Procreation of a Body Mr. M. and his Aids reject the very true way of producing Mankind viz. That of Generation being convinced that whatsoever is Generated grows decays and is corruptible Orig. Sacr. P. 432. our Learned Bishop says Nothing in the World produced by Generation can be incorruptible To avoid therefore this Rock of producing the Soul by Generation tho' it be never so true Pherecydes the Invenrer of the Immaterial Opinion with his Scholars and Successors Pythagoras and Plato and those who came after them pretended another sort of Original of the Soul The more Ancient held That Mens Souls did Pre-exist long before they came into the several Bodies and had been Existent in a former World before the present World and for Offences given to God in their former Stations they were Doomed to inhabit Bodies of Clay in this World sometimes of Men and sometimes of Beasts as a Purgatorial Punishment upon them that they liv'd in such Bodies as in Cages and Prisons desiring continually to be delivered from them and to escape thence into the open Air. But the latter and Christian Platonists amongst whom some of the Fathers say They Believ'd That God at the Creation of the World made a vast number of Humane Souls enough by coming going and removing to Actuate and Inhabit all such Humane Bodies as should after be Generated in the World and that all Mens Souls are still of that Pre-existent Nature But Mr. M. and his present Aids upon divers inconveniencies found in this Opinion have utterly rejected this sort of Original of Humane Souls and give themselves up to maintain this sort of Original of them viz. The Opinion of God's new Creation of a Soul for every new Procreation of a Humane Body be the same never so foul and Beastly in Adultery Incest or the Conjunction of Men with Beasts If the Product fall out to be of Humane shape God say they is ready at every such Procreation to make and does Create a new clean and spotless Said to Actuate and Inhabit such a newly Procreated Body The Observer hereupon conceives That all Creations are the Miraculous Works of God! They do not tell us whether their sort of Creation be out of Matter or Ex nihilo but which soever of those ways it be it is however a Miraculous Work of God And by this course such Miracles must be multiplied continually over the Face of the whose Earth and through the Minutes of Time which pass through the Ages of it Another Miracle necessary for the maintenance of the Immaterial Doctrine and flowing from such new Creation of Souls is this That these new Created Pure Innocent Souls are put thrust or cast into the Seminal Matter not exceeding perhaps the bigness of a Nutt derived and coming from the Loins of Adam and tinctured like an unsavory Cask with a foul Ingredient of Original Sin This unhappy Intelligent Spirit presently infected with that abominable Poyson and going on to increase in Conjunction with such a Body is by no Natural force able to shake off this Deplorable Corruption but it goes on increasing together with the Body and the Soul till they both together Taste deeply the ill Effects of it in this Life and when separated this at first Pure and Innocent Soul in the Natural Course of it falls or is carried to be a Companion of Devils and a fellow-sufferer in the Torments of Hell And this is a second Miracle necessary for the maintenance of the Soul's Immortality They are both of them extremely improbable and very little agreeable with the Goodness and Glory of God To these a Third Immaterial Doctrine shall be added necessary for the maintenance of that opinion viz. That Souls of Dying Persons go immediately before God and receive a a Judgment and Doom from him within a short time after their Deaths The Observer has said in his larger Treatise and repeats it here in this Place That if the Immaterialists can by Reason or Scripture make a clear Proof of any one of these Three Tenets which are all necessary for the maintenance of their Doctrine viz. Of this new Creation of Souls This sort of infecting them with Original Sin Or that there is an intermediate Judgment betwixt Mens Deaths and the Resurrection If they can make a good clear Proof of any one of these Points from Reason and Scripture or from either of them the Observer will be ready to submit to their Judgment in the main Point of the Immortality P. 72 Mr. M. saies The knowledge of the Spirits above us must arise from the knowledge of our own Souls The Observer denies this Assertion and saies That the knowledge of Superiour Spirits has two other Originals viz. Sensation and Revelation and we do plainly know and perceive more concerning Immaterial Spirits by the effects of their Operations and such Revelations as the Scripture makes of them than either is Revealed to us or can be perceived by us of such an Immaterial Spirit as Mr. M. pretends to be in us Mr. M. saies further That the knowledge of our own Souls must necessarily go before the knowledge of God The Observer saies That both by Reason and Revelation we may and do attain to a more large knowledge of God and a greater certainty of his Being and Actions than Men yet ever have had or are ever likely to have of the Immaterial Intelligent Soul of Man P. 73. Mr. M. Quotes a saying of Epicurus That God is not angry or pleased with any Men. Which he says is a Notion more befitting Sardanapalus than a Deity This Comment of Mr. M. upon his Quotation speaks him in the Observer's Judgment a Man of a narrow Capacity and therefore he will endeavour to inlarge his Thoughts upon this Subject It passes for an accepted Rule That if the Words of a Speaker or Writer may fairly and easily be taken in a good Sense it is a sign of ill Nature at least to take them in a bad one To understand the Words of Epicurus both in a true and a good Sense Men must reflect with great Observation upon such an Idea as the Scriptures have Revealed and Reason Teaches to Believe concerning the Being of God Job 23.3 O that I knew where I might find God he works round about me but I cannot perceive him with what words shall one speak of him Surely if one speak of him he that doth so shall even be swallowed up and confounded We cannot order our Words concerning him nor have we an Order of Words that can reach him He has no particular Faculties Powers or Parts but being One and entire is All in One. Concerning him Job 40.5 once have I spoken but I will not Answer yea twice but I will proceed no further This Transcendent Immensity having no Parts contained in no Place affected with no Time touched with no Passion filling and in himself containing all Places and Things Guiding without Care Working without Labour Commanding without
patiently what they know they have deserved and there is no thanks or commendations to be expected for their so doing But if there happen to be much Truth in this Opinion he may add to his Patience Hope and some measure of Joyfulness For the Apostle there adds If ye do well and suffer for it patiently this is acceptable with God and Chap. 3.14 If ye suffer for the truth's sake happy are ye James 1.2 My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations viz. of this kind And so the Hebrews took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods which was perhaps a greater degree of Persecution Matth. 5.11 Blessed are ye when Men shall revile you and persecute you for the truth's sake But this measure of Joyfulness which belongs to a Reviling for Truth 's sake shall by the Observer be put off and deferred till the Point here in Question shall be more fully Examined and Discussed And therefore his Intention is to sit down with the Practice of our Lord's Rule In your patience possess ye your Souls without making any other return to these Elders or Ministers than by repeating to them the Motto of the Garter viz. HONI SO IT QVI MAL Y PENSE with Advice to remember our Lord 's own Prediction viz. With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again Altho' the Observer never intends to make them any Return of that nature Hence we proceed to the Treatise it self which Mr. M. has divided into Ten Chapters Upon each of which the Observer intends to make some short Observations That it may appear he has Perused and gone through them all Upon Chap. 1. p. 2. He observes That Mr. M. well understands the Powers Men may obtain by getting such an Ascendant over their Proselytes and attaining such an Esteem amongst them as that he may be able to Command their Understandings because perhaps he may say true That they themselves never knew how to use them Secondly p. 8. Mr. M. says many things concerning the Soul which the Observer agrees with him in Mutatis mutandis viz. by changing his Name of Soul into the Terms of the Rational Faculty or Mind of Man which has given vim Intelligendi Volendi cum Angelis and yet be Acted by such Materials as God has Appointed and Formed in Man for those Purposes P. 9 Mr. M. says The Soul of Man was Redeemed by the Sufferings of Christ By which he seems plainly to intend Such a Soul as is Intelligent in it self had once a Being separate from the Body is during Life conjoin'd to the Body and after Death shall Live Act and Suffer in a State of Separation from the Body And then the Observer utterly denies the truth of his Proposition and says The true End of Christ's Coming into the World was to Save Sinners the Persons of them both Souls and Bodies It is an usual Practice of the Scripture both in the Old and New Testament to intend and design the Humane Person by the Term and Name of Soul and the same is also sometimes done by the Name of Body though nothing so often And this is done by the common Synecdoche of Pars pro toto For the Proof of which two Instances of each kind are here intended to be produced First Gen. 3.7 God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living Soul The Observer Asserts That Soul in this Place must intend the Person of Adam and be so understood as if it had been said Man became a Living Person It has been commonly supposed to intend That the Breath which God breathed into Adam's Nostrils became a Living Soul But this surmise is plainly Confuted by the Grammatical Construction of it For the Words which would have suited to that intent should have run thus God breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and that or it viz That Breath became a Living Soul But Moses was so cautious in this Point that he chose to use something of a Tautology in this Place rather than that his Readers should be so mistaken in his meaning He says God made man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life and man became a living soul or Person He would not suffer them to think That Breath became a Living Soul but prevents that Conceit by saying That it was the Man that became the Living Soul or Person Whence this Observer concludes That by the Soul in this Place the Person of Adam was somewhat clearly intended by this Great Prophet and Law-giver of the Jews His next Quotation for this use shall be Isaiah 53.10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin He shall see his seed and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand The Observer says That by Soul in this Place must needs be intended the Person of Christ whose Body as well as Soul was made an Offering for Sin that was bound Whipt Buffetted Spit upon Crowned with Thorns Loaded with his Cross Nailed to it and Expir'd upon it to obtain Redemption for Sinners and the whole Race of Mankind Whence he concludes That by Soul in this Place Is intended the whole Person of Christ as well Body as Soul He proceeds in two like Instances for the Body The 1st He takes from Heb. 10.5 Sacrifice and offerings thou would'st not but a Body hast thou prepared me ver 7. Lo I come to do thy will O God ver 10. By the which Will we are Sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all The Observer saies By the Word and Term of Body in this Place is intended the whole Person of Christ whose Soul was sorrowful even unto Death and his Mind and Intellects so afflicted as to wring Drops of Blond out of his Body and reduce him to that bitter Exclamation upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All which do sufficiently Prove That by the Word Body in this Text the whole Person of Christ is comprehended and intended His next Text is Luke 12.4 where the Words are Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do He saies That the Word Body in this Text must needs intend the Person or whole Compositum of Body and Soul for that a Body without a Soul is Dead and therefore cannot be Killed By which Instances and Arguments he thinks it well Prov'd That though the Redemption be called of the Soul in divers Texts of the Scripture yet all those Places do intend the Redemption of the Person and that there never was any such Redemption intended or performed as Mr. M. has in this Page Asserted viz. Of the bare naked Soul separated from the Body asbefore has been Collected and Specified Hence we proceed to his Second Chapter
in Statu Composito and not to either of his Constituent Parts in a State of Separation of the one from the other P. 60. Mr. M. saies That many good Men have died with raised Expectations of entring immediately into a Blessed State This the Observer believes to be true and that Men Die with many other Conceptions and Errors about them besides this and yet receive no harm or hinderance by any of them Mr. M. here further Repeats divers like mistakes amongst the Philosophers P. 61 Mr. M. saies He will not mention the Raptures of many Christian Martyrs at the time of their departing grounded upon this Expectation The Observer thinks That such Examples of this as he can find among the Primitive Martyrs would deserve his Quotation Mr. M. saies further That it may justly seem a great wonder that many of the best Men have erred in this Point of great concernment and a very few Men and those of mean Parts and Credit should be in the right of of it The Observer Answers That this among other like Accidents is not so strange as true Whilst the Learned World thought the Earth to be the Center of the Planetary Circumvolution some very few there were that ascrib'd that Place to the Sun and they at last are proved to be in the Right Did not the Learned World and particularly the Governors of the Church absolutely deny the Being of Antipodes which is now as apparent and clear a Truth as that there are Countries called by the Names of China and Japan Do not all true Proselytes of the Romish Church profess firmly to believe That there is no Salvation for any who Die excluded from the Communion of that Church And do not all Sectaries and Dissenters and the very Quakers profess absolutely to believe That their ways and modes of Worship are the most Excellent that are to be found among the Christian Churches or any other Assemblies in the World and are they not ready to expos themselves to Dangers and Death for the Maintenance and Advancement of their Profession Errors as they are Was not the Truth of Religion justled into a very narrow room when it was all comprised in one single Family Despised Hated and Persecuted by the Learned Chaldeans on the one side and their Equals the Egyptians on another side whilst the vast compass of the Earth besides was muffled up in the dark Clouds of Ignorance and neither knew any thing of God or else apply'd themselves to him by Devils or Daemons or other dumb shows of Idolatrous Figures for maintenance of whose Vain Services they were ready to spend their Blood and put to Death all those who durst affront them Of which Truth Mr. M's Proto-Martyr Socrates is an undoubted Evidence who suffer'd Death for daring to deny that which the World at that time undoubtedly believ'd for a certain Truth In these Pages Mr. M. Repeats the Words wretchedly deceived many times over The Observer grants and believes That a vast number of very good Men have Died in the Opinion Erroneous as it is of the Soul's Immortality But that was no more hurtful to them than an holding either part of the Questions concerning Predestination Original Sin or the Procession of the Holy Ghost or any other Speculative Opinions of that Kind And that if the Observer's Opinion of the Materiality be true the Persons Dying in the belief of the Immortality shall never find or know that they were deceived in it That Faith and those Manners which will serve them at an Intermediate Judgment will serve them as fully at the Last Judgment their Works do follow them and will serve them as well at the one Judgment as at the other They will not be lost or diminished by the largest Account of Time which may pass between their Deaths and the Resurrection As the Persons rising shall be perfect and known yea and the very same that Died tho' they have suffered far greater Alterations than Mr. M. has before pretended The Faith and Works of such Dying Persons shall then also appear to be the same which they were at their several Deaths The Resurrection and Last Judgment are certain and clearly Proveable by a strong Current of Scripture But the Intermediate Judgment is neither likely nor Proveable by any clear Assertory Text of Scripture whatsoever The Observer Advises Men therefore to build their Expectations of future Recompenses upon the rockie and sure Ground of the Resurrection rather than upon the soft and sandy Ground of an Intermediate Judgment The Observer conceives it a very improper and something absurd Course to bring a Man to Judgment whilst the is asleep without first wakening him out of it And we know that every where the Scripture calls Death a Sleep St. Stephen stoned to Death fell asleep Those who sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him We that are alive shall not prevent them that are asleep If there be no Resurrection then all those that are faln asleep in Christ are perished All Dead Persons are said to sleep with their Fathers and all Men Naturally do know that Death is a sound Sleep and has the common Reputation of something beyond it but certainly it is that at the least We know further this Effect of a sound Sleep that whether a Man sleep Four Hours or Forty Hours when he awakes he can find no difference nor know any thing of the degrees of Time which have passed over him and so for Forty thousand Days 4000 Years When the Person shall be awaked he can have no sense or perceiving of any time that is passed over him but rises perfectly as if he had but faln asleep a short time before and then shall find himself the same that he was when he fell asleep and as able to Account for what he has done in the Flesh as he was in the best time of his Life So as they who have no other Impediments but their erroneous Tenet in this Point shall not find themselves deceived to their prejudice but shall receive those full and real Recompences which belong to their Faith and Manners Mr. M. here further Quotes his good Friend Cicero whose Words make plainly for his Opinion but are of little force for the convincing of the Observer who attributes as much to the Bp. of Worcester's Thoughts as he does to those of Cicero but concludes amicus Cicero amici Doctores sed magis amica veritas Mr. M. pretends to offer a Sixth Absurdity arising from the Opinion of the Materiality which has little that needs Answer in it and to that which needs it a sufficient Answer has been given it in the fore-going Pages P. 64 Mr. M. takes Exceptions at the Observer's Anatomy for his placing the Power of Sanguification in the Liver He allows therein That the Observer agrees with the Ancient Anatomists but saies That the later Anatomists differ in this Point from the former upon good Grounds denying that this performance is made
of those Spirits spread over the whole Body it comes to pass that the least Wound in the end of a Finger or Toe is immediately felt over the whole Body and so by Sight Hearing Smelling or Tasting the whole Person is immediately perceptive and affected therewithal like the String of an Instrument how long soever the same may be if touched to a vibration in any Part of it the whole String answers to that Vibration and sounds accordingly And this seems to be the Reason of the wonderful Velocity of Sensation and Perception in the Persons of Men and therewithal the Brutes may well be conceived to have a great Affinity upon a like Account This Spirit is not incaged or incarcerated in the Body but maintains as amicable a Conjunction with it and with as much Liking and Kindness to each other as any known Things in the World can do And the Athanasian Creed tells us That as the Body and Soul are one Man so God and Man are one Christ whence the Union of the former seems as amicable and kind as that of the latter tho' using a joint Contexture one of them with another this sort of Spirit acting in and by the Bodily Organs and Members they together effect in the Person all those Motions Faculties and Powers which the great Artificer intended and designed to be produced in the Humane Person be they those of Vegetation Sensation or Rationality all which Powers and Faculties they continue to maintain so long as their said Contecture has a Conrinuance Whence the whole Person both Spirit and Members are all alike affected one of them with another and never contrarily or differently one of them affected against another It is true that divers great Variances do often happen between the two different Faculties or Powers of Sense and Reason which Differences are as durable and lasting as the Life it self And these two Faculties St. Paul often calls by the Name of Flesh and Spirit which must pass in his Writings for tropical and figurative Expressions Upon which and divers other Accounts St. Peter says there are some Things in St. Paul ' s Writings which are hard to be understood Our Experience teaches us That there are no real Differences between the Bodily Organs and Members and this sort of Spirit of which we are now speaking but that they live and act together during the Time of their Contexture in the greatest Amity and Sympathy that can be imagin'd They are pleas'd and displeas'd rejoice and mourn together as two constituent Parts of the same Person they grow together to a State of Perfection are sick and well together decay and decrease in like manner And where Men live to the uttermost Age their Perceptions Understandings and Memories fail oftentimes before their Tasting and Feeling which continues with them the whole Extent of their Lives Then the Person consisting of such Flesh and Spirit dies together the Flesh and Members turning to Dust and the Spirit which is the Flame of Life extinguishing at the Time of that Separation And at the Time of the Resurrection the Body shall again be raised with such a Temperature of the Blood as shall then again be tinded and kindled into such a Flame of Life as the Person had enjoy'd in his former State as St. Paul declares 1 Cor. 15. whereby there shall arise and accrue to the same Person the same Sensation Perception Understanding Memory and Conscience that he had before in the Time of his former Life So as Mr. Lock seems to be in the right when Fol. 183. of his said Book he teaches That it is the same Consciousness which at the Resurrection makes the same Person such a sameness as St. Paul declares by his Similitude of Grains of Corn as much the same as Grains are of the same Nature which spring one out of another Thus united again by the Resurrection the Flesh and Spirit in a like Contexture as they were before shall come to Judgment at the last Day before the Tribunal of the Lord Christ and shall there receive Judgment Sentence and Doom according to their Works and shall thence depart to Places of Joy and Happiness or to those of Sorrow and Misery as by that Sentence and Judgment shall be appointed for them Thus from Experience it seems proveable That there is such a Soul or Spirit in Man as has been before specify'd That the same consists in the Spirits of the Blood inflam'd and made lucid and glowing That the Original of this Spirit proceeds from a Vital Principle in the Seed The visible quando of its Operation appears with the first Commencement of Vegetation in the Embryon The Vbi of its Residence is every Part and Member of the Body through which the same is contiguously spread or rather is one continuate Spirit mixed with the Flesh throughout the whole Body As to the Quo and what becomes of this Spirit at the Death of the Person it has been declared to go out by Extinguishment The only Point which the Observer professes Ignorance in is that of the Quomodo operatur He professes not to know how these Spirits of the Blood work in the Stomack a right and healthful Concoction and due Separation how in the sanguifical Parts the Chyle is converted into Blood how the Breath fans maintains and communicates such Vigour and Flame to Particles of the Blood which ascend to the Head how those Particles of Blood working in the Head and Brain produce there Sensation Perception Imagination Understanding or Memory how passing thence by the Nerves into the rest of the Body they cause Motion Activity Strength and Vigour all obedient to the Will of the Person and subjected to the Dictates of his Judgment Those are some of the chief Ways of God with Man and are most evident Proofs of his Divine Skill and Power concerning which and other-like Divine Operations Solomon says Eccles 8.17 Man cannot find out the Work that is done under the Sun because tho' a Man labour to find it out or the Wise among Men endeavour to come to the Knowledge of it yet shall they not be able to find it In this Ignorance therefore the Observer is contended to be a Partaker with the rest of the World without herding himself amongst those who because they cannot find out the Quomodo of this Performance are easily perswaded to believe That God has not Skill or Power enough to perform this and is therefore driven and must be driven to act those Things in Man by an immaterial intelligent Spirit which they fancy therefore is newly created by God upon every fruitful Coition of Man and Woman or Man and Beast where the Form of the Product happens to be Humane and that this new Soul which comes from his Hand innocent and pure shou'd presently be thrust by him into an impure Body at the best contaminated by Original Sin which presently communicates that Tincture to that pure innocent but unfortunate miserable Soul so newly created by him These Absurdities following upon and flowing from this Error prove the Opinion from whence they arise to be erroneous And from this and from all that has been spoken before on this Subject the Observer concludes That the Opinion of Man's being acted by an immaterial intelligent Spirit capable of subsisting in a State of Separation from the Body is an Error and that it is much more probable That the Person of Man is a Contexture of Matter and Spirit both rising from the seminal Agitation and both mortal and that the sound Foundation for the Expectation of Recompences future to this Life ought to be grounded upon the rocky Foundation of the Resurrection And herewithal shall be finish'd the present Observations upon this Treatise FINIS
sorts of Souls Quod quid unde quando ubi quomodo quo in none of which Points they ever yet came to an agreed Resolution nor can they make any tolerable Demonstration concerning any one of those Quaeries that may give a Reasonable Satisfaction to a diligent Enquirer after them He says That if his Soul had not been hindred by vicious Courses it wou'd have mounted aloft into a purer Region Which Doctrine is pure Platonick and Heathenish not proveable in any Part of Scripture or Dictate of Reason The Parable of Dives says Lazarus was carried by Angels into a Place of Rest intending likely his Person but clearly he was carried and did not mount aloft of himself into any more pure Region He speaks of a Relation we have to a World of Spirits whither we are going The Observer denies we have any Relation to those Spirits after our Deaths or that any of us go to them or have a Subsistence amongst them Whence the Adversary shou'd better have proved what he here delivers or have been less magisterial and positive in the Delivery of it P. 159 He advises Men to think they do but dream of Afflictions Sufferings and Pains when they lie under them and are sensible of them This way of amusing himself the Observer thinks is fallen upon the Advers whilst he sits musing and inventing with himself concerning the Being Nature and Actions of his immortal Soul For if he conceive Men may imagine real Pains and Sufferings but to be Dreams well may his Imaginations concerning Immortal Souls be reputed Dreams by those who nearly and impartially shall examine them P. 160 He speaks still of Adversity and Prosperity as if they were but Parts of a Dream Which Opinion really is yet a most manifest Error and which he shall never be able to perswade intelligent Persons to consent to He speaks of our Arrival at the invisible World of Realities which it seems he believes but as if we was in a Dream which the Observer conceives he has been in during the greatest Part of that Time wherein he wrote this Treatise First he has dream'd That there is such a Soul in Man as is an Intelligent Spirit and shall subsist in a State of Separation after the Death of the Body And that after its Departure out of the Body it shall go to an invisible World of Realities to abide among them Where or how he neither does nor can tell but he still dreams forward That his Soul and those of whom he has a good Opinion shall be in some sort of Happiness but what sort of Happiness himself yet is no way resolv'd whether in Heaven Abraham's Bosome or in the Air or in Alcinous's Garden the Fortunate Islands or the Elysium Fields or that with the Americans they shall live dancing and singing beyond certain high Mountains or in Mahomet's Paradise shall sit by Rivers of Milk Honey Oil and Wine and fulfil their lustful Appetites as often as they please Take all these sorts of States of Souls after Death they are all but Dreams of a suitable sort and Nature fit Subjects for Men of Fancy to be employ'd about And to such Pleasing Imaginations the Adversary shall be left whilst the Observer sets up his Rest upon what the Scripture teaches plainly and proves concerning the Resurrection of the Dead and last final Judgment and a blessed or cursed State after them finding by divers clear Natural Experiments That the Life of Man is maintained by Blood and Breath and acted by the inflamed Particles of Blood call'd the Spirits which must daily be renew'd and refresh'd with Nourishment and Rest that when these are spent the Person languishes and decays and when they are restor'd and refresh'd the Person is vivid and active If Nourishment fail or the Breath be stopp'd the Person dies beyond all Remedy and the total Extinguishment of that Flame of Life which is nourish'd in the Blood is the Death of the Person and cannot be rekindled in it by less than a Divine Power who first kindled and tinded it in the Body of our Grand-father Adam And the same Death which dissolves the Contexture between the Soul and the Body destroys the Persons of Men as well as the Contextures of Beasts without any other Difference between them save that of the Resurrection This is foretold promis'd and threaten'd to Mankind and the World of Humane Persons without that there are any such Prophecies Promises and Threatnings deliver'd concerning the Beasts and therefore David rightly calls them the Beasts that perish utterly And as by natural Experience we find that maintains the Life of Man so if we search into the Beginning of his Nature and Composition ab ovo as Men use to speak we may find one Man do's not less perfectly beget another than a Horse or any other Animal begets Creatures of a like Species with themselves There passes a Vital Principle in their several Seeds which being coagulated in loco idoneo proceed to a Fermentation and being there fomented in their proper Receptacles they arise and grow by degrees to a Vegetation This Vital Spirit still operating in the Mass now vegetated it proceeds to the Formation of the several Parts and Organs of the Body extending and spreading it self throughout the whole Mass and therein working till all the Parts and Organs of the Body are fully form'd and perfected And thence this Vital Spirit proceeds to the Production of Sense in the newly form'd Embryon which perfected it brings with it into the World the two fore-named Faculties of Vegetation and Sense which remain with the new-born Infant as its only proper Powers for some time after its Arrival in the World till that by degrees the Bodily Organs become so dilated and strengthened and the Spirits of the Blood so vivid and active that they produce in the Infant some low degrees of Thinking and Knowledge such as we find in the Brutes what Diet pleases them and to distinguish such for their Friends as give them Food Ease and Pleasure and to avoid such Things and Persons as are terrible and strange to them And thus they live and grow till their Bodily Organs encrease and grow in Capacity and Strength till the Stomack Liver and other sanguificial Parts are able more strongly to concoct the Nourishment and to prepare and rectifie the Blood to a higher Degree of Purity and Vigour And thence the Spirits ascending to the Brain and finding there the Organs or Instruments still more enlarged and apter to perform the Duties of the Rational Faculty they act therein to such Purposes as God has there appointed and ordained to be performed And thus the Vital Spirits and Bodily Organs proceed and grow together until they both obtain their Perfection of Degrees such Blood and Spirits acting throughout the whole Body and in every Parcel and Member of it those Powers and Activities which the great Artificer intended them for And by the Continuity and active Motions