Faith to Church Ordinances and do you shew me Ordinances of God convincingly such in this point and then I promise you to be obedient to them and there will need no more words in the Case now disputed But if you cannot or which will come to one do not do it you may have some Title to the Term of a False Accuser of your Brethren whose conceits or errours perhaps of weakness you cannot infect or sully by the sowre and tainted Originals from whence you are pleased ignorantly to derive them And for your Conclusion That the Opinion of the Materiality tends to subvert the Fundamentals al 's Religion it is neither proved nor granted but asserted to strengthen the Foundation of Future Rewards and Punishments by fixing them upon very many and very plain Texts of Scripture and the Articles of our several Creeds clearly proving the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment Whereas Proofs of the Immortality are neither plainly asserting nor with any manner of clearness proving the same nor is it made an Article in any of our Creeds nor is any thing of it in the 39. Articles of our Church But there I find Artic. 6. That whatsoever is not read in Scripture nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite to salvation We all perceive that during Life there is a Contexture of Soul and Body and such an Union as they jointly participate of all that befals the Person and act undividedly and inseparably from the Person and from one another That Death is a Separation of them is clear also and What then becomes of the Soul is our Question and that we trace from its Nature as near as we can investigate If it be a small intelligent Spiritual Substance created by God upon every Procreation of Man likely it is to have a Separate Subsistence after Death of the Person but then it cannot be properly said The Man or the Person dies but the Body dies And if the Humane Soul be a Flame of Life kindled by God in Adam when he made him a Living Person and from that time hath passed by generation from one Man to another then more likely it is that this sort of Soul is extinguished in Death or that the Extinguishment of this Flame totally or in every part of the Body is the Death of the Person Originally it seems Men were of kin to Beasts in their Manner and Way of Living and Acting Of the Thracians in Orpheus's time we read Silvestres homines sacer interpresque deorum Caedibus victu foedo deterruit Orpheus Dictus ob id lenire tygres rabidosque leones Our own Ancestors in Caesar's time and many years after were naked as their Beasts and had no other Covering but their Skins their Food Acorns and Wild Fruits and their Manners were much sutable and of late we have heard like things of Wild Irish People Americans Libyans and in divers other parts of Africa who go naked as the Beasts and feed upon Raw Flesh and Snakes and the very Guts and Garbage of the Creatures and are as wild says Lithgow as their four-footed companions in the Libyan desarts In a State of so great Simplicity it seems Mankind may be well enough compared by us as it was by David to the Beasts that perish Since my ending the very last Period came to my hands a little Book written by Naudaeus printed Lond. in 12o. 1637 in page 248 he cites Lactantius asserting that Democritus Epicurus and Dicaearchus would not have so confidently denied the Immortality of the Soul Mago aliquo praesente qui sciret certis carminibus cieri ab inferis animas adesse praebere se humanis oculis videndas loqui futura praedicere I do so little approve of the Fathers Opinion in this that if his Magus should shew me such Souls like the Witch of Endor I should take them for his Conjurati and to be no proof at all of the Separate Subsistence of a Humane Soul P. 38. He mentions Archimedes his Mundane Globe the Moving Tripods of Vulcan made by Daedalus Architas his Pigeon Regiomontanus his Eagle and his Fly Men could not believe these Engines could move as they did without a Spirit which they thought could not be Material because that cannot act upon Hard Bodies as Wood Iron c. therefore they concluded those Motions were acted and guided by an Immaterial Spirit viz. a Daemon and that therefore these Artificers were Magi in the worst Sense very Conjurers But from this Crime our Author defends them and says The things were all feasible by Art Natural although Men do not now know nor did then understand the Rules or the Artifice of making such things or other things like or equal to them And this gives us a good semblance of Reason why Men have been apt to maintain their Souls to be Immaterial because they cannot perceive or learn the means and manner by which a Material Soul can act and govern Common Sense Apprehension Phancy Memory Judgment Conscience and the Affections and Passions incident to Humane Nature P. 299. In conclusion he says Men must take good heed not to be carried away with the current of common Opinions that when we are swayed by example and custom and go with the throng in the way we slip and fall one over another alienis perimus exemplis Besides this Book I have since this writing perused another viz. Mr. Robert Boyle his Experiments printed London 1662 2d Edition there p. 190 he says He inclines to think the Air necessary to ventilate and cherish the Vital Flame continually burning in the Heart And he found a new kind of resemblance betwixt Fire and Life the one lasting no longer than the other P. 190. The Flame of Spirit of Wine will burn long upon fine white linnen or paper without consuming either Eminent Naturalists do esteem the Heat which resides in the Heart to be a true Flame and this says he I do not oppose provided they add that it is such a temperate and almost insensible Fire as that before-mentioned and yet he thinks that to be hardly fine enough I have mentioned before a Tenuity to an Invisibility P. 197. He takes Animals for a kind of Curious Engines set on work and kept in Motion by Heat and Air. Dr. Willis in his oft quoted Book p. 4. tells us That Epicurus taught the Soul to be compounded ex atomis levissimis rotundissimis non multum diversis ab eis ex quibus est ignis compactum ex quodam calido flatuoso aerio P. 38. He says He hath given Reasons Quare haee flamma vitalis non uti flamma vulgaris visibilis destructiva fuerit P. 53. As soon as this flame is extinguished the compages of Soul and Body is dissolved and as long as this Soul is in the Body semper nascitur
answers This Soul is the very Form and though it have its Proper Subsistence yet it doth totally communicate it self to Matter because its Nature is Essentially united to Matter and for the Form to communicate with the Matter is totally to be united to it He says Humane Souls are produced by Creation other Souls by Generation but the very Being of a Form is its Vnion with the Subject Yet not to depend upon it Objectors say the Humane Soul works without any Dependence upon its Subject or the Bodily Organs and therefore is not a true Form He answers by granting it works so in a State of Separation but denies it doth so in a State of Union with the Body and in this he contradicts our next preceding Author who will have the Soul work without help of the Body or its Organs even whil'st it is in a State of Union with the Body And our Author agrees with Aristotle in this That the Souls not working in a State of Union without the Bodily Organs is an Evidence that a State of Separation is not Natural to the Soul For Aristotle puts the Matter upon this Trial and our Author agrees the Evidence demanded Fol. 11. Nu. 4. Divers have thought the Soul to be Material as Cleanthes and Chrysippus and many of the Stoicks and so Apollinaris of Alexandria and Tertullian Nu. 5. Many Old Hereticks thought the Soul to be a Spark of the Divinity or a Particle of God so Philojudaeus Fol. 12. Nu. 6. Origen thought the Soul not distinguishable from Angels Nu. 7. The Luciferians said It was propagated from the Seed Nu. 9. Origen taught that Souls were Angels who after having sinned were for their Punishment put into Bodies as into Prisons Nu. 10. Others said the Soul was in the Body as Light is in the Air a Directive Qualification and this divers do say was Aristotle's Opinion Nu. 16. Cites the Lateran Councel under Leo X. saying It is as certain that the Soul is Immaterial as that it is Immortal and that it is Immortal is de Fide Fol. 13. Nu. 17. He argues The Soul as a Natural Form is not capable of knowing Spiritual Beings nor or of making Collections or Universals or Reflex Discourses concerning all which we have before spoken Nu. 19. Angels know by Intuition but a Soul only by Apprehension Composition Discourse Perceivance Internal and the Outward Senses Nu. 22. The Soul is Form to the Body therefore it must be produced in Union with it and cannot naturally be produced in time before the Body Fol. 14. N. 27. The Soul as Rational is united with the Body because it exercises all Acts of Reason in the Brain upon the Disposition of which it doth depend for such Purposes and if the Organs there do fail or are obstructed the Soul cannot act Reasonably as appears in Distracted Persons or Furious or otherwise disordered Nu. 29. and 30. Cites Cajetan and Ferrara who do not allow the Soul as Rational to be the Natural Form of the Body or united to it as such but would have it placed in a Superior Degree to the Body which our Author doth not allow Fol. 18. N. 7. He argues a Material Phantasy offered to the Intellect produceth therein a Species impressed upon it or expressed in it the Action which is here productive of this Spiritual Species received in the Soul depends upon the Phancy which is a Corporeal Thing Whence a Thing that is Spiritual may depend upon one that is Material Fol. 19. Nu. 11. He denies the Mode of the Union betwixt Soul and Body to be Spiritual And I say it seems not Miraculous but Natural However many of our Authors conceive miraculous New Creations and Unions upon Fruitful Coitions Lawful or Unlawful Fol. 20. N. 16. Seems to believe that in the Union of Soul and Body there is a Penetration and Mixture of both Nu. 17. And that a Spiritual Thing may consist of Parts Nu. 18. Says The Soul is not compounded of Essential Parts viz. Matter and Form Nu. 21. nor of Integral Parts but is an Indivisible Entity Fol. 21. Nu. 26. This Soul is objected may inform or be in divers Parts of the Body therefore it may be in many more Parts and though Indivisible may inform a very great Bulk of Matter He answers The Soul is fitted for a Humane Body and terminated in it and is neither too great or too little for it I say this needs Proof and yet hath none Fol. 22. Nu. 28. The Soul can inform but one Heart and Head and such other Parts as are in Connexion with them or unseparated but no Proof offered And what shall be said of one Joint-Body to the Navel and thence to both Bodies and Heads of which divers Examples have been Fol. 24. Nu. 14. Says The Material Soul as in Beasts may be Indivisible into Integral Parts Fol. 25. Nu. 1. Says Certain it is that Souls in the Body do act diversly in divers Parts of that Body it Sees in the Eyes Hears in the Ears c. Fol. 27. N. 19. and they are acted by the Soul in and according to the Aptitude and Power of the several Parts and Organs of the Body and as God hath appointed them to be performed and done And to this I agree Fol. 28. N. 1. Some hold that all Souls of one Sort or Kind are Vnequal one to another Contra Others say there can be no Vnequality amongst them In this must be observed That to be Equal is one thing and to be Alike is another thing nor are they the same with Agreeable or Disagreeable Fol. 35. N. 33. One Man may have more perfect Accidents than another and so for Operations by reason of Accidental Advantages or Disadvantages and so one same Person may be accidentally more or less Perfect at Times But this proves not an Inequality amongst Souls N. 34. Not proving a Natural either Inequality or Dissimilitude he proposes a Prudential one For says he the Affirming that Judas had a Soul equal to that of Christ or his Mother would be harsh and imprudent and therfore we may say Souls existing may be both Vnlike and Vnequal And even from the Ground laid in Generation Degrees of Qualification may arise Fol. 36. N. 1. Each Living Creature hath a Soul and but one Fol. 37. N. 7. The Vegetative and Sensitive are formally included in the Rational Soul for that is the Formal Principle of Humane Life and Sense And I do agree them and Reason to come all from one Principle Fol. 41. N. 1. Wit can either be separated from Knowledge or it cannot We have said it cannot N. 3. He cites an Opinion from Ariaga that Life or Living is Real or Intentional the Real Worldly must have a Nourishment as in Plants Brutes and Men the Life Intentional hath Principles of Knowledge and Appetite comprehending God Angels and all that have Life Whence says he Plants live only on the Gross or Real Life Animals that have
not produce it and the same may be said for the Form viz. the Soul the Parents give it but they do not produce it This Answer seems clearly Concessive that the Parents generate the Soul as much and as effectually as they do the Body and more than that is not required by Sennertus or any other But our Friend insists Learn says he the Effects of Generation from those of our Dissolution our Death doth dissolve the Vnion of our Parts but it doth not destroy those Parts but only the Man whence as by Generation we become Men by Dying we cease to be so This also grants that all which perishes in Death was generated by the Parents The Body had a Time to get Life and grow and so it hath to putrifie and consume and the Soul began with Life in the Embrion and in the Body and it seems to extinguish in Death of the Body naturally or we desire to be yet scientifically instructed from Reason or Nature what it is and where it is or at least that it is and hath a Separate State and Subsistence of its own P. 43. He recites another Argument of Sennertus viz. If the Seed be not animated from the first Instant and then the Progenitor happen to die before the Time of Animation it might be truly said that a Dead Man did Genenerate He answers This Case is like one who puts Sparks of Fire amongst Fewel then leaves it and the Fire doth not take hold and burn till a good while after yet this Man is said to have made the Fire And we do agree the Similitude to be apt enough in this Case and that it seems to import The Seed is as much the Efficient of the whole Child as the Sparks put into the Fewel are of the Fire more than which hath not been demanded Our Friend says he hath chosen to contest this Point against Sennertus because that Doctor was a Man of great Worth and Substance And says he magnified his Wisdom greatly in Submitting his Opinion to the Divines worthy to be imitated herein by all other Men But that before hath been delivered doth sufficiently evince that there is a great Latitude and Difference of Opinions in the World Concerning this Writer of An. 1645. we may observe he had the Advantage of the Wren in the Fable who sate upon the Back of the Eagle and was carried by her into the Clouds and coming to the full Extent of the Eagles Height she put her self to the small Stretch of her own Wings and mounted above the Eagle by so much He had perceived the great Incongruities of continually newly created Souls and intended at mollifying them by assigning them a Regular Ordination as a Duty upon the Exigence of Nature This Course appears healing and helpful Posito that the Soul be Immaterial but it is no Manner of Proof that the Soul is so And if it be not so but only a Material Spirit then is there no need of this Invention and then it is as hath been said not only an Invention but a needless one And yet it testifies the Writer amongst his other Endeavours to have been a Person of Wit Learning and Consideration All the Authors presently in our Possession or Reach concerning the Soul have before been Cited and Considered viz. Four Foreign and Four of our own Later and Domestick Writers And concerning the Materiality or Immateriality of Humane Souls we may observe from that they have spoken that there are Two particular Queries or Questions the Determination of which will advance much towards the knowledge of the Souls Nature and Qualifications If One of them be proved or granted thence the Immateriality of the Soul may be strongly inferred and if the other be proved or granted thence may he as strongly inferred the Souls Materiality The First of these is held in the Affirmative by divers of our Authors viz. More Digby Zanchius and the Pamphlet of 1645 who do all expresly and often affirm That the Soul in Life-time of the Man doth at some times and in some cases act of and by her self without Aid or Ministry of the Body or its Organs or any Members or Powers of it If this Assertion have been proved or can or shall be proved We grant from the Conclusion a very strong Inference may be drawn for the Souls Immateriality agreeing the Truth of Aristotle's Assertion in his Treatise of the Soul Chap. 1. That if the Soul have any Operation or Affection peculiar to her self and wherein she can effectually Act without Use or Aid of the Body or the Members Organs or Spirits of it then it is very likely that she may also be capable of a Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body But says he If the thing be not so and Men fail in Proof of such a peculiar in the Soul certainly she cannot subsist in a State of Separation from the Body Our Authors for Proof of such a Peculiar in the Soul do alledge That the Soul can conceive Spiritual Beings and Universals Second or Abstracted Notions Logical Mathematical and Metaphysical Beings and Things which Matter is not very capable of nor that it can be Assistant to the Formation or Contemplation of such Conceptions In answer to which may be opposed the same Authors Assertions That whilst the Soul is in the Body she cannot act without the Animal or Vital Spirits of the Body and before hath been observed That the Soul cannot see but by the Eyes nor remember but in the Memory And these Organs and Faculties may be lost by Accident and yet the Soul remain perfect still but without Sight or Memory for want of the Bodily Organs and if the Intellect be crazed the Soul cannot understand but according to such Capacities as remain in the Organ and it seems the like may be said for all other Faculties of the Soul and Organs of the Body which infers the Soul cannot operate without the Spirits and Organs of the Body As to the Conceiving Spiritual Beings and Things it hath been said such Knowledge hath been derived from Revelations made to the Senses of some Men and their Testimony of them to other Men and for the Conceptions of Universals and Abstracted Notions it seems the Soul in the Intellect working Comparate and Abstractive by using the Joynt Powers of Intellect Phantasie and Memory and by composing and comparing what is found in them may well enough be able by abstracting them from Conceptions of Matter and Sense and sorting them first then ranking and comparing them the Soul by Joint Use of these Organs may naturally be able to raise Generals out of Particulars and from Generals ascend to Universals and so likewise raise abstracted Notions from the often Repetition and comparing Things first made known to them by the Senses We do not then agree that any of our Authors have proved that the Soul hath any Operation or Affection so peculiar to her self as that the Body
hath no Participation thereof with her or that she doth or can act any thing or produce any Effect without the Spirits Members and Organs of the Body which it seems cannot be excluded from participating with the Soul in all its Affections Operations and Motions no more than the Soul can be unconcerned in the Health Accidents Rejoicings or Sufferings of the Body We come now to the other Question or Query which if it be determined in the Affirmative will strongly inferr the Souls Materiality viz. Concerning the Mode of the Generation of Mankind If the Parents do generate a Child like unto themselves consisting of the same Matter and Form or such a like Soul and Body as themselves are if the Child's Soul and Body be generated by the Parents as well the one as the other if the Thing have been proved or can and shall be proved effectually so to be done a very strong Inference and Argument may thence be drawn That the Soul is of the same Nature and Constitution with the Body Materially and Naturally Extinguishable by Dissolution of the Compositum Man whose Constituent Parts they were For it seems Generation and Corruption do mutuo se ponere tollere What grows from Generation hath a Natural Tendency to Growth Strength Decay and Dissolution If therefore one Man doth generate another like himself and so the Soul as well as the Body it seems likely that what comes from Generation is under a clear Capacity of Corruption if it be not under a Necessity of Terminating by that Means We are in a great Measure convinced that the Parents do procreate Children like themselves both their Souls and Bodies and that therefore both those Parts have in Nature and Reason a Capacity or a Tendency if not a sort of Necessity to terminate in Corruption So as we do not perceive that Arguments drawn from Reason or Nature and hitherto produced are strong enough to evince That the Humane Soul is Immaterial or Self-subsistent after the Dissolution of the Person and Corruption of that Body to which it was knit and which whilst Life lasted it did inform direct and actuate And herewith shall be concluded the Disquisition intended concerning the Soul of Man founded upon the Grounds of Nature and Reason and tried by the Arguments extracted from them We proceed from them to the Second Sort of Arguments offered for Proof of a Soul 's Separate Subsistence drawn by our Opposers from the Ground of Moral Congruity There must be say they a Reward and Punishment future to this Life of this the Corrupted Carkass is by no Possibility in Nature capable and therefore the Soul must needs have a Separate Subsistence that thereby Future Rewards and Punishments may have a proper Subject to work upon And this sort of Argument is propounded and handled by Baxter in his Quoted Book at P. 34. reaching thence to 40. and by Dr. More in his 18th Chap. of the quoted Book Pag. 314. to the End of that Chapter and by Sir K. Digby in the 10th Paragraph of his 9th Chapter And all our Authors have mainly insisted upon this Argument in Places before quoted And it is done by them upon very good and unanswerable Reason such as the Wit of Man grounding it self only upon Nature and Reason is not able to make sufficient Reply unto or to overcome This we look upon as the Potent and Prevalent Argument whereby the whole World and in all the Ages of it hitherto hath been drawn and even forced to consent to the Opinion of a Separate Subsistence of a Humane Soul and to invent Elisiums Fortunate Islands and Paradises for the Good also Tartarums and Barathrums and Gehenna's for the Wicked Souls departed The Silly Americans have not wanted their more crude Conceipts viz. That in Places beyond their Mountains the Good Souls Sing and Dance amongst Groves and Fountains and the Wicked ones are relegated to Denns and Caves and other Dark and Disconsolate Places suting with their Demerits Thus from the Necessity of Future Recompences the Opinion of the Souls Separate Subsistence hath been spread and received over the Face of the whole Earth far and wide without stint in place or stay in time All Nations and all Religions have accepted of this Opinion and it hath hitherto prevailed amongst them and thus may their Argument be framed It is Morally Congruous amongst all Men That Good Men and Actions should be rewarded and recompenced and that Bad Men and Actions should be punished But Men find and see it falls out very often that Rewards and Punishments are not so distributed in this World Ergo Moral Congruity requires and that proves there must be a future State wherein Men and their Actions shall be Rewarded and Recompenced according to their Deserts This. Men cannot reasonably refuse to grant and then ex concessis it may be further argued Man is Constituted but of Two Essential Parts viz. his Body and his Soul His Body dying Corrupts and Turns to Dust and so becomes incapable of Reward or Punishment in a future State Ergo If the Man and his Actions be Rewarded or Punished in a future State he must receive the Effects of such Reward or Punishment in that part of him which is reputed capable and may by possibility have a separate Subsistence after the Mans Death viz. in his Soul and that this may be done The Soul must have a separate Subsistence after Death of the Body And the same holds true Negative There is nothing of Man to be Rewarded or Punished in a future State but his Body or his Soul But the Body in a State of Dissolution is not capable of Reward or Punishment and if the Soul extinguish in Death then is there nothing of the Man lest capable of receiving Reward or Punishment in a State future to this Life Ergo That the Rules of Moral Congruity may stand and be maintained in the World the Soul of Man must needs enjoy a separate Subsistence capable of Reward and Punishment after Death and the Dissolution and Corruption of his Body This Argument appears irrefragable not to be confuted or effectually answered by the uttermost strength of Mans Reason And therefore it is nothing strange that it hath prevailed with Jews and Gentiles Mahometans and Christians inducing them generally to belive a Separate State of Humane Souls after Death and it is still used by all our Authors for maintenance of the same Opinion at this time We still agree that the force of this Argument cannot by the bare Wit or Reason of Mankind be Answer'd and Refuted but yet we say that the same may be fully so Answered by Deductions out of the Divine Revelations and Oracles of God and that by Arguments thence to be taken both Negative and Positive and though we do mainly relie upon our Positive Argument on this behalf yet it seems not requisite to pass over in Silence the Negative Argument which may be drawn out of our Holy
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
Notwithstanding the Souls Separate Subsistence Vers 15. We have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up if so be that the Dead rise not Vers 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished But if at Death they went to Heaven they should not be perished though there were no Resurrection Thus by the Doctrine of the Immediate Avolation to Heaven that of the Resurrection the Main Comfort and Support of Christian Believers is not only undermined but is made a kind of Insipid and Useless Doctrine not worthy to be remembred by our Author or other Zealous Proselites and Defenders of the Immateriality Let them alone as Persons hood-winked by an Old mistaken Opinion to lead those who follow them into lesser Falls or more dangerous Precipices but our endeavor is to detect the Fallacies of that Opinion which I pray God prosper no otherwise than as it is Grounded upon Truth and Verity To this Pag. 46. Our Author goes on in a proving manner and I have traced him accordingly Page by Page but in his Progress he now begins to make Inferences and raise Doctrines of which I do not pretend to take Notice but intend to pass over them without omitting any thing which I think to be Material and Proving Pag. 48. He says Happy had it been for bad Men if their Souls had been like the Beasts extinguishable in Death for then all their Miseries had ended there I say Mark what little or no account he makes here of the Resurrection so solemnly plainly and fully Published and Promised in the Gospel he doth not so much as name or remember such a thing which would fully avoid his Positive Determination Pag. 49. Says 'T is a great mistake that the Soul is only capable of Social Glory in Partnership with the Body and cannot exert its own Power nor enjoy Happiness in the absence of the Body The Opinion of the Sleeping Interval says he took its rise from this Error Say I from this Truth only the Holders of this Opinion did not Penetrate to the bottom of the Truth viz. the Temporal Extinguishment of the Soul They thought it had a Separate Subsistence but in a Limbus or Dormitory where it neither did nor suffered any thing wanting a Capacity to do so without the Body I say The Temporary Extinguishment is to be preferred before this Dormitory and is far more agreeable to Nature and Reason He says The Soul doth not necessarily depend upon the Body in its Operations but that it can live and act out of a Body as well as in it I say What is Petitio Principii if this be not And so is all the rest which follows here He quotes Luke 23.43 and Phil. 1.23 both before fully answered Pag. 50. He says All Souls by Nature are as excellent one as another I say there are great differences amongst them and we see it plainly in the different Performances and Perfections of Men to be referred partly to Body and Organs and partly to the Vigor Purity and Brightness of the Material Soul in them He cites Ezek. 48.4 All Souls are mine This I say intends Persons the Soul that sins shall surely die viz. the Person Vers 5. If a Man be just c. shews Soul here intends Person Pag. 51. and is but a phancy but I say Redemption was not of Souls only but of Persons Pag. 52. cites 3 Joh. 2. I wish that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy Soul prospereth I say this intends thy Person and Temporal Affairs as thy Practices of Piety Then he says There are great differences betwixt Soul and Soul in respect of Natural Gifts and Abilities of Mind and the Soul is more vigorous when the Body and its Organs are more sound and apt And says the same that I said before against what himself said before Pag. 54. Says Those who perish will find themselves as capable of Blessedness as those that obtain it I say perhaps their Bodily Temper and Capacities could not be equally assistant to their Souls Pag. 59. Says The Food of every Creature is agreeable to its Nature and that the Soul doth not live upon Material Things as the Body doth I say The Soul cannot live in the Body without Food and if not in the Body then no where For I think there is no place where it can live but in the Body and each in its own Body and not out of that Body to which it is Con-natural He cites Luke 12.19 Soul take thine ease Eat Drink and be Merry and says The Soul cannot do so I say Soul here as in very many places intends Person or the Man and yet the Soul of Man is refreshed and renewed by Meat and Drink and cannot subsist without them Pag. 61. Cites Rom. 1.9 Paul says God whom I serve with my Spirit adding Paul durst appeal to God who searched his Heart as if he took Heart and Spirit for the same thing here and to that I agree Pag. 63. To what he says here I answer Humane Apprehensions of a World to come may fully be answered by the Resurrection and the Last Judgment And yet I do not grant that such Apprehensions do grow from Mans Nature purely or nakedly considered but Nature cultivated by Education or Doctrine He cites Rom. 2.14 The Gentiles do by Nature the things contained in the Law I say this intends Cultivated Nature or an Universal Education We find all People have Speech and yet Men cannot speak without being Taught and those who Teach them to speak give them Impressions of Morality and Religion viz. Nurses and Mothers Pag. 65. I say to this He who ingages against Man doth so against his Soul and Body for they are inseparable by any thing but Death Pag. 68. This Discourse by the Word Soul intends Heart or Affections and the Mind of Man Pag. 70. He says The Soul and Body are knit together by the feeble hand of the Breath in their Nostrils but his Quotation speaks more truly And I say That Union is a Work of God and his Hand-maid Nature that it Springs ab ovo and both grow out of the same Root or Principle viz. the Seed in Generation and are separable only by Death He says The Life of the Body results from its Vnion with the Soul as James 2.26 and I grant it Pag. 74. Cites Psal 104.29 When thou takest away their Breath they die and return to their dust This say I makes Soul and Breath Equivalent He cites Psal 66.8 God holdeth our Soul in Life This I say intends keeps us alive viz. our Persons Pag. 89. Cites Revel 6.9 and calls the Text a firm Foundation for the Souls Immortality Whereas this Cry of Souls under the Altar is apparently Parabolical and no more real than the Voice of Abel's Blood Crying from the Ground to God no more than the great Red Dragons drawing the third part of the Stars with his Tail
And so is the ordinary Practice of Mankind He says He who bought Souls knew the Value of them I say Souls were never bought alone but the Redemption was of Persons commonly express'd in Scripture by the Term of Souls and so is David's Expression to be understood when he says It cost me more to redeem their Souls viz. to redeem them or their Persons Pag. 364. Says God created the Soul as his rare Master-piece and the Three Persons laid their Heads together to Project it I have denied a Separate Creation of the Soul and I do so still and do look upon his present Oratory to be very inconsiderate Pag. 365. He confounds the Soul and the Rational Faculty together or makes them both one thing or mistakes the one for the other Pag. 367. All that he here says of the Soul is properly applicable to the Rational Faculty He says No Soul but Man's is Marriageable unto Christ. If he do not mean the Church or at least the Person I can not understand him for we never heard of a Soul 's being Married or doing any other thing by its self singly Pag. 369. What he says here was done for Souls is to be applyed to Persons Pag. 370. Says Words shall come into Judgment at the last Day I say Why not at the particular Judgment if such an one there be Pag. 371. He again here applies to the Soul what belongs to the Person And I say the Devil seeks to devour not the Soul only but the Person Pag. 374. Still applies all to Souls instead of Persons Pag. 375. He Quotes three Texts but they all apply to Persons and Solomon's winning Souls intends Persons Pag. 379. Says He hath proved that one Soul is of more Value than the whole World I say no otherwise than a Man's Life is viz. to himself it is so but not in it self or with any respect to other People Pag. 379. Says The Soul was not made for the Body but the Body for it I say they were made for one another and are daily made viz. Procreated together Pag. 387. Cites a Saying as concerning Souls but it proves only of Persons and goes on in the like applying to Souls what is intended of Persons Pag. 390. Says Souls cannot live upon Food or Earthly things I say They do live upon Food and Earthly things and cannot live without them Pag. 439. and so to 441. He pretends Holy Duties are not enough for Christians viz. Nature improved by Vertues and common Graces of the Spirit of God a Holy Unreproveable Life relying on Christ for Pardon of Sins and Support under Sorrow and Dangers Practising the Commandments Believing the Creeds Receiving the Sacraments Doing as they would be Done to Sorrowing for their Failures striving to rise again and Praying to God every day to Assist them by his Grace and Save them by his Goodness and Christ's Sufferings He insinuates that such ordinary Practices are not sufficient for Regeneration without Heavenly Tempers and Tendencies of Soul viz. a singular Claim and Profession to Grace and Sanctification above ordinary I profess my self content with the former State and will give his Proselites leave to affect the later without condemning them so being that they act not the Pharisee in justifying themselves and despising others Pag. 449. Directs Men to ask Am I born again Am I a New Creature I say Baptism is the Laver of Regeneration and Mark 16.16 He that believeth and it baptized shall be saved and thus practised the Jaylor at Philippi Cornelius the Captain and the Aethiopian Eunuch but he requires a regenerating of the Spirit I allow so appearing as to make the Fruits good but for his extraordinary Elevations and Motions of Spirit I leave them to himself as a Fervour of Phancy Pag. 464. Says Your Election is only secured by your Effectual Calling intending as seems that every one must have and find a particular time of God's calling him to a State of Regeneration and Sanctification This looks to me like an intended distinguishing Character betwixt them who follow Rational Deductions from Scripture and those who pretend to be led by the Spirit in an extraordinary manner and they must shew us Signs and Wonders and mighty Deeds or else we shall not be able to believe them that they are so led For if other Men work and live as well as they and shew as good Fruits of the Spirit as they How can they be distinguished but by Wonders and mighty Deeds Say they by our Special Calling Regeneration and Sanctification But How shall others know these to be good or better than ordinary but by their Fruits or mighty Deeds If those Deeds or Fruits extraordinary do not appear we have no means to know them nor reason to approve them In Pag. 461. He said Let none be so fond to expect Comfort in Death until his Soul have first complied with and obeyed the Call of God in the time thereof Pag. 463. Says Souls of Men are as it were embarqu'd in the Calls of God and if they be lost your Souls are lost I Collect he intends Let your Faith and Practice be what they will if you have not a Call to the singular Mode of our Profession and obey that Call your precious Souls after all this will be lost He said before That when the Enfranchised Soul was upon its departure and sat upon the quivering Lips of the dying Person neither able to stay in the Body nor abiding to forsake it the State of it was deplorable This shews That he imagined the Soul to be an Intelligent Little Thing Parcel or Spark He doth not say that she is snatch'd or forc'd away from the Body nor what should move her to forsake it or leave the being in it or near it against her Will and yet I doubt not but he could have told us that as well as the foregoing viz. Imaginando if he had pleased And this calls to mind a Relation made to us by Dr. Collins in his Treatise concerning Russia There says he when a Person draws on towards Death they set a Basin of fair Water in the Window and set the Casement also open that the parting Soul may have the Opportunity of bathing and refreshing it self in the Water and find an open Passage out at the Casement and not be inforced to the Contrast of passing thro' Crannies of the Window or other Places And thus I part with our Author and finish my intended Observations upon him I read in a Noble Author of our own Nation That in all Contests he who stands only upon his Defence stands upon no Defence Seems Wants one main part of Defence viz. The Disarming or Weakning his Opposer whereby his intended Defence should be made both more easie and effectual Thus far in defending a Tenet opposite to that of our Author I have used only the Buckler in shelter from the dints of his Arguments but that I may not forsake the benefit which may
53.10 Thou shalt make his Soul an Offering for Sin viz. his Person For none will deny his Body to have been made a visible Offering for Sin one as well and as much as the other his whole Person was so Psal 31.5 Into thy hand I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me David was then alive and in Condition to write this Psalm and had a Body as well as a Spirit and under the Term of Spirit commended his Person or himself to God Luk. 23.56 Our Lord did the very same he knew his Body was to rise early upon the Third Day yet Cryed Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Recommending by that Term himself or his Person Soul and Body So David My Soul is among Lions deliver my Soul from the Sword the Lord is with them that uphold my Soul viz. Deliver me uphold me So Jonathan loved David as his own Soul viz. as he did himself his own Person And this Form of Expression seems agreeable enough to Reason and common Practice in other Cases Pars pro Toto As we use to say Sweet Soul and dear Heart Forma dat esse rei And so Men frequently use by the most noble Part to express or denote the whole And hence I conclude that the last Part of Moses's Text here is well Paraphrased And Man became a Living Person without intent to speak of a Soul by its self or otherwise then as in conjunction with the Body it helped to make up the Person And because this is a Material Point and beats hard upon our Opponents Foundation another Parallel Text shall be cited for Illustration and Confirmation of the same viz. Ezech. 37. The Prophecy over dry Bones which thereupon came together and the Sinews and Flesh came up upon them and the Skin covered them above but there was no Breath in them Then he was commanded to Prophecy over these Bones yet not to call for Souls or Spirits for their Animation but to say to the Wind Thus saith the Lord God Come from the four Winds O Breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live And thereupon the Breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great Army Here it seems we have a Specimen of the First Mans Creation viz. His Body was first made ready for that Animating Breath which should first tine and kindle the Flame of Life in his Body then made ready for it And this Flame constantly fanned by Respiration and un-put out or extinguished by any violent or other means seems to be the Actus primus Corporis Organici Whilst that continues flaming and glowing the Person lives when that is extinguish'd the Person dies beyond Remedy and being once extinguish'd in all Parts of the Body it cannot be again re-kindled but by fresh Fire from Heaven or a Divine Power Our Author Pag. 252. He says The Radical Moisture which is daily consuming by the Flame of Life must needs be spent e're long And I say that if this Flame be not fed and nourished by Food and Viands competent and of suitable Nature this Flame must first diminish then decay and lastly be extinguished as daily Experience teaches in Times of Scarcity and Famine and the like distressing Accidents So as this Vision gives us some Traces whereby the manner of Adam's Creation and the Infusion of the Breath of Life into him may guessingly be collected And as it directs backwards to the Creation so it doth it forwards open some Prospect towards the manner of our expected Resurrection in which after the Body shall have been made ready and compleat for the Reception and Nourishment of it the Animating Breath shall again kindle in it the Flame of Life as by God shall be appointed for the Actuating such Raised Bodies and as it did before their former Dissolution And this Flame will be of the same Kind and Nature with the former and as much the same as the Bodies then Rising will be the same Bodies with the former before it was a body with such Organs acted by a Natural Flame of Life and the same shall it be after the Resurrection with this Change to the Blessed that their Natural Body shall be made a Spiritual Body By this Counter Exposition of Moses's Text before recited I pretend to have battered and shaken or even to have overthrown the First and one of the Main Foundations of our Author's Opinion upon which he principally insists and grounds himself in the first 46 Pages of his Book And I now proceed to propound an Argument in direct Opposition to his Opinion and all that he hath said in maintenance of the same Thus then I argue That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh but the Soul as well as the Body is generated and comes of Flesh Ergo The Soul is a Material and not an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit The Major of these Propositions is apparently agreeable to the Course of Nature and John 3 6. sufficiently supported by our Lords own Assertion The Minor I prove by Gen. 5.3 Adam begat a Son in his own likeness after his Image Hence I argue Adam after the breathing into him of the Breath of Life became a Living Person and continued to be so at the Procreation and Birth of his Son therefore the Procreation of a Son in his own likeness intends That the Son was generated a Living Person but so he could not be without a Soul or Spirit James 2.26 The Body without the Spirit is dead and Nature agrees viz. That one cannot be a Living Person unless he have the two Essential Parts which constitute the same viz. Body and Soul It seems clear That when Adam begat a Son he begat a Living Person and that so he could not be without a Soul Ergo Adam begetting a Son in his own likeness a Living Person begat his Soul as well as his Body And for a farther Proof of my Minor Proposition I argue again from Gen. 1.28 and 9.2 God says to our First Parents Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and bring forth abundantly in the Earth Hereupon I say That if Man do not beget a Son in his own likeness after his Image viz. a Living Person as Adam is said to do it could not be in the Power or Nature of Man to replenish the Earth with other Men or Persons like himself or of his own Kind and Nature And to believe or maintain otherwise crosses not only the import of these Texts but the common experience of Mankind also and the Evidences appâ—aring every day for Children are born all the World over with their perfection of parts little indeed but magnum in parvo potentia and perfectly Living Persons in the likeness of their Parents and the very Abbreviations and Epitomes of them Some say but they are but vain words That the Parents procreate the Body only but the Soul a Praeexistent Spirit lies hovering in the Air
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
those of Sensation And Lastly in the Rational and Superior Powers of Understanding Phancy Memory Judgment and Will You have required of me Proofs how such things are or can be acted in Man by a Material Spirit to shew the hardship of such an Imposition I now demand the like of you on behalf of an Immaterial Spirit not believing that you will undertake the Imployment or that you or any other man can make a good performance of it or discover so much on that behalf as I have but now done on behalf of the Material One It seems my Demand upon you may pass lege talionis it is thereby done to you as you thought fit to do viz. Bind an heavy Burthen and lay it upon others Shoulders which it may be you will avoid touching with one of your fingers believing the whole to be much too heavy for you and this shall finish the Answer to your Demand of the Quomodo operatur Anima Materialis in Homine 2 Paragraph Here you raise an Argument for the Immateriality from the Acts and Powers of Conscience in Man which you think cannot grow or be derived from Matter and Motion I grant it is no more derived from meer Matter and Motion than the other Faculties of Man are God who created both Matter and Motion and acts them in Plants Insects Fowls and Beasts to the Production of all that is done amongst them acts them also in Mankind to the Instruction and for the Guidance of their Natures and Actions the Conscient Powers in Man viz. his Understanding Memory and Judgment I have said are Natural and the Effects of Conscience viz. Content and Joy or Sorrow and Fear are also Natural but to the Constitution and Compleating of Conscience there must also be allowed some Rules Examples or Conceptions to which Men have submitted their Minds in such manner as to believe what is done according to those Directions is well done and what is contrary to them is a Fault or Offence And this Conscience I say is common to Beasts as well as Men though not so much or in so high a Degree but according to the proportion of Understanding amongst them A Child young hath no perceivance of Conscience but as it grows to the Cognizance of Rules it becomes subjected to the Strokes and Stings of Conscience How are Beasts taught Duty but by Rewards and Punishments the Remembrances of which act upon them so as to make them correct a Failure in Duty by a quick correcting of themselves in Action and Amendment thereupon And what is Conscience in Man more than a Perceiving or an Apprehension that he hath acted against his Rule which hath gotten the Ascendent over him and for which he hath an Expectation of Punishment or Suffering such so great so lasting and intolerable as those who have delivered the Rules to him have taught him to conceive and apprehend but that amongst Men that are Savage and utterly uncultivated by any sort of Education without Rules or Laws of any sort amongst such Persons there is no Transgression nor Conscience of Sin viz. no Conscience at all And we may compare the Faculty of Conscience to that of Speech amongst Men they are things to which Humane Nature hath a great Aptitude and Inclination but yet they are not so Natural as to grow out of bare Nature without any sort of Instruction or Teaching whatsoever Mothers and Nurses commonly give the first Rudiments of them both and they receive Alterations according as future Informers and Practices get Power over them High Expectations of Eternal Rewards or Punishments are able to transport Men and have transported some with ardent Desires others with Afflictions and terrible Fears so as they are throughly perswaded and convinced of such Future States as we are taught to believe if upon Examinatien of the Conscient Powers the Man find his Actions contrary to his Rules and that therefore he is in a State of unmeasurable ill expectations It seems natural and likely that this man shall be apt to fall under the tyranical dominion of his Fear and that he needs no Immaterial Power to induce such Conceptions in him or inflict such Rigors upon him his own Connatural Conscient Powers and the Cruelty and Tyranny of his Fear thence arising are enough and if any farther addition be needful I have before quoted Melanchton That a Diabolical assistance is often ready to act in such cases for making the Effects more atrocious and remarkable without needing the Opinion of a Soul 's being Immaterial for Solution of the Quaery of the Quomodo such things are possible to be done And though the Acts of Conscience be Natural yet the Rules which govern it are chiefly if not only the Apprehensions or Opinions of the Persons under Trial growing from Education Institution Example Observation Opinion or Conceipt however Superstitious or Fallacious the same may be To what you say That you had given Instances concerning Acts of Conscience and Terrour upon them in Persons who were above all Prejudice or Fear I answer That no Man can be above these Adjuncts or Qualifications but all Educated Persons have always been taught to believe and fear a Divine Being and Vengeance even when Jupiter and Apollo Woden and Frea past in the World for their Prime Deities And it seems observable that however highly a supposed Immaterial Spirit may impress Terrour upon the Conscience yet let any man come and demonstrate convincingly that there is a mistake in that the Fact is not against the Rule or that the Rule it self is an Errour and so the Wrath and Vengeance of God not due or reasonably to be expected to follow upon such Failures Such an Opinion and Belief must and will naturally appease and cure the greatest Horrours of a Troubled Conscience and do it as substantially as a Physician can cure any other Disease whatsoever viz. by removing and curing the Efficient Causes of it You demand of me How Rules for Direction for Conscience came to Men at the first when there were but few Persons in the World and Customs or Conceipts were not so various or common as of later times they are grown To this I answer That the only Persons in the World free from Prejudices and Rules imposed upon them by Education were our first Parents Adam and his Wife and to them we read God gave an Express Rule viz. Of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Next we read of Mens sacrificing to God for which I do not perceive any ground in Reason or Nature viz. That Man should or could from Reason invent or conceive that the killing or shedding the Blood of Bulls Rams or Goats should be pleasing or acceptable to the Omnipotent God Whence I collect that this early Practice amongst Men sprung from the Positive Direction of God and soon after this Practice began Cain
cure or help such a misadventure but can only make it sound according to its present capacity so it is with a Mans Spirit and his Bodily Members and Organs if there be a Lisping or Stammering Tongue or a Sanded or Squinting Eye a Lame Hand or a Foot out of joynt the Soul cannot cure or help in any such Cases but can only act the Members and Organs as it finds them capable and the like if harm come to the Members or Organs by Diseases Wounds or any like Accidents the Soul hath no more power to help in such Cases then Wind can help Deficiencies in the Organ Thirdly If there be any Pipes quite spoiled broken or wanting in the Organ the Wind can make no Musick or Sound at all in those places and in like manner for Man if the Eyes be out the Soul cannot make the Man see nor speak without a Tongue c. As for the Understanding and the Memory which seem to be the most spiritualized the Soul cannot act them without their proper Bodily Organs and by Blows Wounds or Diseases in the Head spoiling those Organs such Faculties may he lost the Soul still able and continuing still to act the Vital Nutritive and Generative Powers and to keep the Man well enough alive Fourthly As upon ceasing of Wind in the Organ the Instrument loses all its Activity and Harmonical Sounds and becomes only a Dead Fabrick so when the Flame of Life in Man is extinguished the Body and all its Organs and Members become Dead and Cold even as the very Organ and his Pipes which without Wind are useless to those purposes for which they were contrived and intended And thus the real Matter of our present Simile shall be determined And yet is it not so finished but that still there may be some farther use made upon the Circumstantials of it viz. Those Ornamental Accoutrements wherewith we see the Organs in Cathedrals and other very Eminent Places embellished and curiously engraved painted varnished and gilded to such Degrees that with the Lillies they may be compared to Solomon in all his glory but if these Splendid Circumstances be taken off them they must be found in their own proper likeness or Bodies viz. Wood or some coarse or ordinary Mettal without Lustre or Gloss or any other Delight in the beholding The Shining Ornaments of our Organ we compare not only to the Robes of Solomons Glory and those of other Princes Magistrates and Prelates which are intended to produce an awe and reverence in the Beholders and Common People and are often times productive of their designed Effect but I also compare them to divers other Ornaments and Glories of the Humane Nature acquired and accumulated by the Labour and Industry of many Generations in Succession one after the other viz. Many Manual and other Arts and Sciences derived from one Man to another and by various Experiments and Degrees brought to that Perfection which hitherto they have attained Now those who behold the State of Man's Nature and contemplate it in the Glories of all these fresh Colours Varnishing and Gilding as the most Men do cannot easily forbear to wonder at those who do or can apprehend that the Brutal Nature should be so near related as to be next of kin to the Humane I will therefore use this Nature as before I have used the Fabrick of the Organ viz. Remove it s Acquired Ornaments which have so dazzled most Mens Eyes as to make the Great Princes and Persons or some of them thought and think themselves above or beyond the Common Condition and Nature of other Men and to despise the Ordinary Sort of People to so high a Degree as not to count them made of the same Stuff or Kind with themselves And not Princes and Conquerours only but divers amongst the Learned and Knowing and Men of Skill in Arts and Sciences are too often apt to contemn their ignorant and illiterate Brethren as fit rather to be ranked inter Oves Boves caetera Pecora Campi than to be placed in equal Degree and Honour with themselves Let us then imaginando remove these Ornaments which become the Occasions of such great Mistakes and consider Man and his Nature in their own Natural Robes and Colours And this may be done without the taking from our Grandees any of their Ornaments or Preheminences for the true State of this Nature may best be surveyed in the Lowest and Plainest Ranks that can be found amongst Men which sort of People if we shall consider from the Cradle to the Grave we shall easily perceive to be wholly employed and taken up with the Care and Endeavour to acquire Nourishment Warmth and the Means of Propagation and these are the very Things which the more Sagacious Brutes do universally attend The Diet of such Lowest Sort of People and their Fare is Gross and Coarse so as the Rich mens Horses Dogs and Monkeys are often better provided their Houses far meaner than the Stables Beast Houses and even Swine-cotes of the Rich Nothing so well clad or covered as a well kept Horse If the Politie of the Places they live in hath taught them some good Rules and Precepts they make ordinarily a shift in a competent time to forget or change them and are to be governed and kept in order as Brutal Creatures are by the only Expectation or Fear of Rewards and Punishments and these things are applicable to Men whom we know by a Continual and Daily Conversation But if we direct our Prospect towards the more Desart Countries North or South we may find in India and Arabia but most especially in Africa and America Nations and People who have only their bare Skins for a Covering they rob and prey upon others for a maintenance they live upon Raw Flesh and the very Guts and Entrails of such Creatures as they can get Flesh of Men Dogs Horses Serpents all goes down with them Now what do Beasts differ from such Men or they from Beasts Even Wild Beasts of the Forest for our Tame Cattle will not do so nor hardly any Beasts amongst us but hungry Dogs They discover no Effect of Rules or Civility amongst them save to forbear hurting one another as the Beasts do Saevis inter se convenit Vrsis but their Lusts are at as full Liberty as those of other Cattel Thus in general but to set forth Humanity in its most Simple Natural and Plain Colours Sir Kenelm Digby's Treatise of the Soul shall be cited fol. 247. where he relates and testifies this fact An Army coming to attack Liege the people of the next Villages fled into the Forest of Ardennes amongst whom a Woman and her Son of about five years old the Souldiers beat up into the Woods for Booty and frighted the People so as the Woman lost her Son and never found him after the Army departed and the People returned and about ten years after an extraordinary hard Winter hapned and the Wild
help of other Circumstances of Time Place or Persons c. This we leave as doubtful Pag. 740. There are in Animals Three Sorts of Motion 1. Vital 2. Commanding or Stimulating 3. Prosecuting or Endeavouring That Commanding Force is in the Sensitive Appetite from whence all our Affections do arise and they reign and command in Animals Beasts and Men as Animal and act to Motion the whole Body or the several Members of it The Prime Vital Motion is that of the Pulse placed in the Heart the Seat of Life and Vital Motion acted by the Soul Pag. 741. The Actors in this Motion are the Inward Heat and Spirits viz. the Vital Spirits When this Motion ceases all Animals die and the Vital Spirits vanish But says he it doth not therefore follow that the Soul dies If he had proved or shall prove that there is a Soul in Man which did ever live doth live or can live in Separation from the Body we will admit of this Caution of his and not infer Death of such a Soul by the Ceasing of this Vital Motion in the Body Palpitations of the Heart agitated by the Affections and the Faculty of Respiration are also Vital Motions Appetive commanding Motion Pag. 724. is Vegetative Sensitive and Intellective It consists in prosecuting things liked and avoiding things disliked with Passion or at Leisure cites Matth. 15. They all proceed from the Heart and have their Rise from the Affections although many Causes may work in and upon them viz. Complexion of the Body Education Conversation Examples Doctrines c. their general Aspect is upon Pleasure or Pain to follow or avoid the Vigor of their Motion grows from Lust Wrath and Fear or present outward Sense greatly affected the Affections are not ill in themselves but useful helpful necessary for nothing is from God or Nature which is not Good the Evil which they produce is but by Accident Pag. 744. The Prosecutive Power lies in Local Motion This hath its Root in the Brain whence the Nerves and their Power and Motion are derived animated and enlivened by Spirits from the Heart This says he Galen teaches who is in that Point to be preferred before any other Testimony But it seems both he and Hyppocrates his Master were mistaken concerning Man's Compages of Body and Soul if our Author fall out to be right The Powers moving the Nerves and in them are the Vital and Animal Spirits and thence Motion is derived to the Muscles Bones Joints and every Member These Spirits which are partly Corporeal and partly quasi Incorporeal or Spiritual excited by the Soul omitting how or by what Means these Spirits move and guide the Nerves which are like Reins to the whole Body and they quicken and guide the Muscles and the small Cords or Strings which reach to them By these are the Bones Joints and Members of the Body moved And thus the moving Power of the Soul prosecutes the Mandates of the Appetite and Affections this seems a weak or foolish Sort of Soul that will or must use its Motive Powers to satisfie those Affections which drive to Action against the Will and Dictates of the Soul it self Whence we conclude it more likely that all these Motions are Natural and Animal that Intellect or Reason is one Natural Faculty in Man and that it is Chief and hath a Priority of Order and Power in him that Sense and the Affections are another Natural Faculty in Man and that Vital Inclinations and Powers of Vegetation are another Natural Faculty in him not divided by so many Souls but that one Soul serves all these Faculties viz. that Flaming Spirit or Principle of Life Motion and Action first breathed into Man by his Creator and once quite extinguished can never be again rekindled but from Heaven by miracle A Vital Spark or Origine of this Fire likely may be kindled in Heat of Coition lodged in the Matter by Ordinance of Nature and her Director This hath its appointed Natural Times and Means first of Vegetation and Motions then of Sense and Affections and lastly of Intellect and Reason The Matter Shape and Organs of the Body do by Degrees enlarge themselves and grow and they increase the Blood and Humors which nourish continually the Vital Active Flame whence the Increaseof Body and Soul goes on together till they arrive to their Fullness of Stature Proportions and Activities and in Ordinary Course of Nature they grow stand and decay together This Active is the Motive Principle enlivening and quickening all Man's Faculties to act according to their Natural Powers Propensities and Appointments If any Organ or Part of Matter be out of Order this Active Power not being Rational but in the proper Place for that Faculty cannot remedy that Want but can only put on to Action all that is in the Body fit for it inclining and helping them to and in the Actions that are proper or peculiar to them in the Heart the Primum Vivens and most Vital Part of the Body This Flame and Heat is most Predominant and Intense there the Blood is purified and ratified and refined there the Vital Spirits are generated and thence they are dispersed to several Parts of the Body but chiefly to the Head In the Heart therefore we place the Chief Seat of Life and Vegetation for whose Defence each other Part will be ready to expose it self knowing and feeling that the Loss of that Fort destroys the Microcosm The Place of next Value to this but of much greater Activity is the Head for there reside the Senses both Internal and External and there resides also the Rational Faculty viz. the Intellect and the Judgment so as these two Faculties of Sense and Reason are very close and near Borderers upon one another and although our Author go with the Stream of deriving Mens Affections all from the Senses therein seems to be an apparent Mistake for as we do allow to the Intellect a Will as well as to the Senses an Appetite so there must be allowed to Reason a Power of making and gaining the Affections of equal or greater Potency and Might then that which is attributed to the Senses Whence in Contests betwixt Reason and Sense or Will and Appetite that Part which prevails upon the Affections must be Victor over the other for the Affections stirred and gained excite move and sway the Heart which is drawn and bent by them to resolve and execute accordingly and there appears no such Difference between the Prevalency of either of these Faculties as that Men can determine which doth oftnest prevail or which of them is naturally endowed with the most strong and prevalent Power each have a Power in some Persons more than in others and in all Persons more at one Time or upon one Occasion then upon another In no Persons naturally doth the Stream run one Way but as S. Paul says 'T is not of willing or running but God gives the Victory perhaps often But
we cannot confide that so it shall be always nor can by Nature be expected often He who thinks he stands may be nearer a Fall than he is aware of These two Faculties have a natural and durable Contest from Sun-rising to Sun-setting from the Cradle to the Grave sometimes one prevails and sometimes the other according as Moses's Hands are held up or let down whence the Inference seems both easie and strong That there is no likelihood of a Rational immaterially Spiritual Power or Government in Man For it seems such a Power or Government would easily and speedily put an End to such Contests and not suffer them to continue Mens whole Lives nay and from Generation to Generation and in all Ages Aristotle compares the Contest to a Game at Ball for the Uncertainty of its Event and so we find it still the Case is nothing altered which is a plain Argument the Thing is Natural for Naturalia non Mutantur We do not hold fit to make strong or positive Conclusions in Things of much less Moment and Doubt than the present Question and therefore shall leave Perusers to draw out of the Premises such Conclusions as themselves think reasonable Pag. 742. Our Author goes on and says There is a very near Likeness betwixt the two Faculties Sensitive and Intellective so as the Old Philosophers have called the Intellect by Name of the Internal Sense so did the Platonicks and Peripateticks And thence our Author collects such a Similitude between them that he resolves so to divide the Intellective Powers as he had done the Sensitive Thus we see the Ground upon which he goes in groping out a Means to say what he pleases of the Intellect He says The Intellect hath two Parts or Faculties viz. the Aprehensive and the Motive in the first it joins with the Memory in the other with the Will and these two Apprehension and Motion are necessary in all Animals Pag. 745. There is a two-fold Force in a Humane Intellect one that it hath Power to understand Intelligible Things the other is the actual and effectual understanding of them This Difference seems Airy for Nature doth not act frustra but if it give a Power it always provides an Act or Effect of it He means by Intelligible Things Abstracted Substances and Universalities the same Things which he spake of at the Beginning Pag. 746. under the Name of a Double Intellect viz. Agentis Patientis understood a Double Power by one of them it understands by the other it doth re-act and judge of its own Understanding Pag. 747. Says The Passive Intellect is a Part of the Intellect that it neither needs nor has any Material Organ Yet he allows the Intellect and all its Powers are in the Body but not affixed to any Organ or using any I demand how doth he know or can prove that Says he By way of Reason If it were any way tied to Organs it would perish and extinguish with those Organs This I grant and partly believe that it doth so But says he farther If the Case were so then as the Organ grows old and infirm the Intellect's Operations should fail accordingly which we see saith he it doth not Which we see say I it doth evidently I grant it lasts as long as any other Faculty and longer than the most of them do Arist De Anima Lib. I. Cap. 5. hath it both Ways First he says The Intellect is not spoiled by Age and therefore that if an Old Man had a Young Eye he would see as well as when he was Young of which there is little Certainty Then it follows in the same Chapter Intellect and Contemplation its Prime Part do decay in Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Failing or Corruption of other inward Parts as is clear and apparent in such as live to extream Age and till their Organs or Spirits are by such Age either wasted or corrupted In Fools and Mad-men he grants the Fault grows by Defect or Disorder of the Organs But this says he is only in the Phantasy and that the Phantasy is a necessary Organ for the Soul to work by whilst she is in the Body And it doth not yet appear that she hath any other State nor that by her own any thing Being or Power without Bodily Organs she either understands her self or any other Thing although the Author doth here make bold to assert all this without other Proof than just before mentioned and answered Pag. 748. The Active Intellect our Author says is the Splendor of the Soul creating Intellectual Power as Light enables Men to judge of Colours Then he cites Aristotle's high Expressions concerning this Part of the Soul and yet he refuses to agree with Aristotle that this Part only of the Soul is Immortal but he will have the Suffering Part also to be Immortal being resolved it cannot possibly be so by halves let Aristotle say what he will but for Reasons he gives none relying upon what he had said before Pag. 749. Divides the Intellect into Practical and Speculative Says God when he creates a Soul puts two Principles or Sorts of Notions into it one a Power to discern and distinguish Good from Bad the other a like Power of discerning Truth from Falshood But we neither consent to his imagined Creation of Souls nor that there are such distinct Powers or Principles in it but do conceive both these Abilities of Distinguishing to arise indifferently out of the Humane Faculties of Common Sense and Reason Pag. 720. He says There is a Memory peculiar to the Intellect and not fixed or placed in any Organ nor of any Material Nature But for maintaining this Dogma he neither gives Reason nor cites Authority therefore it may pass with us for a Figment of his own Brain and without any more Consideration He says The Will is the Intellectual Appetite not fixed or placed in any Organ And says That even the Sensual Appetite is not without Reason for its Guide and Men have Reason for Guide of all their Actions And to this we agree but do say that in the Intellect resides the Reason or the Intellect is the Humane Reason or Rationality residing in the Head and amongst the Organs of the Brain assisted by the Common Sense Phantasy and Memory fixed in the same Region and amongst the same Organs used by them That the Power which it hath amongst them is not Compulsory but Swasive or at the highest but Judicial There seems in the Faculty of Reason to be a Judicial Power and that both Will and Appetite if that be any real Distinction are attendant upon this Power and that neither of them do or can move towards Execution before they have obtained a Sentence from the Judgment upon their Side The Affections principally Ambition Covetousness Lust and the Passions Anger and Fear and all their Dependents plead for their Satisfactions and offer their Reasons and their Violences and Dissatisfactions and Desires in