is very unwilling to do just as Men are to die And he proposes 10 Similitudes in this Supposition which seem not well grounded nor weighty Pag. 845. Quotes Texts of Scripture urged against his Tenet and answers them but Three in all Then he comes to the Opinion that Souls departed do sleep till the Resurrection void of all Operation till the Resurrection and then the Bodies rise from Death and the Souls from their Lethargy This Sleep says our Author is plain Death as that of the Body is called Sleep Pag. 846. He says Sure it is good Souls separated do go into Heaven and enjoy the Vision of God and the evil do go into Hell but they are not compleatly Happy or Vnhappy till the Resurrection But from whence he takes this Rule he shews not nor offers Proof of it It is an absurd Thing and against God's Wisdom That the Form of any Body should alwaye subsist separately from that Body I say if this be absurd it is very near of Kin to Absurdity That it should subsist at all without its Body It was objected to him That if Souls went to Heaven at the Death what need was there then of a Resurrection He answers The Form or Soul could not always subsist without the Body Why not say I as well as do so for Hundreds or Thousands of Years Says he It would be absurd and against God's Wisdom I do perceive this Consequence and he doth not offer to prove it therefore I think it no more absurd in the one Case than in the other Pag. 847. Says The Separation of the Soul and Body is by Violence and Nullum Violentum est Perpetuum I say nor Diuturnum Cites 1 Cor. 15.19 If there be not a Resurrection Christians are of all Men most miserable How can that be if good Souls go to Heaven at the Death and there behold the Face of God He answers This Saying concerns only the Bodies of Christians and not their Souls Their Bodies says he would be most miserable Not more miserable say I than the Bodies of other Men and therefore not of all others the most miserable He cites Psalm 146.4 When the Breath of Man goeth forth he shall turn again to his Earth and that very day all his Thoughts perish So Psal 78.39 Mans Spirit as a Wind passeth away and comes not again Pag. 848. He will not allow Spirit in these Places to signifie the Soul but in Places making for him it must do so as when Stephen says Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Cites Psal 115 17. and in other Places The Dead praise not thee O Lord nor all they that go down into the Silence But the Living do it So Isa 38. he answers Souls after Death do praise God proved Rev. Chap. 5. and Chap. 19. and opposes this Trance to the other Texts Pag. 849. Cites Job 17.16 Also in the Grave the Weary are at rest and fear no Oppressor Therefore bad Souls not punished Pag. 850. He closes his Treatise of the Soul with a long Definition of it according to his Mode and with all the particular Qualifications which he hath before designed for it We may now observe in short upon this Author that he was very much inclined and bent to maintain the Immateriality of the Soul as a thing without which there could not be a future Reward or Punishment a Mistake wherein all are involved or pretend to be involved who maintaintain his Opinion We see he hath been very laborious about it hath read all that he could find written of it and studied and delivered to us a Multitude of Arguments about it and hath shewed Learning Judgment and Industry to a high Degree joined with Integrity or a good Meaning and Belief that he did well and bestowed his Pains upon a Subject that deserved them and that it was a very Needful Truth which he supported But with what Success he hath done it must be referred to Judgment after Perusal of the Answers which have been offered to his Arguments upon the Differences arising between the Opinions of the Author and the Answerer upon many Occasions or Particulars and because we have very much studied and affected Brevity in both our Observations and Answers it need not be doubted but that those who are desirous of a more full Satisfaction upon this Point will think our Author worthy of their own Perusal concerning this Subject and many others Franciscus de Oviedo a Jesuit wrote a Body of Philosophy and in it Of the Soul Printed in a large Folio at Lions Anno 1640. and therein Fol. 6. N. 17. He joins with others in finding Fault with Aristotle's Definition of the Soul because he doth not tell us Quid sit Anima but Cujus sit Our Author offers to mend that of Aristotle by a Definition of his own viz. The Soul is the Constituent Act or Moving Power of a Compositum that is able to exert or exercise Vital Actions I say this seems a Difference without a Diversity or but one pretended and it may be collected that a Soul hath no proper Genus or such Specifical Difference of its own whereby it can be defined or known nor that it can be conceived otherwise than as it is a Constituent Part of a Compositum by the Conjunction of a Soul and a Body Whence we pretend to infer That the Soul in its Nature is not a Substance subsisting by it self or in Separation from its Body nor can be otherwise defined or understood than by its Reference and Relation to a Body Both our Definitions call it the Actus Primus of the Compositum or of an Organical Body so as we have no Conception of it at all save by the Relation which it hath to the Body or to the Man and without that it is to us unintelligible and thence it seems a Separate Subsistence cannot be Natural to it or at least to our Conception or Knowledge of it Fol. 8. N. 2. He says There is no Degree of Reason in Brutes and but some Degrees of Sense and in Brutes we find no Degree of Intellect or Sign of it but all they do is by Instinct To the contrary of this we have said before that Beasts do know by single Intellect and are taught to remember Duty and deny their Appetites and obey their Teachers and other Men in Things which they have learned and use both Obedience and a Rational Subtilty in them He says every Soul is the Act of a Mortal Body that an Angel is a Simple Compleat Substance but the Soul is an Incompleat Substance ordained to be totally Compounded with the Body with which it is united that by Means of the Material Organs it may produce Sense and Intelligence in such Bodies as have them This I take well enough to agree with a Material Soul Fol. 10. N. 15. He says it is objected The Humane Soul doth so communicate it self to Matter as that still it keeps its own Subsistence He
Hand Foot Heart and all Members sees in the Eyes hears in the Ears expresses in the Voice perceives in the Common Sense compares and compounds in the Phantasy records in the Memory reasons in the Intellect and judges in his Supream Seat or Power it desires in the Affections excites and acts in the Passions moving all to the intended Preservation Propagation Good and Advantage of each of those Faculties to which they most properly belong intending withal to the Good of the whole Compositum Hence the Affections and Passions do derive from the Soul as well as the Reason and Intellect and one of them is not naturally subjected unto the other but each of them hath its Faculties and Powers formally distinguished from one another but all identified in the Soul so as they act freely and without Dependance of one upon another Thus the Affections and Passions as Products of the same Soul with the Reason and Intellect are naturally at like Freedom and not the Former under Cohersion of the Latter The Seat of Judgment we place Supream in the Microcosm endowing that Power with Knowledge and Discretion to the Measure of that Compositum wherein it is This we say sways in the Government which is Monarchical and Legal and the Judgment cannot be corrupted or beaded to act otherwise than appears to be for the most Safety Good and Benefit of the Compositum all things then offered or appearing considered without Consent of this the Will or Voluntary Power cannot move or proceed to Execution and yet the Judgment often doth consent with great Measures of Reluctancy pressed thereunto by the Furies and Force of Passions viz. Wrath and Fear or by the extream troublesome and vexatious Importunities of Affections viz. Ambition Covetousness and Lust divided into that of Nutrition and Generation and these do so far oft-times importune and press the Judgment for its Consent to their Satisfaction as that upon the over-long Delay or utter rejecting of their Suit by the Judgment or their final Opposition from outward Obstacles they are able to drive the whole Compositum along with them into Frensie Despair Diseases and other ruinous Calamities as we have before quoted in the Case of Judas in which the Judgment consented to a Violent Death rather than bear the Stings and Torments of his Passions But this abates or takes away the Wonder upon the Judgment 's Consenting with Reluctancy to Execution of those Actions which it self doth not approve Thence we often do what we would not and do not what both Reason and Judgment desire to do And though S. Paul call this Sin in us I take leave to think it is Nature in us and that it was in Adam before Sin and was the Original of Sin in him and his Wife as well as in us For when the Woman saw that the Fruit was Good for Food and Pleasant to the Eyes here was her Lust tempted and prevailed upon And that it was to be desired to make one Wise here was her Ambition tempted and prevailed upon And these prevailed upon her Judgment which consenting the Voluntary Power moved the Hands to take and Chaps to grind and devour that which from S. Paul's Authority Christians have ever sine believed to be the Root of Original Sin and bad Inclinations in Men although by this they seem to grow from a higher Original viz. Nature in Man in which we do not place the Affections or Passions under the Regiment of Reason Naturally but take them for Powers Co-ordinate excited and acted by the Soul and set under Direction and Government of the Judgment upon which the Voluntary Power is Attendant And we say with this our former Author That the Souls Operations are assisted or hindred by the Fitness of Matter and Aptness of Organs in the Body If the Matter be of good Temper and the Organs apt and fit the Soul 's Operations are more Vigorous and Effectual If the Matter or Organs be indisposed the Soul 's Operations are more infirm and feeble and if the Instruments be corrupted or spoiled the Soul cannot operate at all by them as if the Eyes be out the Soul cannot see if the Memory be spoiled it cannot remember if the Intellect be crazed the Soul cannot reason if the Seat of Judgment be corrupted the Government fails and all goes out of Order Also the Judgment may be more Able and Firm in some than in others according as the Materials are tempered and the Organs apt and fit And Degrees of Perfection or Imperfection come upon it by good or ill Education Custom Company and other Accidents to which that and all other Faculties Powers Members and Organs of the Soul and Body are subject And they will be better and worse in the same Person at divers Times and upon several Accidents and Occasions all which seem to evince a Mutual Dependance of the Soul and Body one upon another The Body without the Soul is but a Dead Body void of Motion Sense and Life and the Soul without a Body hath no Place where it can lay its Head or set down its Foot the Body is its Natural Receptacle and there only it seems to be at Home enlivening the whole Body inciting each Member Organ and Faculty to the Performance of those Duties and Operations for which by God and Nature they were intended and appointed and acting in them and by them all that hath been before particularly mentioned All this we say is performed by that Flame of Life kindled from Heaven in the Bodies Blood and Humours of Adam and his Wife and by them propagated to all Future Generations this Flame passing in and with the Blood throughout and into every small Part and Member of the Body may it seems be easily conceived to act in all the Members and Organs of the Body and the Vital Sensitive and Intellectual Faculties thereunto joined and in and by its Organs performed working per My and per Tout all that is acted in the Body and in every Part and Parcel of the same because this Soul is spread and diffused over all But how things should in this Manner be performed by an Immaterial and Indivisible Spirit or Spark of a Soul that its whole should be and act in every Member and Organ of the Body and yet be but one for and in the whole Body this is so far from me conceivingly to believe as that I rather incline to think it an unintelligible Thing As we have said the Soul acts in every Organ of the Body and the Inward as well as the Outward So it seems it cannot act to its special Purposes but in those Places and Organs to those Purposes specially appointed by Nature It Sees in the Eyes and Hears in the Ears but it cannot See or Hear without them nor by any other Member or Instrument It cannot perceive but in the Common Sense nor frame idea's but in the Phantasy nor remember but in and by the Organ of Memory
Soul cannot be defiled but by its coming from Adam Pag. 43. Says His sort of Soul is a true Being and not only a Conceipt or Phancy It seems he suspects it looks somewhat like a Phancy and I am very apt to pass it for one notwithstanding his word to the contrary He says My Soul can and will subsist and remain what it is when separated from the Body but yet I do not believe him He says It is not my Body but my Soul which makes me a Man I say neither of them makes a Man but they must be both together for that purpose Pag. 44. Says Let an Apoplexy hinder the Operation of the Soul in my Brain and all my Organs become useless I agree this and say The Soul therefore doth not act or understand but by the Organs cannot do so without them What Man by his Rational Faculty can perform he says Is done by his Soul and I grant it but not without the Organs of the Head and especially the Brain and so for the Sensitive and Vital Faculties and their Organs Pag. 45. Grants here the Understanding to be the Guide of the Will which chuseth or refuseth as the other directs He says My Affections are the strong and sensible Motions of my Soul I grant it so in the Praecordia as the Rational is in the Head but in no other part save the Praecordia are there any Affections and there they are as properly the effect of the Organs as of the Soul they must both Operate to the Production of such Effects He says He finds his Soul could never rise out of Matter nor come into his Body by Natural Generation I will not take upon me to know what he may find of himself or say of himself but I find no such things of my self nor hath he yet enough directed other Men to find what he says he finds unless they will first accept of his phancy viz. That a Man hath within him a small Spark of a Spirit coming he knows not how nor from whence residing and governing he knows not how nor where and departing from him he knows not how nor whither And how to know that such a thing there is in a Man neither hath he shewn nor can Mans reason find out so as most likely all this is but a phancy He says Brutes are destitute of Vnderstanding Reason and Conscience c. I say they have these Faculties in a very low degree as we may know and love God in a very much lower degree than the Angels Pag. 46. Says He is made for nobler ends and uses than to eat drink sleep talk and die And I grant it and that ex hoc momento pendet eternitas at the Resurrection an account must be given and then Recompences shall be distributed 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing All Men shall then receive acccording to their Works and Behaviour used here upon Earth and this is as true and provable as that Christ Jesus came to save Sinners or that he is the Son of God so as one who professes to believe the Gospel can have no doubt of the truth or certainty of it And yet our Author in all this proving Discourse makes no mention at all of it and the likely reason of that is the Contrariety which appears betwixt the Two Doctrines of the Soul 's going immediately to Heaven or Hell and that of the Resurrection We both agree that Sense and Perception are acted by the Soul He says By its own Efficacy I say by Assistance of Bodily Organs and not without them whence his Soul in Hell needs no Addition of Body or Organs to make it more sensible than of it self it is but mine must have a Body and Organs or it can neither do nor suffer any thing Thus a Resurrection for mine is necessary in respect to future Recompences not so for his Consider we his sort of Soul in Heaven What advantage can it expect from a Resurrection It hath already the Roal Mansions of Heaven the Society of the Holy Angels and the Beatifical Vision of God and what can any Creature or Being desire more Well but if things go on to a Resurrection the Case must be altered and for the worse as it seems for these Souls must go down again from those Glorious Mansions and enter of new into its old Body and return no more to Heaven but live upon Earth again 'T is true it shall be a new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness in a more happy and blessed state than now it is or than we at present enjoy but far short of God's Royal Mansions in Heaven the Heaven of Heavens of which he hath said Heaven is my Throne in comparison of which the Earth is but a Footstool 2 Pet. 3.13 14. We according to his promise look for new Heavens or Skies and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness and seeing that ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless do so that ye may be Partakers of these Rewards Revel 21.1 2. I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth and a new Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven Upon that new Earth Vers 11. He begins to describe this Glorious City by Metaphors of Gold precious Stones Pearls c. intending the happy State and resplendent Vertues which the new raised People shall enjoy after our expected Resurrection There there shall be no more Death Sorrow Pain or Crying God shall be with them as with our First Parents in Paradise and dry up all their Tears But when all this is done and considered What Comparison can we make betwixt this new Earth and that Heaven which is the Royal Throne of God and where he is superlatively present sic parvis componere magna solemus We must say the one state and place is extraordinary happy but the other transcends Mans conceipt and is super-excellent to all Imagination I say then A Soul once received into the highest Heavens if it can be capable of a Mansion there coming at the Resurrection to be put into its Body again and made an Inhabitant of a new Earth must be apparently a Loser by that Change and Naturally or Rationally such a Resurrection cannot be grateful to it or desired by it but must be compelled and go on invita minerva which is not the State or Case of the Resurrection for that is given to Man as the greatest Benefit and Blessing which his Servants receive of God and for the most grievous Punishment of Offenders it was purchased by Christ for his Servants 1 Cor. 15.13 14. If there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen and if Christ be not risen then is our Preaching vain and your Faith is also vain
the Middle of the Body and calls the Soul a Part of Humane Nature not perfect without its Body and therefore desiring a Re-union all contrary to his former Assertions Pag. 788. Says The Body doth nothing without the Soul Nec ferè Anima sine Corpore Pag. 793. Says The Soul is not Tota in qualibet Parte nor in any Part nor affixed to any Organ no nor Tota in toto and yet the Essence of the Soul is Tota in toto in qualibet Parte as Light is in the Air both Light and Heat appear in different Degrees in divers Places and yet their Influence reaches to the whole Horizon Pag. 794. That which is Indivisible Totum est Ubi est and this holds in the Soul And so God is in the World and every Part of it and as Soul and Body united are yet distinct Soul and Body So Pag. 798. the End of Reason and a Humane Soul is to know and love God but the Intellect is like clean White Paper without any Character upon it and cannot perceive but by the Senses nor work without Bodily Organs and those must have Life or else they could not have Sense and Life must have Nourishment whence there is in the Soul a Nutritive Faculty for Support Augmentation and Procreation then a Sensitive Faculty being a Power of Perceiving External Objects for Benefit and Safety of the Animal next a Power to retain and preserve the Species or Idea's of what was perceived and then a Power of offering them to the Intellect for obtaining a Judgment upon them Pag. 799. The Humane Soul though it work in the Body yet it doth not work by Organs of the Body and therefore its Actions are not common with the Body applying this particularly to the Intellect And That he says is endowed with certain Gifts or Impressions by God at the Creation of the Soul that by Help of them Men may better comprehend all other Things And that there are such common Innate Notions Experience doth manifest Calls these the Sparks and Seeds of Knowledge in Man But this he confesses is rejected by Aristotle which yet he would make some kind of Argument for Souls being created and therefore preferrs the Platonick and Stoical opinion before that of Aristotle and therefore will not admit of the Rule of nothingh being in the Intellect which came not thither throug the Senses to be absolutely true but only that for the most part it is so though he have repeated and granted this Rule without Exception several times before Pag. 800. Says That for all these Impressions made by God upon Souls yet the Intellect is still as a White Paper without Writing or Character upon it and therefore must seek to obtain its Knowledge from without it self and this it seeks from the Senses and from God by his Word and Spirit How the Intellect should be as fair White Paper and yet have Characters imprinted upon it I do not conceive nor divers other Things late before delivered by our Author Our Author seems to have pursued this Argument concerning the Soul through all the known Particulars that may be belonging to it and yet hath not throughly satisfied himself thereupon and therefore he begins again with it Pag. 802. and runs descant upon it all over again unto Pag. 851. repeating and confirming his former Arguments First he quotes Texts of Scripture to Pag. 809. and there quotes the Opinion and Consent of the World to his Opinion Pag. 810. He begins with Sayings of Philosophers Pythagoras and Plato who held Pre-existence of Souls and consequently their Separate Subsistence then Alcmaeon and Anaxagoras who held their Spirituality then the Stoicks Pag. 812. He comes to Aristotle and says that he had no Will to declare his Opinion concerning the Soul but did on purpose speak obscurely about it But yet says he Aristotle did not say it was Material or Mortal And for Proof of this he quotes 14 Places out of Aristotle's Writings which was not needful on our Behalf for that this Assertion was before agreed by us This reaches to Pag. 820. and there cites Turks Tartars Persians he might have said Mahometans agreeing to his Tenet and so other Barbarous Nations Pag. 821. He comes to Reasons first upon Moral Congruity that there must be future Reward and Punishment which he thinks cannot be without a Separately-subsisting Soul and goes on to 12 Arguments reaching to Pag. 827. Pag. 828. Says If the Soul come from Generation it must be Elementary and Material Pag. 829. Brings Arguments from the Souls own Actions and Motions Pag. 830. Adds a 13th Argument to his former 12 and thence to Pag. 834. he makes up his Arguments to 20. And he cites Euseb Hist Lib. 6. Cap. 36. where we do find that in Origin's Time there arose in Arabia Authors of a Pernicious Doctrine who taught that Souls died here with their Bodies and that at the Resurrection they rose again together and a great Synod was summoned upon that Account and Origin sent for unto it and he so discoursed and disputed that he purged their seduced Minds from this foul Error cited by our Author Pag. 804. It seems the Opinion was condemned in that Synod by Origin's Assistance but that also the Thing is not such a Novelty as without his Testimony it might seem to be Pag. 835. Our Author comes to cite and confute Arguments made against his Tenet 1. We see nothing part at Death of a Body but a vanishing Breath nor can perceive and hardly conceive what a Soul is or should be without a Body Hence he says Men must doubt of God and Spirits Pag. 837. Arg. 4. The Soul cannot operate without the Body and therefore doth not so subsist He says The Soul Both Vnderstand and Will without the Body Pag. 838. and the Intellective Memory remains in a Separated Soul and so Love Joy and their like in an Intellectual Manner Pag. 839. Arg. 5. In great Weakness of the Body the Souls Operations are alto feeble The Sum of his Answer to this is a Denial of the Thing and whether true or not is left to Judgment and Experience Pag. 840. The Soul parts unwillingly from the Body this argues she doth not apprehend the going to a more perfect State but rather to Corruption or Extinguishment and Christ would have avoided this Cup and yet he knew that was his Way to a Resurection and future Happiness To this he makes a long Answer not to be summed in few Words Pag. 841. Arg. 7. The Soul is troubled with divers Afflictions but Spirits or Immaterial Substances are not subject to Mortal Perturbations therefore the Soul is not such a Spirit He answers The Bodies Contrariety to the Soul is the Soul 's great Affliction and if Angels were so knit to Bodies they would be as much troubled and in Man this Perturbation is one Effect of Sin Pag. 843. He compares Dying to the Child's Leaving the Womb which he fancies the Child
answers This Soul is the very Form and though it have its Proper Subsistence yet it doth totally communicate it self to Matter because its Nature is Essentially united to Matter and for the Form to communicate with the Matter is totally to be united to it He says Humane Souls are produced by Creation other Souls by Generation but the very Being of a Form is its Vnion with the Subject Yet not to depend upon it Objectors say the Humane Soul works without any Dependence upon its Subject or the Bodily Organs and therefore is not a true Form He answers by granting it works so in a State of Separation but denies it doth so in a State of Union with the Body and in this he contradicts our next preceding Author who will have the Soul work without help of the Body or its Organs even whil'st it is in a State of Union with the Body And our Author agrees with Aristotle in this That the Souls not working in a State of Union without the Bodily Organs is an Evidence that a State of Separation is not Natural to the Soul For Aristotle puts the Matter upon this Trial and our Author agrees the Evidence demanded Fol. 11. Nu. 4. Divers have thought the Soul to be Material as Cleanthes and Chrysippus and many of the Stoicks and so Apollinaris of Alexandria and Tertullian Nu. 5. Many Old Hereticks thought the Soul to be a Spark of the Divinity or a Particle of God so Philojudaeus Fol. 12. Nu. 6. Origen thought the Soul not distinguishable from Angels Nu. 7. The Luciferians said It was propagated from the Seed Nu. 9. Origen taught that Souls were Angels who after having sinned were for their Punishment put into Bodies as into Prisons Nu. 10. Others said the Soul was in the Body as Light is in the Air a Directive Qualification and this divers do say was Aristotle's Opinion Nu. 16. Cites the Lateran Councel under Leo X. saying It is as certain that the Soul is Immaterial as that it is Immortal and that it is Immortal is de Fide Fol. 13. Nu. 17. He argues The Soul as a Natural Form is not capable of knowing Spiritual Beings nor or of making Collections or Universals or Reflex Discourses concerning all which we have before spoken Nu. 19. Angels know by Intuition but a Soul only by Apprehension Composition Discourse Perceivance Internal and the Outward Senses Nu. 22. The Soul is Form to the Body therefore it must be produced in Union with it and cannot naturally be produced in time before the Body Fol. 14. N. 27. The Soul as Rational is united with the Body because it exercises all Acts of Reason in the Brain upon the Disposition of which it doth depend for such Purposes and if the Organs there do fail or are obstructed the Soul cannot act Reasonably as appears in Distracted Persons or Furious or otherwise disordered Nu. 29. and 30. Cites Cajetan and Ferrara who do not allow the Soul as Rational to be the Natural Form of the Body or united to it as such but would have it placed in a Superior Degree to the Body which our Author doth not allow Fol. 18. N. 7. He argues a Material Phantasy offered to the Intellect produceth therein a Species impressed upon it or expressed in it the Action which is here productive of this Spiritual Species received in the Soul depends upon the Phancy which is a Corporeal Thing Whence a Thing that is Spiritual may depend upon one that is Material Fol. 19. Nu. 11. He denies the Mode of the Union betwixt Soul and Body to be Spiritual And I say it seems not Miraculous but Natural However many of our Authors conceive miraculous New Creations and Unions upon Fruitful Coitions Lawful or Unlawful Fol. 20. N. 16. Seems to believe that in the Union of Soul and Body there is a Penetration and Mixture of both Nu. 17. And that a Spiritual Thing may consist of Parts Nu. 18. Says The Soul is not compounded of Essential Parts viz. Matter and Form Nu. 21. nor of Integral Parts but is an Indivisible Entity Fol. 21. Nu. 26. This Soul is objected may inform or be in divers Parts of the Body therefore it may be in many more Parts and though Indivisible may inform a very great Bulk of Matter He answers The Soul is fitted for a Humane Body and terminated in it and is neither too great or too little for it I say this needs Proof and yet hath none Fol. 22. Nu. 28. The Soul can inform but one Heart and Head and such other Parts as are in Connexion with them or unseparated but no Proof offered And what shall be said of one Joint-Body to the Navel and thence to both Bodies and Heads of which divers Examples have been Fol. 24. Nu. 14. Says The Material Soul as in Beasts may be Indivisible into Integral Parts Fol. 25. Nu. 1. Says Certain it is that Souls in the Body do act diversly in divers Parts of that Body it Sees in the Eyes Hears in the Ears c. Fol. 27. N. 19. and they are acted by the Soul in and according to the Aptitude and Power of the several Parts and Organs of the Body and as God hath appointed them to be performed and done And to this I agree Fol. 28. N. 1. Some hold that all Souls of one Sort or Kind are Vnequal one to another Contra Others say there can be no Vnequality amongst them In this must be observed That to be Equal is one thing and to be Alike is another thing nor are they the same with Agreeable or Disagreeable Fol. 35. N. 33. One Man may have more perfect Accidents than another and so for Operations by reason of Accidental Advantages or Disadvantages and so one same Person may be accidentally more or less Perfect at Times But this proves not an Inequality amongst Souls N. 34. Not proving a Natural either Inequality or Dissimilitude he proposes a Prudential one For says he the Affirming that Judas had a Soul equal to that of Christ or his Mother would be harsh and imprudent and therfore we may say Souls existing may be both Vnlike and Vnequal And even from the Ground laid in Generation Degrees of Qualification may arise Fol. 36. N. 1. Each Living Creature hath a Soul and but one Fol. 37. N. 7. The Vegetative and Sensitive are formally included in the Rational Soul for that is the Formal Principle of Humane Life and Sense And I do agree them and Reason to come all from one Principle Fol. 41. N. 1. Wit can either be separated from Knowledge or it cannot We have said it cannot N. 3. He cites an Opinion from Ariaga that Life or Living is Real or Intentional the Real Worldly must have a Nourishment as in Plants Brutes and Men the Life Intentional hath Principles of Knowledge and Appetite comprehending God Angels and all that have Life Whence says he Plants live only on the Gross or Real Life Animals that have
not produce it and the same may be said for the Form viz. the Soul the Parents give it but they do not produce it This Answer seems clearly Concessive that the Parents generate the Soul as much and as effectually as they do the Body and more than that is not required by Sennertus or any other But our Friend insists Learn says he the Effects of Generation from those of our Dissolution our Death doth dissolve the Vnion of our Parts but it doth not destroy those Parts but only the Man whence as by Generation we become Men by Dying we cease to be so This also grants that all which perishes in Death was generated by the Parents The Body had a Time to get Life and grow and so it hath to putrifie and consume and the Soul began with Life in the Embrion and in the Body and it seems to extinguish in Death of the Body naturally or we desire to be yet scientifically instructed from Reason or Nature what it is and where it is or at least that it is and hath a Separate State and Subsistence of its own P. 43. He recites another Argument of Sennertus viz. If the Seed be not animated from the first Instant and then the Progenitor happen to die before the Time of Animation it might be truly said that a Dead Man did Genenerate He answers This Case is like one who puts Sparks of Fire amongst Fewel then leaves it and the Fire doth not take hold and burn till a good while after yet this Man is said to have made the Fire And we do agree the Similitude to be apt enough in this Case and that it seems to import The Seed is as much the Efficient of the whole Child as the Sparks put into the Fewel are of the Fire more than which hath not been demanded Our Friend says he hath chosen to contest this Point against Sennertus because that Doctor was a Man of great Worth and Substance And says he magnified his Wisdom greatly in Submitting his Opinion to the Divines worthy to be imitated herein by all other Men But that before hath been delivered doth sufficiently evince that there is a great Latitude and Difference of Opinions in the World Concerning this Writer of An. 1645. we may observe he had the Advantage of the Wren in the Fable who sate upon the Back of the Eagle and was carried by her into the Clouds and coming to the full Extent of the Eagles Height she put her self to the small Stretch of her own Wings and mounted above the Eagle by so much He had perceived the great Incongruities of continually newly created Souls and intended at mollifying them by assigning them a Regular Ordination as a Duty upon the Exigence of Nature This Course appears healing and helpful Posito that the Soul be Immaterial but it is no Manner of Proof that the Soul is so And if it be not so but only a Material Spirit then is there no need of this Invention and then it is as hath been said not only an Invention but a needless one And yet it testifies the Writer amongst his other Endeavours to have been a Person of Wit Learning and Consideration All the Authors presently in our Possession or Reach concerning the Soul have before been Cited and Considered viz. Four Foreign and Four of our own Later and Domestick Writers And concerning the Materiality or Immateriality of Humane Souls we may observe from that they have spoken that there are Two particular Queries or Questions the Determination of which will advance much towards the knowledge of the Souls Nature and Qualifications If One of them be proved or granted thence the Immateriality of the Soul may be strongly inferred and if the other be proved or granted thence may he as strongly inferred the Souls Materiality The First of these is held in the Affirmative by divers of our Authors viz. More Digby Zanchius and the Pamphlet of 1645 who do all expresly and often affirm That the Soul in Life-time of the Man doth at some times and in some cases act of and by her self without Aid or Ministry of the Body or its Organs or any Members or Powers of it If this Assertion have been proved or can or shall be proved We grant from the Conclusion a very strong Inference may be drawn for the Souls Immateriality agreeing the Truth of Aristotle's Assertion in his Treatise of the Soul Chap. 1. That if the Soul have any Operation or Affection peculiar to her self and wherein she can effectually Act without Use or Aid of the Body or the Members Organs or Spirits of it then it is very likely that she may also be capable of a Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body But says he If the thing be not so and Men fail in Proof of such a peculiar in the Soul certainly she cannot subsist in a State of Separation from the Body Our Authors for Proof of such a Peculiar in the Soul do alledge That the Soul can conceive Spiritual Beings and Universals Second or Abstracted Notions Logical Mathematical and Metaphysical Beings and Things which Matter is not very capable of nor that it can be Assistant to the Formation or Contemplation of such Conceptions In answer to which may be opposed the same Authors Assertions That whilst the Soul is in the Body she cannot act without the Animal or Vital Spirits of the Body and before hath been observed That the Soul cannot see but by the Eyes nor remember but in the Memory And these Organs and Faculties may be lost by Accident and yet the Soul remain perfect still but without Sight or Memory for want of the Bodily Organs and if the Intellect be crazed the Soul cannot understand but according to such Capacities as remain in the Organ and it seems the like may be said for all other Faculties of the Soul and Organs of the Body which infers the Soul cannot operate without the Spirits and Organs of the Body As to the Conceiving Spiritual Beings and Things it hath been said such Knowledge hath been derived from Revelations made to the Senses of some Men and their Testimony of them to other Men and for the Conceptions of Universals and Abstracted Notions it seems the Soul in the Intellect working Comparate and Abstractive by using the Joynt Powers of Intellect Phantasie and Memory and by composing and comparing what is found in them may well enough be able by abstracting them from Conceptions of Matter and Sense and sorting them first then ranking and comparing them the Soul by Joint Use of these Organs may naturally be able to raise Generals out of Particulars and from Generals ascend to Universals and so likewise raise abstracted Notions from the often Repetition and comparing Things first made known to them by the Senses We do not then agree that any of our Authors have proved that the Soul hath any Operation or Affection so peculiar to her self as that the Body
become ineffectual To this I reply That I do believe you or I or any Man whatsoever can judge of Humane Nature no otherwise than we now find it to be What it was before the Fall we do not and perhaps cannot know The Words of the Curse in Genesis neither express nor import such a Depravation of Man's Reason Soul or Power of Government but the Particulars of it apply altogether to the Body and to Temporal Concernments How far in what Parts and to what Degrees Humane Nature was corrupted by the Fall of our First Parents is an Ignotum to us And I should be glad to receive your Instruction thereupon towards which you offer me a Sentence of St. Paul The good that I would I do not c. You tell me that the Design of this Text was to represent the State or Condition of those People who had no other Help against their Lust but the Laws of Nature and of Moses and that it is altogether applicable to the depraved and unregenerate State of Mankind Sed non ego credulus For I think it rather spoken of that Condition in which St. Paul was at the Time of the Speaking of it This Epistle is dated from Corinth and we do not read Sr. Paul was there any oftner than once and that was divers Years after his Conversion and State of Regeneration He uses the Present Tense viz. I do and I do not and it is not I that do it Thus the Words make for my Opinion and the Sense is not disagreeable For where is the Man so fully regenerate as that this Saying of St. Paul may not be fully and truly applied to him Of my own State I have a good Hope and yet I confess the good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not that I do sometimes too often very often And I pray you communicate to me how you find it with your self in that Point or if you know any other Man of whom this Expression may not be truly predicated remembring that in many Things we sin all And the righteous Man falls seven times a day which good Men would not do if they could help it viz. if the Rational Soul were intelligent and regnant within them and over them I agree with you That there is need of the Special Grace of God enabling Men to do the Good which Reason and Rules direct them unto and so to avoid Evil and that thence good Effects and Products may be called the Fruits of the Spirit And you say That if Men do resist rational Motions and Perswasions then the Grace of God strikes in and co-operates with the Reasonable Faculty and if Men resist all these Inducements to Goodness they are left without Excuse I demand if the Soul of Man be an Intelligent Spirit governing in the Man as his proper Form what is it in Man that doth or in likelyhood can resist the Natural Power which such a Soul should have over it You will not say that Man hath any thing in him besides his Soul but Matter and Motion And I would have you tell me whence it should come that meer Matter and Motion should so far over-power such an intelligent Soul as not only to resist its Government but even to captivate over-rule and enslave it not only to a Content in evil and bad Practices of Sensuality but even bring it to an Immersion and a Delight in them Thus it seems your supposed Intelligent Spirit or Soul is not able to make a sufficient effectual Resistance to the Force and Violence of other Powers or Principles to the Humane Nature properly belonging But that other Power or Principle is able not only to resist the Rational Power of the Soul but even the ordinary Operations of the Spirit of God also For you say That Men resisting these are left without Excuse Now seeing that in Man's Nature there is some Inward Principle able to combat the Rational Soul so assisted I demand of you What sort of Power you think this to be and from whence it proceeds We know of no other Principle of Life Motion or Activity in the Body that is Natural but the Soul Hence I conclude that this Power so able to resist and conquer the Rational Power proceeds from the same Soul that the Rational Power doth The Rational Power is the Soul acting in the Head and the Sensitive or Affectionate Power is the Soul acting in the Praecordia and pressing on to the Desire of such Objects as are near hand presently beneficial and pleasant howsoever Things may fall out for the future But if the Humane Soul be Intelligent why doth it actuate the Sensual or Affectionate Faculty so strongly as to enable it to combat and resist nay for much the greater part to overcome and conquer the Rational Powers and to draw the Soul it self into the Practices of Sensuality which she her self doth disapprove and condemn I cannot perceive that this sort of Oeconomy in the Microcosm is comportant with the Act of Intelligence in an Humane Soul for that thus it would become divided against it self whence its Government should not be able to stand But if this Soul fall out to be Material and not Intelligent the declared Oeconomy stands well together For such a Soul can act every Part Member and Organ according as was intended by the great Artificer of them but not to any other Intent ad libitum of the Soul It acts therefore the Organs of Sensuality and Affections and it acts also the Rational Powers each according to the Proprieties and Powers of their Natures without any Favour or Inclination to the one or the other So as the Soul is the Actor but not the Governor in the Microcosm For sometimes one of these Powers prevail and sometime the other so as Aristotle compares their Contest to a Game at Ball as it were whether for a Penny and there is no Certainty at all of the Success from the Cradle to the Grave for Time and the Thing is from Nature and is acted in all Mankind So it is with Wind in the Organ it acts the Fabrick and every Pipe in it one as well and as much as the other but sutably to their several Constitutions without Inclination or Intelligence I say if the Sensitive Powers resisting and overcoming Reason and the Ordinary Effects of God's Spirit in Man be not acted by the Humane Soul by what then are they acted And if by it they be acted it seems very probable that Soul is Material and not Intelligent 5 Paragraph You say We find many Texts of Scripture importing that Man perishes by his voluntary Choice of Evil and neglecting the Means of Grace and resisting the Motions and Assistances of God's Spirit And I have a great Inclination to believe your Assertion notwithstanding St. Paul Rom. 9. tells us God hath Mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth And his Purpose according to