Procreation of a Body Mr. M. and his Aids reject the very true way of producing Mankind viz. That of Generation being convinced that whatsoever is Generated grows decays and is corruptible Orig. Sacr. P. 432. our Learned Bishop says Nothing in the World produced by Generation can be incorruptible To avoid therefore this Rock of producing the Soul by Generation tho' it be never so true Pherecydes the Invenrer of the Immaterial Opinion with his Scholars and Successors Pythagoras and Plato and those who came after them pretended another sort of Original of the Soul The more Ancient held That Mens Souls did Pre-exist long before they came into the several Bodies and had been Existent in a former World before the present World and for Offences given to God in their former Stations they were Doomed to inhabit Bodies of Clay in this World sometimes of Men and sometimes of Beasts as a Purgatorial Punishment upon them that they liv'd in such Bodies as in Cages and Prisons desiring continually to be delivered from them and to escape thence into the open Air. But the latter and Christian Platonists amongst whom some of the Fathers say They Believ'd That God at the Creation of the World made a vast number of Humane Souls enough by coming going and removing to Actuate and Inhabit all such Humane Bodies as should after be Generated in the World and that all Mens Souls are still of that Pre-existent Nature But Mr. M. and his present Aids upon divers inconveniencies found in this Opinion have utterly rejected this sort of Original of Humane Souls and give themselves up to maintain this sort of Original of them viz. The Opinion of God's new Creation of a Soul for every new Procreation of a Humane Body be the same never so foul and Beastly in Adultery Incest or the Conjunction of Men with Beasts If the Product fall out to be of Humane shape God say they is ready at every such Procreation to make and does Create a new clean and spotless Said to Actuate and Inhabit such a newly Procreated Body The Observer hereupon conceives That all Creations are the Miraculous Works of God! They do not tell us whether their sort of Creation be out of Matter or Ex nihilo but which soever of those ways it be it is however a Miraculous Work of God And by this course such Miracles must be multiplied continually over the Face of the whose Earth and through the Minutes of Time which pass through the Ages of it Another Miracle necessary for the maintenance of the Immaterial Doctrine and flowing from such new Creation of Souls is this That these new Created Pure Innocent Souls are put thrust or cast into the Seminal Matter not exceeding perhaps the bigness of a Nutt derived and coming from the Loins of Adam and tinctured like an unsavory Cask with a foul Ingredient of Original Sin This unhappy Intelligent Spirit presently infected with that abominable Poyson and going on to increase in Conjunction with such a Body is by no Natural force able to shake off this Deplorable Corruption but it goes on increasing together with the Body and the Soul till they both together Taste deeply the ill Effects of it in this Life and when separated this at first Pure and Innocent Soul in the Natural Course of it falls or is carried to be a Companion of Devils and a fellow-sufferer in the Torments of Hell And this is a second Miracle necessary for the maintenance of the Soul's Immortality They are both of them extremely improbable and very little agreeable with the Goodness and Glory of God To these a Third Immaterial Doctrine shall be added necessary for the maintenance of that opinion viz. That Souls of Dying Persons go immediately before God and receive a a Judgment and Doom from him within a short time after their Deaths The Observer has said in his larger Treatise and repeats it here in this Place That if the Immaterialists can by Reason or Scripture make a clear Proof of any one of these Three Tenets which are all necessary for the maintenance of their Doctrine viz. Of this new Creation of Souls This sort of infecting them with Original Sin Or that there is an intermediate Judgment betwixt Mens Deaths and the Resurrection If they can make a good clear Proof of any one of these Points from Reason and Scripture or from either of them the Observer will be ready to submit to their Judgment in the main Point of the Immortality P. 72 Mr. M. saies The knowledge of the Spirits above us must arise from the knowledge of our own Souls The Observer denies this Assertion and saies That the knowledge of Superiour Spirits has two other Originals viz. Sensation and Revelation and we do plainly know and perceive more concerning Immaterial Spirits by the effects of their Operations and such Revelations as the Scripture makes of them than either is Revealed to us or can be perceived by us of such an Immaterial Spirit as Mr. M. pretends to be in us Mr. M. saies further That the knowledge of our own Souls must necessarily go before the knowledge of God The Observer saies That both by Reason and Revelation we may and do attain to a more large knowledge of God and a greater certainty of his Being and Actions than Men yet ever have had or are ever likely to have of the Immaterial Intelligent Soul of Man P. 73. Mr. M. Quotes a saying of Epicurus That God is not angry or pleased with any Men. Which he says is a Notion more befitting Sardanapalus than a Deity This Comment of Mr. M. upon his Quotation speaks him in the Observer's Judgment a Man of a narrow Capacity and therefore he will endeavour to inlarge his Thoughts upon this Subject It passes for an accepted Rule That if the Words of a Speaker or Writer may fairly and easily be taken in a good Sense it is a sign of ill Nature at least to take them in a bad one To understand the Words of Epicurus both in a true and a good Sense Men must reflect with great Observation upon such an Idea as the Scriptures have Revealed and Reason Teaches to Believe concerning the Being of God Job 23.3 O that I knew where I might find God he works round about me but I cannot perceive him with what words shall one speak of him Surely if one speak of him he that doth so shall even be swallowed up and confounded We cannot order our Words concerning him nor have we an Order of Words that can reach him He has no particular Faculties Powers or Parts but being One and entire is All in One. Concerning him Job 40.5 once have I spoken but I will not Answer yea twice but I will proceed no further This Transcendent Immensity having no Parts contained in no Place affected with no Time touched with no Passion filling and in himself containing all Places and Things Guiding without Care Working without Labour Commanding without
Chap. II p. 14. Mr. M. saies That a Soul made of corruptible perishing Matter is not fit to be called an Image of the Immortal God But the Observer saies That Man made as he is of corruptible perishing Matter was yet made after the Image of God and is so accounted to continue at this Day and for that Purpose He has join'd the Soul and Body together in a strict Union which cannot be Dissolved but by Death P. 15 Mr. M. saies That the Reasonable Soul was Created after the Image of God Which the Observer denies and saies That the Reasonable Soul is but one Constituent Part of the Man and his Body is the other that the Soul therefore is not the Man any more than a Part can be equal to the Whole and that it was the Man that was made after the Image of God and not any other Part or Parcel of that Compositum And Mr. M. goes on here and calls that which Moses calls the Breath of Life the Spirit of Life Which difference perhaps the Hebrew may bear as the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does in that Language He saies of this Spirit or Breath That it was Created by God at Adam 's Creation Which is more than Moses's Text does Warrant him to say For the Text of Gen. speaks of no other Creation there than that of the Man without saying that God then Created either the Spirit or the Breath nor is there any other Creation there spoken of save that of the Man The rest he passes as the Invention of Mr. M. who like some other Scholars may desire an Enterprize to be better than his Book In this Chap. he has Collected many Texts of Scripture which seem to maintain his Assertion amongst which there is nothing new to this Observer save the great use he pretends to make of St. Paul's Rapture which he sets down p. 17. from whence he pretends to Prove That St. Paul conceiv'd his Soul was really divisible from his Body and capable of a Subsistence without it As if he agreed with Dr. Moor's Opinion who Teaches That the Humane Soul may and sometime does forsake its Body and wander about in the Airy Region and other Parts of the World and make its return to the Body again at convenient times or upon some sudden Occasions But the Observer denies That St. Paul was of any such Opinion and takes the sense of St Paul's Words in the body or out of the body to be no other but that he was wrapt up into the third Heaven and there saw and heard as perfectly and distinctly as if he had done it with his Bodily Organs and remember'd it as well So that he could not certainly know whether these Bodily Organs were imploy'd in that Rapture or not or whether that Vision was only a Rapture or Extasy of his Mind We find a parallel Place to this in the History of the Kings where Micaiah the Prophet saies to Ahab I saw the Lord sitting upon his Throne and all the host of Heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left And there further relates what he heard and saw in that Vision And it is thereupon probable That he was not certainly knowing whether it was made in his whole Person of Soul and Body or whether it was only a Rapture and Extasy of his Mind and Intellect He thinks this Case very like that of St. Paul's and that the Words of his Rapture must prove exceeding weakly the separate Subsistence of Souls after Death Amongst all the Texts of Scripture he has Quoted there is no more than one which clearly maintains his Assertion viz. that of St. Matth. 10.28 Cited by him p. 17. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul These Words the Observer grants do with clearness Prove That Souls may have a separate Subsistence after the Death of the Person And therefore he will take upon him here memoriter Collecting the Summ and Substance of that which he has said more at large in his fore-mentioned Treatise upon this Subject Where in opposition to the force of this Text he Quotes Luk. 12.4 where the Words of our Lord are Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell The Observer believes That these two Texts of Matth. and Luke do intend to relate one same Fact and Doctrine of our Saviour And this Text of St. Luke does not prove That Souls have a separate Subsistence after the Death of the Body nor make any mention of the Soul at all And that upon these two Texts the Question must needs arise Which of them have truly related the Expressions which our Lord us'd at the delivering of this Doctrine Upon which Question may be considered the Persons and Qualities of these two Writers St. Matthew was indeed an Apostle but his former Profession and Practice was that of a Publican an Office very hateful to those of the Jewish Nation and so much that no Person of Quality would undertake it nor willingly Converse with those that Practis'd it And hence the Observer Collects He was not likely to be furnished with any great stock of Humane Learning but might easily be carried away by the common Opinion of that Time believing the Humane Soul was Immortal and capable of Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body and that therefore he might and probably did deliver this Part of our Saviour's Doctrine in Words and Terms suiting his Conceptions of the Things And that on the contrary St. Luke was a Knowing and Learned Physician and wrote from the Mouth of St. Paul who was the most Knowing and Learned amongst all the Apostles and who it seems was not possessed with the Opinion of the Soul's Immortality or the separate Subsistence of it after the Death of the Person and therefore has delivered this Doctrine in Terms very different from those of St. Matthew and for the further strengthening of this Apprehension the Observer Quotes Matth. 21.1 where the Words are Jesus sent two Disciples saying go into the next village and there ye shall find an asse tied and a colt with her loose them and bring them unto me And they went accordingly and found the asse and the colt and brought them to Jesus and put on them their cloths and sat him thereon This Relation plainly Intends That they brought two Beasts to Jesus and set him upon them both at one time which is an unusual and very unlikely sort of Riding incongruously and somewhat untruly related For that the other three Evangelists are clearly against him in it for each of them relate this Fact of our Lord and mention but one Ass in the Case which truly was a Colt the Foal of an Ass And this Error of our Evangelist seems not a bare but a willing mistake for the
we take it not for Proof because it was but a Parable spoken as we conceive to a quite other Intent and without Design to Teach any Thing concerning the State of Man after Death Neither of these two Texts do Assert positively the Soul's Immortality And there is not another Text in the New Testament which speaks with any manner of clearness concerning it But Men are forced first to Collect from them by Constructions and then to draw Inferences from such Collections for Proving their Opinion of the Soul 's Immortality When our Lord Discourses with Martha concerning her Dead Brother neither he nor she takes notice or makes mention of his Soul but pass that Particular as a Thing not known to them or deserving their particular Examination and yet they both Discourse of his Future State Our Lord saies Thy brother shall rise again She Replies I know he shall rise again at the Resurrection of the last day The Observer pretends by as good a Right as his Opposer does to Collect and Infer from this Discourse That neither of these Parties knew the Soul of Lazarus to be Immortal for that such Knowledge would have occasioned them to mention something concerning it in this Discourse And further the Observer saies That in all the rest of the New Testament there is no clear Mention or Declaration made concerning this supposed Truth nor is it any where so much as said The Soul of Man is Immortal How then can this Opinion pass for Natural amongst Men of common Understanding and Reading when it is so little mentioned and with so little certainty and so great obscurity throughout both the Books of the Old and New Testament And upon this Argument it shall be left to the Reader to conceive what he thinks fit concerning the Naturalness of this Opinion Mr. M. saies further That God Rules the World by the Force and Virtue of this Opinion of the Soul's Immortality To this the Observer Answers That if his Mind were set upon making sharp Returns here were a fair Field and a fit Occasion for putting that Design in Execution But he will here content himself with the abhorring the grosness of Mr. M's Opinion in it and to Attest against him That God makes no use at all of this Opinion in his Government of the World but grounds his Government of it upon his own Goodness Wisdom and Power without having any regard to the Opinions of Men whether they be True or False Mr M. saies God need not will not Rule the World in a way of Deceit The Observer agrees this Assertion and thence concludes That in such his Government he has no regard to this Opinion at all P. 45 Mr. M. says That the illiterate Vulgar who are guided by the meer simple Dictates of Nature have more impression of this great Truth than some of the Learned Which the Observer would have mended by altering it to many of the Learned and then he takes it for one of the truest Things which Mr. M. has said and applies to it the Old Rule which says That Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion The truth of which is well proved by the Effects it produces amongst the Romish Proselytes and those of other Sects and Parties in the Church P. 47. Mr. M. saies That the Author himself P. 15. of his mentioned Pamphlet saies That by Death the Man's Faculty of Thinking is certainly destroyed Yet elsewhere he speaks more dubiously viz. P. 3 11 12. of that Pamphlet Whence he pretends to Infer That the Minds of such Persons are always wavering and unsatisfied The Observer upon this Charge consulted his said Pamphlet in the 3 11 12 Pages before Quoted and found not in any of them any sort of Doubt concerning the Point before Quoted nor could others whom he employ'd to that purpose find there any Doubt upon that Point Which Proves Mr. M. in his last Quotations and that whatsoever he builds thereupon is a Fallacy And it seems doubtful whether this Mis-quoting were accidental or intentional because Mr. M. in some other Quotations has miscarryed accordingly viz. P. 23. of his Treatise where he Quotes Rev. 14.13 Reciting it in this manner Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord and their works do follow or rather accompany them Whereas the very Words of that Text are these Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Hence it appears That Mr. M. has altered this Text both by taking from it and adding to it He takes from it the Words That they may rest from their labour and adds to it the Words or rather accompany them Apparently intending to disguise the true Sense and meaning of it For the true Words themselves seem clearly to import That the Blessedness here intended was a resting from the Labours and Troubles of the World and that their Works do not accompany but follow them and that in due time viz. The Resurrection and Judgment they may be beneficial to them This Sense he pretends to pervert by turning that into Heavenly Enjoyment which the Text calls here a rest from their labours and making those Works accompany them which the Text saies do follow them And this he Designingly does with intent to maintain his side of the Argument beyond what the Truth or Text can allow of Likewise P. 75. he Quotes 1 Cor. 15.32 Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die The true Words of that Text are these If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the dead rife not Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die Here Mr. M. suppresses the Words if the dead rise not and by that mutilation or falsification intends to make his Reader believe that St. Paul intended to declare That if the Soul was not Immortal Men might Eat and Drink and Die without any Hope or Fear of future Recompences after this Life Whereas the express Words of this Text and the whole Tenor of this Chapter do plainly declare That there shall be a Resurrection and do lay the whole Expatiation of future Recompences upon that Ground and the Promises of Christ declared in the Gospel concerning it without mentioning the Immortality of the Soul or taking any manner of notice of it So as in this Place Mr. M. has suppressed those words to which his quoted Expression is by the Speaker apply'd for which the Observer believes he deserves a sharp Censure and that however from the Mis-quotations before Cited his Readers ought to be wary how they confide upon his Fidelity in Cases of the like Nature in which they may do to trust him no farther than they see him or can search the Truth of what he delivers It being apparent he is so much possest with his Opinion of the Soul's Immortality than like the Bilious Eyes he has before mentioned he thinks he sees Arguments for it in those Places of
in Statu Composito and not to either of his Constituent Parts in a State of Separation of the one from the other P. 60. Mr. M. saies That many good Men have died with raised Expectations of entring immediately into a Blessed State This the Observer believes to be true and that Men Die with many other Conceptions and Errors about them besides this and yet receive no harm or hinderance by any of them Mr. M. here further Repeats divers like mistakes amongst the Philosophers P. 61 Mr. M. saies He will not mention the Raptures of many Christian Martyrs at the time of their departing grounded upon this Expectation The Observer thinks That such Examples of this as he can find among the Primitive Martyrs would deserve his Quotation Mr. M. saies further That it may justly seem a great wonder that many of the best Men have erred in this Point of great concernment and a very few Men and those of mean Parts and Credit should be in the right of of it The Observer Answers That this among other like Accidents is not so strange as true Whilst the Learned World thought the Earth to be the Center of the Planetary Circumvolution some very few there were that ascrib'd that Place to the Sun and they at last are proved to be in the Right Did not the Learned World and particularly the Governors of the Church absolutely deny the Being of Antipodes which is now as apparent and clear a Truth as that there are Countries called by the Names of China and Japan Do not all true Proselytes of the Romish Church profess firmly to believe That there is no Salvation for any who Die excluded from the Communion of that Church And do not all Sectaries and Dissenters and the very Quakers profess absolutely to believe That their ways and modes of Worship are the most Excellent that are to be found among the Christian Churches or any other Assemblies in the World and are they not ready to expos themselves to Dangers and Death for the Maintenance and Advancement of their Profession Errors as they are Was not the Truth of Religion justled into a very narrow room when it was all comprised in one single Family Despised Hated and Persecuted by the Learned Chaldeans on the one side and their Equals the Egyptians on another side whilst the vast compass of the Earth besides was muffled up in the dark Clouds of Ignorance and neither knew any thing of God or else apply'd themselves to him by Devils or Daemons or other dumb shows of Idolatrous Figures for maintenance of whose Vain Services they were ready to spend their Blood and put to Death all those who durst affront them Of which Truth Mr. M's Proto-Martyr Socrates is an undoubted Evidence who suffer'd Death for daring to deny that which the World at that time undoubtedly believ'd for a certain Truth In these Pages Mr. M. Repeats the Words wretchedly deceived many times over The Observer grants and believes That a vast number of very good Men have Died in the Opinion Erroneous as it is of the Soul's Immortality But that was no more hurtful to them than an holding either part of the Questions concerning Predestination Original Sin or the Procession of the Holy Ghost or any other Speculative Opinions of that Kind And that if the Observer's Opinion of the Materiality be true the Persons Dying in the belief of the Immortality shall never find or know that they were deceived in it That Faith and those Manners which will serve them at an Intermediate Judgment will serve them as fully at the Last Judgment their Works do follow them and will serve them as well at the one Judgment as at the other They will not be lost or diminished by the largest Account of Time which may pass between their Deaths and the Resurrection As the Persons rising shall be perfect and known yea and the very same that Died tho' they have suffered far greater Alterations than Mr. M. has before pretended The Faith and Works of such Dying Persons shall then also appear to be the same which they were at their several Deaths The Resurrection and Last Judgment are certain and clearly Proveable by a strong Current of Scripture But the Intermediate Judgment is neither likely nor Proveable by any clear Assertory Text of Scripture whatsoever The Observer Advises Men therefore to build their Expectations of future Recompenses upon the rockie and sure Ground of the Resurrection rather than upon the soft and sandy Ground of an Intermediate Judgment The Observer conceives it a very improper and something absurd Course to bring a Man to Judgment whilst the is asleep without first wakening him out of it And we know that every where the Scripture calls Death a Sleep St. Stephen stoned to Death fell asleep Those who sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him We that are alive shall not prevent them that are asleep If there be no Resurrection then all those that are faln asleep in Christ are perished All Dead Persons are said to sleep with their Fathers and all Men Naturally do know that Death is a sound Sleep and has the common Reputation of something beyond it but certainly it is that at the least We know further this Effect of a sound Sleep that whether a Man sleep Four Hours or Forty Hours when he awakes he can find no difference nor know any thing of the degrees of Time which have passed over him and so for Forty thousand Days 4000 Years When the Person shall be awaked he can have no sense or perceiving of any time that is passed over him but rises perfectly as if he had but faln asleep a short time before and then shall find himself the same that he was when he fell asleep and as able to Account for what he has done in the Flesh as he was in the best time of his Life So as they who have no other Impediments but their erroneous Tenet in this Point shall not find themselves deceived to their prejudice but shall receive those full and real Recompences which belong to their Faith and Manners Mr. M. here further Quotes his good Friend Cicero whose Words make plainly for his Opinion but are of little force for the convincing of the Observer who attributes as much to the Bp. of Worcester's Thoughts as he does to those of Cicero but concludes amicus Cicero amici Doctores sed magis amica veritas Mr. M. pretends to offer a Sixth Absurdity arising from the Opinion of the Materiality which has little that needs Answer in it and to that which needs it a sufficient Answer has been given it in the fore-going Pages P. 64 Mr. M. takes Exceptions at the Observer's Anatomy for his placing the Power of Sanguification in the Liver He allows therein That the Observer agrees with the Ancient Anatomists but saies That the later Anatomists differ in this Point from the former upon good Grounds denying that this performance is made
in the Liver But he saies not what other Part or Place the later Anatomists have assigned for this Office of Sanguification and till they agree amongst themselves about that Point it seems the Observer may be justly excused for following the Ancient Anatomists in this Expression Mr. M. goes on to a Secondly which in the first Part of it needs on Answer till he comes to his Repeating the Observer's Quotation of Miracles in his Observations upon Mr. B' s Sermon Where the Case stood thus Mr. B. has Asserted in that Sermon That Omnipotence it self could not produce Thought or Intelligence out of meer Matter by any Skill or Power he could used The Observer there absolutely denies this Assertion and maintains the contrary both by Reasons and Examples inferring from God's making Matter out of nothing That he can make whatsoever he pleases out of any Matter And shews by Examples That God has done such Wonderful Things upon other Occacasions as give no less difficulty to the Minds of Men to conceive than the Act of producing Intelligence out of Matter may do Whence it seems he did not produce those Miraculous Examples out of Levity but for a very just Cause P. 65. Mr. M. Asks Is not God able to uphold the Soul in a State of Separation from the Body The Observer Answers He is able so to do and when he declares he has so done or will so do the Observer is ready to believe it 2dly Mr. M. Asks Are God's ordinary Works in Nature to be confounded with his Miracles The Observer Answers No. 3dly Mr. M. Asks Is it a good way of Arguing from the Power of God to his Will And is Answered No. And further Mr. M. here grants as by his enumeration of Particulars That God can make Matter Cogitative if he pleases to do it without acknowledging That therein he departs from Mr. B's Assertion which the Observer had before opposed Here Mr. M. goes on Repeating his Expressions formerly used and Answered He saies That it is the part of a Philosopher to admire the Works which God has done The Observer saies so too but not such Works as Mr. M. saies he has done unless he make better Proof of his doing of them Mr. M. Will not allow the Observer to lay down Hypotheses contrary to the Sense and Reason of Mankind and then to tell us God can make those Suppositions good The Observer Answers That he neither has done so nor ever intends to do it but that this Suggestion Savours of that Spirit which has hitherto much Acted in his Treatise Chap. V Mr. M. begins at P. 67. and from thence to P. 68. may pass for a Peroration little to the purpose of Proving any thing concerning the Question now in Dispute He declaims against the debasing the Humane Prerogative to the Degree of Brutes The Observer Answers That Prerogatives ought to be justly discerned and all those granted which of right ought to be so And whatsoever is not so tho' never so loudly claimed is not to be granted but denied He ought to remember his own Rule de vero nil nisi verum and therefore if it be true That the Humane Soul is Material it is but a just and righteous Act to deny and reject such Prerogatives as have been unduly Arrogated for it and without good reason have been ascribed to it P. 68 69. Mr. M. Discourses concerning the Atomical Doctrines and raising Bodies from their Motions and Cohesions accidentally without the Direction and Assistance of God's Wisdom and Power With which Imagination the Observer has nothing to do P. 70 Mr. M. saies Atomists tell us That the Soul is a Material Spirit extracted to a wonderful fineness reaching to an invisibility The Observer agrees That Dr. Willis delivers that Opinion and saies That the Particles of Blood inflamed in the Lungs and made lucid in the Brain are such Spirits and that he saies may be demonstrated to the Sensations of Men viz. by the strength of Natural Faculties or the powers of Sense and Reason united And thus much the Materialists pretend they know and can demonstrate concerning their sort of Soul But Mr. M. and those that join with him in maintaining the Intelligent Soul neither know nor can demonstrate any thing concerning it nor any particular matter about it neither the Quod nor the Quid unde quando ubi quomodo nor quo But because they cannot imagine some of them how God can others of them how God does so Act the Humane Organs by these Spirits as to produce in them and by them together Life Sense and Intellect they think he must needs have recourse to the means and assistance of an Immaterial Spirit According to the course of Mens common Conceptions who when they see wonderful Things performed by great Artists the true Reasons of which they do not understand either because those Artists will not declare them or being declared such People will not believe them or cannot comprehend them therefore presently impute them to the Effects of an Immaterial Spirit The rest of Mr. M's Words here need no Answer being voces praeterea nihil P. 71. Mr. M. saies That the maintaining the Soul to be Material is a reproach to Philosophy and all sorts of Humane Learning and will be a likely means to bring them into contempt and hatred The Observer Answers That the Terms of Philosophy and Humane Learning are both of them equivocal and each of them may be taken in several Senses Humane Learning may be employed about good Things or bad Things and there are Arts Teaching to deceive and falsify as well as to Teach real Faculties and Truths And the Term of Philosophy may be used in divers and different Senses Mr. M. in this Chap. has given us some Instances of it where he saies That the Epicureans fram'd and defended a Scheme of the World's Production by the Fortuitous Concourse of Atoms Which he calls Nonsensical gibberish and an empty Sound of unintelligible Words Which the Observer thinks do intend the same thing with Canting as it is now commonly understood among us Mr. M. further saies That we must not let go the Opinion of the Soul's Immortality that we may fall down and Worship that Philosophy which those Men have set up The Observer does not know who are meant by the Term of those Men whether the Epicureans or Materialists each by themselves or both of them together If he mean the first alone no opposition shall be made to him in it if the second alone then all that has been before spoken may be used for his Conviction in it and if he mean a mixture of both together the old Rule shall be applied to him dolus versatur in universalibus and he makes this mixture only to mislead his Readers P. 72 He mentions a like Philosophy which Teaches That we have every Week a new Soul and that at length Soul and Body Die together The Observer saies That
Adversary has very little of the Power of Christianity in him for that the latter Part of his Treatise is full of censorious uncharitable Expressions without any Truth in there or Provocation to them but proceeding rather from his own natural Inclination and Practice perfectly Pharisaical which was to dignifie and magnifie themselves by vilifying and despising other Men. Upon which Practice Meekness it self was whetted to use sharp Expressions Our Lord says Mat. 23.33 Ye Serpents ye Generation of Vipers how can ye escape the Damnation of Hell Ch. 12.36 I say unto you That every idle World that Men shall speak they shall give Account thereof in the Day of Judgment What then is like to become of the Adversary at that Day concerning his many idle uncharitable censorious false Expressions purposely deliver'd in this Treatise without any just Provocation given him for so doing May not our Lord's Words be reasonably applied to this Person Thou Serpent thou Generation of a Viper how canst thou escape that Damnation of Hell which after the Day of Judgment shall be made ready to receive not the Souls of condemned Persons but their Souls and Bodies together into everlasting Burnings where the Worm dyeth not and the Fire is not quenched If Practice has made this Course so habitual to thee as that thou canst not forbear the Usage of it yet oughtest thou to be careful to confine it to thy own Flock or Herd who probably are much us'd to it illa te carcere regnare sit tibi satis Be thou therefore advis'd to follow thine own Trade within the proper Sphere of its Activity and be guided by the old Rule Ne sutor ultra crepidam Solomon directs Men to take care of their own Flocks and their own Herds and St. Paul forbears to judge them that are without And yet if the Adversary thought himself oblig'd to contend for the Truth against those who are without his Precinct he ought however to have done this modestly tho' earnestly and therein to have avoided those contumelious Expressions which he has frequently used especially all Injuries and false Aspersions laid upon his Opponent contrary to the clear Truth and the Civility of Manners which ought to be used by Men of his Profession not to name his Calling for that it does not appear whether he has any or no. P. 144 The Observer demands of the Adversary Is this Course which he has follow'd to imitate the Innocence of little Children Is this to demonstrate we are Christ's Disciples by loving one other Or is it not rather to proclaim to the World that he knows not what Spirit he is of May his Readers not have a just Cause of Suspicion that such Fruits are earthly sensual and Devilish The Adversary says further That the Love born to one another is the best Badge of Christianity acting thereupon like Rowers in a floating Vessel who look one way and row another P. 145 He speaks of such who would hear God's Words but not do them What shall then his Judgment be who will speak but neither the Words of God nor those of civil Persons amongst Men. The Adversary speaks of many good Duties Men may be able to perform to which he shou'd have added That wise and good Men are able to bear patiently with other Men who may fall into such Over-sights as they may think to be Weaknesses and Errors without reproaching and reviling them upon those Accounts remembring St. Paul's Admonition Take heed to thy self lest thou also be tempted P. 146 he quotes divers Texts of Scripture good in themselves without any of his Comments upon them We read Matt. 4. Texts of Scripture used by the old Serpent in his Temptation of Christ and we meet with like Things in divers other Places of Scripture and that Satan can change himself and is apt to change himself into an Angel of Light thereby to deceive and mislead such as he can perswade to hear and follow him P. 147 He says It is no easie Matter to be a Christian indeed The Observer grants it and that the Adversary's present Treatise is a good Proof of it P. 149 He says meaning it is likely concerning his own Congregation That there are many who know not what Regeneration means nor the other ordinary Duties belonging to the Christian Religion and if they be ask'd concerning them cannot answer Three Words of Sense about them The Observer replies That in the Catechism of the Church of England the Doctrines necessary for the Salvation of Men are well deliver'd and specified and that ali devout Members of that Church are taught and requir'd to learn the same Memoriter and are daily taught in their Churches the Sense and Meaning of those Articles and all other Doctrines contained especially in the New Testament So as that if there be not great Fault and Defect either in the Teachers or the Hearers either one or both of them the People of our Church cannot be so ignorant as he pretends Men commonly are so as not to know the Water of Baptism is the Laver of Regeneration the Catechism teaching them That by Baptism they are regenerated and ingrafted into the Church of Christ and are thereby directed and enabled for dying to Sin and to be Partakers of a new Birth unto Righteousness the Benefits of which are to be made a Member of Christ and an Inheriter of the Kingdom of Heaven And in Prosecution of that Design Men are thereby directed to forsake the Devil and all his Works believe the Articles of the Christian Faith and keep God's Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the Days of their Lives P. 150 The Advers does here wish to know many fine and curious Questions and Things concerning Angels and the future State of separate Souls The Observer thinks all his Conceit and Fancy thereupon to be vain and unedifying or else to be frivolous and false What he talks of the Angels is vain and utterly unknown to him what he pretends to know of Souls is false and frivolous He demands further Can ye believe two States so vastly different hereafter as a happy or cursed Resurrection and yet not consider there must be some suitable Preparatiens made whilst we are here for avoiding the one and obtaining the other The Observer assures himself There are very few Men who believe in that manner except they may be such as are of the Advers own Education The Advers says He has set a Description of Heaven before his Reader meaning it seems such a Heaven as Mens Souls go to presently upon the Death of the Person The Observer replies That he finds no Description of that or any sort of Heaven in this his Treatise and for Souls going thither at the Death of the Persons he and all they who read our Writings cannot but know that it is the very Point in Question And for him to think that any Body will be led away by his presumptuous