endeavour the same FINIS A SECOND PART OF A TREATISE INTITULED A SEARCH after SOULS THE Fore-going Treatise being finished and coming under the Perusal of several Persons amongst them a Minister an Eminent both Scholar and Teacher made some Reflections thereupon and transmitted them to the Author of this Treatise willing to receive his Reply thereunto And because the Dispute arising thereupon occasioned the opening divers Apprehensions concerning the Main Intent of the Treatise it seemed useful to publish the same therewithal The First Opposal came in one Sheet of Paper which received a Division into Fifteen Paragraphs 1. Paragraph Was a Civil Complement To which was returned a Thankfulness 2. Parag. Was a Discourse that some particular Fathers Opinions touching the Soul as Origen Tertullian and even St. Austin was not fit to counterpoise the General Stream of the Fathers of their Time And this was granted 3. and 4. Speak to the Novelty of the Opinion of a Humane Material Soul and it is granted new to the Generality 5. States the Question viz. that it is Whether the Soul of Man be Material or Immaterial 6. Parag. The Opponent says Men cannot conceive how a Material Agent can act as the Intellect and Memory of Man can do Nor that it can do so Therefore the Soul of Man cannot be Material but must be Immaterial To this it was replied That the Works of God exceed the Capacities of Men to conceive and that Men cannot find out Reasons for or of the Contextures so much as of a Leaf What it is that frames it into a Stem then puts forth the Ramuli then the Fibres of a divers Fashion as is proper to each Tree then unites them by a thin Covering of Green in some more glossy and glittering and in some less Men cannot perceive how or by what means this is done but are satisfied with knowing that there is a Material Spirit or Sap in the Plant and that thereby and by the Vegetative Power in Plants all such acts are wrought in them and that they are acted according to the appointment of God without Mens being able to find out the immediate or next Causes of the particulars And so for the Animalia they have Nutritive and Generative Powers the Loco-motive and Affective as Lust Wrath Fear they have Sensitive Powers and all these in as high and perfect a Degree as Men have them and the Intellectual Faculties but in a very low Degree Men know these Powers or Acts are wrought in or by the Beasts but not in a particular manner applicando to the next Causes of them but we know there is a Flame of Life in them which acts in them and acts them and is the Cause and Original of all their Motions and Actions without knowing how that produces in them Anger or Fear or a Lust to Generation or power to see remember c. The very next Causes or Manner of their Production cannot be known but Men may be satisfied in knowing the Aptitude of the Organs and that generally there is a Flame of Life or a Flamy Spirit in Animals by which God can and doth effect all such Motions and Actions as are fit and proper for each sort of Animals to perform And if all this can be done in Beasts by such a Spirit I desire to be shown some reason why the like may not be acted in Man by a like Spirit and in a much higher Degree assisted by Organs especially in the Head much fitlier framed for the effecting of such purposes and so judging we shall be freed from the Common and Vulgar Error of thinking all we see done extraordinary and of which we are not able to collect or find out the Cause that it is done by assistance or agency of Spirits as was the Case of Regiomontanus his Eagle and Flie and the Artist was therefore taken for a Conjurer And so when Watches first appeared in China those People thought they were moved by Spirits Our present Argument seems of that Nature we know not how such Effects are or can be produced from Matter and Motion and therefore they must be acted by an Immaterial and Self-subsisting Spirit not generated but coming into the Body ab extra no Body certainly knowing from whence nor how nor what it is nor that it is Doctor Willis in his Book De Anima Brutorum Latin Printed at Amsterdam page 4. names Periera and Des Cartes and Sir Ken. Dighy who to avoid the allowance of such Souls unto the Beasts will have the Beast esteemed but a sort of Machines which only can move but that they have no knowledge or feeling of any thing that they do or suffer acted by Matter and Motion which they say can have no Sense P. 5. These Men says the Dr. think that God cannot make Things or Creatures beyond the Powers of Mans Capacity to conceive and rightly to understand P. 6. But says he Nemesius and Gassendus do allow to Beasts Senses Outward and Inward Perception Appetite Spontaneous Motion a sort of Deliberation Judgment and a lower sort of Ratiocination for that is no more but knowingly to distinguish one Thing from another to compare them and chuse one of them before the other And the Brutes do Ex uno colligere aliud and therefore they have a sort of Reasoning although in a very low Degree and he cites the words of Gassendus Animam esse quandam flammulam ignisve tenuissimi speciem quae quamdiu viget seu manet accensa tam diu vivit animal cum amplius non viget seu extinguitur animal moritur P. 8. the Doctor says The Sensitive Souls of Men are of the same nature with this description and this sort of Soul is extended over the whole Body and is dividable and the Members and Parts of the Body are the proper Organs of this Soul aad this Soul is of a fiery nature and the act or substance of it is either a Flame aut habitum flammae proximum affinem and that so it is says he not only Gassendus hath determined but 13 great Learned Men here named have concurred in that Opinion P. 9. he asserts Animam in sanguine aut liquore vitali gliscentem aut ignem aut flammam quandam esse And this Soul which acts and keeps Life in the Body must have a continual Nourishment both from Air and Viands And he takes this Soul to consist of the same Matter with the Body but of the most select subtil and active Particles of such Matter he says Dr. Ent hath clearly demonstrated Sanguinem pariter ac ignem duo desiderare viz. alimentum ventilationem This Soul is fitted and proportioned to the Body and the Body contains it as the Scabbard doth the Sword and it is so fine as to be imperceptible to Humane Senses and so as that it can be known only ab effectis operationibus P. 11. So as when the Life fails there is no sign or footsteps left
by something in us and that is some Substance and this we call the Soul it is not nothing and it is within us Thus he tells us a Humane Soul is an Immortal Spirit That being denied he neither proves it nor offers to do it but instead thereof he offers Proof that it is a substance for says he it moves and acts within us and it is not nothing This we grant but take it for no proof at all of the separated subsistance of a Soul for the Heart Brain Blood and Spirits and Breath are continually moving and acting within us and each of them are substances but have no subsistance in their Motions separate from the Body but all Die with it and so may that which is called by the names of Soul or the Form of a Humane Body or the Vital Principle of it Pag. 14. He Confesses That God is the continued First Cause of all Beings and that the Branches and Fruit depend not as effects so much upon their Causes the Roots Stocks and Branches as the Creature doth upon God whence it seems clear That God can make an Automaton moving and living by ways which Men may not be able to find out or understand and perhaps the Life and Actings of Animals may be such a Secret and because Men cannot find out how the Blood Spirits Nerves Arteries Veins Muscles and other Vital Parts are acted or moved nor the adequate or precise manner how they are all Excited and Actuated by that Flame and Glowing of that which is called the Flammula Vitalis not quite extinguished in Animals but with the Life how by the Unctuous Spirits rising from the Blood Urine and Humours of the Body this Flame is perpetually nourished and maintained and fanned and kept alive by continual and lively respiration nor how the Spirits raised and kindled in and about the Heart mount continually to the Head where in the Brain and the Ventricles of it and Motion or Conveyance of the Arteries thereunto belonging the Common Sense is furnished and excited to Act upon all Objects presented and to Lodge them in the Phantasie and the Memory whence they may be recalled and presented again to the common Sensorium or Judicial Power that it may consider them better or work with them or upon them as far as its own Capacity or Intellect can advance it self in the Powers and Practices of Arts and Sciences Such things we find are transacted and done in the Brain and Body of Man and we cannot pervestigate with any exactness how by the Vital Parts and Spirits of the Body such effects are particularly and properly Produced and this is more hard to be done because Men can never Compass the sight of a Dissected Body in the full Life Vigour and Motion of the Blood Spirits Humors Parts and Members of it but must be content with the view of them all Dead Cold Clammed whence they may have good pretences to conclude it very unlikely that the Powers of Sense Phantasie Intellect and Memory should be Actuated by such Materials or the Conjunction or Operation of them not enough considering that the Flamula Vitalis which is the Acter and Life of them all is extinguished before the beholders can be admitted to the sight and consideration of the Vital or Principal Parts of a Dissected Body And yet it seems from this want of Conception how the Parts and Spirits of the Body do or after what manner they can Act after and in performance of the Faculties of Sense Motion Intellect Phantasie Memory c. Men take their Principal or even only Reason to Introduce or Invent a Forreign Government and Governor for every Animal or at least Humane Body viz. a Spiritual Substance as our Author calls it Pure Invisible Immortal others add Indiscerptable and it will not be Difficult for Men to add and ascribe to it whatsoever their fancies happen to Invent in Cases where we can never expect to have any likely Trial of the Truth but this savours of expounding Obscurum per Obscurius or the stopping one Hole and making many Wherefore as to our not conceiving how the Animal Parts can Work and Act all those Parts which we know are performed amongst us wee seem to have ground enough to refer them to the Power and Will of our Creator That he can by such means effect all Mens performances no Man makes doubt and to many and learned Persons it seems likely that he hath done so and for those who meerly upon the fore-named reason will take the boldness to impose a Super-Humane or Spiritual Empire upon the Bodies of all Men we request them to take as the Acter or Imposer ought to do upon themselves the Onus Probandi and that they first prove to us concerning the Power intended by them to be Introduced amongst and over us which they call an Immortal Spiritual Substance 1. Quod sit 2. Quid sit 3. Quale sit 4. Quando Ingreditur 5. Vbi residet 6 Quomodo gubernat agit viz. That there is in Nature such a Humane Soul able to subsist in Seperation from the Body 2. What it is in its own Nature and whether it do pre-exist a Mundo condito or be derived ex Traduce from the Seed of the Parents or that Infundendo Creatur be Created by Gods Power upon every Fruitful Copulation 3. With what Qualities such Souls are indowed whether they are all well inclined or some ill or meeterly Whether all are of like Power or some more others less potent Whether they may cause or can help or hinder any Bodily Pains or Diseases Whether they can leave their usual place of Residence and go into other Parts of the Body or go quite out of it a wandring in the World and yet return to it again Whether they feel share of the Bodies Maladies and will not willingly consent to have Limbs cut off or to take strong Purges or Vomits for fear of being disturbed in their places of Residence Whether they are more pleased or have a greater desire to be in the Body or out of it Whether the Body be as a Prison to Souls and they be confined to it or that they chuse to be there and leave it unwillingly And if they be there confined by what Power or means are they so and what other Qualities of Souls they think fit to communicate to us 4 When it is that the Soul enters into the Body Whether before or after the Births and if before then how long after the Conception Whether it enter in its full Dimensions or grows larger as the Child grows or suffer detriment by sickness of the Body or its Consumption or Age Also when it leaves the Body finally Whether its leaving do kill or that it stay till the Flamula Vitalis be quite extinct and the Body dead Or If this Flame be suddenly extinct by the violent motion of a blow upon the Head Whether doth the Soul strive to re-kindle this Flame or
viz. Violent Oppression not agreeing with their Law False Accusations and Witnesses Barbarous Exclamations of Crucifie him Crucifie him though they had not proved nor the Judge found any Evil in him By these Fruits the Jewish Zealots might safely and certainly be Judged Of whom St. Paul bears witness That they had a Zeal to God seems true and unfeigned but not according to Knowledge They held the Truth in Unrighteousness and practised the doing of Evil that Good might come And by like Fruits any Persons may be known and that they have not the Spirit of God how eager Pretenders soever to the same they be We do also agree with our Author and those of his Mode That the Spirit of God hath in many or all Ages moved and acted People in a very perceivable Manner and most eminently during the Infant Times or Beginning of the Christian Doctrines and Church Acts 20. The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying that Bonds and Afflictions abide me As if the Spirit of Prophecy were very frequent among them Galat. 3.5 He that ministreth to you the Spirit and worketh Miracles amongst you doth he it by the Law And by Laying on of the Apostles Hands in Nature of a Confirmation the Holy Ghost was frequently given And at the Conversion of Cornelius The Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word And at their first Pentecost The Holy Ghost appeared in a visible Sign and sate upon every one of the Disciples and they spake with Tongues as the Spirit gave them Vtterance not able to use another Tongue at that Time So Cornelius his Guests spake with Tongues and magnified God At Ephesus upon Laying on of Paul's Hands the Holy Ghost fell upon his Converts and they spake with Tongues and Prophesied These Texts are Evidences that these eminent and visible Actings of the Holy Ghost upon the Disciples of those Times were very frequent and usual attended with the miraculous Effects of Prophesying Speaking with Tongues and Healing Diseases Casting out of Devils c 1 Cor. 12.4 There are Diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit Healing Miracles Prophecy Tongue also Wisdom Knowledge and Faith The three later Men cannot with any Clearness and Certainty discern but the sour former give Testimony to Mens Senses that they are wrought by the Spirit and Power of God for that none of them are Effects of Natural Powers And when Men behold them done in their Presence they are ready to fall down and worship God and report That God is truly in such Actors and that these are the Effects of God's Spirit in them This sort of eminent and perceivable Endowment with God's Spirit was very frequent and general in the Apostolick Times but in Future Times it diminished decayed ceased and finished by Degrees And for many Hundreds of Years we have seen or believed no Evidences that have been given us whereby the same should be perceived We have heard indeed and read divers Relations and Pretences to that Purpose but never saw or believed any to be Real and Convincing Evidences that any Men since the Primitive Ages of the Christian Church have been endowed with God's Spirit in this Eminent and Perceivable or Extraordinary Manner The Evidences of which are the Miraculous Effects and Operations expected plainly to be manifested for Confirmation of that Opinion or Pretence Whence we require these two Sorts of Proofs from Men pretending to have God's Spirit in a Special or Peculiar Manner viz. If they pretend to the Ordinary Imperceptible Operations of that Spirit upon them we demand Evidence by the Fruits before specified If they reply You shall hear us Pray and Preach Ex tempore with great Vehemency and without Hacking or Extravagancy and this we propose to all that hear us as a Supernatural Power and an Evident Effect and Operation of God's Spirit We agree this to be somewhat Extraordinary when Really and Truly Performed but withal do say Such Power is attainable by the Industry and Practice of Man And of that we give Instance out of Socrates his History Lib. 7. Cap. 2. where Atticus was made Patriarch of Constantinople about An. Christi 410. He was a Man of mean Learning but of Godly Life and great Wisdom and became a painful Student and spent the greater Part of his Night in Reading and became so learned as no Sophistry could puzzle him First viz. As soon as he was made Priest he framed Sermons and with great Labour learned to repeat them without Book and by Diligence and Exercise became so expert that he came to Preach ex tempore and his Manner of Teaching was very plain See here an Ancient Father of the Church obtaining this Faculty of Preaching ex tempore by Diligence and Exercise without Pretence or Mention that it was a particular Operation of God's Spirit We see this Gift may be obtained therefore by Nature assisted with God's ordinary Concurrence requisite to the perfecting of all Man's Designs and therefore it may not pass with us for an undoubted sort of Proof that Persons so able and so doing are therefore endowed with the Spirit of God in a Special and Particular Manner And we say farther That this Faculty of Praying and Preaching is none of those mentioned in S. Paul's Catalogue for Fruits of the Spirit nay and that it is consistent with and often serviceable to the Works of the Flesh We refuse then to admit this Faculty for a Proof that the Actors are Specially endowed with God's Spirit and call for such Fruits as St. Paul hath specified to us as Evidences that God's Spirit resides Specially in Particular Persons working in them in his ordinary Imperceptible and Natural Way proceeding by the Enlightening their Perceptive Faculties inclining their Judgments and so their Wills regulating their Affections quieting their Passions and subduing all to the Rules of Christ's Gospel and Observance of all that is there declared and enjoined And as to the eminent or extraordinary or perceptible Endowment with God's Spirit like those in the Apostles Times and some next Ages to them we expect that all who pretend to be so end owed shall prove and manifest the same by their Miraculous Operations Let us see or hear them Prophesie speak with Tongues unlearnt heal the Sick cast out Devils cleanse Lepers raise the Dead or do some Things that may be like these and clearly above the Power of Nature to perform and less or other Evidence will not be admitted as Proof that any Person is endowed with Gods Holy Spirit in such an extraordinary and perceptible Manner as People used frequently to be in the Apostolical Times and the Ages next unto them And an Instance shall be cited of those Ages next after the Apostles viz. Euseb Hist Lib. 6. Cap. 8. Narcissus became Bishop of Jerusalem about Anno Christi 190. in the Vigils of Easter the Christians then used to be in Nocturnal Celebrations in the great Church Oil was not provided enough
to nourish the Lamps at which Defect the Multitude complained and grieved the Bishop also troubled commands the Officers to fetch Water out of the next Well and when it was brought he prayed over it then bad them pour it out into the Lamps and the Water changed into Oil and served the Lamps as Liquor of that Nature and a small Quantity was for the Miracles sake reserved by many of the Brethren a long while after This says our Author who wrote about Anno 340. is come to us by Tradition from one to another And being a Tradition so Ancient and of a Time reputed more Innocent than the Present is here repeated as an Evidence that the Power and Spirit of God did work did then work miraculously amongst them in the Church And except we see such Signs and Wonders we shall not be able to believe that any amongst us have the Spirit of God in such extraordinary Manner as the Apostolick Times and Men had it in a Manner perceptible to the Parties themselves or to any others who shall converse with them And this settles the Case betwixt the Author and me and shews where the Difference of Opinions sticks He intends the Church now hath that Power of the Spirit which is perceptible to the Party 's own self and to others such as was in the Apostolick Times and which I call Extraordinary This I deny and the Proof lying upon his Hand it seems he ought to make the same Proof of it in these Times that was wont to be made in those Times viz. Miraculous Operations such as are above the Power of Man's Nature of it self to perform Instead of which he endeavours to conclude upon us with Quotations of some Expressions taken out of St. Paul's Epistles sounding to his Purpose against which Records collected out of Scripture he says we may not aver To this I reply That those Epistles have in them some Things hard to be understood and which may be wrested to the Maintainance of Errors and it seems that divers such Places are wrested by applying to Future Times and our Times what was by that Apostle spoken of those Times in which he lived and so applied were pertinent and true and yet if applied to Future Times for which they were not intended they may very likely have another Appearance We have also before spoken of God's Ordinary Conduct given to Believers whose Natural Faculties his Spirit polishes leads orders and perfects moving and intercepting their Faculties and Actions and meliorating their Natures and Inclinations with so much Gentleness and Easiness as the Parties cannot themselves perceive any Violence of Motion no nor any Motion at all nor do they certainly know how far or how much the Spirit of God acts in their own Reformation or Amendment and how then should other People know the Spirit of God to act in them Why the Party and those who consider his Condition have all the same Means to know the Spirit is there and where it is it works they must derive their Knowledge from the Fruits These are are good and known Fruits of the Spirit and they cannot spring nor grow without Cultivation of God's Spirit and where those Effects are visible and known there the Cause and Presence of that Spirit may as certainly be concluded Now we say that by rightly applying the Expressions of St. Paul in his Epistles unto these two Grounds and Positions or to one of them as the Expression shall require all that Apostle's Expressions are solvable without any Need of Reason thence to infer that there must be in the Christian Church of all Times such a special perceptible Impulse of God's Spirit as there was in the Times when St. Paul wrote and which I have termed Extraordinary as given to and in that Time and not to be continually communicated to Future Ages And where God's continual Assistance and that of his Spirit is mentioned it may the most likely be intended the Ordinary Communications of God's Spirit which we doubt not are frequently and ordinarily to be perceived in our own Times and by the Means before prescribed So as the applying of these Texts out of St. Paul's Epistles to the one or the other of our proposed Positions will be able to answer and satisfie all those Texts and put a Reasonable and True Construction upon them without any need of Inferring from them a Necessity of having amongst Christians in all Future Ages such Endowments and Operations of God's Spirit as were in the Persons living in Apostolick Times or near unto them And that an Instance may be given of our propounded Manner for the expounding such of St. Paul's Texts we make Choice of a Place often urged upon Debates concerning the Necessity of being eminently endowed with God's Spirit in all Times and Places Christian viz. 1 Cor. 2.14 The Natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned This Text or Verse as it stands alone or by it self sounds as if Man's Nature and Reason were utterly useless in understanding the Tenets and Duties pertaining to the Christian Faith and Profession but that all such Things must be left to Guidance of the Spirit and Direction of those who are thereunto inspired or that are reputed so to be In answer to this we say that for expounding this Text and all others the Context is very necessary to be well considered And to that Purpose we go upward to the sixth Verse of this Chapter There the Apostle says We speak Wisdom but not of this World Ver. 7. We speak the Wisdom of God in a Mystery Ver. 8. Which if the Princes of the World had known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Ver. 9. But neither Man's Senses nor his Vnderstanding can find out the Things which God hath prepared for those that love him Ver. 10. But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit which searches the deep Things of God We ask What is intended by us and take us to signifie the Apostles and other inspired Disciples and Teachers of those Times and not extending to the later and suspected Pretenders of future or our Time since the Miraculous Manifestations of the Spirit ceased in the Church Ver. 11. 12. We received the Spirit which is of God viz. those Teachers received Ver. 13. And we speak this Mystery in Words not taught by Man's Wisdom but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing Spiritual Things with Spiritual Then comes our Text. Then Ver. 15. He that is Spiritual judgeth all things viz. He to whom God hath so communicated his Spirit as that thereby they were enabled to know the Thoughts and Intents of Mens Hearts as that impotent People had Faith to be healed And in the Conspiracy of Ananias and Saphira 1 Cor. 14.24 and Acts 20.23 before cited They knew not only Things present but Things to come and
any Motion of God's Spirit working in them but it perfected and enabled their Natural Faculties producing its Effects in an Easie Imperceptible and Natural Manner Judg. 14.6 A young Lion roared against Samson and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he rent the Lion like a Kid. So Ver. 19. So Chap. 15.14 and Chap. 13.25 The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times In the Camp of Dan 1 Kings 3.9 Solomon says Give thy Servant an Vnderstanding Heart to judge thy People Ver. 12. God says I have given thee a Wise and an Vndestanding Heart above all before or after thee Seems by enlightening and perfecting of Natural Faculties if Samson's Strength were not so effected Isa 28.6 The Lord shall be for a Spirit of Judgment to him that sitteth in Judgment and for Strength to them that turn the Battle to the Gate Ver. 26. God doth instruct the Husbandman concerning his Corn and doth teach him how to order it Ch. 50.4 The Lord hath given me the Tongue of the Learned and wakeneth mine Ear to hear as the Learned viz. makes me Learned Deut. 34.9 Joshuah was full of the Spirit of Wisdom for Moses had laid his Hands upon him Act 6.10 Stephen 's Opposers were not able to resist the Wisdom of the Spirit by which he spake James 1.5 If any Man lack Wisdom let him ask it of God and it shall be given him liberally And whereas some going to a Sermon or reading a Book will take hold and be converted thereby and others not and this is said to be an Effect of God's Spirit in the Converted We do not deny it but do also say That if Twenty Scholars read and study Euclide a few are likely to attain the Effect easily and the greater Part never So in Practice of Musick some will attain a Perfection but the Major Part never And so in many other Faculties especially such wherein Phantasy and Apprehension are the most concerned Sometimes also the Works and Gifts of God's Spirit are so lively imitated by the Father of Lyes as the World hath thereby been generally and greatly deceived and induced to take the one for the other Moses Opposers acted his Miracles till they came to the Lice and the Devil acted so against Job as it looked like the Hand of God's Justice against him and made him pass for an Hypocrite in the World and with his best Friends The Lying Spirit seen by Michaiah gave such great and strong Impressions to Ahab's Prophets and so like a Divine Revelation as they had no ordinary Means of Distinguishing the one from the other Hence St. John 1 Ep. 4.1 wisely directs Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God for there are many false ones in the World And our Lord taught us to try every Tree by its own Fruit if it bear Grapes it is undoubtedly a Vine and otherwise not And to this Trial we commit the most confident Pretenders to the Spiritual Endowments not to be derived from any but the Giver of every good and and perfect Gift Our Author Page 52. says The Spirit is given by Christ to all sound Believers If he mean as a Guide whose Instinct they ought to follow I deny it But if as Assistant and a Helper in their Endeavours working in them to will and to do as by Reason and Scripture they are directed I grant it Pag. 54. Says Hast thou not found the Motions the Effectual Operations the Renewing Changes of this Spirit in thee long ago and is he not still the Agent and Witness in thee of Christ's Residing and Operating in thee Whence else are thy Groanings after God thy Desires to be nearer to his Glory and to know him better to love him more the Pleasure which thou hast had in his Truth Ways and Service c. We pass by his Christ's Residing in thee and thy Groanings after God and Desires to be nearer his Glory as a New and Cloudy Language And to his plain Expressions of desiring and endeavouring to Know and Love God and to delight in his Truth Ways and Service we say That they who do not pretend to a Special Spiritual Conduct but walk by the Lights of Scripture and Reason under the ordinary Conduct of God's Spirit do as much observeâ—â—nd as well perform all known Religious Duties and Services required by God in his Word as Pretenders to a Spiritual Guidance do without yielding to them in any true Practice of Piety or Charity whatsoever He pretends That the Spirit raises Devotion or gives a greater Heighth of Rapture in Mens Religious Performances And we agree That so it can do and may do so when God pleases and that with some extraordinary Testimony of Illumination But that this is a Common or Ordinary Effect of God's Spirit amongst Believers we do deny And do impute such Effects ordinarily happening not to the Spirit of God but to the Phantasies of Men who putting themselves into a Godly Chafe and thereby feeling a great Heat Mettle and Emotion within them it seems they imagine this is given them from above and that it is God's Spirit working within them and that it would be Sin in them not to follow the Dictates and Motions of it although upon due Trial they fall out to be very Irregular and the common Effect thereof is That Men dethrone their Reason and Judgment which God hath placed in them for Natural Guides and Rulers on Pretence of the Text 1 Cor. 2.14 before expounded saying The natural Man receives not the Things of the Spirit of God nor can know them but they must be spiritually discerned Concerning which enough hath been spoken Our Men led by Erroneous Construction of this Text principally and what other like they happen to meet with do often take upon them to dethrone their Reason from the Regiment where God hath placed it and to set up in its Room a Fervor of Spirit which it seems they think is of God and is so necessary for them as that they cannot be good Christians without it And thus truly and effectually they displace and put down their Reason and set up their Phantasy to govern instead of it And whereas Reason is one and uniform in Mankind generally and would induce Men to Think and Speak the same Things Phantasy in Men is as Various as our Faces no one perfectly like another Whence it comes that Christians of whom Paul says We being many are one Bread are so infinitely divided as that scarcely a whole Loaf can be found amongst us but we are broken into Pieces and even murled into Crumbs without any Fastness or Cohesion of one Sort of us to another and we pray God to direct our Church to other and more reasonable Practices for the Time to come Page 59. Our Author complains grievously of his own Infidelity concerning Rewards after Death in Maintenance of which he had both preached and written to other People
Calamos cera conjungere plures instituit Lastly I have chosen the Organ as that Instrument whereunto Mankind may most sutably be compared and from hence shall begin to make general Observations upon these Instruments and Creatures comparando As the Whistle and Horn have no great Variety in their Sounds so have the Insects but something analogous in them to them to Flame and Blood and therefore may rather be counted Animata than Animalie and we shall but little insist upon them but chuse to observe rather upon our Third Instrument the Penny Pipe which can make a Variety of Sounds by several Stops upon it First it appears that this as all our other Instruments this and they all are acted and made sounding by one same Actor or Principle viz. Breath or Wind inspiring them And I say the like of the small Animals compared to it viz. Mice Moles c. we say that they as all other Animals are framed and acted after a similar Manner and as the rest of the greater Animals are and as Man their Supream also is for each of these small Animals have Skin Bone Flesh Blood Sinews Nerves Muscles Joints Heart Brain and Breath as well as the Horse or the Elephant or even as Man himself and act their Five Senses and Vital Faculties as other Animals do and have a Flame of Life or Glowing in their Flood which makes it Circulate Active and Moving as is done in other more large and potent Animals in a Proportion and Nature sutable to their beings The thing is all of a hind in them all as the Wind and Breath in the Musical Instruments the Wind in them doth not make a like Sound or Musick in them all but according to the structure and capacity of every one of them Now give a Penny Pipe into the best Artists hand and who hath a very good Breath yet he shall be able to make but very mean Musick with it sutable to the mean capacity of the Instrument and this is the Case of the Mouse or the Mole amongst Animals though they in their Structure Parts and Spirits are of the same Nature with the greater Animals yet such Spirit and Flame can do no more in those small and weak Bodies than the Capacities and Organs of them will extend unto and those Degrees of Power proportionate to its own Strength Nature and Constitution And so it is in every Degree of Animals one above another the Flame or Material Spirit of Life works in each of them proportionably to act and perform such things and in such manner as the Structure of their Bodies and the Figure Power and Order of their Members make them able and inclinable to act and gives them a Power to execute And just as in the Wind Instruments one sort of Spirit acts them all and one sort of Materials viz Hard Materials Wood or Metâ—al make the Body or gross and palpable parts of them and yet there is that vast Variety in the Musick and Sounds of them as if they were not at all of kin one of them to the other but rather as if they were quite different things in their Nature which plainly they are not for the Matter and Spirit in them all are alike It is true they are different Instruments and make very different Sounds and Sort of Musick And it seems the Case is the same amongst Animals Matter and Spirit are of like Nature in them all Man himself though Sanctius his Animal Mentisque capacius altae his Genus is the same with theirs he is Animal let the differentia be what it will Rationale or Religiosum Man is of the same Kind with the other Animals and is compared by David to the Beasts that perish utterly and so should Man have done unless God had promised and appointed a Resurrection for him and a Judgment upon him But all our Maintainers of the Immateriality exclaim and declaim upon the transcendent advantages which Men have over and beyond the Beasts in the Power and Activity of their Rational Faculty which mistakingly and yet generally they call the Soul of Man and seem so to esteem and think of it but to me it seems there is not a greater difference in Nature or Power betwixt Men and Beasts then in Musick there is between the Organ and the inferiour Instruments from the Trompet to the Penny Pipe or Whistle There is as great a transcendency in the Organ over or and above each of the other Instruments in the Musical Use of them as there is in Men over and above Beasts in the several Kinds of them These Machines viz. the Organ and the Man the one amongst Wind Instruments and the other amongst Animals must evidently be accounted for Superlative and Supream with whom none of the Inferiour Animals or Instruments can hold a reasonable Comparison but Ocularly visible it is that the Organ hath no other Spirit or Cause of its Sound Musick and Harmony but the same that acts in all the Inferiour Instruments And semblably it seems that although Man be a Superlative and Supream Animal yet he may be and is acted by a like Flame or Spirit as we agree doth actuate and enliven the other Animals of an Inferiour Nature or Degree inabling for Acts of Life and Vegetation Nourishment Digestion and Generation stirring their Affections of Lust Wrath and Fear Moving and acting their Five Senses to perceive their several Objects And all these and their Local Motions are as vigorous and perfectly acted in Beasts as in Men and this sort of Soul acts also in Brutes an Understanding Phancy Judgment and Memory true in their Kind but to a very low Degree in comparison with Faculties of those Kinds found amongst Men for that the Humane Head and Organs there placed are far more advantageously framed and fitted for such purposes And thus it seems there is set forth and shewed an apparent and pregnant likeness or similitude between the Correspondence which the Organ hath with the Inferiour Wind Instruments and that which Man hath with the Inferiour Animals And that this Comparison or Similitude may be helpfully used towards the Discovery of the Nature and Operations of an Humane Soul and some farther Assimilations may be made of Man to an Organ viz. First That as in an Organ the Wind cannot command or alter the Sound of any of the Pipes so as to make the Treble Mean Tenor or Bases sound otherwise than that Artist who made them intended them for So it is in Man his Spirit or Soul cannot act any of his Senses or Faculties to other then those very purposes for which the Divine Artificer made and intended them it cannot make the Hand see nor the Foot hear the Shoulders understand nor the Buttocks digest but it can only act every Part Member and Organ to those purposes intended by him that made them Secondly As when any of the Pipes in an Organ are ill made cracked or otherwise harmed the Wind cannot
goes suddenly away in a fright 5. Whether the Soul have a peculiar Place of Residence in the Body and where that is And if that part be ill affected and unfit for her can she change it and go to reside in another Or whether is there more places or another place in the Body that can be fit or can make room for her to reside and act in or that she is Tota in qualibet parte 6. How doth she Act can she do any thing by her self or her own peculiar Power without the Ministry of the Animal Spirits and other Parts of the Body Can she amend any thing that is amiss in the Body or know any thing without such Ministry of the Senses By what force doth she move the Bodily Spirits or can she inflict Pain or Punishment for their Disobedience Can she Govern the Passions by an absolute Sway or how far can she do it and by what Means And so for the Affections and whether is not she rather subjected often to their Power and how far and by what means that comes to pass How or by what means and ways doth she Imagine Judge Understand or Remember Or can any better or more Inteliligible Account be given that she doth and how she doth such things Then how the Spirits Brain and other Organical Parts of the Body do them actuated thereto by the Impulse of Nature and that Flammula Vitalis which pervades every part of the Body and most powerfully Operates in the Heart and Head stimulating and stirring them in and to the performance of Duties and Powers intrusted to them and Imposed or Imprinted upon them by Nature and the Contriver who made them for such purposes and hath appointed their Imployment and the Order and Power by which it seems they may be and are continually easily and naturally performed When the Introducers and Maintainers of a Spiritual Self-subsisting Soul in Man have opened their Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge so largely as to satisfie the Curious Inquirers concerning these and the like particular Queries they may then with better confidence deny the possibillity of the Animal Spirits Blood and Organical Parts of the Body their performing such Actions and producing such Effects as are daily done by us and are continually visible amongst us and thence derive their pretentended necessity of introducing within upon and over us such a Foreign Commander and Government as that of a Perfect Substantial Immortal and Self subsisting Spirit but withal we must desire them to declare why they do allow the boisterous Affections and Passions in Man viz. his Ambition Covetousness Lust Wrath and Fear to be ungovernable by this Imperial Spiritual Power set over Man and his Actions but that such riotous Actors will oppose and over-rule this Spiritual Power and hurry this precious Soul and Potent Governor whether she will or not into very bad and wicked Actions such as her self doth not only resist and condemn but even detest and abhor These Affections and Passions our Spirit-imposers do commonly grant have their Rise and Growth from the Animal Spirits Propensities and Parts of the Body but they have not yet set forth any more rational Account of the Manner how or the Power by which such Effects are performed or produced than they say can be done for those of the Senses Phantasie Intellect or Memory They ascribe indeed the Faculties of the Head and Brain to the Spiritual Power and Government and the Affections and Passions they place in the Heart and suffer their Product and Power to remain with Flesh and Blood but they shew us no Reason of the Difference nor how it comes to pass and by what Mediums Flesh Blood Spirits and Animal Parts do or can produce one sort of these Faculties in Man and not the other It is true that after the Notion of a Living Spirit enlivening and ruling in Man is admitted and taken for true we do then easily conceive and believe the Faculties of the Brain are more suitable to that Nature and the Affections and Passions which sure not therewithal but are apt to resist and over-rule that Government Men do forwardly ascribe to the Production Actuating and Government of Flesh and Blood but perhaps more rightly to the same Flame and animal Spirits which act also in the Head but more refined there and meeting with fit Matter and Organs adapted intended by the Artificer and by him appointed for more Noble Purposes And our Experience tells us That Blood which produces Barking in a Dog will by Transfusion cause Baaing in a Sheep and likely Bleating in a Calf Grunting in a Hog and so will the Sheeps Blood by Transfusion produce Speaking and Singing in a Man according to the Matter and Organs which the Spirits arising from that Blood find in the Places adapted for such Productions This farther Piece of Work being cut out for our Spirit-imposers it shall here be left upon them to perform before they be permitted as a reasonable Course to go on in their Pretences That because Men are not able so fully to understand the Course of Natural Proceedings in the Head and Brain as to give a rational and satisfactory Account thereof that therefore Things cannot be done there as they are without such a Spiritual Power as Men have invented to substitute rather than confess in this Case the Truth of their Ignorance and that God's Works are in this Case particularly past finding out But if they shall give us as rational and satisfactory an Account of the Things concerning the Soul they speak of as they require other Men to give of the Acts performed in the Head by the Brain and the Membranes Arteries and other Parts to the same belonging and continually supplied by Animal and Subtil Spirits from the Heart and quickened and acted by the Flammula Vitalis Nay except they do give a better Account of their Soul and its Power and Manner of Acting than Men can do of the Manner of Acting in the Head and Brain by the Animal Spirits and other Natural Parts and Powers of the Body it seems they are not to be believed or admitted to impose upon-Men their Doctrine of a Spiritual and Self-subsisting Soul as a Distinct Being from that of the Body and it seems they may as well devise Souls for the Beasts upon the same Grounds viz. For that they cannot give a rational or satisfactory Account how and by what particular Means and Powers many of their Actions are framed guided and performed As how they come every one of them to know wherein their Prime Forces of opposing others and defending themselves do consist The Dog in his Teeth the Beasts Sheep Goats Deer in their Horns the Boar in his Tusks Cocks in their Bills and Spurs Porcupines in their Quills and the like and how every Species are taught and guided to use their several Weapons the most dexterously and most to their Advantage by what Power Order or Means the Subtilties of
Hares Foxes and other-like pursued Creatures are invented and acted and the like for Apes and Elephants and their Docility and that of Horses and Dogs and the very Insects Wasps and Serpents know their Powers to Hurt and use them accordingly without that any Man is or ever was able to give a full and true Account of the Means Power and next Natural Causes of such Actions or by what direct Mediums they are performed Shall we then go about to cover our Ignorance of the Immediate Powers and Actings in Mens Heads and Brains by inventing for him an unknown and unprovable Spiritual Being residing in him we know not where coming into him we know neither when nor from whence guiding and ruling we know not how sitting perhaps in Majesty in the Head but rejected or over-powered in the Heart by the Natural Inhabitants the Affections and Passions of it Solomon was wiser than so to be intangled Prov. 20.12 says The hearing Ear and the seeing Eye the Lord hath made even both of them seems a tacite Confession that he knew not how and Eccles 8 17. makes an open Confession that Man cannot find out the Works of God not those which are of thi World the wisest of Men cannot do it And my Lord Bacon amongst the wisest of our Naturalists tells us in his Advancement of Learning Pag. 200. that a Rational Account of the Soul cannot be expected from Philosophy because the thing is Supernatural and Inspired Whence it seems we seek in vain to know what it is or whence it is or where it is or why it is since we cannot know that it is but from the Divine Fountain of Faith and Revelation in his Opinion But says he Man hath a Sensible Soul as the Organ to his Rational which may rather be called a Spirit being a Corporal Substance attenuated by Heat and made Invisible of a Flamy Airy Nature nourished part by an Oily and part by a Watery Substance spread all over the Body and repaired continually by Spirituous Blood We may perceive why he forbears to describe or discourse farther of the Self-subsisting Soul because it is not Natural but Inspired and of which a Reason therefore cannot be required to give any tolerable Account seems tantamount to saying he did not understand the thing nor would make any farther Inquiry into the Truth of it but was content to accept of the Opinion as of a Notion which had long gone for currant in the World and was grown the General if not the Universal Opinion amongst Christians of the later Ages But if we credit Baxter our Author he tells us Pag. 72. That some think the Soul to be Material of a Purer Substance than Things visible and that the common Notion of its Substantiality means nothing else but a Pure as they call it Spiritual Materiality And thus thought not only Tertullian but almost all the old Greek Doctors of the Church or Fathers that write of it and most of the Latine or very many of them and there are few of the Old Doctors or Fathers who thought that the Soul was not some ways Material And now say I upon what new Reasons or Revelations is that Opinion of the Old Fathers of the Church come to be changed Why should not we think now of the Soul as the Fathers and Primimitive Church and Christians thought of it It seems we neither pretend any New Revelation for it nor have found out any either Scriptures or Reasons which were not known to them It may be not unaptly surmised that from the Time of Gregory the first called the Great Bishop of Rome in the end of the Sixth and beginning of the Seventh Century there rose a Conceit in his Church from a Story told to that Pope by the Bishop of Centum Cellae that Christian Souls were put to Penances and Sufferings after Death of the Body for expiating of Sins commited whilst they were in the Flesh whence Prayers were made for them first out of a Charitable Design and then Alms came to be distributed likewise on their behalf then the Clergy and Poor People began to be hired and have Money distributed and given to them for such Purposes And in time there came a Place to be assigned where such Penances were thought to be performed or Penalties for Purging of Sins were supposed to be suffered and this Opinion became beneficial to the Poor and profitable to the Clergy of that Church and went on like such kind of Projects increasing till it grew up to a perfect Purgatorial Fire over which his Holiness took the Supream Command which he hath been reputed to enjoy for the space of some Hundred of Years last past to the great Enlargement of his Reputation and Revenues and the Benefit of his Sons and Servants the Clergy and Ministers of his Church And this hath now continued for about the space of Eleven hundred Years time enough to radicate and fix the Belief of a Self-subsisting Soul in all Believers deriving under that Church or that have been subjected thereunto But whatsoever the Cause hath been of the present Christians declining and swerving from that of the Primitive Fathers in this Point it seems the State of this Question deserves to be diligently reviewed and considered Our Author undertakes to prove this Self-subsisting Spiritual Substance in Man from Three Topicks or Grounds viz. 1. From Reason or Nature 2. From Moral Congruity 3. From Express Places and Texts of Scripture How concise and short he is both in the Words and Sense of his Reasoning in this Point any who will bestow the pains of perusing him will evidently and easily perceive All that he says in proof from this Topick hath been truly related before and without farther Descant thereon it seems less can hardly be said than Id aliquid nihil est and he leaves his important Undertaking proving such a Soul in Man from Reason or Nature with turning himself about to Matters and Things or rather to Conceipts and Phantasies of very small Value as Page 13. Whether the Soul be an Individual Spirit or be an Act or Emanation of God or of some Universal Soul in the Body of Man Pag. 15. Whether the Soul be annihilated by Death and then whether it shall be destroyed by the Dissolution of its Parts Pag. 17. Then whether Souls subsisting after Death do sleep as the Body doth till the Resurrection Pag. 21. Whether Souls subsisting after Death and not sleeping shall continue distinct Beings or fall into one Common Soul or be united to God and so lose their Individuation and Separated Being Upon this Question Pag. 22. he cites S. Austin de Anima putting the Question Whether Souls are all but one and not many But that he utterly denies 2. Whether they are many and not one And that he could not well digest 3. Whether they were at once both one and many And though this might seem ridiculous yet he was most inclined to the Belief of
may yet draw a Plastick Power from the Seed enabling it to assimilate to its own Parts and Nature such Particles as are agreeble to its Constitution and lie within the Compass and Reach of its Activity till the whole Substance or Plastick Power of the Seed be spent Thence rises the Frutex from the Mustard-seed the least amongst Seeds in whose Surcrease the Birds of the Air may lodge And thence the Oaks of Bashan and the no less large or useful ones of our own naturally-happy Country We know farther concerning such Vegetables that they have Roots which draw and extract Radical Nourishment out of the Earth each for its proper Plant and that their Sap is sent up for Nourishment betwixt the Bark or Skin and the Bole or Stalk and that in the Wood or Stalk there are Pores which receive Nutritive Moisture both for its own Support and Growth and the better Nutriment also of the Plant and thus we know in gross many Natural Parts and Materials by whose Powers and Means things are acted and done amongst Plants But all these things that we named and that we know are Parcels of Matter which our Philosophizing Opposers will flatly deny can move themselves Whence they must and do say all this Motion and Activity can come no otherwise but from a Spirit and if they mean a Natural and Material Spirit extracted from the Earth and percolated in the Root and alimbeck'd in its Ascent towards the Branches where the Leaves and Fruit are expected and produced we grant them there is such a Spirit as this in Plants which Philosophers have dignified with the Title of a Soul calling it by Name of the Vegetable Soul But I would seek with a Lanthorn amongst them for a Man so wise that he could apply the Powers and Working of Plants to their proper Productions applicando activa passivis and make Men comprehend how it comes to pass from Intelligible Causes that Apple-trees or other Fruit-trees do bear different Sorts of Apples or Fruits the same Trees the same Fruits whence the thing comes not by Chance but of Nature We desire them to shew the Reason and next Causes of this Difference nay let them declare to us the true and next Causes of the Contexture of a Leaf how and by what Means and by what Causes or Agent the middle Stem of it is thrust out into a strait Line stiffned and made strong for Support of the Fabrick Whence come or how are formed the small Ramuli of such a Leaf fixed in the middle Stem of it Whence all the inferiour and little Fibres and Turnings in it plainly wonderful to behold when the upper Case and Covering is worn off And what is the next Cause or Material of the upper Covering of such Leaves and the Nitor or Gloss of many of them and whence comes their Shape and Figure so divers one from another Our Blessed Lord informs us That if a Man sowe Corn and sleep and wake or rise Night and Day by turns to watch it yet it will still grow up he knows not how first the Blade then the Ear and then the full Corn in the Ear. We know that in Nature there are Materials to do all this and that there is a Natural and Material Spirit operating which we conceive may and doth effect them But to find out the proper Materials and next Causes and their Differences from one another and why and how these things and many more are done amongst and in them shall pass for a Task too hard for the Forces of any who require to have Men declare by what Mediums the how and the why Men do and can use their Senses Memories Phansies and Intellects by the Material and Organical Parts of their Natural Constitutions and Bodies From Vegetables we may proceed by ascending to the Degree of Animals in the World distinct from Men who also are Animals but something more and above the Ordinary Of the Beasts Moses says God made the Beast of the Earth after his Kind This imports he furnished them at the same time with the Breath of Life For Solomon tells us that Men and Beasts have all one Breath And this agrees with our own Knowledge and Experience and puts the thing beyond all Question or Doubt although though Moses do not relate the Manner how it was done as he did in the Case and Creation of Man But the Beast created and inspired with this Common Breath proceeds in the Generating its Like as hath been before expressed concerning Man If the Seed fall like that of Onan the Son of Judah into an improper or inhospitable Place whatsoever Fervor of Spirit or Prolifick Power there may be in it all is lost and comes to no Effect for wart of a fit Recipient where it may find Natural Support by a due Fomentation and Nutriment But where the Recipient is proper for such Purposes the Seminal Matter and Power proceeds to act as before hath been said of Man the Prolifick Spirit fomented ferments the Matter and levens or seasons it till it arrive to a Coagulation and then to a Consistence which assisted by Fomentation of its Receptacle and working of its own Natural Heat and Spirit is first determined in Quantity or Bulk then made more solid and then follows the Formation of Parts and lastly of Members Flesh Bones and such sort of Blood or Chile of a Mixt Temperature to it and all indued with an Inclination and Power of Assimilating to it self such Particles as come within its Reach and are proper for its Increase or Nutriment till it come into the World and take in the Vital Breath and Air whose Fanning kindles the Flamnula Vitalis in the Blood Humours and Spirits of the Body carrying Life and Motion into every the most remote Part of it which upon the total Extinguishment of the Flame dies and can never he re-inkindled without fresh Fire from Heaven an Act of Divine Power and working of a Miracle A violent Blow upon the Head we know will work this Effect without inflicting a greatly visible Wound done by the Concussion and fierce Motion procured and following upon the Blow and whereby we perceive the hardest Stones in Nature may be broken And in all these Particulars the Nature of Man and Beast seem to be at perfect Accord and to have a very near degree of Similitude and Affinity one of them unto the other and so it seems in their Natural Duration or Continuance Strong Spirits or but that of Wine never cease flaming after they are once kindled till either the Matter be all spent or that by some Violence from without it be extinguished or that by some inward Obstruction Nutriment be hindred and cut off or that by some ill Mixture that Nutriment be vitiated and made improper and insufficient for Nourishment of the Flame once kindled as by putting Water or a like unsutable Mixture into the Spirit of Wine or to Oil or other Spirits proper for
in it self or of moving any other Matter whatsoever It seems when he made this gross Mistake he did not remember that there was an Element of Fire in the World For we suppose he could have no doubting but that Fire was Matter nor that wheresoever it is found it shews it self to be a Self-moving and an Active Principle in Nature so violent as to disdain Resistance from any thing Fortresses and Castles are ordinarily and easily overthrown by it Rocks and Mountains cannot enough resist the Force of it But it can shake the solid Globe of Earth making Resistance to the Violent Force of its Motion and Activity How extream easie must it then be for a Principle of such Mettle and Vigour to move and actuate and to enliven and quicken the adapted Parts Members and Organs of an Animal or Humane Body wherein those Parts and Organs are fitted by a wise Creator to those Motions and Purposes and for those Offices in their first Formation intended It seems an Opinion of so little Doubt or Question as scarce leaves Matter or Occasion for any farther Dispute about the Verity of the Thing We have spoken before of the Spirits enflamed to a Tenuity so rare as it attains to a Degree of Invisibility And our Dr. Pag. 149. tells us of the Intense Heat that is about the Heart of Man such as that his Blood there is in a manner scalding-hot So Pag. 203. says The Aetherial Matter is that Fire which Trismegist affirms is the Vehicle of the Mind and which the Soul of the World doth most certainly use in all her Acts and Procreations Pag. 212. The Spirits thus fine and active move like Light as that of the Sun to our Sight the Motion is propagated not by Degrees but at once Pag. 214. If one part of the Blood he more Fiery and Subtil than another it will be sure to reach the Head From these Assertions it appears our Dr. was not ignorant of the Principle of Fire and its Activity in the Body and Mind of Man nor did he forget it Why then did he not mention and answer the Objection thence arising against his Position That Matter can neither move it self nor any other Matter there seems no Account or Reason to be given Our Author Baxter takes notice Pag. 21. That Life Intuition and Love are Acts as Natural to the Soul as Motion Light and Heat are Quoad actum to the Fire This Testifies his Opinion That Fire is a a Self-moving Principle and that it is evident and eminent in the Composition of the Body and Mind of Man is too well proved and apparent to be doubted Upon all these Quotations and Arguments it seems we may say as we have done before in the Case of Plants that in Animals Men do find a proper and sufficient Original in their Seed and the Fomentation and Nutriment of it and of its Growth and Tendency to the Perfection of its Kind that there are naturally produced the Parts belonging to such Bodies viz. inward as Heart Liver Lungs Bowels Brains Spleen Kidneys Bladder c. And outward as Head Feet Hands Arms Shoulders Neck c. Also those which under one Name contain many Particulars as the Muscles Nerves Veins Fibres Arteries Films Membranes Tunicles c. Lastly such as go through the Composure and every Part of it viz. Flesh Bones Blood and Breath God by his Hand-maid Nature and that Wisdom described Prov. 8. framed this Compositum at first out of the Dust of the Earth Of which David gives a true Character when he says I am fearfully and wonderfully made and making he endowed it with a Generative Power to be practised and used for the Continuance of their Species till Time and Place shall fail for such Productions and hath made such Performances the most pleasing and delightful Actions of their Lives to the intent the Species of Animals might never fail in the World or be extinguished When their Bodies were perfectly framed and fully finished furnished with Blood and Humours fit to be enkindled by the Promethean or Heavenly Fire He breathed says Moses into Man the Breath of Life which though Moses doth not express it was given and granted to the Beasts of the Field also and to the Heirs and Posterities of them all and by the first Blast and Fanning of this Breath were the pregnant Steems of the newly-created and pullulant Blood and Humours of the Body enkindled and enflamed with a Fire of Heavenly Product Natural and Lambent like those sometimes found in Ancient Urns and Sepulchres ever burning or shining without Consuming or Perception of Consuming their Materials This Fire Flame or Glowing pervades the whole Body and every Part and minute Particle and Member of it whither the Blood and Humours can and do come enlivening and actuating the whole and every Part of the Body to perform those Purposes for which by Nature they were intended But the Power of this Vital Heat and Fire is most apparent in and about the Heart where the Blood is most heated rarified and refined to a Spirit of that Pureness and Subtilty that like a rorid Steem they become thin to an Ivisibility ascending continually from the Heart to the Head as the Sap doth in Plants and the Vegetative Spirit from the Root to the Branches arriving in the Head they replenish the Brain and the Ventricles thereof acting and stirring and enabling all Parts and Organs to and in the Performance of those Parts and Duties for which by Nature they were intended Our Dr. before-quoted P. 298. tells us That by these Spirits the Soul hears sees feels imagines remembers and reasons and can do nothing without them And Pag. 329. The Souls Intellectual Operations depend upon these Spirits and it is the Fitness and Purity of them that invites and enables her to love and look after Divine and Intellectual Objects But we do not perceive more need of such a Soul in the Animal than there was before in the Plant there we found Materials and proper Organs for the Nourishment of it and a Natural Vegetative Spirit or Soul to enliven it to stir and actuate the Sap causing it to ascend and to spread it self in all Places even to the uttermost Branches and Twigs of the largest Trees where it produceth Leaves and Fruit according to its own proper Nature and why not the Blood Humors and Animal Spirits circulating in the Body of an Animal The Blood and Humors actuated with the Flame of Life and the attenuated Spirits actuating and applying to fit Matter and Organs of the Body made proper for their several Purposes and moving and stimulating to act accordingly and acting with them and in them why may not these act in the Natural Course of a Sensitive Animal without an Immaterial Self-subsisting Soul Our Dr. says Because you can shew me no Way how things can be by such Means acted and done in the Senses or Vnderstanding but so as I can make
of a Mans Countenance Things which dull or unbred People do not well perceive or understand Our Author Baxter Pag. 38. is so moved with the Considerations as he there says That in their own low Concerns a Fox or a Dog nay even an Ass or a Goose have such Actions as we know not well how to ascribe to any thing below some kind of Reasoning or Perception of the same importance Whence he infers That the Difference betwixt Men and Beasts is rather in the Objects and Work of our Reason than in our Reason it self as such and that therefore the old difference of Man from Beast in the Word Rationale should be changed into Religiosum That Mans Genus shall be Animal still but his Characteristical Difference should be changed from Rationale to Religiosum We say further That in the Beasts there is a Sensitive Soul of a Flamy Airy Nature a Material Spirit extracted from the Blood and Humours of the Body actuated by Natural Heat and that Flammula Vitalis which pervades their whole Bodies and every part member and parcel of them passing with their blood into all places whither that can come This Spirit it is that directs and actuates the Motions works by the Senses forms the Voices imagines remembers and understands in the Head inlivens and moves the Heart and by which all other Faculties of the Beasts are stirr'd actuated put upon and supported in their Natural Imployments and Duties performed according to the Natural Operations of Spirits with great Mettle Quickness and Imperceptibility and this seems to be the State and Composition of the Beasts Whence we argue That all that is thus found in Beasts and by them performed springs from the motions and actings of a Material Spirit and the force and power of a Natural Flame What hinders then but that a Material Spirit in Man may as well perform the same productions in Body and Mind of those of his Kind and Species both his Motions Senses Affections Imagination Memory and Intellect and all his other Faculties with some more advantage in the degrees of them by how much the Spirits are more pure and subtil in the Humane Bodies the matter more fine and copious the receptacles of them large and the Organs every where properly fitted and terminating the product and performance to the Effect for which by the Creator they were intended and appointed and we conclude in Affirmative that it is likely to be so in very deed But in answer thereunto our Opposers bring in their lately delivered Assertion calculated as we have said and set on foot for such a time as this Viz. That Beasts do not perform their Functions of the Senses Affections Phantasie Memory and Intellect their Local Motion or any of them by the acting or energy of a Material Spirit But they soberly say Beasts are indowed with and actuated by an Immaterial Self-subsisting Spirit which pre-existed before it came into the Body of the Beast and shall subsist by it self after the death and corruption of its Body They do but say this without making or offering any Proof at all of it And one of their Associates in Opinion pinch'd with this Argument of what the Beasts can and do perform in this Kind takes quite another way and manner of evading from under the force and pressure of it Sir K. Digby to shew us there are more ways to the Wood than one takes a Course directly contrary to that of our fore-cited Authors for he fol. 205. and thence to 210. would perswade us and demonstrate as he says That Beasts are not to be esteemed so much as Voluntary Agents or that they have so much as the knowledge of what they do or why they do it but that they act stupidly by a natural sense of Heat and Cold and the density and rarity of their Blood and Members that they are meer Automata without so perceiving by their senses as to distinguish one thing from another He tells us That in his youth he saw two Machines the one at Toledo for raising Water to a great heighth the other at Segovia both set on work by the Current of a River This was used for the Coining of Money and of these Machines he gives us there the Description and then he compares all sorts of Plants both great and small to his Water-Engine at Toledo and all Sensible Living Creatures to his Machine at Segovia They move and work as that Machine doth and they do things that are very proper and useful for their Natures and contrive and act things sometimes very artificial and curious as he says we see in Spiders Webs and Birds Nests But the Animals know not what it is they do but are prompted so to act by a temperament in their Bodies which makes them uneasie and restless until they do act and employ themselves according to a propensity which they have in Nature but they have as little choice or perceiving either why or what they do as his Machine at Segovia of which he relates many Useful and Artificial Practices continually performed without sense or knowledge of any thing that it did and this seems the single Truth of his fore-cited Assertions But he proceeds upon a like Design to many more folio's It seems evident that these two Opinions of our Opposers are directly contrary one of them to the other and yet are intended both for one same purpose viz. to invalidate such an Argument as might be raised from the Nature Power and Practice of a Sensitive Soul that might perswade to the belief of what hath been before asserted by us of the Rational Faculties and Duties being possible and likely to be acted and performed by a Material Spirit if either of the fore-cited Opinions were true it were enough to rebate the edge of such an Argument and to invalidate the force of it but with those who do not believe the truth of either of them they will be of no force at all to the purpose We confide there is no need to labour in the Confutation of either of them for that they will hardly be acccepted or agreed to by Men of Reading and Reason and that therefore our repeated Argument will be of force and continue unimpeachable by either of these Allegations Whence we are at liberty to proceed in our farther Inquiries concerning the Soul We find that Aristotle who lived about Two thousand years ago wrote a Treatise intituled Of the Soul divided into Three Books and those into Chapters the First Book into Nine and the other Two each into Twelve and he treats therein as we have done of all the Three Known Souls viz. The Vegetative the Sensitive and the Rational and calls his Work A History of the Soul and in the very entrance thereunto the First Chapter of it he tells us It is extream difficult to detect the Essence of any thing or the Quid sit Yet that is the most sound Principle of Knowledge if it can
other Things that are of a Different Nature from themselves viz. in those Things which Men call Substantial Forms and Real Qualities or Qualifications which many perswade themselves are resident and to be found in the Nature of Bodies or Things Nor how such Substantial Forms or Qualities have the Force and Power to excite Local Motion in other Bodies We know it says he to be the Nature of our Souls that different local Motions are enough for the Stirring and Excitation of all our Senses and that Bulk Figure and Motion act upon our Sensual Organs and this Act or Motion passes from them to the Brain and in external Objects we do not perceive any thing but the various Disposition of the Objects which affect our Nerves in various Modes or Manners All this seems to import no more concerning the Soul but that Men have a Substantial Form called by the Name of Soul My Copy of Des Cartes is in 8o. printed Lond. 1664. and contains his Principles and Diopticks his Meteors and De Passionibus We proceed to his De Methodo There Sect. 4. P. 21. he draws in somewhat abruptly a farther Consideration concerning the Soul Pag. 22. He derives his Knowledge thereof from his own prime Invention of Cogito ergo sum viz. Existo And no wonder that he thence derives his Knowledge of the Soul since he dare pretend to derive from thence the Knowledge also which he hath of God As if the Four Rivers of Paradise might competently be expected to flow from the Narrow and Shallow Fountain of his Cogitation But intending to fix his Anchors upon this Axiom as on a Rock He pretends to overthrow by his bare Authority his Ipse dixit all the Ancient Grounds of Humane Sense and Nature by believing that he hath no Body for the feigning without believing it would be but a Dream and unfit for his or for any Purpose Then by believing that there is no World or Place for a Body to be in why cannot I as well feign or believe that I have not a Being as that I have not a Body or that there is neither Place nor World You cannot do it says he so long as you are thinking but if you slacken the Reins and give over Thinking but for one Moment you can have no Reason to believe your own Existence during the time of your Vacation from Thinking how short or long soever that Time may be And hence says he I know my self to be a Substance whose whole Nature and Essence consists in Thinking Whence he seems to collect that this Thinking Substance hath no need of Place nor Dependence upon any other Material Thing Upon this I demand how he knows or can demonstrate that he could think at all without a Body and the Spirits and Organs thereof this he hath not attempted to do and I take it for an Impossibile upon him And till that be done I hold it fit and reasonable to reject his utterly unproved Assertions viz. That the Soul is plainly distinct from the Body more easy to be known than the Body is and would be the same that she is if she had not a Body These as they are barely asserted by him are as easily rejected and denied by me with a Cujus Contrarium Verum He proceeds to declare by what Degrees he derives the Knowledge that God is and what he is from the Fundamental Rock of his own Cogitation My Design is not Opposition to him or his pretended Alterations or Modes of Learning but only in Things concerning the Soul and therefore what he delivers concerning God and his Cogitative Knowledge of that Tremendous Majesty we will not offer to examine therefore we go over him till he return again to the Soul which he doth Pag. 25. He pretends to tell us the true Reason why many perswade themselves that the Existence of God and the Nature of Humane Souls are Things very difficult to be known The Reason says he is this those Men do not separate their Minds from their Senses nor raise them enough above Corporeal Things believing the Old Philosophical Maxim viz. Nothing can come into the Intellect but by the Passages of the Senses by which Passages neither God nor the Soul are ever like to get into the Intellect whence it need be no Wonder that they are no better or more easily understood We grant his Reason to be good viz. That because God and Spirits come not ordinarily by the Senses into the Intellect therefore they are Things very difficult to be apprehended and understood by Men but that Men shall be able by forsaking the Assistance of their Senses and giving themselves up to unguided and random Cogitations to obtain a more full or true Knowledge of God or Mens Souls I must take leave to deny We are told how God first instructed the first People to know obey and worship him He conversed with our first Parents in the Garden and drave them thence by an Angel He gave Commands for Worship and Obedience sutable to the Patterns imprinted upon Mans Reason at his Creation he reproved Cain sensibly and so translated Enoch directed Noah saving him and drowning all others in a visible miraculous Manner and so was Sodom destroyed so Abraham called and supported Isaac and Jacob chosen and supported Joseph sent into Aegypt Moses preserved and what was done at Sinai and the Journey out of Aegypt filled that Nation and all their Borderers with Acknowledgments Wonder and Terrors the Works and Wonders done for Jehoshaphat Hezekiah for Nebuchadnezzar Belteshassar and Daniel for Cyrus Alexander and the Foretellings of their Actions Then the Angelical Preparatives for our Lord 's Coming his Extraction Miracles Resurrection Ascension Mission of his Spirit to the Eyes and Ears of many Nations resident in Hierusalem and Witnesses each to their own People Then all the Apostles the Seventy Disciples the Seven first Deacons and their Disciples were inspired to prophesie speak with Inspired Tongues cast out Devils and to do miraculous Cures These Acts testifying a Superior and Supernatural Power to the Senses and Perceivings of Mankind suted to the Doctrines therewith delivered fill'd the Earth with the Knowledge of God as the Waters cover the Sea Now to the contrary where shall Men find so much as one single Person before Socrates who attained to so true a Knowledge of God as to determine That he was but One. All the roving Cogitations of Mankind never attained to so much Truth concerning God as this one most plain and single Assertion except in those Families or People where God by miraculous Means had made himself perceptible to the Senses of Men and by them made himself Way to Humane Understanding and Intelligence And from these things all true and irrefragable it seems we may conclude that to know God or any Spirit are things of very great Difficulty None knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him And God revealed himself to
of these Proceedings may be made in a Moment of Time and without any Perceivance in the Person Thus by Occasion of our Author 's Dividing of Memory upon a novel and singular Phancy of his own there hath been set forth a Model of the Microcosm somewhat different from what Men have formerly conceived of it But we now return again to our Author Pag. 750. He calls the Will the Vis Motrix and the Spirits Nerves Muscles and Members the Vis Prosequens or rather should be the Vires Prosequentes He calls the Voluntary Faculty the Queen in the Body and we have given her such Part in our Constitution of Government as a Queen at Chess acts in the Regulation and Effects in that Game Pag. 753 Says The Humane Soul at every Conception is created ex Nihilo that the Vegetative Soul extinguishes in the Sensitive when it comes and the Sensitive in the Rational when it comes and thinks the two former may be generated Pag. 757. Questions how Men differ from Brutes Averroes answers In the Cogitative Faculty which acts by Organs The Author replies This is a Sensitive Power and doth not really differ from the Phantasy for that which is a more simple and dull Phantasy in the Brutes is a more acute Phantasy in Men and is called Cogitation in them Pag. 759. The Doubt concerning the Original of Souls is a difficult Question and always was so And Three Prime Points in it 1. The Efficient or Causa ex qua whether they are ex nihilo or ex Re praejacente 2. When they were made whether in the Beginning from the First Creation and so do pre-exist or in Future Times 3. Whether they are made before or after the Formation of the Body or at one same time with the Body Some thought Souls were communicated to Men from the Soul of the World of like Matter to Heaven and the Stars and therefore Incorruptible and Immortal created at first to a certain vast Number and remain in Repositories till called by the Formation of their destined Bodies And this was the Opinion of Pythagoras Plato and most of the Academick Philosophers And this infers a Transmigration of Souls into several Bodies Origin thought that Souls were so created but in time after the World created and that they were by God sent down or did of their own accord descend into Bodies fit for them in due time and some other Divines were of that Mind Some thought Souls were part of God himself others that they were by Angels made of Fire and Air Others that God made only the Soul of Adam and that all future Souls are derived by Propagation from him and that as Men have their Bodies from his Body so their Souls from his Soul radically but yet Immortal Some who so believed thought the Soul Corporeal and therefore generated Others thought it a Spirit and propagated from the Generators Soul as one Light kindles another This last Opinion Apollinaris and many other Bishops did hold and especially the Western Churches Others thought God created New Souls as there was Occasion for them so St. Jerom who says the Church of his time did so believe St. Austin would not condemn either of these two last Opinions he inclined rather to the Creation of New Souls but confess'd he knew not how to prove it from Scripture Those who hold the New Creation of Souls differ some think it created in the Body and some without the Body and some that Infundendo creatur Cites three sorts of Spirits P. 761. viz. God who always was and shall be then Souls of Brutes which neither were nor shall be always then Angels and Souls of Men which were not but shall be always Cites this out of Ficinus P. 762. The Author argues against Origins Opinion of Pre-existent Souls says The Soul is Mans proper Form who consists of a Soul and Body and it is natural to this Form to be united to its proper Matter or Body and against Nature to be separated from it and it is Praeter Naturam that a Humane Soul separated from the Body should so remain till the Refurrection and therefore it would be Praeter Naturam that Souls should pre-exist by a Creation of all at once Whence this is repugnant to the Wisdom of God and the Course of Nature It is natural and per se that the Soul should be with the Body and against Nature that it should be out of it seeing it is the Bodies proper Form so much as it cannot be said to be there in loco as Arist observes and it is there as in its proper Being The Soul of Adam sinned not without the Body nor have other Souls done so and therefore have not deserved to be punished without it P. 763. says That Opinion of the Souls being derived from Generation as well as the Body held by Tertullian and the Western Church is much followed and strongly defended for the more rational deriving the Guilt of Original Sin upon all Mankind for that unless Mens Souls be propagated from Adam as well as their Bodies by what means should Original Sin come to be attached to the Souls of all Men. For if Souls be of new created and out of nothing they must be either created sinful by God or how else should sin come upon them in their Mothers Bellies where they cannot commit Sin nor be contaminate by Lust of the Parents who do not generate the Soul Nor can its Contiguity with a Corrupt Body defile it Also that Conjunction is the Act of God Those Fathers therefore held it necessary to believe the Generation of the Soul as well as of the Body to the intent they might have a sufficient ground of Casting he Guilt of Original Sin upon all People And for this respect Austin and those of his time would not reject or condemn this Opinion held by Tertullian Apollinaris and the Western Churches Ausi non fuerint damnare and cites to the same purpose Eucherius and Gregory the First Bishop of Rome P. 765. our Author means to prove That Humane Souls are New Creations made by God out of Nothing 1. Because Adam's Soul was so created our Bodies are of the Earth like his and likely our Souls like his by Creation I say to this We do not find a Creation of Adam's Soul but that God breathed into him the breath of life gave him breath or respiration this kindled in his Blood and Humours then ready the Flame of Life till that is again quite extinguished the Man lives and nourishes that Flame by the like respirations but that Flame extinguished the respiration ceases and the Man dies beyond all Humane Power to help in such Cases The Soul parts together with the Breath and Flame of Life and never was found but together with them in any Body or other Place or Manner whatsoever It seems this Flame and its Active Powers is not only inseparable from the Soul but that most likely it self is
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
Fol. 156. N. 2. Cites those who do not agree to this N. 3. He disputes this Point Fol. 174. N. 23. Says The Will depends upon Knowledge both in its Executions and Omissions Fol. 195. N. 4. The Will intending to Execute cannot compare the Mediums by which it shall work make its own Choice of them but the Intellect must compare the Mediums by which Execution may be made And then it seems doubted whether still the Will may chuse which Medium it will use in the Execution Although that chosen seems to the Intellect less accommodate to the Execution intended Cites many Opinions that it cannot so chuse and many other Opinions N. 5. that it can Fol. 197. N. 14. Cites Tho. Aquinas saying The whole Reason and Power of Election lies in the Intellect or Judgment because that can only distinguish the Reason of things what is fit and likely and what not also which is more or less fit and apt and therefore the Will is determined to the Mediums of Execution as well as to the Acts of it And to this I agree intending that in both Cases it obeys the Judgment and is determined by it Fol. 200. N. 1. ad 6. Asserts a Liberty in Mankind to act freely he passes it under the Term of Free Will which we continue to express by Name of a Liberty of Judgment intending both Judgment and Will to be Powers or Acts of the Intellect but the Will of it self without Knowledge depends for its Direction upon the Resolution of the Intellect which is the Judgment All are acted by the same Spirit and therefore they cannot contest or disagree with one another And it seems the Links are thus knit and fastned the Soul in the Head incites or stirs assists and acts in the Organs there placed fitted and intended by God and Nature for the Exercise and Performance of Perceiving Reasoning Judging and Willing and all other Acts to a Humane Intellect belonging The Activity proceeds from the Soul but the Degrees of Perfection in Acting depends much upon the Matter of the Animal Spirits and fit Frame of the Organs found in that Region for if they be faulty the Soul cannot amend them nor act otherwise than according to their Capacities and to a greater or less Perfection accordingly We place the Judgment in the Supream Degree of Government and may term it the Result of the Rational Faculty upon which the Inclinations and Will are dependent and by which it seems they are naturally led and guided This Judgment is more or less perfect as the Animal Spirits are more or less pure and rectified and the Materials fine and plentiful and the Organs sound and sit and is capable of being advanced by outward or accidental Additions as by Education Learning Examples Experience and Practice and may be disadvantaged by the ill Temper of the Spirits or Paucity or Superfluity of them by a Discomposure or Distemper in Matter or by Unsoundness or Unfitness of any of the Natural and Necessary Organs to such Operations belonging also from outward Distempers and Diseases from ill Accidents as Education Examples Company Practice and like Unhappinesses If the Soul were an Immaterial Spark or Spirit it would seem more strange that it should be affected helped or hindred by outward Accidents as Infancy Diseases Old Age Learning Example Company and the like or that it should be opposed and over-ruled in Government by Affections and Passions which are believed to proceed from Flesh and Blood If the Intellect and all its Offices and Powers proceed from the Soul acting in the Regions and Organs appointed and proper for the Production of all its Performances and the Affections and Passions proceed from the same Soul acting in the Animal Parts or Inferior Regions and in the Organs appointed for the Production of such Faculties if both Sorts viz. Intellect and Affections be actually proceeding from the same Soul and equally radicated in it this Wonder must needs be the less That the continual Contest between them should be maintained in the Condition which we find it is sometimes one Sort prevailing and sometimes the other under the Natural Actings of a Soul which is equally productive of them both and doth not or cannot favour one of them more than the other and they seem planted in Man by Nature which is the Appointment of God as Opposite Powers swayed by the Judgment after a Paternal Regiment sometimes yielding to the Affections sometimes pacifying them and sometimes crucifying them and to such Degrees as to sacrifice the Body its Life and Members to the rigorous Resolution of the Judgment which Men have us'd to call a Wilfulness but it seems of a Will guided and rul'd by the Judgment and yet at its full and natural Freedom naturally determined by the Result of the Judgment Our Author says Freedom is a Power which having ready all Requisites for Acting may act or not act at its Pleasure Now upon weighing this Definition I do not find in Man such a Freedom by way of Regiment as will be thereto agreeable The Judgment is indeed at a full natural Freedom but it is not natural to the Judgment to act in Matters of Moment without a Consult of Reason in such Cases and then it cannot go from that which appears best for the Compositum all things then appearing considered It is true that in Trivial Matters which do not need or deserve a Consideration the Act may be so free as to be very incertain and to pass rather under the Name of Chance than Choice Fol. 205. N. 2. Some say the Liberum Arbitrium is a Moving Power distinct both from the Intellect and the Will Fol. 207. N. 12. He says It is a Power of Acting freely and able to determine it self This we say agrees fully to the Judgment and gives all Natural Liberty by that Medium to the Will Fol. 235. N. 8. The Brutes are capable of Habits and Actions that are not Natural to them and yet may be acquired and made easie to them by Exercise N. 9. The Cogitative Power may be cogently set at work by the Empire of Reason or Judgment and be determined by it The same which I have said for the Will Fol. 257. N. 1. Substances so Simple as that they do not consist of Matter and Form as Heaven Angels a Humane Soul and the Materia Prima because they cannot be produced by any Creature they have no Rules for their Specification or Things of a Specifical Nature with them Fol. 262. N. 2. Says The Soul must needs be Immortal for that else there could not be future Rewards and Punishments the great Inducements to a Holy and Civil Life and granting the Soul to be Immortal the Substance of it in a Separate State is Consequential This last I grant but not the first Fol. 259. N. 5. Cites the Lateran Council held by Leo X. where all are condemned who say the Soul is Mortal and it is commanded to all
Masters in Philosophy That they answer and solve all Arguments which may be alledged against this Tenet of the Immortality N. 7. He says Let the Learned search into the Reasons and Grounds of this Immortality which all confess to be taken principally from God's Special Providence for Rewarding the Good and Punishing the Wicked in a Future State N. 8. Goes on upon the same Ground N. 9. Mentions only that some do reason for it from Man's Capacity to apprehend Eternal Things and to desire and expect them but doth not insist upon such Arguments or so much as say that they are firm N. 1. He discourses concerning Powers and Acts of Souls Separated with little Assurance and says They have an Innate Inclination and Appetite again to inform and to be united to their proper Matter Upon this our Author we may observe a Love and Inclination to Truth somewhat constrained by the Duties of his Obedience and Profession and the Place of his Abode and Conversation but in Things not forbidden him he seems congruous enough to the Natural Truth and Reason of Things I met with a Pamphlet printed 1645. in English intituled The Prerogative of Man or The Souls Immortality the Author not named but learned full of Quotations concernining our present Point Page 9. He says The Old and Great Philosophers have agreed a Separate Subsistence of Souls And this I do not deny He cites Cicero Permanere Animos arbitramur But what they then are and whither they go we are yet to learn Pag. 13. Cites Marcus Aurelius Emperour As Bodies dying are turned to Earth and Dust by Degrees so Souls carried into the Air are liquified and conjoined to the great Soul of the World which says the Author is nothing but God Cites Tacitus In Vita Agric. If to Good Spirits there may be any Place remaining if Great Souls extinguish not with their Bodies may'st thou rest in Peace Cites Macrobius who after reciting sundry Opinions touching the Nature of the Soul concludes That the Opinion that it was Incorporeal and Immortal had prevailed over all the other Opinions And this we do easily grant Page 10. He grants Aristotle did not declare himself in this Point but thinks he forbore so to do because he knew not how to dispose of such Souls after Death Page 14. He says It imports little that Dicoearchus Aristoxenus Pherecrates Tertullian Sextus Empericus and some other Learned Men have thought the Soul to be Mortal for that some Philosophers have held very odd Opinions He says The Term of Soul is taken for an Exhalation of the Purer Blood sometimes for a Ruling Spiritual Intellect and sometimes for the Immaterial Immortal Part of Man Page 15. He says Increase or Diminution of Knowledge grow from the Difference Advantage or Alteration in the Organs and thence a Man understands better than a Child a Learned than an Illiterate and a Diligent better than a Negligent Person And this we agree to with this Addition That the Soul or Flame of Life hath its Vicissitudes as well as the Body and its Organs Page 16. He says Some Acts of the Soul are Independent of the Body and wholly Inorganical as divers Learned Authors have shewed This shews like an open Blot in his Tables for this Thing is the most precise Point in Issue Prove this and carry the Cause And that in this Point he should shuffle us off without offer of one Quotation or one Reason in Proof of his Assertion inferrs he could find nothing to say in it that was satisfactory to his own Reason or likely to satisfie other Inquisitive People P. 17. Says An Immortal Soul cannot be generated And therefore it is not dependent upon Matter or the Being of a Compositum And this would be true if the Thing were so viz. that Mans Souls were Immaterial but that still wants Proof and so the Argument proceeds ex non concessis He cites an Argument against his Opinion viz. The Anatomies of Men and Beasts shew their Bodies to be alike and their Senses Affections Memories Phantasies are found to be alike and they have each an Intellect and Common Sense some more and some less Perfect whence then can such Difference arise between them in Nature that the Souls of Beasts must be Mortal and those of Men Immortal And this carries the Sense of our former and main Objection and being put by our Author upon himself it seems he should make a Substantial Answer to it but all the Answer he gives is this viz. We do collect from the Operations of the Souls of Men and of Beasts That there is not only a Gradual but an Essential Difference between them and that their being like doth not prove them the same The last we grant and for what he will collect it may be what he pleases but need be no Rule to others But here is no Reason shewn why or wherefore he makes such a Collection nor how that must needs or can be so done P. 18. He offers as some Proof the Difference between the Faculties of Mens Sensual Affections and their Reasons Yet he doth not say a Man hath two Souls and that Affections proceed from one of them and Reason from the other but pretends an Essential Difference between the Faculties of the same Soul which seems absurd in Nature and he might with as good Reason say that Love and Hatred in Man should inferr a Specifical Difference in his Soul Pag. 25. He affirms Generation cannot produce a Humane Soul but argues ex non concessis supposing it Immaterial and then what he says is true But it begs the Point in Question and which will not be granted him P. 26. Says Reason cannot be generated no more can Sense But the Organs of both may be so and the Powers and Spirits that actuate them I but says he Reason and Judgment can and do at times act Inorganically This hath been said before but neither then nor now was nor is proved or offered to be so and therefore is not believed Pag. 26. Says Generation is not performed by Acts of Wit or Vnderstanding but those of Vegetation and Sense and a Soul doth not generate a Soul still supposing a Non supponendum that a Soul is Immaterial and separately subsisting but taking it for a Material Spirit the producing it by generation is easie and natural Pag. 27. It follows says he that because a Man doth not generate with his Mind but his Body therefore his Body is Corruptible and his Mind or Soul is Immortal It seems this needs no Answer Pag. 28. says The Learned Sennertus a famous Physician was moved by certain Reasons which he could not overcome to think the Soul is generated and that the Seed it self is animated with a Humane Soul as in the Case of the Beasts but this Physician and Justus Lipsius called before the Divines and told the Consent of Divines was to the contrary they declared their Resolutions to obey the Order of
upon an undertaking to row against the Stream and general Opinion as well of past Ages as the present time 1 Sam. 30.6 When David was in very evil case he incouraged himself in the Lord his God he it is who hath required that Men should be Valiant for the Truth upon the Earth And Esdras 4.35 Great is the Truth and stronger then all things those who know that their aim and design is no other but the bringing the Truth in this Point to Light to the end that Gods Truth viz. the very Truth thereby may be exhibited and discovered may it seems go on in it without being terrified or bearing an astonishing regard to the censures of Men. We shall proceed therefore to Execution of what hath been declared to be intended Also where two or more Texts are cited unto which one same Answer may well be applied such Texts are designed to be quoted together or at once that the same Answers may not be often repeated And whereas heretofore those Texts intended to prove Recompences in a State future to this Life have been often applied to prove the Self-subsistence of a Separated Soul Here will be care taken to detect and avoid that Point of Misapplication We begin then from the Beginning of the Creation and the History of it viz. Gen. 1.26 God said let us make Man in our image after our likeness Ver. 27. So God Created Man in his own Image Chap. 2.7 God breathed into Mans Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man became a living Soul We have before proved it the ordinary Use of Scripture to express the Person by Name or Term of the Soul and here Man became a living Soul intends a living Person both Soul and Body Zanchius puts a very great Stress and weight upon Gods breathing into Mans Nostrils the Breath of Life for the Proof of a Separately Subsisting Soul in Man To this we say there is not that clear Sense in the Text which seems to import no more but that God gave to Man his Breath and Life and so he did to the Beasts of the Earth and kindled in their Bodies their first flames of Life Propagated from those Originals to all future Generations each Generating its like both amongst Men and Beasts And as concerning the Image of God in Man what and where it is we leave to be disputed as it hath been from those Ancient times till this time without being able to attain a clear Determination That Text Gen. 7.22 All Terrestial Creatures in whose Nostrils was the Breath of the Spirit of Life died in the Flood seems to Paraphrase the Breath of Life breathed into Mans Nostrils and to expound it in the sense before given of it 1 Kings 17.21 The Prophet Elijah Prays My God I pray thee let this Childs Soul come into him again Thus it may be Paraphrased Lord kindle again in this Child the Flame of Life which is now extinguishable restore him to Life again but the mode of speaking here used by the Prophet was agreeable to the common Opinion of his time which was long after that of Saul A like thing we Read 1 Sam. 30.12 concerning the Egyptian found at Ziklag When he had eaten his Spirit came again to him viz. the Flame of Life almost extinguished for want of Fewel was again revived and inabled for action by fresh Food and Nourishment and as the Childs Soul came into him again and he revived so this Aegyptian's Spirit came again to him when he had eaten and he revived And 2 Kings 13.21 a Dead Man let down into Elisha's Grave at the touch of Elisha's Bones the Dead Man revived whether his Soul returned or his Flame of Life was rekindled there is no Ground here to dispute or need to do it Job 12.10 In God's hand is the Soul of every living thing and the breath of all Mankind Here man is ranked with every living thing as to his Soul and Soul and Breath are taken for the same things and of a like Subsistence Chap. 34.14 If God gather to himself Mans Spirit and his Breath he shall turn to his Dust here Spirit and Breath pass for the same thing Chap. 33.30 Bring back his Soul from the pit to the light of the living viz. save his Life or revive him Psal 49.8 It cost more to redeem their Souls viz. their Lives or Persons their Riches could not do it Ver. 15. but God hath delivered my Soul from the place of Hell for he shall receive me viz. he shall deliver me yet from Death and the Grave and hide me as in the secret place of his Dwelling receive me under his Protection Psal 56.13 Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death viz. hast saved my Life so my Soul trusteth in thee and my Soul is among Lions and my Soul thirsteth for thee and my Soul followeth hard after thee he holdeth my Soul in Life and my Soul which thou hast redeemed and 72.14 He shall redeem their Soul from deceipt and violence 73.19 Deliver not the Soul of thy Turtle Dove to the Enemy 86.2 Preserve my Soul for I am holy ver 13. Thou hast delivered my Soul from the lowest Hell and my Soul is full of troubles and Lord why casteth thou out my Soul 89.48 What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave and bless the Lord O my Soul And he satisfieth the empty Soul and filleth the hungry Soul with goodness and their Soul abhorred all manner of Meat and those who speak evil against my Soul All these and abundance more places of the Psalms do under the Word or Term Soul intend and signifie the Person the Life the Affection of the Party Praise the Lord O my Soul These and many other Texts sound to common Readers as Proofs of a Separately Subsisting Soul of Man but that Opinion may be past for a clear mistake and an apparent mis-conception Prov. 11.25 The liberal Soul shall be made fat viz. the liberal Person Chap. 13.4 The Soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing but the Soul of the diligent shall be made fat viz. the diligent Person 14.25 A true Witness delivereth Souls People Men. Chap. 16.24 Pleasant words are sweet to the Soul 19.2 That the Soul he without knowledge it is not good viz. the Person Chasten thy Son and let not thy Soul spare for his crying Do not thou spare The full Soul loaths the Honey-comb Thus far we have added to our former proofs that Soul is very often put for Person and we now expect that shall pass for a granted Truth and it may still be confirm'd by more Testimonies than all that have yet been Cited Eccles 8.8 There is no man that hath Power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of Death Here Spirit seems to intend Breath or Life Chap. 10.4 If the Spirit of the ruler rise up against thee viz. his
And it seems this Crying by the Souls was in the same manner as the Blood of Abel's Cying from the Ground against his Murtherer and as all Notable Actions good or bad do depend for Recompence upon the Effects of God's Divine Providence Justice and Power and so we leave it Luke 23.43 Christ says to one of the Crucified Thieves Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thorn be with we in Paradise This could not be performed in their Bodies for that our Lord's lay in the Grave till the Third Day therefore it must be fulfilled in their Souls separated from their Bodies To this Objection the Answer may have Two Parts First We quote Matth. 27.24 The Thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his Teeth And Mark 15.32 They that were crucified with him reviled him Both these Evangelists agree that they both the Thieves that were crucified with him reviled him S. Luke is commonly taken for the Pen-man of S. Paul by whom this Gospel is believed to have been dictated But neither of these are taken to have been Eye-Witnesses or that they were by and present at this Fact S. Mark is taken to write from the Mouth of S. Peter although it might possibly be from the Apostle S. Barnabas either of which Apostles were likely to be Eye-Witnesses of the Fact then done And S. Matthew was himself both Apostle and Evangelist and likely an Eye-Witness of the Fact and there is an Old Rule That one Eye-Witness is better than two Ear-Witnesses of any Fact We conclude then that here are Two Witnesses against One and that One but an Ear-Witness of that Fact And therefore there is a Ground to question the very Truth of S. Luke's Relation seeing he wrote but by Relation and what he says stands not of it self and can with great Difficulty be made to stand in Agreement with what the other two Evangelists have delivered Secondly We say to the Words To day thou shalt be with me they may be expounded from other like Expressions Heb. 3.7 cites Psalm 95.7 To day if ye will hear his Voice Ver. 13. Exhort one another daily whilst it is called to day Here it seems the Word Day is not limited to an Artificial or a Natural Day but signifies a present but yet a competent Time Luke 19.42 Christ wept over Jerusalem saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy Day viz. hadst known that Time of my present Call unto thee here exprest by the Word Day So The Son of Man must be Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth And yet we know Christ lay in the Grave but Two Nights viz. Friday and Saturday Nights and for Days only one whole one viz. Saturday for he was buried on Friday at Even and rose very early upon Sunday Morning Whence it seems the Words To day shalt thou be with me need not be limited to a precise Day Artificial or Natural but may be reasonably intended to signifie within some short Time after that Promise And that we may the better account for the same there shall be cited Jo. 20.17 Our Lord lately risen says to Mary Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father And the same Day at Evening Ver. 19. came Jesus and stood in the midst among his Discipler And Luke 24.39 he says Handle me and by Feeling perceive and see that I have Flesh and Bones which a Spirit hath not Hence may be collected that betwixt his appearing to Mary that Morning and to his Disciples in the Evening he had ascended to his Father and returned Matth. 27.52 When Christ died The Graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after our Lord's Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Amongst these we have reason to suppose was the Body of this Thief as well as his Soul the Flame of Life re-kindled in him as well as in those other Saints and of our Lord himself and that he the Thief and the other Saints then rising did make this Ascent with our Lord upon Sunday next after the Friday Night of his Suffering And this I conceive was enough to satisfie our Lord's Expression of To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise in so short a Time as it may be counted present or to day And this Resurrection might occasion some to think as 2 Tim. 2.18 that the Resurrection was past already and was not in Future to be expected Luk. 23.46 Jesus cried with a loud Voice and said Father into thy Hands I commend my Spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost And to this we join Acts 7.59 They stoned Stephen calling and saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit This Objection from recommending the Spirit of a Dying Person to God and Christ Men say imports a Spiritual Being or a Soul in Man which is capable of a Subsistence and hath such a Subsistence in a State separated from the Body The Objection is of the same Nature with that from Solomon The Spirit returns to God that gave it and requires some Repetition of what was thereunto answered And for findding out the Sence and Intent of the Word Spirit Places of Scripture shall be quoted 1 Sam. 30.12 When the starved Egyptian had eaten some Figs and Raisins his Spirit came again to him seems his Spirit of Life his Vital Spirits Ezra 1.5 They stood up whose Spirit God had raised to go and build the Temple seems to intend their Inclination and Affection Job 20.3 The Spirit of my Vnderstanding causeth me to answer seems the Eagerness of his Desire Chap. 21.4 Why should not my Spirit be troubled viz. why should not I be troubled Psalm 51.17 The Sacrifice of God it a broken Spirit there is paraphrased by a contrite Heart 143.4 My Spirit is vexed within me and my Heart within me is desolate Prov. 18.14 The Spirit of a Man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear viz. a good or bad Conscience Chap. 25.28 He that hath no Rule over his own Spirit it like a City broken down and without Walls Here Spirit must signifie Affections Eccles 8.8 No Man hath Power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit seems Men's Passions Prov. 20.27 The Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord searching the inward Parts of the Belly viz. Man's Reason and Knowledge is the Candle Psalm 31.6 Thou art my strength into thy hand I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me God had saved him in his Troubles and therefore he again commends himself to God under the Term of his Spirit Dan. 5.12 An excellent Spirit Knowledge and Vnderdeastanding was found in Daniel The latter Words expound Spirit Acts 17.16 Paul's Spirit was stirred in him at Athens he was moved and provoked Chap. 18.25 Apollos was fervent in Spirit or was Zealous 1 Cor. 5.5 Deliver the Man to Satan that the Spirit
be better known it seems it can have but little Force of Proof in this Argument Joh. 12 26. If any Man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be Chap. 14.3 If I go and prepare a Place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also This later Text expounds the former viz. Christ's Servants shall be where he is intending after he hath first prepared a Place for them and then comes again to receive them These particular Texts of Scripture are all that we meet with that are quoted by others or are observed by us and tending materially to Proof of the Separate State or Subsistence of Humane Souls after this Life ended And yet there remains one Perswasive which inclines common Readers as much or more than any other Argument to believe that there is a Separate State of Souls Subsisting after they are parted from the Bodies a Perswasive rising from Induction of many Scriptural Expressions concerning the Soul and the Body as different and even opposite Things and Principles Rom. 7. describes the Contest betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit as if they were naturally different Principles in Man whereas they are but different Faculties in Man viz. the Affections Passions and Appetites Vital combating the Faculties Intellectual the Knowledge and Reason of the same Party with various Success But these being exprest by the Terms of Flesh and Spirit of the Man seem to represent them as two Principles different and contrary one to the other Such Faculties we agree they are different and contrary but such Principles we say they are not but all proceed from the same Principles the Constituent Parts of Man viz. his Soul and his Body The Natural Powers of such a Compositum all these Faculties equally are and seem the one of them independent upon the other and seldom free from a Contest amongst them in which the Judgment or highest Prudence of the Party bears the Sway and hath the Determinative Power naturally residing in it So as what is here signified by the Terms of Flesh and Spirit are so far from a Possibility of a real Separation one Sort from the other as neither of them can subsist but in eodem subjecto with the other and the Compositum which hath not all of them is Imperfect Chap. 8.1 They who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit This taken for a Humane Spirit or Soul must intend the Reason or Intellect And the Chapter goes in Terms of Flesh and Spirit inducing Readers to accept them as different Principles and thence Separable Whereas we are ready to put the Stress of our Argument upon their being Joint-Principles of one Compositum Man which cannot consist without both And it seems as he Man cannot subsist without them so they not without one another And so in a Compositum they are generated grow stand and fall together one and all the Soul the Body and the Compositum and so they shall rise and be recompenced together And what God hath so joined together in Bands of Nature and absolute Coherence one of them to another the Power of Mens Wits and Perswasions will never be able finally to separate or to evince their Subsistence in a State of Separation one of them from the other Matth. 26.41 Our Lord says to his sleeping Disciples The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak intending the Body is often unable to act according to the Reason and Desire of the Mind Judgment and Intent of the Man and that Infirmity of Weakness and Weariness is peculiar to the Flesh thereby made unable to act with that Vigour and Continuance which the Soul acting in the Phantasy and Reason of the Man requires and shews such Connexion of the Matter and Form as in the Man one of them cannot act without the other Rom. 8.10 The Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness 2 Cor. 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit Galat. 3.3 Having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect in the Flesh Ch. 5.16 Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh Ver. 19. Works of the Flesh Ver. 22. Fruits of the Spirit Coloss 2.11 Putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh 1 Cor. 7.34 The unmarried Woman cares that she may be holy both in Body and in Spirit Eph. 4.4 There is one Body and one Spirit 1 Thess 5.23 I pray your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord. James 4.5 The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy 1 Pet. 2.11 Beloved I beseech you abstain from fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul Ch. 3.18 Christ was put to death in the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit Ch. 4.1 He that suffers in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin and must live the rest of his time in the Flesh not to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God 2 Pet. 2.10 Wicked Men walk after the Flesh in Sins here named Rom. 13.14 Make no Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a Price therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's These Texts and their like have a Sound or Semblance of Supposing a Separating Difference betwixt the Soul and the Body whereas their true Signification seems to be a Distinction between the Powers or Faculties of the Compositum viz. those Vital or the Vegetative and Sensual from those Intellectual and Rational viz. Man's Ambition Covetousness Lust Wrath and Fear and their Descendents from his Knowledge of Common Sense his Phantasy Opinion Reason and Prudence The first Sort of these Faculties and their Inclinations and Desires are signified and intended under the Name and Term of Flesh in S. John's Epistle called the World And the second Sort of these Humane Faculties are signified and intended under the Name and Term of the Spirit or the Soul But both Sorts are Fundamentally and even Inseparately united in the Nature of Man or that which is the Compositum both of Soul and Body Both Sorts are derived from the Conjunction of these two Principles or Constituent Parts of the Man it seems not singly but each from the Whole or the Compositum Not the first Sort from the Flesh and the second Sort from the Spirit or Soul really for the Flesh by it self cannot live or act And that a Soul by it self either ever did or that it can act was questioned by Aristotle and not found or believed by him It hath been affirmed by some of our Authors quoted but their Proofs offered are so weak as they appear very unlikely to perswade Considering People who can put off their former Prejudices Nor have they prevailed yet to induce a Belief that the Soul cannot act those Faculties of the Second
Men seem encouraged or even pressed to undergo the Trial by what follows viz. He who doth the Truth cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God Hence he whoso fears to bring his Works to the Light as to put them rather in a secret Place and smother them seems convinced or under a strong Suspition that they are not wrought in God For he who doth Truth comes willingly to the Light for the Manifestation of his Deeds And we would have it taken and accepted as the true and only Design of making this Argument publick believing it a Discovery of Truth wrought in God without any crooked Biass or Design and not unfit or improper to be set upon a Candlestick that Men may have Opportunity to see and discover and to examine its Light viz. the Truth of it and may use it accordingly Having made such Search after Souls as we are able we go on to enquire concerning other Spiritual Operations in Man And do say that we have taken the Occasion of this Enquiry from the Book before-cited called Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts Perusing what he said there concerning the Soul I met with Doctrines about the Operations of God's Spirit acting in Man such as were very different from my own Apprehensions and thereupon entred into a Design of enquiring farther into the Truth of what there is asserted and to approve or endeavour to confute what we there met with concerning this Subject as it shall appear agreeable to Truth or otherwise deviating from or opposite unto the same Page 47. He says This Spirit works in all Believers and either in them only or eminently above all others Pag. 48. But this is not discoverable to those who have had a pious Education and have pursued that Course from their Youth They cannot discover the Spirit 's Renovation in themselves but are left to make such Discovery of Renovation in others who have been changed from Evil to Good Without Christ's Spirit we can do nothing and better have no Souls than be void of that Spirit Hereupon I observe That those who cannot discern this sort of Spirit working in themselves seem to be very incompetent Judges of its working in other People or of knowing that such Change was wrought by that Spirit They may guess and mistake but we deny that they can know it We agree that no Man can act any thing without God's Assistance for in him we live move and have our Being We cannot do a good Work nor any Work without him and our Dependence is upon him both for Life and Action And this Divine Energy Men may call the Spirit of God within us But we deny that this is peculiar to Believers more than to other People although it seem often confounded with the Holy Spirit of God and of Christ Pag. 49 He says Heaven is the Summ and End of all the Spirit 's Operations viz. Man's Salvation purchased by Christ and given by Covenant Take up the Cross forsake all and follow me and thou shalt have Reward in Heaven For this he quotes Luke 14. Ver. 26. 33. The Words are Those who do not forsake all cannot be Christ's Disciples And he quotes Luke 18.22 where the Words are Sell all and distribute and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven How far these Words prove his Assertion we leave to Judgment It follows God sends his Spirit to good Purposes and to illuminate and make Holy And we grant where it comes it doth so But to know where or in whom this Holy Spirit resides will be the Difficulty between us Pag. 50. He quotes 16 Texts of Scripture to prove God hath promised this Spirit to Believers in a Special Manner I have perused them all and do not find one of them come home to his Assertion viz. That God will give to all Believers his Spirit in a Special Manner And yet that they are all under the Conduct of that Spirit and are moved and led thereby we do grant but do say that it works generally by Natural Ways and Means of Illuminating the Understandings of Men and their Faculties of Perception inclining their Judgments and thereby their Wills regulating their Affections quieting their Passions subduing all to the Obedience of Christ by Natural and therefore Imperceptible Working in them upon them and by them so as the Working may not be perceptible to themselves or others who converse them But the prime or sole Appearance of this ordinary Conduct of Gods Spirit must be sought for and found in the Fruits not in the Leaves the Bustling Noise or Rattling Professions or Contendings about or for Religion Galat. 5.22 Gives us a Catalogue of these Fruits The Fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance Where these Fruits grow and flourish and the Works of the Flesh here mentioned wither and die Men have great Reason to conclude the Person so walking is under the Conduct of God's Holy Spirit because it is beyond Humane Power to produce these Effects without the Divine Assistance or Aids from Heaven and thus we join with our Author at the Journeys End although we travel in different Roads towards it We both say God's Spirit conducts and leads Believers in a particular Manner but we do not agree about the Manner I say The ordinary Working of God's Spirit is by Natural Means perfecting and regulating the Man's Powers and Actions till they arrive to a Conformity with their highest Intention and the Will and Appointment of God unperceivably in the Operation or Conduct both to other People or even to the Party upon whom this Grace is bestowed for that it is Naturally effected and so without any violent or perceptible Motion or Action and therefore cannot be known but by the Evidence of Fruits Our Author By God's Spirit gives to Believers in a Special Manner agreeing in general with those of his Practices doth intend such a perceivable and vigorous Working of God's Spirit in Men as excites their Zeal and Concernment for the Gospel-Interest and what they believe tendent and conducing to the Glory of God although in their Proceedings to such Purposes there appear neither Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness nor Meekness and although there do appear Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions and such like This Tenet I pretend to oppose as an Erroneous and Dangerous Doctrine opposing our Lord's Direction By their Fruits ye shall know them The Pharisees and Jewish Nation of Christ's Time were as zealous for God and his Law as the most Devoted of our Time can shew themselves for the Gospel Their Hatred to him grew the most apparently from his not strictly observing the Sabbath Day and not Washing before Meat and other Religious Practices then used and his Pretending to introduce a New Mode of Religion different from that given by God at Mount Sinai But they proceeded in Opposition by Unjust and Faulty Methods
therefore might judge all things But we cannot allow the present Pretenders amongst us to apply this to themselves or to any of theirs Ver. 16. Says We have known the Mind of Christ viz. by Revelation of the Spirit not only by the Letter Nay from the Spirit in them by whom the Letter of what we call Gods Word was dedicated and framed Eph. 3.3 Ye have heard of the Grace of God given me and that by Revelation God made known unto me the Mystery viz. that Mystery intended in our present Chapter Col. 1.26 Even the Mystery which hath been hid from all Ages and Generations But was then made manifest to the Saints of that Time Eph. 1.17 I pray that God will give you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation the Eyes of your Vnderstanding being enlightened that ye may know the Hope of his Calling and the Riches of his Glory Galat. 1.16 It pleased God to call me by his Grace and to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him Ver. 12. I neither received the Doctrine of the Gospel from Man nor was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ Nor did he then consult with other Apostles or his own Flesh and Blood about it but went into Arabia far from other Teachers Acts 8.26 The Angel of the Lord spake to Philip saying arise and go towards the South with other Directions Ver. 29. The Spirit said to Philip go near and join thy self to this Chariot Ver. 39. When they were come up out of the Water the Spirit of God caught away Philip and the Eunuch saw him no more Act. 10.19 While Peter thought on the Vision the Spirit said to him behold three Men seek thee arise and go with them for I have sent them So Chap. 11.12 The Spirit bad me go with them nothing doubting Act. 13 2. As at Antioch they ministred to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the Work whereunto I have appointed them Acts 16.6 Paul was forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia Ver. 7. And they essayed to go into Bithynia but the Spirit suffered them not These Texts have been quoted to evince and declare the Manner and Efficacy of God's Communicating his Spirit in those Times Of which sort our present Pretenders to Endowments of the Spirit have not a Face to challenge any thing We return now to Examination of our quoted Text and Chapter and say That the Wisdom of which St. Paul here speaks is the Wisdom of God in a Mystery ordained before the World unto our Glory called Eph. 1. The Mystery which had been hid from Ages and Generations but was made manifest to the Saints of that Time Mentioned Matth. 16.17 Peter says to his Master thou art Christ the Son of the living God And Jesus answered Flesh and Blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven The Redemption of the World by Christ and that Jesus preached to the People was Christ was the Mystery of St. Paul intended in this Text. The Princes of this World had no Knowledge of this Mystery for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory This was not a Thing that could enter into the Senses or the Heart of Man to conceive But God had then revealed it by his Spirit to the Holy Apostles and Disciples of that Time who had received the Spirit of God that they might know this Mystery as a Thing freely given to them of God of which they spake in Words taught by the Spirit But the Natural Man or the Reason of Man could not find out or were not capable of receiving this Mystery by any Helps of Nature or Reason for this Mystery would be Foolishness to a Natural Man and could not be known by Natural Means or Grounds of Reason but must be Spiritually discerned by Revelation of God's Spirit For the Things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God As our Lord to Peter Flesh and Blood hath not revealed this to thee but my Father hath done it A Thing which no other Means had Power to do Not Man's Nature or his Reason Nothing could discover this to Man but the Revelation of Gods Spirit Every Parcel of this Mystery is above the Natural Man's Capacity and Comprehension What Eye had ever seen or Ear heard or what Heart had ever conceived That a Woman should bear a Child without the Assistance of a Man The Virgin demands How can this Thing be seeing I know not a Man The Natural Man could not receive this small or least Part of the Mystery of Man's Redemption but it would appear Foolishness to him Not to speak of the Trinity and Second Person in it united to the Nature of Man and chusing to appear in the Form of a Servant to undergo Contempt Want Pain and Death and rise again by his own Power and that his so doing should be Expiatory for the Sins of Men and be so accepted in the Sight of God the Natural Man receives not cannot naturally receive the Things of this Mystery for they are Foolishness to him nor can his Reason know or conceive them because they are and must be Spiritually discerned viz. must come to be first known by the Revelation of God's Spirit only Our Apostle's Text thus applied is not only firm and true but also plain and clear intelligible and rational which Men take upon them to confound by taking a dictum secundum quid for a dictum simpliciter and applying what the Apostle speaks concerning this great Mystery and concerning the first and eminent Revelations of it to all Occasions Persons and Times without observing the Measures of Difference which ought to be made between them concerning which we say That although at the first Times of making this great Mystery known to the World there was no Way of Producing that Effect save the only Revelation of God by his Spirit and the same was performed accordingly Yet in a short Process of Time it came to pass that this Mystery was Taught Accepted and Believed by Natural Men upon Reasonable Grounds and without being counted Foolishness amongst them viz. when God by his Spirit had revealed this Mystery to Peter Paul and the rest of the rest of the Disciples of our Lord and other Christians Then they preached the same to other Men and declared this Mystery to them Mark 16.23 They went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with Signs following Their Auditors Natural Men had Reason to consider the Teachers the Doctrine and the Signs following The Teachers were Men Sober and Pious not seeking Worldly Interests ready to suffer for Justifying the Truth of their Doctrines and without Exceptions in the Course of their Lives The Doctrine was Sublime said to be revealed by God the Facts delivered of our Lord's Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascension and Descent of the
in us to will and to do by those Ordinary Operations before described improving our Reason to a right Apprehension and Understanding of them and our Discretion to a right Choice and Practice St. Paul tells his Corinthians I speak as unto wise Men judge ye what I say He doth not refuse the Judgment arising from the Reason or Wise Men. Let Men now tell a Quaker what the Words of Scripture are and what Consequence from thence must reasonably and necessarily follow his Answer is ready He cares not what either of them says for he hath a Light within him the very Holy Spirit of God which tells him and witnesseth with his Spirit That all which he believes and professes is true and the only salutary Way for his Soul and so for all other Mens if God will please to communicate to them the like Perceptible Illuminations and Special Impulses of his Holy Spirit which the World doth not cannot receive nor can the Natural Man do it but such Things are to him direct Foolishness and he cannot know them because they are Spiritually discerned and cannot be so by Reason or any Humane Power or Means whatsoever Now whil'st this Man is thus certainly perswaded in his own Mind and that he who is Spiritual viz. endowed with such Light within him judgeth all things and yet himself is judged of no Man nor will submit himself to be so He seems to be past all Conviction or Cure by reasonable Remedies or Applications having thus passed beyond the Bounds of Humane Reason and Scripture he is become excentrick to all Humane Perswasion and Government and as incurable Phreneticks must be born withal so far as their Phantasies are only detrimental to themselves And it we may place all other Dependers upon Perceptible Extraordinary Motions of God's Spirit in a Form or Classis next below them differing in the Degrees of a like Infirmity all holding the same Original Ground and growing from the same Root and defending themselves in the same Fortresses and by like Weapons only the first Sort have passed to a farther Degree in the Distemper than the rest have hitherto done We must leave them upon this Account to the great Power of God who only can and in his Time may and perhaps will give them Convictions in a miraculous and powerful Manner and really such as they do now but pretend unto The Distemper it seems hath grown from the ill Digestion of some of St. Paul's Expressions wrested by Men both unlearned and unstable as other Scriptures may be to the Perverting if not the Destruction of themselves and their Proselites and to the great Disturbance of the Protestant Churches Pag. 278. Says God's Cures by his Spirit are wrought with great Pangs of Repentance I say That upon every notorious Sin committed these are rational and necessary Consequences as well at last as at first and no more to be enquired after in Youth than in Age nor in one Part of a Man's Life than in another But such Carriage ought to be both expected and performed whensoever there is a just and reasonable Cause for the so doing Pag. 280. Says God is all in all things It may pass for a Cloudy Expression And we agree That God and Christ are what Christians acknowledge and adore Also that we are generally under the ordinary Guidance of God's Spirit and are thereby led into all Truth directed therein by the Scriptures confirmed by Sacraments instructed and excited by sound Teaching and the Acts of God's Providence amongst us for us towards us the Convictions of Humane Reason and our sound Senses and the like usual and common Manuductions for establishing of our Faith and perfecting the Practice and due Performances of a holy Life That God can do this by eminent and perceptible Emotions of his Spirit in a Supernatural and Miraculous Manner is granted and certain And this was common in the Church during all the Time of St. Paul's Life But that God doth still continue those Supernatural Actings in his Church ordinarily and at this Day hath been and will be continually denied and that none can be saved who do not feelingly perceive in themselves such Impulsions or Emotions of God's Spirit working in them to such Purposes we not only deny but do condemn and explode as a great Instrument of Deceipt and a most pernicious Error Pag. 291. Says The Christian Church needs no Testimony of Miracles of new Upon this I demand What these Eminent and Perceptible Emotions of the Spirit are to be counted Natural they are not as their Defenders assert and we agree therefore they are Preternatural or Supernatural and they pass for Acts of the later Sort whensoever they do happen And our Opposers maintain they are very frequent and ought not only to be Common but Universal amongst Christians amongst whom every one should have a Taste and Feeling of them and consequently a daily Exhibition of New Miracles Pag. 308. Says Many of his Friends Holy Persons are gone to Heaven and that is spangled with these Spiritual Stars the Place is honoured with them and they with it We think our dead Friends are almost lost to us till the Heavenly Spirit tell us where they are and prepare us to desire our being there Observe from hence we may what our Author means by his Term of Heavenly Spirit viz. his own and his Followers eager and hot Phantasy or Conceipt For if he had obtained any Perceptible Spiritual Revelation concerning his dead Friends or any one of them we do very much assure our selves he would have made us acquainted with it For his Expression That Heaven is honoured with the Presence of the holy Persons his dead Friends it tastes of an arrogant Conceipt not warranted by Scripture or Reason but sutable to his Spiritual Vehemencies and Impulses Pag. 348. Says It is the Will of God that the Ministry and Testimony of Man shall be a Means of our Believing and he will use Man for the Instruction and Salvation of Man and not send Angels with every Message To this we agree and say the Perceptible Actings of God's Spirit may be as rare as the Ministry of Angels in our Times Page 353. Says Grace is not a Brutish Principle but works by Reason having also its natural inclining Force We account this Expression as one of our own extracted from him by inadverted Power of Truth Pag. 359. All true Believers are justified that consent to the Baptismal Covenant chusing God for their God Christ for their Saviour and the Holy Ghost for their Sanctifier though this be done with so great Weakness as neither ends Mens Doubts nor quiets their Minds It seems the Perceptible Actings of the Spirit are wanting in such Cases and he seems either to have forgot or to distrust the Necessity of that Assistance Pag. 368. Says The Soul hath no distinct Idea of its Future State out of the Body and we see not whither it is that we must go
but a Trust in God supports all It seems he knew of no Revelation Primitive or Modern that could give Satisfaction in that Point Page 372. Says God doth his own Works in a Causal Order one Work prepares for another and he makes Varieties of Capacities which occasion Varieties of Gifts and of Receptions and he useth to give every one that unto which he hath brought him into a next Capacity for the Reception of And granted it is That all is Acted by Energy from God and his Spirit But say I as he also by giving Capacities and advancing them to Degrees of Perfection in an Ordinary and Natural Course producing Effects from their Natural and Proper Causes And that when he goes beyond this Course or out of this Way the Proceeding is Extraordinary Supernatural Miraculous such as we have no Warrant to expect or depend upon in the ordinary Course of our Conduct True it is God's Arm is not shortned and therefore in all Cases of great Exigency we know he can work by Natural Causes beyond Mens Expectations or by Miracles at his own Pleasure We read of such Procedure in the Primitive Times since which the Signs and Wonders are ceased and so the Perceptible Actings of God's Spirit ordinarily And it seems we are not any more reasonably or warrantably to expect them or to depend upon them but to wait upon God's ordinary Dispensations in his Ordinances Hearing Reading Praying Practising Living and Dying in him to him and if need be for him so as Living we may repose upon him and Dying we may rest in him 1 Joh 2.28 So as in all Conditions are abide in him that when he shall appear we may have Confidence and not be ashamed before him at his Coming And this is the Fruit of our Labour and Conflicts in this World that we may have the Hope and Courage at our Awaking to come before him with Confidence and without being ashamed in his Presence Pag. 374. Says We must not have slight Thoughts of the Office and Work of the Holy Ghost on Souls and our Necessity of it but must beg and wait for the Spirit 's Special Help That Spirit is not impotent or inexorable he hath appointed us Means for so high a State and he appoints no Means in vain Page 375. Says Let thy Dependance on the Holy Ghost as given from Christ be as serious and constant to thee as the dependance of the Eye is upon the Light Beg hard for the Holy Spirit and gladly entertain it All these Expressions of our Author seem to intend some eminent and perceptible Motions or Actings of God's Spirit if so he do there are divers Testimonies in this Book which shew he did not attain unto them We have shown the Thing to be a Miracle common in Primitive Times of the Church but ceasing by degrees until no Signs of it were left But the Fruits the extraordinary Appearances are failed long since and the like Effects do not now shew themselves Where the Spirit is it works and if it be present in an extraordinary and miraculous Manner it will produce sutable Effects as it did in those Primitive Times and where such do not appear such Pretences are not to be believed If our Author intend the Ordinary Gifts and Graces of God's Spirit working in us to will and to do what God hath appointed us in his Holy Word by Illumination Rectification Melioration and Direction of our Natural Faculties Powers and Capacities all his Exhortations may pass for good and Men may pray in Faith for such Assistances and Graces and may likely find a good Return upon them Our Author says no more upon this Point and we shall therefore follow it no farther but return with him to our first Design Page 380. He says The Sensible Souls of Brutes are Substances and therefore not animated at their Deaths God tells us not what he doth with them after Death and it is likely they are after Death in a State still of Service unto Man but how we know not It seems the same Scruple which troubled him at the Beginning of his Book hath stuck to him all along and unto the End of it viz. how to make a real and clear Difference between the Souls of Men and Beasts He doth constantly acknowledge a great Assimilation of the one of them to the other and shews a great Inclination to raise the Nature of the Souls of Brutes above that which ordinary Opinions have allowed them to the Intent that a Separately Subsisting Soul of Man might the more easily pass and be assented unto or with fewer Difficulties and Exceptions And to this I say that he labours in vain to perswade that Souls of Beasts are Self-subsistent It seems a Phancy either derived from Dr. More or out of his own Brain He doth not alledge a Revelation of the Spirit for it and if he had such Allegation could not support that Opinion We say That Souls of Brutes are Material Spirits living and acting in their Blood and Humours and preying upon them as their Natural Support and Nourishment inflamed by the continual Fanning of their Breath and when for want of Breath or other Nourishment the Flame of those Natural Spirits is totally extinguished or that by other Violence such total Extinguishment happens the Beast dies and these Natural or Vital Spirits cease to work and be and can no more revive than a Fire clean gone out or put out can rekindle it self without fresh Fire applied to that Purpose And for the Beasts we have no notice or Proof that ever such a Reviver or Rekindling shall be given them But concerning Men we have very clear undoubted and undeniable Revelations that there shall be a Resurrection or a Reviver of them Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto Men once to die but after this the Judgment And Chap. 11.35 Torments were endured not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection For there will be a better and a worse both of the Just and of the Unjust And then shall Christ sit upon the Throne of his Glory distributing Crowns to his brave Soldiers the Martyrs laid up for them against that Day and awarding other Rewards and Glories to his faithful Servants and passing a dreadful Sentence upon his Enemies and specially Deserters Takers and Breakers of Holy Vows and Covenants of Fidelity in his Service for that they crucifie the Son of God afresh and put him to an open Shame From such a Resurrection Good Lord deliver us and rather may the Mountains fall upon us and the Hills cover us that we may never see the Frowns of Goodness and Love rejecting all Future Addresses and putting us over to the Masters and Company which living we chose and preferred before his Greatness and Glory his Goodness and Love testified by his Sufferings for us But living People have yet Time to prevent such heavy Consequences of the Resurrection And God give us all Grace heartily to
my Opinion when I found Roccius saying the same things and words and Melanchton apparently to the same Sense and Peter Martyr approaching thereunto and nearer than I do expect other men shall come in any short time Your Quotation out of Dr. Cave was drawn by him out of Euseb Hist lib. 6. cap. 36 and is quoted in my Treatise This Particular finishes your Opposition to my Treatise and shall put an End also to my Defence Yet because I have as you may see some room left upon this Sheet of Paper I am thereby invited to remember what you said in your Second Paragraph viz. That it is not unlikely that my Treatise might be the result of some years Study To set your Imagination right upon that Point I give you this Account of it That in Summer 1690 I practised my Monastick Discipline reading within Doors and labouring the Ground abroad Mutans quadrata rotundis What I read within I ruminated without I considered the close Connection of Soul and Body and even the Contexture of them that Humane Constitutions and Faculties are often alter'd by Diet Air Sickness Accidents that the best Reasons Memories or Judgments may be altered or spoiled by divers like Means and recovered sometimes by Medicines applied to the disaffected Parts or Organs of the Body How this might competere with the Acts and Powers of a Substantial Angelical Spirit as the Soul or Form of Man I found my self unable to comprehend but that rather it seemed there was a Dependency of the Soul upon the Body as well as of the Body upon the Soul Hence I concluded there was a Close and Natural Contexture between them and that likely they were both of one same Nature Connatural to Man viz. his Natural and Constituent Parts Then I considered the Brutes and that they had the same Senses and Affections with Men and some sort of Understanding Phancy and Memory and all liable to like Accidents Also both Sorts lived by Blood Breath and Fewel or Food and if any of these failed the Man must die as well as the Beast so as the Man's Soul could help in such or any other Vital or Natural Necessities no more than the Soul of a Beast can do in like Cases And thus I went on considering all the Summer and coming tube inclined I fell upon a very Natural Course of Proceeding in such Cases followed by St. Paul Acts 17.17 He disputed his Tenets in all Places and with all Persons of his Conversation proper for that purpose and so did I and read Books such as I had or could buy or borrow Lastly One lent me a Book called Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts and the Weak Defence which he and Sir Kenelm Digby and Doctor More made on behalf of that Immortal Opinion fortified my Conceptions to the contrary In Christmass I discours'd with many about it and soon after Candlemass I began to write and finish'd my Treatise about a Week after Midsummer in An. 1691 since which time divers have perused it and I refuse it to none who are like to use it cleanly and are capable of it I know you observe that I begin with Baxter's Book and end with it quoting and examining of it all along nor did I find it difficult to refute all that he says in maintenance of the Immortality except the Texts of Scripture which he quotes And those Texts in him and in you seem to me the only Defences of the Immortality Batteries you perceive are and may be raised against the intention and effects of those Texts which are quoted to that purpose and of what force they will prove Men are not like speedily to determine But my Judgment is not convinced or perswaded that by forbearing the Argument drawn from the Immortality and pressing in its stead that from the Resurrection and the Last Judgement there can any detriment arise to the Progress and Maintenance of the Christian and specially of the Protestant Religion If I had a desire to argue upon this Point and towards the Clearing of it as St. Paul did both in Synagogues Markets and Schools I do it much more desirously with you as professing my self Your much obliged and very humble Servant 8 March 1692. After this Answer to the Opponents Objections he was p1eased to reply thereunto in June following and his Replication was divided into Seven Paragraphs His 1. Parag Insists That I had not made that Proof which he demanded of the Quomodo How a Material Spirit was able to act or did act the Humane Faculties and Powers known to be in Mankind and carried to an excellent Perfection in some Men As this was a repeated Demand so I say that I answer to it as before viz. That there are many other Things and Actings in the World the Reasons and Causes of which Men neither do nor can enough comprehend or perceive Our Lord tells us That if one should watch the Corn Night and Day yet he could not perceive so as to know the Immediate and Proper Causes of its Growth but it will bring forth first the Stalk next the Blade then the Ear and lastly the Full Corn in it Men not perceiving the How or the Why of it and the Case is like for all other Plants How it was or whence it proceeds that they bring forth Fruits and Leaves of wondrous Variety and Diversity in Colour Figure Taste Smell Bulk and Operations We see that each of them have Root Bole Skin or Bark and we perceive and know that each of them hath an active and lively Juice or Spirit ascending from the Root into the Boles Branches and Tops of them and this Composition of Matter and Form in Plants we do reasonably believe to be sufficient and effectual for the production of all that doth ordinarily grow out of them But that Solomon or any other man ever did or can declare to us the manner of their proceedings or the next Reasons of them and of that great Variety in their Natures and Productions I do not know nor believe nor do I think it a Work of Humane Power to do Next Plants we may consider the Insects Solomon points us to the Spiders the Locusts the Ants and the Bees what are the Causes of their Motions and Actions Solomon tells us they do what is proper and best for their Beings but as Wonders to him and us who know neither the How nor the Why of them And so for the Fishes and the Birds we cannot know by what secret Engines and Motors divers particulars are done amongst them Concerning the Quadrupedes we see and know they have the same Flesh Blood Bones and Breath that Men have and in their Kinds sutable Bodily Members as Head Heart Liver Lungs Arteries Veins Fibres Muscles c. that Men have also a Generation and Production all alike I may demand what makes them live and grow in the Wombs of their Dams What forms their Members and how are they made in those
of Prescribing an Immaterial Spirit to be newly created by God upon every fruitful Coition of Man and Woman These and the like Sayings of Learned Men and the Grounds and Reasons of them are offered as a sufficient Cause and Occasion for me to wave and even to deny and refuse the entring into a Fruitless Enquiry after the Means how Men are enabled to used their Senses Phancies Understandings Memories Judgements of which yet I think I can give as good an account as you can do how Infants grow in the Womb and live there without Breathing in nature of a Grub Or the How or Why Teeth grow out of their Jaws David could say I am fearfully and wonderfully made but he could not tell how that Knowledge was too wonderful and excellent for him and he could not and much less are you like to attain unto it pari ratione let me require of you to shew Whence and How Ambition Covetousness Lust Wrath and Fear grow in all Men and in the most to such a Power and Strength as to baffle and bear down the Powers of Reason and that Angelical Soul or Spirit which you say resides and governs in every man and is specially created for him by God to that purpose You may please to account to me for the How and by what means such things are acted or come to pass or lastly do for the Immaterial Soul what you require of me for my Material one declare and prove to me how and by what means the Immaterial Soul works or acts in each of the Senses in the Understanding Phancy Memory Judgment Local Motion Appetite Digestion Nutrition Generation and Outward and Inward Faculties and Power belonging to Mankind and by the time that you have so done I hope to be able and willing to account to you how such things may all be done as well and more probably by a Material Spirit the thing which you require of me I am not yet able to perform but by that time that you have acted and done what pari passu I have now required of you I doubt not but that I shall be enabled to give you a more satisfactory Answer to the appointments which you have been pleased to press upon me as most necessary in our present Disputation You found these things in my Treatise which yet I think fit to repeat here because it seems you do not remember what you read there concerning them As to the Material Soul if you did not grant that in Nature the Things is and that it acts in Plants Insects Fishes Fowls and Beasts I could describe to you much of its Nature and Efficiency and make good Proof of it ab effectis and from Sensible Discoveries quod sit in Natura Rerum And for the quid sit in Men and Beasts it hath been said and is now repeated that is the Spirits and Particles of Blood inflamed and glowing such as needs a continual Nourishment both from well disgested and rarified Humours and the fresh fanning of the ambient Air and according to the goodness or badness of these both Men and Beasts are very much affected For the unde oritur I say it grows from the Energy of the Seed fomented in loco idoneo To the quando ingreditur I say it comes not aliunde as you say the Immaterial doth Melanch in his quoted Book p. 12 says It is Propagata ex Natura corporea viz. Natura seminum and as in Plants and Brutes Anima oritur ex vi seminis sic de Anima vegetativa sensitativa in homini dici potest homo enim non generat imperfectius quam Plantae Boves manifestum est animae sentientis nullas esse actiones nisi Organicas quare consentaneum est oriri eam ex semine esse vel temperamentum vel potentiam in corpore gignit igitur homo hominem saltem secundum vitam sentientem si non secumdum animam rationalem has animas vegetativam sentientem esse ex traduce id est ex natura seminis fatendum est For the Vbi residet Anima Materialis in Homine I say it is dispersed over the whole Body Our last quoted Author p. 24. says This Spiritu Vitalis sentiens aut Anima Bovis est quiddam divisibile juxta partes corporis nam Spiritus Vitalis similis est flammae quae partes habet alibi sunt aliae For the Tota in toto qualibet parte he says Vnde sumptum sit ignoro nam in Aristotele nusquam extat commenâ—iâ—ium est etiamsi quis tantum de hominis anima intelligot sentiet eam esse spiritum separabilem quia spiritus finiti sunt in unico loco ex quo agunt ad certam distantiam alii magis alii minus procul ut suum quisque robur est P. 146. Spiritus est subtilis vapor ex sanguine coctis virtute cordis ac incensus ut sit velut flammula quae in diversis membris dissimiles habet actiones quanquam enim unus est fons spirituum tamen locis mutantur mutati dissimiles habent actiones Dr. Willis in the Preface to his Anima Brutorum p. 2 Nequaquam diffiteor animae corporeitatem à rationibus minime contemnendis ampliissimis ubique tum veterum tum recentiorum suffragiis evinci haec anima sensitiva est toti corpori coextensa habens partes non modo plures distinctas sed quadantenus dissimilares P. 3. Quis sponsorem se fecerit Deum non potuisse vires facultates materiae imprimere vitae sensitivae muniis accommodas sed si quis substantiam illam subtilissimam prorsus aetheream quae vitali oeconomiae inservit immaterialem statuat meminerit mihi indulgeri si forte ego materialem apellem Libri P. 8. Bruti uti inferior hominis anima materialis ac divisibilis est toti corpori coextensa quia plures ac diversos actus animales simul à diversis corporis membris ac partibus obiri cernimus eodem instanti oculus videt auris audit nares olfaciunt lingua gustat membra quaevis exteriora tactus sensum motum exercent ac interea viscera quaeque praecordia munia sua exequuntur quandoquidem igitur inter corpus animam non datur medium sed corporis membra partes animae sunt organa quid aliud arbitrari aut statuere passumus quam ejusdem animae extensae plures distinctas portiones singula isthaec corporis membra partes actuare As to the Quomodo operatur Anima haec nostra Materialis our Author p. 10. says Haec anima consistit iisdem particulis aut ejusdem materieâ— ex quibus corpus formatur iis vero selectis subtilissimis maxime activis quae tanquam flos crassiori massa emergentes mutuo coeunt atque ductus idoneos quos per totam corporis compagem ipsae procudunt nactae hypostasin unam continuam scilicet praetenuem
quasi spirituosam toti adaequatam coextensam constiâ—â—unt ex creationis lege Here he shews how these Active Particles first work in semine and form a Consistence and Body sutable to its own activities as a Case may be exactly fitted to a Jewel haec anima ex se statim dissolvi tenuesque in auras evanescere apta a corpore continenti in subsistentia sua actu conservatur ita anima tenuissima licet est corporea P. 11. Corpori intime unitur ejusque velut subtegmen existit attamen textura subtilissima sensibus nostris percipi nequit sed solum modo ab effectis operationibus suis dignoscitur And when the Creature dies Statim ejus particulae à concretione sive mutua adhaesione sua abruptae absque vestigio quovis relicto prorsus dissipantur P. 30. After treating of Brutal Souls he says Ac in eadem classe etiam hominis animam corpoream ponimus idque jure quoniam in utrisque praecordiorum nec non cerebri ejusque appendicis nervosi eadem est confirmatio P. 38. Anima corporea brutis perfectionibus homini communis cum toti corpori organico extenditur singula tum partes ejus tum humores vivificat actuat irradiat ita in duobus illorum eminentius subsistere atque sedes velut imperiales habere videtur Here our Doctor declares the manner how this Material Soul acts and works in the Head and Heart principally P. 39. The Modes and Manner of its Operation by such inflamed Particles of the Blood and specially in the Head whence they are dispersed over all the Body effecting therein Perception by the Senses and all other Faculties their Order Causes and Manner of Working very much deserving the perusal of those who really desire satisfaction in the Enquiry which you have propounded viz. Quomodo operatur Anima Materialis in Homine There you may find a better account to this purpose and a larger than I dare pretend to give you of my own My Answer to your Question How Mens Faculties and Powers can be acted by a Material Spirit given in my former Treatise is That although I were not able to give Evidence of the Manner how but should plead Ignoramus in Answer thereunto this could be no great Detriment to the Tenet of a Material Soul in Man For that Men do not know nor can find out how the Material Soul in Plants produceth Wood Bark Leaves Blossoms Fruits of great Diversities in Nature Shape Firmness Taste Colour Smell Natural Qualities both for Meat Medicine and divers other uses Nor do Men know how the Material Soul in Insects doth or can produce the admirable Order Oeconomy and Regiment which is plainly visible amongst the Bees the Orderly Proceedings and Industry amongst the Ants and the fine and regular Textures of Spiders the wonderful Faculties of Birds in chusing commodious Places for their Nests their Building Sitting Hatching Feeding Guarding and Training of their Young Their Musical Notes and Modulations their Exercises of Power the Stronger over the Weaker and which the Weaker apprehend at the very first sight Neither do men know nor can find out how or by what means the Beasts discern and know their proper Nouritures and Medicines the Means and Causes of their Disgestion Nutrition Generation Appetites Passions Spontaneous Motions Ejections of Excrements the putting out their Hair Horns Hooffs Claws c. Or the Means or Causes of using their Senses and perceiving by them Their Common Sense Phancy Memory and the low Degree of Understanding which they have I say the next Means and Causes of these Effects and their like men cannot discover or find out And yet there appears no doubt but that such Effects flow from the Material Souls or Spirits with which every one of them in their Kinds or Species are endowed Ergo Though I may not be able to declare how a Material Spirit doth or can act in Man his Superiour Faculties of his Reason and Mind yet that may not prove an Argument sufficient to overthrow the Materiality of a Humane Soul For such a Soul may and probably doth actuate all these Superiour Powers and Faculties in Man although we cannot perceive or understand the manner and next Causes of such Productions in any plain or declarable manner It seems enough that we find there are apt Matter Members and Organs to serve those Effects and there is an Active Principle or Spirit though Material yet sufficient for enlivening and acting those Organs or Instruments for the serving such turns to as great Perfection as is ordinarily found in Humane Nature although we do not and rationally are not able to discover the adaequate or perhaps the true Reasons or Means the How and the Why of such Performances Sir Kenelm Digby in his Maintenance of the Soul's Immortality Fol. 394. says Gross Earthly Bodies create Idea's in the Minds of Men and by that means doth Spiritualize such Bodies and that which can so do must needs be Immaterial Now if you ask me how this comes to pass and by what Artifice Bodies are thus spiritualized I confess I shall not be able to satisfie you but must answer That it is done I know not how by the power of the Soul Shew me a Soul and I will tell you how it works But as we are sure there is a Soul that is to say a Principle from which these Operations spring though we cannot see it so we may and do certainly know that this Mystery is says he as I say though we cannot know nor express the manner of it And I may say the like for the Material Soul that it is also Invisible too fine to be perceived but by its Effects and therefore its Operations or the Manner of them are not Perceptible by Mens Senses and thereunto the old Theorem may reasonably be applied Nihil venit in Intellectu quod non prius fuit in Sensu And it seems not reasonable to expect a clear Description or Declaration of such Things or Productions as are not perceptible to Sense or that doth not at some time come or in some measure come under the Test and Trial of those Informers To comply with your Demands I have thus repeated to you that I have before expressed in my First Treatise although it seem more than the Exigence of the Case requires For that although nothing had been said in the Defence Proof or Discovery of what concerns the Souls Materiality yet it seems not to me a good or clear Consequence That therefore it must be Immaterial But that the Proof of that will still be necessary and lie upon your hand to shew De Anima Immateriali quod sit in Rerum Natura quid sit unde oritur quando ingreditur quomodo ubi residet in Corpore quomodo actuat Corpus cum Membris omnia ejus Organa as well in the Vital Nutritive Generative Faculties as in the Loco-motive Affective and Passionate Powers and
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
Sense Reason and Experience of Mankind So when Our Lord Commands take no care for to morrow These Words pass under a reasonable Construction so the Words Swear not at all so for turning the other Cheek and lending to all Borrowers These Directions never were observed in the full Latitude of the Gospel Expressions but according to fair and reasonable Constructions made of them and whereby they were made agreeable to the Sense Reason and Experience of Mankind and if particular Expressions of Scripture may be Accommodated to the Sense Reason and Experience of Men for the avoiding the Clashes of one against the other A fortiori when Two Texts relate the same Doctrine of Our Lord in different Expressions it seems Men may accept which of these Relations they please as the very Words wherein that Doctrine was delivered And every Man is likely to chuse and adhere to such Expressions as he thinks best to agree with Nature and Reason in this or any other Case that shall happen to be disputed 8. Paragraph Your Argument upon a delegated Power left by Christ to his Church urged on the behalf of the Universal or Catholick by the Romanists against our Divines Fortified with the Decrees of Councils Stiled oecumenical hath been often and fully Answered and as in my First Paper I referred you to Numb 16. so now I must refer you to Acts 4 19. You say The Immortality is plainly implied in the Creeds or some of them but you do not mention the Words implying nor how the Inference is to be drawn which would have been the most Material Argument that you could have used for the convincing of my Judgment unless you conceive that what is plain to you would not be so to me For a thing plain to one already perswaded doth oft seem otherwise to Men of another Judgment but if it be plain to you it seems you should at least have pointed me to the place where I might have expected to find it Your reason why nothing about the Soul is inserted into the 39th Art is very likely to be true yet grants my Assertion of not being there And what you have shewed out of Scripture concerning the Immortallity I have Answered unto and am contented to refer the reason and truth of what hath been said on both sides to the Censure of Perusers Out of the 39 Articles I quoted to you the sixth viz. That what is not asserted in Scripture is not needful to be believed and I prosess'd my Obedience to any clear Direction of Scripture in our Point To this you reply the Soul 's Separate Subsistence is asserted in Scripture and to prove that you quote Eccles 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it This Text I agree doth sound in favour of Souls Separate Subsistence after they are parted from their Bodies and because you quote it singly it seems the strongest Text which you could find for Proof of the Separate Subsistence of Humane Souls You had quoted it before and I gave it some Answer but considering you do now use it as a Pillar of your asserted Opinion I shall undertake a more narrow or strict and yet a more large Examination of it First I inquire what is here intended by the term of Spirit Comenius Translated into English Printed London 1651 in 12o. Pag. 218. cites Zach. 12.1 where God says he forms the Spirit of Man in the midst of him The word Jatzar in the Hebrew says he is here used for forming which shews the Formation was out of Prae-existent Matter and was not a Creation ex nihilo it being the same Word that was used at the forming of Mans Body Pag. 22. He says The Spirit of God stirring upon the Waters produced the Spirit or Soul of the World which puts Life into all living things The Hebrew term Offiz says he signifies both Spirit and Breath So the know in the Greek doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 23.46 It seems if in this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been Translated Father into thy hands I commend my Breath It would have been as true and warrantable a Translation as ours which renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word Spirit and so for Acts 7.59 St. Stephen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive my Breath whence I suppose that if in Solomon's Text the Hebrew word Offiz be used it may as well intend Breath as Spirit and thence the force of this Text will remain enervated and broken And this appears the more likely from Moses's Text Gen. 2.7 God formed Man and breathed into his Nostrils the breath of Life An Animating Breath upon which he doth not say that Breath became a living Soul as many would have it intended but that Man became a living Soul intending Person viz. the Compositum of Soul and Body became a living Person and that Spirit and Breath intend much the same Thing and pass in a like sense appears from divers other parallel places of Scripture Gen. 7.22 All in whose Nostrils was the Breath of Life died in the Flood Job 12.10 In Gods hand is the Soul of every living thing and the Breath of all Mankind Chap. 34.14 If God gather to himself Mans Spirit and his Breath he shall turn to his dust Psal 104. All things wait upon God when he taketh away their Breath they die when thou lettest thy Breath go forth they shall be made and the face of the Earth renewed Here Breath seems to intend Spirit and that they are much of the same Signification Psal 146.3 When the Breath of Man goeth forth he shall turn again to his Earth and then all his thoughts Perish Here David says the same thing with Solomon only in Solonmo's Text that which is called or Translated Spirit is in David called or Translated Breath Acts 12.25 God gives to all Life and Breath and all Things Life and Breath as closely United or as an Animating Breath Zach. 5. These are the Four Spirits of the Heavens Noted upon the Margent or Winds Ezek. 37. He describes the Resurrection of dry Bones there was a shaking and the Bones came together and the Senews and Flesh came up upon them and the Skin covered them above and yet they lived not Then the Prophet commanded not to call for Souls to enliven those Bodies but to say Come from the Four Winds O Breath and breath upon these slain that they may live and the Breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their Feet From these Texts it seems probable to me That the Word in Solomon's Text rendered by Spirit doth intend such an Animating Breath as God Breathed into Adam's Nostrils and of which it was said all in whole Nostrils was the Breath of Life died in the Flood This Animating Breath God breathe first into Adam and from him it hath been Propagated ever since By this is the Flame of Life kindled
And so is the ordinary Practice of Mankind He says He who bought Souls knew the Value of them I say Souls were never bought alone but the Redemption was of Persons commonly express'd in Scripture by the Term of Souls and so is David's Expression to be understood when he says It cost me more to redeem their Souls viz. to redeem them or their Persons Pag. 364. Says God created the Soul as his rare Master-piece and the Three Persons laid their Heads together to Project it I have denied a Separate Creation of the Soul and I do so still and do look upon his present Oratory to be very inconsiderate Pag. 365. He confounds the Soul and the Rational Faculty together or makes them both one thing or mistakes the one for the other Pag. 367. All that he here says of the Soul is properly applicable to the Rational Faculty He says No Soul but Man's is Marriageable unto Christ. If he do not mean the Church or at least the Person I can not understand him for we never heard of a Soul 's being Married or doing any other thing by its self singly Pag. 369. What he says here was done for Souls is to be applyed to Persons Pag. 370. Says Words shall come into Judgment at the last Day I say Why not at the particular Judgment if such an one there be Pag. 371. He again here applies to the Soul what belongs to the Person And I say the Devil seeks to devour not the Soul only but the Person Pag. 374. Still applies all to Souls instead of Persons Pag. 375. He Quotes three Texts but they all apply to Persons and Solomon's winning Souls intends Persons Pag. 379. Says He hath proved that one Soul is of more Value than the whole World I say no otherwise than a Man's Life is viz. to himself it is so but not in it self or with any respect to other People Pag. 379. Says The Soul was not made for the Body but the Body for it I say they were made for one another and are daily made viz. Procreated together Pag. 387. Cites a Saying as concerning Souls but it proves only of Persons and goes on in the like applying to Souls what is intended of Persons Pag. 390. Says Souls cannot live upon Food or Earthly things I say They do live upon Food and Earthly things and cannot live without them Pag. 439. and so to 441. He pretends Holy Duties are not enough for Christians viz. Nature improved by Vertues and common Graces of the Spirit of God a Holy Unreproveable Life relying on Christ for Pardon of Sins and Support under Sorrow and Dangers Practising the Commandments Believing the Creeds Receiving the Sacraments Doing as they would be Done to Sorrowing for their Failures striving to rise again and Praying to God every day to Assist them by his Grace and Save them by his Goodness and Christ's Sufferings He insinuates that such ordinary Practices are not sufficient for Regeneration without Heavenly Tempers and Tendencies of Soul viz. a singular Claim and Profession to Grace and Sanctification above ordinary I profess my self content with the former State and will give his Proselites leave to affect the later without condemning them so being that they act not the Pharisee in justifying themselves and despising others Pag. 449. Directs Men to ask Am I born again Am I a New Creature I say Baptism is the Laver of Regeneration and Mark 16.16 He that believeth and it baptized shall be saved and thus practised the Jaylor at Philippi Cornelius the Captain and the Aethiopian Eunuch but he requires a regenerating of the Spirit I allow so appearing as to make the Fruits good but for his extraordinary Elevations and Motions of Spirit I leave them to himself as a Fervour of Phancy Pag. 464. Says Your Election is only secured by your Effectual Calling intending as seems that every one must have and find a particular time of God's calling him to a State of Regeneration and Sanctification This looks to me like an intended distinguishing Character betwixt them who follow Rational Deductions from Scripture and those who pretend to be led by the Spirit in an extraordinary manner and they must shew us Signs and Wonders and mighty Deeds or else we shall not be able to believe them that they are so led For if other Men work and live as well as they and shew as good Fruits of the Spirit as they How can they be distinguished but by Wonders and mighty Deeds Say they by our Special Calling Regeneration and Sanctification But How shall others know these to be good or better than ordinary but by their Fruits or mighty Deeds If those Deeds or Fruits extraordinary do not appear we have no means to know them nor reason to approve them In Pag. 461. He said Let none be so fond to expect Comfort in Death until his Soul have first complied with and obeyed the Call of God in the time thereof Pag. 463. Says Souls of Men are as it were embarqu'd in the Calls of God and if they be lost your Souls are lost I Collect he intends Let your Faith and Practice be what they will if you have not a Call to the singular Mode of our Profession and obey that Call your precious Souls after all this will be lost He said before That when the Enfranchised Soul was upon its departure and sat upon the quivering Lips of the dying Person neither able to stay in the Body nor abiding to forsake it the State of it was deplorable This shews That he imagined the Soul to be an Intelligent Little Thing Parcel or Spark He doth not say that she is snatch'd or forc'd away from the Body nor what should move her to forsake it or leave the being in it or near it against her Will and yet I doubt not but he could have told us that as well as the foregoing viz. Imaginando if he had pleased And this calls to mind a Relation made to us by Dr. Collins in his Treatise concerning Russia There says he when a Person draws on towards Death they set a Basin of fair Water in the Window and set the Casement also open that the parting Soul may have the Opportunity of bathing and refreshing it self in the Water and find an open Passage out at the Casement and not be inforced to the Contrast of passing thro' Crannies of the Window or other Places And thus I part with our Author and finish my intended Observations upon him I read in a Noble Author of our own Nation That in all Contests he who stands only upon his Defence stands upon no Defence Seems Wants one main part of Defence viz. The Disarming or Weakning his Opposer whereby his intended Defence should be made both more easie and effectual Thus far in defending a Tenet opposite to that of our Author I have used only the Buckler in shelter from the dints of his Arguments but that I may not forsake the benefit which may
Second Observation concerns an Objection which hath been and may be made against my pretence of the Souls Extinguishment at the Death of the Party It is demanded If the Old Flame of Life be extinguished in Death and a-new kindled at the Resurrection how can that which riseth be the same with that which died And if not so the new must be rather taken for a Creation than a Resurrection To this I answer by another Question concerning the Body How can that Body whose Flesh and Bones are eaten by Wolves or Dogs as Jezabel's was or burnt to Ashes and those scattered in the Wind or upon the Water rise the same again at the Last Day To this Query St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. gives an Answer which it seems will serve both Cases alike ver 35. How are the dead raised and with what Body do they come He answers That which thou sowest is not quickned except it die and thou sowest not that which shall be For Example Wheat the Grain sown first corrupts then fructifies and God makes the New grow out of the Old and God gives it a Body viz. to every seed it s own Body and thence Wheat rises from Wheat and Barly from Barly plainly declaring that in the Resurrection the New Body shall be the same with the Old in Substance Flesh and Blood Skin and Bone Head and Heart Brain and Breath Limbs Members Muscles and all Organs proportionable to the Old as one Grain of Wheat or like as one Egge to another This I take for the Sameness of Body which the Apostle here describes to us and such a Sameness will the Soul easily obtain viz. a Flame of Life as much the same with the former As a Flame in one part of a Fire kindles and produces a Flame in another part of the Fire singly there are so many Flames and yet all are but the Flame of the same Fire and may well enough be called the same Flame full as well as the Ear of Wheat and all the Corns of it may be called Wheat and the same Wheat with that which was sown And this Solution it seems may serve for the Souls as well as St. Paul's Wheat for the Body and one of them shall be as much the same as the other But to my Apprehension the Sameness intended in the Resurrection is not so much or properly applicable to the Soul or the Body as to the Person The Body suitable to the former and like it as one Grain of Wheat like and proportionable to that from which it springs So a Flame of Life of suitable force brightness and activity to the former and fit for that Body where it is kindled these will in the Person produce the same Faculties that were in the former Person viz. The same Vital Powers Sensitive Powers same Inclinations Affections Desires Natural the same Rational Powers Perception Understanding Phancy Judgment Memory Will Conscience And these will make the rising Person altogether the very self and same Person with that which died more the same than an Old Man is the same with what he was when Young or a Child Compare a Child of four years to a Man of fourscore they are known really to be the same Person by Collateral Evidences but none by having known the Child can expect by his Senses to discover the Old Man to be the same Person nor can the Old Man himself evidently know or make Proof by any thing in himself that he is the same Person so great Differences grow in time between the one Age the other But the Person rising at the Last Day may likely be as much the same with him that died as the Man waking after a long Sleep is the same with him that lay down to take his Rest There will be Body Soul and Person without difference and the same Powers Vital Sensitive Rational Inclinations Affections Cogitations and Knowledge all which make effectually and really the same Person and more the same than the Old Man is with the Young and yet those are really the same Person also 3. My Third Observation shall be concerning such Texts as those who maintain the Immateriality and Separate Subsistence of Souls do Alledge both out of the Evangelists and the Apostolick Writings for the Proof and Support of that Opinion Viz. Mat. 10.28 Are not able to kill the Soul Chap. 16.26 Gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Luk. 16.19 The Parable of Dives Chap. 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Ver. 46. Jesus cried Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And Acts 7.59 Stephen's Saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit 2 Cor. 5. Ver. 6. 8. Absent from the Body and present with the Lord. Phil. 1.23 To depart and be with Christ is better but to abide in the Flesh is more needful for you Heb. 12.9 Ye have been obedient to your fleshly Fathers and shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits Ver. 22. Ye are come to Mount Sion God Christ and the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect 1 Pet. 3.19 He went and preached to the Spirits in Prison Rev. 6.9 The Souls under the Altar Here are 11 Quotations Alledged to Prove the Separate Subsistence of Souls and their Immateriality And some add to these Mat. 17. Moses and Elias appearing at the Transfiguration which makes them up a Dozen I have made and do make one General Observation upon them all viz. That they are all spoken or delivered in a transient manner not principally intending to teach the Immateriality or Separate Subsistence of Souls not in Places where the Contexts before lead to a Discourse concerning the Nature or State of Souls or what becomes of them after Death or between that and the Resurrection so as there is not a Design in any of these Texts principally to teach that Doctrine Nor any clear Intention apparent to teach at all this Belief For Instance The Absent from the Body and present with the Lord or the To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Or the Receive my Spirit Or the Be Obedient to the Father of Spirits Or the We are come to God Christ and his Church Or the Preaching to the Spirits in Prison Or the Souls under the Altar Or the Appearing of Moses and Elias at Tabor I demand what do these Texts of themselves teach concerning a Separate State or Subsistence of Souls There is no previous Discourse in their Contexts leading to speak of the State of Souls or inducing to teach concerning them nor apparent Intent in any of these Texts so to do But Men possest with an Opinion of the Separate Subsistence do draw and beat out of these Texts that which doth not naturally flow from them nor that they ever intended to teach so as the Doctrine squeezed out of these Texts for the Nourishment and Support of their Opinion tastes strongly of the Husk and Skins of them and are rather violently forced
than freely and fairly flowing from the Words and Intent of these Scriptures Well but still there are Four Texts not instanced in and which seem to make appear an Intent to teach this Doctrine concerning them I say that Mat. 10. Phil. 1. shew not a principal Intent so to teach That of Mat. teaches principally to fear God more than men the Philip. intends principally to shew That Paul would have Christ magnified by his Life or by his Death and that it was indifferent to him by whether of these means that end should be attained By Death would be easier and a more Gain to him but by Life he thought might be more profitable and beneficial to them and the Church This seems the principal Intent and Scope of this Text and not to teach a Separate Subsistence or Immateriality of Soul Mat. 16. About Gaining the World and losing the Soul seems to shew an Intent of teaching concerning Souls and the Hinge of its Meaning turns upon the Signification of the Word Soul in this Place Our Lord previously Exhorts his Disciples to take up the Cross and follow him Expect Tribulation in his Doctrine For whosoever will save his Life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his Life for my sake shall find it For What is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or What shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul My Sense of this Text is That the Words Soul and Life are consignificant as if it had been said He that saves his Life shall lose it and he that loses it shall find it For What is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Life Or What can a Man give in Exchange for his Life If one lose his Life the gain of the whole World can do him no good nor make him a Recompence for it And the Devil could say All that a Man hath would he give for his Life Nor would any Man of Sense take the World in Exchange for his Life for that the World is of no Use or Value to the Dead So as there is nothing in this Text of the Soul but the Word or Term which I have before plentifully proved to signifie and intend very often the Person the Affection the Intellect and the Life And I take it here to intend the Life of the Person and not the Soul which is the Forma Informans of the Man To the Parable of Dives Luk. 16. I have fully spoken and observed That it is but a Parable not Explained or Expounded by our Lord that we know of I take it spoken in Illustration of our Lord's Doctrine delivered but three Verses before viz. That which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God as being very proper for that purpose and that the Discourse held in it between Dives and Lazarus is suited to the common Opinion of the People to whom he spake and doth not intend a true Relation of the State of Souls after Death I conceive the Text 10. Mat. and this Parable to be like the Two Pillars of Dagon's House the main Props of the Immaterial Opinion upon which the whole Weight of it leaneth propped also by the other Texts before rehearsed but weakly And I leave the Consideration to such as shall happen to peruse what hath here been Collected and put together intending singly the Search and Manifestation of the Truth in this Point Our Author Flavel lays the Foundation for Proof of the Separate Subsistence of Souls upon Moses his Text quoted Pag. 1. of his Book viz. Gen. 2.7 God formed Man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man became a Living Soul And the Words of this Text he takes upon him to Interpret and by his so doing verefies the Old Saying Mala Interpretatio corrumpit Textum for thus he Interprets This Text says he proves and intends that God did then Create a Spirit or Soul out of nothing for Man viz. an Immaterial Intelligent Substance or Spirit and that was either first Created and then Infused or Infundendo was Created in the very Act of Infusion I will raise no Dispute with him about the Mode or Manner of his intended Creation be it Created and Infused or Infundendo Created But I say that either way taken it is not warranted by the Letter or Words of the Text for therein is no Mention of Spirit or Creation out of nothing or any sort of Creation whatsoever So his Interpretation is not warranted by the Words or Letter of the Text and that it is more opposed by the Sense and Meaning of the Text than it is by the Letter of it For if the Text or Moses had intended or meant that the Breath of Life breathed into Adam should be taken for such a Spirit it would have been more plainly expressed in the Text or at least the propriety of speaking would have required to have had it express'd after another manner viz. God breathed into Adam the Breath of Life and it or that viz. that Breath became a Living Soul But the Text is otherwise Worded it neither says nor intends that the Breath became a Living Soul but that the Man did so And I say farther that by the Man's becoming a Living Soul is not intended that he became a Soul meerly or singly called by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Expounded by Actus primus Corporis Organici Not such a bare Soul without a Body a thing never yet known in Rerum Natura but a Living Soul in Composito viz. a Living Person Man became a Living Person Heb. 10.39 We are of them that believe to the Salvation of the Soul viz. of the Person For all Agree the Body shall have a Salvation as well as he Soul I perceive that the Term of Soul very oft in Scripture intended to signifie the Person is a great occasion of misleading the Apprehension of the Readers inducing them to apply to the single and bare Soul those Sayings which are intended of or for the Person So is the Case now Cited Heb. 10. and so in our Text now Examined and because the Correcting and Emendation of this Mistake seems to be of very great Importance I have before given many Instances of the Usage in Scripture Expressions in a multitude of Places and yet not in half of those that I might have done And because this Truth cannot be made too apparent and with great difficulty plain enough I will touch a few Instances of it again in this Place Gen 46.26 All the Souls that came out of Jacob's Loins into Aegypt were 66 and Joseph's Sons were two Souls so all the Souls of Jacob's House were 70 counting Jacob and Joseph Here Souls can intend nothing but Persons Acts 27.37 In Paul's Voyage towards Rome and Shipwrack at Malta there were in all in the Ship 276 Souls viz. Persons Isa