Souls in separation one from another can think or love or do any thing else whatsoever and I desire to be informed of the contrary by any that know of such things separately done and without the conjunction of them both together P. 56. He says God is not prais'd by Bodies but by Souls I reply not by Souls without Bodies but by Men he is praised during the Conjunction of their Souls and Bodies but by the breaking of that Union all human actions loose their Power and Performances which by the Resurrection shall at last be restored with greater Capacities than before were enjoyed He says he desires to love God perpetually and for ever I cannot blame him for it for whilst he can do so he shall have a perpetual security from the stâ—oke of Death concerning which the Hymn of Hezekiah when he was drawn out of the jaws of Death doth sufficiently instruct us He says he cannot desire any Good but God wills it as much or more I reply he may lawfully desire a good and large Estate with design and intent to destribute liberally to the Poor but neither I nor he do think God oblig'd to will as he wills in this point or many other like occasions P. 57. He demands would God give Man a desire to a good thing and not give him the good thing desired I reply God gives and allows to Men the desire of many good things which he gives them not the power to attain unto He quotes our Lords direction to pray and promises that whatsoever we pray for in his Name he will give us Whence he may as well warrant the good success of a Prayer requesting him to give us Fortunatus's Purse or something equivalent thereunto P. 51. He says there are in the Scripture sufficient Evidences if not self evident proof that the Soul is immortal I reply I have not yet been so fortunate as to meet with sufficient Evidence to that purpose in the Scripture and much less with those self-evident proofs which he says may be found there And I lay very much blame upon him for not producing such Evidences and Self-proving Arguments as he knows to be there for the Conviction of those honest Hearts for whose sakes he hath invented all these Arguments of his own and which have very little force or coertion in them The third Argument which he calls his last for proof of the Souls Immortality he draws from the nature and manner of the Resurrection and says that if the Soul die and perish with the Body then at the resurrection the Soul which rises cannot be the same with that which dyed but one newly created for informing the rising Body and which cannot be conscious of what was done in the person formerly dead and so not deserving Reward or Punishment for works done by the Person now rising in his former Soul and Body To this I reply that nothing can have a real and true resurrection to Life which was not really and truly dead before And therefore if the Soul have a real and true Resurrection at the last day it must have had a true and real Death perishing or extinguishment before that time Whence if it be to have a true and future Resurrection it must die and perish with the Body whose amicable concomitant it always is both in the procreation at the Birth in the Life at the Death and in the Resurrection of the Person And as to the sameness of that Soul with that that perished at the death it shall be as much the same as the Body rising shall be the same with that that dyed And herein I do further conceive that we cannot properly hold a discourse concerning the Resurrection of the Body or the Soul separately consider'd there being nothing either in Reason or Scripture upon which Men can ground their Apprehensions of a Resurrection of either of them separate from the other But if we will speak properly and truly of the Resurrection we must say with St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. that it is the Resurrection of the Dead not of the Body or Soul but of the Person which comprehends them both as the two main and constituent parts thereof He says there v. 32. If the dead rise not let us eat and drink for too morrow we dye And there is an end of us then he demands if the Dead be raised with what Bodies do they come without making any enquiry concerning the Soul which I conceive he past as a necessary principle which must give Life to the Body and constitute the raâ—sed Person The Apostles Creed in our Language delivers as an Article of Faith the Resurrection of the Body but in so doing it de arts from its originals both of the Greek and Latin Languages in the express words of both which it is called and termed the Resurrection of the Flesh I find no sufficient reason why this variance from our Originals should be continued amongst us and do therefore wish the Correction or Amendment of it believing withal that the best and most proper expression of our Faith in this point used in the Niceen-creed by the words I look for the Resurrection of the Dead by which I conceive is intended the dead persons constituted of Souls and Bodies the same or after the same sort and manner as they formerly liv'd in this World able to account for all they did whilst they before lived here and to receive just Recompences according to their Works done in this Life Here when Men dye they are commonly said to sleep with their Fathers and the faithful especially are said to dye in the Lord and to rest from their Labours 1 Thess 4. They are said to sleep in Christ and Solomon directs to remember these days of darkness for that they shall be many and therefore we must remember them that we may be prepared for them by keeping our Lights and Lamps burning and shining till death extinguish them and our selves together by casting all into that sound sleep which Death only can afford us giving us thereby a perfect Rest from all Oppressions Maladies Temptations and Troubles Of which Men have an Umbrage or Similitude when they see Men folded in a very profound and sound Sleep out of which with pinching or beating they can with great difficulties be awaked And yet we find that Men roused out of such a Sleep after they have rubbed their Byes and have been throughly awakened can give a ready and reasonable account of the things which they have done before their falling asleep And of a like Nature with the rousing from such a Sleep I conceive the Resurrection of the Dead will be And if any Man will still be so curious as to puzzle himself and his opponent with the nice demands of how and by what means such things shall be done and would desire me to account de modo resurrectionis and the means by which it shall be acted and performed I shall only giving
AN ARGUMENT Concerning the Human Souls seperate Subsistance The PREFACE IN the Month of December 1698. A Neighbour reputed a Quaeker came to me and brought in his Hand a small Pamphlet whose Title was Spira Respirans and delivering the same unto me he told me that there were divers Arguments in it for proving the Souls separate Subsistance which he perceived I stood in doubt of I liked his charitable Inclination for drawing Men out of Error or the uneasiness of a doubting Condition and upon perusal of his Treatise did find that it medled not with this Subject until the very latter end of the Pamphlet or the 48 page of it from whence my Examination begins And thereby I found that he produces three Arguments for the Souls separate Subsistance The two first whereof I thought to be fancyful or enthusiastick and therefore I have made very short Answers to them But his Third Argument I found to be more sober and substantial and drawn from two principal Topicks The first of them from the Resurrection and the second from Gods creating of Souls for Men and to each of them I have made a distinct Answer and more at large then to both his former and therein have satisfyed my own Vnderstanding and yet I remain under a desire to hear the judgment of other Men upon this Subject and force of the Arguments herein specifyed I believe that the Precept delivered in Moses Law of not seeing Sin or Error in our Brethren without reproving them for it is in full practice at this Day And as I have taken my share in doing so I expect a share in suffering according to the Tenor thereof If I might chuse the manner of being reproved it should be done with Love and in the Spirit of Meekness but if that cannot be obtained I will rather adventure the being lash'd or spatter'd with the Dirt of Reproaches as I have once before been then to continue in Error or such a state of doubting as I have long been under concerning the nature of the Subject here put under Examination And therefore I expose the present Pamphlet to the publick View with submission to the tryal of other Mens judgments thereupon And shall say no more to my considerate Reader then that I wish him heartily to Farewel Spira Respirans Lond. printed 1695. in 8vo Pag. 48. THE Writer of that Pamphlet says there are some few honest Hearts who perswade themselves and would have others perswaded that the Soul is mortal and dies with the Body And in kindness to these honest Persons he intends here to prove that the Soul doth indeed live when separated from the Body and that therefore it is immortal In proving of which Assertion he supposes as granted that there is in Man a Bodily being and a Spiritual being so distinct one from another as that they are beings of a different Nature and devidable one of them from another with a continuance of subsistance to them both And his so doing I say is but begging and not proving the point now in question between us For the honest Hearts to whom he writes do deny that there is such a spiritual Being or Substance in Man as is utterly immaterial or that hath any such being of it self as that it can subsist in a state of separation from the Body His part in the dispute of this Question should have been first to prove that there is such a spiritual being in Man as he hath before supposed And because he hath not done so nor made any Overtures or Offers towards it and his Opponents will not accept of his Suppositions that there is such a Spirit in Man as he hath surmised all his Arguments founded upon that surmise fall and fail of themselves for want of a real and true Foundation for the support of them and need no farther Answer till he shall have better proved that there is such a Spiâ—it in Man as he before but supposed P. 50. He says the Nature being or whatness of a Soul or Mind is thinking and nothing else but thinking and thinking is all it doth or hath I answer that his Words the being or whatness of the Soul do I conceive intend its Essence or even the very substance of it which suits better to his Words the whatness of it as if in Truth it had no other substance but thinking If he shall prove that there is really such a spiritual substance in Man as he hath supposed it will then be time to argue with him concerning this whatness of thinking which he pretends to be the very essence and substance of it But till such proof shall be made his substantial spiritual Soul and the whatness of it shall be left as the chimerical apprehensions of our present Writer He discourses here further concerning what use the Soul makes of the Body which I pass as impertinent until he prove there is in the Body such a sort of Soul as he surmises P. 52. He says many of our Thoughts depend upon the Union of the Soul and Body and come by occasion of bodily things but yet that all our thoughts do not do so But I think the contrary viz. that all our thoughts and power of thinking arise from and depend upon the Union of the Soul and Body David tells us that let the intentions of a wicked Man be never so bad yet when he dies all his thoughts perish And Job says that in the Grave the weary are at rest and Men are there freed from all sort of oppression and I demand of our opponents one Historical Instance or Narrative of a separate Souls thinking or doing any thing else from the time of the Worlds Creation to this Day believing they cannot produce such an instance excepting Parables like those of Lazarus and the Rapture or Revelation of St. John P. 53. He says that it is Gods Will the Soul should continue to be immortal and this he promises clearly to prove by his following Arguments which come now to be examined He draws his first Argument from his own Experience and says that in a Trance when he was not sensible whether he was alive or dead he thought unde stood consider'd and will'd and more vigorously then ordinary and because he did then do so he argues why may not dead Men continue to do so I answer because there is a great deal of difference betwixt a Man in a Trance and one perfectly dead and as much as between a living and dead Person and I conceive one may as well argue a living Man thinks understands considers and wills and why may not a dead Man do so P. 55. Secondly he says it is my Duty to love God and to love him still and therefore my capacity of loving God shall never cease to which I reply Vltra esse non datur posse He says further Bodies do not think cannot love it is only Souls that can to which I answer that neither Bodies nor
the satisfaction of a deus providebit referring for the rest to 1 Cor. 15. as the best and largest account which I know to be given concerning it and as a parallel case thereunto I will point him to Jo 3. where our Lord discoursing with Nicodemus tells him the Wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but caust not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit Nicodemus replys how can these things be And so I think may every Man reasonably do who will nicely consider the points really considerable in our great mystery of the Resurrection of the Dead If Men could reasonably discover and account for the modes and manner of such a Resurrection it would need no more to be accounted amongst the great mysteries of Christian Religion as in all times it hath been esteemed We have a Faith next unto Knowledge that our Lords humane Person was procreated in a Virgin without the Knowledge or Assistance of a Man and I may as reasonably enquire de modo hujus generationis and after what manner the same was acted or came to pass Again my Writer and I and all that I know are agreed that the humane Person is acted and moved either by a substantial intelligent Soul or by a Superfine â—et material and unintelligent Spirit but neither of us nor I think any Man else can tell any thing de modo movendi or after what manner and by what means either of them doth or can act and move the wonderful Machine of the human Body These Sciences are justly to be ranked inter arcana opificis God hath not yet revealed unto Men the manner and means of such performances and there seems to be a nimium in the re-searches of those Men who may pretend to make strict and nice enquiries into the manner and nature of such mysteries or de modo operationis thereof It seems enough for Men to know God hath declared and promised that there shall be an universal Resurrection of the Dead human Persons of all sorts without making any such Declaration or Promise to any other sort of Creature whatsoever And for this reason the Brutes are called the Beasts that perish utterly which Doctrine may be and elsewhere hath been proved by me from a clear current of Testimonies in the Old Testament and by a potent and strong stream of Testimonies in the New P. 59. He says that if the present human Soul dye or perish with the Body then there must be a new Soul created for the rising Body at the time of its Resurrection which Soul cannot reasonably be accountable for acts done in the former Body or by the person which now is to be rais'd To this I reply That this Argument is founded upon a Fallacy or Mistake of the Writer whose consequence would be apparently fallacious if he do not first pretend to believe that Adam had a Soul as well and as particularly created for him as his Body And therefore this point shall be a little further examined to which purpose shall be quoted Gen. 2.7 God formed Man of the Dust of the Ground and breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man became a living Soul As a Preliminary to this Examination I pretend to have it granted me that the words Man became a living Soul do intend or signifie the same thing as if it had been said that Man became a living Person That the word Soul in Scripture doth commonly and even ordinarily signifie the Person I am able to prove by many hundred Instances where the same cannot be intended to signifie any other then an humane Person Abraham going with his Wife into Egypt directs her to say she was his Sister for by that means he says his Soul shall live for her sake i. e. they should save him alive for her sake or he should still remain a living Person Gen. 19.20 Lot interceeds son the preservation of Zoar saying this City is near to flee unto and it is a little One O let me escape thither is it not a little one and my Soul shall live i. e. I shall live or still remain a living Person So when Jacob went down into Egypt he carryed with him Seventy Souls And Joseph's two Sons which were born to him before that time are called two Souls So Acts 27.37 In St. Pauls dangerous Voyage there were with him in the Ship 276 Souls I say that in these places and many hundred other places in the Scripture the word Soul cannot intend or signifie any other thing then Person by one of tâ—e most ordinary Synecdoches in the World viz. partis pro toto where by the most active and living part of the Person the whole Person is intended and signified I pretend then that leaving the figurative expression of this Text it may be thus read according to the true intent of it God breathed into Adam the Breath of Life and he became a living Person And thereupon I observe that there is express mention made here of the Creation of Mans Body but that there is no mention at all of creating a Soul for him But God breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and thereupon I conceive that God who had then newly created and finished his Organical Body had made his Blood and Humors pullulent and ready to be tinded and raised into a flame by the acting or fanning of such a moderate Breath as was intended to be breathed into him for that purpose whence God breathed into him the Breath of Life by whose fanning the Blood and Humors then pullulent and ready for that operation were tinded and kindled into a flame or glowing which from that time continued and resided in the Blood and Humors of the Body acting and moving Adams whole Body and every part Member and Muscle of the same the same flame of Life being fanned and revived every moment by the gusts of the ambient Air drawn through the Lungs to fann and refresh the flame of Life residing about the Heart and the other most eminent and vital parts and viscera of the Body And this Breath continued to be absolutely necessary for these purposes during the time of Adams whole Life and when he begat a Sen in his own likeness his Seed by commixtion in loco Idoneo became coagulated and by the necessary fomentation thereof fermented and in its due time became a vegitative and living Mass which by degrees grew to an embrion which daily received some degrees of growth and motion and when by such vegitation and growth it had obtained its due perfection it sought by instinct and found passage through its Mother to the open Air which after it hath once received it cannot live without it for that upon failour of fanning by the ambient Air after it hath once received the same it fails and dyes again necessarily within the space or compass of some few Moments
coming of the Lord which he says draws nigh without mentioning of any Reward after Death untill the Coming of the Lord. And thus I have quoted a cloud of knowing Witnesses to prove that the hope of Recompences future to this Life is founded upon the firm Rock of the Resurrection and Christs coming to Judgment without mention of a separate state of Souls or other in ermediate Recompences between Death and Judgment and to strengthen the Hope and Belief of those few honest Hearts which our Writer has us'd his best endeavour to over throw and pervert We read Gen. 6.17 God says to Noah I do bring a flood of Waters upon the Earth to destroy all Flesh wherein is the Breath of Life c 7.22 All in whose Nostrils was the Breath of Life of all that was in the dry Land dyed I conceive these Texts do very well explain what is meant or intended by the Words God breath'd into Adams Nostrils the breath of Life whereby he presently became a living Person It seems such a Breath as tinded and kindled in his Blood and Humours and the stems thereof that flame or Spirit of Life which immediately acted his organical Body and gave Life and Motion thereunto and continued to perform that Office in him during the whole time of his Life and in no other manner then it is known to do among the Beasts that perish The breath of all their Nostrils was stopt by suffocation in that deluge and thereby was fully verified what is said by Solomon Eccles 3.19 concerning Men and Beasts as the one dyeth so dyeth the other yea they have all one Breath So that herein a Man hath no preeminence above a Beast all are of the Dust and all turn to Dust again and who knoweth the Spirit of a Man that goeth upward or the Spirit of a Beast that goeth downward to the Earth By which it seems he did not know there was such a difference between the Spirits of Men and Beasts yet that there was among the Men of his time an Opinion or Conjecture that there was or might be such a difference between the Spirits of Men and Beasts concerning which he demands who knows the truth of it Which seems pregnant with this Negative that no Man doth with any clearness know whether there be such a difference between their Spirits or not after which he says chap. 12.7 That when Men dye The Dust shall return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it In his third chap. the matter is argued more at length and with greater deliberation whereas the latter seems but a sudden Expression and without a serious debating upon the matter but thereunto I have made a larger Answer in another Treatise Psal 104.29 David says to God Thou hidest thy Face they are troubled thou takest away their Breath they dye and return to their Dust viz. The Children of Men do so Isa 2.22 Cease ye from Man whose Breath is in his Nestrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Dan. 5.23 Daniel says to Belshazzar thou hast highly honoured thy puppit Gods but the God in whose Hand is thy Breath thou hast not glorified Acts 17.25 Paul tells the Athenians that God needs not their Service or any thing else that the World has in it seeing he giveth to all Life and Breath and all things Upon which I conceive that the expressions of Life and Breath if they be not consignificant are of a similar Nature one to another and may intend the Breath which gives Life A Spirit of the same Nature with that which God breathed into Adams Nostrils at the time of his Creation By the Texts before quoted I stand at the present convinced that the Breath of Life which God breathed into Adams Nostrils was not an immaterial intelligent substance but was of a similar Nature to that before quoted Gen. 7.22 where it is said all in whose Nostrils was the Breath of Life dyed and such as was prophetically call'd for by Ezekiel to come from the four Winds a Breath to breath upon those slain Persons now ready for Life that they might live The Breath of Life which by God was breathed into Adams Nostrils I yet conceive as I have before delivered to have been common Air breathed into him in such a moderate Proportion as might kindle and inflame his Blood and Humours and the stems of them ready and ripe for that operation and activity which the Spirits of Blood so kindled might impart to them and that it was not an extraneous substantial intelligent Spirit created by God at that time and for that purpose And I am ready and desirous to put the whole state of the Controversie upon the true and clear desiding of this Question being ready to grant that if God did create a new substantial intelligent Spirit for that purpose and infused the same into Adams Body for the informing thereof at his Creation that then it is likely he may so continue to do and create new Souls for all persons procreated in humane shapes all the World over and in all ages of it from Adams Creation to our present time But if that Breath of Life which God breathed into Adams Nostrils was only formed of the common ambient Air breathed into him with a fitting moderation for tinding and kindling the flame of Life in his Blood and Humours and the stems thereof then ripe and ready for that Operation then it is likely that God did neither form and make a substantial intelligent Spirit for the acting of Adams Body nor that he hath created such Spirits for Men in the Ages following but that rather such substantial intelligent Spirits have drawn their Original from the apprehensions and Imaginations of Men and because I think the same to be a mistake I do willingly contribute my best endeavours for the rectification thereof and to bring all disputes concerning the same to such a determination as shall be most agreeable to the tenor of Scripture and the clearest rules and dictates of reason that Men are able to attain unto for the more sudden attaining of which end I have propounded to put the whole Controversie upon the determination of this single point whether God did create for Adam a spiritual intelligent Soul or not If my opponents be able to prove with intelligible clearness that he did so then I am ready to give up unto them the Opinion which I maintain in this Controversie and if they be not able to prove the Creation before mention'd they may if they please forbear further to oppose the maintainers of my Opinion concluding thereupon that if they neither can perform one part of the demand nor will submit to the other we shall still be obliged to proceed on both sides to the further examination of the whole Controversie and those many points and arguments which thereupon have risen and are likely to be referred to a further Examination and Determination P. 59 He says he is well able to prove the essence of the Soul to be thinking by fundamental arguments but refuses to do it now because he says it is beside his present purpose But I differ in Opinion and think if he be able to do it that proof will ever be to very good purpose and therefore I request him to bestow his pains upon it believing yet that he will never be able to make a good performance of it viz. that there is either such a Soul in Man as he pretends nor that thinking is the essence of it allowing what he hath before spoken to be true that of that which is not there can be neither effect nor essence P. 60. He would have Men to bring their Minds to such an abstractedness as to lay aside all thoughts of bodily things and all thoughts that come by occasion of Body and then to reflect upon what you find remaining until your Mind hath a reflex and clear knowledge of it self I conceive that this Advice tends to perswade Men to give over all thinking upon the things which they know and to think altogether upon they know not what and so to become distracted as he professes he hath sometime been The remaining Pages of this Pamphlet speak only concerning himself and his own personal actings and sufferings with which I have no design or inclination to meddle and therefore my Observations upon this Pamphlet shall here be concluded and finished FINIS