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
patiently what they know they have deserved and there is no thanks or commendations to be expected for their so doing But if there happen to be much Truth in this Opinion he may add to his Patience Hope and some measure of Joyfulness For the Apostle there adds If ye do well and suffer for it patiently this is acceptable with God and Chap. 3.14 If ye suffer for the truth's sake happy are ye James 1.2 My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations viz. of this kind And so the Hebrews took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods which was perhaps a greater degree of Persecution Matth. 5.11 Blessed are ye when Men shall revile you and persecute you for the truth's sake But this measure of Joyfulness which belongs to a Reviling for Truth 's sake shall by the Observer be put off and deferred till the Point here in Question shall be more fully Examined and Discussed And therefore his Intention is to sit down with the Practice of our Lord's Rule In your patience possess ye your Souls without making any other return to these Elders or Ministers than by repeating to them the Motto of the Garter viz. HONI SO IT QVI MAL Y PENSE with Advice to remember our Lord 's own Prediction viz. With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again Altho' the Observer never intends to make them any Return of that nature Hence we proceed to the Treatise it self which Mr. M. has divided into Ten Chapters Upon each of which the Observer intends to make some short Observations That it may appear he has Perused and gone through them all Upon Chap. 1. p. 2. He observes That Mr. M. well understands the Powers Men may obtain by getting such an Ascendant over their Proselytes and attaining such an Esteem amongst them as that he may be able to Command their Understandings because perhaps he may say true That they themselves never knew how to use them Secondly p. 8. Mr. M. says many things concerning the Soul which the Observer agrees with him in Mutatis mutandis viz. by changing his Name of Soul into the Terms of the Rational Faculty or Mind of Man which has given vim Intelligendi Volendi cum Angelis and yet be Acted by such Materials as God has Appointed and Formed in Man for those Purposes P. 9 Mr. M. says The Soul of Man was Redeemed by the Sufferings of Christ By which he seems plainly to intend Such a Soul as is Intelligent in it self had once a Being separate from the Body is during Life conjoin'd to the Body and after Death shall Live Act and Suffer in a State of Separation from the Body And then the Observer utterly denies the truth of his Proposition and says The true End of Christ's Coming into the World was to Save Sinners the Persons of them both Souls and Bodies It is an usual Practice of the Scripture both in the Old and New Testament to intend and design the Humane Person by the Term and Name of Soul and the same is also sometimes done by the Name of Body though nothing so often And this is done by the common Synecdoche of Pars pro toto For the Proof of which two Instances of each kind are here intended to be produced First Gen. 3.7 God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living Soul The Observer Asserts That Soul in this Place must intend the Person of Adam and be so understood as if it had been said Man became a Living Person It has been commonly supposed to intend That the Breath which God breathed into Adam's Nostrils became a Living Soul But this surmise is plainly Confuted by the Grammatical Construction of it For the Words which would have suited to that intent should have run thus God breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and that or it viz That Breath became a Living Soul But Moses was so cautious in this Point that he chose to use something of a Tautology in this Place rather than that his Readers should be so mistaken in his meaning He says God made man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life and man became a living soul or Person He would not suffer them to think That Breath became a Living Soul but prevents that Conceit by saying That it was the Man that became the Living Soul or Person Whence this Observer concludes That by the Soul in this Place the Person of Adam was somewhat clearly intended by this Great Prophet and Law-giver of the Jews His next Quotation for this use shall be Isaiah 53.10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin He shall see his seed and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand The Observer says That by Soul in this Place must needs be intended the Person of Christ whose Body as well as Soul was made an Offering for Sin that was bound Whipt Buffetted Spit upon Crowned with Thorns Loaded with his Cross Nailed to it and Expir'd upon it to obtain Redemption for Sinners and the whole Race of Mankind Whence he concludes That by Soul in this Place Is intended the whole Person of Christ as well Body as Soul He proceeds in two like Instances for the Body The 1st He takes from Heb. 10.5 Sacrifice and offerings thou would'st not but a Body hast thou prepared me ver 7. Lo I come to do thy will O God ver 10. By the which Will we are Sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all The Observer saies By the Word and Term of Body in this Place is intended the whole Person of Christ whose Soul was sorrowful even unto Death and his Mind and Intellects so afflicted as to wring Drops of Blond out of his Body and reduce him to that bitter Exclamation upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All which do sufficiently Prove That by the Word Body in this Text the whole Person of Christ is comprehended and intended His next Text is Luke 12.4 where the Words are Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do He saies That the Word Body in this Text must needs intend the Person or whole Compositum of Body and Soul for that a Body without a Soul is Dead and therefore cannot be Killed By which Instances and Arguments he thinks it well Prov'd That though the Redemption be called of the Soul in divers Texts of the Scripture yet all those Places do intend the Redemption of the Person and that there never was any such Redemption intended or performed as Mr. M. has in this Page Asserted viz. Of the bare naked Soul separated from the Body asbefore has been Collected and Specified Hence we proceed to his Second Chapter
Amuse his Readers and lead them into a false Apprehension concerning the Meaning and Expressions of that Pamphlet But whether of these two Imputations he best deserves shall here be left to the Sense and Judgment of his Readers Mr. M. P. 36. Demands an Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet's Arguments which the Observer having presently Perused finds Mr. M's Arguments much Transcribed out of that Book and Place and conceives That his present Discourse is a good Answer to them both For that neither that Dr. nor Mr. M. in this Chapter does really touch or come very near the true State of this Question which is not What the Soul or Mind of Man can do in a State of Composition with the Body The Observer does easily agree That those things which here the Doctor and Mr. M. mentions in this Chapter may be done and are done by the the Soul or Mind of Man in a State of Conjunction with the Bodily Organs But he saies That their manner of Proving the Point which they Maintain ought to have been founded upon Arguments asserting and declaring What the Soulever has done or can do in a State of Separation from the Body or as it may be considered in such a Separate State abstracted from the Body The Observer has granted That is Statu concreto the Person can Act and Perform all those Things which they have ascribed to the Soul of Man Aristotle is Quoted in the former Pamphlet where he concludes it improper to say That the Soul is Wise Learned Sorrowful or the like because properly speaking it is the Man and not the single Soul that is so And Mr. M. in his Treatise repeats that observation without offering to Answer or Confute it The Observer takes it for a very true Rule very agreeable to the State and Nature of Mankind and conceives That the Question now in Dispute is not What Man 's Understanding can do or what his Soul can do in Statu concreto with the Body But whether There be a Soul in Man which has a Capacity of Living and Acting in a State of Separation from the Body and that those who would Prove such a Subsistence of the Soul by Instances of what it can do ought to produce Instances which Prove the Power of its Living and Doing in such a State of Separation or if they think themselves able to make a clear Notional Abstraction of the Soul from the Body which they can render Intelligible to other Men Their proving Instances ought to be derived from such a State of Separation or such an abstracted Consideration as they can Reasonably offer to the Minds of others and not from Instances of what Man's Understanding can do or his Soul can do in Statu concreto with the Body for that these will be utterly unconcluding in the State and Management of this Question This Chapter of Mr. M's abounds with Instances of the latter sort and has not one amongst them that reaches to the Nature of the former and therefore he thinks There is no need of Disputing any of them but is ready to agree them and accept them all for true But then he conceives them all to be parum ad rem and not at all Proving that Part of the Question which he pretends to maintain and therefore howsoever true they may be they are utterly unconcluding in this Argument For which Reason the Observer who denies not the Truth of them does yet pass them for Tasteless and Insipid and thinks they may very well be compared to the Herb John in the Pottage which does neither good nor harm P. 37 Mr. M. saies Nil dat quod non habet And to this the Observer opposes his clear Instance given in the Musical Organ and which is equally true in all Wind-Instruments from the Bag-Pipe to the Cornet and the Trumpet Mr. M saies further That the self-determining Power of the Will its Acts and Objects do argue that the Soul is Immortal The Observer Replies That the Will has not such a self-determining Power But saies That in all its Inclinations and Operations deliberately Performed it depends upon and follows the Directions and Conclusions of the Judgment which it Obeys Executes and follows with as great Promptitude and Natural Inclination as Water runs from higher Places to lower Grounds Not over-ruled by Power of the Judgment but by a Free and Natural Propensity inclining in to Execute those Directions And if the Judgment do never so suddenly or unexpectedly change its Resolutions the Will Tacks about as suddenly and follows with Execution the late stâ—or last Resolution of the Judgment and is comparable to the Sails of a floating Vessel which may be subject to some constant Winds of Inclinations and sometimes to the stormy Winds of Passion the fresh Breezes of Reason and other Circular or Accidental Motions of the Watry Element And in all such Cases the Sails are ordered by the subservient Mariners who stand and Work according to the Pilot's Directions and have no Power at all to dispose of themselves but as they shall be Appointed by the Power of such a Directer expect in such Storms of Sea and Winds as take away all Government and Order in the Vessel The Will is by divers called caeca potentia and follows Naturally the Direction of the Judgment as before has been said and therefore has no Determinate Power over or of it self And this may serve for an Answer to Mr. M's Assertion concerning such Proof as may be made from the Determinate Power of the Will over it self Mr. M. saies further That if at any time the Will chuses a thing it is Sub Ratione boni Whereupon the Observer demands What Faculty of the Mind it is that can truly discern what is the Good and Evil of an Action Choice or Resolution or by what means or after what manner the Will can discover such Qualifications of Things or Actions Seeing there are no Natural Appearances that any other Faculty in Man's Mind can make a clear and true Distinction or Difference in such Actions or Cases but the Man 's Estimative Power or Judgment P. 38. Mr. M. Quotes St. Augustine in whose Text the Observer conceives That the Word Anima is put pro Homine and must intend which way soever Man turns himself he can meet with nothing but Grief till he rests in God Qui haeret in Littora haeret in Cortice Mr. M. further demands Why the Soul cannot be satisfied till it rests in God To which the Observer Replies by demanding Why the Mind and Understanding of Man which cannot Act without the Bodily Organs cannot chuse but Act and Desire accordingly He thinks the Reason to be because Man's Reason and Judgment do conceive and believe That God is the most Excellent Object of Man's Knowledge and Love and that to Adore and Obey him is likely to be the most beneficial to their Nature by obtaining such future Rewards as Men believe are promised and
expected in a future State All what he saies more of the Soul in this Place the Observer applies to the Mind and Understanding of Man in Statu concreto P. 39 Mr. M. offers an Argument of the Soul's Immortality from the Reflection in can make upon its own Conceptions and Opinions The Observer Replies That it is a Rational Power of the Mind or Understanding of Man to make such Reflections upon it self and its own Conceptions and Conclusions whereby it is enabled to change and alter them as often as it sees cause and the Change of Occasions may require Further Mr. M. saies That indeed we cannot know what the Soul is but by these Circular and Reflex Motions To which the Observer Replies That then indeed we can have no certain Knowledge of it at all We do not doubt concerning a Reflecting Power in the Mind of Man but cannot perceive That it gives Men any more true Knowledge of the State of their Souls than they had before they considered this Reflecting Power And if Mr. M. knew how this Consideration might make them know more of their Souls than they did before he should have assisted them with Directions to attain such Knowledge of it as they are very desirous to obtain P. 35. Mr. M. saies Let the Heard of Materialists muster up their Forces and give us a Rational Intelligible Account of those Operations of the Intellect and how they can arise from the Effects of the Power of Matter and Motion As if in other Words he should ask After what manner the Animal Spirits do or can produce Reason and Intellect in the Heads of Men. Also P. 36. he demands How Matter and Motion can produce even Sense it self To this Demand the Observer Answers That he acknowledges his Ignorance how such things are Acted in the Persons or Heads of Men But he conceives this Demand ought not to have been made by Mr. M. until he had Answered those other Demands which the Observer had before made to Mr. B. concerning his sort of Soul viz. That he should Prove quod sit quid sit unde oritur quando ingreditur ubi residot quomodo operatur quo avolat To any of which Propositions Mr. M. has made no Answer altho' without so doing he can with no good Face Demand of the Observer to solve his quomodo operatur Concerning the Material Soul the Observer saies He has given and can give a Rational Account of his sort of Soul in the Things before-named viz. of the quod quid unde quando ubi quo but confesses his Ignorance concerning his Quomodo But things That those who can Prove none of those Things before-mentioned concerning their sort of Soul do very unfitly reproach the Ignorance of the Observer in this onely Point concerning the Quomodo and that their so doing suits well with our Lord's Expression concerning the Practice of pulling Motes out of another Man's Eye whilst they have Beams in their own First let them pull the beams out of their own Eyes before they undertake to charge their Brethren with lesser Failings than may be found in themselves First Let them account for their quod quid c. before they charge their Opponent for his Ignorance in the Quomodo which he esteems to be the Arcanum Artificis and Inscrutable by any Humane Power And things it Reasonable That before they urge him to an Account for the Quomodo in this Question they should make some progress upon Questions of a like but lower Nature which occur to them in the World Let them First walk into their Gardens and Orchards and in the first consider the Herbs and Flowers which they may find there of which there may be a wonderful Variety and Diversity and then inquire within themselves and confer with others concerning the Quomodo of their Production and what the Particular and Special Causes are of their difference in Bulk Height Fashion Colour Lustre Scent and the Quomodo of all their Productions the Particulars of which the Observer things to be Inscrutable In general Men know there is Root Stem and Skin enough for these Productions and that there is Spirit and Sap enough drawn from the Earth for the Enlivening and Growth of them But what the Modifications are of such Matter or Spirit or both of them together and which produce among them so great a Variety or Diversity the Observer conceives was never yet found out nor undertaken by any Man who has given an Account of his Success to the World And the like Question the Observer propounds concerning the Trees of the Orchard Men find amongst them a sufficient Matter of Root Bole Bark Branches and Twigs Also a plentiful Spirit or Sap ascending mostly between the Bark and the Tree enlivening it and fructifying the uttermost Twigs of it and causing the Production of Leaves Blossoms and Fruit but the Quomodo of this Performance he holds also to be Inscrutable And before Mr. M. demand an Account of the Quomodo the Spirits produce Intellingence in the Head of Man let him first account to the Observer or the World for the Quomodo of an Oaken Leaf by what means and after what manner the Spirit and the Matter work together for the producing of it And then consider and account for the great variety of Wood Leaves Blossoms Seed and Fruit from what particular Compositions or Modifications of Matter or Spirit such Things Varieties and Differences do proceed From these lower Inquiries let him ascend to the Consideration of the Brutal Nature and consider by what sort of Operations or Contexture of Spirit and Matter the Powers and Actions of that Nature are derived Men know that there passes a Spirit in the Seed of those Creatures into Receptacles fit for the Fermentaion Fomentation and Coagulation of them and that from those Principles the Bodies and Souls of Beasts do proceed and being afterwards brought to Perfection then to the World in their several Forms and different Structure of Body they live are nourished and grow to their several Perfections and that in their Natural State they enjoy and use Strength and Activity Local Motions Affections Desires Passions Sensations Perceptions Fancies and Memories Men see that they have Matter suitable for those purposes Flesh Bones Nerves Sinews Muscles Arteries Veins Fibres and divers other necessary Parcels of their Material Bodies and that these are enlivened and acted by the Spiritual and yet Material Powers of Bloud and Breath Out of the Mass of Bloud purified and heated in the Hearts of such Creatures there arise pure Particles of Bloud fit and ready to be inflamed and which presently are kindled and tinded by fanning of the Breath in the same or like manner as has been before described in relating the State and condition of Man in such Cases and by the Matter before described Organized and the Material Spirits of the Bloud before specified acted together in a fit and suitable Contexture one with another it is evident all the
much in the Resurrection above the reach of Natural Reason The Observer saies the same concerning the Immortality of the Soul and further That it is not only above but also opposite to the Sensations of Man Mr. M. asks What must the poor Heathens do to whom the Resurrection has not been revealed Upon which the Observer asks What must such poor Heathens do to whom the Mystery of Christ's coming in the Flesh has not been Revealed P. 57 Mr. M. saies That the Immortality of the Soul was commonly and naturally known to Men. To this the Observer has spoken before and now adds a Request to Mr. M. That he would produce some Evidence of such Knowledge besides Solomon's short Saying before the time and Doctrine of Pherecydes or else he ought not to be believed That his Opinion has any thing of Natural in it Further Mr. M. here saies That the Observer world not be thought to deny That there are Immaterial Intelligent Spirits The Observer Answers That if he did deny them either in Word or in Thought he would not seek a Pretence to be thought not to deny them If he very much fear'd the Censures of Men's Opinions he would not as he now does maintain the Humane Soul's Materiality Mr. M. supposes as himself saies very unreasonably That the Observer does deny the being of a Superiority and Order in the Invisible World But therein Mr. M. is very much mistaken For that the Observer does Profess to Allow and Believe That there are great Differences and Degrees in the World of Intelligent Spirits the lowest of which are often conversant upon Earth and sometimes with the Inhabiters of it P. 58. Mr. M. saies There is something in Plants like Sense in Brutes like Reason and in Men like Spirits The Observer saies something like the Inferiour Intellectual Spirits viz. Apprehension Reason and Intellect which is as great a Participation with the lower Degree of separate Spirits as the Brutes have of the Rational or the Plants have of the Sensitive Nature The Observer further agrees with Mr. M's Metaphysical Author P. 59. Mr. M. Quotes the Observer's Saying concerning Dr. Moor and Mr. Baxter who say That the Souls of Brutes have separate Subsistence after the Death of their Bodies and there he saies That Dr. Willis did not think this Opinion merited the trouble of his Confutation And both there and here the Observer is of the same Judgment That this Opinion neither deserves or needs any other or further Refutation than the repugnancy which it will find in the common Sensations of every ordinary Reader except such only as can swallow and digest the Pythagorical Opinion of the Transmigrations of Souls Pythagoras was the Disciple of Pherecydes and from him receiv'd the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality and rais'd out of it the Doctrine of the Metempsychosis Teaching from thence That the Soul 's of Men departed sometimes entred into Infants and sometimes into the Whelps and Cubs of Beasts and reciprocally That the Souls of Beasts Transmigrated into and Animated the Bodies of Humane Infants or of Beasts as it might happen to fall out To Pythagoras Plato succeeded and held also a Transmigration of Souls but more restrained then that of Pythagoras imagining That Souls of Men had in a former World been separate and Intelligent Spirits and that for their Offences then committed they were Doomed to Inhabit and Actuate Bodies of Clay in our present World in Nature of a Penalty and as means of Purgation of and for the Offences by them committed in the former World and that as soon as they were dislodged from one Person they must wait for opportunity to enter into another Person or Embryon of Mankind This Doctrine of Plato bounded the Transmigration of Souls within the Compass of Mankind excluding the Bestial Race from such a Communication with Men Concerning which Doctrine Mr. Lock Dict. Lib. fol. 189 saies Taking as we ordinarily now do the Humane Soul for an Immaterial Substance independent upon Matter there would be no Absurdity to suppose That the same Soul may at different times be united to different Bodies and in each make up a Man This Doctrine therefore of Transmigration of Souls from one Man to another seems to him a Rational Deduction from the Nature and Subsistence of such a Soul and accordingly the Opinion of such a Transmigration spread it self far and wide over the Face of the Earth so as the Christian Platonists accepted of it and Origen and some others of the Fathers were of that Opinion The Gallick and British Druides maintain'd it and the most gross part of it viz. The Transmigration Reciprocal from Man to Beasts is still believed among the Gentile Indians Tartarians Chineses and Japanners in our own Times grounding it upon the Opinion of the Soul 's compleat Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body The Observer saies That if he had to deal with such Men as these he would deal with them as with Dr. Moor and Mr. Baxter by endeavouring to perswade them and offering to them such Proofs as he could produce as he does to this present Opponent That the Soul of Man is not an Intelligent Substance nor capable of subsisting in a State of Separation from the Body and if thereof he should be able to Convince them that Conviction would be a sufficient and perfect Cure for all these Errors of theirs and all other like Opinions concerning the same He further saies The wiser and holier any Man is the more firmly he believes and rejoices in the Consideration of the Soul's Immortality Other Proof of this Assertion he gives none so that we have but his bare Word for it in the truth of which the Observer has no great Confidence and he believes That Mr. M. is therein much mistaken Mr. M. saies Men will not be perswaded that That Divine Goodness which has so often embraced them mill ever desert them But that God is Stronger than Death and more Powerful than the Grave and that they cannot believe That their Souls shall ever fall down into a Dead unactive State because they have been Irradiated by the Divine Light and Grace The Observer Answers Here are Two Assertions First they will not believe That God who has embraced them with his Goodness will ever desert them but that God will preserve and deliver them from the Grave This Assertion the Observer willingly grants The Second Saying is That Mens Souls can never fall down into a Dead unactive State This the Observer denies and saies That if by Souls he does not mean Persons his saying That they are irradiated by God's Grace in any sort or way abstracted or removed from the Body his Assertion here is Erroneous and Deceitful For that he never has Proved nor can Prove That God ever bestowed any thing upon a single Soul in a State of Separation from the Body But all his Graces and Favours Corrections and Punishments are applied to the Person
and puts no difference between them in respect of humane Endeavours believing that which will gain the one will gain the other and what will lose the one will lose the other But he thinks the Resurrection to be far better proved more undoubted and certain than the Immortality is that therefore the first is founded upon a Rock and the other but upon Sand or bare Ground at the best And therefore he builds his Faith and relyance upon the Resurrection and believes concerning the Immortality That it is an Errour or a Possibility so uncertain as no Man reasonably shou'd relye upon it P. 114. Mr. M. says The best way to know that he Soul is Immortal is to keep its Noblest Faculties in due Exercise The Observer replys That he has endeavoured as much as in him lay so to do but found an Effect thereof quite contrary to Mr. M's Assertion viz. That the more he read labour'd and ponder'd thereupon the more he has been hitherto confirm'd in the Opinion of the Soul's Mortality and even the weak Arguments Mr. M. has produced in this Treatise of his for the Proof of the contrary have added some strength to that Opinion which he had before received as the Effect of his former Endeavours in this kind P. 115. Mr. M. says We should seek Truth for its own sake and to be thereby better enabled for the service of God And then he says We may better expect Afflatum divini numinis The Observer says He has done the one and hopes he has received some measure of the other so as Mr. M's rash and indiscreet Censures make no Impression at all on him nor he hopes will do upon any Intelligent Readers of his present Treatise thus answered Further Mr. M. directs to lay down the most plain and certain Truths first and so ascend gradually to those that are more difficult trying those Things that are uncertain by those that are clear and certain The Observer may here justly reproach Mr. M. for his not observing the Rules which he has here laid down for that in his pretences of proving the Soul's Immortality he has not produced so much as one Experiment or Rule that is clear and certain which the Observer thinks he did not omit through negligence but because he cou'd find no Experiment or certain Rule from whence he cou'd raise Arguments for the proof of his Immortality Mr. M. says further There are many puzzling Questions concerning his sort of Soul viz. concerning its unde its Vnion with the Body its moving of it and direction of the Spirits its different mode of Operation in a separate State and its reunion at the Resurrection The Observer replys That all these Questions become frivolous to those that accept the Opinion of the Soul's Extinguishment at the Death of the Person which fully silences them all and proves them needless and somewhat ridiculous and that is the best and surest Solution that can be given of them altogether Mr. M. says further We must not deny the Formation of a Child because we know not how 't is made The Observer agrees this because Sensation and Experience prove there is a Child Let Mr. M. prove by Sensation Experience or other Ways That there is such a Soul in Man as he pretends to and then he shall have leave to dispute de modo formationis as he pleases But to dispute de modo of a Thing which is not granted or proved to have a Being must pass for a Dispute de lana caprina or as of a Thing not extant in the World He says further The Soul it Fettered in the Body But this the Observer utterly denies and avers That the Contexture of the Soul and Body is naturally and ordinarily the most amicable and pleasing Conjunction in the World and their Separation is ordinarily one of the most terrible Actions that befalls Mankind and that it was a most gross Errour in Plato and those that follow him to think otherwise P. 117. Mr. M. says Atheism and Sadducism spring both from the same Root and must be attacked together The Observer answers That his tacking Atheism and Sadducism together prove That they who believe the Resurrection are neither the one nor the other whatsoever Mr. M. may fancy Mr. M's Demands concerning the Making and Governing the World are very frivolous and needless in this Question or to be demanded of the Observer who has often ascribed the Creation of Man and all other Creatures to God and has acknowledged his Providence upon all Occasions so as those Questions and those which follow them are left by the Observer as a Fruit of Mr. M's florid Speaking but in our present Dispute somewhat insipid and of no concernment at all P. 119. Mr. M. says That Epicurus and his Followers said That the World was not Created by God nor Governed by his Providence The Observer demands Quorsum haec quorsum sic What makes all this to the Immortality of the Soul or the Observer's Opinion concerning it It shall therefore be past as nothing to the purpose nor deserving any Answer nor needing any as it is produced upon this Occasion P. 121. Mr. M. demands Dare you take God's Name in vain or vilifie his Works to his dishonour You may flatter and befool your self for a while what will you do in the end thereof How dismal will the Thoughts of Eternity be to you in the last Hour How severely will Conscience pay you home for all the Tricks and Abuses you put upon it The Observer replys That if a Man should judge Mr. M. by those Expressions it seems they might judge him the very Spaun of Satan whose proper Office it is to bring false Accusations against the Servants of God and slander them with such Things as they were never guilty of or intended to be so His Demand Dare you take God's name in vain Or vilifie his Works to his dishonour Seems pregnant with an Affirmative That the Observer dare do such Things And if it be so taken it is a slanderous Surmise and as false as any Thing that his Father cou'd suggest to him The Devil himself was more fine in his Suggestions against Job which procur'd that Holy Man a severe Conflict and a terrible Tryal Upon which the Observer will make no other return than that which the Angel made to Satan in the case of Joshua The Lord rebuke thee O Satan the Lord that hath pleasure in the prosperity of his Servants rebuke thy lying lips and thy deceitful tongue What reward shall be done unto thee thou false tongue Even mighty and sharp arrows with hot burning Coals who puttest forth the horns of a Lamb but speakest with the voice of a Dragon P. 122. He goes on with divers such Calumnious Questions pointing at the Observer who utterly denies all the Charges laid against him in those Pages and says They are false and feigned and defies his false Accuser demanding the Proof of any one
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
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
a great Naturalist viz. What kind of Matter or Thing is the Soul apart from the Body Where lies the Cogitation which she hath What doth she apart by her self without the assistance of Bodily Organs Mr. M. in this Chapter ascribes to his sort of Soul a great number and variety of Actions and Powers but he does not so much as affirm that any of them are Used or Acted without the assistance of the Bodily Organs P. 25. he ascribes Noble Faculties and Capacities to the Humane Soul which he does not say ever appear'd to the World saving in and by its Conjunction with the Body He saies The excellency of a Substance must be known by the Powers Radicated in it It seems he should first have proved or said something concerning the Substance of his Soul separated from the Body or that really there is such a Substance before he had ascribed such Excellencies to it The Observer ascribes all those Excellencies to the Person agreeing that they do belong especially to the Rational Faculty or Mind of Man which Mr. M. neither does nor can maintain to have a separate Subsistence after the Death of the Body P. 26. Mr. M. saies It is manifest that the Nature of the Soul is very vigorous and sprightly He should first have Proved That a Soul considered separate from the Body has a Nature and discovered something to us concerning it But he did well to forbear the pretending to that Performance which the Observer believes is far beyond his Ability but seeing he has not done it the Observer conceives That all his following Structure and Arguments proceed ex non concessis and therefore make no good Proof of those things which they have been alledged for But that all those things which he has ascribed to the Soul are really belonging to the Person but are principally Performed by the Rational Faculty or Mind of Man P. 27. Mr. M. saies When we are asleep the Soul is often at work in causing divers Dreams and Apprehensions in the Night And thus he ascribes to the Soul those Operations which properly belong to the Imaginations of Men and which never was known to proceed from a Soul separately considered Mr. M. says further That a Philosopher thought That Men's Dreaming when asleep was an intimation that they should Live when Dead Which Thought is here past by the Observer for a Philosopher's Dream P. 28. Mr. M. saies It is evident from his Collections here That the nature of the Soul is very active Whereas it does not yet appear That the Soul has any Nature at all if it shall be separately considered from the Body He saies further That the vigour of the Mind in dying Persons appears sometimes as strong or rather stronger than it did in their better health This Case the Observer thinks to be very rare and that when it happens it may reasonably be ascribed to such Obstructions as hinder the passage of those Spirits to and through the other Parts of the Body which forces them to a close and more full residence in and about the Brain than in their former State they us'd to have P. 29 Mr. M. saies That when the E. of Rochester was very near his End his Body very weak in all the other Parts of it his Reason and Judgment was still so strong and clear as that be became thereby more strongly perswaded of the Soul's Immortality To which the Observer Replies That the Earl might possibly be mistaken as well in the strength of his Reason and Judgment as in that of his Soul's Immortality He might have a better Opinion of his Reason and Judgment at that time than perhaps there was cause for but if that Opinion of his was true The Observer saies That the Spirits might then be more plentiful in his Brain because they had little Employment in the other Parts of his Body and because they are better preserved in the Head from all assaults of Nature by the strength and fortification of the Dura mater and the Pia mater and the strong Efforts of Nature to preserve the Head for whose Defence the other Members of Man's Body are apt and ready to expose themselves P. 30. Mr. M. saies That the Vnderstanding is a very Noble Faculty eager in its pursuits after Knowledge And then goes on to Prove this by divers Instances but without any need for his so doing because all that he has said here agrees well with the Observer's Opinion and is not opposed by him P. 13 Mr. M. asks What it is that compounds and divides things at pleasure and raises invented Beings of them The Observer Answers It is the Imagination of Man He makes several Demands What it is produces several like Effects Answered It is the Mind of Man or his Rational Faculty which dies and perishes with the Person P. 32 M. M. saies here That there is a difference betwixt Man's Imagination and his Vnderstanding Which the Observer thinks consists more in Terms and Notions suited to Men's Conceptions and Discourses than in the essential or real Differences amongst the Things or Powers He saies further That the Imagination is jaded and tired Which the Observer takes liberty to deny For that if the Eye can be satisfied with Seeing or the Ear with Hearing yet the Imagination is never tired with Conceiving or Thinking in general although it may be glutted with Thinking very long of one Subject P. 33. Mr. M. goes on here to magnify the Power of Humane Understanding from many Topicks all which it seems conduce little to the Proof of this Point for that in all this he never observes or affirms That it Acts in any thing separated from the Body nor without the assistance of Bodily Organs nor has any Man ever affirmed nor does himself say That the Humane Understanding survives after the Death of the Person Mr. M. saies further That Men cannot imagine that a little Wheat-meal in two or three Days should become capable of Mathematical Speculations By which Words it appears clearly to the Understanding of the Observer That Mr. M. is very much mistaken in the State and Case of this Argument For the Observer has never said intended or maintained That Wheat-meal in Two or Three Days time or at any time is or can be capable of understanding any thing at all and it shews want of ordinary Apprehension in Mr. M. if he ever has or does now conceive there was such an Error in that Pamphlet which he undertakes to Answer And therefore to clear up the Clouds of his Understanding in this Point The Observer will take pains to inform him That the State of the Case in this Question stands thus He conceives and affirms That God Created the Body of Man and put it into such a State of Perfection so filled with Blond and Humour and set them into such a State of Pullulation and Fermentation that the Steems thence arising became fit and capable of being tinded and
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
in Statu Composito and not to either of his Constituent Parts in a State of Separation of the one from the other P. 60. Mr. M. saies That many good Men have died with raised Expectations of entring immediately into a Blessed State This the Observer believes to be true and that Men Die with many other Conceptions and Errors about them besides this and yet receive no harm or hinderance by any of them Mr. M. here further Repeats divers like mistakes amongst the Philosophers P. 61 Mr. M. saies He will not mention the Raptures of many Christian Martyrs at the time of their departing grounded upon this Expectation The Observer thinks That such Examples of this as he can find among the Primitive Martyrs would deserve his Quotation Mr. M. saies further That it may justly seem a great wonder that many of the best Men have erred in this Point of great concernment and a very few Men and those of mean Parts and Credit should be in the right of of it The Observer Answers That this among other like Accidents is not so strange as true Whilst the Learned World thought the Earth to be the Center of the Planetary Circumvolution some very few there were that ascrib'd that Place to the Sun and they at last are proved to be in the Right Did not the Learned World and particularly the Governors of the Church absolutely deny the Being of Antipodes which is now as apparent and clear a Truth as that there are Countries called by the Names of China and Japan Do not all true Proselytes of the Romish Church profess firmly to believe That there is no Salvation for any who Die excluded from the Communion of that Church And do not all Sectaries and Dissenters and the very Quakers profess absolutely to believe That their ways and modes of Worship are the most Excellent that are to be found among the Christian Churches or any other Assemblies in the World and are they not ready to expos themselves to Dangers and Death for the Maintenance and Advancement of their Profession Errors as they are Was not the Truth of Religion justled into a very narrow room when it was all comprised in one single Family Despised Hated and Persecuted by the Learned Chaldeans on the one side and their Equals the Egyptians on another side whilst the vast compass of the Earth besides was muffled up in the dark Clouds of Ignorance and neither knew any thing of God or else apply'd themselves to him by Devils or Daemons or other dumb shows of Idolatrous Figures for maintenance of whose Vain Services they were ready to spend their Blood and put to Death all those who durst affront them Of which Truth Mr. M's Proto-Martyr Socrates is an undoubted Evidence who suffer'd Death for daring to deny that which the World at that time undoubtedly believ'd for a certain Truth In these Pages Mr. M. Repeats the Words wretchedly deceived many times over The Observer grants and believes That a vast number of very good Men have Died in the Opinion Erroneous as it is of the Soul's Immortality But that was no more hurtful to them than an holding either part of the Questions concerning Predestination Original Sin or the Procession of the Holy Ghost or any other Speculative Opinions of that Kind And that if the Observer's Opinion of the Materiality be true the Persons Dying in the belief of the Immortality shall never find or know that they were deceived in it That Faith and those Manners which will serve them at an Intermediate Judgment will serve them as fully at the Last Judgment their Works do follow them and will serve them as well at the one Judgment as at the other They will not be lost or diminished by the largest Account of Time which may pass between their Deaths and the Resurrection As the Persons rising shall be perfect and known yea and the very same that Died tho' they have suffered far greater Alterations than Mr. M. has before pretended The Faith and Works of such Dying Persons shall then also appear to be the same which they were at their several Deaths The Resurrection and Last Judgment are certain and clearly Proveable by a strong Current of Scripture But the Intermediate Judgment is neither likely nor Proveable by any clear Assertory Text of Scripture whatsoever The Observer Advises Men therefore to build their Expectations of future Recompenses upon the rockie and sure Ground of the Resurrection rather than upon the soft and sandy Ground of an Intermediate Judgment The Observer conceives it a very improper and something absurd Course to bring a Man to Judgment whilst the is asleep without first wakening him out of it And we know that every where the Scripture calls Death a Sleep St. Stephen stoned to Death fell asleep Those who sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him We that are alive shall not prevent them that are asleep If there be no Resurrection then all those that are faln asleep in Christ are perished All Dead Persons are said to sleep with their Fathers and all Men Naturally do know that Death is a sound Sleep and has the common Reputation of something beyond it but certainly it is that at the least We know further this Effect of a sound Sleep that whether a Man sleep Four Hours or Forty Hours when he awakes he can find no difference nor know any thing of the degrees of Time which have passed over him and so for Forty thousand Days 4000 Years When the Person shall be awaked he can have no sense or perceiving of any time that is passed over him but rises perfectly as if he had but faln asleep a short time before and then shall find himself the same that he was when he fell asleep and as able to Account for what he has done in the Flesh as he was in the best time of his Life So as they who have no other Impediments but their erroneous Tenet in this Point shall not find themselves deceived to their prejudice but shall receive those full and real Recompences which belong to their Faith and Manners Mr. M. here further Quotes his good Friend Cicero whose Words make plainly for his Opinion but are of little force for the convincing of the Observer who attributes as much to the Bp. of Worcester's Thoughts as he does to those of Cicero but concludes amicus Cicero amici Doctores sed magis amica veritas Mr. M. pretends to offer a Sixth Absurdity arising from the Opinion of the Materiality which has little that needs Answer in it and to that which needs it a sufficient Answer has been given it in the fore-going Pages P. 64 Mr. M. takes Exceptions at the Observer's Anatomy for his placing the Power of Sanguification in the Liver He allows therein That the Observer agrees with the Ancient Anatomists but saies That the later Anatomists differ in this Point from the former upon good Grounds denying that this performance is made