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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70182	Two choice and useful treatises the one, Lux orientalis, or, An enquiry into the opinion of the Eastern sages concerning the praeexistence of souls, being a key to unlock the grand mysteries of providence in relation to mans sin and misery : the other, A discourse of truth / by the late Reverend Dr. Rust ... ; with annotations on them both.	Rust, George, d. 1670. Discourse of truth.; More, Henry, 1614-1687. Annotations upon the two foregoing treatises.; Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680. Lux orientalis.	1682 (1682)	Wing G815; Wing G833; Wing M2638; ESTC R12277	226,950	535

and in little mechanical contrivances others love to be riming almost as soon as they can speak plainly and are taken up in small essays of Poetry Some will be scrawling Pictures and others take as great delight in some pretty offers at Musick and vocal harmony Infinite almost are the ways in which this pure natural diversity doth discover it self * Now to say that all this variety proceeds primarily from the meer temper of our bodies is me thinks a very poor and unsatisfying Account * For those that are the most like in the Temper Air Complexion of their bodies are yet of a vastly differing Genius Yea they that have been made of the same clay cast in the same mould and have layn at once in the same natural bed the womb yea whose bodies have been as like as their state and fortunes and their education and usages the same yet even they do not unfrequently differ as much from each other in their genius and dispositions of the mind as those that in all these particulars are of very different condition Besides there are all kind of makes forms dispositions tempers and complexions of body that are addicted by their natures to the same exercises and imployments so that to ascribe this to any peculiarity in the body is me seems a very improbable solution of the Phaenomenon And to say all these inclinations are from custom or education is the way not to be believed since all experience testifies the contrary What then can we conjecture is the cause of all this diversity but that we had taken a great delight and pleasure in some things like and analogous unto these in a former condition which now again begins to put forth it self when we are awakened out of our silent recess into a state of action And though the imployments pleasures and exercises of our former life were without question very different from these in the present estate yet 't is no doubt but that some of them were more confamiliar and analogous to some of our transactions than others so that as any exercise or imployment here is more suitable to the particular dispositions that were praedominant in the other state with the more peculiar kindness is it regarded by us and the more greedily do our inclinations now fasten on it Thus if a Musician should be interdicted the use of all musical instruments and yet might have his choice of any other Art or Profession 't is likely he would betake himself to Limning or Poetry these exercises requiring the same disposition of wil and genius as his beloved Musick did And we in like manner being by the ●ate of our wretched descent hindred from the direct exercising our selves about the objects of our former delights and pleasures do yet as soon as we are able take to those things which do most correspond to that genius that formerly inspired us And now 't is time to take leave of the Arguments from Reason that give evidence for Praeexistence If any one think that they are not so demonstrative but that they may be answered or at least evaded I pray him to consider how many demonstrations he ever met with that a good wit resolv'd in a contrary cause could not shu●●le from the edge of Or let it be granted that the Arguments I have alledged are no infallible or necessary proofs yet if they render my cause but probable yea but possible I have won what I contended for For it having been made manifest by as good evidence as I think can be brought for any thing that the way of new creations is most inconsistent with the honor of the blessed Attributes of God And that the other of Traduction is most impossible and contradictio●s in the nature of things * There being now no other way left but Prae-existence if that be probable or but barely possible 't is enough to give it the victory And whether all that hath been said prove so much or no I leave to the indifferent to determine I think he that will say it doth not can bring few proofs for any thing which according to his way of judging will deserve to be called Demonstrations CHAP. XI Great caution to be used in alledging Scripture for our speculative opinions The countenance that Praeexistence hath from the sacred writings both of the old and new Testament Reasons of the seeming uncouthness of these allegations Praeexistence stood in no need of Scripture-proof IT will be next expected that I should now prove the Doctrine I have undertaken for by Scripture evidence and make good what I said above That the divine oracles are not so silent in this matter as is imagined But truly I have so tender a sense of the sacred Authority of that Holy volume that I dare not be so bold with it as to force it to speak what I think it intends not A presumption that is too common among our confident opinionists and that hath occasioned great troubles to the Church and di●●epute to the inspired writings For for men to ascribe the odd notions of their over-heated imaginations to the Spirit of God and eternal truth is me thinks a very bold and impudent belying it Wherefore I dare not but be very cautious what I speak in this matter nor would I willingly urge Scripture as a proof of any thing but what I am sure by the whole tenor of it is therein contained And would I take the liberty to fetch in every thing for a Scripture-evidence that with a little industry a man might make serviceable to his design I doubt not but I should be able to ●ill my Margent with Quotations which should be as much to purpose as have been cited in general CATECHISMS and CONFESSIONS of FAITH and that in points that must forsooth be dignified with the sacred title of FVNDAMENTAL But Reverend ASSEMBLIES may make more bold with Scripture than private persons And therefore I confess I 'm so timorous that I durst not follow their example Though in a matter that I would never have imposed upon the belief of any man though I were certain on 't and had absolute power to enjoyn it I think the only way to preserve the reverence due to the oracles of Truth is never to urge their Authority but in things very momentous and such as the whole current of them gives an evident suffrage to But to make them speak every trivial conceit that our sick brains can imagine or dream of as I intimated is to vilifie and deflowre them Therefore though I think that several Texts of Scripture look very fairly upon Praeexistence and would encourage a man that considers what strong Reasons it hath to back it to think that very probably they mean some thing in favour of this Hypothesis yet I 'le not urge them as an irrefutable proof being not willing to lay more stress upon any thing than it will bear Yea I am most willing to confess the weakness of my Cause in

with the Divine Attributes pag. 3 Chap. 3. 2 Traduction of Souls is impossible the reason for it weak and frivolous The proposal of Praeexistence pag. 16 Chap. 4. 1 Praeexistence cannot be disproved Scripture saith nothing against it It 's silence is no prejudice to this Doctrine but rather an Argument for it as the case standeth Praeexistence was the common opinion of our Saviour's times How probably it came to be lost in the Christian Church pag. 27 Chap. 5. Reasons against Praeexistence answered Our forgetting the former state is no argument to disprove it Nor are the other Reasons that can be produc'd more conclusive The proof of the possibility of Praeexistence were enough all other Hypotheses being absurd and contradictious But it is prov'd also by positive Arguments pag. 45 Chap. 6. A second Argument for Praeexistence drawn from the consideration of the Divine Goodness which alwayes doth what is best pag. 51 Chap. 7. The first Evasion that God acts freely and his meer will is reason enough for his doing or forbearing any thing overthrown by four Considerations Some incident Evasions viz. that Gods Wisdom or his glory may be contrary to this display of his goodness in our being made of old clearly taken off pag. 55 Chap. 8. A second general Evasion viz. that our Reasons cannot tell what God should do or what is best overthrown by several considerations As is also a third viz. that by the same Argument God would have been obliged to have made us impeccable and not liable to Misery pag. 61 Chap. 9. A fourth Objection against the Argument from Gods goodness viz. That it will conclude as well that the World is infinite and eternal Answered The conclusion of the second Argument for Praeexistence pag. 71 Chap. 10. A third Argument for Praeexistence from the great variety of mens speculative inclinations and also the diversity of our Genius's copiously urged If these Arguments make Praeexistence but probable 't is enough to gain it the Victory pag. 74 Chap. 11. Great caution to be used in alledging Scripture for our speculative opinion The countenance that Praeexistence hath from the sacred writings both of the Old and New Testament Reasons of the seeming uncouthness of these allegations Praeexistence stood in no need of Scripture-proof pag. 82 Chap. 12. Why the Author thinks himself obliged to descend to some more particular Account of Praeexistence The presumption positively to determine how it was with us of old The Authors design in the Hypothesis that follows pag. 90 Chap. 13. Seven Pillars on which the particular Hypothesis stands 94 Pillar 1. All the Divine designs and actions are laid and carried on by pure and infinite Goodness pag. 95 Pillar 2. There is an exact Geometrical Justice that runs through the Vniverse and is interwoven in the contexture of things pag. 97 Pillar 3. Things are carried to their proper place and state by the congruity of their natures where this fails we may suppose some arbitrary managements pag. 100 Pillar 4. The Souls of men are capable of living in other bodies besides Terrestrial And never act but in some body or other pag. 102 Pillar 5. The Soul in every state hath such a body as is fittest for those faculties and operations that she is most inclined to exercise pag. 105 Pillar 6. The powers and faculties of the Soul are either 1 Spiritual and intellectual or 2 Sensitive or 3 Plastick pag. 107 Pillar 7. By the same degrees that the higher powers are invigorated the lower are consopited and abated as to their proper exercises and è contra pag. 108 Chap. 14. A Philosophical Hypothesis of the Souls Praeexistence 113 Her Aethereal State The Aereal State pag. 102 The Terrestrial State pag. 122 The next step of Descent or After-state pag. 126 The Conflagration of the Earth pag. 137 The General Restitution pag. 142 THE ERRATA Correct thus In Lux Orientalis For Read PAg. 9. lin 6. For * For. pa. 61. l. 3. Reasons Reason p. 78. l. 1. his this p. 126. l. 6. course coarse In the Annotations pag. 34. l. 28. promptus promptos p. 38. l. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 45. l. 12. tye lye p. 51. l. 5. Plaistick Plastick p. 53. l. 7. Zoophiton's Zoophyton's p. 54. l. 29. Unluckly Unlucky p. 56. l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 62. l. 19. other the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 74. l. 8. property properly p. 80. l. 2. doors for doors for ibid. l. 21. properly property p. 84. l. 2. fitted sited ibid. l. 21. restore resolve p. 94. l. 15. vigorous rigorous p. 95. l. 8. this humane his humane p. 101. l. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 104. l. 28. corporeal incorporeal p. 106. l. 13. alledged alledge p. 113. l. 20. Psychopanychites Psychopannychites ibid. l. 31. to two p. 119. l. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 144. l. 23. ante Interiisse ante ●●●●●●sse p. 184. l. 26. Nymphs Nymph p. 209. l. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 238. l. 26. slawes flawes p. 255. l. 11. sesquealtera sesquialtera p. 265. l. 3. the steady their steady p. 268. l. 10. to those so those p. 275. l. 2. Heaven's Haven's LUX ORIENTALIS CHAP. I. The opinions proposed concerning the original of Souls IT hath always been found a matter of discouraging difficulty among those that have busied themselves in such Inquiries To determine the Soul 's original Insomuch that after all the contests and disputes that have been about it many of the wisest Inquisitors have concluded it undeterminable or if they have sate down in either of the two opinions viz. of it's immediate Creation or Traduction which of later ages have been the only competitors they have been driven to it rather from the absurdities of the opposite opinion which they have left than drawn by any rational alliciency in that which they have taken to And indeed if we do but impartially consider the grand inconveniences which each party urgeth against the others Conclusion it would even tempt one to think that both are right in their opposition and neither in their assertion And since each side so strongly oppugns the other and so weakly defends it self 't is a shrewd suspicion that they are both mistaken Wherefore if there be a third that can lay any probable claim to the truth it deserves to be heard to plead its cause and if it be not chargeable with the contradictions or absurdities either of the one or other to be admitted Now though these later ages have concluded the matter to lie between immediate Creation and seminal Traduction yet I find that the more antient times have pitcht upon Praeexistence as more likely than either For the Platonists Pythagoreans the Chaldaean wise men the Jewish Rabbins and some of the most learned and antient Fathers

were of this opinion Wherefore I think we owe so much at least to the Memory of those grave Sages as to examine this Doctrine of theirs and if neither of the later Hypotheses can ease our anxious minds or free themselves from absurdities and this Grey Dogma fairly clear all doubts and be obnoxious to no such contradictions I see no reason but we may give it a favourable admittance till something else appear more concinnous and rational Therefore let us take some account of what the two first opinions alledge one against another and how they are proved by their promoters and defendants Now if they be found unable to withstand the shock of one anothers opposition we may reasonably cast our eyes upon the third to see what force it brings to vouch its interest and how it will behave it self in the encounter CHAP. II. Daily creation of Souls is inconsistent with the Divine Attributes THe first of these opinions that offers it self to Tryal is that God daily creates humane souls which immediately are united unto the bodies that Generation hath prepared for them Of this side are our later Divines and the generality of the Schoolmen But not to be born down by Authorities Let us consider what reason stands against it Therefore 1 If our Souls came immediately out of the hands of God when we came first into these bodies Whence then are those enormously brutish inclinations that strong natural proclivity to vice and impiety that are exstant in the children of men All the works of God bear his image and are perfect in their kind Purity is his nature and what comes from him proportionably to its capacity partakes of his perfections Every thing in the natural world bears the superscription of his wisdom and goodness and the same fountain cannot send forth sweet waters and bitter Therefore 't is a part of our allegiance to our Maker to believe * that he made us pure and innocent and if we were but just then framed by him when we were united with these terrestrial bodies whence should we contract such degenerate propensions Some tell us that this impurity was immediately derived from the bodies we are united to But how is it possible that purely passive insensible Matter should transfuse habits or inclinations into a Nature that is quite of another Make and Quality How can such a cause produce an effect so disproportionate * Matter can do nothing but by motion and what relation hath that to a moral contagion How can a Body that is neither capable of sense nor sin infect a soul as soon as 't is united to it with such vitious debauched dispositions But others think to evade by saying That we have not these depravities in our natures but contract them by Custome education and evil usages How then comes it about that those that have had the same care and industry used upon them and have been nurtured under the same discipline and severe oversight do so vastly and even to wonder differ in their inclinations * How is it that those that are under continual temptations to vice are yet kept within the bounds of vertue and sobriety And yet that others that have strong motives and allurements to the contrary should violently break out into all kinds of extravagance and impiety Sure there is somewhat more in the matter than those general causes which may be common to both and which many times have quite contrary effects 2. This Hypothesis that God continually Creates humane souls in these bodies consists not with the honour of the Divine Attributes For 1. How stands it with the goodness and benignity of that God who is Love to put pure and immaculate spirits who were capable of living to him and with him into such bodies as will presently defile them deface his image pervert all their powers and faculties incline them to hate what he most loves and love what his Soul hateth and that without any knowledge or concurrence of theirs will quite marre them as soon as he hath made them and of dear Children render them rebels or enemies and in a moment from being like Angels transform them into the perfect resemblance of the first Apostates Devils Is this an effect of those tender mercies that are over all his works And 2. Hath that Wisdom that hath made all things to operate according to their natures and provided them with whatever is necessary to that end made myriads of noble Spirits capable of as noble operations and presently plunged them into such a condition wherein they cannot act at all according to their first and proper dispositions but shall be necessitated to the quite contrary and have other noxious and depraved inclinations fatally imposed upon their pure natures Doth that wisdom that hath made all things in number weight and measure and disposed them in such exact harmony and proportions use to act so ineptly And that in the best and noblest pieces of his Creation Doth it use to make and presently destroy To frame one thing and give it such or such a nature and then undo what he had done and make it another And if there be no such irregular methods used in the framing of inferiour Creatures what reason have we to suspect that the Divine Wisdom did so vary from its self in its noblest composures And 3 Is it not a great affront to the Divine J●stice to suppose as we are commonly taught that as●oon as we are born yea and in the Womb we are obnoxious to eternal wrath and torments if our Souls are then immediately created out of nothing For To be just is to give every one his due and how can endless unsupportable punishments be due to innocent Spirits who but the last moment came righteous pure and immaculate out of their Creators hands and have not done or thought any thing since contrary to his will or Laws nor were in any the least capacity of sinning I but the first of our order our General head and Representative sinned and we in him thus we contract guilt as soon as we have a Being and are lyable to the punishment of his disobedience This is thought to solve all and to clear God from any shadow of unrighteousness But whatever truth there is in the thing it self I think it cannot stand upon the Hypothesis of the Souls immediate Creation nor yet justifie God in his proceedings For 1. If I was then newly Created when first in this body what was Adam to me who sinned above 5000 years before I came out of nothing If he represented me it must be as I was in his Loins that is in him as an effect in a cause But so I was not according to this Doctrine for my soul owns no Father but God its immediate progenitour And what am I concern'd then in his sins which had never my will or consent more than in the sins of Mahom●t or Julius Caesar Nay than in the sins of Beelzebub or

though very happy may be improved at the long run and in an orderly series of times and things whether the Soul lapse into sin or no. For accession of new improvements increaseth Happiness and Joy Now therefore I say suppose several and that great numbers even innumerable myriads of pre-existent Souls to lapse into the Regions of Sin and Death provided that they do not sin perversely and obstinately nor do despight to the Spirit of Grace nor refuse the advantageous offers that Divine Providence makes them even in these sad Regions why may not their once having descended hither tend to their greater enjoyment when they shall have returned to their pristine Station And why may not the specifical nature of the Soul be such that it be essentially interwoven into our Being that after a certain period of times or ages whether she sin or no she may arrive to a fixedness at last in her heavenly Station with greater advantage to such a Creature than if she had been fixed in that state at first The thing may seem least probable in those that descend into these Regions of Sin and Mortality But in those that are not obstinate and refractorie but close with the gracious means that is offered them for their recoverie their having been here in this lower State and retaining the memorie as doubtless they do of the transactions of this Terrestrial Stage it naturally enhances all the enjoyments of the pristine felicitie they had lost and makes them for ever have a more deep and vivid resentment of them So that through the richness of the Wisdom and Goodness of God and through the Merits and conduct of the Captain of their Salvation our Saviour Jesus Christ they are after the strong conflicts here with sin and the corruptions of this lower Region made more than Conquerours and greater gainers upon the losses they sustained before from their own folly And in this most advantageous state of things they become Pillars in the Temple of God there to remain for ever and ever So that unless straying Souls be exceedingly perverse and obstinate the exitus of things will be but as in a Tragick Comedy and their perverseness and obstinacie lies at their own doors for those that finally miscarrie whose number this confident Writer is to prove to be so considerable that the enhanced happiness of the standing part of pre-existent Souls and the recovered does not far preponderate the infelicitie of the others condition Which if he cannot do as I am confident he cannot he must acknowledge That God in not forcibly fixing pre-existent Souls in the state they were first created but leaving them to themselves acted not from the Supremacy of his Will over his Goodness but did what was best and according to that Soveraign Principle of Goodness in the Deitie And now for that snitling Dilemma of this eager Opposer of Pre-existence touching the freedom of acting and mutabilitie in humane Souls whether this mutabilitie be a Specifick properly and essential to them or a separable Accident For if it were essential says he then how was Christ a perfect man his humane nature being ever void of that lapsabilitie which is essential to humanitie and how come men to retain their specifick nature still that are translated to Celestial happiness and made unalterable in the condition they then are To this I answer That the Pre-existentiaries will admit that the Soul of the Messiah was created as the rest though in an happie condition yet in a lapsable and that it was his peculiar merit in that he so faithfully constantly and entirely adhered to the Divine Principle incomparably above what was done by others of his Classis notwithstanding that he might have done otherwise and therefore they will be forward to extend that of the Author to the Hebrews chap. 1. v. 8. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever the Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the Oyl of Gladness above thy Fellows to his behaviour in his pre-existent state as well as in this And whenever the Soul of Christ did exist if he was like us in all things sin onely excepted he must have a capacitie of sinning though he would not sin that capacitie not put into act being no sin but an Argument of his Vertue and such as if he was always devoid of he could not be like us in all things sin onely excepted For posse peccare non est peccatum And as for humane Souls changing their Species in their unalterable heavenly happiness the Species is not then changed but perfected and compleated namely that facultie or measure of it in their Plastick essentially latitant there is by the Divine Grace so awakened after such a series of time and things which they have experienced that now they are ●irmly united to an heavenly Body or ethereal Vehicle for ever And now we need say little to the other member of the Dilemma but to declare that free will or mutability in humane Souls is no separable Accident but of the essential contexture of them so as it might have its turn in the series of things And how consistent it was with the Goodness of God and his Wisdom not to suppress it in the beginning has been sufficiently intimated above Wherefore now forasmuch as there is no pretext that either the Wisdom or Justice of God should streighten the time of the creation of humane Souls so that their existence may not commence with that of Angels or of the Universe and that this figment of the Supremacy of Gods mere Will over his other Attributes is blown away it is manifest that the Argument for the Pre-existence of Souls drawn from the Divine Goodness holds firm and irrefragable against whatever Opposers We have been the more copious on this Argument because the Opposer and others look upon it as the strongest proof the Pre existentiaries produce for their Opinion And the other Party have nothing to set against it but a fictitious Supremacy of the Will of God over his Goodness and other Attributes Which being their onely Bulwark and they taking Sanctuary nowhere but here in my apprehension they plainly herein give up the cause and establish the Opinion which they seem to have such an antipathy against But it is high time now to pass to the next Chapter Chap. 10. p. 75. To have contracted strong and inveterate habits to Vice and Lewdness and that in various manners and degrees c. To the unbyassed this must needs seem a considerable Argument especially when the Parties thus irreclaimably profligate from their Youth some as to one Vice others to another are found such in equal circumstances with others and advantages to be good born of the same Parents educated in the same Family and the like Wherefore having the same bodily Extraction and the same advantages of Education what