accrue in defence by overthrowing or weakning of the Opposite Tenet I shall here begin to sharpen the point and turn the edge of Argument against the Opposite not so much Party as Opinion I begin this Argument Arguendo Negativis and I say First That Humane Souls Immateriality is not taught in the Catechism publickly used authoriz'd by our Church Secondly It is not imposed by any of our Thirty nine Articles Thirdly It is not expresly required to be delivered by any of our Three most ancient Creeds Fourthly We meet not with any Canons of the Four First General Councils that recommend it Fifthly In the whole Bible there is not one plain positive Affirmation That a Humane Soul doth separately subsist after Death of the Body Nor That it is Immaterial or Immortal nor so much That it is Intelligent Sixthly There are no Sentences in the Bible no nor Words which Doctrinally do teach the Immateriality viz. Whos 's Principal Intent at their Delivery was to teach the matter of the Immateriality For Proof of this last Assertion there seems requisite an Examination of the most Important Particulars alledged for Proof of this Tenet Matth. 10.28 Fear not them who kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul I take the Doctrine principally intended in this Text to be A teaching of the Apostles then newly instituted to be bold in their Promulgation of the Gospel and in their so doing to fear more the Power and Wrath of God than of Men and with this concurs Luke 12.4 both Evangelists testifie this and agree fully in it If Matthew's Text had intended to teach the Immateriality this short Expression seems a very transient or even a superficial manner of doing it had that therefore been the intent of this Text it seems some farther Declaration would here have been made of it In Verses 32. and 33. pursuing the same Discourse or Doctrine our Lord says Those who confess him he will confess before his Father which is in Heaven and those who deny him he will so deny which to my apprehension intimates and intends the Judgment of the Last Day where Christ shall be the Judge and own and disown as he pleases We find Luke's words in the delivery of this Doctrine do not mention a Separate Subsistence or Killing the Body without Killing the Soul In the main intent of the Doctrine viz. Fearing God more than Men they agree and say the same thing but in words importing the Separate State they differ ergo The main intent of this Text was to teach the fearing of God more than man and the words importing a Separate State of the Soul are but collateral and St. Luke deliversng the main Doctrine without these words or others of like import it seems St. Matthew's words which are of that import may pass for a way of wording this Doctrine in Expressions sutable to his Opinion of the thing Another Text alledg'd for Proof of Immateriality is Luk. 23.43 Our Lord to the Thief To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Such Proof of the Immateriality as arises from hence seems clearly no more but a Collection upon Inferences for there appears no Intent in this Text to teach that Doctrine viz. of the Immateriality Vers 46. of the same Chap. Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and St. Stephen's Lord Jesus receive my Spirit it seems were not spoken with intent to teach the Souls Immateriality or Separate Subsistence but as a recommending of themselves to God and Christ in the uttermost Extremities of their Conditions The Parable of Dives Luk. 16.19 seems to me spoken principally upon this Occasion Ver. 14. Our Lord's Discourse was derided by the Pharisees He answers them God knows your hearts for that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God This Vers 15. and Ver. 19. begins the Parable of Dives perfectly proper for the Illustration of this Assertion for what more highly esteemed amongst Men than the Condition of Dives And what more miserable than that of Lazarus And yet in the sight of God the Case was quite contrary I say the main Design and Intent of this Parable seems to have been the Illustration of this Doctrine and not to teach any thing concerning the Separate Subsistence of Souls of which it speaks according to the common conception of that time Phil. 1.21 To me to live is Christ and to die is gain I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better but to abide in the Flesh is more needful for you Here doth not appear to my understanding any Intent to teach the Souls Immateriality but that the state of the Dead in CHRIST is more to be desired and more happy than a state of Life in this World ' specially one like that of St. PAVL then being Paul the Aged and a Prisoner Chap. 2.17 ready to be offered upon the Service and Sacrifice of Faith Who would not choose a Death in Christ rather than such a Life and would not abide in the Flesh but for the Good of other People and Service of the Gospel Here appears no Intent of St. Paul's to teach the Soul's Immateriality Mat. 16.26 Of gaining the World and losing Mens Souls I hold evidently unproving So 2 Cor. 5.8 Of being absent from the Body and present with the Lord hath very little appearance of Proof and no semblance of Intent to teach the Immateriality These Eight Texts I take for the most alledged and the most proving the Immateriality of a Humane Soul in which I have pretended to shew That they intend not as their prime Design to Prove or Maintain the Immateriality of an Humane Soul And I think this goes far in the Proof of my Assertion viz. That there are no Sentences or Words in the Bible whose principal Intent at their Delivery was to assert or teach the Soul's Immateriality And here I finish my Proof ex Negativis The Belief of the Immateriality is not required at our hands nor to be exacted of any Man I now proceed to Positive Proofs importing a greater Probability of the Humane Soul's being Material and Extinguishable then Immaterial and Separately Subsisting Intending which I say if after Death a Man's Soul obtain a Separate Subsistence and be at greater Liberty than it was living in the Man and in a full State and Capacity of Acting Enjoying and Suffering Then the calling Man's Death a Sleep and a Rest appears a very improper and even a misleading sort of Expression but the Scripture in very many places calls Death a Sleep and a Rest Ergo If the Soul so subsist after Death as before is said the Scripture in its Terming Death a Sleep and a Rest speaks very improperly and somewhat misleading in very many Places In Proof of the Major Proposition I say Those who do sensibly perceive and actually understand remember believe and will cannot properly be said to be in a
answers This Soul is the very Form and though it have its Proper Subsistence yet it doth totally communicate it self to Matter because its Nature is Essentially united to Matter and for the Form to communicate with the Matter is totally to be united to it He says Humane Souls are produced by Creation other Souls by Generation but the very Being of a Form is its Vnion with the Subject Yet not to depend upon it Objectors say the Humane Soul works without any Dependence upon its Subject or the Bodily Organs and therefore is not a true Form He answers by granting it works so in a State of Separation but denies it doth so in a State of Union with the Body and in this he contradicts our next preceding Author who will have the Soul work without help of the Body or its Organs even whil'st it is in a State of Union with the Body And our Author agrees with Aristotle in this That the Souls not working in a State of Union without the Bodily Organs is an Evidence that a State of Separation is not Natural to the Soul For Aristotle puts the Matter upon this Trial and our Author agrees the Evidence demanded Fol. 11. Nu. 4. Divers have thought the Soul to be Material as Cleanthes and Chrysippus and many of the Stoicks and so Apollinaris of Alexandria and Tertullian Nu. 5. Many Old Hereticks thought the Soul to be a Spark of the Divinity or a Particle of God so Philojudaeus Fol. 12. Nu. 6. Origen thought the Soul not distinguishable from Angels Nu. 7. The Luciferians said It was propagated from the Seed Nu. 9. Origen taught that Souls were Angels who after having sinned were for their Punishment put into Bodies as into Prisons Nu. 10. Others said the Soul was in the Body as Light is in the Air a Directive Qualification and this divers do say was Aristotle's Opinion Nu. 16. Cites the Lateran Councel under Leo X. saying It is as certain that the Soul is Immaterial as that it is Immortal and that it is Immortal is de Fide Fol. 13. Nu. 17. He argues The Soul as a Natural Form is not capable of knowing Spiritual Beings nor or of making Collections or Universals or Reflex Discourses concerning all which we have before spoken Nu. 19. Angels know by Intuition but a Soul only by Apprehension Composition Discourse Perceivance Internal and the Outward Senses Nu. 22. The Soul is Form to the Body therefore it must be produced in Union with it and cannot naturally be produced in time before the Body Fol. 14. N. 27. The Soul as Rational is united with the Body because it exercises all Acts of Reason in the Brain upon the Disposition of which it doth depend for such Purposes and if the Organs there do fail or are obstructed the Soul cannot act Reasonably as appears in Distracted Persons or Furious or otherwise disordered Nu. 29. and 30. Cites Cajetan and Ferrara who do not allow the Soul as Rational to be the Natural Form of the Body or united to it as such but would have it placed in a Superior Degree to the Body which our Author doth not allow Fol. 18. N. 7. He argues a Material Phantasy offered to the Intellect produceth therein a Species impressed upon it or expressed in it the Action which is here productive of this Spiritual Species received in the Soul depends upon the Phancy which is a Corporeal Thing Whence a Thing that is Spiritual may depend upon one that is Material Fol. 19. Nu. 11. He denies the Mode of the Union betwixt Soul and Body to be Spiritual And I say it seems not Miraculous but Natural However many of our Authors conceive miraculous New Creations and Unions upon Fruitful Coitions Lawful or Unlawful Fol. 20. N. 16. Seems to believe that in the Union of Soul and Body there is a Penetration and Mixture of both Nu. 17. And that a Spiritual Thing may consist of Parts Nu. 18. Says The Soul is not compounded of Essential Parts viz. Matter and Form Nu. 21. nor of Integral Parts but is an Indivisible Entity Fol. 21. Nu. 26. This Soul is objected may inform or be in divers Parts of the Body therefore it may be in many more Parts and though Indivisible may inform a very great Bulk of Matter He answers The Soul is fitted for a Humane Body and terminated in it and is neither too great or too little for it I say this needs Proof and yet hath none Fol. 22. Nu. 28. The Soul can inform but one Heart and Head and such other Parts as are in Connexion with them or unseparated but no Proof offered And what shall be said of one Joint-Body to the Navel and thence to both Bodies and Heads of which divers Examples have been Fol. 24. Nu. 14. Says The Material Soul as in Beasts may be Indivisible into Integral Parts Fol. 25. Nu. 1. Says Certain it is that Souls in the Body do act diversly in divers Parts of that Body it Sees in the Eyes Hears in the Ears c. Fol. 27. N. 19. and they are acted by the Soul in and according to the Aptitude and Power of the several Parts and Organs of the Body and as God hath appointed them to be performed and done And to this I agree Fol. 28. N. 1. Some hold that all Souls of one Sort or Kind are Vnequal one to another Contra Others say there can be no Vnequality amongst them In this must be observed That to be Equal is one thing and to be Alike is another thing nor are they the same with Agreeable or Disagreeable Fol. 35. N. 33. One Man may have more perfect Accidents than another and so for Operations by reason of Accidental Advantages or Disadvantages and so one same Person may be accidentally more or less Perfect at Times But this proves not an Inequality amongst Souls N. 34. Not proving a Natural either Inequality or Dissimilitude he proposes a Prudential one For says he the Affirming that Judas had a Soul equal to that of Christ or his Mother would be harsh and imprudent and therfore we may say Souls existing may be both Vnlike and Vnequal And even from the Ground laid in Generation Degrees of Qualification may arise Fol. 36. N. 1. Each Living Creature hath a Soul and but one Fol. 37. N. 7. The Vegetative and Sensitive are formally included in the Rational Soul for that is the Formal Principle of Humane Life and Sense And I do agree them and Reason to come all from one Principle Fol. 41. N. 1. Wit can either be separated from Knowledge or it cannot We have said it cannot N. 3. He cites an Opinion from Ariaga that Life or Living is Real or Intentional the Real Worldly must have a Nourishment as in Plants Brutes and Men the Life Intentional hath Principles of Knowledge and Appetite comprehending God Angels and all that have Life Whence says he Plants live only on the Gross or Real Life Animals that have
And it seems this Crying by the Souls was in the same manner as the Blood of Abel's Cying from the Ground against his Murtherer and as all Notable Actions good or bad do depend for Recompence upon the Effects of God's Divine Providence Justice and Power and so we leave it Luke 23.43 Christ says to one of the Crucified Thieves Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thorn be with we in Paradise This could not be performed in their Bodies for that our Lord's lay in the Grave till the Third Day therefore it must be fulfilled in their Souls separated from their Bodies To this Objection the Answer may have Two Parts First We quote Matth. 27.24 The Thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his Teeth And Mark 15.32 They that were crucified with him reviled him Both these Evangelists agree that they both the Thieves that were crucified with him reviled him S. Luke is commonly taken for the Pen-man of S. Paul by whom this Gospel is believed to have been dictated But neither of these are taken to have been Eye-Witnesses or that they were by and present at this Fact S. Mark is taken to write from the Mouth of S. Peter although it might possibly be from the Apostle S. Barnabas either of which Apostles were likely to be Eye-Witnesses of the Fact then done And S. Matthew was himself both Apostle and Evangelist and likely an Eye-Witness of the Fact and there is an Old Rule That one Eye-Witness is better than two Ear-Witnesses of any Fact We conclude then that here are Two Witnesses against One and that One but an Ear-Witness of that Fact And therefore there is a Ground to question the very Truth of S. Luke's Relation seeing he wrote but by Relation and what he says stands not of it self and can with great Difficulty be made to stand in Agreement with what the other two Evangelists have delivered Secondly We say to the Words To day thou shalt be with me they may be expounded from other like Expressions Heb. 3.7 cites Psalm 95.7 To day if ye will hear his Voice Ver. 13. Exhort one another daily whilst it is called to day Here it seems the Word Day is not limited to an Artificial or a Natural Day but signifies a present but yet a competent Time Luke 19.42 Christ wept over Jerusalem saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy Day viz. hadst known that Time of my present Call unto thee here exprest by the Word Day So The Son of Man must be Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth And yet we know Christ lay in the Grave but Two Nights viz. Friday and Saturday Nights and for Days only one whole one viz. Saturday for he was buried on Friday at Even and rose very early upon Sunday Morning Whence it seems the Words To day shalt thou be with me need not be limited to a precise Day Artificial or Natural but may be reasonably intended to signifie within some short Time after that Promise And that we may the better account for the same there shall be cited Jo. 20.17 Our Lord lately risen says to Mary Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father And the same Day at Evening Ver. 19. came Jesus and stood in the midst among his Discipler And Luke 24.39 he says Handle me and by Feeling perceive and see that I have Flesh and Bones which a Spirit hath not Hence may be collected that betwixt his appearing to Mary that Morning and to his Disciples in the Evening he had ascended to his Father and returned Matth. 27.52 When Christ died The Graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after our Lord's Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Amongst these we have reason to suppose was the Body of this Thief as well as his Soul the Flame of Life re-kindled in him as well as in those other Saints and of our Lord himself and that he the Thief and the other Saints then rising did make this Ascent with our Lord upon Sunday next after the Friday Night of his Suffering And this I conceive was enough to satisfie our Lord's Expression of To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise in so short a Time as it may be counted present or to day And this Resurrection might occasion some to think as 2 Tim. 2.18 that the Resurrection was past already and was not in Future to be expected Luk. 23.46 Jesus cried with a loud Voice and said Father into thy Hands I commend my Spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost And to this we join Acts 7.59 They stoned Stephen calling and saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit This Objection from recommending the Spirit of a Dying Person to God and Christ Men say imports a Spiritual Being or a Soul in Man which is capable of a Subsistence and hath such a Subsistence in a State separated from the Body The Objection is of the same Nature with that from Solomon The Spirit returns to God that gave it and requires some Repetition of what was thereunto answered And for findding out the Sence and Intent of the Word Spirit Places of Scripture shall be quoted 1 Sam. 30.12 When the starved Egyptian had eaten some Figs and Raisins his Spirit came again to him seems his Spirit of Life his Vital Spirits Ezra 1.5 They stood up whose Spirit God had raised to go and build the Temple seems to intend their Inclination and Affection Job 20.3 The Spirit of my Vnderstanding causeth me to answer seems the Eagerness of his Desire Chap. 21.4 Why should not my Spirit be troubled viz. why should not I be troubled Psalm 51.17 The Sacrifice of God it a broken Spirit there is paraphrased by a contrite Heart 143.4 My Spirit is vexed within me and my Heart within me is desolate Prov. 18.14 The Spirit of a Man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear viz. a good or bad Conscience Chap. 25.28 He that hath no Rule over his own Spirit it like a City broken down and without Walls Here Spirit must signifie Affections Eccles 8.8 No Man hath Power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit seems Men's Passions Prov. 20.27 The Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord searching the inward Parts of the Belly viz. Man's Reason and Knowledge is the Candle Psalm 31.6 Thou art my strength into thy hand I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me God had saved him in his Troubles and therefore he again commends himself to God under the Term of his Spirit Dan. 5.12 An excellent Spirit Knowledge and Vnderdeastanding was found in Daniel The latter Words expound Spirit Acts 17.16 Paul's Spirit was stirred in him at Athens he was moved and provoked Chap. 18.25 Apollos was fervent in Spirit or was Zealous 1 Cor. 5.5 Deliver the Man to Satan that the Spirit
therefore might judge all things But we cannot allow the present Pretenders amongst us to apply this to themselves or to any of theirs Ver. 16. Says We have known the Mind of Christ viz. by Revelation of the Spirit not only by the Letter Nay from the Spirit in them by whom the Letter of what we call Gods Word was dedicated and framed Eph. 3.3 Ye have heard of the Grace of God given me and that by Revelation God made known unto me the Mystery viz. that Mystery intended in our present Chapter Col. 1.26 Even the Mystery which hath been hid from all Ages and Generations But was then made manifest to the Saints of that Time Eph. 1.17 I pray that God will give you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation the Eyes of your Vnderstanding being enlightened that ye may know the Hope of his Calling and the Riches of his Glory Galat. 1.16 It pleased God to call me by his Grace and to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him Ver. 12. I neither received the Doctrine of the Gospel from Man nor was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ Nor did he then consult with other Apostles or his own Flesh and Blood about it but went into Arabia far from other Teachers Acts 8.26 The Angel of the Lord spake to Philip saying arise and go towards the South with other Directions Ver. 29. The Spirit said to Philip go near and join thy self to this Chariot Ver. 39. When they were come up out of the Water the Spirit of God caught away Philip and the Eunuch saw him no more Act. 10.19 While Peter thought on the Vision the Spirit said to him behold three Men seek thee arise and go with them for I have sent them So Chap. 11.12 The Spirit bad me go with them nothing doubting Act. 13 2. As at Antioch they ministred to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the Work whereunto I have appointed them Acts 16.6 Paul was forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia Ver. 7. And they essayed to go into Bithynia but the Spirit suffered them not These Texts have been quoted to evince and declare the Manner and Efficacy of God's Communicating his Spirit in those Times Of which sort our present Pretenders to Endowments of the Spirit have not a Face to challenge any thing We return now to Examination of our quoted Text and Chapter and say That the Wisdom of which St. Paul here speaks is the Wisdom of God in a Mystery ordained before the World unto our Glory called Eph. 1. The Mystery which had been hid from Ages and Generations but was made manifest to the Saints of that Time Mentioned Matth. 16.17 Peter says to his Master thou art Christ the Son of the living God And Jesus answered Flesh and Blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven The Redemption of the World by Christ and that Jesus preached to the People was Christ was the Mystery of St. Paul intended in this Text. The Princes of this World had no Knowledge of this Mystery for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory This was not a Thing that could enter into the Senses or the Heart of Man to conceive But God had then revealed it by his Spirit to the Holy Apostles and Disciples of that Time who had received the Spirit of God that they might know this Mystery as a Thing freely given to them of God of which they spake in Words taught by the Spirit But the Natural Man or the Reason of Man could not find out or were not capable of receiving this Mystery by any Helps of Nature or Reason for this Mystery would be Foolishness to a Natural Man and could not be known by Natural Means or Grounds of Reason but must be Spiritually discerned by Revelation of God's Spirit For the Things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God As our Lord to Peter Flesh and Blood hath not revealed this to thee but my Father hath done it A Thing which no other Means had Power to do Not Man's Nature or his Reason Nothing could discover this to Man but the Revelation of Gods Spirit Every Parcel of this Mystery is above the Natural Man's Capacity and Comprehension What Eye had ever seen or Ear heard or what Heart had ever conceived That a Woman should bear a Child without the Assistance of a Man The Virgin demands How can this Thing be seeing I know not a Man The Natural Man could not receive this small or least Part of the Mystery of Man's Redemption but it would appear Foolishness to him Not to speak of the Trinity and Second Person in it united to the Nature of Man and chusing to appear in the Form of a Servant to undergo Contempt Want Pain and Death and rise again by his own Power and that his so doing should be Expiatory for the Sins of Men and be so accepted in the Sight of God the Natural Man receives not cannot naturally receive the Things of this Mystery for they are Foolishness to him nor can his Reason know or conceive them because they are and must be Spiritually discerned viz. must come to be first known by the Revelation of God's Spirit only Our Apostle's Text thus applied is not only firm and true but also plain and clear intelligible and rational which Men take upon them to confound by taking a dictum secundum quid for a dictum simpliciter and applying what the Apostle speaks concerning this great Mystery and concerning the first and eminent Revelations of it to all Occasions Persons and Times without observing the Measures of Difference which ought to be made between them concerning which we say That although at the first Times of making this great Mystery known to the World there was no Way of Producing that Effect save the only Revelation of God by his Spirit and the same was performed accordingly Yet in a short Process of Time it came to pass that this Mystery was Taught Accepted and Believed by Natural Men upon Reasonable Grounds and without being counted Foolishness amongst them viz. when God by his Spirit had revealed this Mystery to Peter Paul and the rest of the rest of the Disciples of our Lord and other Christians Then they preached the same to other Men and declared this Mystery to them Mark 16.23 They went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with Signs following Their Auditors Natural Men had Reason to consider the Teachers the Doctrine and the Signs following The Teachers were Men Sober and Pious not seeking Worldly Interests ready to suffer for Justifying the Truth of their Doctrines and without Exceptions in the Course of their Lives The Doctrine was Sublime said to be revealed by God the Facts delivered of our Lord's Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascension and Descent of the
Notwithstanding the Souls Separate Subsistence Vers 15. We have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up if so be that the Dead rise not Vers 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished But if at Death they went to Heaven they should not be perished though there were no Resurrection Thus by the Doctrine of the Immediate Avolation to Heaven that of the Resurrection the Main Comfort and Support of Christian Believers is not only undermined but is made a kind of Insipid and Useless Doctrine not worthy to be remembred by our Author or other Zealous Proselites and Defenders of the Immateriality Let them alone as Persons hood-winked by an Old mistaken Opinion to lead those who follow them into lesser Falls or more dangerous Precipices but our endeavor is to detect the Fallacies of that Opinion which I pray God prosper no otherwise than as it is Grounded upon Truth and Verity To this Pag. 46. Our Author goes on in a proving manner and I have traced him accordingly Page by Page but in his Progress he now begins to make Inferences and raise Doctrines of which I do not pretend to take Notice but intend to pass over them without omitting any thing which I think to be Material and Proving Pag. 48. He says Happy had it been for bad Men if their Souls had been like the Beasts extinguishable in Death for then all their Miseries had ended there I say Mark what little or no account he makes here of the Resurrection so solemnly plainly and fully Published and Promised in the Gospel he doth not so much as name or remember such a thing which would fully avoid his Positive Determination Pag. 49. Says 'T is a great mistake that the Soul is only capable of Social Glory in Partnership with the Body and cannot exert its own Power nor enjoy Happiness in the absence of the Body The Opinion of the Sleeping Interval says he took its rise from this Error Say I from this Truth only the Holders of this Opinion did not Penetrate to the bottom of the Truth viz. the Temporal Extinguishment of the Soul They thought it had a Separate Subsistence but in a Limbus or Dormitory where it neither did nor suffered any thing wanting a Capacity to do so without the Body I say The Temporary Extinguishment is to be preferred before this Dormitory and is far more agreeable to Nature and Reason He says The Soul doth not necessarily depend upon the Body in its Operations but that it can live and act out of a Body as well as in it I say What is Petitio Principii if this be not And so is all the rest which follows here He quotes Luke 23.43 and Phil. 1.23 both before fully answered Pag. 50. He says All Souls by Nature are as excellent one as another I say there are great differences amongst them and we see it plainly in the different Performances and Perfections of Men to be referred partly to Body and Organs and partly to the Vigor Purity and Brightness of the Material Soul in them He cites Ezek. 48.4 All Souls are mine This I say intends Persons the Soul that sins shall surely die viz. the Person Vers 5. If a Man be just c. shews Soul here intends Person Pag. 51. and is but a phancy but I say Redemption was not of Souls only but of Persons Pag. 52. cites 3 Joh. 2. I wish that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy Soul prospereth I say this intends thy Person and Temporal Affairs as thy Practices of Piety Then he says There are great differences betwixt Soul and Soul in respect of Natural Gifts and Abilities of Mind and the Soul is more vigorous when the Body and its Organs are more sound and apt And says the same that I said before against what himself said before Pag. 54. Says Those who perish will find themselves as capable of Blessedness as those that obtain it I say perhaps their Bodily Temper and Capacities could not be equally assistant to their Souls Pag. 59. Says The Food of every Creature is agreeable to its Nature and that the Soul doth not live upon Material Things as the Body doth I say The Soul cannot live in the Body without Food and if not in the Body then no where For I think there is no place where it can live but in the Body and each in its own Body and not out of that Body to which it is Con-natural He cites Luke 12.19 Soul take thine ease Eat Drink and be Merry and says The Soul cannot do so I say Soul here as in very many places intends Person or the Man and yet the Soul of Man is refreshed and renewed by Meat and Drink and cannot subsist without them Pag. 61. Cites Rom. 1.9 Paul says God whom I serve with my Spirit adding Paul durst appeal to God who searched his Heart as if he took Heart and Spirit for the same thing here and to that I agree Pag. 63. To what he says here I answer Humane Apprehensions of a World to come may fully be answered by the Resurrection and the Last Judgment And yet I do not grant that such Apprehensions do grow from Mans Nature purely or nakedly considered but Nature cultivated by Education or Doctrine He cites Rom. 2.14 The Gentiles do by Nature the things contained in the Law I say this intends Cultivated Nature or an Universal Education We find all People have Speech and yet Men cannot speak without being Taught and those who Teach them to speak give them Impressions of Morality and Religion viz. Nurses and Mothers Pag. 65. I say to this He who ingages against Man doth so against his Soul and Body for they are inseparable by any thing but Death Pag. 68. This Discourse by the Word Soul intends Heart or Affections and the Mind of Man Pag. 70. He says The Soul and Body are knit together by the feeble hand of the Breath in their Nostrils but his Quotation speaks more truly And I say That Union is a Work of God and his Hand-maid Nature that it Springs ab ovo and both grow out of the same Root or Principle viz. the Seed in Generation and are separable only by Death He says The Life of the Body results from its Vnion with the Soul as James 2.26 and I grant it Pag. 74. Cites Psal 104.29 When thou takest away their Breath they die and return to their dust This say I makes Soul and Breath Equivalent He cites Psal 66.8 God holdeth our Soul in Life This I say intends keeps us alive viz. our Persons Pag. 89. Cites Revel 6.9 and calls the Text a firm Foundation for the Souls Immortality Whereas this Cry of Souls under the Altar is apparently Parabolical and no more real than the Voice of Abel's Blood Crying from the Ground to God no more than the great Red Dragons drawing the third part of the Stars with his Tail
53.10 Thou shalt make his Soul an Offering for Sin viz. his Person For none will deny his Body to have been made a visible Offering for Sin one as well and as much as the other his whole Person was so Psal 31.5 Into thy hand I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me David was then alive and in Condition to write this Psalm and had a Body as well as a Spirit and under the Term of Spirit commended his Person or himself to God Luk. 23.56 Our Lord did the very same he knew his Body was to rise early upon the Third Day yet Cryed Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Recommending by that Term himself or his Person Soul and Body So David My Soul is among Lions deliver my Soul from the Sword the Lord is with them that uphold my Soul viz. Deliver me uphold me So Jonathan loved David as his own Soul viz. as he did himself his own Person And this Form of Expression seems agreeable enough to Reason and common Practice in other Cases Pars pro Toto As we use to say Sweet Soul and dear Heart Forma dat esse rei And so Men frequently use by the most noble Part to express or denote the whole And hence I conclude that the last Part of Moses's Text here is well Paraphrased And Man became a Living Person without intent to speak of a Soul by its self or otherwise then as in conjunction with the Body it helped to make up the Person And because this is a Material Point and beats hard upon our Opponents Foundation another Parallel Text shall be cited for Illustration and Confirmation of the same viz. Ezech. 37. The Prophecy over dry Bones which thereupon came together and the Sinews and Flesh came up upon them and the Skin covered them above but there was no Breath in them Then he was commanded to Prophecy over these Bones yet not to call for Souls or Spirits for their Animation but to say to the Wind Thus saith the Lord God Come from the four Winds O Breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live And thereupon the Breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great Army Here it seems we have a Specimen of the First Mans Creation viz. His Body was first made ready for that Animating Breath which should first tine and kindle the Flame of Life in his Body then made ready for it And this Flame constantly fanned by Respiration and un-put out or extinguished by any violent or other means seems to be the Actus primus Corporis Organici Whilst that continues flaming and glowing the Person lives when that is extinguish'd the Person dies beyond Remedy and being once extinguish'd in all Parts of the Body it cannot be again re-kindled but by fresh Fire from Heaven or a Divine Power Our Author Pag. 252. He says The Radical Moisture which is daily consuming by the Flame of Life must needs be spent e're long And I say that if this Flame be not fed and nourished by Food and Viands competent and of suitable Nature this Flame must first diminish then decay and lastly be extinguished as daily Experience teaches in Times of Scarcity and Famine and the like distressing Accidents So as this Vision gives us some Traces whereby the manner of Adam's Creation and the Infusion of the Breath of Life into him may guessingly be collected And as it directs backwards to the Creation so it doth it forwards open some Prospect towards the manner of our expected Resurrection in which after the Body shall have been made ready and compleat for the Reception and Nourishment of it the Animating Breath shall again kindle in it the Flame of Life as by God shall be appointed for the Actuating such Raised Bodies and as it did before their former Dissolution And this Flame will be of the same Kind and Nature with the former and as much the same as the Bodies then Rising will be the same Bodies with the former before it was a body with such Organs acted by a Natural Flame of Life and the same shall it be after the Resurrection with this Change to the Blessed that their Natural Body shall be made a Spiritual Body By this Counter Exposition of Moses's Text before recited I pretend to have battered and shaken or even to have overthrown the First and one of the Main Foundations of our Author's Opinion upon which he principally insists and grounds himself in the first 46 Pages of his Book And I now proceed to propound an Argument in direct Opposition to his Opinion and all that he hath said in maintenance of the same Thus then I argue That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh but the Soul as well as the Body is generated and comes of Flesh Ergo The Soul is a Material and not an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit The Major of these Propositions is apparently agreeable to the Course of Nature and John 3 6. sufficiently supported by our Lords own Assertion The Minor I prove by Gen. 5.3 Adam begat a Son in his own likeness after his Image Hence I argue Adam after the breathing into him of the Breath of Life became a Living Person and continued to be so at the Procreation and Birth of his Son therefore the Procreation of a Son in his own likeness intends That the Son was generated a Living Person but so he could not be without a Soul or Spirit James 2.26 The Body without the Spirit is dead and Nature agrees viz. That one cannot be a Living Person unless he have the two Essential Parts which constitute the same viz. Body and Soul It seems clear That when Adam begat a Son he begat a Living Person and that so he could not be without a Soul Ergo Adam begetting a Son in his own likeness a Living Person begat his Soul as well as his Body And for a farther Proof of my Minor Proposition I argue again from Gen. 1.28 and 9.2 God says to our First Parents Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and bring forth abundantly in the Earth Hereupon I say That if Man do not beget a Son in his own likeness after his Image viz. a Living Person as Adam is said to do it could not be in the Power or Nature of Man to replenish the Earth with other Men or Persons like himself or of his own Kind and Nature And to believe or maintain otherwise crosses not only the import of these Texts but the common experience of Mankind also and the Evidences appâ—aring every day for Children are born all the World over with their perfection of parts little indeed but magnum in parvo potentia and perfectly Living Persons in the likeness of their Parents and the very Abbreviations and Epitomes of them Some say but they are but vain words That the Parents procreate the Body only but the Soul a Praeexistent Spirit lies hovering in the Air