confident in the Merit of their Actions who I think make the greater Number of People in the World his Opinion of the Souls Immortality and the immediate passing from Death to Judgement and fiery Condemnation of ill deserving People gives Terror and Affrightment rather than Comfort and Support to by far the greatest part of People in the World and if the Tenet be not true and cannot be sufficiently proved to the Understandings and Consciences of Men it may then pass for a Scare-Crow to the Bad and a Staff of Reed to such good People as may put their Confidence in it Mr. W. further demands Can any hearty Lover of the Lord Jesus think of the Interruption of his Communion with him from Death to Judgment without great Regret and Trouble of Mind And he says He is sure the Generation of the Righteous think it much otherwise To this I Answer That the Generation of the Righteous may think some one thing and some another and thereupon I conceive that divers of them will be very well contented with such a Portion of Happiness as the Spirit in the Revelation tells us they shall enjoy in the Words Yea saith the Spirit they rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them and at the end of that Rest shall overtake them and be joined again to them at the end and time of their intended Resurrection P. 5. He further demands Is this enough to quiet the fervent Longings of the Divine Nature in us after Immortality and to satisfie our lively Hope of an Eternal Life with God and the Lamb Away says he This is but to trifle with the greatest Concernments of the Lords People To which I Answer This seems but a Rhetorical Flourish without any true Substance in the matter of it It seems a kind of Cant which I do not well understand when he speaks of quieting the servent Longings of the Divine Nature in us after Immortality This may perhaps seem plain to Men of his Kidney and Constitution but to me it looks like a Riddle me what is this For I know of no Divine Nature in one man more than in another and I do not conceive it natural for Men to be troubled with such Longings after Immortality as he pretends here to describe I think Men do sometimes long for things which they do desire and have a likely and very strong Hope to obtain but those who entertain no Hopes of an Intermediate State betwixt Death and the Resurrection must be very weak in their Rationals if they trouble themselves with any Longings after such a State or receive any Disappointment upon their going without it P. 6. Mr. W. enters into somewhat a long Discourse wherein he largely Censures and Condemns such as maintain the Souls Extinguishment at the Dissolution of the Humane Person I will spend no Time in giving particular Answers thereunto but content my self with only saying thereupon that it all wants Proof and passes with me for a Non sequitur which hath no strength of Argument in it concerning that Question about which we now differ P. 7. Mr. W. quotes that Prophecy which gives A Woe to those who make the Hearts of the Righteous sad whom the Lord hath not made sad and Applies those Words to those who oppose his Opinion of the Souls Immortality And thereupon this seems to be the Case those who maintain a Point of Doctrine contrary to Truth which may make the Righteous sad the Woe pronounced by this Prophet pertains to that Maintainer whence if the Souls Extinguishment at the Death of the Party be not true it may probably make the Hearts of some Righteous People sad whom God hath not made sad and then our Prophets Woe may justly be imposed upon such Maintainers But if otherwise it should so fall out that this Opinion be True and that of the Souls Immortality be an Error Then those whose Hearts are made sad by that Doctrine which I conceive are by far the greatest Number of People in the World are so sadned by an Erroneous Tenet deliver'd without a sufficient Warrant from God And in this manner the Hearts of such People will be made sad whom God hath not made sad And thereupon I conclude that if the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality be not True the Woe delivered in this Prophecy will as justly take hold of the Maintainers of it as it will do upon their Opposers if they maintain an Errour altho' they may think themselves to have the Right in this Point P. 7. He pretends that we have or may have once learn'd to know that God hath framed us for an uninterrupted perpetuity of living I say to this I am assured in my self and both can and do assure my Reader that if I did know or believe what he says in this Place to be true I would readily submit to his Dictator-ship in it without any further proceeding in a Dispute of this Nature But I do neither know nor believe the Truth of what he says in this Place conceiving it still more probable that the Soul extinguisheth at the Death of the Person and is neither Immortal nor Intelligent having no other Place of Subsistence but in the Body CHAP. II. PAge 8. Mr. W. says That he will enquire into the divers Acceptations of the Word Soul in Scripture or what is there usually intended by that Term and says in Scripture there are five Significations thereof First he says The Soul is there taken for the whole Person of Man Secondly Soul is there taken for the Body of Man only Thirdly Soul is taken for the Life of the Body Fourthly he says Soul is taken for the dead Carcass of a Man Fifthly The Word Soul is taken for the Rational Soul of Man whereby he stands in a kind of Level with Angels By which I suppose he intends the Humane Soul producing Life and Action in the Person which he says is Immortal and labours to prove it so and therefore brings Instances out of Scripture to shew the Truth and Practice of these Significations And hereupon I observe That his first Acceptation of the Word Soul for the whole Person of Man constituted of Soul and Body is very common throughout the whole Course of the Scripture well proved by the Instances which he gives to which Hundreds more might be added if any need should arise for the so doing But the Instances of his Second Signification seem not to prove what he intends by them for that the Iron entering into Joseph's Soul seems not to be intended only of his Body but of his Person for that his Body without a Soul could not be sensible or capable of suffering thereby His next Instance is of sending Leanness into the Souls of those that eat the Quails It seems the Word Soul here doth also intend the whole Persons of the Eaters for that Bodies cannot eat or be nourished without their Souls Concerning his Third Saying That Soul is taken
you may be there also Here the Time when Christ would receive his Chosen to himself and to be where he is is declared to be the second time with his coming to Judgment Joh. 5.27 God the Father hath given Authority to the Son to execute Judgment also because he is the Son of Man Ver. 22. Christ says The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son Ver. 28. Mervail not at this that the Father hath given Authority of Judgment to the Son because he is the Son of Man for the time is coming in which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Here Christ because he is the Son of Man is made by his Father the Judge of Quick and Dead all the World shall hâ—ar his Voice and come to Judgment before him and if the Father judge no Man but have committed all Judgment to Christ because he is or as he is the Son of Man What room is there left for intermediate Judgments oâ— the 〈◊〉 going to God for Judgment at the Death of every 〈◊〉 as is pretended from Solomons transient 〈…〉 returns to God that gave it 〈…〉 of the Soul to God 〈…〉 intermediate judgment 〈…〉 going before 〈…〉 and seeking to be united again to Him as Men have thought it drew its Original from him Joh. 6. Ver. 39 40 44 54. In the Four Verses quoted and marked out of this Chapter our Lord declares both to his own Disciples and to the Jews That whoso doth his Will and keep his Commandments he will raise them up at the last day and give them Happiness and great Rewards without mention of an intermediate State between Death and that Resurrection Luke 14.13 14. Our Lord himself directs When thou makest a Feast call the Poor the Maimed the Lame and the Blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee for thou shalt be recompenced at the Resurrection of the Just. And so Heb. 11.35 After a large Catalogue of the Saints Sufferings the Apostle says That they would not accept of Deliverance because they expected a better Resurrection The same Apostle 1 Cor. 15.32 says If after the manner of Men I have fought with Beasts at Ephesus What advantageth it me if the dead rise not Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die And there is an end of us As if he had said the Sufferings of Christians for the Name of Christ shall avail them nothing if there be not a Resurrection of the Dead and I demand some one Text of Scripture to be produced which expresses or with any Clearness says That any Man or Men ever did or suffer'd any thing to the Intent or with Expectation of having their Soul or Souls carried into Abraham's Bosome after the Death of their Persons To our Fore-quoted Texts may be added the Testimony of St. Peter 1 Pet. 4.13 Rejoice inasmuch as ye are made Partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding great Joy So Chap. 5.1 he says I who am also a Partaker of the Glory which shall be revealed exhort you that are Elders of the Church to do the Duties faithfully and when the Chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory which sadeth not away He doth not say Have Patience unto to the Time of your Death and then your Souls shall be transported into a place of Bliss and Happiness 1 Joh. 2.28 That Apostle says And now Little Children abide in Him Christ that when He shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming Jam. 5.7 That Apostle says Be patient therefore Brethren unto the coming of our Lord which he saith draws nigh without mentioning of any Reward after Death unto the coming of our Lord. Jude 17. Says The Lord cometh with Ten Thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all the Vngodly amongst Men. And thus I have quoted a great Cloud of very knowing Witnesses viz. our Lord Himself and all his writing Apostles which are come to our Hands for the undeniable Proof of this Point viz. That the Faithful dy'd and suffered many great things in assured Hope and Expectation of great Rewards to be given and Punishments to be inflicted at the Time of our Lord's second Appearing of the Resurrection and of the Last Judgment without finding any foot-steps of the Souls Immortality it 's Seperate Subsistence from the Body or any Rewards or Punishments to be bestowed upon it in the space of time intermediate between Death and our Lord's Second Appearing I now return to a further Consideration of our Author's Quotations who Pag. 14. goes on and quotes 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a Price therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's Which I think intends no more than if it had been said Glorifie God in your selves or in your whole Persons which are God's Then he quotes Mat. 10.28 Men that can kill the Body are not able to kill the Soul We shall hear this Objection more fully offered in another Place and thither I refer my Reader for an Answer to it He next quotes 1 Cor 7.1 where the Words are Dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and of the Spirit Here by the Terms Flesh and Spirit the Apostle intends Man's Sensual Afâ—â—ctions and Appetites by the Term Flesh and the Rational Mind or Faculty of Man by the Term Spirit And this Tropical sort or manner of expressing himself I conceive to be very much used in this Apostles Writings Next he quotes Gal. 5.17 which says The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other This I think to be another of this Apostles Expressions to be taken in the same intent and meaning with the former as a Conclusion to the Texts before quoted He says he could quote more Texts to prove that wide Difference which he pretends to be between the Soul and Body I say to this that if he knew of more Texts very pertinent to this Purpose I think he ought not to have spared his Pains in the Quotation of them But saith he The Texts which I have already quoted are abundantly sufficient for the Proof of my first Proposition Which first Proposition I think to have been That the Soul was of a quite different nature from the Body viz. That the Soul was an Immortal Intelligent Spirit which can subsist by it self and in a state of seperation from the Body and the Body it self but a Compositum of Dust and Ashes into which it shall be again resolved soon after the Death of the Person The Later Part of this Proposition he neither hath offered to Prove nor needed to do it because it
I answer That if Mr. W. think truly an infinite number of other Persons go to Hell as well as Judas and therefore Hell is no more the proper place of Judas than the Grave may be Secondly I say That altho' the Grave be a place of Rest and Blessedness to those that die in the Lord yet to those who die in a state of Enmity with him the Approaches of Death seem terrible and the Grave is not a sufficient shelter for them from the wrath of God and of the Lamb when Christ shall come to give Judgment upon the quick and dead Thirdly It seems the very words of the Text do naturally require a different Construction from that which Mr. W. hath put upon them by applying the words might go to his own Place unto the Person then to be chosen who might with assurance go to his own Place of a Twelfth Apostle into which by Lot he should then be chosen and Matthias we read did go to his own place and was numbred with the other Eleven Apostles I do not know whether Dr. Hammond apply the words after this manner or not but if he do I think he is in the right of it and give my Consent thereunto And thus it seems to me no reasonable Argument can hence be drawn to prove the Souls Separate Subsistence Mr. W. for further proof of his Opinion quotes Jude 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to Fornication are set forth for an Example suffering the Vengeance of Eternal Fire Hereupon Mr. W. says This Text intends the Sufferings of the Sodomites Souls after Death I answer that to those who already believe there are Souls so suffering Mr. W's Sense of the Words may be well enough admitted but to those who stand unconvinc'd of Mens Souls suffering soon after their Deaths this saying seems to have no strength of Proof in it for they will expound it otherways and say that for the wickedness of the People those Cities and the whole plain of Sodom do suffer the Vengeance of Eternal Fire they did so at the time of that Destruction and they do so still and are likely so to continue to the end of the World turn'd into a Sulphureous and Bitumenous Lake the matter whereof is apt to take Fire upon all occasions and as to the word Eternal we find it in Scripture divers times used to signifie things of a very long Continuance as the Priesthood of Aaron the Royalty of David the Establishment of Jerusalem their being establish'd for ever And yet we have seen them all destroy'd long ago And hence I infer that no good Argument can be taken from his last quoted Text for proof of the Souls Separate Subsistence With this Quotation Mr. W. closes Eighteen or Twenty Arguments for proof of the Souls Separate Subsistence to each of which I have given a distinct Answer and such as doth very well satisfie my own Understanding with submission therein to the judgment of such intelligent Persons as may happen to peruse both our Endeavours for the proof and disproving of our Apprehensions in this Question P. 123. Mr. W. here proceeds in his endeavour to main tain the Souls Seperate Subsistence by inferring absurd Consequences from the other Opinion of the Souls extinguishment at the Death of the Person P. 123. Mr. W. thinks it an absurd Belief that Men should suffer for their Sins no more than Temporal Death but says If his Soul have not a Seperate Subsistence he can suffer no more than a Temporal Death except we had Ground to believe a Resurrection of the Body of which the Scripture is silent and we likewise deny it I say to this that I do not therein apprehend his Meaning I cannot believe that he intended to deny the Resurrection of the Dead which I offer as a full Answer to his pretended Absurdity and tho' in words he denies it yet I cannot conceive his meaning to be so P. 124. Mr. W. says secondly the same things which he said before in his first and must have the same Answer viz. That the Resurrection of the Person removes and and alters all this second pretended Absurdities P. 125. Thirdly Mr. W. says The Beasts are Sick and Groan and Die for Man's Sin or Sinfulness I reply That I cannot grant him this conceiving that if Man had not sinned yet the Beasts should have been sick and groaned and dyed as well and as much as they do now and the Doctrine of the Resurrection is a full Answer to this pretended Absurdity His Fourth pretended Absurdity is to be answer'd after the same manner His pretended Fifth Absurdity is answer'd by the Resurrection as before is said P. 126. Mr. W. says That without a Revelation from God concerning the Resurrection of the whole Man Men could not expect the Rewards or Punishments after Death unless their Souls have a Seperate Subsistence and this I am ready to agree to him and if there be no Resurrection I do also agree that Men have been very much deceived in their Expectation of Recompences after this Life and that upon the supposal of no Resurrection they have been Wiser who indulg'd themselves in their Pleasures than those who have restrained their Appetites in consideration of Recompences expected after this Life 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this Life only we have hope in Christ we Christians are of all Men most miserable but the Dead shall rise as certainly as Christ was rais'd and if these Resurrections of Christ and the Dead be not both true then all Christian Religion is Vain and all those who are fallen asleep in Christ are Perished P. 127. He says If the Heathens had no reason to believe the Immortality of the Soul and had no Revelation at all of a Resurrection given them how then says Mr. W. Could they be brought to a Reformation in their Manners I put the Question concerning the Gospel of Christ If there be no Name given under Heaven by which Men can be saved but that of Jesus Christ and the vastest numbers of Men in the World never heard of that Name and other vast Numbers who have heard of it do not yet believe it nor have the Faith propounded to them in such manner as they have reason to believe it I may demand of Mr. W. what shall become of all these People as well as he demands of me How Men should order themselves who never had the Resurrection revealed to them And I think that in both these Cases alike Men must order their Works according to the best of their Knowledge and God will make such Allowances to them as their Cases may require P. 127. Mr. W. pretends to perswade Men That the World hath been kept in Awe by pretence of Recompence after this Life whereas the Scripture tells us the Patriarchs as well as the Jews under the Mosaical Law were more practically good and had fewer great Faults among
Body so as instead of those days of Darkness which Solomon mentions the Spirit or Principle of Life in Man enjoys a greater light activity and freedom than it had before the Death of that Party whom it formerly inliven'd and acted And this if it be true seems directly contrary to that which Solomon in this Text hath affirmed There are days of darkness and many of them says the Text of Solomon Mr. W. says That at the death of the party or soon after good mens souls enjoy much more light liberty and glory than every they had before so as they seem to say the souls of good men have no dark days at all and therefore men that are jovial and merry need have no regard to such days of Darkness as Solomon in this Text gives them warning of And yet such men do not use to deny that a Solemn and General Judgment shall appear after those many days of Darkness shall be consummate and finished and therein they agree with Solomons Opinion altho concerning his days of Darkness they seem very much to differ from him but if his Opinion may prevail in this Case it offers a strong Objection against the Souls Seperate Subsistence Thus far Objections have been drawn out of the Old Testament and we now proceed to draw like Objections from the New A Sixth Objection thence to be raised I take from John 14. 2 In my Fathers House are many Mansions I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you again to my self that where I am there ye may be also Luke 21.26 The powers of Heaven shall be shaken and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory and when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh viz. rewards for the Saints Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye appear with him also in glory 1 John 3 2. Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The Apostle knew whilst in this life that we are the Sons of God but he did not know what we shall be after death nor was that likely to be known till Christs appearing at his Second Coming and then he knew that the Saints should be made like Christ and appear with him in glory as Paul hath above asserted 2 Tim. 4.7 Paul says I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his appearing The Crown it seems was laid up for him even whil'st he was alive but was not expected to be given him till the time of Christs second appearing and then it would also be given to all those who love and desire that appearing 1 Tim. 1.10 The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day He doth not pray that his Friend may find mercy at the time of his Death or at an Intermediate Judgment but at that great and last Day All these Texts have been quoted to give Evidence of the Time when Rewards and Punishments after Death are warrantably to be expected They all express the time thereof to be at our Lords Second Coming and the last Great Day of Judgment thereupon ensuing but make no mention of Recompences warrantably to be expected soon after the times of mens Death or in any Intermediate State between Death and the Resurrection Nor hath the Scripture that I find any mention in other places of Recompences to be distribuâ—ed in such an Inâ—ermediate State except in Parables and Trances only I have in this Objection repeated two Texts out of which Mr. W. made Objections singly against his own Opinion but I have linked them together and strengthened them with other Texts of Scripture of the like import quia vis unita fortior Concerning Mr. W's Texts I pretend here to examine the Answers which he hath singly given to each of them To the Text of our appearing with Christ in Glory he answers and grants That the appearance here spoken of intends that of the Last Judgment for till then the Saints cannot be said to appear in Glory with Christ and yet says he they may be in Glory with Christ tho' they do not appear in such Glory to Men. I reply That tho they do not appear in such Glory to Men yet if there be truly such a thing as he maintains they do appear in Glory before God and the Angels and Spirits of Just Men made perfect and therefore may truly be said to appear in Glory which St. Paul says they do not till Christs second Coming and appearing in Glory Mr. W. says His sort of Souls may appear in Heaven in Glory before that time but it lies upon him to make some proof that they do so which he neither offers nor I think is able to perform and therefore I think his Answer to this Text is of small weight The other Text to which he makes an Answer is that of Paul's expecting a Crown to be given him at that day or the time of the Last Judgment and he grants that the time intended by the word That Day is that of the Last Judgment and says thereupon What then It follows not thence that therefore there are not Souls in glory before that time for Kings may reign before they receive their Crown and Scepter and so shall we be Kings and Priests in our Souls unto God in the Heavens This Mr. W. pretends to say out of his own fruitful Invention without offering any Proof of our being Kings and Priests in Heaven to God in our bare and naked Souls only for neither any of our before quoted Texts do mention such things nor are they to be found in any other Text of Scripture whatsoever except the Vision appearing to St. John when he was intranced for the Parable of Dives makes no mention of being in Heaven or the Preferment of being Kings and Priests to God or in his presence and therefore I am ready to reject this device or fancy of Mr. W's brain and to conceive that all our quoted Texts are true according to the common sense of their words Mr. W. father says There are no words or syllables in this Text that deny intervening Rewards to the Saints before that day which it must have done before it could serve his Opposers purpose Thereunto replying I say there seems to be no need of such a Denial for that if God or Man promise to give Rewards or Punishments at an appointed time
there is no need to express they will not give such things at other times nor can there be a warrantable expectation of them at other times except such a thing be also expresly declared which is not done in this or these Texts or any other 〈◊〉 Texts of Scripture which I can find and therefore I think Mr. W's Answer to this Objection is clearly insufficient and as such I leave it and proceed further to object against Mr. W's Opinion from all the Texts last before quoted I say then that all these Texts concur strongly in their Evidence That the Resurrection and Last Judgment are the time when all men may warrantably and certainly expect to be rewarded or punished according to their Works and Actions in this World because that is evidently declared by a strong concurrence of Scripture Testimonies and because there is no other time plainly declared in any other Text of Scripture when men may warrantably expect such recompences after their Departures out of this World and thence I conceive the Texts before quoted are a strong Objection against the Expectation of Rewards or Punishments being given to the Souls of Dead Persons immediately after their Departures out of this World A Seventh Objection I make in the same manner that Mr. W. hath put his Seventh Objection against his own Doctrine Where he says If the Souls of Men past their Tryal as soon as they are dead what needs any other day of Judgment Will Christ try Men after Sentence To this Objection Mr. W. says I have proved already The Souls of Men cannot be kill'd and so cannot die and that the Souls of Men at death do return to the Lord and other things relating to its partial Judgment which it shall receive To this I reply His proof of the Souls not dying remains sub judice his Text that the Soul returns to God proves not its going before him for Judgment and for proof of his partial Judgment he hath produc'd no Text of Scripture at all nor do I think a Text that so proves can be quoted out of the Bible Mr. W. proceeding asks Who art thou that reasonest against God wilt thou teach God how he shall govern the World or what Judgments he shall use upon Men It is enough that God hath intimated his Will there shall be such Judgments and we are humbly to believe he hath reason for his so doing although our shallow brains cannot comprehend it To this I reply That I am ready to do as Mr. W. directs viz. That if God do declare to us his mind and intnet to have divers and different Trials and Judgments of Men I am ready to submit to the belief thereof altho I am not able to apprehend the congruity or reason thereof But Mr. W's Answer sets out no proof at all of Gods design or meaning to pass such several Trials and Judgments upon Men as he supposes nor doth his whole Book give us good proof thereof and himself doth not require men to believe that God proceeds in ways not congruous to the Reasons of Men except God doth somewhere declare that he doth or will do so Whereas Mr. W. hath no otherways proved Gods Will so to do then from his own Expositions Collections Inferences and Conclusions which all seem to be the proper fruits of his own Invention Upon which the Old Rule must take hold Posito quolibet sequitur quidlibet and so if we suffer him to lay the Cards he will always deal them to his own advantage but I have no inclination to bear with such dealing and therefore do reject his Answer to this Objection as infirm and insufficient Well but then says Mr. W. If this Answer will not satisfie you I doubt not but the righteous Judge will satisfie you of the reason of that Great Day notwithstanding particular judgments upon Men and the spirits of Men before that Day I find no manner of proving force in these words of Mr. W's they seem rather a Threat than a Proof and a product rather of his own Will than of his Knowledge or a reasonable Inference from any Text of Scripture Lastly he bids his Opposers be silent least God reprove them And having made this Reply to his Answer I am content to be silent and proceed no father thereupon but as to the Incongruity charg'd by the Objection upon Mr. W's Opinion I say that it seems very incongruous to my Reason that God should call Men to a Solemn Tryal at their Deaths and there pass Judgment and award Execution thereupon and after they have long continu'd in this condition then to call them to a new Tryal and give another Judgment upon them with a like award of Execution on as before this seems a very unlikely Proceeding of God towards Men and yet if Mr. W. or any of his Partakers have proved or can prove from any plain or clear Text or Texts of Scripture that God will use this Course of Proceeding amongst Men I am ready to submit my own reason and opinion thereunto but not to the many words or conjectures which Mr. W. farther offers in his Answer to this Objection We read Mat. 25. Our Lords Sentence at the Last Judgment runs thus Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels not saying Return ye blessed unto the happy Mansions of Heaven from whence ye came or Return ye cursed into those dark and dreadful Regions where ye were before but come ye and go ye to such Places and Regions as it seems probable they were not acquainted with before whence it seems inferrable that those Intermediate Tryals Judgments and Executions which Mr. W. maintains have something of the Chimerical and Imaginary without having that real truth in them which Mr. W. and his Party endeavour to maintain and the Objection before made against them seems strong enough to shake and oppose their Pretensions An Eighth Objection I raise from 1. Cor. 15.12 If Christ be Preached that he rose from the Dead how say some among you that there is no Resurrection of the Dead but if there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen and if Christ be not risen then is the Christian Religion both vain and false vers 18. and then they also which are faln asleep in Christ are perished vers 32. If after the manner of Men I have fought with Beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the Dead rise not Let us eat and drink for too morrow we die Then the Apostle finds fault with Communications which call in Question the Belief of the Resurrection of the Dead vers 52. At the last Trump the Dead shall be raised Incorruptible and we who are then alive shall be changed and then shall Death be swallowed up in Victory vers 58. And therefore my beloved Brethren be ye
OBSERVATIONS UPON Mr. WADSWORTH's BOOK OF The Souls Immortality and his Confutation of the Opinion of the Souls Inactivity to the Time of General Resurrection 80. Printed London 1670. IN his Epistle to the Reader Page 2. he says There are certain sober Professors of Christianity who tho they deny the Existence of the Soul separate from the Body yet they maintain the Resurrection of the whole Man at the Last Day to receive Recompences according to their deservings in this life and thereupon asks the Question Is not that sufficient to uphold Religion and a due Reverence of God in the World In answer to which Question he says There are some Professors among us who deny the Resurrection of the Body as some of the Quakers are said to do but yet believe the Returning of the Spirit to God who gave it and then concludes That between one of these Opinions and the other all Recompences future to this life may come to be discredited and exploded Upon which his manner of arguing I observe That he seems to set up if not invent the Opinion of Denying the Resurrection of the Person and yet believing that Humane Spirits return to God who gave them Concerning which Opinion I say I never heard of the like before which makes me think it may be an Invention and the rather because he gives no better Confirmation of the Truth of it then that some of the Quakers are said to hold it whereas I rather apprehend the truth to be that neither the Quakers nor any other Christians ever did or do deny the Resurrection of the Dead and further I conceive that no reasonable man who reads and believes the Scriptures can deny or very much doubt the truth of that Prime Article of our Faith The Resurrection of the Dead and further I conceive That if the Souls Immortality had any thing near a like clear proof in Scripture that we find in it for the Resurrection of the Dead both I and all other Doubters of such Immortality would be ready to assent and submit to that Opinion whence I apprehend he pretends to set up that which he calls the Quaking Opinion on purpose to discredit and deâ—ery the Practice of mens setting up their rest and expectation upon the clear and undeniable Article of the Resurrection of the Dead But that Article is too well founded and too clearly evidenced by the Scripture to be shaken or brought in question by any Inventions of Men whatsoever Page 4. Mr. W. says Having sometimes found my own mind hopled and troublesomely intangled with the perplexity of conceiving how my Soul could possibly exist in a separate state from my Body to which I 〈…〉 so strictly united and with which I found it by experience so much so sympathize in this its union Thus he conâ—â—â—â— himself to have doubted of the Humane Soul 's Separate Subsistence adding That he believed divers others might be troubled with the like doubtings and his intent in writing this Book was to propound to them such Arguments as had satisfied the doubts of his own mind Hereupon I observe That this Author was by Profession a Minister of the Gospel as appears by the Title Page of his Book that he was a man of great Reading Wit and Industry as plainly appears in the tenour and course of his Writing that he was a true and sincere Professor of the Christian Religion and knew very well as in some places of this Book he testifies that the Primitive Christians and later Churches both Romish and Reformed the Mahometane Churches the Heathen Priests Poets and Philosophers and a great number of the Jews and Proselytes of that Church have professed with a great Unanimity and Universality to hold and believe the Natural Subsistence of the Humane Soul in a State of Separation from the Body and yet the Natural Evidences of the strict Union betwixt the Soul and Body and the necessary Assistance which the one of them gives to the other for the production of Life and Action in the Person appear'd so strong to the Rational Mind or Faculty of this Writer as they had power to make him doubt of the possibility or at least the probability of the Souls Natural Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body and hence I am apt to infer that if a Man framed de meliori luto so munited and assisted as this Writer was did fall into doubts concerning the Natural Subsistence of the Humane Soul in a state of Separation from the Body it seems nothing strange or wonderful that other persons less fortified should fall into the like doubts and scruples that he did without falling from the sincere Profession of the Christian Religion because perhaps they may recover from those doubts and errours wherein they are now involved and next because such Errour as may be in this Opinion seems meerly Speculative and to have little or no influence upon the Lives and Practices of Men however some may put a higher value thereupon then perhaps the thing it self may deserve for that it commonly seems to affect more the terror of the dying than the restraining evil persons from sinning and even at mens deaths it seems to lay more terrour upon the weak and fearful than upon the most sinful and wicked persons and in the practices of men it seems provable and granted by all parties that what will make a happy Immortality will likewise make a happy Resurrection and what will make the one miserable will make the other so too because the Tree lies as it falls and as Death leaves us so shall Judgment find us and therefore I conclude that if men do happen to fall under such scruples and do even doubt the Natural Subsistence of the Humane Soul in a state of Separation from the Body and for obtaining better satisfaction thereupon do declare such doubts and scruples to the world with the reasons and grounds upon which the same is founded they may not for their so doing really deserve to be black'nd with the Names and Titles of Epicure Sadducee Deist Atheist and other odious Epithets which men of eager Spirits do frequently use to bestow upon others who differ from them in any sort of Opinions which may be controverted amongst them and seems to be a practice very much opposing Charity and the Doctrines of the Gospel Page 5. Mr. W. saith His Mind in this Treatise is to confirm the faith of those who believe the Souls Immortality or to raise up those that are fallen into the doubts and scruples before mentioned of which sort he was informed there are not a few among the otherwise serious Professors of Christianity in England who notwithstanding such scruples might pass with our Author for good Christians who are to stand and fall by their Masters Judgment in such Cases without being subjected or subjecting themselves to the sharp Censures of other violent or uncharitable persons He says Besides such doubters there are other
even down to latter times and the same Conception seems to have a Being and Substance in the Minds of some learned Persons until this time My Discourse concerning this sort of Spirit hath been deliver'd with intent to discover and evince That Solomon's Spirit returning to God who gave it was spoken and meant by him concerning this last sort of Spirit and I intend to recite some Arguments for the proving of this Construction First I Argue from the words or terms of the Text it self and say That it Solomon intended such a Soul as Mr. W. has described the Text it self seems not to be properly worded because I think nothing can be properly said to return to another thing except it had been a part or concomitant of that other thing before but Mr. W.'s sort of Soul seems never to have been a part or concomitant of God before its being put into the Body for the enlivening and acting of the Person I do not therefore well perceive how such a â—oul can be properly said to return to God but the Expression therereunto properly belonging should have been worded The Spirit goes to or goes before God with expectation to receive his Judgment and Sentence according to the demeanour of its Person upon Earth and I do not perceive how this Souls going to God for Judgment can be properly call'd a return to God who gave it Secondly I Argue I find not so much as one Text in Scripture which says the Souls of dying Persons go presently to God for Judgment nor any Text from whence this Opinion may be drawn by a rational Inference and that which makes nearest approaches to it of any that I know is the Parable of Dives where it is said the Begger died and was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom I know my Opposers will think it needless to ask them what is intended by the words The Begger was carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom and doubt not but they will soon make a bold Answer It neither was nor could be the Begger himself that was so carried in his whole Person Body and Soul into Abraham's Bosom and yet the Words of the Text seem to import that his whole Person Soul and Body was carried thither But if we shall grant their gloss upon this Text to be true that his Soul only was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom we may draw these inferences from that Relation either that his Soul was so ignorant as it knew not how to find a way to that Habitation or else was so weak and impotent as it was not able to pass thither without the Support and Ministry of Angels How then can we conceive that such a Soul as this should make its return to God presently upon the Death of its Person without mention of any other Assistance to be given it We hear nothing of Dives in the Parable but that being in Hell he lift up his Eyes and saw Lazarus in another place without mention of the means by which he came there and if we shall follow the common Conjecture that as Lazarus was carried to one place by Angels so Dives was hurried to the other by Devils it will appear very unlikely that Mr. W.'s sort of Soul is able to make its way and return to God at its Pleasure And here we Read the Begger 's Soul was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom without mention of its being carried or returning to God at all whence it seems probable that when Solomon speaks of the Souls returning to God he doth not intend such a Soul as Mr. W. hath described but rather such a Spirit as had first been a part oâ— parcel of the â—pirit of Nature or of God sent out for the enlivening and acting of a particular Person upon whose Death that Spark or Parcel of the Deity returns with a strong inclination to God who sent it out from himself for the enlivening â—nd acting of that particular Body and joyn'd it self again to its Totum as Water presently incorporates with Water and the particles of Air neither will nor can be seperated from the incorporating one of them with an other Thirdly I Argue That if Solomon had intended by the Words Returns to God who gave it a going of the Soul to God or before God for receiving the Doom of his intermediate Judgment it seems a matter of such great Moment as required a more full Discourse upon the same and giving us more Light in it than his very few words there do afford us And however it is very probable that he would not have immediately subjoyned to his Discourse which intimates an intermediate Judgment a Declaration and Description of the General Judgment for that would have been playing Judgment upon Judgment which must needs have past for false Heraldry We find in this Chapter that as soon as Solomon had writ the Words The Spirit returns to God who gave it he ceases to speak any further concerning the State of Man after Death till he come to the 14th or last verse of the Chapter where he sayes as a conclusion of his whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for God will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil I think it not reasonable to conjecture that Solomon by his Returning of the Spirit to God who gave it did intend such a returning to God to be a going to him or before him for an intermediate Judgment for that if he had so intended he would not have immediately have mentioned and related the Certainty and Effect of the General Judgment as in this we see plainly he hath done and thus I leave Solomon's Words and the descant upon them to the further Consideration and Judgment of the Intelligent Reader Mr. W. goes on to quote Eccl. 3 20. Where he saith Solomon affirms that the Spirit of a Man goeth upward when he dieth adding that Solomon brings it in with an Intrrogation Who knoweth Not as if he doubted it for he cannot be said to doubt it since he delivered it most positively in the other verse intending as I conceive the Text last before quoted out of his 12th Ch. Hereupon I again declare I am no way satisfied with the manner used by our Author in his Quotations of Scripture The Text which in this place he quotes says thus Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth downward to the Earth Which to my understanding hath the same signification as if he had said Who knows the certain Truth of this Opinion That the Spirit of Man goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast goeth downward to the Earth Or who knows whether this difference between the Spirits of Men and Beasts be real and true or not And further it seems to me that this Interrogation is Pregnant with a Negative and seems to have the same sense as if had said
of his Death and Burial was derived or how the Jews might come to know that he so died and was buried Deut. 3.27 Goe get ye up into the Top of Pisgah and take a view of the Land And Chap. 34. says Moses went up from the Plains of Moab to the Top of Pisgah and died there The Words of both Texts seem to intend that Moses went up alone into the Top of this Mountain and told the Jews before his going up that he was to die there and they never saw or heard more of him after that time whence they might according to the common course of the World in such Cases reasonably enough conjecture that he died there and was buried according to the Custom of the World without finding any Evidence or Truth of such a Burial Whence I conceive his being buried was but a Conjecture of the Jews because they could not find what was become of the Body altho' probably they made a great Search for it Whence I Collect that his dying in the Mount and his being buried thereabouts was but a Collection or Conjecture of the Jews from his own not returning to them and their not being able to find his Body by their most diligent Search And Collecting from these Premises I am ready to infer as a Probability that Moses was translated and therefore neither dead nor buried and yet was never seen or heard of after nor could they by search find any place of his Burial or what other ways was become of him and I offer his Appearance at Mount Tabor as the best ground I have for this Conjecture conceiving that it might please God the Jews might not know of that Translation for that if they had known of his immediate going to Heaven they might have been apt to direct Prayers thither to him to intercede with God for their Nation as he often successfully did whil'st he was here upon Earth I have said before that Mr. W's Opinion of Moses's appearing at Mount Tabor in Soul only cannot be proved by any Text of Scripture is but his or at the most a humane Conjecture And I grant that his appearing in Person at Mount Tabor is also a humane but I think a more reasonable Conjecture And to this whole fifth Argument drawn from Mens Collections and Conjectures thereupon I Answer That Men expect more Clear and Assertory Proofs of the Soul 's Seperate Subsistence than this or such like Arguments can afford them The Sixth Argument PAg. 67. Mr. W. founds his Sixth Argument upon that which is delivered to us in the Parable of Dives And first he grants that Relation to be a Parable and not a real Story adding That Parables are shadows of Discourse by which are set forth things that are real and substantial And I grant they may be Instructive concerning those Matters for whose Illustration they were purposely delivered and yet even in those things I do not take them to be proving Mr W. says further That Tertullian Augustine and the rest of the Fathers did much build their Faith of the Souls Immortality and of Mens Happiness or Misery immediately after Death before the Judgment of the Great Day upon this Scripture I observe he avoids calling it this Parable I know not whether what he says concerning the Fathers building their Belief of such things upon this Parable be true or not but conceive that if this Parable was really the principal Foundation of that Belief it had but a very soft and sandy Foundation so as the building thereupon erected will not be enough able to resist the Storms Rains and Floods which may happen to assault it He further quotes Ireneus and relates the gross Errours which he and Tertullian fell into by following this Parable too closely viz. so far as to think That a Seperated Soul has a Shape Eyes Mouth and other like Members of a Humane Body He repeats his Concession again That this Similitude of Dives and Lazarus is not Historical but Parabolical P. 68. Mr. W. says By Abraham's Bosome is meant a Place of great Pleasure and Happiness reserv'd for the Righteous when they have finish'd this Life And hereupon I observe a Variance between being carried to this Place of Pleasure and a going before God to an intermediate Judgment and conceive that the being carried to this Place stands in Opposition to the Text of Solomon The Spirit returns to God who gave it for Lazarus in this Parable neither went to God for Judgment nor return'd to Him by a natural Bent or Power of its own but was carried to this unknown Place by the Ministry of Angels P. 70. Mr. W. raises a Question Whether the Words and Sense of this Parable do speak of and import a State of Persons presently after their Death or such a State as shall overtake them at the Resurrection and the last Judgment And he spends divers Pages and Arguments in Proving That the Import of this Parable points to a State presently succeeding the Parties Death and not to that State which shall follow low upon the Resurrection but his Labour to this Purpose is needlessly bestowed upon me or others who may think as I do That the Sense of this Parable intends a State presently succeeding the Parties Death Here Mr. W. says Our Lord by this Parable intended to set forth an immediate state of Happiness for the Godly and of Misery for the Wicked I Reply to this That there appears no Evidence in the Context of our Lord's Intent how to Teach by this Parable There is no Discourse in any Part of the Context which might lead our Lord to speak of the State of Persons after Death but the Context immediately fore-going doth plainly intimate and prove the special Intent of our Lord in this Parable was to Illustrate and Confirm a Sentence which himself had lately before uttered viz. That there are things highly esteemed among men and yet are an Abomination in the sight of God And to this Purpose he describes the state of Dives with such Circumstances as make it highly esteem'd and desired amongst Men and sets Lazarus so low and in a Condition so miserable as one can hardly devise a worse Condition amongst Men notwithstanding whereof the Sequel of the Parable declares That the state of Dives though highly esteemed amongst Men was in the whole of it abominable to the sight of God and Lazarus's state tho' abominated by Men was in the whole more blessed than that of Dives was And I conceive thereupon that our present Parable was delivered by our Lord with special Intent to illustrate this Doctrine without any apparent Intent to teach concerning the State of People after Death and yet I do Agree this Parable to set forth or prove that the common Opinion of the Jews at that time was correspondent to the Descriptions made in this Parable but I conceive withal that divers Particulars therein specified prove it to be a Jewish Conception of that
other Man may possibly say Having now confounded and implicated the Meaning of this Text by my Exposition I am enough by that means enabled to prove thereby the Souls Seperate Subsistence which from the Text it self without such handling of it I should not be able to have done P. 88. He pretends to prove The Soul not subject to Death because nothing is so that is not subject to the Power of Death and the Soul of the Believer is not so I look upon this as a vain sort of Argument and begging of the Question increasing the Bulk of his Treatise but adding no strength to his Proof Here again he speaks of the Soul by the Term of Her and She as if he had prov'd her a Seperately distinct thing from the Man or Person a thing neither granted to him nor proved by him P. 89. He says again The Spirit of a Believer is not subject to the Law of Death Which is the very Point in Question and denied by his Opposers P. 90. He pretends That by what he hath said it appears that the Law of Death is executed only on the Body of a Believer I Answer that to me appers no such thing but that the Law of Death is executed upon the Persons both of Believers and Unbelievers and that Death pass'd upon all for that all have sinned and do Agree with him that not only the Body shall be rais'd at the Last Day but that the whole Person shall be so rais'd to appear in Judgment before the Tribunal of Christ And withal I conceive that our Author goes far for Arguments to prove his Tenet when he catches at and seems to rely upon such precarious Constructions as he hath offered in this Argument The Tenth Argument PAge 90 Mr. W. quotes in proof of his Opinion 2 Cor. 5 6 Therefore we are always confident knowing that whil'st we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are consident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord P. 91. Hereupon Mr. W. with good reason places the difficulty in the meaning of St. Pauls doubled Expression of being in the body and absent from Christ and being out of the body and present with Christ and then saith That when Paul says We are confident that here by the We that are always confident he intends the Soul or Spirit of himself and the Soul and Spirit of the rest of the Believing Church And if this be the true meaning of our Apostle in this Case viz. That here is intended the Souls of him and his brethren which at death will be absent from their bodies and be present with the Lord Then says he it proves the Souls of Men Seperate and are Immortal but the former says he is true therefore the later Then he offers to prove that by the We who would be absent from the body the Apostle intends the Souls only of himself and other Believers for what else is that of the Saints that is absent from the body and present with the Lord Name the thing if you can for says he it cannot mean the body nor the whole person not the whole person for that the whole man cannot be said to be at home in one part of the man viz. his body or absent from it for the whole of anything cannot be contained in a part of it P. 93. Then Mr. W puts a weak Objection against himself and answers it Upon this Argument I Agree with him that the Difficulty lies in finding out what St. Paul intends by the We that would be absent from the Body and present with the Lord Whether it intends the Souls only of the Faithful or their whole Persons He says It can only intend Mens Souls But I conceive that it intends their Persons And first I Argue from the Apostles Terms of Expression and do think that if by the Term We he only intended Mens Souls he hath very improperly express'd such a Meaning for that if there be many Persons in an Assembly or Company and one of them speaking for the rest says We decree or expect or desire such a thing how can it possibly be imagined that the Speaker intends only the Souls of those Persons do expect or desire And therefore if our Apostle by his Term We did intend only the Souls of Believers I conceive it would have been hard for Men to have found out that Meaning without such an Assistance and Direction as Mr. W. here offers them I think the proper Signification of the Word We in such Cases is to denote the Men or the Persons who are said to do any thing and not any one Part or Parcel of such Persons as it must do in this place if it intended only the Souls of Believers I take it for an old and good Rule amongst Expositors that they should cast their Eyes upon the Contexts of those Places which they mean to Expound that thereby they may discover the whole Scheme or Plat-form of the Writer's Intention and then to employ their Talent in drawing all that the Writer says to prove his Meaning or fortifie his Assertion And therefore I proceed to search what our Apostle says in his next fore-going Chapter concerning this Matter Chap. 4.10 We are cast down but not destroyed always bearing about in the Body the dying of our Lord Jesus By Body I think the whole Person is here intended The Text adds That the Life of Jesus might be made manifest in our Body or Person Ver. 14. We know that he which raised up the Lord JESVS shall raise up us also by JESVS and shall present us with you Ver. 16. Though our outward Man perish yet the inward Man is renewed Day by Day Intending the whole Man degenerated or regenerated Chap. 5.1 We know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven And we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthen'd not for that we would be uncloath'd but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life And we are always 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 present with the Lord And we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad These Quotations have been transcribed for making it appear that the Intent of our Apostle in these Texts was to discover to his Readers Matters concerning the Resurrection and the Last judgment In the beginning of his Discourse he professes to
as feasible as to make a Camel go through the eye of a Needle With Men and to their Understandings all such things are impossible but not with God I think it impossible for the Art or Industry of Man to make and give Life to a Mouse a Flie a tuft of Grass or a Flower The Art of the whole World hath never yet been able to produce such Creatures and to put Life into them and how then dare such weak Writers compare their Knowledge and Skill with that of the Great Creator and pretend to say That he who made all things out of nothing cannot make what he will out of any Matter which he will make use of and tho' I will not be so humorous as to think it possible for Men to make a Sensible House or any other Sensible or Living Creature whatsoever yet I am certain that God hath made an Infinite number of Sensible Creatures unto whom I think Mr. W. will not think fit to communicate Souls of the same sort with those which he bestows upon Mankind P. 135. Thirdly Mr. W. recounts to us divers particulars concerning the Memory and says that Men are not able to give an account of the mode or manner of its acting and I agree Mens Inabilities so to do well but then says he If you cannot tell me the manner of such Actions by the spirits of the Blood in the Brain I wlll conclude it is done by the Power of an Intelligent Spirit I reply That if he will do so I cannot help but I refuse to bear him Company in that mistake unless he can give me a better account how his Spirit accounts Memory in the Brain and after what manner the same is performed than I can give him concerning the Spirits of Blood acting the Brain to that purpose I am ready to confess my Ignorance in the later and I shall think him as Ignorant in the former until he shall give us a better account thereof then hitherto hath appeared in the World P. 136. Fourthly Mr. W. argues That the Soul must needs be Immortal because Men have a Rational Faculty whereby they can act abundance of things here by him enumerated and which seem to be beyond all Capacities in the Nature of Matter it self and all the Advantages which Humane Art or Industry can give it To this I Answer as before That altho' the nature of Matter be not proper in it self for such Productions nor can be made to serve such purposes by the Art or Industry of Men yet the Wisdom Skill and Power of God are able to produce such Effects out of Matter and Motion as Men are not able rationally to conceive nor it seems by Mr. W's Discourse are willing to believe That he ascribes all these Powers to his sort of Soul which are truly in and proper to the Person must pass for his Common Error and is perhaps incurable in him because I find it so lasting as to reach from the one end to the other in refutation whereof I think there has been enough already spoken and therefore I pass over much that he hath said in this place to the same Purpose Mr. W's Immoralities consequent upon the Doctrine of the Souls Mortality P. 139. He says That it lets Men loose to Immoralities and gratifies bad Men and their Actions I answer That for the space of Thirteen Years last past I have conceived this Opinion to be the more probable of the two and yet have not found that it had any effect at all upon my Manners or the other Opinions which I before held concerning God and his Worship and therefore I am not apt to believe that it will have bad effects upon other Persons who may likewise conceive this Opinion to be the more probable Next he says This Opinion creates contemptible Thoughts of Mens Souls I Answer That the Conception of the not being of any thing can breed no contempt of that which Men think hath not a Being or not such a Being as other Men imagine I also say That those who think their Beings to be composed of no other things but Elemementary Matter may yet justly have a great Esteem of themselves as the Skilful Workmanship of God after his own Image and endued with more excellent Faculties and Powers than any other Animal or Earthly Crateures whatsoever P. 140. Secondly Mr. W. says Belief of the Souls Mortality keeps the minds of wicked Men from fearing the Torments which others expect to succeed the very time of their Deaths I Answer That these Apprehensions do more commonly terrifie the Good and Weak than the Bold and Wicked both in the time of their Lives and at the day of their Deaths and whether it do more good or hurt in these Respects I pretend to question Mr. W. says That the Doctrine of the Resurrection and the Last Judgment may be of Consideration sufficient to terrifie wicked Persons and yet it seems not that he is so well satisfi'd therewithal as I am but would have the Belief of the Souls Separate Subsistence super-added thereunto and I should therewith be contented if the same could be any thing near so well proved as the Doctrine of the Resurrection may be Thirdly Mr. W. says The Opinion of the Souls Extinguishment is troublesome to the Souls of good Men a mode of speaking which I would correct and say it is troublesome to good Men themselves whose Hearts are in Heaven whilst they are on Earth to whom it is grievous to think of any delay between Death and their going to God to live in Vnion with him I Answer that tho' by Error in their Belief they may be disappointed of that expected Happiness yet it seems they shall fare never the worse for it nor know how much they were deceived till the time of the Resurrection and then their Works which follow them will be sure to overtake them and they will receive no Detriment by that delay which they may find in their going to God because the distance between Death and the Resurrection is of no consideration at all to the dead Person who shall rise as if he were then but newly fallen asleep and be utterly unknowing and unperceiving what time hath passed over him since his Death and whether any time hath passed over him at all or not Mr. W. hath used divers high and some tragical Expresons against his Opposers and their Opinion in his Discourse upon this Head which I pass over as not greatly significant in this Dispute Ancient Testimonies both of the Jews and Primitive Christians proving the Souls Immortality P. 142. Thereupon Mr. W. says That his ancient Testimonies and the Vniversal Belief of the Christian Church is no small Evidence of the Truth of that Opinion And I agree this to him that these are great Evidences of the Truth thereof and I think them the strongest Evidences which he hath yet produced and yet I do not conceive that they have in them
weak people in this World and was thereat so much grieved that he breaks forth and says I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive yea better is he than both they which hath not yet been who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the Sun Chap. 9.3 The heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness is in their heart whilst they live and after that they go to the dead for to him that is joyned to the living there is hope for a living dog is better than a dead lyon for the living know that they shall die but the dead know not anything neither have they any more a reward for their memory is forgotten their love hatred and envy are perished Ver. 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge in the grave whither thou goest Thus we find Solomon expresseth himself much to the same purpose that Job before hath done declaring that Death and the Grave put an end to the doings and sufferings of Men without taking notice of any rewards or sufferings likely to befal men soon after their departures forth of this World which is in my apprehension a sort of evidence that his words The Spirit returns to God who gave it did not intend the going of Mens Souls to Judgment before God soon after their departures out of this Life I quote likewise in Corroboration of Solomons fore-cited Text and Opinion a Concurrent Evidence out of the Prophet Isaiah 38.18 where Hezekiah praying to god says The Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope for thy Truth The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day Mr. W. hath quoted these Texts of Solomon and Isaiah and made out of each of them an Objection against his Opinion but I have made one Objection out of them both because I find them tend to the same purpose and do not so much labour to increase the number of my Objections as to fortifie and strengthen those which I make against him Mr. W. hath made the Text now quoted out of Isaiah his Tenth Objection against his Opinion and thereunto answers That Hezekiah 's meaning in these words is that Men after Death cannot praise God as they do whilst they are in this World and in the Congregations of Men but that still they can and do praise God after Death in Heaven Thereunto I reply He seems to make Hezekiah mean what himself pleases but that King's words seem plainly to declare That Men after Death neither do nor can celebrate or praise the Name of God without mention of such a meaning as he pretends or any need of such a meaning that I can perceive and therefore I read and take the plain Sense of his words to be as he hath delivered them In his Eleventh Objection he quotes the Text of Solomon The Dead know not any thing and thereunto answers That Solomon's meaning in these words is That Dead Men do not know any thing of what is done under the Sun after their Deaths I reply The words of the Text are general words The Dead know not any thing at all and therefore I cannot allow of his restraining them to Things done under the Sun which he hath excogitated on purpose to serve his Design in this Point Wherefore I leave this Exposition as a needless and erroneous Invention and proceed farther to consider the whole Objection now propounded against Mr. W's Opinion And we find that Solomon in the Texts of this Objection before quoted speaks of Death as of a Rest from Mens Labours and Sufferings and says There is no device nor knowledge in the grave whither thou goest the living know that they shall die but the dead know not any thing not any the most common or knowable thing not a thing so well known as that Men must die or that they must rise again These are things the most commonly known to Men when they are alive but when they are dead they know not any thing at all and to this King Hezekiah adds they cannot act any thing they cannot so much as Praise and Celebrate the name of God which Mr. W's Party will have to be the proper work of their good Souls departed Our Text tells us in absolute and plain Terms the Dead cannot do so comprehending under the name of Dead the Person and all that belong'd to the Composition thereof And from these Premisses I take leave to conclude that from these Texts is raised a strong Objection against the Souls Seperate Subsistence A Fifth Objection against Mr W's Tenet I raise from Eccless 11.8 If a Man live many Years and rejoyce in them all yet let him remember the days of Darkness for they shall be many and then he gives Liberty to the young Man to rejoyce in the days of his Youth and use his Liberty but withal bids him know that for these things God will bring him into Judgment so Chap. 12.14 After he had said the Spirit returns to God who gave it he adds Fear God and keep his Commandments for God shall bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Here Solomon exhorts Men to remember the day and time of their Deaths The miserable as well pleased to rest under that dark Shadow and the young and joyful he exhorts to remember those times as days of Darkness and says that they shall be many subjoyning thereunto that after those days God will call Men to Judgment for all that they have done in this World tho' it be never so secretly acted and even for every idle word at the Day of Judgment an Account must be made and much more of Mens smallest Actions whether the same be good or whether they be evil by the days of Darkness which Solomon here mentions seem somewhat clearly to be intended the days which immediately succeed the death of the Person they are days of Darkness as Darkness it self covered and made dark with the shadow of Death and our Text says those Days shall be many and therefore he exhorts Men in their greatest Jollity to remember them but our Opposers contrary to the Tenor of this Text endeavour to perswade us that there are no days of Darkness at all in Death for that when the Breath of Man goeth forth or ceaseth in him his Substantial Intelligent and then Seperated Soul or Spirit either returns to God or goes before him to Judgment or is carried by Angels or is hurried by Devils into very different places concerning which I do not find they are well agreed among themselves but howsoever that may fall out they are all very well agreed that their Seperate Intelligent Spirit is at greater liberty and is more active and knowing than it was during its confinement to the
stedfast always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your Labour is not in Vain in the Lord the Resurrection of the Dead being thus certainly and undoubtedly proved to you you must be stedfast and unmoveable in your Religion knowing that your Labour is not in Vain in the Lord. In Mr. W's Thirteenth Objection against his own Opinion he propounds it thus our Opponents alledge vers 18. of this Chapter inferring that if there be no Resurrection Then those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished which they say could not follow if there were any state of a Blessed Life for a Seperate Soul for that tho' there were no Resurrection of the Dead yet Souls already in Heaven should still be happy there and not be perished for want of a Resurrection of the Person To this Mr. W. answers That in the course of this Text St Paul intends to prove the Resurrection of Christ and to teach that if his Resurrection was not true then all those who are fallen asleep in Christ should be perished There Mr. W. says thus now to prove that Christ was risen which was the Antecedent of the Apostles Argument he argues either Christ is risen or we have been preachers of what is Vain and false and then those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished Hereunto I reply That we do not read in this or any other Text that there was a Dispute among the Corinthians about the Resurrection of Christ but that it was both preached and believed amongst them that he was risen from the Dead and from that Established and Undoubted Truth the Apostle inferrs the Resurrection of the Dead and says the one of them is as true as the other but if there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen and if these be not both true then all Christian Religion is vain and false and those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished This sort of arguing seems to suppose a possibility that those who are fallen asleep in Christ may be perished which were a vain supposal if their Separated Souls did still subsist and were Immortal because that whether there be a Resurrection or not a Resurrection and whether Christ were risen or not risen yet Seperate Souls would still have a Subsistence and not be perished as here our Apostle supposes they would be if the Resurrections so preached to the Corinthians were not true So as our Apostles Expression seems not well to agree with Mr. W's Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence but it is at full agreement with the material Opinion who maintain as St. Paul doth that if there be no Resurrection then all hope of Recompences future to this Life are Vain and those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished Mr. W. says farther There is no Way or Means for expiation of your Sins and removal of the Curse besides the Death of Christ I say we are taught by this Text that his Death would avail us nothing without his Resurrection and our Resurrection also Then Mr. W. quotes if Christ be not risen the Wrath of God still abides on you and says this is spoken because his Resurrection was to be the Evidencing Sign among the rest that his Death was accepted of the Father for that end he professes to lay it down which was to expiate our Sins I say he professeth to lay it down that he may take it up again and he was convinced that it would be accepted of his Father before he laid it down and then he rose again for our Justification rather than as a Testimony that his Death was accepted of the Father of which there was before no doubt at all Mr. W. goes on and says He denies that the Apostle â—ntends by these Reasonings to prove immediately the Resurrection of all Men but only as their Resurrection comes in upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which is the only thing in these Verses now named that the Apostle was proving To this I reply That the Resurrection of the Dead and the Doubt which some Men had thereof is the principal and only Question which I conceive to be disputed of in this Text for we do not read of doubt made by any Man concerning the Resurrection of Christ for Christ was preached to the Corinthians and that he rose from the Dead and this Doctrine was receiv'd and believ'd by the Corinthians and yet some of them denyed the general Resurrection of the Dead and to convince those Unbelievers of their Error the Apostle tells them that the general Resurrection of the Dead is as true and certain as the Resurrection of Christ was and therefore I think the main scope of St. Paul was to convince the doubting Corinthians and to prove the general Resurrection of the Dead and which of us two have the Right in this Point shall be referred to the Judgment of such Readers as will consult St. Paul's Text thereupon Mr. W. says further to his Opposers the manner of the Apostles Argument is not as ye conceive That if the Bodies of the Saints do never rise then ye are in your Sins and those that are dead in Christ are perished Replying thereunto I say that I know none of his Opposers who argue in such a manner as he hath imposed upon them nor that examine or consider the Resurrection of the Body because we do not find in the whole Tenor of the Bible that expression of the Resurrection of the Body It is true that as we now use the Apostles Creed in English we find there mention'd the Resurrection of the Body but clearly we therein depart from our Originals of that Creed both in the Greek and Latin Languages the Greek calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latin calls it Resurrectionem Carnis the true English of both which Expressions is the Resurrection of the Flesh and after that manner I think it ought to be mended in our English Translations or Creed Whence it seemeth not to follow that the Body should be first raised and then a Substantial Intelligent Spirit ab extra should be put into it but that such raising shall be like the first formation of Adam and the covering of Ezekiels dry Bones with Flesh and Skin and the filling them with Blood and Humors apt to be kindled and inflamed by such a moderate Wind or Breath as may be breathed upon them or into them for kindling the flame of Life in their vital Parts thence to be communicated to all the rest of their Bodies John 5.28 The Hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done Good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil to the Resurrection of Damnation The manner after which Persons so raised shall come forth seems to be by forming the Flesh Bones Arteries Veins Nerves and Sinews into the shape of a humane
upon parting from their Bodies either return to God who gave them and are received into Heaven and Happiness or they shall be carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom and there enjoy at least a blessed Rest from their Labours and all future Sufferings I doubt not but that the Divines of our time would readily have administred such Comforts as these to the Friends of dead People or even to the dying Persons themselves but in our quoted Text we find St. Paul did not so proceed with his Correspondents upon this like Occasion for the only Comfort which thereupon he propounds to them is drawn from the Doctrine of the Resurrection which in this Place he somewhat at large delivers as knowing that to be sufficient for Mens Comfort in such Cases without remembring or believing our late comfortable Doctrine or Opinion of the Souls going to Heaven immediately after Death and hereupon I conclude that this Doctrine was either not known to him or not believed by him and that therefore it is an Error and no certain Truth or the very Truth of God A Tenth Objection against Mr. W's Opinion I raise from the concurrent Testimonies of many Scripture Texts referring the expectation of future Rewards or Punishments looked for after this Life unto the time of the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment without finding and such Expectation at the time of Men's Deaths referred to or mention'd in any Text of Scripture In the Catalogue of Mr. W's own Objections he hath made this the Sixth and propounds it thus The Scriptures say my Opposers do frequently make mention of the Great and General Day of Judgment and refer all the Rewards of the Saints to that Day and so all the Punishments of the Wicked therefore the Souls of Men die with their Bodies as being uncapable of Rewards or Punishments till then To this Objection he answers concessively and says I do partly acknowledge the first part of what ye say that Scriptures do frequently make mention of that great Day and again that the greatest Rewards and Punishments are reserved to that Day but I deny the later part of what ye say because the Scripture speaks of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and of the Soul of the Thief being in Paradise that day he died and of the Spirit of every Man returning to God at Death to be dealt with according to what they did in the Body and this he says is enough to blunt the edge of his present Objection And hereunto I reply That what he hath said concerning the Spirits of just Men made perfect hath before been answered and so hath that of the Thief 's Soul being in Paradise that day and proved to be invalid Testimonies of the Souls Seperate Subsistence His Third Testimony of the Spirits returning to God seems to be mis-recited for the Text doth not say it returns to God to be dealt with according to what they did in the Body which Words he adjoins with as much Confidence to the Text as if they might be there found written and were part of the Text it self so as unwary and unexamining Readers might soon be mistaken thereupon In what manner and to what purpose Solomon might intend this return of Souls to God hath been before disputed and I still confide that Mr. W. and his Party will not be able to prove that these words of Solomon intended the Souls of dead Persons going before God to Judgment as here he hath without any hesitation deliver'd it And therefore I conclude that his Answer hath very little blunted the edge of our present Objection I observe it as an Art in Disputing that it may be advantageous to grant in an easie and transient fashion such Objections as Men find themselves utterly unable to answer and I think Mr. W. hath used this Art in transiently granting the first part of this Objection viz. That the Scriptures do frequently refer the expectation of Rewards or Punishments after this Life and unto the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment and whereas I have said before that there is no mention in Scripture of such Expectations at or soon after the time of Mens Deaths he gives us here three of the most pregnant Instances which he could find in Scripture for proving that Rewards and Punishments are bestowed by God at the time of Mens Deaths but the force of these Instances hath before been obstructed by those Answers which have been severally given them in their proper places I am not without some Temptation of drawing out of the Scripture a Catalogue of such Texts as do with great Evidence and Strength set forth and prove that the time of the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment are not alone the principal but the only times whereat or wherein Recompences future to this Life are warrantably and certainly to be expected by Mankind but because I have said much and quoted divers Texts of Scripture upon that Subject before and am now willing to save my self and my Reader the tedium of such a long Repetition I will refer the Examiners of this Objection unto those Texts which have before been quoted to that purpose and to such others as themselves may meet with upon the perusal of the Scripture And with this round number of Ten the Objections which I make against Mr. W's Opinion out of Scripture shall be finished Yet I farther intend to add thereunto two or three Objections against Mr. W's Opinion derived from Natural Reason and the Experiences of Men. And first I begin from the Nature and Composition of the Humane Person and thereupon I observe that there are three things principally and absolutely necessary for the Subsistence and Life of the Humane Person viz. Blood Breath and Nutriment and thereupon do agree with Moses that the Life the Animals is in the Blood or that the Blood is the Life thereof whose inflamed Particles are the Spirits which act the Person and as well the Head as the Members so long as Life continues in the Body Next to which the Breath hath a Principal and absolutely necessary Faculty and Power of fanning and inflaming such Particles of the Blood as are imployed in every part of the Body and for refrigerating the internal parts of the Body with a perpetual Refreshment which keeps the Paristaltick Motion always in action amongst the inward and most vital parts of the Body whence daily Experience assures us that by stopping of the Breath but for some few Moments the Spirit of Life in Man becomes absolutely suffocated and extinguished and without Breath no Humane Art or Power can prolong the Life of the Person or other Animal whatsoever Concerning Nutriment it is only so far necessary to the Life of the Creature as the Blood thereof wastes and is consumed by the Circular Continual Motion and the Inflammation thereof In some long continuing and weakening Diseases the Motion of the Blood hath been so weak and the Inflammation thereof