have done conceiving it was intended by the word Spirit in this Place to signifie the Spirit of Life in Man which is one of the two Constituent Parts of his Person and by the ordinary figure of Synecdoche setting one Part for the Whole the word Spirit here seems to intend the whole Person So as under this Term of Spirit the Petitioners intended to recommend themselves or their whole Persons the one into the hands of his Father under whose Custody his Body as well as his Soul viz. his whole Person remained and was preserved without seeing Corruption until the Time and Hour of his Resurrection And I conceive St. Stephen's Prayer was made in a like Sense and to the same Purpose that our Lord 's was Mr. W. says further He does not know of any such Phraesed Petitions as these are put up by either of them or any other Person in Prayer but just at the Moment of dying I will therefore refresh his Memory by quoting to him and our Readers Psal 31.6 where the very same Words are used Into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of Truth For any thing that appears the Psalmist was in Health at the uttering of this Petition but withal in a state of great Trouble as the foregoing Verses testifie And it thence seems somewhat Clear to my Understanding that by these Words our Prophet did not intend to recommend to God's Protection his Spirit of Life or Seperative Soul only but that rather in those Words he intended to recommend to God's Care and Protection his whole Compositum of Soul and Body his Person or himself without having any particular or singular Respect to his Spirit of Life or Soul whatsoever the same might be Which seems may be somewhat moâ—e Cleared by a short Paraphrase Into thy hands O God I commend my self for thou hast redeemed me This I take to be the true Meaning of David's Words and I take the Prayers of our Lord and St. Steven to be of the same Import and that they have no such other Emphatical Signification as Mr. W. in this place endeavours to put upon them P. 80. he says If his Interpretation of those Words be true they clearly express the Souls Immortality I do not deny this but withal conceive that his Interpretation of these Words is not true as my fore-going Answers testifie and then I think no man can believe that they are a good Proof or any Proof at all for the Souls Seperate Subsistence P. 82. he says The Word Spirit here intends Seperate Soul and if it doth not mean so he desires to know what it doth mean And I have said before that it intends the whole Person of the Petitioner as it is a Compositum of Soul and Body Mr. W. farther demands What the word Spirit here means and whether it mean the Life of the Body Here I am at a loss what he means by the Life of the Body and if he doth not mean the Life of the Person he means that which hath no good Sense in it for the Body quatenus tale or divided from the Person hath no sort of Life in it as St. James tells us A Body without a Spirit is dead And therefore to mention the Life of the Body without a Figurative Intent inclines to the Nature of a Bull in such manner as if one should speak of the Life of a dead thing He then demands What Is it the dead Carcass the whole Mâ—n Body and Soul Putting them together as if the dead Carcass was the whole Man Body and Soul intending to confound these Terms and give to each of them an equipollent Signification as if the dead Carcass and the whole Man Body and Soul signified the same thing whereas I must divide them and say The dead Carcass signifies one thing and the whole Man Body and Soul or the Person signifies another thing and tho' the Carcass shall go to the Dust as it was yet the Person shall be preserved the good sleeping in Christ and the bad remaining under the Knowledge and Disposal of God until the times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord and the Trumpet shall sound and all Persons who have lived shall be raised and summoned to the Judgment of the Great Day And therefore from the Words as I have Expounded them I think the direct contrary to what he says that no good Argument can be raised from our first quoted Texts for proving his Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence The Ninth Argument PAge 83. Mr. W. quotes Rom. 10.11 And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteosness and if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your Mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you And he says upon this Text Methinks this Truth of the Souls Immortality doth very clearly shine in the Evidence of this Scripture I Answer That what shines so clearly to him I do not at all discover P. 84. Mr. W. proceeds in a long Discourse which I think rather confounds and misleads than opens and declares the Meaning of St. Paul's Words and yet I have no Intent to implicate my self with him upon that Subject especially in many Words P. 85. He raises an Exception out of St. Paul's Doctrine but I think it is out of his own Brain and Invention not perceiving that Paul thought of such an Objection nor that he makes or intends any Answer to it But Mr. W. himself both tells the Tale and gives the Answer And there he says further If you ask How comes the Soul thus to over-live the Body He Answers by a perplex'd Repetition of some other Words in the Chapter which he pretends to Expound as by an Old Rule Mala Expositio corrumpit Textum and then he draws out of that Exposition what I do not find in the Text but will not particularize for avoiding of Length and Confusion P. 86. Here he Propounds another Objection to St. Paul's Doctrine and says The Apostle was well aware of it and therefore gave it an Answer But I think he is mistaken in both not finding by the Text that St. Paul ever thought of it and therefore did not design to give it an Answer and specially such an Answer as Mr. W. in this Place hath done He proceeds and raises a Third Objection against St. Paul's Doctrine but doth not say the Apostle was aware of this or made any Answer to it but Mr. W's Invention and Construction are ready to give it a full Answer but not such an one as I am willing to Consent unto P. 87. Mr. W. says Having thus cleared up the Text by giving you its Meaning I proceed now to lay down my Argument to prove that the Soul of Man dieth not with the Body I Answer some
OBSERVATIONS UPON Mr. WADSWORTH's BOOK OF The Souls Immortality and his Confutation of the Opinion of the Souls Inactivity to the Time of General Resurrection 80. Printed London 1670. IN his Epistle to the Reader Page 2. he says There are certain sober Professors of Christianity who tho they deny the Existence of the Soul separate from the Body yet they maintain the Resurrection of the whole Man at the Last Day to receive Recompences according to their deservings in this life and thereupon asks the Question Is not that sufficient to uphold Religion and a due Reverence of God in the World In answer to which Question he says There are some Professors among us who deny the Resurrection of the Body as some of the Quakers are said to do but yet believe the Returning of the Spirit to God who gave it and then concludes That between one of these Opinions and the other all Recompences future to this life may come to be discredited and exploded Upon which his manner of arguing I observe That he seems to set up if not invent the Opinion of Denying the Resurrection of the Person and yet believing that Humane Spirits return to God who gave them Concerning which Opinion I say I never heard of the like before which makes me think it may be an Invention and the rather because he gives no better Confirmation of the Truth of it then that some of the Quakers are said to hold it whereas I rather apprehend the truth to be that neither the Quakers nor any other Christians ever did or do deny the Resurrection of the Dead and further I conceive that no reasonable man who reads and believes the Scriptures can deny or very much doubt the truth of that Prime Article of our Faith The Resurrection of the Dead and further I conceive That if the Souls Immortality had any thing near a like clear proof in Scripture that we find in it for the Resurrection of the Dead both I and all other Doubters of such Immortality would be ready to assent and submit to that Opinion whence I apprehend he pretends to set up that which he calls the Quaking Opinion on purpose to discredit and deâ—ery the Practice of mens setting up their rest and expectation upon the clear and undeniable Article of the Resurrection of the Dead But that Article is too well founded and too clearly evidenced by the Scripture to be shaken or brought in question by any Inventions of Men whatsoever Page 4. Mr. W. says Having sometimes found my own mind hopled and troublesomely intangled with the perplexity of conceiving how my Soul could possibly exist in a separate state from my Body to which I 〈…〉 so strictly united and with which I found it by experience so much so sympathize in this its union Thus he conâ—â—â—â— himself to have doubted of the Humane Soul 's Separate Subsistence adding That he believed divers others might be troubled with the like doubtings and his intent in writing this Book was to propound to them such Arguments as had satisfied the doubts of his own mind Hereupon I observe That this Author was by Profession a Minister of the Gospel as appears by the Title Page of his Book that he was a man of great Reading Wit and Industry as plainly appears in the tenour and course of his Writing that he was a true and sincere Professor of the Christian Religion and knew very well as in some places of this Book he testifies that the Primitive Christians and later Churches both Romish and Reformed the Mahometane Churches the Heathen Priests Poets and Philosophers and a great number of the Jews and Proselytes of that Church have professed with a great Unanimity and Universality to hold and believe the Natural Subsistence of the Humane Soul in a State of Separation from the Body and yet the Natural Evidences of the strict Union betwixt the Soul and Body and the necessary Assistance which the one of them gives to the other for the production of Life and Action in the Person appear'd so strong to the Rational Mind or Faculty of this Writer as they had power to make him doubt of the possibility or at least the probability of the Souls Natural Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body and hence I am apt to infer that if a Man framed de meliori luto so munited and assisted as this Writer was did fall into doubts concerning the Natural Subsistence of the Humane Soul in a state of Separation from the Body it seems nothing strange or wonderful that other persons less fortified should fall into the like doubts and scruples that he did without falling from the sincere Profession of the Christian Religion because perhaps they may recover from those doubts and errours wherein they are now involved and next because such Errour as may be in this Opinion seems meerly Speculative and to have little or no influence upon the Lives and Practices of Men however some may put a higher value thereupon then perhaps the thing it self may deserve for that it commonly seems to affect more the terror of the dying than the restraining evil persons from sinning and even at mens deaths it seems to lay more terrour upon the weak and fearful than upon the most sinful and wicked persons and in the practices of men it seems provable and granted by all parties that what will make a happy Immortality will likewise make a happy Resurrection and what will make the one miserable will make the other so too because the Tree lies as it falls and as Death leaves us so shall Judgment find us and therefore I conclude that if men do happen to fall under such scruples and do even doubt the Natural Subsistence of the Humane Soul in a state of Separation from the Body and for obtaining better satisfaction thereupon do declare such doubts and scruples to the world with the reasons and grounds upon which the same is founded they may not for their so doing really deserve to be black'nd with the Names and Titles of Epicure Sadducee Deist Atheist and other odious Epithets which men of eager Spirits do frequently use to bestow upon others who differ from them in any sort of Opinions which may be controverted amongst them and seems to be a practice very much opposing Charity and the Doctrines of the Gospel Page 5. Mr. W. saith His Mind in this Treatise is to confirm the faith of those who believe the Souls Immortality or to raise up those that are fallen into the doubts and scruples before mentioned of which sort he was informed there are not a few among the otherwise serious Professors of Christianity in England who notwithstanding such scruples might pass with our Author for good Christians who are to stand and fall by their Masters Judgment in such Cases without being subjected or subjecting themselves to the sharp Censures of other violent or uncharitable persons He says Besides such doubters there are other
to offer that Answer to his Question And more to entangle the Matter he propounds a New Question demanding If it were an Extasie what was the Nature of that Extasie I Reply I pretend not to be able to tell him the Nature of any Extasie Trance or Vision which may happen to Men because I suppose them to be super-humane Actions inexplicable from the known or common Principles of Humane Nature And therefore without farther Answer to his Question about the Nature of an Exâ—asie I profess to Believe that the Answer before given viz. That St. Paul was in a Trance at that time is enough notwithstanding his saying That it is not enough and that it will pass for a good Answer and Solution of his first Question upon which all the rest depends I do not pretend to make such Interpretations of difficult Scriptures as are likely to satisfie all Perusers but count it enough if thereupon I can satisfie my own Understanding As to my best Judgment I have done upon this Text without being afraid of Mens Censures of losing the Meaning of such a Dark Scripture instead of Interpreting it Mr. W. proceeds to say Till I hear a better Sense given of this Text of St. Paul than I have here given of it I will conclude from hence that the Apostle Paul doth imply that his Soul and so all other Mens Souls are whil'st in the Body of such a nature as may be seperated from the Body To this I Reply Our Author hath Power to take this Text of St. Paul in what Sense he pleases or thinks most reasonable as all other Readers may do and may thence Infer and Conclude as their Judgments or Affections or Prepossessions shall perswade them But I profess my self to conceive they build upon sandy Ground who draw that Inference from the Relation of St. Paul's Trance or any other Text quoted to prove Mr. W's Third Proposition That the Soul can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body Because I judge the Evidences by me produced and my Constructions upon his Texts do more clearly prove the contrary Mr. W's Fourth Proposition is that the Scriptures affirm That when the Body dies the Soul is actually seperated from it In Proof of which he quotes Eccl. 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Upon which he says It is most clear that by Dust is here meant the Body and by Spirit the Soul of Life in Man In which Construction I do not much differ from him but do easily Agree That by Dust here is meant the Body and that by Spirit is intended the Spirit of Life in Man And thereupon I Observe That these Words of Solomon are a single and transient Expression concerning a Subject not mention'd in the rest of the Chapter either before or after and without a particular Occasion given or offer'd to speak of the State of Souls after Death and seems to have something of a Chance in the delivery of it And as I find no Introduction to this Expression nor Occasion given to speak of a Rational or Intelligent Soul in Man so I do not perceive that they do either mention or intend the Spirit of Man to be such a Soul as Mr. W. pretends it to be Solomon was here treating concerning the Decays of Man's Life and recounts by what degrees Death makes its Approaches till at last it prevails over the Person and then the Dust returns to the Earth as it was and the Spirit returns to God who gave it And the Question upon this Text seems to be what is meant by the Term of the Spirit and what is meant of its Return to God who gave it Our Author says That by the Spirit is intended the Soul of Life And I think I differ not far from him when I say That by the Word Spirit is intended the Spirit of Life We know that Solomon had a careful Education under a pious Father and was endued with a strong Inclination to search out the Natures of Things and thence we may certainly Conclude that he had carefully perused the Patriarchal Book of Genesis and the other Mosaical Writings and there had found written Gen. 9.4 Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof shall ye not eat and surely the Blood of their Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the hand of every Man's Brother will I require the Life of Man Whoso sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed for in the Image of God made he Man Also Deut. 12.23 Thou mayest kill of thy Herd and of thy Flock in any of thy Gates only be sure that thou eat not the Blood for the Blood is the Life and thou mayest not eat the Life with the Flesh And Moses says cause that was the Life of the Creature There hath before been quoted God's breathing the Breath of Life into Adam's Nostrils and the breathing the Breath of Life into Adam's Nostrils and the breathing a like Breath into the Persons raised out of Ezekiel's dry Bones which caused Life in them all Gen. 6.7 God says I will destroy Man whom I have created from the face of the Earâ—h both man and beast Chap. 7.22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life upon the dry land dyed in the flood both Man and Beast were suffocated and drowned in the Waters of the Flood by stopping those Passages through which this Breath of Life should other ways have enter'd Dan 5 23. Thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold but the God in whose hand thy breath is thou hast not glorified Intending God in whose hand thy Life is such a Life as through the Power of God is produced and maintained by Breath and Breathing These Quotations seem to prove that the Spirit of Life in Man is a Compositum of Parts as well as his Body and that the Composition of such Spirit of Life required is of Blood and Breath The Blood and Humours of their Bodies and their Spirits are absolutely necessary for the Life of Man and Beast by maintaining and nourishing the glowing and yet lambent Flame of Life which acts their Organical Bodies and causes a continual Circulation of their Blood to that Purpose and no less necessary for the producing and maintaining of Life is that Breath which God first breathed into Adam and since hath communicated and continued to all his Posterity which have been procreated from that Time to this There passes a Principle of Life in Semine which by Fimentation Fermentation and Coagulation in loco idoneo arrives in its appointed time to a Vegetation and perhaps lives without Breath or Breathing or with very little Assistance thereof until Nature drive it forth into the open Air where after it hath once taken Breath it can by no means be kept alive for many Moments
without the requisite Refreshment of Respiration which perpetually must fan the Flame of Life for maintaining the same in a State of Purity Vigor and Activity And thus the Spirit of Life in Man and Beast appears to be a Compositum of the Breath of Life and the Blood of our Lives acting by inflamed Spirits of the Blood the whole Motion and Power of the Body and iâ—s Organs as well in Motions local as in the sensitive rational and affective Operations and Powers of the Person So as these Two Principles of Breath and Blood Material and Unintelligent tho' they be seem to effect and produce in the Creature both Life it self and all the Powers and Faculties thereunto belonging And this sort of Spirit in Composito is all the Spirit of Life which yet I am able to perceive to be in Man or Beast and this causes me to apprehend it must be Mortal And that as it was procreated and born with the Body so it must cease at death with the Being of the Person and be therewith raised again at the General Resurrection of the Dead Notwithstanding the Evidence which I have produced for the maintaining this Opinion I rest assured my Opposers will maintain That there must be another sort of Soul or Spirit in Man for producing and managing his super-excellent Faculties of Intellect and Memory because they cannot perceive or understand the Quomodo or Manner how this Material Soul compounded of Breath Blood and the Spirits of it acted by the Circulation thereof can possibly produce the Effects and Operations last specified I do not perceive that they very much boggle at the Opinion That these Ingredients may possibly produce Life Motion sensitive Faculties and Affections because they cannot with any good Face of Reason and therefore do not deny That by such a Material Compounded Spirit of Life the Brutes and all their Powers are daily and certainly enlivened acted supplied and supported And I think they are not well able to deny That the Spirit of Life by me propounded is the Causa sine qua non of Intellect Memory and whatsoever other Supream Faculties there are found in the Constitution or Nature of the Humane Person And thererfore I will not say much in the Proof thereof which our daily Experience sufficiently demonstrates our Sense of Seeing often proving to us that Men and Beasts by hanging strangling drowning or by other Suffocations or Stoppings of their Breath are soon delivered over to the Dominion of Death and thereby the Words of David are verified When thou takest away their Breath they die And therewith shall be finish'd my present Argument Whence I go on to enquire after Solomon's Meaning in the Words of this Text The Spirit returns to God who gave it I dare not and thefore I do not Affirm That Solomon intended this sort of Spirit which I have described to be truly that Spirit which he says Returns to God who gave it and with intent to give a Reasonable Account thereof I think fit to Premise that there are Two other Sorts of Souls or Spirits commonly taken notice of in the Learned World The First of which and the most taken notice of is that Sort Soul which is often spoken of and described by Mr. W. and his Party and which they say is an entire compleat intelligent Spirit acting the Organical Body whil'st it therein remains and specially the Kepheline Organs thereof producing eminently therein the high Faculties of Perceiving Understanding Judgment Will and Memory and they sâ—y that after the Departure of this Soul from the Person who thereby is dissolved it can subsiâ—t by it self in a Seperate State and therein move it self and have full Enjoyment of the fore-named Powers of Reasoning Acting and Thinking and that very soon after its Seperation from the Body it goes to God or before His Tribunal to receive his Intermediate Judgment upon the Acts done by the Person in his Life Time and that pursuant to the Sentence therein given such Souls are either accepted into Heaven and Happiness or that they are cast down to Hell to be there made Partakers of Eternal Sufferings and that they have Sense and Perception enough to take a full Taste of these great Differences To which the Romish Church Annexes That besides the Souls that go to these Two Places there are other Souls which are sent some to Limbus's Paterum aut Puerorum other to Paradise or Abraham's Bosom and others of which they think there are a great Number into the scorching Flames of a Purgatorial Fire where they must undergoe great yet Temporal Sufferings for expiating the Crimes of their Dead Persons and Purging away that Dross which they had contracted in the Bodies of their Persons upon Earth The Second sort of Soul whereof notice is taken by the Learned is supposed to have a different Original rising from an Opinion very antient in the World which was That the whole World it self was one immense Living Creature or Machine animated or acted by one universal Soul Spirit or Being which the old Philosophers termed some of them the Soul of the World and by others it was called the Spirit of Nature which they so both described as they appeared to intend an universal or infinite Spirit from whence or from whom all the Life and Motion found in the World was derived Some of those Learned said That all the Life of Grasses Flowers and Plants was derived from that Spirit or Being and that upon their Dying that Vegitable Spirit which before was in them return'd again to the Spirit of Nature from whence it first proceeded Others went not so deep but contented themselves to say That the Spirit of Life in all those Creatures which had spontaneous Motion proceeded from this Soul of the World or that universal Spirit or Being which Animated or Acted the same and they conceived that when such Creatures were duely fitted for the receipt of Life this universally knowing Spirit was moved by a Natural Congruity in the thing to emit from it self such Sparks and Particles as were parts of it 's own Being for the communicating and giving such a Spirit of Life to those Creatures as their Natures required and that when such Living Creatures Dyed those Sparks or Parcels of the Spirit of Life which they had before received return'd immediately back to the universal Spirit of the World as to the Fountain from whence they issued or as to that Totum of which themselves were but the small Sparks or Particles to which they were again joyned and were received into it as true and real Parts and Particles of the same This apprehension hath been of a long continuance in the World coming down from the Discourses of Ancient Philosophers to the time of the Divine Plato by whom it was Cultivated and Confirmed so as all his Doctrines and Writings seem to have reference thereunto and taste very strongly of that Opinion and all his Scholars were much addicted thereunto
Soul a Power of Thinking which being thus worded I deny my Assent thereunto But had he said That a Man feels or finds a Power of Thinking in himself I should have easily agreed with him in it He says The variety of Thoughts or Acts of Willing are the Soul's Motion I say They are Motions or Actings in the Mind of Man effected by acting the inflam'd Spirits of the Blood working in the Kepheline Organs in the which the Great Artificer GOD framed and placed them and to that Purpose gave them sufficient Power to perform such Actions when He created the Fabrick of the Humane Body and breathed into its Nostrils the Breath of Life whereby the Spirits of the Blood and Humours became inflamed for acting in a Body to such Purposes and by such an Excellent and Artificial Composition always to be continued by Respiration God's excellent Wisdom and Power did in the beginning produce these Workings amongst such Kepheline Organs and gave them in this Compositum Power to produce Perception Fantasie Judgment Will Memory Affections Local Motions and all other Powers or Faculties of the Humane Mind or Person whatsoever I know that upon reading of this Discourse Mr. W. and his Party will all cry out How can these things be That unintelligent senseless Materials working amongst or together with one another should be able to produce Life Sense Affections Perception Intellect Memory in the Person demanding of me on Account or Declaration how such things can with any Probability be effected by the working together of such Materials And I Answer That the Quomodo of such an Operation is a Speculation too sublime and curious for the Wit of Man to compass or obtain The Artifice of the Humane Machine cannot be throughly penetrated or discovered by the sublimest Wits amongst Men witness the doubtings both of Solomon and Aristotle discover'd in their Discourses upon the Points now in Question That God hath Wisdom and Skill sufficient to produce Intelligence by means of Material Operations seems true and something clear to my Understanding and but few of our Opposers do deny somewhat a like Artifice and Operation in the Brutal Nature They seem ready to Agree That God by his Wisdom and Skill used in the Fabrication of the Brutes hath in the beginning produced and doth still produce Life Motion Sensations Affections inward Perceptions Phantafie Choice and Memory by the Medium before described viz. The moving and acting of such Spirits of the Blood in the Kephaline and other Organical Parts of their Bodies without such an entire intelligent Spirit as Mr. W. will needs suppose to be in Man Daily Experience convinceth us That the Life Motions Sensations and Affections of the Brutes are as true strong vigorous and active as they are in Men altho' their inward Perceptions Phantasie Choice and Memory fall short of the like Faculties in Men by divers degrees or gradations which I think may very probably come to pass by the difference in their Kephaline Organs which are framed more aptly for such Purposes in Men than in Beasts Whence we may suppose the difference between them in this Point rises not so much from the diversity of the Spirits which move and act them as from the difference and degrees of Perfection amongst their Organs which are so to be acted For Illustration of which Position we may farther consider the Fabricks of their Bodies and thereupon we must find that Humane Bodies have Advantage above the Brutal in two Particular Members viz. their Hands and Tongue of which Members and their Activity if Humane Bodies were deprived they would be much more like the Beast that perish than now they are and yet Men do not use to Argue from these Bodily Advantages that their Flesh Blood Bones or Breath have a different Nature or Constitution from those of Beasts But People are generally content to say with Solomon That the Corporeal Constitutions of Man and Beast are of a Similar Nature and Constitution one of them with the other Whence it seems to me probable That although the Spirits Act with greater Perfection the Heads and Brains of Men than they do among Beasts yet that hinders not but that they may all be acted by Spirits of a Similar Nature one of them to another And thus Arguing I pretend to have shewn that the Minds of Men are more likely to be Acted by the Inflamed Spirits of the Blood and Brain than by an Intelligent Spirit created by God for that Purpose and yet it is still apparently true that Men are not able to give an Account of the Mode or Manner of the Production of such Powers in the Mind of Man by the Motions or Actings of those Spirits in his Brain that I conclude to be the Arcanum Opificis and that none other can tell or find out how the same is perform'd And hereupon I incline to rebut upon my Opposers with their own Argument and to demand of them How or by what means or after what manner their Intelligent Soul can or doth Move and Act the Body and the several Organs and Members thereof having found them all hitherto confessing that themselves do not know and therefore cannot declare to others the certain or likely Mode or Manner of that Performance and for their Souls being Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte I pass it for an Aenigma or Riddle conceiving there is no apparent Sense in that Expression nor any clear Truth to be drawn out of it P. 34. Mr. W. says That his the Soul can look upon one thing and think upon another of a quite different nature and that she can be in the noise of an Army and yet in a profound and blessed Peace She can cool the Blood in its greatest fervour of Lust P. 35. So that it is evident she hath an absolute Empire over the Body and all its Parts and is not constrain'd in her Motions by them but they are all at her Command and move by her Direction Hereunto I Reply That so much as is true of what he says the Soul can do may be most properly predicated of the Man and not of the Soul which alone can do no such things as he speaks of Next for the absolute Monarchical Power which he ascribes to the Soul over the Person I think he is in an Errour about it Rom. 7.15 That which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. Ver. 17. And that it is not I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me Ver. 18. To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not for the good I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do and it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me I delight in he Law of God after the inward Man but I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind
He quotes again Annotations of the Assembly of Divines in the Rump-Parliament time for his purpose without telling us what they say upon it and for want of their Annotations I know not what they say of it And if I did I should not be much moved by their Authority except they give better Reasons for their Opinion than Mr. W. hath yet done P. 49. Mr. W. Arguing says The Soul of Man or the Spirit or the Breath of Life in Man Liveth in and with the Body and yet Dieth not with the Body And this he says needs Proof And so do I say too And he offers to prove it by saying That whose Life dependeth not on the Body must not Die when the Body Dieth but the Souls Life depends not on the Body Therefore it must needs not Die when the Body Dieth And the Reason why he says the Souls Life depends not upon the Body is because God made it a Spirit of Life to give Life to the Body and not to receive any Life from it I Answer If this Arguing be not that which Men call Petitio Principii or begging the Question I know not what is We are now disputing Whether Adam had an Intelligent Soul Created for him at first or not and whether such a Soul have a Seperate Subsistence after the Death of the Person And in both these Points he maintains the Affirmative and pretends to prove the Seperate Subsistence by its being a Created Intelligent Spirit made by God for Adam at the first And thus proves one Controverted Point by another as highly Controverted as it self and which I conceive his offers in this Argument do very weakly and insufficiently prove P. 50. He observes out of Moses's Text That it says nothing of the Body's Life before God breathed into him a Spirit or Soul of Life as Mr. W. will have it tho' the words of our Bible expresly call it The Breath of Life And I so far agree That Adam's Body had not Life till this Breath of Life or this Breath causing Life was breathed into it but that from thence he began to Live and became a Living Person Thus far we are at Agreement His next two or three Pages are spent in Proof of the Souls Immortality drawn from the two before-mentioned Topicks viz. That the Soul is an Intelligent Spirit and was newly Created by God for Adam and next that it is such a Spirit as can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body And thereupon I say That if he or any that is of his Opinion can convince with some clearness That God Created such an Intelligent Soul for Adam as can Subsist Act and Suffer in a State of Seperation from the Body he shall need to make no further Proof to me of the Souls Immortality because if the former be true I have no Inclination or Intention to dispute the later And therefore I pass over what he says to that purpose and shut up my Observations upon this Argument with the fore-mentioned Conclusion That Mr. W.'s Arguments therein produced to prove the Creation of an intelligent Soul or Spirit for Adam at the first are infirm invalid and little convicning to such understanding as I have been able to imploy in the perusal of them Second Argument PAge 54. Mr. W. quotes The History of Saul's going to the Witch of Endor Relating the words spoken to her by him I pray thee divine to me by the familiar Spirit and bring me him up whom I shall name unto thee And she desiring to know who that Him was which she should bring up Saul told her it was Samuel Upon this Text Mr. W. thus Comments That Saul by this demand must need intend the bringing up of Samuel's Soul to Discourse with him and from thence Collects That the Jews of that Age held the same Opinion which he now maintains concerning the Souls Seperate Subsistence after the Death of the Person To which I Reply That this Collection seems in a great part to arise from his own Inclination to have it so and his Imagination thence arising that it is so for if I were imploy'd to Collect from this History I should conceive That Saul's Head was other ways imployed at that time than to consider what that was which he desired to be brought up whether it should be a Spirit a Body or a Person or an Appear-Dance only and not a real Being I conceive his Head was not troubled about such Speculations but his whole Design was by the Witches means to get knowledge what the success of his Affairs should be in a time when he was greatly distressed It seems to have been the Practice of divers Ages to fore-tell Actions past and future Successes by raising up and consulting with the Dead and from this Practice they had amongst other Titles the Name of Necromancer bestowed upon them This Practice of Magicians and Witches hath been long taken notice of in the World and it seems by Saul's Demand made to the Woman he had heard or otherwise knew something thereof and desired by the Witches means thus to consult the Dead and particularly Samuel as the most knowing amongst them and from such a Collection I conceive it doth not appear what Saul or the Jews of his time thought concerning the Seperate Subsistence of Souls We meet with divers Relations of Appearances made and contrived by the Art of Magicians of later times but never yet heard of raising an Argument from thence to prove the Estate or Condition of departed Souls nor do I conceive this Argument hath any strength in it to that purpose and therefore I pass over Mr. W.'s other Expressions used in this Argument with this further Observation that he raised the Argument out of this History with intent to reach as high a time as was possible for producing any sort of Evidence or raising any manner of Argument which might be brought or drawn to touch the Seperate Subsistence of Souls and this as the highest pitch of time that he could reach he chose to make use of for that purpose fulfilling therein the Old Proyerb Willing Persons will rather play aâ— small game then sit out The Third Argument PAge 57. He says He is struck with wonder to hear Men assert That the Soul and Body of a Man Die together and are both Buried in one Grave My Opinion is somewhat otherwise worded expressing I think it probable that when Respiration fails and the Person dies the Flame of Life is Extinguished which doth not intend a being Buried or a Going any whither not finding cause to agree with Solomon's Expression of going upward or downward and if Mr. W. doth really wonder at this conception I make no Argument of it and shall only thereunto Answer I cannot help it P. 58. The Soul or Breath of Man was Breathed into Adam by an act of Creation This I have all along deny'd and continue to do so because I think Mr. W. hath hereto
failed in the Proof of it He hopes his Adversaries will not be such Blasphemers as to deny the truth of Solomon's Words The Spirit returns to God who gave it Concerning which Words I have before fully declared my Conceptions and have no design to repeat them again here Further he quotes again Eccl. 3. as if Solomon there said That when Man dieth his Body goes one way and his Spirit another and whether he quotes this Text truly shall be left to Judgment Then Mr. W. puts an Objection against himself Supposing some may say If all Souls return to God that gave them the Souls of the Wicked do so too and he grants that so they do and for solution of this Objection he says That tho' God be in his highest Heavens and keep his Sessions there yet there are some other parts of the Heaven where he keeps a particular Sessions to which Evil Spirits may approach as they did in Micaiah's Vision where God may pass Sentence upon the Souls of the Wicked without bringing them into Heaven and he thinks God hath a glorious Presence in the lower Heavens with his Angels and that there he doth Transact many Affairs relating to the Government of this World and quotes for this the Devils Appearance in the Case of Job and says If Devils may appear before God so may the Souls of the Wicked do too In Answering I declare to agree with his last Expression That if there be Seperate Souls of Wicked Men Subsisting by themselves they may appear before God as his quoted Texts testifie Devils have done but I demand as clear Texts and Testimonies of Scripture for the appearing of wicked Souls before God as are quoted for the appearing of Devils before him But he brings not one Text to Prove that he saith Truth concerning the appearing of wicked Souls before God And I confide that no one Text of Scripture can be brought which gives an Assertory Testimony of that Fact or says there was ever such a thing done in the World And for what he says of God's keeping his Sessions of Judgment sometimes in Heaven and sometimes in other particular Parts of Heaven I am apt to demand Proofs thereof from Texts of Scripture but he brings not one to this purpose And therefore I think it may be concluded that these several Sessions of God for Judgment are but a Device of his own Brain which hath no real Truth in it And thus by Mens Devices they strive to heal cover and confirm their Erroneous Opinions which I look upon as a great Fault in a good Man But notwithstanding those Humane Inventions I am apt to conclude that if the good Souls go to God for Judgment in Heaven that bad Souls do also somewhat evidently do the like Solomon says The Soul returns to God who gave it The Soul returns are Words that intend indefinitely and seem therefore equivalent to an Universal and signifie as much as if it had been said All Souls return to God who gave them And this Sense of the Words our Author hath lately granted Whence I conclude that as God says All Souls are mine which I think intends Persons so all Souls are intended to return to God who gave them as well and as much the Bad as the Good for any thing that I can perceive either in the words of the Text or any thing that is true in our Author's Discourse of it P. 60. He puts a Second Objection against this Opinion which I think he doth set up as a Man of Straw that he may have the battering of it down again He pretends some say that he hath indeed proved the Soul and Body to be seperated at Death and that one of them goes to one Place and the other of them goes to the other Place but that he hath not yet proved the Soul to live in that State of Seperation Hereupon I observe That after he hath said The Soul and Body are seperated at Death he adds That they go to two different Places Which Saying I think the Text doth not warrant for it doth not say that either of them go to any Place And first we may be sure a dead Body cannot go any whither The Text says It returns to the Earth as it was and of which before it received Life it was a Part So for the Spirit the Text says It returns not goes to God who gave it I have before offer'd an Apprehension That Solomon might intend this Spirit returned to God in a natural and easie manner as a Part doth to its Totum and the Parcels of Air or Water return to and incorporate with their Elements and that as the Body returns to the Earth as it was and as a Part doth to its Totum so the Spirit returns to God from whom it came and of which I suppose Solomon might think it to have been a Part But I grant That if the Soul in our Author's Sense do go to God after Death then the Objection which says he did not prove it alive in a seperate State is vain and frivolous and may easily be overthrown without putting our Author to the Trouble of Defending his Opinion against it In the Close of this Argument Mr. W. asks What hath the Living God to do with dead Spirits And I say so too and therefore grant that if the Intelligent Seperate Spirit of a Man be dead it can with no Propriety or Truth be said to Return to God who gave it P. 61. Mr. W. says So I shut up this Third Argument and with it my Proofs from the Old Testament And concerning these Threee Arguments I say the First is measurably Confuted the Second is Disregarded and the Third is otherways Expounded and in such a manner as Opposes Mr. W's Pretensions thereupon The Fourth Argument PAg. 61. Mr. W. quotes here that Text of Scripture whereby the Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence is principally supported and upon which it is with a great measure of Clearness grounded and which arises near unto an Assertion that the thing is so and I think Mr. W. doth from thence rightly Argue That if the Soul cannot be killed by killing the Body or Person it seems to be a reasonable Inference drawn from this Text to Argue That the Soul must needs have a Seperate Subsistence of its own after the Death of the Person And further Mr. W. observes well the Reason why our Lord deliver'd this Doctrine to his Disciples viz. To encourage them against the Fears of such Persecutions as were likely to fall upon them in the Prosecution of their great Duty the Preaching of the Gospel encouraging them not to sear what Harm Men could do unto them upon that account because Men could only kill the Body intending the Person but were not able to kill the Soul or lay any other sort of real Punishment upon Men after their departure out of this world P. 62. Mr. W. produces an Argument which I think
he rightly terms an Absurd One for he pretends there are some that say That the Soul may die when the Body dieth though it be not slain when the Body is killed To this I say I am none of those who so Argue nor did I ever yet meet with a Writing or Person that did so Next he produces another Objection of some who he supposes may say That the killing of the Soul here may intend that they cannot kill it for ever All I can say to this is That if any Man or Men have so Argued they are not at all of my mind who do not intend to make or offer any such Arguments P. 63. Mr. W. sets down an Objection offer'd against the Text of St. Matthew in the Words Are not able to kill the Soul from Luke 12.4 Be not afraid of them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do He says He hath kown some very confidently affirm that there is no Force in St. Matthew's Text because that of St. Luke delivers the same Doctrine of our Lord in Words from which no clear Argument can be deduced for the Soul 's Seperate Subsistence I say I do not Affirm in that manner viz. That there is no proving Force in St. Matthew's Text because St. Luke differs from him in relating the Words of our Lord's Doctrine But yet I own my self to think that from the manner of Wording this Doctrine of our Lord in these two Texts a strong Objection may be rais'd against the absolute Authority of St. Matthew's words in this Point Upon the Consideration and comparing these two Texts one with the other the only Variance between them is in the Words of St. Matthew's Are not able to kill the Soul compared with those of St. Luke Have no more that they can do for that in the following Words where Matthew says Fear him who is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell and those which Luke mentions Fear him who after he hath killed hath power to east into Hell I conceive the Difference to be small or none at all They both begin our Lord's Doctrine in the same Words Fear not them that kill the Body where they both speak figuratively And I therefore believe our Lord himself did so but I say the Body in this place must needs intend the Person or the Compositum of Soul and Body together for that our Sense and Reason sufficiently assures us That what is dead cannot be killed but the Body without the Soul or Spirit of Life is dead And therefore the Body taken singly or not acted by the Spirit of Life is a dead Body and therefore cannot be killed Whence I infer that when our Evangelists speak of killing the Body they must certainly intend the same as if they had said Cannot kill the Person And hence I Collect That when St. Matthew speaks of casting the Soul and Body into Hell he intends casting the Compositum of them both or the Person into Hell St. Luke words it thus Who after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell I think this intends as much as if he had said Hath Power to cast the Person into Hell so as it seems the Sense of both our Evangelists is the same both in the Premises and in the Conclusion of this Doctrine and the Variance between them lies as before hath been said in the Words Are not able to kill the Soul of St. Matthew and the Words Have no more that they can do of St. Luke If we shall consider the proper Intent of both these Texts we must find it to be as Mr. W. says The encouraging of our Lord's Disciples not to fear the Persecution of Men for the doing of their Duty but rather to fear God who can punish and reward after Death as well as in this Life And the Texts of both our Evangelists Agree punctually to that Intent in delivering Words of the same Importance and to the same Intent and Purpose But then if Mr. W. or any other Person will draw out of them Proofs of any other Collateral thing which is not properly within the Intent of our Lord's Doctrine I conceive they speak and may intend differently concerning that Collateral Point which Men may design to prove by them It seems somewhat clear to my Understanding St. Matthew's Words prove his Opinion to be That Humane Souls have a Life and Subsistence in a state of Seperation from the Body and I conceive that in his Text he worded our Lord's Doctrine according to his own Opinion of the thing We find that St. Luke hath worded it in a different and varient manner so expressing our Lord's Doctrine as that he gives no ground for proving the Souls Seperate Subsistence from his Text which in the whole Tenour of it doth not name the Soul And therefore upon this difference I think it needful to enquire or demand What were the very precise Words wherein our Lord deliver'd this Doctrine If St. Matthew hath rightly worded this Doctrine then it is a strong Proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence The most substantial and nearest to an Affirmative of any that the Bible affords us but if St. Luke hath rightly worded our Lord's Doctrine then was there in that Doctrine no Proof at all of a Souls Seperate Subsistence nor any thing said in it whereby that Opinion can be maintain'd I do not pretend to determine any thing concerning this Point but am ready to Argue that there lies a Probability for St. Luke's Text against that of St. Matthew The Point in Question concerning the Seperate Subsistence is as was said collateral to the Intent of our Lord in this Doctrine who it seems did not here mean to teach any thing which might direct Mens Judgments in that Collateral Point which remains utterly unmentioned in the Text of St. Luke This moves me to apprehend That the putting it into St. Matthew's Text grew from his own Opinion of the thing rather than from the Words which our Lord then delivered The intent of our Lord seems plain in both those Texs and therein what hath been said seems true they are at a perfect Agreement between themselves and we find no intention of meaning in our Lord to speak or teach any thing about the Souls Seperate Subsistence and therefore I surmise it came into St. Mathew's Text by Accident and Sprung rather from his own Opinion than from our Lords Doctrine or the Words and Expressions thereof Secondly I say That St. Matthew was by Profession and Practice a Publican a Trade which no Man of Quality or Learning amongst the Jews of that time would indure to Practice whence Matthew might more easily fall into the Opinion appearing in his Text. That Souls did Live and Subsist after the Departure and Death of the Person But of St. Luke we read That he was a Learned Man and a Physician and Paul from whose Mouth he is said to have
them when they had lived under the Discipline of Earthly Rewards and Punishments than they had in succeeding and later Ages when the Opinion of the Souls Immortality began to be received and spread amongst them and therefore it seems there is not that need of his Opinion concerning the Souls Seperate Subsistence as he by this Discourse pretends to make Men believe Mr. W's second Chain of Absurdities P. 128. He says His Opposers pretends the Spirit of Life in Man or his Soul to be but a fine Temperament of Moisture Air and Fire very near of Kin and sutable to the Temperament of the Body and this he says is very consistent with their Principles and I agree that what he says is true in this Point This Mr. W. opposes by saying First If things were so then Adam's Soul might have been created of the Dust as well as his Body I reply not so but there was required Moisture Air and Fire to suppie and actuate that Dust of which his Body was framed which brought the steems of Life in the Body to such a ripeness and pullulation as by the breathing a Breath of Life into him became instantly inflamed and by Respiration must every Moment be fanned by that Breath which continues in Man's Blood and Humours and the Spirits thereof that flame and glowing whose total Extinguishment is the death of the Person and this by want of Respiration become instantly suffocated and extinguished which as hath been said is the death of the Person P. 129. He says He hath opened in his first Argument what this breathing into Man intends and refers his Readers thither again for the Knowledge of it and I refer again unto the Answer thereunto given Secondly He says That such a Soul as his Opposers believe is subject in its parts to Division Dissipation and Corruption which I agree to him Mr. W. says That from thence it will follow that all God's Threats denounced against Sinners is but to keep those inflam'd Particles of the Blood in order but I say Those Threats are pronounced to keep Mens Persons and their Actions in such a regular Order and that the Reports and Belief of the Day of Judgment are effectual upon the Persons of Men whose Bodies will then be as able to indure the Fire as their Souls Another Secondly Mr. W. says That such a Temperament of Soul cannot offend God because it is Material and Senseless and this I agree to him and say That it is neither the Body nor the Soul singly that doth or can offend God but it is the Compositum of these made Intelligent or the Person made Intelligent which can and doth too often offend God and by Mr. W's Pretence in this place he seems to insinuate That God cannot produce Intelligence by his wise Commixture of Material Agents and Patients which hath before been disputed and I have declared my self thereupon that God can produce Intelligence by a most Wise and Artificial commixture of Material Agents and Patients acted by Motion which must be continually supplied from Nutriment which God out of the ambient World and Air hath continually produced in abundance for that purpose and when by Famine or want of Nutriment it draws no supplies the Persons who suffer it die in multitudes P. 130. Mr. W. repeats That our sort of Material Soul cannot love or fear God nor understand what it self doth which is a thing which I have all along granted and asserted as I do here agreeing that such things are not comportant either with the Soul or Body but with the Person only P. 131. He pretends that there is something in Man that is the principal Seat of Regeneration This I oppose by saying as before That the whole Man or Person is so and not only part of his Compositum singly taken What he says more flows out of the abundance of his own Heart and seems to me to be very groundlesly spoken Fifthly Mr. W. says That the Contentions between the Flesh and Spirit in Man cannot be maintained by the Natural difference between a Material Soul and the Body wherein it resides I agree this to him Answering That all these Contests between the Flesh and Spirit signifie no more than that continual War which Men feel in themselves between the Power of Reason in their Minds and the Lustful Desire of their Affections and Passions Aristotle tells us There is no end of this War but Death and no certainty which shall obtain a clear Victory till that time and when St. Paul says that these War against the Soul the word Soul must there be intended to signifie the Person or the good of the whole Man and yet I do agree what he after says to be true That the Rational and Affective Faculties spring both from the same Root or Composition of Mankind and are both supported by the same Breath and Nourishment and yet the Faculties themselves are different and are commonly at strife one with another and as we daily see Love and Hatred Joy and Sorrow subsisting together in one same Person Mr. W's Philosophical Absurdities which he says flow from the Opinion of the Souls Materiality P. 132. He says If the Soul be Material it will follow that Mens faculties of Reason Intellect and Memory are seated in a Corporeal Elementary Substance but it is very evident says he That none of these faculties can be immediately seated in any Corporeal Elementary Substance answering I deny the Evidence of what he says but apply all these Faculties to the Person in which they all certainly are produced by the wisdom of God acted by Motion and supported and continued by Nourishment and Breath and therefore the Spirit of Life in Man may be Material notwithstanding Mr. W's asserting the contrary P. 133. Mr. W. says These Faculties cannot be acted by a Material Substance but he finds these Faculties in himself and therefore they must be acted in Men by a Spiritual Substance This seems to intend that when Men cannot attain to know the reason by which or the manner how strange things are done they are apt to fly to the refuge of Spirits for the doing of them an erroneous course which hath been very often used in the World but I refuse to Mr. W. the use which he pretends to make of it in this Argument and do assure that I receive no manner of conviction from it P. 135. Mr. W. says I find a power in me of Sensation as Seeing Hearing ctc. but none of these Faculties are seated in a Substance purely Elementary I demand then how come the Brutes by these which they have in as great perfection as Men have them He thinks no Man will say it is possible to make a Sensible House by all the Art that Men can use about it and this I grant but if Men should say it is possible for God to make a Sensible House I should have no Inclinations to deny it believing that to be altogether as
I think that the purity and force of such Spirits may be very conducing to the perfect performance of the Faculty and yet can act no farther than the Bodily Organ is in its own State and Nature capable of whence there is a dependance of the Faculty both upon the Spirit and upon the Organ But I think that the Differences which we find amongst Mens Faculties of this Nature wherein there are great Degrees of Perfection and Imperfection do more depend upon the soundness and fitness of the Organ than upon the different Degrees of Activity amongst the Spirits of them And if we shall ascend to the consideration of the Humane Intellect we may find that the acting and perfection thereof lies in and by the Brain and that the Phantasie lies principally or only in the fore-part of the Head the Judgment or Esteemative Faculty in the middle of it and the Memory in the back part thereof whence if there happen any defect or crasiness in any of these Faculties or Powers of Intellect Physicians both do and ought to apply their Medicines for the recovery of them to the Organs or parts of the Head which are the proper Instruments of such Faculties If the Phantasie be disordered the Remedies thereof must be apply'd to the fore-part of the Head or the Fore-head if the Judgment be craz'd such Remedies must be apply'd to the middle part of the Head and if the Memory fail application for the Recovery thereof must be made to the back part of the Head and if Medicines for the Recovery of the Phantasie be apply'd to the back part of the Head they will be ineffectual to that purpose and so e contra if Men will apply Remedies to the back part of the Head for recovering the disorders of the Phantasie Men of indifferent Skill can make shrewd guesses concerning the largeness and perfection of those Faculties by Seeing Feeling and perusing the Dimensions and Fashonings of Mens Heads If Mens Fore-heads be large and high they may reasonably be thought to be of large Phantasies and Inventions and if the back part of the Head be likewise large and something protuberant in the lower parts of it tending towards the Neck we may guess the Owner of that Organ to have a capacious and strong Memory and concerning the Judgment we may think that the largeness of the whole Head if it be well fill'd and without any empty Spaces in it is a great sign of a good and sound Judgment in those Persons to whom God hath given such an Organ and from these Topicks I am ready to inferr that the perfections of the Intellect depend more upon the Soundness and Gapacities of the Organs than upon the Excellencies and Perfection of the Spirit which acts them and yet the Power and Purity of such Spirits must be still admitted to have a great effect in the Production and in the Degrees of Perfection in this Operation If we shall particularly consider the Nature of that we call the Spirit of Life in Man we may perhaps find it subject to divers Diseases and Infirmities as well as we know the Body and the Organs to be and of what sort soever we shall imagine this Spirit of Life to be daily Experience may assure us that it oftentimes finds help and remedies against the Disorders and Diseases thereof by good Air wholsome and regular Diet good Company Musick or Harmony freedom from Cares and other Easements and Satisfactions to the Minds of Men as well as by Medicines and Helps administred by the Physicians in divers Cases And thus have we run through and considered divers weighty particulars concerning the Bodily Organs and the Minds of Men with intent to apply the same to the two sorts of Souls or Spirits which are now in dispute between us and have shewed that the Perfections of Humane Powers both Sensitive and Rational do more depend upon the Aptitude and Capacity of the Bodily Organs than upon that Spirit which gives Life and Motion to them and next that the Humane Mind or Spirit of Life in Man is capable of Melioration and Detriment by many such Accidental Things as I have before enumerated and express'd and from all these Premisses I am very apt to collect that if the Spirit of Life in Man were an Intelligent Seperable and Extraneous Being things could not reasonably fall out in the Nature of Man as they have before been declared commonly to do but if this Spirit which gives Life to Man be taken for a Fire yet Material and Unintelligent Spirit all that hath before been spoken concerning the Bodily Organs and the Spirit or Mind of Man will fall out to be very agrecable and homogenious to the Nature of such a Spirit and to the whole composition of the Humane Person And hence I take upon me to infer that the Spirit of Life in Man is more likely to be Material and Unintelligent than to be such a sort of Intelligent and Self-subsisting Spirit as Mr. W. and his Party maintain the same to be A Third Objection against Mr. W's Opinion I take a Simily and raised from Mens Experience and the common Consideration of the Brutal Nature Our daily Experience assures us that by whatsoever Spirits the Brutes are acted they fully enjoy the Powers of Life and Sense and some such measures of Intellect as gives them a Sagacity sit to attain and accomplish the ends of their Beings altho ' in the Degrees thereof they fall very much below such Perfections of them as are found in Men by Vertue and Power of the Vital Spirits in Brutes working in and among the Organs of their Bodies their Animal Nature attains to as great a Perfection as the Humane Nature doth as far as concerns the Vegitation and Sensation of them both For the Brutes live as well and as naturally and as much as the Men do And next their Motions are as strong vigorous and active as those of the Men are in both the sorts of Motions which are common to them First their I ward Motions of Heart Lungs Bowels and other their Principal and Vital Entrals which Sort of Motion we may term Involuntary because the Men or Beasts can give no stoppage to them but waking or sleeping in sickness and in health such Motions are natural and needful for maintaining Life in the Creature in whose power it is not to stop or alter them And this sort of Motion is needful for and as active amongst Beasts as Men. The other sort of Motion is that which Men call Local or Voluntary such as that of the Hands Feet Head and other Members of the Body which the Creature can use or not use at its own liking and pleasure and we find that the Motions of Brutes in this kind are as vigorous nimble and strong as those of the Men are Then if we proceed to the power and practice of their outward Senses as of Seeing Hearing Feeling c. Experience will
convince us that divers Brutes attain to as great Perfection in the use of such Senses as the Generations of Men do and some Brutes exceed the Humane Powers in the Practice and Use of some of these Senses And if we then consider the Humane Affections of Lust Wrath and Fear we may find that the Brutal Nature is as full of these Affections as the Humane and that the Beasts have them in as great vigor violence and perfection as Men have them And lastly if we rise to consider the Power of Intellect we may find that Brutes injoy the true and real use of Phantasie Choice and Memory so far as is Needful for the well being of their Natures tho' in a weak measure and very low degree if we compare such Faculties of theirs with such as may be found in that kind amongst the highest ranks of Men or such of them as have attain'd to great degrees of Improvement in their Faculties of that kind It may be that if we shall compare the most Stupid amongst Men with the most Sensitive amongst Brutes as with the Elephant Ape Horse Dog and Fox it may be found that some of these Creatures are more docible and may be made more knowing than some of the most stupid amongst Men so that by their Teachers Eye or Continuance or their Voices they have been made to act and perform divers things which caus'd Admiration in the Beholders and such as it would be hard to teach the stupidest Persons amongst Men to perform in such manner as Beasts have been known to do them There appears between the Brutal and Humane Nature and Composition very great differences and that the Men have many advantages above the Beasts in those Parts and Members which appear outwardly to the Eye First in the Members of their Hands and Tongue and the genuine and natural uses of them both and next in the natural and upright posture of the Humane Body and the placing of the Head thereupon all which give great advantages to the Humane above the Brutal Bodies and gives them such capacities of acting as are deny'd to all Brutes whatsoever and it seems we may reasonably suppose that there may be the like great advantages in the inward Organs of Humane above those of the Brutal Heads and whereby the Humane are made more capable of performing the great Duties of their Intellect then the Brutal Creatures have Capacities to do and yet we find these Differences do not hinder the persons of Men from being ranked amongst the Animal Kind the prime Ingredients into whose Composition are the same Flesh Blood Bones Breath Nerves Arteries Veins Joynts Sinews and Members which go to the Composition of them both And Experience may convince us that the Lives of them all are in their Blood or that Blood is the life of them and by the particles of such Blood inflamed called the Spirits of their Blood they are all inlivened and acted alike altho' by the Structure of their Bodies and the Perfection of their Organs to some purposes the Humane Nature have very great advantages above the Brutal and these are the main Differences which I have yet been able to find between the two Natures before-mentioned and I am hence so far convinced as to conceive that there is no such great and apparent Differences between that sort of the Spirit of Life which acts the Brutes and that sort of Spirit which acts the Men as heretofore hath generally been believed but the Spirits which act Life in them both are of a more similar Nature than Men have formerly imagined them to be and from this Argument I am ready to conclude that the Humane Spirit of Life hath a great agreement with that of the Brutal and therefore I think it more probable to be a Material Unintelligent Spirit than that it should be an Intelligent created extraneous Spirit made by God for each Man at the time of his Procreation and injected into the Embrion at some incertain or unknown time which yet remains unperceived or undeclared to us and which if it shall be made better known may deserve to be further examined amongst us Upon these three last Arguments drawn from the Animal Nature and Humane Experience my first doubtings concerning the Seperate Subsistence of souls were founded after I had held out in the old Opinion until my Age of Sixty Three-Years and my doubting caus'd me to search the Scriptures concerning that Point and there I found no Concurrence of Scripture Texts which were brought as Evidences thereof and not so much as one Text that was clear in the affâ—mâ—nce of it except that of St. Matthew's saying Are not able to kill the Soul Next that neither that Saying nor any other Text produced for proof of that Point had a principal 〈…〉 teach or prove the Souls Seperate Subsistence 〈…〉 the Texts produced for the proof of that Opinion 〈…〉 livered in a collateral manner and are brought â— by without Mens being able to make it appear 〈…〉 of the Texts produced to that purpose did 〈…〉 tend to declare or prove the now questioned 〈…〉 the Souls Seperate Subsistence I found also that all their Texts from whence the consequential proofs which they make are drawn might receive reasonable and I think sufficient Answers which I have endeavour'd to apply to them in this Treatise and have satisfy'd my own Understanding in them all and how far they will appear reasonable to the Readers thereof I am willing to leave to such Experimental Tryals as may be made upon the Judgments of such Persons as may happen to peruse the Treatise and to the Candor and Indifferent Censure of such Readers I am willing to submit my self and all that I have spoken in this Treatise and concerning this Subject AFter Mr. Wadsworth 's finishing the Treatise before considered he super-adds thereunto and subjoyns to it a Declamatory Discourse which he intitles Faith's Triumph over the Fears of Death which is not much less in bulk than his Treatise before answered Vpon the Perusal thereof I find his Triumphal Arch principally founded the one end of it upon the Souls Seperate Subsistence and the other end upon the Souls going to Heaven immediately after Death both which I conceive to be Precarious Assumptions I am sure not granted by his Opposers and I believe not sufficiently proved by his Arguments I find that in this Discourse he repeats a third time the four Texts of Scripture which he thinks do most strongly prove his Opinion viz. Solomon's return of the Spirit to God who gave it St. Matthew's Are not able to kill the Soul St. Luke 's Parable of Dives and his Relation of the Thiefs Conversion on the Cross I acknowledge my self averse from making often Repetitions of the same things and therefore do refuse to follow his Example or Practice in this Point but rather make choice to refer my Reader to such Answers as are before given to these Arguments in those
therefore were received up into higher Regions and Places where they enjoyed such Happiness and Powers of Acting as far exceeded the most Happy State upon Earth This Opinion of Plato found great Credit amongst the Learned Persons which came after him and particularly in the Heathen and Christian Schools of Alexandria as appears by the Writings of Origen and Pantenus who were Christian Doctors and Teachers in those Schools at Alexandria and this Opinion seems to have been also spread amongst the Nation of the Jews and Proselytes of their Churches because that when St. Matthew comes to relate our Lords Doctrine and Direction rather to fear God than Men for that God can punish men after Death which is not in the power of men to do he words it thus Fear not men because they can only kill the body but cannot kill the soul Which plainly proves it to be that Apostles Opinion That the Soul might have and had a natural Subsistence in a State of Seperation from the Body and that his believing the Truth of this Doctrine was the Cause why he worded our Lord's Direction in this Point as we find him to have done in the Text before quoted By what hath been said before it appears clearly we do not charge the Opinion of the Souls Immortality with being the Product of Mens idle Brains or Fancies grounded upon their own Desires of having it pass'd for an establish'd Truth for we have shewed and agree'd That the same is grounded in a learned Antiquity and very great Authority whence it hath grown to be the most general and near the universal Opinion of Mankind which having been so entertain'd Mothers and Nurses have instill'd the same into the Minds and Learning of their tender Infants who by Fathers and Masters are after farther confirmed in this so early radicated Opinion which is after farther illustrated and prov'd to them from Pulpits and the Ministers of their Churches And this Deduction manifests That we do not Charge the Opinion of the Immortality with being the Product of Mens idle Brains or Fancies or their Desires concerning the Truth of it As to what he pretends That the Immortal Opinion thrives only or mostly amongst the wisest and best Practicers of the Christian Profession I conceive him therein to be mistaken and think that for every wise and good Man which he can produce prosalted to believe and maintain the Opinion of the Immortality I shall be always able to produce twenty Sensualists at least and evil Livers who will be ready with great Zeal and Constancy to maintain Mr. W's Opinion of the Immortality to the uttermost As to his saying That Men attain to the Image of God in Righteousness and true Holiness and Immortality I find in my self no inclination to grant him That any Men whil'st in this World do attain to the Image of God in any of these Particulars I find it written That God made man after his own Image and in the Image of God made he man But I do not find my self able to explicate or conceive the true and full Scope and Meaning of these Expressions nor wherein the Image of God in man doth consist but am very apt to think That man was not made like God in Immortality because then there would have been no need of the Fruit of the Tree of Life to make Men live for ever But we read That God made that Tree and Fruit grow out of the Earth to that very purpose that Man by eating of that Fruit might become Immortal and live for ever and that upon his Sin he was debarr'd from eating of that Fruit and lost that Remedy which God had provided against the stroke of Death and in that Condition hath his Posterity remain'd ever since his Commission of that Sin against God And therefore I think St. John informs us truly when he says We know not yet what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him And therefore I leave the Pretences to such Knowledge to the Time of our Lord's second Appearance and sitting upon the Throne of his Glory when Men of good Practices may hope to be like him and that I think is sufficient to satisfie the reasonable and most exalted Desires of Mankind P. 3. Mr. W. says Whilst the Spirit of Man continues its Conflicts with the Flesh and the Lusts thereof as she will whilst she abides in the Body it is needful to maintain in her the Thoughts of her Immortality Here I observe that when he speaks of the Spirits contesting with the Flesh he says It continues that Conflict with the Flesh and the Lusts thereof as it will whilst she abides in the Body and therefore it is needful to maintain in her high Thoughts of her self By this manner of Speaking he first expresses that Spirit by the Name of it and presently without giving any Reason slides down upon it the Title of She and Her as if the daily Contests betwixt the Flesh and Spirit of Man intended a Contention between his Body and an Immortal intelligent Spirit within it expressing that Spirit by Terms of She and Her But I differ from him therein conceiving that by the Flesh and Spirits so contending one against the other is chiefly and even only intended the Contests which are daily found between Mens Affections and other Sensual Powers and the Minds or Rational Faculties of the same Person and his sliding the Terms of She and Her into this Discourse with design to have it thought that these Contests are maintained by an intelligent immortal Spirit against that Body wherein she lives looks to my Apprehension like a sort of Legerdemain which may perhaps prevail upon very unwary Readers but will not be suffer'd so to pass by considerate Examiners of his Writings P. 4. He says That She his Immortal Spirit will continue her Conflict with the Body so long as she is in it I am ready to Agree That such a Contest between the Sensual Appetites and Rational Faculties of Men is likely to continue throughout and during the whole Life of the Person but that this sort of Contest is so maintain'd between the Immortal Intelligent Soul and the Body of that Person whom she enlivens I am very apt and ready to deny P. 4. He says further If we seek Encouragement against the Fear of Death there is no Truth can arm us with a better Resolution than the Belief of the Souls Immortality And I grant that if this were a Truth sufficiently evidenced to the Understandings and Consciences of Men it would be a great strengthening to such Persons as have a very good Opinion of their own Merits to make their Passage through the Gates of Death with great Boldness and Assurance but to those who are working out their own Salvation with fear and trembling and are very humble in the Contemplation of their own Merits who tremble more at the sight of their Sins than they are
judged by Solomon to be the very same with the Humane in these Words Yea they have all one breath In the flood of Noah we read That all in whose nostrils the breath of life was died in that flood And clear it is they so died because the Waters stopped the passage of that Breath by which they before lived And if it shall be demanded by what means these Creatures obtained their first Breath I conceive it was given them by the same or the like Means that Adam afterwards received it A Specimen of which we find recorded Ver. 37. where a vast number of dry Bones received a sudden and powerful Resurrection For first They came together bone to his bone Next to which loe the sinews and flesh came up upon them and then the skin covered them above but there was no breath in them Then God commanded that Prophet to prophesie unto the Winds and say come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live So he prophesied as he was commanded and the breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great Army And thus I conceive it fared with Adam at his first Creation the Bones Ligaments and principal Parts were framed and fitted one of them to another upon which were formed their Flesh and Sinews over all which the Skin was lastly super-induced And after this manner it seems Adam's Body was first created and perfected altho he lived not because there was yet no Breath in him his blood and Humours were turgid and full of Mettle fit and apt to tin'd and have the Flame of Life kindled in them with the first Blast of that Breath which God intended to breathe into him for that purpose And this Flame of Life he then appointed to be continually maintained in the Bodies of Beasts and in the Persons of Men by breathing and the constant fannings of the ambient Air so as 〈◊〉 Creatures can live but a very few Moments 〈…〉 Whilst 〈◊〉 Creatures breathe they lives 〈…〉 they cause to breathe they cense to live What 〈…〉 should prove in this Point is this That God 〈…〉 Creation and 〈…〉 did create for him and for the Information of that Body a new spiritual intelligent circumscribed Substance that should come ab extra and be injected into that new created Body by the mighty and miraculous working of God's Power 〈…〉 he be able thus to prove I confess it will follow 〈…〉 â—his Soul had a separate Subsistence before its being â—ast into the Humane Body and thence it will also be a very probable consequent that when at Death it shall be again divided from the Body it will be able to subsist in a state of Separation from the Body But till the Being of such a Soul shall be better proved I hold the Opinon of its Extinguishment at the Death of the Person to be more probable P. 14. To prove that the Soul and Body are Two seperate singular and different Beings Mr. W. quotes 1 Thess 5.23 where St. Paul says I pray God your Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless Himself confesses he knows not well how to distinguish betwixt Soul and Spirit in this Text but yet he declares himself certain that there is a Distinction asserted betwixt them and the Body And I Reply That the being of a Distinction betwixt them is no good Proof that the Soul can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body for that the Relatives in the Holy Trinity are really distinct one of them from the other and yet no Division or Seperation can possibly be admitted amongst them And I farther conceive upon this Text that by St. Paul's Words of Soul Spirit and Body he intended no otherwise than that their whole Persons Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And I desire my Reader to observe here that which I think to be a Failure in our learned and pious Author this Text of St. Paul truly and fully quoted runs thus The very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Mr. W. quotes it thus I pray God your Spirit and Body be preserved blameless c. By which it appears that he omits the Word wholly and suppresses the Word whole in the beginning of the Text and then cuts it short in the end before he comes to the Words Vnto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and chusing to supply them by an Et caetera It seems this fallacious way of quoting Scripture did not fall upon our Author by chance but had a set Purpose in them and that he left out the Words wholly and whole in the Text because they may seem to Confirm and Fortifie my Exposition of it which is that the Words SPIRIT SOVL and BODY do all intend no more but the whole Persons of his Correspondents And he cuts off before the Words Vnto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ that he might avoid producing a very strong evidence against the Opinion which he maintains Because St. Paul does not pray God to preserve their Souls or Spirits at the time of their Departure out of this World but to preserve their whole Persons Souls and Bodies blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ As if he knew of no time of Reward or Punishment after this Life unto the second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ A like Charitable Prayer to this is delivered by the same Apostle 2 Tim. 1.16 where he says The Lord give Mercy to the House of Onesyphorus and the Lord grant unto him that he may find Mercy in that day viz. The Day or Time of our Lords Second Coming And so Chap. 4 he says My Departure out of this World is at hand and henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord Jesus the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his Appearing These last Words fixt the Time when such Crowns shall be distributed viz. The Time of Christ's second Appearing to the World And because the Point thus fall'n under Examination seems one of the most important which is now in Question between us I will produce some further Evidence strongly tending to maintain my Part of this Question and place our Lord himself in the Front of my other Witnesses He says Luke 21.27 Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a Cloud with Power and great Glory and when those things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh Joh. 14.2 Christ says In my Fathers House are many Mansions I go to prepare a Place for you And if I go and prepare a Place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am
you may be there also Here the Time when Christ would receive his Chosen to himself and to be where he is is declared to be the second time with his coming to Judgment Joh. 5.27 God the Father hath given Authority to the Son to execute Judgment also because he is the Son of Man Ver. 22. Christ says The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son Ver. 28. Mervail not at this that the Father hath given Authority of Judgment to the Son because he is the Son of Man for the time is coming in which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Here Christ because he is the Son of Man is made by his Father the Judge of Quick and Dead all the World shall hâ—ar his Voice and come to Judgment before him and if the Father judge no Man but have committed all Judgment to Christ because he is or as he is the Son of Man What room is there left for intermediate Judgments oâ— the 〈◊〉 going to God for Judgment at the Death of every 〈◊〉 as is pretended from Solomons transient 〈…〉 returns to God that gave it 〈…〉 of the Soul to God 〈…〉 intermediate judgment 〈…〉 going before 〈…〉 and seeking to be united again to Him as Men have thought it drew its Original from him Joh. 6. Ver. 39 40 44 54. In the Four Verses quoted and marked out of this Chapter our Lord declares both to his own Disciples and to the Jews That whoso doth his Will and keep his Commandments he will raise them up at the last day and give them Happiness and great Rewards without mention of an intermediate State between Death and that Resurrection Luke 14.13 14. Our Lord himself directs When thou makest a Feast call the Poor the Maimed the Lame and the Blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee for thou shalt be recompenced at the Resurrection of the Just. And so Heb. 11.35 After a large Catalogue of the Saints Sufferings the Apostle says That they would not accept of Deliverance because they expected a better Resurrection The same Apostle 1 Cor. 15.32 says If after the manner of Men I have fought with Beasts at Ephesus What advantageth it me if the dead rise not Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die And there is an end of us As if he had said the Sufferings of Christians for the Name of Christ shall avail them nothing if there be not a Resurrection of the Dead and I demand some one Text of Scripture to be produced which expresses or with any Clearness says That any Man or Men ever did or suffer'd any thing to the Intent or with Expectation of having their Soul or Souls carried into Abraham's Bosome after the Death of their Persons To our Fore-quoted Texts may be added the Testimony of St. Peter 1 Pet. 4.13 Rejoice inasmuch as ye are made Partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding great Joy So Chap. 5.1 he says I who am also a Partaker of the Glory which shall be revealed exhort you that are Elders of the Church to do the Duties faithfully and when the Chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory which sadeth not away He doth not say Have Patience unto to the Time of your Death and then your Souls shall be transported into a place of Bliss and Happiness 1 Joh. 2.28 That Apostle says And now Little Children abide in Him Christ that when He shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming Jam. 5.7 That Apostle says Be patient therefore Brethren unto the coming of our Lord which he saith draws nigh without mentioning of any Reward after Death unto the coming of our Lord. Jude 17. Says The Lord cometh with Ten Thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all the Vngodly amongst Men. And thus I have quoted a great Cloud of very knowing Witnesses viz. our Lord Himself and all his writing Apostles which are come to our Hands for the undeniable Proof of this Point viz. That the Faithful dy'd and suffered many great things in assured Hope and Expectation of great Rewards to be given and Punishments to be inflicted at the Time of our Lord's second Appearing of the Resurrection and of the Last Judgment without finding any foot-steps of the Souls Immortality it 's Seperate Subsistence from the Body or any Rewards or Punishments to be bestowed upon it in the space of time intermediate between Death and our Lord's Second Appearing I now return to a further Consideration of our Author's Quotations who Pag. 14. goes on and quotes 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a Price therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's Which I think intends no more than if it had been said Glorifie God in your selves or in your whole Persons which are God's Then he quotes Mat. 10.28 Men that can kill the Body are not able to kill the Soul We shall hear this Objection more fully offered in another Place and thither I refer my Reader for an Answer to it He next quotes 1 Cor 7.1 where the Words are Dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and of the Spirit Here by the Terms Flesh and Spirit the Apostle intends Man's Sensual Afâ—â—ctions and Appetites by the Term Flesh and the Rational Mind or Faculty of Man by the Term Spirit And this Tropical sort or manner of expressing himself I conceive to be very much used in this Apostles Writings Next he quotes Gal. 5.17 which says The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other This I think to be another of this Apostles Expressions to be taken in the same intent and meaning with the former as a Conclusion to the Texts before quoted He says he could quote more Texts to prove that wide Difference which he pretends to be between the Soul and Body I say to this that if he knew of more Texts very pertinent to this Purpose I think he ought not to have spared his Pains in the Quotation of them But saith he The Texts which I have already quoted are abundantly sufficient for the Proof of my first Proposition Which first Proposition I think to have been That the Soul was of a quite different nature from the Body viz. That the Soul was an Immortal Intelligent Spirit which can subsist by it self and in a state of seperation from the Body and the Body it self but a Compositum of Dust and Ashes into which it shall be again resolved soon after the Death of the Person The Later Part of this Proposition he neither hath offered to Prove nor needed to do it because it
is a Truth granted on both sides but his labour hath been to prove That the Soul is a seperable intelligent Spirit and of a quite different Nature from the Body But I think he hath here given very little Proof to that Purpose so far from being abundantly sufficient as that I think it scarce touches upon the Verges of his intended Proposition but how sufficiently he hath thereof acquitted himself I do freely and willingly leave to the Judgment of such Persons as may happen to peruse our Writings P. 15. Mr. W. delivers his second Proposition which he says is this That the Soul and Body are not only Two in number but that they are two Beings of a very different Nature His second Proposition seems to be so near of kin to his first that the Difference between them is not very evident and the Proof which he gives of this second Proposition seems to be coincident with the Proofs which he gave of the former for he says here That the Soul was immediately created by God Which Supposal he had before laid down as a Proof of his first Proposition and I have given it before such an Answer as satisfies my own Understanding And therefore I shall need to say no more of it here but that it passes with me for an unsound and fallacious Opinion whence I think fit to reject without further Examination all the Inferences and Arguments which he may pretend to draw from so unweak and unsound a Supposition He quotes for a Proof of it Gen. 2.7 which was before examined and in this place I shall say no more of it He says further The Body and all its Parts are but lifeless senseless things in themselves And herein I grant he says true and so are the Three Elements of Fire Air and Water and yet the two former are of so Active a Nature that they are always in Motion like those Particles which we call Motes in the Sun and therefore may justly have the Reputation of self-moving Principles And Water hath a propensity to Motion so natural that give it but a declivity and it can have no rest till it come to a place so even as it may stand in an Equilibrium free from the Impulse of any declination whatsoever It seems then that upon rinding and kindling the pullulent steams of Old Adam's Blood and Humours ready for that purpose that Breath which God then breathed into his Nostrils became the Breath of Life to him by kindling the Flame of Life in those Steams of his Blood and Humours which God had made ready for that Operation and this Flame or glowing of the Blood was immediately catch'd and disperss'd into the Vital and all other Parts of the Body putting them all in Motion and Attendency to perform all those Operations for which God had made them and we may conceive were intended to be produced in the Person then Created and in all other Persons which should after be Generated by Him Whence it seems that what is called the Breath of Life to Adam the same Breath or ambient Air became the Breath of Life to all Posterity For by this Medium sucked in by the Lungs the Flame of Life first kindled in the Body is fann'd and kept glowing in the Blood and Humours thereof And thus the Flame of Life must be continually fann'd maintain'd and purified by the Breath and by the Vigor and Activity of this Inflammation the Blood and Humours are kept in perpetual Motion and in a durable and endless Circulation so long as the Parts of the Body are able to endure the Activity of such Motion and until by Age or Decay of some of the Bodily Parts Corruption or Stagnation of the Blood or by some Accident this Flame of Life happen to be totally extinguish'd throughout every Part and Member of the Body and such total Extinguishment of the Vital Flame I esteem to be the Death of the Person Finding and believing That the Breath of Man and Beast is so necessary in them for maintaining the Flame of Life that by a short stoppage of the same by a Halter a Bow-string a piece of Phlegm or by a Fly sticking in ones Throat stopping the Mouth and Nostrils with a Cloth as Hazael served his Master Benhadab or any like Accidents both Man and Beast soon die and therefore such Means are often used for doing Execution upon them and the Reason thereof seems to be the Suffocation and Stifeling of this Vital Flame which can no longer by Natural Means be maintained without the fanning of this Breath of Life drawn from the ambient Air which passing through the Lungs is thence communicated to all the Entrails of the Body And from these Grounds I Argue That tho the Blood and Humours be but Matter and unintelligent in themelves as well as the Flesh Bones and other gross Parts of he Body yet God's great Wisdom hath so framed the Microcosm or Person and so organiz'd the Bodies of them as that every Part is fitted and ready for those Acts for which they were intended and these Organs rightly moved and acted by the Spirits inflamed and Humours of the Body do in a right Mixture one with another and by the working of such Spirits among and upon the Organs produce or effect thelocal Motions Senses and such Intelligence as pertain to Men and Beasts and are produced acted and performed in the several Species of them so long as those Spirits and Humours are maintained in the Body by a due Refection and Nourishment and so long as this Vital Flame continues to be fanned by the due Respirations both of Man and Beast And this I give for an Answer to the second Proof of his second Proposition concerning the vast Diversity as he calls it of the Nature of the Soul from that of the Body Mr. W. goes on to a Third Proof of this Diversity and saith The Body is often tired and spent and indisposed to Action when at the same time the Soul hath a Will and is bent to Action Which I thus Paraphrase The Man his Mind Affections or Will may be strongly bent to Action when his Bodily Members may be very weary and his Spirits spent And thus express'd I grant and know that what he says may be true viz. That the Spirits working in his Brain and moving his Affections and Will may continue their Working and Vigour in that Part longer than in the outward and more remâ—t Parts of the Body And this is that which our Lord I think intended when he said The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak P. 16. Mr. W. goes on and says The Body is very frequently 〈◊〉 a very sick weak languishing Condition when the 〈…〉 as good a plight and sometimes better than when the 〈…〉 most healthy and strong surely if their Natures did not vâ—â—â—ly differ they would be sick and well together Here I prosess to differ from our Author in a Point of Fact
even down to latter times and the same Conception seems to have a Being and Substance in the Minds of some learned Persons until this time My Discourse concerning this sort of Spirit hath been deliver'd with intent to discover and evince That Solomon's Spirit returning to God who gave it was spoken and meant by him concerning this last sort of Spirit and I intend to recite some Arguments for the proving of this Construction First I Argue from the words or terms of the Text it self and say That it Solomon intended such a Soul as Mr. W. has described the Text it self seems not to be properly worded because I think nothing can be properly said to return to another thing except it had been a part or concomitant of that other thing before but Mr. W.'s sort of Soul seems never to have been a part or concomitant of God before its being put into the Body for the enlivening and acting of the Person I do not therefore well perceive how such a â—oul can be properly said to return to God but the Expression therereunto properly belonging should have been worded The Spirit goes to or goes before God with expectation to receive his Judgment and Sentence according to the demeanour of its Person upon Earth and I do not perceive how this Souls going to God for Judgment can be properly call'd a return to God who gave it Secondly I Argue I find not so much as one Text in Scripture which says the Souls of dying Persons go presently to God for Judgment nor any Text from whence this Opinion may be drawn by a rational Inference and that which makes nearest approaches to it of any that I know is the Parable of Dives where it is said the Begger died and was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom I know my Opposers will think it needless to ask them what is intended by the words The Begger was carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom and doubt not but they will soon make a bold Answer It neither was nor could be the Begger himself that was so carried in his whole Person Body and Soul into Abraham's Bosom and yet the Words of the Text seem to import that his whole Person Soul and Body was carried thither But if we shall grant their gloss upon this Text to be true that his Soul only was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom we may draw these inferences from that Relation either that his Soul was so ignorant as it knew not how to find a way to that Habitation or else was so weak and impotent as it was not able to pass thither without the Support and Ministry of Angels How then can we conceive that such a Soul as this should make its return to God presently upon the Death of its Person without mention of any other Assistance to be given it We hear nothing of Dives in the Parable but that being in Hell he lift up his Eyes and saw Lazarus in another place without mention of the means by which he came there and if we shall follow the common Conjecture that as Lazarus was carried to one place by Angels so Dives was hurried to the other by Devils it will appear very unlikely that Mr. W.'s sort of Soul is able to make its way and return to God at its Pleasure And here we Read the Begger 's Soul was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom without mention of its being carried or returning to God at all whence it seems probable that when Solomon speaks of the Souls returning to God he doth not intend such a Soul as Mr. W. hath described but rather such a Spirit as had first been a part oâ— parcel of the â—pirit of Nature or of God sent out for the enlivening and acting of a particular Person upon whose Death that Spark or Parcel of the Deity returns with a strong inclination to God who sent it out from himself for the enlivening â—nd acting of that particular Body and joyn'd it self again to its Totum as Water presently incorporates with Water and the particles of Air neither will nor can be seperated from the incorporating one of them with an other Thirdly I Argue That if Solomon had intended by the Words Returns to God who gave it a going of the Soul to God or before God for receiving the Doom of his intermediate Judgment it seems a matter of such great Moment as required a more full Discourse upon the same and giving us more Light in it than his very few words there do afford us And however it is very probable that he would not have immediately subjoyned to his Discourse which intimates an intermediate Judgment a Declaration and Description of the General Judgment for that would have been playing Judgment upon Judgment which must needs have past for false Heraldry We find in this Chapter that as soon as Solomon had writ the Words The Spirit returns to God who gave it he ceases to speak any further concerning the State of Man after Death till he come to the 14th or last verse of the Chapter where he sayes as a conclusion of his whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for God will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil I think it not reasonable to conjecture that Solomon by his Returning of the Spirit to God who gave it did intend such a returning to God to be a going to him or before him for an intermediate Judgment for that if he had so intended he would not have immediately have mentioned and related the Certainty and Effect of the General Judgment as in this we see plainly he hath done and thus I leave Solomon's Words and the descant upon them to the further Consideration and Judgment of the Intelligent Reader Mr. W. goes on to quote Eccl. 3 20. Where he saith Solomon affirms that the Spirit of a Man goeth upward when he dieth adding that Solomon brings it in with an Intrrogation Who knoweth Not as if he doubted it for he cannot be said to doubt it since he delivered it most positively in the other verse intending as I conceive the Text last before quoted out of his 12th Ch. Hereupon I again declare I am no way satisfied with the manner used by our Author in his Quotations of Scripture The Text which in this place he quotes says thus Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth downward to the Earth Which to my understanding hath the same signification as if he had said Who knows the certain Truth of this Opinion That the Spirit of Man goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast goeth downward to the Earth Or who knows whether this difference between the Spirits of Men and Beasts be real and true or not And further it seems to me that this Interrogation is Pregnant with a Negative and seems to have the same sense as if had said
LORD's Words Luke 23.46 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I contend that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Text may and doth indifferently signifie sometimes Breath and sometimes Spirit according as may be required by the Subject matter of that Discourse wherein it is used And I do not blame our Translators for rendering it in this place by the English Word Spirit But then I intend that if it be so well rendred yet in this place it may have and likely hath a Tropical Signification by a very usual Synecdoche Partis pro toto by the Word Spirit intending his whofe Person now Dying he knew very well that his whole Person Body and Soul were to rise again upon the Sunday Morning after his Crucifixion which was finished upon the Friday in the Evening after Three of the Clock according to which we Read he was so raised on Sunday Morning at the very break of Day in his whole Person both Soul and Body the very same that Died was then Raised by Divine Power Whence I Collect our Lord recommended to his Father all that was after to be Raised viz. His whole Person Soul and Body signified and intended by the Word or Term of Spirit Mr. W. quotes further Acts 7.57 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might well enough have been thus Translated Lord Jesus receive my Breath spent in the last moment of my life in maintaining the truth of thy Gospel Altho' I do not deny that our version by the Word Spirit is likewise a good Translation of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but then I pretend it must be taken in the like Figurative Signification as it was intended before in our Lords Ejaculation Mr. W. says in both these places he takes the Word Spirit to signifie that Spirit fore-kind which God breathed into Man at first when he became a Living Soul or Person and so do I take it but our difference is about what sort that Spirit was which God breathed into Adam whereby he became a Living Person I pretend it to be no more than a moderate Portion of the Ambient Air which by facing the Blood and Humours then turgid and fitted for that Operation might kindle the Flame of Life amongst them and should after by Respiration keep the same in a glowing or flaming Condition or circulation so long as the life of the Person should endure but Mr. W. pretends That God breathed into Adam's Nostrils a Newly Created Entire Substantial Intelligent Spirit which had a Subsistence of its own before its being breathed into Adam's Nostrils and shall have a like Subsistence of its own again at or after the Dissolution or Death of the Person At the beginning of this Fourth Proposition he promised and I believe intended to prove the Seperate Subsistence of his sort of Soul He hath not yet to my understanding performed it but how well he hath aquitted himself of that Design or Intention by his Mediums of proving recited in this Proposition shall be left to the Judgment of our indifferent Readers P. 23 Mr. W. delivers his Fifth Proposition which is That the Souls of Men seperated from their Bodies by Death are in Joy or Misery And for the Proof of this Assertion he quotes two and but two Passages out of the Bible the first of which is our Lords Promise to the Thief upon the Cross That he should be with him that Day in Paradise Upon which he says neither Jesus nor the Thief were that Day in Body there therefore they must be there in Soul only Upon which I observe a disagreement in my Mind from that which he first affirms conceiving it probable That their Bodies and Souls might both be present in Paradise that Day but then I do not confine the Term of that Day to the signification of an Artificial or Natural Day the first continuing but during the Light of one Day and the other containing the space of Twenty four Hours only and no more Psal 95 8. David says To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your Hearts Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called to day And there quotes Davids To Day as if it intended the Forty Years Travel in the Wilderness Luke 19.42 Christ wept over Jerusalem and said If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace And Peter says A thousand Years with God are but as one Day And the Prophets often denoted the space of a Year by one Day More like Testimonies might be Collected out of Scripture to prove that when God himself or by his Prophet speaks of a Day they do not tye up the Signification thereof to the precise time of an Artificial or Natural Day but do intend that within a competent short time such things shall come to pass and I do not pretend to prolong the Signification of our Lords to Day in Mr W.'s quoted Text beyond Sunday for they were Crucified upon Friday in the Evening and the one Died and the other might well enough rise up on Sunday Morning and that Morning our Lord appeared first to Mary Magdalene and John 20.17 In Discourse said unto her Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Vers 19. The same day at evening being the first day of the week came Jesus and stood in the midst of his Apostles and shewed them his hands and his side Luke 24.38 Says the Disciples were afraid of our Lord 's appearing And he said unto them Why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have From these Relations I Collect That after our Lords appearing to Mary Magdalene he did Ascend to his Father and might then also go to that Paradise intended for the Thief and that in the Evening of that Day he appeared in the Assembly of his Disciples and said to them Handle me and see or perceive for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye may feel me have Hence I infer That our Lord had been in Heaven or Paradise on the very Day of his Resurrection and after his return from thence offer'd himself to be handled and felt by his Disciples altho' before his Ascending thither he would not suffer Mary Magdalene to touch him And this I think proves our Lord to have been in Paradise in so short a time after his Promise to the Thief as might well be called to Day Concerning the Thief I observe That he Died likewise upon Friday Evening and that from thence to Sunday Morning his Body might remain apparent without liklihood of being tainted We read Matt. 27.52 The Graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after our Lords Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Arguendo from these
weakly proves the Seperate Subsistence of Souls or their receiving Rewards or Punishments before the Second Coming of our Lord to Judgment and the Resurrection of the Dead P. 24. Mr. W. closes up his Fifth Proposition with these Words Having cleared up the five Propositions from diverss Scriptures he wonders at the Confidence of such Men as dare pretend to perswade People that we have no clear Scripture to found the Belief of the Souls Immortality on I Answer That his Confident Sayings which prove not I willingly pass by and from the woes Pronounced against his Opposers and Shield my self by the Words of Solomon The Woe 's pronounced without good cause or the Curse cause less shall not come Chapter IIII. PAge 26. Mr. W. says A Man may be truly said to know God I Reply If he thereby mean the knowings of God is or Quod sit Deus I grant it but if he mean it of the Quid sit Deus or that Man knows what manner of Being God is I then deny it He thinks if he can describe the Properties or Attributes of a Soul from which we feel the Operition of Life spring in us he shall thereby give us sufficiently to know what the Soul of Man is I Reply That Men ascribe Attributes and Properties to God upon the Certainty or Knowledge that they have or may have from divers clear Topicks that there is such a Being as God in the World but the like manner of Proceeding will not serve to prove the Being of such a Soul in the World as he describes and therefore I do require of him or any other who undertakes this Province first to prove that really and truly there is such a sort of Soul in the Humane Person as he pretends and if that be not first done they can but ascribe what Attributes and Properties they please to they know not what or to such a thing as they cannot prove to have any Being at all which is quire otherwise in the Case put by him before concerning God P. 27. Mr. W. says The Soul is not the Breath of Man Thereby it seems intending That the Word Breath is not Equipollent to the Word Soul of Man and this I grant him That the Breath of Man is not his Soul because I conceive there goes more parts to make up the Soul or Spirit of Man's Life The Five Inferences which he pretends to draw from the Soul 's being the Breath I pass over as not greatly material P. 28. Mr. W. says Secondly That as the Soul of Man is not the Breath so it is not the Blood and then infers That if Blood be the Soul of Man all the Food it hath to live upon is the Bread that Perisheth I Reply That all the Food that Man hath to live upon Naturaly is the Bread that Perisheth or is the nourishment which he duly obtains to that purpose and thereby is the Spirit of his Life daily supported and upon the failure or not obtaining thereof the Man must Languish Consume and Die and he and his Spirit of Life or Soul go out of the World and be Extinct together Further I conceive The Man his Spirit of Life or Soul hath no other Natural Nourishment but Viands of the kind before-mentioned His following Expressions seems to be altogether Figurative He offers That if Blood were the Humane Soul Lectures out of Galen and Hippocrates would be more proper to Purge away Sin and bring Souls to Christ then Sermons out of the Bible Here I suppose by Souls he intends Persons or begs the Question now in dispute between us Seeing he well knows I give no credit to the Being of such a Soul as he very positively asserts And this being premised I say That Purifying and Purging the Blood may very much help and better the Humane Understanding and Sermons out of the Bible may be very good helps and directions to the Man in the government of his Affections and the performing of his Duty to God P. 29. Mr. W. Argues and Says If the Soul be the Blood then that a Man of Sixty Years of Age has not the same Soul he had at Fifteen and then how can you think this Old Man can be guilty of the Sins of his Youth I Reply That a Man's Soul is always of the same Nature and Kind and tho the material parts of it do not always remain the same yet the Man remains always the same Person from Four to Fourscore and liable to answer for the Faults which he had long before Committed Then he tells me that which I still profess not to believe tho' he doth tell it me That the Soul is of a different Nature from the Body and doth neither grow with it in Youth nor Decay with it in Age but remains in one same State and Power during all the State of our Lives P. 30. He pretends to prove this by a Similitude which I think to be foreign to our Question and adds nothing to the Proof of his Assertion and the like I think may be said of his letting of Sheeps and Man's Blood into one another reciprocally and therefore I pass them both over P. 31. He says further That as the Soul of Man is neither his Breath nor Blood so it is not God or any part of his Divine Essence In all which I am ready to agree with him having before declared and described what manner of thing I think the Spirit of Life in Man to be and that in its cohabitation with the Body it partakes of Growth and Decay Health and Sickness Strength and Weakness Joy and Sorrow and receives in the end an Extinguishment at the Death of the Person or that Extinguishment it self is Death Mr. W. says The Soul of man is guilty of Inadvertency Rashness Folly I do not agree with him in this Expression But if he had said The Person or the Man is subject to these Infirmities I should soon have agreed with him in that because I have often said I have no Conception of a Man without a Soul or of a Soul without a Man but think that to act or suffer any thing they must be both together And I Appeal to the Intelligent World whether by such Experience as Men can attain therein they do not find it so P. 32. Mr W. says The Soul is a Spirit created of God and indued with Sense and Reason and a Power of actuating an Humane Body by Vital Vnion therewith P. 33. For the prooving of a Spirit to be a Substance and that a Humane Soul is such a Substance he refers his Readers to all that he hath said or shall say to prove the Soul is a Being independent on the Body I Reply That as far as I am able to judge all that he hath hitherto said seems very insufficient for that Purpose and what he will or can shew to perswade the Belief of that Opinion Time must shew P. 34. he says We feel in our
and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin in my Members In this Text St. Paul as I conceive declares the true State of the Person and says That he in his Mind or Rational Faculty was convinc'd that such Actions were good and that he ought to do them and therefore had a will to do them but that at the same time there was a Law of Sin in his Members which withstood the good Inclination and Will of his Rational Faculty and against the Will and Power of his Rational Faculty bringeth him into Captivity to the Law of Sin in his Members If I might Paraphrase this Text I would do it thus Our Apostle was convinc'd in his Understanding that such Actions were good and ought by him to be done and therefore he had a Will to do them but his Sensual Affections and Lusts strongly opposed the Performance thereof and had such Power over the Person as to prevail against the Dictates of his Reason and the Inclination and Bent of his Will and bring him under such a Submission to the Law of Sin as he neither did nor could do that which his Reason told him was his Duty to do but brought him under such a State of Captivity to the Law of Sin as to make him do that which in his mind he condemned and was contrary to his own Understanding the Dictates of his Reason and the Bent of his Will And the course of Proceeding deliver'd by St. Paul in this Text is undeniably verified by the daily Experience of Men and with so much Advantage on the side of our Sensual Affections that where we find one Man guided and govern'd by the Dictates of his Rational Mind we may find perhaps an Hundred who suffer themselves to be hurried by the Bent of their Affections and Lusts into such Actions and Practices as their own Understandings and Reasons disapprove and condemn and sometimes seek to resist tho' more often in vain than otherways So as we may say of these two Faculties in Man as Men use to do of Presumption and Despair The Reasonable Faculty of Man governs its Thousands and the Sensual Affections their Ten Thousands And I think it is made appear by this Argument that the Power of Reason in Man is neither Absolute nor Monarchical but rather is a Power Co-ordinate with that of the Affections and Passions and generally so unsuccessful in its Contests with them for Government that where one Man is truly govern'd by the Dictates of his Reason perhaps an hundred are hurried and let away by the Attempts and over-ruling Power of their Affections and Passions against the clear Dictates and often against the Will or Rational Desire of the Person And I think this Proves what hath before been said that the Regiment of Reason in Man is not Monarchical but Co-ordinate and Swasive only It is able to Perswade powerfully but not to Compel Obedience to its Directions and therefore I conceive Mr. W. was mistaken when he said That the Power or Regiment of Reason in Man was both Monarchical and Absolute P. 35. He discourses much concerning the Nature and Essence of a Spirit and the Life of it amongst which there are Sayings which I do not well understand Nor doth all his Discourse make me understand what is the Nature of a Spirit a thing which I am apt to conside himself did not know and because I think it gives little light in our present Question it shall here be pass'd over P. 36. He pretends here That the Soul hath Life in her self as a Spirit before he hath proved to my Understanding that there is such a Soul in Man I think it needs no proving that a thing which is not neither hath nor can have Accidents Adjuncts or Attributes and the Being of his sort of Soul which is neither granted nor proved cannot be conceived to have Life in it self Mr. W. says Thirdly That a Spirit hath a Power of penetrating or gliding through the hard solid Bodies of Marble or Iron without finding or making any Cleft Chink or Cranny therein I doubt he delivers in these Words that which he doth not know to be true or is otherways able to prove He delivers other things in this Place concerning Spirits which I think other Men are not resolved of P. 37. He says The Jews could not keep Peter in such a Prison as the Angel which deliver'd him could not penetrate Whereas the Text doth not declare whether the Angel came into the Prison through the Walls or by opening the Doors but I count it certain that the Doors were opened for Peter to go out and therefore likely might so be at the coming in of the Angel also and as the Iron-Gate was that led them into the City He adds The Soul of a Man is truly a Spirit as an Angel is How truly is now in Dispute He says The Soul manifests her Presence more eminently in the Brain than in any other part of the Body And I Answer That the Rational Faculty is not only more eminently in the Head and Brain than in any other Part of the Body but that it resides and acts in the Head only without being communicated to any other Part of the Body because all the Organs of Understanding and Reason are by God the Creator placed only in the Head without any other Member having a share therein P. 38. He raises a Dispute Whether Light be a Body and compares it to the Penetration of a Spirit But I pass it over as little pertinent to our present Question Mr. W. further says That a Spirit and his sort of Soul is indivisible or indiscerptible not subject to Blows or Wounds nor to be consumed by the fiercest fire I think he should here have express'd how it can be tormented by fire and yet have no Parts or Particles of it consumed by the fervent Heat or by the violent Pain and Torment which it suffers P. 39. He quotes St. Matthew's Are not able to kill the Soul which is indeed the strongest Refuge of his Opinion referred here by me to a future Answer P. 40. Mr. W. says His sort of Soul must either be God or a Creature And thereupon I am apt to deny that it is either the one or the other and to pretend as I have often before done that there is no such thing or sort of Being in the World and therefore cannot be endued either with Sense or Reason as by saying he would perswade us it is He says That the Soul is the proper and immediate Seat of Sense And I Reply as I have often before It is not the Soul but the Person that is so P. 41. He says The Soul is endued with Reason and Vnderstanding I say that it is not the Soul alone but the Man that is so He says Reason is the most Noble Faculty of the Humane Nature by means of which we Men know God and hold a Communion with Him and do
divers other great things here named And in these Sayings I am at Agreement with him without believing these things are done by the Soul alone but by the Person in Composito chiefly acted therein by the Faculty and Power of its Reason Here he quotes an Author that says Homo solus est animus corpus autem hominis opus instrumentum animus intelligentiam exercet sine ullo corporis instrumento In English thus The Soul only is the Man and the Body is but the Souls Organ or Instrument and the Soul can exercise its Faculty of Vnderstanding without any Assistance of the Bodily Organs But this Quotation proves no more to me than that there are other Men who are of Mr. W's Opinion and think as he doth which there was no need at all to prove because I stand convinc'd that the World of Men in general are so But let Mr. W. prove that those Words of his Author are true and then Erit mihi magnus Apollo I will give up the Cudgels to him and confess him Victorious in this Dispute For I am agreed with Aristotle in the beginning of his Book de Anima That if the Soul ever was known to do or can be proved able to do any thing without assistance of the Body and its Organs such Proof will be Evidence enough to Convince considering Persons that she hath a Nature and Subsistence of her own wherein she can act in a state of Seperation from the Body But of this Power I find no more Proof but the Saying recited in this Quotation P. 42. Mr. W. says If the Soul will the Feet walk the Hands work and so for the Motion of the Eyes and other like things All which I pass as before for a Mistake mendable by saying If the Man will the Feet walk and the Hands work and the like Further in his Fifthly he saith The Soul is Vitally united with the Body and by virtue of that Vnion enlivens and acts it Thereunto I say That the Spirit of Life in Man or the Body make but one Person who whilst he lives moves directs and acts himself and uses his Intellective Voluntary and Memorative Powers and Faculties with full Liberty according to his own liking and pleasure naturally He speaks here of a Vital Union between the Body and the Soul which Expression I do not Approve because they both together make but one Person as two Ingredients which make but one Compositum not as two different things that are united and joyned together but as Ingredients may be totally mixed and a new Product arise out of them all so as that if any of them be wanting in the Composition the Product cannot truly be the same it was before P. 43. He says That to tell you what the Soul is so as to make it an Intelligible Notion is not so impossible a thing as some have conceiv'd it to be Thereto I say that by such Descriptions as he hath before made of the Soul and all that he hath hitherto spoken thereof I am not able to understand or believe any more coneerning his sort of Soul than I did before I began to peruse his Treatise The Repetition of those things which he saith he hath performed I pass over as finding no Proving Force among them I find no more Chapters in this Treatise than those Four which have before been Examined but that here Mr. W. begins to alter his Method and to divide the rest of his Treatise by Arguments to the Number of Eighteen of which he Treats distinctly and severally in his following Discourse and I purpose to follow him therein and use the same Method in my Observations The First Argument PAge 44. Mr. W. Says That upon Gods breathing into Adam He is in the Text called a Liveng Soul a Denomination taken from the more excellent Part of Man his Soul This Expression seems to Agree with what I have formerly spoken That here the Words a Living Soul signifie and intend a Living Person putting the more noble Part or Ingredient to signifie the whole Person so as it passes in his Judgment for a Figurative Expression P. 46. Mr. W. Says When God Breathed which he properly doth not there is something else meant which can be nothing else but a special Act of Creation by which he made the Spirit or Breath of Life which he breathed into Man I Answer That in the Text there is no express mention of a Creation either of Breath or Spirit P. 47. He Says By the Breath of God is meant that Act of Divine Power by which God made Man and gave Life to him I am not willing to differ from Mr. W. and therefore agree to this Expression He quotes Ps 33.6 By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth The later of them alluding to God's Power shewed in the Creation of Adam but thence he infers This Breathing into Adam must be look'd upon as the Creating somewhat But I find no strength at all in this Inference nor that it proves with any strength of Cohersion the Creation of any thing save Adam's Body at the time when God made Man And I grant that then whatsoever was Created besides his Body was a Creature But I do not herein find any manner of Proof that God then Created a Soul for Adam Here Mr. W. Repeats his former Argument concerning the signification of the Hebrew Word which our Translators have rendred by the Term of Breath and says That the same Word doth also sometimes signifie Spirit To this I say That our Translators thought it not fit to render it by the Term of Spirit in this place and I value their Judgment before those of Mr. W. or Mr. Buxtorf and therefore take that Word to signifie most properly in this place the Breath of Life P. 48. He pretends the words should run thus God breathed or created in Man the Breath of Life or that Spirit or Soul of Life And in truth if the words had run so they would have run much better for the maintainance of his Opinion than now they do but I do not perceive by what Authority he takes upon him so to Correct or as some may take it Corrupt the Text. The Breathing which he says discover'd a New Created Spirit to be there I say detected only a Spirit of Life to be there which was tinded and kindled in the Spirits of the Blood and Humours then fitted and ready for that Operation by the moderate fanning of that Breath which God or his Agents then breathed into Adam's Nostrils and this was the humane Spirit of Life tinded and kindled by that Breath of Life and from that time to this time it is and must be continually kept Flaming or Glowing by the constant respirations and fanning of this Breath by want of which this Flame would be Extinguished in a short time or a very few moments of it
Go thy way and as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee St. Luke relates it thus This Centurions servant was ready to die and when he heard of Jesus he sent unto him the Elders of the Jews beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant And they came to Jesus desiring him to do this Kindness for the Captain because he was a worthy Person and a Lover of the Jews and Jesus went with them towards the Captain's House and when he was not far from thence the Centurion sent Friends to him saying unto him Lord trouble not thy self for I am not worthy that thou should'st enter under my Roof wherefore neither thought I my self worthy to come unto thee but say in a word and my Servant shall be healed And Jesus thereupon turn'd him about and discours'd with those that followed him and they that were sent returning to the House found the Servant whole that had been sick Upon reading these two Relations I think it plainly appears That either this Centurion came Personally to our Lord to request his Servant's Cure or he did not come Personally to Christ for that purpose but sent the Elders of the Jews to request that favour upon his behalf Without that himself came either to Sight or Speech of our Lord upon that occasion I find no ground or reasonable guess which of our Texts deliver the absolute Truth in this Circumstance of the Fact which they relate but from this Variance and the other Instances before recounted I think it may reasonably be collected That Men are not bound to take and perhaps ought not to take every Saying or Sentence which they find written in the Scriptures to be an irrefragable Truth and the very Word of God And I am ready to apply this Tenet to the Sayings now in dispute with Mr. W. viz. Are not able to kill the Soul and have no more that they can do We find an apparent Variance between these Two Sayings and that the Words of St. Luke are adaequate and answerable to the Intent of our Lord's Doctrine in this place whereas those of St. Matthew have a double Aspect and look as it were two ways For one way it insinuates that Persecutors can do no more harm after they have killed Another way it seems next to an Assertion that Mens Souls live and subsist in a state of Seperation from their Bodies I do not by the Context or any other ways conceive that our Lord did speak or had any Intent to speak of the state of Men after Death in this Doctrine whence the Words Are not able to kill the Soul in that Prospect of intending to teach the state of Men after Death seems quite besides our Lord's Meaning in this Doctrine and if not quite out of it yet very plainly collateral to it And yet from this side-wind the Maintainers of Seperate Subsistence draw the strongest Proof which they can find for maintaining their Opinion of the Seperate Subsistence I think that upon perusal of this Argument it will appear the strength of this Proof is much weaken'd and abated and will be found to be of much less force than it seems to have at the first reading or hearing thereof and in this state of debilitation I leave it to prosecute my Observations upon Mr. W's Pages as I did before P. 64 Mr. W. pretends to take the disputed Words as Comments one upon another and says that by Construction they may be made to intend one thing And I am ready to grant that by Construction they may both of them be made to serve the Meaning of our Lord in this Doctrine but then in our Collateral Point which St. Luke doth not meddle with there is a very great Variance between these two Expressions for that the one proves strongly the Soul 's Seperate Subsistence and the other proves it not nor meddles with it at all Which proves that our Lord's Doctrine did not intend to speak of that Point in this place And therefore our Question thereupon is In what Words our Lord delivered this Doctrine And the Conclusion is That if he delivered this Doctrine in the Words of St. Matthew then they are a strong Proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence but if his Doctrine were delivered in the Words of St. Luke then there is no Proof at all in it of the Souls Seperate Subsistence And I have before enough Argued on the side of St. Luke and for the Probability that his Text sets forth to us the very Words wherein our Lord delivered this Doctrine Mr. W. confesses That Luke expresseth less than Matthew but says He never meant less Which I think intends that the Meaning of Luke in his Text was That those who kill the Body are not able to kill the Soul Which Meaning doth not at all appear in the Words of Luke's Text which do not say so And how then Mr. W. should come to know that he meant so I do not understand and therefore I reject this Gloss upon that Text as Mr. W's own Invention or Fiction The Fifth Argument PAg. 65. Mr. W. raises an Argument for the Soul 's Seperate Subsistence from the Appearing of Moses and Elias and discoursing with our Lord upon Mount Tabor and says That Moses could not appear there in his Person Soul and Body because Deut. 34.6 says Moses died in the Land of Moab and He the Lord buried him in a Valley there over-against Beth-Peor but no man knoweth of his Sepulchre unto this day P 66. Mr. W. discoursing upon this Text says That Moses appearing at Mount Tabor must be either alive in Spirit only or else his Body was raised Adding I know that some conjecture that his Body was rais'd but they cannot prove that Conjecture from Texts of Scripture And therefore he thinks it more likely that Moses appeared in Spirit only intending I suppose in his Soul subsisting in a state of Seperation after Death Which I think to be no more than a Conjecture which he is not able to prove by Texts of Scripture any more than the former Conjecture can be so Proved And to these Two Conjectures I pretend to add a Third viz. That Moses may not have died in the Mount but might be translated or transported to Heaven in Person as Enoch and Elias had before been Which I offer to Prove by his Appearing with Elias at Mount Taber It seems they appeared both after a like manner and the one as much in Person as the other Mr. W. grants that Elias did appear in Person and Arguendo a simili it appears most likely that Moses did so too As to the Text which says Moses died and was buried I think fit to consider by whom this Book of Deuteronomy might be written and if the Promises thereof might be written by Moses or his Direction yet this closing Passage of it about his own Death and Burial it seems could not be so It appears not from whence the Opinion
other Man may possibly say Having now confounded and implicated the Meaning of this Text by my Exposition I am enough by that means enabled to prove thereby the Souls Seperate Subsistence which from the Text it self without such handling of it I should not be able to have done P. 88. He pretends to prove The Soul not subject to Death because nothing is so that is not subject to the Power of Death and the Soul of the Believer is not so I look upon this as a vain sort of Argument and begging of the Question increasing the Bulk of his Treatise but adding no strength to his Proof Here again he speaks of the Soul by the Term of Her and She as if he had prov'd her a Seperately distinct thing from the Man or Person a thing neither granted to him nor proved by him P. 89. He says again The Spirit of a Believer is not subject to the Law of Death Which is the very Point in Question and denied by his Opposers P. 90. He pretends That by what he hath said it appears that the Law of Death is executed only on the Body of a Believer I Answer that to me appers no such thing but that the Law of Death is executed upon the Persons both of Believers and Unbelievers and that Death pass'd upon all for that all have sinned and do Agree with him that not only the Body shall be rais'd at the Last Day but that the whole Person shall be so rais'd to appear in Judgment before the Tribunal of Christ And withal I conceive that our Author goes far for Arguments to prove his Tenet when he catches at and seems to rely upon such precarious Constructions as he hath offered in this Argument The Tenth Argument PAge 90 Mr. W. quotes in proof of his Opinion 2 Cor. 5 6 Therefore we are always confident knowing that whil'st we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are consident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord P. 91. Hereupon Mr. W. with good reason places the difficulty in the meaning of St. Pauls doubled Expression of being in the body and absent from Christ and being out of the body and present with Christ and then saith That when Paul says We are confident that here by the We that are always confident he intends the Soul or Spirit of himself and the Soul and Spirit of the rest of the Believing Church And if this be the true meaning of our Apostle in this Case viz. That here is intended the Souls of him and his brethren which at death will be absent from their bodies and be present with the Lord Then says he it proves the Souls of Men Seperate and are Immortal but the former says he is true therefore the later Then he offers to prove that by the We who would be absent from the body the Apostle intends the Souls only of himself and other Believers for what else is that of the Saints that is absent from the body and present with the Lord Name the thing if you can for says he it cannot mean the body nor the whole person not the whole person for that the whole man cannot be said to be at home in one part of the man viz. his body or absent from it for the whole of anything cannot be contained in a part of it P. 93. Then Mr. W puts a weak Objection against himself and answers it Upon this Argument I Agree with him that the Difficulty lies in finding out what St. Paul intends by the We that would be absent from the Body and present with the Lord Whether it intends the Souls only of the Faithful or their whole Persons He says It can only intend Mens Souls But I conceive that it intends their Persons And first I Argue from the Apostles Terms of Expression and do think that if by the Term We he only intended Mens Souls he hath very improperly express'd such a Meaning for that if there be many Persons in an Assembly or Company and one of them speaking for the rest says We decree or expect or desire such a thing how can it possibly be imagined that the Speaker intends only the Souls of those Persons do expect or desire And therefore if our Apostle by his Term We did intend only the Souls of Believers I conceive it would have been hard for Men to have found out that Meaning without such an Assistance and Direction as Mr. W. here offers them I think the proper Signification of the Word We in such Cases is to denote the Men or the Persons who are said to do any thing and not any one Part or Parcel of such Persons as it must do in this place if it intended only the Souls of Believers I take it for an old and good Rule amongst Expositors that they should cast their Eyes upon the Contexts of those Places which they mean to Expound that thereby they may discover the whole Scheme or Plat-form of the Writer's Intention and then to employ their Talent in drawing all that the Writer says to prove his Meaning or fortifie his Assertion And therefore I proceed to search what our Apostle says in his next fore-going Chapter concerning this Matter Chap. 4.10 We are cast down but not destroyed always bearing about in the Body the dying of our Lord Jesus By Body I think the whole Person is here intended The Text adds That the Life of Jesus might be made manifest in our Body or Person Ver. 14. We know that he which raised up the Lord JESVS shall raise up us also by JESVS and shall present us with you Ver. 16. Though our outward Man perish yet the inward Man is renewed Day by Day Intending the whole Man degenerated or regenerated Chap. 5.1 We know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven And we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthen'd not for that we would be uncloath'd but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life And we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord And we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad These Quotations have been transcribed for making it appear that the Intent of our Apostle in these Texts was to discover to his Readers Matters concerning the Resurrection and the Last judgment In the beginning of his Discourse he professes to
writ this Epistle because the Apostle says there were things in Heaven reconciled by the Blood of the Cross But there are no such things in Heaven reconciled by the Blood of the Cross except they be the Souls of some Holy Men that went hence Then he expresses a Desire to know what Men can say to this Argument And therefore I say to it That by his own Expression it appears he says he knows not what for he says He knows not that there are any other things in Heaven which need Reconciliation to God by Christ except Men will take these things to be the Souls of departed Persons But if Men will not accept of this Meaning then he knows not what the Apostle can mean by things in Heaven reconciled to God by Christ Which intends no more than that he doth not otherways know what the Things in Heaven reconciled to God by Christ may mean Which I take for a Confession That he doth not know what Paul meant by these things in Heaven Secondly I conceive he doth not know that there are any Souls in Heaven because if he did he should be able to make such a Demonstration or Description of their Being and of their being there as other Men who are willing might be able to understand and conceive He hath taken Pains to write this Treatise and therein hath already produced Thirteen Arguments in Proof of this Tenet but very unsuccessfully as those who peruse these Observations will easily discover The Perusers of this Argument will I think easily find That Mr. W. must have Two Things granted him before he can pretend to prove any thing by this Argument First That there are no things in Heaven which need Reconciliation to God unless Men will admit that Humane Souls are there And therefore Secondly he would perswade Men to admit of his Position That there are Souls in Heaven But I think fit to reject both these Proposals and say First That there may be other Things in Heaven besides Souls which may need a Reconciliation to God by Christ And Secondly to conceive that possibly or even probably there are not nor ever were any Humane Souls in Heaven nor in any other Place in the World except in their own proper and peculiar Bodies Here Mr. W. puts another slight Objection against his own Opinion and answers it P. 102. Mr. W. demands If there be any things else in Heaven besides the Souls of Men which need a Reconciliation to God What are those things I Answer I do not know what those things are and alike Confession of his Ignorance concerning this Subject would better have become Mr. W. than his groundless Guesses at what is meant in this Text by St. Paul's Expression of Things in Heaven and the supplying his Ignorance therein by a bold but Erroneous Guess That by Things in Heaven St. Paul intended the Seperate Souls of Men of which the Text makes no mention at all and his Supposal that there were Seperate Souls hath no better Foundation than his own Supposal which hath very little Power to convince intelligent Persons That Humane Souls have any sort of Subsistence in a state of Seperation from the Body The Fourteenth Argument PAge 102. Heb. 12.23 We are come to the Spirits of just Men made perfect Mr. W. begins this Argument with somewhat a long Comparison between the Law and the Gospel which makes little to our Point and therefore I pass it over P. 104. Mr. W. says as he is very apt to do That the Souls or Spirits of Men are Immortal and therefore it is a very great Truth that they are Immortal And adds Those Souls which the Gospel reveals to be alive out af their Bodies are thereby proved to be Immortal but the Gospel reveals that the Souls of just Men are alive out of their Bodies therefore the Souls of Men are alive out of their Bodies therefore the Souls of Men are Immortal Mr. W. says The Gospel revealeth that the Spirits of just Men are alive out of their Bodies Because the Text says they were made perfect and there is no Perfection in Death P. 105. He says We have a Right to the Society of those Spirits of just Men mude perfect which we shall have in possession when we depart hence But I find neither such Words nor Things in his Text viz. That we shall come to that Society when we depart hence so as I must repute it his own Addition to the Words of the Text which doth not appoint the Time for our coming to that Society I find Mr. W. has only quoted so much of this Text as seemeth most to support his own Opinion and therefore I intend to quote it somewhat more largely Heb. 12.22 Ye are come unto Mount Sion and to the Heavenly Jerusalem or City of God to the Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first Born and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Ver. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh whose Voice at the giving of the Law shook the Earth but now he hath promised saying yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also Heaven and this signifies the removal of those things which are shaken and that we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot be removed The Words of our Text thus fully quoted do by no means import That Men or their Souls shall come to the enjoyment of those things at their Deaths as Mr. W. hath erroneously suggested but the words of the Text run in the present Tense Ye are come to the things which I here report to you viz. Ye are come to the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem to the Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the First Born when not only the Earth shall be shaken but also Heaven and the things so shaken shall be removed I conceive that the Description here made doth very properly denote the Time of the Resurrection and the great Day of Judgment For at that time we are instructed by the Scripture to expect the things here mentioned God and Christ attended by the Angels and the Church of the First Born consisting of Just Men made perfect both in their Spirits and in their Bodies to the City of God or the New Jerusalem which St. John tells us Shall come down from God out of Heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband at or after the time of the Resurrection after Heaven and Earth have been shaken and are removed This I conceive to be the Time pointed at in this Text and I think these Descriptions are not applicable to any other Time nor hath Mr. W. mentioned any other Time for their Accomplishment saving that at Mens Death and for which he hath no Warrant from any words of this Text and as to the words in present Ye are come to these Glories I think
and Salvation at the General Day of Judgment Thirdly Concerning the Prayers or Cries of these Souls for Vengeance upon their Persecutors Mr. W. and I are hotb agreed that they made no other Cry in this Text then the Blood of Abel made to God for Vengeance on his Murtherer and I conceive there was no real Prayer or Cry in either of these Cases but that God himself had taken special Notice in both these Cases and that whensoever they came before him hy Remembrance or any sort of Re-presentation his Intention always continued firm to take Vengeance for those Facts upon all those who had therein acted and continued in such wicked Practices without Saving Repentance until the time of their Deaths I have Inclinations to think that this Exposition of our proving Text is more sound and true than that which Mr. W. hath before made of it and hence I think the Consequence will be very clear That Mr. W's Argument drawn from this Text is not a sufficient nor a good Argument to prove the Separate Subsistence of Souls The Eighteenth Argument PAge 118. Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them P. 119. Mr. W. says By Blessedness in this Text must needs be meant Happiness and all Happiness implies Joy and all Joy implies Life and when he has rais'd Blessedness in this manner he infers from the Word henceforth that it must Commence presently upon the death of the Person wresting the signification of the Words from Henceforth which do properly signifie from the time of that Prophesie to signifie the time of every Man's Death which I do not find to be mentioned or intended by the Text And he adds The meaning of the Text being thus opened he seems to direct his following Discourse only to those who will accept the true Sense of the Text to be as he hath opened it and to them he thus argues If the Dead in the Lord do from the time of their being dead commence a Blessedness not only in resting from their Labours but likewise in being rewarded for their Works then do they continue to live in some part of them which is their Spirits and consequently their Spirits die not with their Bodies but are Immortal P. 120. Mr. W. offers to us That this Blessedness is said by the Spirit to be given from the time of Mens Deaths this he collects from the signification of the Words from Henceforth as if that intended from the time of their Death's whereas it appears in this Text to intend no more but that from the time of this Prophesie the Dead which die in the Lord shall have a blessed Rest and their Works do follow them P. 121. Then Mr. W. pretends That the dead Saints do not only enjoy a blessed Rest but that they also enter upon and enjoy Rewards for their Works as soon as they are dead but I find no Ground for this Opinion in the Text but conceive he thought it was there because he had a great Mind it should be there as a thing that would have done him more Service than any thing that he can find in the Text besides Mr. W. says further If no Rewards of active Happiness and Joy followed immediately after Death it would be wonderful the Spirit of God should pronounce a Blessedness on such as die in the Lord above those who live on Earth in the Lord and this would be contrary to the Sense of all God's People and specially to the Sense of such as Administer Comfort to dying Persons from this Topick by telling them that immediately after Death their Souls shall by Angels be transported into Heaven or Paradise or Abraham's Bosome or some such Place where they shall not only be at rest but have present Joys and Happiness conferr'd upon them and I grant that if such Doctrine prove otherwise than true many Persons may have been deceived of their confident Expectations and more may still in future happen so to be And therefore I think it needful to take further Consideration and so make a stricter Scrutiny concerning the Truth of this Doctrine than in former Times and Ages hath been commonly done amongst Men. Mr. W. says He thinks there are none of God's People who would not rather chuse to live upon Earth tho' under Persecution then to die and be buried in the Earth He says it is evident That from the time of dying the Saints are blessed with Rewards for their Work as well as from their Labour I reply I am very sorry that I am not able to find in this Text an Argument or any of his former the thing which he says is so evident intending I presume to himself and some such other Persons as may be strongly fixed in his Opinion and Belief touching this Point concerning which and this Text I intend to make a little more large Examination The Words therefore are And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them I do not find in this Text any Words which signifie or import that Men shall be rewarded for their Works presently after Death otherwise than by a Blessed Rest from their Labours It is said indeed That their Works do follow them but there is no time mention'd when they shall overtake them And I desire Mr. W. and his Party from henceforth that they will cease from perverting the Sense of the Word from Henceforth in this Text by applying its Energy to the time of Mens Deaths whereas in the words of our Text it stands clearly apply'd to the time when this Prophesie was revealed to St. John and whereas Mr. W. says That none of Gods Saints upon Earth would willingly embrace Death but rather chuse a longer Life upon Earth altho' under a state of great Persecution if they did not expect Heavenly Rewards presently upon the death of their Persons and he says You shall never perswade People to a contented departure out of this World by telling them they shall presently enjoy a blessed Rest in the Lord and therefore they must be told of and perswaded to expect Glorious Rewards in Heaven presently after their passing out of this World I confess thereupon that Mens mistakes upon this Account may be very great and very universal but do by no means believe the first part of his Assertion viz. that there are no Saints or People upon Earth who are willing to accept of Death whensoever God shall appoint it to come upon them under a great contentment of Mind and the Satisfaction which they may receive from this Text That they shall have a blessed Rest in the Lord safe from all the Temptations and Tribulations of this World and from the Power and Malice of wicked Men
a Conviction strong enough to oblige all People to a Concurrence in that Opinion because all these Evidences are resolvable into an Humane Authority upon which I have no Inclination to found such a Faith as is the Evidence of things not seen i.e. such a Belief as concerning which there is neither Doubt nor Question Mr. W. gives us here a long Testimony out of Josephus from whence we may collect that some Jews held one thing and some another concerning Souls Some thought of them that one sort liv'd in perpetual Prison after Death and another sort rose very shortly and Mr. W. says The generality of the Jews were of that Mind and says The Sadduces denied the Souls Immortality and shews that Josephus was no Friend of theirs Then Mr. W. quotes Joseph a Speaker saying That Mens Souls go to Heaven and then after a certain Revolution or Period are again commanded to live in Bodies Another Speaker says It is Misery to live and not to die for Death freeth our Souls from Prison into their most pure and proper Place so as whilst they are in the Body they may properly be said to be dead but this passes with me for a Platonick Fable concerning which enough has been spoken This Jew says The Soul comes secretly into Men without being perceived and so departeth from them again I reply De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio I say also That where ever the Blood passes freely in the Body the Parts and Members are fresh and lively but where Obstructions hinders the rivage of Blood from passing the Bodily Parts and Members become withered and useless Mr. W. concludes It is clear that the Church of the Jews always held the Opinion of the Souls Immortality forgetting the Texts which I have before quoted which prove the Patriarchal and Mosaical Opinion to have been That the Life of Sensative Creatures lies in their Blood and other Opinion of the antient Jews hath he quoted none till that which he seems to collâ—ct out of the Discourse betwixt Saul and the Witch of Endor and which I do not agree to be proving nor do Job or David make any mention of Spiritual Souls so that Solomon's Writings are the first wherein we find mention of this sort of Souls of Mr. W. In his Third Chapter he doubts and in his Twelfth Chapter he says in few Words and Transiently The Spirit returns to God who gave it and there he is speaking of the dissolution of the humane Person and says The Body returns to the Dust as it was what became of the Spirit he did not perceive and therefore contented himself to say The Spirit return'd to God who gave it These are all the Arguments Mr. W. hath collected out of the Old Testament whence I am apt to inferr that he found no other Text in that Testament which made for his purpose but I think fit to mind him of the History in the second of Maccabees concerning the Martyrdom of the Seven Brothers by Antiochus there he shall find several of them declaring the Hope they had of being restored to their mangled Limbs at and by the Resurrection without mentioning their building of any Hope upon the Souls Seperate Subsistence whence I collect that Opinion had not yet prevailed amongst the Jews of those times It is also true that a Relation of this Martyrdom is subjoyned to the Works of Josephus as if it were of his Writing but I think the very great Verbosity of that Writing proves it to be none of his but it relates divers Sayings of these Brothers shewing the dependance of their Comfort upon the Souls Separate Subsistence and its immediate going to Heaven and this Difference proves to my Understanding that the Jews had alter'd their Opinion concerning their State after Death between the time of the Maccabees Writing and that wherein Josephus writ his Relation if the same be truly of his Writing P. 145. Mr. W. begins his Quotations of the Ancient Fathers for proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence I have not the opportunity of examining his Quotations with the Originals and therefore do not find it reasonable to deny or question the verity of any of them taking them therefore for veritable I agree they give very strong Testimony that those Writings of the Fathers by him quoted prove the Belief of the Writers to have been much consonant to his Opinion and I proffer only this Gloss upon the last of them viz. that of St. Ambrose who remembers our Lord went to prepare a place for his Disciples unto which I would add that which follows next after in the Text When I have prepared fitting places for you I will come and receive you to my Self that where I am ye may be also This coming of Christ I conceive to intend his second coming to Judgment and then and not till thâ—n that which our Lord says in this Text may be accomplished It seems his words quoted out of Iraeneus do not prove the Souls immediately going to Heaven after Death but to a Paradise or place of Pleasure distinct from Heaven and yet I allow them to be a good Proof that Iraeneus by them intends a Belief of the Souls Seperate Subsistence His second Author which he quotes he calls the Author of the Responses Apud Justin This I do not think fit to accept as the Opinion of Justin Martyr Thirdly For the saying of Polycarpus he quotes no Author from whence he took it whence it possibly may be taken from Baroneus His Fourth Quotation out of Origen seems no strong Proof because he was a perfect Platonist both before and after his Conversion to Christianity Fifthly His Quotation out of Tertullian speaks of such a place for the reception of departed Souls as is far above the Infernal places and a place of refreshment of the Souls of the Just when they are departed out of this Life where they shall abide to the Resurrection yet takes it for a different place from Heaven and I agree it proves his Agreement to the Souls Seperate Subsistence His Sixth Quotation out of Cyprian seems very full to his Purpose that the Martyrs Souls went immediately to Heaven In his Seventh Quotation concerning the Oration of Constantine I find no Expression in it that proves strongly for him save that Emperour 's discoursing concerning the Souls Immortality upon which I think he might very well dispute without making any certain Conclusion thereupon His Eighth Quotation out of Gregory Nyssen seems to me partly Platonick Ninthly What Prudentius says seems but to be rendring the Parable of Dives in Verse Tenthly Gregory Naz. who calls the Body and this Life the Prison of the Soul follows therein the Platonick Doctrine P. 152. Mr. W. says He has thus given us the Judgment of the Primitive Church for the Four first Centuries of it which is no small Argument of the Truth of the Souls Immortality and of the same Opinion have the
Body so as instead of those days of Darkness which Solomon mentions the Spirit or Principle of Life in Man enjoys a greater light activity and freedom than it had before the Death of that Party whom it formerly inliven'd and acted And this if it be true seems directly contrary to that which Solomon in this Text hath affirmed There are days of darkness and many of them says the Text of Solomon Mr. W. says That at the death of the party or soon after good mens souls enjoy much more light liberty and glory than every they had before so as they seem to say the souls of good men have no dark days at all and therefore men that are jovial and merry need have no regard to such days of Darkness as Solomon in this Text gives them warning of And yet such men do not use to deny that a Solemn and General Judgment shall appear after those many days of Darkness shall be consummate and finished and therein they agree with Solomons Opinion altho concerning his days of Darkness they seem very much to differ from him but if his Opinion may prevail in this Case it offers a strong Objection against the Souls Seperate Subsistence Thus far Objections have been drawn out of the Old Testament and we now proceed to draw like Objections from the New A Sixth Objection thence to be raised I take from John 14. 2 In my Fathers House are many Mansions I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you again to my self that where I am there ye may be also Luke 21.26 The powers of Heaven shall be shaken and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory and when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh viz. rewards for the Saints Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye appear with him also in glory 1 John 3 2. Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The Apostle knew whilst in this life that we are the Sons of God but he did not know what we shall be after death nor was that likely to be known till Christs appearing at his Second Coming and then he knew that the Saints should be made like Christ and appear with him in glory as Paul hath above asserted 2 Tim. 4.7 Paul says I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his appearing The Crown it seems was laid up for him even whil'st he was alive but was not expected to be given him till the time of Christs second appearing and then it would also be given to all those who love and desire that appearing 1 Tim. 1.10 The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day He doth not pray that his Friend may find mercy at the time of his Death or at an Intermediate Judgment but at that great and last Day All these Texts have been quoted to give Evidence of the Time when Rewards and Punishments after Death are warrantably to be expected They all express the time thereof to be at our Lords Second Coming and the last Great Day of Judgment thereupon ensuing but make no mention of Recompences warrantably to be expected soon after the times of mens Death or in any Intermediate State between Death and the Resurrection Nor hath the Scripture that I find any mention in other places of Recompences to be distribuâ—ed in such an Inâ—ermediate State except in Parables and Trances only I have in this Objection repeated two Texts out of which Mr. W. made Objections singly against his own Opinion but I have linked them together and strengthened them with other Texts of Scripture of the like import quia vis unita fortior Concerning Mr. W's Texts I pretend here to examine the Answers which he hath singly given to each of them To the Text of our appearing with Christ in Glory he answers and grants That the appearance here spoken of intends that of the Last Judgment for till then the Saints cannot be said to appear in Glory with Christ and yet says he they may be in Glory with Christ tho' they do not appear in such Glory to Men. I reply That tho they do not appear in such Glory to Men yet if there be truly such a thing as he maintains they do appear in Glory before God and the Angels and Spirits of Just Men made perfect and therefore may truly be said to appear in Glory which St. Paul says they do not till Christs second Coming and appearing in Glory Mr. W. says His sort of Souls may appear in Heaven in Glory before that time but it lies upon him to make some proof that they do so which he neither offers nor I think is able to perform and therefore I think his Answer to this Text is of small weight The other Text to which he makes an Answer is that of Paul's expecting a Crown to be given him at that day or the time of the Last Judgment and he grants that the time intended by the word That Day is that of the Last Judgment and says thereupon What then It follows not thence that therefore there are not Souls in glory before that time for Kings may reign before they receive their Crown and Scepter and so shall we be Kings and Priests in our Souls unto God in the Heavens This Mr. W. pretends to say out of his own fruitful Invention without offering any Proof of our being Kings and Priests in Heaven to God in our bare and naked Souls only for neither any of our before quoted Texts do mention such things nor are they to be found in any other Text of Scripture whatsoever except the Vision appearing to St. John when he was intranced for the Parable of Dives makes no mention of being in Heaven or the Preferment of being Kings and Priests to God or in his presence and therefore I am ready to reject this device or fancy of Mr. W's brain and to conceive that all our quoted Texts are true according to the common sense of their words Mr. W. father says There are no words or syllables in this Text that deny intervening Rewards to the Saints before that day which it must have done before it could serve his Opposers purpose Thereunto replying I say there seems to be no need of such a Denial for that if God or Man promise to give Rewards or Punishments at an appointed time
stedfast always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your Labour is not in Vain in the Lord the Resurrection of the Dead being thus certainly and undoubtedly proved to you you must be stedfast and unmoveable in your Religion knowing that your Labour is not in Vain in the Lord. In Mr. W's Thirteenth Objection against his own Opinion he propounds it thus our Opponents alledge vers 18. of this Chapter inferring that if there be no Resurrection Then those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished which they say could not follow if there were any state of a Blessed Life for a Seperate Soul for that tho' there were no Resurrection of the Dead yet Souls already in Heaven should still be happy there and not be perished for want of a Resurrection of the Person To this Mr. W. answers That in the course of this Text St Paul intends to prove the Resurrection of Christ and to teach that if his Resurrection was not true then all those who are fallen asleep in Christ should be perished There Mr. W. says thus now to prove that Christ was risen which was the Antecedent of the Apostles Argument he argues either Christ is risen or we have been preachers of what is Vain and false and then those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished Hereunto I reply That we do not read in this or any other Text that there was a Dispute among the Corinthians about the Resurrection of Christ but that it was both preached and believed amongst them that he was risen from the Dead and from that Established and Undoubted Truth the Apostle inferrs the Resurrection of the Dead and says the one of them is as true as the other but if there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen and if these be not both true then all Christian Religion is vain and false and those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished This sort of arguing seems to suppose a possibility that those who are fallen asleep in Christ may be perished which were a vain supposal if their Separated Souls did still subsist and were Immortal because that whether there be a Resurrection or not a Resurrection and whether Christ were risen or not risen yet Seperate Souls would still have a Subsistence and not be perished as here our Apostle supposes they would be if the Resurrections so preached to the Corinthians were not true So as our Apostles Expression seems not well to agree with Mr. W's Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence but it is at full agreement with the material Opinion who maintain as St. Paul doth that if there be no Resurrection then all hope of Recompences future to this Life are Vain and those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished Mr. W. says farther There is no Way or Means for expiation of your Sins and removal of the Curse besides the Death of Christ I say we are taught by this Text that his Death would avail us nothing without his Resurrection and our Resurrection also Then Mr. W. quotes if Christ be not risen the Wrath of God still abides on you and says this is spoken because his Resurrection was to be the Evidencing Sign among the rest that his Death was accepted of the Father for that end he professes to lay it down which was to expiate our Sins I say he professeth to lay it down that he may take it up again and he was convinced that it would be accepted of his Father before he laid it down and then he rose again for our Justification rather than as a Testimony that his Death was accepted of the Father of which there was before no doubt at all Mr. W. goes on and says He denies that the Apostle â—ntends by these Reasonings to prove immediately the Resurrection of all Men but only as their Resurrection comes in upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which is the only thing in these Verses now named that the Apostle was proving To this I reply That the Resurrection of the Dead and the Doubt which some Men had thereof is the principal and only Question which I conceive to be disputed of in this Text for we do not read of doubt made by any Man concerning the Resurrection of Christ for Christ was preached to the Corinthians and that he rose from the Dead and this Doctrine was receiv'd and believ'd by the Corinthians and yet some of them denyed the general Resurrection of the Dead and to convince those Unbelievers of their Error the Apostle tells them that the general Resurrection of the Dead is as true and certain as the Resurrection of Christ was and therefore I think the main scope of St. Paul was to convince the doubting Corinthians and to prove the general Resurrection of the Dead and which of us two have the Right in this Point shall be referred to the Judgment of such Readers as will consult St. Paul's Text thereupon Mr. W. says further to his Opposers the manner of the Apostles Argument is not as ye conceive That if the Bodies of the Saints do never rise then ye are in your Sins and those that are dead in Christ are perished Replying thereunto I say that I know none of his Opposers who argue in such a manner as he hath imposed upon them nor that examine or consider the Resurrection of the Body because we do not find in the whole Tenor of the Bible that expression of the Resurrection of the Body It is true that as we now use the Apostles Creed in English we find there mention'd the Resurrection of the Body but clearly we therein depart from our Originals of that Creed both in the Greek and Latin Languages the Greek calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latin calls it Resurrectionem Carnis the true English of both which Expressions is the Resurrection of the Flesh and after that manner I think it ought to be mended in our English Translations or Creed Whence it seemeth not to follow that the Body should be first raised and then a Substantial Intelligent Spirit ab extra should be put into it but that such raising shall be like the first formation of Adam and the covering of Ezekiels dry Bones with Flesh and Skin and the filling them with Blood and Humors apt to be kindled and inflamed by such a moderate Wind or Breath as may be breathed upon them or into them for kindling the flame of Life in their vital Parts thence to be communicated to all the rest of their Bodies John 5.28 The Hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done Good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil to the Resurrection of Damnation The manner after which Persons so raised shall come forth seems to be by forming the Flesh Bones Arteries Veins Nerves and Sinews into the shape of a humane
Body containing therein such Blood Humors and Organs as are needful for the production and perfection of Life and all the Faculties and Powers of a humane Person whose Blood and Humors will then be apt for kindling into a Flame or glowing of the Blood by such a moderate Breath as Ezekiel was directed to call for to come from the four Winds and breath upon these newly formed Persons that they may live which done the newly formed Persons are thereby made living able to hear the Voice of the Son of God and at his Call to come out of their Graves and deliver themselves from the strong Bands of Death and such I conceive the rising of the Dead will be not a partial but a total Resurrection of the Person not first the Body rais'd and then an Intelligent Soul be injected thereinto for the Body cannot rise or come out of its Grave without a Spirit of Life or such a sort of Soul as is natural suitable and fitted for that Performance I do therefore reject the expression by him used viz. the Resurrection of the Body because it is no where used in the Scripture and because there is no such thing in Nature as that a Body should rise and live without a Soul what rises therefore is not only the Body but the Person which was dead a very like or his very same Person which before had died Mr. W. in the Conclusion of this Objection says to his Opposers that it is a strange Inference ye draw from this Text That because it is certain that Christ is risen that therefore the Souls of Men are mortal I reply This would be a very strange Inference indeed if his Opposers either said so or thought so but they profess to do neither the one nor the other but this they do say and believe that if the Resurrection of Christ and the General Resurrection of the Dead be not both true then all those who are fallen asleep tho' never so good are perished and consequently that the Souls of Men have not a Seperate Subsistence after the death of the Person and thus I finish my Reply to Mr. W's Answer given to this Objection and proceed to the giving concurrent Evidences from the Texts before quoted for strengthning the force of this my Eighth Objection Our Apostle having finish'd this Text goes on in the same Chapter to Vers 32. And there says If after the manner of Men I have fought with Beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the Dead rise not Let us eat and drink for too Morrow we die Which sayings I think may be thus rightly Paraphrased Whatsoever Sufferings I undergo for Christ's sake in this World they will advantage me nothing if the Dead rise not and then we need no more in this World but to eat and drink and die and there 's an and of us And if this Saying be true and the very meaning of our Apostle in this Text I think it gives a fatal blow to the Seperate Subsistence of Souls and yet our Apostle proceeds further in this Chapter to Verse 52. Where he says The Trumpet shall sound and the Dead shall be rais'd uncorruptible and we who are then alive shall be changed and the last Verse of this Chapter he adds Therefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know your Labour is not in Vain in the Lord for I have given you as certain Proofs as Faith can desire that there shall be a General Resurrection of the Dead at which time all People shall be rewarded or punished according to their Works Heb. 11.35 The Saints indured great Persecutions and Torments not accepting Deliverance from them because they expected a better Resurrection Luke 14.14 When thou makest a Feast do not only bid thy Friends and rich Neighbours who are likely to make thee a Recompence but bid also the Poor the Maimed the Lame and the Blind who cannot Recompense thee and therefore for thy so doing thou shalt be Recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just And now I demand one Text of Scripture to be produced where it is said That Men for their good Works done in this World shall be Recompensed at or soon after their Deaths I know of no Text that declares this to us or from which it can with clear Reason be collected and therefore I say that the Reason given us why our Labour shall not be in Vain in the Lord is because there shall certainly be a Resurrection from the Dead and after that a Judgment wherein every Person shall be rewarded according to his Works and upon these Grounds I am ready to conclude that this my Eighth Objection strongly batters and assaults and even overthrows the Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence A Ninth Objection against Mr. W's Opinion I raise from 1 Thess 4.13 Where St. Paul says I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them that are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and so goes on describing the manner and effects of the Resurrection of the Dead adding Comfort one another with these Words I offer this for you Comfort that there shall certainly be a Resurrection of the Dead wherein your dead Friends also shall rise again and I would have you make this a Comfort to you concerning both your dead Friends and your dying Selves advising you to repose your hopes thereupon and to comfort your selves and one another with your Discourses and Communications concerning it Our Apostle appears here comforting the Hearts of his Correspondents against the sufferings of Death either by their Friends or by themselves and takes his ground of Comfort in such Cases from our assured Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead and thereupon I observe that he doth not ground and Hope or Comfort upon the Souls Seperate Subsistence or its going to Heaven immediately after Death which gives me a firm ground of perswasion that he either did not know of this Opinion or he did not believe it for if he had believed this Doctrine to be true I think he could not have forgotten or forborn to give his Disciples Comfort from that Topick because such Comforts would have been much nearer than those which he derived from the Doctrine of the Resurrection and would have been both a more short and sure way to that Salvation and future Happiness which Men desire and therefore if St. Paul had believed this Doctrine to be true I think he could have no reason for his balking it in this place but in congruity of Reason must have said Brethren comfort your selves against Sorrows for your Friends Deaths and the fear of your own by considering the happy State of those which die in the Lord for that their Spirits or Souls immediately
upon parting from their Bodies either return to God who gave them and are received into Heaven and Happiness or they shall be carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom and there enjoy at least a blessed Rest from their Labours and all future Sufferings I doubt not but that the Divines of our time would readily have administred such Comforts as these to the Friends of dead People or even to the dying Persons themselves but in our quoted Text we find St. Paul did not so proceed with his Correspondents upon this like Occasion for the only Comfort which thereupon he propounds to them is drawn from the Doctrine of the Resurrection which in this Place he somewhat at large delivers as knowing that to be sufficient for Mens Comfort in such Cases without remembring or believing our late comfortable Doctrine or Opinion of the Souls going to Heaven immediately after Death and hereupon I conclude that this Doctrine was either not known to him or not believed by him and that therefore it is an Error and no certain Truth or the very Truth of God A Tenth Objection against Mr. W's Opinion I raise from the concurrent Testimonies of many Scripture Texts referring the expectation of future Rewards or Punishments looked for after this Life unto the time of the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment without finding and such Expectation at the time of Men's Deaths referred to or mention'd in any Text of Scripture In the Catalogue of Mr. W's own Objections he hath made this the Sixth and propounds it thus The Scriptures say my Opposers do frequently make mention of the Great and General Day of Judgment and refer all the Rewards of the Saints to that Day and so all the Punishments of the Wicked therefore the Souls of Men die with their Bodies as being uncapable of Rewards or Punishments till then To this Objection he answers concessively and says I do partly acknowledge the first part of what ye say that Scriptures do frequently make mention of that great Day and again that the greatest Rewards and Punishments are reserved to that Day but I deny the later part of what ye say because the Scripture speaks of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and of the Soul of the Thief being in Paradise that day he died and of the Spirit of every Man returning to God at Death to be dealt with according to what they did in the Body and this he says is enough to blunt the edge of his present Objection And hereunto I reply That what he hath said concerning the Spirits of just Men made perfect hath before been answered and so hath that of the Thief 's Soul being in Paradise that day and proved to be invalid Testimonies of the Souls Seperate Subsistence His Third Testimony of the Spirits returning to God seems to be mis-recited for the Text doth not say it returns to God to be dealt with according to what they did in the Body which Words he adjoins with as much Confidence to the Text as if they might be there found written and were part of the Text it self so as unwary and unexamining Readers might soon be mistaken thereupon In what manner and to what purpose Solomon might intend this return of Souls to God hath been before disputed and I still confide that Mr. W. and his Party will not be able to prove that these words of Solomon intended the Souls of dead Persons going before God to Judgment as here he hath without any hesitation deliver'd it And therefore I conclude that his Answer hath very little blunted the edge of our present Objection I observe it as an Art in Disputing that it may be advantageous to grant in an easie and transient fashion such Objections as Men find themselves utterly unable to answer and I think Mr. W. hath used this Art in transiently granting the first part of this Objection viz. That the Scriptures do frequently refer the expectation of Rewards or Punishments after this Life and unto the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment and whereas I have said before that there is no mention in Scripture of such Expectations at or soon after the time of Mens Deaths he gives us here three of the most pregnant Instances which he could find in Scripture for proving that Rewards and Punishments are bestowed by God at the time of Mens Deaths but the force of these Instances hath before been obstructed by those Answers which have been severally given them in their proper places I am not without some Temptation of drawing out of the Scripture a Catalogue of such Texts as do with great Evidence and Strength set forth and prove that the time of the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment are not alone the principal but the only times whereat or wherein Recompences future to this Life are warrantably and certainly to be expected by Mankind but because I have said much and quoted divers Texts of Scripture upon that Subject before and am now willing to save my self and my Reader the tedium of such a long Repetition I will refer the Examiners of this Objection unto those Texts which have before been quoted to that purpose and to such others as themselves may meet with upon the perusal of the Scripture And with this round number of Ten the Objections which I make against Mr. W's Opinion out of Scripture shall be finished Yet I farther intend to add thereunto two or three Objections against Mr. W's Opinion derived from Natural Reason and the Experiences of Men. And first I begin from the Nature and Composition of the Humane Person and thereupon I observe that there are three things principally and absolutely necessary for the Subsistence and Life of the Humane Person viz. Blood Breath and Nutriment and thereupon do agree with Moses that the Life the Animals is in the Blood or that the Blood is the Life thereof whose inflamed Particles are the Spirits which act the Person and as well the Head as the Members so long as Life continues in the Body Next to which the Breath hath a Principal and absolutely necessary Faculty and Power of fanning and inflaming such Particles of the Blood as are imployed in every part of the Body and for refrigerating the internal parts of the Body with a perpetual Refreshment which keeps the Paristaltick Motion always in action amongst the inward and most vital parts of the Body whence daily Experience assures us that by stopping of the Breath but for some few Moments the Spirit of Life in Man becomes absolutely suffocated and extinguished and without Breath no Humane Art or Power can prolong the Life of the Person or other Animal whatsoever Concerning Nutriment it is only so far necessary to the Life of the Creature as the Blood thereof wastes and is consumed by the Circular Continual Motion and the Inflammation thereof In some long continuing and weakening Diseases the Motion of the Blood hath been so weak and the Inflammation thereof
places where he hath twice before propounded them I do not find that in this Discourse he hath added any new Arguments to those which are produced in his former Treatise so as there are no new Proofs propounded in this Triumph whence I am apt thereupon to surmise that he doth Triumphum canere ante Victoriam and because his Triumphal Building seems to be principally founded upon the two before-named Assertions I collect that if the rain descend violently upon it the winds shake it the floods happen to beat upon it this Triumphal Edifice will be more likely to fall than to stand because the ground upon which it is raised seems over soft and sandy for the support thereof and for that the foundations of it are not digged deep enough by such a Search into the Scriptures as might make it appear that the Doctrine is built upon a strong Stream or clear Current of Scripture Testimonies somewhat apparently or clearly attesting the Truth thereof in some such places where there was a Design of Teaching concerning the Future State of Men after Death I do not conceive that there was a Design of speaking of such a Future State in any of the four Texts last before quoted of Solomon St. Matthew and St. Luke and therefore I do not find any great strength of Conviction in them I shall therefore pass over these and all the rest of Mr. Wadsworth 's Discourse of Faith's Triumph without speaking any farther thereunto because it seems not greatly material towards the farther proof of that Question which is now disputed between us resolving here to finish my Observations upon this Author with a hearty Bene valeas to my Intelligent Reader FINIS OBSERVATIONS UPON Dr. CHARLTONS TREATISE INTITULED The Immortality of the Humane Soul demonstrated by the Light of Nature In Two Dialogues 4to London Printed 1657. HIS first Dialogue and a good part of the second are imployed and spent in Introduction and Ceremony which last and continue till Page 78. of his Book and there he says That the Considerations which he intends to alledge for proving the Souls Immortality shall be either Natural or Moral his first Argument is this he says The reasonable Soul of Man is Immaterial and therefore it is Immortal P. 85. To prove the Souls Immateriality he says The Actions of Man as a Cogitative and Intellectual Essence are of so noble and divine a strain as that it is impossible they should be performed by a meer Material Agent or Corporeal Substance however disposed qualified or modified To this I answer it is the common Objection against the Souls Materiality viz. Men do not understand the quomodo how the Abstract Actions of the Mind and the Reflex Actions of it upon it self can be performed by Matter and Motion never so fitly Modified and Organized And therefore our Doctor in this Place walks in the common Trod and pretends to supply the want of Power in such Matter and Motion by the Introduction of an Intelligent Self-subsisting Spirit into the Person for the effecting of such Operations in Man not enough considering the Wisdom and Power of God the great Architect of the Microcosm who can by Matter and Motion fitly Organized Modified and Moved produce such Acts and Powers as Men are not able to comprehend the quomodo of and therefore to their Reason such things may seem impossible to be done which by the Wisdom and Power of God may be easily effected and performed without the Agency of such Intelligent Spirits as Men have commonly used to imagine P. 88. The Doctor says by Discourse of Reason we soon come certainly to know that the Magnitude of the Sun is at least 160 times greater than that of the Earth and here I pretend to doubt the Certainty of the Doctor 's knowledge concerning this Point from this Page to Page 100 the Doctor argues Whether the Intellect can work without the assistance of the Phansie a Question propounded by Aristotle in the beginning of his Book de Anima but both there and here that Question is left undetermined P. 102. The Doctor says the Intellect doth frequently reflect upon it self and understand its own Intelligence This I do not permit to pass for a Truth if we take the Intellect for a distinct thing from the Man conceiving that the Intellect as well as the Phantasie are Powers and Faculties of the Man and that neither of them can do any thing of themselves but that all which either or both of them do are Acts of the Person in whom they reside and that they are both of them submitted to the Guidance and Government of the Person and the Totum of that Power of which they are but a part so as to speak properly and truly we must say that the Man can considerately reflect upon the Acts and Powers of his Intellect Phantasie Judgment and Memory which is a thing which I shall easily grant but that which I think lies upon the Doctor and his Party to prove is the bare Intellect separated from the Person can reflect upon it self or do any other Action whatsoever P. 108. The Doctor says That whatsoever can frame abstracted Notions and form Universals must be above Matter and be Immaterial but the Soul and Mind of Man can act in this sort Ergo this Soul must be Immaterial In this Argument I deny his Major and say that the Man himself who is a Material Agent can form Abstractive Notions and from Singulars and Generals can extract and frame Universals and that the Intellect without the Man can perform no such Matters nor be nor act in any kind whatsoever P. 112. Here he quotes a Book written by Hieronimus Rorarius a Learned Prelate as a Collection of Arguments commonly urged to prove that many Brute Animals have the use of Reason as well as Man himself hath P. 116. Here it is affirmed That Men do not know the Intimate Nature of so much as the smallest Plant which grows upon the Ground and therefore I say we are like to fall much short of the true Nature of the Humane Soul with such Certainty as were to be desired P. 118. The Doctor says the Intellect is conversant about Spiritual Beings both of good and other Spirits and therefore is Immaterial I answer as before the Intellect can do nothing but as it is a Power and Faculty of the Person without which I do not agree that it hath either Being or Action P. 123. The Doctor here says that the old Philosophers obtained a certain Knowledge that there were Spirits by the Regular Motions of the Heavenly Bodies which they thought could not be maintained without the Assistance and Government of Intelligent Immaterial Spirits but I think they were as much deceived in their own Opinion as our Doctor seems to be in his Opinion of the Souls Immateriality P. 123. It is objected against the Doctor that when the Phansie is disturb'd the Intellect cannot act with Strength or
Intent thereof and even to have exterminated the same out of the Apprehensions and Memories of such Men. And hereupon I do again agree that it is very sutable to the Justice of God and his equitable Dealings with Men that there should be a distribution of Rewards and Punishments after this Life and I do with great Assurance believe that the same will fall out accordingly not bestowing those Rewards and Punishments upon Souls Subsisting in a State of Seperation from the Body but that rather as our Lord himself tells us John 6. Those who fear God and work Righteousness shall by Christ be raised up at the last Day in their full Compositum of Soul and Body and in their own Persons shall receive Rewards according to their Works done and their Faith professed in this World and that the like measure shalt be dealt to the Wicked at the Resurrection of the last Day whose Punishments shall be equally distributed to their Persons as is before said to be done in the case of the former Raised and Righteous Persons P. 156. The Doctor says He cannot but wonder that Plato having asserted God to be a Mind Divine and Incorporeal should contradict himself in affirming that Man's Soul was a Particle taken from the Substance of God himself he will not engulph himself in the Bottomless Sea of Difficulties concerning the Original and Extraduction of Man's Soul but he conceives the Soul cannot be produced from Matter because it is Immaterial but however it is plain that it hath its Beginning and Origine with the Body and yet being Incorporeal it is not capable of perishing with it P. 159. He confesses a great decay of Intellect in Mens very old Age but says that Decay grows from the weakness of the Fancy and Imagination and the Organs thereof and not from the Decays of the Intellect or Soul it self Answering I say it seems rather to grow from the Heaviness and Unaptness of the Blood of old People to be so vigorously Inflamed and Acted as it used to be in their younger Years and greater strength of their Bodies and Concoction P. 173. The Doctor says It is not necessary that when at Death the Soul is breathed into the Air that the Air should be thereby Animated because then it should act without the Mediation of any Organs at all but he asserts that neither in the Air nor any other Body whatever can the Soul either meet with or create those Dispositions that are requisite to Vital Information P. 174. He says The Soul makes use of the Vital Spirits as Servants for the effecting of Life Sense and Motion I say Nature makes use of them for the effecting Life Sense Motion Understanding Memory and all other Powers of Cogitation whatsoever P. 180. The Doctor says As to the Particular or Manner of the Souls Knowledge after Death I remit you to Sir K. Digby's sublime Speculations concerning the condition of a Seperate Soul in which tho' you may not meet with such Satisfaction as you expect yet you will meet with more than I can now give you without repeating his Notions To this I answer that I have perused those Notions without meeting with any Satisfaction at all in them P. 183. The Doctor says That the Cement which joyns the Body and Soul together is the Blood especially the Spiritual and most refin'd part thereof and he quotes a Saying of Critius Sentire Maxime Proprinus esse Anima atque hoc in esse propter sanguinis Naturam P. 184. He says The Blood is the first pact of the Body that is generated and moved and the Soul is excited and kindled first from the Blood and the Blood is that in which the Operations Vegitative and Sensitive do first manifest themselves The Doctor says That he thinks it likely that the Soul having its first and perhaps principal Residence in the Blood and that Blood by Circulation flowing like a River of living Water round the Body penetrating into and irrigating the Substance of all the Parts and at the same time communicating to them both Heat and Life so as the Soul having its principal Residence in the Blood in respect thereof may very well be conceived to be Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte so as there is an Intimate presence of the Soul in the Blood and by that means a Conjunction of them together 169. The Dr. says That in the Progression towards Death the Vital Heat or Flame being either almost suffocated by Putrefaction of the Blood the only Fewel by which it is maintained in Diseases or exhausted by old Age goes out like a Lamp by degrees ceasing first to enliven or irradiate the parts that are most remote from the Focus or Heart and then failing in its conserving Influence more and more till at length suffering an Extinction in the very Heart as it were in the Socket it leaves that also Cold and Lifeless so that Death is as an Extinction only of the Vital Flame not of the Soul I say That it is an Extinction of that Vital Flame which I conceive to be the Soul or Spirit or the first Principal of Life and Motion in the Person I think that by the Doctor 's Words in this last Quotation he seems fully to agree with what I have often repeated that the total Extinction of the Vital Flame in the Blood is the Death of the Person and the very thing which turns that which was the living Body into a dead Carcass whence he says That Death is an Extinction of the Vital Flame and yet denies this to be an extinguishment of the Soul whence it seems to me that he was resolved to maintain the Subsistence of the Soul after the death of the Person altho' the Nature and Reason which he pretends to follow convinced him not so to do or that he found any natural need of his so doing but because he thought it might be prov'd by Scripture and was maintain'd by the Divines That the Soul of Man had a Seperate Subsistence after death of the Person and therefore was Immortal and that he stood so perswaded from Scripture Grounds he testifies Pag. 185. where he says That the Soul is an Immortal Substance and that its Immortality is not only credible by Faith or upon Authority Divine but also demonstrable by Reason or the Light of Nature From these Words I collect That his Belief of the Souls Immortality was grounded first upon Faith and Divine Authority as he thought and being thus fully perswaded of the Truth of that Opinion he set himself on work to maintain it by such Deductions as he was able to make from the Principles of Nature and Reason his Performances wherein have before been examined and shewn not be of so great weight as he perhaps conceived them to be The Treatise now examined was publish'd so long ago that I doubt before this time his Flame of Life hath been extinguish'd or that he may not be
saying any more to it P. 171. Sixthly He objects against his own Opinion that the Scriptures make frequent mention of Rewards and Punishments to be given at the day of Judgment but make no mention of such Recompences to be given soon after Death or between that and the Resurrection This I own to be a very strong Objection against Mr. W's Opinion and do intend to make it one of mine which I mean to deliver at the end of his Catalogue of Objections and there further to consider his Answer to it P. 172. Seventhly Mr. W. objects against himself If the Souls of Men pass their Tryal as soon as their Bodies are dead what needs any other Day of Judgment will Christ try Men after Sentence This I think to be a strong Objection and therefore I mean to repeat it again and there to consider his Answer P. 175. Eighthly He objects against himself When Christ which is our Life shall appear then shall wâ— appear with him in Glory I purpose to add this Text to others which I mean to quote against his Opinion afterwards and there to consider his Answer P. 177. A Ninth Objection which he raises against himself is from 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Glory This I think to be a strong Objection fit to be again repeated and there his Answer shall be considered P. 179. His Tenth Objection is taken from King Hezekiah's Prayer in Isaiah This I think to be strong and therefore to be repeated and his Answer to be there considered P. 181. His Eleventh Objection from Eccles 9.5 The Dead know not any thing seems strong and therefore again to be repeated and his Answer there considered P. 182. Twelfthly Mr. W. objects against himself the words of David Psalm 7.1 2. Save me least my Enemy tear my Soul like a Lyon Here I think is the same intent as if David had said least he tear me in pieces like a Lyon putting here the word Soul to signifie Person Therefore I think this Objection to be very weak and as such I leave it P. 183. Mr. W. takes his Thirteenth Objection from 1 Cor. 15.18 If the Dead rise not then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished This Text and Chapter makes a very strong Objection against Mr. W's Opinion and therefore it shall be hereafter repeated and his Answer there considered P. 187. Mr. W's Fourteenth Objection is raised from 1 Tim. 6.16 God only hath Immortality dwelling in Light I think this to be a very weak Objection against Mr. W's Opinion and therefore I pass it over without any further Consideration In this Examination of Mr. W's Fourteen Objections we have found one half or seven of them to be of small force for the overthrowing Mr. W's Opinion and I observe that in his propounding divers of the other seven which are strong against him he doth it in such manner as their strength seems to be much impaired by his manner of delivering them and therefore I design to frame another series of Objections against his Opinion and to place amongst them The Seventh Objection of Mr. W's which I approve and to consider therein the Answers which he hath given to them not yet meaning to follow Mr. W's order of propounding them but I intend to offer all my Objections taken from Scripture according to the several times wherein they were delivered First I object against Mr. W's Opinion from Gen. 9.4 Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof shall you not eat and surely your Blood of your Lives will I require at the Hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the Hand of every Man's Brother will I require the Life of Man who so sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed for in the Image of God made he Man It seems to appear from the words of this Text that the Terms Blood and Life have a convercibility one with another so as no Blood no Life and the shedding of Man's Blood is the killing of him and it is therefore made a Crime of the highest Nature because the shedding of Man's Blood destroys the Image of God wherein Man was made Whence I conceive Man to be God's Image in his whole Person whose Blood may be shed and not only in a particular part of him which Mr. W. maintains must be his Soul The words of the Text say That the Blood of the Creature is the Life thereof and Experiences convinces that all things that have Life have a sort of Spirit for the maintaining thereof as Grass Herbs Plants Trees Insects Fishes Fowls Brutes and Men. In Plants or Trees if we pare off the Skin or Bark and thereby stop the ascent of the Sap which is the Spirit of Life in Plants the Plant will die from that place upwards because this Sap or Spirit of Life will be obstructed in its ascent to the higher parts of the Plant and among Brutes or Men if the passage of the Blood be obstructed those parts to which the Blood cannot come with Freedom decay wither and become of little or no use to the Creature The Text says Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof and Experience shews that the Life exhales with the Blood so as no Blood no Life Whence I collect the Spirit of Life in Brutes and men consists and resides in the Blood and the inflamed and glowing Spirits thereof and thence it seems that as the Spirit of Life in Plants is the Sap thereof so the Spirit of Life in Animals is the Blood kindled and glowing and the inflamed particles thereof and so our Text says Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof And from the Premisses I argue that the Spirit of Life in Man is in his Blood and the inflam'd particles of it and Experience evidences that by like Blood and Spirits the Brutes are acted both in their Local and Peristaltick Motions their Senses of Bearing Seeing c. Their Affections of Lust Wrath and Fear and those degrees which they have of Phantasie Choice and Memory And I pretend hence to infer that if in the Blood there be a Spirit of Life which can act the Brutes in their Motions Sensations and Passions to as high a Degree as Men are acted in those performances and can act them to lower Degrees of Fancy Choice and Memory it seems a like Spirit may probably act humane Persons in all these Faculties and to much higher Degrees in those of Judgment Phantasie and Memory because in such Persons these Spirits meet with Organs of greater perfection and better fitted for the performance thereof And hereunto I apply the injecting of Brutal Blood into a Humane Body which Experience proves will act that Body in such manner as it was acted before by its own Blood because the Organs in which it works are better suited to such purposes than those of the
Animal wherein it acted before and it seems consequent that if the Blood and its particles be the Spirit of Life in Man and can act all his Faculties as before hath been expressed then there is no need to imagine the being of an immaterial intelligent Spirit in Man quia frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pautiora natura nihil facit frustra Wherefore I conclude that the Blood and its Particles inflamed or glowing are the Spirit of Life in Man as well as in Brutes and that there neither needs nor probably is in him such an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit as Mr. W. and those who maintain his Tenet have supposed In Confirmation of what God said before to Noah we read Levit. 7.11 The Life of the Flesh is in the Blood and I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an Atonement for the Souls intending your selves Vers 13. He that hunts or kills a Beast or Fowl he shall even pour out the Blood thereof and cover it with Dust for it is the Life of all Flesh the Blood of it is for the Life thereof Secondly I object against Mr. W's Opinion from Job 3.11 Why died I not from the Womb why did the Knees prevent me or the Breasts that I should suck For now should I have lain been quiet and have slept or as if a hidden untimely Birth I had not been Vers 17. In Death the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest there the Prisoners rest together and hear not the Voice of the Oppressor and the Servant is free from his Master This Text declares to us Job's Opinion concerning the state of dead Persons they all sleep and rest together in Death Great and Small Strong and Weak Prisoners and Free-men Servants and Masters Death reduces them all to a like Estate of Freedom Peace and Rest without any disturbance amongst them He makes no mention here or in any other place of Rewards or Punishments until the Resurrection and then he professes to expect to see his Redeemer with the Eyes which he had but concerning an Intermediate State he is utterly silent which it seems likely he would not have been if he had known of such an Intermediate State of Souls as Mr. W. and his party pretend to maintain We see that Job seems to make Death a rest from all such Sufferings as were known to him and had he known or believed such Rewards after Death as Mr. W. pretends we may reasonably expect he should have made mention of them and from his silence about Rewards and his Opinion of Rest from Sufferings I conclude he knew of no such things to be found of Men soon after their Deaths And I infer from this Argument that the Souls Seperate Subsistence and the great Rewards and Punishments thereof to be expected immediately after Death was unknown to Job and the Men of his time and is therefore a later Opinion taken up and yet generally accepted in the times which came after him and wants much of that Authority which its Derivation from the Primitive times of the World might have given it A Third Objection against Mr. W's Doctrine I take from King David Psalm 146.2 Put not your Trust in Princes or in any Child of Man for when the Breath of Man goeth forth he shall turn again to his Earth and then all his Thoughts perish Psal 49.10 Wise Men die and perish together as well as the Ignorant and Foolish Vers 12. Man will not abide in Honour seeing he may be compared to the Beasts that perish Vers 20. He repeats again Man being in Honour hath no Vnderstanding but is compared unto the Beasts that perish In the first proving Text David says When the Breath of Man goeth forth he shall turn again to his Earth whence his Son Solomon may have taken his Saying Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it Here it seems to me that David's Breath which at Death goeth forth intends the same thing with Solomon's Spirit returning to God who gave it but thereunto David adds That when this Breath is gone forth and thereby the Man is returned to his Earth all his Thoughts perish whence it seems there is not one Thought left in him but we know that the Faculty of thinking can never continue without some Thoughts arising in it and therefore if all a Mans Thoughts perish with his Death I infer his Faculty of Thinking must do so too which it cannot do if there be such a Seperately Subsisting Intelligent Soul in Man as Mr. W. strongly asserts And if my Opposers should contend that the Thoughts which are here said to perish do mean the Intentions and Designs of the Person when alive I answer That there is no need in this place to alter the plain Sense of the Words for that the plain Sense of them may very well stand in this place conceiving that in their plain Sense they are as true as in that other Sense which my Opposers would put upon them without any just occasion so to do And hence I am apt to conclude upon this Text that there is not such a Seperable Intelligent Soul in Man as Mr. W. hath all along pretended In our second Text David exhorts not to be afraid of the Riches or Glory of any Man for when he dies he shall carry nothing away with him he counted himself and other Men counted him happy whilst he liv'd but his Happiness ends with his Life for Man being in Honour hath no Understanding but is compared to the Beasts that perish Let Men be as Rich Wise and Happy and as much in Honour as this World can afford yet all these Preheminences ends with his Life and it seems so also do his Miseries and dying or dead he may be compared to the Beasts that perish his Breath goeth forth and he turns again to the Earth from whence he was taken and so also it is with the Beasts that perish Hence it seems That Solomon should have been the first Person who started the Question Whether the Spirits of Men go upward and the Spirits of Beasts downward or not And after not knowing well what became of the Spirit or Breath which goes forth of a Man at Death he says Transiently and without any Deliberation that appears this Spirit or Breath returns to God who gave it but of such a Spirit or the return thereof we meet with no mention in Scripture before his time that I have yet found out and I am therefore ready to conclude with my quoted Texts out of David that tho' Men be had in Honour during their Lives yet at and after Death they may as concerning their Natural Estate be truly and reasonably compared to the Beasts that perish My Fourth Objection against Mr. W's Tenet I take from Solomon Eccles 4. That Wise King saw great and remediless Oppressions imposed on