no Reason assign'd why iâ— shou'd be otherwise but because there is more of the sensible Nature in one part than there is in another but how can there be more or less when the whole feâ—ls both wherefore if there are degrees of Pain in the Sentient Parts if we câ—n feel pain in this part and none in the other and can at once feel several distinct Pains in several distinct parts then the Soul must either feel by parts which an Indivisible cannâ—t or Sensation must belong to another Principle whose Properties are Extension and Divisibility and if those Properties do not belong to Body or can belong to Spirit we have no Notion either of Body or Spirit Whoever throughly considers this Argument will find that the Judgment of most Learned Physician concur with this Opinion of the Corporiety of the Souls of Brutes and that the same is plainly hinted in those places of Scripture which relate to the Jewish Prohibition of Eating Blood because the same contained the Life or Soul For as our Animal Spirits 〈◊〉 off by what we call the insensible Transpiration we are sensibly enfeebled and grow unactive till there are new ones maâ—e out of the Arterial Blood which Blood must be again sâ—pâ—ly'd by Corporeal Nourishment Thus we see Bodies unâ—â—â—ustom'd to hot Countries in those places their Poâ—es are so much open'd as to cause the Spirits flying away in such quantities that the Life would soon expire without the assistance of spiâ—â—tuous Liquors which give a speedy supply of Spirits On the other hand we find Dormice will sleep whole Months without the help of Food but if you observe those Creatures in their sleep they are stiff and cold their Pores are so contracted that the Life cannot fly off and therefore they want no Recruit but when warmth awakens them whereby their Pores are opened they can fast no longer than other Creatures therefore if the Animal Life flies off by parts which are again renew'd by Corporeal Nourishment it is a clear Evidence that the Soul of Brutes or Animal Life is Corporeal and by this we come to a plain and true Notion of Death that it is not as usually defin'd a Separation of the Soul and Body which is but a Consequence of Death but an absolute Extinguishment of the Animal Life or Vital Flame For to suppose that meer Animals are a Compound of Matter and Spirit and that Death is only a Separation of them is to ridicule all the Natural Arguments for Man's Immortality by making them hold as strong for the Immortality of Brutes which is both against Divinity and Common Sense And indeed the reason why some Physicians who of all Men should admire most the wonderful Works of Creating Wisdom have been Atheistically inclin'd is because they are able to demonstrate that Sense is made by Matter and Motion and therefore have carelesly concluded Reason to spring from the same Principle and all our Actions to be accounted for by Mechanism and those Men help much to the Confirmation of this Opinion who assign the Office of Sensation to the Rational Soul and allow Reason to other Animals there is no Adversary to Religion but will readily grant the Animal Life and Rational Soul to be the same thing and that all Animals are Rational but then he subjoyns that the Animal Life is Corporeal and therefore concludes that Rationality is no Argument either of Immateriality or Immortality My Lord Bacon upon this Subject delivers his Opinion in the following words The sensible Soul or the Soul of Beasts must needs be granted to be a Corporeal Substance attenuated by Heat and made invisible let there be therefore made a more diligent Enquiry touching this Knowledge and the rather for that this Point not well understood bath brought forth superstitious and very contagious Opinions and most vilely abasing the dignity of the Soul of Man of Transmigration of Souls out of one Body into another and lustration of Souls by Periods of Years and finally of the too near affinity in evey point of the Soul of Man with the Soul of Beasts This Soul in Beasts is a principal Soul whereof the Body of the Beast is the Organ but in Man thâ—s Soul is it self an Organ of the Soul Rational Having made this Enquiry into the Soul of Brutes and given I hope sufficient proof that the same is Corporeal we shall next inform our selves what Knowledge they are endow'd with and enquire whether or no there is a Principle of Reason in the most subtil of their Actions Our common Observation may assure us That all the Actions of meer Animals are either the Effects of a bare Sensitive Nature which in various degrees is common to all or of Sensitive Creatures as they are fram'd of this or that peculiar Species or Kind for what those Creatures act according to the Nature common to all is plainly the Effect of bare Sensation We see Ideots do as much who have no use of Reason they distinguish who feeds them and fear who beats them Outward Objects must affect the Animal Spirits the Animal Spirits must make Traces in the Brain and lodge those Idea's and so far Will and Reason have nothing to do And altho' the Actions of meer Animals as they are of this or that peculiar Species or Kind seem somewhat agreeable to Reason yet they prove only a wise Author of their Beings and that the more strongly because 't is visible that those Actions are not the Effects of a reasoning Principle in those Creatures for Actions that are constantly agreeable to Reason must be somewhere directed by Reason but they are not the Effect of Reâ—son in those Creatures In earthly created Beings we find Reason is improv'd by degrees from a Series of Observations or from Information Men cannot conclude or reason about any thing but a Posteriori from the operation and effects of things but meer Animals act according to their Nature immediately and without observation which are so many Demonstrations that they are instructed by a secret Instinct and not by Reason or a Knowledge of what they do for they ever act according to their Natures when by plain and visible Accident they act against the most apparent Reason One wou'd think a little very little Reason wou'd instruct Creatures that they cou'd not eat when their Mouths are sewed up at least a trial might learn them that knowledge yet stitch up the Mouth of a Ferret day after day and for all that he 'l as warmly pursue the Rabbits for his food as if his Jaws were at liberty Farthermore Meer Animals must act according to their kind when so acting is visibly their certain ruin Take a Bull-dog and muzzle him throw him Bones that he may find he cannot open his Mouth â—â—t after that shew him a Bull and he shall as boldly attack the Bull as if he had no Muzzle on Again It is certain that young Birds bred in Trees will
prone to follow blindly and when once our great Opinion of their Learning and Piety has placed them in the Chair of Infallibility the first false step they make at once subverts our Faith and taking all before for granted which they deliver'd to us we now dispute the Verity of those Doctrines we had inbib'd from them Bad Presidents are always very prevalent Contagions amongst our Equals but when we find our Pastors or our Parents our Masters our Governours or our Princes infected with any manner of Vice we quickly become their Apes and readily excuse our selves because we do but imitate those whom we imagine to know better than our selves Thus many Men have had their Faith stagger'd by a View of the Profaneness and Impiety of Learned and Great Men by the dissolute Lives of the Gentry and Nobility in the Countries where they live as if these by their vitious Practices cou'd alter the Nature even of Good and Evil or if it was possible that Men immerst in Matter tho' never so profoundly skill'd in Science cou'd regulate their Lives by the Laws of God whilst they contemn the Divine Aid and regard not his Assistance Instead of this 't is become the Fashion of the Town to ridicule Vertue and render Vice as amiable as they can and if they find it possible to prevail upon some simple Clergy-man who is naturally as loose as themselves to be Drunk to Whore to Game to Curse and Swear profanely there are many Men so extravagantly proud of such a Conquest over an hypocritical Sinner as to think they give hereby a fatal stroke to all true Piety as if the very Essence of God the Condition of the Soul and every other Sacred Truth were by such trivial and childish Instances to be obliterated or wiped out I have premis'd this by way of Anticipation or to Caution you how requisite it is before you set up for a Libertine to go upon sure grounds for undoubtedly 't is unbecoming any Pretender to Reason to run a hazard especially one of this Consequence or to declare himself either openly or privately for the Cause of Atheism till he hath positively assur'd himself beyond contradiction that there is no Superintendent Power takes notice of his Actions or if there shou'd that he is above the reach of his Justice and that his last Breath will carry all into perpetual Oblivion for if he goes not farther than probability that Matters may be so yet if there remain the least doubt that they may not he forfeits at once both his Reason and Security and 't will be a pitiful Satisfaction that the greater part of the World have involv'd themselves with him in the same Misery It is the less admirable that Men shou'd so very easily give up the Cause of Religion who never examin'd their first Principles whose Faith is no otherwise founded than on the Custom of their Country the Credit of their Ancestors or the Example of those under whose Guardianship and Tutelage they have been brought up And truly in one sense what the Poet remarks is a certain Truth By Education most have been misled So they believe because they so were bred The Priest continues what the Nurse began And thus the Child imposes on the Man He who never considers the Why or Wherefore nor so much as once ever rightly weigh'd the Motives of his Belief becomes a perfect Weather-Cock every Blast of a new Doctrine carries him to and fro till at length being unsetled he despiseâ— all This is what I have thought necessary by way of Introduction to my Discourse of the Immortality which I intend the subject of this present Letter for having in the two former endeavour'd to establish those two great Truths of the Divine Being and his Providence Order requires that I take notice how far we are concern'd if we concede or admit the foregoing Propositions For if we lye under no Obligation to or have no future Dependance upon God or his Providence it is a Matter purely indifferent whether we believe them or not what Advantage can I have by my belief in God if I am secure that he has left me to my own disposal and inspects not any of my Actions or why should I deny my self the Satisfaction of my Desires how exorbitant soever they may be since I know the worst and that if Death will at length come and put an end to my Delights it will likewise finish all my Trouble and Disquiet However I may resign up my own Reason or betray the Weakness of my Judgment I must confess to you that when I have very often seriously reflected upon this Subject and once admitted a Supream Intelligent and Powerful Cause of all Things I presently found my self under a kind of irresistible Necessity to believe our Souls must be Immortal and the Supposition of a down right Necessity that it should be so without any respect to Arguments either Sacred or Profane that it is so does at this time overcome me for however short of Demonstration they may prove we must take up with the most notorious Absurdity imaginable if we perswade our selves that there can be an All-wise Just and Omnipotent God and yet notwithstanding that Thefts Rapines Murthers and all other the most egregious Vices shou'd go unpunish'd both here and hereafter However this be the Result of my own Thinking and a Consequence which it 's possible you may not allow I speak it not by any means to prepossess your Judgment neither do I desire you shou'd look upon the same either as Matter of Fact or so much as Rational Evidence It will add little to the Illustration of my present Task that you are inform'd at large with the Opinion of the Ancients concerning the Humane Soul let it suffice you to understand that as some of them affirm'd the sâ—me to be a Substance existing of it self and Immortal so there were others who deny'd that it had any Substance but was only an accidental Form The Platonists and Pythagoreans opin'd that the Souls of all living Creatures were a part of the Soul of the Worldâ— that they were immerged in Bodies as in a Sepulchre and that when the Bodies died they were by a various 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inhabitants or Guests to other Bodies sometimes to those of Men at other times to those of Beasts The Manichâ—es supposed that all Souls in general were taken out of the Substance it self of God that they actuated Teâ—restrial Bodies and going from hence again return'd into God himself The Originists That all Souls were created from the beginning of the World at first to subsist of themselves then as occasion serv'd that Bodies being form'd they enter'd into them actuated them during Life and at length return'd into their primitive and singular Substances Oâ—hers have affirm'd That the Soul of Man does arise up of her own accord from power only of Matter rightly dispos'd making her to be no more
we discern in the Things that are for he that gave those Perfections unto these Things must needs have an inexhaustable Fountain of Perfection in Himself By the Being then of God I mean the first Principle of all Things He that made all Things what they are and endow'd them with all their different Powers and Vertues from whence I conclude him to be a Being absolutely perfect My own Existence is a Self-evident Principle No Reflection can give unto a Philosopher any greater Assurance of his own Existence than the intimate Perswasion that every Plowman has of his without Study or Meditation Now the Idea that Men have of themselves is twofold Material and Immaterial The Material part of Man is his Body which is evidently subject to the general Laws of Matter and liable to all the Mutations that are incident to other Material Beings The Immaterial part is his Mind which discovers it self in his Capacity of Thinking and Reasoning for Thought exceeds the power of Matter that therefore which thinks viz. the Mind or Soul of Man is not material and by consequence not subject to the Laws of Matter nor lyable to the Mutations that are incident to Matter but capable of a Subsistence notwithstanding any Alteration or Dissolution that shall happen to the parts of his Body This Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul has been understood and believed by the generality of Heathen Philosophers in consequence of their own Reflections and Ratiocinations long before the Evidence that has been since given of it unto Mankind by the Revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ And therefore the Belief that the ancient Philosophers had of the Soul's Immortality is an undeniable proof that it is a Notion discoverable by the Light of Nature because they who had no other Light cou'd not otherways have discover'd it The Relation that Men stand in towards one another is chiefly observable in the mutual Necessity that all Men have of one anothers Assistance and Succour it being hardly possible for any Man to subsist at all but absolutely impossible to subsist comfortably without borrowing Help from others These are the Circumstances in which Mankind is born into the World and we are placed in these Circumstances by God Almighty the Universal Cause and Principle of all Things so that whatsoever we are led unto by the Necessity of these Circumstances is in effect a Duty imposed on us by the Eternal and Unalterable Law of God towards whom we stand first related as to a Benefactor from whom we have received our Being together with our present Enjoyments and our Capacity of any farther Enjoyment whatsoever Next as to a Lawgiver or Governour by whom we are obliged to the observance of certain Rules or Ordinances unto which he has subjected us If we consider singly the Idea that we have of our own Being the Rule that Results from thence for our Conduct is That we must not degenerate from the Dignity of our Nature but must therefore bridle and govern all the Appetites and Passions that arise from our Corporeal Constitutions according to the genuine Dictates of those nobler Faculties of Ratiocination and Judgment wherewith our Maker has endow'd our Minds If we consider the Relation that we stand in towards one another the Law of God obliges us indespensably to Truth Equity Charity Benevolence and to every thing which tends to the Settlement of Societies or to the general Welfare of Mankind for every particular Man's greatest Interest being involved in the Interest of the whole the Observance of such Things as tend to the general Good is every particular Man's Duty and is not to be transgrest for the sake of any lesser or private Advantage If we consider the Relation that we stand in towards God his Law requires our Acknowledgment Gratitude Love Dependance Submission or in one word our humblest Adoration of his Infinite Perfections The Observance of these Rules is a Duty Incumbent upon Mankind by the said Law of God the breach of any of them is a breach of God's Law an Offence against the Law-maker or a Sin Laws are of no vigour unless inforced by Rewards and Punishments which are therefore to be proportion'd to the Nature and Degree of the Observance and Transgression of the Laws The Observance and Transgression of God's Laws by Mâ—n whose Bodily Actions depend upon the inward Motions of his Mind consist not in any Machinal Acts of the Body but in the voluntary Motions and Intentions of the Mind and therefore the Rewards or Punishments of such Observance and Transgression are chiefly to be conferr'd or inflicted upon the Mind or Soul of Man and that after the full Course of his Actions either good or bad is accomplisht which is to say in the future state of the Soul after its Separation from the Body In the Belief and Sense of these general Truths and in the Practise of the Duties that result from them according to their full Extent and Tendency consists all true Religion Whatsoever else is introduced into any Religion either National or Practical I say whatever does not necessarily flow from some of these Branches or tend to enforce the Observance of them is no essential part of true Religion but rather the product of Design and Folly Every Man then is answerable unto God the Supream Lawgiver for his own particular Conduct in every Branch of these Duties as they relate either to God to his Neighbour or to himself This I take to be the pure Language of Impartial Reason unassisted by Revelation and they seem indeed to be the most Natural Inferences which can be drawn from truly Rational Propositions whatever false Deductions or Conclusions some Mens false Judgments have invented for the support of their wretched Cause the Fallacy is soon detected and a stricter Inquisition will soon lay open the grand Absurdities of their mischievous Opinions But truly 't is plain enough tho' some Men may be reputed a sort of Reasoning Atheists yet the much greater part of them are Infidels by Imitation and so far from being able to oppose the Truth of the Divine Being the Certainty of Reveal'd Religion or their own Immortality that they scarce ever gave themselves time to consider seriously the meaning of the Words These have no quarrel with Religion on the Account of its Truths not being firmly enough establisht but their Pique proceeds from hence that they fear it will lay them under a Necessity of putting a Check to their Exorbitant Desires and hinder them in the Pursuit of their Vitious Inclinations To Conclude If after all that can be said however Rational or true you will notwithstanding go about to perswade your self that all is but a meer Dream or Imposture that there is no such Excellent Being as is supposed to have Created and to Preserve us but that all about us is dark sensless Matter driven on by the blind Impulse of Fatality that Men at first sprung up out
them nor whatsoever may be the Opinion of some is it that which they are united to The way and manner how the Spirit assists us in the Spiritual Understanding of Things is either through its immediate indwelling if I may so speak or through the communication of new Principles a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ablation of every thing extraneous a dissipation of those fuliginous Vapours that both obnubilate the Mind and do imbuere objectum colore suo by the Purification of the Heart the Understanding is clarified By the Spirit of Life in the new Birth the Subject is elevated and adapted to the Object the Divine Grace renders the Mind idoneous for and consimilar to the Truth And farther there is a suggesting of Media for elucidating the Truth there is also frequently an irradiation of the Word it self an attiring and cloathing it with a Garment of Light and upon the whole the Soul both feels and is transform'd into what it knows its apprehensions are no longer dull and languid but vigorous and affective This Mystical Union of the Soul of the true Believer with Jesus Christ however difficult it may appear and hard to be reconciled to the Natural Understanding ought not to be debated or distrusted by us upon the account of our Ignorance in the manner of it We do assent to the Continuity and Adhesion of one part of Matter to another notwithstanding the Difficulties that encounter us about its Mode and tho' there be not yet any Philosophic Hypothesis that can resolve us how it comes to pass that one part more indiscerptibly cleaves to another than if they were fastened together by Adamantine Chains and therefore there is no Reason why the incomprehensibleness of the Manner of our Union with Christ shou'd any ways obstruct or weaken our belief of it having all the assurance that Divine Revelation can give us concerning our being united to Him as we assent to an evident Object of Sense or to that which is plainly demonstrated by Reason tho' there occur many things in the manner of their Existence which are unconceivable so the Quod sit and Reality of our Union with Christ being attested by him who cannot lye it becomes us to embrace it with all steddiness of Belief tho' we cannot conceive the Quo modo or manner how it is we have reason to think that through our Maker's leaving us pos'd and nonplust about the most ordinary and certain Natural Phaeâ—omena he intended to train us up to a mancipation of our Understandings to Articles of Faith when we were once assur'd that He had declar'd them tho' the Difficulties relating to them were to us unaccountable Nor is the manner of the coherence of the Parts of Matter the only Difficulty in Nature relating to Union that perplexes and baffles our Reason but the Mode of the Mystical Incorporation of the Rational Soul with the Humane Body doth every way as much entangle and leave us desperate as the former That Man is a kind of Amphibious Creature allied in his constituent Parts both to the Intellectual and Material Worlds and that the several Species of Beings in the Macrocosm are combined in Him as in a System Reason as well as Scripture instructs us That we have a Body we are fully assur'd by its Density Extension Impenetrability and all the Adjuncts and Affections of Matter and that we have an Immaterial Spirit we are demonstratively convinc'd by its re-acting on it self its consciousness of its own Being and Operations not to mention other Mediums whereof we have spoken elsewhere and that those two are united together to make up the Composition of Man is as plain from the influence that the Body hath upon the Soul in many of its Perceptions and which the Soul hath upon the Body in the Motions of the Spirits and Blood with all that ensues and depends thereupon Nor could the Affections and Adjuncts of the Material Nature nor the Attributes and Properties of the Immaterial be indiffâ—rently predicated of Man were not the Soul and Body united together in the Unity of Man's Person But now how this can be is a knot too hard for Humane Reason to untye How a pure Spirit should be cemented to an earthly Clod or an immaterial Substance coalesce with Bulk is a Riddle that no Hypothesis of Philosophy can resolve us about 1. The Aristotelick substantial Uniter will not do for besides its repugnancy to Reason that there should be any Substantial Ingredient in the Constitution of Man save his Soul and Body the unâ—â—ion of it self with the Soul supposing it to be Material or with the Body admitting it to be Incorporeal will remain unintelligible and to affirm it to be of a middle Nature partaking of the Affections and Adjuncts of both is that which our reaâ—onable Faculties will never allow us to subscribe to the Idea's which we have of Body and Spirit having no Alliance the one with the other and to style it a Substantial Mode is to wrap up Repugnancies in its very Notion for tho' all Modes be the Modification of Substances yet they are predicamental Accidents and how essential soever this or that Modification may be to a Body of such a Species yet it is wholly extrinsecal and accidental to Matter it self In brief the voluminous Discourses of the Aristotelian's both about Union in general and the Union of the Rational Soul to the Organical Humane Body in particular resolve themselves either into idle tattle and insignificant words or obtrude upon us Contradictions and Nonsence 2. To preclude all Union betwixt the Soul and Body on Supposition that they are distinct constituent parts of Man is plainly to despair of solving the Difficulty for not to dispute whether the Soul and Body may in Philosophic rigour be called Parts or whether Man in reference to them may be stiled a Compositum 't is enough that the one is not the other but that they are different Principles and that neither of them consider'd seperately is the Man Tho' the Soul and Body be perfect Substances in themselves and tho' the Soul can operate in its disjunct State and in its Separation will be no less a Person than Soul and Body now together are yet there are many Operations belonging to the Soul in this Conjunct State of which it is incapable in the Separate and there are many things predicable of the Soul and Body together which cannot be affirmed of them â—sunder How close and intimate soever the Union betwixt the Soul and Body be and how great soever in their mutual Dependancies in most of their Operations upon one another yet not only the Intellectual Spirit and the duly organized Matter remain even in their Consociation classically different their Essences Affections and Operations admitting a diversity as well as a distinction but there are some Operations belong to each of them upon which the other hath no influence For as the Mind is Author of many Cogitations
Confession from you that you are fearfully and wonderfully made you must at least allow your self to be the Workmanship of some Intelligent Being and altho' the commonness of the Object takes off your Admiration and you now find the Propagation of Mankind in a Method setled by the Divine Providence yet if you transgress not the Bounds of Reason you must affirm their first Production to be by the immediate Power of the Almighty Author of all Things and that every succeeding Generation of them are the Off-spring of one primitive Couple Having survey'd some of the Extremities of this mighty Machine and diligently passed over its outward Covering or Teguments my next advice to you is that you retire within and carefully examine not only the Parts wherein those Offices are perform'd but the Processes themselves such as that of Mastication Deglutition Chylification Sanguification the Inkindling of the Blood for the Lamp of Life its great Analogy in some respects with Culinary Fire viz. it s constant nenecessity of Ventilation through the vesiculae of the Lungs and a perpetual supply of a fit Pabulum or Fuel out of the received Aliment for the continuance of its Flame when you have done here and discover'd all the Secretions or Separations of the several Juices which are put off from the Sanguineous Mass in its wonderful Circulation and deposited in their several Receptacles till called for to their proper Employments you may lastly with that profound Humility and Veneration which becomes the Enquiry ascend into the Sanctum Sanctorum that Divine Emporium of the Soul the Brain where not only our Sensations but all our Cogitations our Perception Reflexion Intuition and all those noble Faculties of Memory Phantasy or Imagination c. are surprisingly transacted Here if you diligently and Philosopically take to pieces the several parts of the Soul I mean the Sensitive you may readily comprehend with an excellent and most judicious Man that its Systasis or Constitution is made out of these two parts viz. the Vital or Flamy which respects the Blood and the Lucid or Ethereal which respects the Brain or whose Hypostasis are the Animal Spirits by whose alone Energy and Intervention we account for the Phaenomena of the Animal Regiment in all things where the Superiour or Rational Soul is unconcern'd When you have thus finish'd your Physiological Contemplation an Application of this Consequence will I think be not only pertinent but natural and genuine That since first in relation to the Vital or Flamy Part there are so many prae-requisites in order to Digestion or Transmuting the gross and solid Matter of our Food into that soft and pappy Substance we call Chyle if any one of which be wanting some certain detriment will ensue whether this be in the Ventricle it self a deficiency of its native Heat a weakness in the Tone of any or all its Fibres a want or perversion of the secreted Juices which compose its Menstruum or Dissolvent Or if all things are orderly performed here and safely delivered hence yet since there are also many requisites to a fit passage of the said Chylous Juice into the Blood such as the admistion of the Bile and the Pancreatic Juice either of which being peccant in quantity or quality many Mischiefs will ensue but if in these secondary Passages all things have gone on well yet if the Passages to the common Store-house or Receptaculum happen to be obstructed and thereby rendred impervious to the liquor they should receive or if others of those curiously slender Tubes the Lacteal Vessels by the forcible protrusion of the contained Matter should break or suffer a Solution of their Continuity the Chyle must be extravasated and a fatal Inundation thereof in some little time comes on But if hitherto Matters have succeeded as they ought and this noble Liquor is at length safely arriv'd through its many Meanders and inconspicuous Ways and as safely deliver'd up to the Heart yet if here it be not rightly sanguify'd or turn'd into Blood or if when it is so made and continued in its Circuit the containing Blood Vessels either from a Deficiency of the Vis Motoria or Disorder of the Spirits in the Orbicular nervous Fibrils implanted in the Tunics of the said Vessels labour with an Obstruction or suffer such a Distension by the impelling Blood as produces a Diruption there presently follows Extravasation and Stagnation of the Vital Liquor Farther If the Blood it self as from many Causes it may contract too great an Acidity or Viscosity or by Adustion grow perfectly Corrosive if its Crasis be considerably vitiated or disorder'd the Nutritious Juices must partake of the Infection and consequently the Assimulation or Apposition of their Particles for the growth and encrease of all the Parts of the Body cannot at all or not regularly be performed neither will the subtil parts of such a Blood tho' never so well elaborated in the Brain afford either a sufficient Plenty or an exactly homogeneous Spirit for the influencing the Nerves those Causes sine qua of every particular Function and Operation In a word that I may not tiâ—e you with a more particular Description of the parts of the Encephalon or Cabinet containing that inestimable Jewel the Soul when you consider that from any of these slightly mention'd Errors committed in any part the whole Fabrick suffers and the same becomes a tottering Carcass when you consider how very easily an heterogeneous Copula is admitted into the Nervous System there exciting those dismal irregular and horrid Explosions which after they have for sometime excruciated the frail Body leave it lifeless when you consider also how very easily those slender and to our fight impervious Conduits of the Nerves may by many ways be obstructed which happening at their Source as in the Apoplexy Lethergy Coma Carus we are presently deprived of our Sensations the Soul suffers an Eclipse and the ghastly Tyrant takes possession when you consider that the very Air so absolutely necessary for our Respiration does sometimes prove a Vehicle to those malign Miasâ—â—ata which impetuously rush on and notwithstanding our pretended strength in the twinkling of an Eye extinguish the Lamp of Life when you consider these Particulars with a due attention you will find abundant reason instead of denying any thing to be Supernatural to confess that the Life of Man whether it be conceived as limited to a shorter or longer Date is nothing less than one continued Miracle Before I finish my Discourse of Supernatural Productions or those Effects which do surmount what we call the Powers of Nature and frequently hare witness to God's especial Providence I will take the liberty to make a short Digression and give you my Opinion how it comes to pass that these unusual and extraordinary Events have gained so little Credit not only with the Profane and Sensual but even amongst very many Sober and Learned Men. That I may do this to your greater Satisfaction I must
having but little time to tarry if he would grant me the liberty of asking him two or three short Questions which after his Concession I put to him in these words 1. Whether he conceived his Mind to be now as clear as active and as vigorous as it had been some few days before his Ilness 2. Whether he found therein any Perswasives to Repentance or did believe any Necessity by such kind of Atonement to endeavour an Expiation of his past Failings and Offences 3. If he had or had not a full Conviction of the Soul's Immortality 4. What he thought of the Christian Religion To all which when he had sorrowfully sighed out a Heu Quam Mutatus He made answer to this Effect 1. That his Reason had as yet suffer'd nothing of an Eclipse and that he found his Understanding bating the Effect of his present Consternation as firm as ever 2. As for sorrowing for past Errors and Irregularities he thought it was no more than natural and to cry to Heaven for Mercy at the last Moment either in Sighs or Words what the wildest Pagan put in practise but that the Contrition of so great a Libertine as himself had been however fervent or sincere yet considering the same proceeded from one unable to sin longer to think this available to reconcile such a throughly poluted Soul to the Divine Favour he lookt upon absurd 3. As to the Substance and Condition of the Rational Soul that great Principle and Source of all his Intellectual Faculties when he formerly consider'd the Ignorance and more than brutish Stupidity of his Infancy his gradual increase of Knowledge and the manner of his collecting Idea's with their being plac'd tho' he knew not how in his Memory together with his first Attempts to speak by an imitation of those about him these put him upon thinking that the whole Progress had so entire a Dependance upon the Conformation or Mechanick Structure of the Brain as to make him doubtful whether there was any thing more in his Composition than Matter under various Modifications and to believe that which hath obtain'd the Denomination of Mind or Soul was only the Result or Completion of the Animal Organs or did consist in some subtil Particles of the Blood after divers unaccountable ways exerting their several Functions But since he had more warily consider'd the strength of his own Mind under a violent and very sensible Alteration and Decay of the Parts of his Body that it grew more clear still as his end approached and wou'd not let him rest without confessing to its independency on the Body since he reflected farther upon its Essence and that it was certain its Faults or Imperfections might not be such in it self but seem so as it stands related to the Body in which whilst it is an Inhabitant and ty'd to Corporeal Organs it must act accordingly since he had weighed that pertinent and well adapted Simile That the Soul is no more blameable for acting disagreeably in a disorder'd or distemper'd Brain than the Artist who has mist his end only on the account of faulty or improper Instruments Lastly and above all when he consider'd the Nature of Good and Evil the Justice of the Divine Being in rewarding good Men and punishing the wicked these Rewards not being distributed here he was perswaded must undoubtedly ensue hereafter and that his Soul was truly and really a Substantial Form infus'd by a Divine Power and no Accident of Matter neither capable of perishing by the destruction of the Body Farther That whatever Vehicle it might assume in its state of separate Existence he saw nothing in the Notion incongruous or absurd but that without its forsaken Companion it might very well be capable of an Intuitive Knowledge and of exercising those reflex Acts which have no dependance upon gross Material Images or Coporeal Idea's 4. The business of Reveal'd Religion he said had very often startled him he gave the less regard to it because it had never reach'd to all Parts of the World and he did think it too smart a Reflection upon Providence to be consistent with the Divine Attributes that Mankind should not have equal Advantages or the same Laws or Rules to govern themselves by But as for his own Judgment he thought it the less valuable for notwithstanding he did always believe there was such a Thing as Natural Religion or a Light set up in the Soul by which every Man might steer his Course and that Morality was more then an empty Sound yet he had govern'd himself very little or nothing by the same To the Credit of Christianity he offer'd this That by how much the less Reason he had to believe it false the more he thought himself oblig'd to think it true and indeed when at sometimes he consider'd what mighty Gain its first Founders might make of its Promulgation or what should be the Motive to induce any Man to carry on such a Design these Doubts he said he was never able to resolve for when as it was but seldom he search'd the Sacred Writings and found they contain'd nothing but such Laws and Precepts as wou'd if carefully observ'd make us truly and compleatly happy since they had had the Suffrage of the most Learned and all the Sober and consequently more Considerate part of the World he was willing to think for his part they were manumitted to us by a more than Humane Power and that their Divinity was as well conspicuous in their Subject as their Stile He lamented his short Acquaintance with them and the small Progress he had made in the Writings of the Ancient Fathers and all other Ecclesiastic History were he to live the latter years of his Life over again he said they should be devoted to an Enquiry after the great Founder of the Christian Religion for he did believe it a Concern of the highest moment and that every Man ought to satisfie himself so far as he is able of the Authority of those Writings which being once establisht on a well-grounded Faith they are and will be certainly the surest Guide we have to an happy Eternity As for himself he told me he had many perplexing Thoughts attending him so that he must put all upon a mighty Risque but that he hop'd to continue to his last Breath an unfeign'd humble Supplicant for Mercy to the Majesty of Heaven and that if he had no right to any Claim by the Death of Christ the Saviour of the World which tho' on slight Assurance he earnestly hop'd that he had he must then take what was allotted for him by the Divine Justice Thus I took a vary dismal Vale after he had closed all with some short and pithy Expressions relating to my self I have purposely in this place omitted the several Interruptions happening in Discourse since the Contents of the Replies I made in conference with this my deceased Friend are some of them already intersperst in this and my former
Letter and what remains may very probably be incerted in my next I shall give you no more Instances of this Nature but will only add a word or two concerning the unequal Distribution of the Goods of Fortune together with the Prosperity of the Wicked and the Afflictions of Good Men which if they do not Convince you of the Divine Justice and Goodness may at least serve to palliate and to render these General Reflections upon Providence the less weighty But before we speak of Happiness or Infelicity Prosperity and Adversity it behoves us to fix upon some just Method of Discrimination and that we agree upon some proper Terms that may significantly express the Nature of Good and Evil not as they appear but as they really and experimentally are found in themselves for if you go by the commonly receiv'd Opinion or the Customary Judgment Men too frequently make and reckon that Man more happy than your self who has more Money more Attendants more Admirers fares more daintily or deliciously lives easier and takes less care You will quickly find the Fallacy and a very little Thoughtfulness will give you to understand that notwithstanding these there is no Man can have more of solid Happiness Content and Satisfaction then he has of Honesty Justice Temperance and Sobriety for if instead of laying out his Wealth to the Honour of that Being by whose Permission he enjoys it he either locks it up in his Coffers or makes no other use of the same than by furnishing himself with the means of Intemperance and Excess If he lays it out upon sumptuous Furniture numerous Attendants in Gaming Drunkenness Sensuality and the Satisfaction of every other brutish Passion you will find the Possessor of this kind of Happiness a greater and fitter Object for your Pitty than your Emulation However the Notion might be carried too far by the Stoicks in their Supposition of a perfect Apathy yet undoubtedly they were right in their founding True Felicity upon Contentment or for that they placed the same in the Peace and Satisfaction of a calm and serene Mind neither capable of an exalted Pride in the Enjoyment of Abundance nor of Anxiety or Perturbation in what the World calls Poverty If this be the Criterion or adequate Measure of true Happiness we shall find those who have been generally accounted happy to be of all others the most miserable You may easily conceive the wealthy Miser can have but little of this solid Peace and Tranquility for what with his Pain and Care to encrease his Treasure his denying himself the convenient and even necessary Supports of Life together with the perpetual Disquiet and Anxiety that attends his Fear of losing what he has got there is scarce an hour in the whole compass of his miserable Life that is truly happy even his Rest is not refreshing like that of other Mens but his Soul is like a troubled Sea and his last Moments in his unwillingness to surrender and leave his Muck behind him setting aside his Thoughts of Futurity openly declare his Misery From him we may take a prospect of the Prodigal Libertine the other President of mistaken Happiness and here the genuine Consequences are both a disorder'd or infirm Body together with a perplex'd and disturb'd Mind for however the make or temperament of some Mens Bodies gives them the opportunity of continuing a longer Course yet their Souls are still perpetually clouded and the tottering Carcass must at length fall a Victim to their adored Bacchus or admired Venus and indeed supposing the best of them that we can we shall find nothing like a solid Satisfaction even in the height of what they call Enjoyments If we view them diverting themselves in Gaming here we find not to mention the impairing their Estates the beggering themselves and Families every cross or adverse hit of Fortune transforms them into so many Furies and raises such impetuous Storms and Tempests in their Breasts as can be vented no other ways than in the most horrid Oaths Execrations and Imprecations of the Divine Judgments upon themselves and others If we inspect their dishonest Embraces their Whoredoms and Adulteries tho ne're so secure and secret yet the loss of Reputation by discovery in some the fear of Infection in others or perhaps of a Conception but above all that Fear which will very commonly crowd in even upon the Infidel himself that 't is possible there may be an after-reckoning these I say do generally combine to imbitter the Delights of their Lascivious Acts but if the brutish Appetite be allay'd if the Guilt be stiffled by an habitual Repetition if neither Body nor Reputation suffer which is a very great hazard yet may we find many of the more thinking sort of these Persons declare their Dissatisfaction and candidly acknowledge it one of the greatest Follies of which a wise Man can be guilty If we follow them to a Debauch of Drinking here we shall find even the Sensitive Appetite presently satiated its Satisfaction no longer lasting than the fleeting Gust their Minds soon obnubilated and themselves not Masters of their Actions nor yet their Passions their Conversation grows burthensome and truly they have little left but Shape to difference them from Brutes these with the result of such a Crapula viz. violent ensuing Hemicran's loss of Appetite and general Lassitudes will I 'm certain in the estimate of every judicious Man make Bedlam preferrable to their Bacchanalia and the Lunatick for the time a happier Man than the Drunkard 'T is plain from hence that we are mightily out in our Accounts of Happiness or the supposed Prosperity of the Wicked and the Adversity of Good Men For whatever Blessings the Bounty of Divine Providence hath ordain'd for our Refreshment and Consolation in this Pilgrimage on Earth and furtherance towards an easie purchase of after Happiness such as Vigour Health and Beauty of Body Ingenuity of Disposition Longaevity Multitude of Friends Equality in Marriage Fertility of Issue Education in Civility and Learning Science Wealth Nobility of Blood Absoluteness in Power and Government c. when these come into the poluting hands of vitious Men they instantly suffer not only a diminution of their Goodness but even a total depravation of their Benignity and degenerate into perfect Curses the possession of them raiseâ— incessant Tempests and distracting Storms of Passions in the Region of their Minds not permitting that comfortable Sun of true Content to shine clearly forth or to make so much as one fair Day during their whole Lives To all which may be superadded this That the brightest and longest Days of Fortune have ever clos'd in the blackest and most tragical Nights of Sorrow that the Plays of Libertines have always prov'd Comae Tragedies and their pompous Masks finish'd in dismal Catastrophy's nor can the Records of the whole World produce one Example of sinful greatness that hath not either before or at his Eternal Adieu by woful Experiment manifested
the Truth of this Maxim In Vertute Sola Salus or that none can ever arrive at the Elizium of true Felicity who constantly pursue it through the Gardens of Sensuality that the Rose of Happiness grows on the prickly Stem of Vertue and that the just Discharge of our Duties to God and Man to the utmost of our Abilities is the only means of acquiring a durable Content and Satisfaction I shall conclude with this necessary Caution That we take not too bold a Freedom in our Reflections upon Providence or Repining at some particular Dispensations towards us It is the greatest Imprudence we can be guilty of to expect either that Vertue should be immediately rewarded or Vice immediately punisht for this would not only destroy a Life of future Retribution but if Punishments were immediately to be inflicted upon Delinquents our Obedience would cease to be a Vertue as proceeding from our Fear more than our Choice Besides we are by no means to pass Sentence upon the Providences of God without a Prospect of them from the Beginning to the End Providence is one entire System nor can we judge of the parts but in relation to the whole for what at first we cou'd give no account of we are very often brought to approve by a subsequent Course of Dispensations and we do as frequently understand that had our Desires been gratified or our Expectations answer'd in some particular Cases the same wou'd have prov'd troublesome if we had not been quite ruin'd or undone by them Excuse the Imperfection of these incoherent Thoughts and believe me to be what I am Lond. Jan. 26. 1696 7 Your Friend in all good Offices LETTER III. Of the Immortality of the Soul To Mr. c. My very good Friend WHatever Success my last met with I am embolden'd to believe my time not altogether mispent 't is not out of a Presumption that I am able to deliver any thing extraordinary or more than many others might say upon these weighty Subjects but out of I know not what kind of Belief and Expectation that you will more considerately peruse and attentively examine them as the Performances of a Friend who you may easily assure your self writes neither for Secular Interest nor Popular Applause but truly and unfeignedly with a pure Design of discovering the Truth than if the same were deliver'd by those whose Interest we might judge it is to keep us under a slavish Subjection and who make it the proper and sole business of their Lives to furnish out such Maxims Arguments and Precepts as they themselves too many of them are unmindful to observe so that what is much to be bewail'd when Men look upon the Priests as of a quite different make from the rest of Mankind neither subject to the same Desires natural Inclinations and Passions of other Men when they view them living as it were separate from the World perpetually conversant in Prayer Fasting Religious Contemplation and Divine Meditations they by a kind of implicite Faith especially the common People rely upon the Certainty of the Things deliver'd to them without ever seriously enquiring or searching into the Nature of the Truths themselves Hence it is that the generality of them are no longer Religious than that they find their Pastor to square his Life by his Doctrine and every Immorality discover'd in their Teacher they make the sufficient occasion of Absolving them not only from their Regard or Respect to him but even God himself Thus amongst some sensual inconsiderate Men I have frequently met with such pitiful Argumentation as this They knew a Dr. of Divinity that was Drunk They heard another Swear A third they found in Secret with a Prostitute A fourth they saw Gaming A fifth they heard was Covetous and a miserable Oppressor c. And presently follows this Ergo All Religion in gross is no more than Priest craft the Body of Divinity a well contriv'd Romance the great and mighty Props of it are all presently shook to pieces and our Belief of a God his Providence and the Souls separate Existence or Independency are now ridicul'd for meer Fables The Sum of all is this The Parsons Preach for Money get many Livings and grow Rich whilst they in the mean time till they discover'd the Cheat were hindred from the Pursuit of their natural Desires and kept under Apprehension of Invisible Powers a Life to come and they know not what frightful Bugbears Heaven and Hell Devils and damned Spirits which they now find to be a Dream for since the slip of the Clergy-man has open'd their Eyes they find nothing but Nature Time and Chance say they attends us all And here the words of Solomon come pat to their purpose which he gives us as the natural Arguments of wicked Men for the overthrow of Religion I said in my heart concerning the estate of the Sons of of Men that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are Beasts for that which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them as the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath so that a Man hath no preheminence above a Beast for all is vanity All go unto one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth downward to the Earth Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better then that a Man should rejoyce in his own works for that is his Portion for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him This is now become the common Language of the Libertine and if the intestine Dictator Conscience takes the advantage of some lucid Interval and whispers them in the Ear with what 's to come their Hearts-ease is still ready and a Post Mortem nihil est or their Sempiternal Hush lulls all asleep I wou'd by no means have you to take this as a Reflection in general upon the Pastoral Function for God be thanked there are many of them as remarkable for their Learning as conspicuous for their unfeigned Piety and did their Adversaries come up with some of the meanest of them in the Government and Conduct of their Lives they wou'd think it an insupportable Grievance to their Natures to be abridg'd their Liberty or ty'd to the Exercise of almost any single Act of Mortification and Self-denial whilst at the same time every little Immorality in these Men is lookt on through a Magnifying Glass and the same which they account a Venial Fault or Peccadillo in themselves must be deemed in the other a Crime of the first magnitude an unpardonable Transgression Being oblig'd in prosecution of the following Discourse to remove what Difficulties I cou'd out of the way and to mention at least some of the mighty Obstacles of our Faith amongst others I have been necessitated to touch upon the Clergy whom we are too
than a Temperament resulting from the Mixture which as it adds nothing substantial to the Prae-existing Matter the Soul it self seems to be from thence a meer Ens Rationis or only an Extrinsic Denomination Whoever makes a scrutinous Enquiry into their Sentiments will find this the beloved Opinion not only of our Modern profest Atheists but of those also who have skreen'd themselves under the less harsh and more acceptable Name of Deists If you think fit to pay any Deference to Men not only on the account of their Sobriety but for their profound Learning and Metaphisical Acquirements the two following I doubt not are unquestionable for both I mean Dr. Moor and Mr. Robert Boyle The first of them defines the Soul of Man i.e. the Rational to be an immaterial Substance endow'd with Life and the Faculty of Motion vertually containing in it Penetrability and Indiscerpibility The judicious Esquire Boyle has been pleas'd to own That he knew of nothing naturally speaking that was compos'd of Matter and a Substance distinct from Matter except Man who is made up of an Immaterial Form and a Humane Body It were endless to cite the Opinions of all Learned Men who have deliver'd their Sentiments about this Subject I find in the general with very little variation they have concluded thus That the Superior or Rational Soul in Man is a most pure Substance Immaterial Penetrable and Indivisible Essentially Vital Perceptive and Appetitive animating an Humane organized Body Before I set about the justifying this Definition I conceive it requisite that we have a right understanding not only that there is an essential Difference between ouâ— Souls and those of other Creatures but wherein also the same consists For give me leave to take notice to you I am apt enough to believe with a certain late Author That the Cartâ—sian Hypothesis which allows Brutes to be no more than insensible Macâ—iâ—â—s has been very injurious to our rightly conceiving the reasonable Soul of Man for indeed the Notion in it self notwithstanding its many Favourites is so repugnant to common Observation and Experience and withal so very harsh and incredible that had it not been for the blind respect which is paid by most Men to its Founder on the account of his Ingenuity and Penetration of Thought it cou'd never have so long impos'd upon the Credit of his Disciples Neither is it to be thought strange That Cartes who had deny'd the possibility of sensible Atoms shou'd start this Assertion concerning Brutes for the support of his Hypothesis for when he had allow'd but one Principle both of Sense and Reason to Man and endeavour'd to prove this Principle superiour to any Power in Matter when after this the whole stress of our Immortality was laid upon the Immateriality of the Soul he did well enough foresee that by granting Sense to Brutes he must also grant them actuated by a Principle above Matter and Immateriality being his grand Proof of Immortality they must necessarily come in with Man for a share in this Prerogative To avoid which Absurdity being at the same time unable to understand that meer Matter however modify'd shou'd be capable of Sensation he fixes upon one as great and tells us there is none but Man amongst the Creatures that is both capable of Sense and Reason and that Brutes are only some of the more curiously contriv'd Machins devoid of Sense Feeling or Perception Thus much may indeed be said in the behalf of this great Man That it is really unaccountable to Humane Reason that Matter shou'd be sensible but yet it was too bold an Adventure utterly to deny its possibility when at the same instant we have a full Assurance that it is so It is altogether as unintelligible that Matter and Spirit shou'd influence and have such mutual Commerce with each other as we experience in our selves However inconsistent both may seem to our finite Understandings they are by no means to be thought so with a Divine and Infinite Capacity or Power upon which account and the certain assurance that Brutes are capable of Sensation those who allow'd hereof but yet wou'd have Sense and Reason to arise from the same Source were reduc'd to that miserable Subterfuge That it was possible the Souls of Brutes were but so many particular Eradiations or Effluxes from the Spring of Life above when and wheresoever there is any fitly prepar'd Matter capable to receive them and to be actuated by them to have a sence and fruition of themselves in it so long as it continues such but so soon as ever those organized Bodies of theirs by reason of their Indisposition become incapable of being farther actuated by them then to be resum'd again and retracted back to their Original Fountain In supposing thus we must believe both a prae and post Eternal Existence of brutal Souls but if this won't do there are others who wou'd perswade us of the probability that the Souls of Brutes as they are created out of nothing may be annihilated by the same Power and so with as much likelyhood may the Soul of Man These are some of the dangerous Consequences and Inconveniencies attending that monstrous Opinion That Reason and Sensation are Affections of one and the same Soul To remove which Difficulties and in order to our arrival at a clearer Knowledge of our whole Compositum I shall as briefly as I can attempt a Proof that the Soul of Brutes altho' sensible is Corporeal That Brutes are sensible says a late Author we have the same certainty as one Man can have that another Man is sensible supposing that other Man were Dumb. I cannot feel the Impressions made upon another Man of Pain Hunger and Thirst but must judge of them by outward Indications and I have all the same outward Indications that Brutes feel all these as I have that any Man feels them and therefore it wou'd be ridiculous to go about to prove this by particular Instances That the Brutish Soul is Material I come to understand because it is extended and divisible being made up of the Vital Spirits and the Arterial Blood their Vehicle and by the Rivulets of the Nerves they are communicated from the Brain to all the Sentient parts of the Body which therefore are endow'd with the power of performing Animal Actions If you object That this will prove no more than that the Immaterial Substance is so closely united to the Material that it perceives every impression made upon the Body I reply That we cou'd not then feel distinct Pains in several parts but the Pain must be equally felt over the whole Body for the Soul bâ—ing indivisible it cannot feel in parts but the whole must feel and conâ—equâ—ntly the whole Body seem in equal pain Neither if this were true could there be any degrees of Pain in the Sâ—ntiâ—nt Parts but a Cut in the Flesh wou'd sâ—art as much as a Cut amongst the Nerves for there can be
actuating the nervous System after their wonted manner by the same Series produce local Motions by which the hungry Horse is carry'd from place to place till he has found out the imagin'd Pasture and indeed enjoys that good the Image whereof was painted in his Brain After this manner the sensible Species being intromitted by the benefit of the Exterior Organs in the more perfect Brutes for that they affix their Characters on the Brain and there leave them they constitute the Faculties of Phancy and Memory as it were Store-houses full of Notions farther stirring up the Appetite into local Motions agreeable to the Sensions frequently they produce an habit of acting so that some Beasts being taught or instructed for a long time by the assiduous Incursions of the Objects are able to know and remember many things and learn manifold Works i. e. to perform them by a complicated and continued Series and Succession of very many Actions Moreover this kind of acquir'd knowledge of the Brutes and the practick Habits introduced by the Acts of the Senses are sometimes promoted by other means to a greater degree of Perfection Living Brutes are taught by Example by the Imitation and Institution of others of the same or of a divers kind to perform certain more excellent Actions Hence it is that the Ape so plainly imitates Man that by some it is thought a more imperfect Species of him for this Animal being extreamly mimical as it is endow'd with a most caepactous and hot Brain it imitates to an hair almost all the Gestures that it happens to see presently with a ready and expeditious composing of its Members and is furnisht with a notable Memory and retains all its Tricks which it hath once acted very firmly afterwards being wont to repeat them at its pleasure Yet notwithstanding t is very clear and apparent that Brutes are directed to all things which belong to the Defence and Conservation of the Individuum and that are to be done for the Propagation of their Kinds by a natural Instinct as it were a Law or Rule fixed in their Hearts when as therefore we behold for these ends ordained by Divine Providence Brutes to order their Matters wisely and as it were by Counsel no Man esteems this the Work of Reason or any Liberal Faculty for they are led into these Enterprises by a certain Predestination rather than by any proper Vertue or Intention Having given you this Account of the Soul of Brutes prov'd the same a Corporeal Divisible Substance whose peculiar residence is in the Blood and Spirits and evinced their knowledge not to exceed the powers of Sensation and Imagination it is time that we return to discourse of the Rational Soul of Man and if it can be discover'd that there is a Principle of Action in him which proceeds from a different way of Operation than Sensation doth and that there are such Operations of this Soul which are not Imaginations it will be then as clear that there is a Principle in Man higher than Matter and Motion and impossible without a spiritual immaterial Being to solve those Appearances in him which thus transcend the Power of Imagination The renowned Philosopher Gassendus has given sufficient proof That the Sensitive Soul in Man is exactly the same with that of Brutes Corporeal Extended Native and Corruptible but that the Rational is a Substance purely Incorporeal and Immortal Dr. Hammond in his Notes upon Thessalonians v. 23. says Man consists of three Parts First the Body which denotes the Flesh and Members Secondly the Vital Soul which Animal and Sensitive Soul is common to Man and Brute Thirdly Spirit which is the Rational Soul This Division he confirms by the Testimony of Heathen Authors and ancient Fathers So that those who disregard the Scriptures may in these admirable Authors be furnisht with other Authorities but those who do may consider what the Apostle saith in the foremention'd Text viz. I pray God your whole Body Soul and Spirit be preserved to which we may add what he says in another place The Word is sharper then a two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow The meaning whereof is Let things be never so closely united God can separate them but then they must be in their nature separable or else it implys a Contradiction So that if the Soul and Spirit are separable we have gain'd our Point if they are not the Apostle has told us that can be which cannot be But further This Truth that there is two distinct Souls in Man is by the Apostle demonstrated from the dictates of Internal Sense I find saith he a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the 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 which is in my Members So then with my Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sin Now what can be more expressive of two several perceptive Souls in Man whose Natures and whose Laws are contrary to each other But perhaps you 'l say These contrary Laws do indeed arise because Man is a Compound of contrary Natures yet there is but one perceptive Nature in him but that Nature having the several Faculties of Reason and Sensation and being united to Flesh whereby the Sensitive Faculty may be gratify'd hence arises the War between Sense and Reason To which I answer Thus far then we are agreed that Sense is the Source of all Carnal Delights Pains and Aversions therefore Sense is no Faculty of the Spirit or all Carnal Delights Lusts and Passions spring from the Spirit and what excellent sence would this make the Apostle speak I find a Law in my Mind warring against the Law of my Mind so then with the Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Mind the Law of Sin for if Sense be a Faculty of the Mind the Laws of Sense are are as much the Laws of the Mind as the Laws of Reason The Soul and Spirit by reason of their close unaccountable Union have also unaccountable mutual Influences upon each other but for all that their contrary Natures are very discernable and to make Sense and Reason Faculties of the Spirit is to make the Spirit as the Man a Compound of contrary Natures for that Sense and Reason are of contrary Natures is discernable from the natural and constant strugglings and contentions between them Secondly From the natural Fruit they bring forth which is certainly contrary if Good and Evil are so wherefore we may with all imaginable certainty affirm the Souls of all meer Animals and the Sensitive Soul of Man to be Corporeal but the Rational Soul of Man to be truly a Spiritual Immaterial Substance if there were not such a Substance in
of the Humane Soul and whatever else belongs to the Science of Metaphysics which teacheth us to abstract from all Matter and Quantity Nay I presume it will not be accounted Paradoxical in me to affirm that Immaterial Objects are most genuine and natural to the Understanding especially since Cartes hath irrefutably demonstrated that the knowledge we have of the Existence of the Supream Being and of our own Souls is more certain clear and distinct than the knowledge of any Corporeal Nature whatever according to that Canon of Aquinas Nulla res qualiscunque est c. The Moral Considerations usually brought in defence of the Soul 's Incorruptibility are principally three 1. The Universal Consent of Mankind 2. Man's inseparable Appetite of Immortality 3. The Justice of God in rewarding good Men and punishing evil Men after Death Now as Cicero judiciously observes Omni in re consentio omnium Gentium Lex naturae putanda est and thus the Notion of the Soul's Immortality is so implanted in the Nature and Mind of Man that whoso denies it doth impugn his own Natural Principles As for that common Objection the Alteration observable in Infancy and old Age we may answer with the great Master of Nature at least one so esteem'd by some Innasci autem Intellectus videtur substantia quaedam esse nec corrumpi nam si corrumperetur quidem id maxime fieret ab habitatione illa quae in Senectute contingit nunc autem res perinde fit ac in ipsismet sensuum instrumentis si enim Senex Occulum Juvenilem reciperet non secus ac ipse Juvenis videret unde Senectus non ex eo est quod quidquam passa Anima sit fed quod simile aliquid ac in Ebrietate morbisque eveniat ipsaque intelligendi contemplandi functio propter aliquid aliud interius corruptum marcescit cum ipsum interim cujus est passionis expers maneat Which words consider'd we have good reason to affirm that all that Change which the Epicurean would have to be in the Rational Soul or Mind during the growth of the Body in Youth and decay of it in old Age doth not proceed from any Mutation in the Soul it self but some other Interiour thing distinct from it as the Imagination or Organ of the common Sense the Brain which being well or ill affected the Soul it self suffereth not at all but only the Functions of it flourish or decay accordingly for as the Philosopher remarks if it were possible to give an old Man a young Eye and a young Imagination his Soul would soon declare by exquisite vision and quick reasoning that it was not she that had grown old but her Organs and that she is capable of no more Change from the impairment of the Body than is usually observed to arise pro tempore from a fit of Drunkenness or some Disease of the Brain so that it is evident from hence that whatever Change Men have thought to be in the Soul by reason of that great decay generally attending old Age to not really in the Soul but only in the Imagination and the Organs thereof which are not so well dispos'd as in the Vigour of Life In like manner are we to understand that the Soul when the Members grow cold and mortify'd doth then indeed instantly cease to be in them yet is not cut off by piece-meal or diminisht and gradually dissipated but the whole of it remains in so much of the Body as yet continues warm and perfused by the Vital Heat until ceasing longer to animate the principle Seat of its Residence whether the Brain or Heart it at length bids adieu to the whole and withdraweth it self entire and perfect so that Death is an Extinction of the Vital Flame and not of the Soul which as Solomon calls it is the brightness of the Everlasting Light the unspotted Mirror of the Power of God and the Image of his Goodness and being but one she can do all things and remaining in her self she maketh all things new The like may be said with relation to those failings observable in swooning fits which fall not upon the Soul but on the Vital Organs at those times render'd unfit for the uses and actions to which they were framed and accommodated and if the Causes of such failings shou'd happen to be so violent as to bring on a sudden Death then the Soul must indeed depart yet not by reason of any dissolution in its Substance or imbecility in it self but for want of those dispositions in the Organs of Life by which she was enabled to enliven the Body Now if saith this Author in such a Thesis or Proposition which is not capable of being evinced by Geometrical Demonstration there can yet be expected such substantial and satisfactory Reasons Physical or Moral as may suffice to the full establishment of its Truth in the Mind of a reasonable Man If this be granted I thence argue 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 To be convinc'd of our Immortality and satisfactorily perswaded whether or no there is any thing in us which shall not perish with the Life we are shortly to lay down is of so great and so important Consequence that I can readily expect your forgiveness if I trespass upon your Patience and inlarge a little farther upon this weighty Argument That there is somewhat in us essentially differing from distinct and superior to other Animals or that the Rational Soul of Man bears no Analogy with the Souls of other Creatures is farther elegantly toucht upon in these words of Dr. Willis The Eminency of the Rational Soul above the Brutal or Corporeal shines clearly by comparing either both as to the Objects and to the chief Acts or Modes of Knowing As to the former whenâ—â— every Corporeal Faculty is limited to sensible Things the Object of the Humane Mind is every Ens whether above or sublâ—mary material or immaterial true or fictitious real or intentional The Acts or Degrees of Knowledge common to either Soul are vulgarly accounted these three to wit Simple Apprehension Enunciation and Discourse How much the power of the Rational excels the other which is Corporeal we shall consider 1. The knowing Faculty of the Corporeal Soul is Phantasie or Imagination which being planted in the middle part of the Brain receives the sensible Species first only impressed on the Organs of Sense and from thence by a most quick irradiation of the Spirits deliver'd inwards and so apprehends all the several Corporeal Things according to their Exterior Appearances which notwithstanding as they are perceived only by the Sense which is often deceived they are admitted under an appearing and not always under a true Image or Species for so we imagine the Sun no bigger than a Bushel the Horizon of the Heaven and the Sea to meet
cum dividi quod si non pâ—ssit non pâ—ssit interire There is a very remarkable Account I have somewhere read of one whom we might reasonably believe if he had ever heard of such a thing as Priestcraft was above the reach of its Infection and too well acquainted with the Knowledge of Material Powers at least in his own Conceit to admit or suffer an Imposition upon his Reason not to keep you in suspense 't is Aristotle I mean of whom Averroes one of his Commentators gives this Encomium Complevit Artes Scientias nullus corum qui secuti sunt cum usque ad hoc tempus quod est mille quingentorum Annorum quidquam addidit nec invenies in ejus verbis Errorem alicujus quantitatis talem esse vertutem in Individio uno Miraculosum Extraneum existit haec Dispositio cum in uno Homine reperitur dignus est esse divinus magis quam humanus In another place he speaks thus Landemus Deum qui seperavit hunc Virum ab aliis in perfectione appropriavitque ei ultimam dignitatem humanam quam non omnis Homo potest in quacunque aetate attingere Again saith he Aristotelis Doctrina est summa veritas quoniam ejus Intellectus fuit finis humani Intellectus quare bene dicitur de eo quod ipse fuit creatus datus nobis ut non ignoremus possibilia sciri Yet this wonderful Philosopher if we may credit this Character who has set so many Learned Men contesting about his Principles and diving into his Opinion of the great Soul of Man notwithstanding he had thought of all the subtil Subterfuges his Wit could devise to evade acknowledging its distinct Subsistence and amongst others had invented for he owns himself its first Broacher that impossible Notion of the Worlds Eternity yet is it reported of him that he was so fully convinc'd of the separate Being of his own Soul that immediately before his Exit he is said earnestly to have cry'd out to this purpose En dubitans vixi moriensque Animae quid accidet sum ignotus Tu ergo Domine Essentiarum 〈◊〉 Miserere mei I hope now the preceding Passages will in some measure convince you of this great Truth That it has been not only the Opinion of particular Men but a kind of Universal Belief in Mankind that their Soul's wou'd survive their Bodies and that the very Ethnicks themselves who were capable of an abstracted Speculation and thoroughly acquainted with the Powers of their own Minds have by Evidence from Natural Light subscrib'd this Confession either openly in words or secretly by their apparent Doubts and Fears of a Life to come To conclude Let me request you when your Soul is the least ruffled with Anxiety or Perturbation and your rational Faculties with Sensual Delights and Satisfactions when your Mind is most serene most Calm and Lucid to divest your self but for some few Moments of all gross Ideas and material Images and perhaps by the free and considerate Exercise of some Reflex Act that Intuitive Knowledge may so inlighten your Understanding as I hope to convince you that the Rational and Thinking Part of you which enjoys this great Prerogative must be infinitely above the Powers of Matter under whatever Modification and that your Capacity to know things by this kind of Reflection which have no manner of Relation to Material Idea's neither yet are represented in the Brain by any Corporeal Image is perfect Demonstration that there are Beings of a Spiritual Incorporeal Nature that your Superiour or Rational Soul is of this Class infuâ—â—â—â—â— thereinto by the Almighty Author of all Things I remain my very good Friend most affectionately Yours London Jan. 30. 1691 POSTSCRIPT THat the preceding Discourse may be the more entertaining I have here taken an opportunity of presenting you with an Epitomy of the Sentiments of two famous Men. The Hypotheses are both new or at least were never as I have heard deliver'd to us before in such Regular Systems the First is that of Monsieur Malebranch where discoursing of our Sensations he endeavours to establish the following Notion That they are neither such as we have all along accounted them nor do they at all reside in those Parts we have supposed or to speak more intelligibly That our Sense whether of Heat Colours Tasts Sounds c. is nothing real in the Object nor yet in the Part which is believ'd the Sentient To instance in one of these that upon the approach of your Hand to the Fire the Heat you apprehend is neither in the Fire nor in your Hand but a pure Modification of your Soul it self which is thus variously modefy'd by the Supream Being at the presentment of the several Objects In his Explaining this he takes notice to us that in this approach of the Hand to the Fire there is nothing but an invisible Motion in the Fire or Hand in the former by the continual Expulsion of igneous Particles against the Fibres of the Hand and in the Hand a Motion or Division of the same Fibres by the intrusion of the fiery Particles And thus saith he that we may not neglect the Care and Preservation of the several Parts of our Bodies it hath pleased the Almighty Maker of them to new modifie our Souls after so wonderful a manner that when any Danger approaches which wou'd prejudice their make or structure we shou'd apprehend our Pains and Disorders and feel them as it were in those places where the Danger lyes without conceiving at the same time the Modification of our Souls and this will hold in every of our Sensations which are nothing real any where unless in the Soul it self This may now inform us that we should be very cautious in giving Credit to the Testimony of our Senses which do for the most part involve us in most of our Mistakes for these are not given us to inform us of the Truth of Things but only as they stand related to the Preservation of our Bodies That this Argument may be enforced with a farther Perspicuity here is another signal Instance of the general Errors into which amongst the other Senses our Sight betrays us in reference to Light and Colours When we have lookt upon the Sun for some time this is what passes in our Eyes and in our Souls and these are the Errors we fall into Those who know the first Elements of Dioptricks and any thing of the admirable Structure of our Eyes are not ignorant that the Rays of the Sun are refracted in the Crystaline and other Humours and that they meet afterwards upon the Retâ—â—â— or Expansion of the Optic Nerve which as it were furnishes with Hangings all the bottom of the Eyes even as the Rays of the Sun which pass through a Convex Glass meet together in the Focus at two three or four Fingers breadth distant in proportion to its convexity Now Experience shows that if one
put at the Focus of the Convex Glass a little piece of Stuff or brown Paper the Rays of the Sun make so great an impression upon this Stuff or Paper and agitate the small Particles thereof with so great a violence that they break and separate them from one another in a word they burn them or reduce them into Smoak and Ashes Thus we must conclude from this Experience that if the Pupil through which the Light passes were so dilated that it wou'd admit an easie passage for the Rays of the Sun or on the contrary were so contracted as to obstruct them our Retina wou'd suffer the same thing as the Paper or piece of Stuff and the Fibres wou'd be so very much agitated that they wou'd soon be broken and burnt It is for this Reason that most Men are sensible of a Pain if they look upon the Sun but for one moment because they cannot so well close up the Orifice of the Pupil but that there will enter sufficient Rays to agitate the Strings of the Optic Nerve with much violence and not without danger of breaking them The Soul has no knowledge of what we have spoke and when it looks upon the Sun it neither perceives its Optic Nerve noâ— any Motion in it But that 's not the Error 't is only a simple Ignorance The first Error it falls into is that it judges the Pain it feels is in its Eyes If immediately after looking upon the Sun we go into a dark place with our Eyes open the Motion of the Fibres of the Optic Nerve caused by the Rays of the Sun diminishes and changes by little and little this is all the Change that can be perceived in the Eyes however 't is not what the Soul perceives there but only a white and yellow Light Its second Error is it judges that the Light it sees is in the Eyes or upon the next Wall In fine the Agitation of the Fibres of the Retina always diminishes and ceases by little and little for when a Body has been shaken nothing can be perceived in it but a diminution of its Motion but 't is not that which the Soul perceives in its Eyes it sees the White become an Orange colour afterwards Red and then Blue and the reason of this Error is that we judge there are Changes in our Eyes or upon the next Wall that differ much as to the more or less because the Blue Orange and Red colours which we see differ much otherwise amongst themselves besides in the more or less These are some Errors which we are subject to in reference to Light and Colours and these Errors beget many others Thus the Learned and Devout Father proceeds in this Sublime and Curious Speculation and whatever Consequences may be drawn by designing Men from the Modification of our Souls by the Supream Being as might be instanc't in some few Particulars yet most certainly there are many weighty Truths depending on this noble Theory and whoever dives into the bottom of the Notion may not unlikely find that however some Superficial Wits may calumniate and despise it his Divine Faith may be exalted and a more profound Esteem and Veneration raised for that Power from whom is derived all the Benefits we can enjoy By a serious Enquiry of this Nature we might undoubtedly arrive at a more certain Account of the Nature and Usefulness of that infinite number of little Beings which we call Species and Idea's which are as nothing and which represent all things that we create and destroy when we please and that our Ignorance hath made us imagine to render a Reason for Things that we understand not we should likewise be enabled to show the solidity of their Opinion who believe God is the true Father of Light who only instructs all Men without whom the most simple Truths cou'd not be intelligible nor wou'd the Sun how bright soever be so much as visible to us And of theirs who acknowledge no other Nature than the Will of God and who upon such like Reflections have confessed that the Idea's which represent the Creatures to us are only the Perfections of the Divine Being which answer to those same Creatures and represent them to us The second of these new Hypotheses tho' I conceive its first rise from the same Fountain with the former yet I find the same very strenuously pleaded for and judiciously vindicated by our Country-man Mr. Norris and this is the Doctrine of the Divine Light as it relates to the Humane Intellect of which that I may give you a short Specimen or briefly hint to you I must take notice that in one part of his Treatise he cites Monsieur Malebranch who considering with himself all the possible ways of Humane Understanding or whereby we come to have the Idea's of things without us makes this Division or Enumeration of them 1. It is necessary that these Idea's should either proceed from the Objects Or 2. that our Mind has a power of producing them Or 3. That God should produce them either with the Mind when he creates it or occasionally as often as we think of any Object 4 Or that the Mind should possess in it self all the Perfections which it sees in things Or 5thly and lastly that it be united to some absolutely perfect Being that includes in himself all the Perfections of Created Beings After this Enumeration I find that both the Father and after him Mr. Norris have pitched upon the last of these as the only Expedient to help us in the manner of our Knowledge or Understanding and it is on the same Basis that the latter hath erected the following Scheme I. Whereas saith he the Qu rs talk of this Light within as of some Divine Communication or Manifestation only I make it to be the very Essence and Substance of the Deity which I suppose virtually to contain all things in it and to be intimately united to our Minds II. They represent this Light within as a sort of extraordinary Inspiration whence they have the name of Enthusiasts whereas according to my Notion it is a Man's natural and ordinary way of Understanding III. Farther if I mistake not They confine their Light within to some certain Objects namely Moral and Spiritual Truths in order only to the Direction of Practise and accordingly make it a Suppliment to Scripture which they say is not sufficient without it nor indeed any more than a meer dead Letter On the other hand I appropriate not this Divine Light to Moral or Spiritual Truths or Things but extend it as far as all Truth yea as far as all that is intelligible which I believe to be perceived and understood in this Divine Light as I explain it IV. They viz. the Q rs make their Light within a special Priviledge of a certain Order of Men their own Party not indeed as to the possibility because they suppose all Men to be indifferently capable of this Divine
durable impression thereon or in other words they grave as it were Prints more deep or superficial according to our continued view of the said Objects and hence it follows that our Animal Spirits have not only a more difficult or ready Inlet into the Traces which are cut out but also into those Nerves which excite the Motions of our Bodies subservient to us or by whose assistance we procure to our selves the desired Object accordingly as we have indulged the Thought of prosecuting the same For the better illustration hereof If at any time we are intent upon or please our selves with any lewd Idea if we keep the whole bent of our Minds upon the same and are both solicitous to obtain and uneasie till we have accomplisht our impure Designs We must expect that the same or the like Object will make a very durable Print or very deep Vestigia in our Brains that the Traces into the same will lye always open and the said Object is no sooner excited afterwards but the Spirits as it were of their own accord rush in and even compel us almost contrary to our Desires to will those Motions of our Bodies which were before employ'd in its prosecution and attainment This is the true Mechanic Process the Objects that are about us must excite in us some Sensation or other and as we pursue or fly its appearance or more or less keep up the Idea there will be consequently the firmer or slighter Trace drawn out and accordingly the same will either continually approach or withdraw from us So that by the repeated prosecution of the beloved Object these Vestigia are so very plain and open and afford so easie a passage to the income of our Spirits that it is very much if for a long time after the same should be obliterated or the said Avenues blockt up Again It is by the frequent or reiterated Indulgence of our Thoughts and cherishing our Idea's that the Sensitive or Inferiour Soul gets the Ascendant over us 't is by these means that we contract our Habits and in this the force of them consists which when we have done all that lyes in our power to highten and aggravate our unhappy Circumstances when we have after this manner suffer'd an ill Habit to get the Victory over us and to subjugate our Strength to allure our Passions to its free command we then cry out of the Frailty of our Natures exclaim against our Maker or else justifie our detestable Actions and foolishly please our selves in thinking that God Almighty would not have implanted these Appetites within us if he design'd that we shou'd not satiate our selves in their Enjoyments if not they expect that however by their own voluntary Actions they have with their whole strength heartily embraced the sinful Thought and as desirously brought the same into a repeated Act by which means the Traces in their Brains lye so open to receive their Spirits here I say they expect Omnipotence to intervene and by a Miracle to close up the Prints they have engraven to snatch from them the Idea's they are hugging with all their might or to intercept the passages of the Nerves that their Animal Spirits may not fall into those parts by which they are to obtain their short-liv'd Satisfactions Surely there is no reasonable Man will countenance the folly of this Plea nor can he who rightly considers the Fabrick of our Bodies the Organization of our Brains and the necessity for sensible Objects to leave their Marks upon the same think it a fair Impeachment of the Divine Wisdom or Justice especially if he reflects upon that high Prerogative we enjoy above the sensitive Soul and that it is within the Sphear of our Reason to obviate these Disorders to correct the Irregularities of our Senses and by the practise of contrary Habits to set us out of the reach of those Mischiefs we should be exposed to How these Disorders may be corrected and the Vestigia which have been imprest by former Objects wiped out I have toucht upon elsewhere and indeed were not Matters thus to be transacted were our Objects elected to our hands and we not able of our selves to choose some and reject others I see not any business for the Exercise of our Reason or any advantage we could brag of above necessitated Agents A considerate view of this kind of Imagery thus transacted in the Brain will not only inform us of the Mode of Imagination but will also give us some small insight into the extraordinary Effects of an over-heated Phantasie and direct us to an Explication of some of the prodigious Phaenomena and extravagant Actions of our late Visionaries or wild Enthusiasts who by a constant application of their Minds to some particular Idea come at length to have the same so strongly imprest upon their Brains that the whole Systasis of the Soul is taken up as it were aâ—d loseth it self in its Contemplation the Vestigia are so deeply cut and all others at that time effac'd that the tendency of their Spirits altogether is into these Footsteps the Acts of Reason and Understanding are laid aside the Result is this They quickly grow giddy by an uninterrupted Thought upon the same Object they fall into a sort of Madness and Delirium at some times dangerous to themselves and those about them they are possest with invincible Opinions and Conceits of extraordinary Illuminations Illapses of the Spirit and Revelations finally by the contracted Disorders of the Nervous System they are often seiz'd with very direful Paroxysms believe themselves in Rapts and Extasies and when the Fit is over endeavour to perswade the By-standers that they have been the Lord knows where and received a Divine Mandate or Commission to do the Lord knows what I was never over-credulous in the business of Possessions but doubtless according to some very impartial and faithful Accounts some of these I am speaking of have been pure Daemoniacks and the unaccountable Phaenomena they have exhibited have been clear Indications of a Praestigious Delusion or Satanical Power According to the Relation of a Learned Man my late Acquaintance whose Residence has been for many years in New-Eng that Country has been the Stage on which abundance of these Tragae-Comedies as he was pleas'd to call them have been acted He gave me at our last Conference a very Rational Account of several Instances of this Nature particularly two which I was almost surpriz'd at their Names I shall designedly forbear to publish The one had been a particular Acquaintance of this Gentleman 's for some years past He told me he always lookt upon him to be as Harmless and Innocent as he knew him to be Ignorant but of late he began to retire more than ordinarily from Conversation and betray'd in all his Actions in his Gesture Speech Motion and Behaviour all the approaching Symptoms of a mad Enthusiast It was not long before he betook himself to the Society of half a dozen
our Souls may operate and be capable of Pleasure and Pain when separated from Body For if the Soul were no more than a Crasis of the Body it wou'd be capable of no other Distemper than what arises from the Compression or Dilatation of Matter or from the Obstruction and Turgescency of Humors Since therefore we find it subject to Maladies which spring meerly from Moral Causes and which are no more curable by the Prescripts of Physicians than the Stone or Gout are to be remov'd by a Lecture in Philosophy we have sufficient Cause to believe it of an Incorporeal Nature Farther The Essences of Things are best known by their Operations and the best guess we can make of the Nature and Condition of Beings is from the Quality of their Actions while therefore by contemplating our selves we find that we do elicite Actions which do exceed the Power of Matter and the most subtil Motion of Corporeal Particles we have all imaginable ground to think that we are possessed of a Principle Immaterial as well as Intellectual He who considers that there is not one perfect Organ in the Humane Body but the Parallel of it is to be met with in the noblest sort of brute Animals and yet that there are divers Operations performed by Men that no Beast whatever is capable of doing the like must need apprehend that the Rational Soul is not a Corporeal Faculty nor a Contexture of Material Parts To prove this we have already instanc'd in the Acts of Intellection viz. 1. The Acts of simple Apprehension 2. Acts of Judgment 3. Acts of Ratiocination 4. Acts of Reflection 5. Acts of Correcting the Errours and Mistakes of the Imagination And lastly Acts of Volition or those whereby we choose and refuse by a Self-determinating Power according as things are estimated remaining exempt from all Coaction and Necessitation by the Influence of any Principle foreign to it All these are impossible to Matter because that acts always according to the swing of Irresistible Motion nor can it be courted or solicited to Rest when under the forcible Impulse of a stronger Movent So that whatever insensibility you may fancy of a Soul divested of Corporeal Organs you will experience that as the Body is unconcern'd in any thing but Sensation there will remain a Power of Exerting those Superiour Acts and Faculties which have no relation thereunto and consequently a Capacity to suffer Pain or Pleasure the Rewards and Punishments of a well or ill spent Life for it is not Sense but Reflection that wounds the Conscience Sense it 's true may divert the Pain but can never make it and when Death puts an end to sensible Diversions the never-dying Worm may lash without controul In fine if bad Men were sure to undergo no other Pains or Horrors and if the good were sure to receive no more Joys or Pleasures till the Resurrection than proceed out of the Heaven or Hell they carry with them and from the certain and constant Expectations of another that might be sufficient if well consider'd to deter Men from Vice and to encourage them to Righteousness but the Scriptures intimate more and plainly inform us that the Souls of bad Men are immediately upon Death translated to a place of Torment and the Souls of the Good to a place of Joy and Happiness whether those Places are what we generally understand by Heaven and Hell or whether or no the Completion of our Happiness or Misery shall precede the ultimate Judgment will not certainly be determined till we make the Experiment Thus Sir having given you my own together with the more weighty Opinions of other Men as to the Business of Religion I hope the Light set up in your Understanding will put you upon Embracing what upon a serious attention to the same you find unquestionable I am far from insinuating the Necessity of an implicite Faith or perswading you to shut your Eyes and leave the rest to your Guide God Almighty has made you a reasonable Creature and if you make a right use of that Divine Prerogative you need not fear a secure Passage into the Harbour of solid Happiness What pains soever some may take absolutely to exclude Reason from having any thing to do in Divinity or however lightly they may esteem it this will be found certain that we have no surer Pilot when we first set out to keep us from the Rocks of Atheism on the one side and from Superstition Polytheism and Idolatry on the other or indeed any other Director to secure us from making Shipwrack of our Faith than the pure Acts of our unprejudiced Understandings which I call right Reason A Superficial Knowledge may raise some unhappy Doubts and a light smattering especially in some kinds of Philosophy may draw us into the danger of Infidelity with respect to our Immortality but all this we may be freed from by the Exercise of a true Judgment and a solid Enquiry in Physicks or after the Nature and true Causes of Things will with no other difficulty more than serious attention and application help us to dispel those Errors of our Intellects It is not enough what some Men think that a Man is able to account for some of the Appearances in Nature by the Aristotelian Doctrine of Qualities and Forms or the Cartesian of Geometrick Principles and then in a foolish Exultation to cry out Inveni or boast that there is nothing so abstruse but will admit of a Mechanic Explanation To give an Instance 'T is not sufficient that out of a Lecture upon the Opticks we explicate the manner of Vision by saying that the Figure and Colour of a visible Object make the Base of an imaginary Cone which is composed of a multitude of visual Rays and instantly convey'd through a lucid Medium to the Superficies of the Beholders Eye where a Section of the Apex of that Cone is refracted by the several Waters and Tunics and the Figure of the said Object being inverted by the Crystalline Humour is in the same posture lodged in the Retina from whence it is convey'd into the common Sensory Again It suffices not that in hearing we judge that different Percussions do beget infinite Spheric Figures of Aerial Motions which every where spread themselves till they meet with some harder Body that makes resistance which suppose to be the Ear in the Cavity of which the foresaid Figures of Aerial Motions suffer several reverberations and then make a percussion upon the Tympanum or Drum a nervous and pellucid Membrance of exquisite Sense and from thence are convey'd into the Brain However consentaneous these Conjectures may be to the Truth they are all I say too short of Satisfactory or Compleat Accounts there are yet insuperable Difficulties behind and we must expect perpetual Disputes about the Matter and Modification both of the visible and audible Species But admitting these also were fairly decided that Light Colours and Images are the same
Substance that the Rays which cause the visible Species are either certain Particles or Effluvia's darted from a lucid Body repercussed in their going forth and reflected variously here and there according to Gassendus or that these Particles beaming forth from the same lucid Body move other Particles of a Nitro-sulphureous Quality implanted in the Air and as it were by inkindling them render them luminous and these at length others and that so a diffusion on every side of Light or Images is propagated by a certain Undulation which is the more probable Opinion if we may credit Dr. Willis Farther Admitting in the Case of Hearing that the audible Species or Sonorisick Particles are a kind of Saline little Bodies after the manner described or some other way stirred up into act for the production of Sound in a word admitting the rest of the Senses the Touch the Smell and Taste and all other Phaenomena relating to the Humane Body might after some such manmer be explor'd by the Corpuscular Philosophy yet all this will not direct us to a knowledge of the Substance and Condition of our own Souls the Speculations of this Nature may indeed inform us that the Being which exerts such admirable Powers and judges so exquisitely of each of these Sensations must it self be independent both of Matter and Mechanism How then is it possible for any Man without a wilful blindness or debauch of his Understanding when he has made this Enquiry and satisfy'd himself in the wonderful and divine Contrivance of Structure in the several Organs destinated for so many Functions how is it I say that this shou'd incline a Man to Atheism unless contrary to the Dictates of his own Conscience he were resolv'd that way or how can we conceive a reasonable Creature so strangely degenerate from the rest of Mankind as to imagine where there can be nothing more conspicuous than the Workmanship of a most powerful and most intelligent Being that the same at first proceeded either from no Cause at all or one no better viz. Chance or Fortune So that to deal freely I can do no less than believe with a Modern Philosopher That whoever does profess Philosophy and thinks not rightly of God may be judg'd not only to have shaken hands with Religion but with his Reason also and that he hath at once put off Philosophy as well as Christianity The sum of this Argument lyes here That no Man can indeed scarce Reason at all or to be sure cannot Reason rightly and be Irreligious On the other hand to be truly and indeed Religious is to be truly Reasonable So that to put the Cause upon this Issue let us examine what it is that Right Reason teaches us whether it be to do Good or Evil Let us consider whether it point out unto us a direct and sure way to future Happiness or engage us in the Paths that lead to Destruction For if in effect it be Reason that imprints upon our Minds any Notion of Irreligion or that in any manner inclines us to Vice we ought undoubtedly to reject it without the least Hesitation but if on the contrary it appear that true Reason be the only Foundation both of true Piety and real Vertue and that any Pretence either to the one or to the other not built on Rational Principles may in truth be no other than the Effect of Superstition or Hypocrisie thâ—n certainly 't is our Duty to use our Reason as well in Matters of Religion as in any thing else It is this which must direct us in our Search of Holy Scriptures 't is this must guide us in our Enquiry after the Founder of the Christian Religion and when by our Reason we are perswaded of the Authority of the Sacred Writings and that the Penmen thereof were Supernaturally Inspired which as is intimated before we have abundant Reason to believe we must then let our Faith take place and not only assent unto those things which we can account for but even of those also which tho' not contrary to are above our Reason and must be acknowledg'd to surmount our Apprehension The Belief of a God of his Providence and of future Rewards and Punishments is that Faith which is the true and only Foundation of all Religion but the Foundation of that Faith lyes in the Perception we have of the Truth of those Things by that general Light or Capacity of discerning which is imparted to all Mankind All the Certainty saith the pious Father Malebranch which we can have in Matters of Faith depends upon that Knowledge which we have by reason of the Existence of a God and thus we see one inestimable Advantage derived to us by the right use of our Reason and a powerful Argument in favour of this Opinion That it is by Reason only we are made capable to lay the first Foundation of all Religion which is the certain Knowledge of the Existence of the Divine Being If you expect any Definition or Explication of this word Reason I may answer with a very Ingenious Man That by Reason is to be understood that steddy uniform Light that shines in the Minds of all Men that Divine Touchstone or Test by which all Men are enabled so far I mean as they are able to discern the Congruity and Incongruity of Propositions and thereupon to pronounce them true or false There are indeed different degrees of Clearness in the Intellectual Perception of different Men occasion'd by the different Degrees of Attention in themselves and the different Representation of Things from without but the Light by which all things are discerned is universally one and the same The Uniformity of this Light is the ground of all Intellectual Communication between Man and Man for if different Men saw always the same things in different Lights it wou'd be impossible for one Man by any Representation whatsoever to raise the same Conceptions in another Man's Mind that he has in his own and therefore it is that whatever extraordinary Illumination some Men may injoy it can only be of authority and useful to themselves or at most it can be only so far useful and of authority to others as those that enjoy it are able to give extraordinary proof of it All Matters of Religion even as all other Affairs of Humane Life are to be handled by Men in reference to one another in methods conformable to the Universal and Uniform Light of all Mankind By Religion I understand the Belief of the Existence of a God and the sense and practise of those Duties that result from the Knowledge we have of Him of our Selves and of the Relation we stand in to Him and to our fellow Creatures The Existence of a God is demonstrable from the Necessity of admitting some first Cause of all Things whatsoever that Cause be I call it God and the Idea that we have of this powerful â—â—cing arises from the Contemplation of those innumerable Perfections that
and Conceptions to which the Body gave no occasion so the Body is the Spring and Fountain of several Functions over which the Soul hath no Dominion nor any direct influence they remain as much distinct nothwithstanding the Union which intercedes between them as they would have done shou'd we suppose them to have had an Existence previous to their Confederations or as they shall be after the dissolution of the Lâ—â—gue between them From all which it may be Scientifically concluded That they are distinct and different Principles in Man's Constitutâ—on but whether thereupon he ought to be called a Compositum or they to be stiled Parts will be resolv'd into a meer Longomachy or Chat about Words tho' to speak my own Mind I see no Cause why Man may not properly enough obtain the Appellation of Compositum and the Soul and Body be allow'd for Constituent Parts Nor thirdly doth the Cartesian Hypothesis tho' the most ingenious and best contrived of any hitherto thought upon fully satisfie an inquisitive Mind in the Matter before us their Hypothesis is briefly this That God in his infinite Wisdom chose to create three distinct and different kinds of Beings 1. Some purely Material which through difference of the Figure Size Number Texture and Modification of their Parts come to multiply into many different Species 2. Some purely Immaterial among whom whether there be any Specifical Difference is Pro and Con disputed 3. Man a Compositum of both having an Immaterial Intellectual Soul joyned to an Organical Body Now say they God having in his Soveraign Pleasure thought good to form Man such a Creature he hath not only by an uncontroulable Law confined the Soul to an intimate Presence with and constant Residence in the Body while it remains a fit Receptacle or till he give it a discharge but withal hath made them dependent upon one another in many of their Operations and in this mutual dependence of one upon the other with respect to many of their Operations they state the Union betwixt the Soul and Body to consist for through the Impressions that are made upon the Organs of Sence there result in the Soul certain Perceptions and on the other hand through the Cogitations that arise in the Soul there ensue certain Emotions in the Animal Spirits and thus say they by the Action of each upon the other and their Passion from one another they are formally united But all this instead of loosing the Knot serves only to tye it faster For 1. this Mutual Dependancy as to Operation of one upon the other cannot be apprehended but in Posteriority of Nature to Union and consequently the formal Reason of Union cannot consist in it 2. There are Cases wherein neither the Impressions of outward Objects upon the Sensory Nerves beget or excite any Perceptions in the Soul which whether it proceed from obstinacy of Mind or intense Contemplation alike answers my drift and also Cases wherein Cogitations of the Mind make not any sensible Impressions upon the Body as in Extasies and yet the Union of the Soul and Body remains undissolved which argues that it imports more than either an intimous Presence or a Dependance between them in point of Operation 3. 'T is altogether unintelligible how either a Body can act upon a Spirit or a Spirit upon a Body I grant it may be demonstrated that they do so but the manner of doing it or indeed how it can be done is not intelligible That a Tremour begot in the Nerves by the jogging of Particles of Matter upon the Sensory Organs shou'd excite Cogitations in the Soul or that the Soul by a meer Thought should both beget a Motion in the Animal Spirits and determine through what Meatus's they are to steer their Course is a Phaenomenon in the Theory of which we are perfectly non-plust How that which penetrates a Body without giving a jogg to or receiving a shove from it shou'd either impress a Motion upon or receive an impression from it is unconceivable so that to state the Union of the Soul and Body in a reciprocal Action upon and Passion by and from one another is to fix it in that which supposeth the Sagacity of our Faculties to conceive how it can be Now if common Unions of whose Reality and Existence we are so well assur'd be nevertheless with respect to their Nature not only so unknown but unconceivable we may lawfully presume if their lye nothing else against the immediate Union of Believers with Christ save that it cannot be comprehended that this is no Argument why we should immediately renounce the Belief of it If we can but once justifie that there is such an Union betwixt the blessed Jesus and sincere Christians the incomprehensibleness of the manner of it ought not to discourage our Faith if we can take up with the Evidence of Sense and Reason as to the reality of other Unions whose Modes are as little understood I see no cause why the Veracity of God provided we can produce the Authority of Divine Testimony shou'd not satisfie us as to the Reality of the Union tho' the manner how it is were a question we cou'd not answer and indeed if Men will not be huff't and talk'd out of the perswasion of those things of whose Existence their Senses and Reason ascertain them tho' they cannot answer all the Difficulties they are accosted with in their Enquiries about them much less ought Christians to be hector'd out of the Belief of the Doctrines of Faith because of the Entanglements which attend the Conception of them 't is the Nature of Faith to embrace things upon the alone Testimony of God tho' it understand nothing of the Mode and Manner how they are the highest Assurance of the Reality of any thing is God's affirming it and what he asserts we are with all reverence to assent unto its Truth tho' we can frame no adaequate Idea of it nor fathom it in our own Conceptions Our Saviour himself hath adjourned the perfect knowledge of this Mystery till the glorified state in these words At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Thus far you have had the Thoughts of the before-mention'd Author which I shall leave you to consider seriously at your leisure the Subject is indeed noble how despicably soever it may be treated by the Libertine whose Belief is stagger'd because he himself is not possest of what he has slighted and contemned and for that he finds himself at liberty to live as he listeth I must own indeed that it is scarce possible for one Man to infuse such Idea's into another as may be able to perswade that other that he himself is a Partaker of such a Spiritual Refreshment and Divine Consolation as nothing less than the Divine Gaace can communicate to his Soul and on this account I have the less admir'd that both Paelagius Socinus and their Adherents have gain'd so
a profane Witticism or an impious Scoff The folly of such Derision that I may give you the Sentiments of a Reverend and Devout Person is very conspicuous in considering to whom the Injury redounds by Mens making themselves so pleasant with their Sins Do they think by their rude Attempts to dethrone the Majesty of Heaven or by standing at the greatest Defiance to make Him willing to come to Terms of Composition with them Do they hope to slip beyond the Bounds of his Power by falling into Nothing when they dye or to sue out Prohibitions in the Court of Heaven to hinder the Effects of Justice there Do they design to out-wit infinite Wisdom or to find such Flaws in God's Government of the World that he shall be content to let them go unpunish'd All which Imaginations are alike vain and foolish and only shew how easily Mens Wickedness baffles their Reason and makes them rather hope and wish for the most impossible things than believe they shall ever be punisht for their Impieties It is well says the same Judicious Man in the Age we live that we have the Judgment of former Ages to appeal to and of those Persons in them whose Reputation for Wisdom is yet unquestionable otherwise we might be born down by that Spiteful Enemy to all Vertue and Goodness the Impudence of such who it is hard to say whether they shew it more in committing Sin or in defending it Men whose Manners are so bad that scarce any thing can be imagined worse unless it be the Wit with which they use to excuse them Such who take the Measure of Man's Perfections downwards and the nearer they approach to Beasts the more they think themselves to act like Men. No wonder that among such as these the Differences of Good and Evil be laughed at and no Sin thought so unpardonable as thinking there is any at all the utmost these Men will allow in the Description of Sin is That it is a thing that some live by declaiming against and others cannot live without the practise of But is the Chair of Scorners at last prov'd the only Chair of Infallibility Must those be the Standard of Mankind who seem to have little lest of Humane Nature but laughter and the shape of Men Do they think that we are all become such Fools to take Scoffs for Arguments and Railery for Demonstration He knows nothing at all of Goodness that knows not that it is much easier to laugh at than to practise it and it were worth the while to make a mock at Sin if the doing so wou'd make nothing of it but the Nature of things does not vary with the Humours of Men Sin becomes not at all the less dangerous because some Men have so little Wit to think it so nor Religion the less excellent and advantageous to the World because the greatest Enemies of that are so much to themselves too that they have learnt to despise it but altho' that scorns to be defended by such Weapons whereby her Enemies assault her nothing more unbecoming the Majesty of Religion than to make it self cheap by making others laugh yet if they can but obtain so much of themselves as to attend with patience to what is serious there may be yet a possibility of perswading them that no Fools are so great as those who laugh themselves into Misery and none so certainly do so as those who make a mock at Sin It may be not unlikely thought by some the Interest of Mankind that there shou'd be no Heaven at all because the Labour to acquire it is more worth than the Purchase God Almighty if there be one having much over-valued the Blessings of his Presence so that upon a fair Estimation 't is a greater Advantage to take ones Swinge in Sensuality and have a glut of Voluptuousness in this Life freely resigning all Pretences to Future Happiness which when a Man is once extinguished by Death he cannot be supposed either to want or desire than to be ty'd up by Commandments and Rules so thwart and contrary to Flesh and Blood and refuse the Satisfaction of Natural Desires This indeed is the true Language of Atheism and the Cause of it too were not this at the bottom no Man in his Wits cou'd contemn and ridicule the Expectation of Immortality and yet I may be bold to say it is a plain Instance of the Foily of those Men who whilst they repudiate all Title to the Kingdom of Heaven meerly for the present pleasure of Body and their boasted Tranquility of Mind besides the extream Madness in running such a desperate hazard after Death they unwittingly deprive themselves here of that very Pleasure and Tranquility they seek for there being nothing more certain than this that Religion it self gives us the greatest Delights and Advantages even in this Life also tho' there shou'd prove in the Event to be no Resurrection to another Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace But the truth of our future Existence has had the Attestation of the Learned and Judicious in all Parts of the World I have elsewhere taken notice of it and must again inculcate to you That Religion is somewhat more than a childish unaccountable Fear of any pretended invisible Power and that the Terrors it strikes us with are vastly different from those Tales about Specters which do at some times frighten pusillanimous Minds those that do arise from our knowledge of having offended the Divine Being or from the just fear of his Anger and Indignation are such as do not only disturb some small Pretenders and puny Novices but do approach even the profoundest Rabbi's or Masters of Atheism it being well known both from Ancient and Modern Experience that the very boldest of them out of their Debauches and Company when they chance to be surprized with Solitude or Sickness are the most suspicious timerous and despondent Wretches in the World and the boasted happy Atheist in the indolence of the Body and an undisturbed Calm and Serenity of Mind is altogether as rare a Creature as the Vir Sapiens was amongst the Stoicks whom they often met with in Idea and Description in Harangues and in Books but freely own'd that he never had or was likely to Exist actually in Nature Believe me my good Friend here is more in this than Prepossession of Phancy or Disease of Imagination and if you object that had we not been told of these things by designing Men we shou'd never have thought on them our selves the Answer is ready who told these designing Men if they thought of these things without being told why may not others do so too It is manifest enough to every Man that his Soul whilst in the Body is capable to retire it self from Corporeal Images and to be busie with Idea's of another Nature which no Corporeal Impression cou'd possibly make and hence also it is as clear that