a great Naturalist viz. What kind of Matter or Thing is the Soul apart from the Body Where lies the Cogitation which she hath What doth she apart by her self without the assistance of Bodily Organs Mr. M. in this Chapter ascribes to his sort of Soul a great number and variety of Actions and Powers but he does not so much as affirm that any of them are Used or Acted without the assistance of the Bodily Organs P. 25. he ascribes Noble Faculties and Capacities to the Humane Soul which he does not say ever appear'd to the World saving in and by its Conjunction with the Body He saies The excellency of a Substance must be known by the Powers Radicated in it It seems he should first have proved or said something concerning the Substance of his Soul separated from the Body or that really there is such a Substance before he had ascribed such Excellencies to it The Observer ascribes all those Excellencies to the Person agreeing that they do belong especially to the Rational Faculty or Mind of Man which Mr. M. neither does nor can maintain to have a separate Subsistence after the Death of the Body P. 26. Mr. M. saies It is manifest that the Nature of the Soul is very vigorous and sprightly He should first have Proved That a Soul considered separate from the Body has a Nature and discovered something to us concerning it But he did well to forbear the pretending to that Performance which the Observer believes is far beyond his Ability but seeing he has not done it the Observer conceives That all his following Structure and Arguments proceed ex non concessis and therefore make no good Proof of those things which they have been alledged for But that all those things which he has ascribed to the Soul are really belonging to the Person but are principally Performed by the Rational Faculty or Mind of Man P. 27. Mr. M. saies When we are asleep the Soul is often at work in causing divers Dreams and Apprehensions in the Night And thus he ascribes to the Soul those Operations which properly belong to the Imaginations of Men and which never was known to proceed from a Soul separately considered Mr. M. says further That a Philosopher thought That Men's Dreaming when asleep was an intimation that they should Live when Dead Which Thought is here past by the Observer for a Philosopher's Dream P. 28. Mr. M. saies It is evident from his Collections here That the nature of the Soul is very active Whereas it does not yet appear That the Soul has any Nature at all if it shall be separately considered from the Body He saies further That the vigour of the Mind in dying Persons appears sometimes as strong or rather stronger than it did in their better health This Case the Observer thinks to be very rare and that when it happens it may reasonably be ascribed to such Obstructions as hinder the passage of those Spirits to and through the other Parts of the Body which forces them to a close and more full residence in and about the Brain than in their former State they us'd to have P. 29 Mr. M. saies That when the E. of Rochester was very near his End his Body very weak in all the other Parts of it his Reason and Judgment was still so strong and clear as that be became thereby more strongly perswaded of the Soul's Immortality To which the Observer Replies That the Earl might possibly be mistaken as well in the strength of his Reason and Judgment as in that of his Soul's Immortality He might have a better Opinion of his Reason and Judgment at that time than perhaps there was cause for but if that Opinion of his was true The Observer saies That the Spirits might then be more plentiful in his Brain because they had little Employment in the other Parts of his Body and because they are better preserved in the Head from all assaults of Nature by the strength and fortification of the Dura mater and the Pia mater and the strong Efforts of Nature to preserve the Head for whose Defence the other Members of Man's Body are apt and ready to expose themselves P. 30. Mr. M. saies That the Vnderstanding is a very Noble Faculty eager in its pursuits after Knowledge And then goes on to Prove this by divers Instances but without any need for his so doing because all that he has said here agrees well with the Observer's Opinion and is not opposed by him P. 13 Mr. M. asks What it is that compounds and divides things at pleasure and raises invented Beings of them The Observer Answers It is the Imagination of Man He makes several Demands What it is produces several like Effects Answered It is the Mind of Man or his Rational Faculty which dies and perishes with the Person P. 32 M. M. saies here That there is a difference betwixt Man's Imagination and his Vnderstanding Which the Observer thinks consists more in Terms and Notions suited to Men's Conceptions and Discourses than in the essential or real Differences amongst the Things or Powers He saies further That the Imagination is jaded and tired Which the Observer takes liberty to deny For that if the Eye can be satisfied with Seeing or the Ear with Hearing yet the Imagination is never tired with Conceiving or Thinking in general although it may be glutted with Thinking very long of one Subject P. 33. Mr. M. goes on here to magnify the Power of Humane Understanding from many Topicks all which it seems conduce little to the Proof of this Point for that in all this he never observes or affirms That it Acts in any thing separated from the Body nor without the assistance of Bodily Organs nor has any Man ever affirmed nor does himself say That the Humane Understanding survives after the Death of the Person Mr. M. saies further That Men cannot imagine that a little Wheat-meal in two or three Days should become capable of Mathematical Speculations By which Words it appears clearly to the Understanding of the Observer That Mr. M. is very much mistaken in the State and Case of this Argument For the Observer has never said intended or maintained That Wheat-meal in Two or Three Days time or at any time is or can be capable of understanding any thing at all and it shews want of ordinary Apprehension in Mr. M. if he ever has or does now conceive there was such an Error in that Pamphlet which he undertakes to Answer And therefore to clear up the Clouds of his Understanding in this Point The Observer will take pains to inform him That the State of the Case in this Question stands thus He conceives and affirms That God Created the Body of Man and put it into such a State of Perfection so filled with Blond and Humour and set them into such a State of Pullulation and Fermentation that the Steems thence arising became fit and capable of being tinded and
much in the Resurrection above the reach of Natural Reason The Observer saies the same concerning the Immortality of the Soul and further That it is not only above but also opposite to the Sensations of Man Mr. M. asks What must the poor Heathens do to whom the Resurrection has not been revealed Upon which the Observer asks What must such poor Heathens do to whom the Mystery of Christ's coming in the Flesh has not been Revealed P. 57 Mr. M. saies That the Immortality of the Soul was commonly and naturally known to Men. To this the Observer has spoken before and now adds a Request to Mr. M. That he would produce some Evidence of such Knowledge besides Solomon's short Saying before the time and Doctrine of Pherecydes or else he ought not to be believed That his Opinion has any thing of Natural in it Further Mr. M. here saies That the Observer world not be thought to deny That there are Immaterial Intelligent Spirits The Observer Answers That if he did deny them either in Word or in Thought he would not seek a Pretence to be thought not to deny them If he very much fear'd the Censures of Men's Opinions he would not as he now does maintain the Humane Soul's Materiality Mr. M. supposes as himself saies very unreasonably That the Observer does deny the being of a Superiority and Order in the Invisible World But therein Mr. M. is very much mistaken For that the Observer does Profess to Allow and Believe That there are great Differences and Degrees in the World of Intelligent Spirits the lowest of which are often conversant upon Earth and sometimes with the Inhabiters of it P. 58. Mr. M. saies There is something in Plants like Sense in Brutes like Reason and in Men like Spirits The Observer saies something like the Inferiour Intellectual Spirits viz. Apprehension Reason and Intellect which is as great a Participation with the lower Degree of separate Spirits as the Brutes have of the Rational or the Plants have of the Sensitive Nature The Observer further agrees with Mr. M's Metaphysical Author P. 59. Mr. M. Quotes the Observer's Saying concerning Dr. Moor and Mr. Baxter who say That the Souls of Brutes have separate Subsistence after the Death of their Bodies and there he saies That Dr. Willis did not think this Opinion merited the trouble of his Confutation And both there and here the Observer is of the same Judgment That this Opinion neither deserves or needs any other or further Refutation than the repugnancy which it will find in the common Sensations of every ordinary Reader except such only as can swallow and digest the Pythagorical Opinion of the Transmigrations of Souls Pythagoras was the Disciple of Pherecydes and from him receiv'd the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality and rais'd out of it the Doctrine of the Metempsychosis Teaching from thence That the Soul 's of Men departed sometimes entred into Infants and sometimes into the Whelps and Cubs of Beasts and reciprocally That the Souls of Beasts Transmigrated into and Animated the Bodies of Humane Infants or of Beasts as it might happen to fall out To Pythagoras Plato succeeded and held also a Transmigration of Souls but more restrained then that of Pythagoras imagining That Souls of Men had in a former World been separate and Intelligent Spirits and that for their Offences then committed they were Doomed to Inhabit and Actuate Bodies of Clay in our present World in Nature of a Penalty and as means of Purgation of and for the Offences by them committed in the former World and that as soon as they were dislodged from one Person they must wait for opportunity to enter into another Person or Embryon of Mankind This Doctrine of Plato bounded the Transmigration of Souls within the Compass of Mankind excluding the Bestial Race from such a Communication with Men Concerning which Doctrine Mr. Lock Dict. Lib. fol. 189 saies Taking as we ordinarily now do the Humane Soul for an Immaterial Substance independent upon Matter there would be no Absurdity to suppose That the same Soul may at different times be united to different Bodies and in each make up a Man This Doctrine therefore of Transmigration of Souls from one Man to another seems to him a Rational Deduction from the Nature and Subsistence of such a Soul and accordingly the Opinion of such a Transmigration spread it self far and wide over the Face of the Earth so as the Christian Platonists accepted of it and Origen and some others of the Fathers were of that Opinion The Gallick and British Druides maintain'd it and the most gross part of it viz. The Transmigration Reciprocal from Man to Beasts is still believed among the Gentile Indians Tartarians Chineses and Japanners in our own Times grounding it upon the Opinion of the Soul 's compleat Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body The Observer saies That if he had to deal with such Men as these he would deal with them as with Dr. Moor and Mr. Baxter by endeavouring to perswade them and offering to them such Proofs as he could produce as he does to this present Opponent That the Soul of Man is not an Intelligent Substance nor capable of subsisting in a State of Separation from the Body and if thereof he should be able to Convince them that Conviction would be a sufficient and perfect Cure for all these Errors of theirs and all other like Opinions concerning the same He further saies The wiser and holier any Man is the more firmly he believes and rejoices in the Consideration of the Soul's Immortality Other Proof of this Assertion he gives none so that we have but his bare Word for it in the truth of which the Observer has no great Confidence and he believes That Mr. M. is therein much mistaken Mr. M. saies Men will not be perswaded that That Divine Goodness which has so often embraced them mill ever desert them But that God is Stronger than Death and more Powerful than the Grave and that they cannot believe That their Souls shall ever fall down into a Dead unactive State because they have been Irradiated by the Divine Light and Grace The Observer Answers Here are Two Assertions First they will not believe That God who has embraced them with his Goodness will ever desert them but that God will preserve and deliver them from the Grave This Assertion the Observer willingly grants The Second Saying is That Mens Souls can never fall down into a Dead unactive State This the Observer denies and saies That if by Souls he does not mean Persons his saying That they are irradiated by God's Grace in any sort or way abstracted or removed from the Body his Assertion here is Erroneous and Deceitful For that he never has Proved nor can Prove That God ever bestowed any thing upon a single Soul in a State of Separation from the Body But all his Graces and Favours Corrections and Punishments are applied to the Person
deny'd the Resurrection and future Recompences after the Death of the Person and so do Atheists So as the Observer is unjusty pointed at as one of their Tribes tho' he maintain the important Doctrine of the Resurrection the Happiness of which and the Dread of it are to be prepared for in the time of this Life by the same means that are required for the obtaining the Happiness of a Blessed Immortality and avoiding the Pains and Penalties of a cursed one Mr. M. endeavours to puzzle his Readers by propounding a hard Question Whether Matter be divisible ad infinitum or not Which the Observer says is nothing to the present Point in question and therefore he leaves the choice to Mr. M. which side of the Question he will maintain in a Dispute which here makes nothing to the purpose He asks further Shall the Immortality of the Soul stand upon so lubricous a foundation as this is no such matter The Observer answers It has not a foundation so good as this might prove nor any firm foundation at all either in Reason or in Scripture and therefore may be rejected as a vulgar Errour Mr. M. forbids to shift off the Question upon the Words material or immaterial The Observer answers He pretends to no such matter as appears by what he has already said in answer to Mr. M's Scriptures and Reasons the only Weapons which he pretends to use in this Controversie and which are used more at liberty in his fore-mentioned larger Treatise Mr. M. says Some great Philosophers have affirmed That the Soul is more knowable than the Body He ought to have given us their Reasons means and manner of attaining such Knowledge or to have produced something of his own to that purpose that the Readers might make some judgment concerning the verity of this Assertion And because he has failed in so doing his Saying proves very impertinent He says further The Substance of our Souls differs so much from any Corporeal thing that it may well enough be called immaterial This he has Brass enough to say in the Face of a Man who he knows utterly denies That it has any Substance at all And places it as an ens rationis whose Substance and Existence consists in Notion and Opinion only and this he does without proving or offering to prove any thing concerning the quod sit or the quid sit of it The last Words of this Chapter may justly be put into the Mouth of Mr. M. qui plus praestare potest praestet There is great need of some other Mens Labours to supply the weak Pretences and performances of Mr. M. in this Chapter Chap. IX Seems not directed to the Observer or those who go upon the Grounds of Scripture or Reason but to Persons of vicious Practices so powerfully as to be over-ruled in their Judgments by their own bad Inclinations which may happen too often but are a mistake and uncharitable Censure in this case if they be intended to prove any thing in the present Question and upon the Party now maintaining his part of the Question in this Treatise disputed Pag. 110. Mr. M. says The design of those Men who oppose the Soul's Immortality is to perswade themselves and others that it dies with the Body and shall not be called to an account for its unnatural self-debasement The Observer answers That the Soul single and separate shall not be called to an Account he believes for no other end but because he thinks it to be the very Truth and without any other design but that only of maintaining the certainty of a future Account and Judgment wherein every Man shall give and yield a full reckoning of his Stewardship and the Talents which were committed to his Administration wherein his smallest Actions shall be considered and an Account given for every offensive and idle Word many of which may possibly arise to magnifie Mr. M's Account from the Records of his present Treatise He quotes Vives again who makes every jot as much for the Observer as for himself Mr. M. says further Some thinking Persons of a sober Conversation may so far affect singularity in Opinions to make themselves more taken notice of as to maintain the Mortality of the Soul upon that Account The Observer thinks it enough in him to deny this Charge being well assured of the errour and falshood of it and that Mr. M. can never bring a shadow of Proof by which it may be annexed to the Person or Intent of the Observer Whence the Reader may cast it upon Mr. M. as a bold and unproved Calumny P. III. He says Men wou'd not have their Souls to be immortal for fear of a future Punishment for their Crimes The Observer answers They are apt to deny a Resurrection for the same reason Mr. M. says further Be not over-fond of the present Conceits it becomes you to suppose that you may be mistaken because many as wise Men have been so mistaken before you The Observer turns the point of this Direction upon Mr. M's own Face and bids him follow that Direction which he gives to others P. 112. Mr. M's Direction in this Page is very good and deserves to be well followed by himself who has no other advantage to exempt him from it but the commonness of his own Opinion which is no certain Proof of the Truth of it for that some like mistakes have long since prevailed in the world to as great an Universality Mr. M. further says 'T is a matter nearly concerns you to know whether your Souls be immortal or no The Observer agrees it to be a matter of great concernment for Men to think right in this matter lest their Expectations shou'd be deceived on either side and therefore he has pursued the Search of it to the best of his Abilities and writ this Pamphlet which Mr. M. now pretends to answer with Design to excite Mr. B. to the performance of his Promise to prove the Soul's Immortality hoping to draw some light from his Writings concerning the certainty and truth of it Mr. M. has thrust himself into this Dispute pretending in this Treatise to make a good performance of Mr. B's Promise in fully proving such an Immortality Whether he has well performed his Undertaking or not shall be left to the Judgment of such as read and consider what thereupon has been said on both sides And Lord give us Understanding well to consider and resolve according to Truth in this Question P. 113. Mr. M. says If after all this pains you have taken to make your self believe the Mortality of the Soul you find your self mistaken The Observer answers He has taken no pains at all to make himself believe it so and yet after the Search he has made he is convinced that most probably it is so and has no Fears upon him from it being otherwise For that he makes the same Provision for a happy Resurrection as he wou'd do for a happy Immortality
only in Contexture with the Body and the Delights here the Advers speaks of are only agreeable to his own Fancy and such as adhere to his Opinion who may with him fancy themselves conversing with Spirits or the like fruits of their own Imaginations which Men easily give themselves up unto who are apt to follow the Dictates of their own Fancy P. 136 He exhorts his Followers to exercise themselves in the Contemplation of a Deity 'till correspondent Impression be wrought upon their own Spirits transforming them into the same Image The Observer thinks he gives his Followers a piece of dangerous Counsel to imitate the high Extasies of St. Paul in his Extraordinary Raptures and Revelations For that they catching at the Words without understanding the true sense and meaning of them or the design of their Delivery are apt to run into great Errors of Fancy and pretending to make themselves like God become in such Applications more extravagant and vain than the more sagacious sort of Beasts that perish not understanding what they say or whereof they affirm And as one of that sort the Advers shall here be left The Blind to lead the Blind till both fall into the Ditch P. 138 He says The Immortal Spirit may be starved for want of Food The Observer says The Souls of Men may be so for want of their Meal Malt or their other Nourishment which it is every Man's Duty to provide for them to their Power in due Seasons and Distances of Time which may require the same The Advers says further What if God e're this had sent you into a Place where the Immortality of the Soul is better known The Observer says He ought to have named his Place and proved that there is such a Place in rerum Natura before he pretend his Immortal Soul is better known in any Place than it is here But it seems his Place and his Soul are both of a Piece subsisting more in Imagination than in Reality We may consider the use of such a Place If truly such a Place there be wherefore should it have been provided Dr. Sherlock in his Book of the Last Judgment has well proved That the Devils are not yet in Hell The Advers himself says That the Malevolent Spirits wander in the World and sometimes converse with the People in it Which is Evidence That they are not presently in Hell St. Peter and St. Jude tell us That the Devils expect their Punishment after a Condemnation at the Last Judgment which they believe and tremble at The Revelations express That there was War in Heaven Michael and his Angels fought there with the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels but they were vanquished and cast out of Heaven Which was done but a very short time before the Consummation or Last Judgment Whence it seems reasonably inferrible That the Devils are yet not only out of the Verges of Hell but that they are at some Liberty in the World and make sometimes their Progress unto Heaven Whence there seems no need of a present Hell for the Punishment of Devils and for the Separate Souls of Wicked Men There is as little present need of it for that in Truth there seems to be no such Thing in the World as a Humane Soul subsisting in a State of Separation after the Death of the Body Whence if there should be at present such a Place as Hell it must remain utterly unfurnished empty and void which would not be a natural way of Proceeding Quia natura nihil facit frustra So as the Discourses of Separate Souls going to Hell seem rather a Bugbear than a Verity But to this Men reply If there be no fear of Punishment before the Resurrection bad Men mill grow more bold in their Wickedness This the Observer does not grant but believes That they who will not care for the dread of a cursed Resurrection will not be perswaded by the pretence of an immediate Immortality a Truth which daily Experience confirms to us The Distance of Time between Death and the Resurrection how great so ever the same may appear to Living and Sensible Persons is not accounted of by the Dead nor is any Thing dead more Sensible of its passing than the Urn or Stone is wherein the Dead Man's Ashes or Dust are inclosed Whence they rise as but newly fallen asleep without any Sense or Perception of what has passed over them So that Sensibly and Effectually to them no Time has passed over them at all But their Death and Resurrection follow one another immediately without their perceiving that any intermediate Time has passed at all between them But after the Resurrection and Last Judgment past at the Creation of the New Heaven and Earth we read There shall be a Hell also contrived Isa 66.22 23. After God had made the New Heavens and the New Earth those raised to a Happy State shall go forth and look upon the Carcasses of the Men that have transgressed against me For their Worm shall not die neither shall their Fire be quenched So Revel 20.24 Death and Hell delivered up the Dead which were in them and every Man was judged according to his Works and Death and Hell were cast into the Lake of Fire and every one that was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire Viz. Such as were Condemned at the Last Judgment At which time God creates a New Heaven and a New Earth without a Sea but with a Hell for the Punishment of Condemned Creatures Chap. 21.14 Blessed are they who stand acquitted at that Judgment for that they may enter in through the Gates into the City and have right to the Tree of Life For without are Dogs and Sorcerers and Whore-mongers and Murderers and Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a Lye And such as follow the old Satanical Rule Audacter calumniare aliquid haerebit Among which number the present Adversary shall have a prime Place given him by the best and truest Judgment which the Observer can make in this Case Pag. 140 the Adversary quotes a Poet some of whose Verses are fit for this Place Think lastly on the World 's great Doom When guilty Souls must to an Audit come A far more heavy Reckoning than e'er You met with here P. 142 The Adversary says Men of the best Reasons will esteem our strongest Reasonings as the Leviathan does Iron or Brass but as rotten Straw and rotten Wood. The Observer grants he is very much in the Right in this Expression but when he adds If he should happen to convine them of which there is little likelihood he thinks their Lusts would prevail against his Arguments and their Convictions In this the Observer says he is True Blew and continues very uncharitably and malevolently Censorious P. 143 The Power of Christianity is scarcely consistent with a dividing censorious uncharitable Frame and Disposition Hence the Observer inferrs That the
taking his Part of the Question for granted Truth seems to be a Folly and Vanity suitable to the rest of his Deportment throughout this Treatise P. 152 The Advers says In many Things we shall be in the Dark without the Assistance of supernatural Revelation The Observer says There is a Sufficiency of supernatural Revelation in the Scriptures of God for the bringing Men a happy Resurrection and a blessed State after it But for our better Illumination the Advers cites a Sentence out of Porphyry who was as great an Opposer of Christianity as any he could have named being a bare Platonist and no more To this he adds the Names of Plato and Socrates pretending to collect thence a more lofty Strain for his Imaginations to work upon than those which are deliver'd in Holy Writ and spares not to quote the Devil's Oracles in Confirmation of his own fantastical Idea's nor the Sibylline Verses dictated usually by a Spirit of the like nature The Advers says That the great Heathen Law-makers pretended to take Help of Spirits and Daemons for the Inventing and Establishing their Laws From which Example perhaps he may intend to derive a Confirmation of his Opinion That there are other supernatural Revelations to be expected at this Day for Mens Guidance and Direction in their Religion than those that are deliver'd us in Holy Scripture Which is an Opinion rejected by the Observer and not received by the Reformed Christian Churches After this Train of Heathen Oracles and Spirits the Adversary returns again to the Holy Scriptures as if he pretended to add some Credit or Authority to them by the Testimony of his Commendations which they neither need nor can his Credit any way extend to the advancing of their Reputation Men knowing it is rather a Disgrace than an Advantage to be prais'd or commended by a slanderous Tongue But those Records are so Sacred that they can suffer no Disadvantage by any Man's Commendations or Discommendations but stand fixed and firm as Pillars and Foundations of the Christian Faith not enduring to be compar'd with the Fictions of idle Oracles Philosophick Daemons or Poetical Inventions nor with the Miracles or Enthusiasms of the Romish Mahometical or Phanatical Imaginary Revelations There can be no reasonable Comparison of such Vanities with the Text of Holy Scripture and therefore whatsoever the Advers pretends to say to that Purpose seems a great Piece of Vanity in him and an idle Imployment of his Time P. 155 The Advers says If you believe that the Soul is Immortal be not over-fond of the Body The Observer replies If you believe the Resurrection and the Last Judgment be not so fond of the Body or any thing else as thereby to be drawn out of the way of endeavouring to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 3.10 The Day of the Lord shall come as a Thief in the Night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great Noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent Heat the Earth also and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness looking for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness Wherefore seeing ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in Peace without Spot and Blameless St. Paul 1 Thess 4.13 directs That they should not sorrow for their dead Friends as if they were without Hope concerning them For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and they shall be rais'd at the Sound of the Trumpet and the Voice of the Archangel He does not tell his Proselytes That their Friends Souls are gone to Heaven as any Comfort or Ease of their Sorrows but he builds their Comforts upon the strong Rock of the Resurrection And thus have we both Peter and Paul to sound and credible Witnesses in this Case directing to a good Life and a strong Comfort in Death from a firm Hope of a future Resurrection in due Time without one Word concerning the Soul's Immortality or drawing any Comfort or Help from thence at all P. 156 The Advers says Make not your Prison too strong as if he assented to the false Platonick Imagination That the Body was made by God for a Prison to the Soul Which every Man 's daily Experience contradicts and proves certainly to us as has been before said That the Conjunction of the Soul and Body is the most amicable of any thing in the World and their Separation most grievous and terrible and That the Body's being a Prison to the Soul is an Opinion both false and foolish tho' it seems very well fitted for the Adversary's Part. He goes on and says Think how quickly this Flesh must be laid aside He should have added And this Spirit extinguished and then there will be no miserable or happy Soul to take notice of P. 157 the Advers demands What Relief will it be to your Souls to remember that in this Life you had your good Things The Observer does not believe that before the Resurrection there will be any such Soul or Remembrance It is true that in the Parable of Dives Abraham says to him Son Remember that in thy Life-time thou hadst thy good Things But the Parable no where makes mention of a Soul but in all Places it applies to the Person Lazarus died and was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosome And Dives died and being in Hell he lift up his Eyes and saw Lazarus afar off in Abraham's Bosome It seems fit to be consider'd how Dives cou'd see a Soul at so great a Distance and speak audibly to Abraham afar off without a Tongue Men do usually imagine This Discourse and Proposal shou'd be applied to the Souls of these two Persons But the Observer thinks there 's no Necessity to take it in that Sense but either to let it pass as a bare Similitude or Parable invented or that it may as well or better be intended concerning the Persons mentioned in the Text before quoted and the rather because Abraham calls Dives Son Remember This Term of Son cannot be applicable to a separate Soul because that Term is properly applied to the Person and also because if our Adversary say true such a Soul cou'd not be descended from Abraham but was newly created by God upon the Begetting of the Body of Dives Whence it seems still That the Relation concerning these Person is but a bare Similitude or Parable and proves nothing Or must be applied to the State of these two Person consider'd in the Contextures of their Bodies and Souls together The Adversary seems to doubt whether Souls go to appointed Places or hover about those Places where their Bodies are interr'd The Observer says It is no Wonder that Men of his Opinion have many Doubts concerning their
of those Spirits spread over the whole Body it comes to pass that the least Wound in the end of a Finger or Toe is immediately felt over the whole Body and so by Sight Hearing Smelling or Tasting the whole Person is immediately perceptive and affected therewithal like the String of an Instrument how long soever the same may be if touched to a vibration in any Part of it the whole String answers to that Vibration and sounds accordingly And this seems to be the Reason of the wonderful Velocity of Sensation and Perception in the Persons of Men and therewithal the Brutes may well be conceived to have a great Affinity upon a like Account This Spirit is not incaged or incarcerated in the Body but maintains as amicable a Conjunction with it and with as much Liking and Kindness to each other as any known Things in the World can do And the Athanasian Creed tells us That as the Body and Soul are one Man so God and Man are one Christ whence the Union of the former seems as amicable and kind as that of the latter tho' using a joint Contexture one of them with another this sort of Spirit acting in and by the Bodily Organs and Members they together effect in the Person all those Motions Faculties and Powers which the great Artificer intended and designed to be produced in the Humane Person be they those of Vegetation Sensation or Rationality all which Powers and Faculties they continue to maintain so long as their said Contecture has a Conrinuance Whence the whole Person both Spirit and Members are all alike affected one of them with another and never contrarily or differently one of them affected against another It is true that divers great Variances do often happen between the two different Faculties or Powers of Sense and Reason which Differences are as durable and lasting as the Life it self And these two Faculties St. Paul often calls by the Name of Flesh and Spirit which must pass in his Writings for tropical and figurative Expressions Upon which and divers other Accounts St. Peter says there are some Things in St. Paul ' s Writings which are hard to be understood Our Experience teaches us That there are no real Differences between the Bodily Organs and Members and this sort of Spirit of which we are now speaking but that they live and act together during the Time of their Contexture in the greatest Amity and Sympathy that can be imagin'd They are pleas'd and displeas'd rejoice and mourn together as two constituent Parts of the same Person they grow together to a State of Perfection are sick and well together decay and decrease in like manner And where Men live to the uttermost Age their Perceptions Understandings and Memories fail oftentimes before their Tasting and Feeling which continues with them the whole Extent of their Lives Then the Person consisting of such Flesh and Spirit dies together the Flesh and Members turning to Dust and the Spirit which is the Flame of Life extinguishing at the Time of that Separation And at the Time of the Resurrection the Body shall again be raised with such a Temperature of the Blood as shall then again be tinded and kindled into such a Flame of Life as the Person had enjoy'd in his former State as St. Paul declares 1 Cor. 15. whereby there shall arise and accrue to the same Person the same Sensation Perception Understanding Memory and Conscience that he had before in the Time of his former Life So as Mr. Lock seems to be in the right when Fol. 183. of his said Book he teaches That it is the same Consciousness which at the Resurrection makes the same Person such a sameness as St. Paul declares by his Similitude of Grains of Corn as much the same as Grains are of the same Nature which spring one out of another Thus united again by the Resurrection the Flesh and Spirit in a like Contexture as they were before shall come to Judgment at the last Day before the Tribunal of the Lord Christ and shall there receive Judgment Sentence and Doom according to their Works and shall thence depart to Places of Joy and Happiness or to those of Sorrow and Misery as by that Sentence and Judgment shall be appointed for them Thus from Experience it seems proveable That there is such a Soul or Spirit in Man as has been before specify'd That the same consists in the Spirits of the Blood inflam'd and made lucid and glowing That the Original of this Spirit proceeds from a Vital Principle in the Seed The visible quando of its Operation appears with the first Commencement of Vegetation in the Embryon The Vbi of its Residence is every Part and Member of the Body through which the same is contiguously spread or rather is one continuate Spirit mixed with the Flesh throughout the whole Body As to the Quo and what becomes of this Spirit at the Death of the Person it has been declared to go out by Extinguishment The only Point which the Observer professes Ignorance in is that of the Quomodo operatur He professes not to know how these Spirits of the Blood work in the Stomack a right and healthful Concoction and due Separation how in the sanguifical Parts the Chyle is converted into Blood how the Breath fans maintains and communicates such Vigour and Flame to Particles of the Blood which ascend to the Head how those Particles of Blood working in the Head and Brain produce there Sensation Perception Imagination Understanding or Memory how passing thence by the Nerves into the rest of the Body they cause Motion Activity Strength and Vigour all obedient to the Will of the Person and subjected to the Dictates of his Judgment Those are some of the chief Ways of God with Man and are most evident Proofs of his Divine Skill and Power concerning which and other-like Divine Operations Solomon says Eccles 8.17 Man cannot find out the Work that is done under the Sun because tho' a Man labour to find it out or the Wise among Men endeavour to come to the Knowledge of it yet shall they not be able to find it In this Ignorance therefore the Observer is contended to be a Partaker with the rest of the World without herding himself amongst those who because they cannot find out the Quomodo of this Performance are easily perswaded to believe That God has not Skill or Power enough to perform this and is therefore driven and must be driven to act those Things in Man by an immaterial intelligent Spirit which they fancy therefore is newly created by God upon every fruitful Coition of Man and Woman or Man and Beast where the Form of the Product happens to be Humane and that this new Soul which comes from his Hand innocent and pure shou'd presently be thrust by him into an impure Body at the best contaminated by Original Sin which presently communicates that Tincture to that pure innocent but unfortunate miserable Soul so newly created by him These Absurdities following upon and flowing from this Error prove the Opinion from whence they arise to be erroneous And from this and from all that has been spoken before on this Subject the Observer concludes That the Opinion of Man's being acted by an immaterial intelligent Spirit capable of subsisting in a State of Separation from the Body is an Error and that it is much more probable That the Person of Man is a Contexture of Matter and Spirit both rising from the seminal Agitation and both mortal and that the sound Foundation for the Expectation of Recompences future to this Life ought to be grounded upon the rocky Foundation of the Resurrection And herewithal shall be finish'd the present Observations upon this Treatise FINIS