men in England who do not only with you deny the possibility of the Souls Seperate subsistence but do also deny the being of any sort of Spirits whatsoever I desire to rectifie one of his Expressions in this Paragraph in the saying There are other men who with you deny the possibility of the Souls Seperate subsistence which I would have thus read There are other men who with you deny the probability of the Souls Seperate subsistence and if this alteration happen to be refus'd me I will also refuse to be comprehended under the words with you Page 7. He says Men cannot be certain that Souls do not subsist in a state of separation after Death or that they are not in a state of happiness or misery till the Resurrection I answer That if such things were once made certain and clear to us we should need to remain no longer in a doubting condition as we now do and therefore we do heartily wish and desire that God would please so far to inlighten some man or men with a certain or clear knowledge of the truth in this point as that they may be able to clear the same to the understanding and minds of such persons as are very desirous to be farther and fully instructed in this great Point and divers other particulars thereupon depending Page 5. Mr. W. seems to expect rather thanks than blame for endeavouring to clear up to mens minds the truth in this Question and in this I am fully agreed with him and am ready to give to him or any other man who proceeds candidly and fairly as he doth my sincere and hearty thanks for such labour of love with intent to draw others from the evil of their ways of Errour of in Practices P. 6. Mr. W. says I conceive some who embrace the Opinion of the Souls Materiality may be otherways good Christians and are by this Opinion the most enemies to themselves and therefore he deserves their thanks for endeavouring to draw them out of it And I commend his Charitable Profession and Practice wherein he exceeds divers other maintainers of the Souls Immortality and give him my iterated thanks for endeavouring to draw me and others out of those Apprehensions or Opinions which he thinks at the best to be our mistakes and errours and thus I part with his Epistle to the Reader to make some such farther Observations upon his following Treatise as to my own understanding shall appear fit and reasonable to be done HIS Treatise stands divided by himself into several Chapters to each of which I purpose to apply the Observations intended to be made towards the discovery and clearing of the Truths therein deliver'd and the answering of such Objections or Inferences as he may have drawn from them or built upon them without true or sufficient grounds for his so doing CHAP. I. PAge 1. he pretends here to speak of the Soul as if the Point in dispute were already granted him or were judicially determin'd to be on his side for he says speaking of the Soul that when she is born down with melancholy damps of her muddy tabernacle so as to think that at death she shall be turned into sensless stupid dust she strait grows sad and affrighted and then upon the consideration of her own Immortality she clears up her doubts and receives great comfort upon the Opinion which she hath of her being so qualified Hereupon I observe he seems to take for granted that the Soul hath thoughts or conceptions of her own by reflection upon her self or otherways without being therein assisted by the bodily Organs of that person wherein she resides now whether she hath such thoughts of her own or not himself very well knows to be one of the main Points in our Controversie for that all Materialists do maintain she hath no thoughts activity or being but in the Body and therefore can do nothing without it I have formerly quoted Aristotle de Anima where he calls it a very Improper way of Speaking for men to say The Soul is sorrowful or learned or wise and that they might as well say the soul weaves or builds because all these and the like Qualities are not Powers of the Soul but of the Man and therefore our Author should have said when the man is born down by the sad Contemplations of Death or any other accident he may take comfort from the high Conceptions of his Immortality but in the mean time it seems Mr. W. stumbles dangerously at the very Threshold or Entrance of this Dispute and must either have that granted him which he knows his Opponents do utterly deny or otherways all that he says in this Paragraph must pass for a Non sequitur without serving to any purpose in the Dispute of that Question which he at this time pretends to handle P. 2. He goes on and says He cannot believe his Souls confidence of her own Immortality to be a distempered fit of her spirit prone to believe that to be which she desires may be because he finds men of the best tempers and practices to be of that Opinion as if this Opinion of the Souls Immortality were a plant that co0uld spring and thrive only in a pure Conscience and a Mind united to God He says This confidence of the Souls Immortality is so appropriate to the wisest and best of men as it seems an absurd suggestion that it should have risen from mens own Imaginations but it seems rather evident that the Souls of men having in some measure recovered their pristine holiness and integrity they thence begin to know themselves and their alliance to the great God and see plainly that they do not only bear his Image in righteousness and holiness but likewise in Immortality Upon this Paragraph I observe that no man charges the Opinion of the Souls Immortality that it is a bare Imagination of mens idle brains or phantasies but we are ready to grant that this Opinion is founded upon antient and great Authority and was first introduced into the Heathen World by the Doctrine of Phericides Syrus whose Scholar Pythagoras built upon that Conception his Opinion of the Transmigration of Souls from one Creature to another with a general Community both to Men and Beasts which Opinion was generally received by the World of his time and was thence propagated to future Generations and continues at this day to be firmly believed in the Eastern Parts of the World of India China and Japan Plato became a Scholar to the Successors of Pythagoras in that Doctrine and Opinion which by his Genius became somewhat refined by rejecting a Community of Souls formerly supposed to be betwixt Men and Beasts and confining the Transmigration of Humane Souls to the Bodies of Men only conceiving withal that some more perfect and pure Souls amongst them might so have acted in Bodies wherein they lived as they might deserve to be delivered from the Drudgery of acting Humane Bodies any longer and
therefore were received up into higher Regions and Places where they enjoyed such Happiness and Powers of Acting as far exceeded the most Happy State upon Earth This Opinion of Plato found great Credit amongst the Learned Persons which came after him and particularly in the Heathen and Christian Schools of Alexandria as appears by the Writings of Origen and Pantenus who were Christian Doctors and Teachers in those Schools at Alexandria and this Opinion seems to have been also spread amongst the Nation of the Jews and Proselytes of their Churches because that when St. Matthew comes to relate our Lords Doctrine and Direction rather to fear God than Men for that God can punish men after Death which is not in the power of men to do he words it thus Fear not men because they can only kill the body but cannot kill the soul Which plainly proves it to be that Apostles Opinion That the Soul might have and had a natural Subsistence in a State of Seperation from the Body and that his believing the Truth of this Doctrine was the Cause why he worded our Lord's Direction in this Point as we find him to have done in the Text before quoted By what hath been said before it appears clearly we do not charge the Opinion of the Souls Immortality with being the Product of Mens idle Brains or Fancies grounded upon their own Desires of having it pass'd for an establish'd Truth for we have shewed and agree'd That the same is grounded in a learned Antiquity and very great Authority whence it hath grown to be the most general and near the universal Opinion of Mankind which having been so entertain'd Mothers and Nurses have instill'd the same into the Minds and Learning of their tender Infants who by Fathers and Masters are after farther confirmed in this so early radicated Opinion which is after farther illustrated and prov'd to them from Pulpits and the Ministers of their Churches And this Deduction manifests That we do not Charge the Opinion of the Immortality with being the Product of Mens idle Brains or Fancies or their Desires concerning the Truth of it As to what he pretends That the Immortal Opinion thrives only or mostly amongst the wisest and best Practicers of the Christian Profession I conceive him therein to be mistaken and think that for every wise and good Man which he can produce prosalted to believe and maintain the Opinion of the Immortality I shall be always able to produce twenty Sensualists at least and evil Livers who will be ready with great Zeal and Constancy to maintain Mr. W's Opinion of the Immortality to the uttermost As to his saying That Men attain to the Image of God in Righteousness and true Holiness and Immortality I find in my self no inclination to grant him That any Men whil'st in this World do attain to the Image of God in any of these Particulars I find it written That God made man after his own Image and in the Image of God made he man But I do not find my self able to explicate or conceive the true and full Scope and Meaning of these Expressions nor wherein the Image of God in man doth consist but am very apt to think That man was not made like God in Immortality because then there would have been no need of the Fruit of the Tree of Life to make Men live for ever But we read That God made that Tree and Fruit grow out of the Earth to that very purpose that Man by eating of that Fruit might become Immortal and live for ever and that upon his Sin he was debarr'd from eating of that Fruit and lost that Remedy which God had provided against the stroke of Death and in that Condition hath his Posterity remain'd ever since his Commission of that Sin against God And therefore I think St. John informs us truly when he says We know not yet what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him And therefore I leave the Pretences to such Knowledge to the Time of our Lord's second Appearance and sitting upon the Throne of his Glory when Men of good Practices may hope to be like him and that I think is sufficient to satisfie the reasonable and most exalted Desires of Mankind P. 3. Mr. W. says Whilst the Spirit of Man continues its Conflicts with the Flesh and the Lusts thereof as she will whilst she abides in the Body it is needful to maintain in her the Thoughts of her Immortality Here I observe that when he speaks of the Spirits contesting with the Flesh he says It continues that Conflict with the Flesh and the Lusts thereof as it will whilst she abides in the Body and therefore it is needful to maintain in her high Thoughts of her self By this manner of Speaking he first expresses that Spirit by the Name of it and presently without giving any Reason slides down upon it the Title of She and Her as if the daily Contests betwixt the Flesh and Spirit of Man intended a Contention between his Body and an Immortal intelligent Spirit within it expressing that Spirit by Terms of She and Her But I differ from him therein conceiving that by the Flesh and Spirits so contending one against the other is chiefly and even only intended the Contests which are daily found between Mens Affections and other Sensual Powers and the Minds or Rational Faculties of the same Person and his sliding the Terms of She and Her into this Discourse with design to have it thought that these Contests are maintained by an intelligent immortal Spirit against that Body wherein she lives looks to my Apprehension like a sort of Legerdemain which may perhaps prevail upon very unwary Readers but will not be suffer'd so to pass by considerate Examiners of his Writings P. 4. He says That She his Immortal Spirit will continue her Conflict with the Body so long as she is in it I am ready to Agree That such a Contest between the Sensual Appetites and Rational Faculties of Men is likely to continue throughout and during the whole Life of the Person but that this sort of Contest is so maintain'd between the Immortal Intelligent Soul and the Body of that Person whom she enlivens I am very apt and ready to deny P. 4. He says further If we seek Encouragement against the Fear of Death there is no Truth can arm us with a better Resolution than the Belief of the Souls Immortality And I grant that if this were a Truth sufficiently evidenced to the Understandings and Consciences of Men it would be a great strengthening to such Persons as have a very good Opinion of their own Merits to make their Passage through the Gates of Death with great Boldness and Assurance but to those who are working out their own Salvation with fear and trembling and are very humble in the Contemplation of their own Merits who tremble more at the sight of their Sins than they are
judged by Solomon to be the very same with the Humane in these Words Yea they have all one breath In the flood of Noah we read That all in whose nostrils the breath of life was died in that flood And clear it is they so died because the Waters stopped the passage of that Breath by which they before lived And if it shall be demanded by what means these Creatures obtained their first Breath I conceive it was given them by the same or the like Means that Adam afterwards received it A Specimen of which we find recorded Ver. 37. where a vast number of dry Bones received a sudden and powerful Resurrection For first They came together bone to his bone Next to which loe the sinews and flesh came up upon them and then the skin covered them above but there was no breath in them Then God commanded that Prophet to prophesie unto the Winds and say come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live So he prophesied as he was commanded and the breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great Army And thus I conceive it fared with Adam at his first Creation the Bones Ligaments and principal Parts were framed and fitted one of them to another upon which were formed their Flesh and Sinews over all which the Skin was lastly super-induced And after this manner it seems Adam's Body was first created and perfected altho he lived not because there was yet no Breath in him his blood and Humours were turgid and full of Mettle fit and apt to tin'd and have the Flame of Life kindled in them with the first Blast of that Breath which God intended to breathe into him for that purpose And this Flame of Life he then appointed to be continually maintained in the Bodies of Beasts and in the Persons of Men by breathing and the constant fannings of the ambient Air so as 〈◊〉 Creatures can live but a very few Moments 〈…〉 Whilst 〈◊〉 Creatures breathe they lives 〈…〉 they cause to breathe they cense to live What 〈…〉 should prove in this Point is this That God 〈…〉 Creation and 〈…〉 did create for him and for the Information of that Body a new spiritual intelligent circumscribed Substance that should come ab extra and be injected into that new created Body by the mighty and miraculous working of God's Power 〈…〉 he be able thus to prove I confess it will follow 〈…〉 â—his Soul had a separate Subsistence before its being â—ast into the Humane Body and thence it will also be a very probable consequent that when at Death it shall be again divided from the Body it will be able to subsist in a state of Separation from the Body But till the Being of such a Soul shall be better proved I hold the Opinon of its Extinguishment at the Death of the Person to be more probable P. 14. To prove that the Soul and Body are Two seperate singular and different Beings Mr. W. quotes 1 Thess 5.23 where St. Paul says I pray God your Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless Himself confesses he knows not well how to distinguish betwixt Soul and Spirit in this Text but yet he declares himself certain that there is a Distinction asserted betwixt them and the Body And I Reply That the being of a Distinction betwixt them is no good Proof that the Soul can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body for that the Relatives in the Holy Trinity are really distinct one of them from the other and yet no Division or Seperation can possibly be admitted amongst them And I farther conceive upon this Text that by St. Paul's Words of Soul Spirit and Body he intended no otherwise than that their whole Persons Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And I desire my Reader to observe here that which I think to be a Failure in our learned and pious Author this Text of St. Paul truly and fully quoted runs thus The very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Mr. W. quotes it thus I pray God your Spirit and Body be preserved blameless c. By which it appears that he omits the Word wholly and suppresses the Word whole in the beginning of the Text and then cuts it short in the end before he comes to the Words Vnto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and chusing to supply them by an Et caetera It seems this fallacious way of quoting Scripture did not fall upon our Author by chance but had a set Purpose in them and that he left out the Words wholly and whole in the Text because they may seem to Confirm and Fortifie my Exposition of it which is that the Words SPIRIT SOVL and BODY do all intend no more but the whole Persons of his Correspondents And he cuts off before the Words Vnto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ that he might avoid producing a very strong evidence against the Opinion which he maintains Because St. Paul does not pray God to preserve their Souls or Spirits at the time of their Departure out of this World but to preserve their whole Persons Souls and Bodies blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ As if he knew of no time of Reward or Punishment after this Life unto the second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ A like Charitable Prayer to this is delivered by the same Apostle 2 Tim. 1.16 where he says The Lord give Mercy to the House of Onesyphorus and the Lord grant unto him that he may find Mercy in that day viz. The Day or Time of our Lords Second Coming And so Chap. 4 he says My Departure out of this World is at hand and henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord Jesus the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his Appearing These last Words fixt the Time when such Crowns shall be distributed viz. The Time of Christ's second Appearing to the World And because the Point thus fall'n under Examination seems one of the most important which is now in Question between us I will produce some further Evidence strongly tending to maintain my Part of this Question and place our Lord himself in the Front of my other Witnesses He says Luke 21.27 Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a Cloud with Power and great Glory and when those things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh Joh. 14.2 Christ says In my Fathers House are many Mansions I go to prepare a Place for you And if I go and prepare a Place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am
you may be there also Here the Time when Christ would receive his Chosen to himself and to be where he is is declared to be the second time with his coming to Judgment Joh. 5.27 God the Father hath given Authority to the Son to execute Judgment also because he is the Son of Man Ver. 22. Christ says The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son Ver. 28. Mervail not at this that the Father hath given Authority of Judgment to the Son because he is the Son of Man for the time is coming in which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Here Christ because he is the Son of Man is made by his Father the Judge of Quick and Dead all the World shall hâ—ar his Voice and come to Judgment before him and if the Father judge no Man but have committed all Judgment to Christ because he is or as he is the Son of Man What room is there left for intermediate Judgments oâ— the 〈◊〉 going to God for Judgment at the Death of every 〈◊〉 as is pretended from Solomons transient 〈…〉 returns to God that gave it 〈…〉 of the Soul to God 〈…〉 intermediate judgment 〈…〉 going before 〈…〉 and seeking to be united again to Him as Men have thought it drew its Original from him Joh. 6. Ver. 39 40 44 54. In the Four Verses quoted and marked out of this Chapter our Lord declares both to his own Disciples and to the Jews That whoso doth his Will and keep his Commandments he will raise them up at the last day and give them Happiness and great Rewards without mention of an intermediate State between Death and that Resurrection Luke 14.13 14. Our Lord himself directs When thou makest a Feast call the Poor the Maimed the Lame and the Blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee for thou shalt be recompenced at the Resurrection of the Just. And so Heb. 11.35 After a large Catalogue of the Saints Sufferings the Apostle says That they would not accept of Deliverance because they expected a better Resurrection The same Apostle 1 Cor. 15.32 says If after the manner of Men I have fought with Beasts at Ephesus What advantageth it me if the dead rise not Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die And there is an end of us As if he had said the Sufferings of Christians for the Name of Christ shall avail them nothing if there be not a Resurrection of the Dead and I demand some one Text of Scripture to be produced which expresses or with any Clearness says That any Man or Men ever did or suffer'd any thing to the Intent or with Expectation of having their Soul or Souls carried into Abraham's Bosome after the Death of their Persons To our Fore-quoted Texts may be added the Testimony of St. Peter 1 Pet. 4.13 Rejoice inasmuch as ye are made Partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding great Joy So Chap. 5.1 he says I who am also a Partaker of the Glory which shall be revealed exhort you that are Elders of the Church to do the Duties faithfully and when the Chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory which sadeth not away He doth not say Have Patience unto to the Time of your Death and then your Souls shall be transported into a place of Bliss and Happiness 1 Joh. 2.28 That Apostle says And now Little Children abide in Him Christ that when He shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming Jam. 5.7 That Apostle says Be patient therefore Brethren unto the coming of our Lord which he saith draws nigh without mentioning of any Reward after Death unto the coming of our Lord. Jude 17. Says The Lord cometh with Ten Thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all the Vngodly amongst Men. And thus I have quoted a great Cloud of very knowing Witnesses viz. our Lord Himself and all his writing Apostles which are come to our Hands for the undeniable Proof of this Point viz. That the Faithful dy'd and suffered many great things in assured Hope and Expectation of great Rewards to be given and Punishments to be inflicted at the Time of our Lord's second Appearing of the Resurrection and of the Last Judgment without finding any foot-steps of the Souls Immortality it 's Seperate Subsistence from the Body or any Rewards or Punishments to be bestowed upon it in the space of time intermediate between Death and our Lord's Second Appearing I now return to a further Consideration of our Author's Quotations who Pag. 14. goes on and quotes 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a Price therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's Which I think intends no more than if it had been said Glorifie God in your selves or in your whole Persons which are God's Then he quotes Mat. 10.28 Men that can kill the Body are not able to kill the Soul We shall hear this Objection more fully offered in another Place and thither I refer my Reader for an Answer to it He next quotes 1 Cor 7.1 where the Words are Dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and of the Spirit Here by the Terms Flesh and Spirit the Apostle intends Man's Sensual Afâ—â—ctions and Appetites by the Term Flesh and the Rational Mind or Faculty of Man by the Term Spirit And this Tropical sort or manner of expressing himself I conceive to be very much used in this Apostles Writings Next he quotes Gal. 5.17 which says The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other This I think to be another of this Apostles Expressions to be taken in the same intent and meaning with the former as a Conclusion to the Texts before quoted He says he could quote more Texts to prove that wide Difference which he pretends to be between the Soul and Body I say to this that if he knew of more Texts very pertinent to this Purpose I think he ought not to have spared his Pains in the Quotation of them But saith he The Texts which I have already quoted are abundantly sufficient for the Proof of my first Proposition Which first Proposition I think to have been That the Soul was of a quite different nature from the Body viz. That the Soul was an Immortal Intelligent Spirit which can subsist by it self and in a state of seperation from the Body and the Body it self but a Compositum of Dust and Ashes into which it shall be again resolved soon after the Death of the Person The Later Part of this Proposition he neither hath offered to Prove nor needed to do it because it
of Life This shews that he did not desire Death in hope of his Souls immediate going to Heaven but rather he longed for Christ's second Appearing when all these things shall be performed and those which at that time are found alive upon Earth shall not die but be changed in a Moment or twinkling of an eye and so cloathed with their Houses which are from Heaven and by that means their mortal Bodies shall put on Immortality fulfilling our Apostles Words in this Text Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life And this Change seems to be the cloathing upon which he both intended and desired and it was a Practice of the Church of those Times as before is said to pray for the speedy Coming of our Lord Jesus and Consummation of the Mysteries of the Gospel And thus I conceive I have better Expounded our Apostles Text and given a truer Meaning thereof than Mr. W. will be found to have done and conclude thereupon That this Text can give but a feeble Support to the Opinion of the Souls seperate Subsistence P. 18. He further quotes Ver. 6.7 Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and walk by Faith not by sight and therefore we are willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. The Meaning of which may be that we cannot be present with the Lord in our Fleshly Bodies which are subject to Corruption whil'st they continue in their Natural State and therefore he desires the Change or Translation of such Earthly Bodies into that of Glorious or Heavenly Bodies which shall be done when we are cloathed upon with our House or Houses which are from Heaven by changing our Earthly Bodies into Heavenly which shall be performed to the Saints that live upon Earth at the Time of our Lord's second Coming and tho' they be absent from the Lord in their Earthly Bodies yet they shall then be present with Him in their Heavenly ones And our Apostle proceeding says Ver. 9. We labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of Him And then closes his Discourse Ver. 10. with that which seems to be the Reason of all his Desire and Endeavour viz. Because We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Earthly Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Which intends the Last and General Judgment without any Pretence or Apprehension that an Intermediate Judgment is at all meant or consider'd in that Expression Mr. W. quotes further 2 Pet. 1.13 I think it meet so long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up knowing that shortly I must put off this Tabernacle viz. I will endeavour that after my Departure c. It seems that Peter by the Term Tabernacle did intend his own Fleshly Body which with Propriety enough may signifie that Humane Body which is the Receptacle and Tabernacle of Life to every Man And Death is commonly amongst us call'd a Departure out of this World of such Persons as lately before were living Members of it and therefore I do not perceive what Force there is in these Texts of Proving the Soul's Seperate Subsistence Nor do I perceive that Mr. W. lays any proving Weight upon the Sense of the Texts as they are here quoted but endeavours rather to enforce a Meaning from the Greek Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he says Signifies After my going out viz. Out of my Tabernacle although our Translators have render'd it After my Departure Which I think to be a Translation which he cannot mend and if so they had render'd it by After my going out I should have sooner have taken it to signifie An Extinguishment of the Vital Flame in his Body than the Departure of an Intelligent Substantial Soul out of it And therefore I think the Enforcement of this Argument which he would derive from the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but trifling P. 19 He Appeals to all Mens Judgments that are not prejudicate whether the Apostles do not by the quoted Texts intend That Mens Souls are of such a Nature as can subsist in a State of Seperation from their Bodies I doubt not but if I or any other Man shall declare our selves to think other ways he will Reply we are Prejudicate and that is all the Fruit that can be expected of such a needless Appeal He says further If these Apostles had believed the Soul and Body to die together they would never have used such ensnaring Metaphorical Expressions as these that do so clearly hold forth a Seperability of the one from the other To this I Reply That if at all they hold forth this Opinion it is in a Dark-Lanthorn with the Light Side towards him and the Dark towards me But I rather conceive that if they had known the Being of a Substantial Intelligent Seperately Subsisting Soul in Man and that those of the good went to Heaven presently after the Death of the Person they would probably and even certainly have preached and declared the same And we should have found it so plainly and clearly delivered in some of their Writings which are come to our hands and the not finding it so delivered in any of their Writings gives us great cause to doubt the Truth of that Opinion Mr. W. for a further Proof of his Opinion quotes 2 Cor. 12.1 where that Apostle relates a Trance or Vision which he had and wherein he could not tell whether he was in the Body or out of the Body and thereupon he quotes the Assembly of Divines which sat in the Rump-Parliament Time and that they say the Apostle doubted whether God framed the Representation of these Heavenly things in his Soul in a State of Union with the Body or whether God Seperated the Soul from the Body and transported it into Heaven And thereupon P. 20. Mr. W. says That many Philosophers and some Divines affirm That Paul 's Rational Soul might be seperated from the Body and yet Paul not dead professing himself partly to be of the same Opinion And if by being out of the Body the Apostle doth not mean such a Separation he would be told what is meant by those Words Being out of the Body He was Conscious to himself of a common and I think a sufficient Answer thereunto given viz. That St. Paul was wrapt in a Trance or Extasie of his Mind wherein those things which he saw and heard were so lively represented to his Perceptive Faculties and so throughly imprinted upon his Memory as they could not be more perfectly perceived or better remembred if he had truly perceived them by the Use of his Bodily Organs so as he could not certainly know whether he was really wrapt into Heaven in his whole Person or whether the same was only a Trance and Rapture of his Mind Mr. W. intending to prevent this Answer says It is not enough for Men
without the requisite Refreshment of Respiration which perpetually must fan the Flame of Life for maintaining the same in a State of Purity Vigor and Activity And thus the Spirit of Life in Man and Beast appears to be a Compositum of the Breath of Life and the Blood of our Lives acting by inflamed Spirits of the Blood the whole Motion and Power of the Body and iâ—s Organs as well in Motions local as in the sensitive rational and affective Operations and Powers of the Person So as these Two Principles of Breath and Blood Material and Unintelligent tho' they be seem to effect and produce in the Creature both Life it self and all the Powers and Faculties thereunto belonging And this sort of Spirit in Composito is all the Spirit of Life which yet I am able to perceive to be in Man or Beast and this causes me to apprehend it must be Mortal And that as it was procreated and born with the Body so it must cease at death with the Being of the Person and be therewith raised again at the General Resurrection of the Dead Notwithstanding the Evidence which I have produced for the maintaining this Opinion I rest assured my Opposers will maintain That there must be another sort of Soul or Spirit in Man for producing and managing his super-excellent Faculties of Intellect and Memory because they cannot perceive or understand the Quomodo or Manner how this Material Soul compounded of Breath Blood and the Spirits of it acted by the Circulation thereof can possibly produce the Effects and Operations last specified I do not perceive that they very much boggle at the Opinion That these Ingredients may possibly produce Life Motion sensitive Faculties and Affections because they cannot with any good Face of Reason and therefore do not deny That by such a Material Compounded Spirit of Life the Brutes and all their Powers are daily and certainly enlivened acted supplied and supported And I think they are not well able to deny That the Spirit of Life by me propounded is the Causa sine qua non of Intellect Memory and whatsoever other Supream Faculties there are found in the Constitution or Nature of the Humane Person And thererfore I will not say much in the Proof thereof which our daily Experience sufficiently demonstrates our Sense of Seeing often proving to us that Men and Beasts by hanging strangling drowning or by other Suffocations or Stoppings of their Breath are soon delivered over to the Dominion of Death and thereby the Words of David are verified When thou takest away their Breath they die And therewith shall be finish'd my present Argument Whence I go on to enquire after Solomon's Meaning in the Words of this Text The Spirit returns to God who gave it I dare not and thefore I do not Affirm That Solomon intended this sort of Spirit which I have described to be truly that Spirit which he says Returns to God who gave it and with intent to give a Reasonable Account thereof I think fit to Premise that there are Two other Sorts of Souls or Spirits commonly taken notice of in the Learned World The First of which and the most taken notice of is that Sort Soul which is often spoken of and described by Mr. W. and his Party and which they say is an entire compleat intelligent Spirit acting the Organical Body whil'st it therein remains and specially the Kepheline Organs thereof producing eminently therein the high Faculties of Perceiving Understanding Judgment Will and Memory and they sâ—y that after the Departure of this Soul from the Person who thereby is dissolved it can subsiâ—t by it self in a Seperate State and therein move it self and have full Enjoyment of the fore-named Powers of Reasoning Acting and Thinking and that very soon after its Seperation from the Body it goes to God or before His Tribunal to receive his Intermediate Judgment upon the Acts done by the Person in his Life Time and that pursuant to the Sentence therein given such Souls are either accepted into Heaven and Happiness or that they are cast down to Hell to be there made Partakers of Eternal Sufferings and that they have Sense and Perception enough to take a full Taste of these great Differences To which the Romish Church Annexes That besides the Souls that go to these Two Places there are other Souls which are sent some to Limbus's Paterum aut Puerorum other to Paradise or Abraham's Bosom and others of which they think there are a great Number into the scorching Flames of a Purgatorial Fire where they must undergoe great yet Temporal Sufferings for expiating the Crimes of their Dead Persons and Purging away that Dross which they had contracted in the Bodies of their Persons upon Earth The Second sort of Soul whereof notice is taken by the Learned is supposed to have a different Original rising from an Opinion very antient in the World which was That the whole World it self was one immense Living Creature or Machine animated or acted by one universal Soul Spirit or Being which the old Philosophers termed some of them the Soul of the World and by others it was called the Spirit of Nature which they so both described as they appeared to intend an universal or infinite Spirit from whence or from whom all the Life and Motion found in the World was derived Some of those Learned said That all the Life of Grasses Flowers and Plants was derived from that Spirit or Being and that upon their Dying that Vegitable Spirit which before was in them return'd again to the Spirit of Nature from whence it first proceeded Others went not so deep but contented themselves to say That the Spirit of Life in all those Creatures which had spontaneous Motion proceeded from this Soul of the World or that universal Spirit or Being which Animated or Acted the same and they conceived that when such Creatures were duely fitted for the receipt of Life this universally knowing Spirit was moved by a Natural Congruity in the thing to emit from it self such Sparks and Particles as were parts of it 's own Being for the communicating and giving such a Spirit of Life to those Creatures as their Natures required and that when such Living Creatures Dyed those Sparks or Parcels of the Spirit of Life which they had before received return'd immediately back to the universal Spirit of the World as to the Fountain from whence they issued or as to that Totum of which themselves were but the small Sparks or Particles to which they were again joyned and were received into it as true and real Parts and Particles of the same This apprehension hath been of a long continuance in the World coming down from the Discourses of Ancient Philosophers to the time of the Divine Plato by whom it was Cultivated and Confirmed so as all his Doctrines and Writings seem to have reference thereunto and taste very strongly of that Opinion and all his Scholars were much addicted thereunto
failed in the Proof of it He hopes his Adversaries will not be such Blasphemers as to deny the truth of Solomon's Words The Spirit returns to God who gave it Concerning which Words I have before fully declared my Conceptions and have no design to repeat them again here Further he quotes again Eccl. 3. as if Solomon there said That when Man dieth his Body goes one way and his Spirit another and whether he quotes this Text truly shall be left to Judgment Then Mr. W. puts an Objection against himself Supposing some may say If all Souls return to God that gave them the Souls of the Wicked do so too and he grants that so they do and for solution of this Objection he says That tho' God be in his highest Heavens and keep his Sessions there yet there are some other parts of the Heaven where he keeps a particular Sessions to which Evil Spirits may approach as they did in Micaiah's Vision where God may pass Sentence upon the Souls of the Wicked without bringing them into Heaven and he thinks God hath a glorious Presence in the lower Heavens with his Angels and that there he doth Transact many Affairs relating to the Government of this World and quotes for this the Devils Appearance in the Case of Job and says If Devils may appear before God so may the Souls of the Wicked do too In Answering I declare to agree with his last Expression That if there be Seperate Souls of Wicked Men Subsisting by themselves they may appear before God as his quoted Texts testifie Devils have done but I demand as clear Texts and Testimonies of Scripture for the appearing of wicked Souls before God as are quoted for the appearing of Devils before him But he brings not one Text to Prove that he saith Truth concerning the appearing of wicked Souls before God And I confide that no one Text of Scripture can be brought which gives an Assertory Testimony of that Fact or says there was ever such a thing done in the World And for what he says of God's keeping his Sessions of Judgment sometimes in Heaven and sometimes in other particular Parts of Heaven I am apt to demand Proofs thereof from Texts of Scripture but he brings not one to this purpose And therefore I think it may be concluded that these several Sessions of God for Judgment are but a Device of his own Brain which hath no real Truth in it And thus by Mens Devices they strive to heal cover and confirm their Erroneous Opinions which I look upon as a great Fault in a good Man But notwithstanding those Humane Inventions I am apt to conclude that if the good Souls go to God for Judgment in Heaven that bad Souls do also somewhat evidently do the like Solomon says The Soul returns to God who gave it The Soul returns are Words that intend indefinitely and seem therefore equivalent to an Universal and signifie as much as if it had been said All Souls return to God who gave them And this Sense of the Words our Author hath lately granted Whence I conclude that as God says All Souls are mine which I think intends Persons so all Souls are intended to return to God who gave them as well and as much the Bad as the Good for any thing that I can perceive either in the words of the Text or any thing that is true in our Author's Discourse of it P. 60. He puts a Second Objection against this Opinion which I think he doth set up as a Man of Straw that he may have the battering of it down again He pretends some say that he hath indeed proved the Soul and Body to be seperated at Death and that one of them goes to one Place and the other of them goes to the other Place but that he hath not yet proved the Soul to live in that State of Seperation Hereupon I observe That after he hath said The Soul and Body are seperated at Death he adds That they go to two different Places Which Saying I think the Text doth not warrant for it doth not say that either of them go to any Place And first we may be sure a dead Body cannot go any whither The Text says It returns to the Earth as it was and of which before it received Life it was a Part So for the Spirit the Text says It returns not goes to God who gave it I have before offer'd an Apprehension That Solomon might intend this Spirit returned to God in a natural and easie manner as a Part doth to its Totum and the Parcels of Air or Water return to and incorporate with their Elements and that as the Body returns to the Earth as it was and as a Part doth to its Totum so the Spirit returns to God from whom it came and of which I suppose Solomon might think it to have been a Part But I grant That if the Soul in our Author's Sense do go to God after Death then the Objection which says he did not prove it alive in a seperate State is vain and frivolous and may easily be overthrown without putting our Author to the Trouble of Defending his Opinion against it In the Close of this Argument Mr. W. asks What hath the Living God to do with dead Spirits And I say so too and therefore grant that if the Intelligent Seperate Spirit of a Man be dead it can with no Propriety or Truth be said to Return to God who gave it P. 61. Mr. W. says So I shut up this Third Argument and with it my Proofs from the Old Testament And concerning these Threee Arguments I say the First is measurably Confuted the Second is Disregarded and the Third is otherways Expounded and in such a manner as Opposes Mr. W's Pretensions thereupon The Fourth Argument PAg. 61. Mr. W. quotes here that Text of Scripture whereby the Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence is principally supported and upon which it is with a great measure of Clearness grounded and which arises near unto an Assertion that the thing is so and I think Mr. W. doth from thence rightly Argue That if the Soul cannot be killed by killing the Body or Person it seems to be a reasonable Inference drawn from this Text to Argue That the Soul must needs have a Seperate Subsistence of its own after the Death of the Person And further Mr. W. observes well the Reason why our Lord deliver'd this Doctrine to his Disciples viz. To encourage them against the Fears of such Persecutions as were likely to fall upon them in the Prosecution of their great Duty the Preaching of the Gospel encouraging them not to sear what Harm Men could do unto them upon that account because Men could only kill the Body intending the Person but were not able to kill the Soul or lay any other sort of real Punishment upon Men after their departure out of this world P. 62. Mr. W. produces an Argument which I think
Go thy way and as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee St. Luke relates it thus This Centurions servant was ready to die and when he heard of Jesus he sent unto him the Elders of the Jews beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant And they came to Jesus desiring him to do this Kindness for the Captain because he was a worthy Person and a Lover of the Jews and Jesus went with them towards the Captain's House and when he was not far from thence the Centurion sent Friends to him saying unto him Lord trouble not thy self for I am not worthy that thou should'st enter under my Roof wherefore neither thought I my self worthy to come unto thee but say in a word and my Servant shall be healed And Jesus thereupon turn'd him about and discours'd with those that followed him and they that were sent returning to the House found the Servant whole that had been sick Upon reading these two Relations I think it plainly appears That either this Centurion came Personally to our Lord to request his Servant's Cure or he did not come Personally to Christ for that purpose but sent the Elders of the Jews to request that favour upon his behalf Without that himself came either to Sight or Speech of our Lord upon that occasion I find no ground or reasonable guess which of our Texts deliver the absolute Truth in this Circumstance of the Fact which they relate but from this Variance and the other Instances before recounted I think it may reasonably be collected That Men are not bound to take and perhaps ought not to take every Saying or Sentence which they find written in the Scriptures to be an irrefragable Truth and the very Word of God And I am ready to apply this Tenet to the Sayings now in dispute with Mr. W. viz. Are not able to kill the Soul and have no more that they can do We find an apparent Variance between these Two Sayings and that the Words of St. Luke are adaequate and answerable to the Intent of our Lord's Doctrine in this place whereas those of St. Matthew have a double Aspect and look as it were two ways For one way it insinuates that Persecutors can do no more harm after they have killed Another way it seems next to an Assertion that Mens Souls live and subsist in a state of Seperation from their Bodies I do not by the Context or any other ways conceive that our Lord did speak or had any Intent to speak of the state of Men after Death in this Doctrine whence the Words Are not able to kill the Soul in that Prospect of intending to teach the state of Men after Death seems quite besides our Lord's Meaning in this Doctrine and if not quite out of it yet very plainly collateral to it And yet from this side-wind the Maintainers of Seperate Subsistence draw the strongest Proof which they can find for maintaining their Opinion of the Seperate Subsistence I think that upon perusal of this Argument it will appear the strength of this Proof is much weaken'd and abated and will be found to be of much less force than it seems to have at the first reading or hearing thereof and in this state of debilitation I leave it to prosecute my Observations upon Mr. W's Pages as I did before P. 64 Mr. W. pretends to take the disputed Words as Comments one upon another and says that by Construction they may be made to intend one thing And I am ready to grant that by Construction they may both of them be made to serve the Meaning of our Lord in this Doctrine but then in our Collateral Point which St. Luke doth not meddle with there is a very great Variance between these two Expressions for that the one proves strongly the Soul 's Seperate Subsistence and the other proves it not nor meddles with it at all Which proves that our Lord's Doctrine did not intend to speak of that Point in this place And therefore our Question thereupon is In what Words our Lord delivered this Doctrine And the Conclusion is That if he delivered this Doctrine in the Words of St. Matthew then they are a strong Proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence but if his Doctrine were delivered in the Words of St. Luke then there is no Proof at all in it of the Souls Seperate Subsistence And I have before enough Argued on the side of St. Luke and for the Probability that his Text sets forth to us the very Words wherein our Lord delivered this Doctrine Mr. W. confesses That Luke expresseth less than Matthew but says He never meant less Which I think intends that the Meaning of Luke in his Text was That those who kill the Body are not able to kill the Soul Which Meaning doth not at all appear in the Words of Luke's Text which do not say so And how then Mr. W. should come to know that he meant so I do not understand and therefore I reject this Gloss upon that Text as Mr. W's own Invention or Fiction The Fifth Argument PAg. 65. Mr. W. raises an Argument for the Soul 's Seperate Subsistence from the Appearing of Moses and Elias and discoursing with our Lord upon Mount Tabor and says That Moses could not appear there in his Person Soul and Body because Deut. 34.6 says Moses died in the Land of Moab and He the Lord buried him in a Valley there over-against Beth-Peor but no man knoweth of his Sepulchre unto this day P 66. Mr. W. discoursing upon this Text says That Moses appearing at Mount Tabor must be either alive in Spirit only or else his Body was raised Adding I know that some conjecture that his Body was rais'd but they cannot prove that Conjecture from Texts of Scripture And therefore he thinks it more likely that Moses appeared in Spirit only intending I suppose in his Soul subsisting in a state of Seperation after Death Which I think to be no more than a Conjecture which he is not able to prove by Texts of Scripture any more than the former Conjecture can be so Proved And to these Two Conjectures I pretend to add a Third viz. That Moses may not have died in the Mount but might be translated or transported to Heaven in Person as Enoch and Elias had before been Which I offer to Prove by his Appearing with Elias at Mount Taber It seems they appeared both after a like manner and the one as much in Person as the other Mr. W. grants that Elias did appear in Person and Arguendo a simili it appears most likely that Moses did so too As to the Text which says Moses died and was buried I think fit to consider by whom this Book of Deuteronomy might be written and if the Promises thereof might be written by Moses or his Direction yet this closing Passage of it about his own Death and Burial it seems could not be so It appears not from whence the Opinion
know That he who raised up our Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus And in the end of this Discourse St. Paul says We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ and there receive Recompences according to our Works And hence I Collect That the Texts which lie intermediate betwixt these Two do most directly concern Matters pertaining to the Resurrection and the manner of proceeding which may at that time be expected and from these Premises I gather that in Mr. W's proving Text the Words Absent from the Body and present with the Lord do intend the Presence and Absence of the wholâ— Person with the Lord or from the Lord and do Expound the Apostles Meaning to be that Men cannot be present with the Lord without being absent from their fleshly Bodies 1 Cor. 15.50 says Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and therefore Paul desires to be absent from this sort of Body that he may be present with the Lord in another sort of Body Ver. 40. There are Celestial Bodies and Bodies Terrestrial Ver. 44. There is a Natural Body and there is a Spiritual Body V. 46. First that which is Natural and afterward that which is Spiritual V. 49. And as we have born the Image of the Earthly so shall we bear the Image of the Heavenly V. 51. St. Paul shews us a Mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye for at the sound of the last Trumpet the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we such Saints as are then upon Earth shall be changed for this Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this Mortal must put on Immortality I say then That by St. Paul's Absent from the Body and present with the Lord in this Place he intended the Change before-mentioned and that his natural fleshly Body should be changed into a Spiritual Heavenly Body and that he might not longer be absent from the Lord in his Fleshly Body but might have it changed into a Spiritual Body in which he might be present with the Lord. 1 Thes 4.15 This we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them that are asleep for the Lord himself shall descend with a shout and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Hence I Infer That after our Earthly Tabernacle is so dissolv'd or as that our Earthly or Fleshly Bodies are by this Change cloathed upon with our House that is from Heaven or those Spiritual Heavenly Bodies we shall together with the newly raised Persons meet the Lord in the Air and so shall remain with the Lord for ever St. Paul in this Discourse makes no mention at all of Death or Dying or any sort of Seperation of the Soul from the Body but seems to reject that Intent when he says He does not desire to be uncloathed Which I think intends to die but desires to be cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life Which will clearly be effected by changing his Fleshly Natural Body into a Spiritual or Heavenly Body in which Men shall be present with the Lord for ever 1 Joh. 3.2 Beloved it doth not yet appear what we shall be but me know that when He Christ shall appear we shall be like him and our vile Bodies shall be chang'd and made like his Glorious Body It may also be observed what St. Paul intends by his Term We for in the quoted Text he says We desire to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord And elsewhere says We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed Also We that are alive shall not prevent them that are asleep Also We shall be caught up to the Clouds to meet the Lord and remain ever with him In all these We's it seems plain the Apostle intends the Persons of Believers and not their Souls only Concerning this Desire of being Absent from the Body and present with the Lord it seems observable That the Church of that time expected our Lord's Second Coming within some indifferent or short space or compass of Time such as that possibly some of them might live till the Accomplishment of it Our Lord speaking of the Signs of his Coming says This Generation shall not pass until all things be fulfilled And else-where tells his Auditors the Signs and Glory of his Second Coming and says Then look up and lift up your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh as if some of them might live unto that Time In the Apostolick Writings we often find their Times express'd by the Terms of Last Time and they thought that upon them the Ends of the World were come and we find it written The time is short therefore he that is filthy let him be filthy still and he that is holy let him be holy still As if there were scarce time of a REFORMATION before the Coming of our Lord. Rev. 3.11 Behold I come quickly hold fast that which thou hast 1 John 1.18 Little children it is now the last time and Antichrist is already at work Heb. 1.1 God who in former times spake unto us by his prophets hath in these last times spoken unto us by his Son Jam. 5.7 Be patient brethren unto the coming of our Lord and establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Rev. 22 7. Behold I come quickly and the time is at hand and behold I come quickly and my reward is with me Ver. 20. He which testifieth these things saith surely I come quickly Amen even so come Lord Jesus The Spirit and the Bride say come Our Lord answers I come quickly and the Church replies even so come Lord Jesus come quickly It seems to have been the Custom of that Age to pray for the speedy coming of our Lord to Judgment and that the days intermediate thereunto might be shortned and that the expected Change of their Mortal into Immortal Bodies might be accomplished with the most speed that was possible And upon these grounds St. Paul as well as other believers desired heartily to be absent from their fleshly bodies that they might be present with the Lord in their spiritual ones And upon this Canvass I am satisfied in my own understanding that St. Paul's being absent from the Body and present with the Lord ought to be expounded as I have before declared And thereupon it will be easily concluded that Mr. Ws. Tenth Argument grounded upon the Text of St. Paul before quoted is not a sufficient a sound or a good Argument for proving of the Souls Seperate Subsistence The Eleventh Argument PAge 94. Mr. W. quotes 2 Cor. 12.2 I knew a man about fourteen years ago whether in the body
Come up hither and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter and immediately he was in the Spirit and behold a Throne was set in Heaven And from thence he prosecutes his Revelation of things afterwards to be performed Our Apostle doth not say here That his Spirit was transported into Heaven or that he was there in his Soul only but says Immediately I was in the Spirit I my self was there my Person was there in the Spirit So that all which was there revealed was so revealed to himself or Person without Mention of any Seperation of his Soul from his Body any more than St. Paul hath mentioned it in his proving Text. Whence I conceive that during the space of this Revelation St. John was in a Rapture or Transport of his Mind as other Prophets had been before him and yet he had so perfect a Perception of the things revealed and was so well assured of the Truth of them and remembered them so well as if he had perceived and known them with his Bodily Senses of Seeing and Hearing and remembered them as well and he might possibly be as uncertain as St. Paul was whether this was a Rapture of his Person into Heaven or that it was only a Rapture of his Mind wherein this Revelation was made to him I have quoted these Four Parallel Texts of Scripture to evince or perswade that St. Paul in our Proving Text did not doubt whether his Soul was actually seperated from his Body but whether his Rapture into the Third Heaven was a Transport of his Person thither or whether this Transport was only a Rapture of his Mind I am by what hath been said satisfied in my own Understanding that St. Paul did not intend in this Text to teach concerning the Seperation of the Soul from the Body or that the Soul could subsist in such a State of Seperation and therefore I think that the Argument which Mr. W. draws from this Text for Proof the Souls Seperate Subsistence is unsound and fallacious and is by no means a good Proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence The Twelfth Argument PAge 97. Phil. 1.21 23. To me to die is gain for I am in a straight betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Hereupon Mr. W. argues That if St. Paul's Soul was Immortal then are all Mens Souls Immortal But Paul's Soul he says was Immortal Ergo He proves Paul's Soul to be Immortal by saying If Paul's Soul was in a better Condition at the Death of his Body than when it lived therein then was his Soul Immortal But he says Paul's Soul was in a better Condition after his Death than when alive which he proves by â—aying That which gained by the Death of the Body was much better out of the Body than in the Body But Paul's Soul gained by the Death of his Body and therefore was in a much better Condition out of it than before This he proves by Paul's saying To die was gain Secondly because the Soul at the Death of the Body he says would obtain such a Being with Christ as it had not in the Body Hence he Concludes the Souls of good Men are more happy out of the Body than in it and they cannot be so except they subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body P. 98. Mr. W. Objects thus against his own Argument That Paul in this Text speaks not a Word of his Soul but only of himself or his whole Person and that it is not fair for Mr. W. to argue a greater happiness of his Soul only at Death from St. Pauls speaking of a better condition that himself should enjoy at Death To this Objection he answers That Paul must in this Text when he speaks of himself only be understood as intending his Soul because Death could not possibly be again to his Body nor could Death bring him to a more blessed presence with Christ than he had whilst alive And against his own Doctrine he puts another Objection P. 99. as if some had said That Pauls desire to be with Christ after Death was only in expectation of happiness at the Resurrection Then Mr. W. answers this Objection which is not owned by me or any other which I have heard or read of and therefore it passes with me for another Man of Straw set up by himself to be batter'd down again by the same hand Phil. 20. I hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain but if I live in the flesh this is the fruit of my labour what I should chuse I wot not but am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you I observe upon this Text that there is no mention of the Soul made in it although there is mention of the Body that Christ shall be magnified in it intending his Person by the Name of his Body In all the rest of the Text there is nothing else denoted but by the Terms of I and Me both which do properly denote and signifie the Person and all that which Mr. W. has raised out of this Text concerning the Soul or its Subsistence in a Seperate State from the Body seems to be the proper effect of his own Invention and not really founded upon St. Pauls Text before quoted Mr. W. hath said from the Text That to die is gain and that to die is better than to live here These two Sayings may I think be very properly applied to the Person that it may be gain for some Persons to die rather than live and consequently that it is better for such Persons to die than to live here Thirdly he says St. Paul gives the Reason why it is better for him to die than to live here because in departing hence he shall be with Christ I Answer We do not read in this Text That Paul chose rather to die because then he should be with Christ but says That if he did die he should be with Christ He had other Reasons for chusing Death rather than Life and took that for a Comfort and Support in obtaining this Choice that after Death he should still be with Christ in a State of Rest and Quietness which would be far better for him than that State which he now endured in this World Coloss 1.24 I Paul do now rejoice in my Sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his Bodies sake which is the Church We know that Christ's Sufferings for his Body sake the Church were great to which Paul in this place compares his own Sufferings and therefore we have reason to think they were great also Eph. 3.13 I desire that ye faint not
Intent thereof and even to have exterminated the same out of the Apprehensions and Memories of such Men. And hereupon I do again agree that it is very sutable to the Justice of God and his equitable Dealings with Men that there should be a distribution of Rewards and Punishments after this Life and I do with great Assurance believe that the same will fall out accordingly not bestowing those Rewards and Punishments upon Souls Subsisting in a State of Seperation from the Body but that rather as our Lord himself tells us John 6. Those who fear God and work Righteousness shall by Christ be raised up at the last Day in their full Compositum of Soul and Body and in their own Persons shall receive Rewards according to their Works done and their Faith professed in this World and that the like measure shalt be dealt to the Wicked at the Resurrection of the last Day whose Punishments shall be equally distributed to their Persons as is before said to be done in the case of the former Raised and Righteous Persons P. 156. The Doctor says He cannot but wonder that Plato having asserted God to be a Mind Divine and Incorporeal should contradict himself in affirming that Man's Soul was a Particle taken from the Substance of God himself he will not engulph himself in the Bottomless Sea of Difficulties concerning the Original and Extraduction of Man's Soul but he conceives the Soul cannot be produced from Matter because it is Immaterial but however it is plain that it hath its Beginning and Origine with the Body and yet being Incorporeal it is not capable of perishing with it P. 159. He confesses a great decay of Intellect in Mens very old Age but says that Decay grows from the weakness of the Fancy and Imagination and the Organs thereof and not from the Decays of the Intellect or Soul it self Answering I say it seems rather to grow from the Heaviness and Unaptness of the Blood of old People to be so vigorously Inflamed and Acted as it used to be in their younger Years and greater strength of their Bodies and Concoction P. 173. The Doctor says It is not necessary that when at Death the Soul is breathed into the Air that the Air should be thereby Animated because then it should act without the Mediation of any Organs at all but he asserts that neither in the Air nor any other Body whatever can the Soul either meet with or create those Dispositions that are requisite to Vital Information P. 174. He says The Soul makes use of the Vital Spirits as Servants for the effecting of Life Sense and Motion I say Nature makes use of them for the effecting Life Sense Motion Understanding Memory and all other Powers of Cogitation whatsoever P. 180. The Doctor says As to the Particular or Manner of the Souls Knowledge after Death I remit you to Sir K. Digby's sublime Speculations concerning the condition of a Seperate Soul in which tho' you may not meet with such Satisfaction as you expect yet you will meet with more than I can now give you without repeating his Notions To this I answer that I have perused those Notions without meeting with any Satisfaction at all in them P. 183. The Doctor says That the Cement which joyns the Body and Soul together is the Blood especially the Spiritual and most refin'd part thereof and he quotes a Saying of Critius Sentire Maxime Proprinus esse Anima atque hoc in esse propter sanguinis Naturam P. 184. He says The Blood is the first pact of the Body that is generated and moved and the Soul is excited and kindled first from the Blood and the Blood is that in which the Operations Vegitative and Sensitive do first manifest themselves The Doctor says That he thinks it likely that the Soul having its first and perhaps principal Residence in the Blood and that Blood by Circulation flowing like a River of living Water round the Body penetrating into and irrigating the Substance of all the Parts and at the same time communicating to them both Heat and Life so as the Soul having its principal Residence in the Blood in respect thereof may very well be conceived to be Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte so as there is an Intimate presence of the Soul in the Blood and by that means a Conjunction of them together 169. The Dr. says That in the Progression towards Death the Vital Heat or Flame being either almost suffocated by Putrefaction of the Blood the only Fewel by which it is maintained in Diseases or exhausted by old Age goes out like a Lamp by degrees ceasing first to enliven or irradiate the parts that are most remote from the Focus or Heart and then failing in its conserving Influence more and more till at length suffering an Extinction in the very Heart as it were in the Socket it leaves that also Cold and Lifeless so that Death is as an Extinction only of the Vital Flame not of the Soul I say That it is an Extinction of that Vital Flame which I conceive to be the Soul or Spirit or the first Principal of Life and Motion in the Person I think that by the Doctor 's Words in this last Quotation he seems fully to agree with what I have often repeated that the total Extinction of the Vital Flame in the Blood is the Death of the Person and the very thing which turns that which was the living Body into a dead Carcass whence he says That Death is an Extinction of the Vital Flame and yet denies this to be an extinguishment of the Soul whence it seems to me that he was resolved to maintain the Subsistence of the Soul after the death of the Person altho' the Nature and Reason which he pretends to follow convinced him not so to do or that he found any natural need of his so doing but because he thought it might be prov'd by Scripture and was maintain'd by the Divines That the Soul of Man had a Seperate Subsistence after death of the Person and therefore was Immortal and that he stood so perswaded from Scripture Grounds he testifies Pag. 185. where he says That the Soul is an Immortal Substance and that its Immortality is not only credible by Faith or upon Authority Divine but also demonstrable by Reason or the Light of Nature From these Words I collect That his Belief of the Souls Immortality was grounded first upon Faith and Divine Authority as he thought and being thus fully perswaded of the Truth of that Opinion he set himself on work to maintain it by such Deductions as he was able to make from the Principles of Nature and Reason his Performances wherein have before been examined and shewn not be of so great weight as he perhaps conceived them to be The Treatise now examined was publish'd so long ago that I doubt before this time his Flame of Life hath been extinguish'd or that he may not be
OBSERVATIONS UPON Mr. WADSWORTH's BOOK OF The Souls Immortality and his Confutation of the Opinion of the Souls Inactivity to the Time of General Resurrection 80. Printed London 1670. IN his Epistle to the Reader Page 2. he says There are certain sober Professors of Christianity who tho they deny the Existence of the Soul separate from the Body yet they maintain the Resurrection of the whole Man at the Last Day to receive Recompences according to their deservings in this life and thereupon asks the Question Is not that sufficient to uphold Religion and a due Reverence of God in the World In answer to which Question he says There are some Professors among us who deny the Resurrection of the Body as some of the Quakers are said to do but yet believe the Returning of the Spirit to God who gave it and then concludes That between one of these Opinions and the other all Recompences future to this life may come to be discredited and exploded Upon which his manner of arguing I observe That he seems to set up if not invent the Opinion of Denying the Resurrection of the Person and yet believing that Humane Spirits return to God who gave them Concerning which Opinion I say I never heard of the like before which makes me think it may be an Invention and the rather because he gives no better Confirmation of the Truth of it then that some of the Quakers are said to hold it whereas I rather apprehend the truth to be that neither the Quakers nor any other Christians ever did or do deny the Resurrection of the Dead and further I conceive that no reasonable man who reads and believes the Scriptures can deny or very much doubt the truth of that Prime Article of our Faith The Resurrection of the Dead and further I conceive That if the Souls Immortality had any thing near a like clear proof in Scripture that we find in it for the Resurrection of the Dead both I and all other Doubters of such Immortality would be ready to assent and submit to that Opinion whence I apprehend he pretends to set up that which he calls the Quaking Opinion on purpose to discredit and deâ—ery the Practice of mens setting up their rest and expectation upon the clear and undeniable Article of the Resurrection of the Dead But that Article is too well founded and too clearly evidenced by the Scripture to be shaken or brought in question by any Inventions of Men whatsoever Page 4. Mr. W. says Having sometimes found my own mind hopled and troublesomely intangled with the perplexity of conceiving how my Soul could possibly exist in a separate state from my Body to which I 〈…〉 so strictly united and with which I found it by experience so much so sympathize in this its union Thus he conâ—â—â—â— himself to have doubted of the Humane Soul 's Separate Subsistence adding That he believed divers others might be troubled with the like doubtings and his intent in writing this Book was to propound to them such Arguments as had satisfied the doubts of his own mind Hereupon I observe That this Author was by Profession a Minister of the Gospel as appears by the Title Page of his Book that he was a man of great Reading Wit and Industry as plainly appears in the tenour and course of his Writing that he was a true and sincere Professor of the Christian Religion and knew very well as in some places of this Book he testifies that the Primitive Christians and later Churches both Romish and Reformed the Mahometane Churches the Heathen Priests Poets and Philosophers and a great number of the Jews and Proselytes of that Church have professed with a great Unanimity and Universality to hold and believe the Natural Subsistence of the Humane Soul in a State of Separation from the Body and yet the Natural Evidences of the strict Union betwixt the Soul and Body and the necessary Assistance which the one of them gives to the other for the production of Life and Action in the Person appear'd so strong to the Rational Mind or Faculty of this Writer as they had power to make him doubt of the possibility or at least the probability of the Souls Natural Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body and hence I am apt to infer that if a Man framed de meliori luto so munited and assisted as this Writer was did fall into doubts concerning the Natural Subsistence of the Humane Soul in a state of Separation from the Body it seems nothing strange or wonderful that other persons less fortified should fall into the like doubts and scruples that he did without falling from the sincere Profession of the Christian Religion because perhaps they may recover from those doubts and errours wherein they are now involved and next because such Errour as may be in this Opinion seems meerly Speculative and to have little or no influence upon the Lives and Practices of Men however some may put a higher value thereupon then perhaps the thing it self may deserve for that it commonly seems to affect more the terror of the dying than the restraining evil persons from sinning and even at mens deaths it seems to lay more terrour upon the weak and fearful than upon the most sinful and wicked persons and in the practices of men it seems provable and granted by all parties that what will make a happy Immortality will likewise make a happy Resurrection and what will make the one miserable will make the other so too because the Tree lies as it falls and as Death leaves us so shall Judgment find us and therefore I conclude that if men do happen to fall under such scruples and do even doubt the Natural Subsistence of the Humane Soul in a state of Separation from the Body and for obtaining better satisfaction thereupon do declare such doubts and scruples to the world with the reasons and grounds upon which the same is founded they may not for their so doing really deserve to be black'nd with the Names and Titles of Epicure Sadducee Deist Atheist and other odious Epithets which men of eager Spirits do frequently use to bestow upon others who differ from them in any sort of Opinions which may be controverted amongst them and seems to be a practice very much opposing Charity and the Doctrines of the Gospel Page 5. Mr. W. saith His Mind in this Treatise is to confirm the faith of those who believe the Souls Immortality or to raise up those that are fallen into the doubts and scruples before mentioned of which sort he was informed there are not a few among the otherwise serious Professors of Christianity in England who notwithstanding such scruples might pass with our Author for good Christians who are to stand and fall by their Masters Judgment in such Cases without being subjected or subjecting themselves to the sharp Censures of other violent or uncharitable persons He says Besides such doubters there are other
confident in the Merit of their Actions who I think make the greater Number of People in the World his Opinion of the Souls Immortality and the immediate passing from Death to Judgement and fiery Condemnation of ill deserving People gives Terror and Affrightment rather than Comfort and Support to by far the greatest part of People in the World and if the Tenet be not true and cannot be sufficiently proved to the Understandings and Consciences of Men it may then pass for a Scare-Crow to the Bad and a Staff of Reed to such good People as may put their Confidence in it Mr. W. further demands Can any hearty Lover of the Lord Jesus think of the Interruption of his Communion with him from Death to Judgment without great Regret and Trouble of Mind And he says He is sure the Generation of the Righteous think it much otherwise To this I Answer That the Generation of the Righteous may think some one thing and some another and thereupon I conceive that divers of them will be very well contented with such a Portion of Happiness as the Spirit in the Revelation tells us they shall enjoy in the Words Yea saith the Spirit they rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them and at the end of that Rest shall overtake them and be joined again to them at the end and time of their intended Resurrection P. 5. He further demands Is this enough to quiet the fervent Longings of the Divine Nature in us after Immortality and to satisfie our lively Hope of an Eternal Life with God and the Lamb Away says he This is but to trifle with the greatest Concernments of the Lords People To which I Answer This seems but a Rhetorical Flourish without any true Substance in the matter of it It seems a kind of Cant which I do not well understand when he speaks of quieting the servent Longings of the Divine Nature in us after Immortality This may perhaps seem plain to Men of his Kidney and Constitution but to me it looks like a Riddle me what is this For I know of no Divine Nature in one man more than in another and I do not conceive it natural for Men to be troubled with such Longings after Immortality as he pretends here to describe I think Men do sometimes long for things which they do desire and have a likely and very strong Hope to obtain but those who entertain no Hopes of an Intermediate State betwixt Death and the Resurrection must be very weak in their Rationals if they trouble themselves with any Longings after such a State or receive any Disappointment upon their going without it P. 6. Mr. W. enters into somewhat a long Discourse wherein he largely Censures and Condemns such as maintain the Souls Extinguishment at the Dissolution of the Humane Person I will spend no Time in giving particular Answers thereunto but content my self with only saying thereupon that it all wants Proof and passes with me for a Non sequitur which hath no strength of Argument in it concerning that Question about which we now differ P. 7. Mr. W. quotes that Prophecy which gives A Woe to those who make the Hearts of the Righteous sad whom the Lord hath not made sad and Applies those Words to those who oppose his Opinion of the Souls Immortality And thereupon this seems to be the Case those who maintain a Point of Doctrine contrary to Truth which may make the Righteous sad the Woe pronounced by this Prophet pertains to that Maintainer whence if the Souls Extinguishment at the Death of the Party be not true it may probably make the Hearts of some Righteous People sad whom God hath not made sad and then our Prophets Woe may justly be imposed upon such Maintainers But if otherwise it should so fall out that this Opinion be True and that of the Souls Immortality be an Error Then those whose Hearts are made sad by that Doctrine which I conceive are by far the greatest Number of People in the World are so sadned by an Erroneous Tenet deliver'd without a sufficient Warrant from God And in this manner the Hearts of such People will be made sad whom God hath not made sad And thereupon I conclude that if the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality be not True the Woe delivered in this Prophecy will as justly take hold of the Maintainers of it as it will do upon their Opposers if they maintain an Errour altho' they may think themselves to have the Right in this Point P. 7. He pretends that we have or may have once learn'd to know that God hath framed us for an uninterrupted perpetuity of living I say to this I am assured in my self and both can and do assure my Reader that if I did know or believe what he says in this Place to be true I would readily submit to his Dictator-ship in it without any further proceeding in a Dispute of this Nature But I do neither know nor believe the Truth of what he says in this Place conceiving it still more probable that the Soul extinguisheth at the Death of the Person and is neither Immortal nor Intelligent having no other Place of Subsistence but in the Body CHAP. II. PAge 8. Mr. W. says That he will enquire into the divers Acceptations of the Word Soul in Scripture or what is there usually intended by that Term and says in Scripture there are five Significations thereof First he says The Soul is there taken for the whole Person of Man Secondly Soul is there taken for the Body of Man only Thirdly Soul is taken for the Life of the Body Fourthly he says Soul is taken for the dead Carcass of a Man Fifthly The Word Soul is taken for the Rational Soul of Man whereby he stands in a kind of Level with Angels By which I suppose he intends the Humane Soul producing Life and Action in the Person which he says is Immortal and labours to prove it so and therefore brings Instances out of Scripture to shew the Truth and Practice of these Significations And hereupon I observe That his first Acceptation of the Word Soul for the whole Person of Man constituted of Soul and Body is very common throughout the whole Course of the Scripture well proved by the Instances which he gives to which Hundreds more might be added if any need should arise for the so doing But the Instances of his Second Signification seem not to prove what he intends by them for that the Iron entering into Joseph's Soul seems not to be intended only of his Body but of his Person for that his Body without a Soul could not be sensible or capable of suffering thereby His next Instance is of sending Leanness into the Souls of those that eat the Quails It seems the Word Soul here doth also intend the whole Persons of the Eaters for that Bodies cannot eat or be nourished without their Souls Concerning his Third Saying That Soul is taken
He says The Soul and Body are not sick and well together Whereas I profess to think they are sick and well together and that they have both one common Sense of Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting Feeling and that they both together or the Person hath the same Perception Fancy Judgment Will and Memory and they both have or which is the same thing the Person hath the same Affections or Passions of Ambition Covetousness Lust Wrath and Fear These all are naturally ingrafted in the Person and are natural Incidents to the Compositum of Soul and Body and that this Union is the most amicable friendly and pleasing that Men know to be enjoy'd in our Earthly World and that the Body is so far from being a Prison or Cage for the Soul that there is no other Place in the World wherein the Soul delights or wherein it can subsist but in the Body nor is there a Seperation which we know in the Earthly World that is more grievous or afflictive than the Seperation of Soul and Body is commonly found to be to the Person who is a Compositum of them both Upon which Considerations I stand inclined to Affirm That the Person who is a Compositum of Soul and Body and those his Two Constituent Parts are generated together are born live and grow together are sick and well together and so are pleased and displeased and love and hate together are joyful sorrowful and fearful together are honoured and shamed together they decline and decay together and yet the Out-ward Part somewhat sooner and faster than the Inward and so they grow impotent and helpless together that they die together and that lastly they shall rise together in that Universal Resurrection which shall be effected at the second Appearing of our Lord JESUS CHRIST when he shall come to Judge the World Mr. W. here quotes 3 John 2. as serving to prove his Purpose where St. John saith to Gains I wish above all things that thou maist prosper and be in health even as thy Soul prospereth It is a common Practice for Men in their Letters to wish Health and Prosperity to their Correspondents and this the Apostle practises in this Text and the Words Even as thy soul prospereth seem to intend Even as Gains himself prospereth in the Faith and Profession of the Gospel He quotes again for his Purpose Rom. 7.23 where St. Paul says I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind Which Text I conceive intends no more than the War which the Sensual Affections and Passions make against the Opinions and Dictates of the Rational Faculty or Mind of the Man which is visibly known and perceived to continue in the Person from the Cradle to the Grave and prove no more a War betwixt the Soul and the Body than Love and Hatred Sorrow and Joy or any other contrary Affections of the Man may do He quotes further for his Purpose 1 Pet. 2.11 Abstain from fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul Here the Word Soul seems to intend the Man himself or the Rational Faculty or Mind of the Person Then he concludes That the Soul and Body as they are Two Beings distinct in Number so are they in Nature And thereupon I say how well he hath proved what he saith he hath proved shall be left to the Readers of our Books to Judge His Third Proposition Affirms That the Soul is a Being seperable from the Body which he says he intends to prove and to that Purpose P. 17. he quotes 2 Cor. 5.1 where he says St. Paul calls our Bodies our Earthly House which the Text does not expresly do but says We know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens I do not here perceive a necessity of taking these Words Our Earthly House of this Tabernacle to signifie our Bodies but find as much or more Reason to conceive that by those Words our Apostle did intend the whole Fabrick of the Earth in which or upon which the Men of that Age then lived and we still do live We find sufficient Scripture Testimony to prove That our Earthly House of this Tabernacle shall in the end be dissolved and for the shortning of the time when this shall be done and the speedy coming of our Lord to Judgment was a great Subject of the Saints Prayers at that Time and I think divers good Men of that Time held Opinion That possibly they might live to the second coming of our Lord and however did not expect that He should have so long delay'd His Coming as we find by Experience He hath done if we take Our Earthly House of this Tabernacle to signifie the Earth upon which we live that seems to Agree well with the following Words We have a Building of God not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Pet. 3.7 The Heavens and the Earth which are now are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and Perdition of ungodly Men and then the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness He doth not say If you expect your seperate Souls going to Heaven you must live after that manner but if you expect the fiery Dissolution of that Earth upon which ye now live you have great reason to act as he there directs Nevertheless we according to his Promise look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Wherefore Beloved seeing ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless Thus he says they must practise a Holy Life in consideration and expectation of those things which were not to happen till Christ's second Appearing but then were expected and hoped for by the Saints and Church of those Times And of these New Heavens and Earth St. Paul seems to speak when he says We have a Building of God a House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Such a House as the Hands of Men cannot make the Pattern whereof is now in Heaven and shall descend hither to be our Habitation at our Lord's second Appearing And these are the things which he saith are not seen and yet are Eternal but when that Change shall happen they shall be both Visible and Eternal And for this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with this House of ours which is from Heaven Ver. 4. We that are in this Tabernacle of the Earth upon which we live do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed or not desiring that our Persons should be dissolved by Death but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up
to offer that Answer to his Question And more to entangle the Matter he propounds a New Question demanding If it were an Extasie what was the Nature of that Extasie I Reply I pretend not to be able to tell him the Nature of any Extasie Trance or Vision which may happen to Men because I suppose them to be super-humane Actions inexplicable from the known or common Principles of Humane Nature And therefore without farther Answer to his Question about the Nature of an Exâ—asie I profess to Believe that the Answer before given viz. That St. Paul was in a Trance at that time is enough notwithstanding his saying That it is not enough and that it will pass for a good Answer and Solution of his first Question upon which all the rest depends I do not pretend to make such Interpretations of difficult Scriptures as are likely to satisfie all Perusers but count it enough if thereupon I can satisfie my own Understanding As to my best Judgment I have done upon this Text without being afraid of Mens Censures of losing the Meaning of such a Dark Scripture instead of Interpreting it Mr. W. proceeds to say Till I hear a better Sense given of this Text of St. Paul than I have here given of it I will conclude from hence that the Apostle Paul doth imply that his Soul and so all other Mens Souls are whil'st in the Body of such a nature as may be seperated from the Body To this I Reply Our Author hath Power to take this Text of St. Paul in what Sense he pleases or thinks most reasonable as all other Readers may do and may thence Infer and Conclude as their Judgments or Affections or Prepossessions shall perswade them But I profess my self to conceive they build upon sandy Ground who draw that Inference from the Relation of St. Paul's Trance or any other Text quoted to prove Mr. W's Third Proposition That the Soul can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body Because I judge the Evidences by me produced and my Constructions upon his Texts do more clearly prove the contrary Mr. W's Fourth Proposition is that the Scriptures affirm That when the Body dies the Soul is actually seperated from it In Proof of which he quotes Eccl. 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Upon which he says It is most clear that by Dust is here meant the Body and by Spirit the Soul of Life in Man In which Construction I do not much differ from him but do easily Agree That by Dust here is meant the Body and that by Spirit is intended the Spirit of Life in Man And thereupon I Observe That these Words of Solomon are a single and transient Expression concerning a Subject not mention'd in the rest of the Chapter either before or after and without a particular Occasion given or offer'd to speak of the State of Souls after Death and seems to have something of a Chance in the delivery of it And as I find no Introduction to this Expression nor Occasion given to speak of a Rational or Intelligent Soul in Man so I do not perceive that they do either mention or intend the Spirit of Man to be such a Soul as Mr. W. pretends it to be Solomon was here treating concerning the Decays of Man's Life and recounts by what degrees Death makes its Approaches till at last it prevails over the Person and then the Dust returns to the Earth as it was and the Spirit returns to God who gave it And the Question upon this Text seems to be what is meant by the Term of the Spirit and what is meant of its Return to God who gave it Our Author says That by the Spirit is intended the Soul of Life And I think I differ not far from him when I say That by the Word Spirit is intended the Spirit of Life We know that Solomon had a careful Education under a pious Father and was endued with a strong Inclination to search out the Natures of Things and thence we may certainly Conclude that he had carefully perused the Patriarchal Book of Genesis and the other Mosaical Writings and there had found written Gen. 9.4 Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof shall ye not eat and surely the Blood of their Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the hand of every Man's Brother will I require the Life of Man Whoso sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed for in the Image of God made he Man Also Deut. 12.23 Thou mayest kill of thy Herd and of thy Flock in any of thy Gates only be sure that thou eat not the Blood for the Blood is the Life and thou mayest not eat the Life with the Flesh And Moses says cause that was the Life of the Creature There hath before been quoted God's breathing the Breath of Life into Adam's Nostrils and the breathing the Breath of Life into Adam's Nostrils and the breathing a like Breath into the Persons raised out of Ezekiel's dry Bones which caused Life in them all Gen. 6.7 God says I will destroy Man whom I have created from the face of the Earâ—h both man and beast Chap. 7.22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life upon the dry land dyed in the flood both Man and Beast were suffocated and drowned in the Waters of the Flood by stopping those Passages through which this Breath of Life should other ways have enter'd Dan 5 23. Thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold but the God in whose hand thy breath is thou hast not glorified Intending God in whose hand thy Life is such a Life as through the Power of God is produced and maintained by Breath and Breathing These Quotations seem to prove that the Spirit of Life in Man is a Compositum of Parts as well as his Body and that the Composition of such Spirit of Life required is of Blood and Breath The Blood and Humours of their Bodies and their Spirits are absolutely necessary for the Life of Man and Beast by maintaining and nourishing the glowing and yet lambent Flame of Life which acts their Organical Bodies and causes a continual Circulation of their Blood to that Purpose and no less necessary for the producing and maintaining of Life is that Breath which God first breathed into Adam and since hath communicated and continued to all his Posterity which have been procreated from that Time to this There passes a Principle of Life in Semine which by Fimentation Fermentation and Coagulation in loco idoneo arrives in its appointed time to a Vegetation and perhaps lives without Breath or Breathing or with very little Assistance thereof until Nature drive it forth into the open Air where after it hath once taken Breath it can by no means be kept alive for many Moments
Testimonies I think it likely that the Body of our Thief was one of these Bodies of Saints which came out of their Graves after Christs Resurrection and his Body so chang'd as at or in the Resurrection might and probably did ascend with our Lord into that Paradise which before was promis'd him and was there with our Lord both present with their Souls and Bodies or their whole Persons in such manner as they had before lived in this World And thus Observing I have given a Reasonable and I think a Sufficient Answer to all those Inferences and Arguments which Mr. W. hath raised from this Text which therefore I decline to examine any further in this place knowing we shall meet with the same afterwards and that Mr. W. in the Progress of his Treatise doth repeat over again this and divers others of those Arguments which he hath made Parcel of his Five Propositions I therefore now proceed to Examine his last Quotation for the Proof of Souls being Rewarded or Punished presently after their departure out of the Bodies For the further Proof of which Assertion he quotes Luke 16.19 Where the Parable of Dives is at large Related and thereupon says little more but that he concludes from the Contents of this Parable That the Souls of Men seperate at Death from their Bodies enter into a State of Joy or Misery before the Resurrection Observing upon which I pretend to give some Reasons why he ought not so to conclude First because the Relation in this Place is but of a Parable Similitude the Nature whereof is not to prove but Illustrate the Subject upon which Men are then Discoursing and therefore his Practice is not Reasonable in making choice to prove by a Medium whose Design is not to teach but represent things in such a manner as they may be better received by those to whom the Discourse is Prosecuted Secondly I say There appears no Design in this Parable to teach or instruct our Lord's Auditors concerning the true State or Nature of Men after Death because in the Context to this Parable there is no Question raised or Discourse held concerning that Subject Whence I conceive the intent of this Parable was not to confirm or illustrate the Speculation thereof but that rather this Parable was offer'd to illustrate and confirm an Assertion which our Lord in the fore-going verses had deliver'd as vers 15 When the Pharisees had derided our Lords Doctrine he Answers them Ye are they which justifie your selves before Men but God knoweth your Hearts for that which is chiefly esteemed amongst Men is an abomination in the sight of God Soon after which our Lord delivers this Parable and therein describes Dives as in a very high manner enjoying the Glory and Good things of this World and counted one of the happiest amongst Men and then sets out Lazarus in as low and miserable a Condition as Men commonly can fall to Whence the State of Dives was very highly esteemed amongst Men but was in the Sight of God much otherwise and placed far below the Condition of Lazarus in respect of those future Enjoyments which God had appointed for him The Parable therefore I conceive was a very sufficient illustration of our Lord's Assertion before-mentioned and I think was not intended to teach or discover the true State of Men after Death and then if we suppose that Parables confirm or illustrate those Discourses only which they are intended so to assert it seems inferrible that this Parable may not reasonably be made good a Ground or Proof concerning the true State of Men after Death or that they receive rewards before the Resurrection because it was not spoken with intent to teatch or illustrate that Point A Third Argument against the alledging this Parable as a Proof is the apparent Incongruity which it hath With Solomon's return of the Spirit to God who gave it Because the return there spoken of seems to be deliver'd as an effect of the Souls Natural Inclination as a thing commonly done and easie to be performed and says It is a return made to God who gave it From which our Parable differs in Material Points For the Parable doth not say That Lazarus or his Soul either returned or went to God for Judgment or any other purpose Next The Parable doth not say That Lazarus or his Soul went any whither but that he was carried by Angels not before God or to Judgment but into Abraham's Bosom a place of repose and some measure of happiness So as we may say of these two Proofs tho' they be the main Pillars of the Souls Seperate Subsistence yet their Testimonies do not agree together We Read that at our Lords Trial before Pilate divers false witnesses appeared to give their Evidence against our Lord whose Testimonies yet were finally rejected because they agreed not together Mark 14.56 Many bare false witness against our Lord but their Testimonies were rejected because they agreed not together And Moses's Law required two witnesses for the putting any Man to Death And for this Reason I think our Parable to be but a weak Proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence or immediate Reward after Death A Fourth Argument opposing the proving Power of this Parable rifes from the difficulty of finding Truth in the Words of it for that it says Dives afar off beheld Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom and between the places of their aboad there was a great Gulf fixed so as none can pass from the one of them to the other This to my Understanding seems somewhat incredible First that Dives at such a distance should be able to discover Lazarus as to know him Next that Dives in his place of Torment should be able so to Speak and Discourse as that Abraham could hear what he said and return Answers to him Fifthly I observe upon this Parable That Abraham and Dives seem very well acquainted and nearly Related one to the other Dives gives Abraham the Title of Father which Abraham accepts and returns Answer to him by the Name of Son whereas if Mr. W. says true there could be no such real Relation between them For Mr. W. says There was nothing of Dives in Hell but his Soul subsisting there in a State of Seperation from his Body And this sort of Soul is in no manner Propagated by the Parents but it is a New and Pure Creature Created by God at the first Procreation of every Person having a Subsistence of its own until it be by God injected into the newly procreated Body where it presently becomes Tainted and Defiled with Original Sin We will leave that to fall out as it may but here I say That this Soul not Generated or Propagated from Abraham or any of his Posterity can by no means be properly or truly Stiled the Son of Abraham And from all these Arguments and Promises I find my self apt to Collect that there is little Real or Historical truth in this Parable that it very
weakly proves the Seperate Subsistence of Souls or their receiving Rewards or Punishments before the Second Coming of our Lord to Judgment and the Resurrection of the Dead P. 24. Mr. W. closes up his Fifth Proposition with these Words Having cleared up the five Propositions from diverss Scriptures he wonders at the Confidence of such Men as dare pretend to perswade People that we have no clear Scripture to found the Belief of the Souls Immortality on I Answer That his Confident Sayings which prove not I willingly pass by and from the woes Pronounced against his Opposers and Shield my self by the Words of Solomon The Woe 's pronounced without good cause or the Curse cause less shall not come Chapter IIII. PAge 26. Mr. W. says A Man may be truly said to know God I Reply If he thereby mean the knowings of God is or Quod sit Deus I grant it but if he mean it of the Quid sit Deus or that Man knows what manner of Being God is I then deny it He thinks if he can describe the Properties or Attributes of a Soul from which we feel the Operition of Life spring in us he shall thereby give us sufficiently to know what the Soul of Man is I Reply That Men ascribe Attributes and Properties to God upon the Certainty or Knowledge that they have or may have from divers clear Topicks that there is such a Being as God in the World but the like manner of Proceeding will not serve to prove the Being of such a Soul in the World as he describes and therefore I do require of him or any other who undertakes this Province first to prove that really and truly there is such a sort of Soul in the Humane Person as he pretends and if that be not first done they can but ascribe what Attributes and Properties they please to they know not what or to such a thing as they cannot prove to have any Being at all which is quire otherwise in the Case put by him before concerning God P. 27. Mr. W. says The Soul is not the Breath of Man Thereby it seems intending That the Word Breath is not Equipollent to the Word Soul of Man and this I grant him That the Breath of Man is not his Soul because I conceive there goes more parts to make up the Soul or Spirit of Man's Life The Five Inferences which he pretends to draw from the Soul 's being the Breath I pass over as not greatly material P. 28. Mr. W. says Secondly That as the Soul of Man is not the Breath so it is not the Blood and then infers That if Blood be the Soul of Man all the Food it hath to live upon is the Bread that Perisheth I Reply That all the Food that Man hath to live upon Naturaly is the Bread that Perisheth or is the nourishment which he duly obtains to that purpose and thereby is the Spirit of his Life daily supported and upon the failure or not obtaining thereof the Man must Languish Consume and Die and he and his Spirit of Life or Soul go out of the World and be Extinct together Further I conceive The Man his Spirit of Life or Soul hath no other Natural Nourishment but Viands of the kind before-mentioned His following Expressions seems to be altogether Figurative He offers That if Blood were the Humane Soul Lectures out of Galen and Hippocrates would be more proper to Purge away Sin and bring Souls to Christ then Sermons out of the Bible Here I suppose by Souls he intends Persons or begs the Question now in dispute between us Seeing he well knows I give no credit to the Being of such a Soul as he very positively asserts And this being premised I say That Purifying and Purging the Blood may very much help and better the Humane Understanding and Sermons out of the Bible may be very good helps and directions to the Man in the government of his Affections and the performing of his Duty to God P. 29. Mr. W. Argues and Says If the Soul be the Blood then that a Man of Sixty Years of Age has not the same Soul he had at Fifteen and then how can you think this Old Man can be guilty of the Sins of his Youth I Reply That a Man's Soul is always of the same Nature and Kind and tho the material parts of it do not always remain the same yet the Man remains always the same Person from Four to Fourscore and liable to answer for the Faults which he had long before Committed Then he tells me that which I still profess not to believe tho' he doth tell it me That the Soul is of a different Nature from the Body and doth neither grow with it in Youth nor Decay with it in Age but remains in one same State and Power during all the State of our Lives P. 30. He pretends to prove this by a Similitude which I think to be foreign to our Question and adds nothing to the Proof of his Assertion and the like I think may be said of his letting of Sheeps and Man's Blood into one another reciprocally and therefore I pass them both over P. 31. He says further That as the Soul of Man is neither his Breath nor Blood so it is not God or any part of his Divine Essence In all which I am ready to agree with him having before declared and described what manner of thing I think the Spirit of Life in Man to be and that in its cohabitation with the Body it partakes of Growth and Decay Health and Sickness Strength and Weakness Joy and Sorrow and receives in the end an Extinguishment at the Death of the Person or that Extinguishment it self is Death Mr. W. says The Soul of man is guilty of Inadvertency Rashness Folly I do not agree with him in this Expression But if he had said The Person or the Man is subject to these Infirmities I should soon have agreed with him in that because I have often said I have no Conception of a Man without a Soul or of a Soul without a Man but think that to act or suffer any thing they must be both together And I Appeal to the Intelligent World whether by such Experience as Men can attain therein they do not find it so P. 32. Mr W. says The Soul is a Spirit created of God and indued with Sense and Reason and a Power of actuating an Humane Body by Vital Vnion therewith P. 33. For the prooving of a Spirit to be a Substance and that a Humane Soul is such a Substance he refers his Readers to all that he hath said or shall say to prove the Soul is a Being independent on the Body I Reply That as far as I am able to judge all that he hath hitherto said seems very insufficient for that Purpose and what he will or can shew to perswade the Belief of that Opinion Time must shew P. 34. he says We feel in our
divers other great things here named And in these Sayings I am at Agreement with him without believing these things are done by the Soul alone but by the Person in Composito chiefly acted therein by the Faculty and Power of its Reason Here he quotes an Author that says Homo solus est animus corpus autem hominis opus instrumentum animus intelligentiam exercet sine ullo corporis instrumento In English thus The Soul only is the Man and the Body is but the Souls Organ or Instrument and the Soul can exercise its Faculty of Vnderstanding without any Assistance of the Bodily Organs But this Quotation proves no more to me than that there are other Men who are of Mr. W's Opinion and think as he doth which there was no need at all to prove because I stand convinc'd that the World of Men in general are so But let Mr. W. prove that those Words of his Author are true and then Erit mihi magnus Apollo I will give up the Cudgels to him and confess him Victorious in this Dispute For I am agreed with Aristotle in the beginning of his Book de Anima That if the Soul ever was known to do or can be proved able to do any thing without assistance of the Body and its Organs such Proof will be Evidence enough to Convince considering Persons that she hath a Nature and Subsistence of her own wherein she can act in a state of Seperation from the Body But of this Power I find no more Proof but the Saying recited in this Quotation P. 42. Mr. W. says If the Soul will the Feet walk the Hands work and so for the Motion of the Eyes and other like things All which I pass as before for a Mistake mendable by saying If the Man will the Feet walk and the Hands work and the like Further in his Fifthly he saith The Soul is Vitally united with the Body and by virtue of that Vnion enlivens and acts it Thereunto I say That the Spirit of Life in Man or the Body make but one Person who whilst he lives moves directs and acts himself and uses his Intellective Voluntary and Memorative Powers and Faculties with full Liberty according to his own liking and pleasure naturally He speaks here of a Vital Union between the Body and the Soul which Expression I do not Approve because they both together make but one Person as two Ingredients which make but one Compositum not as two different things that are united and joyned together but as Ingredients may be totally mixed and a new Product arise out of them all so as that if any of them be wanting in the Composition the Product cannot truly be the same it was before P. 43. He says That to tell you what the Soul is so as to make it an Intelligible Notion is not so impossible a thing as some have conceiv'd it to be Thereto I say that by such Descriptions as he hath before made of the Soul and all that he hath hitherto spoken thereof I am not able to understand or believe any more coneerning his sort of Soul than I did before I began to peruse his Treatise The Repetition of those things which he saith he hath performed I pass over as finding no Proving Force among them I find no more Chapters in this Treatise than those Four which have before been Examined but that here Mr. W. begins to alter his Method and to divide the rest of his Treatise by Arguments to the Number of Eighteen of which he Treats distinctly and severally in his following Discourse and I purpose to follow him therein and use the same Method in my Observations The First Argument PAge 44. Mr. W. Says That upon Gods breathing into Adam He is in the Text called a Liveng Soul a Denomination taken from the more excellent Part of Man his Soul This Expression seems to Agree with what I have formerly spoken That here the Words a Living Soul signifie and intend a Living Person putting the more noble Part or Ingredient to signifie the whole Person so as it passes in his Judgment for a Figurative Expression P. 46. Mr. W. Says When God Breathed which he properly doth not there is something else meant which can be nothing else but a special Act of Creation by which he made the Spirit or Breath of Life which he breathed into Man I Answer That in the Text there is no express mention of a Creation either of Breath or Spirit P. 47. He Says By the Breath of God is meant that Act of Divine Power by which God made Man and gave Life to him I am not willing to differ from Mr. W. and therefore agree to this Expression He quotes Ps 33.6 By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth The later of them alluding to God's Power shewed in the Creation of Adam but thence he infers This Breathing into Adam must be look'd upon as the Creating somewhat But I find no strength at all in this Inference nor that it proves with any strength of Cohersion the Creation of any thing save Adam's Body at the time when God made Man And I grant that then whatsoever was Created besides his Body was a Creature But I do not herein find any manner of Proof that God then Created a Soul for Adam Here Mr. W. Repeats his former Argument concerning the signification of the Hebrew Word which our Translators have rendred by the Term of Breath and says That the same Word doth also sometimes signifie Spirit To this I say That our Translators thought it not fit to render it by the Term of Spirit in this place and I value their Judgment before those of Mr. W. or Mr. Buxtorf and therefore take that Word to signifie most properly in this place the Breath of Life P. 48. He pretends the words should run thus God breathed or created in Man the Breath of Life or that Spirit or Soul of Life And in truth if the words had run so they would have run much better for the maintainance of his Opinion than now they do but I do not perceive by what Authority he takes upon him so to Correct or as some may take it Corrupt the Text. The Breathing which he says discover'd a New Created Spirit to be there I say detected only a Spirit of Life to be there which was tinded and kindled in the Spirits of the Blood and Humours then fitted and ready for that Operation by the moderate fanning of that Breath which God or his Agents then breathed into Adam's Nostrils and this was the humane Spirit of Life tinded and kindled by that Breath of Life and from that time to this time it is and must be continually kept Flaming or Glowing by the constant respirations and fanning of this Breath by want of which this Flame would be Extinguished in a short time or a very few moments of it
He quotes again Annotations of the Assembly of Divines in the Rump-Parliament time for his purpose without telling us what they say upon it and for want of their Annotations I know not what they say of it And if I did I should not be much moved by their Authority except they give better Reasons for their Opinion than Mr. W. hath yet done P. 49. Mr. W. Arguing says The Soul of Man or the Spirit or the Breath of Life in Man Liveth in and with the Body and yet Dieth not with the Body And this he says needs Proof And so do I say too And he offers to prove it by saying That whose Life dependeth not on the Body must not Die when the Body Dieth but the Souls Life depends not on the Body Therefore it must needs not Die when the Body Dieth And the Reason why he says the Souls Life depends not upon the Body is because God made it a Spirit of Life to give Life to the Body and not to receive any Life from it I Answer If this Arguing be not that which Men call Petitio Principii or begging the Question I know not what is We are now disputing Whether Adam had an Intelligent Soul Created for him at first or not and whether such a Soul have a Seperate Subsistence after the Death of the Person And in both these Points he maintains the Affirmative and pretends to prove the Seperate Subsistence by its being a Created Intelligent Spirit made by God for Adam at the first And thus proves one Controverted Point by another as highly Controverted as it self and which I conceive his offers in this Argument do very weakly and insufficiently prove P. 50. He observes out of Moses's Text That it says nothing of the Body's Life before God breathed into him a Spirit or Soul of Life as Mr. W. will have it tho' the words of our Bible expresly call it The Breath of Life And I so far agree That Adam's Body had not Life till this Breath of Life or this Breath causing Life was breathed into it but that from thence he began to Live and became a Living Person Thus far we are at Agreement His next two or three Pages are spent in Proof of the Souls Immortality drawn from the two before-mentioned Topicks viz. That the Soul is an Intelligent Spirit and was newly Created by God for Adam and next that it is such a Spirit as can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body And thereupon I say That if he or any that is of his Opinion can convince with some clearness That God Created such an Intelligent Soul for Adam as can Subsist Act and Suffer in a State of Seperation from the Body he shall need to make no further Proof to me of the Souls Immortality because if the former be true I have no Inclination or Intention to dispute the later And therefore I pass over what he says to that purpose and shut up my Observations upon this Argument with the fore-mentioned Conclusion That Mr. W.'s Arguments therein produced to prove the Creation of an intelligent Soul or Spirit for Adam at the first are infirm invalid and little convicning to such understanding as I have been able to imploy in the perusal of them Second Argument PAge 54. Mr. W. quotes The History of Saul's going to the Witch of Endor Relating the words spoken to her by him I pray thee divine to me by the familiar Spirit and bring me him up whom I shall name unto thee And she desiring to know who that Him was which she should bring up Saul told her it was Samuel Upon this Text Mr. W. thus Comments That Saul by this demand must need intend the bringing up of Samuel's Soul to Discourse with him and from thence Collects That the Jews of that Age held the same Opinion which he now maintains concerning the Souls Seperate Subsistence after the Death of the Person To which I Reply That this Collection seems in a great part to arise from his own Inclination to have it so and his Imagination thence arising that it is so for if I were imploy'd to Collect from this History I should conceive That Saul's Head was other ways imployed at that time than to consider what that was which he desired to be brought up whether it should be a Spirit a Body or a Person or an Appear-Dance only and not a real Being I conceive his Head was not troubled about such Speculations but his whole Design was by the Witches means to get knowledge what the success of his Affairs should be in a time when he was greatly distressed It seems to have been the Practice of divers Ages to fore-tell Actions past and future Successes by raising up and consulting with the Dead and from this Practice they had amongst other Titles the Name of Necromancer bestowed upon them This Practice of Magicians and Witches hath been long taken notice of in the World and it seems by Saul's Demand made to the Woman he had heard or otherwise knew something thereof and desired by the Witches means thus to consult the Dead and particularly Samuel as the most knowing amongst them and from such a Collection I conceive it doth not appear what Saul or the Jews of his time thought concerning the Seperate Subsistence of Souls We meet with divers Relations of Appearances made and contrived by the Art of Magicians of later times but never yet heard of raising an Argument from thence to prove the Estate or Condition of departed Souls nor do I conceive this Argument hath any strength in it to that purpose and therefore I pass over Mr. W.'s other Expressions used in this Argument with this further Observation that he raised the Argument out of this History with intent to reach as high a time as was possible for producing any sort of Evidence or raising any manner of Argument which might be brought or drawn to touch the Seperate Subsistence of Souls and this as the highest pitch of time that he could reach he chose to make use of for that purpose fulfilling therein the Old Proyerb Willing Persons will rather play aâ— small game then sit out The Third Argument PAge 57. He says He is struck with wonder to hear Men assert That the Soul and Body of a Man Die together and are both Buried in one Grave My Opinion is somewhat otherwise worded expressing I think it probable that when Respiration fails and the Person dies the Flame of Life is Extinguished which doth not intend a being Buried or a Going any whither not finding cause to agree with Solomon's Expression of going upward or downward and if Mr. W. doth really wonder at this conception I make no Argument of it and shall only thereunto Answer I cannot help it P. 58. The Soul or Breath of Man was Breathed into Adam by an act of Creation This I have all along deny'd and continue to do so because I think Mr. W. hath hereto
he rightly terms an Absurd One for he pretends there are some that say That the Soul may die when the Body dieth though it be not slain when the Body is killed To this I say I am none of those who so Argue nor did I ever yet meet with a Writing or Person that did so Next he produces another Objection of some who he supposes may say That the killing of the Soul here may intend that they cannot kill it for ever All I can say to this is That if any Man or Men have so Argued they are not at all of my mind who do not intend to make or offer any such Arguments P. 63. Mr. W. sets down an Objection offer'd against the Text of St. Matthew in the Words Are not able to kill the Soul from Luke 12.4 Be not afraid of them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do He says He hath kown some very confidently affirm that there is no Force in St. Matthew's Text because that of St. Luke delivers the same Doctrine of our Lord in Words from which no clear Argument can be deduced for the Soul 's Seperate Subsistence I say I do not Affirm in that manner viz. That there is no proving Force in St. Matthew's Text because St. Luke differs from him in relating the Words of our Lord's Doctrine But yet I own my self to think that from the manner of Wording this Doctrine of our Lord in these two Texts a strong Objection may be rais'd against the absolute Authority of St. Matthew's words in this Point Upon the Consideration and comparing these two Texts one with the other the only Variance between them is in the Words of St. Matthew's Are not able to kill the Soul compared with those of St. Luke Have no more that they can do for that in the following Words where Matthew says Fear him who is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell and those which Luke mentions Fear him who after he hath killed hath power to east into Hell I conceive the Difference to be small or none at all They both begin our Lord's Doctrine in the same Words Fear not them that kill the Body where they both speak figuratively And I therefore believe our Lord himself did so but I say the Body in this place must needs intend the Person or the Compositum of Soul and Body together for that our Sense and Reason sufficiently assures us That what is dead cannot be killed but the Body without the Soul or Spirit of Life is dead And therefore the Body taken singly or not acted by the Spirit of Life is a dead Body and therefore cannot be killed Whence I infer that when our Evangelists speak of killing the Body they must certainly intend the same as if they had said Cannot kill the Person And hence I Collect That when St. Matthew speaks of casting the Soul and Body into Hell he intends casting the Compositum of them both or the Person into Hell St. Luke words it thus Who after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell I think this intends as much as if he had said Hath Power to cast the Person into Hell so as it seems the Sense of both our Evangelists is the same both in the Premises and in the Conclusion of this Doctrine and the Variance between them lies as before hath been said in the Words Are not able to kill the Soul of St. Matthew and the Words Have no more that they can do of St. Luke If we shall consider the proper Intent of both these Texts we must find it to be as Mr. W. says The encouraging of our Lord's Disciples not to fear the Persecution of Men for the doing of their Duty but rather to fear God who can punish and reward after Death as well as in this Life And the Texts of both our Evangelists Agree punctually to that Intent in delivering Words of the same Importance and to the same Intent and Purpose But then if Mr. W. or any other Person will draw out of them Proofs of any other Collateral thing which is not properly within the Intent of our Lord's Doctrine I conceive they speak and may intend differently concerning that Collateral Point which Men may design to prove by them It seems somewhat clear to my Understanding St. Matthew's Words prove his Opinion to be That Humane Souls have a Life and Subsistence in a state of Seperation from the Body and I conceive that in his Text he worded our Lord's Doctrine according to his own Opinion of the thing We find that St. Luke hath worded it in a different and varient manner so expressing our Lord's Doctrine as that he gives no ground for proving the Souls Seperate Subsistence from his Text which in the whole Tenour of it doth not name the Soul And therefore upon this difference I think it needful to enquire or demand What were the very precise Words wherein our Lord deliver'd this Doctrine If St. Matthew hath rightly worded this Doctrine then it is a strong Proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence The most substantial and nearest to an Affirmative of any that the Bible affords us but if St. Luke hath rightly worded our Lord's Doctrine then was there in that Doctrine no Proof at all of a Souls Seperate Subsistence nor any thing said in it whereby that Opinion can be maintain'd I do not pretend to determine any thing concerning this Point but am ready to Argue that there lies a Probability for St. Luke's Text against that of St. Matthew The Point in Question concerning the Seperate Subsistence is as was said collateral to the Intent of our Lord in this Doctrine who it seems did not here mean to teach any thing which might direct Mens Judgments in that Collateral Point which remains utterly unmentioned in the Text of St. Luke This moves me to apprehend That the putting it into St. Matthew's Text grew from his own Opinion of the thing rather than from the Words which our Lord then delivered The intent of our Lord seems plain in both those Texs and therein what hath been said seems true they are at a perfect Agreement between themselves and we find no intention of meaning in our Lord to speak or teach any thing about the Souls Seperate Subsistence and therefore I surmise it came into St. Mathew's Text by Accident and Sprung rather from his own Opinion than from our Lords Doctrine or the Words and Expressions thereof Secondly I say That St. Matthew was by Profession and Practice a Publican a Trade which no Man of Quality or Learning amongst the Jews of that time would indure to Practice whence Matthew might more easily fall into the Opinion appearing in his Text. That Souls did Live and Subsist after the Departure and Death of the Person But of St. Luke we read That he was a Learned Man and a Physician and Paul from whose Mouth he is said to have
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Casting in his Teeth and in Mark they have render'd it by the Word Reviling both which Translations import the same Actings in these Places But both these Evangelists agree in Terminis in their Plural Expressions viz. that they who were Crucified with him did this they both did so Whence it seems consequent That the one did not Rebuke the other for doing so and became thereupon converted and rewarded as St. Luke relates the Matter of this Fact I have said before that the Silence of the other Three Evangelists may give a reasonable occasion for Men to doubt the Verity of St. Luke's Relation and then that the Opposition which is thereunto made by the concurrent Testimony of Matthew and Mark evidencing the contrary seems to be a firm Ground for Doubting and even for Opposing the Truth of St. Luke's Relation concerning this Conversion and the Promise of our Lord upon which his whole Argument is grounded and must finally fail with the Verity of that Relation I have said before that my first Answer given to this Argument satisfies my own Understanding and I now thereunto Add If I had not so good an Answer to his Argument as hath before been given I should be very apt to conceive that the Causes which I have here produced of doubting the Verity of St. Luke's Relation would be a good and sufficient Answer to that Argument which M. W. hath drawn from so Questionable a Relation which seems to make the Ground of his Argument shake under him convincing that no firm Argument can be drawn from so infirm and sandy a Relation P. 76. Mr. W. quotes Grotius and says That after the Times of Esdras who lived after the Reign of Attaâ—erxes a fifth King of the Persians after Cyrus which was many years after the beginning of Cyrus 's Reign when the State of Souls after this Life began first to be spoke of in proper distinct Names the Hebrews did usually call that state of â—elicity wherein pious Souls seperate from their Bodies did enjoy Happiness before the Resurrection the Garden of Eden Hereupon I Observe that both Grotius and Mr. W. do Agree that it was after the Time of Esdras when the State of Souls after this Life began first to be spoken of in proper distinct Names or Terms I find that Phericides Syrus is commonly accounted to be the first who broached this Seperate Opinion and sought it amongst the Grecians and it was very much Cultivated by his Scholar Pythagoras and came down from him to Socrates and Plato and from them to the Philosophers of succeeding Ages And that Phericides the Broacher of this Opinion lived and taught in the Time of Cyrus the Great wherein the Foundation of the Second Temple at Jerusalem was laid And thence I Agree there is a good Probability that after the Time of Esdras the Doctrine of Seperate Subsistence might be farther Cultivated and more distinctly Taught and Affirmed than at any time before it had been and that from thence the same descended among the Jews and was commonly received by the most Part of that Nation in the Time of our Lord's Ministry and occasioned our Lord's framing the Parable of Dives according to the common Conception which the Jews had of such things in his Time Mr. W. here Adds That the Thief by the Word Paradise might well understand a Place of Happiness or the Garden of Eden that the Words of this Promise intended that he should be there to day and that Christ said To day he would remember him in the thing he asked and would perform his Petition this day and Heavens Joys shall attend thy departing Soul Which last Saying are Mr. W's own Words and may pass for his Gloss upon the Text But that which I principally Oppose in this Place is the Design which he seems to draw of limiting the Time of our Lord's Promise to the precise Time of a Day that being a Limitation which I think ought not to be received in this Place But that our Lord's Term of To Day is well enough Answered if the thing were performed in some such short time after as might well enough be called To Day The Persons died on Friday Evening and if they were in Paradise together upon Sunday after it seems to me a sufficient fulfilling of our Lord 's Saying To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise P. 79. Mr. W. says He never heard of any Objection offered against his Argument drawn from this Text but One which was this That some Men have offered a different Reading in Part of this Text pretending it should be read that our Lord said Verily I say unto you to day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Mr. W. lays great Blame upon this Objection which I find no Inclination in my self to defend but let it stand or fall as to other Mens Reasons shall appear requisite But I Rely strongly upon the other Answer which I have here given to Mr. W's Argument drawn from our Lord's Words in this Text and have said that Luke who was not present at this Fact is the only Reporter of it to us the other Three Evangelists passing it over in silence and that Two of them say the Thieves who were Crucified with him the Two Thieves both of them reviled him St. Luke says They did not both do so but one of them only did it and the other rebuked him for it and had a Reward promised him for so doing Whence it appears I have two Witnesses against one in maintenance of my Objection against my Opposer's Argument P. 79. Mr. W. Concludes That as the Soul of Christ and the Penitent Thief were immortal so are the Souls of other Men. To this Saying of his I give an easie Assent but think he hath by no Means well proved That either of their Souls had a Seperate Subsistence or were Immortal The Eighth Argument PAge 59. Mr. W. Argues Eighthly from our Lord's words Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and St. Steven's words Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Where he will have the word Spirit to signifie and intend the Souls of these Petitioners conceived by Mr. W. and his Party to subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body This Argument he hath before offered in this Treatise and there I have given it such an Answer as satisfies my own Understanding and there neither need nor can give any other Answer thereunto without repeating what I have there alleady deliver'd I have said there that in both these Petitions the Greek Word or Term of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used and that our Translators have render'd it in English by the word Spirit but that its Natural Signification intends Breath or Spirit indifferently and may be warrantably Translated by either of these English Terms according as the Subject or Matter of Discourse may require And therefore I impute no fault nuto our Translators for rendering it by the word Spirit as they
other Man may possibly say Having now confounded and implicated the Meaning of this Text by my Exposition I am enough by that means enabled to prove thereby the Souls Seperate Subsistence which from the Text it self without such handling of it I should not be able to have done P. 88. He pretends to prove The Soul not subject to Death because nothing is so that is not subject to the Power of Death and the Soul of the Believer is not so I look upon this as a vain sort of Argument and begging of the Question increasing the Bulk of his Treatise but adding no strength to his Proof Here again he speaks of the Soul by the Term of Her and She as if he had prov'd her a Seperately distinct thing from the Man or Person a thing neither granted to him nor proved by him P. 89. He says again The Spirit of a Believer is not subject to the Law of Death Which is the very Point in Question and denied by his Opposers P. 90. He pretends That by what he hath said it appears that the Law of Death is executed only on the Body of a Believer I Answer that to me appers no such thing but that the Law of Death is executed upon the Persons both of Believers and Unbelievers and that Death pass'd upon all for that all have sinned and do Agree with him that not only the Body shall be rais'd at the Last Day but that the whole Person shall be so rais'd to appear in Judgment before the Tribunal of Christ And withal I conceive that our Author goes far for Arguments to prove his Tenet when he catches at and seems to rely upon such precarious Constructions as he hath offered in this Argument The Tenth Argument PAge 90 Mr. W. quotes in proof of his Opinion 2 Cor. 5 6 Therefore we are always confident knowing that whil'st we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are consident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord P. 91. Hereupon Mr. W. with good reason places the difficulty in the meaning of St. Pauls doubled Expression of being in the body and absent from Christ and being out of the body and present with Christ and then saith That when Paul says We are confident that here by the We that are always confident he intends the Soul or Spirit of himself and the Soul and Spirit of the rest of the Believing Church And if this be the true meaning of our Apostle in this Case viz. That here is intended the Souls of him and his brethren which at death will be absent from their bodies and be present with the Lord Then says he it proves the Souls of Men Seperate and are Immortal but the former says he is true therefore the later Then he offers to prove that by the We who would be absent from the body the Apostle intends the Souls only of himself and other Believers for what else is that of the Saints that is absent from the body and present with the Lord Name the thing if you can for says he it cannot mean the body nor the whole person not the whole person for that the whole man cannot be said to be at home in one part of the man viz. his body or absent from it for the whole of anything cannot be contained in a part of it P. 93. Then Mr. W puts a weak Objection against himself and answers it Upon this Argument I Agree with him that the Difficulty lies in finding out what St. Paul intends by the We that would be absent from the Body and present with the Lord Whether it intends the Souls only of the Faithful or their whole Persons He says It can only intend Mens Souls But I conceive that it intends their Persons And first I Argue from the Apostles Terms of Expression and do think that if by the Term We he only intended Mens Souls he hath very improperly express'd such a Meaning for that if there be many Persons in an Assembly or Company and one of them speaking for the rest says We decree or expect or desire such a thing how can it possibly be imagined that the Speaker intends only the Souls of those Persons do expect or desire And therefore if our Apostle by his Term We did intend only the Souls of Believers I conceive it would have been hard for Men to have found out that Meaning without such an Assistance and Direction as Mr. W. here offers them I think the proper Signification of the Word We in such Cases is to denote the Men or the Persons who are said to do any thing and not any one Part or Parcel of such Persons as it must do in this place if it intended only the Souls of Believers I take it for an old and good Rule amongst Expositors that they should cast their Eyes upon the Contexts of those Places which they mean to Expound that thereby they may discover the whole Scheme or Plat-form of the Writer's Intention and then to employ their Talent in drawing all that the Writer says to prove his Meaning or fortifie his Assertion And therefore I proceed to search what our Apostle says in his next fore-going Chapter concerning this Matter Chap. 4.10 We are cast down but not destroyed always bearing about in the Body the dying of our Lord Jesus By Body I think the whole Person is here intended The Text adds That the Life of Jesus might be made manifest in our Body or Person Ver. 14. We know that he which raised up the Lord JESVS shall raise up us also by JESVS and shall present us with you Ver. 16. Though our outward Man perish yet the inward Man is renewed Day by Day Intending the whole Man degenerated or regenerated Chap. 5.1 We know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven And we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthen'd not for that we would be uncloath'd but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life And we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord And we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad These Quotations have been transcribed for making it appear that the Intent of our Apostle in these Texts was to discover to his Readers Matters concerning the Resurrection and the Last judgment In the beginning of his Discourse he professes to
or out of the body I cannot tell Ver 3. And I knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell how that he was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words not lawful to be uttered Hence Mr. W. says he argues That what is capable of being seperated from the Body and in this Seperate State to be in Paradise and in this Paradise to hear Words spoken that must needs be immortal but the Soul is capable of all this Ergo First he pretends to prove the Souls Capacity of being seperated from the Body which all Readers will presently perceive to be the very Point hitherto disputed between us but the best Proof which he brings thereof is his own Supposal that the Apostle knew it to be so seperable and thereupon he says The Apostle thought there was some such part of himself as might be seperable from his Body for no Man can ever doubt the Being of a Thing which he knows is uncapable to be And hereupon he thinks the Apostle doth evidently suppose his Soul was capable of being out of the Body which amounts to thus much that he supposes the Apostle supposes the thing to be as he would have it whereas in the Text we find no mention of such things as he supposes for in St. Paul's Words there is no mention made of a Soul or any other Part of the Person that ever did or can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body Next there is no mention made of a Seperation of any thing from the Body Nor is it said that any Part or Parcel of St. Paul's Person was seperated from himself or that there was any one Parcel of him divided from his Person and much less that the Divided Part could subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body Whence I conceive that what he here says concerning a Seperation of one Part of St Paul from another springs from his own pregnant Invention without finding any good ground for it in the Text or that St. Paul did by his Words either in the Body or out of the Body intend to teach or discover to his Proselites that the Soul could be seperated from the Body and much less that it could subsist by its self in such a State of Seperation from the Body But I conceive with some Clearness our Apostles Meaning in those Words In the Body or out of the Body was very different from Mr. W's Supposals and intended only to express thus much That himself had been caught or rapt up into the Third Heavens where he heard unspeakable Words not lawful to be uttered and that he was in some doubt whether this Rapture was of his whole Person or of his Mind or Intellect only The things which were revealed to him in this Rapture he had so clear and perfect a Perception of as he thought he could not more clearly and fully have understood them if they had been perceived by his Bodily Senses of Hearing and Seeing and therefore he apprehended that this Rapture might be of his whole Person and that he did hear and see with his Bodily Organs those things which were then revealed to him and yet because such Raptures of the Person had not before been known he thought there was great Reason to doubt of that kind of Rapture and from grounds of Reason and Practice to conceive That this Rapture was more likely to be of his Mind and Intellect only than of his whole Person Body and Soul together And for the better proving the Apostles Intent in this Place to be such as before is said some other Texts of Scripture shall be produced wherein Facts parallel to this Rapture are related Acts 10.9 says Another great Apostle St. Peter went up upon the Tanner's House to pray and there he fell into a Trance and saw Heaven opened and a Vessel descending unto him like a great Sheet fastened at the four Corners and there came a Voice to him saying Peter Kill and Eat Peter excused himself upon which a second Voice called to him saying What God hath cleansed call not thou common And it seems these things were perceived by St. Peter as if he had seen and heard them by his Bodily Organs and they were as well imprinted upon his Memory For he told Cornelius and his Company that God had shewed him lately that he should not call any Man common or unclean This Apostle might be well enough assured that this was not a Raptuâ—e of his whole Person but a Trance or Transport of his Mind only and yet he perceived things as perfectly as if he had heard and seen them with his Bodily Organs Numb 24.334 Balaam took up his Parable and said the Man whose Eyes are opened hath said He hath said which heard the Words of God which saw the Vision of the Almighty falling into a Trance but having his eyes open Ver. 15. He repeats the same Words of falling into a Trance and having his Eyes open and then reveals to Balak and his Court the utter Destruction of Amalek by Saul and that Ships shall come from the Coast of Chittim and afflict Ashur and Eber Which seems to intend the Macedonian Invasion of the East and possibly the Roman also Ver. 17. says I shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh there shall come a Star out of Jacob and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel By which great things shall be done commonly interpreted to intend Christ and his Kingdom the space of 1500 years before the same appeared It seems though Balaam in this Trance had his Eyes open yet he saw not these Revelations or Visions with his Bodily Eyes but by the perceptive Power of his Mind which was all this while intranced and though the Body was Partaker of this Trance yet were the Bodily Senses no Acters in it but all was done by the perceptive Powers of his Mind intranced 1 Kings 22 19. The Prophet Micaiah the Son of Imiah says thus to the Kings of Israel and Judah I saw the Lord sitting on his Throne and all the Host of Heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left And then he saw also a Spirit which came and stood forth before the Lord and declared how he would entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead It seems hereupon that this Prophet was rapt into Heaven as St. Paul was for that in any other Place he could not have seen the things here related and which he says he saw and perceived as clearly as if he had seen them with his Bodily Eyes and Ears and was full of Confidence that they would prove true as they did And yet I conceive that this Rapture was only of his Mind and that to him so intranced all these things were perfectly revealed Rev. 4.1 John looked and behold a door was opened in Heaven and he heard a Voice as it were of a Trumpet which said
writ this Epistle because the Apostle says there were things in Heaven reconciled by the Blood of the Cross But there are no such things in Heaven reconciled by the Blood of the Cross except they be the Souls of some Holy Men that went hence Then he expresses a Desire to know what Men can say to this Argument And therefore I say to it That by his own Expression it appears he says he knows not what for he says He knows not that there are any other things in Heaven which need Reconciliation to God by Christ except Men will take these things to be the Souls of departed Persons But if Men will not accept of this Meaning then he knows not what the Apostle can mean by things in Heaven reconciled to God by Christ Which intends no more than that he doth not otherways know what the Things in Heaven reconciled to God by Christ may mean Which I take for a Confession That he doth not know what Paul meant by these things in Heaven Secondly I conceive he doth not know that there are any Souls in Heaven because if he did he should be able to make such a Demonstration or Description of their Being and of their being there as other Men who are willing might be able to understand and conceive He hath taken Pains to write this Treatise and therein hath already produced Thirteen Arguments in Proof of this Tenet but very unsuccessfully as those who peruse these Observations will easily discover The Perusers of this Argument will I think easily find That Mr. W. must have Two Things granted him before he can pretend to prove any thing by this Argument First That there are no things in Heaven which need Reconciliation to God unless Men will admit that Humane Souls are there And therefore Secondly he would perswade Men to admit of his Position That there are Souls in Heaven But I think fit to reject both these Proposals and say First That there may be other Things in Heaven besides Souls which may need a Reconciliation to God by Christ And Secondly to conceive that possibly or even probably there are not nor ever were any Humane Souls in Heaven nor in any other Place in the World except in their own proper and peculiar Bodies Here Mr. W. puts another slight Objection against his own Opinion and answers it P. 102. Mr. W. demands If there be any things else in Heaven besides the Souls of Men which need a Reconciliation to God What are those things I Answer I do not know what those things are and alike Confession of his Ignorance concerning this Subject would better have become Mr. W. than his groundless Guesses at what is meant in this Text by St. Paul's Expression of Things in Heaven and the supplying his Ignorance therein by a bold but Erroneous Guess That by Things in Heaven St. Paul intended the Seperate Souls of Men of which the Text makes no mention at all and his Supposal that there were Seperate Souls hath no better Foundation than his own Supposal which hath very little Power to convince intelligent Persons That Humane Souls have any sort of Subsistence in a state of Seperation from the Body The Fourteenth Argument PAge 102. Heb. 12.23 We are come to the Spirits of just Men made perfect Mr. W. begins this Argument with somewhat a long Comparison between the Law and the Gospel which makes little to our Point and therefore I pass it over P. 104. Mr. W. says as he is very apt to do That the Souls or Spirits of Men are Immortal and therefore it is a very great Truth that they are Immortal And adds Those Souls which the Gospel reveals to be alive out af their Bodies are thereby proved to be Immortal but the Gospel reveals that the Souls of just Men are alive out of their Bodies therefore the Souls of Men are alive out of their Bodies therefore the Souls of Men are Immortal Mr. W. says The Gospel revealeth that the Spirits of just Men are alive out of their Bodies Because the Text says they were made perfect and there is no Perfection in Death P. 105. He says We have a Right to the Society of those Spirits of just Men mude perfect which we shall have in possession when we depart hence But I find neither such Words nor Things in his Text viz. That we shall come to that Society when we depart hence so as I must repute it his own Addition to the Words of the Text which doth not appoint the Time for our coming to that Society I find Mr. W. has only quoted so much of this Text as seemeth most to support his own Opinion and therefore I intend to quote it somewhat more largely Heb. 12.22 Ye are come unto Mount Sion and to the Heavenly Jerusalem or City of God to the Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first Born and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Ver. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh whose Voice at the giving of the Law shook the Earth but now he hath promised saying yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also Heaven and this signifies the removal of those things which are shaken and that we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot be removed The Words of our Text thus fully quoted do by no means import That Men or their Souls shall come to the enjoyment of those things at their Deaths as Mr. W. hath erroneously suggested but the words of the Text run in the present Tense Ye are come to the things which I here report to you viz. Ye are come to the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem to the Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the First Born when not only the Earth shall be shaken but also Heaven and the things so shaken shall be removed I conceive that the Description here made doth very properly denote the Time of the Resurrection and the great Day of Judgment For at that time we are instructed by the Scripture to expect the things here mentioned God and Christ attended by the Angels and the Church of the First Born consisting of Just Men made perfect both in their Spirits and in their Bodies to the City of God or the New Jerusalem which St. John tells us Shall come down from God out of Heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband at or after the time of the Resurrection after Heaven and Earth have been shaken and are removed This I conceive to be the Time pointed at in this Text and I think these Descriptions are not applicable to any other Time nor hath Mr. W. mentioned any other Time for their Accomplishment saving that at Mens Death and for which he hath no Warrant from any words of this Text and as to the words in present Ye are come to these Glories I think
they are most apt to intend A coming to them by Faith whilst we are in this World Such a Faith as is the Evidence of things not seen but we have direction to hold fast our Hope and Expectation of them until the End when we may look for a Crown or Crowns of Life to be then distributed to all who love our Lords Second Appearing And then only I conceive may we hope to be made Partakers of all that Company and Happiness which in this Text are particularly recited And from this Exposition the Conclusion will be easily drawn That Mr. W's Fourteenth Argument hath very little force to prove the Subsistence of Mens Souls in a State of Seperation from their Bodies The Fifteenth Argument PAge 108. Heb. 11.39 40. These having all obtained a good Report through Faith received not the Promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect Hereupon Mr. W. says This seems a very obscure Text especially applied as a Proof of the Souls Immortality To this I Agree and Prognosticate That the Proof which it makes of the Soul's Immortality will fall out accordingly viz. That it will be both very obscure and weak Mr. W. further says It is evident the Apostle here speaks of some special Promise that the Patriarchs had recâ—iv'd the fulfilling whereof they never lived to see and which was made to appear to the Church at or before the writing of this Epistle So he will have this Promise to import the Manifestation of the Son of God in the Flesh And he then puts the Question How can it be said that they who died in the Faith of this Promise are made perfect with the then present Church by the fulfilling that Promise in the Manifestation of the Son of God And thereto he Answers That Angels did desire to look into and be better inform'd in this Mystery until Christ came in the Flesh and proved himself by Miracles to be the Messiah and then their Knowledge thereof was perfected And he says The Case was the same with the Spirits of those deceased Patriarchs in Heaven That there were Spirits of the deceased Patriarchs in Heaven he ought first to have proved as the very Point which is now disputed between us that he here offers to suppose it as a Truth seems to be a clear begging of the Question which I must refuse to grant him and then this whole Argument becomes Abortive and can proceed no farther P. 112. Mr. W. says Till you that oppose can give me a better Interpretation of this obscure Text I will Conclude that the Interpretation or Opinion is false and mine is true I Answer That Mr. W. may conclude what he pleases from his unproved and only supposed Premises but that can be no Argument to others for their Agreement with his Supposals And therefore I am very apt to Conclude That there is neither Truth nor Force in this Argument The Sixteenth Argument PAge 112 1 Pet. 3.19 20. By which also he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison which sometime were disobedient in the Times of Noah Hereupon Mr. W. says He waves the Interpretation which the Papists make of this Text And gives you another of his own which agrees better with the Reformed Churches and then says These Spirits in Prison which Christ preached to must be taken to intend the Souls of wicked Men in Hell Which I may not suffer to pass for a Truth before he have proved Three other Points First That there are such Seperate Souls of Men in rerum natura Secondly That there is in Being such a Local Hell as he supposes the Devils and wicked Persons now to be in and that such a Place there was in the Time of Noah Thirdly That our Lord in the Time of Noah did go into the Local Hell and preach to the Spirits there imprisoned And when these Preliminaries are well proved by him I will better consider his Argument and give him a further Answer to it In the mean time I quote to him 2 Pet. 2.4 God cast the Angels that sinned down to Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved into Judgment Jude 6. The wicked Angels God hath reserved in Chains of Darkness unto the Judgment of the Great Day I do not know any other Text of Scripture which speaks of Spirits in Prison but these Two which also tell us what these Spirits were and where their Prison was but takes no notice of any Souls that were there nor doth any other Text of Scripture make mention of any Seperate Souls being there The Parable of Dives speaks of his Soul being there but not in Soul only for there he is described as in his Person having Eyes Mouth Tongue and Hands for which Reason it must pass not for a History but for a Parable as it doth And the force of proving by it is now as before rejected I do not know why the Preaching here mentioned may not be intended to the lapsed Angels remaining under Chains of Darkness And however that may fall out I conceive it cannot be applied to the Seperate Souls of Men because I have not yet met with any sound and good Proof That such Souls ever did or can naturally subsist in a State of Seperation from their Bodies The Seventeenth Argument PAge 115. Rev. 6.9 c. I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and they cryed with a loud Voice saying How long O Lord Holy and True doest thou not avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth And white Robes were given to every one of them and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their Fellow Servants also and Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled Mr. W. says Learned Men do differ about this Altar some take it for the Altar of Incense and some for the Altar of Burnt-offerings which I take to be a Dispute de Lana Caprina .. And he confesses it makes not much to our Business whether the one or the other He says It is as clear That John saw the Souls of them that were slain And I think as clear That John did not see the things here mentioned but that they were represented to him in a Trance or Transport of his Mind and it would have made much to the ending of our Dispute if he had declared to us what manner of things those Souls were which he saw what were their Shapes their Substances and their ordinary Cloathing as well as the Place of their Abode P. 116. Mr. W. says That by the Souls under the Altar are intended the Martyrs dead Bodies And pretends in Scripture Souls are divers times taken for Dead Bodies which I see no Cause to agree with He himself thinks it very improper to present the slain with white Robes whilst under the Altar and therefore he
a Conviction strong enough to oblige all People to a Concurrence in that Opinion because all these Evidences are resolvable into an Humane Authority upon which I have no Inclination to found such a Faith as is the Evidence of things not seen i.e. such a Belief as concerning which there is neither Doubt nor Question Mr. W. gives us here a long Testimony out of Josephus from whence we may collect that some Jews held one thing and some another concerning Souls Some thought of them that one sort liv'd in perpetual Prison after Death and another sort rose very shortly and Mr. W. says The generality of the Jews were of that Mind and says The Sadduces denied the Souls Immortality and shews that Josephus was no Friend of theirs Then Mr. W. quotes Joseph a Speaker saying That Mens Souls go to Heaven and then after a certain Revolution or Period are again commanded to live in Bodies Another Speaker says It is Misery to live and not to die for Death freeth our Souls from Prison into their most pure and proper Place so as whilst they are in the Body they may properly be said to be dead but this passes with me for a Platonick Fable concerning which enough has been spoken This Jew says The Soul comes secretly into Men without being perceived and so departeth from them again I reply De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio I say also That where ever the Blood passes freely in the Body the Parts and Members are fresh and lively but where Obstructions hinders the rivage of Blood from passing the Bodily Parts and Members become withered and useless Mr. W. concludes It is clear that the Church of the Jews always held the Opinion of the Souls Immortality forgetting the Texts which I have before quoted which prove the Patriarchal and Mosaical Opinion to have been That the Life of Sensative Creatures lies in their Blood and other Opinion of the antient Jews hath he quoted none till that which he seems to collâ—ct out of the Discourse betwixt Saul and the Witch of Endor and which I do not agree to be proving nor do Job or David make any mention of Spiritual Souls so that Solomon's Writings are the first wherein we find mention of this sort of Souls of Mr. W. In his Third Chapter he doubts and in his Twelfth Chapter he says in few Words and Transiently The Spirit returns to God who gave it and there he is speaking of the dissolution of the humane Person and says The Body returns to the Dust as it was what became of the Spirit he did not perceive and therefore contented himself to say The Spirit return'd to God who gave it These are all the Arguments Mr. W. hath collected out of the Old Testament whence I am apt to inferr that he found no other Text in that Testament which made for his purpose but I think fit to mind him of the History in the second of Maccabees concerning the Martyrdom of the Seven Brothers by Antiochus there he shall find several of them declaring the Hope they had of being restored to their mangled Limbs at and by the Resurrection without mentioning their building of any Hope upon the Souls Seperate Subsistence whence I collect that Opinion had not yet prevailed amongst the Jews of those times It is also true that a Relation of this Martyrdom is subjoyned to the Works of Josephus as if it were of his Writing but I think the very great Verbosity of that Writing proves it to be none of his but it relates divers Sayings of these Brothers shewing the dependance of their Comfort upon the Souls Separate Subsistence and its immediate going to Heaven and this Difference proves to my Understanding that the Jews had alter'd their Opinion concerning their State after Death between the time of the Maccabees Writing and that wherein Josephus writ his Relation if the same be truly of his Writing P. 145. Mr. W. begins his Quotations of the Ancient Fathers for proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence I have not the opportunity of examining his Quotations with the Originals and therefore do not find it reasonable to deny or question the verity of any of them taking them therefore for veritable I agree they give very strong Testimony that those Writings of the Fathers by him quoted prove the Belief of the Writers to have been much consonant to his Opinion and I proffer only this Gloss upon the last of them viz. that of St. Ambrose who remembers our Lord went to prepare a place for his Disciples unto which I would add that which follows next after in the Text When I have prepared fitting places for you I will come and receive you to my Self that where I am ye may be also This coming of Christ I conceive to intend his second coming to Judgment and then and not till thâ—n that which our Lord says in this Text may be accomplished It seems his words quoted out of Iraeneus do not prove the Souls immediately going to Heaven after Death but to a Paradise or place of Pleasure distinct from Heaven and yet I allow them to be a good Proof that Iraeneus by them intends a Belief of the Souls Seperate Subsistence His second Author which he quotes he calls the Author of the Responses Apud Justin This I do not think fit to accept as the Opinion of Justin Martyr Thirdly For the saying of Polycarpus he quotes no Author from whence he took it whence it possibly may be taken from Baroneus His Fourth Quotation out of Origen seems no strong Proof because he was a perfect Platonist both before and after his Conversion to Christianity Fifthly His Quotation out of Tertullian speaks of such a place for the reception of departed Souls as is far above the Infernal places and a place of refreshment of the Souls of the Just when they are departed out of this Life where they shall abide to the Resurrection yet takes it for a different place from Heaven and I agree it proves his Agreement to the Souls Seperate Subsistence His Sixth Quotation out of Cyprian seems very full to his Purpose that the Martyrs Souls went immediately to Heaven In his Seventh Quotation concerning the Oration of Constantine I find no Expression in it that proves strongly for him save that Emperour 's discoursing concerning the Souls Immortality upon which I think he might very well dispute without making any certain Conclusion thereupon His Eighth Quotation out of Gregory Nyssen seems to me partly Platonick Ninthly What Prudentius says seems but to be rendring the Parable of Dives in Verse Tenthly Gregory Naz. who calls the Body and this Life the Prison of the Soul follows therein the Platonick Doctrine P. 152. Mr. W. says He has thus given us the Judgment of the Primitive Church for the Four first Centuries of it which is no small Argument of the Truth of the Souls Immortality and of the same Opinion have the
Christian Churches continued throughout the World and therefore Men must have very strong Arguments if they hope to prevail in rejecting this Opinion I answer and grant that this Argument is good and strong for the proving of his Opinion and seems to be of more Power and Strength than all that he hath said before for the maintaining of it but yet I do not perceive that Strength in it which may be able to support his Tenet against those Reasons and those Scriptures which may be brought against the Rationality and Truth of it and of which I intend to make a short detail when I come to his following Head where he makes and delivers Objections against his own Doctrine P. 152. Mr. W. begins to relate certain Sayings or Speeches of Reformed Martyrs who it seems died in the Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence which may be admitted to add some small Strength to his former Arguments drawn from the Opinion of the more Ancient Fathers I do not find it strange that Men should retain to the end of their Days divers Opinions which they had before imbibed in their Youth and by their Education hath been radicated in them especially such as do not appear to have an evil effect upon their Practices And I think that divers Learned Men of most high Esteem even in the Primitive and Apostolical Churches have delivered some Doctrines to their Disciples which upon strict examination may be found inconsonant to the stream or current of Scripture and the natural reason of Mankind which Doctrines I conceive the Writers of them did believe to be true upon the ground of such Tradition as they had received and which by Education and Custom had obtain'd an absolute assent of their Minds in such Cases And tho' I shall here name only the Millenary Opinion yet if I thought fit here to digress to that purpose I could add divers other particulars thereunto P. 153. Mr. W. proceeds to make farther Proof of his Opinion by some Representations in Dreams and others in Shades or Shadows of Persons departed unto which I have in a former Treatise made Answer that I do not deny there may be verity in divers of those Relations and yet I do not conceive any thing of that kind hath ever been performed by departed Souls thinking it probable that there are no such Beings in the World but I am willing to ascribe such Actions to the Powers and Performances of inferiour Spirits without pretending to determine whether good or bad and that they jussu aut permissu superiorum do represent and act according as the occasions wherein they are imploy'd may require P. 158. Mr. W. produces divers Objections which he says are made against the Souls Seperate Subsistence amounting to the Number of Fourteen divers of which I a gree not to be very material and tho' I intend to mention each of them that I may not seem to disregard any thing that he hath Written yet very little shall be said concerning them my Design being only to insist upon those which I think material and to add unto them such other Objections as Mr. W. in his Catalogue hath omitted P. 158. Mr W's first Objection says That what of the first Adam it was that sinned that of Adam died but both the Soul and Body died therefore c. To this he Answers That he must not take Life and Death here in their proper Sense but that the word Death here only intends a miserable Life which however he doth not deny to be Life and I do not conceive how Death and Life can stand together in the same subject and therefore I think his Description of Death by a miserable Life is not reasonable nor allowable in this Case conceiving it agreeable to Reason that the Curse pronounced against Sin should extend to the Person that sinned and accordingly the Persons which sinned did both die for it or after it without any appearance of leaving Souls to survive after the Death of their Persons P. 159. Mr. W. will not agree that their Souls did die as well as their Bodies because God says That Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return Then he assumes the Soul was not made of Dust which is a thing before disputed between us I pretending there was no such Soul made as he says there was I say my sort of Soul is material and may return to the Dust and Air as it was which he will deny and thereupon we must examine all that has been spoken which neither of us can design to do in this place but leave this Objection to be farther discussed Mr. W's second Objection from Eccles 3. where Solomon compares Men with Beasts P. 161. He pretends that Text says The Spirit of Man goes upward and the Spirit of a Beast downward which I think it doth not say but makes a doubt whether the truth of the thing be so or no it seems Solomon speaks more deliberately concerning Mens Souls in this Text than he does in his Twelfth Chapter and yet I pass this Objection lightly over without laying any great weight upon it P. 162. Mr. W. raises a third Objection from Matth. 26.38 where our Lord says My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death from whence some Men may pretend to inferr that his Soul might die I profess to be none of those who make this Objection for I conceive that Christ by the word Soul intended his Person or himself in the same Sense as if he had said I am sorrowful unto Death and therefore I pass this over as a weak Objection against Mr. W's Opinion P. 164. Mr. W. raises a fourth Objection against himself from Acts 2.27 Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thy Holy one to see Corruption Here he says some will have Christ's Intellectual Soul to be meant and by Hell or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grave to be meant I profess to be none of those some who would have Christ's Intellectual Soul to be here meant but I do rather conceive that by my Soul in this place is intended my Person or my Self and as if he had said thou wilt not leave me in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Grave without intention to speak of an Intellectual Soul or any other Soul at all and therefore I pass this over as a very light Objection against Mr. W's Opinion P. 169. The fifth Objection which Mr. W. brings against his own Opinion is raised from 2 Cor. 5. Where Paul speaks of being cloathed upon with his House from Heaven I have said before that this Expression respects that Translation of their Bodies which the Saints who are alive upon Earth at Christ's coming shall receive when they shall be disrobed of their Earthly Bodies and have them chang'd into Heavenly or Spiritual Bodies and yet I do not find any great Strength in this Objection against Mr. W's Opinion but pass it away as a very weak one without
Body containing therein such Blood Humors and Organs as are needful for the production and perfection of Life and all the Faculties and Powers of a humane Person whose Blood and Humors will then be apt for kindling into a Flame or glowing of the Blood by such a moderate Breath as Ezekiel was directed to call for to come from the four Winds and breath upon these newly formed Persons that they may live which done the newly formed Persons are thereby made living able to hear the Voice of the Son of God and at his Call to come out of their Graves and deliver themselves from the strong Bands of Death and such I conceive the rising of the Dead will be not a partial but a total Resurrection of the Person not first the Body rais'd and then an Intelligent Soul be injected thereinto for the Body cannot rise or come out of its Grave without a Spirit of Life or such a sort of Soul as is natural suitable and fitted for that Performance I do therefore reject the expression by him used viz. the Resurrection of the Body because it is no where used in the Scripture and because there is no such thing in Nature as that a Body should rise and live without a Soul what rises therefore is not only the Body but the Person which was dead a very like or his very same Person which before had died Mr. W. in the Conclusion of this Objection says to his Opposers that it is a strange Inference ye draw from this Text That because it is certain that Christ is risen that therefore the Souls of Men are mortal I reply This would be a very strange Inference indeed if his Opposers either said so or thought so but they profess to do neither the one nor the other but this they do say and believe that if the Resurrection of Christ and the General Resurrection of the Dead be not both true then all those who are fallen asleep tho' never so good are perished and consequently that the Souls of Men have not a Seperate Subsistence after the death of the Person and thus I finish my Reply to Mr. W's Answer given to this Objection and proceed to the giving concurrent Evidences from the Texts before quoted for strengthning the force of this my Eighth Objection Our Apostle having finish'd this Text goes on in the same Chapter to Vers 32. And there says If after the manner of Men I have fought with Beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the Dead rise not Let us eat and drink for too Morrow we die Which sayings I think may be thus rightly Paraphrased Whatsoever Sufferings I undergo for Christ's sake in this World they will advantage me nothing if the Dead rise not and then we need no more in this World but to eat and drink and die and there 's an and of us And if this Saying be true and the very meaning of our Apostle in this Text I think it gives a fatal blow to the Seperate Subsistence of Souls and yet our Apostle proceeds further in this Chapter to Verse 52. Where he says The Trumpet shall sound and the Dead shall be rais'd uncorruptible and we who are then alive shall be changed and the last Verse of this Chapter he adds Therefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know your Labour is not in Vain in the Lord for I have given you as certain Proofs as Faith can desire that there shall be a General Resurrection of the Dead at which time all People shall be rewarded or punished according to their Works Heb. 11.35 The Saints indured great Persecutions and Torments not accepting Deliverance from them because they expected a better Resurrection Luke 14.14 When thou makest a Feast do not only bid thy Friends and rich Neighbours who are likely to make thee a Recompence but bid also the Poor the Maimed the Lame and the Blind who cannot Recompense thee and therefore for thy so doing thou shalt be Recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just And now I demand one Text of Scripture to be produced where it is said That Men for their good Works done in this World shall be Recompensed at or soon after their Deaths I know of no Text that declares this to us or from which it can with clear Reason be collected and therefore I say that the Reason given us why our Labour shall not be in Vain in the Lord is because there shall certainly be a Resurrection from the Dead and after that a Judgment wherein every Person shall be rewarded according to his Works and upon these Grounds I am ready to conclude that this my Eighth Objection strongly batters and assaults and even overthrows the Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence A Ninth Objection against Mr. W's Opinion I raise from 1 Thess 4.13 Where St. Paul says I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them that are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and so goes on describing the manner and effects of the Resurrection of the Dead adding Comfort one another with these Words I offer this for you Comfort that there shall certainly be a Resurrection of the Dead wherein your dead Friends also shall rise again and I would have you make this a Comfort to you concerning both your dead Friends and your dying Selves advising you to repose your hopes thereupon and to comfort your selves and one another with your Discourses and Communications concerning it Our Apostle appears here comforting the Hearts of his Correspondents against the sufferings of Death either by their Friends or by themselves and takes his ground of Comfort in such Cases from our assured Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead and thereupon I observe that he doth not ground and Hope or Comfort upon the Souls Seperate Subsistence or its going to Heaven immediately after Death which gives me a firm ground of perswasion that he either did not know of this Opinion or he did not believe it for if he had believed this Doctrine to be true I think he could not have forgotten or forborn to give his Disciples Comfort from that Topick because such Comforts would have been much nearer than those which he derived from the Doctrine of the Resurrection and would have been both a more short and sure way to that Salvation and future Happiness which Men desire and therefore if St. Paul had believed this Doctrine to be true I think he could have no reason for his balking it in this place but in congruity of Reason must have said Brethren comfort your selves against Sorrows for your Friends Deaths and the fear of your own by considering the happy State of those which die in the Lord for that their Spirits or Souls immediately
Freedom and the Doctor confesses it to be true and that the Soul as Immaterial as he supposes her cannot act without Material Assistance of the Phansie Memory and other Sensitive Powers and apparent it is neither the Man nor the Soul can act any thing without the Spirits of the Blood P. 126. The Doctor sets down three Moral Arguments proving the Souls Immateriality and Immortality 1. The Universal consent of Men to this Opinion 2. Man's Innate and Inseperable Appetite of Immortality 3. The Justice of God in rewarding good Men and punishing the Evil after Death Upon the first Argument he quotes Cicero's saying Omni in re Consensio omnium gentium lex naturae putanda est to this Rule I answer that if it should be admitted for a Rule yet there are many Exceptions to be made out of it and therefore I cannot admit it to have a binding force in this Case and to the Doctor 's Assertion of Universal Assent to the Souls Immortality by which he would prove it a Conception Natural to the Mind of Man I answer that a Conception so proving must be as Universal in Time as in Places or Persons but we do not Read or find that the Opinion of the Souls Immortality had a Being in the World or was known amongst Men before the Writings of Solomon because that in the Thousands of Years before his time we meet with no mention of that Opinion neither amongst the Patriarchs nor the Mosaical Writings nor any of the Prophets before Solomon's time nor do Job or David make any mention thereof We Read God laid great Punishments upon Cain for his Murther which was of great Importance in that time of the World and a very atroceous Fratricide and yet we do not Read of so much as a Threat against the Soul of Cain or any thing there spoken concerning Punishments future to this Life but all the Punishments denounced to him for that Fact were only Temporal and of this World nor do I find any Punishments future to this Life denounced against Sinners until the Books of Solomon became extant in the World save what was taken from the invention of some Poets which might be received in the World somewhat before his time And hence I infer That the Notion of the Souls Immortality is not Natural because for some Thousands of Years from the Worlds beginning that Notion was not received or known amongst Men. P. 131. The Doctor 's Opposer says the Opinion of the Souls Immortality is very Useful in Government for that audacious Malefactors who are not moved by the whole Arm of the Civil Magistrate will yet tremble at the Finger of Divinity P. 133. It is possible and Experience shews it frequent that an Opinion may be Universal possessiing the Minds of all Men for many Ages together without Dispute which yet at length may be Discovered to be False and Absurd as hath been Experienc'd in the Opinion of the Antipodes and the Circumvolution of the Earth both which till of late Years were held Unreasonable and Phantastical and perhaps this of the Souls Eternity may have the same Fate P. 134. Our Doctor says That to prove an Opinion derived from Nature there is required an Assent of all Ages from the beginning of the World To this I say The Opinion of the Souls Immortality hath not such a Consent and that such a Consent neither hath been or can be proved and that therefore the Opinion it self is not proved derivable from Nature or the Instinct thereof The Doctor says further That from the Antiquity Universality and Perpetuity of any Opinion we may safely conclude upon the Verity of it Hereunto I answer That the Opinion of the Suns Diurnal Motion about the Earth had a greater Antiquity and as great an Universality and hath still as strong a Perpetuity as that of the Souls Immortality either ever had or yet hath notwithstanding all which the Learned World begins now to perceive that it was always and is still an Error P. 138. Here the Doctor begins to produce and urge his second Moral Argument for the Souls Immortality from the Desires Men have of Perpetuity and Living after their Deaths either in their own proper Beings or in the Memories of such as survive their Departures To this I answer That if they desire a Perpetuity of their own Being after Death it seems they desire that which they cannot attain as all Men may and do desire a Perpetual Youth Health and Prosperity Nature and Reason both assure us that no Man doth or can desire a perpetual or a long Life under great Pains and Sufferings but a Life with Happiness is very acceptable to all Men and therefore they do not desire Life alone but as it is joyn'd with expectation or hope of Happiness and hence I collect that the much greater part of Mankind which the sinful World knownly are do not desire a future State of Life after Death but rather that there were no Being for them after this Life and would very much wish to be forgotten both by God and Men and therefore a Perpetuity of Being is not desired or so much desirable as our Doctor pretends it to be whence I conceive the Doctor 's Argument drawn from this Topick hath but little Force or Cohersion in it and not Strength enough to compel or even to draw Men to a Coherence with the Doctor in his Opinion of the Souls Immortality P. 145. Here the Doctor propounds his Third Moral Argument for proving the Souls Immortality and raises it from God's Divine Justice and his Equitable Dealings with Men and says it is commonly observ'd wicked Men prosper better in this World than the Righteous usually do and consequently that such Men are not rewarded according to their Works whilst they live and therefore God's just dealing with Men cannot be defended without allowing and believing a State of Rewards and Punishments after Death and from hence saith the Doctor it must unavoidably follow that Rewards and Punishments will be distributed to Men after their departures out of this Life To this I answer That I agree to all that the Doctor hath here delivered the Doctor replies if you so do you must likewise agree to the Doctrine of the Souls Immortality or the Seperate Subsistence of it for the Body after Death is not capable of receiving Reward or Punishment it must therefore be the Soul alone unto which such Rewards and Punishments can be applied Our Doctor not once mentioning or appearing at all to think upon the last Articles of our Creed I believe the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life Everlasting which seems to my Understanding a sort of Proof that he and the greatest part of those who believe and maintain the Souls Immortality are very little mindful of our quoted Article The Resurrection of the Dead insomuch as the Conceit of this Immortality seems to have eaten up and devoured the Article before-named with the Use and
for the Life of the Body It seems the Instances which he brings do all apply to the Life of the Person and not of the Body only for all men know that the Body can have no Life without the Soul and therefore these which he pleases to apply to the Body only ought really to be intended of the whole Humane Person The Instances which he brings to prove the 4th Acceptation of the Word Soul to signifie sometimes a Dead Carcass he offers to prove by these Words Ye shall not make any Cuttings in your Flesh for the Soul Here he pretends the Word Soul signifies nothing but the Dead Carcass But I refuse to Agree with him in it conceiving as I do that the Word Soul here intends the Dead Person for I do nor believe men to have been so sottish as to have made Cuttings in their Flesh for the Dead Carcasses of their Friends as he supposes but that rather they made such Cuttings in their Flesh for Grief and Remembrance of their Dead Friends not for any of their Parts but for the whole Persons of them His 5th Signification of the Word Soul which he takes to intend singly the Rational Immortal Soul of Man he proves by Instances Psal 19.7 The Law is perfect converting the Soul He pretends the Word Soul in this Place signifies Man's Immortal Soul singly consider'd and without the Body This I deny and say this converting of the Soul inrends converting of the Person or of the whole Man as he is a Compositum of Soul and Body Again he Quotes Deut. 11.18 Lay up these my Words in your Soul which I think somewhat plainly to signifie as if he had said Lay up these my words in your hearts or in your selves constituted and compounded of Soul and Body He Quotes again Deut. 13.3 Love the Lord with all your Soul To which he might have added with all your Heart and all your Strength Which make this Text clearly appear to intend Love the Lord with all the eminent Faculties of your Person Then he says There are more Significations of the Word Soul in Scripture besides those Five which he hath named and which by Examination of his Instances have been found to run all into one which intends the whole Humane Person as it is a Compositum of Soul and Body He instances as one of his other Significations the Words Deliver me not up to the Soul of my Enemies Which I think intends To be not deliver'd up to the Persons or Powers of his Enemies He says again The word Soul sometimes signifies some one Power of the Sensative Soul as the Breath of Man or Beast and sometimes for some single Power of the Rational Soul which I think he should have termed some single Power of the Mind or of the Man And therein I am ready to agree with him that the World Soul in Scripture doth divers times signifie the vehement Desires or Affections of the Person but I do not remember that the Word Soul is any where used in Scripture to signifie the Soul of Man by our Author intended except only that Text of St. Matthew which says Men are not able to kill the Soul P. 11. He says further he takes the Word Soul to signifie Man's Intellectual Soul because in no other sense can the Soul be said to be Immortal And I deny that in that sense it can truly be said to be Immortal Then he says further That the Soul which is now plainly alive while in our Bodies shall never cease to live or be annihilated And this I conceive to be the thing which he undertakes to prove and when he hath so done in a sufficient convincing manner I do fully intend to be his Proselite and to submit my Belief to his Direction in this Point P. 12. He discourses of the Soul's Annihilation by the Power of God which as a thing not now question'd or controverted nor very material in this present Disquisition I pass over without farther Observation thereupon CHAP. III. PAge 13. Mr. W. says I shall now lay down Five Propositions which I conceive have a great Tendency to Clear up this great Truth Of the Soul's Immortality The First wherof is this That the Soul and Body of Man are not one and the same Being but are Beings really distinct Because says he they were created one after the other and not at one and the same time And this he says is evident from Gen. 2 the Words whereof run thus in our Translation The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul He says it should have been thus render'd God breathed into Adam 's nostrils the breath of life or soul of life or living soul But I am more ready to rely upon the Authority of our Translators than upon the single Credit of a Person engaged in Controversie and to whose Cause this sort of Translation may be helpful Both of us have before concluded and agreed that the Word Soul in Scripture doth often intend and signifie the Person and so I do fully believe and conclude it doth in this Text and bears the same Sense as if it had been said in proper Words God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living person He says and pretends that these Words in Gen. are a clear Demonstration of the Soul 's being created by God after the Body finished that he knows not what to add to make it more clear And I am very apt to believe that he speaks Truth in it and really doth not know what more to add to make it more clear to the Understandings of Men for if he did I see no cause to believe that he would be sparing of his Pains to that Purpose I am not able my self to collect out of this Text that the Soul and Body of Adam were created one after the other no nor that any Soul at all was created for Adam either before or after the Consummation of his Body The Words themselves of the Text do not express that God created a Soul for Adam but say God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and by breathing that breath into him he became a living person Gen. 1.5 The Text says God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after their kind as he had before created great whales and fishes in the water and fowls to flye in the midst of Heaven Our daily Observations may assure us the Lives of all these are maintained by the ambient Air and the Breath which from thence they draw and without which they cannot subsist or live for the space of some few moments which hath been often experienced by the Air-Pump in the case of Infects thereinto injected This Brutal Breath Eccles 3.19 is
is a Truth granted on both sides but his labour hath been to prove That the Soul is a seperable intelligent Spirit and of a quite different Nature from the Body But I think he hath here given very little Proof to that Purpose so far from being abundantly sufficient as that I think it scarce touches upon the Verges of his intended Proposition but how sufficiently he hath thereof acquitted himself I do freely and willingly leave to the Judgment of such Persons as may happen to peruse our Writings P. 15. Mr. W. delivers his second Proposition which he says is this That the Soul and Body are not only Two in number but that they are two Beings of a very different Nature His second Proposition seems to be so near of kin to his first that the Difference between them is not very evident and the Proof which he gives of this second Proposition seems to be coincident with the Proofs which he gave of the former for he says here That the Soul was immediately created by God Which Supposal he had before laid down as a Proof of his first Proposition and I have given it before such an Answer as satisfies my own Understanding And therefore I shall need to say no more of it here but that it passes with me for an unsound and fallacious Opinion whence I think fit to reject without further Examination all the Inferences and Arguments which he may pretend to draw from so unweak and unsound a Supposition He quotes for a Proof of it Gen. 2.7 which was before examined and in this place I shall say no more of it He says further The Body and all its Parts are but lifeless senseless things in themselves And herein I grant he says true and so are the Three Elements of Fire Air and Water and yet the two former are of so Active a Nature that they are always in Motion like those Particles which we call Motes in the Sun and therefore may justly have the Reputation of self-moving Principles And Water hath a propensity to Motion so natural that give it but a declivity and it can have no rest till it come to a place so even as it may stand in an Equilibrium free from the Impulse of any declination whatsoever It seems then that upon rinding and kindling the pullulent steams of Old Adam's Blood and Humours ready for that purpose that Breath which God then breathed into his Nostrils became the Breath of Life to him by kindling the Flame of Life in those Steams of his Blood and Humours which God had made ready for that Operation and this Flame or glowing of the Blood was immediately catch'd and disperss'd into the Vital and all other Parts of the Body putting them all in Motion and Attendency to perform all those Operations for which God had made them and we may conceive were intended to be produced in the Person then Created and in all other Persons which should after be Generated by Him Whence it seems that what is called the Breath of Life to Adam the same Breath or ambient Air became the Breath of Life to all Posterity For by this Medium sucked in by the Lungs the Flame of Life first kindled in the Body is fann'd and kept glowing in the Blood and Humours thereof And thus the Flame of Life must be continually fann'd maintain'd and purified by the Breath and by the Vigor and Activity of this Inflammation the Blood and Humours are kept in perpetual Motion and in a durable and endless Circulation so long as the Parts of the Body are able to endure the Activity of such Motion and until by Age or Decay of some of the Bodily Parts Corruption or Stagnation of the Blood or by some Accident this Flame of Life happen to be totally extinguish'd throughout every Part and Member of the Body and such total Extinguishment of the Vital Flame I esteem to be the Death of the Person Finding and believing That the Breath of Man and Beast is so necessary in them for maintaining the Flame of Life that by a short stoppage of the same by a Halter a Bow-string a piece of Phlegm or by a Fly sticking in ones Throat stopping the Mouth and Nostrils with a Cloth as Hazael served his Master Benhadab or any like Accidents both Man and Beast soon die and therefore such Means are often used for doing Execution upon them and the Reason thereof seems to be the Suffocation and Stifeling of this Vital Flame which can no longer by Natural Means be maintained without the fanning of this Breath of Life drawn from the ambient Air which passing through the Lungs is thence communicated to all the Entrails of the Body And from these Grounds I Argue That tho the Blood and Humours be but Matter and unintelligent in themelves as well as the Flesh Bones and other gross Parts of he Body yet God's great Wisdom hath so framed the Microcosm or Person and so organiz'd the Bodies of them as that every Part is fitted and ready for those Acts for which they were intended and these Organs rightly moved and acted by the Spirits inflamed and Humours of the Body do in a right Mixture one with another and by the working of such Spirits among and upon the Organs produce or effect thelocal Motions Senses and such Intelligence as pertain to Men and Beasts and are produced acted and performed in the several Species of them so long as those Spirits and Humours are maintained in the Body by a due Refection and Nourishment and so long as this Vital Flame continues to be fanned by the due Respirations both of Man and Beast And this I give for an Answer to the second Proof of his second Proposition concerning the vast Diversity as he calls it of the Nature of the Soul from that of the Body Mr. W. goes on to a Third Proof of this Diversity and saith The Body is often tired and spent and indisposed to Action when at the same time the Soul hath a Will and is bent to Action Which I thus Paraphrase The Man his Mind Affections or Will may be strongly bent to Action when his Bodily Members may be very weary and his Spirits spent And thus express'd I grant and know that what he says may be true viz. That the Spirits working in his Brain and moving his Affections and Will may continue their Working and Vigour in that Part longer than in the outward and more remâ—t Parts of the Body And this is that which our Lord I think intended when he said The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak P. 16. Mr. W. goes on and says The Body is very frequently 〈◊〉 a very sick weak languishing Condition when the 〈…〉 as good a plight and sometimes better than when the 〈…〉 most healthy and strong surely if their Natures did not vâ—â—â—ly differ they would be sick and well together Here I prosess to differ from our Author in a Point of Fact
even down to latter times and the same Conception seems to have a Being and Substance in the Minds of some learned Persons until this time My Discourse concerning this sort of Spirit hath been deliver'd with intent to discover and evince That Solomon's Spirit returning to God who gave it was spoken and meant by him concerning this last sort of Spirit and I intend to recite some Arguments for the proving of this Construction First I Argue from the words or terms of the Text it self and say That it Solomon intended such a Soul as Mr. W. has described the Text it self seems not to be properly worded because I think nothing can be properly said to return to another thing except it had been a part or concomitant of that other thing before but Mr. W.'s sort of Soul seems never to have been a part or concomitant of God before its being put into the Body for the enlivening and acting of the Person I do not therefore well perceive how such a â—oul can be properly said to return to God but the Expression therereunto properly belonging should have been worded The Spirit goes to or goes before God with expectation to receive his Judgment and Sentence according to the demeanour of its Person upon Earth and I do not perceive how this Souls going to God for Judgment can be properly call'd a return to God who gave it Secondly I Argue I find not so much as one Text in Scripture which says the Souls of dying Persons go presently to God for Judgment nor any Text from whence this Opinion may be drawn by a rational Inference and that which makes nearest approaches to it of any that I know is the Parable of Dives where it is said the Begger died and was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom I know my Opposers will think it needless to ask them what is intended by the words The Begger was carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom and doubt not but they will soon make a bold Answer It neither was nor could be the Begger himself that was so carried in his whole Person Body and Soul into Abraham's Bosom and yet the Words of the Text seem to import that his whole Person Soul and Body was carried thither But if we shall grant their gloss upon this Text to be true that his Soul only was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom we may draw these inferences from that Relation either that his Soul was so ignorant as it knew not how to find a way to that Habitation or else was so weak and impotent as it was not able to pass thither without the Support and Ministry of Angels How then can we conceive that such a Soul as this should make its return to God presently upon the Death of its Person without mention of any other Assistance to be given it We hear nothing of Dives in the Parable but that being in Hell he lift up his Eyes and saw Lazarus in another place without mention of the means by which he came there and if we shall follow the common Conjecture that as Lazarus was carried to one place by Angels so Dives was hurried to the other by Devils it will appear very unlikely that Mr. W.'s sort of Soul is able to make its way and return to God at its Pleasure And here we Read the Begger 's Soul was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom without mention of its being carried or returning to God at all whence it seems probable that when Solomon speaks of the Souls returning to God he doth not intend such a Soul as Mr. W. hath described but rather such a Spirit as had first been a part oâ— parcel of the â—pirit of Nature or of God sent out for the enlivening and acting of a particular Person upon whose Death that Spark or Parcel of the Deity returns with a strong inclination to God who sent it out from himself for the enlivening â—nd acting of that particular Body and joyn'd it self again to its Totum as Water presently incorporates with Water and the particles of Air neither will nor can be seperated from the incorporating one of them with an other Thirdly I Argue That if Solomon had intended by the Words Returns to God who gave it a going of the Soul to God or before God for receiving the Doom of his intermediate Judgment it seems a matter of such great Moment as required a more full Discourse upon the same and giving us more Light in it than his very few words there do afford us And however it is very probable that he would not have immediately subjoyned to his Discourse which intimates an intermediate Judgment a Declaration and Description of the General Judgment for that would have been playing Judgment upon Judgment which must needs have past for false Heraldry We find in this Chapter that as soon as Solomon had writ the Words The Spirit returns to God who gave it he ceases to speak any further concerning the State of Man after Death till he come to the 14th or last verse of the Chapter where he sayes as a conclusion of his whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for God will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil I think it not reasonable to conjecture that Solomon by his Returning of the Spirit to God who gave it did intend such a returning to God to be a going to him or before him for an intermediate Judgment for that if he had so intended he would not have immediately have mentioned and related the Certainty and Effect of the General Judgment as in this we see plainly he hath done and thus I leave Solomon's Words and the descant upon them to the further Consideration and Judgment of the Intelligent Reader Mr. W. goes on to quote Eccl. 3 20. Where he saith Solomon affirms that the Spirit of a Man goeth upward when he dieth adding that Solomon brings it in with an Intrrogation Who knoweth Not as if he doubted it for he cannot be said to doubt it since he delivered it most positively in the other verse intending as I conceive the Text last before quoted out of his 12th Ch. Hereupon I again declare I am no way satisfied with the manner used by our Author in his Quotations of Scripture The Text which in this place he quotes says thus Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth downward to the Earth Which to my understanding hath the same signification as if he had said Who knows the certain Truth of this Opinion That the Spirit of Man goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast goeth downward to the Earth Or who knows whether this difference between the Spirits of Men and Beasts be real and true or not And further it seems to me that this Interrogation is Pregnant with a Negative and seems to have the same sense as if had said
No Man certainly knows whether there be such a difference between the Spirits of Men and Beasts or not Also this Interrogation seems to be the Product of a mature Deliberation had and made by Solomon upon this point for in the foregoing verses he had compared the Natures of Men and Beasts together and plainly affirms That Men may see that they themselves are Beasts and as to their Natural State may be compared to the Beasts that perish One thing befals both Beasts and Men For as the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one Breath so that a Man hath no preminence above a Beast all go to one place for all are of the dust and all turn to dust again And then concludes his Speculation with the quoted Text viz. Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth downwards to the Earth Mr. W. says that notwithstanding this Intrrogation Solomon affirms That the Spirit of Man goeth upwards when he Dieth whereas I hold it plain to every Reader that Solomon doth not affirm so Our Author replies He can prove that Solomon doth affirm so for that in the Text before quoted out of his 12th Chap. The Spirit of Man returns to God who gave it Which must be taken in the same Sense as if he had said it goes upwards And hereunto I Answer That there are Eight Chapters between his Third and Twelfth and Solomon might well enough be in doubt when he writ his Third Chapter and yet be resolv'd thereupon before he writ his last Chapter or perhaps his Text quoted out of that Chapter might be Transiently or Cursorily delivered without so much deliberation upon the difficulty of this Point as that which he had before used in his Third Chapter and the Conclusion now quoted of that Consideration and it seems somewhat clear to me that there is a great difference between these two Texts of Solomon's The first after a deliberate Consideration of the Point declares plainly that he doubted therein and the last without any deliberate Consideration which appears in the Text pronounces transiently and in a very vew words The Spirit returns to God who gave it And whether of these two Texts Men will believe also in what manner and in what sense they think it requisite to believe them I leave to be further determined by my Perusers P. 22. Mr. W. for further Proof of this Point quotes 1 Kings 17.17 Which in our Translation runs thus The Son of the Woman the Mistress of the House where Elijah had been well entertained fell sick and his sickness was so sore that there was no Breath left in him Verse 21 22. Elijah cried unto the Lord and said I pray thee let this Child's Soul come into him again and the Soul of the Child came into him again and he revived Mr. W. Says the same Hebrew Word is used in this place which is used in Gen. 2.7 For the Breath of Life and he Observes That our Translators have rendred it in both those places by the term of Breath and he tells us that Buxtorf tells him that this Hebrew Word signifies the Soul and always the Soul of a Man never tha◠of a Beast and says that the Hebrews understand thereby the Rational Immortal Soul of Man by which Word they used in a way of Reverence to Swear Hereupon I observe That if the Jews believed this Term signified the Soul of Man did Swear by it they were in a gross Error as I doubt Buxtorf was when he expressed himself to think there was a Rational Immortal Soul in Man Then Mr. W. says He wonders our Translators should in this Text and that of Gen. so obscure this Word in rendering it by the Word Breath of so Dark and Ambiguous a Signification but in this Censure I think Mr. W. is mistaken because I conceive the signification of the Word Breath in English is as little ambiguous or doubtful as those of any other ordinary Words which are commonly used amongst us Then he lays blame upon our Translators of the Scriptures for not having well performed their Duty i. e. because they have not Translated them in such a manner as would better have serv'd his purpose He does not pretend from his own Knowledge or that of Buxtorf that the Hebrew Word here quoted doth not sometimes signifie Breath as well as Spirit or Soul and if the Word have such a double Signification as sometimes to signifie Breath and sometimes Spirit as the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath in the Greek Tongue then our Translators it seems have acted very impartially for that in verse 17. they have rendred this Hebrew Word by the Term Breath as they have done Gen. 2.7 And in verse 21.22 of Kings they have rendred this Hebrew Word by the Term Soul and therefore I think they little deserve the blame which Mr. W. lays upon them but that their Translation may and ought to retain that Reverence and Authority which for many Years and some Ages it hath maintained amongst us and which I hope it will not be in the Power of M. W. or Mr. Buxtorf to diminish By this Collection it appears that if our Translators had rendred this Hebrew Term by the Word Breath in verses 21. and 22. as they have done ver 17. and Gen. 2. as it seems they might warrantably enough have done the words would have run thus Lord I pray thee let this Child's Breath come into him again and the Breath of the Child came into him again and he revived This reading would have taken all manner of pretence of Mr. W.'s proving the Souls Seperate Subsistence by this Text And thereupon I am ready to profess that this mode of proving the Souls Seperate Subsistence from the Modes of speaking or the Phrasiology of the Hebrews or any other Nation seems to be a weak sort of proceeding to that purpose The Spirit of Life in Man of whatsoever sort it be is Natural and Substantial and if its Substance in a State of Seperation be true the proper and expected Poofs thereof might and ought to be drawn from Texts of Scripture which are somewhat clearly assertory of the same such as I agree St. Matt.'s Words are notable to kill the Soul But withal I pretend that there is not in all the whole Bible one other Text which hath so much clearness of assertation in this Point as this Text of St. Matth. hath not agreeing That Solomon's Return of the Soul to God who gave it carries alike clearness of Evidence with it That St. Matt's doth however it appears that the Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence leans mainly upon these two Pillars altho' they seem somewhat unequal and the one of them much stronger than the other To the one of them I have late before answered and may do to the other in due time Mr. W. proceeding in his Proofs of the Seperate Subsistence quotes our
LORD's Words Luke 23.46 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I contend that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Text may and doth indifferently signifie sometimes Breath and sometimes Spirit according as may be required by the Subject matter of that Discourse wherein it is used And I do not blame our Translators for rendering it in this place by the English Word Spirit But then I intend that if it be so well rendred yet in this place it may have and likely hath a Tropical Signification by a very usual Synecdoche Partis pro toto by the Word Spirit intending his whofe Person now Dying he knew very well that his whole Person Body and Soul were to rise again upon the Sunday Morning after his Crucifixion which was finished upon the Friday in the Evening after Three of the Clock according to which we Read he was so raised on Sunday Morning at the very break of Day in his whole Person both Soul and Body the very same that Died was then Raised by Divine Power Whence I Collect our Lord recommended to his Father all that was after to be Raised viz. His whole Person Soul and Body signified and intended by the Word or Term of Spirit Mr. W. quotes further Acts 7.57 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might well enough have been thus Translated Lord Jesus receive my Breath spent in the last moment of my life in maintaining the truth of thy Gospel Altho' I do not deny that our version by the Word Spirit is likewise a good Translation of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but then I pretend it must be taken in the like Figurative Signification as it was intended before in our Lords Ejaculation Mr. W. says in both these places he takes the Word Spirit to signifie that Spirit fore-kind which God breathed into Man at first when he became a Living Soul or Person and so do I take it but our difference is about what sort that Spirit was which God breathed into Adam whereby he became a Living Person I pretend it to be no more than a moderate Portion of the Ambient Air which by facing the Blood and Humours then turgid and fitted for that Operation might kindle the Flame of Life amongst them and should after by Respiration keep the same in a glowing or flaming Condition or circulation so long as the life of the Person should endure but Mr. W. pretends That God breathed into Adam's Nostrils a Newly Created Entire Substantial Intelligent Spirit which had a Subsistence of its own before its being breathed into Adam's Nostrils and shall have a like Subsistence of its own again at or after the Dissolution or Death of the Person At the beginning of this Fourth Proposition he promised and I believe intended to prove the Seperate Subsistence of his sort of Soul He hath not yet to my understanding performed it but how well he hath aquitted himself of that Design or Intention by his Mediums of proving recited in this Proposition shall be left to the Judgment of our indifferent Readers P. 23 Mr. W. delivers his Fifth Proposition which is That the Souls of Men seperated from their Bodies by Death are in Joy or Misery And for the Proof of this Assertion he quotes two and but two Passages out of the Bible the first of which is our Lords Promise to the Thief upon the Cross That he should be with him that Day in Paradise Upon which he says neither Jesus nor the Thief were that Day in Body there therefore they must be there in Soul only Upon which I observe a disagreement in my Mind from that which he first affirms conceiving it probable That their Bodies and Souls might both be present in Paradise that Day but then I do not confine the Term of that Day to the signification of an Artificial or Natural Day the first continuing but during the Light of one Day and the other containing the space of Twenty four Hours only and no more Psal 95 8. David says To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your Hearts Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called to day And there quotes Davids To Day as if it intended the Forty Years Travel in the Wilderness Luke 19.42 Christ wept over Jerusalem and said If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace And Peter says A thousand Years with God are but as one Day And the Prophets often denoted the space of a Year by one Day More like Testimonies might be Collected out of Scripture to prove that when God himself or by his Prophet speaks of a Day they do not tye up the Signification thereof to the precise time of an Artificial or Natural Day but do intend that within a competent short time such things shall come to pass and I do not pretend to prolong the Signification of our Lords to Day in Mr W.'s quoted Text beyond Sunday for they were Crucified upon Friday in the Evening and the one Died and the other might well enough rise up on Sunday Morning and that Morning our Lord appeared first to Mary Magdalene and John 20.17 In Discourse said unto her Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Vers 19. The same day at evening being the first day of the week came Jesus and stood in the midst of his Apostles and shewed them his hands and his side Luke 24.38 Says the Disciples were afraid of our Lord 's appearing And he said unto them Why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have From these Relations I Collect That after our Lords appearing to Mary Magdalene he did Ascend to his Father and might then also go to that Paradise intended for the Thief and that in the Evening of that Day he appeared in the Assembly of his Disciples and said to them Handle me and see or perceive for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye may feel me have Hence I infer That our Lord had been in Heaven or Paradise on the very Day of his Resurrection and after his return from thence offer'd himself to be handled and felt by his Disciples altho' before his Ascending thither he would not suffer Mary Magdalene to touch him And this I think proves our Lord to have been in Paradise in so short a time after his Promise to the Thief as might well be called to Day Concerning the Thief I observe That he Died likewise upon Friday Evening and that from thence to Sunday Morning his Body might remain apparent without liklihood of being tainted We read Matt. 27.52 The Graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after our Lords Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Arguendo from these
Soul a Power of Thinking which being thus worded I deny my Assent thereunto But had he said That a Man feels or finds a Power of Thinking in himself I should have easily agreed with him in it He says The variety of Thoughts or Acts of Willing are the Soul's Motion I say They are Motions or Actings in the Mind of Man effected by acting the inflam'd Spirits of the Blood working in the Kepheline Organs in the which the Great Artificer GOD framed and placed them and to that Purpose gave them sufficient Power to perform such Actions when He created the Fabrick of the Humane Body and breathed into its Nostrils the Breath of Life whereby the Spirits of the Blood and Humours became inflamed for acting in a Body to such Purposes and by such an Excellent and Artificial Composition always to be continued by Respiration God's excellent Wisdom and Power did in the beginning produce these Workings amongst such Kepheline Organs and gave them in this Compositum Power to produce Perception Fantasie Judgment Will Memory Affections Local Motions and all other Powers or Faculties of the Humane Mind or Person whatsoever I know that upon reading of this Discourse Mr. W. and his Party will all cry out How can these things be That unintelligent senseless Materials working amongst or together with one another should be able to produce Life Sense Affections Perception Intellect Memory in the Person demanding of me on Account or Declaration how such things can with any Probability be effected by the working together of such Materials And I Answer That the Quomodo of such an Operation is a Speculation too sublime and curious for the Wit of Man to compass or obtain The Artifice of the Humane Machine cannot be throughly penetrated or discovered by the sublimest Wits amongst Men witness the doubtings both of Solomon and Aristotle discover'd in their Discourses upon the Points now in Question That God hath Wisdom and Skill sufficient to produce Intelligence by means of Material Operations seems true and something clear to my Understanding and but few of our Opposers do deny somewhat a like Artifice and Operation in the Brutal Nature They seem ready to Agree That God by his Wisdom and Skill used in the Fabrication of the Brutes hath in the beginning produced and doth still produce Life Motion Sensations Affections inward Perceptions Phantafie Choice and Memory by the Medium before described viz. The moving and acting of such Spirits of the Blood in the Kephaline and other Organical Parts of their Bodies without such an entire intelligent Spirit as Mr. W. will needs suppose to be in Man Daily Experience convinceth us That the Life Motions Sensations and Affections of the Brutes are as true strong vigorous and active as they are in Men altho' their inward Perceptions Phantasie Choice and Memory fall short of the like Faculties in Men by divers degrees or gradations which I think may very probably come to pass by the difference in their Kephaline Organs which are framed more aptly for such Purposes in Men than in Beasts Whence we may suppose the difference between them in this Point rises not so much from the diversity of the Spirits which move and act them as from the difference and degrees of Perfection amongst their Organs which are so to be acted For Illustration of which Position we may farther consider the Fabricks of their Bodies and thereupon we must find that Humane Bodies have Advantage above the Brutal in two Particular Members viz. their Hands and Tongue of which Members and their Activity if Humane Bodies were deprived they would be much more like the Beast that perish than now they are and yet Men do not use to Argue from these Bodily Advantages that their Flesh Blood Bones or Breath have a different Nature or Constitution from those of Beasts But People are generally content to say with Solomon That the Corporeal Constitutions of Man and Beast are of a Similar Nature and Constitution one of them with the other Whence it seems to me probable That although the Spirits Act with greater Perfection the Heads and Brains of Men than they do among Beasts yet that hinders not but that they may all be acted by Spirits of a Similar Nature one of them to another And thus Arguing I pretend to have shewn that the Minds of Men are more likely to be Acted by the Inflamed Spirits of the Blood and Brain than by an Intelligent Spirit created by God for that Purpose and yet it is still apparently true that Men are not able to give an Account of the Mode or Manner of the Production of such Powers in the Mind of Man by the Motions or Actings of those Spirits in his Brain that I conclude to be the Arcanum Opificis and that none other can tell or find out how the same is perform'd And hereupon I incline to rebut upon my Opposers with their own Argument and to demand of them How or by what means or after what manner their Intelligent Soul can or doth Move and Act the Body and the several Organs and Members thereof having found them all hitherto confessing that themselves do not know and therefore cannot declare to others the certain or likely Mode or Manner of that Performance and for their Souls being Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte I pass it for an Aenigma or Riddle conceiving there is no apparent Sense in that Expression nor any clear Truth to be drawn out of it P. 34. Mr. W. says That his the Soul can look upon one thing and think upon another of a quite different nature and that she can be in the noise of an Army and yet in a profound and blessed Peace She can cool the Blood in its greatest fervour of Lust P. 35. So that it is evident she hath an absolute Empire over the Body and all its Parts and is not constrain'd in her Motions by them but they are all at her Command and move by her Direction Hereunto I Reply That so much as is true of what he says the Soul can do may be most properly predicated of the Man and not of the Soul which alone can do no such things as he speaks of Next for the absolute Monarchical Power which he ascribes to the Soul over the Person I think he is in an Errour about it Rom. 7.15 That which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. Ver. 17. And that it is not I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me Ver. 18. To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not for the good I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do and it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me I delight in he Law of God after the inward Man but I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind
and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin in my Members In this Text St. Paul as I conceive declares the true State of the Person and says That he in his Mind or Rational Faculty was convinc'd that such Actions were good and that he ought to do them and therefore had a will to do them but that at the same time there was a Law of Sin in his Members which withstood the good Inclination and Will of his Rational Faculty and against the Will and Power of his Rational Faculty bringeth him into Captivity to the Law of Sin in his Members If I might Paraphrase this Text I would do it thus Our Apostle was convinc'd in his Understanding that such Actions were good and ought by him to be done and therefore he had a Will to do them but his Sensual Affections and Lusts strongly opposed the Performance thereof and had such Power over the Person as to prevail against the Dictates of his Reason and the Inclination and Bent of his Will and bring him under such a Submission to the Law of Sin as he neither did nor could do that which his Reason told him was his Duty to do but brought him under such a State of Captivity to the Law of Sin as to make him do that which in his mind he condemned and was contrary to his own Understanding the Dictates of his Reason and the Bent of his Will And the course of Proceeding deliver'd by St. Paul in this Text is undeniably verified by the daily Experience of Men and with so much Advantage on the side of our Sensual Affections that where we find one Man guided and govern'd by the Dictates of his Rational Mind we may find perhaps an Hundred who suffer themselves to be hurried by the Bent of their Affections and Lusts into such Actions and Practices as their own Understandings and Reasons disapprove and condemn and sometimes seek to resist tho' more often in vain than otherways So as we may say of these two Faculties in Man as Men use to do of Presumption and Despair The Reasonable Faculty of Man governs its Thousands and the Sensual Affections their Ten Thousands And I think it is made appear by this Argument that the Power of Reason in Man is neither Absolute nor Monarchical but rather is a Power Co-ordinate with that of the Affections and Passions and generally so unsuccessful in its Contests with them for Government that where one Man is truly govern'd by the Dictates of his Reason perhaps an hundred are hurried and let away by the Attempts and over-ruling Power of their Affections and Passions against the clear Dictates and often against the Will or Rational Desire of the Person And I think this Proves what hath before been said that the Regiment of Reason in Man is not Monarchical but Co-ordinate and Swasive only It is able to Perswade powerfully but not to Compel Obedience to its Directions and therefore I conceive Mr. W. was mistaken when he said That the Power or Regiment of Reason in Man was both Monarchical and Absolute P. 35. He discourses much concerning the Nature and Essence of a Spirit and the Life of it amongst which there are Sayings which I do not well understand Nor doth all his Discourse make me understand what is the Nature of a Spirit a thing which I am apt to conside himself did not know and because I think it gives little light in our present Question it shall here be pass'd over P. 36. He pretends here That the Soul hath Life in her self as a Spirit before he hath proved to my Understanding that there is such a Soul in Man I think it needs no proving that a thing which is not neither hath nor can have Accidents Adjuncts or Attributes and the Being of his sort of Soul which is neither granted nor proved cannot be conceived to have Life in it self Mr. W. says Thirdly That a Spirit hath a Power of penetrating or gliding through the hard solid Bodies of Marble or Iron without finding or making any Cleft Chink or Cranny therein I doubt he delivers in these Words that which he doth not know to be true or is otherways able to prove He delivers other things in this Place concerning Spirits which I think other Men are not resolved of P. 37. He says The Jews could not keep Peter in such a Prison as the Angel which deliver'd him could not penetrate Whereas the Text doth not declare whether the Angel came into the Prison through the Walls or by opening the Doors but I count it certain that the Doors were opened for Peter to go out and therefore likely might so be at the coming in of the Angel also and as the Iron-Gate was that led them into the City He adds The Soul of a Man is truly a Spirit as an Angel is How truly is now in Dispute He says The Soul manifests her Presence more eminently in the Brain than in any other part of the Body And I Answer That the Rational Faculty is not only more eminently in the Head and Brain than in any other Part of the Body but that it resides and acts in the Head only without being communicated to any other Part of the Body because all the Organs of Understanding and Reason are by God the Creator placed only in the Head without any other Member having a share therein P. 38. He raises a Dispute Whether Light be a Body and compares it to the Penetration of a Spirit But I pass it over as little pertinent to our present Question Mr. W. further says That a Spirit and his sort of Soul is indivisible or indiscerptible not subject to Blows or Wounds nor to be consumed by the fiercest fire I think he should here have express'd how it can be tormented by fire and yet have no Parts or Particles of it consumed by the fervent Heat or by the violent Pain and Torment which it suffers P. 39. He quotes St. Matthew's Are not able to kill the Soul which is indeed the strongest Refuge of his Opinion referred here by me to a future Answer P. 40. Mr. W. says His sort of Soul must either be God or a Creature And thereupon I am apt to deny that it is either the one or the other and to pretend as I have often before done that there is no such thing or sort of Being in the World and therefore cannot be endued either with Sense or Reason as by saying he would perswade us it is He says That the Soul is the proper and immediate Seat of Sense And I Reply as I have often before It is not the Soul but the Person that is so P. 41. He says The Soul is endued with Reason and Vnderstanding I say that it is not the Soul alone but the Man that is so He says Reason is the most Noble Faculty of the Humane Nature by means of which we Men know God and hold a Communion with Him and do
Time and not an Intent of our Lord to teach either Jews or Christians what the true state of Men after Death should be First It declares a great distance of space to be between Dives and Lazarus and that there was a great Gulf fixed so that none could pass from the one Place to the other and yet Abraham and Dives had a familiar Discourse between them without straining their Voices Secondly they saw and knew and spake to one another without the use of Eyes or Tongue or Ears as Mr. W. will suppose although the Text do not declare it to be so but speaks of Dives as having all these Members of a Man And therefore I Collect That if this Text prove any thing of the state of Men after Death it proves amongst the rest that the Persons suffering have Eyes and Ears and Tongue and like Bodily Members and that the Suffering there is principally if not only applied to the Body and his Tongue being eminently tormented in that Flame or Fire Thirdly this Parable imports That the Tormented and by the Rule of Contraries the Happy Souls have Remembrance and Care concerning those things they left upon Earth and concern themselves about their Friends Happiness or Misery Whereas Solomon says The Dead know not any thing and David says That in Death all Mens Thoughts perish and Job agrees That all Concerns perish with Death And Solomon names particularly Mens Love and their Hatred Isa 38 18. Hezekiah sings to God The Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope but the Living can only praise Thee as I do this day And thereupon I leave to Consideration whether our Parable in this Point do not oppose the fore-quoted and divers other Texts of Scripture and even the common Opinion of the Reformed Churches Fourthly I Recite a former Observation That if our Parable intended Dives to be in Hell in his Soul only then Abraham and Dives discoursed both unproperly and untruly in calling one another by the Names of Father and Son For that Mr. W. and his Partakers say That was a Spirit newly created by God which true Being and Subsistence before it was infused or injected into Dives his newly procreated Body without the Parents having any part in the Generation of it Thus the Soul of Dives came not from Abraham or any of his Posterity and how is he then his Son Mat. 22.42 Our Lord quotes David calling Christ his Lord and demands How is he then his Son And the Jews were not able to Answer him a word to that Question And this I apply to the Question which I last asked and from the Premises I conclude that our Lord did not by this Parable intend to teach the true State of Men after Death but to Illustrate that Assertion which he had before delivered by a Similitude drawn from that Opinion which the Jews then commonly held of the State of Men after Death The Seventh Argument PAge 74. Mr. W. quotes Luke 23. and recites the History of the Thief upon the Cross and the Promise made to him by Christ of his being with him in Paradise I say thereto Mr. W. hath urged this Proof before in this Treatise and I have given him thereto such an Answer as satisfies my own Understanding And because it is of some length I have no mind here to repeat it but rather make choice to offer an Argument raised from other Scriptures in Impeachment of the Verity and Credit of this Relation and begin with considering the Person of our Evangelist St. Luke who was it seems converted to the Faith by the Ministry of Paul whose Emanuensis he is conceived to have been in the writing of this Gospel And it seems that this Evangelist was not converted till divers years after our Lord's Crucifixion and we know that St. Paul was not only an Infidel but a Persecuter of the Church for some years after our Lord's Death We no where find that either of them was present beholding that Execution and probable it is that neither of them were so In the Proem to his Gospel Luke to Theophilus says thus It seemed good to me having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write unto ye in order even as they delivered them to us who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word Thus he professes to write from the Tradition of other Men who had been Eye-witnesses of them and Ministers of the Word And of those Traditions I conceive this Relation of the Crucified Thief 's Conversion to be one If we shall consider the other Three Evangelists we must find them totally silent concerning this Fact and that they do not concur with St. Luke in their Testimonies concerning it We have good Assurance that St. John was present at our Lord 's Suffering and continued with him till the Time of his Expiration and yet he takes no Notice nor makes any Mention of this Thief 's Conversion And yet I think the Fact was so Remarkable as deserved to be Recorded if he had known it to be done St. Matthew was one of the Twelve called by Christ to be of his Apostles and continued Faithful to him to the end whence it seems likely he might be one of the Beholders of this Tragedy and yet he makes no Mention of this Thief 's Conversion Men generally suppose That Mark writ his Gospel from the Mouth of St. Peter and very probable it is that that great Apostle was present at the Suffering of his Master and yet St. Mark makes no Mention at all of this Conversion And hereupon it seems to deserve our Enquiry How Luke who was not present at that Fact should come to know the Particulars of it when the other Three Evangelists either did not know it or have utterly suppress'd their Knowledge and the Mention of it The Silence of the other Three Evangelists seems a competent Ground to question the Verity of St. Luke's Relation but that is not all for Two other of the Evangelists Matthew and Mark give an opposite and contrarient Testimony to that which St. Luke delivers concerning it Mat. 27.44 There were two Thieves crucified with our Lord and the People which passed by whil'st he was on the Cross reviled him saying Save thy self if thou be the Son of God and come down from the Cross And the Thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth Which I conceive to be a True and Proper Translation of St. Matthew's Greek Words Mark 15.27 With Christ they crucified two Thieves the one on his right hand and the other on his left and they that passed by railed on him and they that were crucified with him reviled him Both these Texts in Greek agree in their Expressions Mat. 27.44 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 15.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here our Translators in St. Matthew have render'd the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
have done conceiving it was intended by the word Spirit in this Place to signifie the Spirit of Life in Man which is one of the two Constituent Parts of his Person and by the ordinary figure of Synecdoche setting one Part for the Whole the word Spirit here seems to intend the whole Person So as under this Term of Spirit the Petitioners intended to recommend themselves or their whole Persons the one into the hands of his Father under whose Custody his Body as well as his Soul viz. his whole Person remained and was preserved without seeing Corruption until the Time and Hour of his Resurrection And I conceive St. Stephen's Prayer was made in a like Sense and to the same Purpose that our Lord 's was Mr. W. says further He does not know of any such Phraesed Petitions as these are put up by either of them or any other Person in Prayer but just at the Moment of dying I will therefore refresh his Memory by quoting to him and our Readers Psal 31.6 where the very same Words are used Into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of Truth For any thing that appears the Psalmist was in Health at the uttering of this Petition but withal in a state of great Trouble as the foregoing Verses testifie And it thence seems somewhat Clear to my Understanding that by these Words our Prophet did not intend to recommend to God's Protection his Spirit of Life or Seperative Soul only but that rather in those Words he intended to recommend to God's Care and Protection his whole Compositum of Soul and Body his Person or himself without having any particular or singular Respect to his Spirit of Life or Soul whatsoever the same might be Which seems may be somewhat moâ—e Cleared by a short Paraphrase Into thy hands O God I commend my self for thou hast redeemed me This I take to be the true Meaning of David's Words and I take the Prayers of our Lord and St. Steven to be of the same Import and that they have no such other Emphatical Signification as Mr. W. in this place endeavours to put upon them P. 80. he says If his Interpretation of those Words be true they clearly express the Souls Immortality I do not deny this but withal conceive that his Interpretation of these Words is not true as my fore-going Answers testifie and then I think no man can believe that they are a good Proof or any Proof at all for the Souls Seperate Subsistence P. 82. he says The Word Spirit here intends Seperate Soul and if it doth not mean so he desires to know what it doth mean And I have said before that it intends the whole Person of the Petitioner as it is a Compositum of Soul and Body Mr. W. farther demands What the word Spirit here means and whether it mean the Life of the Body Here I am at a loss what he means by the Life of the Body and if he doth not mean the Life of the Person he means that which hath no good Sense in it for the Body quatenus tale or divided from the Person hath no sort of Life in it as St. James tells us A Body without a Spirit is dead And therefore to mention the Life of the Body without a Figurative Intent inclines to the Nature of a Bull in such manner as if one should speak of the Life of a dead thing He then demands What Is it the dead Carcass the whole Mâ—n Body and Soul Putting them together as if the dead Carcass was the whole Man Body and Soul intending to confound these Terms and give to each of them an equipollent Signification as if the dead Carcass and the whole Man Body and Soul signified the same thing whereas I must divide them and say The dead Carcass signifies one thing and the whole Man Body and Soul or the Person signifies another thing and tho' the Carcass shall go to the Dust as it was yet the Person shall be preserved the good sleeping in Christ and the bad remaining under the Knowledge and Disposal of God until the times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord and the Trumpet shall sound and all Persons who have lived shall be raised and summoned to the Judgment of the Great Day And therefore from the Words as I have Expounded them I think the direct contrary to what he says that no good Argument can be raised from our first quoted Texts for proving his Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence The Ninth Argument PAge 83. Mr. W. quotes Rom. 10.11 And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteosness and if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your Mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you And he says upon this Text Methinks this Truth of the Souls Immortality doth very clearly shine in the Evidence of this Scripture I Answer That what shines so clearly to him I do not at all discover P. 84. Mr. W. proceeds in a long Discourse which I think rather confounds and misleads than opens and declares the Meaning of St. Paul's Words and yet I have no Intent to implicate my self with him upon that Subject especially in many Words P. 85. He raises an Exception out of St. Paul's Doctrine but I think it is out of his own Brain and Invention not perceiving that Paul thought of such an Objection nor that he makes or intends any Answer to it But Mr. W. himself both tells the Tale and gives the Answer And there he says further If you ask How comes the Soul thus to over-live the Body He Answers by a perplex'd Repetition of some other Words in the Chapter which he pretends to Expound as by an Old Rule Mala Expositio corrumpit Textum and then he draws out of that Exposition what I do not find in the Text but will not particularize for avoiding of Length and Confusion P. 86. Here he Propounds another Objection to St. Paul's Doctrine and says The Apostle was well aware of it and therefore gave it an Answer But I think he is mistaken in both not finding by the Text that St. Paul ever thought of it and therefore did not design to give it an Answer and specially such an Answer as Mr. W. in this Place hath done He proceeds and raises a Third Objection against St. Paul's Doctrine but doth not say the Apostle was aware of this or made any Answer to it but Mr. W's Invention and Construction are ready to give it a full Answer but not such an one as I am willing to Consent unto P. 87. Mr. W. says Having thus cleared up the Text by giving you its Meaning I proceed now to lay down my Argument to prove that the Soul of Man dieth not with the Body I Answer some
at my Tribulation Philem. v. 9. This Apostle was then Paul the Aged and a Prisoner of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. 4.6 Paul says I am ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Ver. 16. At my first Answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me but God stood with me and I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion Philip. 4.14 The Philippians had sent a Present to supply St. Paul's Wants and in return he says Ye have well done that ye did communicate with my Affliction and supply my Wants and prays God to bless them for their so doing The several Texts thus collected seem to declare to us the State of St. Paul's Person at that time He was Paul the Aged a Prisoner under a necessitous and wanting Condition ready to be offered up by a dolorous Death having but lately escaped out of the Mouth of the Lion and that he lay continually under great Afflictions for the Church's sake and had the Care of all the Churches lying upon him All which Particulars considered our Apostle had great Reason to chuse Death rather than Life in all such Respects as did only concern himself for that by Death he should be delivered from the manifold Afflictions and Tribulations before-named and thereby attain a state of Rest and Blessedness in the Lord. Rev. 14.13 John heard a Voice from Heaven commanding him to write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rom. 14.8 Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord 's Chap. 8.35 Who shall seperate us from the Love of Christ Ver. 38. I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor any other Creature shall be able to seperate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus ' our Lord. Here we may observe Life and Death are made indifferent things to Believers such as seem neither to hinder nor further the State or Condition of them or to be either of them greatly desired by Christians in this World but rather ought to be referr'd to the Will and Appointment of God Luk. 20.38 God calls Himself The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and yet the Text says He is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him Which to my Apprehension proves what before is said That whether we live or die we are the Lord's during Life we live and move in Him and when we die we rest and sleep in Him in expectation to be raised by Him at his Second Coming And from the Premises I Argue That all Mr. W's Suppositions and Surmises concerning the Soul and the Seperate State of it are ill grounded and unsound We read of many Persons whose Conditions were so much distress'd that with Job they have heartily desir'd Death and would be ready with him to dig for it as other Men would do for hidden Treasure the very Aged and Sickly one of which I am will easily be perswaded to think Death a Gain to them and to desire it accordingly The present Time affords a rare Example of a young rich and otherwise happy Lord who by a Pistol Bullet took away his own Life at the Bath meerly to rid and free himself from such sharp Pains of the Gout and Stone as then oppress'd him And daily Experience assures us that the Consideration and Hope of Death is one of the greatest Supports under Mens present Sufferings and is by such Persons accordingly desired and thus they are at apparent Agreement with St. Paul's Opinion That for them to die is Gain although their Expectations of future Happiness may be nothing so well grounded as his was It may be also observed I have a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better Not saying He desir'd to depart that he might be with Christ but that though he did depart he knew he should still be with Christ so as his Departure and being with Christ do both stand well together he had a Being with Christ whil'st he was alive and he doubted not of having a like Being with Christ when he was dead and that a more peaceable and quiet Being than he had whil'st he was here and therefore that Estate was the more desirable and the more gainful If a Person go to his Friends or his Father's House he may truly he said to be with such a Friend or Father either sleeping or waking and we know Death is compared to a Sleep the Scripture usually calls it so and really and truly it is no other but a sound and lasting Sleep to continue unto the Sound of the last Trumpet at whose Summons the Dead shall be raised and those who are alive upon Earth shall have their Persons changed St. Paul does not say that he or any other Person is more present with the Lord when dead than alive but that in both Estates Men are alike present with the Lord For If we live we live unto the Lord and if we die we die unto the Lord so as whether we live or die we are the Lord 's Neither Death nor Life can seperate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus So it seems whether we live or die we are alike with Christ and have no more Being with him dead than when alive but that in both these States we have alike Being with him This Exposition of St. Paul's present Text I conceive to be sound and true and that Mr. W's is Erroneous For that this my Construction applies St. Paul's Terms of I and Me to denote and intend his whole Person as in their proper Signification they do whereas Mr. W. applies them to signifie only one Part of his Person viz. our Author's sort of Soul concerning which our Dispute is Whether there is any such thing in the World or not Next Mr. W. takes up the Bulk of his Argument in a Discourse concerning the Soul its Seperate Subsistence after Death and its enjoying Happiness in that Estate whereas in St. Paul's whole Text there are no words which mention any of these things or give us any Information concerning them or any of them I leave therefore his Construction as a Mistake of the Apostle's Meaning and think I have Reason to conclude That Mr. W's Argument drawn from this Text is not a sufficient nor a good Argument to prove the Subsistence of the Soul in a State of Seperation from the Body The Thirteenth Argument PAge 100. Colos 1.19 20. It pleased the Father that in him should all Fulness dwell and having made Peace through the Blood of the Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself by him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven P. 101. Mr. W. says There were Souls of Men in Heaven when St. Paul
will have the Scheme now chang'd for what should dead Carcasses says he do with Robes and therefore those which at first sight appear'd to be dead Carcasses he sets now at full Liberty and in a Capacity to receive triumphant Robes And upon this Foundation he builds his Argument and says if the Souls of the Martyrs are triumphing in Joy and Glory then are they not Mortal nor did die with their Bodies but the Souls of the Martyrs are triumphing in Heaven in proof whereof he says Those which had white Robes given them are triumphing in Heaven but the Souls of the Slain had white Robes given them therefore they are triumphing And thus he proceeds in this Argument as he hath done in the four or five last before he makes Construction of his Text upon Conjectures then Collects from such Constructions what he thinks will best serve his Turn and makes sueh Inferences thereupon as he pleases First he says The Souls which were seen under the Altar were dead Bodies and this I see to be only his own Conjecture Next he says That between the Souls crying out and their being rewarded with white Robes the Souls were drawn from under the Altar and set at Liberty and then received their white Robes and remained triumphing in Glory I know not what other Ground he had for these Assertions save his own Conjectures only and I think there is no manner of Ground for either of them conceiving that there was no Reality in this Vision neither Altar nor Souls nor dead Bodies nor Robes but that these were all Symbolically represented to St. John in a Trance or Transport of his Mind and therein we may find verified the Old Proverb saying of Nullum simile est Idem for as these things have some Similitude with what was intended to be represented so there are great Unlikelihoods of and Dissimilitudes between the things which were intended to be represented by them the Unlikeness or Dissimilitudes in this representation are principally three viz. First In the Vbi of these Souls or place where they were seen Secondly In their Habits or manner of Cloathing And Thirdly In the subject matter of their Prayers to God Their Vbi or place where John saw them was under the Altar we read Exod. 27.1 The Altar of Burnt Offerings was to be made five Cubits long and five Cubits broad which I conceive to be next our measure of three Yards square and three Cubits high a little more then one Yard and half high Vers 8. Hollow with Boards shalt thou make it and thou shalt overlay it with Brass and thou shalt make for it a Net work of Brass If we shall but a little consider the Nature and Darkness of such a little Hole as the hollowness of this Altar could afford it seems we cannot but stand convinced that Thousands of Souls cast or crouded into that dark Prison were far from enjoying such a state of Happiness as Men are commonly accustomed to ascribe to them and therefore Mr. W. takes upon him to set at Liberty without any Warrant from the Text for his so doing Secondly The Habits which the Text says were bestowed on them seems needless for Souls and specially for such Souls as were crouded together in that manner If they were loose Robes like Surplesses the Hole under that Altar could hardly contain the Thousands of such Robes which might happen to be used upon that Occasion and if they were close Robes and fitted to their Shapes I doubt it would puzzle all our Taylors and the large Invention of Mr. W. to find out Ways and Means of fitting our Souls with such Robes as might rightly be accommodated to the Shapes of such Spirits Thirdly The subject matter of the Prayers which these Souls offer'd to God seems very different from and somewhat opposite to the tenor of the Gospel Matth. 5. 44. Our Lord in his large Sermon on the Mount says Love your Enemies Bless them that Curse you do Good to them that Hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you 1 Cor. 4.12 Being Reviled we suffer it being Persecuted we bless and we find that what our Lord and his Disciples taught in this Point they practised Our Lord at his departure pray'd for his Persecutors Father forgive them for they know not what they do and St. Stephen in like manner at the time of his Death prayed Lord lay not this Sin to their Charge So as it seems this crying with loud Voices to God for Vengeance on their Persecucutors was contrary both to the Doctrine and Practice of the Gospel whence we may reasonably conjecture that the things related in this Text were not Real but Symbolical or Typical representing or shadowing such things as should be made known by that Prophesie for the declaring whereof I think fit to produce another Exposition which Mr. W. has before given us He says That by Souls in this Text we must understand dead Carcasses to be meant I say We must understand dead Persons to be meant it being very usual in Scripture to intend or signifie Persons by the Name or Term of Souls as when Jacob went down into Egypt the Persons of his Family are termed so many Souls and in St. Paul 's Voyage to Italy there were in the Ship that carryed him 276 Souls which in this place are express'd 40 by the Terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in our quoted Text by the same Term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I saw under the Altar the Souls of the Martyrs And hence I insist that the same Term or word of Souls which intends Persons in St. Paul's Voyage may very likely intend Persons in St. John's Vision and thence put into proper Terms it may be read I say under the Altar the Persons of them that were slain for the word of God And if this Sense may be accepted and the whole Vision taken for Typical the three fore-named Differences or Difficulties will be easily reconciled and made stand together To the first I say That by these Persons being under the Altar was intended to be Typified the State of those slain Persons and the Care which God had of them they were as safe in their Beings as if they had been lodged under guard of the Altar of Eâ—â—nt Offerings and were as near to God and as much under his Care and Protection as if they had lain in the Court of his Sanctuary and under the Shadow and Covert of his Holy Altar Secondly The white Robes which were given to each of them seem to Typifie as St. John expresseth it the Righteousness of Saints and the Innocence of their Lives upon Earth their Works having been washed and made clean with the Blood of the Lamb and as often as these came in remembrance before God the Persons might be said to receive white Robes every time that such Remembrance of them was renewed and the Rewards consequent thereunto Considered viz. their Acceptance
them when they had lived under the Discipline of Earthly Rewards and Punishments than they had in succeeding and later Ages when the Opinion of the Souls Immortality began to be received and spread amongst them and therefore it seems there is not that need of his Opinion concerning the Souls Seperate Subsistence as he by this Discourse pretends to make Men believe Mr. W's second Chain of Absurdities P. 128. He says His Opposers pretends the Spirit of Life in Man or his Soul to be but a fine Temperament of Moisture Air and Fire very near of Kin and sutable to the Temperament of the Body and this he says is very consistent with their Principles and I agree that what he says is true in this Point This Mr. W. opposes by saying First If things were so then Adam's Soul might have been created of the Dust as well as his Body I reply not so but there was required Moisture Air and Fire to suppie and actuate that Dust of which his Body was framed which brought the steems of Life in the Body to such a ripeness and pullulation as by the breathing a Breath of Life into him became instantly inflamed and by Respiration must every Moment be fanned by that Breath which continues in Man's Blood and Humours and the Spirits thereof that flame and glowing whose total Extinguishment is the death of the Person and this by want of Respiration become instantly suffocated and extinguished which as hath been said is the death of the Person P. 129. He says He hath opened in his first Argument what this breathing into Man intends and refers his Readers thither again for the Knowledge of it and I refer again unto the Answer thereunto given Secondly He says That such a Soul as his Opposers believe is subject in its parts to Division Dissipation and Corruption which I agree to him Mr. W. says That from thence it will follow that all God's Threats denounced against Sinners is but to keep those inflam'd Particles of the Blood in order but I say Those Threats are pronounced to keep Mens Persons and their Actions in such a regular Order and that the Reports and Belief of the Day of Judgment are effectual upon the Persons of Men whose Bodies will then be as able to indure the Fire as their Souls Another Secondly Mr. W. says That such a Temperament of Soul cannot offend God because it is Material and Senseless and this I agree to him and say That it is neither the Body nor the Soul singly that doth or can offend God but it is the Compositum of these made Intelligent or the Person made Intelligent which can and doth too often offend God and by Mr. W's Pretence in this place he seems to insinuate That God cannot produce Intelligence by his wise Commixture of Material Agents and Patients which hath before been disputed and I have declared my self thereupon that God can produce Intelligence by a most Wise and Artificial commixture of Material Agents and Patients acted by Motion which must be continually supplied from Nutriment which God out of the ambient World and Air hath continually produced in abundance for that purpose and when by Famine or want of Nutriment it draws no supplies the Persons who suffer it die in multitudes P. 130. Mr. W. repeats That our sort of Material Soul cannot love or fear God nor understand what it self doth which is a thing which I have all along granted and asserted as I do here agreeing that such things are not comportant either with the Soul or Body but with the Person only P. 131. He pretends that there is something in Man that is the principal Seat of Regeneration This I oppose by saying as before That the whole Man or Person is so and not only part of his Compositum singly taken What he says more flows out of the abundance of his own Heart and seems to me to be very groundlesly spoken Fifthly Mr. W. says That the Contentions between the Flesh and Spirit in Man cannot be maintained by the Natural difference between a Material Soul and the Body wherein it resides I agree this to him Answering That all these Contests between the Flesh and Spirit signifie no more than that continual War which Men feel in themselves between the Power of Reason in their Minds and the Lustful Desire of their Affections and Passions Aristotle tells us There is no end of this War but Death and no certainty which shall obtain a clear Victory till that time and when St. Paul says that these War against the Soul the word Soul must there be intended to signifie the Person or the good of the whole Man and yet I do agree what he after says to be true That the Rational and Affective Faculties spring both from the same Root or Composition of Mankind and are both supported by the same Breath and Nourishment and yet the Faculties themselves are different and are commonly at strife one with another and as we daily see Love and Hatred Joy and Sorrow subsisting together in one same Person Mr. W's Philosophical Absurdities which he says flow from the Opinion of the Souls Materiality P. 132. He says If the Soul be Material it will follow that Mens faculties of Reason Intellect and Memory are seated in a Corporeal Elementary Substance but it is very evident says he That none of these faculties can be immediately seated in any Corporeal Elementary Substance answering I deny the Evidence of what he says but apply all these Faculties to the Person in which they all certainly are produced by the wisdom of God acted by Motion and supported and continued by Nourishment and Breath and therefore the Spirit of Life in Man may be Material notwithstanding Mr. W's asserting the contrary P. 133. Mr. W. says These Faculties cannot be acted by a Material Substance but he finds these Faculties in himself and therefore they must be acted in Men by a Spiritual Substance This seems to intend that when Men cannot attain to know the reason by which or the manner how strange things are done they are apt to fly to the refuge of Spirits for the doing of them an erroneous course which hath been very often used in the World but I refuse to Mr. W. the use which he pretends to make of it in this Argument and do assure that I receive no manner of conviction from it P. 135. Mr. W. says I find a power in me of Sensation as Seeing Hearing ctc. but none of these Faculties are seated in a Substance purely Elementary I demand then how come the Brutes by these which they have in as great perfection as Men have them He thinks no Man will say it is possible to make a Sensible House by all the Art that Men can use about it and this I grant but if Men should say it is possible for God to make a Sensible House I should have no Inclinations to deny it believing that to be altogether as
upon parting from their Bodies either return to God who gave them and are received into Heaven and Happiness or they shall be carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom and there enjoy at least a blessed Rest from their Labours and all future Sufferings I doubt not but that the Divines of our time would readily have administred such Comforts as these to the Friends of dead People or even to the dying Persons themselves but in our quoted Text we find St. Paul did not so proceed with his Correspondents upon this like Occasion for the only Comfort which thereupon he propounds to them is drawn from the Doctrine of the Resurrection which in this Place he somewhat at large delivers as knowing that to be sufficient for Mens Comfort in such Cases without remembring or believing our late comfortable Doctrine or Opinion of the Souls going to Heaven immediately after Death and hereupon I conclude that this Doctrine was either not known to him or not believed by him and that therefore it is an Error and no certain Truth or the very Truth of God A Tenth Objection against Mr. W's Opinion I raise from the concurrent Testimonies of many Scripture Texts referring the expectation of future Rewards or Punishments looked for after this Life unto the time of the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment without finding and such Expectation at the time of Men's Deaths referred to or mention'd in any Text of Scripture In the Catalogue of Mr. W's own Objections he hath made this the Sixth and propounds it thus The Scriptures say my Opposers do frequently make mention of the Great and General Day of Judgment and refer all the Rewards of the Saints to that Day and so all the Punishments of the Wicked therefore the Souls of Men die with their Bodies as being uncapable of Rewards or Punishments till then To this Objection he answers concessively and says I do partly acknowledge the first part of what ye say that Scriptures do frequently make mention of that great Day and again that the greatest Rewards and Punishments are reserved to that Day but I deny the later part of what ye say because the Scripture speaks of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and of the Soul of the Thief being in Paradise that day he died and of the Spirit of every Man returning to God at Death to be dealt with according to what they did in the Body and this he says is enough to blunt the edge of his present Objection And hereunto I reply That what he hath said concerning the Spirits of just Men made perfect hath before been answered and so hath that of the Thief 's Soul being in Paradise that day and proved to be invalid Testimonies of the Souls Seperate Subsistence His Third Testimony of the Spirits returning to God seems to be mis-recited for the Text doth not say it returns to God to be dealt with according to what they did in the Body which Words he adjoins with as much Confidence to the Text as if they might be there found written and were part of the Text it self so as unwary and unexamining Readers might soon be mistaken thereupon In what manner and to what purpose Solomon might intend this return of Souls to God hath been before disputed and I still confide that Mr. W. and his Party will not be able to prove that these words of Solomon intended the Souls of dead Persons going before God to Judgment as here he hath without any hesitation deliver'd it And therefore I conclude that his Answer hath very little blunted the edge of our present Objection I observe it as an Art in Disputing that it may be advantageous to grant in an easie and transient fashion such Objections as Men find themselves utterly unable to answer and I think Mr. W. hath used this Art in transiently granting the first part of this Objection viz. That the Scriptures do frequently refer the expectation of Rewards or Punishments after this Life and unto the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment and whereas I have said before that there is no mention in Scripture of such Expectations at or soon after the time of Mens Deaths he gives us here three of the most pregnant Instances which he could find in Scripture for proving that Rewards and Punishments are bestowed by God at the time of Mens Deaths but the force of these Instances hath before been obstructed by those Answers which have been severally given them in their proper places I am not without some Temptation of drawing out of the Scripture a Catalogue of such Texts as do with great Evidence and Strength set forth and prove that the time of the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment are not alone the principal but the only times whereat or wherein Recompences future to this Life are warrantably and certainly to be expected by Mankind but because I have said much and quoted divers Texts of Scripture upon that Subject before and am now willing to save my self and my Reader the tedium of such a long Repetition I will refer the Examiners of this Objection unto those Texts which have before been quoted to that purpose and to such others as themselves may meet with upon the perusal of the Scripture And with this round number of Ten the Objections which I make against Mr. W's Opinion out of Scripture shall be finished Yet I farther intend to add thereunto two or three Objections against Mr. W's Opinion derived from Natural Reason and the Experiences of Men. And first I begin from the Nature and Composition of the Humane Person and thereupon I observe that there are three things principally and absolutely necessary for the Subsistence and Life of the Humane Person viz. Blood Breath and Nutriment and thereupon do agree with Moses that the Life the Animals is in the Blood or that the Blood is the Life thereof whose inflamed Particles are the Spirits which act the Person and as well the Head as the Members so long as Life continues in the Body Next to which the Breath hath a Principal and absolutely necessary Faculty and Power of fanning and inflaming such Particles of the Blood as are imployed in every part of the Body and for refrigerating the internal parts of the Body with a perpetual Refreshment which keeps the Paristaltick Motion always in action amongst the inward and most vital parts of the Body whence daily Experience assures us that by stopping of the Breath but for some few Moments the Spirit of Life in Man becomes absolutely suffocated and extinguished and without Breath no Humane Art or Power can prolong the Life of the Person or other Animal whatsoever Concerning Nutriment it is only so far necessary to the Life of the Creature as the Blood thereof wastes and is consumed by the Circular Continual Motion and the Inflammation thereof In some long continuing and weakening Diseases the Motion of the Blood hath been so weak and the Inflammation thereof
places where he hath twice before propounded them I do not find that in this Discourse he hath added any new Arguments to those which are produced in his former Treatise so as there are no new Proofs propounded in this Triumph whence I am apt thereupon to surmise that he doth Triumphum canere ante Victoriam and because his Triumphal Building seems to be principally founded upon the two before-named Assertions I collect that if the rain descend violently upon it the winds shake it the floods happen to beat upon it this Triumphal Edifice will be more likely to fall than to stand because the ground upon which it is raised seems over soft and sandy for the support thereof and for that the foundations of it are not digged deep enough by such a Search into the Scriptures as might make it appear that the Doctrine is built upon a strong Stream or clear Current of Scripture Testimonies somewhat apparently or clearly attesting the Truth thereof in some such places where there was a Design of Teaching concerning the Future State of Men after Death I do not conceive that there was a Design of speaking of such a Future State in any of the four Texts last before quoted of Solomon St. Matthew and St. Luke and therefore I do not find any great strength of Conviction in them I shall therefore pass over these and all the rest of Mr. Wadsworth 's Discourse of Faith's Triumph without speaking any farther thereunto because it seems not greatly material towards the farther proof of that Question which is now disputed between us resolving here to finish my Observations upon this Author with a hearty Bene valeas to my Intelligent Reader FINIS OBSERVATIONS UPON Dr. CHARLTONS TREATISE INTITULED The Immortality of the Humane Soul demonstrated by the Light of Nature In Two Dialogues 4to London Printed 1657. HIS first Dialogue and a good part of the second are imployed and spent in Introduction and Ceremony which last and continue till Page 78. of his Book and there he says That the Considerations which he intends to alledge for proving the Souls Immortality shall be either Natural or Moral his first Argument is this he says The reasonable Soul of Man is Immaterial and therefore it is Immortal P. 85. To prove the Souls Immateriality he says The Actions of Man as a Cogitative and Intellectual Essence are of so noble and divine a strain as that it is impossible they should be performed by a meer Material Agent or Corporeal Substance however disposed qualified or modified To this I answer it is the common Objection against the Souls Materiality viz. Men do not understand the quomodo how the Abstract Actions of the Mind and the Reflex Actions of it upon it self can be performed by Matter and Motion never so fitly Modified and Organized And therefore our Doctor in this Place walks in the common Trod and pretends to supply the want of Power in such Matter and Motion by the Introduction of an Intelligent Self-subsisting Spirit into the Person for the effecting of such Operations in Man not enough considering the Wisdom and Power of God the great Architect of the Microcosm who can by Matter and Motion fitly Organized Modified and Moved produce such Acts and Powers as Men are not able to comprehend the quomodo of and therefore to their Reason such things may seem impossible to be done which by the Wisdom and Power of God may be easily effected and performed without the Agency of such Intelligent Spirits as Men have commonly used to imagine P. 88. The Doctor says by Discourse of Reason we soon come certainly to know that the Magnitude of the Sun is at least 160 times greater than that of the Earth and here I pretend to doubt the Certainty of the Doctor 's knowledge concerning this Point from this Page to Page 100 the Doctor argues Whether the Intellect can work without the assistance of the Phansie a Question propounded by Aristotle in the beginning of his Book de Anima but both there and here that Question is left undetermined P. 102. The Doctor says the Intellect doth frequently reflect upon it self and understand its own Intelligence This I do not permit to pass for a Truth if we take the Intellect for a distinct thing from the Man conceiving that the Intellect as well as the Phantasie are Powers and Faculties of the Man and that neither of them can do any thing of themselves but that all which either or both of them do are Acts of the Person in whom they reside and that they are both of them submitted to the Guidance and Government of the Person and the Totum of that Power of which they are but a part so as to speak properly and truly we must say that the Man can considerately reflect upon the Acts and Powers of his Intellect Phantasie Judgment and Memory which is a thing which I shall easily grant but that which I think lies upon the Doctor and his Party to prove is the bare Intellect separated from the Person can reflect upon it self or do any other Action whatsoever P. 108. The Doctor says That whatsoever can frame abstracted Notions and form Universals must be above Matter and be Immaterial but the Soul and Mind of Man can act in this sort Ergo this Soul must be Immaterial In this Argument I deny his Major and say that the Man himself who is a Material Agent can form Abstractive Notions and from Singulars and Generals can extract and frame Universals and that the Intellect without the Man can perform no such Matters nor be nor act in any kind whatsoever P. 112. Here he quotes a Book written by Hieronimus Rorarius a Learned Prelate as a Collection of Arguments commonly urged to prove that many Brute Animals have the use of Reason as well as Man himself hath P. 116. Here it is affirmed That Men do not know the Intimate Nature of so much as the smallest Plant which grows upon the Ground and therefore I say we are like to fall much short of the true Nature of the Humane Soul with such Certainty as were to be desired P. 118. The Doctor says the Intellect is conversant about Spiritual Beings both of good and other Spirits and therefore is Immaterial I answer as before the Intellect can do nothing but as it is a Power and Faculty of the Person without which I do not agree that it hath either Being or Action P. 123. The Doctor here says that the old Philosophers obtained a certain Knowledge that there were Spirits by the Regular Motions of the Heavenly Bodies which they thought could not be maintained without the Assistance and Government of Intelligent Immaterial Spirits but I think they were as much deceived in their own Opinion as our Doctor seems to be in his Opinion of the Souls Immateriality P. 123. It is objected against the Doctor that when the Phansie is disturb'd the Intellect cannot act with Strength or
in a condition of replying to this Examination and therefore I shall not need to express what Amendments or Additions I think needful to be made to his Treatise but I will rather content my self generally to say That if any Man will pretend to prove the Souls Seperate Subsistence from Grounds of Nature and Reason and to convince such as doubt thereof I think it needful for him to apply to those particulars which have before been put in Question concerning the same viz. 1. Quod sit Anima talis 2. Quid sit aut qualis sit 3. Vnde Oritur 4. Quando ingeditur 5. Vbi resedet 6. Quomodo Operatur 7. Quo Avolat post mortem Those that maintain the Souls Seperate Subsistence are at difference amongst themselves concerning divers of these particulars In the first of these they all agree that there is an Intelligent Self-subsisting Spirit in the Body which acts the Person and all his Powers but in the 2. or the Quid sit they differ some holding it to be Material and others thinking it to be Immaterial 3. Concerning the Vnde Oritur or from whence it derives its Original there are three different Opinions First That such Souls praeexists a mundo condito from the Creation of the World Others say That upon every Procreation of Mankind God creates a new Soul for every newly procreated Body as partly obliged thereunto by the Congruity of his Being requiring such things to be done for Support of Mankind and the World Others hold That the Soul is generated by the Parents together with the Body or that the whole Humane Person is generated as much and as perfectly as one Horse generates another 4. For the Quando Ingreditur or at what precise time the newly created Soul first enters into the Body the maintainers of this Opinion are not yet agreed whether it enter at the first Commixture of the Seed or at the Coagulation of it or whether during its Firmentation or during the time of the Fomentation thereof or at the first Commencement of its Vegitation or at the first Formation of Parts in the Embrion and some have thought that this sort of Soul doth not enter till the irruption or breaking forth of the Infant into the World 5. Concerning the Vbi or the place where this sort of Soul resides during its continuance in the Body the maintainers of it differ among themselves Des Cartes thought it a lucky Invention of his own when he found its Residence to be in the Glandula Penialis placed in a Passage between two parts of the Brain Others think the whole Brain to be the proper Residence thereof Some say it resides in the Heart or near about it and that thereby the Heart becomes Primum Vivens Vltimum Moriens Others with our Doctor in his Page before quoted think this Souls Residence to be in the Blood and commixed with the circulating Parts thereof 6. Concerning the Mode or Manner of this Souls Operation all the maintainers thereof confess their Ignorance and agree that they know not the manner of its Operation upon or in the Body 7. About the Quo avolat or what becomes of this Soul at its departure from the Body the maintainers of it are not agreed among themselves some of them say it returns to God who gave it but whether as a Part to its whole or as a Party going before the Judge for his Tryal is not known Others say That such Souls are carryed by Angels into Abraham's Bosom or by Devils into Hell or by Papal Officers into Purgatory or into the Limbo's Patrum vel Puerorum Some think that upon their departure from the Person good Souls are rapt up into Paradise as they think the Thief 's Soul was when it departed from the Cross Others have pretended that within and under the surface of our Earth there are pleasant places which they termed the Elysian Fields or Happy Shades for Souls that were good to live and converse in and places also within or under our Earth for Punishment or Torment of the wicked Some have invented as places of Happiness for good Souls the Island of Taprobana and other Islands which they termed Fortunate and where they believed good Souls departed forth of this Life obtained a state of Happiness for the future It seems our later Divines have not thought any of these Places a sufficient Reward for the Merits of their Prosylites or the desire they have to prefer them to places of great Happiness and therefore they tell them that immediately after Death their Souls shall be transported into Heaven and there enjoy the Happiness of Angelical Mansions and the ravishing Visions of God and Christ a Conversation with Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect and whatsoever they find any where mention'd in Scripture to be bestow'd by God upon the Blessed at the time of the Resurrection and the last Judgment they apply to the state of good Men's Souls immediately after the time of their Deaths I do heartily desire that they both could and would give such an Account to the World concerning the Reasons and Grounds of their so doing as may give Satisfaction to such Doubting and Considering Persons who are willing and desirous to receive a satisfactory Account thereof that they might more heartily joyn with such predicated Opinions than at the present they find themselves able to do I find it not common to meet with Writers or Arguers who pretend to prove the Souls Seperate Subsistence from Grounds of Nature and Reason which it seems was our present Author's Intention to prove but I think he hath fail'd in his propounded Success of that Intention and that it may justly be said of him Magnis ecedit ausis but I should be very glad to see he had another able Person to succeed him in that Endeavour being my self very desirous to receive Instruction concerning this Point And in Expectation thereof I resolve to confine my Observations upon our Doctor 's present Treatise to what hath before been spoken concerning it without making any further Addition thereunto save my hearty Wishes for a clear and true Determination of this Question and therewithal I give my Intelligent Reader the Farewel FINIS