Testimonies I think it likely that the Body of our Thief was one of these Bodies of Saints which came out of their Graves after Christs Resurrection and his Body so chang'd as at or in the Resurrection might and probably did ascend with our Lord into that Paradise which before was promis'd him and was there with our Lord both present with their Souls and Bodies or their whole Persons in such manner as they had before lived in this World And thus Observing I have given a Reasonable and I think a Sufficient Answer to all those Inferences and Arguments which Mr. W. hath raised from this Text which therefore I decline to examine any further in this place knowing we shall meet with the same afterwards and that Mr. W. in the Progress of his Treatise doth repeat over again this and divers others of those Arguments which he hath made Parcel of his Five Propositions I therefore now proceed to Examine his last Quotation for the Proof of Souls being Rewarded or Punished presently after their departure out of the Bodies For the further Proof of which Assertion he quotes Luke 16.19 Where the Parable of Dives is at large Related and thereupon says little more but that he concludes from the Contents of this Parable That the Souls of Men seperate at Death from their Bodies enter into a State of Joy or Misery before the Resurrection Observing upon which I pretend to give some Reasons why he ought not so to conclude First because the Relation in this Place is but of a Parable Similitude the Nature whereof is not to prove but Illustrate the Subject upon which Men are then Discoursing and therefore his Practice is not Reasonable in making choice to prove by a Medium whose Design is not to teach but represent things in such a manner as they may be better received by those to whom the Discourse is Prosecuted Secondly I say There appears no Design in this Parable to teach or instruct our Lord's Auditors concerning the true State or Nature of Men after Death because in the Context to this Parable there is no Question raised or Discourse held concerning that Subject Whence I conceive the intent of this Parable was not to confirm or illustrate the Speculation thereof but that rather this Parable was offer'd to illustrate and confirm an Assertion which our Lord in the fore-going verses had deliver'd as vers 15 When the Pharisees had derided our Lords Doctrine he Answers them Ye are they which justifie your selves before Men but God knoweth your Hearts for that which is chiefly esteemed amongst Men is an abomination in the sight of God Soon after which our Lord delivers this Parable and therein describes Dives as in a very high manner enjoying the Glory and Good things of this World and counted one of the happiest amongst Men and then sets out Lazarus in as low and miserable a Condition as Men commonly can fall to Whence the State of Dives was very highly esteemed amongst Men but was in the Sight of God much otherwise and placed far below the Condition of Lazarus in respect of those future Enjoyments which God had appointed for him The Parable therefore I conceive was a very sufficient illustration of our Lord's Assertion before-mentioned and I think was not intended to teach or discover the true State of Men after Death and then if we suppose that Parables confirm or illustrate those Discourses only which they are intended so to assert it seems inferrible that this Parable may not reasonably be made good a Ground or Proof concerning the true State of Men after Death or that they receive rewards before the Resurrection because it was not spoken with intent to teatch or illustrate that Point A Third Argument against the alledging this Parable as a Proof is the apparent Incongruity which it hath With Solomon's return of the Spirit to God who gave it Because the return there spoken of seems to be deliver'd as an effect of the Souls Natural Inclination as a thing commonly done and easie to be performed and says It is a return made to God who gave it From which our Parable differs in Material Points For the Parable doth not say That Lazarus or his Soul either returned or went to God for Judgment or any other purpose Next The Parable doth not say That Lazarus or his Soul went any whither but that he was carried by Angels not before God or to Judgment but into Abraham's Bosom a place of repose and some measure of happiness So as we may say of these two Proofs tho' they be the main Pillars of the Souls Seperate Subsistence yet their Testimonies do not agree together We Read that at our Lords Trial before Pilate divers false witnesses appeared to give their Evidence against our Lord whose Testimonies yet were finally rejected because they agreed not together Mark 14.56 Many bare false witness against our Lord but their Testimonies were rejected because they agreed not together And Moses's Law required two witnesses for the putting any Man to Death And for this Reason I think our Parable to be but a weak Proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence or immediate Reward after Death A Fourth Argument opposing the proving Power of this Parable rifes from the difficulty of finding Truth in the Words of it for that it says Dives afar off beheld Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom and between the places of their aboad there was a great Gulf fixed so as none can pass from the one of them to the other This to my Understanding seems somewhat incredible First that Dives at such a distance should be able to discover Lazarus as to know him Next that Dives in his place of Torment should be able so to Speak and Discourse as that Abraham could hear what he said and return Answers to him Fifthly I observe upon this Parable That Abraham and Dives seem very well acquainted and nearly Related one to the other Dives gives Abraham the Title of Father which Abraham accepts and returns Answer to him by the Name of Son whereas if Mr. W. says true there could be no such real Relation between them For Mr. W. says There was nothing of Dives in Hell but his Soul subsisting there in a State of Seperation from his Body And this sort of Soul is in no manner Propagated by the Parents but it is a New and Pure Creature Created by God at the first Procreation of every Person having a Subsistence of its own until it be by God injected into the newly procreated Body where it presently becomes Tainted and Defiled with Original Sin We will leave that to fall out as it may but here I say That this Soul not Generated or Propagated from Abraham or any of his Posterity can by no means be properly or truly Stiled the Son of Abraham And from all these Arguments and Promises I find my self apt to Collect that there is little Real or Historical truth in this Parable that it very
failed in the Proof of it He hopes his Adversaries will not be such Blasphemers as to deny the truth of Solomon's Words The Spirit returns to God who gave it Concerning which Words I have before fully declared my Conceptions and have no design to repeat them again here Further he quotes again Eccl. 3. as if Solomon there said That when Man dieth his Body goes one way and his Spirit another and whether he quotes this Text truly shall be left to Judgment Then Mr. W. puts an Objection against himself Supposing some may say If all Souls return to God that gave them the Souls of the Wicked do so too and he grants that so they do and for solution of this Objection he says That tho' God be in his highest Heavens and keep his Sessions there yet there are some other parts of the Heaven where he keeps a particular Sessions to which Evil Spirits may approach as they did in Micaiah's Vision where God may pass Sentence upon the Souls of the Wicked without bringing them into Heaven and he thinks God hath a glorious Presence in the lower Heavens with his Angels and that there he doth Transact many Affairs relating to the Government of this World and quotes for this the Devils Appearance in the Case of Job and says If Devils may appear before God so may the Souls of the Wicked do too In Answering I declare to agree with his last Expression That if there be Seperate Souls of Wicked Men Subsisting by themselves they may appear before God as his quoted Texts testifie Devils have done but I demand as clear Texts and Testimonies of Scripture for the appearing of wicked Souls before God as are quoted for the appearing of Devils before him But he brings not one Text to Prove that he saith Truth concerning the appearing of wicked Souls before God And I confide that no one Text of Scripture can be brought which gives an Assertory Testimony of that Fact or says there was ever such a thing done in the World And for what he says of God's keeping his Sessions of Judgment sometimes in Heaven and sometimes in other particular Parts of Heaven I am apt to demand Proofs thereof from Texts of Scripture but he brings not one to this purpose And therefore I think it may be concluded that these several Sessions of God for Judgment are but a Device of his own Brain which hath no real Truth in it And thus by Mens Devices they strive to heal cover and confirm their Erroneous Opinions which I look upon as a great Fault in a good Man But notwithstanding those Humane Inventions I am apt to conclude that if the good Souls go to God for Judgment in Heaven that bad Souls do also somewhat evidently do the like Solomon says The Soul returns to God who gave it The Soul returns are Words that intend indefinitely and seem therefore equivalent to an Universal and signifie as much as if it had been said All Souls return to God who gave them And this Sense of the Words our Author hath lately granted Whence I conclude that as God says All Souls are mine which I think intends Persons so all Souls are intended to return to God who gave them as well and as much the Bad as the Good for any thing that I can perceive either in the words of the Text or any thing that is true in our Author's Discourse of it P. 60. He puts a Second Objection against this Opinion which I think he doth set up as a Man of Straw that he may have the battering of it down again He pretends some say that he hath indeed proved the Soul and Body to be seperated at Death and that one of them goes to one Place and the other of them goes to the other Place but that he hath not yet proved the Soul to live in that State of Seperation Hereupon I observe That after he hath said The Soul and Body are seperated at Death he adds That they go to two different Places Which Saying I think the Text doth not warrant for it doth not say that either of them go to any Place And first we may be sure a dead Body cannot go any whither The Text says It returns to the Earth as it was and of which before it received Life it was a Part So for the Spirit the Text says It returns not goes to God who gave it I have before offer'd an Apprehension That Solomon might intend this Spirit returned to God in a natural and easie manner as a Part doth to its Totum and the Parcels of Air or Water return to and incorporate with their Elements and that as the Body returns to the Earth as it was and as a Part doth to its Totum so the Spirit returns to God from whom it came and of which I suppose Solomon might think it to have been a Part But I grant That if the Soul in our Author's Sense do go to God after Death then the Objection which says he did not prove it alive in a seperate State is vain and frivolous and may easily be overthrown without putting our Author to the Trouble of Defending his Opinion against it In the Close of this Argument Mr. W. asks What hath the Living God to do with dead Spirits And I say so too and therefore grant that if the Intelligent Seperate Spirit of a Man be dead it can with no Propriety or Truth be said to Return to God who gave it P. 61. Mr. W. says So I shut up this Third Argument and with it my Proofs from the Old Testament And concerning these Threee Arguments I say the First is measurably Confuted the Second is Disregarded and the Third is otherways Expounded and in such a manner as Opposes Mr. W's Pretensions thereupon The Fourth Argument PAg. 61. Mr. W. quotes here that Text of Scripture whereby the Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence is principally supported and upon which it is with a great measure of Clearness grounded and which arises near unto an Assertion that the thing is so and I think Mr. W. doth from thence rightly Argue That if the Soul cannot be killed by killing the Body or Person it seems to be a reasonable Inference drawn from this Text to Argue That the Soul must needs have a Seperate Subsistence of its own after the Death of the Person And further Mr. W. observes well the Reason why our Lord deliver'd this Doctrine to his Disciples viz. To encourage them against the Fears of such Persecutions as were likely to fall upon them in the Prosecution of their great Duty the Preaching of the Gospel encouraging them not to sear what Harm Men could do unto them upon that account because Men could only kill the Body intending the Person but were not able to kill the Soul or lay any other sort of real Punishment upon Men after their departure out of this world P. 62. Mr. W. produces an Argument which I think
men in England who do not only with you deny the possibility of the Souls Seperate subsistence but do also deny the being of any sort of Spirits whatsoever I desire to rectifie one of his Expressions in this Paragraph in the saying There are other men who with you deny the possibility of the Souls Seperate subsistence which I would have thus read There are other men who with you deny the probability of the Souls Seperate subsistence and if this alteration happen to be refus'd me I will also refuse to be comprehended under the words with you Page 7. He says Men cannot be certain that Souls do not subsist in a state of separation after Death or that they are not in a state of happiness or misery till the Resurrection I answer That if such things were once made certain and clear to us we should need to remain no longer in a doubting condition as we now do and therefore we do heartily wish and desire that God would please so far to inlighten some man or men with a certain or clear knowledge of the truth in this point as that they may be able to clear the same to the understanding and minds of such persons as are very desirous to be farther and fully instructed in this great Point and divers other particulars thereupon depending Page 5. Mr. W. seems to expect rather thanks than blame for endeavouring to clear up to mens minds the truth in this Question and in this I am fully agreed with him and am ready to give to him or any other man who proceeds candidly and fairly as he doth my sincere and hearty thanks for such labour of love with intent to draw others from the evil of their ways of Errour of in Practices P. 6. Mr. W. says I conceive some who embrace the Opinion of the Souls Materiality may be otherways good Christians and are by this Opinion the most enemies to themselves and therefore he deserves their thanks for endeavouring to draw them out of it And I commend his Charitable Profession and Practice wherein he exceeds divers other maintainers of the Souls Immortality and give him my iterated thanks for endeavouring to draw me and others out of those Apprehensions or Opinions which he thinks at the best to be our mistakes and errours and thus I part with his Epistle to the Reader to make some such farther Observations upon his following Treatise as to my own understanding shall appear fit and reasonable to be done HIS Treatise stands divided by himself into several Chapters to each of which I purpose to apply the Observations intended to be made towards the discovery and clearing of the Truths therein deliver'd and the answering of such Objections or Inferences as he may have drawn from them or built upon them without true or sufficient grounds for his so doing CHAP. I. PAge 1. he pretends here to speak of the Soul as if the Point in dispute were already granted him or were judicially determin'd to be on his side for he says speaking of the Soul that when she is born down with melancholy damps of her muddy tabernacle so as to think that at death she shall be turned into sensless stupid dust she strait grows sad and affrighted and then upon the consideration of her own Immortality she clears up her doubts and receives great comfort upon the Opinion which she hath of her being so qualified Hereupon I observe he seems to take for granted that the Soul hath thoughts or conceptions of her own by reflection upon her self or otherways without being therein assisted by the bodily Organs of that person wherein she resides now whether she hath such thoughts of her own or not himself very well knows to be one of the main Points in our Controversie for that all Materialists do maintain she hath no thoughts activity or being but in the Body and therefore can do nothing without it I have formerly quoted Aristotle de Anima where he calls it a very Improper way of Speaking for men to say The Soul is sorrowful or learned or wise and that they might as well say the soul weaves or builds because all these and the like Qualities are not Powers of the Soul but of the Man and therefore our Author should have said when the man is born down by the sad Contemplations of Death or any other accident he may take comfort from the high Conceptions of his Immortality but in the mean time it seems Mr. W. stumbles dangerously at the very Threshold or Entrance of this Dispute and must either have that granted him which he knows his Opponents do utterly deny or otherways all that he says in this Paragraph must pass for a Non sequitur without serving to any purpose in the Dispute of that Question which he at this time pretends to handle P. 2. He goes on and says He cannot believe his Souls confidence of her own Immortality to be a distempered fit of her spirit prone to believe that to be which she desires may be because he finds men of the best tempers and practices to be of that Opinion as if this Opinion of the Souls Immortality were a plant that co0uld spring and thrive only in a pure Conscience and a Mind united to God He says This confidence of the Souls Immortality is so appropriate to the wisest and best of men as it seems an absurd suggestion that it should have risen from mens own Imaginations but it seems rather evident that the Souls of men having in some measure recovered their pristine holiness and integrity they thence begin to know themselves and their alliance to the great God and see plainly that they do not only bear his Image in righteousness and holiness but likewise in Immortality Upon this Paragraph I observe that no man charges the Opinion of the Souls Immortality that it is a bare Imagination of mens idle brains or phantasies but we are ready to grant that this Opinion is founded upon antient and great Authority and was first introduced into the Heathen World by the Doctrine of Phericides Syrus whose Scholar Pythagoras built upon that Conception his Opinion of the Transmigration of Souls from one Creature to another with a general Community both to Men and Beasts which Opinion was generally received by the World of his time and was thence propagated to future Generations and continues at this day to be firmly believed in the Eastern Parts of the World of India China and Japan Plato became a Scholar to the Successors of Pythagoras in that Doctrine and Opinion which by his Genius became somewhat refined by rejecting a Community of Souls formerly supposed to be betwixt Men and Beasts and confining the Transmigration of Humane Souls to the Bodies of Men only conceiving withal that some more perfect and pure Souls amongst them might so have acted in Bodies wherein they lived as they might deserve to be delivered from the Drudgery of acting Humane Bodies any longer and
therefore were received up into higher Regions and Places where they enjoyed such Happiness and Powers of Acting as far exceeded the most Happy State upon Earth This Opinion of Plato found great Credit amongst the Learned Persons which came after him and particularly in the Heathen and Christian Schools of Alexandria as appears by the Writings of Origen and Pantenus who were Christian Doctors and Teachers in those Schools at Alexandria and this Opinion seems to have been also spread amongst the Nation of the Jews and Proselytes of their Churches because that when St. Matthew comes to relate our Lords Doctrine and Direction rather to fear God than Men for that God can punish men after Death which is not in the power of men to do he words it thus Fear not men because they can only kill the body but cannot kill the soul Which plainly proves it to be that Apostles Opinion That the Soul might have and had a natural Subsistence in a State of Seperation from the Body and that his believing the Truth of this Doctrine was the Cause why he worded our Lord's Direction in this Point as we find him to have done in the Text before quoted By what hath been said before it appears clearly we do not charge the Opinion of the Souls Immortality with being the Product of Mens idle Brains or Fancies grounded upon their own Desires of having it pass'd for an establish'd Truth for we have shewed and agree'd That the same is grounded in a learned Antiquity and very great Authority whence it hath grown to be the most general and near the universal Opinion of Mankind which having been so entertain'd Mothers and Nurses have instill'd the same into the Minds and Learning of their tender Infants who by Fathers and Masters are after farther confirmed in this so early radicated Opinion which is after farther illustrated and prov'd to them from Pulpits and the Ministers of their Churches And this Deduction manifests That we do not Charge the Opinion of the Immortality with being the Product of Mens idle Brains or Fancies or their Desires concerning the Truth of it As to what he pretends That the Immortal Opinion thrives only or mostly amongst the wisest and best Practicers of the Christian Profession I conceive him therein to be mistaken and think that for every wise and good Man which he can produce prosalted to believe and maintain the Opinion of the Immortality I shall be always able to produce twenty Sensualists at least and evil Livers who will be ready with great Zeal and Constancy to maintain Mr. W's Opinion of the Immortality to the uttermost As to his saying That Men attain to the Image of God in Righteousness and true Holiness and Immortality I find in my self no inclination to grant him That any Men whil'st in this World do attain to the Image of God in any of these Particulars I find it written That God made man after his own Image and in the Image of God made he man But I do not find my self able to explicate or conceive the true and full Scope and Meaning of these Expressions nor wherein the Image of God in man doth consist but am very apt to think That man was not made like God in Immortality because then there would have been no need of the Fruit of the Tree of Life to make Men live for ever But we read That God made that Tree and Fruit grow out of the Earth to that very purpose that Man by eating of that Fruit might become Immortal and live for ever and that upon his Sin he was debarr'd from eating of that Fruit and lost that Remedy which God had provided against the stroke of Death and in that Condition hath his Posterity remain'd ever since his Commission of that Sin against God And therefore I think St. John informs us truly when he says We know not yet what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him And therefore I leave the Pretences to such Knowledge to the Time of our Lord's second Appearance and sitting upon the Throne of his Glory when Men of good Practices may hope to be like him and that I think is sufficient to satisfie the reasonable and most exalted Desires of Mankind P. 3. Mr. W. says Whilst the Spirit of Man continues its Conflicts with the Flesh and the Lusts thereof as she will whilst she abides in the Body it is needful to maintain in her the Thoughts of her Immortality Here I observe that when he speaks of the Spirits contesting with the Flesh he says It continues that Conflict with the Flesh and the Lusts thereof as it will whilst she abides in the Body and therefore it is needful to maintain in her high Thoughts of her self By this manner of Speaking he first expresses that Spirit by the Name of it and presently without giving any Reason slides down upon it the Title of She and Her as if the daily Contests betwixt the Flesh and Spirit of Man intended a Contention between his Body and an Immortal intelligent Spirit within it expressing that Spirit by Terms of She and Her But I differ from him therein conceiving that by the Flesh and Spirits so contending one against the other is chiefly and even only intended the Contests which are daily found between Mens Affections and other Sensual Powers and the Minds or Rational Faculties of the same Person and his sliding the Terms of She and Her into this Discourse with design to have it thought that these Contests are maintained by an intelligent immortal Spirit against that Body wherein she lives looks to my Apprehension like a sort of Legerdemain which may perhaps prevail upon very unwary Readers but will not be suffer'd so to pass by considerate Examiners of his Writings P. 4. He says That She his Immortal Spirit will continue her Conflict with the Body so long as she is in it I am ready to Agree That such a Contest between the Sensual Appetites and Rational Faculties of Men is likely to continue throughout and during the whole Life of the Person but that this sort of Contest is so maintain'd between the Immortal Intelligent Soul and the Body of that Person whom she enlivens I am very apt and ready to deny P. 4. He says further If we seek Encouragement against the Fear of Death there is no Truth can arm us with a better Resolution than the Belief of the Souls Immortality And I grant that if this were a Truth sufficiently evidenced to the Understandings and Consciences of Men it would be a great strengthening to such Persons as have a very good Opinion of their own Merits to make their Passage through the Gates of Death with great Boldness and Assurance but to those who are working out their own Salvation with fear and trembling and are very humble in the Contemplation of their own Merits who tremble more at the sight of their Sins than they are
of his Death and Burial was derived or how the Jews might come to know that he so died and was buried Deut. 3.27 Goe get ye up into the Top of Pisgah and take a view of the Land And Chap. 34. says Moses went up from the Plains of Moab to the Top of Pisgah and died there The Words of both Texts seem to intend that Moses went up alone into the Top of this Mountain and told the Jews before his going up that he was to die there and they never saw or heard more of him after that time whence they might according to the common course of the World in such Cases reasonably enough conjecture that he died there and was buried according to the Custom of the World without finding any Evidence or Truth of such a Burial Whence I conceive his being buried was but a Conjecture of the Jews because they could not find what was become of the Body altho' probably they made a great Search for it Whence I Collect that his dying in the Mount and his being buried thereabouts was but a Collection or Conjecture of the Jews from his own not returning to them and their not being able to find his Body by their most diligent Search And Collecting from these Premises I am ready to infer as a Probability that Moses was translated and therefore neither dead nor buried and yet was never seen or heard of after nor could they by search find any place of his Burial or what other ways was become of him and I offer his Appearance at Mount Tabor as the best ground I have for this Conjecture conceiving that it might please God the Jews might not know of that Translation for that if they had known of his immediate going to Heaven they might have been apt to direct Prayers thither to him to intercede with God for their Nation as he often successfully did whil'st he was here upon Earth I have said before that Mr. W's Opinion of Moses's appearing at Mount Tabor in Soul only cannot be proved by any Text of Scripture is but his or at the most a humane Conjecture And I grant that his appearing in Person at Mount Tabor is also a humane but I think a more reasonable Conjecture And to this whole fifth Argument drawn from Mens Collections and Conjectures thereupon I Answer That Men expect more Clear and Assertory Proofs of the Soul 's Seperate Subsistence than this or such like Arguments can afford them The Sixth Argument PAg. 67. Mr. W. founds his Sixth Argument upon that which is delivered to us in the Parable of Dives And first he grants that Relation to be a Parable and not a real Story adding That Parables are shadows of Discourse by which are set forth things that are real and substantial And I grant they may be Instructive concerning those Matters for whose Illustration they were purposely delivered and yet even in those things I do not take them to be proving Mr W. says further That Tertullian Augustine and the rest of the Fathers did much build their Faith of the Souls Immortality and of Mens Happiness or Misery immediately after Death before the Judgment of the Great Day upon this Scripture I observe he avoids calling it this Parable I know not whether what he says concerning the Fathers building their Belief of such things upon this Parable be true or not but conceive that if this Parable was really the principal Foundation of that Belief it had but a very soft and sandy Foundation so as the building thereupon erected will not be enough able to resist the Storms Rains and Floods which may happen to assault it He further quotes Ireneus and relates the gross Errours which he and Tertullian fell into by following this Parable too closely viz. so far as to think That a Seperated Soul has a Shape Eyes Mouth and other like Members of a Humane Body He repeats his Concession again That this Similitude of Dives and Lazarus is not Historical but Parabolical P. 68. Mr. W. says By Abraham's Bosome is meant a Place of great Pleasure and Happiness reserv'd for the Righteous when they have finish'd this Life And hereupon I observe a Variance between being carried to this Place of Pleasure and a going before God to an intermediate Judgment and conceive that the being carried to this Place stands in Opposition to the Text of Solomon The Spirit returns to God who gave it for Lazarus in this Parable neither went to God for Judgment nor return'd to Him by a natural Bent or Power of its own but was carried to this unknown Place by the Ministry of Angels P. 70. Mr. W. raises a Question Whether the Words and Sense of this Parable do speak of and import a State of Persons presently after their Death or such a State as shall overtake them at the Resurrection and the last Judgment And he spends divers Pages and Arguments in Proving That the Import of this Parable points to a State presently succeeding the Parties Death and not to that State which shall follow low upon the Resurrection but his Labour to this Purpose is needlessly bestowed upon me or others who may think as I do That the Sense of this Parable intends a State presently succeeding the Parties Death Here Mr. W. says Our Lord by this Parable intended to set forth an immediate state of Happiness for the Godly and of Misery for the Wicked I Reply to this That there appears no Evidence in the Context of our Lord's Intent how to Teach by this Parable There is no Discourse in any Part of the Context which might lead our Lord to speak of the State of Persons after Death but the Context immediately fore-going doth plainly intimate and prove the special Intent of our Lord in this Parable was to Illustrate and Confirm a Sentence which himself had lately before uttered viz. That there are things highly esteemed among men and yet are an Abomination in the sight of God And to this Purpose he describes the state of Dives with such Circumstances as make it highly esteem'd and desired amongst Men and sets Lazarus so low and in a Condition so miserable as one can hardly devise a worse Condition amongst Men notwithstanding whereof the Sequel of the Parable declares That the state of Dives though highly esteemed amongst Men was in the whole of it abominable to the sight of God and Lazarus's state tho' abominated by Men was in the whole more blessed than that of Dives was And I conceive thereupon that our present Parable was delivered by our Lord with special Intent to illustrate this Doctrine without any apparent Intent to teach concerning the State of People after Death and yet I do Agree this Parable to set forth or prove that the common Opinion of the Jews at that time was correspondent to the Descriptions made in this Parable but I conceive withal that divers Particulars therein specified prove it to be a Jewish Conception of that
have done conceiving it was intended by the word Spirit in this Place to signifie the Spirit of Life in Man which is one of the two Constituent Parts of his Person and by the ordinary figure of Synecdoche setting one Part for the Whole the word Spirit here seems to intend the whole Person So as under this Term of Spirit the Petitioners intended to recommend themselves or their whole Persons the one into the hands of his Father under whose Custody his Body as well as his Soul viz. his whole Person remained and was preserved without seeing Corruption until the Time and Hour of his Resurrection And I conceive St. Stephen's Prayer was made in a like Sense and to the same Purpose that our Lord 's was Mr. W. says further He does not know of any such Phraesed Petitions as these are put up by either of them or any other Person in Prayer but just at the Moment of dying I will therefore refresh his Memory by quoting to him and our Readers Psal 31.6 where the very same Words are used Into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of Truth For any thing that appears the Psalmist was in Health at the uttering of this Petition but withal in a state of great Trouble as the foregoing Verses testifie And it thence seems somewhat Clear to my Understanding that by these Words our Prophet did not intend to recommend to God's Protection his Spirit of Life or Seperative Soul only but that rather in those Words he intended to recommend to God's Care and Protection his whole Compositum of Soul and Body his Person or himself without having any particular or singular Respect to his Spirit of Life or Soul whatsoever the same might be Which seems may be somewhat moâ—e Cleared by a short Paraphrase Into thy hands O God I commend my self for thou hast redeemed me This I take to be the true Meaning of David's Words and I take the Prayers of our Lord and St. Steven to be of the same Import and that they have no such other Emphatical Signification as Mr. W. in this place endeavours to put upon them P. 80. he says If his Interpretation of those Words be true they clearly express the Souls Immortality I do not deny this but withal conceive that his Interpretation of these Words is not true as my fore-going Answers testifie and then I think no man can believe that they are a good Proof or any Proof at all for the Souls Seperate Subsistence P. 82. he says The Word Spirit here intends Seperate Soul and if it doth not mean so he desires to know what it doth mean And I have said before that it intends the whole Person of the Petitioner as it is a Compositum of Soul and Body Mr. W. farther demands What the word Spirit here means and whether it mean the Life of the Body Here I am at a loss what he means by the Life of the Body and if he doth not mean the Life of the Person he means that which hath no good Sense in it for the Body quatenus tale or divided from the Person hath no sort of Life in it as St. James tells us A Body without a Spirit is dead And therefore to mention the Life of the Body without a Figurative Intent inclines to the Nature of a Bull in such manner as if one should speak of the Life of a dead thing He then demands What Is it the dead Carcass the whole Mâ—n Body and Soul Putting them together as if the dead Carcass was the whole Man Body and Soul intending to confound these Terms and give to each of them an equipollent Signification as if the dead Carcass and the whole Man Body and Soul signified the same thing whereas I must divide them and say The dead Carcass signifies one thing and the whole Man Body and Soul or the Person signifies another thing and tho' the Carcass shall go to the Dust as it was yet the Person shall be preserved the good sleeping in Christ and the bad remaining under the Knowledge and Disposal of God until the times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord and the Trumpet shall sound and all Persons who have lived shall be raised and summoned to the Judgment of the Great Day And therefore from the Words as I have Expounded them I think the direct contrary to what he says that no good Argument can be raised from our first quoted Texts for proving his Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence The Ninth Argument PAge 83. Mr. W. quotes Rom. 10.11 And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteosness and if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your Mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you And he says upon this Text Methinks this Truth of the Souls Immortality doth very clearly shine in the Evidence of this Scripture I Answer That what shines so clearly to him I do not at all discover P. 84. Mr. W. proceeds in a long Discourse which I think rather confounds and misleads than opens and declares the Meaning of St. Paul's Words and yet I have no Intent to implicate my self with him upon that Subject especially in many Words P. 85. He raises an Exception out of St. Paul's Doctrine but I think it is out of his own Brain and Invention not perceiving that Paul thought of such an Objection nor that he makes or intends any Answer to it But Mr. W. himself both tells the Tale and gives the Answer And there he says further If you ask How comes the Soul thus to over-live the Body He Answers by a perplex'd Repetition of some other Words in the Chapter which he pretends to Expound as by an Old Rule Mala Expositio corrumpit Textum and then he draws out of that Exposition what I do not find in the Text but will not particularize for avoiding of Length and Confusion P. 86. Here he Propounds another Objection to St. Paul's Doctrine and says The Apostle was well aware of it and therefore gave it an Answer But I think he is mistaken in both not finding by the Text that St. Paul ever thought of it and therefore did not design to give it an Answer and specially such an Answer as Mr. W. in this Place hath done He proceeds and raises a Third Objection against St. Paul's Doctrine but doth not say the Apostle was aware of this or made any Answer to it but Mr. W's Invention and Construction are ready to give it a full Answer but not such an one as I am willing to Consent unto P. 87. Mr. W. says Having thus cleared up the Text by giving you its Meaning I proceed now to lay down my Argument to prove that the Soul of Man dieth not with the Body I Answer some
they are most apt to intend A coming to them by Faith whilst we are in this World Such a Faith as is the Evidence of things not seen but we have direction to hold fast our Hope and Expectation of them until the End when we may look for a Crown or Crowns of Life to be then distributed to all who love our Lords Second Appearing And then only I conceive may we hope to be made Partakers of all that Company and Happiness which in this Text are particularly recited And from this Exposition the Conclusion will be easily drawn That Mr. W's Fourteenth Argument hath very little force to prove the Subsistence of Mens Souls in a State of Seperation from their Bodies The Fifteenth Argument PAge 108. Heb. 11.39 40. These having all obtained a good Report through Faith received not the Promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect Hereupon Mr. W. says This seems a very obscure Text especially applied as a Proof of the Souls Immortality To this I Agree and Prognosticate That the Proof which it makes of the Soul's Immortality will fall out accordingly viz. That it will be both very obscure and weak Mr. W. further says It is evident the Apostle here speaks of some special Promise that the Patriarchs had recâ—iv'd the fulfilling whereof they never lived to see and which was made to appear to the Church at or before the writing of this Epistle So he will have this Promise to import the Manifestation of the Son of God in the Flesh And he then puts the Question How can it be said that they who died in the Faith of this Promise are made perfect with the then present Church by the fulfilling that Promise in the Manifestation of the Son of God And thereto he Answers That Angels did desire to look into and be better inform'd in this Mystery until Christ came in the Flesh and proved himself by Miracles to be the Messiah and then their Knowledge thereof was perfected And he says The Case was the same with the Spirits of those deceased Patriarchs in Heaven That there were Spirits of the deceased Patriarchs in Heaven he ought first to have proved as the very Point which is now disputed between us that he here offers to suppose it as a Truth seems to be a clear begging of the Question which I must refuse to grant him and then this whole Argument becomes Abortive and can proceed no farther P. 112. Mr. W. says Till you that oppose can give me a better Interpretation of this obscure Text I will Conclude that the Interpretation or Opinion is false and mine is true I Answer That Mr. W. may conclude what he pleases from his unproved and only supposed Premises but that can be no Argument to others for their Agreement with his Supposals And therefore I am very apt to Conclude That there is neither Truth nor Force in this Argument The Sixteenth Argument PAge 112 1 Pet. 3.19 20. By which also he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison which sometime were disobedient in the Times of Noah Hereupon Mr. W. says He waves the Interpretation which the Papists make of this Text And gives you another of his own which agrees better with the Reformed Churches and then says These Spirits in Prison which Christ preached to must be taken to intend the Souls of wicked Men in Hell Which I may not suffer to pass for a Truth before he have proved Three other Points First That there are such Seperate Souls of Men in rerum natura Secondly That there is in Being such a Local Hell as he supposes the Devils and wicked Persons now to be in and that such a Place there was in the Time of Noah Thirdly That our Lord in the Time of Noah did go into the Local Hell and preach to the Spirits there imprisoned And when these Preliminaries are well proved by him I will better consider his Argument and give him a further Answer to it In the mean time I quote to him 2 Pet. 2.4 God cast the Angels that sinned down to Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved into Judgment Jude 6. The wicked Angels God hath reserved in Chains of Darkness unto the Judgment of the Great Day I do not know any other Text of Scripture which speaks of Spirits in Prison but these Two which also tell us what these Spirits were and where their Prison was but takes no notice of any Souls that were there nor doth any other Text of Scripture make mention of any Seperate Souls being there The Parable of Dives speaks of his Soul being there but not in Soul only for there he is described as in his Person having Eyes Mouth Tongue and Hands for which Reason it must pass not for a History but for a Parable as it doth And the force of proving by it is now as before rejected I do not know why the Preaching here mentioned may not be intended to the lapsed Angels remaining under Chains of Darkness And however that may fall out I conceive it cannot be applied to the Seperate Souls of Men because I have not yet met with any sound and good Proof That such Souls ever did or can naturally subsist in a State of Seperation from their Bodies The Seventeenth Argument PAge 115. Rev. 6.9 c. I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and they cryed with a loud Voice saying How long O Lord Holy and True doest thou not avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth And white Robes were given to every one of them and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their Fellow Servants also and Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled Mr. W. says Learned Men do differ about this Altar some take it for the Altar of Incense and some for the Altar of Burnt-offerings which I take to be a Dispute de Lana Caprina .. And he confesses it makes not much to our Business whether the one or the other He says It is as clear That John saw the Souls of them that were slain And I think as clear That John did not see the things here mentioned but that they were represented to him in a Trance or Transport of his Mind and it would have made much to the ending of our Dispute if he had declared to us what manner of things those Souls were which he saw what were their Shapes their Substances and their ordinary Cloathing as well as the Place of their Abode P. 116. Mr. W. says That by the Souls under the Altar are intended the Martyrs dead Bodies And pretends in Scripture Souls are divers times taken for Dead Bodies which I see no Cause to agree with He himself thinks it very improper to present the slain with white Robes whilst under the Altar and therefore he
as feasible as to make a Camel go through the eye of a Needle With Men and to their Understandings all such things are impossible but not with God I think it impossible for the Art or Industry of Man to make and give Life to a Mouse a Flie a tuft of Grass or a Flower The Art of the whole World hath never yet been able to produce such Creatures and to put Life into them and how then dare such weak Writers compare their Knowledge and Skill with that of the Great Creator and pretend to say That he who made all things out of nothing cannot make what he will out of any Matter which he will make use of and tho' I will not be so humorous as to think it possible for Men to make a Sensible House or any other Sensible or Living Creature whatsoever yet I am certain that God hath made an Infinite number of Sensible Creatures unto whom I think Mr. W. will not think fit to communicate Souls of the same sort with those which he bestows upon Mankind P. 135. Thirdly Mr. W. recounts to us divers particulars concerning the Memory and says that Men are not able to give an account of the mode or manner of its acting and I agree Mens Inabilities so to do well but then says he If you cannot tell me the manner of such Actions by the spirits of the Blood in the Brain I wlll conclude it is done by the Power of an Intelligent Spirit I reply That if he will do so I cannot help but I refuse to bear him Company in that mistake unless he can give me a better account how his Spirit accounts Memory in the Brain and after what manner the same is performed than I can give him concerning the Spirits of Blood acting the Brain to that purpose I am ready to confess my Ignorance in the later and I shall think him as Ignorant in the former until he shall give us a better account thereof then hitherto hath appeared in the World P. 136. Fourthly Mr. W. argues That the Soul must needs be Immortal because Men have a Rational Faculty whereby they can act abundance of things here by him enumerated and which seem to be beyond all Capacities in the Nature of Matter it self and all the Advantages which Humane Art or Industry can give it To this I Answer as before That altho' the nature of Matter be not proper in it self for such Productions nor can be made to serve such purposes by the Art or Industry of Men yet the Wisdom Skill and Power of God are able to produce such Effects out of Matter and Motion as Men are not able rationally to conceive nor it seems by Mr. W's Discourse are willing to believe That he ascribes all these Powers to his sort of Soul which are truly in and proper to the Person must pass for his Common Error and is perhaps incurable in him because I find it so lasting as to reach from the one end to the other in refutation whereof I think there has been enough already spoken and therefore I pass over much that he hath said in this place to the same Purpose Mr. W's Immoralities consequent upon the Doctrine of the Souls Mortality P. 139. He says That it lets Men loose to Immoralities and gratifies bad Men and their Actions I answer That for the space of Thirteen Years last past I have conceived this Opinion to be the more probable of the two and yet have not found that it had any effect at all upon my Manners or the other Opinions which I before held concerning God and his Worship and therefore I am not apt to believe that it will have bad effects upon other Persons who may likewise conceive this Opinion to be the more probable Next he says This Opinion creates contemptible Thoughts of Mens Souls I Answer That the Conception of the not being of any thing can breed no contempt of that which Men think hath not a Being or not such a Being as other Men imagine I also say That those who think their Beings to be composed of no other things but Elemementary Matter may yet justly have a great Esteem of themselves as the Skilful Workmanship of God after his own Image and endued with more excellent Faculties and Powers than any other Animal or Earthly Crateures whatsoever P. 140. Secondly Mr. W. says Belief of the Souls Mortality keeps the minds of wicked Men from fearing the Torments which others expect to succeed the very time of their Deaths I Answer That these Apprehensions do more commonly terrifie the Good and Weak than the Bold and Wicked both in the time of their Lives and at the day of their Deaths and whether it do more good or hurt in these Respects I pretend to question Mr. W. says That the Doctrine of the Resurrection and the Last Judgment may be of Consideration sufficient to terrifie wicked Persons and yet it seems not that he is so well satisfi'd therewithal as I am but would have the Belief of the Souls Separate Subsistence super-added thereunto and I should therewith be contented if the same could be any thing near so well proved as the Doctrine of the Resurrection may be Thirdly Mr. W. says The Opinion of the Souls Extinguishment is troublesome to the Souls of good Men a mode of speaking which I would correct and say it is troublesome to good Men themselves whose Hearts are in Heaven whilst they are on Earth to whom it is grievous to think of any delay between Death and their going to God to live in Vnion with him I Answer that tho' by Error in their Belief they may be disappointed of that expected Happiness yet it seems they shall fare never the worse for it nor know how much they were deceived till the time of the Resurrection and then their Works which follow them will be sure to overtake them and they will receive no Detriment by that delay which they may find in their going to God because the distance between Death and the Resurrection is of no consideration at all to the dead Person who shall rise as if he were then but newly fallen asleep and be utterly unknowing and unperceiving what time hath passed over him since his Death and whether any time hath passed over him at all or not Mr. W. hath used divers high and some tragical Expresons against his Opposers and their Opinion in his Discourse upon this Head which I pass over as not greatly significant in this Dispute Ancient Testimonies both of the Jews and Primitive Christians proving the Souls Immortality P. 142. Thereupon Mr. W. says That his ancient Testimonies and the Vniversal Belief of the Christian Church is no small Evidence of the Truth of that Opinion And I agree this to him that these are great Evidences of the Truth thereof and I think them the strongest Evidences which he hath yet produced and yet I do not conceive that they have in them
a Conviction strong enough to oblige all People to a Concurrence in that Opinion because all these Evidences are resolvable into an Humane Authority upon which I have no Inclination to found such a Faith as is the Evidence of things not seen i.e. such a Belief as concerning which there is neither Doubt nor Question Mr. W. gives us here a long Testimony out of Josephus from whence we may collect that some Jews held one thing and some another concerning Souls Some thought of them that one sort liv'd in perpetual Prison after Death and another sort rose very shortly and Mr. W. says The generality of the Jews were of that Mind and says The Sadduces denied the Souls Immortality and shews that Josephus was no Friend of theirs Then Mr. W. quotes Joseph a Speaker saying That Mens Souls go to Heaven and then after a certain Revolution or Period are again commanded to live in Bodies Another Speaker says It is Misery to live and not to die for Death freeth our Souls from Prison into their most pure and proper Place so as whilst they are in the Body they may properly be said to be dead but this passes with me for a Platonick Fable concerning which enough has been spoken This Jew says The Soul comes secretly into Men without being perceived and so departeth from them again I reply De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio I say also That where ever the Blood passes freely in the Body the Parts and Members are fresh and lively but where Obstructions hinders the rivage of Blood from passing the Bodily Parts and Members become withered and useless Mr. W. concludes It is clear that the Church of the Jews always held the Opinion of the Souls Immortality forgetting the Texts which I have before quoted which prove the Patriarchal and Mosaical Opinion to have been That the Life of Sensative Creatures lies in their Blood and other Opinion of the antient Jews hath he quoted none till that which he seems to collâ—ct out of the Discourse betwixt Saul and the Witch of Endor and which I do not agree to be proving nor do Job or David make any mention of Spiritual Souls so that Solomon's Writings are the first wherein we find mention of this sort of Souls of Mr. W. In his Third Chapter he doubts and in his Twelfth Chapter he says in few Words and Transiently The Spirit returns to God who gave it and there he is speaking of the dissolution of the humane Person and says The Body returns to the Dust as it was what became of the Spirit he did not perceive and therefore contented himself to say The Spirit return'd to God who gave it These are all the Arguments Mr. W. hath collected out of the Old Testament whence I am apt to inferr that he found no other Text in that Testament which made for his purpose but I think fit to mind him of the History in the second of Maccabees concerning the Martyrdom of the Seven Brothers by Antiochus there he shall find several of them declaring the Hope they had of being restored to their mangled Limbs at and by the Resurrection without mentioning their building of any Hope upon the Souls Seperate Subsistence whence I collect that Opinion had not yet prevailed amongst the Jews of those times It is also true that a Relation of this Martyrdom is subjoyned to the Works of Josephus as if it were of his Writing but I think the very great Verbosity of that Writing proves it to be none of his but it relates divers Sayings of these Brothers shewing the dependance of their Comfort upon the Souls Separate Subsistence and its immediate going to Heaven and this Difference proves to my Understanding that the Jews had alter'd their Opinion concerning their State after Death between the time of the Maccabees Writing and that wherein Josephus writ his Relation if the same be truly of his Writing P. 145. Mr. W. begins his Quotations of the Ancient Fathers for proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence I have not the opportunity of examining his Quotations with the Originals and therefore do not find it reasonable to deny or question the verity of any of them taking them therefore for veritable I agree they give very strong Testimony that those Writings of the Fathers by him quoted prove the Belief of the Writers to have been much consonant to his Opinion and I proffer only this Gloss upon the last of them viz. that of St. Ambrose who remembers our Lord went to prepare a place for his Disciples unto which I would add that which follows next after in the Text When I have prepared fitting places for you I will come and receive you to my Self that where I am ye may be also This coming of Christ I conceive to intend his second coming to Judgment and then and not till thâ—n that which our Lord says in this Text may be accomplished It seems his words quoted out of Iraeneus do not prove the Souls immediately going to Heaven after Death but to a Paradise or place of Pleasure distinct from Heaven and yet I allow them to be a good Proof that Iraeneus by them intends a Belief of the Souls Seperate Subsistence His second Author which he quotes he calls the Author of the Responses Apud Justin This I do not think fit to accept as the Opinion of Justin Martyr Thirdly For the saying of Polycarpus he quotes no Author from whence he took it whence it possibly may be taken from Baroneus His Fourth Quotation out of Origen seems no strong Proof because he was a perfect Platonist both before and after his Conversion to Christianity Fifthly His Quotation out of Tertullian speaks of such a place for the reception of departed Souls as is far above the Infernal places and a place of refreshment of the Souls of the Just when they are departed out of this Life where they shall abide to the Resurrection yet takes it for a different place from Heaven and I agree it proves his Agreement to the Souls Seperate Subsistence His Sixth Quotation out of Cyprian seems very full to his Purpose that the Martyrs Souls went immediately to Heaven In his Seventh Quotation concerning the Oration of Constantine I find no Expression in it that proves strongly for him save that Emperour 's discoursing concerning the Souls Immortality upon which I think he might very well dispute without making any certain Conclusion thereupon His Eighth Quotation out of Gregory Nyssen seems to me partly Platonick Ninthly What Prudentius says seems but to be rendring the Parable of Dives in Verse Tenthly Gregory Naz. who calls the Body and this Life the Prison of the Soul follows therein the Platonick Doctrine P. 152. Mr. W. says He has thus given us the Judgment of the Primitive Church for the Four first Centuries of it which is no small Argument of the Truth of the Souls Immortality and of the same Opinion have the
Christian Churches continued throughout the World and therefore Men must have very strong Arguments if they hope to prevail in rejecting this Opinion I answer and grant that this Argument is good and strong for the proving of his Opinion and seems to be of more Power and Strength than all that he hath said before for the maintaining of it but yet I do not perceive that Strength in it which may be able to support his Tenet against those Reasons and those Scriptures which may be brought against the Rationality and Truth of it and of which I intend to make a short detail when I come to his following Head where he makes and delivers Objections against his own Doctrine P. 152. Mr. W. begins to relate certain Sayings or Speeches of Reformed Martyrs who it seems died in the Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence which may be admitted to add some small Strength to his former Arguments drawn from the Opinion of the more Ancient Fathers I do not find it strange that Men should retain to the end of their Days divers Opinions which they had before imbibed in their Youth and by their Education hath been radicated in them especially such as do not appear to have an evil effect upon their Practices And I think that divers Learned Men of most high Esteem even in the Primitive and Apostolical Churches have delivered some Doctrines to their Disciples which upon strict examination may be found inconsonant to the stream or current of Scripture and the natural reason of Mankind which Doctrines I conceive the Writers of them did believe to be true upon the ground of such Tradition as they had received and which by Education and Custom had obtain'd an absolute assent of their Minds in such Cases And tho' I shall here name only the Millenary Opinion yet if I thought fit here to digress to that purpose I could add divers other particulars thereunto P. 153. Mr. W. proceeds to make farther Proof of his Opinion by some Representations in Dreams and others in Shades or Shadows of Persons departed unto which I have in a former Treatise made Answer that I do not deny there may be verity in divers of those Relations and yet I do not conceive any thing of that kind hath ever been performed by departed Souls thinking it probable that there are no such Beings in the World but I am willing to ascribe such Actions to the Powers and Performances of inferiour Spirits without pretending to determine whether good or bad and that they jussu aut permissu superiorum do represent and act according as the occasions wherein they are imploy'd may require P. 158. Mr. W. produces divers Objections which he says are made against the Souls Seperate Subsistence amounting to the Number of Fourteen divers of which I a gree not to be very material and tho' I intend to mention each of them that I may not seem to disregard any thing that he hath Written yet very little shall be said concerning them my Design being only to insist upon those which I think material and to add unto them such other Objections as Mr. W. in his Catalogue hath omitted P. 158. Mr W's first Objection says That what of the first Adam it was that sinned that of Adam died but both the Soul and Body died therefore c. To this he Answers That he must not take Life and Death here in their proper Sense but that the word Death here only intends a miserable Life which however he doth not deny to be Life and I do not conceive how Death and Life can stand together in the same subject and therefore I think his Description of Death by a miserable Life is not reasonable nor allowable in this Case conceiving it agreeable to Reason that the Curse pronounced against Sin should extend to the Person that sinned and accordingly the Persons which sinned did both die for it or after it without any appearance of leaving Souls to survive after the Death of their Persons P. 159. Mr. W. will not agree that their Souls did die as well as their Bodies because God says That Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return Then he assumes the Soul was not made of Dust which is a thing before disputed between us I pretending there was no such Soul made as he says there was I say my sort of Soul is material and may return to the Dust and Air as it was which he will deny and thereupon we must examine all that has been spoken which neither of us can design to do in this place but leave this Objection to be farther discussed Mr. W's second Objection from Eccles 3. where Solomon compares Men with Beasts P. 161. He pretends that Text says The Spirit of Man goes upward and the Spirit of a Beast downward which I think it doth not say but makes a doubt whether the truth of the thing be so or no it seems Solomon speaks more deliberately concerning Mens Souls in this Text than he does in his Twelfth Chapter and yet I pass this Objection lightly over without laying any great weight upon it P. 162. Mr. W. raises a third Objection from Matth. 26.38 where our Lord says My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death from whence some Men may pretend to inferr that his Soul might die I profess to be none of those who make this Objection for I conceive that Christ by the word Soul intended his Person or himself in the same Sense as if he had said I am sorrowful unto Death and therefore I pass this over as a weak Objection against Mr. W's Opinion P. 164. Mr. W. raises a fourth Objection against himself from Acts 2.27 Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thy Holy one to see Corruption Here he says some will have Christ's Intellectual Soul to be meant and by Hell or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grave to be meant I profess to be none of those some who would have Christ's Intellectual Soul to be here meant but I do rather conceive that by my Soul in this place is intended my Person or my Self and as if he had said thou wilt not leave me in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Grave without intention to speak of an Intellectual Soul or any other Soul at all and therefore I pass this over as a very light Objection against Mr. W's Opinion P. 169. The fifth Objection which Mr. W. brings against his own Opinion is raised from 2 Cor. 5. Where Paul speaks of being cloathed upon with his House from Heaven I have said before that this Expression respects that Translation of their Bodies which the Saints who are alive upon Earth at Christ's coming shall receive when they shall be disrobed of their Earthly Bodies and have them chang'd into Heavenly or Spiritual Bodies and yet I do not find any great Strength in this Objection against Mr. W's Opinion but pass it away as a very weak one without
Intent thereof and even to have exterminated the same out of the Apprehensions and Memories of such Men. And hereupon I do again agree that it is very sutable to the Justice of God and his equitable Dealings with Men that there should be a distribution of Rewards and Punishments after this Life and I do with great Assurance believe that the same will fall out accordingly not bestowing those Rewards and Punishments upon Souls Subsisting in a State of Seperation from the Body but that rather as our Lord himself tells us John 6. Those who fear God and work Righteousness shall by Christ be raised up at the last Day in their full Compositum of Soul and Body and in their own Persons shall receive Rewards according to their Works done and their Faith professed in this World and that the like measure shalt be dealt to the Wicked at the Resurrection of the last Day whose Punishments shall be equally distributed to their Persons as is before said to be done in the case of the former Raised and Righteous Persons P. 156. The Doctor says He cannot but wonder that Plato having asserted God to be a Mind Divine and Incorporeal should contradict himself in affirming that Man's Soul was a Particle taken from the Substance of God himself he will not engulph himself in the Bottomless Sea of Difficulties concerning the Original and Extraduction of Man's Soul but he conceives the Soul cannot be produced from Matter because it is Immaterial but however it is plain that it hath its Beginning and Origine with the Body and yet being Incorporeal it is not capable of perishing with it P. 159. He confesses a great decay of Intellect in Mens very old Age but says that Decay grows from the weakness of the Fancy and Imagination and the Organs thereof and not from the Decays of the Intellect or Soul it self Answering I say it seems rather to grow from the Heaviness and Unaptness of the Blood of old People to be so vigorously Inflamed and Acted as it used to be in their younger Years and greater strength of their Bodies and Concoction P. 173. The Doctor says It is not necessary that when at Death the Soul is breathed into the Air that the Air should be thereby Animated because then it should act without the Mediation of any Organs at all but he asserts that neither in the Air nor any other Body whatever can the Soul either meet with or create those Dispositions that are requisite to Vital Information P. 174. He says The Soul makes use of the Vital Spirits as Servants for the effecting of Life Sense and Motion I say Nature makes use of them for the effecting Life Sense Motion Understanding Memory and all other Powers of Cogitation whatsoever P. 180. The Doctor says As to the Particular or Manner of the Souls Knowledge after Death I remit you to Sir K. Digby's sublime Speculations concerning the condition of a Seperate Soul in which tho' you may not meet with such Satisfaction as you expect yet you will meet with more than I can now give you without repeating his Notions To this I answer that I have perused those Notions without meeting with any Satisfaction at all in them P. 183. The Doctor says That the Cement which joyns the Body and Soul together is the Blood especially the Spiritual and most refin'd part thereof and he quotes a Saying of Critius Sentire Maxime Proprinus esse Anima atque hoc in esse propter sanguinis Naturam P. 184. He says The Blood is the first pact of the Body that is generated and moved and the Soul is excited and kindled first from the Blood and the Blood is that in which the Operations Vegitative and Sensitive do first manifest themselves The Doctor says That he thinks it likely that the Soul having its first and perhaps principal Residence in the Blood and that Blood by Circulation flowing like a River of living Water round the Body penetrating into and irrigating the Substance of all the Parts and at the same time communicating to them both Heat and Life so as the Soul having its principal Residence in the Blood in respect thereof may very well be conceived to be Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte so as there is an Intimate presence of the Soul in the Blood and by that means a Conjunction of them together 169. The Dr. says That in the Progression towards Death the Vital Heat or Flame being either almost suffocated by Putrefaction of the Blood the only Fewel by which it is maintained in Diseases or exhausted by old Age goes out like a Lamp by degrees ceasing first to enliven or irradiate the parts that are most remote from the Focus or Heart and then failing in its conserving Influence more and more till at length suffering an Extinction in the very Heart as it were in the Socket it leaves that also Cold and Lifeless so that Death is as an Extinction only of the Vital Flame not of the Soul I say That it is an Extinction of that Vital Flame which I conceive to be the Soul or Spirit or the first Principal of Life and Motion in the Person I think that by the Doctor 's Words in this last Quotation he seems fully to agree with what I have often repeated that the total Extinction of the Vital Flame in the Blood is the Death of the Person and the very thing which turns that which was the living Body into a dead Carcass whence he says That Death is an Extinction of the Vital Flame and yet denies this to be an extinguishment of the Soul whence it seems to me that he was resolved to maintain the Subsistence of the Soul after the death of the Person altho' the Nature and Reason which he pretends to follow convinced him not so to do or that he found any natural need of his so doing but because he thought it might be prov'd by Scripture and was maintain'd by the Divines That the Soul of Man had a Seperate Subsistence after death of the Person and therefore was Immortal and that he stood so perswaded from Scripture Grounds he testifies Pag. 185. where he says That the Soul is an Immortal Substance and that its Immortality is not only credible by Faith or upon Authority Divine but also demonstrable by Reason or the Light of Nature From these Words I collect That his Belief of the Souls Immortality was grounded first upon Faith and Divine Authority as he thought and being thus fully perswaded of the Truth of that Opinion he set himself on work to maintain it by such Deductions as he was able to make from the Principles of Nature and Reason his Performances wherein have before been examined and shewn not be of so great weight as he perhaps conceived them to be The Treatise now examined was publish'd so long ago that I doubt before this time his Flame of Life hath been extinguish'd or that he may not be