Job 14.1 2. Man that is borne of a woman is of few days and full of trouble he cometh up like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not and vers 7 8 9 10 11 12. For there is hope of a Tree if it be cut downe that it will sprout againe and that the tender branch thereof will not cease though the roote thereof wax old in the ground and the stock thereof die in the earth yet through the sent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant But Man dyeth and wasteth away yea Man giveth up the ghost and where is He As the waters fail from the Sea and the flood decayeth and dryeth up so Man lyeth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more they shall not awake out of their sleepe Psal 103.15 16. As for man his dayes are as grass as a flower of the field so he florisheth for the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more From these places compared we may see that man not his flesh onely for that makes not man but flesh and Spirit sensu conjuncto make Man is not as a Tree when He is cut down whose Spirit liveth and sprouteth forth and continueth but as the flower of the field not the stalke but the bare flower which totally fadeth and perisheth Therefore Man is wholly mortal he shall die and the Son of Man shall be made as grass Isa 51.12 Ezekiel 13.19 To slay the souls that should not die and to save the souls that should not live Psal 7.1 2. Save me c. Lest he teare my soul like a Lion renting it in pieces c. Psal 89.48 Who can deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Psal 19.10 Lev. 21.1 11 and 19.28 Numb 5.2 and 19.11 13. Hag. 2.13 in all which places the words dead body in the Original is soul See Jun. Annot. Lev. 21.1 2 Cor. 5.1 2 3 4. there out Being after death is called a building of an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens with this the Apostle desires to be clothed and what it is he defines viz. mortality swallowed up of life whence it is most evident that all his hope of future life was grounded upon the Resurrection and that his hope was altogether grounded thereon he confirms 1 Cor. 15 arguing if Christ be not risen the dead should not rise and vers 18. They which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished and vers 14. Then is our faith also in vaine whose end 1 Pet. 1.9 is the Salvation of our Souls How should then all be in vaine if our souls as soon as breath is out of the body enter into glory and salvation For by that though there were no Resurrection of the flesh we should receive the end of our Faith the Salvation of our Souls Nay further he maketh all our hope to be in this life if there be no Resurrection for vers 19. having showne the evils that follow the denyall of the Resurrection faith If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable vers 32. Saint Paul said If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the dead rise not whence plainly appeares that the denyal of the Resurrection confines all our hopes and advantages within this life and so all our sufferings persecutions prayers faith c. were to no purpose which could not be by this Soulary fancy of present reward of beatitude after this life 1 King 2.2 David saith to Solomon I goe the way of all the earth that is as the earth must see corruption so must he and if his Soul were part of him yea himself so must it else should he not go the way of all the earth And the expression in Joshua 2.13 Deliver our lives from death importeth absolute mortality for if Death be not dissolution of life or its deprivation how can it be said to suffer death not by a bodily separation for that is but as the laying down of a burthen wherewith it was clogged and tyred whereby it is made more lively ten thousand times as my Opposites confess and so can no more be said to be dead then a Porter when he is disburthened of his Load Job 34.15 All flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again unto dust That which is born of the flesh is flesh John 3.6 and flesh and blood cannot inherite the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15.50 But this Spirit the soul so Idoliz'd if such a thing be is borne of the flesh for in the wombe a Child is a living soul and is so borne of the mother that is flesh Therefore this soul is fleshly and cannot enter into the Kingdome of glory till corruption have put on incorruption which cannot be but by death Thou foole that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die 1 Cor. 15.36 Eccl. 3.12 That which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them as one dyeth so dyeth the other they have all one breath so that they have no preheminence above a Beast for all is vanitie Wherefore if their Breath be all one then God breathed no other Breath that is life or soul into Man then he gave to Beasts So that if Man be Fallen and the Beasts be cursed for his sake Man must be equally mortal with them 1 Tim. 4.8 I have fought a good fight I have funished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crowne of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at THAT DAY and not to me onely but to all them that love his appeareing Here from the finishing of his course a Crowne being laid up which is even the same which Peter Epist 1 cap. 1.9 maketh the end of our faith the Salvation of our souls to be given at THAT DAY concludes an intermission to him and us till then 1 Tim. 6.14 16. Keepe this Commandment until the appeareing of our Lord Jesus Christ who onely hath immortality dwelling in light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seene nor can see Whence appeareth that none ever entered into Heaven since the Creation And it is in vaine for my Opposites to say it is meant of the corpulent matter onely for they make the Soul the very manhood and none that enter therein enter by halfes and peecemeal and this is confirmed by Joh. 3.13 And no man hath ascended into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven Psal 6.5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal 89.11 12. Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction shall thy wonders be known in the darke and thy righteousness in the Land
out his brains for halting If it be said the soul comes pure from God and it is the body that corrupteth it I answer that this to excuse God one way makes him like the tyrant Mezentius that bound living men to dead bodyes till the putrefaction and corruption of the stinking corps had killed them Besides the mind may sin without the Action of the body but not the body without the mind for a man may covet in his mind and not act with his body and yet sin but if he do with his body and not consent with his mind he sinneth not as for example a man may accidentally and ignorantly kill a man by a blow which was never intended or aimed at him and yet he not guilty of murther but if he intend it in his mind though he never do it he is guilty Therefore the body may be made sinful by the soul but not the soul by the body Now to the other kinde who say that this supernatural worke by nature is effected by Gods special supernatural assistance operating or applicated to this natural aptitude in whose mutual concurrence this immortal substance is concepted and in conception united to the flesh the whole in the whole and the whole in every part To which I Answer that there is no more special supernatural efficiency from God in mans procreation then in other creatures but that special gift or natural instinct to every kinde of creature given in the Creation to produce it's kinde whether vegetative sensitive or rational Gen. 1.25 1 Cor. 15.38 for the gift or blessing is all one and the same and alike unto all according to their kindes as appeares Gen. 1.22 God blessed the Fowls and Fish saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the Seas and let the Fowles multiply in the Earth And vers 28. the self-same he speaks of man and woman And God blessed them and said unto them be fruitful and replenish the earth and by this blessing or Natures general instinct equally unto all men and all other creatures continue their multiplications and procreations So that the Fowles Fish c. have as great and special assistance as man in their conceptions and procreations equally mediate and natural Therefore if by mans conception an Angelical immortal Soul is producted so likewise is there the like in other creatures The result of all which is this that as Fish Birds and Beasts each in their kinde procreate their kinde without any transcendency of nature So man in his kinde begets man corruptable man begets nothing but what is corruptable not halfe mortal halfe immortal halfe Angel halfe man but compleat man totally mortal for through mortal organs immortality cannot be conveyed or therein possibly reside If it be scrupled that this destroyeth the hope of our faith I Answer It doth but remove it from a false principle to a true from a deceitful fancy to an infallible object the Resurrection For though I ascribe nothing actually to nature but corruption yet potentially I ascribe incorruption as to the kernel of an Apple a Tree may not actually yet potentially be ascribed So I grant that nature produceth the Seed to which when she hath done her elementary worke even all that she can do and in all things transient finished her course even from that corrupted seed Christ supernaturally raiseth an incorruptable body 1 Cor. 15.36 Thou foole that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die it is sowen in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sowen a natural body it is raised a spiritual body Therefore nothing of man can be immortal but what first hath seen corruption So that if that which is made the better and most excellent part of Man without which he is NO MAN as is held titled the Soul shall not see corruption it shall not participate of the immortality purchased by Christ but must needs perish except there be Ens extra Deum as that strange invented Entitie must needs be And so consequently NO MAN shall be saved And as before it incur'd this Absurditie that the Souls of the Damned shall not perish but stand as well as the Stative Angels So by this the Souls both of the righteous and wicked shall for ever cease and never be immortalized at the Resurrection And thence the denyal both of Resurrection Condemnation and Salvation Heaven and Hell God and Christ is inavoydable After rusheth in the Epicurean Blasphemy Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we dy And so so many bellyes so many Gods and no other It is Objected That the rareness of conception argues a supernatural immediate assistance essential without which the soul cannot be Answ That commeth by a natural defect and not by with-holding of Gods immediate hand else he should have a special and immediate hand in Adultery And so Whoremongers and Adulterers set God a worke to create Souls for their Bastards which is to make God a slave to their lusts Further it is Objected That God hath from eternitie decreed concerning man above all creatures both who should come into the world and at what time Therefore accordingly he must have a worke in mans conception above other creatures Answ No such thing followeth for time and number may be appointed and yet the due course of nature proceed as well without as with an immediate assistance towards man in his kinde as in Beasts in their kinde Moreover Woolner in his Treatise on the Soul pag. 115. saith That the more spiritual parts and chiefly the Soul is but partly mediately partly immediately conceived at the first instant or union of the seed of both Sexes For by it pag. 127. he saith the corporeal parts are prepared and perfected Therefore it must of necessity be at the first instant or else no conception And pag. 129. That all Souls as well of Beasts as of men are essentially as perfect at the first instant of conception as ever afterwards And pag. 97. he saith The Soul can live without the body and cannot be corrupted by it Answ That then it followeth If a woman miscarry immediately after that very instant that the Soul of that Effluction or unshapen deformed peece of congealed blood being immortal must needs continue its immortality and that Effluction as well as perfect bodyes shall be raised again for if degrees of corporal perfection hinder then those that are born imperfect as without legges armes or hands or any other member as divers are they shall never be raised again and so out of the compass of Christs death and though it should be granted that Christs death is denyed an Embryo yet that souls immortality cannot be nullified for immortality once begun must never have an end and he saith it cannot suffer with the flesh therefore if not with the whole mass of mans corpulency grown to it's full perfection much less with an Embryo that is ten times less imperfect and invalid for he saith it is as
and actually in time springeth from it or as many graines of wheat are in one graine virtually and perfectly actual in time so in the seed of mankind is whole man potentially and wholly actual in time or all Adams succession which in time are propagated were wholly in him life and limbes or as 't is more common soul and body So that whatsoever in time is actual by procreation it was at first potentially wholly in it's original Further Generatum sequitur naturam generantis he begat a son in his own image Gen. 5.3 is not not onely philosophically but Theologically true Mat. 7.16 Job 4.14 Therefore mortal Adam must beget mortal children in his own likeness soul and body except the soul was no part of his likeness For that which is immortal cannot generatively proceed from that which is mortal as Christ saith that which is born of the flesh is as it self is corruptable mutable flesh John 3.6 so then by this mortal flesh cannot be generated an immortal spirit or soul that can subsist by it self dissolved from the flesh for if it should in that act it should go beyond it self which is impossible and thereby more should be done by man and woman in generation then God did or could do in the creation for he neither did or could create any thing greater purer or more excellent of nature then himself and such as could subsist without him But if this doctrine be true as Woolner in his Original of the soul averreth fleshly man by a fleshly generation or mixture of the seed of both Sexes doth beget or conceive something greater purer and more excellent then himself an immortal substance an Angelical entitie the Soul that can subsist without the flesh by which it is which is as fire without light earth without heaviness grosseness c. should be by which they are and further the Effect to be prior dignitate precedent to the Cause as if a man because a creature should be before his Creator But if it be Replyed that the soul is generated by the soul as the body by the body I answer then there must be He-souls and She-souls for without Sexes is no generation But now to the first sort who say it is by infusion or as the saying is Creando infunditur infundendo creatur To which I Answer that in conception there is corruption or marring according the proverb Corruptio unius est generatio alterius so that if it be by conceiving or creating infused and by infusion concepted or created that is as much to say it is made in the marring and mar'd in the making or infus'd in the marring and mar'd in the infusion whence followeth that it is neither conceived created nor infused neither made nor mar'd but must be if it be no man knows what or how whether an Angel a Beast or a Monster any thing or nothing Riddle me riddle me what 's this a Soul a Soul creando infunditur infundendo creatur Secondly if the soul be a creature infused then Christ did not take the whole man-hood from the seed of the woman but worse then a bare brutish body a dead carcass But Christ was made of the seed of the woman according to the flesh Ram. 1.3 Acts 2.30 and was as we are sin excepted Heb. 14.15 and this our Image he received wholly from the woman Therefore receiving his whole humanity from her the soul can be no infused creature Thirdly That which brake the Serpents head was Christs humanity But the seed of the woman brake the Serpents head Ergo. Fourthly If we consist of soul and body and are not men without both and receive not our souls from him but are dayly created Then Adam is the father of no man 2. Christ cannot be the Son of man and so no Saviour because thereby his manhood constitutive part even that which should make him man could not be by the seed of the woman 3. So a man is as much a father of fleas and lice which receive their matter from him as of his children 4. Whereas God blessed man and bid him as the rest of the creatures in their kinde fill the Earth in his kinde with men then he commanded him to do more then he had given him power for and so to content nature and supply her imbecility to obey is forced to a daily creation 5. Then God finished not the Creation in sixe dayes but rested before he had done creating Fifthly If the soul be infused it must be at the conception or after the conception If at the conception then every abortive conception hath an immortal spirit in it and must rise again If after then there is growth before there is life which is impossible for the soul is made the vegetive as well as the motive sensitive or rational part and if this immortal spirit be something else then we are not conceived perfect men and as we are conceived so are we born trees brutes or I know not what and afterwards are made men if we be men at all and so Infants that die in the wombe or in the birth are little better then trees and worse then beasts Sixthly If the soul be not generated with the body but a creature infused into a dead body for they say the soul is forma formans that giveth life and motion to the body Then it is lawful to be a Nigromancer for Nigromancie is nothing but putting a spirit into a dead body and so it is but an imitation of God and God the onely Nigromancer and all the men in the word but Nigromatnick Apparitions whose spirits when they have done the worke for which they were put into the bodies desert them as other conjured Ghosts do Seventhy It is granted that the body considered meerly sensitive cannot sin and that the body is but an instrument or as the pen in the hand of a Writer to the Soul whereby it acts and moves Therefore if the Soul come immediately from God or there be an immediate worke of his in it's production then of necessity that immortal thing and not our mortal flesh is Author of all sin and it onely prone to all sin and not the flesh no more then a conduit though a meet instrument to convey water is the author or fount of water or prone to spring And so Gods immediate hand is the cause of all sin that man had better been without this soul for it must needs be some damnable wicked spirit or some Devil that God puts in him for such as the fruit is such must the tree be but the fruit is damnably wicked Therefore the Soul must be some damnable wicked thing No marvel then if Reprobates must needs sin and be damned since God infuses such a malignant Soul that counsels them with Jobs wife to curse God and die yea such a one as wholly workes out their condemnation This is as if a man should break his horses legs and then knock
formans therefore naturam expellas furca licet usque recurres it is made action which cannot but appeare for all action is apparent and they say it is an immortal spirit therefore cannot cease and if not cease it must shew it self Now why are not Infants then as rational as others nay let me ask one Question If this endless soul be forma formans the maker of our bodyes why have we not endless bodies for omne tale generat tale every like brings forth its like so then if one be immortal the other must be immortal if one mortal the other mortal Secondly I answer that though some are fooles from their birth yet it doth not follow that Gods immediate hand is required to mans procreation but rather the contrary for imperfections in a thing argue the mediate generation thereof because no imperfection of any kinde can come immediately from the hand of God imperfections are accidental or from the curse therefore not of creation but of procreation Now seeing all this while we have had to do with this immortal Soul we cannot find or the Soularies tell what it is such likewise is its residence for if we ask where it is they slap us i'th'mouth with a Riddle tota in toto tota in qualibet parte the whole in the whole and the whole in every part that is the whole immortal Soul in the whole body and the whole Soul wholly in every part of the body To which I answer that this extends immortality or impossibility of death to the body for if immortality be in every part then no part of man from the crown of the head to the soal of the foot can be excepted so we are all Soul all over and every part a whole Soul immortal So that it must either be held to be ubiquitarie which is an Attribute peculiar to God or else multiplicable by a corpulent division and so were a man minced into Atomes cut into innumerable bits there would be so many innumerable whole Souls else could it not be wholly in every part Monstrum horrendum ingens cui quot sunt corpore crines Tot vigiles Animae subter mirabile dictu And thus the Riddle is unfolded CHAP. VI. Testimonies of Scripture to prove that whole man is generated and propagated by Nature THat this is true secundum actum naturae observe the sence of these ensuing Scriptures viz. Gen. 1.17 18. comparted with the 22 vers where man and beast have an equal blessing and charge to propagate their like Eccl. 3.19 there is no distinction betwixt them c. Gen. 17.7 I will be thy God and the God of thy seed after thee here by seed must be meant persons and not bare carcasses else he had been the God of dead clots and not of living souls Gen. 46.26 All the souls that came with Jacob into Aegypt which came out of his loynes c. Job 31.15 Did not he that made me in the womb make him and did not one fashion us in the womb Ergo if his soul were immediately created so was his body for he that is his Entity person even all that went to make him man was formed and shapen in the wombe both Epithites for procreation and not for creation Job 10.10 11.22 Hast thou not poured me out as milke and curdled me like cheese thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews thou hast granted me life and favour and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit Here Job sets forth exactly the manner of mans procreation from the act of generation even to his breathing First poured out as milke that is the seminarie evacuation of both Sexes in conjunction then curdled me like cheese that is the changing of that to a grosser matter congealed blood then clothed me with flesh and skin that is the incarnation of that condensed blood then fenced me with bones and sinews that is that carnated matter was formed into humane shape and grew into members then grantedst me life that is began to breath whence observe that in ascribing the whole worke to God he doth ascribe it to one kinde onely and not partly mediate partly immediate for he ascribeth even the evacuation of seed in carnal copulation and the conception of flesh and bones in as high a measure yea to take away all cavil rather a greater as he doth his life poured clothed and fenced imply a more absolute act then granting which is but a sufferance permission or assenting therefore his conception was meerly and wholly natural according to that of David Psa 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me And to this adde that of Zach. 12.1 The Lord formeth the spirit of man within him Whence it is clear that whole man flesh and spirit is a second act formed in the wombe otherwise flesh as well as spirit must be created which all deny Children are the blessing of the breast and wombe Gen. 49.5 That came out of the Loynes Exod. 1.5 Heb. 7.5 the fruit of the body Deut. 18.4 came out of the bowels 2 Sam. 10.11 see Gen. 16.11 38.25 Mat. 1.18 Gen. 5.3 Adam begat a son in his owne likeness Psal 139.15 16. My Substance was not hid from thee when I was made in a secret place and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth thine eyes did see my masse yet being imperfect and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet was none of them whence is evident that his whole Person was an act of nature in his mothers wombe or secret place what of him was in the Book of Gods providence he declareth was made not created in a secret place to wit his substance or masse all that went to the subject man and I hope the Soularies will not blot his Soul out of the Book of Gods providence or say it was no part of him Luke 1.31 Thou shalt conceive in thy wombe and bring forth a son whence observe that what she was to bring forth she was to conceive to wit a son and none will deny Christ was born compleat man in all things as we are sin excepted And if any scruple arise from Rom. 1.3 He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh I Answer That it is a distinction from other men in respect of that anointing he received from the Father above his brethren and fellowes Gen. 4.1 She conceived and bare Cain see the like cap. 38.3 4 5. Judg. 13.3 5 7. And Job 3.3 There is a man-child conceived And Gen. 17.6 And Kings shall come out of thee vers 17. twelve Princes shall he beget And Judg. 8.30 Gideon had 70 Sons out of his body begotten And Num. 5. Then she shall be free and shall conceive seed and Heb. 11.11 compared with Gen. 17.8 and such like plainly shew mans procreation wholly natural Joh. 3.6 That which is
Man wholly Mortal OR A TREATISE WHEREIN 'T is proved both Theologically and Philosophically That as whole Man sinned so whole Man died contrary to that common distinction of Soul and Body And that the present going of the Soul into Heaven or Hell is a meer Fiction And that at the Resurrection is the beginning of our Immortality and then actual Condemnation and Salvation and not before With Doubts and Objections answered and resolved both by Scripture and Reason discovering the multitude of Blasphemies and Absurdities that arise from the fancy of the Soul Also divers other Mysteries as of Heaven Hell the extent of the Resurrection the New-Creation c. opened and presented to the Trial of better Judgment By R. O. The second Edition by the Author corrected enlarged That which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them all as the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath so that Man hath no pre-eminence above a Beast for all is vanity Eccl. 3.19 Printed at London Anno 1675. To the READER Judicious Reader THy serious perusal but the scorne and devision of the multitude hereof is my expectation Startle not thou be patient reade ponder and Berean like-try whether these things be so or no If any thing in it be worth thy owning take it it is thine as well as mine and I have my end thy benefit I wish it well to all but I feare it will be a Parable so most however I have unbosom'd my duty freely as I have received I give it freely to the World it is my faith as I believe so have I spoken I expect an Answer if it it be such as will not hold tryal it is likely I shall vindicate my self but if by force of Argument it shall convince I shall be ready and free thankefully to embrace it and renounce my errour whether it be in part or in whole though in the maine I am nothing jealous had I therein doubted my weakeness had not been thus visible to the World Whereas in several places scattered thorow the Book the use of the word Soul may seem to some to imply that which I deny let such know it is for Argument sake not intending in the least any self-distinct being by it Thus desiring my endeavours may have a faire and equal tryal by Scripture and solid Reason I commit thee to the blessing of God in the perusal thereof and rest Thine in the love of the Truth R. O. Man's Mortality OR A Treatise proving MAN as he is a Rational creature a Compound wholly mortal CHAP. I. Considerations from Natural Reason disproving the common opinions of the soul and proving man wholly mortal IF we will rationally argue concerning the Soul it is necessary to define what that is to which this immortality is ascribed But since it is defined by some one way by some another way I shall produce some Opinions about it and then bring the most rationall to tryall omitting the more frivolous viz. The Stiocks held it a certain blast hot and fierie or the vitall spirit of the blood The Creatins Blood Gallen a certain exhalation of the purest blood Zeno Cleanthes Antipater and Possiodonius a hot complection or corporeall quality diffused through the whole body Democritus Firc and his opinion was the round atomes being incorporated by aire and fire do make up the Soul Pythagoras opinionated it a Number moving of it self Plato a substance to be conceived in the mind that received motion from it-self according to Number and Harmonie Aristotle the first continual motion of a body natural having in it those instrumental parts wherein was possibility of life Dinarchus an Harmonie of the four elements Nemesius divides it into Phantasie Judgment Memorie Aristotle in his Physicks into vegetative sensitive motive appetetive intellective And Ambrose Parey p. 895. saith the soul is the inward Entelechia or the primative cause of all motions and functions both natural and animal and the true Form of a man It seeth heareth smelleth toucheth tasteth imagineth judgeth c. And more exactly pag. 83. Lib. 3. Cap. 1. he saith the soule is commonly distinguished into three Faculties Animal Vital Natural The Animal into Princial Sensitive motive The Principal into Imaginative seated in the upper part of the braine Reasonable the middle part of the brain Memorative Cerebellum or after-braine The Sensitive into Seeing the eyes Hearing the eares Smelling the nose Tasting the tongue pallet Touching the body The Motive into Progressive legges Apprehensive hands The Vital into Dilative or parts for Respiration weazon lungs Concoctive or parts for vital motion heart and arteries understood by the Pulsificke Facultie The Natural into Nutrative Active Generative which three are performed by the helpe of the Attractive the gullet Retentive lower passage or the stomack Concoctive body of the ventricle Assimulative three small guts Expulsive three great guts Augustine and Athanasius say it is a substance created a spirit intelligent invisible immortal incorporeal like the angels And there be several Opinions of it's Body Lucippus and Hipparchus say it hath a fierie Body Critias and Anaxemines Woolnor and others an aeriall body Hesiod an earthly Epicurius fierie and airie Zenophon watry and earthly Drone a midle betwixt the spirit and the body Didimus and Origen a third substance Divers other conceptions and fancies there be to uphold this ridiculous invention of the Soule traducted from the Heathens who by the Booke of Nature understood an immortality after Death but through their ignorance how or which way this invention reported to be Plato's was occasioned and begot a general beliefe and so they and after them the Christians have thus strained their wiâ—s to such miserable shifts to define what it is but neither conclude any certainty or give satisfaction therein Yet since it is generally concluded to be in man and of man but what where or how no man knowes though such several opinions of it be if but examined I le pitch upon those which afford most conceptory definition that is that of Aristotle Nemesius or Ambrose Parey which make the Soule to be all the internal and external Faculties of man joyntly considered or Man Anatomized and thereto Reply thus All the Faculties of Man severally or together are all and each of them mortal as well those that are peculiar to man as those that are common to Beasts and if all those with his corpulent matter compleating Man be proved mortal then the invention of the Soule upon that ground vanisheth which I thus prove All elementary compositions or Temperatures are mortal and transitory But mans Faculties from the least to the greatest are Temperatures Ergo mortal The Minor is thus proved That which is subject to increase and diminish is a Temperature But all mans Faculties yea those of Reason Consideration Science c. all that distinguish Man from a Beast are augmented by Learning Education c. lessened by negligence
of forgetfulness Isa 38.18 19. For the grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that goe down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day the Father to the Children shall make known thy truth Hence it is plain that during this Death Man is void of actual Being for had he then an incorruptible or present actual Being in glory he should be more capable of the praise and remembrance of the Lord then he was before he dyed Job 3. from the 11. to 20. Why dyed I not from the womb c. for now should I have lien still and been quiet I should have slept and then I should have been at rest as a hidden untimely birth I had not been as Infants that never saw light there the Prisoners rest together they heare not the voyce of the Oppressour Hence followeth that during this Death there is no more present Being to man then to an hidden abortive Embryo in this life and no more capability then light to unborn Infants nor more oppression or torment then where there is none to oppress which is to say He absolutely IS NOT Answerable to that of Jacob Me have ye bereaved of my children Joseph is not and Simeâ—n is not Gen. 42.36 to this adde Psal 146.2 Job 7.21 For now shall I sleepe in the dust and thou shalt seeke me in the Morning but I shall not be 2 Pet. 1.25 Isa 26.14 Psal 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I goe hence and be no more Job 4.17 19 2O 21. Whose foundation is in the dust they perish for ever that is cease to Be till the resurrection Luke 20.37 38. Now that the dead are raised c. relating to Exod. 3.6 I am the God of Abraham c. From whence Christ proveth the resurrection But if Abraham Isaac c. had then lived in their souls it had been no Argument to prove the Resurrection for he had been the God of living souls Abraham Isaac and Jacob though there had been no resurrection Besides he saith all live unto him and this saying is ascribed unto the dead therefore as well may we argue from thence that they lived in their bodies as say they were dead in body but alive in soul unto God for it is impossible to be potentially and actually living at the same time Joh. 12.24 Except a corne of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit compared to 1 Cor. 15. Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die Therefore the soul not dying as the Soularies fabulate nor falling into the ground must abide alone and cannot bring forth fruit at the Resurrection but must abide a bare soul without a body and the body having no life in it falling into the ground cannot die for both vegetative sensitive and rational life is ascribed to the soul but must likewise abide alone and cannot be quickned which is a flat denyal of the Resurrection yet though fundamentally the Soularies thus deny the Resurrection yet verbally they say there is a resurrection which must needs be a strange one and as ridiculous as strange stated after their Imagination For the soul not falling into the ground nor dying must needs abide alone therefore if the body be raised after their conception man would be divided into two immortalities and both alone one might be in the North the other in the South the soul in one place and the body in another yea the soul in Hell and the body in Heaven for the body by their grounds is as innocent from sin as the knife wherewith a man is stabed is free from murther and the soul as guilty of all sin as the murtherer is of the murther the Scripture condemneth the guilty saveth the innocent adjudgeth one for heaven and the other for hell O monstrous Resurrection I hope the Soulary Champions the Priests of the Church of England may be ashamed longer to assert the soul to have all life in it and the body to be but the souls instrument whereby it acts and moves and henceforth cease to delude and stop the mouthes of the people with a bare verbal Resurrection that the end of their faith may be sutable to Christ Jesus the foundation on which it is to be built both real and infallible John 11.43 44. And Jesus cryed with a lovd voyce Lazarus come forth and he that was dead four days vers 39. came forth bound hand and foot with grave-clothes c. If Lazarus soul were in heaven them four dayes he received dammage and not vantage by that Resurrection but it is idle to thinke that he which purchased heaven by his blood should fetch any out after they were in and once there it is impossible to come from thence for should they it were point-blank against the nature of his death who could not worke against himself no more then God can lye 1 Pet. 1.5 7 9 13. compared as Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the Last time that the trial of your faith c. might be found unto Praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls and hope to the end for the grace that is brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ whence it is plain that the end of our faith the salvation of our souls is referred to the day of judgment And Luk. 21.28 then is our Redemption Rom. 8.23 our Adoption to wit the Redemption of our body one with that which Peter calls the salvation of our souls Act. 23.6 24.21 26.6 7. Paul maketh the end of all his hopes and faith to be onely in the Resurrection and 1 Cor. 15.18 saith If the dead rise not believers of all men are most miserable which could not be if they had souls which went presently into glory and the wicked had souls went into Torment though there were no Resurrection yea the day of Judgement throughout the whole World is made both the day of Salvation to the Righteous Rom. 2.16 1 Thes 1.5 7. 1 Pet. 1.5 9 13. 2 Pet. 3.7 Joh. 5.29 Mat. 25.34 Then shall he say Come ye blessed therefore not before then And the day of Condemnation to the wicked Rom. 25 9. 2 Thes 1.6 8 9. Job 21.30 Pro. 16.4 Acts 3.19 1 Pet. 1.10 Luk. 21.28 Joh. 5.29 Mat. 25.41 Then shall he say Depart c. therefore not before then Mat. 7.23 John 3.5 Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven compared to Rom. 6.3 4 5. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised
from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life c. and to these adde 1 Cor. 15.29 Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all Why are they baptized for the dead These places joyntly holding forth the external Ordinance of Baptism or signe of the new Covenant which carieth the full representation of the whole worke of Redemption or perfect figuration of the new Covenant do manifestly set forth this Mortality for the death burial resurrection of Jesus Christ cannot in the external ordinance of bapâ—isme be represented as those places â—old forth it doth but by baptizing that is dipping or submerging the whole man into the water the evidence that whole man shall die and whole man be raised again by the total death and total Resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as ye eat this bread and drinke this Cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come The bread and wine signifying his Body and blood as a sign of his death shew plainly that his death was total which could not be if his life shrunk into his soul and still lived But from hence is plain that not onely body but life it self was offered and dyed for Lev. 17.24 The life of all flesh is the blood thereof compare Gen. 2.4 5. But flesh with the life thereof which is the blood thereof shall you not eat and surely your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require and at the hand of man c. will I require the life of man whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed To these adde 2 Sam. 1.16.8.27 28. and 16.8 Mat. 23.30 35. with various such-like places all which plainly shew the life of all flesh as well of man as of beast is in the blood else Christs death by the representation of his blood could not be set forth nor could any by the effusion thereof die but his Soul blood or life was poured out unto death therefore his death was not in part but of the whole man Psal 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Acts 1.13 He seeing this before spake of the Resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell neither did his flesh see corruption Eccl. 4.1 2 3. doth shew that the living do suffer oppression but to the dead is none and chap. 9.4 5. they know not any thing For a living dog is better then a dead Lion Therefore Psal 146.2 David saith I will sing praises unto my God while I have any Being implying that in death there is no humane being James 4.14 Our life is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Rev. 16.3 Every living soul in the sea died chap 20.4 5. dead souls lived again CHAP. IV. Objections extorted from Scripture Answered OBject 1. Therefore we are alway confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. Whence is inferred a present injoyment of Glory immediately after death I Answer that both the foregoing and subsequent matter deny such an Interpretation or consequence for before wishing to be clothed with our House from Heaven on which is this expression of being present with the Lord he expounds that his meaning is thereby that mortality might be swallowed up of life or as he saith 1 Cor. 15.53 that this corruptable man might put on incorruption and this mortal put on immortalty And the following matter of the said words being laid down as the reason or ground why he so spake prove that by his presence with the Lord he meant nothing else but his state after the Resurrection for saith he We must all appear before the iudgment-seat of Christ that every one c vers 1. Object 2. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better nevertheless to abide in the flesh is much needful for you Phil. 1.23 14. I answer This is of the same nature therefore must have the same Interpretation for Paul did not preach one thing to the Philippians and the contrary to the Corinthians Besides such manner of expressions are not contradictory to this mortalitie for though there be long time to the Living till the Resurrection there is none to the Dead for from Adams death to his Resurrection at the end of the World will be to him as the twinkling of an eye to the Living yea the twinkling of an eye to the living is more time then a thousand yea ten thousand yeares is to the dead For Being onely commensurates with Time or length of days not to Be cannot possibly be capable thereof So that the Livings tedious anniversary expectation of the Resurrection and end of their faith is not a twinkling to the grave the livings Future is the deads Present Therefore it is well figurated in Scripture by sleepe as slept with his Fathers 1 Kings 11.43 fallen asleepe in Christ 1 Cor. 15.18 c. not that it is so long a time to the dead but that in nature there is nothing so represents death or non-being as sleepe So that this may take away all carnal security for who would not watch and pray over-night that knows he must dye in the morning live well and be wary to day that must rise and answer to morrow believe to day that would not be damned but saved to morrow This administers comfort to the righteous but terrour to the wicked Therefore Christ speakeing of his coming to Judgment saith I come quickly my reward is with me to let all men know that in death there is no delay their reward is present he will not stay an instant And further to confirm it saith again Surely I come quickely Amen even so come Lord Jesus Object 3. Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee Luke 12.20 Answ The life of the whole person and not such as is fancied of the soul except it had a mouth to eate drinke c. as vers 9. Object 4. And it came to pass as her soul was in departing Gen. 35.18 Ergo there is such a thing as the Soul which continueth it's Being after death Answ No such matter for the sence of words is as she was dying or life a departing for the following words say she dyed which could not be if her soul her constitutive part lived still no more then a man can be said to lose his hand when he loses a finger Object 5. And he stretched himself upon the Child three times and cried unto the Lord and said O Lord my God pray thee let this
perfect at the first instant as ever afterwards therefore it must be saved or damned if there be any for others but no man knows how or which way except it can be proved Christ dyed for bare souls souls without bodies which will puzzle the cunningest soul that ever was made in the marring and mar'd in the making Further it is objected Creatures propagated out of kinde as by buggery as Apes Satyres c. are supposed are not endowed with reasonable souls Ergo souls are created immediately or however of necessity Gods superficient power is joyned to the propagation thereof Answ As I will not altogether confidently affirm they have rational souls so will I not altogether deny it For in man it is some organical deficiency more or less that is the cause that some men are less rational then others for some have abundance of wisedome and some are meer fools and in children whose Organs are not come to perfection there is not so much as there is in an Ape This premised why in some measure as far as by those improper Organs can be expressed may they not be rational though not in the same degree as is capable of God as well as Infants who are as uncapable pro tempore as Apes But perchance it will be replyed that then Christ dyed for Apes as well as for Infants I answer Christ dyed not for the rational part separated from the material nor the material from the rational if there should be such Buggery-births or if by that unnatural course they should meet in one which is impossible for the blessing of procreating any thing in its kinde is to the kinde for that neither but for the natural production by the conjunction of both Sexes legitimate from Adam and not such unnatural by-blowes As for births out of kinde they come within the compass of the Curse and cannot any wayes claime priviledge in the Restoration but must expect with Thornes Briers and all manner of Vermine and Filth which breedeth on corruption to be done away when mortality is swallowed up of life For all other Creatures as well as man shall be raised and delivered from Death at the Resurrection my Reasons and grounds for it be these First that otherwise the curse in Adam would extend further then the blessing in Christ contrary to the Scriptures For as in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 Therefore Death coming upon all the Creatures by the sin of Adam no death being before sin life shall come upon all by Christ Secondly the Beasts were not given man to eat in the Innocency but to all flesh wherein was the breath of life was given the green herbe for meat Therefore the death of the Beasts c. was part of the Curse and so to be done away by Christ Thirdly If the other Creatures do not rise again then Christ shall not conquer death but when it is said O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory it will be answered In Beasts because they are still captivated under its bondage But as by one man death entered into the world Rom. 5.12 and by man came Death by man shall come resurrection from Death and the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death and Death shall be swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 15.21 54. Therefore Death shall not retain them but they must be delivered out of its Jawes Fourthly these ensuing Scriptures do clearly prove it Col. 1.15 to the 23. All things were created by him and for him whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven and be not removed away from the hope of the Gospel which yee have heard and which was preached to every Creature under Heaven And Mar. 16.15 Go yee into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature that is Glad Tydings life and Resurrection from the bondage of corruption to every Creature by Christ therefore is he said to be the First-born of every Creature the First that 's born or raised from the Dead so that those whereof he is the First must follow that is every creature else could he not be the First-born from the Dead of them all And Rev. 21.5 after the dissolution of all things he saith Behold I make all things New And Psal 104. David reckoning up Men Cattel c. saith Thou takest away their breath and they die thou sendest forth thy spirit and renewest the face of the Earth and Psal 102. speaking of the Heavens saith as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed and Isaiah saith in the New Earth the Wolfe and the Lambe shall feed together and the Lion shall eate straw like a Bullocke and Paul saith Rom. 8.19 20 21. The earnest expectation of the Creature waiteth for the manifectation of the sons of God For the Creature was made subject to vanitie not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope because the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God for we know that the whole Creation groaneth and traveleth in pain till now Therefore the Gospel or Glad Tydings is unto all all are under hope and all things men beasts c. shall be made new or restored at the Resurrection and so Death shall be swallowed up in victory and mortality of life or Death having given up her dead shall be cast into the Lake Rev. 20.13 15. Thus much by the by Now to our matter in hand But be it granted that those births are not endowed with reasonable souls yet doth it not follow that God createth immediately the soul or immediately assisteth nature in it's production more then the body for this is an instance out of kindâ— therefore cannot expect the blessing of the kinde but be as it self is unnatural and cursed for to the kinde is required Sexes of the kinde thereto God hath given the blessing to beget its kinde as well for man to beget perfect man as for the beasts to beget perfect beasts so that whatsoever is born of man naturally is man though one be ennobled with more excellencys then another A born Fool would have been a better instance for if to them rational Souls were denyed it might be thought Nature naturally begetteth meer irrational brutish inhumane bodies and rationality or humanity is a meer supernatural worke To prevent such a cavil I answer that by the Soularies grounds there can be no born fooles Infants new born yea an Embryo should be as actually rational as men of ripeness of years for they say the soul is rationality it self and that rationality is no more of the body then inke is of the pen and the soul is absolutely perfect at the first instant yea 't is forma
Childs soul come into him again And the Lord heard his voyce and the soul of the Child came into him again and he revived 1 King 17.21 22. And Job 14.22 It is said his flesh upon him shall have paine and his soul within him shall mourne Ergo there is such a thing as the soul Answ If it be meant life or breath whose Being is consistent and terminated in a corpulent union For by that of the Child is meant his breath or life the thing that his corpulent matter wanted as vers the 17. implyeth which saith his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him Therefore that which was gone was prayed for his breath or life as his Answer further proveth which was and it revived And by Soul in that of Job is meant his conscience whose seate is in the reasonable and memorative Faculties Therefore the use of the word Soul in those places doth not prove such a thing in man as is supposed For in Scripture it is variously used upon various occasions It is put for the Stomack Pro. 27.7 for the eyes Jer. 13.17 for the heart 1 Sam. 18. for God Pro. 9.16 Heb. 10.38 Jer. 14.17 for the dead body Psal 16.10 for the whole man Lev. 7.19 and 4.1 Acts 7.14 Num. 15.39 Rom. 13.1 Gen. 12.5 and 46. Acts 2.41 1 Pet. 3.20 for breath Act. 20.10 for life Isa 53.17 Therefore from those places those parts may as well be proved so many Souls or Spirits of immortalitie as from those where it is put for breath or life it 's Being be proved or such an immortal existence to be in the body But to this Objection might be added Christs raising of Lazarus and others from the dead and it would make a very good plea for Purgatory Because from hell there is no returning and from heaven none could be thankful to be called again and it cannot be supposed that Christ would work miracles for any for which they should not have cause to be thankful to him and therefore these persons raised from the dead if they shall be supposed to have immortal Souls their return must needs be from some one of the Popes supposed Lymbocs or other Object 6. For which cause we faint not for though our outward man perish yet the inward is renewed day by day Ergo there is soul and body in man Answ It is not said though our flesh perish yet our souls are renewed then 't were something to little purpose but it is said our outward man which compared with what is meant by inward man must needs be whole man for by inward man is meant faith or worke of grace 2 Cor. 5.17 which is no part of natural man so that without it or it's renewing we are men perfect as well as with it Object 7. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of a beast that goeth downward to the earth Wherefore man hath a soul that goeth presently to Heaven but the beasts to the earth Answ It cannot bear the sence for immediately before he saith their breath is all one there is no difference as the one dyeth so dyeth the other and goeth to one place the dust Therefore if the beasts be reversed into the elements so must mans The meaning I take to be thus that such a wonderful thing is the breath of a man that breatheth upward and the breath of a beast that breatheth downward for spirit signifieth breath according to that of Ovid Pronaque cum spectent animalia caetera terram Os Homini sublime dedit coelumque videre Jussit erectos ad sidera tollere vultus that it's Faculty how it is is past finding out for Art in all her imitations could never touch that secret with her pensill Object 8. Feare not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather feare him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell Answ This carries the face indeed of the souls immortality but if the interpretation must be confined to that sence it overthrowes the current of the whole Scripture Wherefore my opinion of it is that by not able to kill the soul is meant as Luke hath it chap. 12.4 have no more that they can do that is though they have power over this life or the natural Body that is sowne in corruption they have none over the Spiritual that is raised in incorruption which spiritual Bodies of men raised from the dead are by Saint John in Rev. 20 4 5. termed Souls I saw the Souls saith he of those that were beheaded for Christ and they lived and reigned with him a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were ended the Souls then that lived and reigned with him are none other then the persons that were first raised by him from the dead at his coming over whom none hath power but God alone who therefore is most chiefly to be feared This doth not set forth any immortality before the Resurrection but shews that onely that is in Gods hand and he onely able to touch it that is cast it into Hell That this must be so expounded I further prove from the non-entitie of Hell for there can be no casting into Hell before Hell be which though it be ordained of old Isa 30.33 it is but in posse not in esse till the Resurrection for satisfaction it is convenient to declare what we mean by Hell for Hell is diversly used in Scripture It is put for the grave Psal 16.10 and 55.15 Isa 14.15 for the Whale in which Jonah was Jon. 2.2 for Sathans Kingdome leading to Hell Mat. 16.18 for Satan or his malignant Spirits Jam. 3.6 for the place of the damned Mat. 5.29 and 10.28 Luke 12.5 and 16.23 2 Pet. 2.4 this last the place of the damned is that which we mean by Hell and it is likewise variously called as outer darkness Mat. 22.13 and 23.33 wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 and 5.9 Chaines of darkness 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. eternal fire Jude 23. second death Rev. 20.6 bottomless pit Rev. 9.2 place of torment Rev. 14.10 and 20.10 Lake of fire Rev. 29.20 and 21.8 everlasting punishment Mat. 25.41 46 blackness of darkness for ever Jude 13. Those several expressions are generally taken to set forth the end of the Reprobate or the execution of Gods wrath upon them Therefore if none of the forementioned places that Hell is put for save that of the place of the damned be taken for Hell then most of those several expressions suite with it yea declare it but the expressions in general grant no immediate execution after this death but imply the contrary as we may see if we examine them First in Mat. 22.13 when it is called outer darkness and 23. vers 33. damnation of Hell compared with cap. 25.41 where it is said Then shall he say unto them on the left hand