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Tongues make them able to perform Things that far exceed the Capacities of Beasts But if such Hands and Tongues were withdrawn from the Humane Body some Beasts might equal or exceed the Race of Men in making Provision for their natural Subsistence and Defence and some other occasions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
Charges of the Author and could not be procured at less Charge than that of Fifty Pounds This brought to the Observer's remembrance an old Athenian Story viz. That a Philosopher of that City much Enamoured upon a Courtisan there made her a Civil Visit and after some Discourse desir'd to know the Price of her last Kindness To which she reply'd That no Man ever obtained that Favour under the Price and Charges of One hundred Pounds This Rate so surpriz'd the Philosopher that after he had sat a while musing upon it he rose up and giving the Lady thanks for her Civil Reception of him he told her That her Price was too high for him and that he would not purchase Repentance at so dear a Rate This the Observer apply'd to his own present Condition he look'd upon Fifty Pounds as a very considerable Summ of Money and that might do many better Services other ways He ponder'd with himself concerning the Fruits which might arise through the expence of that Money and found them most likely to be evil Surmises of Men possessed with the contrary Opinion and their hard Speeches and Reproaches likely to ensue upon such a Publication and found his Inclinations thereupon somewhat averse from purchasing those and the like Persecutions at so dear a Rate He therefore gave order to his Correspondent that he should procure a shallow Box suiting the Dimensions of that Treatise that he should put his Writings into that Box and Write upon it The Treatise of such a Man concerning the Humane Soul Which Directions he has since been cerify'd are carefully and duly performed And in this Condition has his fore-mentioned Treatise continu'd for the space of divers Months Elapsed since that time and might likely have continu'd for a much longer time and even during the short space of the Observer's Life if no new or accidental Occasion had call'd for the Publication of it It is a received Axiom That he who ordains the End ordains the Means As we Read That God who by the Prophet Jeremy had fore-told the return of his People from the Babylonish Captivity by the Direction and Power of Cyrus did in his appointed time stir up the spirit of that Monarch to the fulfilling of that Prophecy And did the like by Josiah King of Judah while he was yet Young to the fulfilling of what was foretold he should do to the Altar and High-places erected at Bethel by Jeroboam Also that upon the defection of Solomon from God's Service he stirr'd up the spirit of Hadad the Edomite to raise war against him and that God also then stirr'd up against him another Adversary Rezon the son of Eliadah to make war also against him upon the same Account And this also the Observer applies to his present Condition finding the Spirit of Mr. M. stirred up against him upon his former Observations upon Mr. B's Sermon which in the sequel lays upon him a Provocation and a kind of necessity for the Publishing of his fore-mention'd Treatise which very probably may prove such strong Arguments as may break the bond of his former Frugality and links of Fearfulness and bring to Publick View that Treatise which he has before so often mentioned and which it seems Mr. M. is so well prepared to Encounter as that if in the same there be found any thing that may appear any way Infectious or Poysonous there will be always an Antidote ready at Hand from the Judicious Labours and Powers of Mr. M. who has promised to employ his uttermost Industry Labours and Learning to that purpose And herewith shall be concluded the Preface or Introduction to those Observations which the Writer intends to make on Mr. M s present Treatise The Frontispiece of this Treatise speaks it Printed in Anno 1697 and yet a printed Copy of it came to the Observer's Hand in the beginning of Decem. 1696. The Observer will make no further Inquiry what the Reason of that mistake may be but go on to observe That Mr. M's Treatise is ushered in by a Preface to which are subscribed the Names of Jo. Howe and Matthew Sylvester The reason of which Proceeding is not certainly known to the Observer But because he hears that Mr. M. is Minister to a Congregation of Dissenters he is apt to imagine that these two Persons may be his Elders and Assistants in the government of that Congregation and that their assent to his Enterprise may be alledged in justification of this Undertaking But howsoever that may fall out to be the Observer at present Captus Oculis having caus'd the Preface and Treatise to be distinctly Read before him finds so much agreement between the Matter and the Phrases of these Two Pieces as perswades him confidently to believe That they are both Woven in the same Loom and that the same Head Hand and Spirit runs through them both The truth of which Conception he willingly leaves to be determined by the Judgment of others who shall happen to Peruse the same The Observer does not find in this Preface a Design to Prove but passes it rather upon the account of a Declamation or Harangue proceeding principally upon a grand Mistake viz. That he who denies the Immortality of the Soul denies effectually the Being and Providence of God and the full expectation of Recompences to be distributed after this Life according to the Actions which dying Persons have Practised through the Race of their Mortality The certainty of a Resurrection and Last Judgment is so fully and clearly evidenced by a strong Current and agreement in the Gospel that it seems as True Evident and well Proved as the Truth of that Text is which tells us That Christ Jesus came to save sinners Altho' Mr. M. his Elders and Churches and many others take too little notice of them and make mention of them accordingly Forasmuch as concerns the hard Speeches passing under the Name and colour of those Elders the Observer is resolutely bent to take no notice at all of them For that when he began to Treat upon this Subject he intended to follow our Lord's Direction He sat down and counted the cost of such an Vndertaking and found the least sort of its Effects to be evil Surmises hard Speeches and Reproaches of Men pre-possessed who are likely to be in a manner all those who should come first to the Perusal of his Writings against all whose Verbal Violence he hop'd a resolute Patience would be a very good Defence and such a Buckler as would shield him from all the fiery Darts of that kind which he could reasonably expect would be shot against him And he farther consider'd That his Opinion upon this Point was either an Error or a Truth and if it prove to be an Error Admonitions Reproofs and hard Speeches were but due Recompentes and proportionable to his Deservings 1 Pet. 2.20 For what glory is it if when ye are buffetted for your faults ye take it patiently Duty binds Men to suffer
desire a sober knowing and Canvas of his Opinion The Primitive Greek Churches Disturbed and Divided by the Heresies of Sabellius Arius and divers others call'd upon Eleutherius then Bishop of Rome to stand up for the Catholick Doctrine and the Peace of the Christian Church So the Observer is desirous to incite and stir up the present Bishop of Worcester whose Light is now great in the Church that as he has lately Written excellently well concerning the Trinity so he will take upon him to Treat fully and purposely concerning this Question if his Age and Infirmity will permit Conferring thereupon with his most able Brethren and communicating to some of them his Labours as they are Written in single Sheets during the course of his Progress which may have a double Advantage First That any thing therein found amiss may be more easily amended or Transcribed Secondly A prevention of its passing forward with a communicative Tincture in any of those Sheets that may follow it Our Lawyers are very cautious in their Proceedings upon Questions of great Moment If the great Counsellors differ amongst themselves in a Point in Law the Matter is brought to Tryal by Process in one of the Courts at Westminster where it is Argued before the Judges of it and if they also differ upon the Point it is carried by Process into the Chequer-Chamber to be there Tryed before all the Judges of England who sit and hear it Argued before them by the ablest Lawyers on either side three four or five times at several considerable Distances Spaces or Terms that there may be time enough given for the full Inspection or Consideration of it And after they have heard what can be spoken on either side then the Judges themselves Argue the Point as largely as they please each declaring his own Opinion thereupon And then if there be a considerable number of Dissenters against the major Opinion they Adjourn the Case yet further propter difficultatem to further Days and Times having sufficient intervals such as map still give more leisure for a fuller Consideration And in fine if the dissenting Party still hold to be very considerable they Adjourn the Case before the Upper-House of Parliament and there it is again Argued by Counsel on both sides as often as the Lords think fit to Appoint Then the Judges Argue again and deliver their Opinions with the Reasons thereof then such of the Lords as please speak to it and it is at last finally Determined by the Majority of Voices in the Lords House after which it passes for Law in all the Courts of Westminster and throughout the whole Kingdom of England and stands for a Rule in the Case Disputed and in all other like Cases The Observer further saies That if the Fore-named Learned Bishop will take the pains to Examine the particulars alledged by him in this and his former larger Treatises and give such Answers to them as upon Conference he shall think fit to do And let the Staff fall which way it will he will hereafter be silent without publickly Disputing or Writing against the said Bishop's declared Opinion so delivered and confirmed as afore-said He knows that the said Bishop has Defended the Opinion of the Immortality in his Writings But he takes the Bishop for a Person of great Integrity and that he is a Old and likely as near Death as himself He knows of himself That the whole Kingdom of England offered him to give a false Verdict in this or the like Case would be utterly despises by him And he conceives full as well of the Bishop and therefore dare remit the Point now in Dispute to his Determination as afore-said P. 63. Mr. M. saies The Material Opinion cannot stand but upon the supposition of a continual Course of Miracles to make it good which is very Absurd and Vnphilosophical The Observer Replies granting the Rule That to Prove by Miracles is unphilosophical and that he holds it convenient in this Place to Examine which of the Two Opinions now in Dispute stand the most in need of Miracles to Prove the Truth of it and which of the opposite Parties make most use of that sort of Argument The Material Opinion he says has only one wonderful Work in it viz. The great Effect of God's Wisdom and Power in producing Life Growth Motion Affection Sensation Perception Imagination Judgment Memory all sorts of Thinking by his Skilful contexture of Matter and Spirit together which our Opponents are pleased to express by the Terms of Matter and Motion Mr. B. denies That the Skill and Power of Divinity can in that manner produce these Effects But Mr. M. obiter or transiently grants That the Skill and Power of Omnipotence can Effect such Things if he pleases by Natural means applicando activa passivis as we see he gives the vast Body of the Sea a Motion with divers variations which Men cannot yet comprehend So has he given the Planets Stars and other Heavenly Bodies a perpetual Motion generally regular but with such variations as Men cannot comprehend or understand Plants and Trees Flourish and Decay alternately they shoot out Leaves Blossom and Fruit in a wonderful variety the next Causes of which Men cannot find out Fowls and Brutes Live Grow Move use their Senses and Affections and such low degrees of Phantasie Memory Estimation or Choice as they have by the Virtue and Activity of the Spirits and Blood before-mentioned without Mens being able to apprehend the Quomodo of it And so we may say concerning the activity of the Wind amongst the Organ-pipes a thing which we every Day see with our Eyes hear with our Ears and handle with our Hands and yet are not able throughly to discuss and resolve the Quomodo of all those Actions and Varieties which are Performed by it The fore-going Instances have been produced to Prove a Simile that such like Things have been made and done by God and are still continued and subject to our view in the World as Wonderful Effects of the great Skill and Power of God and which Men are not able to comprehend or understand We proceed to the Immaterial Intelligent Spirit and require of Mr. M. and other Immortalists some sort of Proofs maintaining their Opinion tho' they should be but a Simile We desire them to produce at least some one Instance in Nature where God acts Matter by an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit And the Observer considers they cannot produce any one Instance of such a Conjunction out of the whole Book of Nature except this one which they have invented concerning the Constitution of Man and therefore it is no wonder that they are put to the coining of Miracles for the maintaining of the same Two of which shall here be examined The Wits of Men have never been able to conceive any more ways for the production of the Soul of Man but these Three viz. by Generation by Pre-existence or new Creation of such Souls upon every
of them which if this vile Railer cannot or do not produce the Observer hopes he will pass among his Readers for a false Slanderer and Condemner of the Innocent P. 123. He talks of turning our Eyes in upon our Souls The Observer demands of him whether he ever did so and that he will tell the World what evidence of his Soul follow'd upon his so doing It seems just none at all or else he 's very faulty in not declaring the same to the World He says That as the Soul is separated from the Body by Death so in Contemplations we must abstract it from Corporeal Commerce The Observer says This must needs pass for Gibberish and Nonsense with one who denies the Subsistence of Souls in a State of separation from the Bodies Here he Quotes Pythagoras pretending Men shou'd desire Death That their Souls might be delivered from the Prisons of their Bodies and some in those times kill'd themselves that their Souls might the sooner obtain their Liberty And thus this apprehension became a Doctrine of Devils and it seems the present Opposer now thinks it cannot well be maintained without the Practice of Devils viz. lying and slandering P. 124. He says Their Bodies are an hinderance to them in searching after Truth The Observer says Souls can make no Searches after Truth at all nor do any other Thing without their Bodies nor can he or any other Man prove That they ever did so or can do so He says After Death and not before the Soul will subsist without the Body Here he denies what some of his Partakers affirm That the Soul sometimes wanders from the Body and after some time returns to it again But all with a great probability of Falshood both in the one case and in the other It seems he matters not how meanly he begs the Question when he utter'd his last Position as it were ex Cathedra pronouncing that as an undoubted Truth which he well knows his Opponent fully denies and how weakly himself has offered at the poof of it P. 126. He says further That if men follow the practice of a good Life they will soon be convinced that their Souls are Immortal and not such earthly material Things as you are ready to imagine The Observer Replies That the Evidences of a good Life are well known to himself and as evident to the World as any thing Mr. M. can produce for himself and yet he does not find himself the more perswaded of the Truth of the Soul's Immortality nor believes it ever the whit the more for the false Suppositions and Pretensions which are made for it by Mr. M. in this Treatise But rather is confirmed in the contrary Opinion by those deceitful and false Courses which the Opponent is driven to use for the support and maintenance of his Opinion P. 127. The Opposer speaks Of Divine Raptures and Anticipations of the Soul's Immortality while they are in this World All which the Observer thinks to be as well founded as Castles in the Air which are only Products of Phantasie and vanish with the meer change of the Apprehension The Adversary says further That if your Phantasie be right placed you will be apt to acknowledge the Natural Image of the Deity which is antecedent to the Knowledge of God The Observer Answers That the Image of God in Man is not in any single Part or Portion of him but that the whole Man is the only Image of God for that in the Image of God made he Man without any more respect to his Soul than his Body which are both together the wonderful Work of God and so great a Wonder to Immortalists as they can by no means believe That God has Wisdom and Power enough to produce Sense and Understanding in the Humane Person by the Energy and Activity of Material Spirits but that of necessity he must be driven to use the subservience of an immaterial Intelligent Spirit for those purposes And this shall be left upon them as a very gross Mistake and Error of their Minds Our Adversary says further That there are a World of Spirits Malignant and such at seek the ruin of mankind and carry on a Warfare against God and his Interest and Religion in the World That such Spirits there are the Observer does not deny and that prompted by the malignity of their own Natures they carry on a War against true Religion and the Happiness of Man he grants but that they do War against the Interest of God or can do it he confidently denys and says That they have no power to act or effect any thing without the Permission License or Direction of that Omnipotent Being known to us by the Name and Term of God The Adversary says Those Spirits know well enough that the Souls of men are Immortal Cujus Contrarium the Observer says est verum and saith farther The Evil Spirits take no pains at all to destroy the Soul but the Man of whose contexture the Soul is but Part and such a Part as extinguishes at the Death of the Person P. 128. The Adversary says you may read from divers Authors there named that there are good Spirits which watch over Men for their guidance and preservation The Observer says This needs no Proof from his named Authors for that the Scriptures do testifie abundantly for the Truth of it P. 129. The Adversary discourses concerning Apparitions of dead Persons and delivers divers Historical Relations upon that Subject The Observer does not deny That divers such like Apparitions may have been jussu aut permissu superiorum and that such Apparitions have taken upon them the Image or likeness of the dead Persons But he places all that sort of Apparitions to the account of inferior separate Spirits ready to execute what shall be appointed them in that kind What is in this Place quoted out of Baronius the Observer imputes either to meer Invention or otherwise conceives it to have been a lying Relation of one of those Malignant Spirits What he relates there from Glanvil concerning a Major and a Captain may better pass for a Truth because the tenor of it agrees with what the Observer has before said concerning such Things who always Establish'd That such Apparitions are not acted by the Souls of Men already dead but by inferiour separate Spirits subsisting by themselves and which never were united to the Persons of Men. P. 130. The Adversary says Men may find nobler things in the World than Matter and Motion to entertain themselves with This Assertion the Observer thinks to savour strongly of Ignorance and Falsehood especially because he mentions no Particulars of such Things of which he ought to have given some Instances and for want thereof the Observer concludes him true to his Principles of Boldness and Ignorance He quotes here the Names of Authors as Plato Plotinus Epictetus Cicero Senecae Antoninus which it is likely may have drawn him to the Belief of the Soul's
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
beg the Question that there is such a Thing before he can perswade any Man that it does or works any thing at all P. 99. Mr. M. quotes a Latin Author who took the Immortality of the Soul for granted but with those that deny the Immortality his Assertion has no Consequence or Credibility at all Mr. M. says further The musical Organ is not conscious of the Harmony produced by it as the Soul is of its own Acts he should have said as the Man is of his own Acts for if he intend this of his immaterial intelligent Spirit he knows it to be constantly denied by the Observer who affirms There is no such Spirit naturally in Man and concerning the material Spirits has asserted That they have no Knowledge or Understanding of what themselves do So as it is not the Spirits alone or the Organs alone that can by themselves do any Thing any more than the Organ-pipes can make Harmony without the Wind or the Wind of the Bellows without the Pipes sound and well ordered in their proper Places where the Artificer has ranked them Further Mr. M. affirms That in the Pamphlet which he intended to Answer the Observer had said That Matter has a Self-moving Power and gave instance in some light Earth pulverised and made so apt for Motion as that it might become near a kin to the Atoms which Men way perceive moving up and down in the Air continually Mr. M. Does not deny the Propensity which such fine Atoms have to be moved by any gentle touch of Air or Breath so as falling into a drop of May-dew they will rise up in the mixture of that moisture to the very tip of a Grass-Pile and be ready to drop from it again as the weight and activity of the moisture shall carry it Thus the red Earth of which Adam was Created Pulverised by the Art of the great Machinist was made apt to be moved and acted by the inflamed Particles of the Blood tinded and maintained by a continual fanning of the Breath So as this attenuated Dust acted by the Wind and Fire was then capable by the Ordinance of God to act all that he has appointed to be done in or by the Persons of Men all which three Ingredients still act in Humane Persons all that really can be done by them Page 100 Mr. M. mentions the moveable matters of Wind and Fire but says nothing concerning them that requires or deserves a Reply Further Mr. M. says He does not deny that the inflamed Particles of Blood called Spirits are the immediate Instruments of the Soul 's Operations in its State of Vnion with the Body The Observer has oft-ten and constantly denied That there is such an Intelligent Soul in Man as Mr. M. supposes and yet he will still go on to suppose that which is still denied without bringing any full and convincing Proof of the Truth of it A Thing and Proceeding which the Observer can by no means help But his Arguments drawn from such Premises have very little Force P. 101. Mr. M. says The Observer has objected That the Soul cannot operate in a separate State but he quotes no Page of the Pamphlet where he finds this Objection or in truth is this Objection to be found in any Part of the foresaid Pamphlet but is the Progeny of Mr. M's own Brain intending to set it up like a Man of Straw that he may have the battering of it down again at his Pleasure Mr. M. Concludes That except we better understood what the Soul is and how it acts whilst united to the Body we ought not to deny its Capacity of acting in a separate Subsistence The Observer thinks he should have said Except we had more certain Knowledge that there is an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit in the Person it is meer lost labour to trouble our Heads with the Notions of what such a Soul does do or can do in statu concreto vel separato Chap. VIII p. 103. Mr. M. say's 'T is an endless work to write against those who will take no notice of what has been said before in the Controverted Point The Observer replys That if M. M. knew any Thing that has been said before concerning this Point that he thinks to be very Material or Convincing he ought by the Duty of his Undertaking to make the Observer and the World whom he pretends to instruct acquainted with such material Points of Knowledge that they might either conform themselves thereunto or be driven to make such Answers to them as they shall be able But we find in this Place an apparent failing in Mr. M. in the precise Point of this Duty P. 104. Mr. M. would have us strictly to consider How little Alliance there is betwixt a Thought and any Bodily Thing He might as well have bidden us consider How a Horse that eats and drinks and evacuates every Day for a Year together should at the Year's end be still the same Horse The Observer bears no inclination to trouble his Head about Mr. M's Metaphysical Notions or Proportions and therefore refuses to consider the Thing propounded or any of the like Notions Mr. M. says That the Notions which we have of the Mind i. e. something within us that thinks Reasons and Wills are mighty different from any Notions we can fasten upon a Body i. e. from Mr. M's Notions concerning such Things But the Observer thinks There is no such Thing in the Person as thinks reasons wills c. but says as before with Aristotle That it is the Man who thinks reasons wills c. and that the whole Compositum is concerned in such Actions Mr. M. says further That divers who assert the Soul's Immortality do likewise assert its Materiality and that divers of the Fathers were of that Opinion Pag. 105. Mr. M. says It can never be proved That so pure an Essence as the Soul is has any natural tendency to Dissolution He ought withall to have remembred That they who deny the Being of such a Soul as he supposes will never trouble themselves about Arguments whether it be Corporeal and Mortal or the contrary Mr. M. quotes Cicero who Men have reason to believe was of he same Opinion with himself and serves him instead of the Proverb asking a Man's Fellow c. P. 106. he tells us out of Vives That Men are ignorant of the Essences of Things which is granted and Mr. M. says thereupon That the nature of Matter is not so well understood as that the determination of the present Controversie shou'd be supposed to depend upon it This the Observer is also willing to grant tho' he does not well understand what the Effects of it may be in this Controversie He asks further Shall we talk confidently about Materiality or Immateriality and dispute our selves into Atheism The Observer replys We may talk with a reasonable confidence concerning Materiality and Immateriality without disputing our selves into Atheism or Sadducism for the Sadducees