saying any more to it P. 171. Sixthly He objects against his own Opinion that the Scriptures make frequent mention of Rewards and Punishments to be given at the day of Judgment but make no mention of such Recompences to be given soon after Death or between that and the Resurrection This I own to be a very strong Objection against Mr. W's Opinion and do intend to make it one of mine which I mean to deliver at the end of his Catalogue of Objections and there further to consider his Answer to it P. 172. Seventhly Mr. W. objects against himself If the Souls of Men pass their Tryal as soon as their Bodies are dead what needs any other Day of Judgment will Christ try Men after Sentence This I think to be a strong Objection and therefore I mean to repeat it again and there to consider his Answer P. 175. Eighthly He objects against himself When Christ which is our Life shall appear then shall wâ— appear with him in Glory I purpose to add this Text to others which I mean to quote against his Opinion afterwards and there to consider his Answer P. 177. A Ninth Objection which he raises against himself is from 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Glory This I think to be a strong Objection fit to be again repeated and there his Answer shall be considered P. 179. His Tenth Objection is taken from King Hezekiah's Prayer in Isaiah This I think to be strong and therefore to be repeated and his Answer to be there considered P. 181. His Eleventh Objection from Eccles 9.5 The Dead know not any thing seems strong and therefore again to be repeated and his Answer there considered P. 182. Twelfthly Mr. W. objects against himself the words of David Psalm 7.1 2. Save me least my Enemy tear my Soul like a Lyon Here I think is the same intent as if David had said least he tear me in pieces like a Lyon putting here the word Soul to signifie Person Therefore I think this Objection to be very weak and as such I leave it P. 183. Mr. W. takes his Thirteenth Objection from 1 Cor. 15.18 If the Dead rise not then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished This Text and Chapter makes a very strong Objection against Mr. W's Opinion and therefore it shall be hereafter repeated and his Answer there considered P. 187. Mr. W's Fourteenth Objection is raised from 1 Tim. 6.16 God only hath Immortality dwelling in Light I think this to be a very weak Objection against Mr. W's Opinion and therefore I pass it over without any further Consideration In this Examination of Mr. W's Fourteen Objections we have found one half or seven of them to be of small force for the overthrowing Mr. W's Opinion and I observe that in his propounding divers of the other seven which are strong against him he doth it in such manner as their strength seems to be much impaired by his manner of delivering them and therefore I design to frame another series of Objections against his Opinion and to place amongst them The Seventh Objection of Mr. W's which I approve and to consider therein the Answers which he hath given to them not yet meaning to follow Mr. W's order of propounding them but I intend to offer all my Objections taken from Scripture according to the several times wherein they were delivered First I object against Mr. W's Opinion from Gen. 9.4 Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof shall you not eat and surely your Blood of your Lives will I require at the Hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the Hand of every Man's Brother will I require the Life of Man who so sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed for in the Image of God made he Man It seems to appear from the words of this Text that the Terms Blood and Life have a convercibility one with another so as no Blood no Life and the shedding of Man's Blood is the killing of him and it is therefore made a Crime of the highest Nature because the shedding of Man's Blood destroys the Image of God wherein Man was made Whence I conceive Man to be God's Image in his whole Person whose Blood may be shed and not only in a particular part of him which Mr. W. maintains must be his Soul The words of the Text say That the Blood of the Creature is the Life thereof and Experiences convinces that all things that have Life have a sort of Spirit for the maintaining thereof as Grass Herbs Plants Trees Insects Fishes Fowls Brutes and Men. In Plants or Trees if we pare off the Skin or Bark and thereby stop the ascent of the Sap which is the Spirit of Life in Plants the Plant will die from that place upwards because this Sap or Spirit of Life will be obstructed in its ascent to the higher parts of the Plant and among Brutes or Men if the passage of the Blood be obstructed those parts to which the Blood cannot come with Freedom decay wither and become of little or no use to the Creature The Text says Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof and Experience shews that the Life exhales with the Blood so as no Blood no Life Whence I collect the Spirit of Life in Brutes and men consists and resides in the Blood and the inflamed and glowing Spirits thereof and thence it seems that as the Spirit of Life in Plants is the Sap thereof so the Spirit of Life in Animals is the Blood kindled and glowing and the inflamed particles thereof and so our Text says Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof And from the Premisses I argue that the Spirit of Life in Man is in his Blood and the inflam'd particles of it and Experience evidences that by like Blood and Spirits the Brutes are acted both in their Local and Peristaltick Motions their Senses of Bearing Seeing c. Their Affections of Lust Wrath and Fear and those degrees which they have of Phantasie Choice and Memory And I pretend hence to infer that if in the Blood there be a Spirit of Life which can act the Brutes in their Motions Sensations and Passions to as high a Degree as Men are acted in those performances and can act them to lower Degrees of Fancy Choice and Memory it seems a like Spirit may probably act humane Persons in all these Faculties and to much higher Degrees in those of Judgment Phantasie and Memory because in such Persons these Spirits meet with Organs of greater perfection and better fitted for the performance thereof And hereunto I apply the injecting of Brutal Blood into a Humane Body which Experience proves will act that Body in such manner as it was acted before by its own Blood because the Organs in which it works are better suited to such purposes than those of the
I think that the purity and force of such Spirits may be very conducing to the perfect performance of the Faculty and yet can act no farther than the Bodily Organ is in its own State and Nature capable of whence there is a dependance of the Faculty both upon the Spirit and upon the Organ But I think that the Differences which we find amongst Mens Faculties of this Nature wherein there are great Degrees of Perfection and Imperfection do more depend upon the soundness and fitness of the Organ than upon the different Degrees of Activity amongst the Spirits of them And if we shall ascend to the consideration of the Humane Intellect we may find that the acting and perfection thereof lies in and by the Brain and that the Phantasie lies principally or only in the fore-part of the Head the Judgment or Esteemative Faculty in the middle of it and the Memory in the back part thereof whence if there happen any defect or crasiness in any of these Faculties or Powers of Intellect Physicians both do and ought to apply their Medicines for the recovery of them to the Organs or parts of the Head which are the proper Instruments of such Faculties If the Phantasie be disordered the Remedies thereof must be apply'd to the fore-part of the Head or the Fore-head if the Judgment be craz'd such Remedies must be apply'd to the middle part of the Head and if the Memory fail application for the Recovery thereof must be made to the back part of the Head and if Medicines for the Recovery of the Phantasie be apply'd to the back part of the Head they will be ineffectual to that purpose and so e contra if Men will apply Remedies to the back part of the Head for recovering the disorders of the Phantasie Men of indifferent Skill can make shrewd guesses concerning the largeness and perfection of those Faculties by Seeing Feeling and perusing the Dimensions and Fashonings of Mens Heads If Mens Fore-heads be large and high they may reasonably be thought to be of large Phantasies and Inventions and if the back part of the Head be likewise large and something protuberant in the lower parts of it tending towards the Neck we may guess the Owner of that Organ to have a capacious and strong Memory and concerning the Judgment we may think that the largeness of the whole Head if it be well fill'd and without any empty Spaces in it is a great sign of a good and sound Judgment in those Persons to whom God hath given such an Organ and from these Topicks I am ready to inferr that the perfections of the Intellect depend more upon the Soundness and Gapacities of the Organs than upon the Excellencies and Perfection of the Spirit which acts them and yet the Power and Purity of such Spirits must be still admitted to have a great effect in the Production and in the Degrees of Perfection in this Operation If we shall particularly consider the Nature of that we call the Spirit of Life in Man we may perhaps find it subject to divers Diseases and Infirmities as well as we know the Body and the Organs to be and of what sort soever we shall imagine this Spirit of Life to be daily Experience may assure us that it oftentimes finds help and remedies against the Disorders and Diseases thereof by good Air wholsome and regular Diet good Company Musick or Harmony freedom from Cares and other Easements and Satisfactions to the Minds of Men as well as by Medicines and Helps administred by the Physicians in divers Cases And thus have we run through and considered divers weighty particulars concerning the Bodily Organs and the Minds of Men with intent to apply the same to the two sorts of Souls or Spirits which are now in dispute between us and have shewed that the Perfections of Humane Powers both Sensitive and Rational do more depend upon the Aptitude and Capacity of the Bodily Organs than upon that Spirit which gives Life and Motion to them and next that the Humane Mind or Spirit of Life in Man is capable of Melioration and Detriment by many such Accidental Things as I have before enumerated and express'd and from all these Premisses I am very apt to collect that if the Spirit of Life in Man were an Intelligent Seperable and Extraneous Being things could not reasonably fall out in the Nature of Man as they have before been declared commonly to do but if this Spirit which gives Life to Man be taken for a Fire yet Material and Unintelligent Spirit all that hath before been spoken concerning the Bodily Organs and the Spirit or Mind of Man will fall out to be very agrecable and homogenious to the Nature of such a Spirit and to the whole composition of the Humane Person And hence I take upon me to infer that the Spirit of Life in Man is more likely to be Material and Unintelligent than to be such a sort of Intelligent and Self-subsisting Spirit as Mr. W. and his Party maintain the same to be A Third Objection against Mr. W's Opinion I take a Simily and raised from Mens Experience and the common Consideration of the Brutal Nature Our daily Experience assures us that by whatsoever Spirits the Brutes are acted they fully enjoy the Powers of Life and Sense and some such measures of Intellect as gives them a Sagacity sit to attain and accomplish the ends of their Beings altho ' in the Degrees thereof they fall very much below such Perfections of them as are found in Men by Vertue and Power of the Vital Spirits in Brutes working in and among the Organs of their Bodies their Animal Nature attains to as great a Perfection as the Humane Nature doth as far as concerns the Vegitation and Sensation of them both For the Brutes live as well and as naturally and as much as the Men do And next their Motions are as strong vigorous and active as those of the Men are in both the sorts of Motions which are common to them First their I ward Motions of Heart Lungs Bowels and other their Principal and Vital Entrals which Sort of Motion we may term Involuntary because the Men or Beasts can give no stoppage to them but waking or sleeping in sickness and in health such Motions are natural and needful for maintaining Life in the Creature in whose power it is not to stop or alter them And this sort of Motion is needful for and as active amongst Beasts as Men. The other sort of Motion is that which Men call Local or Voluntary such as that of the Hands Feet Head and other Members of the Body which the Creature can use or not use at its own liking and pleasure and we find that the Motions of Brutes in this kind are as vigorous nimble and strong as those of the Men are Then if we proceed to the power and practice of their outward Senses as of Seeing Hearing Feeling c. Experience will
them when they had lived under the Discipline of Earthly Rewards and Punishments than they had in succeeding and later Ages when the Opinion of the Souls Immortality began to be received and spread amongst them and therefore it seems there is not that need of his Opinion concerning the Souls Seperate Subsistence as he by this Discourse pretends to make Men believe Mr. W's second Chain of Absurdities P. 128. He says His Opposers pretends the Spirit of Life in Man or his Soul to be but a fine Temperament of Moisture Air and Fire very near of Kin and sutable to the Temperament of the Body and this he says is very consistent with their Principles and I agree that what he says is true in this Point This Mr. W. opposes by saying First If things were so then Adam's Soul might have been created of the Dust as well as his Body I reply not so but there was required Moisture Air and Fire to suppie and actuate that Dust of which his Body was framed which brought the steems of Life in the Body to such a ripeness and pullulation as by the breathing a Breath of Life into him became instantly inflamed and by Respiration must every Moment be fanned by that Breath which continues in Man's Blood and Humours and the Spirits thereof that flame and glowing whose total Extinguishment is the death of the Person and this by want of Respiration become instantly suffocated and extinguished which as hath been said is the death of the Person P. 129. He says He hath opened in his first Argument what this breathing into Man intends and refers his Readers thither again for the Knowledge of it and I refer again unto the Answer thereunto given Secondly He says That such a Soul as his Opposers believe is subject in its parts to Division Dissipation and Corruption which I agree to him Mr. W. says That from thence it will follow that all God's Threats denounced against Sinners is but to keep those inflam'd Particles of the Blood in order but I say Those Threats are pronounced to keep Mens Persons and their Actions in such a regular Order and that the Reports and Belief of the Day of Judgment are effectual upon the Persons of Men whose Bodies will then be as able to indure the Fire as their Souls Another Secondly Mr. W. says That such a Temperament of Soul cannot offend God because it is Material and Senseless and this I agree to him and say That it is neither the Body nor the Soul singly that doth or can offend God but it is the Compositum of these made Intelligent or the Person made Intelligent which can and doth too often offend God and by Mr. W's Pretence in this place he seems to insinuate That God cannot produce Intelligence by his wise Commixture of Material Agents and Patients which hath before been disputed and I have declared my self thereupon that God can produce Intelligence by a most Wise and Artificial commixture of Material Agents and Patients acted by Motion which must be continually supplied from Nutriment which God out of the ambient World and Air hath continually produced in abundance for that purpose and when by Famine or want of Nutriment it draws no supplies the Persons who suffer it die in multitudes P. 130. Mr. W. repeats That our sort of Material Soul cannot love or fear God nor understand what it self doth which is a thing which I have all along granted and asserted as I do here agreeing that such things are not comportant either with the Soul or Body but with the Person only P. 131. He pretends that there is something in Man that is the principal Seat of Regeneration This I oppose by saying as before That the whole Man or Person is so and not only part of his Compositum singly taken What he says more flows out of the abundance of his own Heart and seems to me to be very groundlesly spoken Fifthly Mr. W. says That the Contentions between the Flesh and Spirit in Man cannot be maintained by the Natural difference between a Material Soul and the Body wherein it resides I agree this to him Answering That all these Contests between the Flesh and Spirit signifie no more than that continual War which Men feel in themselves between the Power of Reason in their Minds and the Lustful Desire of their Affections and Passions Aristotle tells us There is no end of this War but Death and no certainty which shall obtain a clear Victory till that time and when St. Paul says that these War against the Soul the word Soul must there be intended to signifie the Person or the good of the whole Man and yet I do agree what he after says to be true That the Rational and Affective Faculties spring both from the same Root or Composition of Mankind and are both supported by the same Breath and Nourishment and yet the Faculties themselves are different and are commonly at strife one with another and as we daily see Love and Hatred Joy and Sorrow subsisting together in one same Person Mr. W's Philosophical Absurdities which he says flow from the Opinion of the Souls Materiality P. 132. He says If the Soul be Material it will follow that Mens faculties of Reason Intellect and Memory are seated in a Corporeal Elementary Substance but it is very evident says he That none of these faculties can be immediately seated in any Corporeal Elementary Substance answering I deny the Evidence of what he says but apply all these Faculties to the Person in which they all certainly are produced by the wisdom of God acted by Motion and supported and continued by Nourishment and Breath and therefore the Spirit of Life in Man may be Material notwithstanding Mr. W's asserting the contrary P. 133. Mr. W. says These Faculties cannot be acted by a Material Substance but he finds these Faculties in himself and therefore they must be acted in Men by a Spiritual Substance This seems to intend that when Men cannot attain to know the reason by which or the manner how strange things are done they are apt to fly to the refuge of Spirits for the doing of them an erroneous course which hath been very often used in the World but I refuse to Mr. W. the use which he pretends to make of it in this Argument and do assure that I receive no manner of conviction from it P. 135. Mr. W. says I find a power in me of Sensation as Seeing Hearing ctc. but none of these Faculties are seated in a Substance purely Elementary I demand then how come the Brutes by these which they have in as great perfection as Men have them He thinks no Man will say it is possible to make a Sensible House by all the Art that Men can use about it and this I grant but if Men should say it is possible for God to make a Sensible House I should have no Inclinations to deny it believing that to be altogether as
so faint as that in such Persons there need no Nutriment in a long time for restoring the waste of Blood in such Persons but in ordinary ways of living our Experience assures us that if the daily waste of Blood be not supplied by Nourishment sutable to the Consumption thereof the Person must diminish in his Strength and Vigor and finally perish and die for want of such sustenance as should restore the stock of the wasted Blood and furnish the several parts with such moisture and refreshment as thereunto shall be absolutely needful and required We find an Instance of this Condition in David's Acts when he came to Ziklag his Servants found an Egyptian in the Field starved and at the next Door to Death for he had neither eaten nor drink in three Days and Nights before but upon administring fresh Sustenance to his wasted Spirits they became restored in great measure to their former Activity which I conceive happen'd to him as it may do in the case of a Lamp whose Oyl is spent and exhausted the Light will first grow dim and be ready to fail and be extinguished but being refreshed by more Oyl administred to it it will soon recover the Flame and Light which it had before The Text says When this Man had eaten the Spirit came again to him In like manner it is related of Sampson his being ready to die for thirst but as soon as he had drank of the Water which issued from his Jaw-bone that Text says his Spirit came again and he revived I conceive those Places to be parallelled with that Text of 1 Kings 17.22 Where in raising the Widows Son Elijah prayed Lord let this Childs Soul come into him again and the Spirit of the Child came into him again and he revived I conceive that the coming again of these three Spirits as they are express'd in very like words so they were all of a like nature the Spirits of the two former were not quite extinguished as that of Elijah's Child was but upon the revival of them all it is said their Spirits came to them again which I think may signifie the rekindling or recontinuing of that Flame of Life in their Blood which we call the Vital Flame and whereby the Humane Machine or Microcosme is put in motion and acted so long as it pleases God to continue Life unto it in the Case of the Egyptian at Ziklag we may perceive that presently upon the coming of his Spirit to him again the Activity and Use of all his Sensations returned instantly to him so as he could not only move hear see c. but his Understanding and Memory became apt and ready for Service as before whence I think we may reasonably collect that the Original of Acting and Understanding may proceed from the Activity and Motion of the Blood and the inflamed particles thereof which together with Life and Motion produce the Sensations Affections Understandings and Memories of Men. And having thus propounded and in some measure proved that Blood Breath and Nutriment are all absolutely necessary for continuance of the Life of Man so as he cannot long abide in Life without the continual assistance of every one of them I pretend to apply them to those different sorts of Spirits about which we are now disputing and therein if we shall proceed and make application of them to the Extraneous telligent and Seperate Spirit which Mr. W. maintains to be the Spirit of Life in Man I think we must find that all these three Natural Incidents to the life of Man have no coherence at all with such a Spirit but are very incongruous with the Being and Nature of it because that forasmuch as we know concerning the nature of such a Spirit Nutriment seems not to be necessary for the Subsistence thereof and much less do Breath and Blood or the Spirits of it seem pertinent or appliable to the nature of such an Intelligent Spirit and therefore if such a Spirit were truly the Spirit of Life in Man the three materials before mentioned as natural and inseperable Incidents to the continuance of Man's Life should not be so absolutely necessary for that design as by daily Experience they are found to be but if we shall now turn to the other side and make Application to that Superfine yet Material and Unintelligent Spirit which before hath been described we must find that there will be a true and real necessity of the three before-named Natural Incidents for the Support Supply and Continuance of its Activity and of Life its self so as by this Hypothesis the Phaenomena of nature in Man are more clearly answered and may be better solved than can be done by applying these Natural Incidents to a Seperable Intelligent and Extraneous Spirit in Man and I therefore conclude it more probable that the Spirit of Life in Man is rather Material and Unintelligent than that it is an Intelligent and Seperable Spirit such as Mr. W. and his Partakers maintain the same to be A Second Objection from Nature against Mr. W's Opinion I raise from the further Consideration of the Humane Person and more particularly from the Bodily Organs thereof and say thereupon that God or Nature hath so framed and fitted every one of them as they are wonderfully apt for those Offices which they were intended to perform of which for Example we may name the Eyes and Tongue which are admirably framed and fitted for their several Offices so as the Spirit of Life is by means of these Instruments able to perform such Actions as Nature intended them for and yet the Perfection or Defects in those performances seem not so much to depend upon that Spirit which informs and acts them as upon the structure soundness and perfection of the Organs themselves Without such Organs the Man can neither see nor speak but when the Organs are sound and perfect the owner can use them as perfectly as any other can ordinarily do but if there be any Obstruction in the Optick Nerves or in those which act the Tongue the Spirit of Life in the Owner can act them no otherways than they are still capable of for the Tongue will lisp stammer stop struggle and blutter do the Man and his Spirit of Life what they can for the rectification of such Infirmities and so will the Eyes be purr-blind double or treble sighted weak dim and blindish do the Owner and his Spirit of Life what they can for the Recovery and rectifying of them so as the Spirit of Life can act the Organ to no higher a Degree of perfection than the soundness and rectitude of the Organ it self will bear nor act it in other manner than it is fit and capable at that time to be acted and I conceive that the principal perfection of the faculties of Secing and Speaking lies more in the sound State and activity of the Organ than in the power and energy of that Spirit which acts them and yet
Soul a Power of Thinking which being thus worded I deny my Assent thereunto But had he said That a Man feels or finds a Power of Thinking in himself I should have easily agreed with him in it He says The variety of Thoughts or Acts of Willing are the Soul's Motion I say They are Motions or Actings in the Mind of Man effected by acting the inflam'd Spirits of the Blood working in the Kepheline Organs in the which the Great Artificer GOD framed and placed them and to that Purpose gave them sufficient Power to perform such Actions when He created the Fabrick of the Humane Body and breathed into its Nostrils the Breath of Life whereby the Spirits of the Blood and Humours became inflamed for acting in a Body to such Purposes and by such an Excellent and Artificial Composition always to be continued by Respiration God's excellent Wisdom and Power did in the beginning produce these Workings amongst such Kepheline Organs and gave them in this Compositum Power to produce Perception Fantasie Judgment Will Memory Affections Local Motions and all other Powers or Faculties of the Humane Mind or Person whatsoever I know that upon reading of this Discourse Mr. W. and his Party will all cry out How can these things be That unintelligent senseless Materials working amongst or together with one another should be able to produce Life Sense Affections Perception Intellect Memory in the Person demanding of me on Account or Declaration how such things can with any Probability be effected by the working together of such Materials And I Answer That the Quomodo of such an Operation is a Speculation too sublime and curious for the Wit of Man to compass or obtain The Artifice of the Humane Machine cannot be throughly penetrated or discovered by the sublimest Wits amongst Men witness the doubtings both of Solomon and Aristotle discover'd in their Discourses upon the Points now in Question That God hath Wisdom and Skill sufficient to produce Intelligence by means of Material Operations seems true and something clear to my Understanding and but few of our Opposers do deny somewhat a like Artifice and Operation in the Brutal Nature They seem ready to Agree That God by his Wisdom and Skill used in the Fabrication of the Brutes hath in the beginning produced and doth still produce Life Motion Sensations Affections inward Perceptions Phantafie Choice and Memory by the Medium before described viz. The moving and acting of such Spirits of the Blood in the Kephaline and other Organical Parts of their Bodies without such an entire intelligent Spirit as Mr. W. will needs suppose to be in Man Daily Experience convinceth us That the Life Motions Sensations and Affections of the Brutes are as true strong vigorous and active as they are in Men altho' their inward Perceptions Phantasie Choice and Memory fall short of the like Faculties in Men by divers degrees or gradations which I think may very probably come to pass by the difference in their Kephaline Organs which are framed more aptly for such Purposes in Men than in Beasts Whence we may suppose the difference between them in this Point rises not so much from the diversity of the Spirits which move and act them as from the difference and degrees of Perfection amongst their Organs which are so to be acted For Illustration of which Position we may farther consider the Fabricks of their Bodies and thereupon we must find that Humane Bodies have Advantage above the Brutal in two Particular Members viz. their Hands and Tongue of which Members and their Activity if Humane Bodies were deprived they would be much more like the Beast that perish than now they are and yet Men do not use to Argue from these Bodily Advantages that their Flesh Blood Bones or Breath have a different Nature or Constitution from those of Beasts But People are generally content to say with Solomon That the Corporeal Constitutions of Man and Beast are of a Similar Nature and Constitution one of them with the other Whence it seems to me probable That although the Spirits Act with greater Perfection the Heads and Brains of Men than they do among Beasts yet that hinders not but that they may all be acted by Spirits of a Similar Nature one of them to another And thus Arguing I pretend to have shewn that the Minds of Men are more likely to be Acted by the Inflamed Spirits of the Blood and Brain than by an Intelligent Spirit created by God for that Purpose and yet it is still apparently true that Men are not able to give an Account of the Mode or Manner of the Production of such Powers in the Mind of Man by the Motions or Actings of those Spirits in his Brain that I conclude to be the Arcanum Opificis and that none other can tell or find out how the same is perform'd And hereupon I incline to rebut upon my Opposers with their own Argument and to demand of them How or by what means or after what manner their Intelligent Soul can or doth Move and Act the Body and the several Organs and Members thereof having found them all hitherto confessing that themselves do not know and therefore cannot declare to others the certain or likely Mode or Manner of that Performance and for their Souls being Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte I pass it for an Aenigma or Riddle conceiving there is no apparent Sense in that Expression nor any clear Truth to be drawn out of it P. 34. Mr. W. says That his the Soul can look upon one thing and think upon another of a quite different nature and that she can be in the noise of an Army and yet in a profound and blessed Peace She can cool the Blood in its greatest fervour of Lust P. 35. So that it is evident she hath an absolute Empire over the Body and all its Parts and is not constrain'd in her Motions by them but they are all at her Command and move by her Direction Hereunto I Reply That so much as is true of what he says the Soul can do may be most properly predicated of the Man and not of the Soul which alone can do no such things as he speaks of Next for the absolute Monarchical Power which he ascribes to the Soul over the Person I think he is in an Errour about it Rom. 7.15 That which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. Ver. 17. And that it is not I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me Ver. 18. To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not for the good I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do and it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me I delight in he Law of God after the inward Man but I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind
have done conceiving it was intended by the word Spirit in this Place to signifie the Spirit of Life in Man which is one of the two Constituent Parts of his Person and by the ordinary figure of Synecdoche setting one Part for the Whole the word Spirit here seems to intend the whole Person So as under this Term of Spirit the Petitioners intended to recommend themselves or their whole Persons the one into the hands of his Father under whose Custody his Body as well as his Soul viz. his whole Person remained and was preserved without seeing Corruption until the Time and Hour of his Resurrection And I conceive St. Stephen's Prayer was made in a like Sense and to the same Purpose that our Lord 's was Mr. W. says further He does not know of any such Phraesed Petitions as these are put up by either of them or any other Person in Prayer but just at the Moment of dying I will therefore refresh his Memory by quoting to him and our Readers Psal 31.6 where the very same Words are used Into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of Truth For any thing that appears the Psalmist was in Health at the uttering of this Petition but withal in a state of great Trouble as the foregoing Verses testifie And it thence seems somewhat Clear to my Understanding that by these Words our Prophet did not intend to recommend to God's Protection his Spirit of Life or Seperative Soul only but that rather in those Words he intended to recommend to God's Care and Protection his whole Compositum of Soul and Body his Person or himself without having any particular or singular Respect to his Spirit of Life or Soul whatsoever the same might be Which seems may be somewhat moâ—e Cleared by a short Paraphrase Into thy hands O God I commend my self for thou hast redeemed me This I take to be the true Meaning of David's Words and I take the Prayers of our Lord and St. Steven to be of the same Import and that they have no such other Emphatical Signification as Mr. W. in this place endeavours to put upon them P. 80. he says If his Interpretation of those Words be true they clearly express the Souls Immortality I do not deny this but withal conceive that his Interpretation of these Words is not true as my fore-going Answers testifie and then I think no man can believe that they are a good Proof or any Proof at all for the Souls Seperate Subsistence P. 82. he says The Word Spirit here intends Seperate Soul and if it doth not mean so he desires to know what it doth mean And I have said before that it intends the whole Person of the Petitioner as it is a Compositum of Soul and Body Mr. W. farther demands What the word Spirit here means and whether it mean the Life of the Body Here I am at a loss what he means by the Life of the Body and if he doth not mean the Life of the Person he means that which hath no good Sense in it for the Body quatenus tale or divided from the Person hath no sort of Life in it as St. James tells us A Body without a Spirit is dead And therefore to mention the Life of the Body without a Figurative Intent inclines to the Nature of a Bull in such manner as if one should speak of the Life of a dead thing He then demands What Is it the dead Carcass the whole Mâ—n Body and Soul Putting them together as if the dead Carcass was the whole Man Body and Soul intending to confound these Terms and give to each of them an equipollent Signification as if the dead Carcass and the whole Man Body and Soul signified the same thing whereas I must divide them and say The dead Carcass signifies one thing and the whole Man Body and Soul or the Person signifies another thing and tho' the Carcass shall go to the Dust as it was yet the Person shall be preserved the good sleeping in Christ and the bad remaining under the Knowledge and Disposal of God until the times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord and the Trumpet shall sound and all Persons who have lived shall be raised and summoned to the Judgment of the Great Day And therefore from the Words as I have Expounded them I think the direct contrary to what he says that no good Argument can be raised from our first quoted Texts for proving his Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence The Ninth Argument PAge 83. Mr. W. quotes Rom. 10.11 And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteosness and if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your Mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you And he says upon this Text Methinks this Truth of the Souls Immortality doth very clearly shine in the Evidence of this Scripture I Answer That what shines so clearly to him I do not at all discover P. 84. Mr. W. proceeds in a long Discourse which I think rather confounds and misleads than opens and declares the Meaning of St. Paul's Words and yet I have no Intent to implicate my self with him upon that Subject especially in many Words P. 85. He raises an Exception out of St. Paul's Doctrine but I think it is out of his own Brain and Invention not perceiving that Paul thought of such an Objection nor that he makes or intends any Answer to it But Mr. W. himself both tells the Tale and gives the Answer And there he says further If you ask How comes the Soul thus to over-live the Body He Answers by a perplex'd Repetition of some other Words in the Chapter which he pretends to Expound as by an Old Rule Mala Expositio corrumpit Textum and then he draws out of that Exposition what I do not find in the Text but will not particularize for avoiding of Length and Confusion P. 86. Here he Propounds another Objection to St. Paul's Doctrine and says The Apostle was well aware of it and therefore gave it an Answer But I think he is mistaken in both not finding by the Text that St. Paul ever thought of it and therefore did not design to give it an Answer and specially such an Answer as Mr. W. in this Place hath done He proceeds and raises a Third Objection against St. Paul's Doctrine but doth not say the Apostle was aware of this or made any Answer to it but Mr. W's Invention and Construction are ready to give it a full Answer but not such an one as I am willing to Consent unto P. 87. Mr. W. says Having thus cleared up the Text by giving you its Meaning I proceed now to lay down my Argument to prove that the Soul of Man dieth not with the Body I Answer some
writ this Epistle because the Apostle says there were things in Heaven reconciled by the Blood of the Cross But there are no such things in Heaven reconciled by the Blood of the Cross except they be the Souls of some Holy Men that went hence Then he expresses a Desire to know what Men can say to this Argument And therefore I say to it That by his own Expression it appears he says he knows not what for he says He knows not that there are any other things in Heaven which need Reconciliation to God by Christ except Men will take these things to be the Souls of departed Persons But if Men will not accept of this Meaning then he knows not what the Apostle can mean by things in Heaven reconciled to God by Christ Which intends no more than that he doth not otherways know what the Things in Heaven reconciled to God by Christ may mean Which I take for a Confession That he doth not know what Paul meant by these things in Heaven Secondly I conceive he doth not know that there are any Souls in Heaven because if he did he should be able to make such a Demonstration or Description of their Being and of their being there as other Men who are willing might be able to understand and conceive He hath taken Pains to write this Treatise and therein hath already produced Thirteen Arguments in Proof of this Tenet but very unsuccessfully as those who peruse these Observations will easily discover The Perusers of this Argument will I think easily find That Mr. W. must have Two Things granted him before he can pretend to prove any thing by this Argument First That there are no things in Heaven which need Reconciliation to God unless Men will admit that Humane Souls are there And therefore Secondly he would perswade Men to admit of his Position That there are Souls in Heaven But I think fit to reject both these Proposals and say First That there may be other Things in Heaven besides Souls which may need a Reconciliation to God by Christ And Secondly to conceive that possibly or even probably there are not nor ever were any Humane Souls in Heaven nor in any other Place in the World except in their own proper and peculiar Bodies Here Mr. W. puts another slight Objection against his own Opinion and answers it P. 102. Mr. W. demands If there be any things else in Heaven besides the Souls of Men which need a Reconciliation to God What are those things I Answer I do not know what those things are and alike Confession of his Ignorance concerning this Subject would better have become Mr. W. than his groundless Guesses at what is meant in this Text by St. Paul's Expression of Things in Heaven and the supplying his Ignorance therein by a bold but Erroneous Guess That by Things in Heaven St. Paul intended the Seperate Souls of Men of which the Text makes no mention at all and his Supposal that there were Seperate Souls hath no better Foundation than his own Supposal which hath very little Power to convince intelligent Persons That Humane Souls have any sort of Subsistence in a state of Seperation from the Body The Fourteenth Argument PAge 102. Heb. 12.23 We are come to the Spirits of just Men made perfect Mr. W. begins this Argument with somewhat a long Comparison between the Law and the Gospel which makes little to our Point and therefore I pass it over P. 104. Mr. W. says as he is very apt to do That the Souls or Spirits of Men are Immortal and therefore it is a very great Truth that they are Immortal And adds Those Souls which the Gospel reveals to be alive out af their Bodies are thereby proved to be Immortal but the Gospel reveals that the Souls of just Men are alive out of their Bodies therefore the Souls of Men are alive out of their Bodies therefore the Souls of Men are Immortal Mr. W. says The Gospel revealeth that the Spirits of just Men are alive out of their Bodies Because the Text says they were made perfect and there is no Perfection in Death P. 105. He says We have a Right to the Society of those Spirits of just Men mude perfect which we shall have in possession when we depart hence But I find neither such Words nor Things in his Text viz. That we shall come to that Society when we depart hence so as I must repute it his own Addition to the Words of the Text which doth not appoint the Time for our coming to that Society I find Mr. W. has only quoted so much of this Text as seemeth most to support his own Opinion and therefore I intend to quote it somewhat more largely Heb. 12.22 Ye are come unto Mount Sion and to the Heavenly Jerusalem or City of God to the Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first Born and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Ver. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh whose Voice at the giving of the Law shook the Earth but now he hath promised saying yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also Heaven and this signifies the removal of those things which are shaken and that we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot be removed The Words of our Text thus fully quoted do by no means import That Men or their Souls shall come to the enjoyment of those things at their Deaths as Mr. W. hath erroneously suggested but the words of the Text run in the present Tense Ye are come to the things which I here report to you viz. Ye are come to the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem to the Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the First Born when not only the Earth shall be shaken but also Heaven and the things so shaken shall be removed I conceive that the Description here made doth very properly denote the Time of the Resurrection and the great Day of Judgment For at that time we are instructed by the Scripture to expect the things here mentioned God and Christ attended by the Angels and the Church of the First Born consisting of Just Men made perfect both in their Spirits and in their Bodies to the City of God or the New Jerusalem which St. John tells us Shall come down from God out of Heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband at or after the time of the Resurrection after Heaven and Earth have been shaken and are removed This I conceive to be the Time pointed at in this Text and I think these Descriptions are not applicable to any other Time nor hath Mr. W. mentioned any other Time for their Accomplishment saving that at Mens Death and for which he hath no Warrant from any words of this Text and as to the words in present Ye are come to these Glories I think
weak people in this World and was thereat so much grieved that he breaks forth and says I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive yea better is he than both they which hath not yet been who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the Sun Chap. 9.3 The heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness is in their heart whilst they live and after that they go to the dead for to him that is joyned to the living there is hope for a living dog is better than a dead lyon for the living know that they shall die but the dead know not anything neither have they any more a reward for their memory is forgotten their love hatred and envy are perished Ver. 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge in the grave whither thou goest Thus we find Solomon expresseth himself much to the same purpose that Job before hath done declaring that Death and the Grave put an end to the doings and sufferings of Men without taking notice of any rewards or sufferings likely to befal men soon after their departures forth of this World which is in my apprehension a sort of evidence that his words The Spirit returns to God who gave it did not intend the going of Mens Souls to Judgment before God soon after their departures out of this Life I quote likewise in Corroboration of Solomons fore-cited Text and Opinion a Concurrent Evidence out of the Prophet Isaiah 38.18 where Hezekiah praying to god says The Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope for thy Truth The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day Mr. W. hath quoted these Texts of Solomon and Isaiah and made out of each of them an Objection against his Opinion but I have made one Objection out of them both because I find them tend to the same purpose and do not so much labour to increase the number of my Objections as to fortifie and strengthen those which I make against him Mr. W. hath made the Text now quoted out of Isaiah his Tenth Objection against his Opinion and thereunto answers That Hezekiah 's meaning in these words is that Men after Death cannot praise God as they do whilst they are in this World and in the Congregations of Men but that still they can and do praise God after Death in Heaven Thereunto I reply He seems to make Hezekiah mean what himself pleases but that King's words seem plainly to declare That Men after Death neither do nor can celebrate or praise the Name of God without mention of such a meaning as he pretends or any need of such a meaning that I can perceive and therefore I read and take the plain Sense of his words to be as he hath delivered them In his Eleventh Objection he quotes the Text of Solomon The Dead know not any thing and thereunto answers That Solomon's meaning in these words is That Dead Men do not know any thing of what is done under the Sun after their Deaths I reply The words of the Text are general words The Dead know not any thing at all and therefore I cannot allow of his restraining them to Things done under the Sun which he hath excogitated on purpose to serve his Design in this Point Wherefore I leave this Exposition as a needless and erroneous Invention and proceed farther to consider the whole Objection now propounded against Mr. W's Opinion And we find that Solomon in the Texts of this Objection before quoted speaks of Death as of a Rest from Mens Labours and Sufferings and says There is no device nor knowledge in the grave whither thou goest the living know that they shall die but the dead know not any thing not any the most common or knowable thing not a thing so well known as that Men must die or that they must rise again These are things the most commonly known to Men when they are alive but when they are dead they know not any thing at all and to this King Hezekiah adds they cannot act any thing they cannot so much as Praise and Celebrate the name of God which Mr. W's Party will have to be the proper work of their good Souls departed Our Text tells us in absolute and plain Terms the Dead cannot do so comprehending under the name of Dead the Person and all that belong'd to the Composition thereof And from these Premisses I take leave to conclude that from these Texts is raised a strong Objection against the Souls Seperate Subsistence A Fifth Objection against Mr W's Tenet I raise from Eccless 11.8 If a Man live many Years and rejoyce in them all yet let him remember the days of Darkness for they shall be many and then he gives Liberty to the young Man to rejoyce in the days of his Youth and use his Liberty but withal bids him know that for these things God will bring him into Judgment so Chap. 12.14 After he had said the Spirit returns to God who gave it he adds Fear God and keep his Commandments for God shall bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Here Solomon exhorts Men to remember the day and time of their Deaths The miserable as well pleased to rest under that dark Shadow and the young and joyful he exhorts to remember those times as days of Darkness and says that they shall be many subjoyning thereunto that after those days God will call Men to Judgment for all that they have done in this World tho' it be never so secretly acted and even for every idle word at the Day of Judgment an Account must be made and much more of Mens smallest Actions whether the same be good or whether they be evil by the days of Darkness which Solomon here mentions seem somewhat clearly to be intended the days which immediately succeed the death of the Person they are days of Darkness as Darkness it self covered and made dark with the shadow of Death and our Text says those Days shall be many and therefore he exhorts Men in their greatest Jollity to remember them but our Opposers contrary to the Tenor of this Text endeavour to perswade us that there are no days of Darkness at all in Death for that when the Breath of Man goeth forth or ceaseth in him his Substantial Intelligent and then Seperated Soul or Spirit either returns to God or goes before him to Judgment or is carried by Angels or is hurried by Devils into very different places concerning which I do not find they are well agreed among themselves but howsoever that may fall out they are all very well agreed that their Seperate Intelligent Spirit is at greater liberty and is more active and knowing than it was during its confinement to the
Body so as instead of those days of Darkness which Solomon mentions the Spirit or Principle of Life in Man enjoys a greater light activity and freedom than it had before the Death of that Party whom it formerly inliven'd and acted And this if it be true seems directly contrary to that which Solomon in this Text hath affirmed There are days of darkness and many of them says the Text of Solomon Mr. W. says That at the death of the party or soon after good mens souls enjoy much more light liberty and glory than every they had before so as they seem to say the souls of good men have no dark days at all and therefore men that are jovial and merry need have no regard to such days of Darkness as Solomon in this Text gives them warning of And yet such men do not use to deny that a Solemn and General Judgment shall appear after those many days of Darkness shall be consummate and finished and therein they agree with Solomons Opinion altho concerning his days of Darkness they seem very much to differ from him but if his Opinion may prevail in this Case it offers a strong Objection against the Souls Seperate Subsistence Thus far Objections have been drawn out of the Old Testament and we now proceed to draw like Objections from the New A Sixth Objection thence to be raised I take from John 14. 2 In my Fathers House are many Mansions I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you again to my self that where I am there ye may be also Luke 21.26 The powers of Heaven shall be shaken and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory and when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh viz. rewards for the Saints Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye appear with him also in glory 1 John 3 2. Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The Apostle knew whilst in this life that we are the Sons of God but he did not know what we shall be after death nor was that likely to be known till Christs appearing at his Second Coming and then he knew that the Saints should be made like Christ and appear with him in glory as Paul hath above asserted 2 Tim. 4.7 Paul says I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his appearing The Crown it seems was laid up for him even whil'st he was alive but was not expected to be given him till the time of Christs second appearing and then it would also be given to all those who love and desire that appearing 1 Tim. 1.10 The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day He doth not pray that his Friend may find mercy at the time of his Death or at an Intermediate Judgment but at that great and last Day All these Texts have been quoted to give Evidence of the Time when Rewards and Punishments after Death are warrantably to be expected They all express the time thereof to be at our Lords Second Coming and the last Great Day of Judgment thereupon ensuing but make no mention of Recompences warrantably to be expected soon after the times of mens Death or in any Intermediate State between Death and the Resurrection Nor hath the Scripture that I find any mention in other places of Recompences to be distribuâ—ed in such an Inâ—ermediate State except in Parables and Trances only I have in this Objection repeated two Texts out of which Mr. W. made Objections singly against his own Opinion but I have linked them together and strengthened them with other Texts of Scripture of the like import quia vis unita fortior Concerning Mr. W's Texts I pretend here to examine the Answers which he hath singly given to each of them To the Text of our appearing with Christ in Glory he answers and grants That the appearance here spoken of intends that of the Last Judgment for till then the Saints cannot be said to appear in Glory with Christ and yet says he they may be in Glory with Christ tho' they do not appear in such Glory to Men. I reply That tho they do not appear in such Glory to Men yet if there be truly such a thing as he maintains they do appear in Glory before God and the Angels and Spirits of Just Men made perfect and therefore may truly be said to appear in Glory which St. Paul says they do not till Christs second Coming and appearing in Glory Mr. W. says His sort of Souls may appear in Heaven in Glory before that time but it lies upon him to make some proof that they do so which he neither offers nor I think is able to perform and therefore I think his Answer to this Text is of small weight The other Text to which he makes an Answer is that of Paul's expecting a Crown to be given him at that day or the time of the Last Judgment and he grants that the time intended by the word That Day is that of the Last Judgment and says thereupon What then It follows not thence that therefore there are not Souls in glory before that time for Kings may reign before they receive their Crown and Scepter and so shall we be Kings and Priests in our Souls unto God in the Heavens This Mr. W. pretends to say out of his own fruitful Invention without offering any Proof of our being Kings and Priests in Heaven to God in our bare and naked Souls only for neither any of our before quoted Texts do mention such things nor are they to be found in any other Text of Scripture whatsoever except the Vision appearing to St. John when he was intranced for the Parable of Dives makes no mention of being in Heaven or the Preferment of being Kings and Priests to God or in his presence and therefore I am ready to reject this device or fancy of Mr. W's brain and to conceive that all our quoted Texts are true according to the common sense of their words Mr. W. father says There are no words or syllables in this Text that deny intervening Rewards to the Saints before that day which it must have done before it could serve his Opposers purpose Thereunto replying I say there seems to be no need of such a Denial for that if God or Man promise to give Rewards or Punishments at an appointed time
convince us that divers Brutes attain to as great Perfection in the use of such Senses as the Generations of Men do and some Brutes exceed the Humane Powers in the Practice and Use of some of these Senses And if we then consider the Humane Affections of Lust Wrath and Fear we may find that the Brutal Nature is as full of these Affections as the Humane and that the Beasts have them in as great vigor violence and perfection as Men have them And lastly if we rise to consider the Power of Intellect we may find that Brutes injoy the true and real use of Phantasie Choice and Memory so far as is Needful for the well being of their Natures tho' in a weak measure and very low degree if we compare such Faculties of theirs with such as may be found in that kind amongst the highest ranks of Men or such of them as have attain'd to great degrees of Improvement in their Faculties of that kind It may be that if we shall compare the most Stupid amongst Men with the most Sensitive amongst Brutes as with the Elephant Ape Horse Dog and Fox it may be found that some of these Creatures are more docible and may be made more knowing than some of the most stupid amongst Men so that by their Teachers Eye or Continuance or their Voices they have been made to act and perform divers things which caus'd Admiration in the Beholders and such as it would be hard to teach the stupidest Persons amongst Men to perform in such manner as Beasts have been known to do them There appears between the Brutal and Humane Nature and Composition very great differences and that the Men have many advantages above the Beasts in those Parts and Members which appear outwardly to the Eye First in the Members of their Hands and Tongue and the genuine and natural uses of them both and next in the natural and upright posture of the Humane Body and the placing of the Head thereupon all which give great advantages to the Humane above the Brutal Bodies and gives them such capacities of acting as are deny'd to all Brutes whatsoever and it seems we may reasonably suppose that there may be the like great advantages in the inward Organs of Humane above those of the Brutal Heads and whereby the Humane are made more capable of performing the great Duties of their Intellect then the Brutal Creatures have Capacities to do and yet we find these Differences do not hinder the persons of Men from being ranked amongst the Animal Kind the prime Ingredients into whose Composition are the same Flesh Blood Bones Breath Nerves Arteries Veins Joynts Sinews and Members which go to the Composition of them both And Experience may convince us that the Lives of them all are in their Blood or that Blood is the life of them and by the particles of such Blood inflamed called the Spirits of their Blood they are all inlivened and acted alike altho' by the Structure of their Bodies and the Perfection of their Organs to some purposes the Humane Nature have very great advantages above the Brutal and these are the main Differences which I have yet been able to find between the two Natures before-mentioned and I am hence so far convinced as to conceive that there is no such great and apparent Differences between that sort of the Spirit of Life which acts the Brutes and that sort of Spirit which acts the Men as heretofore hath generally been believed but the Spirits which act Life in them both are of a more similar Nature than Men have formerly imagined them to be and from this Argument I am ready to conclude that the Humane Spirit of Life hath a great agreement with that of the Brutal and therefore I think it more probable to be a Material Unintelligent Spirit than that it should be an Intelligent created extraneous Spirit made by God for each Man at the time of his Procreation and injected into the Embrion at some incertain or unknown time which yet remains unperceived or undeclared to us and which if it shall be made better known may deserve to be further examined amongst us Upon these three last Arguments drawn from the Animal Nature and Humane Experience my first doubtings concerning the Seperate Subsistence of souls were founded after I had held out in the old Opinion until my Age of Sixty Three-Years and my doubting caus'd me to search the Scriptures concerning that Point and there I found no Concurrence of Scripture Texts which were brought as Evidences thereof and not so much as one Text that was clear in the affâ—mâ—nce of it except that of St. Matthew's saying Are not able to kill the Soul Next that neither that Saying nor any other Text produced for proof of that Point had a principal 〈…〉 teach or prove the Souls Seperate Subsistence 〈…〉 the Texts produced for the proof of that Opinion 〈…〉 livered in a collateral manner and are brought â— by without Mens being able to make it appear 〈…〉 of the Texts produced to that purpose did 〈…〉 tend to declare or prove the now questioned 〈…〉 the Souls Seperate Subsistence I found also that all their Texts from whence the consequential proofs which they make are drawn might receive reasonable and I think sufficient Answers which I have endeavour'd to apply to them in this Treatise and have satisfy'd my own Understanding in them all and how far they will appear reasonable to the Readers thereof I am willing to leave to such Experimental Tryals as may be made upon the Judgments of such Persons as may happen to peruse the Treatise and to the Candor and Indifferent Censure of such Readers I am willing to submit my self and all that I have spoken in this Treatise and concerning this Subject AFter Mr. Wadsworth 's finishing the Treatise before considered he super-adds thereunto and subjoyns to it a Declamatory Discourse which he intitles Faith's Triumph over the Fears of Death which is not much less in bulk than his Treatise before answered Vpon the Perusal thereof I find his Triumphal Arch principally founded the one end of it upon the Souls Seperate Subsistence and the other end upon the Souls going to Heaven immediately after Death both which I conceive to be Precarious Assumptions I am sure not granted by his Opposers and I believe not sufficiently proved by his Arguments I find that in this Discourse he repeats a third time the four Texts of Scripture which he thinks do most strongly prove his Opinion viz. Solomon's return of the Spirit to God who gave it St. Matthew's Are not able to kill the Soul St. Luke 's Parable of Dives and his Relation of the Thiefs Conversion on the Cross I acknowledge my self averse from making often Repetitions of the same things and therefore do refuse to follow his Example or Practice in this Point but rather make choice to refer my Reader to such Answers as are before given to these Arguments in those
places where he hath twice before propounded them I do not find that in this Discourse he hath added any new Arguments to those which are produced in his former Treatise so as there are no new Proofs propounded in this Triumph whence I am apt thereupon to surmise that he doth Triumphum canere ante Victoriam and because his Triumphal Building seems to be principally founded upon the two before-named Assertions I collect that if the rain descend violently upon it the winds shake it the floods happen to beat upon it this Triumphal Edifice will be more likely to fall than to stand because the ground upon which it is raised seems over soft and sandy for the support thereof and for that the foundations of it are not digged deep enough by such a Search into the Scriptures as might make it appear that the Doctrine is built upon a strong Stream or clear Current of Scripture Testimonies somewhat apparently or clearly attesting the Truth thereof in some such places where there was a Design of Teaching concerning the Future State of Men after Death I do not conceive that there was a Design of speaking of such a Future State in any of the four Texts last before quoted of Solomon St. Matthew and St. Luke and therefore I do not find any great strength of Conviction in them I shall therefore pass over these and all the rest of Mr. Wadsworth 's Discourse of Faith's Triumph without speaking any farther thereunto because it seems not greatly material towards the farther proof of that Question which is now disputed between us resolving here to finish my Observations upon this Author with a hearty Bene valeas to my Intelligent Reader FINIS OBSERVATIONS UPON Dr. CHARLTONS TREATISE INTITULED The Immortality of the Humane Soul demonstrated by the Light of Nature In Two Dialogues 4to London Printed 1657. HIS first Dialogue and a good part of the second are imployed and spent in Introduction and Ceremony which last and continue till Page 78. of his Book and there he says That the Considerations which he intends to alledge for proving the Souls Immortality shall be either Natural or Moral his first Argument is this he says The reasonable Soul of Man is Immaterial and therefore it is Immortal P. 85. To prove the Souls Immateriality he says The Actions of Man as a Cogitative and Intellectual Essence are of so noble and divine a strain as that it is impossible they should be performed by a meer Material Agent or Corporeal Substance however disposed qualified or modified To this I answer it is the common Objection against the Souls Materiality viz. Men do not understand the quomodo how the Abstract Actions of the Mind and the Reflex Actions of it upon it self can be performed by Matter and Motion never so fitly Modified and Organized And therefore our Doctor in this Place walks in the common Trod and pretends to supply the want of Power in such Matter and Motion by the Introduction of an Intelligent Self-subsisting Spirit into the Person for the effecting of such Operations in Man not enough considering the Wisdom and Power of God the great Architect of the Microcosm who can by Matter and Motion fitly Organized Modified and Moved produce such Acts and Powers as Men are not able to comprehend the quomodo of and therefore to their Reason such things may seem impossible to be done which by the Wisdom and Power of God may be easily effected and performed without the Agency of such Intelligent Spirits as Men have commonly used to imagine P. 88. The Doctor says by Discourse of Reason we soon come certainly to know that the Magnitude of the Sun is at least 160 times greater than that of the Earth and here I pretend to doubt the Certainty of the Doctor 's knowledge concerning this Point from this Page to Page 100 the Doctor argues Whether the Intellect can work without the assistance of the Phansie a Question propounded by Aristotle in the beginning of his Book de Anima but both there and here that Question is left undetermined P. 102. The Doctor says the Intellect doth frequently reflect upon it self and understand its own Intelligence This I do not permit to pass for a Truth if we take the Intellect for a distinct thing from the Man conceiving that the Intellect as well as the Phantasie are Powers and Faculties of the Man and that neither of them can do any thing of themselves but that all which either or both of them do are Acts of the Person in whom they reside and that they are both of them submitted to the Guidance and Government of the Person and the Totum of that Power of which they are but a part so as to speak properly and truly we must say that the Man can considerately reflect upon the Acts and Powers of his Intellect Phantasie Judgment and Memory which is a thing which I shall easily grant but that which I think lies upon the Doctor and his Party to prove is the bare Intellect separated from the Person can reflect upon it self or do any other Action whatsoever P. 108. The Doctor says That whatsoever can frame abstracted Notions and form Universals must be above Matter and be Immaterial but the Soul and Mind of Man can act in this sort Ergo this Soul must be Immaterial In this Argument I deny his Major and say that the Man himself who is a Material Agent can form Abstractive Notions and from Singulars and Generals can extract and frame Universals and that the Intellect without the Man can perform no such Matters nor be nor act in any kind whatsoever P. 112. Here he quotes a Book written by Hieronimus Rorarius a Learned Prelate as a Collection of Arguments commonly urged to prove that many Brute Animals have the use of Reason as well as Man himself hath P. 116. Here it is affirmed That Men do not know the Intimate Nature of so much as the smallest Plant which grows upon the Ground and therefore I say we are like to fall much short of the true Nature of the Humane Soul with such Certainty as were to be desired P. 118. The Doctor says the Intellect is conversant about Spiritual Beings both of good and other Spirits and therefore is Immaterial I answer as before the Intellect can do nothing but as it is a Power and Faculty of the Person without which I do not agree that it hath either Being or Action P. 123. The Doctor here says that the old Philosophers obtained a certain Knowledge that there were Spirits by the Regular Motions of the Heavenly Bodies which they thought could not be maintained without the Assistance and Government of Intelligent Immaterial Spirits but I think they were as much deceived in their own Opinion as our Doctor seems to be in his Opinion of the Souls Immateriality P. 123. It is objected against the Doctor that when the Phansie is disturb'd the Intellect cannot act with Strength or