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
Chap. II p. 14. Mr. M. saies That a Soul made of corruptible perishing Matter is not fit to be called an Image of the Immortal God But the Observer saies That Man made as he is of corruptible perishing Matter was yet made after the Image of God and is so accounted to continue at this Day and for that Purpose He has join'd the Soul and Body together in a strict Union which cannot be Dissolved but by Death P. 15 Mr. M. saies That the Reasonable Soul was Created after the Image of God Which the Observer denies and saies That the Reasonable Soul is but one Constituent Part of the Man and his Body is the other that the Soul therefore is not the Man any more than a Part can be equal to the Whole and that it was the Man that was made after the Image of God and not any other Part or Parcel of that Compositum And Mr. M. goes on here and calls that which Moses calls the Breath of Life the Spirit of Life Which difference perhaps the Hebrew may bear as the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does in that Language He saies of this Spirit or Breath That it was Created by God at Adam 's Creation Which is more than Moses's Text does Warrant him to say For the Text of Gen. speaks of no other Creation there than that of the Man without saying that God then Created either the Spirit or the Breath nor is there any other Creation there spoken of save that of the Man The rest he passes as the Invention of Mr. M. who like some other Scholars may desire an Enterprize to be better than his Book In this Chap. he has Collected many Texts of Scripture which seem to maintain his Assertion amongst which there is nothing new to this Observer save the great use he pretends to make of St. Paul's Rapture which he sets down p. 17. from whence he pretends to Prove That St. Paul conceiv'd his Soul was really divisible from his Body and capable of a Subsistence without it As if he agreed with Dr. Moor's Opinion who Teaches That the Humane Soul may and sometime does forsake its Body and wander about in the Airy Region and other Parts of the World and make its return to the Body again at convenient times or upon some sudden Occasions But the Observer denies That St. Paul was of any such Opinion and takes the sense of St Paul's Words in the body or out of the body to be no other but that he was wrapt up into the third Heaven and there saw and heard as perfectly and distinctly as if he had done it with his Bodily Organs and remember'd it as well So that he could not certainly know whether these Bodily Organs were imploy'd in that Rapture or not or whether that Vision was only a Rapture or Extasy of his Mind We find a parallel Place to this in the History of the Kings where Micaiah the Prophet saies to Ahab I saw the Lord sitting upon his Throne and all the host of Heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left And there further relates what he heard and saw in that Vision And it is thereupon probable That he was not certainly knowing whether it was made in his whole Person of Soul and Body or whether it was only a Rapture and Extasy of his Mind and Intellect He thinks this Case very like that of St. Paul's and that the Words of his Rapture must prove exceeding weakly the separate Subsistence of Souls after Death Amongst all the Texts of Scripture he has Quoted there is no more than one which clearly maintains his Assertion viz. that of St. Matth. 10.28 Cited by him p. 17. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul These Words the Observer grants do with clearness Prove That Souls may have a separate Subsistence after the Death of the Person And therefore he will take upon him here memoriter Collecting the Summ and Substance of that which he has said more at large in his fore-mentioned Treatise upon this Subject Where in opposition to the force of this Text he Quotes Luk. 12.4 where the Words of our Lord are Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell The Observer believes That these two Texts of Matth. and Luke do intend to relate one same Fact and Doctrine of our Saviour And this Text of St. Luke does not prove That Souls have a separate Subsistence after the Death of the Body nor make any mention of the Soul at all And that upon these two Texts the Question must needs arise Which of them have truly related the Expressions which our Lord us'd at the delivering of this Doctrine Upon which Question may be considered the Persons and Qualities of these two Writers St. Matthew was indeed an Apostle but his former Profession and Practice was that of a Publican an Office very hateful to those of the Jewish Nation and so much that no Person of Quality would undertake it nor willingly Converse with those that Practis'd it And hence the Observer Collects He was not likely to be furnished with any great stock of Humane Learning but might easily be carried away by the common Opinion of that Time believing the Humane Soul was Immortal and capable of Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body and that therefore he might and probably did deliver this Part of our Saviour's Doctrine in Words and Terms suiting his Conceptions of the Things And that on the contrary St. Luke was a Knowing and Learned Physician and wrote from the Mouth of St. Paul who was the most Knowing and Learned amongst all the Apostles and who it seems was not possessed with the Opinion of the Soul's Immortality or the separate Subsistence of it after the Death of the Person and therefore has delivered this Doctrine in Terms very different from those of St. Matthew and for the further strengthening of this Apprehension the Observer Quotes Matth. 21.1 where the Words are Jesus sent two Disciples saying go into the next village and there ye shall find an asse tied and a colt with her loose them and bring them unto me And they went accordingly and found the asse and the colt and brought them to Jesus and put on them their cloths and sat him thereon This Relation plainly Intends That they brought two Beasts to Jesus and set him upon them both at one time which is an unusual and very unlikely sort of Riding incongruously and somewhat untruly related For that the other three Evangelists are clearly against him in it for each of them relate this Fact of our Lord and mention but one Ass in the Case which truly was a Colt the Foal of an Ass And this Error of our Evangelist seems not a bare but a willing mistake for the
out all the Man's Blood at one Orifice and in the mean while intromit the Blood of a Calf or a Sheep into that Man's Body at another Orifice the Beast must Die but the Man will Live without any clear sense of the loss of his own Blood Nor will he only live or move by the Virtue of his new receiv'd Blood but he will have the use of all his Senses Speech Intellect and Memory as he had before and which without such fresh supply of Blood would have been utterly lost The Observer further consider'd That by a failure of any of the sensitive Organs the Man may and often does lose the use of that Sense so as the Spirit cannot act the Sense but only in its proper Organ and both of them must be sound for the production of it The Spirit also can Speak by the Tongue but not without it it can Imagine in the fore-part of the Brain but no where else it can Estimate and Judge in the middle-part of the Head and Remember only in the back-part of it If the Blood and Spirit be over Thin and Watry Phlegmatick Scorbutick or too Hot and Fevescent too Salt or Sharp the Brain may be ill affected from any of these or the like Causes which Physicians intend to remedy by Purging or restoring to a right State the Stomack Liver or other Parts where the Sanguification is made If the Imagination be tainted they apply Fomentations Blood-letting or Plaisters to the fore-part of the Head if the Judgment be crazed they apply to the middle-part of the Head if the Memory fail they do so to the hind-part of the Head and divers times with very good success performing divers Cures thereupon He further Consider'd That in Distempers of the Brain and failures of the Understanding Physicians do Advise and Men Practise with good success the changes of Air Diet Company fresh or sweet Smells Mirth Jollity with a Cup of good Wine and good Effects have follow'd all these Prescriptions and Practices The Observer ponder'd and conceiv'd within himself That all these were Natural and proper Remedies for correcting the Distempers of the Blood and restoring the imbecillities of the Organs or removing such Obstructions as hinder'd the Operation of them but neither any of them nor altogether were likely to effect or work any thing at all upon an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit Men tell us That this Spirit Acts and Works all that it does by Intervention of the Material Spirits of the Blood but they give us no other Proof of what they say than that the Bodily Organs are not cannot be Acted but by means of these Spirits That we grant and say That there neither is nor needs an Intelligent Spirit for the Acting of them but that they of themselves do Act and are enough to Act the Bodily Organs Daily supplied as they are with Food and Nourishment from the Ambient World as a River is supplied from its Fountains and Plants with Sap extracted from the Earth If the Root cannot extract that the Plant must die if the Fountains fail the livers dry up and if the Sensitive Creatures want nourishment their Spirits fail and their Limbs and Bodies wither consume and die for want of such Supplies gas are suitable to their Natures These Considerations wrought upon the Observer to make a further search into this Disquisition He ruminated long upon it and then propounded it to other People whom he thought capable of it but found not one amongst them who had a compliance for it but maintain'd the contrary The main Argument that they rely'd upon for the defence of it was the largeness of it spread in the World and amongst the Divines and Doctors of it whence it was become so radicated that if it was an Error it was become irremediable and that the endeavouring to remove it out of Mens Minds might do more harm to the Peace of the Church than the Planting of a new Opinion tho' true could do good by the Truth of it This Argument à Commodo did not enough prevail with the Observer to give over and desert his Design and Search concerning this Point but he still Ruminated Conferr'd and Read as Opportunity serv'd him He search'd the Scriptures and Read them many times over and Noted upon a Paper whatsoever he there met with concerning this Subject He procur'd all Books that Treated of it and which he could attain by Buying or Borrowing and gave them an attentive Perusal and then Writ down his own Thoughts and Collections upon them and Publish'd that Pamphlet how opposed by Mr. M. in such a manner as the Observer cannot tell in what manner to Reply to it Mr. M. has so twisted and complicated together his Rhetorick Logick and Metaphysick that it is not easie to distinguish which of his Expressions belongs to one which to another and delivered what he saies in such an Athletick and Domineering Style that he has sometimes attracted a Sympathizing return from the Observer different from the usual course of his Nature He apprehends that Mr. M. intended with Alexander to cut in sunder the Gordian Knot of this Question by his sharp and piercing Style But he thinks he is there-from well Defended by the Shield and Buckler of Faith and Patience the Faith and Belief That he holds the Truth in this Point and a Patience supported with a knowledge That New Truths are not to be maintained without an apparent Consequence of Suffering Prov. 26.4 5. Solomon gives a double Direction in this Case one in direct Words contrary to the other and the Observer has happened to follow the Direction of both Places sometimes of the one sometimes of the other according as it happen'd and perhaps as Solomon intended The Observer did Incite Mr. B. to Write an Answer to his Pamphlet expecting from him such an one as would be Knowing Solid and Temperate instead of which Mr. M's Treatise is Printed with little of the first Requisite in it and nothing at all of the other two as tho' he did not design to draw a Sinner from the Error of his way but weakly Triumphum canere ante Victoriam He saies Men will be apt to censure all Philosophy for the ill use the Observer has made of it in his Pamphlet The Observer saies That there are ill uses made by Mr. M's Metaphysical Arguments produced concerning the uncertainty of Mens Persons happening by the Alterations pertaining to their Bodies and Souls and such other like Parts of his Treatise But those that consider the Scheme of Philosophy that the Observer has now laid down cannot without contradiction to their own Sensations pretend a probable Reason of Quarrel to it If that Herd amongst which Mr. M Officiates shall happen to make any Quarrel to it it will but prove the state of their own Ignorance and that they Err in so doing as perhaps they may be found to do in divers other Things The Observer did ever and does still
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