same Wife upon which our Lord cites the Words of God concerning these three Old Patriarchs Luke says that they are the Children of God being the Children of the Resurrection and our Lord applies his Answer to their Question They demand whose Wife their Woman shall be in the Resurrection He replies as touching the Resurrection Have ye not read this Saying of God touching the Patriarchs and then applies that Saying to prove the Resurrection accordingly So as Question the Answer and the Application was all and for ought appears only intended concerning the Resurrection without Intent to speak here concerning any State or Condition of Souls betwixt the State of Death and that of the Resurrection and the Resurrection was the only thing intended to be proved by that Quotation Mat. 10.28 Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell Luke 12.4 relates the same Doctrine thus Fear not them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do but fear him who after he hath killed hath Power to cast into Hell We may perceive that the Substance and Intent of Christ's Doctrine is the Same in both these Evangelists but the Words or Expression in which the same is delivered do differ very much yet not to alter the Doctrine principally intended to be taught viz. not to fear the Violence of Men whose Power is confined to this World and can extend no farther but that Men ought rather to fear God who hath Power to reward and punish after Mens Departure out of this World and in a Future State This we take for the Doctrine mainly intended by them both and therein they do fully agree but in the Collateral Doctrine endeavoured to be collected from S. Matthew's Expressions and wording of the same so separating and dividing betwixt the Soul and the Body as that one may be killed and the other not or the one be cast into Hell and the other not In this Point which I take for Collateral to the main Point intended the Words of these two Evangelists differ very much for in the Expressions of S. Luke there is no mention at all of the Soul and therefore no Division made or intended betwixt Soul and Body It seems then that it may be collected that both having a right Notion of the Doctrine mainly intended to be delivered of not fearing Men whose Power was limited to this World and fearing God who could recompence both here and hereafter S. Matthew may have worded this Matter according to his own Conception of the Thing for his Words prove at least his Opinion to have been that a Man's Soul and Body were dividable and that the Body might be killed without killing the Soul And yet he doth not say the Soul can be in Hell without the Body but God can cast them both into Hell Plain it seems S. Matthew was of Opinion that Souls were capable of Separate State but the Expressions of S. Luke give us some Warrant to think that Christ did not deliver than Doctrine in the Words used by S. Matthew but that he hath worded it according to his own Conception and Opinion and that the Doctrine of Christ taken as delivered by S. Luke is no more but that Men can only afflict and punish in this World but God can do it both here and hereafter And this all Men must agree and assent unto Luke 16.19 Begins that which Men usually call the Parable of Dives and Lazarus The foregoing Chap. 15. consists all of Parables and this Chapter begins with the Parable of the Unjust Steward and ends with this of Dives and Lazarus whose very Names seem to be some Proof that the Story is a Parable If it were a History and true Relation of a Fact it might pass for a very strong Proof of the Soul's Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body but passing for a Parable it seems not a Foundation firm enough to bear the Weight of an otherwise unproved Structure And the like may be said for Rev. 6.10 the Souls under the Altar of those slain for the Word of God and the Testimony which they held crying with a loud Voice How long Lord dost thou not judge and avenge our Blood This was but in a Trance and no more real or true than the Appearances of the great Dragon with Seven Heads and Ten Horns and Seven Crowns whose Tail drew the Third Part of the Stars of Heaven and did cast them to the Earth or that there was a great City descending out of Heaven from God After S. John was rapt up into Heaven by the open Door all was but a Trance and may pass for a Rapture not a Ground strong enough to fix a proving Foundation upon
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
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
high Building should be erected upon it as judging that Ground not to be Rocky 6. Paragraph You except against my Expression of making Men trust in a lye You say it is uncivil to tell a Man that he lyes or that he Teaches others to trust in lyes To this I say it seems you perused my Paper in haste and with a greater desire to Answer than to consider it for I find none of these sayings or things there either in letter or sense As to the Consequences of the Materiality we differ in Judgment and they appear worse to your fears that to me Experience was never yet made of them and I see not cause to apprehend them as you do Upon your Discourse of Purgatory you say Men must not renounce the truth because some draw ill Consequences from it and I grant it but find no cause or need for asserting it 7. Paragraph You say The Fathers generally thought that Souls departed do not go strait-way to Heaven the same which you said in your last Paper and thereupon I demanded why Men do noâ— think otherwise viz that Souls at this day go immediately to Heaven or Hell and I desired to know your Opinion upon this difference and which of them you think to be the truer but to neither of these Queries do you here return me any Answer But you think it strange that if the Opinion of the Separate Subsistence be an error it should be so early and so generally accepted in the Christian Church To this I Answer That those most early Professors found this the prevailing Opinion in the World at that time yet so as there were many disbelievers of it That St. Matthew Apostle and Evangelist did believe it seems something clear by his Relation Chap. 10.28 but that neither St. Paul St. Peter nor St. John believed it I hold the more probable of St. Paul from I Cor. 15. and 1 Thes 4.13 of Peter from 2 Peter 3.10 of John from 1 Joh. 3.2 and Chap 2.28 Our Lord also lays the Expectation of future Recompences upon the time of the last day John 6. in four places or expressions in that Chapter Another evident Cause of accepting the Opinion of a Separate Subsistence likely was the Expression in St. Matthew's Gospel before Quoted This Gospel was the most early Written and in the proper Language of the Jews the Hebrew Tongue and they were the first Preachers and Planters of the Christian Religion The other three Gospels are of a later date whence this Text of St. Matthew might likely have Planted this Opinion and confirmed the old Belief of the World But after St. Luke had from St. Paul's Mouth Published his Gospel there was reason to examine St. Matthew's Relation of that Fact or History by comparing his Chap. 12.4 with Matthew's 10.28 They agree exactly in the main Point of Doctrine viz. That we ought to fear God more than Men but when they give the reason why Men should do so they Word that reason in a different manner St. Matthew Worded it according to his Opinion in Expressions importing a Separate Subsistence of the Soul but St. Paul's Words or Expressions are not of that import What the very Words were wherein Our Lord delivered this Doctrine we have no means to discover without a future Revelation and therefore I conceive we may accept which of these we shall judge most agreeable to the reason and nature of things Those who judge immateriality most agreeable to Nature and the most reasonable are likely to adhere to the Words of St. Matthew And those who judge the Materiality most agreeable to the Nature and State of Man are likely to adhere to the Words of St. Luke as the very Expressions delivered by Our Lord and Saviour I believe that God hath given to Men for their Instruction ordinarily the two great Codes of Nature and Scripture and that where these two do with cleerness agree the difference of Opinions among Learned Men cannot be very great But the common cause of their differing is the differences appearing between Nature and Scripture Not that I believe either of them are or can be false or deceitful nor really contrary the one unto the other and therefore where there appears a difference between them the same ought to be accommodated by favourable and fair Constructions according to the Nature of the Subject then under Consideration viz. If the Subject be Supernatural or beyond the Capacities of Humane Senses and Reason to judge lightly of as are the Persons in the Holy Trinity The Incarnation or Uniting the Manhood with the Godhead The Proceeding of the Holy Ghost and the actings of it The Production of a Child by a Virgin The Power of Sacraments a Spiritual Regeneration by the Water of Baptism That Bread and Wine become the real Body and Blood of Christ after a Spiritual manner In all these and the like Cases if Mens Reason takes boggle and cannot understand them nor freely or readily consent unto them it seems Duty for Men to be over-ruled therein by Words or Expressions which the Scripture uses concerning them and to endeavour by all means to think of such things as the sence of Scripture Expressions do direct us On the other hand If the Subject doubted be a Natural thing falling clearly under the Notice and Power of the Humane Senses or Reason and Understanding to judge of If in such Cases some Scripture Expressions seem to thwart the true Nature of the thing or the Sense and reason of Mankind Working thereupon As for instance Moses says God made Two great Lights viz. the Sun and Moon This seems to intend that these Two were the biggest Luminaries yet when Astronomers teach the Moon to be the least or one of the least amongst those Luminaries Men do rather chuse to believe them and Collect that Moses did not intend to Teach in that Matter but spake at large according to common Apprehension And so upon the Question whether our day and night be made by a Circuit of the Sun about the Earth in every 24 hours or by the Circunvolution of the Earth it self in that space of time The Expressions of Scripture viz. Jos 10.12 and Psal 19. and 2 Kin. 19. which do all favour the going of the Sun about the Earth and yet Humane Art and Reason have lately so far prevailed as to perswade amongst Learned Men that the Circumvolution of the Earth is the true cause of day and night amongst us And for Scripture in the Point they say as before it spake ad captum Humanum of that time grown since to be ad capturd vulgi without intention to Teach the truth of Science concerning such things The long disputed Words viz. hoc est Corpus meum are a like Proof or Church and many other Churches refuse to accept them in their plain and usual import and fay they must be Figuratively taken because in their plain sense they thwart and oppose the common
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
Scripture the Context is always well and throughly to be considered and all the parts so be understood and construed as may make the several Parts and Expressions of it stand and agree together and with the true and sober Rules of common Sense and Reason To make such an Exposition of these two Verses and the Words and import of them it seems to me the Expounders of them should begin from the next preceding Chapter viz. Chap. 4.8 there Paul begins to recount his Sufferings Vers 14. But after all He who raised the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you And therefore we must look aâ— things not seen and Eternal in comparison of which the present Affliction is but short and light Chap. 5.1 c. For we know we have a Building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens desiring to be cloathed upon with our house if so be that being cloathed we shall not be found naked For we do groan not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life Therefore we knowing that whilst we are at hone in the Body we are absent from the Lord and are willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord therefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to what be hath done whether it be good or bad To accord the Words absent from the Body and present with the Lord to the rest of the Context it seems we must take Body in this place for the Natural Body as it is distinguished from the Spiritual Body expected at the time of Christ's Second Coming Those who are raised to Happiness shall be raised Spiritual Bodies as 1 Cor. 15.44 and those who are alive at that time shall be changed viz. their Natural Bodies into Spiritual Bodies For Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Whilst therefore we are at home in the Natural Body we are and must be absent from the Lord and do wish rather to be absent from this Body viz. have it changed into a Spiritual Body that this Mortal might put on Immortality and Death may not have Power over us but be swallowed up in that Victory Our Text is parallel hereunto we know we have an house eternal in the Heavens desiring to be cloathed upon with this house viz. the Spiritual Body that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life Therefore he desires not to be Uncloathed not to Die or put off this Tabernacle but to be Cloathed upon to pass to Life without passing the Gates of Death be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye for till a Resurrection or such a change we are like to be absent from the Lord Therefore he desires to be Cloathed upon with this house from Heaven that he may not continue in the Natural Body and thereby absent from the Lord He speaks as if he might live to that time says We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed And of absence from the Body by this change it seems St. Paul speaks in my Text which you have quoted and not of any thing to be done or expected after Death or betwixt that and the Resurrection The whole Tract recited seems to me intended for Comfort in times of Worldly Afflictions founded upon the Resurrection Chap. 4.14 and terminated in it Chap. 5.10 desiring whether absent in the Natural Body or present in the Spiritual to be accepted by Christ that we may come to that great Audit with Confidence as 1 Joh. 2.28 and not be ashamed before him at his coming but may rejoyce at it with joy unspeakable and full of Glory that the wicked rising or found alive at Christ's Coming shall be so changed or have Spiritual Bodies I do not find Written and it seems as likely that they may still remain in their former state of Nature sensible of what they suffer as in their first Life The difficulty thereupon will be how they should be able to dwell in Everlasting Burnings without being consumed But I pretend not to solve all Difficulties but shall leave this to farther Consideration and conclude my self Your obliged humble Servant 10. Nov. 93. In a Postscript to a Letter from my Opponent He says I can by no means consent to the making any thing of mine Publick but if they will serve you in Private you may keep them by you Dated Nov. 6.93 And to my Reply Dated 10. Nov. 93. His Answer was That he sent back my Papers without rejoyning to them foreseeing that the effect of his Rejoynder would be but another Answer from me and a fruitless trouble to us both He warned me to forbear Publishing my Opinion as new singular dangerous and false and likely to produce great inconveniences to my self from the ill treatment I might find from others who if they thought me considerable enough to be Answered were likely to give me Answer in Terms less civil than he had used towards me Dated Nov. 21. Anno 93. And thus finished the Intercourse betwixt me and my Learned Neighbour upon the Point before disputed Whilst I was employed upon this Argument with my said Neighbour there came to my hand a Sermon of Dr. Bentley's treating upon the same Subject and Intituled Matter and Motion cannot think Wherein he Undertakes or promises to prove That the Humane Soul is an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit and because I thought he fell short in his performance of that promise I made Observations in Nature of a Refutation upon that Sermon as far only as concerned that Point These Observations I sent to London as my Opposer says he had notice with intent to have them Printed but hitherto an Imprimatur hath not been obtained for them In them I press Dr. Bentley to a better performance of that his promise than I think he hath made in that Sermon and do desire him to take that promise to heart and perform it to the uttermost of his Power as a Work worthy of his Endeavours and requisite and very needful for the times we live in but when that my demand may arrive to him in the way which I intend I do not yet perceive but as I was musing a Friend Minister brought me a Book which he said had given him great Satisfaction in the Point thus far disputed and he thought it might probably do the same to me I found it Printed Lond. 1685. in 4o. Intituled A Treatise of the Soul of Man by John Flavel Minister late of Dartmouth upon perusal I found his Design the very same with that which I had prest Dr. Bentley to Undertake viz. to prove that the Humane Soul is an Immaterial Immortal Intelligent Spirit and that the Author was Learned Judicious and Industrious and
which St. Matthew delivers Chap. 10.28 Luke delivers Chap. 12.4 in Words which do not import a Separate Subsistence of Souls In the main Doctrine of fearing God more than Men because Men can punish but in this Life but God can cast into Hell in a Future State they both fully agree and therein it seems Our Lord might have respect to the Words of Isa Chap. 51. Vers 12. and 13. Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a Man that shall die and forgetest the Lord thy Maker and who hath made Heaven and Earth and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the Oppressor And where is the fury of the Oppressor Viz. It is but for a short time in comparison the Death of either Party will determine it These Things were Inducements to Christians to accept and follow the Old Opinions Rooted in the World concerning the Subsistence of Souls in a State of Separation from their Bodies Having thus traced the Original of the Opinion of the Immateriality amongst Christians I come to consider our Authors Argument Says he The Notion or Opinion of the Souls Separate Subsistence hath been thus Vniversal and Continuing therefore it is agreeable to Nature and Truth and ought to be accepted and acknowledged by all Men upon that Account I answer This I hold to be a Matter of great incertainty for the Proof of which I intend to produce Two Instances wherein Old and Universal Opinions have been changed upon Grounds of Truth and with Commendations of those who have acted in those Alterations One of them lies in the Theory and the other in the Practick That in the Theory concerns Nature and that in the Practick Religion The Theory concerning Nature lies in the Scheme or Nature of the World The Old Universal Opinion continuing divers Thousands of Years was is That our Earth was the real and true Center of the whole World that all the Heavenly Bodies or Bright Globes moved about it and particularly that the Sun as big as it is and at as great distance as it is from the Earth yet that every 24 hours this Vast Body at that Vast Distance made a Journey about the Earth and that his so doing was the true and only cause and occasion of Day and Night amongst us But later even late Times and Persons have found good and sufficient Reasons to alter this Theory or Scheme of the World and to place the Sun in the Center of it and to assign a Planetary Motion to the Earth as moving about the Sun like Mars and Venus and that it shines to those Planets and to the Stars and whatsoever Inhabitants may be in them as those inlightned or Inlightning Globes do to us and particularly that the Sun doth not compass the Earth in the foresaid 24 hours so to become the cause of our Day and Night but that the Earth it self suffers a Rotation every 24 hours being towards the Sun for one part of that time and from it for another part of that time and where one part of the Earth obstructs the Sun's Light from falling upon another part of it that Obstruction makes Night in the place from which the Sun's Light is so obstructed This Theory I say hath been quite altered what was formerly conceived concerning the World by the Universal Opinion of Mankind held for divers Thousands of Years together Held in Joshua's time in David's Psalms in Hezekiah's time asserted to by the Words or Expressions of Scripture continuing down to our own Time and in it so that it is still the Vulgar Opinion which passes amongst common People who for want of Leasure Capacity or Curiosity make no deep Inquiry into such Things It is true There have been some Men of the more Learned in divers Ages who did oppose the Old Theory in their times and so there have been a like or a greater Number of Learned Men in most Ages who have denied the Souls Separate Subsistence but the Universality of Opinion hath stood for the Old Theory of the World and for the Immaterialty of Souls But we see the New Theory now prevailing amongst the Learned of our Age and I believe the Change hath been made upon sufficient and convincing Reasons and that there are such for changing the Old Opinion of the Immateriality for that of the Materiality of Souls and that we are not therefore obliged to hold still the Opinion of the Immateriality because the same is very Ancient and in a manner Universally accepted but that rather we may and ought upon sufficient Reasons appearing change the Belief of the Immateriality of Souls for that of the Materiality My Second Instance intended to prove the Weak Coercion of our Authors Argument I take from one of the most Antient and Universal Practices of Religion that have been used amongst Men viz. the pacifying God's Wrath and obtaining his Favour and Blessing by shedding the Blood of Bulls and Goats and his other Creatures offered in Sacrifice to him sprinkling their Blood and burning their Flesh and Bones upon Altars Erected for such Purposes though this Fact was not Grounded upon any Consonancy of Reason To which it doth not agree That such shedding the Blood of God's Creatures should be pleasing to him nor that the Fumes of such Offerings should be as Moses calls them A sweet Savour of an Offering made by Fire This Practice seems not to have grown from Rules of Reason nor hath as I have said any great Consonancy thereunto and yet the Practice of it seems as early as any thing pertaining to Religion in the World For Abel brought an Offering to the Lord the Firstlings of his Flock and of the Fat thereof And this Practice it seems continued to the Flood after which Noah made a great Sacrifice of every clean Beast and Fowle and the Lord smelled a sweet Savour and the Lord said in his Heart I will no more Curse the Ground And this Practice was used by Abraham and Jacob and came thence to Moses who Established a great Number of Laws concerning Sacrifices And these were observed by the Jews and practised in all Ages even till the utter Destruction of their Temple by Titus about Anno Christi 74 And for the Gentiles all Countries had their Sacrifices in very abundant manner Noah's Sacrifice was a Lecture to them all both to his Sons and their Posterities We find the Assirians Egyptians Cananites the Chaldeans Persians Graecians Romans Celts Cimbers Gauls Britain Saxons and all other known Nations offering Sacrifices and Blood to God some of Beasts and Fowles and some of Men and Children according as the Devil directed or perswaded them Nor know we of any Nation or even Person that refused or condemned the shedding of Blood in Sacrificing and Offerings made to their several sorts of gods And this Practice held Universal in the World till about the 20th Year of Constantine the Great Emperor about Anno Christi 330. He first discouraged Sacrificing
accrue in defence by overthrowing or weakning of the Opposite Tenet I shall here begin to sharpen the point and turn the edge of Argument against the Opposite not so much Party as Opinion I begin this Argument Arguendo Negativis and I say First That Humane Souls Immateriality is not taught in the Catechism publickly used authoriz'd by our Church Secondly It is not imposed by any of our Thirty nine Articles Thirdly It is not expresly required to be delivered by any of our Three most ancient Creeds Fourthly We meet not with any Canons of the Four First General Councils that recommend it Fifthly In the whole Bible there is not one plain positive Affirmation That a Humane Soul doth separately subsist after Death of the Body Nor That it is Immaterial or Immortal nor so much That it is Intelligent Sixthly There are no Sentences in the Bible no nor Words which Doctrinally do teach the Immateriality viz. Whos 's Principal Intent at their Delivery was to teach the matter of the Immateriality For Proof of this last Assertion there seems requisite an Examination of the most Important Particulars alledged for Proof of this Tenet Matth. 10.28 Fear not them who kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul I take the Doctrine principally intended in this Text to be A teaching of the Apostles then newly instituted to be bold in their Promulgation of the Gospel and in their so doing to fear more the Power and Wrath of God than of Men and with this concurs Luke 12.4 both Evangelists testifie this and agree fully in it If Matthew's Text had intended to teach the Immateriality this short Expression seems a very transient or even a superficial manner of doing it had that therefore been the intent of this Text it seems some farther Declaration would here have been made of it In Verses 32. and 33. pursuing the same Discourse or Doctrine our Lord says Those who confess him he will confess before his Father which is in Heaven and those who deny him he will so deny which to my apprehension intimates and intends the Judgment of the Last Day where Christ shall be the Judge and own and disown as he pleases We find Luke's words in the delivery of this Doctrine do not mention a Separate Subsistence or Killing the Body without Killing the Soul In the main intent of the Doctrine viz. Fearing God more than Men they agree and say the same thing but in words importing the Separate State they differ ergo The main intent of this Text was to teach the fearing of God more than man and the words importing a Separate State of the Soul are but collateral and St. Luke deliversng the main Doctrine without these words or others of like import it seems St. Matthew's words which are of that import may pass for a way of wording this Doctrine in Expressions sutable to his Opinion of the thing Another Text alledg'd for Proof of Immateriality is Luk. 23.43 Our Lord to the Thief To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Such Proof of the Immateriality as arises from hence seems clearly no more but a Collection upon Inferences for there appears no Intent in this Text to teach that Doctrine viz. of the Immateriality Vers 46. of the same Chap. Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and St. Stephen's Lord Jesus receive my Spirit it seems were not spoken with intent to teach the Souls Immateriality or Separate Subsistence but as a recommending of themselves to God and Christ in the uttermost Extremities of their Conditions The Parable of Dives Luk. 16.19 seems to me spoken principally upon this Occasion Ver. 14. Our Lord's Discourse was derided by the Pharisees He answers them God knows your hearts for that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God This Vers 15. and Ver. 19. begins the Parable of Dives perfectly proper for the Illustration of this Assertion for what more highly esteemed amongst Men than the Condition of Dives And what more miserable than that of Lazarus And yet in the sight of God the Case was quite contrary I say the main Design and Intent of this Parable seems to have been the Illustration of this Doctrine and not to teach any thing concerning the Separate Subsistence of Souls of which it speaks according to the common conception of that time Phil. 1.21 To me to live is Christ and to die is gain I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better but to abide in the Flesh is more needful for you Here doth not appear to my understanding any Intent to teach the Souls Immateriality but that the state of the Dead in CHRIST is more to be desired and more happy than a state of Life in this World ' specially one like that of St. PAVL then being Paul the Aged and a Prisoner Chap. 2.17 ready to be offered upon the Service and Sacrifice of Faith Who would not choose a Death in Christ rather than such a Life and would not abide in the Flesh but for the Good of other People and Service of the Gospel Here appears no Intent of St. Paul's to teach the Soul's Immateriality Mat. 16.26 Of gaining the World and losing Mens Souls I hold evidently unproving So 2 Cor. 5.8 Of being absent from the Body and present with the Lord hath very little appearance of Proof and no semblance of Intent to teach the Immateriality These Eight Texts I take for the most alledged and the most proving the Immateriality of a Humane Soul in which I have pretended to shew That they intend not as their prime Design to Prove or Maintain the Immateriality of an Humane Soul And I think this goes far in the Proof of my Assertion viz. That there are no Sentences or Words in the Bible whose principal Intent at their Delivery was to assert or teach the Soul's Immateriality And here I finish my Proof ex Negativis The Belief of the Immateriality is not required at our hands nor to be exacted of any Man I now proceed to Positive Proofs importing a greater Probability of the Humane Soul's being Material and Extinguishable then Immaterial and Separately Subsisting Intending which I say if after Death a Man's Soul obtain a Separate Subsistence and be at greater Liberty than it was living in the Man and in a full State and Capacity of Acting Enjoying and Suffering Then the calling Man's Death a Sleep and a Rest appears a very improper and even a misleading sort of Expression but the Scripture in very many places calls Death a Sleep and a Rest Ergo If the Soul so subsist after Death as before is said the Scripture in its Terming Death a Sleep and a Rest speaks very improperly and somewhat misleading in very many Places In Proof of the Major Proposition I say Those who do sensibly perceive and actually understand remember believe and will cannot properly be said to be in a
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
final And hence it seems St. Peter believed them not nor liked to build any thing upon them Some have Alledged 1 Pet. 3.19 to Prove the Separate Subsistence of Souls viz. That Christ was quickned by the Spirit by which also he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison c. Concerning this Text I have said before that I do not understand it If I should offer to prove by this Text it would be to prove what I know not by what I do not understand and what I would not offer I cannot agree to accept My desire is to have the Immateriality or Separate Subsistence of Souls proved by some Texts that I do understand and because I do not understand this Text I refuse to accept it as a Proof of the Separate Subsistence of Souls And proceed to observe in the Writings of St. John 1 Joh. 2.28 Little Children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not he ashamed before him at his coming And Chap. 3.2 Beloved now 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 Both these Texts put all our Expectations after Death to the future Appearing or Coming of Christ and still without notice of any State or Thing Intermediate between Death and the Resurrection Jude Ver. 14. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds and speeches spoken against him Referring all Judgment future to Life unto that of the Great or Last Day as we have found it done before by all the Apostles whose Writings are come to our hands with a Consent and Agreement amongst them much above ordinary and which Testifies they were leâ— by the same Spirit promised to lead them into all Truth We see this Promise actually and compleatly fulfilled in the Texts alledged out of all their Writings and wherein they all say the same things We now go on to the Search of the Four Evangelists according to our Lord's Direction Search the Scriptures Mat. 13.36 Christ Expounds his Parable of the Tares he will not have them weeded or rooted up in this World but suffered to grow here But Ver. 40. At the end of the world the Angels shall gather them and cast them into a Furnace of Fire Ver. 43. and then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Without Mention or Notice of an Intermediate Judgment or State Chap. 19.28 Ye who have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall fit in the Throne of his Glory ye shall sit on Twelve Thrones judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel and every one who hath suffered for my sake shall receive an Hundred Fold and shall inherit Everlasting Life Observe Peter Ver. 27. had asked our Lord what Rewards they who had forsaken all for his Sake should have therefore Christ gives the abovesaid Answer But if he had intended or known of an Immediate going to Heaven of Souls upon Death of Parties it seems that in this place he could not reasonably have omitted the Mention of it Whence likely he neither intended it nor knew of it Chap. 16.27 The Son of shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works The Words And then he shall reward seem to import That this Second Coming of our Lord is the only known Time appointed for the distribution of Recompences future to this Life Mark 8.38 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my Words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels Without notice taking of any Intermediate Time or State Luk. 12.8 He that confesses me before men I will confess him before the Angels of God and he that denies me before men shall be denied before the Angels of God Chap. 13.25 When the Master of the House hath shut the door those knocking without cannot come in but the workers of Iniquity shall go to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth This seems the Effect of a General Judgment Chap. 10.14 It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Day of Judgment than for you Ver. 12. More tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that City Chap. 14.14 Call to thy Feast the Poor Lame and Blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the Resurrecteon of the Just This seems plainly proving the Resurrection to be the Time and even the only Time for Expectation of Recompences and that deliver'd by our Lord 's own Mouth the highest Authority that Christians can expect or desire Job 5.28 All that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shad come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation Who shall hear his Voice in the Graves Not the Bodies or Souls but the dead Persons and they shall come forth at that Time only and be doomed and judged to Life or Damnation Chap. 6.39 My Father's Will is that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the Last Day Ver. 40. He that believeth on the Son shall have Everlasting Life and I will raise him up at the Last Day Ver. 44. He that comes to me I will raise him up at the Last Day Ver. 54. He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood I will raise him up at the Last Day In the 2d 3d. of the Revelations there are a great Variety of Rewards promised to him that overcometh but here the only Reward in our four Places is to be raised up at the Last Day to Life Everlasting as an abundant Recompence for all Faith Performances and Sufferings and shews that to be the only Time future to this World when they are to be warrantably and upon good grounds expected and hoped for by all true Believers Chap. 12.48 The Word that I have spoken the same shall judge a Man at the Last Day As Mat. 12.36 Of every idle Word that Men shall speak they shall give account at the day of Judgment If they had given such an Account of a Particular Judgment soon after Death What need can there be of bringing idle Words to Account over again at the General Judgment There seems no Probability in it Chap. 14.1 Let not your Hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in Me in my Fathers House are many Mansions and I go to prepare a Place for you and if I go and prepare a Place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also This shews when
than freely and fairly flowing from the Words and Intent of these Scriptures Well but still there are Four Texts not instanced in and which seem to make appear an Intent to teach this Doctrine concerning them I say that Mat. 10. Phil. 1. shew not a principal Intent so to teach That of Mat. teaches principally to fear God more than men the Philip. intends principally to shew That Paul would have Christ magnified by his Life or by his Death and that it was indifferent to him by whether of these means that end should be attained By Death would be easier and a more Gain to him but by Life he thought might be more profitable and beneficial to them and the Church This seems the principal Intent and Scope of this Text and not to teach a Separate Subsistence or Immateriality of Soul Mat. 16. About Gaining the World and losing the Soul seems to shew an Intent of teaching concerning Souls and the Hinge of its Meaning turns upon the Signification of the Word Soul in this Place Our Lord previously Exhorts his Disciples to take up the Cross and follow him Expect Tribulation in his Doctrine For whosoever will save his Life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his Life for my sake shall find it For 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 My Sense of this Text is That the Words Soul and Life are consignificant as if it had been said He that saves his Life shall lose it and he that loses it shall find it For What is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Life Or What can a Man give in Exchange for his Life If one lose his Life the gain of the whole World can do him no good nor make him a Recompence for it And the Devil could say All that a Man hath would he give for his Life Nor would any Man of Sense take the World in Exchange for his Life for that the World is of no Use or Value to the Dead So as there is nothing in this Text of the Soul but the Word or Term which I have before plentifully proved to signifie and intend very often the Person the Affection the Intellect and the Life And I take it here to intend the Life of the Person and not the Soul which is the Forma Informans of the Man To the Parable of Dives Luk. 16. I have fully spoken and observed That it is but a Parable not Explained or Expounded by our Lord that we know of I take it spoken in Illustration of our Lord's Doctrine delivered but three Verses before viz. That which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God as being very proper for that purpose and that the Discourse held in it between Dives and Lazarus is suited to the common Opinion of the People to whom he spake and doth not intend a true Relation of the State of Souls after Death I conceive the Text 10. Mat. and this Parable to be like the Two Pillars of Dagon's House the main Props of the Immaterial Opinion upon which the whole Weight of it leaneth propped also by the other Texts before rehearsed but weakly And I leave the Consideration to such as shall happen to peruse what hath here been Collected and put together intending singly the Search and Manifestation of the Truth in this Point Our Author Flavel lays the Foundation for Proof of the Separate Subsistence of Souls upon Moses his Text quoted Pag. 1. of his Book viz. Gen. 2.7 God formed Man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man became a Living Soul And the Words of this Text he takes upon him to Interpret and by his so doing verefies the Old Saying Mala Interpretatio corrumpit Textum for thus he Interprets This Text says he proves and intends that God did then Create a Spirit or Soul out of nothing for Man viz. an Immaterial Intelligent Substance or Spirit and that was either first Created and then Infused or Infundendo was Created in the very Act of Infusion I will raise no Dispute with him about the Mode or Manner of his intended Creation be it Created and Infused or Infundendo Created But I say that either way taken it is not warranted by the Letter or Words of the Text for therein is no Mention of Spirit or Creation out of nothing or any sort of Creation whatsoever So his Interpretation is not warranted by the Words or Letter of the Text and that it is more opposed by the Sense and Meaning of the Text than it is by the Letter of it For if the Text or Moses had intended or meant that the Breath of Life breathed into Adam should be taken for such a Spirit it would have been more plainly expressed in the Text or at least the propriety of speaking would have required to have had it express'd after another manner viz. God breathed into Adam the Breath of Life and it or that viz. that Breath became a Living Soul But the Text is otherwise Worded it neither says nor intends that the Breath became a Living Soul but that the Man did so And I say farther that by the Man's becoming a Living Soul is not intended that he became a Soul meerly or singly called by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Expounded by Actus primus Corporis Organici Not such a bare Soul without a Body a thing never yet known in Rerum Natura but a Living Soul in Composito viz. a Living Person Man became a Living Person Heb. 10.39 We are of them that believe to the Salvation of the Soul viz. of the Person For all Agree the Body shall have a Salvation as well as he Soul I perceive that the Term of Soul very oft in Scripture intended to signifie the Person is a great occasion of misleading the Apprehension of the Readers inducing them to apply to the single and bare Soul those Sayings which are intended of or for the Person So is the Case now Cited Heb. 10. and so in our Text now Examined and because the Correcting and Emendation of this Mistake seems to be of very great Importance I have before given many Instances of the Usage in Scripture Expressions in a multitude of Places and yet not in half of those that I might have done And because this Truth cannot be made too apparent and with great difficulty plain enough I will touch a few Instances of it again in this Place Gen 46.26 All the Souls that came out of Jacob's Loins into Aegypt were 66 and Joseph's Sons were two Souls so all the Souls of Jacob's House were 70 counting Jacob and Joseph Here Souls can intend nothing but Persons Acts 27.37 In Paul's Voyage towards Rome and Shipwrack at Malta there were in all in the Ship 276 Souls viz. Persons Isa
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