Of the Immortality of the Soul A SERMON Preached before the KING and QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL UPON PALM-SUNDAY 1694. By the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop of NORWICH Published by Their Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCIV The Bishop of Norwich's SERMON OF THE IMMORTALITY of the SOUL Before the KING and QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On Palm-Sunday 1694. OF THE IMMORTALITY of the Soul St. MATTH X. v. 28. And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell WHEN our Lord was about to send his Disciples forth into the World to preach the Gospel he thought it just and necessary to speak of the Dangers unto which they certainly should be exposed by doing their duty and to prepare their minds against them so that they might neither be surprised by Tribulations and Sufferings when they came nor sink under them And to enable them to deal with the most malicious Enemies of his Holy Religion he commands them to furnish their Souls with two excellent Virtues Wisdom and Innocence They were to be wise as Serpents and as harmless as Doves As Wisdom would cause them to decline and avoid all needless hazards and difficulties so Innocence would make them gentle and meek and tender-hearted and not apt to revenge injuries But then that true Wisdom which would secure them from running into unnecessary danger would likewise prompt them readily to encounter and submit to those pains troubles and hardships which were necessary to establish the Heavenly Doctrines of their Master to endure small evils to escape greater and to lay down their lives rather than have both Soul and Bodydestroyed for ever And it must be a mighty encouragement to undertake the Office of Preaching the Gospel which Christ had allotted them that the cruelty of their fiercest Opposers could extend no farther than the body whereas that God whose message they were to Publish could destroy both Soul and Body And fear not them which kill the body c. From which words we may deduce several Observations 1. That the Soul and Body are distinct Beings 2. That after the dissolution of the Body the Soul doth live in the separate state 3. That nothing less than the Almighty Power of God can destroy the Being of the Soul We have a noble Argument before us and which the Infidelity of our times hath render'd very necessary It is our Soul which makes us like God and superior to other Creatures and its subsistence in the boundless Eternity which shall succeed our short abode in this World In treating whereof I shall endeavour to avoid all needless Speculations and confine my self to those Arguments which seem most clearly and strongly to prove the great Truths contained in the Text. The Propositions I chiefly shall insist upon at this time are these two 1. That the Soul and Body are distinct Beings 2. That after the Dissolution of the Body the Soul doth exist and live in the separate State 1. That the Soul and Body are distinct Beings The very Argument our Lord uses to persuade the Disciples not to fear those who can kill the Body rests upon this Supposition That the Soul and Body are Beings distinct one from another For if Men had no Souls or if the Soul was not a different thing from the Body or if other Men had as much Power over the Soul as the Body there would be no Force in his Reasoning But to make this Truth the more evident I shall draw Arguments from these three heads 1. From the distinct Properties of the Soul and Body 2. From the Incapacity of Matter to think 3. From the difference every where supposed in Scripture between the Soul and Body 1. From the distinct Properties of the Soul and Body Now if we will give our selves leave a little to contemplate our own Nature we shall discover in us Powers Qualities and Actions which are peculiar to the Soul and quite different from the Affections and Qualities which belong to the Body Essential Properties of the Soul are to think to understand to will to consider to judge and the like But Inseparable Properties of Body are length breadth thickness size shape c. But as these things may be esteemed Essential some to the Mind and some to the Body for if either you sever Thinking from the Mind or Extention from the Body you can have no Conception or Apprehension of the one or the other So they are very distinct not having the least Affinity each with other thus Consideration Remembrance Judgment Liberty Conscience have no Relation unto Body and do not enter into the Notion and Idea of it neither doth Length Breadth Size Figure Hardness Softness enter into the Conception of a Soul for we never speak of the length or the shape or the bulk or the colour of our Thoughts since that would be absurd Speech by which we could mean nothing So that it is manifest our Souls are distinguisht from our Bodies by Properties which are peculiar and essential to each of them and that we have as clear full and distinct Apprehensions of the Attributes that are Essential to the Soul as of those which are inseparable from the Body For does not every Man as plainly comprehend what is meant by Thinking Considering and Judging as by Dimensions Motion and Divisibility in Bodies Every Man judges says Atticus Platonicus that they are the Properties of the Soul to deliberate to consider and after any manner to think For when he looks upon Body and its Powers and likewise concludes that those kind of Operations cannot belong unto Bodies he presently yields that there is in us some other Thing which does deliberate or advise and that is the Soul 2. I argue that the Soul and Body are distinct substances from the incapacity of matter to think All we know of the Nature and Qualities of Matter we learn from its Operation on our Senses for further than it acts upon some of our Senses we have no notice of it But Matter can no other way work upon our Senses but by motion which is the Cause of all that variety which shews it self in bodies If then Matter can perceive and think and all the Effects and Changes in Matter be wrought by Motion then unto Motion must be ascribed Thought and Perception But as nothing is more unlike than Corporeal Motion and Cogitation so it is unconceiveable how one should be the cause of the other that is how stupid matter by any degree of Motion communicated to it should acquire a Power to consider reflect and remember The Epicureans indeed who hold the Soul corporeal to explain how Matter may perform the Functions of the Mind do teach that the Parts of Matter which go to making a Soul are light and small and of a
globular or round Figure Just as if a massy piece of Lead when melted and form'd into Bullets was in a nearer capacity to think meditate debate and act like a Soul But I appeal to the common sense of Mankind whether that Philosopher has a right to call any Legendary Tale into question who can believe that little balls of Matter by being briskly moved can come to have Understanding Will and Judgment Surely they ought to doubt of nothing who can be perswaded that small Bodies round or of any other shape should by justling and moving one against another be endued with Reason and Wisdom and a Talent to dispute concerning the Nature of their own Beings to raise Questions whether they are Matter or Spirit bodily or incorporeal Substances And not only yield to or resist the impressions of Objects present to them according to the acknowledged Laws of Motion but also reflect on the times long since past and meditate on those which are to come nay stretch out their consideration to infinite Space and eternal Duration But as the Epicureans would rid us of our Difficulties by assigning the Figure of the Parts which compound a corporeal Mind so the Stoicks would make the thing intelligible by describing the kind or sort of Motion which causes Matter to think Now it 's their Doctrine that the Soul is Fire and consequently that it performs its Office by such motion as is in Fire But this is strange Fire which gives us Understanding and yet no Light whereby we may any whit more easily conceive in what manner it is possible for Matter to think For who can shew so much as the shadow of an Argument to move a sober Man to conclude That there should be Reasoning Powers and Faculties any more in a Fire of Coles than in a lump of cold Clay or that a Log of Wood should get sense and understanding by being put into a Flame If Materialists will make their Senses to which they so often appeal the Judges they must confess That the Natural Effect of Fire is to separate and rend the Parts of Bodies asunder which action can bear no faint resemblance to the Thoughts Deliberations and Judgments of the Soul nor to that freedom of Will with which it either sets its Faculties on work or stops them These are some of the gross and nauseous Absurdities which unhappy licentious persons are forced to cram down who yet are so nice and squeamish as not to yield their Assent to any Truths of Religion for which there is not Mathematical Proof or Demonstration Aristotle a man of most profound Judgment and penetrating Thoughts who was of opinion that every thing under the Sun was compounded of the four Elements observing that the Faculties and Operations of human Souls were so remotely distant from all the Phoenomena or Appearances of Bodies was compelled to believe that there was a fifth Essence or Element of which only Souls were formed To remember the past to consider the present and provide for the future to encrease our own Knowledge and to improve others and such like all the products of a thinking faculty were things in the Opinion of this great Philosopher not possible to be accounted for by the Affections and Modes and Qualities of matter 3. The Soul and Body will appear distinct Substances from the difference every where supposed in Holy Scripture between them To shew which I begin with the Creation of Man And God said Let us make man in our image after our likeness But man is not like God in respect of his Body because God hath no body Besides the body in its nature is divisible and corruptible but God without change or decay is eternally the same a Being for ever infinitely perfect The similitude therefore between God and Man must be with relation to the Soul which is a Spirit as God is a Spirit The distinction between Soul and Body may also be observed from the manner wherein God created Man And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul His Body was made of the Earth but his Soul which gave life to it came immediately from God The Soul therefore was not created of the same Substance nor together with the Body but of one better and more Divine as the Scripture shews For of the brute Creatures void of Reason it says That the Water brought forth some and the Earth others but of Man that God breathed into him the breath of Life Manifesting thereby that he had an Intellectual and Rational Nature more noble than that of Brutes and near of kin to the Divine Beings above Accordingly also Solomon pronounceth that at the hour of death The spirit of man goeth upward and that the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth In which Author the wisest of men if his Authority may be of any weight there is another Passage that demonstrates the Soul and Body to be distinct Substances and puts the matter beyond a possibility of a contradiction Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it The Soul of the dead remain uncorrupted For God lends men the Spirit and 't is his Image But the Body we have of the Earth and we all being dissolved into it shall be dust but Heaven shall receive the Spirit In pursuance of our Argument it may here be proper to observe how difficult it will be for them who maintain that the Soul is only a mode accident or quality of the Body to give a rational account of Christ's words in our Text Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul c. According to these Philosophers other men may kill the Body but are not able to hurt the Accidents and Qualities of the Body which they are pleased to call the Soul And yet it is most certain that men only can destroy the Accidents and Qualities in Bodies but cannot destroy their Substance which after all force used to it will still subsist in other forms and shapes Insomuch as they quite invert our Saviour's Doctrine it following manifestly from their Assertions that men have only power to kill the Soul that is to destroy the Modes and Accidents in the Body but can do no injury to the Body or Substance it self In one Instance more give me leave to shew how repugnant these wild Opinions are to the Christian Religion And it shall be in the Promise of our Lord to the Penitent Malefactor who was crucified with him to day shalt thou be with me in paradise which in their sense must be thus While the Body of this Sincere Penitent was on the Cross or in the Grave the Modifications and Qualities of his Body were to attend our Saviour into Paradise But I think only to
name such ridiculous stuff is sufficient to confute it nothing being plainer than that men must either part with these Principles or the Doctrines of their Saviour for they can never consist and agree together 2. That after the Dissolution of the Body the Soul doth exist and live in the separate State It appears from our Lord's words fear not them which kill the body c. that he does rather suppose than go to prove the Immortality of the Soul which he took for a granted truth by them steddily believed And therefore it was not his design to convince them that the Soul does live after its separation from the body but to shew that it is such a simple and incorruptible substance that nothing beneath Almighty Power can destroy it But I fear a general decay of Faith and Piety will not only justify but make it requisite that we should endeavour to prove that fundamental Doctrin of the immortality of the Soul the truth whereof our Lord supposed while he was instructing his Disciples 1. The first Argument I shall use for the Immortality of the Soul shall be from the general sense and perswasion of men that the Soul does survive the Body This Belief seems to be as early as the first Inhabitants on the earth for Authors of the greatest Reputation and Antiquity who write of the Opinions and Manners of men do relate almost of every Country that they thought the Soul did subsist after death This Perswasion prevailed among the Jews not only while they were the immediate and peculiar Care of God but hath been diligently preserved and transmitted to their Posterity the Sect of unbelieving Sadduces being long since extinct The Aegyptians a Nation famous for Invention of Arts and Sciences are said first to have taught the Doctrine of Immortality of Souls Which Opinion found Entertainment among all the Antient Inhabitants of the East was the Perswasion also of the old Greeks and Gauls and Thracians This was the Opinion of Homer who preceded all the Sects of Philosophers he in words very like our Saviour's declaring that nothing was so valuable to him as his Soul and he makes Ulysses to summon before him the Souls of the dead and to hold discourse with them And among the old Greek and Latin Poets scarce more than a Dissenter or two from the Judgment of Homer are to be found Thales supposed by some the first Physiologer who treated of Nature is supposed also first to have taught the Immortality of Souls But as Herodotus does ascribe the first publication thereof to the AEgyptians so Pausanias ascribes it to the Chaldaeans and Indian Magi as Tully does it to Pherecydes Pythagoras's Master and some to others insomuch that this belief of the Souls future Subsistence seems so general and very ancient that the first Writers are not able to discover the Authors of it or fix the time of its beginning This also is the avow'd Doctrine of Pythagoras the Founder of the Sect of Italick Philosophers and of Plato with all his judicious Interpreters and Plotinus Amelius Porphyrius Proclus Alcinous And into this List we may bring Aristole about whom tho' there is some Controversy yet Photius affirms that they did not dive deep enough into his Profound Mind who were of another OpinÃon And as Moses relates that after the body was formed of the Earth God did breath a living Soul into it so Aristotle expresly teaches that the Soul only enters the body from without and is of Divine Extraction he may also pass for a good Witness both when he affirms that the Renowned Philosophers who were before him believed that the Soul lived after it had left the body and also when he says no Philosopher before him held the World to be Eternal That great man Tully urges for the truth of this Doctrine Immemorial Tradition that we have the consent of all Antiquity for it and that the voice of all men is the Law of Nature and that all are much concerned for those things which shall take place after death Seneca also treating of the Eternity of Souls does affirm that he has the Publick perswasion on his side and the consent of men who either fear the invisible Powers below or worship those above and that the Soul is of Divine Original obnoxious neither to old age nor death and that as soon as it is set at liberty from the heavy Chains of this Body it will return to its place in Heaven Macrobius declares that the Opinion hath universally obtained as well that the Soul is an incorporeal substance as that it is immortal And as the Belief of Immortality was generally received among the Antients so men all along since have been stedfast and constant to it For from Modern Histories Voyages and Travels it is found to be the common Opinion of the World as much in these later days as it was in old time The Turks have so strong a perswasion both of the Resurrection of the Body and the subsistence of the Soul after it leaves the body that not only the Alcoran but their Offices of Prayer have frequent relation thereunto The Arabian Philosophers think that a virtuous Soul when it has taken leave of the body shall partake of immense Pleasures and Joys and be as the chief Angels which are nearest to God The Chinese hold the Soul spiritual and separable from the body and that after death pious Souls shall be rewarded and bad souls tormented They who have of late travelled in Persia India Japan and other Countries of the East have observed the same Belief to prevail among the present Dwellers of those places and the like accounts we have of Southern Inhabitants from them who have visited Guinea and other parts of Africa And though they who first touched at the Cape of Good Hope either through want of time rightly to be informed or not having Curiosity sufficient to discover the Truth did relate the people of those Parts to have no Religion yet we have quite another story of them from late Travellers who with more care and accuracy have searched into those matters And what is remarkable the first Discoverers of America found the people of Brasil Canada Virginia c. tho severed from the rest of the world by the vast Ocean and with whom probably they had no intercourse in many ages to have generally the same belief of the Souls Immortality But after all it must be allowed That there have been here and there some who resolving to live wickedly in this Life have pretended to deny a Future One even the Christian Church hath not wholly escaped this Infection For within its Pale some have started up who maintain the Impious Doctrines of Epicurus to the great dishonour of the Lord who bought them