the Rules of Honesty and Order to preserve himself and rather sacrifice the Publick Interest to his own Concerns than act like a thorough Votary to the Common Interest of Mankind And if that Maxim govern him Dulce decorum pro patriâ mori aut agere yet is it his ambition of being famed in History which mainly prompts him to be so heroick So that in all it is but his own ambitious and aspiring Self which is his ultimate end and all that lies betwixt him and this End hath but an inferior and subordinate contribution thereunto And hence the Honour Safety and Felicity of his King and Country are only valued by him even as all Creatures serviceable to him are merely for his own sake So good Security and Service have Kings and Governments from him And let but this selfishness be every-where and every way the Regent Principle abstractedly from all sense of and references to Soul-good hereafter and then he that hath the sharpest Eye the greatest Reach and the longest Sword will have the most undoubted right to all that he can get and keep though vi armis And when another shall outwit or conquer him and call him to an account for all what is the rule and spirit of this Process but Selfishness engaged to satiate Revengeful Thirst § VI. But what is it that induces Persons to believe that Souls are material and mortal and so to perish physically with their Bodies is it because there is no God or that God is not able or not willing to create such Beings is it that either the production of such Beings implies a contradiction or that God judges it unworthy of and much below himself to make and uneasy and dishonourable to himself to mind them or to perpetuate their Beings to their Eternal Happiness or Misery as they behave themselves whilst in this World and Body Or do they think à posteriori that there want Evidences of their Immortality or that the present frame and state and course of things and Providence insinuates the contrary or that God is too good to eventuate the Eternal Misery of any Being As to the Existence of a God 1. If ever there was absolutely nothing then there never could be any thing existent For how could something be produc'd from nothing What an Effect without an Action or an Action without an Agent or Efficient 2. The Eternity of Life and Light and All-sufficiency is demonstrably more credible than the Eternity of meer Body or Matter For Matter in it self is universally passive and impressive from another Nature and all its Principles and Motions must be deriv'd from another and an higher Nature And surely that Essence must be very fine and excellent indeed which can comprehend and penetrate and so variously and harmoniously imprinciple and actuate so vast a Fahrick as the material Vniverse He that could so digest it into such an excellent and establish'd Order as we find it is must needs be Great Wise Good himself and infinitely so 3. But supposing there be an Invisible Infinite Spirit what greater more genuine and apt Evidences is his Existence capable of than what continually face us Rom 1.20 Can Taste be prov'd to the Eye or Sounds to the Palate or Colours and Light to the Ear All Faculties and Senses have their proper Objects and these Objects have their peculiar Evidences to their own Nature Vse and Ends as they respect their different Faculties and Senses Things Visible are best known by being seen things Audible by being heard Blind men will know Light much better if ever their Eyes shall be open'd by one glance thereat than by all the most accurate Discourses upon Light which before were or could be read to them and yet before they saw they apprehended there were such things as Light and Vision but not so satisfyingly as by their own actual seeing of it Now if seeing the vast visible bulk and compass of the Vniverse the evidently wise Contrivance of it with all the accurate dependencies and subserviencies of all the parts thereof as to their mutual usefulness each to other and all its furniture to maintain assist and please all its Inhabitants suit ably to their different Capacities Stations and Concerns be not sufficient to prove Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness in existence to the thinking mind what can As to God's Ability and Willingness to produce such Beings as Immortal Souls 1. There is no contradiction in the terms or thing let them demonstrate who assert the contrary if they can 2. Souls are produced by God's Creating Power and breathed into Humane Flesh And their constituent Faculties their vast Capacities their noble Functions and vivid Operations the vast Provisions which God hath made for their Entertainment Employment and Improvement such as the Mysteries and Treasures of Nature the Exercise and Issues of Vniversal and Particular Providence the Openings and Advantages of a Gospel-day the even sensible Influences Impressions and Effects of Providence and Grace upon the Spirits of Men the Souls apparent Jurisdiction and Dominion over it self yet under Law to God and Christ whose dealings with it would yet admit of larger Thoughts did not the Impatient Press forbid them and its Ability to make all Tributary to its own advantage as to Self-conduct Government and Possession and to reflect upon discern approve or to censure its own Actions yea and to look beyond what Time and meer Matter can amount unto All these and much more make it evident both what Souls are and will hereafter be consigned to As to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God-becomingness in the Case Why should it be thought unworthy of him seeing it is done so evidently by him who worketh all things after the counsels of his Will Eph. 1.11 Is it so unbecoming God to create Spirits in his own Image to impress the Signatures of his own Name upon them to put them into a State of Trial therein to govern them suitably to their Frame and State and so to suit their everlasting State to their present Choice Tempers and Carriages and from amongst the Sons of Men to chuse and cultivate a Seed for Heaven and there to take Eternal Pleasure in all the Accuracies of their compleated Beings their orderly Behaviour and infinite Satisfactions in himself and in the Triumphs of his Grace and Son over all the baffled Powers of Darkness What Attribute can these things disgracefully affect But how much more than all this and incomparably better laid together and more nervosely argued and more Pleas to the contrary impleaded with far greater strength will the Impartial tho' Critical Reader find in the ensuing Treatise To the Ingenious and Learned Author whereof we think the World greatly obliged and do offer our hearty Thanks to him whom with his Labours and the diligent Reader we commend to the special Grace and Providence of God in Christ John Howe Matth. Sylvester October 14. 1696. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I.
made them Keep it not so high as to make it Masterless nor so low as to unfit it for duty A Servant when he ruleth is one of the things which the Earth cannot bear The Body is a good Servant if well managed but a bad Master Keep your Minds as much as you can above the power of Corporeal Impressions Let not the Objects of Sense and Appetite prevail too much upon you These two will quickly plead prescription and put in for Sovereignty if too much indulged They have ever been disposed to rebel since our First Parents gave them that fatal advantage and the sway they bear over their degenerate Posterity carries in it the mark and brand of that first Apostacy 'T is this which threatens our ruin a second time And shall we split upon the same Rock again after so dreadful a warning Suspect all those pleasures in which the Body is much concern'd lest the Spirit be debased by them and begin to put too high a value upon them and so contract a terrene sensual disposition and disrelish those noble delights which are perfective of its Nature Make not your Prison too strong Think how quickly this Flesh must be laid aside as useless and offensive Why then will you cherish it and make an Idol of it a◠if you thought you must never leave it What relief will it be to your miserable Souls to remember that in this Life you had your good things Or if it were reasonable to suppose as some have done that the Souls of the wicked hover about the places of their Bodies Interment what satisfaction would it be to such a Soul to think Here lies Dust which while I studied to pamper I forgot and lost my self A cutting Reflection to a desolate forlorn Spirit stript of all those Vanities which before inveigled it and destitute of those Virtuous Principles which would have enabled it to mount aloft into a purer Region It is therefore a great point of Wisdom to sit loose to the accommodations of this present Life And if at any time we find our Minds disposed as they are too apt to be to an over-great pleasure in our worldly enjoyments 't is fit that we remember this is not our home our highest Interests are above and the Relation which we bear to the world of Spirits whither we are going should make us look more shily upon these temporary perishing things as foreign and extrinsick to us and no way suitable for the Immortal Spirit to rest in And if the least thought should insinuate it self That it is good for us to be here we ought to reject it with disdain and turn our Minds to nobler Objects till the powerful sense of them hath awak'd us out of our dream and shew'd us the vanity and emptiness of it Neither should we be over-much concern'd at any crosses or disappointments which may meet us in our passage through this world Do not give them the way suffer them not to come too near you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epictet Enchir. Cap. 10. It is not the things themselves which trouble men but their Conceits and Opinions about them At least they grow heavier by weighing and so we create and multiply troubles upon our selves by our anxiety and sollicitude about these things which to a calm serene temper would have been but light afflictions Are your Circumstances low and mean in the world you are less in danger of growing in love with it and so being ensnared and undone by it Besides Nature is content with a little though mens Lusts are insatiable Are Friends and Relations unkind selfish unfaithful or otherwise unsuitable to you Who bad you over-value them or promise your selves too much from them or repose too great confidence in them you may thank your selves in this case as in most others if you be answer'd according to your Idols Is your Body afflicted with pain sickness or languishing you knew it was mortal before and to what purpose have you liv'd all this while if not to prepare for such a time as this Are you vilify'd and reproach'd by men as it oft falls out for keeping close to your Duty You ought no more to stop at it than a man in a race for his Life should be daunted at the braying of an Ass or the gagling of Wild-geese Our Life on Earth is but a dream It passeth away as a vision of the night Men are startled at phansied dangers but not duly apprehensive of real ones 'T is not amiss sometimes to suppose as Marsilius Ficinus directs forsitan haec non vera sunt forsitan in praesentiâ somniamus and as there is more of truth in such a supposition than most men consider so it will prevent our being over-much lifted up with prosperity or dejected with adversity since they are both alike parts of a dream and the invisible World of realities is so very near us whither when we are once arrived we shall think as contemptibly of the far greatest part of the Transactions of this world as men are wont to do of their dreams after they are well awake The CONCLUSION THUS I have endeavoured to prove That the Soul is Immortal and laid open the Absurd and Mischievous Consequences of the opposite Hypothesis and withal I have shewed what improvement ought to be made of so important a Doctrine A great deal more might have been said on this occasion but what some will think too little others will think too much and therefore to prevent misunderstandings on both hands I shall only add Two or Three particulars more 1st If any say That I have undertaken a needless piece of work and that such a Discourse deserved not to be answer'd but with scorn and contempt I must tell them That the degeneracy of this Atheistical Age is a sad but sufficient Apology for what I have done It can never be unseasonable to put men in mind of a Future State much less now And though I look upon our Author's Cause to be stark naught yet his management of it perhaps is not so contemptible as some may think However I am sure the effects of it upon others are not so 2dly Others it may be will think I have been too severe in the Remarks which I have made considering the Quality of the person with whom I have to do To which I answer I hope they will not accuse me of any rude personal Reflections and as for his Opinion to answer it is to expose it He has publickly debased all Mankind and himself among the rest and therefore ought not to think much at any rational endeavours to right both him and them And the figure he bears in the world makes an answer so much the more necessary When a person of considerable Note a sober Life and one that has the reputation of a studious thinking man shall vent such Opinions as these the Infection is like to spread so much further Nullis Aconita bibuntur Fictilibus Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se Crimen habet quanto Major qui peccat habetur 3dly Some perhaps will object That I have not laid stress enough upon the Immateriality of the Soul in the present Controversy I would have such to consider that over-doing is undoing and to argue à minus notis is not the way to defend the Truth but to open the Mouths of its Adversaries If I have proved that the Soul is no such perishing corruptible Matter as our Author supposeth this is what I undertook and if the use of the word Material will please him let him take it for me so long as he draws no bruitish Conclusion from it And as for those that have more refined Notions of Immaterial Substances I envy not their improvements let them rejoice in their greater Light provided they take not up with Arbitrary Conceits instead of solid Knowledge nor injure more plain and certain Truths by pretending to know these things which to a Soul in Flesh are hardly if at all intelligible how true soever It seems clear to me that our Author hath over-shot himself by pretending to prove the Soul Mortal because he fancied it was hard to prove it immaterial and this he thought gave him the advantage but to use his own phrase pag. 12. I judge he hath taken a wrong Sow by the ear And tho' I desire not to contend with any man yet if he himself or any of those who have espoused his Sentiments shall think it convenient to Answer what I have written they may expect a Reply if they deserve it For as on the one hand I think not my self obliged to follow any one who impertinently rambles from the matter and seeks sorry little Shifts and Evasions to avoid the force of plain evidence So on the other hand I think it worth my while to allot a considerable part of my remaining Life if just occasion be given me to the Defence of the Soul's Immortality and the running down of these unmanly Notions which ought to be exploded and hiss'd out of the World by the meanest of Human Race FINIS
Aristotle himself in whose supposed Authority you seem to glory tell you That the Understanding is made one with the Object understood which yet must be interpreted cum grano salis No wonder if those who have gross material conceptions of their own Souls be suspected of Atheism it self as Epicurus was of whom Cicero saith he did nomine poncre re tollere Deos in word confess but in effect deny a Deity And why do you not answer Dr. Stillingfleet's Demands Origin Sacr. pag. 416. Can Atoms dispute whether there be Atoms or no And whether the Soul be corporeal or no Can Atoms frame Syllogisms in Mood and Figure Can meer Matter argue pro and con whether it be Matter or something else Or if these Questions be too hard for you why do you not accept the Challenge which Scaliger Sennertus and others have given you and tell the World how Matter and Motion can produce even Sense it self which is 〈…〉 â—â—ior Nature What poor contâ—◠〈…〉 â—ork do Lucretius Gassendus 〈…〉 â—â—e rest of your Tutors mak◠〈…〉 to solve these Phaenomena in a Mechanical way Nil dat quod non habet 3dly The self-determining power of the Will its Acts and Objects do further argue that the Soul is of a Spiritual and Immortal Nature This is that Faculty which chuseth refuseth or suspends its Acts as Objects appear and are estimated good or evil or of doubtful consideration This renders a man capable of moral Government by Laws with their annexed Sanctions Promises Threatnings c. This Faculty is the first Subject of Moral Good or Evil. The whole Frame of Government All Legislation Judgment and Execution Rewards and Punishments depend upon it And as the Understanding pursues Truth so doth the Will Goodness and if at any time it willeth Evil it is sub ratione boni under the appearance or notion of Good in some respect or other An inclination to Happiness is essential to its Nature neither can it be satisfied with sensible material corruptible Objects but mounts higher and reacheth forth after Spiritual and Divine things and can never rest till it centre upon the Infinite Good the Blessed God himself Fecisti nos ad te Oâ—â—â—â—equietum est cor nostrum donec requiesâ—◠〈◊〉 August Confess lib. 1. cap. 1. Thou hast made us for Thy self and our heart is restless till it rest in Thee So Lib. 4. cap. 10. Quaquaversùm se vertit Anima hominis ad dolores figitur alibi praeterquam in Te. Which way soever the Soul of man turns it can meet with nothing but grief till it rest in God Hi motus animorum at que haec certamina Now I would ask those Philosophers for so they yet affect to be called with whom I have to do How they will explain the Liberty of the Will by the Laws of Matter and Motion of which more under another Head And if the Soul be nothing else but the purer Spirits of the Blood meer perishing matter how comes it to pass that material corruptible Objects will not satisfy its Desires There is in every thing so great a tendency to union with its like that 't is become even a Proverb like to like simile gaudet simili Earth to Earth Water to Water c. And if the Soul be made of corruptible perishing Matter how is it that it so stretcheth it self beyond its compass and will not rest in Objects like it self but must needs be aspiring after Immortality and will not be satisfied with the Sphere which they have assigned to it but is for â—â—â—â—â—rsing with the invisible World of Spirits and cannot rest but in the Infinite Eternal Good Certissimum est signum c. It is says one a most certain sign that the Nature of the Soul doth excel all perishing things because none of those things can be found which will not in time grow vile and insipid to it Alsted It s Divine Tendencies and Flights speak its Extraction and Duration too 4thly The Power which the Soul hath of reflecting upon its own Acts both as to their Nature and Morality is a further proof of its Spiritual Immortal Being It not only understands but knows that it does so It contemplates and reflects upon its own Contemplation It can form Arguments and then examine and weigh the strength of them It can sift its own Notions and consider what may be objected against them and fortify it self against these Objections Thus it improves it self in the knowledge of Truth and then reflects upon the improvements which it has made It can retire from its commerce with external Objects and take a view of its own essential Powers and Virtues And indeed we cannot know what our Souls are but by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their circular and reflex Motions and converse with themselves which only can steal from them their own Secrets as a Learned Man observes Smith of the Immortality of the Soul And if any doubt of this reflective Power his very doubting is enough to prove it for he could not doubt but by Reflection upon himself as Dr. Stillingfleet And what say you to the mighty power of Natural Conscience which reflects upon our Acts under a Moral Consideration compares them with the Law accuseth or excuseth raiseth Storms or speaks Peace and so is in part an Executioner as well as a Witness and a Judge How bitterly doth Tiberius complain of the lashes it gave him as Tacitus imforms us and so doth Suetonius and Dion Cassius The like may be said of Otho Jugurtha and many more Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur Juv. Thus you see how Conscience gives Men a foretast of what 's like to come after whether they will or no. Insomuch that the greatest pleasures of the Soul and its most piercing troubles are from Moral Causes And what have Matter and Motion in them that can rationally be supposed adequate to such effects as these yea or so much as to the production of a thought Debate this Point impartially and closely with your own Faculties and I had almost said think so meanly of the Soul if you can Is it possible that any Man in his wits should believe that the Notions of 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 Cavities and Ventricles of the Brain Nothing can be imagined more absurd unless it be that the World also was made by a fortuitous concourse of Atoms which is the height of Nonsense and Extravagancy 5thly The Soul hath a power of rectifying those mistakes to which an over-credulous regard to Sense and Imagination too often betrays us Thus Reason boldly concludes that the Oar is straight though when part of it is under Water it appears crooked because of the Refraction of Rays through a double Medium of
can never be reconciled to or explicated by the rigid Laws of Matter and Motion but all our Actions must either arise from the fortuitous dances and friskings of Atoms up and down the Brain and Nerves or else be necessitated by the irresistible impulse of some Superior Cause and so there is a fatal determination which sits upon the Wheels of these Corporeal Motions And thus Mr. Hobs will have it That our Volitions are necessitated by Superior or Natural Causes as much as any motion in a Clock or Watch and that it is unconceivable that any Act or mode of Act can be without a necessitating Efficient Cause Thus he also affirms a certain connexion betwixt all our Thoughts and a necessary Fate in all things If this be true we must no more say that the Will cannot be compelled but rather that it is always so and by consequence the man that kills another is no more blame-worthy than the Sword wherewith he kills him both their Motions being alike necessitated and the Dog acts philosophically when he bites the Stone but considers not the Hand that threw it Neither is it to any more purpose to persuade men to Virtue than it would be to make a Learned Discourse of Harmony to a Lute instead of putting it in Tune As you like these Consequences you shall have more of them at another opportunity If you say your Opinion is not so gross as that of Mr. Hobs's I answer it had ill hap to be so like it Your words are pag. 2. We see in a Musical Organ every Pipe has its proper sound and function and the same Breath acts them all and therein appears a great effect and power of Matter and Motion rightly fabricated and acted by the hand of Artists and what then may not God do with them and by them when he pleaseth So that if our Material Spirits be inordinate in their motions you are in a ready way to make God the Author of sin by your Philosophy It were much better to say with Cicero Sentit animus se moveri quod cum sentit illud únà sentit se vi suâ non alienâ moveri nec accidere posse ut ipse unquam à se deseratur Ex quo efficitur aeternitas c. Tusc Qu. lib. 1.341 so be it we overlook not the Universal concourse of the First Cause with his Creatures but in a way suitable to their Natures 3dly If the Hypothesis which I am writing against be true no man can rationally believe a Future State of Retribution You have heard already how Individuation and Personality are overthrown by it and by consequence there can be no just room for Rewards and Punishments hereafter because the Person when he died had not the same Soul that he had a month before and why should one Soul be punished for another's Crimes and that other go free Our Author indeed owns the Articles of the Resurrection and Future Judgment 't is likely to serve a turn but what he builds up with one hand he pulls down with the other He says That Soul and Body as they fall together so shall rise again together Whereupon Judgment Rewards and Punishments shall ensue according as men have behaved themselves in this present world pag. 6. But the difficulty returns upon him Why should that Soul which according to his Hypothesis was no better than a little Wheat-flower Malt or it may be some Cordial Julap or other a few days before the man died be judged and punished for all the Faults which were committed long since Will you say that all the rest are past by and that he is only accountable for the Sins of the last Week or ten Days of his Life This would be to turn the Solemnity of the Resurrection and Final Judgment into a meer piece of Pageantry Moreover the Doctrine of the Resurrection cannot be known but by Supernatural Revelation and therefore 't is an Article of meer Belief There is much in it above the reach of Natural Reason and therefore I ask What must the poor Heathens do who know not that God has revealed any such thing Are they obliged to believe and prepare for a Future State or no If you say they are not they themselves will contradict you and so will the Scripture too which makes them inexcusable for their neglects Rom. 1.20 and that they could not be if there lay not upon them an obligation to the contrary Duties If you say they are so obliged you will be ill set to prove it according to your Hypothesis For if the Soul die with the Body and the Resurrection cannot be proved by Natural Reason how shall they believe without Objective Evidence 'T is true they commonly assert a Future State of Retribution and ground their belief of it upon the Immortality of the Soul which if your Opinion be admitted is an unsound Foundation Whence it appears that Natural Light taught them better things than you have learnt from Supernatural and it together And whatever uncertain hints may be found in any of their Writings as to the Resurrection derived perhaps by Tradition from the Jews or inserted afterwards by the pious Frauds as they call them of some well-meaning Christians we are sure they speak solidly and distinctly concerning the Soul's Immortality 4thly Our Author's Hypothesis makes such a sudden descent from the Angelical Spirits to meer matter and motion denying all the active Natures that are between as is absurd and not to be endured Such Jumps as these are not usual in Nature which is wont to act by due and orderly Gradations and not to take precipitous leaps from one extream to another He would not be thought to deny that there are Immaterial Intelligent Angelical Spirits pag. 6 15. And how unreasonable is it to suppose that there are no other Spirits or active Natures inferior to the Angels and differing in their several kinds and degrees of Perfection and Virtue from each other answerable to the several Operations whereunto they are designed by the Author of Nature But that all the great and wonderful Phanemena which we daily behold must be reduced to and solved by the supposed power of Matter and Motion How much doth the Wisdom of God shine forth in that admirable variety which is observable in the visible Corporeal World And are not spiritual or active Natures as noble as Bodies Why then should there not be a proportionable variety in the Spiritual Invisible World Especially when we observe such Vistigia or Images of the higher Natures in those that are lower Thus there is something in Plants like Sense and in Bruits like Reason and in Men there is somewhat which resembles the Deity Must we therefore say that God and the Creature are all one Or must we confound the inferior Orders of Creatures with those that are Superior and deny those active Natures which animate the visible World and distinguish one Species of Creatures from another While
all page 18. With God all things are possible and it seems he who made Matter out of nothing can make any thing out of Matter And to the same purpose page 14. he enumerates several Miracles As of Aaron 's blossoming Rod the staying of the Waters of Jordan the multiplication of Loaves and Fishes c. Thus you see he is so conscious of the weakness of his own Hypothesis that he is forced to fly to a miraculous Power to uphold it This is a ready way of explaining the Phaenomena of Nature But I reply 1st Is not the same Almighty Power able to uphold the Soul in a State of Subsistence separate from the Body 2dly Are the ordinary works of God in Nature and his extraordinary miraculous Works to be confounded 3dly Is it a valid way of arguing from the Power of God to his Will I readily grant That he can do all things which are Works of Power He can do all things which his infinite Wisdom sees fit to do he can do all things that he will do But doth it therefore follow that he will do all things that he can do Is it not horrid prophaneness to prostitute the Doctrine of the Divine Power to serve the ends of every trifling Hypothesis falsly called Philosophy Do we not know that ordinarily God works upon and by his Creatures in a way agreeable to the Natures which he has given them And what is there in a little Wheat-meal suitable to the production of Sense or Reason or Religion It is the part of a Philosopher humbly to contemplate what God hath done and to admire his Perfections shining forth in his Works and not to lay down Hypotheses contrary to the common Sense and Reason of Mankind and then to tell us that God can if he please make these Suppositions good Thus you see that our Author's Philosophy Anatomy and Theology are all alike absurd and that he hath made Miracles so common as will render them in a great measure useless for those extraordinary purposes whereunto they have mostly been designed and that he owns his Philosophy to be weak and impertinent when he is forced to have recourse to a supernatural miraculous Power to support it CHAP. V. Some subservient Considerations for the further establishment of the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality BEsides the forementioned Arguments there are several other Particulars which may justly render the Opinion of the Soul 's dying with the Body odious to all Men who have either the due use of Reason or any sense of Religion 1st This Opinion is highly injurious to Human Nature carrying in it a vile Depression of that whole Species or rank of Beings to which we belong What an unnatural thing is it for a Man to abuse his Reason in vilifying and degrading the reasonable Nature it self as if he repented that God had made him a Man and was ambitious to herd himself among the more ignoble Animals Praeclarum autem nescio quid adepti sunt qui didicerunt se cum tempus mortis venisset totos esse peritos Cic. Tusc lib. 1.339 This is to bid defiance to the Common Interest of Humanity and such a Person should be looked upon as a Traytor against the Prerogative and Dignity of all Mankind And which is more it is contrary to that Obligation and Duty which we owe to the Common Parent and Author of our Beings an ungrateful contempt of that Power Wisdom and Goodness which hath given us so excellent a Nature a casting Dirt upon the Master-piece of the visible Creation and so a robbing God of that Honour which belongs to him upon the account of so noble a Production Let us therefore be more just to our selves more thankful to our Great Creator than so bruitishly to abandon our hopes of Immortality and basely desert the Common Interest and Honour of Humane Race 2dly The whole frame of this unmanly Philosophy is built upon the most precarious unsatisfying Principles imaginable They beg the Question all along and then pretend they have solved the Phaenomena of Nature Cicero told their Predecessors long ago That they assigned Provinces to Atoms without proof And Gassendus is fain to confess that Objection to be true And Dr. Willis himself in whose Authority our Philosopher seems so much to acquiesce rejects the Atomical Hypothesis because it supposeth its Principles without proof and is not suited to the Solution of Natural Appearances See his Book de Fermentatione But because these are but General Charges we will descend to Particulars and shew briefly what a knack they have at Philosophizing upon difficult Points If you ask them how the Soul comes to be so quick and active in its Operations and to turn it self with such wonderful vivacity and readiness from one Object to another Democritus Epicurus and after them Lucretius will tell you That the Atoms prepared for this purpose are of a smooth Spherical Figure See Diog. Laert. in Democ. Epicur Lucret. lib. 3. de Natura rerum and so you know they must needs be very fit for quick motion If you desire an account of Sensation according to their Hypothesis they will tell you of a vis Mobilis Motus sensiferi and something else which they confess they know not what to call from whence it proceeds If you would have the Liberty of the Will explained they tell you It ariseth from a Motion of Declination whereby the Atoms always moving downwards by their own weight towards the Center of the World are carried somewhat obliquely towards some Point different from it And this you must know is the Clinamen Principiorum as Lucretius calls it Ac nos ideo conati sumus declinationem motuum asserere Atomis ut deduceremus qui posset fortuna humanis rebus intervenire ac illud quod in nobis est sive Liberum arbitrium minime periret In a word if you ask what the Soul is they can tell you It is Efflorescentia Materiae and compare it to the Spirit of sweet Oyntment or that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some sort of Spirit they know not what Nihil enim est apud ipsos quod non Atomorum turba conficiat Cic. Tusc Quaest lib. 1. Such nonsensical Gibberish as this they call Philosophy and pretend to explicate the great Works of Nature by it and would needs forsooth be accounted Wits into the bargain when they have amused their inconsiderate Admirers by such an empty sound of unintelligible words But can any Sober Impartial Enquirer be satisfied with such Answers as these And must we let go the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality that we may fall down and worship that Image of Philosophy which these Men have set up No surely we ought rather to be affected with a generous resentment of so vile an Indignity done to the Nature of Man and with just abhorrence to oppose such wild and impertinent Extravagancies 3dly Such absurd Notions as these expose Philosophy it self to
we better understood what the Soul is and how it acts while united to the Body 't is meer frowardness to deny its Capacity of a separate Subsistence because we understand not what will be the mode of its Operation in that State But some men love to argue ab ignoto ad ignotius Mihi quidem naturam animi intuenti multo difficilior occurrit cogitatio multoque obscurior qualis animus in corpore sit tanquam alienae domi quam qualis cum exierit in liberum coelum quasi in domum suam venerit Cic. Tusc Quaest lib. 1. pag. 339. CHAP. VIII Of Materiality or Immateriality as they are ascribed to the Soul THAT which our Author seems most to trust to in the present Controversy is the supposed Materiality of the Soul and this it is which he thinks gives him so great an advantage against his Adversary that as the manner of some is he triumphs before the Victory and yet all this Dust which he raiseth about Matter is an easily dissipated as the Apostle shook off the Viper from his hand which will appear by the following Particulars 1. Many great Philosophers and Divines have earnestly contended that the Soul is immaterial and have laid great stress upon this for the proof of its Immortality The Reasons which they offer should have been well weighed and answered by our Author before he had set up for a new Discoverer 'T is an endless piece of work to write against those persons who will take no notice of what has been said before How little alliance is there between a Thought and any bodily thing The more strictly you consider this the more reason you will see to conceive of the Soul as a substance distinct from and far more noble than Matter The Notions which we have of a Mind i. e. something within us that thinks apprehends reasons discourses wills nills affirms denies doubts c. are mightily different from any Notions which we can fasten upon a Body And yet our Author thinks that Corn may be converted into a rational activity pag. 12. But to that I have said enough already 2dly Others say that the Soul is material and yet are as great Asserters of its Immortality as the former Many of the Ancient Fathers of the Church were of this Opinion Tertullian in his Treatise de Amimâ disputes hotly for it Augustine says that the Soul if compared to God is corporeal and so doth Damascene See many more in the Appendix to the Reasons of the Christian Religion where you will find that they took the Angels themselves for more sublime purer Bodies And the Learned Zanchy agrees with them in his Treatise de Angelis chap. 3. Neither will it follow that the Soul is â—â—â—al if it should be acknowledged material Aristotle himself supposes it to be a certain Quintessence distinct from the four Elements analogous to the matter of the Heavens which yet the Peripateticks suppose incorruptible And it can never be proved that so simple and pure a Substance as the Soul is hath any natural tendency to dissolution or separation of parts but on the other hand the noblest Natures incline most to union neither is it to be feared lest God should annihilate or destroy it since he has given it a Nature fitted for Immortality which shews that he has design'd it thereto Quid multa Sic mihi persuasi sic sentio Cum simplex animi Natura sit neque habeat in se quicquam admistum dispar sui dissimile non posse cum dividi quod si non possit non posse interire Cic. de Senect pag. 210. 3dly The Nature of Matter is not so well understood as that the determination of the present Controversy shou'd be supposed to depend upon it The Accidents and Modes of Matter are obvious to our Senses but how little know we of its intimate Essence Sensus infra Naturae opera subsistunt 〈◊〉 que intima illius penetrant sed in extâ—â—â—â— semper facie versantur Lud. Viv. de Ver. Fid. 151. Rerum omnium verae germanaeque Essentiae ipsae per se non cognoscuntur A nobis abditae latent In penitissimis cujusque rei quò mens nostra in hujus corporis mole tenebris vitae non penetrat Idem And to the same purpose Dr. More Antid against Atheism pag. 15. As for the very Essence or bare Substance of any thing whatsoever he is a very Novice in Speculation that does not acknowledge that utterly unknown But for the Essential and inseparable Properties they are as intelligible and explicable in a Spirit as in any other Subject whatsoever And shall we in the midst of all this darkness talk confidently about materiality and immateriality and dispute our selves into Atheism or Sadducism by wrangling about we know not what Can you tell whether Matter be divisible in infinitum or no Take which side of the Question you please and the distinction of mentally or really divisible into the bargain and make your best of it If it be not infinitely divisible then every part of Matter is not Matter as not having extension or trinal dimension If iâ—â—e then a Grain of Mustard-seed may be divided into as many parts as a Mountain And shall the Immortality of the Soul be supposed to stand upon so lubricous a Foundation as this is No such matter Answer honestly and fairly the Arguments which I have produced from Scripture and Reason or else tell us plainly which of these two you renounce but do not think to shift it off by quibbling upon the word immaterial unless you better understood what Matter is For this would be to run into the dark that you might not be seen to blush while you talk against Light it self The formal Vertues of Spirits are better known to us by their Acts than their Substances yea and better perhaps than the naked Essence of Matter it self is Some great Philosophers have affirmed that the Soul is more knowable than the Body See Descart princ Philos pag. 3. and his Meditat. de prima Philos pag. 4. To conclude The substance of our Souls differs so much from any corporeal thing that we are acquainted with that â—t may well enough be called immaterial though we know not wherein the difference of Spirits from the finest Matter consists excepting their formal Vertues and unspeakable Purity Mihi quidem sufficit dum aliorum ausibus nihil oppono nec contradico ex virtute formali in substantiâ purissimâ fundatâ sine compositione Spiritum à materiâ passivâ distinguere Qui plus praestare potest praestet Method Theol. par 1.142 CHAP. IX Directions to such as are in suspense as to the Immortality of the Soul shewing how they may arrive at a certainty in that matter THough I have already said so much as I think may suffice to satisfy such Persons as are willing to do their own Souls right yet all are not alike disposed for the reception of plain
Evidence when set before them Recipitur ad modum recipientis and therefore it will not be alien to the Design which I have in hand to lay down some Directions which will tend to make all that hath been already spoken more effectual And they are such as these Direct 1. Be impartial in your Enquiries about this matter and take special care that your Understandings be not byassed by the Interest of your Lusts which will dispose you to hate even Reason it self and to shut your eyes against the Light Socrates discoursing concerning the Immortality of the Soul warns his Hearers to take care that they be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haters of Reason than which a greater mischief could not befall them Phoedo pag. 133. Atheistical Inclinations in mens Wills and Affections do commonly set their Understandings on work to frame Principles suited thereto and to defend and maintain those Principles and a Mind thus depraved is like a Corrupt Judge who will hear nothing against the Party that has bribed him When the Soul has so far degraded it self as to become a Slave to the Sensual Appetite the consciousness of its own guilt makes it willing to suppose it self no nobler a Substance than those Material Spirits which have led it captive all the while that so it may die with the Body and not be called to an account for its unnatural self-abasement Alii deliciis immersi ac voluptatibus omnia cuperent cum illis paritèr concidere hoc est cum corpore nec esse ullum Judicem qui vitae hujus rationem à nobis reposceret Lud. Viv. de Ver. Fid. lib. 1.145 It is worth your while to examine whether something of this nature be not the Spring and Fountain of these brutish Principles and if so you have reason to suspect them as proceeding from so vile an Original It is also possible that some thinking Persons of a sober conversation may have an Ingenium Haereticum and affect singularity in Opinions to make themselves more taken notice of and admired by such who have not Wit enough to detect their Sophistry But ordinarily 't is Mens love to their Lusts and sensual Pleasures their neglect of God and Religion their wilful despising the Concerns and Interests of a future State which disposeth them to wish their Souls were Mortal for fear of what may come after and then to believe though not without a great deal of wavering and hesitation that they are so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hierocles A wicked Man would not have his Soul to be Immortal lest he should be punish'd for his wickedness yet he anticipates the Sentence of his Judg condemning it to Death before-hand Malunt extingui quam ad supplicia reparari Minut. Felix Direct 2. Be not overfond of your present Conceits It becomes you to suppose that you may be mistaken because many as wise Men have been so before you He knows little of the weakness of Humane Understandings not of the unsearchable depths of the Works of God who sees not how necessary a qualification Modesty and a promptitude to suspect his own Judgment must needs be in a Philosopher And though this must not be so far strained as to make us turn Scepticks yet it ought to restrain us from an over-forwardness to vent uncouth Opinions and from passing an hasty judgment on things before we have well weighed what may be said on both sides These things which appear difficult to you may perhaps be easy to another and those things which you look upon as Demonstrations to a more discerning Person will it may be appear no better than Dreams and Self-conceit will make you slight the weightiest Reasons which are brought to awake and undeceive you Some of you value your selves upon the account of a natural quickness of Wit with some acquired Scraps of Philosophy but take care that this do not make you set too high an esteem upon your little crude Notions which a small time may discover to be meer trifles and Death will terribly confute for ever Direct 3. Let your Diligence and Seriousness in these Studies be answerable to the weight and consequence of those Truths you enquire after 'T is a matter that nearly concerns you to know whether the Soul be Immortal or no. If after all the pains you have taken to make your self believe that the Soul dieth with the Body you should at last find your self mistaken where are you then What will you do when Death hath drawn aside this Vail of Ignorance and placed you in the Society of wretched Spirits forsaken of God and past all hopes of recovery Will not this be a dreadful disappointment If I saw a Man cut a little too deep when he was pairing his Nails perhaps I might laugh at him for his rashness but if I see him attempting to Stab himself that 's no laughing matter and I am guilty of Murther if I do not endeavour to prevent it and therefore I say again be serious Let me tell you from a Person of as comprehensive a Genius and as high a Station as the best and greatest of you all the great Cardinal Richlieu That the Soul is a serious Thing and must be either sad here for a moment or sad for ever 'T is an easy matter to get some crude undigested Notions and Terms of Art to play withal but solid and satisfactory Knowledge must be the fruit of Industry and hard impartial Study And you have reason enough to question all those Opinions which are the Off-spring of unthinking sloathfulness though none are usually more confident than such Triflers who like drunken Persons boast of their Wit to the increase of their shame The best way to know that the Soul is Immortal is to keep its noblest Faculties indue Exercise and then they will speak for themselves Direct 4. See that your Ends be right in these Studies i. e. suitable to the tendency of those Truths you search into Study the Dignity of Humane Nature that you may walk as becomes Men worthy the Faculties of that Rational Immortal Spirit which God hath given you Right ends will help you in the use of means but if you study these things meerly to please your Phansy this is but a more refined sort of Sensuality and then 't is no wonder if you miss of the Truth nor indeed any great matter whether you find it or no for any great good it's like to do you An honest manly Design in these Studies will prepare you for the entertainment of the Truth Indeed 't is a noble Employment to enquire into the Works of God and especially into our own Souls that we may know him and love him better and discharge our Duty towards him more faithfully and in so doing we may humbly expect some such Afflatum divini Numinis as our Author speaks page 15. which may enlighten our Understandings and lead us into those Truths which we seek after Otherwise 't is
suitably to it Ibid. Therefore that you may not destroy your own Souls and contribute so much to the ruin of others even while you profess to believe the Immortality of the Soul take these following Directions Direct 1. If you believe that the Soul is Immortal let it be your great care to secure your Eternal Interest If there was no more than a bare probability that the Souls of Men must be for ever either happy or miserable it would yet be a point of the highest Wisdom to take the safest side and to prepare for Eternity as much as possible But when there is so full evidence both Natural and Supernatural as puts the case beyond probability and makes it certain it must needs be the most stupendious folly to neglect the Interest of our Souls which are daily hasting to their Eternal State If the Soul be Immortal says Socrates we had need to take care of it and the danger is dreadful if we neglect it Phaedo 167. And here let me ask you Do you not know that the Life of Man is short and uncertain That the deceitful pleasures of the Flesh will soon be at an end and that the more delightful your accommodations are here below the more unwilling 't is likely you will be to leave them Haec sunt quae faciunt invitos mori And can you chuse but fear what will follow after Death Do you not know that the time of this present Life is given us to prepare for another And what are you in pursuit of that can justify so stupid a neglect of your greatest concerns or that will make amends for the loss of your Immortal Souls Have you not sometimes thoughts of repenting hereafter Why in so thinking you implicitly own the Necessity of Repentance and is it not the height of madness to delay the doing of that which must be done or you are undone and lost for ever In a word Are you not doing violence to your own Consciences all this while and putting away far from you that which most nearly concerns you Be persuaded therefore at length with a manly Resolution to lay aside every weight and the Sins that do so easily beset you and run with Patience the Race that is set before you And if you be so resolved you may proceed as follows 1st Labour to understand what it is that must make your Souls happy if ever they be so You may know by the acts of your Understandings and Wills as before described what Felicity and Perfection your Souls are fundamentally capacitated for Nothing but the highest Truth and the chiefest Good can satisfy them You may divert them for a while with variety of lower Objects but they quickly grow weary and run from one thing to another which may shew you that they are not yet got to their Centre You may charm them with the Delights of Sense and Appetite and some more refined Speculations too and yet you do but degrade them all the while and so they will tell you if you take them apart and freely converse with them Suffer them to act according to their nobler Tendencies and you will soon find them conversing with the World of Spirits to which they are so nearly allyed and reaching forth towards Immortality as a thing suitable to their Nature and design'd for them by its Author They will be looking to their great Original and he will meet them with the Attractive Influences of his Grace This is the way to ennoble them indeed This is something worthy the Nature of a Man These are delights which you may justify while the sordid pleasures of the Flesh leave a sting behind ' em The Life which I am exhorting you to hath something in it not only manly and rational but also Divine viz. To exercise your selves in contemplating and admiring the Perfections of the Deity till correspondent impressions be wrought upon your own Spirits transforming them into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 And when once you have learnt to relish these spiritual intellectual Pleasures you will look down with a generous disdain upon those Husks which you were once fond of You will scorn those empty Notions which before you were in love with and have a clear testimony of your Immortality within your selves You will detest being so prophane as to sell your Birth-right for a morsel of unsatisfying transitory Pleasures You will then be fully convinced that true Holiness which consists in separating our selves from that which is common and unclean that we may be devoted to the Love and Service of God is perfective of Humane Nature and essentially necessary to its Happiness and that it is a perfect contradiction for an unholy Soul to be truly blessed because nothing but knowing and delighting in God can make us so and in these consists our Holiness And what is there that can justly offend you in such a Life as this Can you be better or more honourably employed Do not even the worst of men when they come to die wish they had thus lived and the best bewail that they have fallen so much short Lord pardon mine Omissions said Bishop Usher Can you be too diligent and serious in the Service of him who hath done all the good that ever was done for you and must do all that ever shall be done to make you happy He needs not you The loss is your own if you turn your backs upon him Consider how much patience he hath already exercised towards you O do not slight the offers of his Mercy and Grace and then think to complain of him as unmerciful in destroying you Thus did that wicked and slothful servant Matth. 25.24 I know indeed that the carnal mind is enmity against God and prejudiced against these things which lead towards him but I know also that this is the disease of Corrupt Nature which where-ever it is must be cur'd or the Party is ruin'd for ever Neither is it sitting still and complaining that will cure it much less pleading it as an excuse against our Duty A willingness to be healed is in this Case a great step towards it But I proceed 2dly Humble your selves for the gross neglects you have hitherto been guilty of What have you done since you came into the World that 's worthy the Nature and Capacities of a man Have you not been making provision for the flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof while the Immortal Spirit has been almost starved for want of its proper Food viz. Knowledge and Vertue Nascitur enim ex prudentiâ sapere ex temperantiâ sobrium esse pietate Deum colere Hae sunt cibi animae propiè quae idonea est ad sugendum c. Philo Judaeus 127. Is it a light matter that you have debased so noble a Nature all this while and at once sacrilegiously robbed God of that Honour which was due to him from the Rational Creature and unnaturally set your Souls to
takes occasion sharply as his manner is to upbraid the Heathens that they hated one another and were more ready to destroy one another The Learned Grotius mentioning this passage of Tertullian makes the following Reflection upon it Quid nunc illi dicerent c. What would those Christians now say if they saw our times If they saw not merely sharp Contentions but even cruel Wars amongst Christians quas ob reculas for what trifles If they heard all other marks of the Church brought in with a great deal of clamour rather than that viz. Loving one another which was assign'd by its Master Neither can the power of Godliness be supposed to consist in a customary Attendance upon the publick Worship of God Herod heard John gladly and did many things The Pharisees made long Prayers and Fasted often And the Prophet speaks of some Ezek. 33.31 32. who came and sat before him as God's people yea they would hear his words but not do them With their Mouth they have shew'd much love while their Heart run after their Covetousness Moreover a Man may be able to Discourse very well of Religion may be very just in his dealings very charitable to the poor quiet and peaceable among his Neighbours free from gross and scandalous pollutions be no Extortioner Adulterer unjust Person Luk. 18.11 and yet be a stranger to the Life and Power of Christianity all the while I know this will go ill down with those who have built their hopes of Salvation upon no better grounds than these But there is no helping them without undeceiving them In a word therefore these following places of Scripture if you be willing to learn will shew you wherein the power of Religion consists Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Matt. 22.37 38. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind This is the first and great commandment Chap. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me or as Luke has it cannot be my disciple Rom. 8.9 Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his 2 Cor. 5.17 Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature Eph. 2.10 For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Col. 1.2 Giving thanks unto the father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light 2 Cor. 5.5 Now he that has wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also has given unto us the earnest of the spirit Think not that I have here pickt together a few places of Scripture meerly to serve a turn I tell you the whole Strain of the Gospel runs this way and if it be hid it s hid to them that are lost Now if this Gospel be true certainly the Nature of Christianity is little understood or considered by multitudes that yet affect to be called Christians 'T is no such easy matter to be a Christian indeed as too many are apt to imagine Running Striving Wrestling taking the Kingdom of Heaven by Violence do all imply that we have many difficulties to conflict withal and must either be in good Earnest or else lose all our labour 'T is further observable that there must be a mighty change wrought upon us by the Spirit of God else Christ will never own us as his Members And 't is as clear that this great change consists in turning our Hearts from the love of the Creature to the Predominant love of God and Holiness This is the Life the Soul of the new Nature which must animate all our other Graces and be in us a continual Spring of holy Obedience In a word In this consists our fitness for Heaven and without it Heaven would not be Heaven to us were it possible we could be admitted thither These things are so plain that I need not further enlarge upon them unless it be to bring them nearer to your own case and help you to try your selves by them Let us therefore ponder the matter a little Can that Man be said to make Religion his business who will not be persuaded soberly to exercise his Reason about it Nor so much as to put the question to himself What was I Created and Redeemed for What shall I do to be saved Degenerate Souls To what end was your Reason given you Was it think you only to enable you the better to care and plod and provide for the Flesh Alas that you should know your selves no better Can that Man be supposed to love God with all his Heart and Soul who cares not how little he thinks upon him has no delight in his Service but is glad when 't is over No Zeal for his Honour and Glory in the world no concern when his Name is blasphem'd and prophaned by the ungodly who allows himself in a course of wilful Rebellion against him and will not be persuaded to renounce his Lusts nor to set up the Worship of God in his Family and Closet how plainly soever the Scripture enjoins it In a word who could be willing enough to continue on Earth for ever might he but enjoy Fleshly prosperity fulness and ease though he should never know more of God nor love him better than now he doth which is next to none at all And what shall we say of those who turn Religion into matter of ridicule and contempt whose heart riseth against any thing that 's serious They set their Wits at work to put Nick-names upon it and yet the Wretches have the front to usurp the Christian name Prodigious Insolence Is that man regenerate think you who if you ask him what Regeneration means what it is to be a new Creature to be led by the Spirit of God cannot answer you three words of sense about it nay perhaps knows not that there are any such Expressions in the Bible Or can it be imagin'd that a Person whose heart is set upon the world and has no relish nor savour of better things but is quite out of his Element when imploy'd in any thing that has a nearer Relation and tendency towards Heaven can such an one I say be imagin'd meet for that Inheritance or to have any treasure there where his heart is not I could wish to know what Notion such Men have of Heaven What think you How are the Saints and Angels employ'd there Do they love God or no Are they not wrapt up in admiring his Excellencies and Perfections and filled with continual Emanations and Influences of Light and Love from him and even transformed by that blessed