final And hence it seems St. Peter believed them not nor liked to build any thing upon them Some have Alledged 1 Pet. 3.19 to Prove the Separate Subsistence of Souls viz. That Christ was quickned by the Spirit by which also he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison c. Concerning this Text I have said before that I do not understand it If I should offer to prove by this Text it would be to prove what I know not by what I do not understand and what I would not offer I cannot agree to accept My desire is to have the Immateriality or Separate Subsistence of Souls proved by some Texts that I do understand and because I do not understand this Text I refuse to accept it as a Proof of the Separate Subsistence of Souls And proceed to observe in the Writings of St. John 1 Joh. 2.28 Little Children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not he ashamed before him at his coming And Chap. 3.2 Beloved now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Both these Texts put all our Expectations after Death to the future Appearing or Coming of Christ and still without notice of any State or Thing Intermediate between Death and the Resurrection Jude Ver. 14. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds and speeches spoken against him Referring all Judgment future to Life unto that of the Great or Last Day as we have found it done before by all the Apostles whose Writings are come to our hands with a Consent and Agreement amongst them much above ordinary and which Testifies they were leâ— by the same Spirit promised to lead them into all Truth We see this Promise actually and compleatly fulfilled in the Texts alledged out of all their Writings and wherein they all say the same things We now go on to the Search of the Four Evangelists according to our Lord's Direction Search the Scriptures Mat. 13.36 Christ Expounds his Parable of the Tares he will not have them weeded or rooted up in this World but suffered to grow here But Ver. 40. At the end of the world the Angels shall gather them and cast them into a Furnace of Fire Ver. 43. and then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Without Mention or Notice of an Intermediate Judgment or State Chap. 19.28 Ye who have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall fit in the Throne of his Glory ye shall sit on Twelve Thrones judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel and every one who hath suffered for my sake shall receive an Hundred Fold and shall inherit Everlasting Life Observe Peter Ver. 27. had asked our Lord what Rewards they who had forsaken all for his Sake should have therefore Christ gives the abovesaid Answer But if he had intended or known of an Immediate going to Heaven of Souls upon Death of Parties it seems that in this place he could not reasonably have omitted the Mention of it Whence likely he neither intended it nor knew of it Chap. 16.27 The Son of shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works The Words And then he shall reward seem to import That this Second Coming of our Lord is the only known Time appointed for the distribution of Recompences future to this Life Mark 8.38 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my Words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels Without notice taking of any Intermediate Time or State Luk. 12.8 He that confesses me before men I will confess him before the Angels of God and he that denies me before men shall be denied before the Angels of God Chap. 13.25 When the Master of the House hath shut the door those knocking without cannot come in but the workers of Iniquity shall go to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth This seems the Effect of a General Judgment Chap. 10.14 It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Day of Judgment than for you Ver. 12. More tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that City Chap. 14.14 Call to thy Feast the Poor Lame and Blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the Resurrecteon of the Just This seems plainly proving the Resurrection to be the Time and even the only Time for Expectation of Recompences and that deliver'd by our Lord 's own Mouth the highest Authority that Christians can expect or desire Job 5.28 All that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shad come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation Who shall hear his Voice in the Graves Not the Bodies or Souls but the dead Persons and they shall come forth at that Time only and be doomed and judged to Life or Damnation Chap. 6.39 My Father's Will is that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the Last Day Ver. 40. He that believeth on the Son shall have Everlasting Life and I will raise him up at the Last Day Ver. 44. He that comes to me I will raise him up at the Last Day Ver. 54. He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood I will raise him up at the Last Day In the 2d 3d. of the Revelations there are a great Variety of Rewards promised to him that overcometh but here the only Reward in our four Places is to be raised up at the Last Day to Life Everlasting as an abundant Recompence for all Faith Performances and Sufferings and shews that to be the only Time future to this World when they are to be warrantably and upon good grounds expected and hoped for by all true Believers Chap. 12.48 The Word that I have spoken the same shall judge a Man at the Last Day As Mat. 12.36 Of every idle Word that Men shall speak they shall give account at the day of Judgment If they had given such an Account of a Particular Judgment soon after Death What need can there be of bringing idle Words to Account over again at the General Judgment There seems no Probability in it Chap. 14.1 Let not your Hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in Me in my Fathers House are many Mansions and I go to prepare a Place for you and if I go and prepare a Place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also This shews when
of these Proceedings may be made in a Moment of Time and without any Perceivance in the Person Thus by Occasion of our Author 's Dividing of Memory upon a novel and singular Phancy of his own there hath been set forth a Model of the Microcosm somewhat different from what Men have formerly conceived of it But we now return again to our Author Pag. 750. He calls the Will the Vis Motrix and the Spirits Nerves Muscles and Members the Vis Prosequens or rather should be the Vires Prosequentes He calls the Voluntary Faculty the Queen in the Body and we have given her such Part in our Constitution of Government as a Queen at Chess acts in the Regulation and Effects in that Game Pag. 753 Says The Humane Soul at every Conception is created ex Nihilo that the Vegetative Soul extinguishes in the Sensitive when it comes and the Sensitive in the Rational when it comes and thinks the two former may be generated Pag. 757. Questions how Men differ from Brutes Averroes answers In the Cogitative Faculty which acts by Organs The Author replies This is a Sensitive Power and doth not really differ from the Phantasy for that which is a more simple and dull Phantasy in the Brutes is a more acute Phantasy in Men and is called Cogitation in them Pag. 759. The Doubt concerning the Original of Souls is a difficult Question and always was so And Three Prime Points in it 1. The Efficient or Causa ex qua whether they are ex nihilo or ex Re praejacente 2. When they were made whether in the Beginning from the First Creation and so do pre-exist or in Future Times 3. Whether they are made before or after the Formation of the Body or at one same time with the Body Some thought Souls were communicated to Men from the Soul of the World of like Matter to Heaven and the Stars and therefore Incorruptible and Immortal created at first to a certain vast Number and remain in Repositories till called by the Formation of their destined Bodies And this was the Opinion of Pythagoras Plato and most of the Academick Philosophers And this infers a Transmigration of Souls into several Bodies Origin thought that Souls were so created but in time after the World created and that they were by God sent down or did of their own accord descend into Bodies fit for them in due time and some other Divines were of that Mind Some thought Souls were part of God himself others that they were by Angels made of Fire and Air Others that God made only the Soul of Adam and that all future Souls are derived by Propagation from him and that as Men have their Bodies from his Body so their Souls from his Soul radically but yet Immortal Some who so believed thought the Soul Corporeal and therefore generated Others thought it a Spirit and propagated from the Generators Soul as one Light kindles another This last Opinion Apollinaris and many other Bishops did hold and especially the Western Churches Others thought God created New Souls as there was Occasion for them so St. Jerom who says the Church of his time did so believe St. Austin would not condemn either of these two last Opinions he inclined rather to the Creation of New Souls but confess'd he knew not how to prove it from Scripture Those who hold the New Creation of Souls differ some think it created in the Body and some without the Body and some that Infundendo creatur Cites three sorts of Spirits P. 761. viz. God who always was and shall be then Souls of Brutes which neither were nor shall be always then Angels and Souls of Men which were not but shall be always Cites this out of Ficinus P. 762. The Author argues against Origins Opinion of Pre-existent Souls says The Soul is Mans proper Form who consists of a Soul and Body and it is natural to this Form to be united to its proper Matter or Body and against Nature to be separated from it and it is Praeter Naturam that a Humane Soul separated from the Body should so remain till the Refurrection and therefore it would be Praeter Naturam that Souls should pre-exist by a Creation of all at once Whence this is repugnant to the Wisdom of God and the Course of Nature It is natural and per se that the Soul should be with the Body and against Nature that it should be out of it seeing it is the Bodies proper Form so much as it cannot be said to be there in loco as Arist observes and it is there as in its proper Being The Soul of Adam sinned not without the Body nor have other Souls done so and therefore have not deserved to be punished without it P. 763. says That Opinion of the Souls being derived from Generation as well as the Body held by Tertullian and the Western Church is much followed and strongly defended for the more rational deriving the Guilt of Original Sin upon all Mankind for that unless Mens Souls be propagated from Adam as well as their Bodies by what means should Original Sin come to be attached to the Souls of all Men. For if Souls be of new created and out of nothing they must be either created sinful by God or how else should sin come upon them in their Mothers Bellies where they cannot commit Sin nor be contaminate by Lust of the Parents who do not generate the Soul Nor can its Contiguity with a Corrupt Body defile it Also that Conjunction is the Act of God Those Fathers therefore held it necessary to believe the Generation of the Soul as well as of the Body to the intent they might have a sufficient ground of Casting he Guilt of Original Sin upon all People And for this respect Austin and those of his time would not reject or condemn this Opinion held by Tertullian Apollinaris and the Western Churches Ausi non fuerint damnare and cites to the same purpose Eucherius and Gregory the First Bishop of Rome P. 765. our Author means to prove That Humane Souls are New Creations made by God out of Nothing 1. Because Adam's Soul was so created our Bodies are of the Earth like his and likely our Souls like his by Creation I say to this We do not find a Creation of Adam's Soul but that God breathed into him the breath of life gave him breath or respiration this kindled in his Blood and Humours then ready the Flame of Life till that is again quite extinguished the Man lives and nourishes that Flame by the like respirations but that Flame extinguished the respiration ceases and the Man dies beyond all Humane Power to help in such Cases The Soul parts together with the Breath and Flame of Life and never was found but together with them in any Body or other Place or Manner whatsoever It seems this Flame and its Active Powers is not only inseparable from the Soul but that most likely it self is
would need no more for their Cure and putting them out of Conceipt with that Vain Apprehension Finally It seems that if our Preachers in Cities Burghs and such as we call Good Towns and Trading Places did apprehend there were no Separate Subsistence of Souls said to be departed they would much abate of their Pressures usually made upon the Score and Title of Men's precious Souls and they would not so clearly neglect and forget if not despise the Body as they commonly appear to do We see them fully joined together in Life and that they arise grow stand decay and fall together And we read much and often that they shall rise be judged and be rewarded together without any one express Averment that either of them doth ever did or can subsist without the other Hence it appears not very sound in them to build their Perswasions to Christian Piety upon Ground so Sandy as the Separate Subsistence of Souls seems to be especially considering they have a Rock so near to them as that of the Resurrection hath been proved Next we say That if they did believe the Rewards of Piety were so far off as to the time of the Resurrection and not to be expected till the Soul and Body should be reunited likely it is they would run a little less hotly upon the serving God mainly at least and primely if not only for the Rewards expected and the Gain and Advantage Men hope to make of a Bargain so prudently driven for their Benefit Men who in their Service look only or principally at their Rewards or Wages are apt to chuse not the best so soon as the most liberal Master a bounteous though wicked rather than a frugal though honest Master And if a Master of Servants find some who serve only or principally for the Wages and others who though they need and expect the Wages yet serve heartily and not as Men-pleasers but out of Love to their Master and a Desire to please him and render themselves acceptable to him We say a Master to whom this Proceeding is undoubtedly known cannot fail to make a great Difference in Account and Esteem of such Servants and their Rewards may be expected enough to give a clear Testimony of the same Baxter in his Quoted Book Pag. 34. 35. says It is certain and proved that God made it every Man 's chief Duty and Care and Work in this Life to obtain Happiness hereafter And yet I cannot grant him this confident Assertion but do say That the Chief End of Man's Creation was not to obtain Happiness of any sort That was not the End or Scope of the Creation of Man or any other Creature Not made chiefly to obtain or seek their own Good Joy Content or Ease but for the Glory and Service of God and the fulfilling of his Will Things of much greater Importance than the Happiness or Sufferings of Creatures Beasts or Men. And so as they serve God's Will and effect his Glory the Design of their Creation is therein more fully and perfectly accomplished than if they should otherwise have obtained all the Happiness which their Natures are capable of And they have the Advantage of doing and bearing freely the Things and Duties appointed for them which otherwise must however be accomplished by them and upon them Our Lord teaches That when Men have done their uttermost they are but unprofitable Servants and therefore their Rewards must come ex Gratia not ex Debito or by way of Stipulation in the Mode of a gainful Bargain And it seems the Conceipt that the Happiness of the Creatures is the great or main Design of their being or acting is a clear Mistake in a main Point and of very great Importance in the Oeconomy of the World and Disposal of the Creatures in it whose Sufferings shall never be undeserved nor can be very considerable in comparison of their Design viz. the Service of God the fulfilling of his Will and the Advancement of his Glory And the Serving to these Ends or Designs is every Man 's chief Duty and ought to be the Care and Work of his Life much to be preferred before his own obtaining of Happiness hereafter although that is no way excluded or weakned for it is a certain Concomitant or Consequent of such Performances though not the main Design or Intent of them For God is not unrighteous to forget Mens Works and Labour of Love which they shew to his Name And certainly they thought so who sold all they had and delivered the Money to be divided and distributed to others every one as his Need required Our Lord directs Seek first the Kingdom of God and leave the Care of your Rewards to him They are no Debts from God whatsoever Preachers may call them who sometimes say God hath obliged his Word and his Truth to make them good and to pay them accordingly And he who labours in the Vineyard shall be sure of the Wages They ought to remember the Ground of that Expression was but a Parable or Similitude a Sandy Ground for Doctrines to be built upon And whatsoever other Expressions are found in Scripture to that Purpose may pass for Condescentions to the Weakness of Men. Paul tells us God that made the World and all things in it derives not Worship from Mens Hands or Actions as if he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all Life and Breath and all things Whence he who gives all things to all Men cannot be made a Debtor to any since no Man hath any thing which he hath not received from God who cannot be made a Debtor for his own When the Servants who had employed their Talents came to Account they delivered up both the Principal and the Product without Pretence to Wages or Hire and yet they were not the less but very highly rewarded Rom. 4.4 To him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt And therefore Christian Righteousness consists in Faith always productive of sutable Works So our Service to God in fulfilling his Will is always productive of Rewards sutable to the Greatness and Goodness of our Lord and Benefactor as the Proceed of his own Bounty and Goodness not paid as Wages nor suting with Mens Work nor in discharge of a Debt nor upon a Compensatory Account but ex certa Scientia mero Motu He knows the Person loved and feared him and had a perfect Heart towards him and therefore laboured to keep his Commandments and all that he hath appointed and to glorifie his Name and fulfil his Will Great Rewards are as sure the Consequences of such Performances as good Works are of a true and lively Faith one can by no means be without the other and where the one is not the other cannot grow nor is reasonably to be expected Performances of Duty for Hire or in Expectation chiefly of the desired Wages is Servile and Mercenary without Chearfulness in the Servant or Regardfulness in the
to nourish the Lamps at which Defect the Multitude complained and grieved the Bishop also troubled commands the Officers to fetch Water out of the next Well and when it was brought he prayed over it then bad them pour it out into the Lamps and the Water changed into Oil and served the Lamps as Liquor of that Nature and a small Quantity was for the Miracles sake reserved by many of the Brethren a long while after This says our Author who wrote about Anno 340. is come to us by Tradition from one to another And being a Tradition so Ancient and of a Time reputed more Innocent than the Present is here repeated as an Evidence that the Power and Spirit of God did work did then work miraculously amongst them in the Church And except we see such Signs and Wonders we shall not be able to believe that any amongst us have the Spirit of God in such extraordinary Manner as the Apostolick Times and Men had it in a Manner perceptible to the Parties themselves or to any others who shall converse with them And this settles the Case betwixt the Author and me and shews where the Difference of Opinions sticks He intends the Church now hath that Power of the Spirit which is perceptible to the Party 's own self and to others such as was in the Apostolick Times and which I call Extraordinary This I deny and the Proof lying upon his Hand it seems he ought to make the same Proof of it in these Times that was wont to be made in those Times viz. Miraculous Operations such as are above the Power of Man's Nature of it self to perform Instead of which he endeavours to conclude upon us with Quotations of some Expressions taken out of St. Paul's Epistles sounding to his Purpose against which Records collected out of Scripture he says we may not aver To this I reply That those Epistles have in them some Things hard to be understood and which may be wrested to the Maintainance of Errors and it seems that divers such Places are wrested by applying to Future Times and our Times what was by that Apostle spoken of those Times in which he lived and so applied were pertinent and true and yet if applied to Future Times for which they were not intended they may very likely have another Appearance We have also before spoken of God's Ordinary Conduct given to Believers whose Natural Faculties his Spirit polishes leads orders and perfects moving and intercepting their Faculties and Actions and meliorating their Natures and Inclinations with so much Gentleness and Easiness as the Parties cannot themselves perceive any Violence of Motion no nor any Motion at all nor do they certainly know how far or how much the Spirit of God acts in their own Reformation or Amendment and how then should other People know the Spirit of God to act in them Why the Party and those who consider his Condition have all the same Means to know the Spirit is there and where it is it works they must derive their Knowledge from the Fruits These are are good and known Fruits of the Spirit and they cannot spring nor grow without Cultivation of God's Spirit and where those Effects are visible and known there the Cause and Presence of that Spirit may as certainly be concluded Now we say that by rightly applying the Expressions of St. Paul in his Epistles unto these two Grounds and Positions or to one of them as the Expression shall require all that Apostle's Expressions are solvable without any Need of Reason thence to infer that there must be in the Christian Church of all Times such a special perceptible Impulse of God's Spirit as there was in the Times when St. Paul wrote and which I have termed Extraordinary as given to and in that Time and not to be continually communicated to Future Ages And where God's continual Assistance and that of his Spirit is mentioned it may the most likely be intended the Ordinary Communications of God's Spirit which we doubt not are frequently and ordinarily to be perceived in our own Times and by the Means before prescribed So as the applying of these Texts out of St. Paul's Epistles to the one or the other of our proposed Positions will be able to answer and satisfie all those Texts and put a Reasonable and True Construction upon them without any need of Inferring from them a Necessity of having amongst Christians in all Future Ages such Endowments and Operations of God's Spirit as were in the Persons living in Apostolick Times or near unto them And that an Instance may be given of our propounded Manner for the expounding such of St. Paul's Texts we make Choice of a Place often urged upon Debates concerning the Necessity of being eminently endowed with God's Spirit in all Times and Places Christian viz. 1 Cor. 2.14 The Natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned This Text or Verse as it stands alone or by it self sounds as if Man's Nature and Reason were utterly useless in understanding the Tenets and Duties pertaining to the Christian Faith and Profession but that all such Things must be left to Guidance of the Spirit and Direction of those who are thereunto inspired or that are reputed so to be In answer to this we say that for expounding this Text and all others the Context is very necessary to be well considered And to that Purpose we go upward to the sixth Verse of this Chapter There the Apostle says We speak Wisdom but not of this World Ver. 7. We speak the Wisdom of God in a Mystery Ver. 8. Which if the Princes of the World had known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Ver. 9. But neither Man's Senses nor his Vnderstanding can find out the Things which God hath prepared for those that love him Ver. 10. But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit which searches the deep Things of God We ask What is intended by us and take us to signifie the Apostles and other inspired Disciples and Teachers of those Times and not extending to the later and suspected Pretenders of future or our Time since the Miraculous Manifestations of the Spirit ceased in the Church Ver. 11. 12. We received the Spirit which is of God viz. those Teachers received Ver. 13. And we speak this Mystery in Words not taught by Man's Wisdom but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing Spiritual Things with Spiritual Then comes our Text. Then Ver. 15. He that is Spiritual judgeth all things viz. He to whom God hath so communicated his Spirit as that thereby they were enabled to know the Thoughts and Intents of Mens Hearts as that impotent People had Faith to be healed And in the Conspiracy of Ananias and Saphira 1 Cor. 14.24 and Acts 20.23 before cited They knew not only Things present but Things to come and
Holy Ghost were examinable and being examined would firmly abide that Test all of it tended to Humility Piety Charity and Works esteemed good amongst Men and though the Mystery of it soared above Humane Reason and Comprehension yet they were not inconsistent with or contrary to the same For the Signs following they were very great and undoubted and very many not here to be recounted The Auditors convinced by all these Considerations might and did believe the Mysteries and accept and practise the Doctrines of Christian Religion upon good and convincing Grounds Natural and Rational and without any good or plain Reason to account them Foolishness The Men who then primely taught these Doctrines to Natural Men of their Times wrote them after for the Use of future Times and Ages and they being dead now speak to us by those Writings and still teach and convince the Natural and Rational Persons of our Times as they did those of their own to believe this great Mystery of the Redemption and other Mysteries of of our Religion and they did then and do still prevail over their Proselites to these Purposes even as they are Reasonable and Natural Men and without requiring or perceiving any eminent Motions or evident Operations of the Spirit in such Cases more than such as we have before specified and termed ordinary amongst Christians not to be evidently perceived by Motions and Operations but are as certainly to be known by the Fruits Effects and Products of it in the Course and Tenor of the Professors Lives And by this Application as to a dictum secundum quid we pretend to have avoided the extravagant Inferences deducible from this Text of St. Paul if it should pass for a dictum simpliciter we have fixed it to the most early Times of the Gospel as intended for them only and not reasonably to be generally or any farther extended and thus shall be ended our Exposition of this Text. And we proceed to other Texts fit and needful to be solved by applying them to the ordinary Effects of God's Spirit amongst Christians of our own and all former Ages Rom. 8.9 If any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his This we apply to the ordinary Operation of God's Spirit in Believers appearing in the Fruits of a holy Life Ver. 14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Ver. 26. The Spirit helps our Infirmities viz. this ordinary tacite Operation of the Spirit but that Spirit which makes Intercession for us with Groanings seems not within us but external to us 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you viz. in the ordinary Manner Chap. 12.13 We are all baptized and have been all made to drink into one Spirit This Spirit intends a Spirit external to us and our own Baptism and Communion Galat. 4.6 God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father viz. God's Spirit in ordinary Manner Chap. 5.25 If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit This is clear in it self to intend ordinary Operation Eph. 5.18 Be not drunk with Wine but be filled with the Spirit viz. live according to the ordinary Directions of God's Spirit soberly as well as righteously and godly in this present World These Texts and their like we expound by applying them to the ordinary Operation of God's Spirit in Believers not easily or likely to be discovered by the Parties themselves or by any other except only by the Fruits of a holy Life and godly Conversation Where these really are and appear plainly there is the Spirit of God the true Root and Original of them And where these do not appear and really are not there certainly the Spirit of God is not be the Leaves of Profession never so large fair or flourishing and though they make never so much Noise and Clatter when they are moved with such Winds of Doctrine and Trial as happen to blow upon them There is no doubt but that the ordinary Operations of God's Spirit are dispensed in divers Degrees of more or less Strength and Perfection Nor but that God can and will when he pleaseth in any present or future Times as well as the Primitive give and distribute to whom he pleases such eminent and perceptible Endowments of his Holy Spirit as he did to the Apostles and Disciples of their Times But we do not or will or cannot yet believe that so he hath done doth or will do without accompanying the same with such Signs following as shall plainly distinguish the Persons and give them an Esteem superior to that of other Men. 2 Cor. 12.12 Truly the Signs of an Apostle were wrought amongst yon in Signs and Wonders and mighty Deeds And whosoever shall lay Claim to the eminent powerful and perceptible Endowments of God's Spirit without those or the like Signs which did in Primitive Times accompany the same will it seems deserve and find very little Credit or Acceptance amongst Considerate Persons at this Day And we have thus done with our Considerations of the ordinary Operation of God's Spirit upon Believers As an Appendix to which we may observe that God is pleased to communicate the Assistances of his Spirit operating in Men upon Worldly Occasions and Accounts as well if not as much as in Occurence concerning Matters of Religion and in the Ordinary and Natural Manner before declared illuminating Mens Understandings and their Faculties of Perception inclining their Judgments and their Wills regulating their Affections and Passions elevating and perfecting their Natures Exod. 31.3 I have called by Name Bezaluel and have filled him with the Spirit of God in Wisdom and Vnderstanding Knowledge and all manner of Workmanship Ver. 6. So for Aholiab and other Men of Art I have put Wisdom in them that they may make all that I have commanded thee These Men had learnt their Arts and Trades in Egypt but the Spirit of God gave them further Degrees of Illumination and farther Perception concerning them than they had before attained directing to a more perfect and ready Practice than had been usual to them before like as in Matters of Religion the ordinary Operations of God's Spirit appear Things which People have read or heard before without a right Understanding or a true Feeling are by such Operation of the Spirit cleared up to them and fixed in their Hearts so as to intend the Observance of them introducing into them an Aversion from Evil and an earnest Desire to do Good and a Joy of Heart in the Performance also they may perceive Practices of Piety grow more easie to them both in Points of Learning and Performance These are evident Signs of God's Spirit present and working although no perceptible Motion be felt nor any other Evidence of the Presence of God's Spirit And no Testimony is given that these Artists did perceive or find
those of Sensation And Lastly in the Rational and Superior Powers of Understanding Phancy Memory Judgment and Will You have required of me Proofs how such things are or can be acted in Man by a Material Spirit to shew the hardship of such an Imposition I now demand the like of you on behalf of an Immaterial Spirit not believing that you will undertake the Imployment or that you or any other man can make a good performance of it or discover so much on that behalf as I have but now done on behalf of the Material One It seems my Demand upon you may pass lege talionis it is thereby done to you as you thought fit to do viz. Bind an heavy Burthen and lay it upon others Shoulders which it may be you will avoid touching with one of your fingers believing the whole to be much too heavy for you and this shall finish the Answer to your Demand of the Quomodo operatur Anima Materialis in Homine 2 Paragraph Here you raise an Argument for the Immateriality from the Acts and Powers of Conscience in Man which you think cannot grow or be derived from Matter and Motion I grant it is no more derived from meer Matter and Motion than the other Faculties of Man are God who created both Matter and Motion and acts them in Plants Insects Fowls and Beasts to the Production of all that is done amongst them acts them also in Mankind to the Instruction and for the Guidance of their Natures and Actions the Conscient Powers in Man viz. his Understanding Memory and Judgment I have said are Natural and the Effects of Conscience viz. Content and Joy or Sorrow and Fear are also Natural but to the Constitution and Compleating of Conscience there must also be allowed some Rules Examples or Conceptions to which Men have submitted their Minds in such manner as to believe what is done according to those Directions is well done and what is contrary to them is a Fault or Offence And this Conscience I say is common to Beasts as well as Men though not so much or in so high a Degree but according to the proportion of Understanding amongst them A Child young hath no perceivance of Conscience but as it grows to the Cognizance of Rules it becomes subjected to the Strokes and Stings of Conscience How are Beasts taught Duty but by Rewards and Punishments the Remembrances of which act upon them so as to make them correct a Failure in Duty by a quick correcting of themselves in Action and Amendment thereupon And what is Conscience in Man more than a Perceiving or an Apprehension that he hath acted against his Rule which hath gotten the Ascendent over him and for which he hath an Expectation of Punishment or Suffering such so great so lasting and intolerable as those who have delivered the Rules to him have taught him to conceive and apprehend but that amongst Men that are Savage and utterly uncultivated by any sort of Education without Rules or Laws of any sort amongst such Persons there is no Transgression nor Conscience of Sin viz. no Conscience at all And we may compare the Faculty of Conscience to that of Speech amongst Men they are things to which Humane Nature hath a great Aptitude and Inclination but yet they are not so Natural as to grow out of bare Nature without any sort of Instruction or Teaching whatsoever Mothers and Nurses commonly give the first Rudiments of them both and they receive Alterations according as future Informers and Practices get Power over them High Expectations of Eternal Rewards or Punishments are able to transport Men and have transported some with ardent Desires others with Afflictions and terrible Fears so as they are throughly perswaded and convinced of such Future States as we are taught to believe if upon Examinatien of the Conscient Powers the Man find his Actions contrary to his Rules and that therefore he is in a State of unmeasurable ill expectations It seems natural and likely that this man shall be apt to fall under the tyranical dominion of his Fear and that he needs no Immaterial Power to induce such Conceptions in him or inflict such Rigors upon him his own Connatural Conscient Powers and the Cruelty and Tyranny of his Fear thence arising are enough and if any farther addition be needful I have before quoted Melanchton That a Diabolical assistance is often ready to act in such cases for making the Effects more atrocious and remarkable without needing the Opinion of a Soul 's being Immaterial for Solution of the Quaery of the Quomodo such things are possible to be done And though the Acts of Conscience be Natural yet the Rules which govern it are chiefly if not only the Apprehensions or Opinions of the Persons under Trial growing from Education Institution Example Observation Opinion or Conceipt however Superstitious or Fallacious the same may be To what you say That you had given Instances concerning Acts of Conscience and Terrour upon them in Persons who were above all Prejudice or Fear I answer That no Man can be above these Adjuncts or Qualifications but all Educated Persons have always been taught to believe and fear a Divine Being and Vengeance even when Jupiter and Apollo Woden and Frea past in the World for their Prime Deities And it seems observable that however highly a supposed Immaterial Spirit may impress Terrour upon the Conscience yet let any man come and demonstrate convincingly that there is a mistake in that the Fact is not against the Rule or that the Rule it self is an Errour and so the Wrath and Vengeance of God not due or reasonably to be expected to follow upon such Failures Such an Opinion and Belief must and will naturally appease and cure the greatest Horrours of a Troubled Conscience and do it as substantially as a Physician can cure any other Disease whatsoever viz. by removing and curing the Efficient Causes of it You demand of me How Rules for Direction for Conscience came to Men at the first when there were but few Persons in the World and Customs or Conceipts were not so various or common as of later times they are grown To this I answer That the only Persons in the World free from Prejudices and Rules imposed upon them by Education were our first Parents Adam and his Wife and to them we read God gave an Express Rule viz. Of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Next we read of Mens sacrificing to God for which I do not perceive any ground in Reason or Nature viz. That Man should or could from Reason invent or conceive that the killing or shedding the Blood of Bulls Rams or Goats should be pleasing or acceptable to the Omnipotent God Whence I collect that this early Practice amongst Men sprung from the Positive Direction of God and soon after this Practice began Cain
be obtained presently upon the Death of the Body I say The Words mention neither the one time nor the other nor it seems do intend the one any more than the other for they import a present Being come to those Advantages and not a future He confesses here That Humane Wisdom cannot Penetrate into the Future State of Souls and that Men know but little of them I say can know just nothing of his sort of Souls Pag. 192. He cites 1 Joh. 3.2 It doth not yet appear what we shall be I ask whence that will appear the Text says it will appear at Christ's Second Coming that when he shall appear we know we shall be like him which intimates Men must stay till that time for such Knowledge Pag. 196. He says When Death comes the Soul disputes its Possession of the Body with him from Member to Member like Soldiers in a Stormed Garrison and at last loses the Royal Fort Intimating that his Soul 's Being is like that of Death's Being viz. no Real Subsistence but an Imagination Pag. 197. Says The falling asleep in Death or sleeping in Jesus must not be stretched to a length in respect of the Soul but offers no Proof of this I say That it concerns the whole Person Soul as well as Body and likely will strech it self to the very time of the Resurrection Pag. 202. Says Angels carry our Souls to God And for Proof cites the Parable of Dives his only Ground for that Opinion which I say is too sandy to support it for that here was no real Fact related but only a Similitude fitted to the common Jewish Opinion of that time Pag. 203. Grants there is no necessity of such Conveyance of the Soul but it is used for State or Decorum All this seems but his Phancy and he gives no other Proof either of the one viz. that there was such a Fact or of the other viz. that it is for State and Decorum Pag. 204. Says The presence of Angels or Spirits affright the Spirits not only of Men but of Beasts and thence the Soul of Man by consent But of such a Consent he offers no Proof nor that there is a Soul different from the Material which I say is of the same Nature both in Man and Beast which by the Production of like fears both in Man and Beast at the appearance of Spirits seems to me somewhat confirmed Pag. 205. Delivers but his own Phancy thereupon Pag. 206. He asks What Form Shape or Figure can the Phancy of Man cast his own Soul into as an help to understand its Nature I answer into none at all mine hath no certain Form of it self and of his may be said ex nihilo nihil fit But if such a Soul there be one may Form an Idea of it as well as of any other Spirit And for Raptures I have said the Understanding Phancy and Memory may be effectually Wrought upon and affected Pag. 214. Says The Souls of the Just go immediately to Glory from the time of the Persons Death And offers Proof Luk. 23.43 of the Thief also Luk. 16.22 of Lazarus being carried and Phil. 2.23 a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ all cited and answered before Pag. 215. Speaks but his own Phancy and without Proof Pag. 225. Says Good Souls departed have a satisfying Apprehension though no perfect Comprehension of the Divine Essence and mentions the seeing God Face to Face Whereas St. John teaches We know that when he shall appear at his Second Coming we shall see him as he is Christ doth not say see God But the Author produces no Proof of any sort of seeing after Death Pag. 234. Says Those who went to Heaven before Christ's Ascension were fully at rest in God and yet upon Christ's Coming to Heaven their Happiness was advanced Cites to prove this Heb. 11.40 God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect To this I say it rather seems to prove a stay of Perfection till the whole Number be accomplished at the Resurrection as the Answer to the Souls in the Revelation also doth Pag. 243. Says It is too great a dificulty to trace the Soul beyond the limits of this World I say it is so to trace his sort of Soul in this World and I deny that his Text proves that Death perfects the Spirits of the Just which shall not be done till the Number be compleated at the Resurrection Pag. 244. Says We have more Acquaintance with Souls than with Angels He means with his sort of Souls and then I deny it for Angels and Spirits have appeared and been otherwise sensibly perceived to act but we know not that ever an Humane Soul by it self was known or perceived so to do Pag. 252. He says The Radical Moisture which is daily consuming by the Flame of Life must needs be spent ere long Here we agree Pag. 266. Says Separated Souls are capable af performing God's Commands as well as Angels are This I deny and he offers no Proof He says Some departed Souls have returned and appeared in this World Instances in Moses and Elias and the Bodies of Saints which appeared at Christ's Resurrection To this I say All these Appearances were of Bodies except Moses and of him it may be doubted what appeared Pag. 267. Says Apparitions as of Dead Persons are not indeed so but are acts of other sorts of Spirits To this I agree Pag. 273. Men oft meet a Mortal Enemy's Spirit in the disguise of a dead Friend Pag. 274. Says That after the Resurrection the Raised shall know one another and talk and converse but till that time Souls departed do converse only with God How proves he this not at all ergo it is a bare Invention Yes says he it must needs be so for if Souls could act thus before the Resurrection would be needless and to no purpose I say Souls going to Heaven and seeing and enjoying God and Heaven before that time makes the Resurrection of small value and little signification Pag. 284. Says 'T is confest that the Soul concerning it self singly is made perfect and enjoys Blessedness in the absence of the Body He tells us not who hath made this Confession He quotes Words of Alstedius here but they do not import such a Confession but whosoever did confess it I am sure that I deny it mente manu and he should prove it but doth not Pag. 285. Cites 2 Thes 4.15 It says Those which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him This says he must properly respect the Body for the Soul sleeps not I say as much as the Body doth Pag. 304. He says I should rather chuse to live meanly then to die easily and if both Parts were to perish no Man would die or desire it And the Opinion of the Immortality say I prevails not with those who live at ease to desire Death He says It would be a madness for
Recompencs are warrantable to be expected viz. at Christ's Second Coming and to look for them sooner is against his own Direction in this Text Well fortified and confirmed by Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ whom the Heaven must receive until the times of the restitution of all things The time when amongst other things Men shall be restored to their former Beings and become the same Persons that they were before and so shall account at the Last Judgment and in all probability not before Well but what becomes of people in the mean time I take it for most likely that the Body verges to Dust Gradatim and the Flame of Life which I take for the Soul extinguishes in Death as Dr. Willis says Illico nihil est it vanishes as the Flame of Spirit of Wine when the Spirit is consumed And thus I conceive Men die thus they rest and Believers sleep in Jesus till time of the Restitution of all things Job 14.12 Even as the Flood decayeth and drieth up so Man lieth down and riseth not at all till the Heavens be no more they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep Thus Job and I agree punctually in our State of Death and so we do in that of the Resurrection Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the later day upon the Earth and though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God And as 1 Joh. 3.2 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is At his Second Coming and not till then not by going to Heaven in Effigie But till then Believers in Death enjoy such a Rest as the Revel calls Blessed They sleep in Jesus and rest from their Labours So Heb. 4.1 There is a Promise left us of entring into his Rest Ver. 6. Some must enter therein Ver. 9. There remains a Rest to the People of God Ver. 10. He that is entred into his Rest hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his And such a Rest is a pious Death and in assured hope of a joyful Resurrection Dan. 12.13 The Angel says to him Go thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in the Lot at the end of the days And here I cease and rest my Second positive Argument against the Immateriality and Separate Subsistence of Souls and their going to Heaven or Hell before the Resurrection And upon this Argument I intend to make Three short Observations The First of which grows from our Author's Expressions Page 49. of his said Book There he says 'T is a great Mistake that the Soul is capable only of Social Glory or Suffering or a Blessedness in Partnership with the Body and that it can neither exert its own powers nor enjoy its own happiness in the absence of the Body The Opinion of a sleeping Interval of the Soul he says took its rise from this Error They conceived the Soul to be so dependant upon the Body at least in all its Operations that when Death rends it from the Body it must needs be left as in a swoon or sleep unable to exert its proper Powers or enjoy that felicity which we ascribe to it in its state of Separation Thus our Author To which I Reply They who so conceived were Fathers very Ancient and of great Authority in the Church and in my Opinion the Ground they stood upon was firm and good viz. they and we and all Men who consider may and do perceive by hourly Experiences that the Soul doth no more act or suffer without the Body than the Body without the Soul nor either of them without the other This constant Experience teaches To this also Reason very well agrees and Men have never yet met with good Reason plain Experience or clear Scripture to the contrary Nor doth our Author or any other shew any convincing or strong or likely Evidence that ever any Soul did or that it can act or suffer without Partnership with the Body and in Conjunction with it It may be asked How then can it subsist in a State of Separation from the Body if it can neither act nor suffer without it I Answer That I am not to Account for such a Subsistence because I deny the thing and say the Soul extinguishes in Death But those who held both Opinions viz. The Separate State and the Non-Activity did imaginarily cast the Soul into such a Swoon or Sleep as the Author mentions in a Limbus or Dormitory created by Invention to that purpose and those who so believe both Opinions are necessitated to invent such Places That the Soul neither acts nor suffers without the Body being true and the Separate Subsistence being granted Places for Dormitories were a reasonable and necessary Invention But if the Truth stand with me and the Soul extinguish in Death it neither acts nor suffers without the Body nor yet is there need to invent Dormitories or Purgatories for reception of such Souls as have no real Subsistence He hath truly related a Cause why the Ancients did believe Souls rested in Dormitories till the Resurrection not going to Heaven or Hell till that time and a Re-union with their Bodies viz. Because they believed Souls could not act or suffer without their Bodies according to the common Course of Nature and Experience This I agree to be true and a reasonable Ground for them to stand upon in this Point and that they erred only in believing a Separate Subsistence whence they were forced to invent Dormitories But I say though the Author have given us a true and good Cause why the Ancients thought Souls went not to Heaven or Hell before the Resurrection grounded upon the Nature and Constitution of Mankind there is another Cause and Reason for their so believing as true well grounded and evident as the former which will weigh with many Believers more than that can do viz. The Tenour and Consent of all the Texts before quoted by me in this Argument There is another Marvellous Agreement amongst them for all say the same things viz. That all Men must after Death appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ at his Second Coming at that Day at the Last Day when he shall appear Without mention of any other Time or any other Judgment or any going to Heaven or Hell in the mean time This sort of Declaration of the state of things after Death was a good and sufficient Ground for those Ancients to believe that Souls went not to Heaven or Hell before the Resurrection and I hold this Declaration to be a good true and sufficient Ground for People so to believe at this day And with this I finish my first Observation upon this Argument 2. My