of their wisdome And since our inquiries are benighted in the west let us look towards the East from whence 't is likely the desired light may display it self and chase away the darknesse that covers the face of those theories Therefore it was the opinion of the Indian Brachmans the Persian Magi the Aegyptian Gymnosophists the fewish Rabbins some of the Graecian Philosophers and Christian Fathers that the souls of men were created all at first and at several times and occasions upon forfeiture of their better life and condition drop't down into these terrestrial bodies This the learned among the Jews made a part of their Cabbala and preten to have received it from their great Law-giver Moses which Hypothesis if it appear but probable to an impartial inquiry will even on that account be preferrible to both the former which we have seen to be desperate CHAP. IV. Praeexistence Praeexistence cannot be disproved Scripture saith nothing against it It 's silence is no prejudice to this Doctrine but rather an Argument for it as the case standeth Praeexistence was the common opinion of our Saviour's times How probably it came to be lost in the Christian Church THerefore let us see what title it can shew for our assent or whether it can prove it self worthy of the Patronage of those great Authors that have owned it 1 Then Whether this Doctrine be true or no I m'e confident it cannot be proved false for if All souls were not made together it must be either because God could not do it or because he would not for the first I suppose very few have such narrow conceptions of the divine power as to affirm that omnipotence could not produce all those beings at first which apart he is suppos'd to create daily which implies no contradiction or as much as difficulty to be conceived and which de facto he hath done in the case of Angells Or if inconsistence with any Attribute should be pretended that shall be prov'd quite otherwise hereafter And the amicable consistence of this Hypothesis with them yea the necessity of it from this very consideration of the divine Attributes shall be argued in the process Therefore whoever concludes that God made not all souls of old when he produced the world out of nothing must confesse the reason of this assertion to be because he would not And then I would ask him how he came to know what he affirms so boldly Who acquainted him with the Divine Counsells Is there a word said in his revealed will to the contrary or hath he by his holy penmen told us that either of the other waies was more suitable to his beneplaciture Indeed 't is very likely that a strong and ready phancy possest with a perswasion of the falshood of this Hypothesis might find some half phrases in scripture which he might suborne to sing to the tune of his imagination For in such a Miscellaneous piece as the Bible is it will not be difficult for a man that 's strongly resolv'd against an opinion to find somewhat or other that may seem to him to speak the language of his phancy And therefore it shall go hard but that those whom their education or prejudice have ingaged against this Hypothesis will light on some obscure pieces of texts and broken sentences or other that shall seem to condemn what they disapprove of But I am securely confident that there is not a sentence in the sacred volume from end to end that ever was intended to teach that all souls were not made of old or that by a legitimate consequence would inferre it And if any there be that seem to look another way I dare say they are collateral and were never designed by the divine Authors for the purpose they are made to serve by the enemies of Praeexistence Wherefore not to conceal any thing that with the least shew of probability can be pretended from the sacred volume in discountenance of the Doctrine of Praeexistence I 'le bring into view whatever I know to have the least face of a Testimony to the contrary in the divine Revelations That so when it shall appear that the most specious Texts that can be alledg'd have nothing at all in them to disprove the souls praeexistence we may be secure that God hath not discovered to us in his written will that 't was not his pleasure to create all souls together Therefore I It may be pretended that the Doctrine of Praeexistence comports not with that innocence and integrity in which the Scripture determines Adam to have been made Since it supposeth the descent into these bodyes to be a culpable lapse from an higher and better state of Life and this to be a state of incarceration for former delinquencies To this I answer 1 No one can object any thing to purpose against Praeexistence from the unconceiveablenesse of it untill he know the particular frame of the Hypothesis without which all impugnations relating to the manner of the thing will be wide of the mark and but little to the businesse Therefore if the objectour would have patience to wait till we come to that part of our undertaking he would find that there was but little ground for such a scruple But however to prevent all cavillings in this place I 'le shew the invalidity of this objection Wherefore 2 There is no necessity from the Doctrine of Praeexistence to suppose Adam a delinquent before his noted transgression in a terrestrial body for considering that his body had vast advantages above ours in point of beauty purity and serviceablenesse to the soul what harshness is there in conceiving that God might send one of those immaculate Spirits that he had made into such a Tenement that he might be his steward in the affairs of this lower Family and an overseer and ruler of those other creatures that he had order'd to have their dwelling upon earth I am sure there is no more contrariety to any of the Divine Attributes in this supposition then there is in that which makes God to have sent a pure spirit which he had just made into such a body Yea 3 Supposing that some souls fell when the Angells did which the process of our discourse will shew to be no unreasonable supposition this was a merciful provision of our Maker and a generous undertaking for a Seraphick and untainted Spirit For by this means fit and congruous matter is prepared for those souls to reside and act in who had rendred themselves unfit to live and injoy themselves in more refined bodyes And so those spirits that had sinn'd themselves into a state of silence and inactivity are by this seasonable means which the divine Wisdome and Goodnesse hath contriv'd for them put once more into a capacity of acting their parts anew and comming into play again Now if it seem hard to any to conceive how so noble a spirit in such an advantagious body should have been impos'd upon by so gross
reascend the Thrones they so unhappily fell from be circled about with unexpressible felicity Butthose that for all this follow the sameways of sensuality and rebellion against their merciful deliverer they shal besure tobe met with by the same methods of punishment and at length be as miserable as ever Thus we see the Ayr will be re-peopled after the conflagration but how the Earth will so soon be restored to Inhabitants is a matter of some difficulty to determine since it useth to be furnisht from the Aerial regions which now will have none left that are fit to plant it For the good were deliver'd thence before the conflagration and those that are newly come from underthe fiery lash and latter state of silence are in a hopeful way of recovery At least their aerial congruity cannot be so soon expired as to fit them for an early return to their terrestriall prisons Wherfore to help our selves in this rencounter we must remember that there are continually multitudes of souls in a state of inactivity for want of suitable bodyes to unite with there being more that dye to the aery state then are born into this terrestrial In this condition were myriads when the general Feaver seiz'd this great distemper'd body who therefore were unconcern'd in the conflagration and are now as ready to return into life and action upon the Earth's happy restauration as if no such thing had hapned Wherefore they will not fail to descend into fitly prepared matter and to exercise all the functsons proper to this condition Nor will they alone be inhabitants of the Earth For all the variety of other Animals shall live and act upon this stage with them all sorts of souls infinuating themselves into those bodys which are fit for their respective natures Thus then supposing habitable congruous bodyes there is no doubt but there will be humane Souls to actuate and informe them but all the difficulty is to conceive how the matter shall be prepared For who shall be the common seedsman of succeding Humanity when all mankind is swept away by the fiery deluge And to take Sanctuary in a Miracle is unphilosophical and desperate I thinke therefore it is not improbable I mean according to the duct of this Hypothesis but that in this renewed youth of the so lately calcined and purified Earth there may be some pure efflorescences of balmy matter not to be found now in its exhausted and decrepit Age that may be proper vehicles of life into which souls may deseend without further preparation And so orderly shape and form them as we see to this day several sorts of other creatures do without the help of generation For doubtlesse there will be great plenty of unctuous spirituous matter when the most inward and recondite spirits of all things shall be dislodg'd from their old close residences and scatter'd into the Ayre where they will at length when the fierce agitation of the fire is over gather in considerable proportions of tenuous vapours which at length descending in a chrystalline liquor and mingling with the finest parts of the newly modified Earth will doubtless compose as genital a matter as any can be prepared in the bodys of Animals And the calm and wholesome Ayre which now is duly purged from its noxious reeks and vapours and abounds with their saline spirituous humidity will questionlesse be very propitious to those tender inchoations of life and by the help of the Sun 's favourable and gentle beams supply them with all necessary materials Nor need we puzzle our selves to phancy how those Terrae Filii those young sons of the Earth will be fortified against the injuries of weather or be able to provide for themselves in their first and tender Infancy since doubtlesse if the supposition be admitted those immediate births of unassisted nature will not be so tender and helplesse as we into whose very constitutions delicacy and effeminatenesse is now twisted For those masculine productions which were always exposed to the open Ayr and not cloyster'd up as we will feel no more incommodity from it then the young fry of fishes do from the coldnesse of the water they are spawn'd in And even now much of our tendernesse and delicacy is not natural but contracted For poor children will indure that hardshp that would quickly dispatch those that have had a more careful and officious nurture And without question we should do many things for self-preservati on and provision which now we yield no signes of had not custome prevented the endeavours of nature and made it expect assistance For the Indian Infants will swim currently when assoon as they are born they are thrown into the water And nature put to her shifts will do many things more then we can suspect her able for the performance of which consider'd 't is not hard to apprehend but that those infant Aborigines are of a very different temper and condition from the weak products of now decayed nature having questionlesse more pure and serviceable bodies senses and other faculties more active and vigorous and nature better exercised so that they may by a like sence to that which carrys all creatures to their proper food pursue and take hold of that nutriment which the free and willing Earth now offerd to their mouths till being advantaged by Age and growth they can move about to make their choice But all this is but the frolick exercise of my pen chusing a Paradox And 't is time to give over the pursuit To make an end then we see that after the Conflagration the earth will be inhabited again and all things proceed much what in like manner as before But whether the Catastrophe of this shall bee like the former or no I think is not to be determined For as one world hath perish't by water and this present shall by fire 't is possible the next period may be by the Extinction of the Sun But I am come to the end of the line and shall not go beyond this present Stage of Providence or wander into an Abysse of uncertainties where there is neither Sun nor Star to guide my notions Now of all that hath been represented of this Hypothesis there is nothing that seems more extravagant and Romantick then those notions that come under the two last Generals And yet so it falls out that the main matters contained under them one would think to have a strange consonancy with some expressions in the Sacred Oracles For clear it is from the divine Volumne that the wicked and the Devils themselves are reserved to a further and more severe judgement then yet afflicteth them It is as plainly declared to be a vengeance of fire that abides them as a compleatment of their torments And that the Earth shall be burnt is as explicitly affirmed as any thing can be spoken Now if we put all these together they look like a probability That the conflagration of the Earth shall consummate the Hell of the wicked And those other expressions of Death Destruction perdition of the ungodly and the like seem to show a favourable regard to the State of silence and inactivity Nor is there less appearing countenance given to the Hypothesis of Restitution in those passages which predict New Heavens and a New Earth and seem to intimate onely a change of the present And yet I would have no body be so credulous as to be taken with litle appearances nor do I mention these with an intent that they should with full consent be delivered to intend the asserting any such Doctrines But that there is shew enough both in Reason and Scripture for these Opinions to give an occasion for an Hypothesis and therefore that they are not meer arbitrary and idle imaginations Now whatever becomes of this perticular draught of the Souls severall conditions of life and action the main Opinion of Praeexistence is not at all concerned This scheame is onely to shew that natural and imperfect Reason can frame an Intelligible Idea of it And therefore questionlesse the Divine Wisdome could forme and order it either so or with infinitely more accuracy and exactness How it was with us therefore of Old I know not But yet that we may have been and acted before we descended hither I think is very probable And I see no Reason but why Praeexistence may be Admitted without altering any thing considerable of the ordinary Systeme of Theology But I shut up with that modest conclusion of the Great Des Cartes That although these matters seem hardly otherwise intelligible then as Ihave here explained them Yet neverthelesse remembring I am not infallible I assert nothing But submit all I have written to the Authority of the Church of England and to the matured judgements of graver and wiser men Earnestâ— desiring that nothing else may be entertained with credit by any persons but what is able to win it by the force of evident and Victorious reason Des Cartes Princ. Prilos lib. 4. ss CVII FINIS
workmanship made without any creature-interposal and more especially regarded by him But to inferre hence that they 〈◊〉 then produced when these bodies 〈◊〉 generated is illogicall and inconsequenâ— So that all that these Scriptures will serâ— for is only to disprove the Doctrine 〈◊〉 Fraduction but makes not a tittle for the ordinary Hypothesis of Daily Creation against Praeexistence CHAP. III. 2 Traduction of souls is impossible the reasons for it weak and frivolous the proposal of Praeexistence THus then we have examind the first way of stating the Soul's original that of continual Creation and finding no sure resting place for our inquiry here we remove to the second The way of Traduction or seminal Propagation And the adherers to this Hypothesis are of 2 sorts viz. either such as make the soul to be nothing but a purer sort of matter or of those that confess it wholly spiritual and immaterial He dispatch the former briefly strike at the root of their misconceit of the souls production and shew it cannot be Matter be it as pure as can be conceived Therefore I If the soul be matter then whatever perceptions or apprehensions it hath or is capable of they were let in at the senses And thus the great Patron of the Hypothesis states it in his Leviathan and other writings But now clear it is that our Souls have some conceptions which they never received from external sense For there are some congenite implicite Principles in us without which there could be no sensation since the images of objects are very smal and inconsiderable in our brains comparatively to the vastness of the things which they represent and very unlike them in multitudes of other circumstances so that 't were impossible we should have the sensible representation of any thing were it not that our souls use a kind of Geometry or mathematick Inference in judging of external objects by those little hints it finds in material impressions Which Art and the principles thereof were never received from sense but are presupposed to all sensible perceptions And were the soul quite vold of all such implicit notions it would remain as senselesse as a stone for ever Besides we find our minds fraught with principles logical moral metaphysical which could never owe their original to sense otherwise then as it gives us occasions of using them For sense teacheth no general propositions but only affords singulars for Induction which being an Inference must proceed from an higher principle that ownes no such dependence on the senses as being found in the mind and not deriv'd from any thing without Also we find in our selves mathematical notions and build certain demonstrations on them which abstract from sense and matter And therefore never had them from any material power but from somthing more sublime and excellent But this Argument is of too large a consideration to be treated of here and therefore I content my self with those brief Touches and passe on 2 If the soul be matter 't is impossible it should have the sense of any thing for either the whole image of the object must be received in one point of this sensitive matter a thing absurd at first view that such variety of distinct and orderly representations should be made at once upon a single atom or the whole image is imprest upon every point and then there would be as many objects as there are points in this matter and so every thing would be infinitely multiplyed in our delusive senses Or finally every part of the soul must receive a proportionable part of the image and then how could those parts communicate their perceptions to each other and what should perceive the whole This Argument is excellently managed by the great Dr. H. More in whose writings this fond Hypothesis is fully triumpht over and defeated Since therefore the very lowest degree of perception single and simple sense is incompatible to 〈◊〉 body or matter we may safely conclude that the higher and nobler operations of imagining remembring reasoning and willing must have a cause and source that is not Corporeal Thus therefore those that build the souls traduction upon this ground of its being only body and modified matter are disappointed in the foundation of But 2 Another sort of assertors of traduction teach the Soul to be spiritual and incorporeal and affirm that by a vertue deriv'd from the first benediction it can propagate its like one soul emitting another as the body doth the matter of Generation The manner of which spiritual production useth to be illustrated by one candles lighting another and a mans begetting a thought in anothers mind without diminishing of his own This is the most favourable representation of this opinion that I can think on And yet if we nearly consider it it will appear most absurd unphilosophical For if one soul produce another 't is either out of nothing or something praeexistent If the former 't is an absolute creation which all philosophy concludes impossible for a Creature And if it be pretended that the Parent doth it not by his proper natural virtue but by a strength imparted by God in the first blessing Increase and multiply so that God is the prime agent he only the instrument I rejoin that then either God hath thereby obliged himself to put forth a new and extraordinary power in every such occasion distinct from his influence in the ordinary course of nature Or else 2 he only concurres by his providence as he doth to our other natural actions we having this Ability bestowed upon our very natures He that asserts the first runs upon all the rocks that he would avoid in the former Hypothesis of continual Creation and God will be made the cause of the sin and misery of his spotless and blameless creatures which absurdities he cannot shun by saying that God by interposing in such productions doth but follow the rules of acting which he first made while man was innocent For certainly infinite goodnesse would never have tyed up it self to such Laws of working as he foresaw would presently bring unavoidable inconvenience misery and ruine upon the best part of his workmanship And for the second way it supposeth God to have no more to do in this action then in our eating and drinking Consequently here is a creation purely natural And â—methinks if we have so vast a power to â—ring the ends of contradictorys together â—omthing out of nothing which some deny to Omnipotence it self t is much we cannot conscrve in being our creature 〈◊〉 produced nor our own intimate selves since conservation is not more then creation And t is much that in other thing we should give such few specimens of so vast an ability or have a power so divine and excellent and no faculty to discerne it by Again 2 if the Soul be immediately produced out of nothing be the agent who it will God or the Parent it will be pure and sinlesse For supposing our parents
a delusion and submit so impotently to the first temptation He may please to consider that the difficulty is the same supposing him just then to have been made if we grant him but that purity and those great perfections both of will and understanding which orthodox theology allows him Yea again 4 I might ask What inconvenience there is in supposing that Adam himself was one of those delinquent souls which the divine pitty and compassion had thus set up again that so so many of his excellent creatures might not be lost and undone irrecoverabiy but might act anew though upon a lower stage in the universe A due consideration of the infinite foecundity and fulnesse of the divine goodnesse will if not warrant yet excuse such a supposition But now if it be demanded What Adam's standing had been to his posterity had he continued in the state of innocence and how sin and misery is brought upon us by his Fall according to this Hypothesis I answer that then among many other great priviledges he had transsmitted downwards by way of natural generation that excellent and blessed temper of body which should have been like his own happy crasis So that our apprehensions should have been more large and free our affections more regular and governable and our inclinations to what is good and vertuous strong and vigorous For we cannot but observe in this state how vast an influence the temper of our bodyes hath upon our minds both in reference to intellectual and moral dispositions Thus daily experience teacheth us how that according to the ebb or flow of certain humours in our bodies our witts are either more quick free and sparkling or else more obtuse weak and sluggish And we find that there are certain clean and healthy dispositions of body which make us cheerful and contented others on the contrary â—orose melancholly and dogged And 't is easie to observe how age or sicknesse sowres and crabbs our natures I might instance in allmost all other qualities of the mind which are strangely influencâ— and modifyed according to the bodie 's constitution But none will deny so plain a truth and therefore I forbear to insist further on it Nor need I mention any more advantages so many and such great ones being consequent upon this But our great Protoplast and representative falling through his unhappy disobedience besides the integrity and rectitude of his mind he lost also that blessed constitution of Body which would have been so great a priviledg to his off spring so that it became now corrupt weak and indisposed for the nobler exercises of the soul and he could transmit no better to us then himself was owner of Thus we fell in him and were made miserable by his transgression We have bodies convey'd to us which strangely do bewitch and betray us And thus we all bear about us the marks of the first apostacy There are other sad effects of his defection but this may suffice for my present purpose Thus we see how that the derivation of original depravity from Adam is as clear in this Hypothesis as can be pretended in either of the other And upon other Accounts it seems to have much the advantage of both of them As will appear to the unprejudiced in what is further to be discours'd of Finally therefore If the urgers of the Letter of Genesis of either side against this Hypothesis would but consider That the souls that descend hither for their praevarication in another state lye in a long condition of silence and insensibility before they appear in terrestrial bodies each of them then might from the doctrine of Praeexistence thus stated gain all the advantages which he supposeth to have by his own opinion and avoid all those absurdities which he seeth the other run upon If the Assertours of daily Creation think it clear from Scripture that God is the Father of Spirits and immediate maker of souls they 'l find the same made good and assented to in this Hypothesis And if they are unwilling to hold any thing contrary to the Nature of the soul which is immortal and indiscerpible the Doctrine of Praeexistence amicably closeth with them in this also And if the Patrons of Traduction would have a way how sin and misery may be propagated from our first Parent without aspersing the divine Attributes or affirming any thing contrary to the phaenomena of Providence and Nature this Hypothesis will clear the businesse It giving us so fair an Account how we all dye in Adam without blotting the Wisdome Justice or Goodnesse of God or affirming any thing contrary to the Appearances of Nature I have been the longer on this Argument because 't is like to be one main objection And we see it is so far from prejudicing that it is no inconsiderable evidence of the truth of Praeexistence And now besides this that I have named I cannot think of any Arguments from Scripture against this Doctrine considerable enough to excuse a mention of them However if the candid Reader will pardon the impertinency I 'le present to view what I find most colourable Therefore 2 It may be some are so inadvertent as to urge against our souls having been of old that Sacred writ says We are but of Yesterday which expression of divine Scripture is questionlesse to be understood of our appearance on this stage of Earth And is no more an Argument against our Praeexistence then that other phrase of his Before 〈◊〉 go hence and Bee no more is against our future existence in an other state after the present life is ended Nor will it prove more the business it is brought for then the expression of Rachels weeping for her Children because they were not will inferre that they were absolutely nothing Nor can any thing more be made 3 Of that place in Ecclesiastes Yea better is he than both they meaning the dead and living which hath not yet been since besides that 't is a like scheme of speech with the former it seems more to favour then discountenance Praeexistence for what is absolutely nothing can neither be worse nor better Moreover we comming from a state of silence and inactivity when we drop into these bodies we were before as if we had not been and so there is better ground in this case for such a manner of speaking then in meer non-appearance which yet scripture phraseth a Not being And now I cannot think of any place in the sacred volume more that could make a tolerable plea against this Hypothesis of our souls having been before they came into these bodyes except 4 Any will draw a negative Argument from the History of the Creation concluding that the Souls of men were not made of old because there is no mention there of any such matter To which I return briefly That the same Argument concludes against the being of Angells of whose creation there is no more say'd in the first story then of this inferiour rank
in a contrary belief when as others are as fatally set against these opinions and can never be brought favourably to resent them Every soul brings a kind of sense with it into the world whereby it tastes and relisheth what is suitable to its peculiar temper And notions will never lye easily in a mind that they are not fitted to some can never apprehend that for other then an Absurdity which others are so clear in that they almost take it for a First principle And yet the former hath all the same evidence as the latter This I have remarkably taken notice of in the opinion of the extension of a spirit Some that I know and those inquisiâ—ve free and ingenuous by all the proof and evidence that is cannot be reconciled to it Nor can they conceive any thing extended but as a Body Whereas other deep and impartial searchers into nature cannot apprehend it anything at all if not extended but think it must then be a mathematical point or a meer non-entity I could instance in other speculations which I have observ'd some to be passionate Embracers of upon the first proposal when as no arguments could prevail on others to think them tolerable But there needs no proof of a manifest observation Therefore before I goe further I would demand whence comes this meer notional or speculative variety were this difference about sensibles yea or about things depending on the imagination the influence of the body might then be suspected for a cause But since it is in the most abstracted Theories that have nothing to do with the grosser phantasmes since this diversity is found in minds that have the greatest care to free themselves from the deceptions of sense and intanglements of the body what can we conclude but that the soul it self is the immediate subject of all this variety and that it came praejudiced and prepossest into this body with some implicit notions that it had learnt in another And if this congruity to some opinions and averseneâ—e to others be congenial to us and not advenient from any thing in this state 't is me thinks clear that we were in a former For the soul in its first and pure nature hath no idiosynerasies that is hath no proper natural inclinations which are not competent to others of the same kind and condition Be sure they are not fatally determin'd by their natures to false and erroneous apprehensions And therefore since we find this determination to one or other falshood in many if not most in this state and since 't is very unlikely it is derived only from the body custom or education what can we conceive on 't but that our souls were tainted with these peculiar and wrong corruptions before we were extant upon this stage of Earth Besides 't is easie to observe the strange and wonderful variety of our geniusses one mans nature inclining him to one kind of study and imployment anothers to what is very different Some almost from their very cradles will be addicted to the making of figures And in little mechanical contrivances others love to be riming almost as soon as they can speak plainly and are taken up in smal essays of Poetry Some will be scrawling pictures and others take as great delight in some pretty offers at Musick and vocal harmony Infinite almost are the ways in which this pure natural diversity doth discover it selfe Now to say that all this variety proceeds primarily from the meer temper of our bodys is me thinks a very poor and unsatisfying Account For those that are the most like in the temperayr complexion of their bodys are yet of a vastly differing Genius Yea they that havebeen made of the same clay cast in the same mould and have layn at once in the same natural bed the womb yea whose bodies have been as like as their state and fortunes and their education usages the same yet even they do not unfrequently differ as much from each other in their genius and dispositions of the mind as those that in all these particulars are of very different condition Besides there are all kind of makes forms dispositions tempers and complexions of body that are addicted by their natures to the same exercises and imployments so that to ascribe this to any peculiarity in the Body is me seems a very improbable solution of the Phaenomenon And to say all these inclinations are from custom or education is the way not to be believed since all experience testifies the contrary What then can we conjecture is the cause of all this diversity but that we had taken a great delight and pleasure in some things like and analogous unto'these in a former condition which now again begins to put forth it selfe when we are awakened out of our silent recess into a state of action And though the imployments pleasures and exercises of our former life were without question very different from these in the present estate yet 't is no doubt but that some of them were more confamiliar and analogous to some of our transactions than others so that as any exercise or imployment here is more suitable to the particular dispositions that were praedominant in the other state with the more peculiar kindnesse is it regarded by us and the more greedily do our inclinations now fasten on it Thus if a Musitian should be interdicted the use of all musical instruments and yet might have his choice of any other Art or profession 't is likely he would betake himselfe to Limning or Poetry these exercises requiring the same disposition of wit and genius as his beloved Musick did And we in like manner being by the fate of our wretched descent hindred from the direct exercising our selves about the objects of our former delights and pleasures do yet assoon as we are able take to those things which do most correspond to that genius that formerly inspired us And now 't is time to take leave of the Arguments from Reason that give evidence for Praeexistence If any one think that they are not so Demonstrative but that they may be answered or at least evaded I pray him to consider how many demonstrations he ever met with that a good wit resolv'd in a contrary cause could not shuffle from the edge of Or let it be granted that the Arguments I have alledged are no infallible or necessary proofs yet if they render my cause but probable yea but possible I have won what I contended for For it having been made manifest by as good evidence as I think can be brought for any thing that the way of new creations is most inconsistent with the honor of the blessed Attributes of God And that the other of Traduction is most impossible and contradictious in the nature of things There being now no other way left but Praeexstence if that be probable or but barely possible 't is enough to give it the victory And whether all that hath been said prove
ridiculous just like the common people who judging all customes and fashions by their own account those of other nations absurd and barbarous 'T is well for those smiling Confuters that they were not bred in Mahumetism for then without doubt they would have made sport of Christianity But since they are so disposed let them laugh at the opinion I have undertaken for till they understand it I know who in the judgement of wise men will prove Ridiculous It was from this very principle that the most considerable truthes that ever the world was acquainted with were to the Iews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness and 't was such a spirit as reigns in these children of self-confidence that call'd S. Paul a babler And methinks till these narrow scul'd people could boast themselves infallible and all their opinions an unerring Canon common modesty and civility should teach them better manners then at first dash to judge that a ridiculous absurdity which the greatest and wisest sages that inlightned the antient world accounted so sound and and probable a Conclusion Especially it being a matter not determin'd against but rather countenanc't in Scripture as will appear hereafter But opiniative ignorance is very weak immoral And till those slight and vulgar decerners have learn't that first principle of true wisdome To judge nothing till they throughly understand it have weighed it in the ballance of impartial Reason 't is to no purpose to spend ones breath upon them Courteous Reader in the Authours absence you are desired to correct the Printers Errours Lux Orientalis CHAP. I. The opinions proposed concerning the original of Souls IT hath always been found a matter of discouraging difficulty among those that have busied themselves in such Injuiries To determine the Soul 's original â—nsomuch that after all the contests and disputes that have been about it many of the wisest Inquisitors have concluded it undeterminable or if they have sate down in either of the 2 opinions viz. of it's immediate Creation or Traduction which of later ages have been the only competitors they have been driven to it rather from the absurdities of the opposite opinion which they have left then drawn by any rational alliciency in that which they have taken to And indeed if we do but impartially consider the grand inconveniences which each party urgeth against the others Conclusion it would even tempt one to think that both are right in their opposition and neither in their assertion And since each side so strongly oppugns the other and so weakly defends it self 't is a shrewd suspicion that they are both mistaken Wherefore if there be a third that can lay any probable claim to the truth it deserves to be heard to plead its cause and if it be not chargeable with the contradictions or absurdities either of the one or other to be admitted Now though these later ages have concluded the matter to lye between immediate Creation and seminal Traduction yet I find that the more antient â—imes have pitcht upon Praeexistence as more likely than either For the platoâ—nists Pythagoreans the Chaldâ—an Wise men the Jewish Rabbins and some of the most learned and antient Fathers were of this opinion Wherefore I think we owe so much at least to the Mentory of those grave Sages 〈◊〉 to examine this Doctrine of theirs and if neither of the later Hypotheses can ease our anxious minds or free themselves from absurdities and this Grey Dogma fairly clear all doubts and be obnoxious to no such contradictions I see no reason but we may give it a favourable admittance Till something else appear more concinnous and rational Therefore let us take some account of what the 2 first opinions alledge one against another and how they are proved by their promoters and defendants now if they be found unable to withstand the shock of one anothers opposition we may reasonably cast our eies upon the third to see what force it brings to vouch its interest and how it will behave it self in the encounter CHAP. II. Daily creation of Souls is inconsistent with the Divine Attributes THe first of these opinions that offers it self to Tryal is that God daily creates humane souls which immediately are united unto the bodies that Generation hath prepared for them Of this side are our later Divines and the generality of the Schoolmâ—n But not to be born down by Authoritys Let us consider what reason stands against it Therefore 1 If our Souls came immediately out of the hands of God when we came first into these bodies Whence then are those enormously brutish inclinations that strong natural proclivity to vice and impiety that are exstant in the children of men All the works of God bear his image and are perfect in their kind Purity is his nature and what comes from him proportionably to its capacity partakes of his perfections Every thing in the natural world bears the superscription of his wisdome and goodness and the same fountain cannot send forth sweet waters and bitter Therefore 't is a part of our alleagiance to our Maker to believe that he made us pure and innocent and if we were but just then framed by him when we were united with these terrestrial bodiâ—s whence should we contract such degenerate propensions Some tell us that this impuâ—ity was immediately deriv'd from the bodies we are unired to But how is it possible that purely passive insensible Matter should transfuse habits or inclinations into a Nature that is quite of an other Make and Quality How can such a cause produce an effect so disproportionate Matter can do nothing but by motion and what relation hath that to a moral contagion How can a Body that is neither capable of sense nor sin infect a soul as soon as 't is unied to it with such vitious debauched dispositions But others think to evade by saying That we have not these depravities in our natures but contract them by custome education and evill usages How then comes it about that those that have had the same care and industry used upon them and have been nurtured nuder the same d scipline and severe oversight do so vastly and even to wonder differ in their inclinations How is it that those that are under continual temptations to vice are yet kept within the bounds of vertue and sobriety And yet that others that have strong motives and allurements to the contrary should violently break out into all kinds of extravagance and impiety Sure there is some what more in the matter than those general causes which may be common to both and which many times have quite contrary effects 2 This Hypothesis that God continually creates humane souls in these bodies consists not with the honour of the Divine Attributes For 1 How stands it with the goodness and benignity of that God who is Love to put pure and immaculate spirits who were capable of living to him and with him into such
't is an unbecomming apprehension of the Majesty on high to suppose him assistant to unlawful and unclean coitions by creating a soul to animate the impure foetus And to think It is in the power of brutish lust to determine Omnipotence to create a Soul whensoever a couple of unclean adulterers shall think fit to join in their bestial pleasures is methinks to have a very mean apprehension of the divine Majesty and Purity This is to make him the worst of Servants by supposing him to serve his creature's vices to wait upon the vilest actions and to engage the same Infinite Power that made the world for the perfecting what was begun by dissolute wantons This Argument was used of old by pious and learned Origen and hath been imployed in the same service since by his Modern defendents But I foresee an evasion or two that possibly with some may stand for an answer the removal of which will clear the businesse It may be pretended that God's attending to create souls for the supply of such generations is but an act of his justice for the detection and consequently punishment of such lawless offenders which therefore will be no more matter of disparagement then the waiting of an Officer of justice to discover and apprehend a Malefactour But this Subterfuge cannot elude the force of the Argument for it hath no place at all in most adulteries yea great injustice and injury is done many times by such illegitimate births the child of a stranger being by this means admitted to carry away the inheritance from the lawful off-spring Besides God useth not ordinarily to put forth his Almighty power to discover secret miscarriages except sometimes for very remarkable and momentous ends but leaves hidden iniquiâ—es to be the objects of his own castigations And if discovery of the fault be the main end of such creations methinks that might be done at a cheaper rate that should not have brought so much inconvenience with it or have exposed his own innocent and harmlesse off-spring to undeserv'd Reproach and Infamy But further it may be suggested that it is no more indecent for God to create souls to furnish those unlawful Generations then it is that a man should be nourisht by meat that he hath unlawfully come by or that the Cattle which he hath stoln should ingender with his own But the difference of these instances from the case in hand is easily discernable in that the nourishment and productions spoken of proceed in a set orderly way of natural causes which work fatally and necessarily without respect to morall circumstances And there is no reason it should be in the power of a sinful creature to ingage his Maker to pervert or stop the course of nature when he pleaseth But in the case of creating souls God is supposed to act by explicit and immediate Will the suspending of which in such a case as this is far different in point of credit and decorum from his altering the setled Laws he hath set in the Creation and turning the world upside-down I might further add 4ly That it seems very incongruous and unhandsome to suppose that God should create a souls for the supply of one monstrous body And of such prodigious productions there is mention in History That 's a remarkable instance in Sennertus of a Monster born at Emmaus with two hearts and two heads the diversity of whose appeâ—ites perceptions and affections testified that it had two souls within that bi-partite habitation Now to conceive the most wise Maker and Contriver of all things immediately to create two souls for a single body rather then suffer that super-plus of matter which constitutes the monstrous excrescence to prove effoete inanimate is methinks a derogatory apprehension of his wisdome and supposeth him to act more ineptly in the great and immediate instances of his power than in the ordinary course of nature about less noble and accurate productions Or if it be pretended that Souls were sent into them while the bodies were yet distinct but that after wards they grew into one This I say will not heal the breach that this Hypothesis makes upon the divine Wisdome it â—acitely reflecting a shameful oversight upon Omniscience that he should not be aware of the future coalescence of these bodies into one when he made souls for them or at least 't is to suppose him knowingly to act ineptly Besides that the rational soul is not created till the body as to the main stroaks of it at least is framed is the general opinion of the Assertours of daily creation So that then there is no roome for this evasion And now one would think that an opinion so very obnoxious and so lyable to such grand inconveniences should not be admitted but upon most pressing reasons and ineludable demonstrations And yet there is not an argument that I ever heard of from reason to inforce it but only such as are brought from the impossibility of the way of Traduction which indeed is chargeable with as great absurdities as that we have been discoursing of 'T is true several Scriptures are prest for the service of the cause but I doubt much against their intent and inclination General testimonies there are to prove that God is the Father and Creatour of Souls which is equally true whether we suppose it made just as it is united to these bodies or did praeexist and was before them But that it is just then created out of nothing when first it comes into these earthly bodies I know not a word in the inspired Writings that speaks it For that saying of our Saviour My Father worketh hitherto and I work is by the most judicious understood of the works of preservation and providence Those of creation being concluded within the first Hebdomade accordingly as is exprest in the History that God on the seventh day rested from all his works Nor can there an instance be given of any thing created since or is there any pretended but that which hath been the subject of our inquiry which is no inconsiderable presumption that that was not so neither since the divine way of working is not pariâ— colour or humoursome but uniform and consonant to the laws of exactest wisdome So that for us to suppose that God after the compleating of his Creation and the laws given to 〈◊〉 things for their action and continuancâ— to be every moment working in a quitâ— other way in one instance of beings thaâ— he doth in all besides is methinks a somâ— what odd apprehension especially wheâ— no Reason urgeth to it and Scripture silent For such places as this the 〈◊〉 of the Spirits of all flesh the Father 〈◊〉 Spirits The spirit returns to God 〈◊〉 gave it The souls which I have madâ— We are his off-spring Who formeth 〈◊〉 spirit of man within him and the like signifie no more but that our souls 〈◊〉 a nearer relation to God then our bodies as being his immediate
the soul hath to exert in a body would have been idle and to no purpose But 1 the most that can be argued from such like objections is that we know not the manner of the thing and are no Arguments against the assertion it self And were it granted that the particular state of the soul before it came hither is inconceivable yet this makes no more against it then it doth against it's after-condition which these very objectors hold to be so as to the particular modus But a Why is it so absurd that the soul should have actuated another kind of body before it came into this Even here 't is immediately united to a purer vehicle moves and acts the grosser body by it And why then might it not in its former and purer state of Life have been join'd only to such a refined body which should have been suitable to its own perfection and purity I 'me sure many if not the most of the Antient Fathers thought Angells themselves to be embodyed and therefore they reputed not this such a grosse absurdity But an occasion hereafter will draw our pen this way again and therefore I pass it to a third return to this objection 3 Therefore though it were granted that the soul lived afore-times without a body what greater incongruity is there in such a supposition then that it should live and act after death without any union with matter or any body whatsoever as the objectors themselves conceive it doth But all such objections as these will fly away as mists before the sun when we shall come particularly to state the Hypothesis And therefore I may be excused from further troubling my self and the Reader about them here Especially since as hath been intimated they prove nothing at all but that the objectors cannot conceive vvhat manner of state that of Praeexistence was which is no prejudice to the opinion it self that our souls were extant before these earthly bodies Thus then I hope I have clearly enough made good that all souls might have been created from the beginning for ought any thing that is made known either in the Scriptures or our reasons to the contrary And thereby have remov'd those prejudices that would have stood in the way of our conclusion Wherefore we may now without controul from our proof of That it may be so pass on to enquire whether indeed it is so and see whether it may as well be asserted as defended And truly considering that both the other ways are impossible and this third not at all unreasonable it may be thought needlesse to bring more forces into the field to gain it the victory after its enemies are quite scattered and defeated Yet however for the pomp and triumph of truth though it need not their service we shall add some positive Arguments whereby it may appear that not only all other ways are dangerous and unpassable and this irreproveable but also that there is direct evidence enough to prove it solid and rational And I make my first consideration of this kind a second Argument CHAP. VI. A second Argument for Praeexistence drawn from the consideration of the Divine Goodnesse which alwaies doth what is best 2 THen whoever conceives rightly of God apprehends him to be infinite and immense Goodnesse who is alwaies shedding abroad of his own exuberant fulnesse There is no straightness in the Deity no bounds to the ocean of Love Now the divine Goodnesse referrs not to himself as ours extends not unto him He acts nothing for any self-accomplishment being essentially and absolutely compleat and perfect But the object and term of his goodnesse is his creatures good and happinesse in their respective capacities He is that infinite fountain that is continually overflowing and can no more cease to shed his influences upon his indigent dependents then the sun to shine at noon Now as the infinite Goodnesse of the deity obligeth him alwaies to do good so by the same reason to do that which is best since to omit any degrees of good would argue a defect in goodnesse supposing wisdome to order and power to execute He therefore that supposeth God not alwaies to do what is best and best for his Creatures for he cannot act for his own Good apprehends him to be lesse good then can be conceived and consequently not infinitely so For what is infinite is beyond measure and apprehension Therefore to direct this to our purpose God being infinitely good and that to his Creatures and therefore doing alwaies what is best for them methinks it roundly follows that our souls lived and injoy'd themselves of old before they came into these bodies For since they were capable of living and that in a much better and happier state long before they descended into this region of death and misery and since that condition of life and self-enjoyment would have been better then absolute not-being may we not safely conclude from a due consideration of the divine goodnesse that it was so What was it that gave us our being but the immense goodnesse of our Maker And why were we drawn out of our nothings but because it was better for us to be then not to be Why were our souls put into these bodies and not into some more squallid and ugly but because we are capable of such and 't is better for us to live in these then in those that are lesse sutable to our natures And had it not been better for us to have injoy'd our selves and the bounty and favours of our Maker of old as did the other order of intellectual creatures then to have layn in the comfortless night of nothing till 'tother day Had we not been better on 't to have lived and acted in the joyful regions of light and blessednesse with those spirits that at first had being then just now to jump into this sad plight and state of sin and wretchednesse Infinite Power could as well have made us all at once as the Angells and with as good congruity to our natures we might have liv'd and been happy without these bodies as we shall be in the state of separation since therefore it was best for us and as easy for our Creatour so to have effected it where was the defect if it was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not this to 〈◊〉 his goodnesse and to straight-lace the divine beneficence And doth not the contrary Hypothesis to what I am pleading for represent the God of Love as lesse good and bountiful then a charitable mortall who would neglect no opportunity within his reach of doing what good he could to those that want his help and assistance I confesse the world generally have such narrow and unbecomming apprehensions of God and draw his picture in their imaginations so like themselves that few I doubt will feel the force of this Argument and mine own observation makes me enter the same suspicion of its successe that some others have who have used it 'T is only
infinite communication of goodnesse is better then a Finite To this because I doubt I have distrest the Readers patience already I answer briefly 1 Every one that believes the infiniteness of Gods goodness is as much obliged to answer this objection as I am For it will be said infinite goodness doth good infinitely and consequently the effects to which it doth communicate are infinite For if they are not so it might have communicated to more and thereby have done more good then now 't is supposed to do and by consequence now is not infinite And to affirm that goodnesse is infinite where what it doth and intends to do is but finite will be said to be a contradiction since goodness is a relative term and in God always respects somewhat ad extra For he cannot be said to be good to himself he being a nature that can receive no additional perfection Wherefore this Objection makes no more against mine Argument then it doth against the infinity of the divine goodness and therefore I am no more concern'd in it then others Yea 2ly the Scripture affirms that which is the very strength of mine Argument viz. That God made all things best Very Good saith our Translation but the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a particle of the Superlative And therefore every one that owns it's sacred Authority is interested against this objection For it urgeth it had been far more splendid glorious and magnificent for God to have made the universe commensurate to his own immensity and to have produced effects of his power and greatness where ever he himself is viz. in infinite space and duration then to have confined his omnipotence to work only in one little spot of an infinite 〈◊〉 capacity and to begin to act but 'tother day Thus then the late creation and finiteness of the world seem to conflict with the undoubted oracle of truth as well as with mine Argument ment and therefore the objection drawn thence is of no validity 3 Those that have most strenuously defended the orthodox doctrine against the old opinion of the eternity and infinity of the world have asserted it to be impossible in the nature of the thing And sure the Divine benignity obligeth him not to do contradictions or such things as in the very notion of them are impossible But in the case of Praeexistence no such thing can be reasonably pretended as above hath been declared and therefore there is no escaping by this Evasion neither Nor can there any thing else be urged to this purpose but what whoever believes the infinity of the divine bounty will be concern'd to answer And therefore 't will make no more against me then against a truth on all hands confessed Let me only adde this That 't is more becomming us to inlarge our apprehensions of things so as that they may suit the Divine Beneficence then to draw it down to a complyance with our narrow schemes and narrow modells Thus then I have done with the Argument for Praeexistence drawn from the Divine goodnesse And I have been the longer on it because I thought 't was in vain to propose it without taking to task the principal of those objections that must needs arise in the minds of those that are not used to this way of arguing And while there was no provision made to stop up those Evasions that I saw this Argument obnoxious to the using of it I was afraid would have been a prejudice rather then a furtherance of the cause I ingaged it in And therefore I hope the ingenious will pardon this so necessary piece of tediousnesse CHAP. X. A third Argument for Praeexistence from the great variety of mens speculative inclinations and also the diversity of our Genius's copiously urged If these Arguments make Praeexistence but probable 't is enough to gain it the victory BUt now I proceed to another Argument Therefore Thirdly If we do but reflect upon what was said above against the souls daily Creation from that enormous pravity which is so deeply rooted in some mens natures we may thence have a considerable evidence of Praeexistence For as this strong natural propensity to vice and impiety cannot possibly consist with the Hypothesis of the souls comming just out of Gods hands pure and immaculate so doth it most aptly suit with the doctrine of its praeexistence which gives a most clear and apposite account of the phaenomenon For let us but conceive the souls of men to have grown degenerate in a former condition of life to have contracted strong and inveterate habits to vice and Iewdnesse and that in various manners and degrees we may then easily apprehend when some mens natures had so incredibly a depraved tincture and such impetuous ungovernable irreclaimiable inclinations to what is vitious while others have nothing near such wretched propensions but by good education and good discipline are mouldable to vertue This shews a clear way to unriddle this amazing mystery without â—lemishing any of the divine Attributes or doing the least violence to our faculties Nor is it more difficult to conceive how a soul should awaken out of the state of inactivity we speak of with those radical inclinations that by long practice it had contracted then how a Swallow should return to her old trade of living after her winter sleep and silence for those customs it hath been addicted to in the other state are now so deeply fastned and rooted in the soul that they are become even another nature Now then if Praeexistence be not the truth 't is very strange that it should so exactly answer the Phaenomena of our natures when as no other Hypothesis doth any whit tolerably suit them And if we may conclude that false which is so correspondent to all appearances when we know nothing else that can yield any probable account of them and which is not in the least repugnant to any inducement of belief we then strangely forget our selves when we determine any thing We can never for instance conclude the Moon to be the cause of the flux and reflux of the Sea from the answering of her approaches and recesses to its ebbs and swellings Nor at this rate can the cause of any thing else be determin'd in nature But yet besides 2 we might another way inforce this Argument from the strange difference and diversity that there is in mens wits and intellectual craseis as well as in the dispositions of their wills and appetites Even the natural tempers of mens minds are as vastly different as the qualities of their bodys And 't is easy to observe in things purely speculative and intellectual even where neither education or custom have interposed to sophisticate the natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that some men are strangely propense to some opinions which they greedily drink in as soon as they are duly represented yea and find themselves burthened and opprest while their education hath kept them
Elias or one of the Prophets both which I have mention'd before doe clearly enough argue that both the Disciples and the Jews believed Praeexistence And our Saviour saith not a word to disprove their opinion But I spake of this above Now how ever uncouth these allegations may seem to those that never heard these Scriptures thus interpreted yet I am confident had the opinion of Praeexistence been a received Doctrine and had these Texts been wont to be applyed to the proof on 't they would then have been thought to assert it with clear and convictive evidence But many having never heard of this Hypothesis and those that have seldome meeting it mentioned but as a silly dream oâ— antiquated absurdity 't is no wonder that they never suspect it to be lodg'd in the Sacred volumne so that any attempt to confirm it thence must needs seem rather an offer of wit then serious judgement And the places that are cited to that purpose having been freequently read and heard of by those that never discerned them to breath the least air of any such matter as Praexistence their new and unexpected application to a thing so litle thought of must needs seem a wild fetch of an extravagant imagination But however unconclusive the Texts alledged may seem to those a strong prejudice hath shut up against the Hypothesis The learned Jews who where persuaded of this Doctrine thought it clearly enough contain'd in the Old Volume of holy writ and tooke the citations named above for current Evidence And though I cannot Warrant for their Judgement in things yet doubtlesse they were the best judges of their own Language Nor would our School-Doctors have thought it so much a stranger to the New had it had the luck to have been one of their opinions or did they not too frequently apply the sacred Oracles to their own fore-conceived notions But whether what I have brought from Scripture prove any thing or nothing 't is not very materiall since the Hypothesis of Praeexistence stands secure enough upon those Pillars of Reason which have their Foundation in the Attributes of God and the Phaenomena of the world And the Right Reason of a Man is one of the Divine volums in which are written the indeleble Ideas of eternal Truth so that what it dictates is as much the voice of God as if in so many words it were clearly exprest in the written Revelations It is enough therefore for my purpose if there be nothing in the sacred writings contrary to this Hypothesis which I think is made clear enough already And though it be granted that Scripture is absolutely silent as to any assertion of Praeexistence yet we have made it appear that its having said nothing of it is no prejudice but an advantage to the cause CHAP. XII Why the Author thinks himself obliged to descend to some more particular Account of Praeexistence 'T is presumption positively to determine how it was with us of old The Authors designe in the Hypothesis that follows NOw because inability to apprehend the manner of a Thing is a great prejudice against the belief on 't I find my selfe obliged to go a little further then the bare proof and defence of Praeexistence For though what I have said may possibly induce some to think favourably of our conclusion That The souls of men were made before they came into these bodys yet whil they shal think that nothing can be conceived of that former state And that our Praeexistent condition cannot be represented to Humane understanding but as a dark black solitude it must needs weaken the perswasion of those that are lesse confirmed and fill the minds of the inquisitive with a dubious trouble and Anxiety For searching and contemplative Heads cannot be satisfyed to be told That our souls have lived and acted in a former condition except they can be helpt to some more particular apprehension of that stare How we lived and acted of old and how probably we fell from that better life into this Region of misery and imperfection Now though indeed my charity would prompt me to do what I can for the relief and ease of auy modest inquirer yet shall I not attempt to satisfie punctual and eager curiosity in things hidden and unsearchable Much lesse shall I positively determine any thing in matters so Lubricous and uncertain And indeed considering how imperfect our now state is how miserable shallow our understandings are and how little we know of our present selves and the things about us it may seem a desperate undertaking to attempt any thing in this matter Yea when we contemplate the vast circuits of the Divine wisdome and think how much the thoughts and actions of Aeternity and omniscience are beyond ours who are but of Yesterday and know nothing it must needs discourage Confidence it selfe from determining how the Oeconomy of the world of life was order'd in the day the Heavens and Earth were framed There are doubtless infinite ways and methods according to which the unsearchable wisdome of our Maker could have disposed of us which we can have no conceit of And we are little more capable of unerringly resolving our selves now how it was with us of old then a child in the womb is to determine what kind of life it shall live when it is set at liberty from that dark inclosure Therefore let shame and blushing cover his face that shall confidently affirm that 't was thus or thus with us in the state of our Fore-Beings However to shew that it may have been that our Souls did Praeexist though we cannot punctually and certainly conclude upon the Particular State I shall presume to draw up a conceivable Scheame of the Hypothesis And if our narrow minds can think of a way how it might have been I hope no body will deny that the divine wisdom could have contriv'd it so or infinitely better than we can imagine in our little modells And now I would not have it thought that I goe about to insinuate or represent any opinions of mine own or that I am a votary to all the notions I make use of whether of the Antient or more modern Philosophers For I seriously professe against all determinations in this kind But my business onely is by some imperfect hints and guesses to help to apprehend a little how the state of Praeexistence might have been and so to let in some beams of antient and modern light upon this immense darknesse Therefore let the Reader if he please call it a Romantick scheam or imaginary Hypothesis or what name else best fits his phancy and he 'l not offend me Nor do I hold my selfe concern'd at all to vindicate the truth of any thing here that is the fruit of mine own invention or composure Though I confesse I could beg civilityes at least for the notions I have borrowed from great and worthy Sages And indeed the Hypothesis as to the main is derived to us from the