beg the Question that there is such a Thing before he can perswade any Man that it does or works any thing at all P. 99. Mr. M. quotes a Latin Author who took the Immortality of the Soul for granted but with those that deny the Immortality his Assertion has no Consequence or Credibility at all Mr. M. says further The musical Organ is not conscious of the Harmony produced by it as the Soul is of its own Acts he should have said as the Man is of his own Acts for if he intend this of his immaterial intelligent Spirit he knows it to be constantly denied by the Observer who affirms There is no such Spirit naturally in Man and concerning the material Spirits has asserted That they have no Knowledge or Understanding of what themselves do So as it is not the Spirits alone or the Organs alone that can by themselves do any Thing any more than the Organ-pipes can make Harmony without the Wind or the Wind of the Bellows without the Pipes sound and well ordered in their proper Places where the Artificer has ranked them Further Mr. M. affirms That in the Pamphlet which he intended to Answer the Observer had said That Matter has a Self-moving Power and gave instance in some light Earth pulverised and made so apt for Motion as that it might become near a kin to the Atoms which Men way perceive moving up and down in the Air continually Mr. M. Does not deny the Propensity which such fine Atoms have to be moved by any gentle touch of Air or Breath so as falling into a drop of May-dew they will rise up in the mixture of that moisture to the very tip of a Grass-Pile and be ready to drop from it again as the weight and activity of the moisture shall carry it Thus the red Earth of which Adam was Created Pulverised by the Art of the great Machinist was made apt to be moved and acted by the inflamed Particles of the Blood tinded and maintained by a continual fanning of the Breath So as this attenuated Dust acted by the Wind and Fire was then capable by the Ordinance of God to act all that he has appointed to be done in or by the Persons of Men all which three Ingredients still act in Humane Persons all that really can be done by them Page 100 Mr. M. mentions the moveable matters of Wind and Fire but says nothing concerning them that requires or deserves a Reply Further Mr. M. says He does not deny that the inflamed Particles of Blood called Spirits are the immediate Instruments of the Soul 's Operations in its State of Vnion with the Body The Observer has oft-ten and constantly denied That there is such an Intelligent Soul in Man as Mr. M. supposes and yet he will still go on to suppose that which is still denied without bringing any full and convincing Proof of the Truth of it A Thing and Proceeding which the Observer can by no means help But his Arguments drawn from such Premises have very little Force P. 101. Mr. M. says The Observer has objected That the Soul cannot operate in a separate State but he quotes no Page of the Pamphlet where he finds this Objection or in truth is this Objection to be found in any Part of the foresaid Pamphlet but is the Progeny of Mr. M's own Brain intending to set it up like a Man of Straw that he may have the battering of it down again at his Pleasure Mr. M. Concludes That except we better understood what the Soul is and how it acts whilst united to the Body we ought not to deny its Capacity of acting in a separate Subsistence The Observer thinks he should have said Except we had more certain Knowledge that there is an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit in the Person it is meer lost labour to trouble our Heads with the Notions of what such a Soul does do or can do in statu concreto vel separato Chap. VIII p. 103. Mr. M. say's 'T is an endless work to write against those who will take no notice of what has been said before in the Controverted Point The Observer replys That if M. M. knew any Thing that has been said before concerning this Point that he thinks to be very Material or Convincing he ought by the Duty of his Undertaking to make the Observer and the World whom he pretends to instruct acquainted with such material Points of Knowledge that they might either conform themselves thereunto or be driven to make such Answers to them as they shall be able But we find in this Place an apparent failing in Mr. M. in the precise Point of this Duty P. 104. Mr. M. would have us strictly to consider How little Alliance there is betwixt a Thought and any Bodily Thing He might as well have bidden us consider How a Horse that eats and drinks and evacuates every Day for a Year together should at the Year's end be still the same Horse The Observer bears no inclination to trouble his Head about Mr. M's Metaphysical Notions or Proportions and therefore refuses to consider the Thing propounded or any of the like Notions Mr. M. says That the Notions which we have of the Mind i. e. something within us that thinks Reasons and Wills are mighty different from any Notions we can fasten upon a Body i. e. from Mr. M's Notions concerning such Things But the Observer thinks There is no such Thing in the Person as thinks reasons wills c. but says as before with Aristotle That it is the Man who thinks reasons wills c. and that the whole Compositum is concerned in such Actions Mr. M. says further That divers who assert the Soul's Immortality do likewise assert its Materiality and that divers of the Fathers were of that Opinion Pag. 105. Mr. M. says It can never be proved That so pure an Essence as the Soul is has any natural tendency to Dissolution He ought withall to have remembred That they who deny the Being of such a Soul as he supposes will never trouble themselves about Arguments whether it be Corporeal and Mortal or the contrary Mr. M. quotes Cicero who Men have reason to believe was of he same Opinion with himself and serves him instead of the Proverb asking a Man's Fellow c. P. 106. he tells us out of Vives That Men are ignorant of the Essences of Things which is granted and Mr. M. says thereupon That the nature of Matter is not so well understood as that the determination of the present Controversie shou'd be supposed to depend upon it This the Observer is also willing to grant tho' he does not well understand what the Effects of it may be in this Controversie He asks further Shall we talk confidently about Materiality or Immateriality and dispute our selves into Atheism The Observer replys We may talk with a reasonable confidence concerning Materiality and Immateriality without disputing our selves into Atheism or Sadducism for the Sadducees
sorts of Souls Quod quid unde quando ubi quomodo quo in none of which Points they ever yet came to an agreed Resolution nor can they make any tolerable Demonstration concerning any one of those Quaeries that may give a Reasonable Satisfaction to a diligent Enquirer after them He says That if his Soul had not been hindred by vicious Courses it wou'd have mounted aloft into a purer Region Which Doctrine is pure Platonick and Heathenish not proveable in any Part of Scripture or Dictate of Reason The Parable of Dives says Lazarus was carried by Angels into a Place of Rest intending likely his Person but clearly he was carried and did not mount aloft of himself into any more pure Region He speaks of a Relation we have to a World of Spirits whither we are going The Observer denies we have any Relation to those Spirits after our Deaths or that any of us go to them or have a Subsistence amongst them Whence the Adversary shou'd better have proved what he here delivers or have been less magisterial and positive in the Delivery of it P. 159 He advises Men to think they do but dream of Afflictions Sufferings and Pains when they lie under them and are sensible of them This way of amusing himself the Observer thinks is fallen upon the Advers whilst he sits musing and inventing with himself concerning the Being Nature and Actions of his immortal Soul For if he conceive Men may imagine real Pains and Sufferings but to be Dreams well may his Imaginations concerning Immortal Souls be reputed Dreams by those who nearly and impartially shall examine them P. 160 He speaks still of Adversity and Prosperity as if they were but Parts of a Dream Which Opinion really is yet a most manifest Error and which he shall never be able to perswade intelligent Persons to consent to He speaks of our Arrival at the invisible World of Realities which it seems he believes but as if we was in a Dream which the Observer conceives he has been in during the greatest Part of that Time wherein he wrote this Treatise First he has dream'd That there is such a Soul in Man as is an Intelligent Spirit and shall subsist in a State of Separation after the Death of the Body And that after its Departure out of the Body it shall go to an invisible World of Realities to abide among them Where or how he neither does nor can tell but he still dreams forward That his Soul and those of whom he has a good Opinion shall be in some sort of Happiness but what sort of Happiness himself yet is no way resolv'd whether in Heaven Abraham's Bosome or in the Air or in Alcinous's Garden the Fortunate Islands or the Elysium Fields or that with the Americans they shall live dancing and singing beyond certain high Mountains or in Mahomet's Paradise shall sit by Rivers of Milk Honey Oil and Wine and fulfil their lustful Appetites as often as they please Take all these sorts of States of Souls after Death they are all but Dreams of a suitable sort and Nature fit Subjects for Men of Fancy to be employ'd about And to such Pleasing Imaginations the Adversary shall be left whilst the Observer sets up his Rest upon what the Scripture teaches plainly and proves concerning the Resurrection of the Dead and last final Judgment and a blessed or cursed State after them finding by divers clear Natural Experiments That the Life of Man is maintained by Blood and Breath and acted by the inflamed Particles of Blood call'd the Spirits which must daily be renew'd and refresh'd with Nourishment and Rest that when these are spent the Person languishes and decays and when they are restor'd and refresh'd the Person is vivid and active If Nourishment fail or the Breath be stopp'd the Person dies beyond all Remedy and the total Extinguishment of that Flame of Life which is nourish'd in the Blood is the Death of the Person and cannot be rekindled in it by less than a Divine Power who first kindled and tinded it in the Body of our Grand-father Adam And the same Death which dissolves the Contexture between the Soul and the Body destroys the Persons of Men as well as the Contextures of Beasts without any other Difference between them save that of the Resurrection This is foretold promis'd and threaten'd to Mankind and the World of Humane Persons without that there are any such Prophecies Promises and Threatnings deliver'd concerning the Beasts and therefore David rightly calls them the Beasts that perish utterly And as by natural Experience we find that maintains the Life of Man so if we search into the Beginning of his Nature and Composition ab ovo as Men use to speak we may find one Man do's not less perfectly beget another than a Horse or any other Animal begets Creatures of a like Species with themselves There passes a Vital Principle in their several Seeds which being coagulated in loco idoneo proceed to a Fermentation and being there fomented in their proper Receptacles they arise and grow by degrees to a Vegetation This Vital Spirit still operating in the Mass now vegetated it proceeds to the Formation of the several Parts and Organs of the Body extending and spreading it self throughout the whole Mass and therein working till all the Parts and Organs of the Body are fully form'd and perfected And thence this Vital Spirit proceeds to the Production of Sense in the newly form'd Embryon which perfected it brings with it into the World the two fore-named Faculties of Vegetation and Sense which remain with the new-born Infant as its only proper Powers for some time after its Arrival in the World till that by degrees the Bodily Organs become so dilated and strengthened and the Spirits of the Blood so vivid and active that they produce in the Infant some low degrees of Thinking and Knowledge such as we find in the Brutes what Diet pleases them and to distinguish such for their Friends as give them Food Ease and Pleasure and to avoid such Things and Persons as are terrible and strange to them And thus they live and grow till their Bodily Organs encrease and grow in Capacity and Strength till the Stomack Liver and other sanguificial Parts are able more strongly to concoct the Nourishment and to prepare and rectifie the Blood to a higher Degree of Purity and Vigour And thence the Spirits ascending to the Brain and finding there the Organs or Instruments still more enlarged and apter to perform the Duties of the Rational Faculty they act therein to such Purposes as God has there appointed and ordained to be performed And thus the Vital Spirits and Bodily Organs proceed and grow together until they both obtain their Perfection of Degrees such Blood and Spirits acting throughout the whole Body and in every Parcel and Member of it those Powers and Activities which the great Artificer intended them for And by the Continuity and active Motions
patiently what they know they have deserved and there is no thanks or commendations to be expected for their so doing But if there happen to be much Truth in this Opinion he may add to his Patience Hope and some measure of Joyfulness For the Apostle there adds If ye do well and suffer for it patiently this is acceptable with God and Chap. 3.14 If ye suffer for the truth's sake happy are ye James 1.2 My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations viz. of this kind And so the Hebrews took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods which was perhaps a greater degree of Persecution Matth. 5.11 Blessed are ye when Men shall revile you and persecute you for the truth's sake But this measure of Joyfulness which belongs to a Reviling for Truth 's sake shall by the Observer be put off and deferred till the Point here in Question shall be more fully Examined and Discussed And therefore his Intention is to sit down with the Practice of our Lord's Rule In your patience possess ye your Souls without making any other return to these Elders or Ministers than by repeating to them the Motto of the Garter viz. HONI SO IT QVI MAL Y PENSE with Advice to remember our Lord 's own Prediction viz. With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again Altho' the Observer never intends to make them any Return of that nature Hence we proceed to the Treatise it self which Mr. M. has divided into Ten Chapters Upon each of which the Observer intends to make some short Observations That it may appear he has Perused and gone through them all Upon Chap. 1. p. 2. He observes That Mr. M. well understands the Powers Men may obtain by getting such an Ascendant over their Proselytes and attaining such an Esteem amongst them as that he may be able to Command their Understandings because perhaps he may say true That they themselves never knew how to use them Secondly p. 8. Mr. M. says many things concerning the Soul which the Observer agrees with him in Mutatis mutandis viz. by changing his Name of Soul into the Terms of the Rational Faculty or Mind of Man which has given vim Intelligendi Volendi cum Angelis and yet be Acted by such Materials as God has Appointed and Formed in Man for those Purposes P. 9 Mr. M. says The Soul of Man was Redeemed by the Sufferings of Christ By which he seems plainly to intend Such a Soul as is Intelligent in it self had once a Being separate from the Body is during Life conjoin'd to the Body and after Death shall Live Act and Suffer in a State of Separation from the Body And then the Observer utterly denies the truth of his Proposition and says The true End of Christ's Coming into the World was to Save Sinners the Persons of them both Souls and Bodies It is an usual Practice of the Scripture both in the Old and New Testament to intend and design the Humane Person by the Term and Name of Soul and the same is also sometimes done by the Name of Body though nothing so often And this is done by the common Synecdoche of Pars pro toto For the Proof of which two Instances of each kind are here intended to be produced First Gen. 3.7 God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living Soul The Observer Asserts That Soul in this Place must intend the Person of Adam and be so understood as if it had been said Man became a Living Person It has been commonly supposed to intend That the Breath which God breathed into Adam's Nostrils became a Living Soul But this surmise is plainly Confuted by the Grammatical Construction of it For the Words which would have suited to that intent should have run thus God breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and that or it viz That Breath became a Living Soul But Moses was so cautious in this Point that he chose to use something of a Tautology in this Place rather than that his Readers should be so mistaken in his meaning He says God made man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life and man became a living soul or Person He would not suffer them to think That Breath became a Living Soul but prevents that Conceit by saying That it was the Man that became the Living Soul or Person Whence this Observer concludes That by the Soul in this Place the Person of Adam was somewhat clearly intended by this Great Prophet and Law-giver of the Jews His next Quotation for this use shall be Isaiah 53.10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin He shall see his seed and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand The Observer says That by Soul in this Place must needs be intended the Person of Christ whose Body as well as Soul was made an Offering for Sin that was bound Whipt Buffetted Spit upon Crowned with Thorns Loaded with his Cross Nailed to it and Expir'd upon it to obtain Redemption for Sinners and the whole Race of Mankind Whence he concludes That by Soul in this Place Is intended the whole Person of Christ as well Body as Soul He proceeds in two like Instances for the Body The 1st He takes from Heb. 10.5 Sacrifice and offerings thou would'st not but a Body hast thou prepared me ver 7. Lo I come to do thy will O God ver 10. By the which Will we are Sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all The Observer saies By the Word and Term of Body in this Place is intended the whole Person of Christ whose Soul was sorrowful even unto Death and his Mind and Intellects so afflicted as to wring Drops of Blond out of his Body and reduce him to that bitter Exclamation upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All which do sufficiently Prove That by the Word Body in this Text the whole Person of Christ is comprehended and intended His next Text is Luke 12.4 where the Words are Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do He saies That the Word Body in this Text must needs intend the Person or whole Compositum of Body and Soul for that a Body without a Soul is Dead and therefore cannot be Killed By which Instances and Arguments he thinks it well Prov'd That though the Redemption be called of the Soul in divers Texts of the Scripture yet all those Places do intend the Redemption of the Person and that there never was any such Redemption intended or performed as Mr. M. has in this Page Asserted viz. Of the bare naked Soul separated from the Body asbefore has been Collected and Specified Hence we proceed to his Second Chapter
Amuse his Readers and lead them into a false Apprehension concerning the Meaning and Expressions of that Pamphlet But whether of these two Imputations he best deserves shall here be left to the Sense and Judgment of his Readers Mr. M. P. 36. Demands an Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet's Arguments which the Observer having presently Perused finds Mr. M's Arguments much Transcribed out of that Book and Place and conceives That his present Discourse is a good Answer to them both For that neither that Dr. nor Mr. M. in this Chapter does really touch or come very near the true State of this Question which is not What the Soul or Mind of Man can do in a State of Composition with the Body The Observer does easily agree That those things which here the Doctor and Mr. M. mentions in this Chapter may be done and are done by the the Soul or Mind of Man in a State of Conjunction with the Bodily Organs But he saies That their manner of Proving the Point which they Maintain ought to have been founded upon Arguments asserting and declaring What the Soulever has done or can do in a State of Separation from the Body or as it may be considered in such a Separate State abstracted from the Body The Observer has granted That is Statu concreto the Person can Act and Perform all those Things which they have ascribed to the Soul of Man Aristotle is Quoted in the former Pamphlet where he concludes it improper to say That the Soul is Wise Learned Sorrowful or the like because properly speaking it is the Man and not the single Soul that is so And Mr. M. in his Treatise repeats that observation without offering to Answer or Confute it The Observer takes it for a very true Rule very agreeable to the State and Nature of Mankind and conceives That the Question now in Dispute is not What Man 's Understanding can do or what his Soul can do in Statu concreto with the Body But whether There be a Soul in Man which has a Capacity of Living and Acting in a State of Separation from the Body and that those who would Prove such a Subsistence of the Soul by Instances of what it can do ought to produce Instances which Prove the Power of its Living and Doing in such a State of Separation or if they think themselves able to make a clear Notional Abstraction of the Soul from the Body which they can render Intelligible to other Men Their proving Instances ought to be derived from such a State of Separation or such an abstracted Consideration as they can Reasonably offer to the Minds of others and not from Instances of what Man's Understanding can do or his Soul can do in Statu concreto with the Body for that these will be utterly unconcluding in the State and Management of this Question This Chapter of Mr. M's abounds with Instances of the latter sort and has not one amongst them that reaches to the Nature of the former and therefore he thinks There is no need of Disputing any of them but is ready to agree them and accept them all for true But then he conceives them all to be parum ad rem and not at all Proving that Part of the Question which he pretends to maintain and therefore howsoever true they may be they are utterly unconcluding in this Argument For which Reason the Observer who denies not the Truth of them does yet pass them for Tasteless and Insipid and thinks they may very well be compared to the Herb John in the Pottage which does neither good nor harm P. 37 Mr. M. saies Nil dat quod non habet And to this the Observer opposes his clear Instance given in the Musical Organ and which is equally true in all Wind-Instruments from the Bag-Pipe to the Cornet and the Trumpet Mr. M saies further That the self-determining Power of the Will its Acts and Objects do argue that the Soul is Immortal The Observer Replies That the Will has not such a self-determining Power But saies That in all its Inclinations and Operations deliberately Performed it depends upon and follows the Directions and Conclusions of the Judgment which it Obeys Executes and follows with as great Promptitude and Natural Inclination as Water runs from higher Places to lower Grounds Not over-ruled by Power of the Judgment but by a Free and Natural Propensity inclining in to Execute those Directions And if the Judgment do never so suddenly or unexpectedly change its Resolutions the Will Tacks about as suddenly and follows with Execution the late stâ—or last Resolution of the Judgment and is comparable to the Sails of a floating Vessel which may be subject to some constant Winds of Inclinations and sometimes to the stormy Winds of Passion the fresh Breezes of Reason and other Circular or Accidental Motions of the Watry Element And in all such Cases the Sails are ordered by the subservient Mariners who stand and Work according to the Pilot's Directions and have no Power at all to dispose of themselves but as they shall be Appointed by the Power of such a Directer expect in such Storms of Sea and Winds as take away all Government and Order in the Vessel The Will is by divers called caeca potentia and follows Naturally the Direction of the Judgment as before has been said and therefore has no Determinate Power over or of it self And this may serve for an Answer to Mr. M's Assertion concerning such Proof as may be made from the Determinate Power of the Will over it self Mr. M. saies further That if at any time the Will chuses a thing it is Sub Ratione boni Whereupon the Observer demands What Faculty of the Mind it is that can truly discern what is the Good and Evil of an Action Choice or Resolution or by what means or after what manner the Will can discover such Qualifications of Things or Actions Seeing there are no Natural Appearances that any other Faculty in Man's Mind can make a clear and true Distinction or Difference in such Actions or Cases but the Man 's Estimative Power or Judgment P. 38. Mr. M. Quotes St. Augustine in whose Text the Observer conceives That the Word Anima is put pro Homine and must intend which way soever Man turns himself he can meet with nothing but Grief till he rests in God Qui haeret in Littora haeret in Cortice Mr. M. further demands Why the Soul cannot be satisfied till it rests in God To which the Observer Replies by demanding Why the Mind and Understanding of Man which cannot Act without the Bodily Organs cannot chuse but Act and Desire accordingly He thinks the Reason to be because Man's Reason and Judgment do conceive and believe That God is the most Excellent Object of Man's Knowledge and Love and that to Adore and Obey him is likely to be the most beneficial to their Nature by obtaining such future Rewards as Men believe are promised and
expected in a future State All what he saies more of the Soul in this Place the Observer applies to the Mind and Understanding of Man in Statu concreto P. 39 Mr. M. offers an Argument of the Soul's Immortality from the Reflection in can make upon its own Conceptions and Opinions The Observer Replies That it is a Rational Power of the Mind or Understanding of Man to make such Reflections upon it self and its own Conceptions and Conclusions whereby it is enabled to change and alter them as often as it sees cause and the Change of Occasions may require Further Mr. M. saies That indeed we cannot know what the Soul is but by these Circular and Reflex Motions To which the Observer Replies That then indeed we can have no certain Knowledge of it at all We do not doubt concerning a Reflecting Power in the Mind of Man but cannot perceive That it gives Men any more true Knowledge of the State of their Souls than they had before they considered this Reflecting Power And if Mr. M. knew how this Consideration might make them know more of their Souls than they did before he should have assisted them with Directions to attain such Knowledge of it as they are very desirous to obtain P. 35. Mr. M. saies Let the Heard of Materialists muster up their Forces and give us a Rational Intelligible Account of those Operations of the Intellect and how they can arise from the Effects of the Power of Matter and Motion As if in other Words he should ask After what manner the Animal Spirits do or can produce Reason and Intellect in the Heads of Men. Also P. 36. he demands How Matter and Motion can produce even Sense it self To this Demand the Observer Answers That he acknowledges his Ignorance how such things are Acted in the Persons or Heads of Men But he conceives this Demand ought not to have been made by Mr. M. until he had Answered those other Demands which the Observer had before made to Mr. B. concerning his sort of Soul viz. That he should Prove quod sit quid sit unde oritur quando ingreditur ubi residot quomodo operatur quo avolat To any of which Propositions Mr. M. has made no Answer altho' without so doing he can with no good Face Demand of the Observer to solve his quomodo operatur Concerning the Material Soul the Observer saies He has given and can give a Rational Account of his sort of Soul in the Things before-named viz. of the quod quid unde quando ubi quo but confesses his Ignorance concerning his Quomodo But things That those who can Prove none of those Things before-mentioned concerning their sort of Soul do very unfitly reproach the Ignorance of the Observer in this onely Point concerning the Quomodo and that their so doing suits well with our Lord's Expression concerning the Practice of pulling Motes out of another Man's Eye whilst they have Beams in their own First let them pull the beams out of their own Eyes before they undertake to charge their Brethren with lesser Failings than may be found in themselves First Let them account for their quod quid c. before they charge their Opponent for his Ignorance in the Quomodo which he esteems to be the Arcanum Artificis and Inscrutable by any Humane Power And things it Reasonable That before they urge him to an Account for the Quomodo in this Question they should make some progress upon Questions of a like but lower Nature which occur to them in the World Let them First walk into their Gardens and Orchards and in the first consider the Herbs and Flowers which they may find there of which there may be a wonderful Variety and Diversity and then inquire within themselves and confer with others concerning the Quomodo of their Production and what the Particular and Special Causes are of their difference in Bulk Height Fashion Colour Lustre Scent and the Quomodo of all their Productions the Particulars of which the Observer things to be Inscrutable In general Men know there is Root Stem and Skin enough for these Productions and that there is Spirit and Sap enough drawn from the Earth for the Enlivening and Growth of them But what the Modifications are of such Matter or Spirit or both of them together and which produce among them so great a Variety or Diversity the Observer conceives was never yet found out nor undertaken by any Man who has given an Account of his Success to the World And the like Question the Observer propounds concerning the Trees of the Orchard Men find amongst them a sufficient Matter of Root Bole Bark Branches and Twigs Also a plentiful Spirit or Sap ascending mostly between the Bark and the Tree enlivening it and fructifying the uttermost Twigs of it and causing the Production of Leaves Blossoms and Fruit but the Quomodo of this Performance he holds also to be Inscrutable And before Mr. M. demand an Account of the Quomodo the Spirits produce Intellingence in the Head of Man let him first account to the Observer or the World for the Quomodo of an Oaken Leaf by what means and after what manner the Spirit and the Matter work together for the producing of it And then consider and account for the great variety of Wood Leaves Blossoms Seed and Fruit from what particular Compositions or Modifications of Matter or Spirit such Things Varieties and Differences do proceed From these lower Inquiries let him ascend to the Consideration of the Brutal Nature and consider by what sort of Operations or Contexture of Spirit and Matter the Powers and Actions of that Nature are derived Men know that there passes a Spirit in the Seed of those Creatures into Receptacles fit for the Fermentaion Fomentation and Coagulation of them and that from those Principles the Bodies and Souls of Beasts do proceed and being afterwards brought to Perfection then to the World in their several Forms and different Structure of Body they live are nourished and grow to their several Perfections and that in their Natural State they enjoy and use Strength and Activity Local Motions Affections Desires Passions Sensations Perceptions Fancies and Memories Men see that they have Matter suitable for those purposes Flesh Bones Nerves Sinews Muscles Arteries Veins Fibres and divers other necessary Parcels of their Material Bodies and that these are enlivened and acted by the Spiritual and yet Material Powers of Bloud and Breath Out of the Mass of Bloud purified and heated in the Hearts of such Creatures there arise pure Particles of Bloud fit and ready to be inflamed and which presently are kindled and tinded by fanning of the Breath in the same or like manner as has been before described in relating the State and condition of Man in such Cases and by the Matter before described Organized and the Material Spirits of the Bloud before specified acted together in a fit and suitable Contexture one with another it is evident all the
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
not Determine Points of Doctrine if a great or considerable Number of Voices did refuse to consent to the Agreement of the Major Part But our Dissenters on the contrary like Froward and very Ill-natured Children do utterly Reject the Authority of their Mother the Church She like a tender Parent extends her Arms to receive them sets open the Doors of her Oratories and calls them to her kind and wonted Imbraces exhorting them to enter again into her Communion with a readiness to forgive all that is past and an inclination to heal or even to bear with their Weaknesses and Infirmities and their errors of Opinions in Doctrine or Discipline Whilst they like Wasps better furnished with Stings than Honey seek rather to destroy than cultivate the Hives and Stocks wherein they have been preserved and nourished They repudiate and disown their own Natural Parent because they think they discover some spots and wrinkles in the Ornaments of her fine Linnen pudet hoec opprobia vobis dici potuisse non potuisse refelli Chap. VI. P. 79. Mr. M. repeats the Names of Aristotle Dicearchus and Pliny mentioned by the Observer in his Quoted Pamphlet not as a Proof of the Materiality but to show there was need of better Proof of the Immortality than Mr. B. had given of it Mr. M. here further mentions Pherecydes as the first among the Philosophers who Defended or Invented this Doctrine of the Immortality as before has been observed and shall here be granted P. 80. Mr. M. Quotes Pythagoras as Pherecydes's Scholar and next maintainer of the Immortality The Observer will mind the Reader of the effect of this Opinion held by the latter and Learned from the former viz. That their sort of Soul had a perfect Pre-existence before it came into the Body of a Man and held that same existence after the departure from the Body whereby it was capable of Animating another Man Horse Camel or Dog Fish Fowl or any other living Creature and that Souls did continually undergo such changes of Habitations throughout the World from the beginning of it This Opinion therefore the Observer saies ought to be rejected quia ducit ad absurdum Mr. M. saies Plato Travell'd into Italy to gather Learning out of the School of Pythagoras there and gather'd from thence his Opinion of the Pre-existence of Souls which he after chang'd so far as to conceive That the Transmigration of Souls was not common to Men and Beasts but that they went only from one Man to another and were put into Bodies for Pennances and Purgatories and were inclosed in them as in Cages or Prisons which they were desirous to leave with the first opportunity An Opinion convinc'd of Falsity and Error by every Man 's Daily Experience Which Proves to us That there is no Union in the World more Natural pleasing and desired than that of Soul and Body nor whose separation is more grievous than theirs Mr. M. Quotes Dr. More 's Verses P. 81. of which no more shall be said but like Lips like Lettice Mr. M. here further Quotes Plato and Cicero both which we give up to him as Gross and Erroneous Immortalists P. 82. He pretends to Quote Socrates when his Quotation is only what Plato puts into Socrates's Mouth who in this feigned Dialogue makes Socrates say what he pleases Mr. M. here gives us Plato's Opinion to the same effect and near in the same Terms that the common Opinions of Men now hold it and hence it seems the Christian Platonists deriv'd it and deliver'd it to the Scholars of their Schools who spread the same accordingly supported by St. Matthew's Words of cannot kill the Soul Wording our Saviour's Doctrine according to that Tenet which he believ'd and was then common in the World P. 83. Here he goes still on to deliver such Words as Plato is pleased to put into the Mouth of Socrates He further Quotes Plotinus's Saying If we could see the Soul in its own naked Essence we should not doubt of its Immortality And this is agreed by the Observer who therefore desires Mr M. to show us this Soul in its own naked Essence or tell us by what search we may come to such a Sight of it His following Words are unpracticable P. 84. He Quotes Maximus whose Words shall be left to the World to consider not believed by the Observer P. 85. Mr. M. Quotes the Stoicks who say The departed Souls are turned into Hero's some good and some bad Believe them who list Then he saies out of Seneca The Humane Soul is a Deity dwelling in a Humane Body Mr. M. saies This is too high an Expression he might as well have said he knew it to be false P. 86. Is Quoted Seneca who calls the Body the Prison of the Soul Like a right Platonist and deriving his Opinions from them The Reader may consider Plutarch was an Heathen Philosopher and likely knew nothing concerning the Resurrection of the Person Mr. M. here further saies That such Christians may be ashamed who stand in need of Instructions from a Heathen concerning the Soul's Immortality The Observer saies That rather such Christians have reason to be ashamed who derive their Opinion of the Immortality from Thoughts of Heathen Idolaters and follow their Instructions concerning it P. 87. Mr. M. delivers That the Opinion of the Immortality was the ground of their Worshipping their departed Hero's Which was their Idolatry and one very bad effect of their conceited Immortality P. 88. Cicero's Words here Quoted seem fit to be put into Mr. M's own Mouth If I be mistaken in this Point of the Immortality I will still maintain it Error though it be nor will I be drawn out of this Error as long as I live because it pleases me and I am delighted with the apprehension of it He saies further That the Platonists and Stoicks the earliest maintainers of this Doctrine speak of the Soul as if it were an Incarnate Deity But it is to be hoped Mr. M. will confess That they Err'd very grossly in it As the Observer thinks they did in the whole Point of the Soul's Immortality P. 89. Xenocrates held There are future Rewards and Punishments and that the Soul is imprisoned in the Body In the First his Opinion is true in the Second false P. 90 Mr. M. has before taken hold of the Opinions of Philosophers believing the Immortality and thence deriving their Doctrine of the Transmigration of Souls and the Idolatrous Worship of their departed Hero's And here he prays Aid of the Poets also and their Elysium and Barathrums Old Charon and his Boat all imagined to be in the Bowels of the Earth And from such Fables and Fictions endeavours to support his Opinion of the Immortality as if it were a sinking Cause that needed support by catching hold of those Osiers which grow upon the Banks of Cocytus Mr. M. Demands Shall any who believe the Gospel deny the Immortality of the Soul Yes saies the
Observer any Man who firmly believes the Resurrection of the Person and the last Judgment may do it And perhaps will not be unlikely to fall into a disbelief of this Heathen Immortality P. 91. Mr. M. Confesses That Socrates Cicero and Seneca his Three great Maintainers of the Soul's Immortality and he might have said the same of his Master Plato himself That each of them at divers times did doubt the Truth of this their Doctrine concerning the Immortality and were never able to arrive at a certainty or constant Resolution in this Point And how then can their Disciples hope to do it He Names Dicaearchus as derided by Cicero but he is very highly commended by Pliny and like a true Disciple of his Master Aristotle was a strong Defender of that Master's Opinions and a constant Declaimer against the Soul's Immortality as was also Hippocrates the most Learned Physician P. 92. Anaxarchus calling the Body the Prison of the Soul shews that therein he Erred with the Platonists For Epicharmus's Saying it came from the School of Plato and the Doctrine That the Souls of dying Men were turned into Hero's which Mr. M. will not deny to be a false and fallacious Opinion Mr. M. in this Chapter has gone no higher in the derivation of his Opinion than to the time of Pherecydes who liv'd after the return of the Jews from their Babylonish Captivity which time was less than 600 Years before our Lord's Incarnation and 1000 Years after the Birth of Moses the Prophet and Law-giver of the Jews from whose Writings the Observer pretends to Derive and Prove his Opinion of the Soul's Materiality Taking the said Soul and Life of the Creature to lie and reside in the Blood of it as being the Spirits of such Blood inflamed and glowing which rise first from the Heart to the Head where being made lucid they act the Brain and the Cephaline Organs and thence are conveyed by the Nerves Fibres and Tendons to all the Muscles Joints Members and Parts of the Body All which are invigorated and Acted by such glowing Blood and the Spirits of it so knownly and apparently as that where the passage of this Blood is obstructed so that it cannot arrive at any Part or Member of the Body that Part withers and becomes useless to the Person till such Obstructions be removed And then it may and often does recover sometimes to the wonder of those who effect such Cures We have said before That the Blood of a Beast cast by Transfusion into the Body of a Man will Act the Person and all his Faculties of Motion Sense Speech and Understanding in the same manner that his own Blood perform'd it before and without any great or even perceivable difference Also if the Blood be totally corrupted or exhausted the Person must certainly Die beyond all hope of help or recovery by Humane Art or Knowledge whatsoever And with this Doctrine the Text of Moses seems fully to agree Levit. 17.11 The Life of the Flesh is in the Blood And I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an Attonement for your Souls for it is the Blood that maketh an Attonement for the Soul or Person Ver. 13. He that hunts and kills a Beast or Fowl shall pour out the Blood thereof and cover it with Dust for it is the Life of all Flesh the Blood of it is for the life thereof Therefore ye shall eat the Blood of no manner of Flesh for the life of all Flesh is the Blood thereof This Doctrine is Registred in a History more Ancient than Moses's time by 500 Years Gen. 9.4 But flesh with the life thereof which is the blood thereof shall ye not eat and surely your blood of your Lives will I require at the hand both of man and beast Whosoever sheds this blood of the life of man by man shall his blood be shed for in the Image of God made he man And thus we find it Proved by the highest Antiquity and greatest Wisdom that has been in the World That Blood is the Life of Man and Beast so as the Life is conveyed with and by the Blood to every Part and Member of the Body Where it comes it enlivens and the Part where it cannot come withers and dies If the Spirits of it fail the Person grows feeble and not able to perform any great matter either Active or Contemplative till by rest or nourishment or both they shall be again restored or recruited And this is testified by Daily Sensation and Experience We know these Spirits can Act in this manner Daily and every Day if thus they be recruited and if such Recruits fail the Person waxes feeble and can do nothing but grow more feeble still to Death in a short time for want of Nourishment What these Spirits do we are sure they can do without knowing they have or need assistance from an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit Quod fieri potest per pauciora non debet fieri per plura Natura nihil facit frustra Conclude then we may That the Blood is the Life of Man and the inflamed Particles of it are those admirable fine Spirits which Act the Person and all his Powers And when this Flame of Life extinguishes Man Dies without remedy or possible recovery by Humane Power Chap. VII P. 93. Mr. M. saies He 's obliged in his sort of Civility to vouchsafe the taking notice of the Observer's Argument Which he does in a manner suitable to his former Expressions and perhaps to his Education and Nature He goes on according to his usual Civility and tells the Observer That he wrangles in the Dark about he knows not what Without pleasing to Teach him what he does not know He saies further That the Observer does not Prove in his Pamphlet the Soul 's perishing with the Body but say it only The Observer Answers That the Saying in that Place was enough to excite Mr. B. to a better Proof of his Assertion of the Soul's Immortality And for his Ancient and Modern Arguments which he saies are unanswered the Saying shews That Mr. M. did not understand the Subject or Design of that Pamphlet which he pretends to Answer there appearing in it no intent to Dispute with Mr. B. but only to excite in him a desire and endeavour better to Prove what he had before Asserted Mr. M's following Words express no more but his own Nature and Civility P. 94. Mr. M. says That the Observer does not prove the Mortality of the Souls of Beasts The Observer replies This was no part of his Undertaking either there or here nor do's he think it needful to be done any where because he yet never met with any Man who maintain'd the Opinion that Brutal Souls have any subsistence after the death of their Bodies if Mr. M. pretend to think that they so do he shall here be pointed to Psal 49.12 20. where David compares Men as good as Mr. M. to the
deny'd the Resurrection and future Recompences after the Death of the Person and so do Atheists So as the Observer is unjusty pointed at as one of their Tribes tho' he maintain the important Doctrine of the Resurrection the Happiness of which and the Dread of it are to be prepared for in the time of this Life by the same means that are required for the obtaining the Happiness of a Blessed Immortality and avoiding the Pains and Penalties of a cursed one Mr. M. endeavours to puzzle his Readers by propounding a hard Question Whether Matter be divisible ad infinitum or not Which the Observer says is nothing to the present Point in question and therefore he leaves the choice to Mr. M. which side of the Question he will maintain in a Dispute which here makes nothing to the purpose He asks further Shall the Immortality of the Soul stand upon so lubricous a foundation as this is no such matter The Observer answers It has not a foundation so good as this might prove nor any firm foundation at all either in Reason or in Scripture and therefore may be rejected as a vulgar Errour Mr. M. forbids to shift off the Question upon the Words material or immaterial The Observer answers He pretends to no such matter as appears by what he has already said in answer to Mr. M's Scriptures and Reasons the only Weapons which he pretends to use in this Controversie and which are used more at liberty in his fore-mentioned larger Treatise Mr. M. says Some great Philosophers have affirmed That the Soul is more knowable than the Body He ought to have given us their Reasons means and manner of attaining such Knowledge or to have produced something of his own to that purpose that the Readers might make some judgment concerning the verity of this Assertion And because he has failed in so doing his Saying proves very impertinent He says further The Substance of our Souls differs so much from any Corporeal thing that it may well enough be called immaterial This he has Brass enough to say in the Face of a Man who he knows utterly denies That it has any Substance at all And places it as an ens rationis whose Substance and Existence consists in Notion and Opinion only and this he does without proving or offering to prove any thing concerning the quod sit or the quid sit of it The last Words of this Chapter may justly be put into the Mouth of Mr. M. qui plus praestare potest praestet There is great need of some other Mens Labours to supply the weak Pretences and performances of Mr. M. in this Chapter Chap. IX Seems not directed to the Observer or those who go upon the Grounds of Scripture or Reason but to Persons of vicious Practices so powerfully as to be over-ruled in their Judgments by their own bad Inclinations which may happen too often but are a mistake and uncharitable Censure in this case if they be intended to prove any thing in the present Question and upon the Party now maintaining his part of the Question in this Treatise disputed Pag. 110. Mr. M. says The design of those Men who oppose the Soul's Immortality is to perswade themselves and others that it dies with the Body and shall not be called to an account for its unnatural self-debasement The Observer answers That the Soul single and separate shall not be called to an Account he believes for no other end but because he thinks it to be the very Truth and without any other design but that only of maintaining the certainty of a future Account and Judgment wherein every Man shall give and yield a full reckoning of his Stewardship and the Talents which were committed to his Administration wherein his smallest Actions shall be considered and an Account given for every offensive and idle Word many of which may possibly arise to magnifie Mr. M's Account from the Records of his present Treatise He quotes Vives again who makes every jot as much for the Observer as for himself Mr. M. says further Some thinking Persons of a sober Conversation may so far affect singularity in Opinions to make themselves more taken notice of as to maintain the Mortality of the Soul upon that Account The Observer thinks it enough in him to deny this Charge being well assured of the errour and falshood of it and that Mr. M. can never bring a shadow of Proof by which it may be annexed to the Person or Intent of the Observer Whence the Reader may cast it upon Mr. M. as a bold and unproved Calumny P. III. He says Men wou'd not have their Souls to be immortal for fear of a future Punishment for their Crimes The Observer answers They are apt to deny a Resurrection for the same reason Mr. M. says further Be not over-fond of the present Conceits it becomes you to suppose that you may be mistaken because many as wise Men have been so mistaken before you The Observer turns the point of this Direction upon Mr. M's own Face and bids him follow that Direction which he gives to others P. 112. Mr. M's Direction in this Page is very good and deserves to be well followed by himself who has no other advantage to exempt him from it but the commonness of his own Opinion which is no certain Proof of the Truth of it for that some like mistakes have long since prevailed in the world to as great an Universality Mr. M. further says 'T is a matter nearly concerns you to know whether your Souls be immortal or no The Observer agrees it to be a matter of great concernment for Men to think right in this matter lest their Expectations shou'd be deceived on either side and therefore he has pursued the Search of it to the best of his Abilities and writ this Pamphlet which Mr. M. now pretends to answer with Design to excite Mr. B. to the performance of his Promise to prove the Soul's Immortality hoping to draw some light from his Writings concerning the certainty and truth of it Mr. M. has thrust himself into this Dispute pretending in this Treatise to make a good performance of Mr. B's Promise in fully proving such an Immortality Whether he has well performed his Undertaking or not shall be left to the Judgment of such as read and consider what thereupon has been said on both sides And Lord give us Understanding well to consider and resolve according to Truth in this Question P. 113. Mr. M. says If after all this pains you have taken to make your self believe the Mortality of the Soul you find your self mistaken The Observer answers He has taken no pains at all to make himself believe it so and yet after the Search he has made he is convinced that most probably it is so and has no Fears upon him from it being otherwise For that he makes the same Provision for a happy Resurrection as he wou'd do for a happy Immortality
only in Contexture with the Body and the Delights here the Advers speaks of are only agreeable to his own Fancy and such as adhere to his Opinion who may with him fancy themselves conversing with Spirits or the like fruits of their own Imaginations which Men easily give themselves up unto who are apt to follow the Dictates of their own Fancy P. 136 He exhorts his Followers to exercise themselves in the Contemplation of a Deity 'till correspondent Impression be wrought upon their own Spirits transforming them into the same Image The Observer thinks he gives his Followers a piece of dangerous Counsel to imitate the high Extasies of St. Paul in his Extraordinary Raptures and Revelations For that they catching at the Words without understanding the true sense and meaning of them or the design of their Delivery are apt to run into great Errors of Fancy and pretending to make themselves like God become in such Applications more extravagant and vain than the more sagacious sort of Beasts that perish not understanding what they say or whereof they affirm And as one of that sort the Advers shall here be left The Blind to lead the Blind till both fall into the Ditch P. 138 He says The Immortal Spirit may be starved for want of Food The Observer says The Souls of Men may be so for want of their Meal Malt or their other Nourishment which it is every Man's Duty to provide for them to their Power in due Seasons and Distances of Time which may require the same The Advers says further What if God e're this had sent you into a Place where the Immortality of the Soul is better known The Observer says He ought to have named his Place and proved that there is such a Place in rerum Natura before he pretend his Immortal Soul is better known in any Place than it is here But it seems his Place and his Soul are both of a Piece subsisting more in Imagination than in Reality We may consider the use of such a Place If truly such a Place there be wherefore should it have been provided Dr. Sherlock in his Book of the Last Judgment has well proved That the Devils are not yet in Hell The Advers himself says That the Malevolent Spirits wander in the World and sometimes converse with the People in it Which is Evidence That they are not presently in Hell St. Peter and St. Jude tell us That the Devils expect their Punishment after a Condemnation at the Last Judgment which they believe and tremble at The Revelations express That there was War in Heaven Michael and his Angels fought there with the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels but they were vanquished and cast out of Heaven Which was done but a very short time before the Consummation or Last Judgment Whence it seems reasonably inferrible That the Devils are yet not only out of the Verges of Hell but that they are at some Liberty in the World and make sometimes their Progress unto Heaven Whence there seems no need of a present Hell for the Punishment of Devils and for the Separate Souls of Wicked Men There is as little present need of it for that in Truth there seems to be no such Thing in the World as a Humane Soul subsisting in a State of Separation after the Death of the Body Whence if there should be at present such a Place as Hell it must remain utterly unfurnished empty and void which would not be a natural way of Proceeding Quia natura nihil facit frustra So as the Discourses of Separate Souls going to Hell seem rather a Bugbear than a Verity But to this Men reply If there be no fear of Punishment before the Resurrection bad Men mill grow more bold in their Wickedness This the Observer does not grant but believes That they who will not care for the dread of a cursed Resurrection will not be perswaded by the pretence of an immediate Immortality a Truth which daily Experience confirms to us The Distance of Time between Death and the Resurrection how great so ever the same may appear to Living and Sensible Persons is not accounted of by the Dead nor is any Thing dead more Sensible of its passing than the Urn or Stone is wherein the Dead Man's Ashes or Dust are inclosed Whence they rise as but newly fallen asleep without any Sense or Perception of what has passed over them So that Sensibly and Effectually to them no Time has passed over them at all But their Death and Resurrection follow one another immediately without their perceiving that any intermediate Time has passed at all between them But after the Resurrection and Last Judgment past at the Creation of the New Heaven and Earth we read There shall be a Hell also contrived Isa 66.22 23. After God had made the New Heavens and the New Earth those raised to a Happy State shall go forth and look upon the Carcasses of the Men that have transgressed against me For their Worm shall not die neither shall their Fire be quenched So Revel 20.24 Death and Hell delivered up the Dead which were in them and every Man was judged according to his Works and Death and Hell were cast into the Lake of Fire and every one that was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire Viz. Such as were Condemned at the Last Judgment At which time God creates a New Heaven and a New Earth without a Sea but with a Hell for the Punishment of Condemned Creatures Chap. 21.14 Blessed are they who stand acquitted at that Judgment for that they may enter in through the Gates into the City and have right to the Tree of Life For without are Dogs and Sorcerers and Whore-mongers and Murderers and Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a Lye And such as follow the old Satanical Rule Audacter calumniare aliquid haerebit Among which number the present Adversary shall have a prime Place given him by the best and truest Judgment which the Observer can make in this Case Pag. 140 the Adversary quotes a Poet some of whose Verses are fit for this Place Think lastly on the World 's great Doom When guilty Souls must to an Audit come A far more heavy Reckoning than e'er You met with here P. 142 The Adversary says Men of the best Reasons will esteem our strongest Reasonings as the Leviathan does Iron or Brass but as rotten Straw and rotten Wood. The Observer grants he is very much in the Right in this Expression but when he adds If he should happen to convine them of which there is little likelihood he thinks their Lusts would prevail against his Arguments and their Convictions In this the Observer says he is True Blew and continues very uncharitably and malevolently Censorious P. 143 The Power of Christianity is scarcely consistent with a dividing censorious uncharitable Frame and Disposition Hence the Observer inferrs That the
OBSERVATIONS upon a Short Treatise Written by Mr. Timothy Manlove Intituled The Immortality of the Soul Asserted and Printed in Octavo at London 1697. AS an Introduction to these Observations and in nature of a Preface to them the Observer thinks fit to set down and deliver a true Narrative of his Proceedings in the Enquiry after the Nature of the Humane Soul Divers Years ago the Observer fell into some doubt concerning the Nature of this sort of Soul and thereupon began to enquire after the true Constitution of it And finding himself strongly inclined to think it perishable and extinguishable at the Death of the Person he had several Disputations with himself and others concerning the truth of that Surmise all which concluded in the Opinion or Judgment That the extinguishment of it at Death was more probable than the separate Subsistence of it after the Death of the Person After having stood sometime thus inclined He enterpris'd to deliver his Thoughts in Writing concerning the same and in the space of Six Months had Composed a Treatise concerning it comprised in the space or compass of Fifteen Sheets of ordinary Paper which being finished he did willingly offer to be Perused by as many as usually frequented his Company and whom he conceiv'd capable of giving him Advice thereupon But he found very few that were willing to take the trouble to examine his Disquisition and but one a Neighbour-Minister who did undertake to Dispute and Argue this Point against him The performance of which Argument pass'd in Writing betwixt them and continu'd for the space of about a Year That Minister offer'd to the Consideration of this Observer all those Places of Scripture mentioned in the Treatise of Mr. M. and all those Reasons which in the said Treatise are comprised with some accumulate Additions of each kind To all which the Observer return'd his distinct Answers which did not satisfy the Judgment of his Opponent but seem'd sufficient to the Judgment of this Observer Finally the Minister was rather tired than satisfy'd by this Encounter and gave notice to the Observer That Mr. Bently had lately Printed a Sermon concerning this Subject which might tend to give him some Satisfaction or Light concerning it Upon this Notice the Observer procur'd and Perus'd Mr. Bently's Sermon Intituled Matter and Motion cannot Think An Argument in the very Point about which they were then Disputing and therefore the Observer forsook for a small space those Searches about which he was then employ'd That he might Write some Observations upon that Sermon which he did and Compris'd them in a Quarto-Pamphlet of Two Sheets and a half of Paper and this Pamphlet is become the Subject of Mr. M's present Treatise now to be Examined The intention of those Observations was to excite Mr. B. to the communicating his fuller Thoughts to the World concerning this Subject He promis'd in the beginning of that Sermon to prove what now Mr. M. has undertaken to perform viz. That the Humane Soul is in its Nature Immortal and that it does so subsist by it self in a State of Separation from the Body This Assertion the Observer believ'd was not well Proved by Mr. B. in that Sermon And therefore he design'd by that Pamphlet to Summon and Provoke the said Mr. B. to a better and more full Performance of that Promise and Undertaking expecting from Mr. B's further progress thereupon to gain some further knowledg and insight into the Being and Nature of a Humane Soul But Mr. B. perhaps taken up with Occasions of more Concernment or neglecting the Summons of so short a Pamphlet and so unknown an Author it seems forbore to prosecute any further the Performance of that Promise made in the beginning of his Sermon because we hear no further of any thing Published since by him upon that Subject After the Printing of the afore-said Observations upon Mr. B's Sermon the Observer return'd to the pursuit of his former Inquiries concerning the Soul And set down in Writing the Heads of those Objections which the aforesaid opposing Minister had made for the Refutation of his afore-mentioned Conceptions annexing unto them his own Answer in that largeness wherein before they had been delivered After which Performance another Neighbour-Minister in a Visit made to the Observer gave him Notice That he had lately met with a Book which gave him great satisfaction upon this Point by making a strong Proof of the Soul's Immortality And he was so kind as to bring the Book it self with him and leave it with the Observer to be Perused at his greater leisure The Title of this Book was The Soul of Man and Written by Mr. Flavel late Minister of Dartmouth whom the Observer found by his Perusal to be a Man of very considerable Learning and that he had diligently amass'd together all those Arguments for the Soul's Immortality which the Observer had before met with in other Books and Places and had drawn Inferences from them as Rationally as he conceiv'd the Argument would bear The Observer Therefore thought it not his part to let this Book pass under his Perusal without such Answers as he was able to make to every Argument and proving Parcel of it and this he pretends to have performed in his before-mentioned Treatise of which he has made that Examination a Part. After which Performance the Observer consider'd That what he had hitherto done upon this Subject amounted to no more than a Negative Proof and that it might reasonably be demanded of him to give some Positive Proof concerning the Extinguishable Nature of his sort of Soul For which purpose he has in the close of his fore-cited Treatise Quoted divers Texts of Scripture and some Natural Reasons tending to prove the Veracity or at least the Probability of his present Conceptions Which Three Parcels of his before-quoted Treatise amounted in bulk to other Fifteen Sheets of Paper in which he intended to finish his said Treatise But the same lying by him the space of many Months he light upon some Thoughts concerning the same Subject which he thought fit to set down in Writing and to add them to the afore-said Treatise which increas'd the bulk of it to the number of Twenty Sheets more whence the fore-cited Treatise amounts to the bulk of Fifty Sheets of Paper This Treatise lay by the Observer some Months after these Additions were finished and then he sent it to London for a Publication of it by the Press surmising such a Publication might be obtained from Men of that Profession without the Author 's charging himself with any further Cost or Trouble about it But therein he found himself very much mistaken for his Correspondent inform'd him That no Man would undertake the Charge and Hazard of such a Publication of the Work of a Nameless Author or that however was like to pass under a Name unknown and very obscure but that such a Publication was like only to past at the sole Expence and
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
a great Naturalist viz. What kind of Matter or Thing is the Soul apart from the Body Where lies the Cogitation which she hath What doth she apart by her self without the assistance of Bodily Organs Mr. M. in this Chapter ascribes to his sort of Soul a great number and variety of Actions and Powers but he does not so much as affirm that any of them are Used or Acted without the assistance of the Bodily Organs P. 25. he ascribes Noble Faculties and Capacities to the Humane Soul which he does not say ever appear'd to the World saving in and by its Conjunction with the Body He saies The excellency of a Substance must be known by the Powers Radicated in it It seems he should first have proved or said something concerning the Substance of his Soul separated from the Body or that really there is such a Substance before he had ascribed such Excellencies to it The Observer ascribes all those Excellencies to the Person agreeing that they do belong especially to the Rational Faculty or Mind of Man which Mr. M. neither does nor can maintain to have a separate Subsistence after the Death of the Body P. 26. Mr. M. saies It is manifest that the Nature of the Soul is very vigorous and sprightly He should first have Proved That a Soul considered separate from the Body has a Nature and discovered something to us concerning it But he did well to forbear the pretending to that Performance which the Observer believes is far beyond his Ability but seeing he has not done it the Observer conceives That all his following Structure and Arguments proceed ex non concessis and therefore make no good Proof of those things which they have been alledged for But that all those things which he has ascribed to the Soul are really belonging to the Person but are principally Performed by the Rational Faculty or Mind of Man P. 27. Mr. M. saies When we are asleep the Soul is often at work in causing divers Dreams and Apprehensions in the Night And thus he ascribes to the Soul those Operations which properly belong to the Imaginations of Men and which never was known to proceed from a Soul separately considered Mr. M. says further That a Philosopher thought That Men's Dreaming when asleep was an intimation that they should Live when Dead Which Thought is here past by the Observer for a Philosopher's Dream P. 28. Mr. M. saies It is evident from his Collections here That the nature of the Soul is very active Whereas it does not yet appear That the Soul has any Nature at all if it shall be separately considered from the Body He saies further That the vigour of the Mind in dying Persons appears sometimes as strong or rather stronger than it did in their better health This Case the Observer thinks to be very rare and that when it happens it may reasonably be ascribed to such Obstructions as hinder the passage of those Spirits to and through the other Parts of the Body which forces them to a close and more full residence in and about the Brain than in their former State they us'd to have P. 29 Mr. M. saies That when the E. of Rochester was very near his End his Body very weak in all the other Parts of it his Reason and Judgment was still so strong and clear as that be became thereby more strongly perswaded of the Soul's Immortality To which the Observer Replies That the Earl might possibly be mistaken as well in the strength of his Reason and Judgment as in that of his Soul's Immortality He might have a better Opinion of his Reason and Judgment at that time than perhaps there was cause for but if that Opinion of his was true The Observer saies That the Spirits might then be more plentiful in his Brain because they had little Employment in the other Parts of his Body and because they are better preserved in the Head from all assaults of Nature by the strength and fortification of the Dura mater and the Pia mater and the strong Efforts of Nature to preserve the Head for whose Defence the other Members of Man's Body are apt and ready to expose themselves P. 30. Mr. M. saies That the Vnderstanding is a very Noble Faculty eager in its pursuits after Knowledge And then goes on to Prove this by divers Instances but without any need for his so doing because all that he has said here agrees well with the Observer's Opinion and is not opposed by him P. 13 Mr. M. asks What it is that compounds and divides things at pleasure and raises invented Beings of them The Observer Answers It is the Imagination of Man He makes several Demands What it is produces several like Effects Answered It is the Mind of Man or his Rational Faculty which dies and perishes with the Person P. 32 M. M. saies here That there is a difference betwixt Man's Imagination and his Vnderstanding Which the Observer thinks consists more in Terms and Notions suited to Men's Conceptions and Discourses than in the essential or real Differences amongst the Things or Powers He saies further That the Imagination is jaded and tired Which the Observer takes liberty to deny For that if the Eye can be satisfied with Seeing or the Ear with Hearing yet the Imagination is never tired with Conceiving or Thinking in general although it may be glutted with Thinking very long of one Subject P. 33. Mr. M. goes on here to magnify the Power of Humane Understanding from many Topicks all which it seems conduce little to the Proof of this Point for that in all this he never observes or affirms That it Acts in any thing separated from the Body nor without the assistance of Bodily Organs nor has any Man ever affirmed nor does himself say That the Humane Understanding survives after the Death of the Person Mr. M. saies further That Men cannot imagine that a little Wheat-meal in two or three Days should become capable of Mathematical Speculations By which Words it appears clearly to the Understanding of the Observer That Mr. M. is very much mistaken in the State and Case of this Argument For the Observer has never said intended or maintained That Wheat-meal in Two or Three Days time or at any time is or can be capable of understanding any thing at all and it shews want of ordinary Apprehension in Mr. M. if he ever has or does now conceive there was such an Error in that Pamphlet which he undertakes to Answer And therefore to clear up the Clouds of his Understanding in this Point The Observer will take pains to inform him That the State of the Case in this Question stands thus He conceives and affirms That God Created the Body of Man and put it into such a State of Perfection so filled with Blond and Humour and set them into such a State of Pullulation and Fermentation that the Steems thence arising became fit and capable of being tinded and
Powers and Actions of the Brutes are thus derived But concerning the Quomodo from what sort of Contexture and manner of Mixture with what sorts of Spirits and sorts of Organs and what Quantity and Purity are thereunto required Also the how after what manner Applicando activa passivis the Bestial Powers and Actions proceed from them the Observer esteems to be the Arcanum Opificis and this Mr. M. himself confesses to be so How then can he without some measure of Effrontery demand an Account of the Observer concerning the Quomodo or manner of proceeding in Efficiency of Perception Intellect and Memory by Motion and Operation of the Spirits in the Heads of Men. Quae Supra nos nihil ad nos It is not in the Power or Intellect of Man to proceed so far in the Scrutinies of Nature but rather it seems Men must let that alone for ever and leave that Mystery undiscovered and untouched to rest in the deep Fountain of God's Knowledge and Wisdom It seems also to be worthy of further Observation That all Men who have received and believed the Opinion that there are separate Intelligent Spirits in the World which Act and Perform divers things that exceed the ordinary Capacity of Humane Power it is ordinary for such Men to Apprehend upon sight of any strange thing done the Quomodo of which they cannot Investigate or find out the Reasons of it That those Things or Actions are the Performances of such Intelligent Spirits So Plato Apprehending the Souls of Men to exceed the ordinary Capacity of Man's Understanding fram'd this Imagination concerning them That they did Pre-exist before their coming into the Bodies of Men even before the Existence of our present World That in a former World they had displeased God by their Misbehaviours and that upon Creation of our present World they were doomed and put into Bodies of Clay as into Cages or Prisons and to pass in way of Drudgery from one Body to another for their Punishment and Purgation until some of them might attain such Degrees of Purity as to ratise themselves above the Lower Regions and attain to the Places of their former Stations And that other Ordinary Souls not so Purified must still continue in the Works of their Drudgery and so pass from Prison to Prison till the time Appointed for the Duration of this World be fully Passed Finished and Ended Aristotle conceiv'd That each of the Planets was fixed in a several Orb which had a continual Orbicular Motion And when he could not invent for them a Rational or likely Cause of such Motion he satisfied himself with pretending That those Orbs were moved each by its particular Angel whom he was pleased to call by the Names of Intelligences We Read of some strange Fabricks made by the Hands of Artificers as Tripodes in the Temple of Vulcan made by Daedalus which would remove of themselves from one Place to another without any visible assistance And Architas's Pigeon made at Tarentum which would Fly high into the Air and there make divers Doubles and Turns and then return to the Place from which she parted The first of these pass'd for a Miracle done by the Power of the God Vulcan and the second for the Act of a Daemon inclosed in the Fabrick of the Pigeon In our Times Namely of King Hen. VIII liv'd Regiomontanus a great Artist of this kind who at a Royal Reception of the Emperor into Nuremburg caus'd an Eagle of Wood covered with Feathers to meet the Emperor upon the Road and return with him to the City hovering over that Royal Head or near it until he came to the Gate of it which all the Spectators took for a Miracle But when they understood it was an Artificial Fabrick they said no Man could effect such a thing by Natural Means but the Motion must needs be made by an inclosed Daemon or Intelligent Spirit From which Aspersion of Necromancy the Artist could never reclaim the People especially because that some Years after he made a Fly whose Matter and Substance was all of Iron which at a solemn Feast made by that Emperor crept from the Sleeve of the Artist who sat at the lower end of the Table and rising thence she Flew up along one side of the Table before the Guests Faces then cross'd it at the end before the Emperor and flew in like manner down the other side of the Table to the lower end where the Artist put forth his Hand and receiv'd her and she crept again under his Sleeve to her former Station This made a great noise and cry in the World against the poor Artificer whom the Emperor did with difficulty defend against the Violences and Exclamations of the People though he shew'd and demonstrated his Works and Devices made in the Bodies of these Machines For the People who could not understand that such things could possibly be done by Humane Art said Those things were but pretended to make a shew of Artificial Working whereas the Truth could not be otherwise than that such Motion or Action must needs be Performed by the Force and Power of a separate Intelligence And the Case now Disputed seems very like this Our Opponents will not believe That the Skill and Power of God can Act the Fabrick of Man's Body by the Force and Energy of a Material Unintelligent Spirit but that in the Acting of Humane Powers he must needs employ a separate subsisting and Intelligent Spirit And this is the Case which is now Disputed amongst us The Observer Maintains That God can Animate and Act the Humane Fabrick and cause to be Performed all the Actions and Powers of Man by the Force and Energy of a Material Unintelligent Spirit And this was the Issue in the very Point Disputed betwixt this Observer and Mr. B. whose Sermon p. 27. positively delivers in these Words Omnipotence it self cannot Create a Cogitative Body not that there wants Power in God so to do but that the reason of his not being able so to do arises from the incapacity of the Matter and because the Ideas of Matter and Thought are incompatible The Observer in his Pamphlet of Observations upon this Sermon Flatly deny's the Truth of this Assertion and argues against it both by Reasons and Instances in that Pamphlet To which Mr. M. in this Treatise professes to Answer and yet he is pleased to slip over this Point without taking any Notice or making any mention of it The reason of which his pretended Negligence is clearly this He durst not undertake to maintain Mr. B's Assertion and was very unwilling to own that it was an Error or that the Observer had the better of him in any thing The Laws of True and Fair-dealing requir'd of him to take Notice of this Question which was mainly Disputed by the Observer against Mr. B. in that short Pamphlet and either to have Maintained Mr. B's Assertion or confest That it was an Error And his avoiding so to do
Affections and Passions and to keep or bring them within that Compass and Order which they may desire to do And the odds seems to be at least Forty to One on the side of the Affections and Passions against the Forces and Powers of the Rational Intellect So as the Observer cannot discover that Monarchical and Regent Power in Man's Intellect which Mr. M. pretends to be there But rather conceives That the Powers of the Intellect and Reason in Man are Co-ordinate with the Powers of Sense and Affection and have not such a Command over them as Mr. M. supposes because these Faculties are always in Contention one with another from the Cradle to the Grave and are seldom if ever totally Subjugated one of them to another Insomuch that Aristotle compares their Struglings to a Game at Ball where sometimes one side prevails sometimes the other so as that no Man can guess with certainty whether Party shall have the total Victory or Conquest till the last Stage of the Humane Life be run out and the last Scene thereof finished Whence the Observer concludes That the Powers of Sense and Intellect in Man are Co-ordinate and adds that both of them are ready to submit to the Vegetative Power against the Inclinations and Desires of them both when the great Occasions and pressing Necessities of the Microcosm do so require And from all these Premises he concludes That there is no such Monarchical or Regent Power in the Microcosm as Mr. M. has surmised nor such an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit as he has pretended But that the Bodily Organs and especially those of the Head and Brain are so fitly made suited and ordered by their Great Artificer and are so apt for the Execution of those Offices for which they were Ordained that all those Effects may be perfectly produced amongst them by the Intervention and Energy of the Superfine yet Material Unintelligent Spirits of the Blood And consequently Mr. M's Arguments on this Topick are not sufficient to maintain his part of the Question And for the account which he says is to be made for Mens misbehaving themselves in this World the Observer conceives That it can be truly expected at the last Judgment only as he thinks Dr. Sherlock in his late Book well Proves And he does not remember or know there is any Scripture-Proof of an Intermediate Judgment between Death and the last Judgment but desires Mr. M's Directions for finding out some Scripture-Proof of that Point which is no other ways investigable or subject to a Rational Enquiry P. 44 Mr. M. saies That there is in the Soul or Mind of Man a natural apprehension of its own Immortality which the Observer saies he does not agree or grant but does conceive that Opinion to be no elder in the World than the time of Pherecydes as Mr. M. in this Treatise after affirms He saies That Pherecydes liv'd in the time of Cyrus the first Persian Monarch in the beginning of whose Reign the Jews return'd from their Babylonish Captivity and laid the Foundation of their second Temple And ' saies further That from the beginning of Genesis till that time we meet with no mention of the Soul's Immortality except Solomon's short Expression The Spirit returns to God who gave it The Books of Moses make no express mention of the Soul's Immortality or of any other Future State after Death which seems to the Observer a strong Argument that the Apprehension of the Soul's Immortality is not naturally grafted in the Minds of Men but acquired and raised from other Seeds which have been sown amongst them which from the time of Pherecydes spread that Opinion far and Wide over the Face of the whole Earth and was greedily received and cultivated amongst Men and was communicated also to the Weaker Sex So that Mothers and Nurses were able to Sow it in the tender Minds of Children from their first Infancies which Fathers and Tutors increas'd amongst their Children and Disciples till it became generally accepted amongst Men and spread it Pelf amongst all the World Error as it was In like manner as the Opinion of the Sun's Course about the Earth in Twenty four Hours was received Also as the Doctrine and Practice of Idolatry possess'd and overspread the World from the Time of the Flood untill the present Time Of the Ancient Practice thereof we read much and of our present Time we have certain evidence that it continues to be practised in India Tartary China Japan Africa and amongst the Gentiles of America and amongst the whole Grecian and Romish-Christian Churches So as by the Argument of Mr. M. It seems Men may as well conclude That the Doctrine and Practice of Idolatry is Natural to Mankind It is not the far spreading and long duration of an Opinion that can certainly Prove it to be Natural But that which is truly Natural must have been from the Beginning and have a continuance amongst Men so long as their Natural State shall endure as an Incident to the whole Kind and Race who attain to the common perfections of Parts and of Degrees as Effluxes of their Natural Constitutions Of which sort he does not conceive that any Opinion can be For Opinions in their Natures are mutable Naturalia non mutantur and therefore God did not leave Man to learn the Knowledge of himself from any Natural Power Instinct or Inclination But himself Instructed their First Father and divers others of his Progeny down to the Time of Noah and his Sons in the Knowledge and Fear of God And when these Rules became Obliterated in the general Race of Men he chose out Abraham from amongst them and communicated to him a greater measure of Knowledge concerning God and his Will than any Man since the time of Noah had received before him After which he Reveal'd to Moses many more Particulars concerning himself his Attributes and his Will Afterwards he declar'd the same to Samuel and after to all the Degrees of Prophets down to Zechary and Malachy And these Prophets have delivered many Revelations in their Books Amongst all which there is not one Sentence or Saying That the Soul of Man is Immortal except what may be Collected by Construction from the Fore-quoted Sentence of Solomon transiently delivered by him Whence it appears That this Opinion was not from the Beginning and therefore not Natural as Mr. M. supposes And if from hence we pass to the New Testament we find not in it any Text which saies The Soul of Man is Immortal It is true That St. Matthew's Cannot kill the soul seems somewhat strongly to infer the Soul's Subsistence in a State of Separation altho' it does not appear thereupon That our Lord did not principally intend to Teach the Nature of the Soul in that Place But concerning this Text we must refer to what has been before spoken with intent to diminish the Credit and Power of it The Parable of Dives agrees something with this Opinion but
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
much in the Resurrection above the reach of Natural Reason The Observer saies the same concerning the Immortality of the Soul and further That it is not only above but also opposite to the Sensations of Man Mr. M. asks What must the poor Heathens do to whom the Resurrection has not been revealed Upon which the Observer asks What must such poor Heathens do to whom the Mystery of Christ's coming in the Flesh has not been Revealed P. 57 Mr. M. saies That the Immortality of the Soul was commonly and naturally known to Men. To this the Observer has spoken before and now adds a Request to Mr. M. That he would produce some Evidence of such Knowledge besides Solomon's short Saying before the time and Doctrine of Pherecydes or else he ought not to be believed That his Opinion has any thing of Natural in it Further Mr. M. here saies That the Observer world not be thought to deny That there are Immaterial Intelligent Spirits The Observer Answers That if he did deny them either in Word or in Thought he would not seek a Pretence to be thought not to deny them If he very much fear'd the Censures of Men's Opinions he would not as he now does maintain the Humane Soul's Materiality Mr. M. supposes as himself saies very unreasonably That the Observer does deny the being of a Superiority and Order in the Invisible World But therein Mr. M. is very much mistaken For that the Observer does Profess to Allow and Believe That there are great Differences and Degrees in the World of Intelligent Spirits the lowest of which are often conversant upon Earth and sometimes with the Inhabiters of it P. 58. Mr. M. saies There is something in Plants like Sense in Brutes like Reason and in Men like Spirits The Observer saies something like the Inferiour Intellectual Spirits viz. Apprehension Reason and Intellect which is as great a Participation with the lower Degree of separate Spirits as the Brutes have of the Rational or the Plants have of the Sensitive Nature The Observer further agrees with Mr. M's Metaphysical Author P. 59. Mr. M. Quotes the Observer's Saying concerning Dr. Moor and Mr. Baxter who say That the Souls of Brutes have separate Subsistence after the Death of their Bodies and there he saies That Dr. Willis did not think this Opinion merited the trouble of his Confutation And both there and here the Observer is of the same Judgment That this Opinion neither deserves or needs any other or further Refutation than the repugnancy which it will find in the common Sensations of every ordinary Reader except such only as can swallow and digest the Pythagorical Opinion of the Transmigrations of Souls Pythagoras was the Disciple of Pherecydes and from him receiv'd the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality and rais'd out of it the Doctrine of the Metempsychosis Teaching from thence That the Soul 's of Men departed sometimes entred into Infants and sometimes into the Whelps and Cubs of Beasts and reciprocally That the Souls of Beasts Transmigrated into and Animated the Bodies of Humane Infants or of Beasts as it might happen to fall out To Pythagoras Plato succeeded and held also a Transmigration of Souls but more restrained then that of Pythagoras imagining That Souls of Men had in a former World been separate and Intelligent Spirits and that for their Offences then committed they were Doomed to Inhabit and Actuate Bodies of Clay in our present World in Nature of a Penalty and as means of Purgation of and for the Offences by them committed in the former World and that as soon as they were dislodged from one Person they must wait for opportunity to enter into another Person or Embryon of Mankind This Doctrine of Plato bounded the Transmigration of Souls within the Compass of Mankind excluding the Bestial Race from such a Communication with Men Concerning which Doctrine Mr. Lock Dict. Lib. fol. 189 saies Taking as we ordinarily now do the Humane Soul for an Immaterial Substance independent upon Matter there would be no Absurdity to suppose That the same Soul may at different times be united to different Bodies and in each make up a Man This Doctrine therefore of Transmigration of Souls from one Man to another seems to him a Rational Deduction from the Nature and Subsistence of such a Soul and accordingly the Opinion of such a Transmigration spread it self far and wide over the Face of the Earth so as the Christian Platonists accepted of it and Origen and some others of the Fathers were of that Opinion The Gallick and British Druides maintain'd it and the most gross part of it viz. The Transmigration Reciprocal from Man to Beasts is still believed among the Gentile Indians Tartarians Chineses and Japanners in our own Times grounding it upon the Opinion of the Soul 's compleat Subsistence in a State of Separation from the Body The Observer saies That if he had to deal with such Men as these he would deal with them as with Dr. Moor and Mr. Baxter by endeavouring to perswade them and offering to them such Proofs as he could produce as he does to this present Opponent That the Soul of Man is not an Intelligent Substance nor capable of subsisting in a State of Separation from the Body and if thereof he should be able to Convince them that Conviction would be a sufficient and perfect Cure for all these Errors of theirs and all other like Opinions concerning the same He further saies The wiser and holier any Man is the more firmly he believes and rejoices in the Consideration of the Soul's Immortality Other Proof of this Assertion he gives none so that we have but his bare Word for it in the truth of which the Observer has no great Confidence and he believes That Mr. M. is therein much mistaken Mr. M. saies Men will not be perswaded that That Divine Goodness which has so often embraced them mill ever desert them But that God is Stronger than Death and more Powerful than the Grave and that they cannot believe That their Souls shall ever fall down into a Dead unactive State because they have been Irradiated by the Divine Light and Grace The Observer Answers Here are Two Assertions First they will not believe That God who has embraced them with his Goodness will ever desert them but that God will preserve and deliver them from the Grave This Assertion the Observer willingly grants The Second Saying is That Mens Souls can never fall down into a Dead unactive State This the Observer denies and saies That if by Souls he does not mean Persons his saying That they are irradiated by God's Grace in any sort or way abstracted or removed from the Body his Assertion here is Erroneous and Deceitful For that he never has Proved nor can Prove That God ever bestowed any thing upon a single Soul in a State of Separation from the Body But all his Graces and Favours Corrections and Punishments are applied to the Person
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
out all the Man's Blood at one Orifice and in the mean while intromit the Blood of a Calf or a Sheep into that Man's Body at another Orifice the Beast must Die but the Man will Live without any clear sense of the loss of his own Blood Nor will he only live or move by the Virtue of his new receiv'd Blood but he will have the use of all his Senses Speech Intellect and Memory as he had before and which without such fresh supply of Blood would have been utterly lost The Observer further consider'd That by a failure of any of the sensitive Organs the Man may and often does lose the use of that Sense so as the Spirit cannot act the Sense but only in its proper Organ and both of them must be sound for the production of it The Spirit also can Speak by the Tongue but not without it it can Imagine in the fore-part of the Brain but no where else it can Estimate and Judge in the middle-part of the Head and Remember only in the back-part of it If the Blood and Spirit be over Thin and Watry Phlegmatick Scorbutick or too Hot and Fevescent too Salt or Sharp the Brain may be ill affected from any of these or the like Causes which Physicians intend to remedy by Purging or restoring to a right State the Stomack Liver or other Parts where the Sanguification is made If the Imagination be tainted they apply Fomentations Blood-letting or Plaisters to the fore-part of the Head if the Judgment be crazed they apply to the middle-part of the Head if the Memory fail they do so to the hind-part of the Head and divers times with very good success performing divers Cures thereupon He further Consider'd That in Distempers of the Brain and failures of the Understanding Physicians do Advise and Men Practise with good success the changes of Air Diet Company fresh or sweet Smells Mirth Jollity with a Cup of good Wine and good Effects have follow'd all these Prescriptions and Practices The Observer ponder'd and conceiv'd within himself That all these were Natural and proper Remedies for correcting the Distempers of the Blood and restoring the imbecillities of the Organs or removing such Obstructions as hinder'd the Operation of them but neither any of them nor altogether were likely to effect or work any thing at all upon an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit Men tell us That this Spirit Acts and Works all that it does by Intervention of the Material Spirits of the Blood but they give us no other Proof of what they say than that the Bodily Organs are not cannot be Acted but by means of these Spirits That we grant and say That there neither is nor needs an Intelligent Spirit for the Acting of them but that they of themselves do Act and are enough to Act the Bodily Organs Daily supplied as they are with Food and Nourishment from the Ambient World as a River is supplied from its Fountains and Plants with Sap extracted from the Earth If the Root cannot extract that the Plant must die if the Fountains fail the livers dry up and if the Sensitive Creatures want nourishment their Spirits fail and their Limbs and Bodies wither consume and die for want of such Supplies gas are suitable to their Natures These Considerations wrought upon the Observer to make a further search into this Disquisition He ruminated long upon it and then propounded it to other People whom he thought capable of it but found not one amongst them who had a compliance for it but maintain'd the contrary The main Argument that they rely'd upon for the defence of it was the largeness of it spread in the World and amongst the Divines and Doctors of it whence it was become so radicated that if it was an Error it was become irremediable and that the endeavouring to remove it out of Mens Minds might do more harm to the Peace of the Church than the Planting of a new Opinion tho' true could do good by the Truth of it This Argument à Commodo did not enough prevail with the Observer to give over and desert his Design and Search concerning this Point but he still Ruminated Conferr'd and Read as Opportunity serv'd him He search'd the Scriptures and Read them many times over and Noted upon a Paper whatsoever he there met with concerning this Subject He procur'd all Books that Treated of it and which he could attain by Buying or Borrowing and gave them an attentive Perusal and then Writ down his own Thoughts and Collections upon them and Publish'd that Pamphlet how opposed by Mr. M. in such a manner as the Observer cannot tell in what manner to Reply to it Mr. M. has so twisted and complicated together his Rhetorick Logick and Metaphysick that it is not easie to distinguish which of his Expressions belongs to one which to another and delivered what he saies in such an Athletick and Domineering Style that he has sometimes attracted a Sympathizing return from the Observer different from the usual course of his Nature He apprehends that Mr. M. intended with Alexander to cut in sunder the Gordian Knot of this Question by his sharp and piercing Style But he thinks he is there-from well Defended by the Shield and Buckler of Faith and Patience the Faith and Belief That he holds the Truth in this Point and a Patience supported with a knowledge That New Truths are not to be maintained without an apparent Consequence of Suffering Prov. 26.4 5. Solomon gives a double Direction in this Case one in direct Words contrary to the other and the Observer has happened to follow the Direction of both Places sometimes of the one sometimes of the other according as it happen'd and perhaps as Solomon intended The Observer did Incite Mr. B. to Write an Answer to his Pamphlet expecting from him such an one as would be Knowing Solid and Temperate instead of which Mr. M's Treatise is Printed with little of the first Requisite in it and nothing at all of the other two as tho' he did not design to draw a Sinner from the Error of his way but weakly Triumphum canere ante Victoriam He saies Men will be apt to censure all Philosophy for the ill use the Observer has made of it in his Pamphlet The Observer saies That there are ill uses made by Mr. M's Metaphysical Arguments produced concerning the uncertainty of Mens Persons happening by the Alterations pertaining to their Bodies and Souls and such other like Parts of his Treatise But those that consider the Scheme of Philosophy that the Observer has now laid down cannot without contradiction to their own Sensations pretend a probable Reason of Quarrel to it If that Herd amongst which Mr. M Officiates shall happen to make any Quarrel to it it will but prove the state of their own Ignorance and that they Err in so doing as perhaps they may be found to do in divers other Things The Observer did ever and does still
and puts no difference between them in respect of humane Endeavours believing that which will gain the one will gain the other and what will lose the one will lose the other But he thinks the Resurrection to be far better proved more undoubted and certain than the Immortality is that therefore the first is founded upon a Rock and the other but upon Sand or bare Ground at the best And therefore he builds his Faith and relyance upon the Resurrection and believes concerning the Immortality That it is an Errour or a Possibility so uncertain as no Man reasonably shou'd relye upon it P. 114. Mr. M. says The best way to know that he Soul is Immortal is to keep its Noblest Faculties in due Exercise The Observer replys That he has endeavoured as much as in him lay so to do but found an Effect thereof quite contrary to Mr. M's Assertion viz. That the more he read labour'd and ponder'd thereupon the more he has been hitherto confirm'd in the Opinion of the Soul's Mortality and even the weak Arguments Mr. M. has produced in this Treatise of his for the Proof of the contrary have added some strength to that Opinion which he had before received as the Effect of his former Endeavours in this kind P. 115. Mr. M. says We should seek Truth for its own sake and to be thereby better enabled for the service of God And then he says We may better expect Afflatum divini numinis The Observer says He has done the one and hopes he has received some measure of the other so as Mr. M's rash and indiscreet Censures make no Impression at all on him nor he hopes will do upon any Intelligent Readers of his present Treatise thus answered Further Mr. M. directs to lay down the most plain and certain Truths first and so ascend gradually to those that are more difficult trying those Things that are uncertain by those that are clear and certain The Observer may here justly reproach Mr. M. for his not observing the Rules which he has here laid down for that in his pretences of proving the Soul's Immortality he has not produced so much as one Experiment or Rule that is clear and certain which the Observer thinks he did not omit through negligence but because he cou'd find no Experiment or certain Rule from whence he cou'd raise Arguments for the proof of his Immortality Mr. M. says further There are many puzzling Questions concerning his sort of Soul viz. concerning its unde its Vnion with the Body its moving of it and direction of the Spirits its different mode of Operation in a separate State and its reunion at the Resurrection The Observer replys That all these Questions become frivolous to those that accept the Opinion of the Soul's Extinguishment at the Death of the Person which fully silences them all and proves them needless and somewhat ridiculous and that is the best and surest Solution that can be given of them altogether Mr. M. says further We must not deny the Formation of a Child because we know not how 't is made The Observer agrees this because Sensation and Experience prove there is a Child Let Mr. M. prove by Sensation Experience or other Ways That there is such a Soul in Man as he pretends to and then he shall have leave to dispute de modo formationis as he pleases But to dispute de modo of a Thing which is not granted or proved to have a Being must pass for a Dispute de lana caprina or as of a Thing not extant in the World He says further The Soul it Fettered in the Body But this the Observer utterly denies and avers That the Contexture of the Soul and Body is naturally and ordinarily the most amicable and pleasing Conjunction in the World and their Separation is ordinarily one of the most terrible Actions that befalls Mankind and that it was a most gross Errour in Plato and those that follow him to think otherwise P. 117. Mr. M. says Atheism and Sadducism spring both from the same Root and must be attacked together The Observer answers That his tacking Atheism and Sadducism together prove That they who believe the Resurrection are neither the one nor the other whatsoever Mr. M. may fancy Mr. M's Demands concerning the Making and Governing the World are very frivolous and needless in this Question or to be demanded of the Observer who has often ascribed the Creation of Man and all other Creatures to God and has acknowledged his Providence upon all Occasions so as those Questions and those which follow them are left by the Observer as a Fruit of Mr. M's florid Speaking but in our present Dispute somewhat insipid and of no concernment at all P. 119. Mr. M. says That Epicurus and his Followers said That the World was not Created by God nor Governed by his Providence The Observer demands Quorsum haec quorsum sic What makes all this to the Immortality of the Soul or the Observer's Opinion concerning it It shall therefore be past as nothing to the purpose nor deserving any Answer nor needing any as it is produced upon this Occasion P. 121. Mr. M. demands Dare you take God's Name in vain or vilifie his Works to his dishonour You may flatter and befool your self for a while what will you do in the end thereof How dismal will the Thoughts of Eternity be to you in the last Hour How severely will Conscience pay you home for all the Tricks and Abuses you put upon it The Observer replys That if a Man should judge Mr. M. by those Expressions it seems they might judge him the very Spaun of Satan whose proper Office it is to bring false Accusations against the Servants of God and slander them with such Things as they were never guilty of or intended to be so His Demand Dare you take God's name in vain Or vilifie his Works to his dishonour Seems pregnant with an Affirmative That the Observer dare do such Things And if it be so taken it is a slanderous Surmise and as false as any Thing that his Father cou'd suggest to him The Devil himself was more fine in his Suggestions against Job which procur'd that Holy Man a severe Conflict and a terrible Tryal Upon which the Observer will make no other return than that which the Angel made to Satan in the case of Joshua The Lord rebuke thee O Satan the Lord that hath pleasure in the prosperity of his Servants rebuke thy lying lips and thy deceitful tongue What reward shall be done unto thee thou false tongue Even mighty and sharp arrows with hot burning Coals who puttest forth the horns of a Lamb but speakest with the voice of a Dragon P. 122. He goes on with divers such Calumnious Questions pointing at the Observer who utterly denies all the Charges laid against him in those Pages and says They are false and feigned and defies his false Accuser demanding the Proof of any one
of them which if this vile Railer cannot or do not produce the Observer hopes he will pass among his Readers for a false Slanderer and Condemner of the Innocent P. 123. He talks of turning our Eyes in upon our Souls The Observer demands of him whether he ever did so and that he will tell the World what evidence of his Soul follow'd upon his so doing It seems just none at all or else he 's very faulty in not declaring the same to the World He says That as the Soul is separated from the Body by Death so in Contemplations we must abstract it from Corporeal Commerce The Observer says This must needs pass for Gibberish and Nonsense with one who denies the Subsistence of Souls in a State of separation from the Bodies Here he Quotes Pythagoras pretending Men shou'd desire Death That their Souls might be delivered from the Prisons of their Bodies and some in those times kill'd themselves that their Souls might the sooner obtain their Liberty And thus this apprehension became a Doctrine of Devils and it seems the present Opposer now thinks it cannot well be maintained without the Practice of Devils viz. lying and slandering P. 124. He says Their Bodies are an hinderance to them in searching after Truth The Observer says Souls can make no Searches after Truth at all nor do any other Thing without their Bodies nor can he or any other Man prove That they ever did so or can do so He says After Death and not before the Soul will subsist without the Body Here he denies what some of his Partakers affirm That the Soul sometimes wanders from the Body and after some time returns to it again But all with a great probability of Falshood both in the one case and in the other It seems he matters not how meanly he begs the Question when he utter'd his last Position as it were ex Cathedra pronouncing that as an undoubted Truth which he well knows his Opponent fully denies and how weakly himself has offered at the poof of it P. 126. He says further That if men follow the practice of a good Life they will soon be convinced that their Souls are Immortal and not such earthly material Things as you are ready to imagine The Observer Replies That the Evidences of a good Life are well known to himself and as evident to the World as any thing Mr. M. can produce for himself and yet he does not find himself the more perswaded of the Truth of the Soul's Immortality nor believes it ever the whit the more for the false Suppositions and Pretensions which are made for it by Mr. M. in this Treatise But rather is confirmed in the contrary Opinion by those deceitful and false Courses which the Opponent is driven to use for the support and maintenance of his Opinion P. 127. The Opposer speaks Of Divine Raptures and Anticipations of the Soul's Immortality while they are in this World All which the Observer thinks to be as well founded as Castles in the Air which are only Products of Phantasie and vanish with the meer change of the Apprehension The Adversary says further That if your Phantasie be right placed you will be apt to acknowledge the Natural Image of the Deity which is antecedent to the Knowledge of God The Observer Answers That the Image of God in Man is not in any single Part or Portion of him but that the whole Man is the only Image of God for that in the Image of God made he Man without any more respect to his Soul than his Body which are both together the wonderful Work of God and so great a Wonder to Immortalists as they can by no means believe That God has Wisdom and Power enough to produce Sense and Understanding in the Humane Person by the Energy and Activity of Material Spirits but that of necessity he must be driven to use the subservience of an immaterial Intelligent Spirit for those purposes And this shall be left upon them as a very gross Mistake and Error of their Minds Our Adversary says further That there are a World of Spirits Malignant and such at seek the ruin of mankind and carry on a Warfare against God and his Interest and Religion in the World That such Spirits there are the Observer does not deny and that prompted by the malignity of their own Natures they carry on a War against true Religion and the Happiness of Man he grants but that they do War against the Interest of God or can do it he confidently denys and says That they have no power to act or effect any thing without the Permission License or Direction of that Omnipotent Being known to us by the Name and Term of God The Adversary says Those Spirits know well enough that the Souls of men are Immortal Cujus Contrarium the Observer says est verum and saith farther The Evil Spirits take no pains at all to destroy the Soul but the Man of whose contexture the Soul is but Part and such a Part as extinguishes at the Death of the Person P. 128. The Adversary says you may read from divers Authors there named that there are good Spirits which watch over Men for their guidance and preservation The Observer says This needs no Proof from his named Authors for that the Scriptures do testifie abundantly for the Truth of it P. 129. The Adversary discourses concerning Apparitions of dead Persons and delivers divers Historical Relations upon that Subject The Observer does not deny That divers such like Apparitions may have been jussu aut permissu superiorum and that such Apparitions have taken upon them the Image or likeness of the dead Persons But he places all that sort of Apparitions to the account of inferior separate Spirits ready to execute what shall be appointed them in that kind What is in this Place quoted out of Baronius the Observer imputes either to meer Invention or otherwise conceives it to have been a lying Relation of one of those Malignant Spirits What he relates there from Glanvil concerning a Major and a Captain may better pass for a Truth because the tenor of it agrees with what the Observer has before said concerning such Things who always Establish'd That such Apparitions are not acted by the Souls of Men already dead but by inferiour separate Spirits subsisting by themselves and which never were united to the Persons of Men. P. 130. The Adversary says Men may find nobler things in the World than Matter and Motion to entertain themselves with This Assertion the Observer thinks to savour strongly of Ignorance and Falsehood especially because he mentions no Particulars of such Things of which he ought to have given some Instances and for want thereof the Observer concludes him true to his Principles of Boldness and Ignorance He quotes here the Names of Authors as Plato Plotinus Epictetus Cicero Senecae Antoninus which it is likely may have drawn him to the Belief of the Soul's
Immortality or confirmed him therein But their Opinions weigh not much with the Observer who in his Pamphlet upon Mr. B's Sermon propounds to decide this Controversie by the sole assistance of Scripture and Reason The Adversary pretends to flourish with Names and Quotations of many Author rather to create an Opinion of his own Reading than because they were needful or useful in this Disputation a Practice purposely avoided by the Observer as being apt more to perplex and lengthen the Argument than to shorten or come close up to it and the Particulars of it The Adversary says If you believe that God regards the Affairs and Actions of Mankind then look unto him for light in this matter and he that so seeks after the Truth is in a very likely way to find it The Observer Replys Physician Cure thy self If thou had'st heartily pursued the course here directed it is very probable That God might have preserved thee from uttering and publishing such false and slanderous Calumnies as are inserted in thy Treatise levelled and discharged against an Innocent Person whom thou knowest not not ever hast heard any Man speak so of him much less that thou art able to prove any one of those Slanders which thou hast heap'd upon him and for which he leaves thee to the lashes of God and thine own Conscience and to the judicious and Rational Censure of thy Readers Chap. X P. 131. To the beginning of this Chapter the Observer thinks fit to annex an old English Proverb Let the Geese beware when the Fox Preaches For that although many of these Things which he says may be true according to the practice of an Old Father Obscuris vera involvens yet they are all spoken with intent to perswade and induce the Belief of an Erroneous Doctrine P. 132 The Advers says If I believ'd such Things as the Soul's Immortality I should use the greatest care and diligence to be Holy The Observer applys this to the certain and firm Doctrine of the Resurrection which all Christians do profess to believe He says This Doctrine requires as great Endeavours and striving by way of Preparation for it as that of the Soul's Immortality can do and is much better founded and assured than that is and therefore he advises all Christians to take it more into their Considerations than they formerly have done The new Doctrine of the Immortality has in a great measure shouldred out that of the Resurrection And indeed if the former were certain and true there wou'd be little need of the latter among Christians Persons after the Resurrection are likely to live upon the New Earth and under the New Heaven which will doubtless be a very happy State but if it be compared to the Heaven of Heavens and Throne of God whether they say Good Souls repair at the Death of the Person the Joys of the Earth can come in no Competition with the Joys of Heaven which those separate Souls must then forsake and come to live upon Earth again in their Bodies though Glorified plainly such a Change as those Souls must make at the Resurrection of the Persons is more likely for the worse than for the better Whereas the Doctrine of the Resurrection intends a compleating of the Happiness of Man and bringing it to its highest degree and Perfection as has always been expected and desired by the Church as the highest Happiness the Nature of Man is capable of For Proof of this he quotes Joh. 6. our Lord there four times over says Those that believe and serve him shall be raised up at the last day And at his Departure he tells his Disciples I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am ye may be also Without saying any thing of an intermediate State It runs through all the Gospels that at the Resurrection the Angels shall come and sever the Good from the Bad preserving the one sort and destroying the other Our Lord in Judgment says Come ye Blessed inherit the Kingdom prepared for you and Go ye Cursed into Everlasting fire Not return ye Blessed to Heaven from whence ye came nor return ye Cursed to the Flames of your former Fire But they are both to go to new Places where they had not been before 1 Cor. 15.1 1 Thess 4. Paul in both these Chapters Treats professedly concerning the future State of Man after Death and builds the whole strength of future Recompences upon the Doctrine of the Resurrection only without mention of or pointing to any Thing concerning the Soul's Immortality So Hebr. 11.35 Christians then suffer'd chearfully in expectation of a better Resurrection He also prays that Onesephorus might find mercy in the Last Day And tells Timothy That a Crown of Glory was laid up for him against that Day And so for all other true Christian Believers And the Observer saith That of all the Texts of Scripture quoted for the Immortality not one of them is delivered in a Place where the future State of Man after Death is particularly discoursed of or intended to be taught except what the Parable of Dives may have of that Nature Hence the Observer concludes That the Doctrine of the Resurrection is the main and Rocky Foundation upon which the Expectation of future Recompences can safely be builded and therefore he leaves the Immortality to those who think they find better Ground for it than he hath yet been able to perceive or attain to P. 133 The Advers says If you believe your Souls to be Immortal take care to secure your eternal interest by a good course of life The Observer says If you hope for a happy Resurrection you must take the same Course and to his other Saying and Quotations here the Observer applys them all to the Resurrection which is most certain whatsoever the other may be P. 134 He asks What will make amends for the loss of their Immortal Souls The Observer asks What will make amends for their unhappy Resurrection and Condemnati-at the Last Judgment The Advers says further You must labour to understand what it is must make your Souls happy if ever they be so The Observer says They are never like to be happy or miserable without the Body and therefore labour to obtain a safe and happy Resurrection of them both P. 135 He says That mens souls will tell them something if they take them apart and freely converse with them The Observer wishes he had told us some matter of Fact concerning himself or some other Man who had taken his Soul apart and so conversed with it without which all he says here is but Amusement intending to make Men suppose Their Souls may be taken apart from their Bodies which wou'd truly be the Destruction of them both for that the Person only consists in the Contexture of them both Further the Advers says That the Immortality is suitable for the Nature of the Soul The Observer denies That the Soul has any Nature except
taking his Part of the Question for granted Truth seems to be a Folly and Vanity suitable to the rest of his Deportment throughout this Treatise P. 152 The Advers says In many Things we shall be in the Dark without the Assistance of supernatural Revelation The Observer says There is a Sufficiency of supernatural Revelation in the Scriptures of God for the bringing Men a happy Resurrection and a blessed State after it But for our better Illumination the Advers cites a Sentence out of Porphyry who was as great an Opposer of Christianity as any he could have named being a bare Platonist and no more To this he adds the Names of Plato and Socrates pretending to collect thence a more lofty Strain for his Imaginations to work upon than those which are deliver'd in Holy Writ and spares not to quote the Devil's Oracles in Confirmation of his own fantastical Idea's nor the Sibylline Verses dictated usually by a Spirit of the like nature The Advers says That the great Heathen Law-makers pretended to take Help of Spirits and Daemons for the Inventing and Establishing their Laws From which Example perhaps he may intend to derive a Confirmation of his Opinion That there are other supernatural Revelations to be expected at this Day for Mens Guidance and Direction in their Religion than those that are deliver'd us in Holy Scripture Which is an Opinion rejected by the Observer and not received by the Reformed Christian Churches After this Train of Heathen Oracles and Spirits the Adversary returns again to the Holy Scriptures as if he pretended to add some Credit or Authority to them by the Testimony of his Commendations which they neither need nor can his Credit any way extend to the advancing of their Reputation Men knowing it is rather a Disgrace than an Advantage to be prais'd or commended by a slanderous Tongue But those Records are so Sacred that they can suffer no Disadvantage by any Man's Commendations or Discommendations but stand fixed and firm as Pillars and Foundations of the Christian Faith not enduring to be compar'd with the Fictions of idle Oracles Philosophick Daemons or Poetical Inventions nor with the Miracles or Enthusiasms of the Romish Mahometical or Phanatical Imaginary Revelations There can be no reasonable Comparison of such Vanities with the Text of Holy Scripture and therefore whatsoever the Advers pretends to say to that Purpose seems a great Piece of Vanity in him and an idle Imployment of his Time P. 155 The Advers says If you believe that the Soul is Immortal be not over-fond of the Body The Observer replies If you believe the Resurrection and the Last Judgment be not so fond of the Body or any thing else as thereby to be drawn out of the way of endeavouring to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 3.10 The Day of the Lord shall come as a Thief in the Night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great Noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent Heat the Earth also and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness looking for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness Wherefore seeing ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in Peace without Spot and Blameless St. Paul 1 Thess 4.13 directs That they should not sorrow for their dead Friends as if they were without Hope concerning them For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and they shall be rais'd at the Sound of the Trumpet and the Voice of the Archangel He does not tell his Proselytes That their Friends Souls are gone to Heaven as any Comfort or Ease of their Sorrows but he builds their Comforts upon the strong Rock of the Resurrection And thus have we both Peter and Paul to sound and credible Witnesses in this Case directing to a good Life and a strong Comfort in Death from a firm Hope of a future Resurrection in due Time without one Word concerning the Soul's Immortality or drawing any Comfort or Help from thence at all P. 156 The Advers says Make not your Prison too strong as if he assented to the false Platonick Imagination That the Body was made by God for a Prison to the Soul Which every Man 's daily Experience contradicts and proves certainly to us as has been before said That the Conjunction of the Soul and Body is the most amicable of any thing in the World and their Separation most grievous and terrible and That the Body's being a Prison to the Soul is an Opinion both false and foolish tho' it seems very well fitted for the Adversary's Part. He goes on and says Think how quickly this Flesh must be laid aside He should have added And this Spirit extinguished and then there will be no miserable or happy Soul to take notice of P. 157 the Advers demands What Relief will it be to your Souls to remember that in this Life you had your good Things The Observer does not believe that before the Resurrection there will be any such Soul or Remembrance It is true that in the Parable of Dives Abraham says to him Son Remember that in thy Life-time thou hadst thy good Things But the Parable no where makes mention of a Soul but in all Places it applies to the Person Lazarus died and was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosome And Dives died and being in Hell he lift up his Eyes and saw Lazarus afar off in Abraham's Bosome It seems fit to be consider'd how Dives cou'd see a Soul at so great a Distance and speak audibly to Abraham afar off without a Tongue Men do usually imagine This Discourse and Proposal shou'd be applied to the Souls of these two Persons But the Observer thinks there 's no Necessity to take it in that Sense but either to let it pass as a bare Similitude or Parable invented or that it may as well or better be intended concerning the Persons mentioned in the Text before quoted and the rather because Abraham calls Dives Son Remember This Term of Son cannot be applicable to a separate Soul because that Term is properly applied to the Person and also because if our Adversary say true such a Soul cou'd not be descended from Abraham but was newly created by God upon the Begetting of the Body of Dives Whence it seems still That the Relation concerning these Person is but a bare Similitude or Parable and proves nothing Or must be applied to the State of these two Person consider'd in the Contextures of their Bodies and Souls together The Adversary seems to doubt whether Souls go to appointed Places or hover about those Places where their Bodies are interr'd The Observer says It is no Wonder that Men of his Opinion have many Doubts concerning their
of those Spirits spread over the whole Body it comes to pass that the least Wound in the end of a Finger or Toe is immediately felt over the whole Body and so by Sight Hearing Smelling or Tasting the whole Person is immediately perceptive and affected therewithal like the String of an Instrument how long soever the same may be if touched to a vibration in any Part of it the whole String answers to that Vibration and sounds accordingly And this seems to be the Reason of the wonderful Velocity of Sensation and Perception in the Persons of Men and therewithal the Brutes may well be conceived to have a great Affinity upon a like Account This Spirit is not incaged or incarcerated in the Body but maintains as amicable a Conjunction with it and with as much Liking and Kindness to each other as any known Things in the World can do And the Athanasian Creed tells us That as the Body and Soul are one Man so God and Man are one Christ whence the Union of the former seems as amicable and kind as that of the latter tho' using a joint Contexture one of them with another this sort of Spirit acting in and by the Bodily Organs and Members they together effect in the Person all those Motions Faculties and Powers which the great Artificer intended and designed to be produced in the Humane Person be they those of Vegetation Sensation or Rationality all which Powers and Faculties they continue to maintain so long as their said Contecture has a Conrinuance Whence the whole Person both Spirit and Members are all alike affected one of them with another and never contrarily or differently one of them affected against another It is true that divers great Variances do often happen between the two different Faculties or Powers of Sense and Reason which Differences are as durable and lasting as the Life it self And these two Faculties St. Paul often calls by the Name of Flesh and Spirit which must pass in his Writings for tropical and figurative Expressions Upon which and divers other Accounts St. Peter says there are some Things in St. Paul ' s Writings which are hard to be understood Our Experience teaches us That there are no real Differences between the Bodily Organs and Members and this sort of Spirit of which we are now speaking but that they live and act together during the Time of their Contexture in the greatest Amity and Sympathy that can be imagin'd They are pleas'd and displeas'd rejoice and mourn together as two constituent Parts of the same Person they grow together to a State of Perfection are sick and well together decay and decrease in like manner And where Men live to the uttermost Age their Perceptions Understandings and Memories fail oftentimes before their Tasting and Feeling which continues with them the whole Extent of their Lives Then the Person consisting of such Flesh and Spirit dies together the Flesh and Members turning to Dust and the Spirit which is the Flame of Life extinguishing at the Time of that Separation And at the Time of the Resurrection the Body shall again be raised with such a Temperature of the Blood as shall then again be tinded and kindled into such a Flame of Life as the Person had enjoy'd in his former State as St. Paul declares 1 Cor. 15. whereby there shall arise and accrue to the same Person the same Sensation Perception Understanding Memory and Conscience that he had before in the Time of his former Life So as Mr. Lock seems to be in the right when Fol. 183. of his said Book he teaches That it is the same Consciousness which at the Resurrection makes the same Person such a sameness as St. Paul declares by his Similitude of Grains of Corn as much the same as Grains are of the same Nature which spring one out of another Thus united again by the Resurrection the Flesh and Spirit in a like Contexture as they were before shall come to Judgment at the last Day before the Tribunal of the Lord Christ and shall there receive Judgment Sentence and Doom according to their Works and shall thence depart to Places of Joy and Happiness or to those of Sorrow and Misery as by that Sentence and Judgment shall be appointed for them Thus from Experience it seems proveable That there is such a Soul or Spirit in Man as has been before specify'd That the same consists in the Spirits of the Blood inflam'd and made lucid and glowing That the Original of this Spirit proceeds from a Vital Principle in the Seed The visible quando of its Operation appears with the first Commencement of Vegetation in the Embryon The Vbi of its Residence is every Part and Member of the Body through which the same is contiguously spread or rather is one continuate Spirit mixed with the Flesh throughout the whole Body As to the Quo and what becomes of this Spirit at the Death of the Person it has been declared to go out by Extinguishment The only Point which the Observer professes Ignorance in is that of the Quomodo operatur He professes not to know how these Spirits of the Blood work in the Stomack a right and healthful Concoction and due Separation how in the sanguifical Parts the Chyle is converted into Blood how the Breath fans maintains and communicates such Vigour and Flame to Particles of the Blood which ascend to the Head how those Particles of Blood working in the Head and Brain produce there Sensation Perception Imagination Understanding or Memory how passing thence by the Nerves into the rest of the Body they cause Motion Activity Strength and Vigour all obedient to the Will of the Person and subjected to the Dictates of his Judgment Those are some of the chief Ways of God with Man and are most evident Proofs of his Divine Skill and Power concerning which and other-like Divine Operations Solomon says Eccles 8.17 Man cannot find out the Work that is done under the Sun because tho' a Man labour to find it out or the Wise among Men endeavour to come to the Knowledge of it yet shall they not be able to find it In this Ignorance therefore the Observer is contended to be a Partaker with the rest of the World without herding himself amongst those who because they cannot find out the Quomodo of this Performance are easily perswaded to believe That God has not Skill or Power enough to perform this and is therefore driven and must be driven to act those Things in Man by an immaterial intelligent Spirit which they fancy therefore is newly created by God upon every fruitful Coition of Man and Woman or Man and Beast where the Form of the Product happens to be Humane and that this new Soul which comes from his Hand innocent and pure shou'd presently be thrust by him into an impure Body at the best contaminated by Original Sin which presently communicates that Tincture to that pure innocent but unfortunate miserable Soul so newly created by him These Absurdities following upon and flowing from this Error prove the Opinion from whence they arise to be erroneous And from this and from all that has been spoken before on this Subject the Observer concludes That the Opinion of Man's being acted by an immaterial intelligent Spirit capable of subsisting in a State of Separation from the Body is an Error and that it is much more probable That the Person of Man is a Contexture of Matter and Spirit both rising from the seminal Agitation and both mortal and that the sound Foundation for the Expectation of Recompences future to this Life ought to be grounded upon the rocky Foundation of the Resurrection And herewithal shall be finish'd the present Observations upon this Treatise FINIS
Beasts that perish utterly And his Son Solomon Eccl. 3.21 seems to know That the Spirit of a Beast goes downward to the Earth and he suspects there that the Spirit of a Man may do so too allowing little or no difference betwixt Man and Beast in this Point nor does the Observer know any other difference between them in this Case save that to Mankind there are certain and faithful Promises and Predictions made of a future Resurrection at the time of our Lord 's coming to Judgment without mentioning the Beasts or fore-telling any such matters concerning them Page 95. Mr. M. says He thinks 't is easie to demonstrate That the Souls of Brutes are much more noble than the material Spirits of their Blood The Observer is ready to say beshrew his Heart for being so unkind as to forbear or neglect doing the World and the Observer that great Favour which he says might so easily be done and which the Observer would have accepted as a greater Civility than any which Mr. M. has hitherto shewed him But Mr. M. it seems is resolved to deny him that Courtesie which he thinks he could so easily have performed Then Mr. M. proceeds to say That he is not obliged to incumber his Defence of the Soul's Immortality with such needless Controversies The Observer replys That if the Question be needless why does he quote or argue it But if very material and needful as the Observer thinks it to be why does Mr. M. forsake it in this Place without driving it through to some such sort of Determination as he was able to make of it Mr. M. says further We are sure that the Humane Soul is much more excellent than the Brutal because Man can perform more Excellent Things than the Brutes can do The Observer says the fame concerning Mens Bodies That they have a more excellent Structure and apter Organs of Intellect than any sort of Brutes which together with their extraordinary Instruments of Hands and Tongues make them able to perform Things that far exceed the Capacities of Beasts But if such Hands and Tongues were withdrawn from the Humane Body some Beasts might equal or exceed the Race of Men in making Provision for their natural Subsistence and Defence and some other occasions belonging to each of their Natures Thus Men are advantaged in the Mode and Structure of their Bodies above the Beasts and yet these Abilities do not prove That their Flesh Blood Bones or Breath do materially differ from those of the Brutes Whence we argue That though Mens intellectual Faculties do far exceed those of Brutes yet that advantage does not convincingly prove That the Spirits which Act them are of a different kind and nature from those Spirits which act the Brutes but rather That the different Organs in their Head where such Things are acted are the true Causes of those Excellencies wherein Mankind exceed the Brutes P. 96 Mr. M. says That the Natures of Men are made for higher ends than Beasts and this the Observer grants to be true Further Mr. M. says You carry the Controversie into the Dark The Observer says It is his Part to bring it again into the Light which he pretends all this while to have been doing but has not yet performed it to his own Satisfaction Mr. M. tells the Observer That he abuses his Reason and will lose the Truth and his Labour together which Words the Observer says may with a more sharp Point be retorted upon Mr. M. himself P. 97. Mr. M. asks Must we deny what is plain because we are not agreed about more remote Difficulties The Observer Answers No but desires Mr. M. to make the Soul's Immortality plain and then there will be no Controversie between them about it He quotes a Saying out of Tertallian forbidding Men to enquire into the Secrets of God The Observer prays Mr. M. to apply this to his many Demands and Questions concerning the Quoniodo or how Sense and Reason are Acted in Man and Beast by the intervention and Operation of the Material Spirits in the Heads of either Kind The Observer has said That Quoniodo is a Secret yet reserved in the Store-House of God's Knowledge and hitherto unrevealed to the Sons of Men. Further Mr. M. says There is yet no satisfactory account given of the Sensitive Perception and Appetite by reducing them to the Laws of Matter and Motion The Observer requires therefore Mr. M. to give some Satisfactory account of the Production of Sense and Appetite by the means or intervention of his supposed Intelligent Spirit which if he do this Controversie will easily be determined P. 98. Mr. M. says That the Animal Spirits and the Brain are principally concerned in the Acts of the Intellect and therefore the whole Compositum is not concerned The Observer denyes this Consequence and says That the whole Compositum is concerned in Acts of the Intellect as well as in those of the Senses Prick or Cut the end of the Finger or Toe the whole Compositum instantly feels the smart by contiguity of the Spirits and quickness of their Communication So for the Eye the Ear the Taste and the Smell the whole Compositum is instantly affected by their pleasing or disagreeable Objects So as a quick Smart a horrid Sight a piercing Sound a strong Smell or a very ill Taste breed an instant alteration in the whole Compositum and by any of these the Operation of the Intellect may be disturbed or quite put out of order Whence it appears That though the Spirits and the Brain are the Principal Agents for acting the Reason and Intellect yet the whole Compositum is concerned in every most ordinary Action of the Person which cannot be performed or ever was performed without such a contexture of Soul and Body as has been before specified Mr. M. farther says You must answer all that I have written against the Capacity of these material Corruptible Spirits for the production of such Acts. The Observer replies That he cannot find where Mr. M. has said any more against the Capacities of such a Contexture but that he assures himself and believes That such a Contexture cannot have those Capacities Whereas the Observer conceives They have sufficient Capacity to produce and perform all Humane Actions and Powers according to the Ordination of God and the Constitution which he has appointed in the Creation and Fabrick of a Man Mr. M. says further That his sort of Soul does exert some Actions without assistance of any corporeal Organs and that it works upon these Organs antecedent to any Operation by them His Assertion that it works without them and works upon them seems not at all coherent in it self for that if it work upon them and without them it cannot work by them at the same time But the Observer does constantly deny That there is any such Soul as he pretends viz. an immaterial intelligent Spirit in the Body of any Person naturally So as he must suppose or