Mr. M. here seems to imitate an Old Father who us'd in his Oracles to mix Truth and Falshood together so that one of them might make passage for the other He has met indeed with a mean Scholar to whom he apply's the Term of Philosopher whom the Truth which he discovers in that Tenet enables to maintain the Affirmative of his latter Tenet viz. That the Extinguishment of the Soul is the Death of the Person But for the former part of it viz. That Man has every Week a a new Soul he lays and leaves it at M. M's own Door as an Imp and Product of his own Brain The Observer has sufficiently shown That his sort of Soul is always as much the same as a River or the Sea or Blood or Sap of a Tree are the same Tho' they are always in Motion and Alteration yet they continue always the same things the Supplies of them being of the self-same Nature of that which is spent or altered And Mr. M's Metaphysical Arguments to the contrary are but like the Scholars making Three Eggs out of Two and may well pass for parts of vain Philosophy which ought rather to be Condemned than Approved amongst Men and notwithstanding all the Daily Changes of this Soul mentioned by Mr. M. it is and ever will be as much the same as the Persons raised at the General Resurrection shall be so The Observer does not design to follow the Tract of searching into divers Modes of Vain Philosophy or Science falsly so called because Error est multiplex but rather to give Mr. M. and the Reader an Account what he thinks to be true Philosophy It begins with the Capacities of tender Age Teaching to Speak and Write truly their own Mother-Tongue and so to proceed in others especially the Learned Languages and this is commonly termed the Art of Grammar After which it Teaches to Speak and Write Elegantly Floridly Teachingly and Passionately and this is called the Art of Rhetorick From Words it proceeds to Teach the Arts of Things and Thinking to Form Notions or abstracted Ideas and to Divide Compare Compound Collect Propose and Infer also to direct distinct Places and Repositories for Things of different Natures and to rank them in fitting Orders for the support and assistance of the Memory and this Art is called Logick as directing the Mind in the Ordering and Disposition of Things Thence Men proceed to the Arts Mathematical of Arithmetick Geometry Astronomy and Harmony which help to fix Mens wandring Appetites and Notions to the Apprehension of known and certain Objects and the Comprehension of them Next we go on to the general Contemplation of Nature and all Things that have known and certain Beings in the World and this is called Physica and proceeds to examine the Nature both of Heaven and Earth the Heavenly Bodies and the four Elements and all their Inhabitants and things pertinent to them the divers sorts of Earth Minerals Metals and Stones So rising to the Surface of it and there examining the Grasses Herbs Flowers and Plants proceeding to the Insects Fishes Fowls Brutes and Men examining their formerly call'd Specifick Forms and Qualities lately changed for the Terms of Capacities and Powers without a great difference of their significations For the better effecting such Examinations Men Daily make the best use they can of their Sensations viz. of their Five Senses assisted as they must be by their Rational Faculties able and ready to Correct divers Mistakes which the Sensual Faculties are Naturally liable unto Thus Mens Senses furnish the Mind with suitable Objects for its Examination and searching Men make Tryal of them all and whatsoever belongs to them the Parts of which they are Composed the Causes and Effects of them their several manners of Working and whatsoever by their Senses can be found out concerning them They ponder and ruminate upon them and divide compare compound and collect from them frame Propositions concerning them and thence Infer as to themselves seems most Reasonable Then they communicate their Opinions to other Men whom they think capable of Judging in such Cases and Dispute and Argue the same with such Persons as their present Occasions may require sometimes extending such Conferences to Foreign Regions and far distant Places They examine the Traditions of their Fore-fathers and what our Ancestors have said and thought concerning them They Read and Study the Books which have been Written upon such Subjects from the earliest Times which they can attain unto and thus they Cultivate and Enrich their Understandings by storing up in their Written Collections and Memories the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge derived to them from the beginnings of Time and the most remote Parts of the Earth grounded upon the Testimonies of many Sensations and Experiments which do not easily or frequently deceive the Expectations of such as ground themselves upon them The Observer Designs to apply this to the Question now in Dispute and saies He had pass'd the 62d Year of his Age under the apprehension and belief of the Soul's Immortality and that then solitarily and unmoved by any Discourse or Writing the Consideration of this Question fell upon him He was Convinced or Perswaded by his Sensations That the Constitution of Man's Body was made up of Matter and Spirit as those of all other Sublunary Creatures were The Grass Flowers and Plants have Matter and Spirit which appears plainly to the searching Inquirers The Infects have Matter of a light and weak Composure and an Humour analogous to Blood and Spirit The Fishes are watry yet have some Blood and some of the greatest sorts of them have it in great quantities The Fowls are light and Airy their Matter being Flesh and Bones and their Spirits of Blood which some of their greatest sorts as Geese and Turkies have in considerable quantities The Matter and Spirits of Brutes are very well known amongst us and it is visible and palpable to us That the Life of them is in their Blood and that they never do nor can Live without it and that Breath is as necessary to them and upon the same reason that it is to Men. And Solomon Disputing upon this Question Ecclesiastes the 3d. speaks concerning the Similar Natures of Men and Beasts they are generated alike have need of a like Blood and Breath and their Bodies return to the like dust and who knows what difference there is concerning their Spirits He leaves that undetermined which is now the Subject of the present Question But that the Life of both is in the Blood Moses declares and Experience verifies For if one draw out of a Beast its whole Blood and at another Orifice let into its Body the Blood of another Beast sufficient for its repletion the latter Beast must Die by the loss of its Blood but the first Beast may Live by the newly received Blood and be affected with no perceivable harm by such a change And the same also befals Men If we let
expected in a future State All what he saies more of the Soul in this Place the Observer applies to the Mind and Understanding of Man in Statu concreto P. 39 Mr. M. offers an Argument of the Soul's Immortality from the Reflection in can make upon its own Conceptions and Opinions The Observer Replies That it is a Rational Power of the Mind or Understanding of Man to make such Reflections upon it self and its own Conceptions and Conclusions whereby it is enabled to change and alter them as often as it sees cause and the Change of Occasions may require Further Mr. M. saies That indeed we cannot know what the Soul is but by these Circular and Reflex Motions To which the Observer Replies That then indeed we can have no certain Knowledge of it at all We do not doubt concerning a Reflecting Power in the Mind of Man but cannot perceive That it gives Men any more true Knowledge of the State of their Souls than they had before they considered this Reflecting Power And if Mr. M. knew how this Consideration might make them know more of their Souls than they did before he should have assisted them with Directions to attain such Knowledge of it as they are very desirous to obtain P. 35. Mr. M. saies Let the Heard of Materialists muster up their Forces and give us a Rational Intelligible Account of those Operations of the Intellect and how they can arise from the Effects of the Power of Matter and Motion As if in other Words he should ask After what manner the Animal Spirits do or can produce Reason and Intellect in the Heads of Men. Also P. 36. he demands How Matter and Motion can produce even Sense it self To this Demand the Observer Answers That he acknowledges his Ignorance how such things are Acted in the Persons or Heads of Men But he conceives this Demand ought not to have been made by Mr. M. until he had Answered those other Demands which the Observer had before made to Mr. B. concerning his sort of Soul viz. That he should Prove quod sit quid sit unde oritur quando ingreditur ubi residot quomodo operatur quo avolat To any of which Propositions Mr. M. has made no Answer altho' without so doing he can with no good Face Demand of the Observer to solve his quomodo operatur Concerning the Material Soul the Observer saies He has given and can give a Rational Account of his sort of Soul in the Things before-named viz. of the quod quid unde quando ubi quo but confesses his Ignorance concerning his Quomodo But things That those who can Prove none of those Things before-mentioned concerning their sort of Soul do very unfitly reproach the Ignorance of the Observer in this onely Point concerning the Quomodo and that their so doing suits well with our Lord's Expression concerning the Practice of pulling Motes out of another Man's Eye whilst they have Beams in their own First let them pull the beams out of their own Eyes before they undertake to charge their Brethren with lesser Failings than may be found in themselves First Let them account for their quod quid c. before they charge their Opponent for his Ignorance in the Quomodo which he esteems to be the Arcanum Artificis and Inscrutable by any Humane Power And things it Reasonable That before they urge him to an Account for the Quomodo in this Question they should make some progress upon Questions of a like but lower Nature which occur to them in the World Let them First walk into their Gardens and Orchards and in the first consider the Herbs and Flowers which they may find there of which there may be a wonderful Variety and Diversity and then inquire within themselves and confer with others concerning the Quomodo of their Production and what the Particular and Special Causes are of their difference in Bulk Height Fashion Colour Lustre Scent and the Quomodo of all their Productions the Particulars of which the Observer things to be Inscrutable In general Men know there is Root Stem and Skin enough for these Productions and that there is Spirit and Sap enough drawn from the Earth for the Enlivening and Growth of them But what the Modifications are of such Matter or Spirit or both of them together and which produce among them so great a Variety or Diversity the Observer conceives was never yet found out nor undertaken by any Man who has given an Account of his Success to the World And the like Question the Observer propounds concerning the Trees of the Orchard Men find amongst them a sufficient Matter of Root Bole Bark Branches and Twigs Also a plentiful Spirit or Sap ascending mostly between the Bark and the Tree enlivening it and fructifying the uttermost Twigs of it and causing the Production of Leaves Blossoms and Fruit but the Quomodo of this Performance he holds also to be Inscrutable And before Mr. M. demand an Account of the Quomodo the Spirits produce Intellingence in the Head of Man let him first account to the Observer or the World for the Quomodo of an Oaken Leaf by what means and after what manner the Spirit and the Matter work together for the producing of it And then consider and account for the great variety of Wood Leaves Blossoms Seed and Fruit from what particular Compositions or Modifications of Matter or Spirit such Things Varieties and Differences do proceed From these lower Inquiries let him ascend to the Consideration of the Brutal Nature and consider by what sort of Operations or Contexture of Spirit and Matter the Powers and Actions of that Nature are derived Men know that there passes a Spirit in the Seed of those Creatures into Receptacles fit for the Fermentaion Fomentation and Coagulation of them and that from those Principles the Bodies and Souls of Beasts do proceed and being afterwards brought to Perfection then to the World in their several Forms and different Structure of Body they live are nourished and grow to their several Perfections and that in their Natural State they enjoy and use Strength and Activity Local Motions Affections Desires Passions Sensations Perceptions Fancies and Memories Men see that they have Matter suitable for those purposes Flesh Bones Nerves Sinews Muscles Arteries Veins Fibres and divers other necessary Parcels of their Material Bodies and that these are enlivened and acted by the Spiritual and yet Material Powers of Bloud and Breath Out of the Mass of Bloud purified and heated in the Hearts of such Creatures there arise pure Particles of Bloud fit and ready to be inflamed and which presently are kindled and tinded by fanning of the Breath in the same or like manner as has been before described in relating the State and condition of Man in such Cases and by the Matter before described Organized and the Material Spirits of the Bloud before specified acted together in a fit and suitable Contexture one with another it is evident all the
kindled by the fanning of a competent Breath or Wind which God caus'd to be Breathed into him or according to the usual Expression God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life This Breath tinded the fresh Steems of the Bloud and Humour and kindled in Adam the Flame of Life And that was continued and maintained in his Body by the continual fanning of that Breath of Life And whensoever that Breath is stopped such Flame must needs be extinguished and that Extinguishment is the very Death of the Person Now tho' this gentle Flame when the Body is well conditioned is not uritory but lambent yet thereby and by continual Motion of the pure Bloud which Daily supplies inflamed Spirits for Actuating and Enlivening the several Parts of the Humane Body upon that account it suffers a considerable and Daily waste and consumption for supply of which a little Wheat-meal or something of that Nature is often required and Daily necessary Our Daily Experience teaches us that an active and lively Spirit may be Extracted from a Decoction of the Grains of Wheat or Malt or Flesh or any like sorts of Nourishment which by Comminution is fitted for a more easie Concoction after which the fitting result is converted into Chyle and that after is changed into Bloud and is then sent up to the Heart for a Purification and thence departing is fanned and made glowing by the Breath and those inflamed Particles pass up through the Arteries into the Head and Brain where meeting with Organs prepared by God for that purpose they cause and maintain such Life Power and Activity as are suitable to those Purposes for which God at the first Created and Intended them And by such their Motion Activity and Energy amongst those Capital Organs are produced the Affectionate Sensitive Perceptive Imaginative Estemative Memorative and Voluntary Powers and Faculties of the Humane Head or Brain And such Stock of Spirits as are found redundant in that Receptacle descend from thence by the Nerves and are by them Communicated to every Part and Member of the Body to which they Communicate Life Sense and Motion but no understanding because there are no other Organs in the Body capacitated for that Performance but only in the Head These Spirits and the Bloud of which they are formed give Life Strength and Motion to every Part and Member of the Body and therefore are called Vital Spirits and yet these Spirits and the Bloud out of which they are formed have neither Sense nor Life For if a Vein be opened and the fresh Bloud be suffer'd to spurt into the Fire neither the Blood nor the Party will be sensible of Pain by the so doing Whence it appears That these Bloud and Spirits cause that Sense and Life in the Body which they themselves have not when separated from it And the like we say for the Inflamed Spirits which ascend up to the Head and actuate the Organs there found We say that the Kephaline Organs deprived of such Spirits are not intelligent but a dead and stupid Matter And that the Inflamed Spirits though of great Metle and Activity are neither Intellective nor Sensitive but that by acting the Kephaline Organs they cause and produce Life Sense Reason and Activity in the Person and thereby are performed such Actions and they produce such effects as God intended should commonly be produced in the Persons of Men. And this may be much illustrated and proved by an Argument a Simily taken from the Structure of a Musical Organ the Fabrick of which consists of a great number of Pipes well ordered and put together every of which Pipes is made to render a Singular and Particular Sound of Treble Mean Tenor or Bass All which together well Constituted and rightly Ordered by the Skill of the Artificer imployed by an Active Hand send forth such Pleasing and Harmonious Sounds as are both delightful and admirable to the Considerate Hearers and yet all this Fabrick is but a dead and stupid Matter and can do nothing of it self without being supplied with a suitable Spirit from another Agent the Bellows But upon receiving from thence a suitable Breath or Spirit for putting all its Powers and Capacities into Action it makes the most excellent Harmony of any Instrument in the World which is a Proceeding well known unto Men by daily Experience and whereby it clearly appears That the Fabrick of the Organ by it self or the Inspiring Breath or Wind of the Bellows can make no Musical Sound at all but are each of them singly utterly incompetent for that purpose The Wind proceeding from the Bellows has no such Sound in it self but by entring into the Pipes and acting them receives such a Modulation and Conformation of Sounds as the Artificer who made the Organ intended should be produced And by this Simily it plainly appears That neither the Wind by it self nor the Fabrick of the Organ by it self can perform any part of that Harmony which by the Design of the Artificer was intended to be effected So as the Wind coming from the Bellows which has no Sound at all does by its Passage into the Fabrick and Pipes thereof and the acting of them produce Sounds so melodious as affect the considerate Hearers with Delight and Wonder And now the Observer does apply this Simile to Teach and Demonstrate the great Art and Skill shewn by the great Artificer of the World in contriving the Body and especially the Head of Man in such wonderful manner as it might be continually Enlivened and Acted by such a Material Spirit as he intended for it to be continually supplied from the Bloud which was also to be supplied by Daily Nourishment provided by God and given to Man for that purpose and was always to be fanned and thereby continued in a lasting Flame so long as the Life of the Person should endure This Similitude Proves That a Material Spirit Acting in fit Organs may produce such Operations as the Spirit alone or the Organs alone have not the like Capacity to Perform quae non prosunt singula juncta juvant The inflamed Spirits of Bloud have neither Affections Senses nor Intellect nor have the Kephaline Organs these Powers of or by themselves but the Spirit Acting those Organs as the Wind does in the Organ-Pipes there is produced in both the Fabricks in Statu Composito by those Powers and Faculties so Acted that which is in no measure is found in the Constituent Parts of such a Compositum considered in a State of Separation from one another And upon this whole Discourse the Observer thinks it very clear That Mr. M. either did not understand the Intent of that Pamphlet he pretends to Answer and the Forms of Expressions there used or else he intended to Impose upon his unwary Readers and Ridicule them by his witty Expression here used If the former he seems thereby Convicted of great Ignorance and Mis-apprehension if the latter it seems he Disingenuously intended to
testifies against his Ingenuity and the faithfulness of his Dealing in this Treatise It is true That if upon Tryal the Verdict shall pars upon the Observer's side against Mr. B's Assertion and That God can Act the Person of Man in all his Natural Faculties and Powers by the Activity and Energy of a Material Unintelligent Spirit There will still remain another Question behind Whether God has done so or has otherwise provided for it But till the first Question be Determined there is neither need nor Reason to Dispute upon the second for if God cannot Act the Persons of Men and all their Faculties by such a Material Spirit then it is certain He has not done so And then there is no need at all for Disputing the second Question P. 40. Mr. M. Discourses upon that which he calls a Natural Conscience which the Observer thinks he is mistaken in For that Conscience seems not Emanant from Nature in such manner as his Natural Affections and Inclinations are not as his desire of Food or Venery both comprehended under the Name of Lust nor as his Covetousness Ambition Wrath or Fear nor as divers other Things are which proceed from a Savage as well as a Cultivated Nature But to create a Conscience in Man there must some Law first be given him and accepted by him and by which he believes his Actions acd Behaviour ought to be Governed For that where there is no Law there is no transgression So that if Man has never Accepted or Submitted to any Law whereby he thinks his Actions ought to be Ruled he can never be capable of any Stings of Conscience For that those Stings arise from the Perswasion Convincing him That he has Offended against a Law which he ought in Duty to have Obeyed For all Conscience whether he call it Natural or Acquired must grow out of several Originals Accordingly First There must be a Law next There must be an Action upon which two the Memory must act and represent to the Judgment both the Law and the Action The Judgment must compare and consider them one with another and whether the Action be a Breach of the Law or not If it be not there follows an Acquittance by the Judgment but if a Breach be found then it is considered How far that Breach extends Whether it be wide and large or narrow and small And the Stings and Lashes of the Conscience are greater or lesser according to these Proportions So that he thinks Conscience to be no more than the Conviction of a Man's Judgment That he has Acted against his Rule And whether that Rule be grounded upon Verity and Sound Truth or upon Falsity and Error yet after a a Man has received it for a Rule and submitted his Mind to the Observance of it the Stings and Lashes of the well-grounded Conscience and of the erroneous Conscience are alike But such Mistakes and Confusions are not incident to Properties and Faculties Naturally Emanant from the Constitution of Nature it self He agrees The Lashes of Conscience or Self-condemnation may be very great but thinks they are rather derived from Institution than Nature He has spoken somewhat largely to this Point in his fore-mentioned Treatise and therefore will Descant no more upon it in this Place because it will there be found and because it is a Subject that neither can be nor ought to be handled in few Words P. 41. Mr. M. Demands Is it possible that any Man should believe That the Notions of a Moral Good and Evil the Remorse of a bad Conscience and the Joys of a good one should proceed from nothing else but the shufflings and cuttings of the spirituous Parts of the Blood up and down the Ventricles of the Brain To this the Observer Answers The possibility of Acting such Things as he specifies by the inflamed Particles called Spirits in the Brain Depends upon the Question before Answered Whether God can Act the Humane Person and all his Faculties by those Material Spirits For if so He can do then these Actions and Faculties are not derived barely by the Motions and Actings of such Spirits but from the Wisdom Skill and Power of the Great Artificer He that looks upon a Pair of Bellows and sees and feels the Wind which proceeds from them and knows no more of the Composition of an Organ than what he can conceive by the Bellows and their Breath could by no Arguments be perswaded That the Wind which proceeds from them should cause such Excellent Harmony in that Instrument as our Daily Experience Proves may be Performed The Skill and Power of God has fitted and prepared suitable Organs in the Head for such Performances and such as being acted moved and filled by these Spirits can with and by then Produce Sense Conception Intellect Memory and all other Powers and Faculties whatsoever which are by God intended to be Performed in the Brain and the Ventricles thereof Concerning this Scbject we find in Mr. Lock 's Essay concerning Humane Vnderstanding Fol. 310. his Opinion touching this Matter where he saies We have the Ideas of Matter and Thinking and possibly shall never be able to know Whether any bare Material Being Things or no it being impossible for us by Contemplation without Revelation to discover Whether Omnipotence has not given Power to some Systems of Matter fitly disposed to Perceive and Think or else That he has joined and fixed to Matters so disposed a Thinking Immaterial Substance He thinks it possible for God to put Matter so together as that it may be capable of Perception and Thought Men cannot by Reason find out the Grounds of Sensation in Bodies or Matter but must Attribute that Power only to the good Pleasure of God We must allow That God has annexed Effects to Motion which we can no way conceive it able to produce Whence the Observer inferrs That Perception Reason and Memory may be produced in the Organs of an Humane Head by the Activity and Motion of such Animal Spirits although we can no way conceive the manner how such Actings and Motions are or can be able to produce them P. 43. Mr. M. saies The frequent Conflicts between Reason and the Sensitive Appetite fully prove That there is a Power Superior to that of Matter and Motion and that there is in Man a regent predominant Principle which sometimes chooses the things most distasteful to Sense and uses the Body as its Instrument to serve its own Will and Pleasure And this Power saies he must needs be the Rational Intellectual Spirit in Man To this the Observer Answers By denying that there is such a Regent Predominant Power in Man as he supposes For that daily Experience shews us that the Affections and Passions do far more often prevail over the Rational Inclinations and Desires of Men and hurry the rational Powers along with them to act all Uncleanness with Greediness then that such Rational Powers are able to restrain and govern those
Affections and Passions and to keep or bring them within that Compass and Order which they may desire to do And the odds seems to be at least Forty to One on the side of the Affections and Passions against the Forces and Powers of the Rational Intellect So as the Observer cannot discover that Monarchical and Regent Power in Man's Intellect which Mr. M. pretends to be there But rather conceives That the Powers of the Intellect and Reason in Man are Co-ordinate with the Powers of Sense and Affection and have not such a Command over them as Mr. M. supposes because these Faculties are always in Contention one with another from the Cradle to the Grave and are seldom if ever totally Subjugated one of them to another Insomuch that Aristotle compares their Struglings to a Game at Ball where sometimes one side prevails sometimes the other so as that no Man can guess with certainty whether Party shall have the total Victory or Conquest till the last Stage of the Humane Life be run out and the last Scene thereof finished Whence the Observer concludes That the Powers of Sense and Intellect in Man are Co-ordinate and adds that both of them are ready to submit to the Vegetative Power against the Inclinations and Desires of them both when the great Occasions and pressing Necessities of the Microcosm do so require And from all these Premises he concludes That there is no such Monarchical or Regent Power in the Microcosm as Mr. M. has surmised nor such an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit as he has pretended But that the Bodily Organs and especially those of the Head and Brain are so fitly made suited and ordered by their Great Artificer and are so apt for the Execution of those Offices for which they were Ordained that all those Effects may be perfectly produced amongst them by the Intervention and Energy of the Superfine yet Material Unintelligent Spirits of the Blood And consequently Mr. M's Arguments on this Topick are not sufficient to maintain his part of the Question And for the account which he says is to be made for Mens misbehaving themselves in this World the Observer conceives That it can be truly expected at the last Judgment only as he thinks Dr. Sherlock in his late Book well Proves And he does not remember or know there is any Scripture-Proof of an Intermediate Judgment between Death and the last Judgment but desires Mr. M's Directions for finding out some Scripture-Proof of that Point which is no other ways investigable or subject to a Rational Enquiry P. 44 Mr. M. saies That there is in the Soul or Mind of Man a natural apprehension of its own Immortality which the Observer saies he does not agree or grant but does conceive that Opinion to be no elder in the World than the time of Pherecydes as Mr. M. in this Treatise after affirms He saies That Pherecydes liv'd in the time of Cyrus the first Persian Monarch in the beginning of whose Reign the Jews return'd from their Babylonish Captivity and laid the Foundation of their second Temple And ' saies further That from the beginning of Genesis till that time we meet with no mention of the Soul's Immortality except Solomon's short Expression The Spirit returns to God who gave it The Books of Moses make no express mention of the Soul's Immortality or of any other Future State after Death which seems to the Observer a strong Argument that the Apprehension of the Soul's Immortality is not naturally grafted in the Minds of Men but acquired and raised from other Seeds which have been sown amongst them which from the time of Pherecydes spread that Opinion far and Wide over the Face of the whole Earth and was greedily received and cultivated amongst Men and was communicated also to the Weaker Sex So that Mothers and Nurses were able to Sow it in the tender Minds of Children from their first Infancies which Fathers and Tutors increas'd amongst their Children and Disciples till it became generally accepted amongst Men and spread it Pelf amongst all the World Error as it was In like manner as the Opinion of the Sun's Course about the Earth in Twenty four Hours was received Also as the Doctrine and Practice of Idolatry possess'd and overspread the World from the Time of the Flood untill the present Time Of the Ancient Practice thereof we read much and of our present Time we have certain evidence that it continues to be practised in India Tartary China Japan Africa and amongst the Gentiles of America and amongst the whole Grecian and Romish-Christian Churches So as by the Argument of Mr. M. It seems Men may as well conclude That the Doctrine and Practice of Idolatry is Natural to Mankind It is not the far spreading and long duration of an Opinion that can certainly Prove it to be Natural But that which is truly Natural must have been from the Beginning and have a continuance amongst Men so long as their Natural State shall endure as an Incident to the whole Kind and Race who attain to the common perfections of Parts and of Degrees as Effluxes of their Natural Constitutions Of which sort he does not conceive that any Opinion can be For Opinions in their Natures are mutable Naturalia non mutantur and therefore God did not leave Man to learn the Knowledge of himself from any Natural Power Instinct or Inclination But himself Instructed their First Father and divers others of his Progeny down to the Time of Noah and his Sons in the Knowledge and Fear of God And when these Rules became Obliterated in the general Race of Men he chose out Abraham from amongst them and communicated to him a greater measure of Knowledge concerning God and his Will than any Man since the time of Noah had received before him After which he Reveal'd to Moses many more Particulars concerning himself his Attributes and his Will Afterwards he declar'd the same to Samuel and after to all the Degrees of Prophets down to Zechary and Malachy And these Prophets have delivered many Revelations in their Books Amongst all which there is not one Sentence or Saying That the Soul of Man is Immortal except what may be Collected by Construction from the Fore-quoted Sentence of Solomon transiently delivered by him Whence it appears That this Opinion was not from the Beginning and therefore not Natural as Mr. M. supposes And if from hence we pass to the New Testament we find not in it any Text which saies The Soul of Man is Immortal It is true That St. Matthew's Cannot kill the soul seems somewhat strongly to infer the Soul's Subsistence in a State of Separation altho' it does not appear thereupon That our Lord did not principally intend to Teach the Nature of the Soul in that Place But concerning this Text we must refer to what has been before spoken with intent to diminish the Credit and Power of it The Parable of Dives agrees something with this Opinion but
much in the Resurrection above the reach of Natural Reason The Observer saies the same concerning the Immortality of the Soul and further That it is not only above but also opposite to the Sensations of Man Mr. M. asks What must the poor Heathens do to whom the Resurrection has not been revealed Upon which the Observer asks What must such poor Heathens do to whom the Mystery of Christ's coming in the Flesh has not been Revealed P. 57 Mr. M. saies That the Immortality of the Soul was commonly and naturally known to Men. To this the Observer has spoken before and now adds a Request to Mr. M. That he would produce some Evidence of such Knowledge besides Solomon's short Saying before the time and Doctrine of Pherecydes or else he ought not to be believed That his Opinion has any thing of Natural in it Further Mr. M. here saies That the Observer world not be thought to deny That there are Immaterial Intelligent Spirits The Observer Answers That if he did deny them either in Word or in Thought he would not seek a Pretence to be thought not to deny them If he very much fear'd the Censures of Men's Opinions he would not as he now does maintain the Humane Soul's Materiality Mr. M. supposes as himself saies very unreasonably That the Observer does deny the being of a Superiority and Order in the Invisible World But therein Mr. M. is very much mistaken For that the Observer does Profess to Allow and Believe That there are great Differences and Degrees in the World of Intelligent Spirits the lowest of which are often conversant upon Earth and sometimes with the Inhabiters of it P. 58. Mr. M. saies There is something in Plants like Sense in Brutes like Reason and in Men like Spirits The Observer saies something like the Inferiour Intellectual Spirits viz. Apprehension Reason and Intellect which is as great a Participation with the lower Degree of separate Spirits as the Brutes have of the Rational or the Plants have of the Sensitive Nature The Observer further agrees with Mr. M's Metaphysical Author P. 59. Mr. M. Quotes the Observer's Saying concerning Dr. Moor and Mr. Baxter who say That the Souls of Brutes have separate Subsistence after the Death of their Bodies and there he saies That Dr. Willis did not think this Opinion merited the trouble of his Confutation And both there and here the Observer is of the same Judgment That this Opinion neither deserves or needs any other or further Refutation than the repugnancy which it will find in the common Sensations of every ordinary Reader except such only as can swallow and digest the Pythagorical Opinion of the Transmigrations of Souls Pythagoras was the Disciple of Pherecydes and from him receiv'd the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality and rais'd out of it the Doctrine of the Metempsychosis Teaching from thence That the Soul 's of Men departed sometimes entred into Infants and sometimes into the Whelps and Cubs of Beasts and reciprocally That the Souls of Beasts Transmigrated into and Animated the Bodies of Humane Infants or of Beasts as it might happen to fall out To Pythagoras Plato succeeded and held also a Transmigration of Souls but more restrained then that of Pythagoras imagining That Souls of Men had in a former World been separate and Intelligent Spirits and that for their Offences then committed they were Doomed to Inhabit and Actuate Bodies of Clay in our present World in Nature of a Penalty and as means of Purgation of and for the Offences by them committed in the former World and that as soon as they were dislodged from one Person they must wait for opportunity to enter into another Person or Embryon of Mankind This Doctrine of Plato bounded the Transmigration of Souls within the Compass of Mankind excluding the Bestial Race from such a Communication with Men Concerning which Doctrine Mr. Lock Dict. Lib. fol. 189 saies Taking as we ordinarily now do the Humane Soul for an Immaterial Substance independent upon Matter there would be no Absurdity to suppose That the same Soul may at different times be united to different Bodies and in each make up a Man This Doctrine therefore of Transmigration of Souls from one Man to another seems to him a Rational Deduction from the Nature and Subsistence of such a Soul and accordingly the Opinion of such a Transmigration spread it self far and wide over the Face of the Earth so as the Christian Platonists accepted of it and Origen and some others of the Fathers were of that Opinion The Gallick and British Druides maintain'd it and the most gross part of it viz. The Transmigration Reciprocal from Man to Beasts is still believed among the Gentile Indians Tartarians Chineses and Japanners in our own Times grounding it upon the Opinion of the Soul 's compleat Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body The Observer saies That if he had to deal with such Men as these he would deal with them as with Dr. Moor and Mr. Baxter by endeavouring to perswade them and offering to them such Proofs as he could produce as he does to this present Opponent That the Soul of Man is not an Intelligent Substance nor capable of subsisting in a State of Separation from the Body and if thereof he should be able to Convince them that Conviction would be a sufficient and perfect Cure for all these Errors of theirs and all other like Opinions concerning the same He further saies The wiser and holier any Man is the more firmly he believes and rejoices in the Consideration of the Soul's Immortality Other Proof of this Assertion he gives none so that we have but his bare Word for it in the truth of which the Observer has no great Confidence and he believes That Mr. M. is therein much mistaken Mr. M. saies Men will not be perswaded that That Divine Goodness which has so often embraced them mill ever desert them But that God is Stronger than Death and more Powerful than the Grave and that they cannot believe That their Souls shall ever fall down into a Dead unactive State because they have been Irradiated by the Divine Light and Grace The Observer Answers Here are Two Assertions First they will not believe That God who has embraced them with his Goodness will ever desert them but that God will preserve and deliver them from the Grave This Assertion the Observer willingly grants The Second Saying is That Mens Souls can never fall down into a Dead unactive State This the Observer denies and saies That if by Souls he does not mean Persons his saying That they are irradiated by God's Grace in any sort or way abstracted or removed from the Body his Assertion here is Erroneous and Deceitful For that he never has Proved nor can Prove That God ever bestowed any thing upon a single Soul in a State of Separation from the Body But all his Graces and Favours Corrections and Punishments are applied to the Person
in the Liver But he saies not what other Part or Place the later Anatomists have assigned for this Office of Sanguification and till they agree amongst themselves about that Point it seems the Observer may be justly excused for following the Ancient Anatomists in this Expression Mr. M. goes on to a Secondly which in the first Part of it needs on Answer till he comes to his Repeating the Observer's Quotation of Miracles in his Observations upon Mr. B' s Sermon Where the Case stood thus Mr. B. has Asserted in that Sermon That Omnipotence it self could not produce Thought or Intelligence out of meer Matter by any Skill or Power he could used The Observer there absolutely denies this Assertion and maintains the contrary both by Reasons and Examples inferring from God's making Matter out of nothing That he can make whatsoever he pleases out of any Matter And shews by Examples That God has done such Wonderful Things upon other Occacasions as give no less difficulty to the Minds of Men to conceive than the Act of producing Intelligence out of Matter may do Whence it seems he did not produce those Miraculous Examples out of Levity but for a very just Cause P. 65. Mr. M. Asks Is not God able to uphold the Soul in a State of Separation from the Body The Observer Answers He is able so to do and when he declares he has so done or will so do the Observer is ready to believe it 2dly Mr. M. Asks Are God's ordinary Works in Nature to be confounded with his Miracles The Observer Answers No. 3dly Mr. M. Asks Is it a good way of Arguing from the Power of God to his Will And is Answered No. And further Mr. M. here grants as by his enumeration of Particulars That God can make Matter Cogitative if he pleases to do it without acknowledging That therein he departs from Mr. B's Assertion which the Observer had before opposed Here Mr. M. goes on Repeating his Expressions formerly used and Answered He saies That it is the part of a Philosopher to admire the Works which God has done The Observer saies so too but not such Works as Mr. M. saies he has done unless he make better Proof of his doing of them Mr. M. Will not allow the Observer to lay down Hypotheses contrary to the Sense and Reason of Mankind and then to tell us God can make those Suppositions good The Observer Answers That he neither has done so nor ever intends to do it but that this Suggestion Savours of that Spirit which has hitherto much Acted in his Treatise Chap. V Mr. M. begins at P. 67. and from thence to P. 68. may pass for a Peroration little to the purpose of Proving any thing concerning the Question now in Dispute He declaims against the debasing the Humane Prerogative to the Degree of Brutes The Observer Answers That Prerogatives ought to be justly discerned and all those granted which of right ought to be so And whatsoever is not so tho' never so loudly claimed is not to be granted but denied He ought to remember his own Rule de vero nil nisi verum and therefore if it be true That the Humane Soul is Material it is but a just and righteous Act to deny and reject such Prerogatives as have been unduly Arrogated for it and without good reason have been ascribed to it P. 68 69. Mr. M. Discourses concerning the Atomical Doctrines and raising Bodies from their Motions and Cohesions accidentally without the Direction and Assistance of God's Wisdom and Power With which Imagination the Observer has nothing to do P. 70 Mr. M. saies Atomists tell us That the Soul is a Material Spirit extracted to a wonderful fineness reaching to an invisibility The Observer agrees That Dr. Willis delivers that Opinion and saies That the Particles of Blood inflamed in the Lungs and made lucid in the Brain are such Spirits and that he saies may be demonstrated to the Sensations of Men viz. by the strength of Natural Faculties or the powers of Sense and Reason united And thus much the Materialists pretend they know and can demonstrate concerning their sort of Soul But Mr. M. and those that join with him in maintaining the Intelligent Soul neither know nor can demonstrate any thing concerning it nor any particular matter about it neither the Quod nor the Quid unde quando ubi quomodo nor quo But because they cannot imagine some of them how God can others of them how God does so Act the Humane Organs by these Spirits as to produce in them and by them together Life Sense and Intellect they think he must needs have recourse to the means and assistance of an Immaterial Spirit According to the course of Mens common Conceptions who when they see wonderful Things performed by great Artists the true Reasons of which they do not understand either because those Artists will not declare them or being declared such People will not believe them or cannot comprehend them therefore presently impute them to the Effects of an Immaterial Spirit The rest of Mr. M's Words here need no Answer being voces praeterea nihil P. 71. Mr. M. saies That the maintaining the Soul to be Material is a reproach to Philosophy and all sorts of Humane Learning and will be a likely means to bring them into contempt and hatred The Observer Answers That the Terms of Philosophy and Humane Learning are both of them equivocal and each of them may be taken in several Senses Humane Learning may be employed about good Things or bad Things and there are Arts Teaching to deceive and falsify as well as to Teach real Faculties and Truths And the Term of Philosophy may be used in divers and different Senses Mr. M. in this Chap. has given us some Instances of it where he saies That the Epicureans fram'd and defended a Scheme of the World's Production by the Fortuitous Concourse of Atoms Which he calls Nonsensical gibberish and an empty Sound of unintelligible Words Which the Observer thinks do intend the same thing with Canting as it is now commonly understood among us Mr. M. further saies That we must not let go the Opinion of the Soul's Immortality that we may fall down and Worship that Philosophy which those Men have set up The Observer does not know who are meant by the Term of those Men whether the Epicureans or Materialists each by themselves or both of them together If he mean the first alone no opposition shall be made to him in it if the second alone then all that has been before spoken may be used for his Conviction in it and if he mean a mixture of both together the old Rule shall be applied to him dolus versatur in universalibus and he makes this mixture only to mislead his Readers P. 72 He mentions a like Philosophy which Teaches That we have every Week a new Soul and that at length Soul and Body Die together The Observer saies That
Observer any Man who firmly believes the Resurrection of the Person and the last Judgment may do it And perhaps will not be unlikely to fall into a disbelief of this Heathen Immortality P. 91. Mr. M. Confesses That Socrates Cicero and Seneca his Three great Maintainers of the Soul's Immortality and he might have said the same of his Master Plato himself That each of them at divers times did doubt the Truth of this their Doctrine concerning the Immortality and were never able to arrive at a certainty or constant Resolution in this Point And how then can their Disciples hope to do it He Names Dicaearchus as derided by Cicero but he is very highly commended by Pliny and like a true Disciple of his Master Aristotle was a strong Defender of that Master's Opinions and a constant Declaimer against the Soul's Immortality as was also Hippocrates the most Learned Physician P. 92. Anaxarchus calling the Body the Prison of the Soul shews that therein he Erred with the Platonists For Epicharmus's Saying it came from the School of Plato and the Doctrine That the Souls of dying Men were turned into Hero's which Mr. M. will not deny to be a false and fallacious Opinion Mr. M. in this Chapter has gone no higher in the derivation of his Opinion than to the time of Pherecydes who liv'd after the return of the Jews from their Babylonish Captivity which time was less than 600 Years before our Lord's Incarnation and 1000 Years after the Birth of Moses the Prophet and Law-giver of the Jews from whose Writings the Observer pretends to Derive and Prove his Opinion of the Soul's Materiality Taking the said Soul and Life of the Creature to lie and reside in the Blood of it as being the Spirits of such Blood inflamed and glowing which rise first from the Heart to the Head where being made lucid they act the Brain and the Cephaline Organs and thence are conveyed by the Nerves Fibres and Tendons to all the Muscles Joints Members and Parts of the Body All which are invigorated and Acted by such glowing Blood and the Spirits of it so knownly and apparently as that where the passage of this Blood is obstructed so that it cannot arrive at any Part or Member of the Body that Part withers and becomes useless to the Person till such Obstructions be removed And then it may and often does recover sometimes to the wonder of those who effect such Cures We have said before That the Blood of a Beast cast by Transfusion into the Body of a Man will Act the Person and all his Faculties of Motion Sense Speech and Understanding in the same manner that his own Blood perform'd it before and without any great or even perceivable difference Also if the Blood be totally corrupted or exhausted the Person must certainly Die beyond all hope of help or recovery by Humane Art or Knowledge whatsoever And with this Doctrine the Text of Moses seems fully to agree Levit. 17.11 The Life of the Flesh is in the Blood And I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an Attonement for your Souls for it is the Blood that maketh an Attonement for the Soul or Person Ver. 13. He that hunts and kills a Beast or Fowl shall 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 Therefore ye shall eat the Blood of no manner of Flesh for the life of all Flesh is the Blood thereof This Doctrine is Registred in a History more Ancient than Moses's time by 500 Years Gen. 9.4 But flesh with the life thereof which is the blood thereof shall ye not eat and surely your blood of your Lives will I require at the hand both of man and beast Whosoever sheds this blood of the life of man by man shall his blood be shed for in the Image of God made he man And thus we find it Proved by the highest Antiquity and greatest Wisdom that has been in the World That Blood is the Life of Man and Beast so as the Life is conveyed with and by the Blood to every Part and Member of the Body Where it comes it enlivens and the Part where it cannot come withers and dies If the Spirits of it fail the Person grows feeble and not able to perform any great matter either Active or Contemplative till by rest or nourishment or both they shall be again restored or recruited And this is testified by Daily Sensation and Experience We know these Spirits can Act in this manner Daily and every Day if thus they be recruited and if such Recruits fail the Person waxes feeble and can do nothing but grow more feeble still to Death in a short time for want of Nourishment What these Spirits do we are sure they can do without knowing they have or need assistance from an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit Quod fieri potest per pauciora non debet fieri per plura Natura nihil facit frustra Conclude then we may That the Blood is the Life of Man and the inflamed Particles of it are those admirable fine Spirits which Act the Person and all his Powers And when this Flame of Life extinguishes Man Dies without remedy or possible recovery by Humane Power Chap. VII P. 93. Mr. M. saies He 's obliged in his sort of Civility to vouchsafe the taking notice of the Observer's Argument Which he does in a manner suitable to his former Expressions and perhaps to his Education and Nature He goes on according to his usual Civility and tells the Observer That he wrangles in the Dark about he knows not what Without pleasing to Teach him what he does not know He saies further That the Observer does not Prove in his Pamphlet the Soul 's perishing with the Body but say it only The Observer Answers That the Saying in that Place was enough to excite Mr. B. to a better Proof of his Assertion of the Soul's Immortality And for his Ancient and Modern Arguments which he saies are unanswered the Saying shews That Mr. M. did not understand the Subject or Design of that Pamphlet which he pretends to Answer there appearing in it no intent to Dispute with Mr. B. but only to excite in him a desire and endeavour better to Prove what he had before Asserted Mr. M's following Words express no more but his own Nature and Civility P. 94. Mr. M. says That the Observer does not prove the Mortality of the Souls of Beasts The Observer replies This was no part of his Undertaking either there or here nor do's he think it needful to be done any where because he yet never met with any Man who maintain'd the Opinion that Brutal Souls have any subsistence after the death of their Bodies if Mr. M. pretend to think that they so do he shall here be pointed to Psal 49.12 20. where David compares Men as good as Mr. M. to the
Beasts that perish utterly And his Son Solomon Eccl. 3.21 seems to know That the Spirit of a Beast goes downward to the Earth and he suspects there that the Spirit of a Man may do so too allowing little or no difference betwixt Man and Beast in this Point nor does the Observer know any other difference between them in this Case save that to Mankind there are certain and faithful Promises and Predictions made of a future Resurrection at the time of our Lord 's coming to Judgment without mentioning the Beasts or fore-telling any such matters concerning them Page 95. Mr. M. says He thinks 't is easie to demonstrate That the Souls of Brutes are much more noble than the material Spirits of their Blood The Observer is ready to say beshrew his Heart for being so unkind as to forbear or neglect doing the World and the Observer that great Favour which he says might so easily be done and which the Observer would have accepted as a greater Civility than any which Mr. M. has hitherto shewed him But Mr. M. it seems is resolved to deny him that Courtesie which he thinks he could so easily have performed Then Mr. M. proceeds to say That he is not obliged to incumber his Defence of the Soul's Immortality with such needless Controversies The Observer replys That if the Question be needless why does he quote or argue it But if very material and needful as the Observer thinks it to be why does Mr. M. forsake it in this Place without driving it through to some such sort of Determination as he was able to make of it Mr. M. says further We are sure that the Humane Soul is much more excellent than the Brutal because Man can perform more Excellent Things than the Brutes can do The Observer says the fame concerning Mens Bodies That they have a more excellent Structure and apter Organs of Intellect than any sort of Brutes which together with their extraordinary Instruments of Hands and Tongues make them able to perform Things that far exceed the Capacities of Beasts But if such Hands and Tongues were withdrawn from the Humane Body some Beasts might equal or exceed the Race of Men in making Provision for their natural Subsistence and Defence and some other occasions belonging to each of their Natures Thus Men are advantaged in the Mode and Structure of their Bodies above the Beasts and yet these Abilities do not prove That their Flesh Blood Bones or Breath do materially differ from those of the Brutes Whence we argue That though Mens intellectual Faculties do far exceed those of Brutes yet that advantage does not convincingly prove That the Spirits which Act them are of a different kind and nature from those Spirits which act the Brutes but rather That the different Organs in their Head where such Things are acted are the true Causes of those Excellencies wherein Mankind exceed the Brutes P. 96 Mr. M. says That the Natures of Men are made for higher ends than Beasts and this the Observer grants to be true Further Mr. M. says You carry the Controversie into the Dark The Observer says It is his Part to bring it again into the Light which he pretends all this while to have been doing but has not yet performed it to his own Satisfaction Mr. M. tells the Observer That he abuses his Reason and will lose the Truth and his Labour together which Words the Observer says may with a more sharp Point be retorted upon Mr. M. himself P. 97. Mr. M. asks Must we deny what is plain because we are not agreed about more remote Difficulties The Observer Answers No but desires Mr. M. to make the Soul's Immortality plain and then there will be no Controversie between them about it He quotes a Saying out of Tertallian forbidding Men to enquire into the Secrets of God The Observer prays Mr. M. to apply this to his many Demands and Questions concerning the Quoniodo or how Sense and Reason are Acted in Man and Beast by the intervention and Operation of the Material Spirits in the Heads of either Kind The Observer has said That Quoniodo is a Secret yet reserved in the Store-House of God's Knowledge and hitherto unrevealed to the Sons of Men. Further Mr. M. says There is yet no satisfactory account given of the Sensitive Perception and Appetite by reducing them to the Laws of Matter and Motion The Observer requires therefore Mr. M. to give some Satisfactory account of the Production of Sense and Appetite by the means or intervention of his supposed Intelligent Spirit which if he do this Controversie will easily be determined P. 98. Mr. M. says That the Animal Spirits and the Brain are principally concerned in the Acts of the Intellect and therefore the whole Compositum is not concerned The Observer denyes this Consequence and says That the whole Compositum is concerned in Acts of the Intellect as well as in those of the Senses Prick or Cut the end of the Finger or Toe the whole Compositum instantly feels the smart by contiguity of the Spirits and quickness of their Communication So for the Eye the Ear the Taste and the Smell the whole Compositum is instantly affected by their pleasing or disagreeable Objects So as a quick Smart a horrid Sight a piercing Sound a strong Smell or a very ill Taste breed an instant alteration in the whole Compositum and by any of these the Operation of the Intellect may be disturbed or quite put out of order Whence it appears That though the Spirits and the Brain are the Principal Agents for acting the Reason and Intellect yet the whole Compositum is concerned in every most ordinary Action of the Person which cannot be performed or ever was performed without such a contexture of Soul and Body as has been before specified Mr. M. farther says You must answer all that I have written against the Capacity of these material Corruptible Spirits for the production of such Acts. The Observer replies That he cannot find where Mr. M. has said any more against the Capacities of such a Contexture but that he assures himself and believes That such a Contexture cannot have those Capacities Whereas the Observer conceives They have sufficient Capacity to produce and perform all Humane Actions and Powers according to the Ordination of God and the Constitution which he has appointed in the Creation and Fabrick of a Man Mr. M. says further That his sort of Soul does exert some Actions without assistance of any corporeal Organs and that it works upon these Organs antecedent to any Operation by them His Assertion that it works without them and works upon them seems not at all coherent in it self for that if it work upon them and without them it cannot work by them at the same time But the Observer does constantly deny That there is any such Soul as he pretends viz. an immaterial intelligent Spirit in the Body of any Person naturally So as he must suppose or
taking his Part of the Question for granted Truth seems to be a Folly and Vanity suitable to the rest of his Deportment throughout this Treatise P. 152 The Advers says In many Things we shall be in the Dark without the Assistance of supernatural Revelation The Observer says There is a Sufficiency of supernatural Revelation in the Scriptures of God for the bringing Men a happy Resurrection and a blessed State after it But for our better Illumination the Advers cites a Sentence out of Porphyry who was as great an Opposer of Christianity as any he could have named being a bare Platonist and no more To this he adds the Names of Plato and Socrates pretending to collect thence a more lofty Strain for his Imaginations to work upon than those which are deliver'd in Holy Writ and spares not to quote the Devil's Oracles in Confirmation of his own fantastical Idea's nor the Sibylline Verses dictated usually by a Spirit of the like nature The Advers says That the great Heathen Law-makers pretended to take Help of Spirits and Daemons for the Inventing and Establishing their Laws From which Example perhaps he may intend to derive a Confirmation of his Opinion That there are other supernatural Revelations to be expected at this Day for Mens Guidance and Direction in their Religion than those that are deliver'd us in Holy Scripture Which is an Opinion rejected by the Observer and not received by the Reformed Christian Churches After this Train of Heathen Oracles and Spirits the Adversary returns again to the Holy Scriptures as if he pretended to add some Credit or Authority to them by the Testimony of his Commendations which they neither need nor can his Credit any way extend to the advancing of their Reputation Men knowing it is rather a Disgrace than an Advantage to be prais'd or commended by a slanderous Tongue But those Records are so Sacred that they can suffer no Disadvantage by any Man's Commendations or Discommendations but stand fixed and firm as Pillars and Foundations of the Christian Faith not enduring to be compar'd with the Fictions of idle Oracles Philosophick Daemons or Poetical Inventions nor with the Miracles or Enthusiasms of the Romish Mahometical or Phanatical Imaginary Revelations There can be no reasonable Comparison of such Vanities with the Text of Holy Scripture and therefore whatsoever the Advers pretends to say to that Purpose seems a great Piece of Vanity in him and an idle Imployment of his Time P. 155 The Advers says If you believe that the Soul is Immortal be not over-fond of the Body The Observer replies If you believe the Resurrection and the Last Judgment be not so fond of the Body or any thing else as thereby to be drawn out of the way of endeavouring to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 3.10 The Day of the Lord shall come as a Thief in the Night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great Noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent Heat the Earth also and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness looking for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness Wherefore seeing ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in Peace without Spot and Blameless St. Paul 1 Thess 4.13 directs That they should not sorrow for their dead Friends as if they were without Hope concerning them For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and they shall be rais'd at the Sound of the Trumpet and the Voice of the Archangel He does not tell his Proselytes That their Friends Souls are gone to Heaven as any Comfort or Ease of their Sorrows but he builds their Comforts upon the strong Rock of the Resurrection And thus have we both Peter and Paul to sound and credible Witnesses in this Case directing to a good Life and a strong Comfort in Death from a firm Hope of a future Resurrection in due Time without one Word concerning the Soul's Immortality or drawing any Comfort or Help from thence at all P. 156 The Advers says Make not your Prison too strong as if he assented to the false Platonick Imagination That the Body was made by God for a Prison to the Soul Which every Man 's daily Experience contradicts and proves certainly to us as has been before said That the Conjunction of the Soul and Body is the most amicable of any thing in the World and their Separation most grievous and terrible and That the Body's being a Prison to the Soul is an Opinion both false and foolish tho' it seems very well fitted for the Adversary's Part. He goes on and says Think how quickly this Flesh must be laid aside He should have added And this Spirit extinguished and then there will be no miserable or happy Soul to take notice of P. 157 the Advers demands What Relief will it be to your Souls to remember that in this Life you had your good Things The Observer does not believe that before the Resurrection there will be any such Soul or Remembrance It is true that in the Parable of Dives Abraham says to him Son Remember that in thy Life-time thou hadst thy good Things But the Parable no where makes mention of a Soul but in all Places it applies to the Person Lazarus died and was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosome And Dives died and being in Hell he lift up his Eyes and saw Lazarus afar off in Abraham's Bosome It seems fit to be consider'd how Dives cou'd see a Soul at so great a Distance and speak audibly to Abraham afar off without a Tongue Men do usually imagine This Discourse and Proposal shou'd be applied to the Souls of these two Persons But the Observer thinks there 's no Necessity to take it in that Sense but either to let it pass as a bare Similitude or Parable invented or that it may as well or better be intended concerning the Persons mentioned in the Text before quoted and the rather because Abraham calls Dives Son Remember This Term of Son cannot be applicable to a separate Soul because that Term is properly applied to the Person and also because if our Adversary say true such a Soul cou'd not be descended from Abraham but was newly created by God upon the Begetting of the Body of Dives Whence it seems still That the Relation concerning these Person is but a bare Similitude or Parable and proves nothing Or must be applied to the State of these two Person consider'd in the Contextures of their Bodies and Souls together The Adversary seems to doubt whether Souls go to appointed Places or hover about those Places where their Bodies are interr'd The Observer says It is no Wonder that Men of his Opinion have many Doubts concerning their
sorts of Souls Quod quid unde quando ubi quomodo quo in none of which Points they ever yet came to an agreed Resolution nor can they make any tolerable Demonstration concerning any one of those Quaeries that may give a Reasonable Satisfaction to a diligent Enquirer after them He says That if his Soul had not been hindred by vicious Courses it wou'd have mounted aloft into a purer Region Which Doctrine is pure Platonick and Heathenish not proveable in any Part of Scripture or Dictate of Reason The Parable of Dives says Lazarus was carried by Angels into a Place of Rest intending likely his Person but clearly he was carried and did not mount aloft of himself into any more pure Region He speaks of a Relation we have to a World of Spirits whither we are going The Observer denies we have any Relation to those Spirits after our Deaths or that any of us go to them or have a Subsistence amongst them Whence the Adversary shou'd better have proved what he here delivers or have been less magisterial and positive in the Delivery of it P. 159 He advises Men to think they do but dream of Afflictions Sufferings and Pains when they lie under them and are sensible of them This way of amusing himself the Observer thinks is fallen upon the Advers whilst he sits musing and inventing with himself concerning the Being Nature and Actions of his immortal Soul For if he conceive Men may imagine real Pains and Sufferings but to be Dreams well may his Imaginations concerning Immortal Souls be reputed Dreams by those who nearly and impartially shall examine them P. 160 He speaks still of Adversity and Prosperity as if they were but Parts of a Dream Which Opinion really is yet a most manifest Error and which he shall never be able to perswade intelligent Persons to consent to He speaks of our Arrival at the invisible World of Realities which it seems he believes but as if we was in a Dream which the Observer conceives he has been in during the greatest Part of that Time wherein he wrote this Treatise First he has dream'd That there is such a Soul in Man as is an Intelligent Spirit and shall subsist in a State of Separation after the Death of the Body And that after its Departure out of the Body it shall go to an invisible World of Realities to abide among them Where or how he neither does nor can tell but he still dreams forward That his Soul and those of whom he has a good Opinion shall be in some sort of Happiness but what sort of Happiness himself yet is no way resolv'd whether in Heaven Abraham's Bosome or in the Air or in Alcinous's Garden the Fortunate Islands or the Elysium Fields or that with the Americans they shall live dancing and singing beyond certain high Mountains or in Mahomet's Paradise shall sit by Rivers of Milk Honey Oil and Wine and fulfil their lustful Appetites as often as they please Take all these sorts of States of Souls after Death they are all but Dreams of a suitable sort and Nature fit Subjects for Men of Fancy to be employ'd about And to such Pleasing Imaginations the Adversary shall be left whilst the Observer sets up his Rest upon what the Scripture teaches plainly and proves concerning the Resurrection of the Dead and last final Judgment and a blessed or cursed State after them finding by divers clear Natural Experiments That the Life of Man is maintained by Blood and Breath and acted by the inflamed Particles of Blood call'd the Spirits which must daily be renew'd and refresh'd with Nourishment and Rest that when these are spent the Person languishes and decays and when they are restor'd and refresh'd the Person is vivid and active If Nourishment fail or the Breath be stopp'd the Person dies beyond all Remedy and the total Extinguishment of that Flame of Life which is nourish'd in the Blood is the Death of the Person and cannot be rekindled in it by less than a Divine Power who first kindled and tinded it in the Body of our Grand-father Adam And the same Death which dissolves the Contexture between the Soul and the Body destroys the Persons of Men as well as the Contextures of Beasts without any other Difference between them save that of the Resurrection This is foretold promis'd and threaten'd to Mankind and the World of Humane Persons without that there are any such Prophecies Promises and Threatnings deliver'd concerning the Beasts and therefore David rightly calls them the Beasts that perish utterly And as by natural Experience we find that maintains the Life of Man so if we search into the Beginning of his Nature and Composition ab ovo as Men use to speak we may find one Man do's not less perfectly beget another than a Horse or any other Animal begets Creatures of a like Species with themselves There passes a Vital Principle in their several Seeds which being coagulated in loco idoneo proceed to a Fermentation and being there fomented in their proper Receptacles they arise and grow by degrees to a Vegetation This Vital Spirit still operating in the Mass now vegetated it proceeds to the Formation of the several Parts and Organs of the Body extending and spreading it self throughout the whole Mass and therein working till all the Parts and Organs of the Body are fully form'd and perfected And thence this Vital Spirit proceeds to the Production of Sense in the newly form'd Embryon which perfected it brings with it into the World the two fore-named Faculties of Vegetation and Sense which remain with the new-born Infant as its only proper Powers for some time after its Arrival in the World till that by degrees the Bodily Organs become so dilated and strengthened and the Spirits of the Blood so vivid and active that they produce in the Infant some low degrees of Thinking and Knowledge such as we find in the Brutes what Diet pleases them and to distinguish such for their Friends as give them Food Ease and Pleasure and to avoid such Things and Persons as are terrible and strange to them And thus they live and grow till their Bodily Organs encrease and grow in Capacity and Strength till the Stomack Liver and other sanguificial Parts are able more strongly to concoct the Nourishment and to prepare and rectifie the Blood to a higher Degree of Purity and Vigour And thence the Spirits ascending to the Brain and finding there the Organs or Instruments still more enlarged and apter to perform the Duties of the Rational Faculty they act therein to such Purposes as God has there appointed and ordained to be performed And thus the Vital Spirits and Bodily Organs proceed and grow together until they both obtain their Perfection of Degrees such Blood and Spirits acting throughout the whole Body and in every Parcel and Member of it those Powers and Activities which the great Artificer intended them for And by the Continuity and active Motions
of those Spirits spread over the whole Body it comes to pass that the least Wound in the end of a Finger or Toe is immediately felt over the whole Body and so by Sight Hearing Smelling or Tasting the whole Person is immediately perceptive and affected therewithal like the String of an Instrument how long soever the same may be if touched to a vibration in any Part of it the whole String answers to that Vibration and sounds accordingly And this seems to be the Reason of the wonderful Velocity of Sensation and Perception in the Persons of Men and therewithal the Brutes may well be conceived to have a great Affinity upon a like Account This Spirit is not incaged or incarcerated in the Body but maintains as amicable a Conjunction with it and with as much Liking and Kindness to each other as any known Things in the World can do And the Athanasian Creed tells us That as the Body and Soul are one Man so God and Man are one Christ whence the Union of the former seems as amicable and kind as that of the latter tho' using a joint Contexture one of them with another this sort of Spirit acting in and by the Bodily Organs and Members they together effect in the Person all those Motions Faculties and Powers which the great Artificer intended and designed to be produced in the Humane Person be they those of Vegetation Sensation or Rationality all which Powers and Faculties they continue to maintain so long as their said Contecture has a Conrinuance Whence the whole Person both Spirit and Members are all alike affected one of them with another and never contrarily or differently one of them affected against another It is true that divers great Variances do often happen between the two different Faculties or Powers of Sense and Reason which Differences are as durable and lasting as the Life it self And these two Faculties St. Paul often calls by the Name of Flesh and Spirit which must pass in his Writings for tropical and figurative Expressions Upon which and divers other Accounts St. Peter says there are some Things in St. Paul ' s Writings which are hard to be understood Our Experience teaches us That there are no real Differences between the Bodily Organs and Members and this sort of Spirit of which we are now speaking but that they live and act together during the Time of their Contexture in the greatest Amity and Sympathy that can be imagin'd They are pleas'd and displeas'd rejoice and mourn together as two constituent Parts of the same Person they grow together to a State of Perfection are sick and well together decay and decrease in like manner And where Men live to the uttermost Age their Perceptions Understandings and Memories fail oftentimes before their Tasting and Feeling which continues with them the whole Extent of their Lives Then the Person consisting of such Flesh and Spirit dies together the Flesh and Members turning to Dust and the Spirit which is the Flame of Life extinguishing at the Time of that Separation And at the Time of the Resurrection the Body shall again be raised with such a Temperature of the Blood as shall then again be tinded and kindled into such a Flame of Life as the Person had enjoy'd in his former State as St. Paul declares 1 Cor. 15. whereby there shall arise and accrue to the same Person the same Sensation Perception Understanding Memory and Conscience that he had before in the Time of his former Life So as Mr. Lock seems to be in the right when Fol. 183. of his said Book he teaches That it is the same Consciousness which at the Resurrection makes the same Person such a sameness as St. Paul declares by his Similitude of Grains of Corn as much the same as Grains are of the same Nature which spring one out of another Thus united again by the Resurrection the Flesh and Spirit in a like Contexture as they were before shall come to Judgment at the last Day before the Tribunal of the Lord Christ and shall there receive Judgment Sentence and Doom according to their Works and shall thence depart to Places of Joy and Happiness or to those of Sorrow and Misery as by that Sentence and Judgment shall be appointed for them Thus from Experience it seems proveable That there is such a Soul or Spirit in Man as has been before specify'd That the same consists in the Spirits of the Blood inflam'd and made lucid and glowing That the Original of this Spirit proceeds from a Vital Principle in the Seed The visible quando of its Operation appears with the first Commencement of Vegetation in the Embryon The Vbi of its Residence is every Part and Member of the Body through which the same is contiguously spread or rather is one continuate Spirit mixed with the Flesh throughout the whole Body As to the Quo and what becomes of this Spirit at the Death of the Person it has been declared to go out by Extinguishment The only Point which the Observer professes Ignorance in is that of the Quomodo operatur He professes not to know how these Spirits of the Blood work in the Stomack a right and healthful Concoction and due Separation how in the sanguifical Parts the Chyle is converted into Blood how the Breath fans maintains and communicates such Vigour and Flame to Particles of the Blood which ascend to the Head how those Particles of Blood working in the Head and Brain produce there Sensation Perception Imagination Understanding or Memory how passing thence by the Nerves into the rest of the Body they cause Motion Activity Strength and Vigour all obedient to the Will of the Person and subjected to the Dictates of his Judgment Those are some of the chief Ways of God with Man and are most evident Proofs of his Divine Skill and Power concerning which and other-like Divine Operations Solomon says Eccles 8.17 Man cannot find out the Work that is done under the Sun because tho' a Man labour to find it out or the Wise among Men endeavour to come to the Knowledge of it yet shall they not be able to find it In this Ignorance therefore the Observer is contended to be a Partaker with the rest of the World without herding himself amongst those who because they cannot find out the Quomodo of this Performance are easily perswaded to believe That God has not Skill or Power enough to perform this and is therefore driven and must be driven to act those Things in Man by an immaterial intelligent Spirit which they fancy therefore is newly created by God upon every fruitful Coition of Man and Woman or Man and Beast where the Form of the Product happens to be Humane and that this new Soul which comes from his Hand innocent and pure shou'd presently be thrust by him into an impure Body at the best contaminated by Original Sin which presently communicates that Tincture to that pure innocent but unfortunate miserable Soul so newly created by him These Absurdities following upon and flowing from this Error prove the Opinion from whence they arise to be erroneous And from this and from all that has been spoken before on this Subject the Observer concludes That the Opinion of Man's being acted by an immaterial intelligent Spirit capable of subsisting in a State of Separation from the Body is an Error and that it is much more probable That the Person of Man is a Contexture of Matter and Spirit both rising from the seminal Agitation and both mortal and that the sound Foundation for the Expectation of Recompences future to this Life ought to be grounded upon the rocky Foundation of the Resurrection And herewithal shall be finish'd the present Observations upon this Treatise FINIS