He says The Soul and Body are not sick and well together Whereas I profess to think they are sick and well together and that they have both one common Sense of Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting Feeling and that they both together or the Person hath the same Perception Fancy Judgment Will and Memory and they both have or which is the same thing the Person hath the same Affections or Passions of Ambition Covetousness Lust Wrath and Fear These all are naturally ingrafted in the Person and are natural Incidents to the Compositum of Soul and Body and that this Union is the most amicable friendly and pleasing that Men know to be enjoy'd in our Earthly World and that the Body is so far from being a Prison or Cage for the Soul that there is no other Place in the World wherein the Soul delights or wherein it can subsist but in the Body nor is there a Seperation which we know in the Earthly World that is more grievous or afflictive than the Seperation of Soul and Body is commonly found to be to the Person who is a Compositum of them both Upon which Considerations I stand inclined to Affirm That the Person who is a Compositum of Soul and Body and those his Two Constituent Parts are generated together are born live and grow together are sick and well together and so are pleased and displeased and love and hate together are joyful sorrowful and fearful together are honoured and shamed together they decline and decay together and yet the Out-ward Part somewhat sooner and faster than the Inward and so they grow impotent and helpless together that they die together and that lastly they shall rise together in that Universal Resurrection which shall be effected at the second Appearing of our Lord JESUS CHRIST when he shall come to Judge the World Mr. W. here quotes 3 John 2. as serving to prove his Purpose where St. John saith to Gains I wish above all things that thou maist prosper and be in health even as thy Soul prospereth It is a common Practice for Men in their Letters to wish Health and Prosperity to their Correspondents and this the Apostle practises in this Text and the Words Even as thy soul prospereth seem to intend Even as Gains himself prospereth in the Faith and Profession of the Gospel He quotes again for his Purpose Rom. 7.23 where St. Paul says I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind Which Text I conceive intends no more than the War which the Sensual Affections and Passions make against the Opinions and Dictates of the Rational Faculty or Mind of the Man which is visibly known and perceived to continue in the Person from the Cradle to the Grave and prove no more a War betwixt the Soul and the Body than Love and Hatred Sorrow and Joy or any other contrary Affections of the Man may do He quotes further for his Purpose 1 Pet. 2.11 Abstain from fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul Here the Word Soul seems to intend the Man himself or the Rational Faculty or Mind of the Person Then he concludes That the Soul and Body as they are Two Beings distinct in Number so are they in Nature And thereupon I say how well he hath proved what he saith he hath proved shall be left to the Readers of our Books to Judge His Third Proposition Affirms That the Soul is a Being seperable from the Body which he says he intends to prove and to that Purpose P. 17. he quotes 2 Cor. 5.1 where he says St. Paul calls our Bodies our Earthly House which the Text does not expresly do but says We know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens I do not here perceive a necessity of taking these Words Our Earthly House of this Tabernacle to signifie our Bodies but find as much or more Reason to conceive that by those Words our Apostle did intend the whole Fabrick of the Earth in which or upon which the Men of that Age then lived and we still do live We find sufficient Scripture Testimony to prove That our Earthly House of this Tabernacle shall in the end be dissolved and for the shortning of the time when this shall be done and the speedy coming of our Lord to Judgment was a great Subject of the Saints Prayers at that Time and I think divers good Men of that Time held Opinion That possibly they might live to the second coming of our Lord and however did not expect that He should have so long delay'd His Coming as we find by Experience He hath done if we take Our Earthly House of this Tabernacle to signifie the Earth upon which we live that seems to Agree well with the following Words We have a Building of God not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Pet. 3.7 The Heavens and the Earth which are now are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and Perdition of ungodly Men and then the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness He doth not say If you expect your seperate Souls going to Heaven you must live after that manner but if you expect the fiery Dissolution of that Earth upon which ye now live you have great reason to act as he there directs Nevertheless we according to his Promise look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Wherefore Beloved seeing ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless Thus he says they must practise a Holy Life in consideration and expectation of those things which were not to happen till Christ's second Appearing but then were expected and hoped for by the Saints and Church of those Times And of these New Heavens and Earth St. Paul seems to speak when he says We have a Building of God a House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Such a House as the Hands of Men cannot make the Pattern whereof is now in Heaven and shall descend hither to be our Habitation at our Lord's second Appearing And these are the things which he saith are not seen and yet are Eternal but when that Change shall happen they shall be both Visible and Eternal And for this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with this House of ours which is from Heaven Ver. 4. We that are in this Tabernacle of the Earth upon which we live do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed or not desiring that our Persons should be dissolved by Death but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up
of Life This shews that he did not desire Death in hope of his Souls immediate going to Heaven but rather he longed for Christ's second Appearing when all these things shall be performed and those which at that time are found alive upon Earth shall not die but be changed in a Moment or twinkling of an eye and so cloathed with their Houses which are from Heaven and by that means their mortal Bodies shall put on Immortality fulfilling our Apostles Words in this Text Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life And this Change seems to be the cloathing upon which he both intended and desired and it was a Practice of the Church of those Times as before is said to pray for the speedy Coming of our Lord Jesus and Consummation of the Mysteries of the Gospel And thus I conceive I have better Expounded our Apostles Text and given a truer Meaning thereof than Mr. W. will be found to have done and conclude thereupon That this Text can give but a feeble Support to the Opinion of the Souls seperate Subsistence P. 18. He further quotes Ver. 6.7 Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and walk by Faith not by sight and therefore we are willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. The Meaning of which may be that we cannot be present with the Lord in our Fleshly Bodies which are subject to Corruption whil'st they continue in their Natural State and therefore he desires the Change or Translation of such Earthly Bodies into that of Glorious or Heavenly Bodies which shall be done when we are cloathed upon with our House or Houses which are from Heaven by changing our Earthly Bodies into Heavenly which shall be performed to the Saints that live upon Earth at the Time of our Lord's second Coming and tho' they be absent from the Lord in their Earthly Bodies yet they shall then be present with Him in their Heavenly ones And our Apostle proceeding says Ver. 9. We labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of Him And then closes his Discourse Ver. 10. with that which seems to be the Reason of all his Desire and Endeavour viz. Because We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Earthly Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Which intends the Last and General Judgment without any Pretence or Apprehension that an Intermediate Judgment is at all meant or consider'd in that Expression Mr. W. quotes further 2 Pet. 1.13 I think it meet so long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up knowing that shortly I must put off this Tabernacle viz. I will endeavour that after my Departure c. It seems that Peter by the Term Tabernacle did intend his own Fleshly Body which with Propriety enough may signifie that Humane Body which is the Receptacle and Tabernacle of Life to every Man And Death is commonly amongst us call'd a Departure out of this World of such Persons as lately before were living Members of it and therefore I do not perceive what Force there is in these Texts of Proving the Soul's Seperate Subsistence Nor do I perceive that Mr. W. lays any proving Weight upon the Sense of the Texts as they are here quoted but endeavours rather to enforce a Meaning from the Greek Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he says Signifies After my going out viz. Out of my Tabernacle although our Translators have render'd it After my Departure Which I think to be a Translation which he cannot mend and if so they had render'd it by After my going out I should have sooner have taken it to signifie An Extinguishment of the Vital Flame in his Body than the Departure of an Intelligent Substantial Soul out of it And therefore I think the Enforcement of this Argument which he would derive from the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but trifling P. 19 He Appeals to all Mens Judgments that are not prejudicate whether the Apostles do not by the quoted Texts intend That Mens Souls are of such a Nature as can subsist in a State of Seperation from their Bodies I doubt not but if I or any other Man shall declare our selves to think other ways he will Reply we are Prejudicate and that is all the Fruit that can be expected of such a needless Appeal He says further If these Apostles had believed the Soul and Body to die together they would never have used such ensnaring Metaphorical Expressions as these that do so clearly hold forth a Seperability of the one from the other To this I Reply That if at all they hold forth this Opinion it is in a Dark-Lanthorn with the Light Side towards him and the Dark towards me But I rather conceive that if they had known the Being of a Substantial Intelligent Seperately Subsisting Soul in Man and that those of the good went to Heaven presently after the Death of the Person they would probably and even certainly have preached and declared the same And we should have found it so plainly and clearly delivered in some of their Writings which are come to our hands and the not finding it so delivered in any of their Writings gives us great cause to doubt the Truth of that Opinion Mr. W. for a further Proof of his Opinion quotes 2 Cor. 12.1 where that Apostle relates a Trance or Vision which he had and wherein he could not tell whether he was in the Body or out of the Body and thereupon he quotes the Assembly of Divines which sat in the Rump-Parliament Time and that they say the Apostle doubted whether God framed the Representation of these Heavenly things in his Soul in a State of Union with the Body or whether God Seperated the Soul from the Body and transported it into Heaven And thereupon P. 20. Mr. W. says That many Philosophers and some Divines affirm That Paul 's Rational Soul might be seperated from the Body and yet Paul not dead professing himself partly to be of the same Opinion And if by being out of the Body the Apostle doth not mean such a Separation he would be told what is meant by those Words Being out of the Body He was Conscious to himself of a common and I think a sufficient Answer thereunto given viz. That St. Paul was wrapt in a Trance or Extasie of his Mind wherein those things which he saw and heard were so lively represented to his Perceptive Faculties and so throughly imprinted upon his Memory as they could not be more perfectly perceived or better remembred if he had truly perceived them by the Use of his Bodily Organs so as he could not certainly know whether he was really wrapt into Heaven in his whole Person or whether the same was only a Trance and Rapture of his Mind Mr. W. intending to prevent this Answer says It is not enough for Men
at my Tribulation Philem. v. 9. This Apostle was then Paul the Aged and a Prisoner of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. 4.6 Paul says I am ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Ver. 16. At my first Answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me but God stood with me and I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion Philip. 4.14 The Philippians had sent a Present to supply St. Paul's Wants and in return he says Ye have well done that ye did communicate with my Affliction and supply my Wants and prays God to bless them for their so doing The several Texts thus collected seem to declare to us the State of St. Paul's Person at that time He was Paul the Aged a Prisoner under a necessitous and wanting Condition ready to be offered up by a dolorous Death having but lately escaped out of the Mouth of the Lion and that he lay continually under great Afflictions for the Church's sake and had the Care of all the Churches lying upon him All which Particulars considered our Apostle had great Reason to chuse Death rather than Life in all such Respects as did only concern himself for that by Death he should be delivered from the manifold Afflictions and Tribulations before-named and thereby attain a state of Rest and Blessedness in the Lord. Rev. 14.13 John heard a Voice from Heaven commanding him to write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rom. 14.8 Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord 's Chap. 8.35 Who shall seperate us from the Love of Christ Ver. 38. I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor any other Creature shall be able to seperate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus ' our Lord. Here we may observe Life and Death are made indifferent things to Believers such as seem neither to hinder nor further the State or Condition of them or to be either of them greatly desired by Christians in this World but rather ought to be referr'd to the Will and Appointment of God Luk. 20.38 God calls Himself The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and yet the Text says He is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him Which to my Apprehension proves what before is said That whether we live or die we are the Lord's during Life we live and move in Him and when we die we rest and sleep in Him in expectation to be raised by Him at his Second Coming And from the Premises I Argue That all Mr. W's Suppositions and Surmises concerning the Soul and the Seperate State of it are ill grounded and unsound We read of many Persons whose Conditions were so much distress'd that with Job they have heartily desir'd Death and would be ready with him to dig for it as other Men would do for hidden Treasure the very Aged and Sickly one of which I am will easily be perswaded to think Death a Gain to them and to desire it accordingly The present Time affords a rare Example of a young rich and otherwise happy Lord who by a Pistol Bullet took away his own Life at the Bath meerly to rid and free himself from such sharp Pains of the Gout and Stone as then oppress'd him And daily Experience assures us that the Consideration and Hope of Death is one of the greatest Supports under Mens present Sufferings and is by such Persons accordingly desired and thus they are at apparent Agreement with St. Paul's Opinion That for them to die is Gain although their Expectations of future Happiness may be nothing so well grounded as his was It may be also observed I have a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better Not saying He desir'd to depart that he might be with Christ but that though he did depart he knew he should still be with Christ so as his Departure and being with Christ do both stand well together he had a Being with Christ whil'st he was alive and he doubted not of having a like Being with Christ when he was dead and that a more peaceable and quiet Being than he had whil'st he was here and therefore that Estate was the more desirable and the more gainful If a Person go to his Friends or his Father's House he may truly he said to be with such a Friend or Father either sleeping or waking and we know Death is compared to a Sleep the Scripture usually calls it so and really and truly it is no other but a sound and lasting Sleep to continue unto the Sound of the last Trumpet at whose Summons the Dead shall be raised and those who are alive upon Earth shall have their Persons changed St. Paul does not say that he or any other Person is more present with the Lord when dead than alive but that in both Estates Men are alike present with the Lord For If we live we live unto the Lord and if we die we die unto the Lord so as whether we live or die we are the Lord 's Neither Death nor Life can seperate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus So it seems whether we live or die we are alike with Christ and have no more Being with him dead than when alive but that in both these States we have alike Being with him This Exposition of St. Paul's present Text I conceive to be sound and true and that Mr. W's is Erroneous For that this my Construction applies St. Paul's Terms of I and Me to denote and intend his whole Person as in their proper Signification they do whereas Mr. W. applies them to signifie only one Part of his Person viz. our Author's sort of Soul concerning which our Dispute is Whether there is any such thing in the World or not Next Mr. W. takes up the Bulk of his Argument in a Discourse concerning the Soul its Seperate Subsistence after Death and its enjoying Happiness in that Estate whereas in St. Paul's whole Text there are no words which mention any of these things or give us any Information concerning them or any of them I leave therefore his Construction as a Mistake of the Apostle's Meaning and think I have Reason to conclude That Mr. W's Argument drawn from this Text is not a sufficient nor a good Argument to prove the Subsistence of the Soul in a State of Seperation from the Body The Thirteenth Argument PAge 100. Colos 1.19 20. It pleased the Father that in him should all Fulness dwell and having made Peace through the Blood of the Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself by him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven P. 101. Mr. W. says There were Souls of Men in Heaven when St. Paul
writ this Epistle because the Apostle says there were things in Heaven reconciled by the Blood of the Cross But there are no such things in Heaven reconciled by the Blood of the Cross except they be the Souls of some Holy Men that went hence Then he expresses a Desire to know what Men can say to this Argument And therefore I say to it That by his own Expression it appears he says he knows not what for he says He knows not that there are any other things in Heaven which need Reconciliation to God by Christ except Men will take these things to be the Souls of departed Persons But if Men will not accept of this Meaning then he knows not what the Apostle can mean by things in Heaven reconciled to God by Christ Which intends no more than that he doth not otherways know what the Things in Heaven reconciled to God by Christ may mean Which I take for a Confession That he doth not know what Paul meant by these things in Heaven Secondly I conceive he doth not know that there are any Souls in Heaven because if he did he should be able to make such a Demonstration or Description of their Being and of their being there as other Men who are willing might be able to understand and conceive He hath taken Pains to write this Treatise and therein hath already produced Thirteen Arguments in Proof of this Tenet but very unsuccessfully as those who peruse these Observations will easily discover The Perusers of this Argument will I think easily find That Mr. W. must have Two Things granted him before he can pretend to prove any thing by this Argument First That there are no things in Heaven which need Reconciliation to God unless Men will admit that Humane Souls are there And therefore Secondly he would perswade Men to admit of his Position That there are Souls in Heaven But I think fit to reject both these Proposals and say First That there may be other Things in Heaven besides Souls which may need a Reconciliation to God by Christ And Secondly to conceive that possibly or even probably there are not nor ever were any Humane Souls in Heaven nor in any other Place in the World except in their own proper and peculiar Bodies Here Mr. W. puts another slight Objection against his own Opinion and answers it P. 102. Mr. W. demands If there be any things else in Heaven besides the Souls of Men which need a Reconciliation to God What are those things I Answer I do not know what those things are and alike Confession of his Ignorance concerning this Subject would better have become Mr. W. than his groundless Guesses at what is meant in this Text by St. Paul's Expression of Things in Heaven and the supplying his Ignorance therein by a bold but Erroneous Guess That by Things in Heaven St. Paul intended the Seperate Souls of Men of which the Text makes no mention at all and his Supposal that there were Seperate Souls hath no better Foundation than his own Supposal which hath very little Power to convince intelligent Persons That Humane Souls have any sort of Subsistence in a state of Seperation from the Body The Fourteenth Argument PAge 102. Heb. 12.23 We are come to the Spirits of just Men made perfect Mr. W. begins this Argument with somewhat a long Comparison between the Law and the Gospel which makes little to our Point and therefore I pass it over P. 104. Mr. W. says as he is very apt to do That the Souls or Spirits of Men are Immortal and therefore it is a very great Truth that they are Immortal And adds Those Souls which the Gospel reveals to be alive out af their Bodies are thereby proved to be Immortal but the Gospel reveals that the Souls of just Men are alive out of their Bodies therefore the Souls of Men are alive out of their Bodies therefore the Souls of Men are Immortal Mr. W. says The Gospel revealeth that the Spirits of just Men are alive out of their Bodies Because the Text says they were made perfect and there is no Perfection in Death P. 105. He says We have a Right to the Society of those Spirits of just Men mude perfect which we shall have in possession when we depart hence But I find neither such Words nor Things in his Text viz. That we shall come to that Society when we depart hence so as I must repute it his own Addition to the Words of the Text which doth not appoint the Time for our coming to that Society I find Mr. W. has only quoted so much of this Text as seemeth most to support his own Opinion and therefore I intend to quote it somewhat more largely Heb. 12.22 Ye are come unto Mount Sion and to the Heavenly Jerusalem or City of God to the Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first Born and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Ver. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh whose Voice at the giving of the Law shook the Earth but now he hath promised saying yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also Heaven and this signifies the removal of those things which are shaken and that we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot be removed The Words of our Text thus fully quoted do by no means import That Men or their Souls shall come to the enjoyment of those things at their Deaths as Mr. W. hath erroneously suggested but the words of the Text run in the present Tense Ye are come to the things which I here report to you viz. Ye are come to the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem to the Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the First Born when not only the Earth shall be shaken but also Heaven and the things so shaken shall be removed I conceive that the Description here made doth very properly denote the Time of the Resurrection and the great Day of Judgment For at that time we are instructed by the Scripture to expect the things here mentioned God and Christ attended by the Angels and the Church of the First Born consisting of Just Men made perfect both in their Spirits and in their Bodies to the City of God or the New Jerusalem which St. John tells us Shall come down from God out of Heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband at or after the time of the Resurrection after Heaven and Earth have been shaken and are removed This I conceive to be the Time pointed at in this Text and I think these Descriptions are not applicable to any other Time nor hath Mr. W. mentioned any other Time for their Accomplishment saving that at Mens Death and for which he hath no Warrant from any words of this Text and as to the words in present Ye are come to these Glories I think
to offer that Answer to his Question And more to entangle the Matter he propounds a New Question demanding If it were an Extasie what was the Nature of that Extasie I Reply I pretend not to be able to tell him the Nature of any Extasie Trance or Vision which may happen to Men because I suppose them to be super-humane Actions inexplicable from the known or common Principles of Humane Nature And therefore without farther Answer to his Question about the Nature of an Exâ—asie I profess to Believe that the Answer before given viz. That St. Paul was in a Trance at that time is enough notwithstanding his saying That it is not enough and that it will pass for a good Answer and Solution of his first Question upon which all the rest depends I do not pretend to make such Interpretations of difficult Scriptures as are likely to satisfie all Perusers but count it enough if thereupon I can satisfie my own Understanding As to my best Judgment I have done upon this Text without being afraid of Mens Censures of losing the Meaning of such a Dark Scripture instead of Interpreting it Mr. W. proceeds to say Till I hear a better Sense given of this Text of St. Paul than I have here given of it I will conclude from hence that the Apostle Paul doth imply that his Soul and so all other Mens Souls are whil'st in the Body of such a nature as may be seperated from the Body To this I Reply Our Author hath Power to take this Text of St. Paul in what Sense he pleases or thinks most reasonable as all other Readers may do and may thence Infer and Conclude as their Judgments or Affections or Prepossessions shall perswade them But I profess my self to conceive they build upon sandy Ground who draw that Inference from the Relation of St. Paul's Trance or any other Text quoted to prove Mr. W's Third Proposition That the Soul can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body Because I judge the Evidences by me produced and my Constructions upon his Texts do more clearly prove the contrary Mr. W's Fourth Proposition is that the Scriptures affirm That when the Body dies the Soul is actually seperated from it In Proof of which he quotes Eccl. 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Upon which he says It is most clear that by Dust is here meant the Body and by Spirit the Soul of Life in Man In which Construction I do not much differ from him but do easily Agree That by Dust here is meant the Body and that by Spirit is intended the Spirit of Life in Man And thereupon I Observe That these Words of Solomon are a single and transient Expression concerning a Subject not mention'd in the rest of the Chapter either before or after and without a particular Occasion given or offer'd to speak of the State of Souls after Death and seems to have something of a Chance in the delivery of it And as I find no Introduction to this Expression nor Occasion given to speak of a Rational or Intelligent Soul in Man so I do not perceive that they do either mention or intend the Spirit of Man to be such a Soul as Mr. W. pretends it to be Solomon was here treating concerning the Decays of Man's Life and recounts by what degrees Death makes its Approaches till at last it prevails over the Person and then the Dust returns to the Earth as it was and the Spirit returns to God who gave it And the Question upon this Text seems to be what is meant by the Term of the Spirit and what is meant of its Return to God who gave it Our Author says That by the Spirit is intended the Soul of Life And I think I differ not far from him when I say That by the Word Spirit is intended the Spirit of Life We know that Solomon had a careful Education under a pious Father and was endued with a strong Inclination to search out the Natures of Things and thence we may certainly Conclude that he had carefully perused the Patriarchal Book of Genesis and the other Mosaical Writings and there had found written Gen. 9.4 Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof shall ye not eat and surely the Blood of their Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the hand of every Man's Brother will I require the Life of Man Whoso sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed for in the Image of God made he Man Also Deut. 12.23 Thou mayest kill of thy Herd and of thy Flock in any of thy Gates only be sure that thou eat not the Blood for the Blood is the Life and thou mayest not eat the Life with the Flesh And Moses says cause that was the Life of the Creature There hath before been quoted God's breathing the Breath of Life into Adam's Nostrils and the breathing the Breath of Life into Adam's Nostrils and the breathing a like Breath into the Persons raised out of Ezekiel's dry Bones which caused Life in them all Gen. 6.7 God says I will destroy Man whom I have created from the face of the Earâ—h both man and beast Chap. 7.22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life upon the dry land dyed in the flood both Man and Beast were suffocated and drowned in the Waters of the Flood by stopping those Passages through which this Breath of Life should other ways have enter'd Dan 5 23. Thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold but the God in whose hand thy breath is thou hast not glorified Intending God in whose hand thy Life is such a Life as through the Power of God is produced and maintained by Breath and Breathing These Quotations seem to prove that the Spirit of Life in Man is a Compositum of Parts as well as his Body and that the Composition of such Spirit of Life required is of Blood and Breath The Blood and Humours of their Bodies and their Spirits are absolutely necessary for the Life of Man and Beast by maintaining and nourishing the glowing and yet lambent Flame of Life which acts their Organical Bodies and causes a continual Circulation of their Blood to that Purpose and no less necessary for the producing and maintaining of Life is that Breath which God first breathed into Adam and since hath communicated and continued to all his Posterity which have been procreated from that Time to this There passes a Principle of Life in Semine which by Fimentation Fermentation and Coagulation in loco idoneo arrives in its appointed time to a Vegetation and perhaps lives without Breath or Breathing or with very little Assistance thereof until Nature drive it forth into the open Air where after it hath once taken Breath it can by no means be kept alive for many Moments
without the requisite Refreshment of Respiration which perpetually must fan the Flame of Life for maintaining the same in a State of Purity Vigor and Activity And thus the Spirit of Life in Man and Beast appears to be a Compositum of the Breath of Life and the Blood of our Lives acting by inflamed Spirits of the Blood the whole Motion and Power of the Body and iâ—s Organs as well in Motions local as in the sensitive rational and affective Operations and Powers of the Person So as these Two Principles of Breath and Blood Material and Unintelligent tho' they be seem to effect and produce in the Creature both Life it self and all the Powers and Faculties thereunto belonging And this sort of Spirit in Composito is all the Spirit of Life which yet I am able to perceive to be in Man or Beast and this causes me to apprehend it must be Mortal And that as it was procreated and born with the Body so it must cease at death with the Being of the Person and be therewith raised again at the General Resurrection of the Dead Notwithstanding the Evidence which I have produced for the maintaining this Opinion I rest assured my Opposers will maintain That there must be another sort of Soul or Spirit in Man for producing and managing his super-excellent Faculties of Intellect and Memory because they cannot perceive or understand the Quomodo or Manner how this Material Soul compounded of Breath Blood and the Spirits of it acted by the Circulation thereof can possibly produce the Effects and Operations last specified I do not perceive that they very much boggle at the Opinion That these Ingredients may possibly produce Life Motion sensitive Faculties and Affections because they cannot with any good Face of Reason and therefore do not deny That by such a Material Compounded Spirit of Life the Brutes and all their Powers are daily and certainly enlivened acted supplied and supported And I think they are not well able to deny That the Spirit of Life by me propounded is the Causa sine qua non of Intellect Memory and whatsoever other Supream Faculties there are found in the Constitution or Nature of the Humane Person And thererfore I will not say much in the Proof thereof which our daily Experience sufficiently demonstrates our Sense of Seeing often proving to us that Men and Beasts by hanging strangling drowning or by other Suffocations or Stoppings of their Breath are soon delivered over to the Dominion of Death and thereby the Words of David are verified When thou takest away their Breath they die And therewith shall be finish'd my present Argument Whence I go on to enquire after Solomon's Meaning in the Words of this Text The Spirit returns to God who gave it I dare not and thefore I do not Affirm That Solomon intended this sort of Spirit which I have described to be truly that Spirit which he says Returns to God who gave it and with intent to give a Reasonable Account thereof I think fit to Premise that there are Two other Sorts of Souls or Spirits commonly taken notice of in the Learned World The First of which and the most taken notice of is that Sort Soul which is often spoken of and described by Mr. W. and his Party and which they say is an entire compleat intelligent Spirit acting the Organical Body whil'st it therein remains and specially the Kepheline Organs thereof producing eminently therein the high Faculties of Perceiving Understanding Judgment Will and Memory and they sâ—y that after the Departure of this Soul from the Person who thereby is dissolved it can subsiâ—t by it self in a Seperate State and therein move it self and have full Enjoyment of the fore-named Powers of Reasoning Acting and Thinking and that very soon after its Seperation from the Body it goes to God or before His Tribunal to receive his Intermediate Judgment upon the Acts done by the Person in his Life Time and that pursuant to the Sentence therein given such Souls are either accepted into Heaven and Happiness or that they are cast down to Hell to be there made Partakers of Eternal Sufferings and that they have Sense and Perception enough to take a full Taste of these great Differences To which the Romish Church Annexes That besides the Souls that go to these Two Places there are other Souls which are sent some to Limbus's Paterum aut Puerorum other to Paradise or Abraham's Bosom and others of which they think there are a great Number into the scorching Flames of a Purgatorial Fire where they must undergoe great yet Temporal Sufferings for expiating the Crimes of their Dead Persons and Purging away that Dross which they had contracted in the Bodies of their Persons upon Earth The Second sort of Soul whereof notice is taken by the Learned is supposed to have a different Original rising from an Opinion very antient in the World which was That the whole World it self was one immense Living Creature or Machine animated or acted by one universal Soul Spirit or Being which the old Philosophers termed some of them the Soul of the World and by others it was called the Spirit of Nature which they so both described as they appeared to intend an universal or infinite Spirit from whence or from whom all the Life and Motion found in the World was derived Some of those Learned said That all the Life of Grasses Flowers and Plants was derived from that Spirit or Being and that upon their Dying that Vegitable Spirit which before was in them return'd again to the Spirit of Nature from whence it first proceeded Others went not so deep but contented themselves to say That the Spirit of Life in all those Creatures which had spontaneous Motion proceeded from this Soul of the World or that universal Spirit or Being which Animated or Acted the same and they conceived that when such Creatures were duely fitted for the receipt of Life this universally knowing Spirit was moved by a Natural Congruity in the thing to emit from it self such Sparks and Particles as were parts of it 's own Being for the communicating and giving such a Spirit of Life to those Creatures as their Natures required and that when such Living Creatures Dyed those Sparks or Parcels of the Spirit of Life which they had before received return'd immediately back to the universal Spirit of the World as to the Fountain from whence they issued or as to that Totum of which themselves were but the small Sparks or Particles to which they were again joyned and were received into it as true and real Parts and Particles of the same This apprehension hath been of a long continuance in the World coming down from the Discourses of Ancient Philosophers to the time of the Divine Plato by whom it was Cultivated and Confirmed so as all his Doctrines and Writings seem to have reference thereunto and taste very strongly of that Opinion and all his Scholars were much addicted thereunto
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
and Salvation at the General Day of Judgment Thirdly Concerning the Prayers or Cries of these Souls for Vengeance upon their Persecutors Mr. W. and I are hotb agreed that they made no other Cry in this Text then the Blood of Abel made to God for Vengeance on his Murtherer and I conceive there was no real Prayer or Cry in either of these Cases but that God himself had taken special Notice in both these Cases and that whensoever they came before him hy Remembrance or any sort of Re-presentation his Intention always continued firm to take Vengeance for those Facts upon all those who had therein acted and continued in such wicked Practices without Saving Repentance until the time of their Deaths I have Inclinations to think that this Exposition of our proving Text is more sound and true than that which Mr. W. hath before made of it and hence I think the Consequence will be very clear That Mr. W's Argument drawn from this Text is not a sufficient nor a good Argument to prove the Separate Subsistence of Souls The Eighteenth Argument PAge 118. Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them P. 119. Mr. W. says By Blessedness in this Text must needs be meant Happiness and all Happiness implies Joy and all Joy implies Life and when he has rais'd Blessedness in this manner he infers from the Word henceforth that it must Commence presently upon the death of the Person wresting the signification of the Words from Henceforth which do properly signifie from the time of that Prophesie to signifie the time of every Man's Death which I do not find to be mentioned or intended by the Text And he adds The meaning of the Text being thus opened he seems to direct his following Discourse only to those who will accept the true Sense of the Text to be as he hath opened it and to them he thus argues If the Dead in the Lord do from the time of their being dead commence a Blessedness not only in resting from their Labours but likewise in being rewarded for their Works then do they continue to live in some part of them which is their Spirits and consequently their Spirits die not with their Bodies but are Immortal P. 120. Mr. W. offers to us That this Blessedness is said by the Spirit to be given from the time of Mens Deaths this he collects from the signification of the Words from Henceforth as if that intended from the time of their Death's whereas it appears in this Text to intend no more but that from the time of this Prophesie the Dead which die in the Lord shall have a blessed Rest and their Works do follow them P. 121. Then Mr. W. pretends That the dead Saints do not only enjoy a blessed Rest but that they also enter upon and enjoy Rewards for their Works as soon as they are dead but I find no Ground for this Opinion in the Text but conceive he thought it was there because he had a great Mind it should be there as a thing that would have done him more Service than any thing that he can find in the Text besides Mr. W. says further If no Rewards of active Happiness and Joy followed immediately after Death it would be wonderful the Spirit of God should pronounce a Blessedness on such as die in the Lord above those who live on Earth in the Lord and this would be contrary to the Sense of all God's People and specially to the Sense of such as Administer Comfort to dying Persons from this Topick by telling them that immediately after Death their Souls shall by Angels be transported into Heaven or Paradise or Abraham's Bosome or some such Place where they shall not only be at rest but have present Joys and Happiness conferr'd upon them and I grant that if such Doctrine prove otherwise than true many Persons may have been deceived of their confident Expectations and more may still in future happen so to be And therefore I think it needful to take further Consideration and so make a stricter Scrutiny concerning the Truth of this Doctrine than in former Times and Ages hath been commonly done amongst Men. Mr. W. says He thinks there are none of God's People who would not rather chuse to live upon Earth tho' under Persecution then to die and be buried in the Earth He says it is evident That from the time of dying the Saints are blessed with Rewards for their Work as well as from their Labour I reply I am very sorry that I am not able to find in this Text an Argument or any of his former the thing which he says is so evident intending I presume to himself and some such other Persons as may be strongly fixed in his Opinion and Belief touching this Point concerning which and this Text I intend to make a little more large Examination The Words therefore are And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them I do not find in this Text any Words which signifie or import that Men shall be rewarded for their Works presently after Death otherwise than by a Blessed Rest from their Labours It is said indeed That their Works do follow them but there is no time mention'd when they shall overtake them And I desire Mr. W. and his Party from henceforth that they will cease from perverting the Sense of the Word from Henceforth in this Text by applying its Energy to the time of Mens Deaths whereas in the words of our Text it stands clearly apply'd to the time when this Prophesie was revealed to St. John and whereas Mr. W. says That none of Gods Saints upon Earth would willingly embrace Death but rather chuse a longer Life upon Earth altho' under a state of great Persecution if they did not expect Heavenly Rewards presently upon the death of their Persons and he says You shall never perswade People to a contented departure out of this World by telling them they shall presently enjoy a blessed Rest in the Lord and therefore they must be told of and perswaded to expect Glorious Rewards in Heaven presently after their passing out of this World I confess thereupon that Mens mistakes upon this Account may be very great and very universal but do by no means believe the first part of his Assertion viz. that there are no Saints or People upon Earth who are willing to accept of Death whensoever God shall appoint it to come upon them under a great contentment of Mind and the Satisfaction which they may receive from this Text That they shall have a blessed Rest in the Lord safe from all the Temptations and Tribulations of this World and from the Power and Malice of wicked Men
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
for the Life of the Body It seems the Instances which he brings do all apply to the Life of the Person and not of the Body only for all men know that the Body can have no Life without the Soul and therefore these which he pleases to apply to the Body only ought really to be intended of the whole Humane Person The Instances which he brings to prove the 4th Acceptation of the Word Soul to signifie sometimes a Dead Carcass he offers to prove by these Words Ye shall not make any Cuttings in your Flesh for the Soul Here he pretends the Word Soul signifies nothing but the Dead Carcass But I refuse to Agree with him in it conceiving as I do that the Word Soul here intends the Dead Person for I do nor believe men to have been so sottish as to have made Cuttings in their Flesh for the Dead Carcasses of their Friends as he supposes but that rather they made such Cuttings in their Flesh for Grief and Remembrance of their Dead Friends not for any of their Parts but for the whole Persons of them His 5th Signification of the Word Soul which he takes to intend singly the Rational Immortal Soul of Man he proves by Instances Psal 19.7 The Law is perfect converting the Soul He pretends the Word Soul in this Place signifies Man's Immortal Soul singly consider'd and without the Body This I deny and say this converting of the Soul inrends converting of the Person or of the whole Man as he is a Compositum of Soul and Body Again he Quotes Deut. 11.18 Lay up these my Words in your Soul which I think somewhat plainly to signifie as if he had said Lay up these my words in your hearts or in your selves constituted and compounded of Soul and Body He Quotes again Deut. 13.3 Love the Lord with all your Soul To which he might have added with all your Heart and all your Strength Which make this Text clearly appear to intend Love the Lord with all the eminent Faculties of your Person Then he says There are more Significations of the Word Soul in Scripture besides those Five which he hath named and which by Examination of his Instances have been found to run all into one which intends the whole Humane Person as it is a Compositum of Soul and Body He instances as one of his other Significations the Words Deliver me not up to the Soul of my Enemies Which I think intends To be not deliver'd up to the Persons or Powers of his Enemies He says again The word Soul sometimes signifies some one Power of the Sensative Soul as the Breath of Man or Beast and sometimes for some single Power of the Rational Soul which I think he should have termed some single Power of the Mind or of the Man And therein I am ready to agree with him that the World Soul in Scripture doth divers times signifie the vehement Desires or Affections of the Person but I do not remember that the Word Soul is any where used in Scripture to signifie the Soul of Man by our Author intended except only that Text of St. Matthew which says Men are not able to kill the Soul P. 11. He says further he takes the Word Soul to signifie Man's Intellectual Soul because in no other sense can the Soul be said to be Immortal And I deny that in that sense it can truly be said to be Immortal Then he says further That the Soul which is now plainly alive while in our Bodies shall never cease to live or be annihilated And this I conceive to be the thing which he undertakes to prove and when he hath so done in a sufficient convincing manner I do fully intend to be his Proselite and to submit my Belief to his Direction in this Point P. 12. He discourses of the Soul's Annihilation by the Power of God which as a thing not now question'd or controverted nor very material in this present Disquisition I pass over without farther Observation thereupon CHAP. III. PAge 13. Mr. W. says I shall now lay down Five Propositions which I conceive have a great Tendency to Clear up this great Truth Of the Soul's Immortality The First wherof is this That the Soul and Body of Man are not one and the same Being but are Beings really distinct Because says he they were created one after the other and not at one and the same time And this he says is evident from Gen. 2 the Words whereof run thus in our Translation The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul He says it should have been thus render'd God breathed into Adam 's nostrils the breath of life or soul of life or living soul But I am more ready to rely upon the Authority of our Translators than upon the single Credit of a Person engaged in Controversie and to whose Cause this sort of Translation may be helpful Both of us have before concluded and agreed that the Word Soul in Scripture doth often intend and signifie the Person and so I do fully believe and conclude it doth in this Text and bears the same Sense as if it had been said in proper Words God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living person He says and pretends that these Words in Gen. are a clear Demonstration of the Soul 's being created by God after the Body finished that he knows not what to add to make it more clear And I am very apt to believe that he speaks Truth in it and really doth not know what more to add to make it more clear to the Understandings of Men for if he did I see no cause to believe that he would be sparing of his Pains to that Purpose I am not able my self to collect out of this Text that the Soul and Body of Adam were created one after the other no nor that any Soul at all was created for Adam either before or after the Consummation of his Body The Words themselves of the Text do not express that God created a Soul for Adam but say God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and by breathing that breath into him he became a living person Gen. 1.5 The Text says God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after their kind as he had before created great whales and fishes in the water and fowls to flye in the midst of Heaven Our daily Observations may assure us the Lives of all these are maintained by the ambient Air and the Breath which from thence they draw and without which they cannot subsist or live for the space of some few moments which hath been often experienced by the Air-Pump in the case of Infects thereinto injected This Brutal Breath Eccles 3.19 is
even down to latter times and the same Conception seems to have a Being and Substance in the Minds of some learned Persons until this time My Discourse concerning this sort of Spirit hath been deliver'd with intent to discover and evince That Solomon's Spirit returning to God who gave it was spoken and meant by him concerning this last sort of Spirit and I intend to recite some Arguments for the proving of this Construction First I Argue from the words or terms of the Text it self and say That it Solomon intended such a Soul as Mr. W. has described the Text it self seems not to be properly worded because I think nothing can be properly said to return to another thing except it had been a part or concomitant of that other thing before but Mr. W.'s sort of Soul seems never to have been a part or concomitant of God before its being put into the Body for the enlivening and acting of the Person I do not therefore well perceive how such a â—oul can be properly said to return to God but the Expression therereunto properly belonging should have been worded The Spirit goes to or goes before God with expectation to receive his Judgment and Sentence according to the demeanour of its Person upon Earth and I do not perceive how this Souls going to God for Judgment can be properly call'd a return to God who gave it Secondly I Argue I find not so much as one Text in Scripture which says the Souls of dying Persons go presently to God for Judgment nor any Text from whence this Opinion may be drawn by a rational Inference and that which makes nearest approaches to it of any that I know is the Parable of Dives where it is said the Begger died and was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom I know my Opposers will think it needless to ask them what is intended by the words The Begger was carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom and doubt not but they will soon make a bold Answer It neither was nor could be the Begger himself that was so carried in his whole Person Body and Soul into Abraham's Bosom and yet the Words of the Text seem to import that his whole Person Soul and Body was carried thither But if we shall grant their gloss upon this Text to be true that his Soul only was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom we may draw these inferences from that Relation either that his Soul was so ignorant as it knew not how to find a way to that Habitation or else was so weak and impotent as it was not able to pass thither without the Support and Ministry of Angels How then can we conceive that such a Soul as this should make its return to God presently upon the Death of its Person without mention of any other Assistance to be given it We hear nothing of Dives in the Parable but that being in Hell he lift up his Eyes and saw Lazarus in another place without mention of the means by which he came there and if we shall follow the common Conjecture that as Lazarus was carried to one place by Angels so Dives was hurried to the other by Devils it will appear very unlikely that Mr. W.'s sort of Soul is able to make its way and return to God at its Pleasure And here we Read the Begger 's Soul was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom without mention of its being carried or returning to God at all whence it seems probable that when Solomon speaks of the Souls returning to God he doth not intend such a Soul as Mr. W. hath described but rather such a Spirit as had first been a part oâ— parcel of the â—pirit of Nature or of God sent out for the enlivening and acting of a particular Person upon whose Death that Spark or Parcel of the Deity returns with a strong inclination to God who sent it out from himself for the enlivening â—nd acting of that particular Body and joyn'd it self again to its Totum as Water presently incorporates with Water and the particles of Air neither will nor can be seperated from the incorporating one of them with an other Thirdly I Argue That if Solomon had intended by the Words Returns to God who gave it a going of the Soul to God or before God for receiving the Doom of his intermediate Judgment it seems a matter of such great Moment as required a more full Discourse upon the same and giving us more Light in it than his very few words there do afford us And however it is very probable that he would not have immediately subjoyned to his Discourse which intimates an intermediate Judgment a Declaration and Description of the General Judgment for that would have been playing Judgment upon Judgment which must needs have past for false Heraldry We find in this Chapter that as soon as Solomon had writ the Words The Spirit returns to God who gave it he ceases to speak any further concerning the State of Man after Death till he come to the 14th or last verse of the Chapter where he sayes as a conclusion of his whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for God will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil I think it not reasonable to conjecture that Solomon by his Returning of the Spirit to God who gave it did intend such a returning to God to be a going to him or before him for an intermediate Judgment for that if he had so intended he would not have immediately have mentioned and related the Certainty and Effect of the General Judgment as in this we see plainly he hath done and thus I leave Solomon's Words and the descant upon them to the further Consideration and Judgment of the Intelligent Reader Mr. W. goes on to quote Eccl. 3 20. Where he saith Solomon affirms that the Spirit of a Man goeth upward when he dieth adding that Solomon brings it in with an Intrrogation Who knoweth Not as if he doubted it for he cannot be said to doubt it since he delivered it most positively in the other verse intending as I conceive the Text last before quoted out of his 12th Ch. Hereupon I again declare I am no way satisfied with the manner used by our Author in his Quotations of Scripture The Text which in this place he quotes says thus Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth downward to the Earth Which to my understanding hath the same signification as if he had said Who knows the certain Truth of this Opinion That the Spirit of Man goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast goeth downward to the Earth Or who knows whether this difference between the Spirits of Men and Beasts be real and true or not And further it seems to me that this Interrogation is Pregnant with a Negative and seems to have the same sense as if had said
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
Time and not an Intent of our Lord to teach either Jews or Christians what the true state of Men after Death should be First It declares a great distance of space to be between Dives and Lazarus and that there was a great Gulf fixed so that none could pass from the one Place to the other and yet Abraham and Dives had a familiar Discourse between them without straining their Voices Secondly they saw and knew and spake to one another without the use of Eyes or Tongue or Ears as Mr. W. will suppose although the Text do not declare it to be so but speaks of Dives as having all these Members of a Man And therefore I Collect That if this Text prove any thing of the state of Men after Death it proves amongst the rest that the Persons suffering have Eyes and Ears and Tongue and like Bodily Members and that the Suffering there is principally if not only applied to the Body and his Tongue being eminently tormented in that Flame or Fire Thirdly this Parable imports That the Tormented and by the Rule of Contraries the Happy Souls have Remembrance and Care concerning those things they left upon Earth and concern themselves about their Friends Happiness or Misery Whereas Solomon says The Dead know not any thing and David says That in Death all Mens Thoughts perish and Job agrees That all Concerns perish with Death And Solomon names particularly Mens Love and their Hatred Isa 38 18. Hezekiah sings to God The Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope but the Living can only praise Thee as I do this day And thereupon I leave to Consideration whether our Parable in this Point do not oppose the fore-quoted and divers other Texts of Scripture and even the common Opinion of the Reformed Churches Fourthly I Recite a former Observation That if our Parable intended Dives to be in Hell in his Soul only then Abraham and Dives discoursed both unproperly and untruly in calling one another by the Names of Father and Son For that Mr. W. and his Partakers say That was a Spirit newly created by God which true Being and Subsistence before it was infused or injected into Dives his newly procreated Body without the Parents having any part in the Generation of it Thus the Soul of Dives came not from Abraham or any of his Posterity and how is he then his Son Mat. 22.42 Our Lord quotes David calling Christ his Lord and demands How is he then his Son And the Jews were not able to Answer him a word to that Question And this I apply to the Question which I last asked and from the Premises I conclude that our Lord did not by this Parable intend to teach the true State of Men after Death but to Illustrate that Assertion which he had before delivered by a Similitude drawn from that Opinion which the Jews then commonly held of the State of Men after Death The Seventh Argument PAge 74. Mr. W. quotes Luke 23. and recites the History of the Thief upon the Cross and the Promise made to him by Christ of his being with him in Paradise I say thereto Mr. W. hath urged this Proof before in this Treatise and I have given him thereto such an Answer as satisfies my own Understanding And because it is of some length I have no mind here to repeat it but rather make choice to offer an Argument raised from other Scriptures in Impeachment of the Verity and Credit of this Relation and begin with considering the Person of our Evangelist St. Luke who was it seems converted to the Faith by the Ministry of Paul whose Emanuensis he is conceived to have been in the writing of this Gospel And it seems that this Evangelist was not converted till divers years after our Lord's Crucifixion and we know that St. Paul was not only an Infidel but a Persecuter of the Church for some years after our Lord's Death We no where find that either of them was present beholding that Execution and probable it is that neither of them were so In the Proem to his Gospel Luke to Theophilus says thus It seemed good to me having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write unto ye in order even as they delivered them to us who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word Thus he professes to write from the Tradition of other Men who had been Eye-witnesses of them and Ministers of the Word And of those Traditions I conceive this Relation of the Crucified Thief 's Conversion to be one If we shall consider the other Three Evangelists we must find them totally silent concerning this Fact and that they do not concur with St. Luke in their Testimonies concerning it We have good Assurance that St. John was present at our Lord 's Suffering and continued with him till the Time of his Expiration and yet he takes no Notice nor makes any Mention of this Thief 's Conversion And yet I think the Fact was so Remarkable as deserved to be Recorded if he had known it to be done St. Matthew was one of the Twelve called by Christ to be of his Apostles and continued Faithful to him to the end whence it seems likely he might be one of the Beholders of this Tragedy and yet he makes no Mention of this Thief 's Conversion Men generally suppose That Mark writ his Gospel from the Mouth of St. Peter and very probable it is that that great Apostle was present at the Suffering of his Master and yet St. Mark makes no Mention at all of this Conversion And hereupon it seems to deserve our Enquiry How Luke who was not present at that Fact should come to know the Particulars of it when the other Three Evangelists either did not know it or have utterly suppress'd their Knowledge and the Mention of it The Silence of the other Three Evangelists seems a competent Ground to question the Verity of St. Luke's Relation but that is not all for Two other of the Evangelists Matthew and Mark give an opposite and contrarient Testimony to that which St. Luke delivers concerning it Mat. 27.44 There were two Thieves crucified with our Lord and the People which passed by whil'st he was on the Cross reviled him saying Save thy self if thou be the Son of God and come down from the Cross And the Thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth Which I conceive to be a True and Proper Translation of St. Matthew's Greek Words Mark 15.27 With Christ they crucified two Thieves the one on his right hand and the other on his left and they that passed by railed on him and they that were crucified with him reviled him Both these Texts in Greek agree in their Expressions Mat. 27.44 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 15.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here our Translators in St. Matthew have render'd the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Freedom and the Doctor confesses it to be true and that the Soul as Immaterial as he supposes her cannot act without Material Assistance of the Phansie Memory and other Sensitive Powers and apparent it is neither the Man nor the Soul can act any thing without the Spirits of the Blood P. 126. The Doctor sets down three Moral Arguments proving the Souls Immateriality and Immortality 1. The Universal consent of Men to this Opinion 2. Man's Innate and Inseperable Appetite of Immortality 3. The Justice of God in rewarding good Men and punishing the Evil after Death Upon the first Argument he quotes Cicero's saying Omni in re Consensio omnium gentium lex naturae putanda est to this Rule I answer that if it should be admitted for a Rule yet there are many Exceptions to be made out of it and therefore I cannot admit it to have a binding force in this Case and to the Doctor 's Assertion of Universal Assent to the Souls Immortality by which he would prove it a Conception Natural to the Mind of Man I answer that a Conception so proving must be as Universal in Time as in Places or Persons but we do not Read or find that the Opinion of the Souls Immortality had a Being in the World or was known amongst Men before the Writings of Solomon because that in the Thousands of Years before his time we meet with no mention of that Opinion neither amongst the Patriarchs nor the Mosaical Writings nor any of the Prophets before Solomon's time nor do Job or David make any mention thereof We Read God laid great Punishments upon Cain for his Murther which was of great Importance in that time of the World and a very atroceous Fratricide and yet we do not Read of so much as a Threat against the Soul of Cain or any thing there spoken concerning Punishments future to this Life but all the Punishments denounced to him for that Fact were only Temporal and of this World nor do I find any Punishments future to this Life denounced against Sinners until the Books of Solomon became extant in the World save what was taken from the invention of some Poets which might be received in the World somewhat before his time And hence I infer That the Notion of the Souls Immortality is not Natural because for some Thousands of Years from the Worlds beginning that Notion was not received or known amongst Men. P. 131. The Doctor 's Opposer says the Opinion of the Souls Immortality is very Useful in Government for that audacious Malefactors who are not moved by the whole Arm of the Civil Magistrate will yet tremble at the Finger of Divinity P. 133. It is possible and Experience shews it frequent that an Opinion may be Universal possessiing the Minds of all Men for many Ages together without Dispute which yet at length may be Discovered to be False and Absurd as hath been Experienc'd in the Opinion of the Antipodes and the Circumvolution of the Earth both which till of late Years were held Unreasonable and Phantastical and perhaps this of the Souls Eternity may have the same Fate P. 134. Our Doctor says That to prove an Opinion derived from Nature there is required an Assent of all Ages from the beginning of the World To this I say The Opinion of the Souls Immortality hath not such a Consent and that such a Consent neither hath been or can be proved and that therefore the Opinion it self is not proved derivable from Nature or the Instinct thereof The Doctor says further That from the Antiquity Universality and Perpetuity of any Opinion we may safely conclude upon the Verity of it Hereunto I answer That the Opinion of the Suns Diurnal Motion about the Earth had a greater Antiquity and as great an Universality and hath still as strong a Perpetuity as that of the Souls Immortality either ever had or yet hath notwithstanding all which the Learned World begins now to perceive that it was always and is still an Error P. 138. Here the Doctor begins to produce and urge his second Moral Argument for the Souls Immortality from the Desires Men have of Perpetuity and Living after their Deaths either in their own proper Beings or in the Memories of such as survive their Departures To this I answer That if they desire a Perpetuity of their own Being after Death it seems they desire that which they cannot attain as all Men may and do desire a Perpetual Youth Health and Prosperity Nature and Reason both assure us that no Man doth or can desire a perpetual or a long Life under great Pains and Sufferings but a Life with Happiness is very acceptable to all Men and therefore they do not desire Life alone but as it is joyn'd with expectation or hope of Happiness and hence I collect that the much greater part of Mankind which the sinful World knownly are do not desire a future State of Life after Death but rather that there were no Being for them after this Life and would very much wish to be forgotten both by God and Men and therefore a Perpetuity of Being is not desired or so much desirable as our Doctor pretends it to be whence I conceive the Doctor 's Argument drawn from this Topick hath but little Force or Cohersion in it and not Strength enough to compel or even to draw Men to a Coherence with the Doctor in his Opinion of the Souls Immortality P. 145. Here the Doctor propounds his Third Moral Argument for proving the Souls Immortality and raises it from God's Divine Justice and his Equitable Dealings with Men and says it is commonly observ'd wicked Men prosper better in this World than the Righteous usually do and consequently that such Men are not rewarded according to their Works whilst they live and therefore God's just dealing with Men cannot be defended without allowing and believing a State of Rewards and Punishments after Death and from hence saith the Doctor it must unavoidably follow that Rewards and Punishments will be distributed to Men after their departures out of this Life To this I answer That I agree to all that the Doctor hath here delivered the Doctor replies if you so do you must likewise agree to the Doctrine of the Souls Immortality or the Seperate Subsistence of it for the Body after Death is not capable of receiving Reward or Punishment it must therefore be the Soul alone unto which such Rewards and Punishments can be applied Our Doctor not once mentioning or appearing at all to think upon the last Articles of our Creed I believe the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life Everlasting which seems to my Understanding a sort of Proof that he and the greatest part of those who believe and maintain the Souls Immortality are very little mindful of our quoted Article The Resurrection of the Dead insomuch as the Conceit of this Immortality seems to have eaten up and devoured the Article before-named with the Use and
in a condition of replying to this Examination and therefore I shall not need to express what Amendments or Additions I think needful to be made to his Treatise but I will rather content my self generally to say That if any Man will pretend to prove the Souls Seperate Subsistence from Grounds of Nature and Reason and to convince such as doubt thereof I think it needful for him to apply to those particulars which have before been put in Question concerning the same viz. 1. Quod sit Anima talis 2. Quid sit aut qualis sit 3. Vnde Oritur 4. Quando ingeditur 5. Vbi resedet 6. Quomodo Operatur 7. Quo Avolat post mortem Those that maintain the Souls Seperate Subsistence are at difference amongst themselves concerning divers of these particulars In the first of these they all agree that there is an Intelligent Self-subsisting Spirit in the Body which acts the Person and all his Powers but in the 2. or the Quid sit they differ some holding it to be Material and others thinking it to be Immaterial 3. Concerning the Vnde Oritur or from whence it derives its Original there are three different Opinions First That such Souls praeexists a mundo condito from the Creation of the World Others say That upon every Procreation of Mankind God creates a new Soul for every newly procreated Body as partly obliged thereunto by the Congruity of his Being requiring such things to be done for Support of Mankind and the World Others hold That the Soul is generated by the Parents together with the Body or that the whole Humane Person is generated as much and as perfectly as one Horse generates another 4. For the Quando Ingreditur or at what precise time the newly created Soul first enters into the Body the maintainers of this Opinion are not yet agreed whether it enter at the first Commixture of the Seed or at the Coagulation of it or whether during its Firmentation or during the time of the Fomentation thereof or at the first Commencement of its Vegitation or at the first Formation of Parts in the Embrion and some have thought that this sort of Soul doth not enter till the irruption or breaking forth of the Infant into the World 5. Concerning the Vbi or the place where this sort of Soul resides during its continuance in the Body the maintainers of it differ among themselves Des Cartes thought it a lucky Invention of his own when he found its Residence to be in the Glandula Penialis placed in a Passage between two parts of the Brain Others think the whole Brain to be the proper Residence thereof Some say it resides in the Heart or near about it and that thereby the Heart becomes Primum Vivens Vltimum Moriens Others with our Doctor in his Page before quoted think this Souls Residence to be in the Blood and commixed with the circulating Parts thereof 6. Concerning the Mode or Manner of this Souls Operation all the maintainers thereof confess their Ignorance and agree that they know not the manner of its Operation upon or in the Body 7. About the Quo avolat or what becomes of this Soul at its departure from the Body the maintainers of it are not agreed among themselves some of them say it returns to God who gave it but whether as a Part to its whole or as a Party going before the Judge for his Tryal is not known Others say That such Souls are carryed by Angels into Abraham's Bosom or by Devils into Hell or by Papal Officers into Purgatory or into the Limbo's Patrum vel Puerorum Some think that upon their departure from the Person good Souls are rapt up into Paradise as they think the Thief 's Soul was when it departed from the Cross Others have pretended that within and under the surface of our Earth there are pleasant places which they termed the Elysian Fields or Happy Shades for Souls that were good to live and converse in and places also within or under our Earth for Punishment or Torment of the wicked Some have invented as places of Happiness for good Souls the Island of Taprobana and other Islands which they termed Fortunate and where they believed good Souls departed forth of this Life obtained a state of Happiness for the future It seems our later Divines have not thought any of these Places a sufficient Reward for the Merits of their Prosylites or the desire they have to prefer them to places of great Happiness and therefore they tell them that immediately after Death their Souls shall be transported into Heaven and there enjoy the Happiness of Angelical Mansions and the ravishing Visions of God and Christ a Conversation with Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect and whatsoever they find any where mention'd in Scripture to be bestow'd by God upon the Blessed at the time of the Resurrection and the last Judgment they apply to the state of good Men's Souls immediately after the time of their Deaths I do heartily desire that they both could and would give such an Account to the World concerning the Reasons and Grounds of their so doing as may give Satisfaction to such Doubting and Considering Persons who are willing and desirous to receive a satisfactory Account thereof that they might more heartily joyn with such predicated Opinions than at the present they find themselves able to do I find it not common to meet with Writers or Arguers who pretend to prove the Souls Seperate Subsistence from Grounds of Nature and Reason which it seems was our present Author's Intention to prove but I think he hath fail'd in his propounded Success of that Intention and that it may justly be said of him Magnis ecedit ausis but I should be very glad to see he had another able Person to succeed him in that Endeavour being my self very desirous to receive Instruction concerning this Point And in Expectation thereof I resolve to confine my Observations upon our Doctor 's present Treatise to what hath before been spoken concerning it without making any further Addition thereunto save my hearty Wishes for a clear and true Determination of this Question and therewithal I give my Intelligent Reader the Farewel FINIS
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