Air and the Fishes of the Sea too and so far as we can discern we find them agree in their desires and delights with one another of the same species They have each their particular Food and rest contented satisfied and pleased therewith during their whole course of nature 'T is not with them as with us what one loves another loathes 'T would be a difficult matter to find an hungry Ox that would refuse Hay either when he is young or old A man may well ask Iob's question Doth the wild Ass bray when he hath grass or loweth the Ox over his fodder 't is man doth only that or the like when he hath what his fleshly heart can desire The Beasts are more constant and content and their Soul seems settled and the inhabitant of its proper Region they neither fear nor joy in excess their choices and elections are still alike and every Cock like Aesop's Cock will yet to this day prefer the Barley-corn before a Jewel though amongst men some prefer the one and some the other I speak thus much for this cause only that viewing the Soul of man in its very inferiour faculties and finding it so various and disagreeing so little at a stay or at rest so fighting and combating so snatching and catching at it knows not what things neither useful nor profitable for the body or the mind it somewhat convinces me 't is a thing very capacious and that there is a place of fulness of joy or fulness of sorrow for it hereafter SECT VI. The Immortality of the Soul of man illustrated from the difference thereof between Parents and Children BEsides this some enquiry might be made into the different qualities of the Souls of men beyond those of Beasts in their ordinary workings though they inhabit or actuate Bodies which have their being from one and the same production For if the Soul of man were the ordinary work of Nature only a fine rarified vigorous quality in the Bloud Man receiving his body from his Parents by the ordinary course of Nature as other creatures do his Soul would always somewhat resemble that of his Parents too and Brethren twins especially would resemble one another in the faculties of their Souls as well as 't is often seen they do many ways in the Body But there is generally found as between Iacob and Esau such dissimilitude in the Spirits of Brethren and those of Father and Son Mother and Daughter as greater is not to be found between meer strangers in bloud which thing daily experience will not only demonstrate upon search but may be readily found in the Histories of Princes in all Ages Now the Soul of Beast being the bare product of flesh only and necessarily taking its rise and essence from the substance of its Parents if I may so call them for the word may be proper enough pario being only to bring forth or produce never varies much or altogether at any time from that of the Parent We shall never find an absolute Jadish Spirit in a Horse begot from free and well-bred ones nor a meer Curr from right good Hounds no not in one of his senses the Nose or smell But if in any case they excell or degenerate from their Stock 't is by degrees and not per saltum which thing per saltum may be found and observed in the Race of men And besides this variation of the Souls of men from Birth there sometimes happens on the sudden a strange kind of total Metamorphosis of the Soul of man so as one would scarce adjudge it the same but according to Scripture phrase that one becomes a new man and this without any alteration at all of the Bodies constitution Now if the Soul of man were not a substance of it self capable to be wrought on ab extra by somewhat without any introduction by the senses then no such alteration without the Bodies alteration could be made but through the senses and if such alteration were made from sense through the Organs of the Body then upon the shortest obstruction or letting in of prior forms again the Soul would consequently return to its pristine state according to that simile of the dog to his vomit c. which change or alteration in the Soul of man we see sometimes settled and remaining notwithstanding all interposition during a long following life Thus we find that men have utterly contemned and hated without any offence raised from the thing it self even with a perfect hatred that which was formerly their delight which kind of hatred never yet happened or was discernible in Beast Now if any man shall ask me At what time the Soul of man being a substance of it self distinct from the Body enters and possesses the Body I can make him a reply with as difficult a question At what instant doth this other arising product Soul from the Bloud begin its circulation and move If we know neither why should it seem more wonderful and strange to us for the God of Nature upon man's conception in the womb to create and have ordained a Spirit to actuate that conception which Spirit should continue for ever notwithstanding that conception should decay and perish for a time as well as that there should arise a Spirit from the Bloud to actuate move and govern the Body for a certain period of time which time we could never define certainly from any course of Nature And further that the wise Creator and Governour of all things should ordain that if the first created Spirit to inhabit a Body both together being Man should wander in disobedience from its Creator all others sent and entring into Bodies product from the Loyns of the first Body should be infected with the same wandring disease and have no cure but by Grace from the first Creator But I would not wander too much my self nor desire to pry into any of God's secrets further than he has thought fit to reveal by his Holy Word and so shall lay aside my thoughts of the manner of Man's creation every way wonderful as the Psalmist expresses it as also the consideration of the inferiour faculties for the present and try and see if there be not some sparks in the Soul of man which give such a light as can by no means naturally arise from any thing barely and simply terrestrial SECT VII The Immortality of the Soul of man illustrated from its unweariedness in searching c. and its reflex acts and operations WHy has the Soul of man in all Ages when it has been at any time withdrawn from that quick intromission of worldly objects by the senses and has not been hindred or obstructed by some mists fogs or lets of the flesh wherein at present 't is confined to work hunted after wearied and tired it self to find out and comprehend what it is not able to comprehend The first sin of man shewed at once the Soul's error and its
discern our selves throughly much less others subjects us to false opinions of our selves and false conjectures at least of others For as to the discerning part of anothers Soul the Intellect doubtless we commit sometimes great mistakes There are and have been certainly many Souls who though for want of some outward ornament or some casual advancement or improvement by which we are only capable to apprehend them or conceive ought in relation to their Intellect they have not been able to express themselves plainly and evidently to the capacity of others yet have had a very clear inspect into the truth and reality of things And we are not rationally to think because we find them not in story that therefore there were no wise men before Apollo as well as valiant men before Agamemnon and so are and will be for the future unknown and unheard of to us Nor should we look upon our selves who dare to set forth our folly and weakness rather than ought else legibly to the World to be the only men of parts God knows how far the best and wisest go astray from the truth and it might be easily evident to humanity if men would take the pains to weigh things how much light coyn has passed for currant Men there are who have words at will or command and know how to place them in excellent order but if they were to pass Solomon's test and should be duly weighed in the ballance we should find them to be but words and carry nothing of weight or solid matter in them As to the censure of the affectionary or imbracing part of mans Soul doubtless we commit as many and as great Errors and mistakes That unsearchable thing as Solomon terms it in a King and doubtless is so in others the Heart is not certainly known by any outward motion neither the gesture nor the lips will at any time fully discover it to a spectator or auditor and there is little trust to be given to what a man receives in at second hand It is so ordinarily mistaken in man that truly he who would judge aright had need I think vary from the general censure of the World If a man be but a little facile he is presently esteemed for good and yet perhaps the Italian Proverb may be verified of him That he is so good as that he is good for nothing There is a great mistake of that which we call good Nature I for my part think that if a man be so soft and pliable as to take an equal impression from all men that is indeed none he has little of real goodness in him He who will never be angry will in a strict Sense never be pleased and he who never thinks evil of any man will never think well of any man nor becomes ones special Friend upon the ground of a vertuous and good life and though Charity prompt us to think the best of such a man yet Reason informs us and without breach of charity we may think nothing really good that is insipid and that if a man have lost his savour and taste all things alike there is little of vertue in him whatsoever there may be of goodness Goodness if there be any such thing in man must since our Fall how ere we were created be looked on as a Grace not a natural habit and he is only good who intentionally in respect to God is so not he who is as it were so habitually or casually and unawares to himself as we say I am sure it is no uncharitable part in man but rather the contrary to think that some persons whom we seem to behold surly cross and peevish in their words and actions too sometimes have good intentions and meaning in the general And though in propriety of Speech a man cannot be said to act against his Will but the Will ever accompanies both words and actions yet there may be something besides of a latent Will in the Soul or wish of good to the party injured even at the very time of the injury Indeed it is said he who is of a currish churlish Nature should sacrifice to the Graces but we might pass him by and pardon him without Sacrifice and ascribe that to the Bodies temperature in that particular case which we are but prone and apt enough to do in many other cases There is a kind of condiment or sharp acrimonious humour in the blood not that the Soul is made or compounded of any such which the Spirit meeting with in its operation or motion raises outwardly a kind of mire or dirt and yet may be clean it self I have seldom met with injustice oppression cruelty or rapine in a snarling habit though I have often seen them all in a fawning one and that Scripture verified there are things smoother than oyl yet are they drawn Swords There are rugged obscure and dark passages in Palaces which lead to the fairest rooms and there are soul Sepulchers outwardly painted and constant bright and pleasant shining Tapers set burning before them And we often therefore judge amiss when we judge of the mind by such indications It is a blessed happiness when a quick working Soul can at all times flie abroad into the World and search every thing to the quick as we say without offence and without venom but it is very rare that that salt or gall which has been allowed ever by the learned to quicken the Invention should not sometimes exceed due measure and be mistaken for ill nature in the Affections Affection of it self is not evil by nature it is blinded since the Fall and strangely led and truly whether it be good or evil upright or crooked in the main intention and consequent is impossible for us certainly to know It is esteemed now adays and perhaps ever was the principal part of a Wise man to become acquainted and versed with the several humours and tempers of several men and throughly to study and know a man But as it is an insidious study I think unless in case of your profession only with a purpose barely to reclaim the Soul and make it better So it is a very fallacious one and in that respect may doubtless be very well linked with that of judicial Astrology and many men have but deceived themselves while they thought to know others Surely he who practises upon any Individual beside himself and pryes narrowly into others is not like to find any path that will lead him towards Happiness This he will be sure to find in every Soul a self-love inclosed about with Briars and Thorns and it being in no man's power to eradicate or grub up those Briars and Thorns growing in every man by Nature as we say unless in himself if so be that he may chance to be scratched and torn thereby while he thinks to bring that love to his own Lure He who is so curious to inquire into mens Natures and Dispositions and thinks he
are not natural but consequential as I may say from somewhat that is good implanted in our nature although misguided and mislead For that God who is goodness and has attested every particle of his Creation to be very good would not naturally implant in us our turbulent passions which are evil But they are raised by our follies only in forsaking that Good with respect to which we were created Now that Good is God and God being Love as St. Iohn has defined him has in us his Image naturally implanted Love the tendency of which should be chiefly towards him and all other his Creatures in reference to him And this is the Epitome of our whole duty and that great natural Commandment of which the Law and the Prophets are but the Comment and Explanation But this natural plant of Love rooted in us from our Birth and growing in us necessarily finds out some object or other whereon to lodge its branches and to be the support and prop thereof which if it be wholly or chiefly lodged upon some Worldly object the decay and fall of that object leaves it withering on the ground and this is Sorrow But if it fix it self aright and spread its branches over mankind in general although it may more especially lean on some one or more particulars yet those failing it holds it self fresh and verdant and obtains the blessed title of Charity whose property is to bear all things and to endure all things so as I cannot define immoderate sorrow to be other than a drooping withering love or the spurious off-spring of a misguided love in the absence of perfect love and charity Neither can I resemble the product thereof to any more proper thing than Esau's Vine mentioned of God's planting who looked it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes that which is planted in us for joy and delight when mislead produces only misery and sorrow Now if in holding this natural Love mislead or rather misguided by opinion and fancy to be the source of all our evils whatsoever and in talking thereof I shall seem to differ from the Judgment of the Learned and betray my ignorance in terms of Art all that I can say for my self is that I both thought and speak according to that ability of understanding God has endowed me with without any great improvement of it by study or much reading from a desire or endeavour to ease my self if I could in finding out the readiest and shortest way of cure which undoubtedly is best found out by discerning the original defect of some part of Nature out of order and not performing its office aright and so hindring and obstructing that perfect Harmony which otherwise might be in the Soul of man And whether that be it I leave to other men to weigh and consider from their own reason without any endeavour to confine them unto mine God has as I said in us and I think in every sensitive Creature being the workmanship of his hands too implanted some seeds and sparks of Love that they might have in them all some image or at least some impress of their Maker and as his universal love who is himself termed Love it self extends it self towards all the works of his Creation so every particular of his Creation has its bending and inclining by way of Love to somewhat according to the capacity given it This inclination of Love is visible in the most Savage Beasts towards their young ones and their Mates and others often of the same species And in some of them their Love is not terminated in their own kind and species but extends it self to others of a different kind as is observable and we have seen in Lions to Dogs and other Creatures bred up with them but especially in Dogs to Men. Now this Love works and moves only in these Creatures by a natural instinct or fancy and is terminated upon a few objects and is not capable to extend it self beyond sense and therefore is not found to be extreme upon any thing so as to work any great disturbance or to be of long continuance yet I think we may affirm that their mourning or their sorrow if I may so term it proceeds from their love to their young or the like and so their rage and fury to those who rob them thereof And so their fear must needs proceed from a love they have for themselves whereby every Creature has an inclination to self-preservation This same natural Spring or Fountain does man bring with him into the World which though it lie longer hid under ground usually breaks out into more various and rapid streams by reason of a more quick and roving fancy to help and assist it if not to stir it up yet 't is not long e're it be seen and the first discernible effect of the Soul besides motion is a love to it self by crying when any thing offends it and to its Nurse who nourishes it by cleaving to her and avoiding others which after by degrees shews its more peculiar inclination or tendance For whatsoever may be storied of Timon the Athenian 't is sure he loved himself and besides there is no one so inhumane but his love will find some other receptacle or reposure than himself though it be but some one person to whom he may shew that rancour or poison he bears towards others But man also being the more immediate hand-work of God and created more expresly after his own Image has not only this natural Spring of Love in him moved by sense and instinct and also by a roving conceit of imaginary goodness beyond that of other Creatures but Reason and Understanding also to guide and direct this Love and bend and incline it towards that chief good for which it was created That it should not stand as a Lake like that of Beasts nor yet water some adjacent parts only by violent out-lets but diffuse it self into several Streams and Channels leaving its fruits and effects towards the whole good of mankind and yet tending to that infinite Ocean which gave it its first being Now when it thus has its free passage although it may have some lets and stops that disquiet it somewhat in its course yet they never cause any great Billows or Surges to arise But when by opinion and fancy we too much confine it to some particular and forsake the fountain of living waters as Ieremy expresses it we hew us out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water so as from the ill-husbandry of this native Spring of Love arises the chief disquiet of the mind Love will be hunting after some good and often takes an imaginary one for a real For indeed nothing being properly good but God only and all other things in reference to him if they be aimed at in any other respect they lose that goodness they had as to us Now according as we by our foolish fancy direct
the like nature with that breath it proceeded from and so be immaterial and immortal And we shall find this difference further confirmed by the same Authority For whereas Moses gives no other Life or Spirit different from the bloud to other creatures but saith the bloud is their life or Soul and their Soul in the bloud when he speaks of that of man he calls it the bloud of their lives signifying by this variety of phrase the difference of the thing and that in man the bloud has rather its motion from the Soul than the Soul its origine from the bloud And in the ensuing verse where he forbiddeth the shedding mans bloud by a retaliative Law he adds again the words used in the Creation For in the image of God made he man So that the Souls of Brutes only appear as the Tongues mentioned in the Acts as it were of fire but that of Man as a spark of that Eternal Light real and durable and as Solomon says after the dust returns to Earth as it was the Spirit shall return to God that gave it SECT III. The Immortality of the Soul of man maintained and illustrated from its obstruction in its operation NOw though this Earthly rarified Spirit of Brutes may to sense often outshine the other and several other creatures may outstrip some such particular men as we call Naturals in knowledge that diminishes nothing from nor renders the Soul of man to be of a less noble extract than in truth it is but that the one still remains Divine and the other Natural For although real Fire may by hid and by reason of some obstruction impediment or interposition dart forth little or no light to the senses and an ignis fatuus may shew it self and appear more lucid and bright to them yet Fire is no less Fire when covered and the nature and quality of them still remains different The outward appearance does never infallibly demonstrate the inward excellency of things and there may be a change of our common Proverb and Gold found that glisters not It seems to me rather some Argument of the immortality of mans Soul that it sometimes remains so darkly as it were inclosed in some one particular trunk or carcass without any the least symptom of its being there more than outward heat and motion as well as that in some others it shews forth its wonderful capacity and faculties beyond that of all other creatures For if it did arise naturally or had its production from the flesh or the more fluid substance of that flesh the Bloud as that of Beasts there never could happen or be such a disparity such a distance and disproportion in its effects as now and then there appears The faculties of the Souls of Beasts wherein they are similar to those of Man do not much exceed or outshine one another of the same species For although one Horse may be more docible than another more lively quick or better spirited as we term it than another yet there never was that or any other kind of Brute so brutish as I may say but had some knowledge of his Feeder and like the Ox and the Ass none of the wisest Animals could know its Owner and its Master's Crib none that would not shew some endeavour to nourish and preserve it self be sensible of what was noxious and destructive to it self careful to avoid Fire and Water or the like know its Young if Female and love and nourish them and be somewhat useful in its kind to man and other creatures as if the Souls of Beasts only dwelt in their native and proper Country and were at liberty and ours were here Prisoners in Chains and Fetters and sometimes in a Dungeon waiting for their deliverance I knew a man born in a Village near me living to the age of twenty years very heathful of a good stature of perfect outward lineaments and features endowed with the senses of Hearing and Seeing of a sage countenance if at any time without motion and yet never as I or others could discern knowing any one person about him more than another never making any signs for meat or drink though greedily swallowing them when put to his mouth never could he be made sensible of the passage of his own ordure or of Fire or Water and yet might be kept at any time from the danger of those Elements by the interposition of Stools or a Line or Cord and within that circumscribed Sphere would move all day ridiculously Certainly if this inclosed Soul had its being from the Bloud and not the Bloud its motion from it whatever Physicians may alledge and however they may guess at some obstructions or defect in some part of the Brain and they can but guess at the one more then I do at the other for they can shew me nothing in a dissection it must in some degree equal that of Brutes in outward appearance But seeing there is such a disproportion in degree of knowledge as well by comparing the most stupid Man with the most stupid Animal as the wisest Man with the wisest Animal and Man is found to exceed both ways that very excess on our parts does more demonstrate the immediate work of God in our creation and somewhat different from Natures ordinary course which though his working too usually produces the same effects in all individuals of the same species and might prove a Medicine to allay our fears on the one hand and our spiritual pride on the other and shew what the Soul of man is capable of and yet how obscure it may be here on Earth till it shall please that Inspirer to receive it into Glory I do not look on knowledge in the Soul of man as a bare remembrance or that the mind of man is at present and while in the Body merely thereby let and hindred from the knowledge of all things yet some such notion may not seem to arise and be fixed now and then in our conceptions altogether without the allowance of Reason since as often as we attain to any intellectual knowledge of things that is from causes whereof we were or seemed before ignorant and that either from the bare labour and search of our intellective faculty or from others information through sense with its attention it will seem to us rather a recovery from some disease than any new being or existence in the Soul rather a dissipation of some Cloud than any new Light and that we knew as much before if we had but minded it as we are wont to say And besides the usual native weakness or blindness in the Soul of man which is a thing almost perpetually labouring and working in some men as it were for a cure if it recovers in some sort and measure yet it 's afterward very incident to a relapse and subject to an adventitious weakness or blindness doth contract infirmities and often lives long in the Body blinded with a
extract and being For the very innate desire of some distinguishing knowledge of good from evil could not have its motion from sense nor ever was introduced by sense There is a kind of knowledge springs it self from sense as the Ox knows his owner c. but knowledge by causes such as it is is peculiar to Humane nature and has no relation to sense Know indeed so as to comprehend we cannot knowledge in the abstract being the peculiar of the Divine nature If we had been capable to have known good and evil absolutely the Devil had used no Hyperbole in telling us Ye shall be as Gods But the very desire of knowledge even such a knowledge as the Soul is in some measure capable of that is by causes shews a Divine spark in us tending towards the cause of all causes which exercised about God's revealed will here might be more clear but mounting in desire is apt to lose its light and vanish Nay not only our desire but our fear or doubt of somewhat we know not nor can perfectly attain to by our search nor is reasonable fully to demonstrate must necessarily have its origine from somewhat more than sense If we at least fear a future being and continuance for ever and future punishment that very fear is either native and natural in our Souls or else arises in us from the Tradition of some others if from Tradition then sense being the Port and Inlet I allow to be Parent too but yet while we allow it to spring from Tradition in our selves we do by consequence allow it to be native in some one particular person and he who allows it native in any one must allow the Soul to be a substance of it self and not a resultance from the Body for thoughts of infinity could never first spring from a bare temporary finite existence I said I would lay aside the inferiour faculties of the Soul from my thoughts Desire and fear are affections I agree common to Brutes I know they desire and fear but I dare say never any one of them yet desired knowledge or feared any thing to happen after this life and therefore these as they are in us being in respect of the object no such affections as are led by sense or work by sense barely and so not having their essence from the Body are not to be accounted amongst the other inferiour faculties common with Brutes But to proceed and go a little higher Whence arise those accusing or excusing thoughts mentioned by St. Paul in the Soul of man though wholly ignorant of Scripture and having no accession of new Light so much as by Tradition Certainly it must be some glimmering of that coelestial native spark of Justice implanted in every Humane Soul I dare leave it without further pressure to any quiet sedate reasonable Soul to determine whether if there had never been any Divine or Humane Law written or divulged by Tradition against Murther but that that same fact by the Laws of his native Country were allowed and approved if done against meer Strangers whether I say in case of that man's private imbruing his hands in his Brother's bloud with no other colourable pretence or provocation than some slight worldly gain he should not upon the consideration that we men made not our selves but that every one was a fellow-member with other of the visible Universe and of equal native extract expect to find some inward regret disgust trouble or vexation of mind If he determine that he thinks he should the question will be about that consideration how it could arise For we find that or the like consideration has risen without the help of any outward Engine or sense nay when all the Spels imaginable have been used and applied to allay it Now no disgust or trouble or sorrow was yet perceived in any other Creature beside Man upon the destruction of his fellow creature or Man the Sovereign of creatures And whence is this but because their Soul is not extensive beyond its original nor has any motion but from sense that is it is not capable of any consideration For consideration weighing or pondering of a thing whether it be good or evil is a proper act of a reasonable Soul distinct from a Body and is somewhat more than desire of knowledge by causes 'T is the very exercise of Reason 't is the Soul's waving of its senses for a time and summoning its noble powers to tryal which have some little native ability This trying considering or weighing good from evil by Reason the ballance of the Soul is I say the Soul 's peculiar act from which act there may be very properly the Author to the Hebrews uses the like words a weariness of the mind and so it 's distinguished and is different from such acts of the Soul which Solomon saith are a weariness of the flesh For that kind of study which he respects viz. composing reading or hearing are no peculiar acts of the Soul as withdrawn from the flesh but are a bare introduction of somewhat to the Soul through the Organs of the flesh and so are a weariness to it Whereas the Soul after reception and some light of a thing by sense in considering the good or evil of it quite lays aside the senses for a time and so the mind is peculiarly affected SECT VIII The Immortality of man's Soul considered from things peculiar to Man as weeping laughter speech with some conclusion against Atheism THe Soul of man does not only shew it self and its original by the aforesaid manner of withdrawing it self or as it were by separation from the Body to be above the capacity of a Soul extracted or springing from the flesh but even by peculiar actions and motions through bodily Organs which a bare earthly or fleshly Soul does not There are three things generally held and esteemed proper and peculiar to Humane Nature and no ways incident to any other living creature whatsoever and those are Tears or weeping Laughter and Speech in each of which or from each of which may seem to appear somewhat more in Man than a product Soul part of the Body or extracted or raised from the Body though never so curiously or admirably framed I do not alledge each of them apart as any infallible demonstration of a Spirit distinct and separable from the Body yet coupled and joyned together they become of some seeming weight and strength to me to confirm my opinion It does not seem much wonderful at any time to behold a distillation from the Eyes that thing is to be found in Beast as well as Man not only from a disease or some distemper in the Bloud but upon every offensive touch of the Eye yet when neither of these are present or can be alledged for a cause to have the Body as it were melted on the sudden and send forth its streams through that unusual channel makes it seem to me no
less than the quick and violent agitation of some Divine flame thawing all the vital parts and drawing the moisture through the chief and clearest Organ of the body the Eye and not to be caused by any thing which is part of it self I do agree that every living Soul whether arising from the Body or by a greater Divine gift infused into or sent to actuate a Body has equally in either some influence upon the visible Body and according as the affections with the imagination are moved worketh visible effects therein and that Man and Beast such as have their parts similar may and do equally tremble for fear and the like But yet as to this kind of motion or extasie mentioned that is weeping for I know not how to term that or laughter either a passion but both strange attendants or consequents of some kind of passions I cannot adjudge it to arise from the acceptance of a bare representation of an offensive object through sense but by some inward distinct conception of a Soul as of it self though at the same time agitated or rouzed by passion For if it were from the first barely then the same effect could never proceed from any pleasing object the contrary whereof we find and men to weep as well upon the predominancy of joy in the Soul as sorrow nay weeping is a concomitant often of a weak anger which not able otherwise to satiate or satisfie it self has this help to vanish and resolve into tears as may be observed in Women and Children Now tears being the attendant the effect as may seem to some of clean contrary passions such as joy and sorrow are they cannot really be the proper and bare effect of any passion nor the sole work of any such Spirit as is no other than the refined and most curious part of the Bloud For that were able to cause only different effects upon different occasions or representations and still the same effect upon the same occasion so far forth as we are able to look into the ordinary works of Nature Indeed salt brackish and chrystal tears flowing in that abundance as at some time is to be seen would puzzle the most learned Physician as well as a Poet to alledge a right fountain as well as a cause and wonder in searching after the original Spring-head of them in the Body If I should alledge or affirm Laughter to be some denotation or demonstration of a pure intellectual Spirit separable from a Body and no ways arising from any other single or primary cause then such I hope I should not incur the censure or become the subject of laughter to all men though I might to some By Laughter I do not mean a bare dilatation or contraction of the mouth or lips and other parts of the face such a kind of grinning as is incident to Apes and no less to Dogs and such as in the latter we term fawning a kind of habit or faculty some men take up for peculiar purposes as seeming pleased with others actions and sensible of some such involuntary motion voluntarily counterfeit one nor yet any agitation of the lungs with expulsion of breath and other odd motions of the Body in others whereby perhaps they would seem to please themselves But I mean an absolute involuntary motion upon some sudden slight pleasing touch of the Spirits by some bare conception in the intellect different in notion from what is represented by the senses It is a thing that differs much from true joy and is often extorted from men in their greatest griefs and sometimes tortures of Body as is storied of that Villain who murthered the Prince of Orange that in the midst of his pains and while he was tormented with burning Pincers for a confession laughed at the fall of a number of Spectators from a Scaffold It is one of the first unnecessary as I may say motions in Infants it is incident to wise men as well as foolish and old as well as young though not in the same measure or degree and is and happens sometimes as well sleeping as waking Now I do take it to arise properly and peculiarly from the intellect's judging on the sudden though that Judgment is not always aright of somewhat of folly lapse or oversight in a rational creature or some ill or shrewd turn happening thereupon which from prudence might have been prevented and have been done or acted otherwise and I do not judge it to arise unless we will allow something of voluntariness in it after the manner I spake before upon any sight or action proceeding from an irrational or brute creature Therefore I do think that I my self should not with Crassus the Grandfather of Marcus that wealthy Roman as is so storied of him and that he never laughed but that once have laughed at the beholding an Ass eating of Thistles I think the Beast does it with a great deal of Art to save the pricking of his mouth but had I seen a man smelling on a Thistle to gratifie that sense and thereby in pricking his Nose much more offended another I do think I should have laughed Now though laughter be a thing more incident to the Fool than the Wise whose clearer Judgment is best able to correct its rise yet it proceeds from apprehension of the intellect ready to judge at all turns and quickest often in that notion when weakest and may denote at once some kind of inherent wisdom together with folly or frenzy in man that we being created to act most regularly and prudently from a disturbed intellect become often the most giddily erring and foolishest of creatures so as if Solomon said of mirth what doth it he might well say of laughter It is mad As for Speech which is a power or ability the Soul has so to move the Tongue and other Organs of the Body that from thence shall result such a modulation of the Air that each rational Soul from an articulate voice might apprehend others meaning and intent This formation of words made to be the Idea of the mind appears not nor could ever break out from the earthly extracted Soul of other creatures not that there is any absolute defect in their Organs for then no other Spirit could frame an articulate voice by them and we must deny the Devil 's speaking in the Serpent and some other Spirit for a time in Balaam's Beast for they have curious and admirable Notes and some of them have framed as plain a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with many other words as man can utter which has been a resultance from the ear when they were taught but no Index of the mind This gift and power of Speech I say is the chief outward livery badge or cognizance of the Soul by which Mankind is distinguished from and hath the advantage of all other creatures Brutes do indeed fellow together and apprehend and if I may so say understand one another by signs
has found out every root and string of their Affection and judges good perhaps to indeavour some mutual and interchangeable transplantation of Affection that thing I mean to speak of friendship for the melioration thereof had need be very wary and circumspect in his choice and rely upon a Divine watering and pruning too as well as his own planting or else perhaps though it grow and thrive with him it may bear him little or no good Fruit. The variety and diversity of human Souls with their several seeming inclinations and suddain alterations and that innate unsatiate love in man receiving its inflammation sometimes otherwise than by Sense from whence every one labours and travails to secure and advance it self by some means or other and especially the difficulty of discerning the motion of the Spirit in a mans self much more in another is the cause in my opinion why there is so little of true and real Friendship amongst us in the World and that there have been in all Ages so small a number of faithful Friends reckoned up and that our love is changeable mutable and unconstant When as we may daily espy in other Creatures of different Species even a Lyon and a Whelp bred up together a constant and continued love to each other during their lives I may say without design or without dissimulation Of Friendship I have read or been taught somewhat when I was a Boy which as I long since utterly forgot so I mean not now to have recourse thither again or to any other Author that treats thereof but having already adventured to meddle with the Soul I am minded to say somewhat of that league or union of Souls Friendship to you my Friend and to give you my natural thoughts of it only according to my plain rustick way and manner of delivery Friendship I take to be an union or knitting together of two Souls as is expressed of Ionathan and David in amity so as the one loves the other as it self Or more particularly An human yet sacred tye made and contracted between two Souls in the mutual and reciprocal aspect of some similitude and likeness in each other Each shining in some degree after the similitude and likeness of its Maker So that to the contracting thereof it is necessary the party who loves as a Friend do behold in the other some Image or shadow at least and Goodness Truth Justice Mercy Love especially and the like without this view or supposed view there can arise no such Love as is called Friendship Or if you please we will in short define it thus Whereas Charity is a general love to all men for God's sake So Friendship is a love to some particular person for the persons sake yet ever having a respect to God Friendship being a kind of alliance of two Souls resembles somewhat an alliance by blood or a consanguinity as we call it He who would make out that to any man must necessarily resort to some one fountain head or Ancestour and from thence trace and bring down the blood to himself and the other party without any corruption or attainter intervening And our Soul being a distinct gift and a distinct creation or breathing which we receive not from our Parents it is necessary in Friendship that as two Souls concenter in belief of one head and fountain of their being So there be no visible corruption thereof but that each participate somewhat of the Image of its Maker and leave not quite off to be Loving Just Merciful c. at least be not stigmatized with any Character of Uncharitableness Injustice Cruelty or the like whereby that Image seems defaced and therefore no Atheist can be a friend to any man nor any other man so to him For if there be such an human Creature in the World who verily believes there is no God he must consequently believe there is no such thing as Justice or Mercy or no need thereof towards our particular quiet or well-being and such man's kindness whatsoever he pretend is no other than a mere self-love and respecting himself barely and not Friendship neither can any one love that man who rejects or disowns the Wisdom of his Maker and attributes all to what we call Nature or Chance Besides this If there be any men who own a God and yet live as without God in the World though they readily perform all offices of kindness faithfully to each other that I hold not to be Friendship but call it rather a Satanical League than Friendship such as St. Iames terms enmity with God For a league of Friendship ever respects God because unless in respect to our selves there can be no other original cause to love one another but God alone who indowed us with a love extrinsick as I may say and such as is not natural or arising from the flesh The Soul of man in the Body is prone to cleave to Earthly things and many Leagues it makes and Alliances it doth contract Some upon considerations merely accidental and transient and which fail with those considerations such is that with respects the bounty of another as Solomon saith Every man is a Friend to him that giveth gifts or as the wise Son of Syrach Liberality pleaseth all men and so gains applause respect and Friendship improperly taken but the Friendship thereby obtained proves but like the Winter Brooks that Iob speaks of that what time they wax warm they vanish when it is hot they are consumed out of their place The paths of their way are turned aside they go to nothing and perish And when we stand in most need of their help will most surely deny it Sometimes again love proceeds from external relations as that which a man bears to his own natural Product which although it be usually real and lasting and is allowable good and lawful yet is not praise-worthy and commendable the like being to be found in Beasts and would be as great and lasting in them had they equall knowledge of their own with us nor can be called Friendship since it seldom and of it self begets a Love mutual and reciprocal and cannot indeed be termed other than love of our selves That which doth come nearest to it is the love in Marriage which being mutual and reciprocal when contracted upon fitting terms the Man and Wife thereby are as our great Lawyer thinks according to Scripture he has rightly defined that mystical knot Two Souls in one Body And when it respects Vertue chiefly they may be said to be one Soul in two Bodies When two Souls can place a repose in each other without distrust or diffidence when they dare trust each other as Gods though men that I call Friendship which can never be without some imaginary at least sight of Truth Justice Love c. the one in the other To such a love I will afford and affix the Attribute of good And doubtless such a mutual Love affords the