Account which the Scripture it self giveth us of the Resurrection and First in General when S. Paul Answering that Querie of the Philosophick Infidel How are the dead raised or with what Body do they come Replieth in this manner Thou Fool that is thou who thinkest to puzzle or baffle the Christian Article of the Resurrection which thou understandest not That which thou sowest is not Quickened to the Production of any thing except it first die to what it was And thou sowest not that Body that shall be but bare Grain as of Wheat or of Barley or the like but God in the ordinary course of Nature giveth it a Body as it hath pleased him that is a Stalk and an Eare having many Grains with Husks in it and therefore neither in Quantity nor Quality the same with that which was Sowed under Ground Nor does he give to all Seeds one and the same kind of Body neither but to every seed it s own correspondent Body as to Wheat one kind of Eare and to Barley another As if he should have said Know that this Present Body of ours is to be look'd upon but as a kind of Seed of the Resurrection-Body which therefore is accordingly in some sense the Same and in some sense not the Same with it Besides which General Account the Particular Oppositions which the Scripture makes betwixt the Present and Future Body seem very agreeable to those of the Philosophick Cabala For First the Present Body is said to be Sowed in Corruption but the Future Raised in Incorruption For the Children of the Resurrection cannot die any more And then Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life Wherefore the Christian Resurrection-Body as well as that of the Philosophick Cabala is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too 2 Cor. 5.1 an Immortal and Eternal Body Again the Body Sowed is said to be a Dishonourable Ignominious and Inglorious Body and therefore called also by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Body of our Humility or Humiliation A Body agreeable to this Lapsed State of the Soul But the Body which shall be Raised shall be a Glorious Body and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conformable to that Glorious Body of Christ. Who when he was but Externally Transfigured his Face did shine as the Sun and his Raiment was white as the Light The Glory of a Body consisteth only in the Comliness of its Proportion and the Spendor thereof Thus is there one Glory of the Sun and another Glory of the Moon and another Glory of the Stars that is a different Splendor of them Wherefore the Future Body of the Righteous according to the Scripture also as well as the Philosophick Cabala will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Glorious Splendid Luciform and Star-like Body Wisd. 3.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteous in the time of their Visitation shall shine forth Daniel 12. the 2. and 3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever And Matthew the 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father And therefore probably this Future Glorious Resurrection Body is that Inheritance of the Saints in Light which the Scripture speaks of Col. 1. the 12. Moreover there is another difference betwixt this Present and that Future Body of the Righteous wherein S. Paul and Hierocles do well agree the First being called by both of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Animal Body The Second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Spiritual Body Which latter expression in Scripture does not only denote the Subtlety and Tenuity thereof but also as this Present Body is called an Animal Body because it is suitable and agreeable to that Animal Life which men have Common with Brutes so is that Future called Spiritual as bearing a fit proportion and correspondency to Souls renewed in the Spirit of their Mind or in whom the Divine Spirit Dwelleth and Acteth exercising its Dominion There is an Animal Body and there is a Spiritual Body And the First Adam was made a Living Soul the Last Adam a Quickning Spirit And thus are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who have not the Spirit And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Animal Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God Which Spirit is also said in Scripture to be the Earnest of that our Future Inheritance Ephesians the 1. the 14. and the Earnest of this Spiritual and Heavenly Body 2 Corinth the 5. the 5. It is also said to be that by which Efficiently these Mortal Bodies shall be Quickened Romans the 8. the 11. 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 Neither doth Hierocles fall much short of this Scripture Notion of a Spiritual Body when he describes it to be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is Agreeable to the Intellectual Perfection of the Soul This Spiritual Body is that which the Ancient Hebrews called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eagles Wings We reading thus in the Gemara of the Sanhedrin c. 11. fol. 92. col 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you Ask what shall become of the Righteous when God shall renew the world the Answer is God shall make them wings like Eagles whereby they shall fly upon the Face of the Waters Again as this Present Body is called in Scripture an Earthly Body so is the Future Body of the Righteous styled by S. Paul as well as the Pythagoreans a Heavenly Body and they who shall then be possessors thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heavenly men 1 Cor. 15. As is the Heavenly such are they that are Heavenly Besides which as Philosophers supposed both Demons or Angels and Men to have one and the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a like Lucid Heavenly and Etherial Body so from that of our Saviour when he affirmeth that they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the Resurrection from the dead will neither Marry nor be given in Marriage nor can die any more for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels from hence I say we may venture to call this Resurrection-Body of the Just also an Angelical or Isangelical Body and the rather because the Ancient Hebrews as we learn from Nachmonides in Shaar Haggemul styled it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angelical Clothing of the Soul and Tertullian himself Angelificatam Carnem Angelified Flesh. But Lastly S. Paul is not only Positive in his Doctrine here but also Negative Now this I say brethren that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit
Cogitantis It is a great Abuse that some Metaphysicians make of these Abstract Names because Cogitation can be considered alone without the consideration of Body therefore to conclude that it is not the Action or Accident of that Body that thinks but a Substance by it self And the same Writer elsewhere observes That it is upon this Ground that when a Man is dead and buried they say his Soul that is his Life can walk separated from his Body and is seen by night amongst the Graves By which means the Vulgar are confirmed in their Superstitious Belief of Ghosts Spirits Daemons Devils Fayries and Hob-goblins Invisible Powers and Agents called by several Names and that by those Persons whose work it ought to be rather to free men from such Superstition Which Belief at first had another Original not altogether unlike the former Namely from mens mistaking their own Phancies for Things Really existing without them For as in the sense of Vision men are commonly deceived in supposing the Image behind the Glass to be a Real thing existing without themselves whereas it is indeed nothing but their own Phancy In like manner when the Minds of Men strongly possess'd with Fear especially in the Dark raise up the Phantasms of Spectres Bug-bears or Affrightful Apparitions to them they think them to be Objects really existing without them and call them Ghosts and Spirits whilst they are indeed nothing but their own Phancies So the Phantasm or Phancy of a Deity which is indeed the Chief of all Spectres created by Fear has upon no other Accompt been taken for a Reality To this purpose a Modern Writer From the Fear that proceeds from the Ignorance it self of what it is that hath the Power to do men Good or Harm men are inclined to suppose and Feign to themselves several kinds of Powers Invisible and to stand in awe of their own Imaginations and in time of Distress to invoke them as also in the time of an expected good Success to give them thanks making the Creatures of their own Fancies their Gods Which though it be prudently spoken in the Plural Number that so it might be diverted and put off to the Heathen Gods yet he is very simple that does not perceive the reason of it to be the same concerning that one Deity which is now commonly worshipped and that therefore this also is but the Creature of Mens Fear and Phancie the Chief of all Phantastick Ghosts and Spectres as it were an Oberon or Prince of Fayries and Phancies This we say was the first Original of that Vulgar Belief of Invisible Powers Ghosts and Gods mens taking their own Phancies for Things really Existing without them And as for the Matter and Substance of these Ghosts they could not by their own natural Cogitation fall into any other Conceit but that it was the same with that which appeareth in a Dream to one that sleepeth or in a Looking-glass to one that is awake Thin Aerial Bodies which may appear and vanish when they please But the Opinion that such Spirits were Incorporeal and Immaterial could never enter into the minds of men by Nature Unabused by Doctrine but it sprung up from those deceiving and deceived Literati Scholasticks Philosophers and Theologers enchanting mens Understandings and making them believe that the Abstract Notions of Accidents and Essences could exist alone by themselves without the Bodies as certain Separate and Incorporeal Substances To Conclude therefore To make an Incorporeal Mind to be the Cause of all things is to make our own Phancie an Imaginary Ghost of the World to be a Reality and to suppose the mere Abstract Notion of an Accident and a Separate Essence to be not only an Absolute thing by it self and a Real Substance Incorporeal but also the first Original of all Substances and of whatsoever is in the Universe And this may be reckon'd for a Fourth Atheistick Ground IX Fifthly the Atheists pretend further to prove that there is no other Substance in the World besides Body as also from the Principles of Corporealism it self to evince that there can be no Corporeal Deity after this manner No man can devise any other Notion of Substance than that it is a thing Extended existing without the Mind not Imaginary but Real and Solid Magnitude For whatsoever is not Extended is Nowhere and Nothing So that Res Extensa is the only Substance the solid Basis and Substratum of all Now this is the very self-same thing with Body For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Resistence seems to be a necessary Consequence and Result from Extension and they that think otherwise can show no reason why Bodies may not also penetrate one another as some Corporealists think they do From whence it is inferred that Body or Matter is the only Substance of all things And whatsoever else is in the World that is all the Differences of Bodies are nothing but several Accidents and Modifications of this Extended Substance Body or Matter Which Accidents though they may be sometimes call'd by the names of Real Qualities and Forms and though there be different apprehensions concerning them amongst Philosophers yet generally they agree in this that there are these two Properties belonging to them First that none of them can subsist alone by themselves without Extended Substance or Matter as the Basis and Support of them And Secondly that they may be all destroyed without the Destruction of any Substance Now as Blackness and Whiteness Heat and Cold so likewise Life Sense and Understanding are such Accidents Modifications or Qualities of Body that can neither exist by themselves and may be destroyed without the Destruction of any Substance or Matter For if the Parts of the Body of any Living Animal be disunited and separated from one another or the Organical Disposition of the Matter alter'd those Accidents Forms or Qualities of Life and Understanding will presently vanish away to Nothings all the Substance of the Matter still remaining one where or other in the Universe entire and Nothing of it lost Wherefore the Substance of Matter and Body as distinguished from the Accidents is the only thing in the world that is Uncorruptible and Undestroyable And of this it is to be understood that Nothing can be made out of Nothing and Destroyed to Nothing i. e. that every entire thing that is Made or Generated must be made of some preexistent Matter which Matter was from Eternity Self-existent and Unmade and is also undestroyable and can never be reduc'd to Nothing It is not to be understood of the Accidents themselves that are all Makeable and Destroyable Generable and Corruptible Whatsoever is in the World is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matter so and so Modified or Qualified all which Modifications and Qualifications of Matter are in their own nature Destroyable and the Matter it self as the Basis of them not necessarily determin'd to this or that Accident is the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only Necessarily
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no such Solid Body as they might find him to have bidding them therefore handle him to remove that Scruple of theirs As if he should have said Though Spirits or Ghosts and Souls Departed have Bodies or Vehicles which may by them be so far Condensed as sometimes to make a Visible appearance to the Eyes of men yet have they not any such Solid Bodies as those of Flesh and Bone and therefore by Feeling and Handling may you satisfie your selves that I am not a meer Spirit Ghost or Soul Appearing as others have frequently done without a Miracle but that I appear in that very same Solid Body wherein I was Crucified by the Jews by miraculous Divine Power raised out of the Sepulchre and now to be found no more there Agreeable to which of our Saviour Christ is that of Apollonius in Philostratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Touch me and Handle me and if you find me to avoid the Touch then may you conclude me to be a Spirit or Ghost that is a Soul departed but if I firmly resist the same then believe me Really to live and not yet to have cast off the Body And indeed though Spirits or Ghosts had certain Subtle Bodies which they could so far Condense as to make them sometimes Visible to men yet is it reasonable enough to think that they could not Constipate or Fix them into such a Firmness Grossness and Solidity as that of Flesh and Bone is to continue therein or at least not without such Difficulty and Pain as would hinder them from attempting the same Notwithstanding which it is not denied but that they may possibly sometimes make use of other Solid Bodies Moving and Acting them as in that famous Story of Phlegons where the Body Vanished not as other Ghosts use to do but was left a Dead Carcase behind Now as for our Saviour Christ's Body after his Resurrection and before his Ascension which notwithstanding its Solidity in Handling yet sometimes Vanished also out of his Disciples sight this probably as Origen conceived was purposely conserved for a time in a certain Middle State betwixt the Craâ—sities of a Mortal Body and the Spirituality of a Perfectly Glorified Heavenly Etherial Body But there is a place of Scripture which as it hath been interpreted by the Generality of the Ancient Fathers would Naturally Imply even the Soul of our Saviour Christ himself after his Death and before his Resurrection not to have been quite Naked from all Body but to have had a certain Subtle or Spirituous Clothing and it is this of St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which being understood by those Ancients of our Saviour Christ's descending into Hades or Hell is accordingly thus rendered in the Vulgar Latin Put to Death In the Flesh bút Quickned in the Spirit In which Spirit also he went and preached to those Spirits that were in Prison c. So that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spirit here according to this interpretation is to be taken for a Spirituous Body the Sense being this That when our Saviour Christ was put to death in the Flesh or the Fleshly Body he was Quickned in the Spirit or a Spirituous Body In which Spirituous Body also he went and preached to those Spirits that were in Prison c. And doubtless it would be said by the Asserters of this Interpretation that the word Spirit could not here be taken for the Soul of our Saviour Christ because this being Naturally Immortal could not properly be said to be Quickned and Made Alive Nor could He that is our Saviour Christ's Soul be so well said to go In this Spirit neither that is In it self the Soul in the Soul to preach to the Spirits in Prison They would add also that Spirit here could not be taken for the Divine Spirit neither which was the Efficient Cause of the Vivification of our Saviour's Body at his Resurrection because then there would be no direct Opposition betwixt Being put to Death in the Flesh and Quickned in the Spirit unless they be taken both alike Materially As also the following Verse is thus to be understood That our Saviour Christ went in that Spirit wherein he was Quickned when he was Put to Death In the Flesh and therein preached to the Spirits in Prison By which Spirits in Prison also would be meant not Pure Incorporeal Substances or Naked Souls but Souls Clothed with Subtle Spirituous Bodies as that word may be often understood elsewhere in Scripture But thus much we are unquestionably certain of from the Scripture That not only Elias whose Terrestrial Body seems to have been in part at least Spiritualized in his Ascent in that Fiery Chariot but also Moses appeared Visibly to our Saviour Christ and his Disciples upon the Mount and therefore since Piety will not permit us to think this a meer Prestigious thing in Real Bodies which Bodies also seem to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luciform or Lucid like to our Saviour's then Transfigured Body Again there are sundry places of Scripture which affirm that the Regenerate and Renewed have here in this Life a certain Earnest of their Future Inheritance which is their Spiritual or Heavenly Body as also the Quickning of their Mortal Bodies is therein attributed to the Efficiency of the Spirit Dwelling in them Which is a Thing that hath been taken notice of by Some of the Ancients as Irenaeus Nunc autem Partem aliquam Spiritus ejus sumimus ad Perfectionem Praeparationem Incorruptelae paulatim assuescentes Capere Portare Deum Quod Pignus dixit Apostolus hoc est Partem ejus Honoris qui à Deo nobis promissus est Si ergo Pignus hoc habitans in nobis jam Spirituales effecit absorbetur Mortale ab Immortalitate Now have we a Part of that Spirit for the Preparation and Perfection of Incorruption we being accustomed by little and little to Receive and Bear God Which also the Apostle hath called an Earnest that is a Part of that Honour which is promised to us from God If therefore this Earnest or Pledge dwelling in us hath made us already Spiritual the Mortal is also swallowed up by Immortality And Novatian Spiritus Sanctus id agit in nobis ut ad Aeternitatem ad Resurrectionem Immortalitatis corpora nostra perducat dum illa in se assuefacit cum Caelesti Virtute misceri This is that which the Holy Spirit doth in us namely to bring and lead on our Bodies to Eternity and the Resurrection of Immortality whilst in it self it accustometh us to be mingled with the Heavenly Vertue Moreover there are some places also which seem to imply that Good Men shall after Death have a Further Inchoation of their Heavenly Body the full Completion whereof is not to be expected before the Resurrection or Day of Judgment We know that If our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we
That Corporeal things could not be apprehended by us otherwise than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Sense and a kind of Spurious or Bastardly Reason that is that we could have no clear Conceptions of them in our Understanding And for the same reason Plato him-himself distinguisheth betwixt such things as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comprehensible by the Vnderstanding with Reason and those which are only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which can only be apprehended by Opinion together with a certain Irrational Sence meaning plainly by the Latter Corporeal and Sensible things And accordingly the Platonists frequently take occasion from hence to enlarge themselves much in the disparagement of Corporeal things as being by Reason of that smallness of Entity that is in them below the Understanding and not having so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence as Generation which indeed is Fine Phancie Wherefore we must either with these Philosophers make Sensible things to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altogether Incomprehensible and Inconceivable by our Humane Understandings though they be able in the mean time clearly to conceive many things of a higher Nature or else we must entertain some kind of favourable Opinion concerning that which is the Ancientest of all Physiologies the Atomical or Mechanical which alone renders Sensible things Intelligible XL. The Second Advantage which this Atomical Physiology seems to have is this That it prepares an easie and clear way for the Demonstration of Incorporeal Substances by setling a Distinct Notion of Body He that will undertake to prove that there is something else in the World besides Body must first determine what Body is for otherwise he will go about to prove that there is something besides He-knows-not-what But now if all Body be made to consist of two Substantial Principles whereof one is Matter devoid of all Form and therefore of Quantity as well as Qualities from whence these Philosophers themselves conclude that it is Incorporeal the other Form which being devoid of all Matter must needs be Incorporeal likewise And thus Stobaeus sets down the joint Doctrine both of Plato and Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in the same manner as Form alone separated from Matter is Incorporeal so neither is Matter alone the Form being separated from it Body But there is need of the joint concurrence of both these Matter and Form together to make up the Substance of Body Moreover if to Forms Qualities be likewise superadded of which it is consentaneously also resolved by the Platonists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Qualities are Incorporeal as if they were so many Spirits possessing Bodies I say in this way of Philosophizing the Notions of Body and Spirit Corporeal and Incorporeal are so confounded that it is Impossible to prove any thing at all concerning them Body it self being made Incorporeal and therefore every thing Incorporeal for whatsoever is wholly compounded and made up of Incorporeals must needs be it self also Incorporeal Furthermore according to this Doctrine of Matter Forms and Qualities in Body Life and Vnderstanding may be supposed to be certain Forms or Qualities of Body And then the Souls of men may be nothing else but Blood or Brains endued with the Qualities of Sense and Understanding or else some other more Subtle Sensitive and Rational Matter in us And the like may be said of God himself also That he is nothing but a certain Rational or Intellectual Subtle and Firie Body pervading the whole Universe or else that he is the Form of the whole Corporeal World together with the Matter making up but one Substance Which Conceits have been formerly entertained by the best of those Ancients who were captivated under that dark Infirmity of mind to think that there could be no other Substance besides Body But the ancient Atomical Philosophy setling a distinct Notion of Body that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Thing Impenetrably extended which hath nothing belonging to it but Magnitude Figure Site Rest and Motion without any Self-moving Power takes away all Confusion shews clearly how far Body can go where Incorporeal Substance begins as also that there must of necessity be such a Thing in the World Again this discovering not only that the Doctrine of Qualities had its Original from mens mistaking their own Phancies for Absolute Realities in Bodies themselves but also that the Doctrine of Matter and Form Sprung from another Fallacy or Deception of the Mind in taking Logical Notions and our Modes of Conceiving for Modes of Being and Real Entities in things without us It shewing likewise that because there is nothing else clearly intelligible in Body besides Magnitude Figure Site and Motion and their various Conjugations there can be no such Entities of Forms and Qualities really distinct from the Substance of Body makes it evident that Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding can be no Corporeal things but must needs be the Attributes of another kind of Substance distinct from Body XLI We have now clearly proved these two things First that the Physiology of the Ancients before not only Aristotle and Plato but also Democritus and Leucippus was Atomical or Mechanical Secondly that as there is no Inconsistency between the Atomical Physiology and Theology but indeed a Natural Cognation so the Ancient Atomists before Democritus were neither Atheists nor Corporealists but held the Incorporeity and Immortality of Souls together with a Deity distinct from the Corporeal World Wherefore the First and most Ancient Atomists did not make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they never endeavoured to make up an Entire Philosophy out of Atomology but the Doctrine of Atoms was to them onely one Part or Member of the whole Philosophick System they joining thereunto the Doctrine of Incorporeal Substance and Theology to make it up complete Accordingly as Aristotle hath declared in his Metaphysicks that the Ancient Philosophy consisted of these two Parts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Physiology and Theology or Metaphysicks Our Ancient Atomists never went about as the blundering Democritus afterwards did to build up a World out of mere Passive Bulk and Sluggish Matter without any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Active Principles or Incorporeal Powers understanding well that thus they could not have so much as Motion Mechanism or Generation in it the Original of all that Motion that is in Bodies springing from something that is not Body that is from Incorporeal Substance And yet if Local Motion could have been supposed to have risen up or sprung in upon this Dead Lump and Mass of Matter no body knows how and without dependance upon any Incorporeal Being to have Actuated it Fortuitously these Ancient Atomists would still have thought it Impossible for the Corporeal World it self to be made up such as now it is by Fortuitous Mechanism without the Guidance of any higher Principle But they would have concluded
determines the Motion of it Vitally must needs do it by some other Energy of its own as it is Reasonable also to conceive that it self hath some Vital Sympathy with that Matter which it Acts upon But we apprehend that Both these may be without Clear and Express Consciousness Thus the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every Life is Energie even the worst of Lives and therefore that of Nature Whose Energie is not like that of Fire but such an Energie as though there be no Sense belonging to it yet is it not Temerarious or Fortuitous but Orderly Regular Wherefore this Controversie whether the Energy of the Plastick Nature be Cogitation or no seems to be but a Logomachy or Contention about Words For if Clear and Express Consciousness be supposed to be included in Cogitation then it must needs be granted that Cogitation doth not belong to the Plastick Life of Nature but if the Notion of that Word be enlarged so as to comprehend all Action distinct from Local Motion and to be of equal Extent with Life then the Energie of Nature is Cogitation Nevertheless if any one think fit to attribute some Obscure and Imperfect Sense or Perception different from that of Animals to the Energie of Nature and will therefore call it a kind of Drowsie Vnawakened or Astonish'd Cogitation the Philosopher before mentioned will not very much gainsay it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any will needs attribute some kind of Apprehension or Sense to Nature then it must not be such a Sense or Apprehension as is in Animals but something that differs as much from it as the Sense or Cogitation of one in a profound sleep differs from that of one who is awake And since it cannot be denied but that the Plastick Nature hath a certain Dull and Obscure Idea of that which it Stamps and Prints upon Matter the same Philosopher himself sticks not to call this Idea of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spectacle and Contemplamen as likewise the Energy of Nature towards it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Silent Contemplation nay he allows that Nature may be said to be in some Sence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Lover of Spectacles or Contemplation 17. However that there may be some Vital Energy without Clear and Express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con-sense and Consciousness Animadversion Attention or Self-perception seems reasonable upon several accompts For first those Philosophers themselves who make the Essence of the Soul to consist in Cogitation and again the Essence of Cogitation in Clear and Express Consciousness cannot render it any way probable that the Souls of Men in all profound Sleeps Lethargies and Apoplexies as also of Embryo's in the Womb from their very first arrival thither are never so much as one moment without Expresly Conscious Cogitations which if they were according to the Principles of their Philosophy they must ipso facto cease to have any Being Now if the Souls of Men and Animals be at any time without Consciousness and Self-perception then it must needs be granted that Clear and Express Consciousness is not Essential to Life There is some appearance of Life and Vital Sympathy in certain Vegetables and Plants which however called Sensitive Plants and Plant-animals cannot well be supposed to have Animal Sense and Fancy or Express Consciousness in them although we are not ignorant in the mean time how some endeavour to salve all those Phaenomena Mechanically It is certain that our Humane Souls themselves are not always Conscious of whatever they have in them for even the Sleeping Geometrician hath at that time all his Geometrical Theorems and Knowledges some way in him as also the Sleeping Musician all his Musical Skill and Songs and therefore why may it not be possible for the Soul to have likewise some Actual Energie in it which it is not Expresly Conscious of We have all Experience of our doing many Animal Actions Non-attendingly which we reflect upon afterwards as also that we often continue a long Series of Bodily Motions by a mere Virtual Intention of our Minds and as it were by Half a Cogitation That Vital Sympathy by which our Soul is united and tied fast as it were with a Knot to the Body is a thing that we have no direct Consciousness of but only in its Effects Nor can we tell how we come to be so differently affected in our Souls from the many different Motions made upon our Bodies As likewise we are not Conscious to our selves of that Energy whereby we impress Variety of Motions and Figurations upon the Animal Spirits of our Brain in our Phantastick Thoughts For though the Geometrician perceive himself to make Lines Triangles and Circles in the Dust with his Finger yet he is not aware how he makes all those same Figures first upon the Corporeal Spirits of his Brain from whence notwithstanding as from a Glass they are reflected to him Fancy being rightly concluded by Aristotle to be a Weak and Obscure Sense There is also another more Interiour kind of Plastick Power in the Soul if we may so call it whereby it is Formative of its own Cogitations which it self is not always Conscious of as when in Sleep or Dreams it frames Interlocutory Discourses betwixt it self and other Persons in a long Series with Coherent Sence and Apt Connexions in which oftentimes it seems to be surprized with unexpected Answers and Reparties though it self were all the while the Poet and Inventor of the whole Fable Not only our Nictations for the most part when we are awake but also our Nocturnal Volutations in Sleep are performed with very little or no Consciousness Respiration or that Motion of the Diaphragmae and other Muscles which causes it there being no sufficient Mechanical accompt given of it may well be concluded to be always a Vital Motion though it be not always Animal since no man can affirm that he is perpetually Conscious to himself of that Energy of his Soul which does produce it when he is awake much less when asleep And Lastly the Cartesian Attempts to salve the Motion of the Heart Mechanically seem to be abundantly confuted by Autopsy and Experiment evincing the Systole of the Heart to be a Muscular Constriction caused by some Vital Principle to make which nothing but a Pulsifick Corporeal Quality in the Substance of the Heart it self is very Unphilosophical and Absurd Now as we have no voluntary Imperium at all upon the Systole and Diastole of the Heart so are we not conscious to our selves of any Energy of our own Soul that causes them and therefore we may reasonably conclude from hence also that there is some Vital Energy without Animal Fancy or Synaesthesis express Consciousness and Self-perception 18. Wherefore the Plastick Nature acting neither by Knowledge nor by Animal Fancy neither Electively nor Hormetically must be concluded to act Fatally Magically and Sympathetically And thus that Curious
to Sanchuniathon the Globe being said to signifie the First Incomprehensible Deity without Beginning or End Self-existent the Serpent the Divine Wisdom and Creative Vertue and lastly the Wings that Active Spirit that cherisheth quickneth and enliveneth all things How far credit is to be given to this we leave others to judge but the clearest footsteps that we can find any where of an Egyptian Trinity is in Jamblichus his Book written concerning their Mysteries which whole place therefore is worth the setting down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to another order or method Hermes places the God Emeph as the Prince and Ruler over all the Celestial Gods whom he affirmeth to be a Mind understanding himself and converting his Cogitations or Intellections into himself Before which Emeph he placeth One Indivisible whom he calleth Eicton in which is the first Intelligible and which is worshipped only by silence After which Two Eicton and Emeph the Demiurgick Mind and President of truth as with wisdom it proceedeth to Generations and bringeth forth the hidden Powers of the occult Reasons into light is called in the Egyptian Language Ammon as it Artificially effects all things with truth Phtha which Phtha the Greeks attending only to the Artificialness thereof call Hephestus or Vulcan as it is productive of Good Osiris besides other names that it hath according to its other Powers and Energies In which Passage of Jamblichus we have plainly Three Divine Hypostases or universal Principles Subordinate according to the Hermaick Theology First an Indivisible Vnity called Eicton Secondly a Perfect Mind converting its Intellections into it self called Emeph or Hemphta and Thirdly theimmediate Principle of Generation called by several names according to its several Powers as Phtha Ammon Osiris and the like So that these Three Names with others according to Jamblichus did in the Egyptian Theology signifie one and the same Third Divine Hypostasis How well these Three Divine Hypostases of the Egyptians agree with the Pythagorick or Platonick Trinity of First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnity and Goodness it self Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind and Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul I need not here declare Only we shall call to mind what hath been already intimated that that Reason or Wisdom which was the Demiurgus of the World and is properly the Second of the forementioned Hypostases was called also amongst the Egyptians by another name Cneph from whom was said to have been produced or begotten the God Phtha the Third Hypostasis of the Egyptian Trinity so that Cneph and Emeph are all one Wherefore we have here plainly an Egyptian Trinity of Divine Hypostases Subordinate Eicton Emeph or Cneph and Phtha VVe know not what to add more to this of Jamblichus concerning an Egyptian Trinity unless we should insist upon those Passages which have been cited by some of the Fathers to this purpose out of Hermaick or Trismegistick Books whereof there was one before set down out of St. Cyril or unless we should again call to mind that Citation out of Damascius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that according to the Egyptians there is One Principle of all things praised under the name of the Vnknown Darkness and this Thrice repeated Agreeably to which Augustinus Steuchus produces another Passage out of the same Philosophick VVriter that the Egyptians made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the First Principle of all to be Darkness above all Knowledge and Vnderstanding or Vnknown Darkness they Thrice repeating the same VVhich the forementioned Steuchus takes to be a clear acknowledgement of a Trinity of Divine Hypostases in the Egyptian Theology Our Second Observation is this That the Egyptian Theology as well as the Orphick which was derived from it asserting One Incorporeal Deity that is All Things as it is evident that it could not admit a Multitude of Self-existent and Independent Deities so did the seeming Polytheism of these Egyptians proceed also in great measure from this Principle of theirs not rightly understood they being led thereby in a certain sence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Personate and Deifie the Several Parts of the World and Things of Nature bestowing the Names of Gods and Goddesses upon them Not that they therefore worshipped the Inanimate Parts of the VVorld as such Much less Things not Substantial but meer Accidents for so many Real Distinct Personal Deities but because conceiving that God who was All things ought to be Worshipped in All things such especially as were most Beneficial to Mankind they did according to that Asclepian and Trismegistick Doctrine before-mentioned Call God by the Name of every â—hing or Every thing by the Name of God And that the wiser of them very well understood that it was really One and the same Simple Deity that was thus worshipped amongst them by piece-meal in the several Parts of the World and Things of Nature and under different Names and Notions with different Ceremonies is thus declared by Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isis is a Greek Word which signifies Knowledge and Typhon is the Enemy to this Goddess who being puffed up by Ignorance and Error doth Distract and Discerp the Holy Doctrine of the Simple Deity which Isis collects together again and makes up into One and thus delivers it to those who are initiated into her sacred Mysteries in order to Deification In which words Plutarch intimates that the Egyptian Fable of Osiris being Mangled and Cut in pieces by Typhon did Allegorically signifie the Discerption and Distraction of the Simple Deity by reason of the Weakness and Ignorance of vulgar minds not able to comprehend it altogether at once into several Names and Partial Notions which yet True Knowledge and Vnderstanding that is Isis makes up whole again and unites into One. XIX It is well known that the Poets though they were the Prophets of the Pagans and pretending to a kind of Divine Inspiration did otherwise embue the minds of the Vulgar with a certain Sense of Religion and the Notions of Morality yet these notwithstanding were the grand Depravers and Adulterators of the Pagan Theology For this they were guilty of upon several Accounts As First Their attributing to the Gods in their Fables concerning them all manner of Humane Imperfections Passions and Vices Which abuse of theirs the wiser of the Pagans were in all ages highly sensible of and offended with as partly appears from these Free Passages vented upon the Stage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si quis est mortalium Qui scelera patrat exigunt poenam Dei At nonne iniquum est vos suas leges quibus Gens debet hominum jure nullo vivere To this sence Since mortal men are punished by the Gods for transgressing their Laws is it not unjust that ye Gods who write these Laws should your selves live without Law And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
delivered down to us from very ancient Times that the Stars are Gods also besides that Supreme Deity which contains the Whole Nature But all the other things were Fabulously added hereunto for the better Perswasion of the Multitude and for Vtility of Humane Life and Political Ends to keep men in Obedience to Civil Laws As for example that these Gods are of Humane Form or like to other Animals with such other things as are consequent hereupon In which words of Aristotle these Three Things may be taken notice of First That this was the General Perswasion of the Civilized Pagans from all known Antiquity downwards that there is One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which comprehends the whole Nature Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by Aristotle plainly taken for the Supreme Deity And his own sence concerning this Particular is elsewhere thus declared after the same manner where he speaks of Order Harmony and Proportion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Work of the Divine Power which also conteinâ— this Vniverse Which Divinity Conteining and Compâ—ehending the Whole Nature and Vniverse must needs be a Single and Solitary Being according to that Expression of Horace before cited Nec viget quicquam Simile aut Secundum That which hath nothing Like it nor Second to it The next thing is That according to the Pagan Tradition besides this Vniversal Numen there were certain other Particular and Infeferiour Deities also that is Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to Men namely the Animated Stars or Spheres according to the Vulgar Apprehension though Aristotle's Philosophy would interpret this chiefly of their Immovable Minds or Intelligences Lastly that all the rest of the Pagan Religion and Theology those Two Things only excepted were Fabulous and Fictitious invented for the better Perswasion of the Vulgar to Piety and the conserving of them in Obedience to Civil Laws amongst which this may be reckoned for one that those Gods are all like Men or other Animals and therefore to be worshipped in Images and Statues of those several Forms with all that other Fabulous Farrago which dependeth hereupon Which being separated from the rest the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ancient Tradition of their Pagan Progenitors would remain comprized within those Two Particulars above mentioned namely that there is One Supreme Deity that Conteins the whole Vniverse and that besides it the Animated Stars or their Minds are certain Inferiour Gods also To Aristole may be here subjoyned Speusippus and Xenocrates his Equals and Corrivals they being Plato's Successors together with Theophrastus his own Scholar and Successor Concerning the former of which it is recorded in Cicero that agreeably with Plato he asserted Vim quandam quâ omnia regantur eamque Animalem One Animal and Intellectual Force by which all things are governed by reason whereof Velleius the Epicurean complains of him as thereby endeavouring Evellere ex animis cognitionem Deorum To pluck out of the minds of men the Notion of Gods as indeed both he and Plato did destroy those Epicurean Gods which were all supposed to be Independent and to have no Sway or Influence at all upon the Government of the World whereas neither of them denied a Plurality of Subordinate and Dependent Deities Generated or Created by One Supreme and by him Employed as his Ministers in the Oeconomy of the Universe For had they done any such thing as this they would certainly have been then condemned for Atheists And Xenocrates his Theology is thus represented in Stobaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That both a Monad and Dyad were Gods the one Masculine having the order of a Father which he calleth Zen and Mind and which is also to him the First God the other Feminine as it were the Mother of the Gods which is to him the Soul of the Vniverse besides which he acknowledgeth the Heaven to be Divine that is Animated with a Particular Soul of its own and the Fiery Stars to be Celestial Gods as he asserted also certain Sublunary Gods viz. the Invisible Demons Where instead of the Platonick Trinity Xenocrates seems to have acknowledg'd only a Duality of Divine Hypostases the First called a Monad and Mind the Second a Dyad and Soul of the Vniverse And lastly we have this Testimony of Theophrastus besides others cited out of his Metaphysicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is one Divine Principle of all things by or from which all things subsist and remain XXV The Stoicks and their chief Doctors Zeno Cleanthes and Chrysippus were no better Naturalists and Metaphysicians than Heraclitus in whose footsteps they trode they in like manner admitting no other Substance besides Body according to the true and proper Notion thereof as that which is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Distant and Extended but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resisting and Impenetrable So that according to these Stoicks the Souls not only of other Animals but of Men also were properly Corporeal that is Substances Impenetrably Extended and which differ'd from that other part of theirs commonly called their Body no otherwise than that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more Thin and Subtil Body and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Hot and Fiery Spirit it being supposed by these Philosophers that Cogitation Reason and Vnderstanding are lodged only in the Fiery Matter of the Universe And though the Generality of these Stoicks acknowledged Humane Souls to have a certain Permanency after Death and some of them till the next Conflagration unless perhaps they should be crushed and broken all to pieces in their Passage out of the Body by the down-fall of some Tower Steeple or the like upon them yet did they all conclude against their Immortality there being nothing at all Immortal with them as shall be afterwards declared save only Jupiter or the One Supreme Deity And as for the Punishment of Wicked Souls after death though some of them seem to have utterly exploded the same as a meer Figment of Poets insomuch that Epictetus himself denies there was any Acheron Cocytus or Phlegethon yet others granted that as the better Souls after Death did mount up to the Stars their First Original so the Wicked wandred up and down here in certain Dark and Miry Subterraneous Places till at length they were quite extinct Nevertheless they seem to have been all of this Perswasion that the Frightning of men with punishments after Death was no Proper nor Accommodate means to promote Virtue because that ought to be pursued after for its own sake or the Good of Honesty as Vice to be avoided for that Evil of Turpitude which is in it and not for any other External Evil consequent thereupon Wherefore Chrysippus reprehended Plato for subjoyning to his Republick such affrightful Stories of Punishments after death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysippus affirmeth that Plato in the Person of Cephalus does not rightly deterr men from Injustice
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would willingly know what is my Duty First to the Gods and then to my Parents and other Relations And they are M. Antoninus his Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revere the Gods and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In every thing implore the Aid and Assistance of the Gods And accordingly in that Close of his First Book himself does thankfully ascribe many Particular Benefits to The Gods in common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I owe to the Gods that I had good Progenitors and Parents c. Where amongst the rest he reckons up this for One That he never was any great Proficient either in Poetry or Rhetorick because these would probably had he succeeded in his Pursuit of them have hindred him from the attainment of far better things and after all his Enumeration he concludeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For all these things need the Assistance of the Gods and Fortune viz. because they are not in our own power Neither can it be denied but that they did often derogate from the Honour of the Supreme God by attributing such things to the Gods in common as the Donors of them which plainly belong to the Supreme God only As when Epictetus makes Reason in Men to be a gift of the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Reason therefore given us by the Gods meerly to make us Miserable and Vnhappy And when he again imputes Vertue to them Hast thou overcome thy Lust thine Intemperance thine Anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how much greater Cause then hast thou of offering Sacrifice than if thou hadst got a Consulship or Praetorship for those things come only from thy Self and from the Gods Though the Reason of these Speeches of theirs seems to have been no other than this because they took it for granted that those Understanding Beings Superiour to men called by them Gods were all of them the Instruments and Ministers of the Supreme God in the Government of the World and had therefore some kind of Stroke or Influence more or less upon all the Concernments of Mankind Whence it came to pass also that they often used those Words God and Gods promiscuously and Indifferently As one and the same Celebrated Speech of Socrates is sometimes expressed Singularly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If God will have it so let it be so Arr. Epict. L. 1. c 29. and L. 4. c. 4. and sometimes again Plurally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the Gods will have it so Wherefore notwithstanding the Many Gods of those Stoicks they worshipped for all that One Supreme that is One Vniversal Numen that conteins and comprehends the whole World Who was variously described by them sometimes as the Nature and Reason of the whole World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Nature of the whole the Oldest of all the Gods and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nature which governs all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Reason which governs the Substance of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Reason which passes through the Substance of the Vniverse and through all Eternity orders and dispenses all according to appointed Periods Sometimes is he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cause of all things sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hegemonick and Ruling Principle of the whole World and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince of the World Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Governour of the Whole as in this of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Good man submits his Mind to the Governour of the whole Vniverse as good Citizens do theirs to the Law of the City Also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Orderer of all in this other Religious Passage of the same Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be Instructed is to Will things to be as they are Made and how are they made As that Great Disposer of all hath appointed Again the Supreme God is sometimes called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Intellectual Principle which conteins the whole as in this Instruction of M. Antoninus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That as our Bodies breath the common Air so should our Souls suck and draw in Vital Breath from that Great Mind that comprehends the Vniverse becoming as it were One Spirit with the same He is also called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mind and Vnderstanding of the whole World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Intellectual Fountain of all things and lastly to name no more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One God through all one substance and one Law Which Supreme God was commonly called also by the Stoicks together with the Generality of the other Pagans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God Emphatically and in way of Eminency as in this of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will nothing but what God Willeth and then who can be able to hinder thee And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Affect to seem fair to God desire to be Pure with thy Pure self and with God Also where he speaks of the Regular Course of things in Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it proceedeth orderly every thing as it were obeying the Command of God when he bids the Plants to blossom they blossom and when to bring forth fruit they bring forth fruit To which Innumerable other Instances might be added And Zeus or Jupiter was the Proper Name of this Supreme God amongst the Stoicks also whence the Government of the Whole World is called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Government or Oeconomy of Jupiter Lastly this Supreme God is sometimes distinguished by them from the other Gods expresly and by name as in this of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have whom I ought to be subject to whom to obey God and those who are next after him that is the Supreme and Inferior Gods So likewise where he exhorteth not to desire things out of our own power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let jupiter alone with these things and the other Gods deliver them up to be ordered and governed by them And so again where he personates one that places his happiness in those things without him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I then shall sit lamenting and speaking evil of every one even Jupiter himself and the other Gods And it must in reason be supposed that this Jupiter or Vniversal Numen of the World was honoured by these Stoicks far above all their other Particular Gods he being acknowledged by them to have been the Maker or Creator of them as well as the whole World and the only Eternal and Immortal God all those other Gods as hath been already declared being as well Corruptible Mortal and Annihilable as they were Generated or Created For though Cicero's Lucilius Balbus where he pretends to represent the Doctrine of the Stoicks attribute the Very First Original of the World to a Plurality of Gods in these words
betwixt their Second and Third Hypostasis so do they Debase the Deity therein too much confound God and the Creature together laying a Foundation not only for Cosmo-Latry or World-Idolatry in general but also for the grossest and most sottish of all Idolatries the worshipping of the Inanimate Parts of the World themselves in pretence as Parts and Members of this great Mundane Animal and Sensible God It is true indeed that Origen and some others of the ancient Christian Writers have supposed that God may be said in some sence to be the Soul of the World Thus in that Book Peri Archοn Sicut Corpus nostrum unum ex multis Membris aptatum est ab una Anima continetur ita Vniversum Mundum velut Animal quoddam Immane opinandum puto quod quasi ab una Animâ Virtute Dei ac Ratione teneatur Quod etiam à Sanctâ Scripturâ indicari arbitror per illud quod dictum est per Prophetam Nonne Coelum Terram ego repleo dicit Dominus Coelum mihi Sedes Terra autem Scabellum pedum meorum Et quod Salvator cum ait non esse jurandum neque per Coelum quia Sedes Dei est neque per Terram quia Scabellum pedum ejus Sed illud quod ait Paulus Quoniam in ipso Vivimus Movemur Sumus Quomodo enim in Deo Vivimus Movemur Sumus nisi quod in Virtute suâ Vniversum constringit continet Mundum As our own Body is made up of many Members and conteined by One Soul so do I conceive that the whole World is to be looked upon as One huge great Animal which is conteined as it were by One Soul the Vertue and Reason of God And so much seems to be intimated by the Scripture in sundry places as in that of the Prophet Do not I fill Heaven and Earth And again Heaven is my Throne and the Earth my Footstool And in that of our Saviour Swear not at all neither by Heaven because it is the Throne of God nor by the Earth because it is his Footstool And lastly in that of Paul to the Athenians For in him we Live and Move and have our Being For how can we be said to Live and Move and have our Being in God unless because he by his Vertue and Power does Constringe and Contein the whole World And how can Heaven be the Throne of God and the Earth his Footstool unless his Vertue and Power fill all things both in Heaven and Earth Nevertheless God is here said by Origen to be but Quasi-Anima As it were The Soul of the World As if he should have said That all the Perfection of a Soul is to be attributed to God in respect of the World he Quickening and Enlivening all things as much as if he were the Very Soul of it and all the Parts thereof were his Living Members And perhaps the whole Deity ought not to be look'd upon according to Aristotle's Notion thereof meerly as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Immovable Essence for then it is not conceivable how it could either Act upon the World or be Sensible of any thing therein or to what purpose any Devotional Addresses should be made by us to such an Vnaffectible Inflexible Rockie and Adamantine Being Wherefore all the Perfection of a Mundane Soul may perhaps be attributed to God in some sence and he called Quasi-Anima Mundi As it were the Soul thereof Though St. Cyprian would have this properly to belong to the Third Hypostasis or Person of the Christian Trinity viz. The Holy Ghost But there is something of Imperfection also plainly cleaving and adhering to this Notion of a Mundane Soul besides something of Paganity likewise necessarily consequent thereupon which cannot be admitted by us Wherefore God or the Third Divine Hypostasis cannot be called the Soul of the World in this sence as if it were so Immersed thereinto and so Passive from it as our Soul is Immersed into and Passive from its Body Nor as if the World and this Soul together made up one Entire Animal each Part whereof were incomplete alone by it self And that God or the Third Hypostasis of the Christian Trinity is not to be accounted in this Sence properly the Soul of the World according to Origen himself we may learn from these words of his Solius Dei id est Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti Naturae id proprium est ut sine Materiali Substantia absque ulla Corporeae adjectionis societate intelligatur subsistere It is proper to the Nature of God alone that is of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost to subsist without any Material Substance or Body Vitally Vnited to it Where Origen affirming that all Created Souls and Spirits whatsoever have always some Body or other Vitally Vnited to them and that it is the Property only of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity not to be Vitally Vnited to any Body as the Soul thereof whether this Assertion of his be true or no which is a thing not here to be discussed he does plainly hereby declare that God or the Third Hypostasis of the Trinity is not to be accounted in a true and proper sence the Soul of the World And it is certain that the more Refined Platonists were themselves also of this Perswasion and that their Third God or Divine Hypostasis was neither the Whole World as supposed to be Animated nor yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Immediate Soul of this Mundane Animal but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Supermundane Soul that is such a thing as though it Preside over the Whole World and take Cognizance of all things in it yet is not properly an Essential Part of that Mundane Animal but a Being Elevated above the same For thus Proclus plainly affirmeth not only of Amelius but also of Porphyrius himself who likewise pretended to follow Plotinus therein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After Amelius Porphyrius thinking to agree with Plotinus calls the Supermundane Soul the Immediate Opificer or Maker of the World and that Mind or Intellect to which it is converted not the Opificer himself but the Paradigm thereof And though Proclus there make a question whether or no this was Plotinus his true meaning yet Porphyrius is most to be credited herein he having had such an intimate acquaintance with him Wherefore according to these Three Platonist Plotinus Amelius and Porphyrius the Third Hypostasis of the Platonick Trinity is neither the World nor the Immediate Soul of the Mundane Animal but a certain Supermundane Soul which also was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Opificer and Creator of the World and therefore no Creature Now the Corporeal World being supposed by these Platonists also to be an Animal they must therefore needs acknowledge a Double Soul one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Immediate Soul of this Mundane Animal and another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
is also the Light it self and it is certain that Darkness cannot comprehend this Light nor insinuate it self with it In like manner the Nature of the Holy Ghost is such as can never receive Pollution it being Substantially and Essentially Holy But whatsoever other Nature is Holy it is only such in way of Participation and by the Inspiration of this Holy Spirit so that Holiness is not its very Nature and Essence but only an Accident to it and whatsoever is but Accidental may fail All Created Beings therefore having but Accidental Goodness and Wisdom may Degenerate and fall into Evil and Folly Which of Origen's is all one as if he should have said there is no such Rank of Beings as Autogaathotetes Essential Goodnesses there being only one Being Essentially Good or Goodness it self Nor no such Particular Created Beings existing in Nature as the Platonists call Noes neither that is Minds or Intellects Immovable Perfectly and Essentially Wise or Wisdom it self whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Essence is their Operation and who consequently have no Flux at all in them nor Successive Action only the Eternal Word and Wisdom of God being such who also are absolutely Ununitable to any Bodies It is true that Origen did sometimes make mention of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Minds or Intellects but it was in another sence he calling all Souls as first Created by God and before their Lapse by that name which was as much as if he should have said though some of the Platonists talk much of their Noes yet is there nothing answerable to that name according to their Notion of them but the only Noes really existing in Nature are Vnfallen but Peccable Souls he often concluding that the Highest Rank of Created Beings are indeed no better than those which the Platonists commonly call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Souls By which Souls he understood first of all Beings in their own nature Selfmoveable and Active whereas the Noes of the Platonists are altogether Immoveable and above Action And then again such Beings or Spirits Incorporeal as exist not Abstractly and Separately from all Matter as the Noes of the Platonists were supposed to do but are Vitally Vnitable to Bodies so as together with those Bodies to compound and make up One Animal Thus I say Origen conceived even of the Highest Angelical and Arch-Angelica Orders that they were eall of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Souls United to Bodies but such as were Pure Subtil and Ethereal however he supposed it not Impossible for them to sink down into Bodies more Gross and Feculent And it is certain that many of the Ancient Christian Writers concurred with Origen herein that the Highest Created Spirits were no Naked and Abstract Minds but Souls cloathed with some Corporeal Indument Lastly Origen's Souls were also supposed to be all of them endowed with Liberum Arbitrium or Free-Will and consequently to be Self-improvable and Self-impairable and no Particular Created Spirits to be absolutely in their own Nature Impeccable but Lapsible into Vitious Habits Whereas as the Platonick Noes are supposed to be such Beings as could never Fall nor Degenerate And the Generality of the Christian Writers seem'd to have consented or conspir'd with Origen in this also they supposing him who is now the Prince of Devils to have been once an Angel of the Highest Order Thus does St. Jerome determine Solus Deus est in quem Peccatum non cadit caetera cùm sint Liberi Arbitrii possunt in utramque partem suam flectere voluntatem God is the only Being that is absolutely uncapable of sin but all other Beings having Free Will in them may possibly turn their Will to either way that is to Evil as well as to Good It is certain that God in a sence of Perfection is the most Free Agent of all neither is Contingent Liberty Universally denied to him but here it is made the only Privilege of God that is of the Holy Trinity to be devoid of Liberum Arbitrium namely as it implieth Imperfection that is Peccability and Lapsibility in it It is true that some of the Platonick Philosophers suppose that even in that Rank of Beings called by them Souls though they be not Essentially Immutable but all Self-moveable and Active yet there are some of them of so high a Pitch and Elevation as that they can never Degenerate nor sink down into Vitious Habits Thus Simplicius for one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the First and Highest of Souls which were Immediately produced from what are Essentially Good although they have some abatement in them they being not Goodnesses Essentially but desirous of Good nevertheless are they so near a kin to that Highest Good of all as that they do Naturally and Indivulsively cleave to the same and have their Volitions always uniformly directed towards it they never declining to the worser Insomuch that if Proaeresis be taken for the Choosing of one thing before another perhaps there is no such thing as Proaeresis to be imputed to them unless one should call the choosing of the First Goods Proaeresis By these higher Souls Simplicius must needs understand either the Souls of the Sun Moon and Stars or else those of the Superiour Orders of Demoniack or Angelick Beings Where though he make a Question Whether Proaeresis or Deliberation belong to them yet does he plainly imply that they have none at all of that Lubricous Liberum Arbitrium or Free-will belonging to them which would make them capable of Vice and Immorality as well as Vertue But whatever is to be said of this there seems to be no necessity at all for admitting that Assertion of Origen's that all Rational Souls whatsoever even those of Men and those of the highest Angelical Orders are Universally of one and the same Nature and have no Fundamental or Essential Difference in their Constitution and consequently that all the difference that is now betwixt them did arise only from the Difference of their Demeanour or Use of that Power and Liberty which they all alike once had So that Thrones and Dominions and Principalities and Powers were all made such by their Merits and Humane Souls though now sunk so low yet are not absolutely Uncapable of Commencing Angels or ascending to those highest Altitudes as it is not impossible according to him neither but that the Highest Angels also the Seraphim and Cherubim might in length of time not only Degenerate into Devils but also sink down into Humane Bodies His reason for which Monstrous Paradox is only this that the Divine Justice cannot otherwise well be salved but God must needs be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Acepter of Persons should he have Arbitrarily made such vast Differences amongst Intellectual Beings Which Ground he also extendeth so far as to the Humane Soul of our Saviour Christ himself as being not Partially appointed to that transcendent
Imperfect is accounted such by the Diminution of that which is Perfect From whence it comes to pass that if in any kind any thing appear Imperfect there must of Necessity be something also in that Kind Perfect For Perfection being once taken away it could not be imagined from whence that which is accounted Imperfect should have proceeded Nor did the Nature of things take beginning from Inconsummate and Imperfect things but proceedings from things Absolute and Complete thence descend down to these lower Effete and Languid things But of this more elsewhere Wherefore since Infinite is the same with Absolutely Perfect we having a Notion or Idea of the Latter must needs have of the Former From whence we learn also that though the word Infinite be in the form thereof Negative yet is the Sence of it in those things which are really capable of the same Positive it being all one with Absolutely Perfect as likewise the Sence of the word Finite is Negative it being the same with Imperfect So that Finite is properly the Negation of Infinite as that which in order of Nature is before it and not Infinite the Negation of Finite However in those things which are capable of no true Infinity because they are Essentially Finite as Number Corporeal Magnitude and Time Infinity being there a meer Imaginary thing and a Non-Entity it can only be conceived by the Negation of Finite as we also conceive Nothing by the Negation of Something that is we can have no Positive Conception at all thereof We conclude To assert an Infinite Being is nothing else but to assert a Being Absolutely Perfect such as Never was Not or had no Beginning which could produce all things Possible and Conceivable and upon which all other things must depend And this is to assert a God One Absolutely Perfect Being the Original of all things God and Infinite and Absolutely Perfect being but different Names for One and the same thing We come now to the Fourth Atheistick Objection That Theology is nothing but an Arbitrarious Compilement of Inconsistent and Contradictious Notions Where First we deny not but that as some Theologers or Bigotical Religionists or later times extend the Divine Omnipotence to things Contradictious and Impossible as to the Making of One and the same Body to be all of it in several distant places at once so may others sometimes unskilfully attribute to the Deity things Inconsistent or Contradictious to one another because seeming to them to be all Perfections As for example though it be concluded generally by Theologers that there is a Natural Justice and Sanctity in the Deity yet do some notwithstanding contend That the Will of God is not determined by any Antecedent Rule or Nature of Justice but that whatsoever he could be supposed to Will Arbitrarily would therefore be Ipso facto Just which is called by them the Divine Soveraignty and look'd upon as a Great Perfection Though it be certain that these Two Things are directly Contradictious to one another viz. That there is something 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in its own Nature Just and Vnjust or a Natural Sanctity in God and That the Arbitrary Will and Command of the Deity is the only Rule of Justice and Injustice Again some Theologers determining That Whatsoever is in God is God or Essential to the Deity they conceiving such an Immutability to be a Necessary Perfection thereof seem thereby not only to Contradict all Liberty of Will in the Deity which themselves notwithstanding contend for in a high degree that all things are Arbitrarily determined by Divine Decree but also to take away from it all Power of Acting ad Extra and of Perceiving or Animadverting things done sucessively here in the World But it will not follow from these and the like Contradictions of mistaken Theologers that therefore Theology it self is Contradictious and hath nothing of Philosophick Truth at all in it no more than because Philosophers also hold Contradictory Opinions that therefore Philosophy it self is Contradictious and that there is Nothing Absolutely True or False but according to the Protagorean Doctrine all Seeming and Phantastical But in the next place we add that though it be true that the Nature of things admits of nothing Contradictious and that whatsoever plainly Implies a Contradiction must therefore of necessity be a Non-Entity yet is this Rule notwithstading obnoxious to be much abused when whatsoever mens Shallow and Gross Understandings cannot Reach to they will therefore presently conclude to be Contradictious and Impossible As for example the Atheists and Materialists cannot Conceive of any other Substance besides Body and therefore do they determine presently that Incorporeal Substance is a Contradiction in the very Terms it being as much as to say Incorporeal Body wherefore when God is said by Theologers to be an Incorporeal Substance this is to them an Absolute Impossibility Thus a Modern Writer The Vniverse that is the whole Mass of all things is Corporeal that is to say Body Now every Part of Body is Body and Consequently every Part of the Vniverse is Body and that which is not Body is no part thereof And because the Vniverse is All that which is no part of it is nothing Therefore when Spirits are called Incorporeal this is only a name of Honour and it may with more Piety be attributed to God himself in whom we consider not what Attribute best expresseth his Nature which is Incomprehensible But what best expresseth our Desire to Honour him Where Incorporeal is said to be an Attribute of Honour that is such an Attribute as expresseth only the Veneration of mens Minds but signifieth nothing in Nature nor hath any Philosophick Truth and Reality under it a Substance Incorporeal being as Contradictious as Something and Nothing Notwithstanding which this Contradiction is only in the Weakness and Childishness of these mens Understandings and not the thing it self it being Demonstrable that there is some other Substance besides Body according to the True and Genuine Notion of it But because this mistake is not proper to Atheists only there being some Theists also who labour under this same Infirmity of Mind not to be able to Conceive any other Substance besides Body and who therefore assert a Corporeal Deity we shall in the next place show from a passage of a Modern Writer what kind of Contradictions they are which these Atheists impute to all Theology namely such as these that it supposes God to Perceive things Sensible without any Organs of Sense and to Vnderstand and be Wise without any Brains Pious men saith he attribute to God Almighty for Honours sake whatsoever they see Honourable in the world as Seeing Hearing Willing Knowing Justice Wisdom c. But they deny him such poor things as Eyes Ears and Brains and other Organs without which we Worms neither have nor can conceive such Faculties to Be and so far they do well But when they dispute of God's Actions Philosophically then do they
Fact and History will needs impute these things either to Jugling Fraud and Knavery or else to mens own Fear and Phancy and their Ignorance how to distinguish Dreams and other strong Imaginations from Vision and Sense or Lastly to certain Religious Tales or Legends allowed by the Publick Authority of Civil Sovereigns for Political Ends we shall here Suggest something briefly to vindicate the Historick Truth of those Phaenomena against Atheists First therefore as for Apparitions Though there be much of Fabulosity in these Relations yet can it not reasonably be concluded that there is nothing at all of Truth in them since something of this kind hath been averred in all Ages and many times attested by persons of Unquestionable Prudence and Unsuspected Veracity And whereas the Atheists impute the Original of these things to mens Mistaking both their Dreams and their Waking Phancies for Real Visions and Sensations they do hereby plainly contradict one Main Fundamental Principle of their own Philosophy that Sense is the only Ground of Certainty and the Criterion of all Truth for if Prudent and Intelligent persons may be so frequently mistaken in confounding their own Dreams and Phancies with Sensations how can there be any Certainty of knowledge at all from Sense However they here derogate so much both from Sense and from Humane Testimonies as that if the like were done in other Cases it would plainly overthrow all Humane Life Wherefore other Atheists being apprehensive of this Inconvenience of denying so many Sensible Appearances and Testimonies or Relations of Fact have chose rather to acknowledge the Reality of Apparitions nevertheless concluding them to be things Caused and Created by the Power of Imagination only as if the strength of Imagination were such that it could not only Create Phancies but also Real Sensible Objects and that at a distance too from the Imaginers such as whereby the Sense of others shall be for the time affected though they quickly vanish away again From which Prodigious Paradox we may take notice of the Fanaticism of some Atheists and that there is nothing so monstrously Absurd which men infected with Atheistick Incredulity will not rather entertain into their Belief than admit of any thing that shall the least hazard or endanger the Existence of a God For if there be once any Invisible Ghosts or Spirits acknowledged as Things Permanent it will not be easie for any to give a reason why there might not be one Supreme Ghost also presiding over them all and the whole world In the last place therefore we shall observe that Democritus was yet further convinced by these Relations of Apparitions so as to grant that there was a certain kind of Permanent Beings and Independent upon Imagination Superiour to men which could Appear in different Forms and again disappear at pleasure called by him Idols or Images he supposing them to be of the same nature with those Exuvious Effluxes that stream continually from the surface of Bodies only he would not allow them to have any thing Immortal at all in them but their Concretions to be at length all Dissolvable and their Personalities then to vanish into nothing Thus Sextus the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Democritus affirmeth that there are certoin Idols or Spectres that do often approach to men some of which are Beneficent and some Maleficent Vpon which account he wisheth that it might be his good hap to meet with fortunate Idols And he addeth that these are of a Vast bigness and very Longeve but not Incorruptible and that they sometimes do fore-signifie unto men future events both Visibly appearing to them and sending forth audible voyces Now though Democritus were much blamed for this Concession of his Fellow-Atheists as giving thereby too great an advantage to Theists yet in his own opinion did he sufficiently secure himself against the Danger of a God from hence by supposing all these Idols of his to be Corruptible they being indeed nothing but certain Finer Concretions of Atoms a kind of Aereal and Aethereal Animals that were all Body and without any Immortal Soul as he supposed men also to be so that a God could be no more proved from them than from the Existence of men For thus he adds in Sextus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men in ancient times having a sense of these Apparitions or Idols fell from thence into the opinion of a God although there be besides these Idols no other God that hath an Incorruptible Nature However though Democritus continued thus grossly Atheistical yet was he further convinced than our Modern Atheists will be that the Stories of Apparitions were not all Fabulcus and that there are not only Terrestrial but also Aerial and Aetherial Animalâ— nor this Earâ—â— of ours alone Peopled and Inhabited whilst all those other vast Regioâ—s above lie Desert Solitary and Wast Where it may be observed agâ—in that divers of the Ancient Fathers though they agreed not so far with Democritus as to make the Angelical Beings to be altogether 〈…〉 did they likewise suppose them to have their certain Subtiâ—◠〈…〉 Aâ—rial Bodies In which respect St. Austin in his 115. Epistle 〈◊〉 Angels Aethereos and Devils Aereos Animantes Thus Psellus in his Dialogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But you are to know that Demons or Devils are not altogether Incorporeal but that they are Joyned to Bodies and so Converse with Bodies which may be learn'd also from the Fathers the Divine Basil contending that there are Bodies not only in Devils but also in the pure Angels themselves as certain Subtile Airy Defecate Spirits Where afterwards he shows how the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Body which is Connate with Angels differs from that which Devils are united to in respect of the Radiant Splendour of the one and the Dark Fuliginous Obscurity of the other Moreover that Devils are not without Bodies he endeavours further to confirm from the words of our Saviour that they shall be Punished with Fire which saith he were a thing impossible were they All of them Incorporeal And some perhaps will attempt to prove the same concerning Angels too from those other words of our Saviour where speaking of the Resurrection State he affirmeth that they who shall be accounted worthy thereof shall neither marry nor be given in marriage but be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Equal to the Angels which Comparative Expression of men as to their Bodies with Angels would be thought not so proper were the Angels absolutely devoid of all Body But of this we determine not To this Phaenomenon of Apparitions might be added those Two others of Magicians or Wizards Demoniacks or Energumeni both of these proving also the Real Existence of Spirits and that they are not meer Phancies and Imaginary Inhabitants of mens Brains only but Real Inhabitants of the World As also that among those Spirits there are some Foul Unclean and Wicked Ones though not made such by God but by their own Apostacy which
is some confirmation of the Truth of Christianity the Scripture insisting so much upon these Evil Demons or Devils and declaring it to be one design of our Saviour Christ's coming into the World to oppose these Confederate Powers of the Kingdom of Darkness and to rescue mankind from the Thraldom and Bondage thereof As for Wizards and Magicians Persons who associate and confederate themselves in a peculiar manner with these Evil Spirits for the gratification of their own Revenge Lust Ambition and other Passions besides the Scriptures there hath been so full an attestation given to them by persons unconcerned in all Ages that those our so confident Exploders of them in this present Age can hardly escape the suspicion of having some Hankring towards Atheism But as for the Demoniacks and Energumeni It hath been much wondred that there should be so many of them in our Saviour's time and hardly any or none in this present Age of ours Certain it is from the Writings of Josephus in sundry places that the Pharisaick Jews were then generally possessed with an Opinion of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demoniacks men Possessed with Devils or Infested by them And that this was not a meer Phrase or Form of Speech only amongst them for persons very Ill-affected in their Bodies may appear from hence that Josephus declares it as his opinion concerning the Demons or Devils that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirits or Souls of wicked men deceased getting into the Bodies of the Living From hence it was that Jews in our Saviour's time were not at all Surprised with his casting out of Devils it being usual for them also then to Exorcise the same an Art which they pretended to have learn'd from Solomon Of whom thus Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God also taught Solomon an Art against Demons and Devils for the benefit and Cure of men Who composed certain Incantations by which diseases are cured and left forms of exorcisms whereby Devils are expelled and driven away Which Method of curing prevails much amongst us at this very day Notwithstanding which we think it not at all probable what a late Atheistick Writer hath asserted that the heads of the Jews were then all of them so full of Demons and Devils that they generally took all manner of Bodily Diseases such as Feavers and Agues and Dumbness and Deafness for Devils Though we grant that this very thing was imputed by Plotinus afterward to the Gnosticks that they supposed all Diseases to be Devils and therefore not to be cured by Physick but expelled by Words or Charms Thus he En. 2. Lib. 9. c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now when they affirm Diseases to be Demons or Devils and pretend that they can expel them by words undertaking to do the same they hereby indeed render themselves considerable to the vulgar who are wont not a little to admire the powers of Magicians But they will not be able to perswade wise men that Diseases have no natural Causes as from Repletion or Inanition or Putrefaction or the like Which is a thing manifest from their cure they being oftentimes removed by purgation and bleeding and abstinence Vnless perhaps these men will say that the Devil is by this means Starved and made to Pine away Nor can we think that the Jews in our Saviour's time either supposed all Mad-men to be Demoniacks or all Demoniacks Mad-men though this latter seems to be asserted by an Eminent Writer of our own we reading of Devils cast out from others besides Mad-men and of a woman which had a Spirit of Infirmity only and was bowed together and could not lift up her self which is said by our Saviour Christ to have been bound by Satan Wherefore the sense of the Jews formerly seems to have been this that when there was any unusual and extraordinary Symptoms in any bodily Distemper but especially that of Madness this being look'd upon something more than Natural was imputed by them to the Possession or Infestation of some Devil Neither was this proper to the Jews only at that time to suppose Evil Demons to be the Causes of such bodily diseases as had extraordinary Symptoms and especially Madness but the Greeks and other Gentiles also were embued with the same Perswasion as appeareth from Apollonius Tyanaeus his curing a Laughing Demoniack at Athens he ejecting that Evil Spirit by threats and menaces who is said at his departure to have tumbled down a Royal Porch in the City with great noise As also from his freeing the City of Ephesus from the Plague by stoning an old Ragged Beggar said by Apollonius to have been the Plague which appeared to be a Demon by his changing himself into the form of a Shagged Dog But that there is some Truth in this Opinion and that at this very day Evil Spirits or Demons do sometimes really Act upon the Bodies of men and either Inflict or Augment bodily Distempers and Diseases hath been the Judgment of two very experienced Physicians Sennertus and Fernelius The Former in his Book De Mania Lib. 1. cap. 15. writing thus Etsi sine ulla Corporis Morbosa Dispositione Deo permittente hominem Obsidere Occupare Daemon possi◠tamen quandoque Morbis praecipuè Melancholicis sese immiscet Daemon forsan frequentius hoc accidit quam saepè creditur Although the Devil may by Divine permission Possess men without any Morbid Disposition yet doth he usually intermingle himself with Bodily Diseases and especially those of Melancholy and perhaps this cometh to pass ostner than is commonly believed or suspected The other in his De Abditis rerum Causis where having attributed real Effects upon the bodies of men to Witchcraft and Enchantment he addeth Neque solum morbos verum etiam Daemonas scelerati homines in corpora immittunt Hi quidem visuntur Furoris quadam specie distorti hoc uno tamen à Simplici Furore distant quod summè ardua obloquantur praeterita occulta renuntient assidentiúmque arcana reserent Neither do these wicked Magicians only inflict Diseases upon mens Bodies but also send Devils into them By means whereof they appear distorted with a kind of fury and madness which yet differs from a Simple Madness or the Disease so called in this that they speak of very high and difficult matters declare things past unknown and discover the Secrets of those that sit by Of which he subjoyns two Notable Instances of Persons well known to himself that were plainly Demoniacal Possessed or Acted by an Evil Demon one whereof shall be afterwards mentioned But when Maniacal Persons do not only discover Secrets and declare things Past but Future also besides this speak in Languages which they had never learnt this puts it out of all doubt and question that they are not meer Mad men or Maniaci but Demoniacks or Energumeni And that since the time of our Saviour Christ there have been often
of That the Vulgarly Received Tradition of Humane Souls after Death going into Hades might be Objected against them For the Satisfying whereof Plotinus suggesteth these Two Things First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That if by Hades be meant nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Invisible as many times it is then is there no more signified by the Souls going into Hades than it s no longer being Vitally united to this Earthy Body and but Acting apart by it self and so hath it nothing of Place necessarily included in it Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if by Hades be understood a Certain Worser Place as sometimes it also is What wonder is this since now where our Body is there in the same place is our Soul said to be also But you will Reply how can this be when there is now no longer any Body left We Answer that if the Idol of the Soul be not quite Separated from it Why should not the Soul it self be said to be there also where its Idol is Where by the Idol of the Soul Plotinus seems to mean an Airy or Spirituous Body Quickned and Vitalized by the Soul adhering to it after death But when the same Philosopher supposes this very Idol of the Soul to be also Separable from it and that so as to subsist apart by it self too this going alone into Hades or the Worser Place whilst that liveth only in the Intelligible World where there is no Place nor Distance lodged in the Naked Deity having nothing at all of Body hanging about it and being now not A Part but the Whole and so Situate nether here nor there in this High Flight of his he is at once both Absurdly Paradoxical in dividing the Life of the Soul as it were into Two and forgat the Doctrine of his own School which as himself elsewhere intimateth was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Our Soul though it shall quit this Body yet shall it never be disunited from all Body Wherefore Porphyrius answering the same Objection though he were otherwise much addicted to Plotinus and here uses his Language too yet does he in this depart from him adhering to the ancient Pythagorick Tradition which as will appear afterwards was this That Humane Souls are always Vnited to some Body or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the Souls being here upon Earth saith he is not its moving up and down upon it after the manner of Bodies but it s Presiding over a Body which moveth upon the Earth so is its being in Hades nothing but its presiding over that Idol or Enlivened Vaporoâ—â— Body whose Nature it is to be in a Place and which is of a Dark Subsistence Wherefore if Hades be taken for a Subterraneous and Dark Place yet may the Soul nevertheless be said to go into Hades because when it quits this Gross Earthy Body a more Spirituous and Subtle Body collected from the Spheres or Elements doth still accompany it Which Spirit being Moist and Heavy and naturally descending to the Subterraneous places the Soul it self may be said in this sense to go Vnder the Earth also with it not as if the Substance thereof passed from One Place to Another but because of its Relation and Vital Vnion to a Body which does so Where Porphyrius addeth contrary to the Sense of Plotinus That the Soul is never quite Naked of all Body but hath alway some Body or other joyned with it suitable and agreeable to its own present Disposition either a Purer or Impurer one But that at its first Quitting this Gross Earthly Body the Spirituous Body which accompanieth iâ— as its Vehicle must needs go away Fouled and Incrassated with the gross Vapours and steams thereof till the Soul afterwards by Degrees Purging it self this becometh at length A Dry Splendour which hath no Mysty Obscurity nor casteth any Shadow But because this Doctrine of the Ancient Incorporealists concerning the Humane Souls being always after Death United to some Body or other is more fully declared by Philoponus then by any other that we have yet met withal we shall here excerp some Passages out of him about it First therefore he declareth this for his own opinion agreeable to the Sense of the best Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Rational Soul as to its Energie is separable from all Body but the Irrational Part or Life thereof is Separable only from this Gross Body and not from all Body whatsoever but hath after Death a Spirituous or Aiery Body in which it acteth This I say is a True Opinion as shall be afterwards proved by us And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Irrational Life of the Soul hath not all its Being in this Gross Earthy Body but remaineth after the Souls Departure out of it having for its Vehicle and Subject the Spirituous Body Which it self is also compounded out of the Four Elements but receiveth its Denomination from the Predominant Part to wit Air as this Gross Body of ours is called Earthy from what is most Predominant therein Thus do we see that according to Philoponus the Humane Soul after Death does not meerly exercise its Rational Powers and think only of Metaphysical and Mathematical Notions Abstract things which are neither in Time nor Place but exerciseth also its Lower Sensitive and Irrational Faculties which it could not possibly do were it not then Vitally United to some Body and this Body then accompanying the Soul he calls Pneumatical that is not Spiritual in the Scripture-Sense but Spirituous Vaporous or Airy Let us therefore in the next place see what Rational Account Philoponus can give of this Doctrine of the Antients and of his Own Opinion agreeably thereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Humane Soul in those who are not Purged and Cleansed in this Life after its departure out of this Body is acknowledged or rather Demonstrated to go into Hades there to receive Punishment for its evil Actions past For Providence does not only take Care of our Being but also of our Well-Being Therefore is the Soul though lapsed into a Preter-Natural State yet not neglected by Providence but hath a Convenient Care taken of it in order to its Recovery And since Sinning had its Original from the Desire of Pleasure it must of necessity be Cured by Pain For here also Contraries are the Cures of Contraries Therefore the Soul being to be Purged is Punished and Pained in those Subterraneous Judicatories and Prisons in order to its Amendment But if the Soul be Incorporeal it is Impossible for it to Suffer How then can it be Punished There must of Necessity be some Body joyned with it Which being immoderately Constringed or Agitated Concreted or Secreted and Discordantly Moved by Heat and Cold or the like may make the Soul sensible of Pain by reason of Sympathy as it is here in this Life What Body therefore is that which is then Conjoyned with the Soul after the dissolution
of that Earthy Body into its Elements Certainly it can be no other than this Pneumatical or Spirituous Body which we now speak of For in this are Seated as their Subject the Irascible and Concupiscible Passions and they are inseparable from the same nor could they be in the Soul disunited from all Body And that Soul which is freed from these would be forthwith freed from Generation nor would it be concerned in those Subterraneous Judicatories and Prisons but be carried up aloft to the higher Celestial Regions c. After which he endeavours further to confirm this Opinion from the Vulgar Phaenomena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Furthermore that there is such a Pneumatical Spirituous Vaporous or Airy Body which accompanieth Souls Vnpurged after Death is evident also from the Phaenomena themselves For what account can otherwise be given of those Spectres or Phantasms which appear Shadow-like about Graves or Sepulchres since the Soul it self is neither of any Figure nor yet at all Visible Wherefore these Ancients say that Impure Souls after their departure out of this Body wander here up and down for a certain space in their Spirituous Vaporous and Airy Body appearing about Sepulchres and haunting their former Habitations For which cause there is great reason that we should take care of Living Well as also of abstaining from a Fouler and Grosser diet these Ancients telling us likewise that this Spirituous Body of ours being fouled and incrassated by Evil Diet is apt to render the Soul in this Life also more Obnoxious to the Disturbances of Passions And here Philoponus goes on to gratifie us with a further Account of some other of the Opinions of these Ancients concerning this Spirituous or Airy Body accompanying the Soul after Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They further add that there is Something of the Plantal and Plastick Life also Exercised by the Soul in those Spirituous or Airy Bodies after Death they being Nourished too though not after the same manner as these Gross Earthy Bodies of ours are here but by Vapours and that not by Parts or Organs but throughout the Whole of them as Sponges they imbibing every where those Vapours For which cause they who are wise will in this Life also take care of using a Thinner and Dryer Diet that so that Spirituous Body which we have also at this present time within our Grosser Body may not be Clogged and Incrassed but Attenuated Over and above which those Ancients made use of Catharms or Purgations to the same end and purpose also For as this Earthy Body is washed by Water so is that Spirituous Body Cleansed by Cathartick Vapours some of these Vapours being Nutritive others Purgative Moreover these Ancients further declared concerning this Spirituous Body that it was not Organized but did the Whole of it in every Part throughout exercise all Functions of Sense the Soul Hearing and Seeing and Perceiving all Sensibles by it every where For which Cause Aristotle himself affirmeth in his Metaphysicks That there is properly but One Sense and but One Sensory He by this One Sensory meaning the Spirit or Subtle Airy Body in which the Sensitive Power doth all of it through the Whole immediately apprehend all Variety of Sensibles And if it be demanded How it comes then to pass that this Spirit appears Organized in Sepulchres and most commonly of Humane Form but sometimes in the Form of some other Animals to this those Ancients Replied That their appearing so frequently in Humane Form proceedeth from their being Incrassated with Evil Diet and then as it were stamped upon with the Form of this Exteriour Ambient Body in which they are as Crystal is Formed and Coloured like to those things which it is fastned in or Reflects the Image of them And that their having sometimes other different Forms proceedeth from the Phantastick Power of the Soul it self which can at pleasure transform this Spirituous Body into any shape For being Airy when it is Condensed and Fixed it becometh Visible and again Invisible and Vanishing out of Sight when it is Expanded and Rarefied Now from these Passages cited out of Philoponus it further appeareth that the Ancient Asserters of the Souls Immortality did not suppose Humane Souls after Death to be quite strip'd Stark Naked from all Body but that the Generality of Souls had then a certain Spirituous Vaporous or Airy Body accompanying them though in different Degrees of Purity or Impurity Respectively to themselves As also that they conceived this Spirituous Body or at least something of it to hang about the Soul also here in this Life before Death as its Interiour Indument or Vestment which also then sticks to it when that other Gross Earthly Part of the Body is by Death put off as an Outer Garment And some have been inclinable to think by reason of certain Historick Phaenomena these Two to be things so distinct that it is not Impossible for this Spirituous Body together with the Soul to be Locally separated from the other Grosser Body for some time before Death and without it And indeed thus much canâ—ot be denied that our Soul Acteth not Immediatly only upon Bones Flesh and Brains and other such like Gross Parts of this Body but first and chiefly upon the Animal Spirits as the Immediate Instruments of Sense and Phancy and that by whose Vigour and Activity the other Heavy and Unwieldy Bulk of the Body is so nimbly Moved And therefore we know no reason but we may assent here to that of Porphyrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Blood is the Food and Nourishment of the Spirit that is that Subtle Body called the Animal Spirits and that this Spirit is the Vehicle of the Soul or the more Immediate Seat of Life Nevertheless the same Philoponus there addeth that according to these Ancients besides the Terrestial Body and this Spirituous and Airy Body too there is yet a Third kind of Body of a Higher Rank then either of the Former peculiarly belonging to such Souls after Death as are Purged and Cleansed from Corporeal Affections Lusts and Passions called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A Luciform and Celestial and Ethereal Body The Soul saith he continueth either in the Terrestrial or the Aereal Body so long 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vntil that having Purged it self it be carried aloft and freed from Generation And then doth it put off both the Irascible and Concupisciple Passions at once together with this Second Vehicle or Body which we call Spirituous Wherefore these Ancients say that there is another Heavenly Body always conjoyned with the Soul and Eternal which they call Luciform and Star-like For it being a Mundane thing must of necessity have some Part of the World as a Province allotted to it which it may administer And since it is always Moveable and ought always to Act it must have a
Body Eternally conjoyned with it which it may always Enliven And for these Causes do they affirm the Soul always to have a Luciform Body Which Lucid and Etherial Body of the Soul is a thing often mentioned by other Writers also as Proclus in his Commentary upon the Timaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Humane Soul hath also saith he such an Ethereal Vehicle belonging to it as Plato himself intimâ—tâ—s when he affirmeth the Demiurgus at first to have placed it in a Chariot For of necâ—ssity every Soul before this Mortal Body must have an Eternal and easily Moveable Body it being Essential to it to move And elsewhere the same Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilst we remain above we have no need of these Divided Organs which now we have descending into Generation but the Vniform Lucid or Splendid Vehicle is sufficient this having all Senses Vnited together in it Which Doctrine of the Vnorganized Luciform and Spirituous Vehicles seems to have been derived from Plato he in his Epinomis writing thus concerning a Good and Wise man after Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of whom whether I be in Jest or Earnest I constantly affirm that when dying he shall yield to Fate he shall no longer have this Variety of Senses which now we have but One Vniform Body and live a happy Life Moreover Hiâ—rocles much insisteth upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Luciform and Ethereal Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which also saith he the Oracles call the Thin and Subtle Vehicle or Chariot of the Soul he meaning doubtless by these Oracles the Magical or Chaldaick Oracles before mentioned And amongst those now Extant under that Title there seems to be a clear acknowledgment of these Two Vehicula of the Soul or Interiour Induments thereof the Spirituous and the Luciform Body the latter of which is there Enigmatically called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Plain Superficies in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take care not to Defile or Contaminate the Spirit nor to make the Plain Superficies Deep For thus Psellus glosseth upon that Oracle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaldaick Philosophers bestow upon the Soul Two Interiour Tunicles or Vestments the one of which they called Pneumatical or the Spirituous Body which is weaved out as it were to it and compounded of the Gross Sensible Body it being the more Thin and Subtle part thereof the other the Luciform Vestment of the Soul Pure and Pellucide and this is that which is here called the Plain Superficies Which saith Pletho is not so to be understood as if it had not Three Dimensions for as much as it is a Body also but only to denote the Subtlety and Tenuity thereof Wherefore when the aforesaid Hierocles also calls this Luciform and Etherial Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spiritual Vehicle of the Rational Soul he takes not the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Sense wherein it is used by Philoponus and Others as if he intended to confound this Etherial Body with that other Spirituous or Airy Body and to make but one of them but rather styles it Spiritual in a higher Sense and which cometh near to that of the Scripture as being a Body more Suitable and Cognate with that Highest and Divinest Part of the Soul Mind or Reason then the other Terrestial Body is which upon that account is called also by the same Hierocles as well as it is by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Animal or Natural Body So that this Spiritual Body of Hierocles is not the Airy but the Etherial Body and the same with Synesius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Divine Body And that this Distinction of two Interior Vehicles or Tunicles of the Soul besides that Outer Vestment of the Terrestial Body styled in Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Crustaceous or Ostrâ—aceous Body is not a meer Figment of the latter Platonists since Christianity but a Tradition derived down from Antiquity appeareth plainly from Virgil in his Sixth Aenead where though not commonly understood he writeth first of the Spirituous or Airy Body in which Unpurged Souls receive Punishment after Death thus Quin Supremo cum Lumine Vita reliquit Non tamen omne Malum miseris nec funditus omnes Corporeae excedunt pestes penitusque necesse est Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris Ergo exercentur poenis veterumque malorum Supplicia expendunt aliae panduntur inanes Suspensae ad Ventos aliis sub gurgite Vasto Infectum eluitur Scelus aut exuritur Igni And then again of the other Pure Ethereal and Fiery Body in this manner Donec Longa dies perfecto temporis Orbe Concretam exemit labem Purumque reliquit Aethereum Sensum atque Aurai Simplicis Ignem Now as it was before observed that the Ancient Asserters of the Souls Immortality supposing it to have besides this Terrestial Body another Spirituous or Airy Body conceived this not only to accompany the Soul after Death but also to hang about it here in this Life as its Interiour Vest or Tunicle they probably meaning hereby the same with that which is commonly called the Animal Spirits diffused from the Brain by the Nerves throughout this whole Body in like manner is it certain that Many of them supposing the Soul besides those Two forementioned to have yet a Third Luciform or Etherial Body conceived this in like manner to adhere to it even in this Mortal Life too as its Inmost Clothing or Tunicle yet so as that they acknowledged the Force thereof to be very much weakned and abâ—ted and its Splendour altogether obscured by the Heavy Weight and Gross Steams or Vapours of the Terrestial Body Thus Suidas â—poâ— the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tells us out of Isidore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That according to some Philosophers the Soul hath a certain Luciform Vehicle called also Star or Sun-like and Eternal which Luciform Body is now shut up within this Terrestrial Body as a Light in a dark Lanthorn it being supposed by some of them to be included within the Head c. With which agreeth Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Splendid or Luciform Body lieth in this Mortal Body of ours continually Inspiring it with Life and containing the Harmony thereof The ground of which opinion was because these Philosophers generally conceived the Humane Soul to have Pre-Existed before it came into this Earthly Body and that either from Eternity or else from the First beginning of the World's Creation and being never without a Body and then in a Perfect State to have had a Lucid and Etherial Body either Co-Eternal or Co-Eve with it though in order of Nature Junior to it as its Chariot or Vehicle which being Incorruptible did always inseparably adhere to the Soul in its After Lapses and Descents into an Aerial first and then a Terrestrial Body this being as it were the Vinculum of Union betwixt the Soul
and them Thus Pletho declares their Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this Etherial Body is our Humane Soul Connected with its Mortal Body the whole thereof being Implicated with the whole Vital Spirit of the Embryo for as much as this it self is a Spirit also But long before Pletho was this Doctrine declared and asserted by Galen as agreeable both to Plato's and his own sense He first Premising that the Immediate Organ or Instrument of Sight was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Luciform and Ethereal Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore we may reasonably affirm that the Organ of Sight is a Luciform or Etherial Body as that of Hearing is Aerial that of Smelling Vaporous that of Tast Moist or Watery and That of Touch Earthy like being perceived by like And He accordingly thus understanding those Known Verses of Empedocles which as Aristotle otherwise interprets them are Nonsense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And this was that which Empedocles meant to signifie in those famous Verses of his it being certain that by the most Earthy of our Senses the Touch we perceive the Earthy Nature of Sensibles and by the most Luciform viz. that of Sight the Passions of Light by that which is Aerial Sounds by that which is Moist and Sponge-like Tasts and Lastly by the Organ of Smelling which is the Extremity of those Former Cavities of the Brain as replenished with Vapours Odours After which he writeth of the Essence or Substance of the Soul in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if we should now declare any thing concerning the Essence or Substance of the Soul we must needs affirm one or other of these Two things That either it self is this Luciform and Etherial Body which the Stoicks whether they will or no by consequence will be brought unto as also Aristotle himself or else that the Soul is it self an Incorporeal Substance but that this Luciform Etherial Body is its First Vehicle by which as a Middle it communicates with the other Bodies Wherefore we must say that this Etherial Lucid Body is Extended throughout the whole Brain whence is that Luciform Spirit derived that is the Immediate Instrument of Sight Now from hence it was that these Philosophers besides the Moral Purgation of the Soul and the Intellectual or Philosophical recommended very much a Mystical or Telestick way of Purifying this Etherial Body in us by Dyet and Catharms Thus the forementioned Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Since to our Lucid or Splendid Body this Gross Mortal Body is come by way of Accession we ought to Purifie the Former also and free it from Sympathy with the Latter And again afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Together with the Purgations of the Rational Soul the Purification of the Luciform or Etherial Vehicle is also to be regarded that this being made Light and Alate or Wingy might no way hinder the Souls Ascent upward But he that endeavours to Purifie the Mind only neglecting the Body applies not himself to the whole Man Whereupon he concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I therefore call this the Telestick or Mystick Operation which is Conversant about the Purgation of the Lucid or Etherial Vehicle And whereas Philosophy was by Plato and Socrates Defined to be a Continual Exercise of Dying which yet Pliny thought to be nothing but an Hypochondriacal or Atrabilarian Distemper in them in those words of his which Salmasius and other Criticks can by no means understand Est etiam quidam Morbus Per Sapientiam Mori That the Dying by Wisdom or Philosophy is also but a certain kind of Bodily Disease or Over-grown Melancholy Though they supposed this principally to consist in a Moral Dying to Corporeal Lusts and Passions yet was the design thereof partly Mystical and Telestick also it driving at this further thing that when they should put off this Terrestrial Body they might at once Dye also to the Spirituous or Aerial and then their Soul have nothing left hanging about it but only the Pure Etherial Body its Light winged Chariot which in Virgil's Language is Purumque relinqui Aethereum Sensum atque Aurai Simplicis Ignem Notwithstanding which the Pythagoreans and Platonists seem not to have been all of them of this Perswasion that the same Numerical Etherial Body which the Soul was at first Created with continueth still about it and adhereth to it Inseparably to all Eternity during its Descents into other Grosser Bodies but rather to have supposed that according to the Moral Disposition of the Soul it always finds or makes a Cognate and Suitable Body Correspondently Pure or Impure and consequently that by Moral Vertue and Philosophy it might again recover that Celestial Body which was lost by its Fall and Descent hither This seemeth to have been Porphyrius his sense in these words of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However the Soul be in it self affected so does it alwaies find a Body suitable and agreeable to its present Disposition and therefore to the Purged Souls does Naturally accrue a Body that comes next to Immateriality that is an Etherial one And probably Plato was of the same Mind when he affirmed the Soul to be alwaies in a Body but sometimes of one kind and sometimes of another Now from what hath been declared it appeareth already that the most Ancient Asserters of the Incorporiety and Immortality of the Humane Soul supposed it notwithstanding to be Always Conjoyned with a Body Thus Hierocles plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rational Nature having alwaies a Cognate Body so proceeded from the Demiurgus as that neither it self is Body nor yet can it be without Body but though it self be Incorporeal yet its whole Form notwithstanding is Terminated in a Body Accordingly whereunto the Definition which he gives of a Man is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Rational Soul together with a Cognate Immortal Body he concluding there afterwards that this Enlivened Terrestrial Body or Mortal man is nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Image of The True man or an Accession thereunto which is therefore Separable from the same Neither doth he affirm this only of Humane Souls but also of all other Rational Beings whatsoever Below the Supreme Deity and Above Men that they always Naturally Actuate a Body Wherefore a Demon or Angel which words are used as Synonymous by Hierocles is also Defined by him after the same manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Rational Soul together with a Lucid Body And accordingly Proclus upon Plato's Timaeus affirmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That every Demon Superiour to our Humane Souls hath both an Intellectual Soul and an Ethereal Vehicle the Entireness thereof being made up or Compounded of these Two things So that there is hardly any other Difference left betwixt Demons or Angels and Men according to these Philosophers but only this That the Former are Lapsable into Aereal Bodies only
and no further but the Latter into Terrestial also Now Hierocles positively affirmeth this to have been the True Cabala and Genuine Doctrine of the Ancient Pythagoreans entertained afterwards by Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And This was the Doctrine of the Pythagoreans which Plato afterwards declared he resembling Every both Humane and Divine Soul that is in our Modern Language Every Created Rational Being to a Winged Chariot and a Driver or Charioteer both together meaning by the Chariot an Enlivened Body and by the Charioteer the Incorporeal Soul it self Acting it And now have we given a full Account in what manner the Ancient Asserters of Incorporeal Substance as Vnextended Answered that Objection against the Illocality and Immobility of Particular Finite Spirits Demons or Angels and Humane Souls that these being all Naturally Incorporate however in Themselves and Directly Immoveable yet were capable of being in some sense Moved by Accident together with those Bodies respectively which they are Vitally United to But as for that Pretence That these Finite Spirits or Substances Incorporeal being Vnextended and so having in themselves no Relation to any Place might therefore Actuate and Inform the Whole Corporeal World at once and take Cognizance of all things therein their Reply hereunto was That these being Essentially but Parts of the Vniverse and therefore not Comprehensive of the Whole Finite or Particular and not Universal Beings as the Three Hypostases of the Platonick Trinity are the Sphere of their Activity could not possibly Extend any further than to the Quickning and Enlivening of some certain Parts of Matter and the World allotted to them and thereby of becoming Particular Animals it being Peculiar to the Deity or that Incorporeal Substance which is Infinite to Quicken and Actuate All things But it would be no Impertinent Digression here as to the main Scope of our Present Vndertaking should we briefly compare the forementioned Doctrine and Cabbala of the Ancient Incorporealists the Pythagoreans and Platonists with that of Christianity and consider the Agreement or Disagreement that is betwixt them First therefore here is a plain Agreement of these Best and most Religious Philosophers with Christianity in this That the most Consummate Happiness and Highest Perfection that Humane Nature is capable of consisteth not in a Separate State of Souls strip'd Naked from all Body and having no manner of Commerce with Matter as some High-flown Persons in all Ages have been apt to Conceit For such amongst the Philosophers and Platonists too was Plotinus Vnevennes and Vnsafeness of whose Temper may sufficiently appear from hence That as he conceived Humane Souls might possibly ascend to so high a Pitch as quite to shake off Commerce with all Body so did he in the other hand again Imagine that they might also Descend and Sink down so low as to Animate not only the Bodies of Bruits but even of Trees and Plants too Two Inconsistent Paradoxes the Latter whereof is a most Prodigious Extravagancy which yet Empedocles though otherwise a Great Wit seems to have been guilty of also from those Verses of his in Athenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And amongst the Jews the famous Maymonides was also of this Perswasion it being a Known Aphorism of his in his Great Work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in the World to Come or State of Consummate Happiness there shall be nothing at all of Body but Pure Incorporeity Upon which Account being accused as a Denyer of the Resurrection an Article as well of the Jewish as of the Christian Faith he wrote that Book intituled Iggereth Teman purposely to purge himself and to reconcile those Two Assertions together which he doth after such a manner as that there should be indeed a Resurrection at the First Coming of the Jewish Messias of some certain Persons to live here a while upon the Earth Eat and Drink Marry and be given in Marriage and then dy again after which in the World to come they should for ever continue Pure Souls Ununited to any Body In which it may be well suspected that the Design Maymonides drove at was against Christianity which notwithstanding as to this Particular hath the Concurrent Suffrages of the best Philosophers That the most Genuine and Perfect state of the Humane Soul which in its own Nature is immortal is to continue for ever not without but with a Body And yet our High-flown Enthusiasts generally however calling themselves Christians are such great Spiritualists and so much for the Inward Resurrection which we deny not to be a Scripture-Notion also As in that of S. Paul If ye be Risen with Christ c. And again If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead as that they quite Allegorize away together with other Parts of Christianity the Outward Resurrection of the Body and indeed will scarcely acknowledge any Future Immortality or Life to come after Death their Spirituality thus ending in Sadducism and Infidelity if not at length in Down-right Atheism and Sensuality But besides this there is yet a further Correspondence of Christianity with the forementioned Philosopbick Cabbala in that the Former also supposes the Highest Perfection of our Humane Souls not to consist in being Eternally Conjoyned with such Gross Bodies as these we now have Unchanged and Unaltered For as the Pythagoreans and Platonists have always Complained of these Terrestrial Bodies as Prisons or Living Sepulchres of the Soul so does Christianity seem to run much upon the same strain in these Scripture-Expressions In this We Groan Earnestly desiring to be Clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven and again We that are in this Tabernacle do Groan being burdened not for that we would be Vncloathed that is strip'd quite Naked of all Body but so cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life and lastly Our selves also which have the First Fruits of the Spirit Groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption Sonship or Inheritance namely the Redemption of our Bodies That is the Freedom of them from all those Evils and Maladies of theirs which we herely oppressed under Wherefore we cannot think that the same Heavy Load and Luggage which the Souls of good men being here burdened with do so much groan to be delivered from shall at the General Resurrection be laid upon them again and bound fast to them to all Eternity For of such a Resurrection as this Plotinus though perhaps mistaking it for the True Christian Resurrection might have some cause to affirm that it would be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Resurrection to another Sleep the Soul seeming not to be Thoroughly Awake here but as it were Soporated with the Dull Steams and Opiatick Vapours of this gross Body For thus the Authour of the Book of Wisdom The Corruptible Body presseth down the Soul and the Earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that museth upon many things But the same will further appear from that
Incorruption Which Place being undoubtedly not to be Allegorized it may be from thence inferred that the Happy Resurrection-Body shall not be this Foul and Gross Body of ours only Varnished and Guilded over on the outside of it it remaining still Nasty Sluttish and Ruinous within and having all the same Seeds of Corruption and Mortality in its Nature which it had before though by perpetual Miracle kept off it being as it were by Violence defended from being Seised upon and devoured by the Jaws of Death but that it shall be so Inwardly changed in its Nature as that the Possessers thereof Cannot die any more But all this which hath been said of the Resurrection-Body is not so to be understood as if it belonged Vniversally to all that shall be Raised up at the last day or made to appear upon the Earth as in their own Persons at that Great and General Assizes That they shall have all alike wicked as well as Good such Glorious Spiritual and Celestial Bodies but it is only a Description of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Resurrection of Life which is Emphatically called also by our Saviour Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Resurrection from the dead or to a Happy Immortality as they who shall be thought worthy thereof are likewise Styled by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Children of the Resurrection Of which Resurrection only it is that S. Paul treateth in that Fifteenth Chapter of his to the Corinthians And we say that this Christian Resurrection of Life is the Vesting and Setling of the Souls of Good men in their Glorious Spiritual Heavenly and Immortal Bodies The Complete Happiness of a man and all the Good that can be desired by him Was by the Heathen Poet thus Summed up Vt sit Mens Sana in Corpore Sano That there be a Sound Mind in a Sound Body and the Christian Happiness seems to be all comprized in these Two Things First in being Inwardly Regenerated and Renewed in the Spirit of their Mind Cleansed from all Pollution of Flesh and Spirit and made partakers of the Divine Life and Nature and then Secondly in being Outwardly Clothed with Glorious Spiritual Celestial and Incorruptible Bodies The Scripture plainly declareth that our Souls are not at Home here in this Terrestrial Body and These Earthly Mansions but that they are Strangers and Pilgrims there in it which the Patriarchs also confessing plainly declared that they Sought a Country not that which they came out from but a Heavenly one From which passages of Scripture some indeed would infer that Souls being at first Created by God Pure Pre-Existed before this their Terrene Nativity in Celestial Bodies but afterwards stragled and wandered down hither as Philo for one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Soul saith he having left its Heavenly Mansion came down into this Earthly Body as a strange place But thus much is certain that Our Humane Souls were at first intended and designed by God Almighty the Maker of them for other Bodies and other Regions as their proper Home and Country and their Eternal Resting Place however to us that be not First which is Spiritual but that which is Natural and afterwards that which is Spiritual Now though some from that of St. Paul where he calls this Happy Resurrection-Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That house of ours that is from Heaven or which cometh out of Heaven would infer that therefore it will not be taken out of Graves and Charnel Houses they conceiving also that the Individuation and Sameness of mens Persons does not necessarily depend upon the Numerical Identity of all the Parts of Matter because we never continue thus the Same our Bodies always flowing like a River and passing away by Insensible Transpiration and it is certain that we have not all the same Numerical Matter and neither more nor less both in Infancy and in Old Age though we be for all that the self Same Persons yet nevertheless according to the best Philosophy which acknowledges no Essential or Specifical Difference of Matter the Foulest and Grossest Body that is meerly by Motion may not only be Chrystallized but also brought into the Purity and Tenuity of the Finest Ether And undoubtedly that Same Numerical Body of our Saviour Christ which lay in the Sepulchre was after his Resurrection thus Transformed into a Spiritual and Heavenly Body the Subtlety and Tenuity whereof appeared from his entring in when the doors were shut and his vanishing out of sight however its Glory were for the time suspended partly for the better convincing his Disciples of the Truth of his Resurrection and partly because they were not then able to bear the Splendor of it We conclude therefore that the Christian Mystery of the Resurrection of Life consisteth not in the Souls being reunited to these Vile Rags of Mortality these Gross Bodies of ours such as now they are but in having them Changed into the Likeness of Christ's Glorious Body and in this Mortal's putting on Immortality Hitherto have we seen the Agreement that is betwixt Christianity and the Old Philosophick Cabbala concerning the Soul in these Two Things First That the highest Happiness and Perfection of the Humane Soul consisteth not in a State of Pure Separation from all Body and Secondly that it does not consist neither in an Eternal Vnion with such Gross Terrestrial Bodies as these Unchanged the Soul being not at Home but a Stranger and Pilgrim in them and Oppressed with the Load of them but that at last the Souls of Good men shall arrive at Glorious Spiritual Heavenly and Immortal Bodies But now as to that Point Whether Humane Souls be always United to some Body or other and consequently when by Death they put off this Gross Terrestrial Body they are not thereby quite Devested and Strip'd Naked of all Body but have a Certain Subtle and Spirituous Body still adhering to them and accompanying them Or else Whether all Souls that have departed out of this Life from the very beginning of the World have ever since continued in a State of Separation from all Body and shall so continue forwards till the Day of Judgment or General Resurrection We must confess that this is a thing not so explicitely Determined or expresly Decided in Christianity either way Nevertheless it is First of all certain from Scripture That Souls Departed out of these Terrestial Bodies are therefore neither Dead nor Asleep till the Last Trump and General Resurrection but still Alive and Awake our Saviour Christ affirming That they all Live unto God the meaning whereof seems to be this that they who are said to be Dead are Dead only unto Men here upon Earth but neither Dead unto themselves nor yet unto God their Life being not Extinct but only Disappearing to us and withdrawn from our sight for as much as they are gone off this Stage which we still continue to act upon And thus is it said also of our Saviour Christ himself
not that the Soul Is a Body but that it Hath a Body after Death conjoyned with it and that of the same Form and Figure with that Body which it had before here in this Life Plenissimè autem Dominus docuit non solum perseverare non de corpore in corpus transgredientes animas sed Characterem corporis in quo etiam adaptantur custodire eundem Et meminisse eas Operum quae egerunt hîc à quibus cessaverunt in Enarratione quae scribitur de Divite de Lazaro qui refrigerabatur in Sinu Abrahae in qua ait Divitem cognoscere Lazarum post mortem Et manere in suo ordine unumquemque ipsorum Our Lord hath most plainly taught us that Souls do not only continue after Death without passing out of one Body into another but also that they keep the Character of Body wherein they are then also adapted the same which they had before as likewise that they remember the Actions and Omissions of their Life past in that Enarration which is written concerning the Rich Man and Lazarus who was refreshed in Abraham 's bosom wherein he affirmeth the Rich Man to have known both Lazarus and Abraham after Death as also each of them to remain in their own Order And thus again in the following Chapter Per haec manifestissimè declaratum est Perseverare Animas non de corpore in corpus Exire habere Hominis Figuram ut etiam cognoscantur meminisse eorum quae hic sint Dignam Habitationem Vnamquamque Gentem percipere etiam antè Judicium By these things it is most manifestly declared that Souls do both Persevere after Death and that they do not Transmigrate out of one Body into another and that they have a Humane Figure or Shape whereby they may be known as also that they remember the things here upon the Earth and their own Actions and Lastly that each kind of Good and Bad have their distinct and suitable Habitations assigned them even before the Judgment Now that Irenaeus did not here mean that Souls are themselves Bodily Substances and consequently have a certain Character Form and Figure of their own but only that they have certain Bodies conjoyned with them which are Figurate is First of all evident from the words themselves Characterem corporis in quo etiam adaptantur custodire Eundem The Natural Sense whereof is this That they keep the Character of Body wherein they are then also adapted after Death the same with that which these Bodies before had here in this Life And it is further manifest from hence because he else where plainly declareth Souls themselves to be Incorporeal as in his Fifth Book and Seventh Chapter Flatus autem Vitae Incorporalis est But the breath of Life is Incorporeal Furthermore Origen was not only of the same Perswasion that Souls after Death had certain Subtle Bodies united to them and that those Bodies of theirs had the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Characterizing Form which these their Terrestrial Bodies before had but also thinks that this together with the Souls Immortality may be sufficiently proved from the frequent Apparitions of Ghosts or Departed Souls in way of opposition to Celsus endeavouring to invalidate the Scripture Testimonies concerning the Apparitions of our Saviour Christ and Imputing them either to Magical Imposture or Fanatick Phrenzy or the Disciples mistaking their own Dreams and Phancies for Visions and Sensations after the Epicurean way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though this might seem to have been smartly opposed by Celsus yet are those very Apparitions of Ghosts notwithstanding a sufficient Argument or Proof of a certain Necessary Opinion that Souls do subsist after Death Neither did Plato vainly conclude the Immortality and Permanency of the Soul besides other things from those Shadow-like Phantasms of the Dead that have appeared to many about Graves and Monuments Whereupon he giveth this further account of these Apparitions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For these Apparitions of the Dead are not meer Groundless Imaginations but they proceed from Souls themselves really remaining and surviving after Death and subsisting in that which is called a Luciform Body Where notwithstanding Origen takes this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or Luciform Body in a Larger Sense than the Greek Philosophers were wont to do namely so as to comprehend under it that Aiery or Vaporous Body also which belongeth to Vnpurged Souls who do therein most frequently appear after Death whereas it is thought proper to the Purged Souls to be cloathed with the Luciform Body only Besides which the same Origen tells us that the Thing which St. Thomas the Apostle disbelieved was not our Saviour's appearing after Death as if he had thought it Impossible for Ghosts or Souls departed Visibly to appear but only his Rising and Appearing in that same Solid Body which had been before Crucified and was laid in the Sepulchre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thomas also as well as the other Apostles assented to the woman affirming that she had seen Jesus as not thinking it at all Impossible for the Soul of a Dead man to be Seen but he did not believe him to have Risen and Appeared in that self same Solid Body which before he lived In for which cause he said not only Vnless I see him but added also And Vnless I shall put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe Where again Origen subjoyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things were said by Thomas not as doubting at all but that the Body of a Soul departed to wit Condensed might be seen with the Eyes of Sense every way resembling that Form which it had before in this Life both in respect of Bigness Figure Colour and Voice and oftentimes also in the same Customary garments Wherefore according to Origen the Jews were at that time Generally possessed with this Opinion that Souls after Death had certain Bodies united to them wherein they might Visibly appear neither is that of any great moment to the contrary which a Learned Critick objecteth that Josephus writing of their Opinions maketh no mention hereof he omitting besides this other Considerable Dogmata of theirs also as that of the Resurrection However this at least is certain from hence that Origen himself took it for granted that Humane Souls departed were not altogether Naked or Unclothed but Clothed with a certain Subtle Body wherein they could also Visibly appear and that in their pristine Form Moreover it might be here observed also that when upon our Saviour's first Apparition to his Disciples it is said that they were affrighted as supposing they had seen a Spirit our Saviour does not tell them that a Spirit or Ghost had no Body at all wherein it could Visibly appear but as rather taking that for granted that a Spirit had no Flesh and Bones no
have a Building of God a House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan Earnestly And Verse the 5. He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who also hath given us the Earnest of the Spirit Now how these Preludiums and Prelibations of an Immortal Body can consist with the Souls continuance after Death in a Perfect Separation from all manner of Body till the Day of Judgement is not so easily Conceivable Lastly it is not at all to be Doubted but that Irenaeus Origen and those other Ancients who entertained that Opinion of Souls being Clothed after Death with a certain Thin and Subtle Body suspected it not in the least to be Inconsistent with that of the Future Resurrection as it is no way Inconsistent for one who hath only a Shirt or Wastcoat on to put on a Sute of Cloths or Exteriour Upper garment Which will also seem the less strange if it be considered that even here in this Life our Body is as it were Two Fold Exteriour and Interiour we having besides the Grosly-Tangible Bulk of our Outward Body another Interiour Spirituous Body the Souls Immediate Instrument both of Sense and Motion which Latter is not put into the Grave with the Other nor Imprisoned under the Cold Sods Notwithstanding all which that hath been here suggested by us we shall not our selves venture to determine any thing in so great a Point but Sceptically leave it Vndecided The Third and Last thing in the Forementioned Philosophick or Pythagorick Cabbala is concerning those Beings Superior to men commonly called by the Greeks Demons which Philo tells us are the same with Angels amongst the Jews and accordingly are those words Demons and Angels by Hierocles and Simplicius and other of the latter Pagan Writers sometimes used indifferently as Synonymous viz. That these Demons or Angels are not Pure Abstract Incorporeal Substances devoid of Vital Vnion with any Matter but that they consist of something Incorporeal and something Corporeal joyned together so that as Hierocles writeth of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have a Superiour and an Inferiour Part in them and their Superiour Part is an Incorporeal Substance their Inferiour Corporeal In a word that they all as well as men consist of Soul and Body united together there being only this Difference betwixt them that the Souls of these Demons or Angels never descend down to such Gross and Terrestrial Bodies as Humane Souls do but are always Clothed either with Aerial or Etherial ones And indeed this Pythagorick Cabbala was Universal concerning all Vnderstanding Beings besides the Supreme Deity or Trinity of Divine Hypostases that is concerning all the Pagan Inferiour Gods that they are no other than Souls vitally united to some Bodies and so made up of Incorporeal and Corporeal Substance Joyned together For thus Hierocles plainly expresseth himself in the forecited place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Rational Nature in General was so produced by God as that it neither is Body nor yet without Body but an Incorporeal Substance having a Cognate or Congenit Body Which same thing was else where also thus declared by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole Rational Order or Rank of Being with its Congenite Immortal Body is the Image of the whole Deity the Maker thereof Where by Hierocles his Rational Nature or Essence and by the Whole Rational Order is plainly meant all Vnderstanding Beings Created of which he acknowledgeth only these Three Kinds and Degrees First the Immortal Gods which are to him the Animated Stars Secondly Demons Angels or Heroes and Thirdly Men called also by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terrestrial Demons he pronouncing of them all that they are alike Incorporeal Substances together with a Congenite Immortal Body and that there is no other Vnderstanding Nature than such besides the Supreme Deity which is Complete in it self without the Conjunction of any Body So that according to Hierocles the Ancient Pythagorick Cabbala acknowledged no such Entities at all as those Intelligences of Aristotle and the Noes of some High-flown Platonists that is perfectly Vnbodied Minds and much less any Rank of Henades or Vnities Superior to these Noes And indeed such Particular Created Beings as these could neither have Sense or Cognizance of any Corporeal thing Existing without them Sense as Aristotle hath observed Resulting from a Complication of Soul and Body as Weaving Results from a Complication of the Weaver and Weaving Instruments nor yet could they Act upon any Part of the Corporeal Vniverse So that these Immoveable Beings would be but like Adamantine Statues and things Unconnected with the rest of the World having no Commerce with any thing at all but the Deity a kind of Insignificant Metaphysical Gazers or Contemplators Whereas the Deity though it be not properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mundane Soul such as together with the Corporeal World as its Body makes up one Compleat and Entire Animal yet because the whole world proceeded from it and perpetually dependeth on it therefore must it needs take Cognizance of all and Act upon all in it upon which account it hath been styled by these Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Mundane but a Supra-Mundane Soul Wherefore this Ancient Pythagorick Cabbala seems to be agreeable to reason also that God should be the only Incorporeal Being in this sense such whose Essence is Complete and Life Entire within it self without the Conjunction or Appendage of any Body but that all other Incorporeal Substances Created should be Compleated and Made up by a Vital Vnion with Matter so that the whole of them is neither Corporeal nor Incorporeal but a Complication of both and all the Highest and Divinest things in the Universe next to the Supreme Deity are Animals consisting of Soul and Body united together And after this manner did the Ancient asserters of Incorporeal Substance as Unextended decline that Absurdity Objected against them of the Illocality of all Finite Created Spirits that these being Incorporeal Substances Vitally Clothed with some Body may by reason of the Locality and Mobility of their Respective Bodies truly be said to be he Here and There and to Move from Place to Place Wherefore we are here also to show what Agreement or Disagreement there is betwixt this Part of the Pythagorick Cabbala and the Christian Philosophy And First it hath been already intimated that the very same Doctrine with this of the Ancient Pythagoreans was plainly asserted by Origen Thus in his First Book Peri Archon c. 6. Solius Dei saith he id est Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti Naturae id proprium est ut sine Materiali Substantia absque Vllâ Corporeae Adjectionis Societate intelligatur subsistere It is proper to the Nature of God only that is of the Father Son and Holy Ghost to subsist without Material Substance or the Society of any Corporeal
Origenick Hypothesis the same with the Pythagorick That in Angels there is a Complication of Incorporeal and Corporeal Substance both together or that they are Animals consisting of Soul and Body We shall now make it appear that the Greater part of the Ancient Fathers were for neither of the Two fore-mentioned Extreams Either That Angels were wholly Incorporeal or that they were wholly Corporeal but rather for the Middle Hypothesis That they Had Bodies and yet Were not Bodies But as other Terrestrial Animals Spirits or Souls Clothed with Etherial or Aerial Bodies And that the Generality of the Ancient and most Learned Fathers did not conceive Angels to be meer Vnbodied Spirits is unquestionably Evident from hence because they agreed with the Greek Philosophers in that Conceit that Evil Demons or Devils were therefore delighted with the Blood and Nidours of Sacrifices as having their more Gross Aiery and Vaporous Bodies nourished and refreshed with those Vapours which they did as it were Luxuriate and Gluttonize in For thus does Porphyrius write concerning them in his Book De Abstinentia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are they who take pleasure in the Incense Fumes and Nidours of Sacrifices wherewith their Corporeal and Spirituous Part is as it were Pinguified for this Lives and is Nourished by Vapours and Fumigations And that before Porphyrius many other Pagan Philosophers had been of the same Opinion appeareth from this of Celsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We ought to give Credit to wise men who affirm that most of these Lower and Circumterraneous Demons are delighted with Geniture Bloud and Nidour and such like things and much gratified therewith though they be not able to do any thing more in way of recompence then sometimes perhaps to cure the Body or to foretel good and evil Fortunes to Men and Cities Upon which account himself though a zealous Pagan perswadeth men to moderation in the Use of these Sacrifices as Principally gratifying the Inferiour and Worser Demons only In like manner Origen frequently insisteth upon the same thing he affirming that Devils were not only delighted with the Idolatry of the Pagans in their Sacrifices but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That their very Bodies were Nourished by the Vapours and Fumes arising from them and that these Evil Demons therefore did as it were Deliciate and Epicurize in them And before Origen most of the Ancient Fathers as Justine Martyr Athenagoras Tatianus Tertullian c. and also many others after him endeavour to disparage those Material and Bloody Sacrifices upon the same Account as things whereby Evil Demons were principally Gratified We shall here only cite one passage to this purpose out of St. Basil or who ever were the Author of that Commentary upon Isaiah because there is something Philosophick in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrifices are things of no small pleasure and advantage to Demons because the Blood being evaporated by Fire and so attenuated is taken into the Compages and Substances of their Bodies The whole of which is throughout nourished with Vapours not by Eating and Stomachs or such like Organs but as the Hairs and Nayls of all Animals and whatsoever other things Receive nourishment into their whole Substance And thus do we see it undeniably manifest that many of the Ancient Fathers supposed Devils to have Bodies neither can it at all be doubted but that they concluded the same of Angels too these being both of the same kind and differing but as Good and Evil men And though they do not affirm this of Good Angels but of Devils only that they were thus Delighted and Nourished with the Fumes and Vapours of Sacrifices and that they Epicurized in them yet was not the reason hereof because they conceived them to be altogether Incorporeal but to have Pure Etherial or Heavenly Bodies it being proper to those Gross and Vaporous Bodies of Demons only to be Nourished and Refreshed after that manner And Now that all these Ancient Fathers did not suppose either Angels or Devils to be altogether Corporeal or to have nothing but Body in them may be concluded from hence because many of them plainly declared the Souls of Men to be Incorporeal and therefore it cannot be imagined that they should so far degrade Angels below Men as not to acknowledge them to have any thing at all Incorporeal But we shall now Instance in some few amongst many of these Ancients who plainly asserted both Devils and Angels to be Spirits Incorporate and not to Be meer Bodies but only to Have Bodies that is to consist of Soul and Body or Incorporeal and Corporeal Substance joyned together That Angels themselves Have Bodies is every where declared by St. Austine in his Writings he affirming that the Bodies of Good men after the Resurrâ—ction shall be Qualia sunt Angelorum Corpora Such as are the Bodies of Angels and that they shall be Corpora Angelica in Societate Angelorum Angelical Bodies fit for Society and Converse with Angels and declaring the difference betwixt the Bodies of Angels and of Devils in this manner Daemones antequam transgrederentur Coelestia Corpora gerebant quae conversa sint ex poena in Aeream Qualitatem ut jam possint ab Igne Pati That though Devils before the Transgression had Celestial Bodies as Angels now have yet might these afterwards in way of Punishment be changed into Aerial ones and such as now may suffer by Fire Moreover the same St. Austin some where calleth Good Angels by the name of Animae Beatae atque Sanstae Happy and Holy Souls And though it be true that in his Retractations he recalleth and correcteth this yet was this only a Scrupulosity in that Pious Father concerning the meer word because he no where found in Scripture Angels called by the name of Souls it being far from his meaning even there to deny them to be Incorporeal Spirits joyned with Bodies And certainly he who every where concludes Humane Souls to be Incorporeal cannot be thought to have supposed Angels to have nothing at all but Body in them Again Claudianus Mamertus writing against Faustus who made Angels to be meer Bodies without Souls or any thing Incorporeal maintaineth in way of Opposition not that they are meer Incorporeal Spirits without Bodies which is the other Extream but that they consist of Corporeal and Incorporeal Soul and Body Joyned together he writing thus of the Devils Diabolus ex Duplici diversaque Substantia constat Corporeus est Incorporeus The Devil consisteth of a double and different Substance he is Corporeal and he is also Incorporeal And again of Angels Patet Beatos Angelos Vtriusque Substantiae Incorporeos esse in ea sui parte qua ipsis Visibilis Deus in ea itidem Parte Corporeos qua hominibus sunt ipsi Visibiles It is manifest that the blessed Angels are of a Two-fold Substance that they are Incorporeal in that part of theirs
wherein God is Visible to them and again Corporeal in that other Part wherein themselves are Visible to men Moreover Fulgentius writeth concerning Angels in this manner Planè ex Duplici eos esse Substantia asserunt Magni Docti Viri Id est Ex Spiritu Incorporeo quo à Dei contemplatione nunquam recedunt ex Corpore per quod ex tempore hominibus apparent Corpora vero Aetherea id est Ignea eos dicunt habere Daemones vero Corpus Aereum Great and learned men affirm Angels to consist of a Double Substance that is of a Spirit Incorporeal whereby they contemplate God and of a Body whereby they are sometimes Visible to men as also that they have Etherial or Fiery Bodies but Devils Aereal And perhaps this might be the meaning of Joannes Thessalonicensis in that Dialogue of his read and approved of in the Seventh Council and therefore the meaning of that Council it self too when it is thus declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That the Catholick Church acknowledges Angels to be Intellectual but not altogether Incorporeal and Invisible but to have certain Subtle Bodies either Aiery or Fiery For it being there only denied that they were Altogether Incorporeal one would think the meaning should not be that they were Altogether Corporeal nor indeed could such an Opinion be fastened upon the Catholick Church but that they were partly Incorporeal and partly Corporeal this being also sufficient in order to that design which was driven at in that Council However Psellus who was a Curious Enquirer into the Nature of Spirits declares it not only as his own Opinion but also as agreeable to the Sense of the Ancient Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Demoniack or Angelick kind of Beings is not altogether Incorporeal or Bodiless but that they are conjoyned with Bodies or have Cognate Bodies belonging to them Who there also further declares the Difference betwixt the Bodies of Good Angels and of Evil Demons after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angelical Body sendeth forth Rays and Splendours such as would dazle Mortal Eyes and cannot be born by them But the Demoniack Body though it seemeth to have been once such also from Isaias his calling him that fell from Heaven Lucifer yet is it now Dark and Obscure Foul and Squalid and grievous to behold it being deprived of its Cognate Light and Beauty Again the Angelical Body is so devoid of gross Matter that it can pass through any Solid thing it being indeed more Impassible than the Sun-beams for though these can Permeate Pellucid Bodies yet are they hindered by Earthy and Opake and refracted by them whereas the Angelical Body is such as that there is no thing so Imporous or Solid that can resist or exclude it But the Demoniack Bodies though by reason of their Tenuity they commonly escape our sight yet have they notwithstanding Gross Matter in them and are Patible especially those of them which inhabit the Subterraneous places for these are of so Gross a Consistency and Solidity as that they sometimes fall also under Touch and being strucken have a Sense of Pain and are capable of being burnt with Fire To which purpose the Thracian there addeth more afterwards from the Information of Marcus the Monk a person formerly Initiated in the Diabolick Mysteries and of great Curiosity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Demoniack Spirit or Subtle Body being in every part of it capable of Sense does immediately See and Hear and is also Obnoxious to the affections of Touch insomuch that being suddainly divided or cut in two it hath a Sense of Pain as the Solid Bodies of other Animals have it differing from them only in this that those other Bodies being once discontinued are not easily consolidated together again whereas the Demoniack Body being divided is quickly redintegrated by Coalescence as Air or Water Nevertheless it is not without a Sense of Pain at that time when it is thus divided c. Moreover the same Marcus affirmeth the Bodies of these Demons to be Nourished also though in a different manner from ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are some of them Nourished by Inspiration as the Spirit contained in the Nerves and Arteries others by sucking in the adjacent Moisture not as we do by mouths but as Spunges and Testaceous Fishes And now we may venture to conclude that this Opinion of Angels being not meer Abstract Incorporeal Substances and Vnbodied Minds but consisting of Something Incorporeal and Something Corporeal that is of Soul or Spirit and Body Joyned together is not only more agreeable to Reason but hath also had more suffrages amongst the Ancient Fathers and those of greater weight too than either of those Two other Extreams viz. That Angels are meer Bodies and have nothing at all Incorporeal in them or else that they are altogether Incorporeal without any Bodily Indument or Clothing Notwithstanding which this latter Opinion hath indeed prevailed most in these Latter Ages Time being rightly compared to a River which quickly sinks the more Weighty and Solid things and bears up only the Lighter and more Superficial Though there may be other Reasons given for this also as partly because the Aristotelick Philosophy when generally introduced into Christianity brought in its Abstract Intelligences along with it and partly because some Spurious Platonists talking so much of their Henades and Noes their Simple Monads and Immoveable Vnbodied Minds as the Chief of their Generated and Created Gods probably some Christians might have a mind to vie their Angels with them And lastly because Angels are not only called in Scripture Spirits but also by Several of the Ancients said to be Incorporeal whilst this in the mean time was meant only either in respect of that Incorporeal Part Soul or Mind which they supposed to be in them or else of the Tenuity and Subtlety of their Bodies or Vehicles For this account does Psellus give hereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is usual both with Christian Writers and Pagans too to call the Grosser Bodies Corporeal and those which by reason of their Subtlety avoid both our Sight and Touch Incorporeal And before Psellus Joannes Thâ—ssalonicensis in his Dialogue approved in the Seventh Council 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you find Angels or Demons or Separate Souls called Sometimes Incorporeal you must understand this in respect of the Tenuity of their Bodies only as not consisting of the Grosser Elements nor being so Solid and Antitypous as those which we are now Imprisoned in And before them both Origen in the Proeme of his Peri Archon where citing a passage out of an Ancient Book Intituled The Doctrine of Peter wherein our Saviour Christ is said to have told his Disciples That he was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Incorporeal Demon though rejecting the Authority of that Book he thus interprets those words non idem Sensus ex isto
sermone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indicatur qui Graecis vel Gentilibus auctoribus ostenditur quum de Incorporeâ Naturâ à Philosophis disputatur In hoc enim Libello Incorporeum Daemonium dixit pro eo quod ipse ille quicunque est habitus vel circumscriptio Daemonici Corporis non est similis huic nostro Crassiori vel Visibili Corpori sed secundum sensum ejus qui composuit illam Scripturam intelligendum est quod dixit non esse tale Corpus quale habent Daemones quod est naturaliter Subtile velut Aura Tenue propter hoc vel imputatur à multis vel dicitur Incorporeum sed habere se Corpus Solidum Palpabile The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Incorporeal is not to be taken here in that sense wherein it is used by the Greek and Gentile Writers when they Philosophised concerning the Incorporeal Nature But a Demon is here said to be Incorporeal because of the Disposition of the Demoniack Body not like to this Gross and Visible Body of ours So that the sense is as if Christ should have said I have not such a Body as the Demons have which is naturally Subtle Thin and Soft as the Air and therefore is either supposed to be by many or at least called Incorporeal but the Body which I now have is Solid and Palpable Where we see plainly that Angels though supposed to have Bodies may notwithstanding be called Incorporeal by reason of the Tenuity and Subtlety of those Bodies comparatively with the Grossness and Solidity of these our Terrestrial Bodies But that indeed which now most of all inclineth some to this Perswasion That Angels have nothing at all Corporeal hanging about them is a Religious regard to the Authority of the Third Lateran Council having passed its Approbation upon this Doctrine as if the Seventh Oecumenical so called or Second Nicene wherein the contrary was before owned and allowed were not of equal force at least to counterbalance the other But though this Doctrine of Angels or all Created Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men having a Corporeal Indument or Clothing does so exactly agree with the Old Pythagorick Cabbala yet have we reason to think that it was not therefore meerly borrowed or derived from thence by the Ancient Fathers but that they were led into it by the Scripture it self For first the Historick Phaenomena of Angels in the Scripture are such as cannot well be otherwise Salved than by supposing them to have Bodies and then not to lay any stress upon those words of the Psalmist Who maketh his Angels Spirits and Ministers a flame of fire though with good reason by the Ancient Fathers interpreted to this sense because they may possibly be understood otherwise as sometime they are by Rabbinical Commentators nor to insist upon those passages of S. Paul where he speaks of the Tongues of Angels and of the Voice of an Arch-Angel and such like there are several other Places in Scripture which seem plainly to confirm this Opinion As first that of our Saviour before mentioned to this purpose Luke the 20. the 35. They who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the Resurrection from the dead neither Marry nor are given in Marriage neither can they die any more for they are Equal unto the Angels For were Angels utterly devoid of all Bodies then would the Souls of Good men in a State of Separation and without any Resurrection be rather Equal to Angels than after a Resurrection of their Bodies Wherefore the Natural meaning of these words seems to be this as St. Austin hath interpreted them that the Souls of Good men after the Resurrection shall have Corpora Angelica Angelical Bodies and Qualia sunt Angelorum Corpora such Bodies as those of Angels are Wherein it is supposed that Angels also have Bodies but of a very different kind from those of ours here Again that of St. Jude where he writeth thus of the Devils The Angels which kept not their First Estate or rather according to the Vulgar Latin Suum Principatum Their own Principality but left thei◠Proper Habitation or Dwelling House hath he reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness unto the Judgement of the Great Day In which words it is first Implied that the Devils were Created by God Pure as well as the other Angels but that they kept not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their own Principality That is their Lordly Power and Dominion over their Worser and Inferiour part they having also a certain Duplicity in their Nature of a Better and Worser Principle of a Superiour Part which ought to Rule and Govern and of an Inferiour which out to be Governed nor is it indeed otherwise easily conceivable how they should be Capable of Sinning And this Inferiour Part in Angels seems to have a respect to something that is Corporeal or Bodily in them also as well as it hath in men But then in the next place St. Jude addeth as the Immediate Result and Natural Consequent of these Angels Sinning that they thereby Left or Lost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suum Proprium Domicilium That is not only their Dwelling Place at Large those Etherial Countries and Heavenly Regions above but also their Proper Dwelling House or Immediate Mansion to wit their Heavenly Body For as much as that Heavenly Body which Good men expect after the Resurrection is thus called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Habitation or Dwelling House that is from Heaven The Heavenly Body is the Proper House or Dwelling Clothing or Indument both of Angelical and Humane Souls and this is that which makes them fit Inhabitants for the Heavenly Regions This I say was the Natural effect and Consequent of these Angels Sinning their Leaving or Loosing their Pure Heavenly Body which became thereupon forthwith Obscured and Incrassated the Bodies of Spirits Incorporate always bearing a Correspondent Purity or Impurity to the different disposition of their Mind or Soul But then again in the last place that which was thus in Part the Natural Result of their Sin was also by the Just Judgment of God converted into their Punishment For their Etherial Bodies being thus changed into Gross Aerial Feculent and Vaporous ones themselves were Immediately hereupon as St. Peter in the Parallel Place expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cast down into Tartarus and there Imprisoned or Reserved in Chains Under Darkness until the Judgment of the Great Day Where it is observable that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by St. Peter is the very same that Apollodorus and other Greek Writers frequently make use of in a like case when they speak of the Titan's being Cast down from Heaven which seems to have been Really nothing else but this Fall of Angels Poetically Mythologized And by Tartarus here in all probability is meant this Lower Caliginous Air or Atmosphere of the Earth according to that of St. Austin concerning these
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Paul not this Gross Terrestial Body but a certain Middle Body betwixt it and the Heavenly which the Soul after Death carries away with it Now this Opinion of the Learned Origens was never reckoned up by the Ancient Fathers or his greatest Adversaries in the Catalogue of his Errours nor does Methodius the Martyr who was so great an Anti-Origenist where he mentions this Origenick Opinion in Photius seem to tax it otherwise then as Platonically Implying the Soul to be Incorporeal Methodius himself on the contrary contending not that the Soul Hath a Body conjoyned with it after Death as a distinct thing from it but that it self Is a Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is alone is praised as Incorporeal and Invisible but Souls are made by him who is the Father of all things Intellectual Bodies ornamentally branched out as it were into Members distinguishable by Reason and having the same Form and Signature with the outward Body Whence is it that in Hades or Hell we Read of a Tongue and a Finger and other Members not as if there then were another Invisible Body Coexisting with shese Souls but because the Souls themselves are in their own Nature when strip'd naked of all Clothing according to their very Essence such We say therefore if one of these two Opinions must needs be entertained that either the Soul it self Is a Body or else that it Hath a Body after Death the Latter of them which was Origens ought certainly much to be preferr'd before the Former whether held in Tertullian's sense that all Substance and consequently God himself is Body or else in that of Methodius that all Created Substance is such God alone being Incorporeal But we have already showed that Origen was not Singular in this Opinion Irenaeus before him having asserted the same thing that Souls after Death are Adapted to certain Bodies where the word in the Greek probably was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which have the same Character with these Terrestrial ones and Philoponus after him who was no Pagan but Christian Philosopher Dogmatizing in like manner We might here add that Joannes Thessalonicensis in that Dialogue of his read in the Seventh Synod seemeth to have been of the same Perswasion also when he affirmeth of Souls as well as Angels and Demons that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Often seen by many Sensibly in the Form of their own Bodies However it is a thing which Psellus took for granted where speaking of Devils Insinuating their Temptations into mens Souls by affecting immediately the Phantastick Spirit he writeth after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When one man speaks to another from afar off he must if he would be heard make a loud cry or noise whereas if he stood near to him he might softly whisper into his ear But could he immediately approach to the Spirit or Subtle Body of the Soul he should not then need so much as to make a Whisper but might silently and without noise communicate whatsoever thoughts of his own to him by Motions made thereupon And this is said to be the way that Souls going out of these Bodies converse together they communicating their thoughts to one another without any Noise For Psellus here plainly supposeth Souls after Death to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a certain Subtle Body adhering to them by Motions upon which they may silently converse with each other It is true indeed that St. Austin in his Twelfth Book De Genesi ad Literam does not himself close with this Opinion of the Souls Having a Body after Death but much less of its Being a Body nevertheless does he seem to leave every man to his own Liberty therein in these words Si autem Quaeritur dum Anima de Corpore exierit Vtrum ad aliqua loca Corporalia feratur an ad Incorporalia Corporalibus similia an verò nec ad ipsa sed ad illud quod Corporibus Similitudinibus Corporum est Excellentius Citò quidem responderim ad Corporalia loca eam vel non ferri nisi cum aliquo Corpore vel non localiter ferri Jam utrum habeat aliquod Corpus Ostendat qui Potest Ego autem non puto Spiritalem enim arbitror esse non Corporalem ad spiritalia vero pro meritis fertur aut ad Loca Poenalia similia Corporibus But if it be demanded when the Soul goes out of this Body whether it be carried into any Corporal Places or to Incorporals like to Corporals or else to neither but to that which is more excellent than both Bodies and the likenesses of Bodies the Answer is ready that it cannot be carried to Corporal Places or not Locally carried any whither without a Body Now whether the Soul have some Body when it goes out of this Body let them that can show but for my part I think otherwise For I suppose the Soul to be Spiritual and not Corporal and that after Death it is either carried to Spiritual things or else to Penal Places like to Bodies such as have been represented to some in Extasies c. Where St. Austin himself seems to think the Punishment of Souls after Death and before the Resurrection to be Phantastical or only in Imagination Whereas there could not be then so much as Phantastick Punishments neither nor any Imagination at all in Souls without a Body if that Doctrine of Aristotle's be true that Phancy or Imagination is nothing else but a Weaker Sense that is a thing which results from a Complication of Soul and Body both together But it is observable that in the forecited place that which St. Austin chiefly opposed was the Souls Being a Body as Tertullian Methodius and others had asserted but as for its Having a Body he saith only this Ostendat qui potest Let him that can shew it He granting in the mean time that the Soul cannot be Locally carried any whither at all after Death nor indeed be in any place without a Body However the same St. Austin as he elsewhere condemneth the Opinion of those who would take the Fire of Hell Metaphorically acknowledging it to be Real and Corporeal so does he somewhere think it not improbable but after Death and before the Resurrection the Souls of men may suffer from a certain Fire for the consuming and burning up of their dross Post istius sanè Corporis Mortem donec ad illum Veniatur qui post Resurrectionem Corporum futurus est Damnationis Remunerationis Vltimus Dies Si hoc temporis Intervallo Ejusmodi Ignem dicuntur perpeti quem non sentiant illi qui non habuerint tales mores amores in hujus Corporis Vitâ ut Eorum Ligna Faenum Stipula Consumantur alii vero sentiunt qui ejusmodi secum aedificiae portaverunt c. non redarguo quia forsitan Verum est If in this Interval of Time
betwixt the Death of the Body and the Resurrection or Day of Judgment the Souls of the Dead be said to suffer such a Fire as can do no Execution upon those who have no Wood Hay nor Stuble to burn up but shall be felt by such as have made such Buildings or Superstructures c. I reprehend it not because perhaps it is True The Opinion here mentioned is thus Expressed by Origen in his Fifth Book against Celsus which very place St. Austin seems to have had respect to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celsus did not understand That this Fire as well according to the Hebrews and Christians as to some of the Greeks will be Purgatory to the World as also to every one of those persons who stand in need of such Punishment and Remedy by Fire which Fire can do no Execution upon those who have no combustible Matter in them but will be felt by such as in the Moral structure of their Thoughts Words and Actions have built up Wood Hay and Stuble Now since Souls cannot suffer from Fire nor any thing else in way of Sense or Pain without being Vitally Vnited to some Body we may conclude that St. Austin when he wrote this was not altogether abhorrent from Souls having Bodies after Death Hitherto have we declared How the Ancient Asserters of Incorporeal Substance as Vnextended did repel the Assaults of Atheists and Corporealists made against it but especially How they quitted themselves of that Absurdity of the Illocality and Immobility of Finite Created Spirits by Supposing them always to be Vitally Vnited to some Bodies and consequently by the Locality of those their respective Bodies determined to Here and There according to that of Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Soul stands in need of a Body in order to Local Motions We shall in the next place declare what Grounds of Reason there were which induced those Ancients to assert and maintain a thing so repugnant to Sense and Imagination and consequently to all Vulgar Apprehension as a Substance in it self Vnextended Indistant and Indivisible or Devoid of Magnitude and Parts Wherein we shall only represent the Sense of these Ancient Incorporealists so far as we can to the best advantage in order to their Vindication against Atheists and Materialists our selves in the mean time not asserting any thing but leaving every one that can to make his own Judgment and so either to close with this or that other following Hypothesis of Extended Incorporeals Now it is here observable That it was a thing formerly taken for granted on both sides as well by the Asserters as the Deniers of Incorporeal Substance That there is but One kind of Extension only and Consequently that whatsoever hath Magnitude and Parts or One Thing Without Another is not only Intellectually and Logically but also Really and Physically Divisible or Discerpible as likewise Antitypous and Impenetrable so that it cannot Coexist with a Body in the same Place from whence it follows that whatsoever Arguments do evince That there is some other Substance besides Body the same do therefore Demonstrate according to the Sense of these Ancients as well Corporealists as Incorporealists that there is Something Vnextended it being supposed by them both alike that whatsoever is Extended is Body Nevertheless we shall here principally propound such Considerations of theirs as tend directly to Prove That there is something Vnextendedly Incorporeal And that an Vnextended Deity is no Impossible Idea to wit from hence because there is something Vnextended even in our very Selves Where not to repeat the forementioned Ratiocinacion of Simplicius That whatsoever can Act and Reflect upon its Whole Self cannot possibly be Extended nor have Parts Distant from one another Plotinus first argues after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What then will they say who contend that the Soul is a Body or Extended whether or no will they grant concerning every Part of the Soul in the same Body as that of it which is in the Foot and that in the Hand and that in the Brain c. and again every Part of those Parts that each of them is Soul such as the Whole If this be consented to then is it plain that Magnitude or such a Quantity would confer nothing at all to the Essence of the Soul as it would do were it an Extended Thing but the Whole would be in many Parts or Places which is a thing that cannot possibly belong to Body That the same Whole should be in more and That a Part should be what the whole is But if they will not grant every Part of their Extended Soul to be Soul then according to them must the Soul be Made up and Compounded of Soul-less Things Which Argument is else where again thus propounded by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If every one of the Parts of this Extended Soul or Mind have Life in it then would any one of them alone be sufficient But to say that though none of the Parts alone bave Life in them yet the Conjunction of them altogether maketh Life is absurd it being impossible that Life and Soul should result from a Congeries of Lifeless and Souless things or that Mindless things put together should beget Mind The sum of this Argumentation is this That either every part of an Extended Soul is Soul and of an Extended Mind Mind or not Now if no Part of a Soul as supposed to be Extended alone be Soul or have Life and Mind in it then is it certain that the Whole resulting from all the Parts could have no Life nor Mind because Nothing can Causally come from Nothing It is true indeed that Corporeal Qualities and Forms according to the Atomick Physiology result from a Composition and Contexture of Atoms or Parts each of which taken alone by themselves have nothing of that Quality or Form in them Ne ex Albis Alba rearis Aut ea quae Nigrant nigro de Semine nata You are not to think that White things are made out of White principles nor Black things out of Black but the Reason of the difference here is plain because these Qualities and Forms are not Entities Really distinct from the Magnitude Figure Site and Motion of Parts but only such a Composition of them as cause different Phancies in us but Life and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind are Entities Really distinct from Magnitude Figure Site and Motion of Parts they are neither meer Phancies nor Syllables of things but Simple and Vncompounded Realities But if every supposed Part of a Soul be Soul and of a Mind Mind then would all the rest of it besides any One Part be Superfluous or indeed every supposed Part thereof would be the Same with the Whole from whence it follows that it could not be Extended or have any Real Parts at all since no Part of an Extended thing can possibly be the Same with the Whole Again the same Philosopher endeavours further to prove
However it is certain that Atheists who maintain the contrary must needs assert that every Thought and whatsoever belongeth to Soul Mind as Knowledge Virtue c. is not only Mentally and Mathematically Divisible so that there may be Half a Third Part or a Quarter of a Thought and the Rest supposed but also Physically Separable or Discerpible together with the Soul wherein it is They must also deny that there is any Internal Energy at all or any other Action besides that Outside Superficial Action of Local Motion and Consequently make all Cogitation nothing but Local Motion or Translation And Lastly they must maintain that no Substance can Co-exist with any other Substance as Soul with Body otherwise than by Juxta-Position only and by Possessing the Pores or filling up the Intervals thereof as a Net with the water And this is the First Answer to the forementioned Atheistick Argument against Incorporeal Substance That though whatsoever is Extended be Body yet Every thing is not Extended but that Life and Mind or Cogitation are an Vnextended Indistant and Indivisible Nature But as we have already intimated There are other Learned Asserters of Incorporeal Substance who lest God and Spirits being thus made Vnextended should quite Vanish into Nothing Answer that Atheistick Argumentation after a different manner by granting to these Atheists that Proposition that whatsoever Is is Extended and what is Vnextended is Nothing but then denying that other of theirs That whatsoever is Extended is Body They asserting Another Extension Specifically Differing from that of Bodies For whereas Corporeal Extension is not only Impenetrable so as that no one Part thereof can Enter into another but also both Mentally and Really Divisible one Part being in its Nature Separable from another they affirm that there is another Incorporeal Extension which is both Penetrable and also Indiscerpible so that no One Part thereof can possibly be Separated from another or the whole and that to such an Incorporeal Extension as this belongeth Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding the Deity having such an Infinite Extension but all Created Spirits a Finite and Limited one which also is in them supposed to be Contractible and Dilatable Now it is not our part here to oppose Theists but Atheists wherefore we shall leave these Two Sorts of Incorporealists to dispute it out friendly amongst themselves and indeed therefore with the more Moderation Equanimity and Toleration of Dissent Mutually because it seemeth that Some are in a manner Fatally Inclined to think one way in this Controversie and Some another And what ever the Truth of the Case be it must be acknowledged that this Latter Hypothesis may be very useful and Serviceable to retain some in Theism who can by no means admit of a Deity or Any thing else Vnextended Though perhaps there will not be wanting others also who would go in a middle way betwixt these Two or Compound them together by supposing the Deity to be indeed altogether Vnextended and all of it Every where but Finite Incorporeals or Created Spirits to have an Vnextended Inside a Life or Mind Diffusing it self into a certain Amplitude of Outward Extension whereby they are Determined to a Place yet so as to be all in every Part thereof which Outward Extension is therefore not to be Accounted Body because Penetrable Contractable and Dilatable and because no one Part thereof is Separable from the rest by the Rushing or Incursion of any Corporeal thing upon them And thus is the Atheists Argument against Incorporeal Substance Answered Two manner of ways First That there Is Something Vnextended and Secondly That If there were none yet must there of necessity be a Substance otherwise Extended than Body is so as to be neither Antitypous nor Discerpible And Our selves would not be Understood here Dogmatically to Assert any thing in this Point save only what all Incorporealists do agree in To wit That besides Body which is Impenetrably and Divisibly Extended there is in Nature another Substance that is both Penetrable of Body and Indiscerpible or which doth not Consist of Parts Separable from one another And that there is at least such a Substance as this is unquestionably manifest from what hath been already declared But the Atheist will in the next place give an Account of the Original of this Errour as He calls it of Incorporeal Substance and Undertake to show from what Mistake it proceeded which is yet another Pretended Confutation thereof Namely that it sprung Partly from the Abuse of Abstract Names and Notions Men making Substances of them and Partly from the Scholastick Essences Distinct from the Things themselves and said to be Eternal From both which Delusions and Dotages together the Atheist conceives that Men have been first of all much Confirmed in the Belief of Ghosts and Spirits Demons and Devils Invisible Beings called by several Names Which Belief had also another Original mens Mistaking their own Phancies for Realities The Chief of all which affrightful Ghosts and Spectres according to these Atheists is the Deity the Oberon or Prince of Fairies and Phancies But then whereas men by their Natural Reason could not conceive otherwise of these Ghosts and Spirits then that they were a kind of Thin Aerial Bodies their Understandings have been so Enchanted by these Abstract Names which are indeed the Names of Nothing and those Separate Essences and Quiddities of Scholasticks as that they have made Incorporeal Substances of them The Atheistick Conclusion is That they who assert an Incorporeal Deity do Really but make a Scholastick Separate Essence or the meer Abstract Notion of an Accident a Substantial Thing and a Ghost or Spirit presiding over the whole world To which our Reply in General first of all is That all this is Nothing but Idle Romantick Fiction The Belief of a Deity and Substance Incorporeal standing upon none of those Imaginary Foundations And then as for that Impudent Atheistick Pretence That the Deity is Nothing but a Figment or Creature of Men's Fear and Imagination and therefore the Prince of Fairies and Phancies This hath been already Sufficiently Confuted in our Answer to the First Atheistick Argumentation Where we have also over and above shew'd that there is not only a Natural Prolepsis or Anticipation of a God in the Minds of Men but also that the Belief thereof is Supported by the strongest and most Substantial Reason His Existence Being indeed Demonstrable with Mathematical Evidence to such as are capable and not blinded with Prejudice nor Enchanted by the Witchcraft of Vice and Wickedness to the Debauching of their Understandings It hath been also shewed that the Opinion of other Ghosts and Spirits besides the Deity Sprung not meerly from Fear and Phancy neither as Childrens Bugbears but from Real Phaenomena True Sensible Apparitions with the Histories of them in all Ages without which the Belief of such things could never have held up so Generally and Constantly in the World As likewise that there is no
Repugnancy at all to Reason but that there may be as well Aerial and Etherial as there are Terrestrial Animals and that the Dull and Earthy Stupidity of mens Minds is the Only thing which makes them so prone to think that there is no Vnderstanding Nature Superior to Mankind but that in the world all is Dead about Us and to disbelieve the Existence of any thing which themselves Cannot either See or Feel Assuredly The Deity is no Phancy but the Greatest Reality in the world and that without which there could be Nothing at all Real it being the only Necessary Existent and Consequently Atheism is either meer Sottishness or else a strange kind of Irreligioas Fanaticism We now further add that the Belief of Ghosts and Spirits Incorporeal and consequently of an Incorporeal Deity sprung neither from any Ridiculous Mistake of the Abstract Names and Notions of meer Accidents for Substances nor from the Scholastick Essences said to be Eternal For as for the Latter none of those Scholasticks ever Dream'd that there was any Vniversal Man or Vniversal Horse Existing alone by it self and Separate from all Singulars nor that the Abstract Metaphysical Essences of men after they were Dead Subsisting by themselves did Walk up and down amongst Graves in Airy Bodies It being absolutely impossible that the Real Essence of any thing should be Separable from the thing it self or Eternal when that is not so And were the Essences of all things look'd upon by these Scholasticks as Substances Incorporeal then must they have made all things even Body it self to be Ghosts and Spirits and Incorporeal and Accidents also they having their Essences too to be Substantial But in very Truth these Scholastick Essences said to be Eternal are nothing but the Intelligible Essences of things or their Natures as Conceivable and Objects of the Mind And in this Sense is it an acknowledged Truth that the Essences of things as for example of a Sphere or Triangle are Eternal and such as were never Made because there could not otherwise be Eternal Verities concerning them So that the True meaning of these Eternal Essences is indeed no other than this That Knowledge is Eternal or that there is an Eternal Mind that comprehendeth the Intelligible Natures and Ideas of all things whether Actually existing or Possible only their Necessary relations to one another and all the Immutable Verities belonging to them Wherefore though these Eternal Essences themselves be no Ghosts nor Spirits nor Substances Incorporeal they being nothing but Objective Entities of the Mind or Noemata and Ideas yet does it plainly follow from the Necessâ—ry Supposition of them as was before declared That there is One Eternal Vnmade Mind and Perfect Incorporeal Deity a Real and Substantial Ghost or Spirit which comprehending It self and all the Extent of its own Power the Possibilities of things and their Intelligible Natures together with an Exemplar or Platform of the whole World Produced the same accordingly But our Atheistick Argumentator yet further urges That those Scholasticks and Metaphysicians who because Life or Cogitation can be considered alone Abstractly without the Consideration of Body therefore conclude it not to be the Accident or Action of a Body but a Substance by it self and which also after men are Dead can Walk amongst the Graves that these I say do so far Abuse those Abstract Names and Notions of meer Accidents as plainly to make Substances Incorporeal of them To which therefore we Reply also That were the Abstract Notions of Accidents in General made Incorporeal Substances by those Philosophers aimed at then must they have supposed all the Qualities or Affections of Bodies such as Whiteness and Blackness Heat and Cold and the like to have been Substances Incorporeal also a thing yet never heard or thought of But the Case is far otherwise as to Conscious Life or Cogitation though it be an Abstract also because this is no Accident of Body as the Atheist Serving his own Hypothesis securely takes it for granted nor indeed of any thing else but an Essential Attribute of another Substance distinct from Body or Incorporeal after the same manner as Extension or Magnitude is the Essential Attribute of Body and not a meer Accident And now having so copiously Confuted all the most Considerable Atheistick Grounds we are necessitated to dispatch those that follow being of lesser Moment with all possible Brevity and Compendiousness The Four next which are the Fifth Sixth Seventh and Eighth Atheistick Argumentations pretend to no more than only this to disprove a Corporeal Deity or from the Supposition That there is no other Substance in the World besides Body to infer the Impossibility of a God that is of an Eternal Vnmade Mind the Maker and Governour of the Whole World all Which therefore signifie nothing at all to the Asserters of a Deity Incorporeal who are the only Genuine Theists Nevertheless though none but Stoicks and such other Corporealists as are notwithstanding Theists be directly concerned in an Answer to them yet shall we first so far consider the Principles of the Atheistick Corporealism contained in those Two Heads the Fifth and Sixth as from the Absolute Impossibility of these Hypotheses to Demonstrate a Necessity of Incorporeal Substance from whence a Deity will also follow Here therefore are there Two Atheistick Hypotheses founded upon the Supposition That All is Body The First in the way of Qualities Generable and Corruptible which we call the Hylopathian The Second in the way of Vnqualified Atoms which is the Atomick Corporealism and Atheism The Former of these was the most Ancient and the First Sciography or Rude Delineation of Atheism For Aristotle tells us That the most Ancient Atheists were those who supposed Matter or Body that is Bulkie Extension to be the only Substance and Vnmade thing that out of which all things were Made and into which all things are again Resolved Whatsoever is else in the world being nothing but the Passions Qualities and Accidents thereof Generable and Corruptible or Producible out of Nothing and Reducible to Nothing again From whence the Necessary Consequence is That there is no Eternal Vnmade Life or Vnderstanding or that Mind is no God or Principle in the Universe but Essentially a Creature And thiâ— Hylopathian Atheism which supposeth whatsoever is in the Universe to be either the Substance of Matter and Bulk or else the Qualities and Accidents thereof Generable and Corruptible hath been called also by us Anaximandrian Though we deny not but that there might be formerly some Difference amongst the Atheists of this Kind nor are we ignorant that Simplicius and others conceive Anaximander to have asserted besides Matter Qualities also Eternal and Vnmade or an Homoeomery and Similar Atomology just in the same manner as Anaxagoras afterwards did save only that He would not acknowledge any Vnmade Mind or Life Anaximader supposing all Life and Vnderstanding whatsoever all Soul and Mind to have Risen up and been
the Regurgitation of the Faeces upward towards the Ventricle The First Atheistick Instance of the Faultiness of things in the Frame of Nature is from the Constitution of the Heavens and the Disposition of the Aequator and Ecliptick intersecting each other in an Angle of Three and Twenty Degrees and upwards whereby as they pretend the Terrestrial Globe is rendred much more Uninhabitable than otherwise it might be But this is built upon a False Supposition of the Ancients that the Torrid Zone or all between the Tropicks was utterly Uninhabitable by reason of the Extremity of Heat And it is certain that there is nothing which doth more demonstrate a Providence than this very thing it being the most Convenient Site or Disposition that could be devised as will appear if the Inconveniences of other Dispositions be considered especially these Three First If the Axes of those Circles should be Parallel and their Plains Coincident Secondly If they should Intersect each other in Right Angles and Thirdly which is a Middle betwixt both If they should cut one another in an Angle of Forty Five Degrees For it is evident that each of these Dispositions would be attended with far greater Inconveniences to the Terrestrial Inhabitants in respect of the Length of Days and Nights Heat and Cold. And that these two Circles should continue thus to keep the same Angular Intersection when Physical and Mechanick Causes would bring them still nearer together this is a farther Eviction of a Providence also In the next place the Atheist supposes that according to the general Perswasion of Theists the world and all things therein were Created only for the Sake of Man he thinking to make some advantage for his Cause from hence But this seemeth at first to have been an Opinion only of some strait-laced Stoicks though afterward indeed recommended to others also by their own Self-love their Over Weaning and Puffy Conceit of themselves And so Fleas and Lice had they Understanding might conclude the Bodies of other greater Animals and Men also to have been made only for them But the Whole was not properly made for any Part but the Parts for the Whole and the Whole for the Maker thereof And yet may the things of this Lower World be well said to have been Mâ—de Principally though not Only for Man For we ought not to Monopolize the Divine Goodness to our selves there being other Animals Superiour to us that are not altogether Unconcerned neither in this Visible Creation and it being reasonable to think that Even the Lower Animals likewise and whatsoever hath Conscious Life was made partly also to Enjoy it self But Atheists can be no Fit Judges of Worlds being made Well or Ill either in general or respectively to Mankind they having no Standing Measure for Well and Ill without a God and Morality nor any True Knowledge of themselves and what their own Good or Evil Consisteth in That was at first but a Froward Speech of some sullen discontented Persons when things falling not out agreeably to their own Private Selfish and Partial Appetites they would Revenge themselves by Railing upon Nature that is Providence and calling her a Stepmother only to Mankind whilst she was a Fond Partial and Indulgent Mother to other Animals and though this be Elegantly set off by Lucretius yet is there nothing but Poetick Flourish in it all without any Philosophick Truth The Advantages of Mankind being so notoriously conspicuous above those of Brutes But as for Evils in general from whence the Atheist would conclude the God of the Theist to be either Impotent or Envious it hath been already declared that the True Original of them is from the Necessity of Imperfect Beings and the Incompossibility of things but that the Divine Art and Skill most of all appeareth in Bonifying these Evils and making them like Discords in Musick to contribute to the Harmony of the Whole and the Good of Particular Persons Moreover a great part of those Evils which men are afflicted with is not from the Reality of Things but only from their own Phancy and Opinions according to that of the Moralist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not Things themselves that disturb men but only their Own Opinions concerning things and therefore it being much in our own Power to be freed from these Providence is not to be Blamed upon the account of them Pain is many times nearly linked with Pleasure according to that Socratick Fable That when God could not reconcile their Contrary Natures as he would he Tyed them Head and Tayl together And good men know that Pain is not the Evil of the Man but only of the Part so affected as Socrates also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It goes no further than the Leg where it is But this is many times very Serviceable to free us from the Greater Evils of the Mind upon which all our Happiness dependeth To the Atheists who acknowledge no Malum Culpae No Evil of Fault Turpitude or Dishonesty Death is the Greatest and most Tragical of all Evils But though this according to their forlorn Hypothesis be nothing less than an Absolute Extinction of Life yet according to the Doctrine of the Genuine Theists which makes all Souls Substantial no Life of it self without Divine Annihilation will ever quite Vanish into Nothing any more than the Substance of Matter doth And the Ancient Pythagoreans and Platonists have been here so Kind even to the Souls of Brutes also as that they might not be left in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility after Death as to bestow upon them certain Subtle Bodies which they may then continue to Act in Nor can we think otherwise but that Aristotle from this Fountain derived that Doctrine of his in his Second Book De Gen. An. c. 3. where after he had declared the Sensitive Soul to be Inseparable from Body he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Souls therefore seem to have another Body and Diviner than that of the Elements and as themselves differ in Dignity and Nobility so do these Bodies of theirs differ from one another And afterwards calling this Subtle Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Spirit he affirmeth it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Analogous to the Element of the Stars Only as Galen and S. Austin and others have conceived Aristotle deviated here from the Pythagoreans in this that he supposed the Sensitive Soul it self to be really nothing else but this Very Subtle and Star-like Body and not a distinct Substance from it using it only as a Vehicle Nevertheless he there plainly affirmeth the Mind or Rational Soul to be really distinct from the Body and to come into it From Without Pre-Existing and consequently should acknowledge also its After-Immortality But whatsoever Aristotles Judgment were which is not very Material it is Certain that Dying to the Rational or Humane Soul is nothing but a withdrawing into the Tyring-house and putting off the Clothing of this Terrestrial Body
to wit of him who can Inflict Eternal Punishments Sensless Matter the Atheists Natural God the Leviathan or Civil Sovereign his Artificial One. Religion thus disowned and disclaimed by Politicians as Inconsistent with Civil Power could not be the Creature of Political Art Thus all the Three Atheistick Pretences to Salve the Phaenomenon of Religion from Fear Ignorance of Causes and Fiction of Politicians fully Confuted Page 698 700 But because besides those Ordinary Phaenomena before mentioned there are certain other Extraordinary ones that cannot be Salved by Atheists which therefore they will impute Partly to Mens Fear and Ignorance and Partly to the Fiction and Imposture of Civil Governours viz. Apparitions Miracles and Prophecies the Reality of these here also to be briefly Vindicated Page 700 First as for Apparitions Though much of Fabulosity in these Relations yet unquestionably something of Truth Atheists imputing these things to mens mistaking their Dreams and Phancies for Sensations Contradict their own Fundamental Principle That Sense is the onely Criterion of Truth as also Derogate more from Humane Testimony then they ought ibid. That some Atheists Sensible hereof have acknowledged the Reality of Apparitions concluding them nevertheless to be the Meer Creatures of Imagination as if a Strong Phancy could produce Real Substances or Objects of Sense The Fanaticism of Atheists who will rather Believe the greatest Impossibilities then endanger the Being of a God Invisible Ghosts Permanent easily introduce One Supreme Ghost of the whole World Page 700 701 Democritus yet further Convinced That there were Invisible Beings Superiour to Men Independent upon Imagination and Permanent called by him Idols but having nothing Immortal in them and therefore that a God could be no more proved from the Existence of them then of Men. Granted by him that there were not onely Terrestrial but also Aerial and Aetherial Animals and that all those Vast Regions of the Universe above were not Desert and Uninhabited Here something of the Fathers asserting Angels to have Bodies but more afterwards Page 701 702 To this Phaenomenon of Apparitions may be added those Two others of Witches and Demoniacks both of these proving That Spirits are not Phancies nor Inhabitants of mens Brains onely but of the World as also That there are some Impure Spirits a Confirmation of the Truth of Christianity The Confident Exploders of Witchcraft suspicable for Atheism As for Demoniacks or Energumeni certain from Josephus That the Jews did not take these Demons or Devils for Bodily Diseases but Real Substances possessing the Bodies of Men. Nor probable that they supposed as the Gnosticks afterward all Diseases to be the Infestation of Evil Spirits nor yet as some think all Demoniacks to be Mad-men But when there were any Unusual and Extraordinary Symptoms in any Bodily Distemper but especially that of Madness they supposing this to be Supernatural imputed it to the Infestation of some Devil Thus also the Greeks Page 702 704 That Demoniacks and Energumeni are a Real Phaenomenon and that there are such also in these Times of ours Asserted by Fernelius and Sennertus Such Maniacal Persons as not onely discover Secrets but also speak Languages which they had never learnt Vnquestionably Demoniacks or Energumeni That there have been such in the Times since our Saviour proved out of Psellus as also from Fernelius This for the Vindication of Christianity against those who suspect the Scripture Demoniacks for Figments Page 704 706 The Second Extraordinary Phaenomenon Proposed That of Miracles and Effects Supernatural That there have been such things amongst the Pagans and since the Times of Christianity too Evident from their Records But more Instances of these in Scripture Page 706 Two Sorts of Miracles First Such as though they cannot be done by Ordinary Causes yet may be effected by the Natural Power of Invisible Spirits Angels or Demons As Illiterate Demoniacks speaking Greek Such amongst the Pagans that Miracle of the Whetstone cut in two with a Razour Secondly Such as transcend the Natural Power of all Second Causes and Created Beings Page 706 707 That late Politico-Theological Treatise denying both these Sorts of Miracles Inconsiderable and not deserving here a Confutation Page 707 Supposed in Deut. That Miracles of the Former sort might be done by False Prophets in Confirmation of Idolatry Wherefore Miracles alone not sufficient to confirm every Doctrine ibid. Accordingly in the New Testament do we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lying Miracles that is Miracles done in Confirmation of a Lie and by the Power of Satan c. God permitting it in way of Probation of some and Punishment of others Miracles done for the promoting of Creature-Worship or Idolatry in stead of Justifying the same themselves Condemned by it Page 708 Had the Miracles of our Saviour been all of the Former Kind onely yet ought the Jews according to Moses Law to have acknowledged him for a True Prophet he coming in the Name of the Lord and not Exhorting to Idolatry Supposed in Deut. That God would not Permit False Prophets to doe Miracles save onely in the Case of Idolatry or when the Doctrine is discoverable to be False by the Light of Nature because that would be an Invincible Temptation Our Saviour That Eximious Prophet foretold by whom God would again reveal his Will to the World and no more out of Flaming Fire Nevertheless some Miracles of our Saviour Christ 's such also as could be done onely by the Power of God Almighty Page 708 709 All Miracles evince Spirits to disbelieve which is to disbelieve Sense or Vnreasonably to Derogate from Humane Testimony Had the Gentiles entertained the Faith of Christ without Miracles This it self would have been a Great Miracle Page 709 The Last Extraordinary Phaenomenon Divination or Prophecy This also evinces Spirits called Gods by the Pagans and thus that of theirs True If Divination then Gods 710 Two Sorts of Predictions likewise as of Miracles First such as might proceed from the Natural Presageing Power of Created Spirits Such Predictions acknowledged by Democritus upon account of his Idols Not so much Contingency in Humane Actions by reason of Mens Liberty of Will as some suppose Page 710 711 Another Sort of Predictions of Future Events Imputable onely to the Supernatural Prescience of God Almighty Epicurus his Pretence That Divination took away Liberty of Will either as Supposing or Making a Necessity Some Theists also denying the Prescience of God Almighty upon the same Account Certain That no Created Being can foreknow Future Events otherwise then in their Causes Wherefore Predictions of such Events as had no Necessary Antecedent Causes Evince a God Page 711 712 That there is Foreknowledge of Future Events Unforeknowable to Men formerly the general Perswasion of Mankind Oracles and Predictions amongst the Pagans which Evince Spirits as that of Actius Navius Most of the Pagan Oracles from the Natural Presageing Power of Demons Nevertheless some Instancâ—s of Predictions of a higher kind amongst them as that
Difference of Matter Page 781 The Third Argument against Un-Extended Substance That to be All in the Whole and All in every Part a Contradiction and Impossibility This Granted by Plotinus to be True of Bodies or that which is Extended That it cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Impossible that what hath no Parts should be a Part here and a Part there Wherefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Whole in the Whole and Whole in every Part to be taken onely in a Negative Sense for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Undivided The Whole Undivided Deity Every-where and not a Part of it Here onely and a Part There Page 782 783 The Last Objection is against the Illocality and Immobility of Finite Created Spirits and Humane Souls onely That this not onely Absurd but also Contrary to that Generally Received Tradition amongst Theists of Souls Moving Locally after Death into another Place called Hades Two Answers of Plotinus to this First That by Hades may be meant onely the Invisible or the Soul 's Acting without the Body Secondly That if by Hades be Meant a Worser place the Soul may be said to be there where its Idol is But when this same Philosopher supposeth the Soul in Good men to be separable also from this Idol he departeth from the Genuine Cabbala of his own School That Souls alwaies united to some Body or other This asserted here by Porphyrius That the Soul is never quite naked of all Body and therefore may be said to be there wheresoever its Body is Page 784 785 Some Excerptions out of Philoponus wherein the Doctrine of the Ancients concerning the Soul's Spirituous or Airy Body after Death is Largely declared Page 785 787 Intimated here by Philoponus That according to some of these Ancients the Soul hath such a Spirituous Body here in this Life as its Interiour Indument which then adheres to it when its Outer Garment is stript off by Death An Opinion of some That the Soul may in this Spirituous Body leave its Grosser Body for some time without Death True That our Soul doth not immediately Act upon Bones and Flesh but certain Thin and Subtile Spirits the Instruments of Sense and Motion Of which Porphyrius thus The Bloud is the Food of the Spirit and the Spirit the Vehicle of the Soul Page 787 788 The same Philoponus further Addeth That according to the Ancients besides both the Terrestrial and this Spirituous or Airy Body there is yet a Third kind of Body peculiar to such as are Souls as are more thoroughly purged after Death called by them a Luciform and Heavenly and Aetherial and Starre-like Body Of this Proclus also upon the Timaeus who affirmeth it to be Un-organized as likewise Hierocles This called the Thin Vehicle of the Soul in the Chaldee Oracles according to Psellus and Pletho By Hierocles a Spiritual Body in a Sense agreeable to that of the Scripture by Synesius the Divine Body This Distinction of Two Interiour Vehicles or Tunicles of the Soul besides the Terrestrial Body called by Plato the Ostreaceous no Invention of Latter Platonists since Christianity it being plainly insisted upon by Virgil though commonly not Vnderstood Page 788 790 That many of these Platonists and Pythagoreans supposed the Soul in its First Creation when Made pure by God to be Clothed with this Luciform and Heavenly Body which also did alwaies Inseparably adhere to it in its After-Descents into the Aërial and Terrestrial though Fouled and Obscured Thus Pletho And the same Intimated by Galen when he calls this the First Vehicle of the Soul Hence was it that besides the Moral and Intellectual Purgation of the Soul they recommended also a Mystical or Telestick way of Purifying the Aetherial Vehicle by Diet and Catharms This much Insisted on by Hierocles What Pliny's Dying By Wisedom or the Philosophick Death Page 790 792 But this not the Opinion of all That the Same Numerical Aetherial Body always adhereth to the Soul but onely that it every where either Finds or Makes a Body suitable to it self Thus Porphyrius Plato also seems to have been of that Perswasion Page 792 793 This Affirmed by Hierocles to have been the Genuine Cabbala of the Ancient Pythagoreans which Plato afterwards followed Hierocles his Definition of a Man A Rational Soul together with a Cognate Immortal Body he declaring This enlivened Terrestrial Body to be but the Idol or Image of the True man or an Accession to him This therefore the Answer of the Ancient Incorporealists to that Objection against the Illocality and Immobility of Created Incorporeals That these being all Naturally Vnited to Some Body or other may be thus said to be in a Place and Locally Moved And That it does not follow that because Created Incorporeals are Un-extended they might therefore inform the whole Corporeal Universe Page 793 794 That it would be no Impertinent Digression here To Compare the forementioned Pythagorick Cabbala with the Doctrine of Christianity and to consider their Agreement or Disagreement First therefore A Clear Agreement of these most Religious Philosophers with Christianity in this That the Highest Happiness and Perfection of Humane Nature consisteth not in a Separate State of Souls Un-united to any Body as some High-flown Persons have Conceited Thus Plotinus who sometimes runs as much into the other Extream in supposing Humane Souls to Animate not onely the Bodies of Brutes but also of Plants Thus also Maimonides amongst the Jews and therefore suspected for denying the Resurrection His Iggereth Teman written purposely to purge himself of this Suspicion The Allegorizers of the Resurrection and of the Life to come Page 794 795 Again Christianity Correspondeth with the Philosophick Cabbala concerning Humane Souls in this That their Happiness consisteth not in Conjunction with such Gross Terrestrial Bodies as these we now have Scripture as well as Philosophy complaining of them as a Heavy Load and Burthen to the Soul which therefore not to be taken up again at the Resurrection Such a Resurrection as this called by Plotinus a Resurrection to Another Sleep The Difference betwixt the Resurrection-Body and this Present Body in Scripture The Resurrection-Body of the Just as that of the Philosophick Cabbala Immortal and Eternal Glorious and Lucid Star-like and Spiritual Heavenly and Angelical Not this Gross Fleshly Body Guilded and Varnished over in the outside onely but Changed throughout This the Resurrection of Life in Scripture Emphatically called The Resurrection Our Souls Strangers and Pilgrims in these Terrestrial Bodies Their proper Home and Country the Heavenly Body That the Grossest Body that is according to Philosophy may meerly by Motion be brought into the Purity and Tenuity of the Finest Aether Page 795 799 But whether Humane Souls after Death alwaies Vnited to some Body or else quite Naked from all Body till the Resurrection not so Explicitly determined in Christianity Souls after Death Live unto God According to Origen This a Priviledge Proper to the Deity to Live and
Act alone without Vital Union with any Body If Natural to the Soul to Enliven a Body then not probable that it should be kept so long in an Unnatural State of Separation Page 799 800 Again Probable from Scripture That wicked Souls after Death have Punishment of Sense or Pain besides Remorse of Conscience which not easily Conceivable How they should have without Bodies Thus Tertullian He adding That Men have the same Shape or Effigies after this Life which they had here Though indeed he drive the business too far so as to make the Soul it self to be a Body Figurate and Colourate Page 800 801 But Irenaeus plainly supposed the Soul after Death being Incorporeal to be Adapted to a Body such as has the same Character and Figure with its Body here in this Life Page 801 802 Origen also of this Perswasion That Souls after Death have certain Subtile Bodies retaining the same Characterizing Form which their Terrestrial Bodies had His Opinion That Apparitions of the Dead are from the Souls themselves surviving in that which is called a Luciform Body As also that Saint Thomas did not doubt but that the Body of a Soul departed might appear every way like the Former onely be disbelieved our Saviour's appearing in the Same Solid Body which he had before Death Page 802 804 Our Saviour telling his Disciples That a Spirit had no Flesh and Bones that is no Solid Body as himself then had seems to Imply them to have Thinner Bodies which they may Visibly Appear in Thus in Apollonius is Touch made the Sign to distinguish a Ghost Appearing from a Living Man Our Saviour's Body after his Resurrection according to Origen in a Middle State betwixt This Gross or Solid Body of ours and That of a Ghost Page 804 A place of Scripture which as interpreted by the Fathers would Naturally Imply the Soul of our Saviour after Death not to have been quite Naked of all Body but to have had a Corporeal Spirit Moses and Elias Visibly appearing to our Saviour had therefore True Bodies Page 804 805 That the Regenerate here in this Life have a certain Earnest of their Future Inheritance which is their Spiritual or Heavenly Body Gathered from Scripture by Irenaeus and Novatian Which Praelibations of the Spiritual Body cannot so well consist with a Perfect Separation from all Body after Death till the Day of Judgement Page 805 806 This Opinion of Irenaeus Origen and others supposed by them not at all to Clash with the Christian Article of the Resurrection Nothing in this Point determined by us Page 806 The Last thing in the Pythagorick Cabbala That Daemons or Angels and indeed all Created Understanding Beings consist as well as Men of Soul and Body Incorporeal and Corporeal Vnited together Thus Hierocles Vniversally of all the Rational Nature and that no Incorporeal Substance besides the Supreme Deity is Compleat without the Conjunction of a Body God the Onely Incorporeal in this Sense and not a Mundane but Supra-Mundane Soul Page 806 808 Origen's full Agreement with this Old Pythagorick Cabbala That Rational Creatures are neither Body nor yet without Body but Incorporeal Substances having a Corporeal Indument Page 808 809 Origen misrepresented by Huetius as asserting Angels not to Have Bodies but to Be Bodies whereas he plainly acknowledged the Humane Soul to be Incorporeal and Angels also to have Souls He proveth Incorporeal Creatures from the Scriptures which though themselves not Bodies yet always Use Bodies Whereas the Deity is neither Body nor yet clothed with a Body as the Proper Soul thereof Page 809 810 Some of the Fathers so far from supposing Angels altogether Incorporeal that they ran into the other Extream and concluded them altogether Corporeal that is to be All Body and Nothing else The Middle betwixt both these the Origenick and Phythagorick Hypothesis That they consist of Incorporeal and Corporeal Substance Soul and Body Joyned together The Generality of the Ancient Fathers for neither of those Extreams That they did not suppose Angels to be perfectly Unbodied Spirits Evident from their affirming Devils as the Greek Philosophers did Demons to be Delighted with the Nidours of Sacrifices as having their Vapourous Bodies or Airy Vehicles refreshed thereby Thus Porphyrius and before him Celsus Amongst the Christians besides Origen Justin Athenagoras Tatianus c. S. Basil concerning the Bodies of Demons or Devils being Nourished with Vapours not by Organs but throughout their whole Substance Page 810 812 Several of the Fathers plainly asserting both Devils and Angels to consist of Soul and Body Incorporeal and Corporeal Substance Joyned together Saint Austine Claudianus Mamertus Fulgentius Joannes Thessalonicensis and Psellus who Philosophizeth much concerning this Page 812 814 That some of the Ancients when they called Angels Incorporeal understood Nothing else thereby but onely that they had not Grosse but Subtile Bodies Page 814 815 The Fathers though herein Happening to Agree with the Philosophick Cabbala yet seemed to have been led thereunto by Scripture As from that of our Saviour They who shall obtain the Resurrection of the Dead shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Equal to the Angels that is according to Saint Austine shall have Angelical Bodies From that of Saint Jude That Angels Sinning lost their Own Proper Dwelling-House that is their Heavenly Body called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Saint Paul which made them Fit Inhabitants of the Heavenly Regions and thereupon Cast down into the Lower Tartarus interpreted by Saint Austine to be this Caliginous Air or Atmo-Sphear of the Earth Again From that Fire said to have been Prepared for the Devils which being not to be taken Metaphorically therefore as Psellus concludeth Implies them to be Bodied because an Incorporeal Substance alone and not Vitally Vnited to any Body cannot be Tormented with Fire Page 815 817 Now if all Created Incorporeals Superiour to Men be Souls vitally Vnited to Bodies and never quite Separate from all Body then Probable that Humane Souls after Death not quite Naked from all Body as if they could Live and Act compleatly without it a Priviledge Superiour to that of Angels and proper to the Deity Nor is it at all Conceivable How Imperfect Beings could have Sense and Imagination without Bodies Origen Contra Celsum Our Soul in its own Nature Incorporeal alwaies Standeth in need of a Body suitable to the place wherein it is And accordingly Sometimes Putteth Off what it had before and Sometimes again Putteth On something New Where the following words being vitiated Origen's Genuine Sense restored Evident that Origen distinguisheth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul Translated Tabernacle from the Earthly House he understanding by the former a Thin Spirituous Body which is a Middle betwixt the Earthly and the Heavenly and which the Soul remaineth still clothed with after Death This Opinion of Origen's That the Soul after Death not quite Separate from all Body never reckoned up in the Catalogue of his Errours Origen not Taxed