choosing for us 2 The folly of our own Choice with respect especially to the Goods of fortune and particularly to Children we cannot foresee how they will prove or what may happen to them to make them and us by them miserable 3 Our sins are the cause of all Evil and exceed our sufferings and which are often to be discovered by them as is exemplified in the loss of Children 4 Our remaining enjoyments surmount our sufferings page 8 SECT III. Of the Nature and Origine of Sorrow that it ariseth chiefly from Love which is the root of all passions The cure of sorrow by the love of God page 20 SECT IV. The remedies ordinarily prescribed against Sorrow considered and shewed to be of little force towards the cure of it as that death is a common thing that we cannot recal our Friends that they are happy that our case is not singular That it s not to be cured by Reason and Philosophy alone and by nothing less than an influence from above What graces are exercised in Affliction page 29 Ejaculations used in the state of the disease page 36 BOOK II. A Treatise of the Soul containing several discourses of the Nature Powers and Operations of it The Preface shewing the occasions and Reasons of writing such a tract page 45 PART I. SECT I. How far the Soul of man is similar with that of Brutes The Soul considered in the three prime faculties of the Intellect viz. the Imagination Mmory and Reason That Beasts work more regularly in order to their end than men That man only beholds things at a distance p. 52. SECT II. Wherein the Soul of man exceeds that of Brutes It s immortality considered and proved from Scripture and particularly from the writings of Moses page 56 SECT III. It s Immortality maintained and illustrated from its obstructions in its operations as deliriums and dotage page 57 SECT IV. It s Immortality proved from the manner of its acting in the inferiour faculties similar with Brutes page 60 SECT V. It s Immortality further illustrated from its different operations in different persons whereas Beasts of the same species do all agree in their desires and delights page 61 SECT VI. The Immortality of the Soul of man illustrated from the difference between Parents and Children and its difference from it self page 63 SECT VII The immortality of it shew'd from its unweariedness in acting from its reflex acts which cannot proceed meerly from Sense page 65 SECT VIII It s immortality shew'd from things peculiar to man as Weeping Laughter Speech and the nature of these considered with respect to their different causes and which cannot be extracted out of matter Reflections on Atheism and the immortality of the Soul shewed from the desires that are to be found even in the defenders of it page 67 PART II. SECT I. Of the several faculties and operations of the Soul and therein of voluntary and involuntary motion page 75 SECT II. Of the Affections of the Soul the severals of them The nature of Envy c. considered page 76 SECT III. Of the rise of the Affections Love the primary mover of them What part in the Soul is the seat of the Passions Of the Heart the Stomach and Spleen page 78 SECT IV. Of the Imagination which receives several names according to its working as Invention Conception Reflexion Apprehension Cogitation Fancy A Syncope or swoun peculiar to man in which Imagination ceaseth to work In all the ramblings of Imagination there is a dependence It s a faculty Reason hath the least power over And the benefit of not having an absolute power over it page 83 SECT V. Of Memory He that hath a smart invention seldom wants a good Memory The impress in it on the Imagination is according to the strength of Affections and Reason page 87 SECT VI. Of Reason that saving graces are ingrafted on it page 88 SECT VII Of the Will The Will free as respecting self but depending on God No other will in Brutes but what receives immediate impression from Sense such a will as ariseth from but cannot put a stop to thought page 89 SECT VIII Of Conscience what it is of a tender Conscience page 90 SECT IX Os the faculties of the Soul working upon each other Sense works upon the Imagination and the Imagination upon the Affections and both upon Reason and Reason again on the Affections c. Reason influenced by the Divine providence page 93 PART III. SECT I. Of the prevailing faculty of the Soul and wherein the primacy seems to be Of the concurrence of the Imagination and the Affections and the power of the Affections page 98 SECT II. The potency seems to be in the Affections if we consult Scripture p. 101 SECT III. It may seem to be in some Affection from humane conjecture p. 103. SECT IV. Of the potency of the Affections They are not to be subdued by Reason alone but Reason is oft subdued by them page 104 SECT V. Some Affection is the substantial part of the Soul page 109 SECT VI. How the Affections move from the Imagination or otherwise as from Revelation Reason or Sense page 110 SECT VII What light the Imagination receives from Reason Of the weakness of Reason Of the dependence which the Soul hath upon the Body in its operations page 112 SECT VIII Of the excellency and advantage of Reason notwithstanding its inability and dependence page 115 PART IV. SECT I. Means to reclaim the Soul The Affections not opposed forthwith cool Reason shews us our Errors but neeeds Faith to enforce it p. 118 SECT II. Of Love Love toward man a principle of Nature and what Faith doth not set us at liberty from It should be Universal page 122 SECT III. How Love may be regent Though Love be the principal grace it ows much of its vigour to the concurrence of the rest as is exemplified in Humility Iustice and especially Faith page 129 The Conclusion Against Censuring That we search not into things too high for us but make the word of God our guide page 132 BOOK III. Containing several Epistles to the REVEREND the DEAN of CANTERBURY EPIST. I. Wherein the Author after some Apology for the not making publick his Treatises de Dolore de Animâ makes some reflexions on Atheism and blames the unnecessary and extravagant dsputes and writings against such as seem tainted with it That the way to convince such is by the practice of Religion That opposition doth often continue that which if neglected would fall of it self as men of sharp wits delight to find Antagonists page 1 EPIST. II. Wherein he treats of the cause of action or motion under the notion of Spirit That a Spirit conscious of its own work is durable That the flashes thoughts and actions of our own Spirits are often mistaken for and applied to the operation of the Spirit of God Four ways of Gods operation with respect to man 1. By his common Providence
the like nature with that breath it proceeded from and so be immaterial and immortal And we shall find this difference further confirmed by the same Authority For whereas Moses gives no other Life or Spirit different from the bloud to other creatures but saith the bloud is their life or Soul and their Soul in the bloud when he speaks of that of man he calls it the bloud of their lives signifying by this variety of phrase the difference of the thing and that in man the bloud has rather its motion from the Soul than the Soul its origine from the bloud And in the ensuing verse where he forbiddeth the shedding mans bloud by a retaliative Law he adds again the words used in the Creation For in the image of God made he man So that the Souls of Brutes only appear as the Tongues mentioned in the Acts as it were of fire but that of Man as a spark of that Eternal Light real and durable and as Solomon says after the dust returns to Earth as it was the Spirit shall return to God that gave it SECT III. The Immortality of the Soul of man maintained and illustrated from its obstruction in its operation NOw though this Earthly rarified Spirit of Brutes may to sense often outshine the other and several other creatures may outstrip some such particular men as we call Naturals in knowledge that diminishes nothing from nor renders the Soul of man to be of a less noble extract than in truth it is but that the one still remains Divine and the other Natural For although real Fire may by hid and by reason of some obstruction impediment or interposition dart forth little or no light to the senses and an ignis fatuus may shew it self and appear more lucid and bright to them yet Fire is no less Fire when covered and the nature and quality of them still remains different The outward appearance does never infallibly demonstrate the inward excellency of things and there may be a change of our common Proverb and Gold found that glisters not It seems to me rather some Argument of the immortality of mans Soul that it sometimes remains so darkly as it were inclosed in some one particular trunk or carcass without any the least symptom of its being there more than outward heat and motion as well as that in some others it shews forth its wonderful capacity and faculties beyond that of all other creatures For if it did arise naturally or had its production from the flesh or the more fluid substance of that flesh the Bloud as that of Beasts there never could happen or be such a disparity such a distance and disproportion in its effects as now and then there appears The faculties of the Souls of Beasts wherein they are similar to those of Man do not much exceed or outshine one another of the same species For although one Horse may be more docible than another more lively quick or better spirited as we term it than another yet there never was that or any other kind of Brute so brutish as I may say but had some knowledge of his Feeder and like the Ox and the Ass none of the wisest Animals could know its Owner and its Master's Crib none that would not shew some endeavour to nourish and preserve it self be sensible of what was noxious and destructive to it self careful to avoid Fire and Water or the like know its Young if Female and love and nourish them and be somewhat useful in its kind to man and other creatures as if the Souls of Beasts only dwelt in their native and proper Country and were at liberty and ours were here Prisoners in Chains and Fetters and sometimes in a Dungeon waiting for their deliverance I knew a man born in a Village near me living to the age of twenty years very heathful of a good stature of perfect outward lineaments and features endowed with the senses of Hearing and Seeing of a sage countenance if at any time without motion and yet never as I or others could discern knowing any one person about him more than another never making any signs for meat or drink though greedily swallowing them when put to his mouth never could he be made sensible of the passage of his own ordure or of Fire or Water and yet might be kept at any time from the danger of those Elements by the interposition of Stools or a Line or Cord and within that circumscribed Sphere would move all day ridiculously Certainly if this inclosed Soul had its being from the Bloud and not the Bloud its motion from it whatever Physicians may alledge and however they may guess at some obstructions or defect in some part of the Brain and they can but guess at the one more then I do at the other for they can shew me nothing in a dissection it must in some degree equal that of Brutes in outward appearance But seeing there is such a disproportion in degree of knowledge as well by comparing the most stupid Man with the most stupid Animal as the wisest Man with the wisest Animal and Man is found to exceed both ways that very excess on our parts does more demonstrate the immediate work of God in our creation and somewhat different from Natures ordinary course which though his working too usually produces the same effects in all individuals of the same species and might prove a Medicine to allay our fears on the one hand and our spiritual pride on the other and shew what the Soul of man is capable of and yet how obscure it may be here on Earth till it shall please that Inspirer to receive it into Glory I do not look on knowledge in the Soul of man as a bare remembrance or that the mind of man is at present and while in the Body merely thereby let and hindred from the knowledge of all things yet some such notion may not seem to arise and be fixed now and then in our conceptions altogether without the allowance of Reason since as often as we attain to any intellectual knowledge of things that is from causes whereof we were or seemed before ignorant and that either from the bare labour and search of our intellective faculty or from others information through sense with its attention it will seem to us rather a recovery from some disease than any new being or existence in the Soul rather a dissipation of some Cloud than any new Light and that we knew as much before if we had but minded it as we are wont to say And besides the usual native weakness or blindness in the Soul of man which is a thing almost perpetually labouring and working in some men as it were for a cure if it recovers in some sort and measure yet it 's afterward very incident to a relapse and subject to an adventitious weakness or blindness doth contract infirmities and often lives long in the Body blinded with a
delirium dotage or frenzy whereas in all other creatures their life terminates quickly after the beginning of any visible delirium in them or decay of their native or natural homebred intellect as I may call it SECT IV. The Immortality of the Soul of man illustrated from the manner of its acting in the inferiour faculties similar with Brutes THe Soul of man does in many things shew its different Original and Extract from that of other creatures not only by its extent and contraction but by its manner of working in those very faculties wherein they are similar and which are proper and necessary both for Man and Beast For though Beasts see as we do hear as we do tast as we do c. and have the like passions of desire and joy fear and sorrow with their concomitants yet their senses may be satisfied and their passions circumscribed within the same Elements from whence they have their Original Ours alone seem to be Prisoners here and of us only it is that Solomon has truly said The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing and then I cannot reasonably imagine the Creator of the Universe so unkind in his special work of Man as to make him with a desire inherent in him so capacious as never to be filled or satisfied and thereby allow a vacuum in the Soul of man which we admit not to be in Nature but must acknowledge and conclude that there is a possibility these very inferiour faculties of our Souls may be allayed and comforted with hopes at present and satiate hereafter with some fruition or else in their working we were of all creatures most miserable For I find no sufficient ground to think or believe that Man is endowed with two Souls the one consisting of motion sense passions or affections and natural the other rational supernatural and Divine For though while annexed to a Body here it shews its divers faculties whereof in another World it may not make the same use and some of the senses will need no imployment about such objects as they receive into them here yet so far forth as they can add any thing to our happiness hereafter we may imploy them and they are an essential part of this Divine and never-dying Soul and that in some sence and manner we may tast and see how good and gracious our Lord and Maker is We often term the inferiour faculties of the Soul brutish sensual and filthy not that they merely arise from the flesh but for the like reason as St. Paul calls Envy and Pride c. works of the flesh which yet are inherent in wicked Spirits as well as men as they are amongst men excited by carnal and sensible objects and are also perverted and turned aside by them from others of a more noble kind which they are capable of being affected with But they are still faculties of the Soul and as such are neither extinguished in the regeneration of it here nor as far as is consistent with the perfection of it and its state of separation in glory hereafter I think the Soul of man to be an Host or Army always in its march for the recovery of its proper Country in which march though some of the Rascal multitude will be laggering behind and be busie to make provision for the flesh yet they are accounted as part of the Army and triumph with the rest after Victory and acquiring their native Soil or else suffer with the rest upon an expulsion Undoubtedly we may love and joy and I know not why one kind of fear may not consist with great joy if we attain our end and the mark that is set before us and we shall have fear and sorrow shame and confusion of face weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth which are effects of passions if we miss that end Now because the very restlessness and inconstancy of the senses and affections here shews them part of a Soul that will have being and continuance after death I will therefore a little behold man in comparison with other creatures and try first how far our very senses and affections differ from those of Beasts and after see what more noble kind of faculties there are in us which they want SECT V. The Immortality of the Soul of man illustrated from its different operation in different persons WE differ in respect of our senses and passions not only from all other creatures but even from one another so much as might make a quaere whether they were not hunting after somewhat that no man could ever yet find out in this World There never was yet any one object grateful to any one sense of all men nor equally and alike to any two There are to be found those men who would not move out of their Cottage or be any whit pleased with the sight of the most glorious Pageantry the World affords One colour seems more beautiful and pleasing to one mans eye and another to anothers no one prospect is pleasing to all men some men will swoun at the sight of particular things That which we call Musick is harsh and grating to the ears of some men several men are taken most with peculiar Musicks some had rather hear the noise of the Cannons than the voice of the Nightingale and so è contra So that if that which is fabled of Orpheus his Art had been real and amongst the Beasts and Trees he had had several Men auditors the first might all have followed him but some of the latter would have staid behind Some men abominate Sweets as we call them and are ready to faint at the very smell of them and delight in what is generally termed stinking and noisome The tast in men is so different that it has raised a proverb and that varies in the same man several times in an Age. Our affections are various and wandring that which delights us to day may happen to vex us to morrow what we desire sometimes earnestly we presently spurn at like little Children What pleases at one time pleases not at another so as there is become a proverb of pleasing too Nay this pleasing and delight were it settled and fixed in men where it once takes hold and were there a calculation in this present Age besides that Ages differ of every Worldly thing some particular men did chiefly affect or principally delight in the things would not be concluded in a short Ode as I have touched but a Poet might run himself out of breath and be weary before he came to Me doctarum hederae c. Me gelidum nemus c. We have our Pannick fears and terrors or as the Text says are afraid where no fear is and we have flashing joys upon as small visible grounds and in short we are the only ridiculous creature here on Earth On the other side take the Beasts of the Earth the Fowls of the
Air and the Fishes of the Sea too and so far as we can discern we find them agree in their desires and delights with one another of the same species They have each their particular Food and rest contented satisfied and pleased therewith during their whole course of nature 'T is not with them as with us what one loves another loathes 'T would be a difficult matter to find an hungry Ox that would refuse Hay either when he is young or old A man may well ask Iob's question Doth the wild Ass bray when he hath grass or loweth the Ox over his fodder 't is man doth only that or the like when he hath what his fleshly heart can desire The Beasts are more constant and content and their Soul seems settled and the inhabitant of its proper Region they neither fear nor joy in excess their choices and elections are still alike and every Cock like Aesop's Cock will yet to this day prefer the Barley-corn before a Jewel though amongst men some prefer the one and some the other I speak thus much for this cause only that viewing the Soul of man in its very inferiour faculties and finding it so various and disagreeing so little at a stay or at rest so fighting and combating so snatching and catching at it knows not what things neither useful nor profitable for the body or the mind it somewhat convinces me 't is a thing very capacious and that there is a place of fulness of joy or fulness of sorrow for it hereafter SECT VI. The Immortality of the Soul of man illustrated from the difference thereof between Parents and Children BEsides this some enquiry might be made into the different qualities of the Souls of men beyond those of Beasts in their ordinary workings though they inhabit or actuate Bodies which have their being from one and the same production For if the Soul of man were the ordinary work of Nature only a fine rarified vigorous quality in the Bloud Man receiving his body from his Parents by the ordinary course of Nature as other creatures do his Soul would always somewhat resemble that of his Parents too and Brethren twins especially would resemble one another in the faculties of their Souls as well as 't is often seen they do many ways in the Body But there is generally found as between Iacob and Esau such dissimilitude in the Spirits of Brethren and those of Father and Son Mother and Daughter as greater is not to be found between meer strangers in bloud which thing daily experience will not only demonstrate upon search but may be readily found in the Histories of Princes in all Ages Now the Soul of Beast being the bare product of flesh only and necessarily taking its rise and essence from the substance of its Parents if I may so call them for the word may be proper enough pario being only to bring forth or produce never varies much or altogether at any time from that of the Parent We shall never find an absolute Jadish Spirit in a Horse begot from free and well-bred ones nor a meer Curr from right good Hounds no not in one of his senses the Nose or smell But if in any case they excell or degenerate from their Stock 't is by degrees and not per saltum which thing per saltum may be found and observed in the Race of men And besides this variation of the Souls of men from Birth there sometimes happens on the sudden a strange kind of total Metamorphosis of the Soul of man so as one would scarce adjudge it the same but according to Scripture phrase that one becomes a new man and this without any alteration at all of the Bodies constitution Now if the Soul of man were not a substance of it self capable to be wrought on ab extra by somewhat without any introduction by the senses then no such alteration without the Bodies alteration could be made but through the senses and if such alteration were made from sense through the Organs of the Body then upon the shortest obstruction or letting in of prior forms again the Soul would consequently return to its pristine state according to that simile of the dog to his vomit c. which change or alteration in the Soul of man we see sometimes settled and remaining notwithstanding all interposition during a long following life Thus we find that men have utterly contemned and hated without any offence raised from the thing it self even with a perfect hatred that which was formerly their delight which kind of hatred never yet happened or was discernible in Beast Now if any man shall ask me At what time the Soul of man being a substance of it self distinct from the Body enters and possesses the Body I can make him a reply with as difficult a question At what instant doth this other arising product Soul from the Bloud begin its circulation and move If we know neither why should it seem more wonderful and strange to us for the God of Nature upon man's conception in the womb to create and have ordained a Spirit to actuate that conception which Spirit should continue for ever notwithstanding that conception should decay and perish for a time as well as that there should arise a Spirit from the Bloud to actuate move and govern the Body for a certain period of time which time we could never define certainly from any course of Nature And further that the wise Creator and Governour of all things should ordain that if the first created Spirit to inhabit a Body both together being Man should wander in disobedience from its Creator all others sent and entring into Bodies product from the Loyns of the first Body should be infected with the same wandring disease and have no cure but by Grace from the first Creator But I would not wander too much my self nor desire to pry into any of God's secrets further than he has thought fit to reveal by his Holy Word and so shall lay aside my thoughts of the manner of Man's creation every way wonderful as the Psalmist expresses it as also the consideration of the inferiour faculties for the present and try and see if there be not some sparks in the Soul of man which give such a light as can by no means naturally arise from any thing barely and simply terrestrial SECT VII The Immortality of the Soul of man illustrated from its unweariedness in searching c. and its reflex acts and operations WHy has the Soul of man in all Ages when it has been at any time withdrawn from that quick intromission of worldly objects by the senses and has not been hindred or obstructed by some mists fogs or lets of the flesh wherein at present 't is confined to work hunted after wearied and tired it self to find out and comprehend what it is not able to comprehend The first sin of man shewed at once the Soul's error and its
extract and being For the very innate desire of some distinguishing knowledge of good from evil could not have its motion from sense nor ever was introduced by sense There is a kind of knowledge springs it self from sense as the Ox knows his owner c. but knowledge by causes such as it is is peculiar to Humane nature and has no relation to sense Know indeed so as to comprehend we cannot knowledge in the abstract being the peculiar of the Divine nature If we had been capable to have known good and evil absolutely the Devil had used no Hyperbole in telling us Ye shall be as Gods But the very desire of knowledge even such a knowledge as the Soul is in some measure capable of that is by causes shews a Divine spark in us tending towards the cause of all causes which exercised about God's revealed will here might be more clear but mounting in desire is apt to lose its light and vanish Nay not only our desire but our fear or doubt of somewhat we know not nor can perfectly attain to by our search nor is reasonable fully to demonstrate must necessarily have its origine from somewhat more than sense If we at least fear a future being and continuance for ever and future punishment that very fear is either native and natural in our Souls or else arises in us from the Tradition of some others if from Tradition then sense being the Port and Inlet I allow to be Parent too but yet while we allow it to spring from Tradition in our selves we do by consequence allow it to be native in some one particular person and he who allows it native in any one must allow the Soul to be a substance of it self and not a resultance from the Body for thoughts of infinity could never first spring from a bare temporary finite existence I said I would lay aside the inferiour faculties of the Soul from my thoughts Desire and fear are affections I agree common to Brutes I know they desire and fear but I dare say never any one of them yet desired knowledge or feared any thing to happen after this life and therefore these as they are in us being in respect of the object no such affections as are led by sense or work by sense barely and so not having their essence from the Body are not to be accounted amongst the other inferiour faculties common with Brutes But to proceed and go a little higher Whence arise those accusing or excusing thoughts mentioned by St. Paul in the Soul of man though wholly ignorant of Scripture and having no accession of new Light so much as by Tradition Certainly it must be some glimmering of that coelestial native spark of Justice implanted in every Humane Soul I dare leave it without further pressure to any quiet sedate reasonable Soul to determine whether if there had never been any Divine or Humane Law written or divulged by Tradition against Murther but that that same fact by the Laws of his native Country were allowed and approved if done against meer Strangers whether I say in case of that man's private imbruing his hands in his Brother's bloud with no other colourable pretence or provocation than some slight worldly gain he should not upon the consideration that we men made not our selves but that every one was a fellow-member with other of the visible Universe and of equal native extract expect to find some inward regret disgust trouble or vexation of mind If he determine that he thinks he should the question will be about that consideration how it could arise For we find that or the like consideration has risen without the help of any outward Engine or sense nay when all the Spels imaginable have been used and applied to allay it Now no disgust or trouble or sorrow was yet perceived in any other Creature beside Man upon the destruction of his fellow creature or Man the Sovereign of creatures And whence is this but because their Soul is not extensive beyond its original nor has any motion but from sense that is it is not capable of any consideration For consideration weighing or pondering of a thing whether it be good or evil is a proper act of a reasonable Soul distinct from a Body and is somewhat more than desire of knowledge by causes 'T is the very exercise of Reason 't is the Soul's waving of its senses for a time and summoning its noble powers to tryal which have some little native ability This trying considering or weighing good from evil by Reason the ballance of the Soul is I say the Soul 's peculiar act from which act there may be very properly the Author to the Hebrews uses the like words a weariness of the mind and so it 's distinguished and is different from such acts of the Soul which Solomon saith are a weariness of the flesh For that kind of study which he respects viz. composing reading or hearing are no peculiar acts of the Soul as withdrawn from the flesh but are a bare introduction of somewhat to the Soul through the Organs of the flesh and so are a weariness to it Whereas the Soul after reception and some light of a thing by sense in considering the good or evil of it quite lays aside the senses for a time and so the mind is peculiarly affected SECT VIII The Immortality of man's Soul considered from things peculiar to Man as weeping laughter speech with some conclusion against Atheism THe Soul of man does not only shew it self and its original by the aforesaid manner of withdrawing it self or as it were by separation from the Body to be above the capacity of a Soul extracted or springing from the flesh but even by peculiar actions and motions through bodily Organs which a bare earthly or fleshly Soul does not There are three things generally held and esteemed proper and peculiar to Humane Nature and no ways incident to any other living creature whatsoever and those are Tears or weeping Laughter and Speech in each of which or from each of which may seem to appear somewhat more in Man than a product Soul part of the Body or extracted or raised from the Body though never so curiously or admirably framed I do not alledge each of them apart as any infallible demonstration of a Spirit distinct and separable from the Body yet coupled and joyned together they become of some seeming weight and strength to me to confirm my opinion It does not seem much wonderful at any time to behold a distillation from the Eyes that thing is to be found in Beast as well as Man not only from a disease or some distemper in the Bloud but upon every offensive touch of the Eye yet when neither of these are present or can be alledged for a cause to have the Body as it were melted on the sudden and send forth its streams through that unusual channel makes it seem to me no
A VIEW OF THE SOUL IN SEVERAL TRACTS The First being a DISCOURSE of the Nature and Faculties the Effects and Operations the Immortality and Happiness of the SOUL of MAN The Second a CORDIAL against Sorrow or a TREATISE against Immoderate Care for a Man 's own POSTERITY and Grief for the Loss of CHILDREN The Third consists of several EPISTLES to the Reverend Iohn Tillotson D. D. and Dean of Canterbury tending to the further Illustration of the former Arguments concerning the SOUL of MAN and the proof of a particular PROVIDENCE over it By a Person of Quality I am fearfully and wonderfully made Psalm 139.14 In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart thy comforts have refreshed my soul Psalm 94.19 LONDON Printed for George Downes at the Three Flower de Luces in Fleet-street over against S t. Dunstan's Church MDCLXXXII THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER ALthough the worthy Authour of this Book hath in the Prefaces belonging to each Part given some account of the occasion manner and method of Writing it sufficient to justify the order in which it is laid yet since we live in a captious age wherein persons are apt to value themselves from the skill they pretend to in discovering the faults of others and to judge before they have taken time to consider or even to read what they so boldly disparage and traduce it may be necessary to prevent that inconvenience at the beginning by shewing the Reason of the following order viz. of placing the Discourse upon Sorrow before that which treats of the Nature the faculties and the operations of the Soul A method it 's confessed that is not usual or natural to set the particular before the general but yet will appear to be very proper and convenient here with respect to the occasion upon which they were penn'd which was the disconsolate condition that this Gentleman was reduced unto by the loss of several Children in a short time a condition that tried all the powers and force of his Soul and which as it gave him the opportunity so it made it necessary for him to find out and to consider the arguments and ways that might tend to the quiet and satisfaction of his own mind and to arm him against the violent assaults of that melancholy passion These make up the First Part relating to the particular case which consists of Considerations against immoderate care c. By this means his Soul by degrees began to feel it self his thoughts were more his own and he had some leisure to reflect upon the strength violence and influence of that passion and from thence was led to the contemplation of the wonderful Effects Powers and capacities of an human and reasonable Soul a subject that he thought would abundantly requite his pains if he took it into serious consideration This at his leisure he did so successfully improve that he from thence compos'd his Second Book or the general discourse de Animâ Having thus arrived at some degree of quiet he then thought himself not the only afflicted person in the World but that there were others that might need and yet not have leisure or opportunity to think or if they had might not hit upon the same arguments and that what was a diversion and satisfaction to himself in the considering and composing might be so to others in the reading this inclined him to make them publick This was a new consideration and however qualified by his Genius Temper and Education yet being distrustful of himself he resolv'd to submit it to the judgement of another and of one that was a Stranger to him from whom he might therefore expect the freer censure This brought him to the Reverend the Dean of Canterbury a person well known to the world no less for his integrity than accurate judgement who with his wonted freedom did communicate his thoughts to him about it and encouraged him to proceed in his design This candour with which that Iudicious Person treated him did at once both encrease his esteem for him and induced him to think over his Arguments again and try what he could further add for their confirmation and improvement This by times and in several ways he did prosecute and sent his thoughts in so many Familiar Epistles to the Dean whom he had now made his Friend which being furnished with many peculiar observations serving his former design and tending more especially to the further illustration of his Treatise de Animâ it was not fit to separate them from the other These make up the Third Part of the Book But now having ventured thus far he began to retract what he had done and to think that he had done too much and after the Papers were sent to the Press would have recalled and stifled them had he not been restrained at last by better Reasons And now they are published thinks it best to conceal his name that he may more unconcernedly abide the censure or more easily obtain the pardon of his Readers and that more especially for the 5th Epistle which respects the Imagination a subject truly nice and intricate and which as it cost him more pains to trace and examine so upon examination he was most distrustful of it and most unwilling to publish what he had composed upon it designing it rather to be perused than Printed as it is And therefore he cannot so well own that to be his as if it had been reviewed and corrected to his own mind If there should be any Errata's that have escaped the Corrector's hand the Author's distance from the Press will I hope excuse them THE PREFACE IT is I think the Saying of Terence Facile omnes cum valemus recta consilia aegrotis damus But in no distemper shall a man find more Visitants with their prescriptions than those of the mind Let him be but oppressed with grief or sorrow he shall have many like Iobs friends come every one from his place and perhaps with less modesty not attending silently seven days shall forthwith apply their remedies before the humor be gathered to an head But if to any of these when seized upon by the same distemper the Proverb should be retorted Physician heal thy self 'T is to be doubted most of them would prove like to a late famous Physician and sink under that distemper for the knowledge and Cure whereof he had at the same instant a Treatise in the Press The Mind of man is a Labyrinth but it has four chief passions from whence indeed all others do flow as from their native Heads or Fountains and those are Desire and Ioy Fear and Sorrow The first being or proceeding from an opinion of a future Good the second of a present the third from an opinion of a future Evil and the fourth of a present Now since it is Opinion as Sir Walter Raleigh has prettily said and not Truth that travels the World without a Passport and these passions
stamp of in Nature no less than there is of Justice which all or most men agree to however each of them is become much obliterate But now since Charity is so much the chief spring and principle of Action it 's fit it should be so directed and assisted that it may either be preferr'd to its Regency where it is any ways obstructed or be preserved in it And the means hereunto will be the better discovered if it be considered that there is a certain connexion betwixt the Graces and Virtues of the Soul and a mutual light and assistance which they lend one to the other in their operation and therefore though Love doth appear to be the principal yet it is not alone in its motion but what doth depend upon and owe much of its vigour to the concurrence of the rest As for instance Humility doth not a little administer thereunto as it ariseth from a prospect into our own weakness and insufficiency and as there is somewhat greater and more perfect than our selves in the World so that shews our Love should be accordingly directed and that God who is the Author of our Being and preservation and is infinitely perfect in himself should therefore be loved by us with all the heart and all the Soul But because man may be lowly and humble and think meanly of himself and yet not presently find a ready rule for drawing his Lines to the circumference let us see if we can extract Love by the rule of Justice This is most certain that we would be loved of all that know us we would be aided and assisted in all our dangers and troubles we would be relieved and comforted in all our wants and needs why then let this be the rule To do so to all persons as we would in right reason they should do to us if their state and condition were ours and ours theirs This is a common rule but such as certainly deserves precedency of all the sage maxims the World has at any time afforded and might well without hurt to us like Aaron's Rod devour all those of the best Magicians and Enchanters that we might only make use of that upon all occasion He who has it once well engraven in the Tables of his heart will need little other precept or rule to walk by It is a rule that with variation of a word or two is applicable to the direction and government of our actions and passions too not only in relation to our fellow-members but in reference to all irrational creatures under us and I hope without offence I may say in reference to our actions towards our Creator For certainly had we power to create of nothing we should expect of our creatures love and reverence duty and obedience and therefore we ought by all ways we are able to pay them to our Creator What occurrence is there in man's life that this rule may not be laid to A man would think at first view and conjecture it were as far from being applicable to or having any thing in it Sovereign for my distemper of Sorrow as might be Facias quod fieri vis c. seems at first sight to have little probability of any sanative ingredient for that passion yet narrowly searched into it has If I interrogate my self whether having near Relation Friend or child whom I dearly loved I would they should for loss of me drown themselves in a floud of tears and sorrow I can readily make answer in the negative I would not I might be willing and content that in all their thoughts and words of me they carried some civil respect and esteem for me but proceeded no further And why then should I exceed that measure which I would have only meted out for my self All excess and excrescence springs from self-love Charity has none and this rule may as well help to frame it as any I can imagine When I have been alone and my thoughts have been at any time in travail to bring forth and frame or to find out already framed some short general rule by which the Soul might always move with least grief and offence and with greatest ease and pleasure I have ever pitched upon this quod tibi fieri non vis c. as the most exact and universally comprehensive and far beyond Epictetus his sustine abstine or any other as being the most effectual relief against all incursion and invasion from without and a firm Basis for Charity to be founded upon and it is indeed for the introduction of universal love and charity into our hearts that our Saviour lays down this rule As ye would that men should do to you do ye also to them likewise For the following words if ye love them which love you what thanks have ye for sinners also do even the same And St. Matthew setting down that precept in these words All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them adds by way of argument For this is the Law and the Prophets What the Law and the Prophets are and what they hang upon or mean our Saviour tells a Lawyer elsewhere that is Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self He who came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law puts us in mind of that first and great Commandment that Law of Nature I may say which till we fulfil in some measure our question will be vain as his was there who asked What shall I do to inherit eternal life and we can have no fitter reply that How readest thou But though in this progress of Love towards its perfection and Regency Humility and Justice which bear upon them the stamp of Nature do greatly contribute yet there is somewhat more necessary to purifie and refine it and to make it more powerful effectual and durable and that is Faith Faith I say that Divine Grace which doth present such objects to us as Reason either could not at all or but imperfectly discover but yet when discovered and approved by our Reason are of that nature and consequence that they forthwith excite attract and engage our Love and make it to be predominant And therefore it 's necessary to consult Revelation by which alone these objects are thus made known and to strengthen our Faith in it that so our love of them for their excellency and our hope of enjoying them with respect to our happiness may become an effectual means of life and action and give new strength to all the powers of our Soul in the prosecution of them Then will our Love grow great indeed and that which is here thus Regent in us will hereafter be Triumphant for Charity never faileth Charity then is the end of the rest and to which they do tend as Lines to their Center and as they do lend help unto that
the greatest vilest miserablest and most deformed of sinners and the most defaced Image of his goodness that he would again restore that Image here in some measure give me a Fountain of tears to wash away all its blots and wilful sullies direct me by his Grace here towards his Glory increase my weak Faith that it become an assurance convert my fearful hopes into a full perswasion and certain expectation of that glorious Vision be with me comfort me and strengthen me at the hour of death And when this wearied tossed and turmoil'd Soul that can find no settled rest here shall leave its polluted and sinful habitation purified by Repentance and Faith receive it into Glory And this for the merits and mediation of his Son Iesus Christ our ever blessed Saviour and Redeemer to whom be glory and honour and praise now and for ever Amen SEVERAL EPISTLES To the Reverend Dr. TILLOTSON DEAN of CANTERBURY WHEREIN The Nature the Immortality the Operations and the Happiness of the SOUL of MAN Are further Considered and Illustrated And the Divine Providence over it in a particular manner Asserted By the aforesaid Author LONDON Printed for George Downs The Author's Apology for his Writing To the Reverend John Tillotson D. D. DEAN of CANTERBURY EPIST. I. Wherein the Author after some Apology for the not making publick his said Treatises De Dolore De Anima makes some reflexion on Atheism and blames the unnecessary and extravagant disputes and writings against such as seem tainted or infected with that opinion SIR HAVING reduced my sometimes sad solitary or serious considerations at all times and upon all occasions very inept weak and imperfect ones God knows into some kind of Method and made them legible in paper I took upon me the boldness altogether unknown to you and without so much as discovering my name to approach you before all others and begg the favour of your perusal And this I did not only from a hearsay of your clear judgement and courteous disposition to all men as well strangers as familiars but from a singular opinion I had of you my self That you were a person of a frank and open discourse and one who would plainly and roundly tell me of my faults and my follies discover your real opinion of what lay before you and not permit and suffer me a meer stranger for want of admonition to cherish an imperfect or deformed Embryo and such as might casually hereafter be born into the world to my disgrace but rather while I lived and had the power over it to smother and consume it in the flames The most favourable censure I expected from you was a reprieve of it for some season not a present enfranchisement of it or making it free of the world in my life time and by consequence a kind of confinement of my future thoughts if they should vary from or disagree with these And yet the latter I met withall from you and find that you are pleased to move me not only to allow it present life and future birth but to afford it instant liberty and freedom to walk abroad I might seem ill natur'd not presently to grant his request who so readily condescended unto mine had I no just cause to alledge for a demurr at least if not for a denial and such as may work upon you to desist from any such motion as much as on me for a denial For I must tell you If I hereafter suffer therein I shall readily transfer the blame on you and some perhaps will give you the precedency therein when they come to know the person who perused these papers and blame your oversight beyond my weak and feeble inspect Your universal Charity may so far abound as to overlook many deformities if not errors occasioned perhaps from my immoderate affection Which kind of Charity is a thing not to be expected from other men at least from all Indeed if any man receive good from these Papers he will find greater cause to thank you next under God than me who never at first intended them as a Legacy to the world nor durst nor dare yet own them under any name I trust they would hurt or prejudice no man if publick further than the spending of his time in vain in reading them and surely that 's a sufficient damage or loss to any ingenuous spirit There is enough good seed already sown more than any man can reap in his life time 't were well if the tares of this nature were gathered together in bundles to be burnt from which fate I I know not how to exempt mine I have given you my opinion already in discourse from which I know not well how to recede That if some Judicious person were of power to do it and should banish out of the world and cause to be buried in utter oblivion many thousand volumes now extant he would merit more of the world and perform a far more acceptable service to the wise and learned thereof than he who added one though of never so great use or excellency There is enough said about the soul of man already more perhaps than is or ever will be understood and too much I fear of a higher-subject Every age in each single Nation has afforded or rather introduced some subject matter or other whereabout the Souls of men have more peculiarly busied themselves by way of disputation and made the canvasing of particular opinions a thing in mode and fashion for a certain time and season That which at this instant seems to imploy and busy the tongue the pen or the Press except seditious Pamphlets and the like from the spirit of contradiction or an overweening conceit of ones self never out of fashion most or above all other is the different opinion of men about the original of all things under the notion names or titles of Theism and Atheism wherefore we had some little discourse together occasioned by some short passages of mine in my aforesaid Treatise And for as much as all those Atheistical Tenets now more than ordinarily vented do seem to strike at the very root of religious worship and are wholly derogatory of the glorious Attributes of that God we serve and adore I perceive you are not only to your praise a strong oppugner thereof your self but take pleasure in them also who do the same Now truly I must here tell you That which has fell from me in relation to that subject was rather accidental upon my weak search into the nature operation and faculties of the Soul than of any designed purpose to convince any man of the falshood of those Atheistical opinions Because I am not yet fully convinced in my thoughts of the necessity of any such endeavour but do rather believe all those men we term or hold for professed Atheists would yet gladly receive and imbrace a full perswasion and conviction from others of what they themselves maintain in words and not seldom some of
seats and cells fit for its proper work and operation towards the conservation of that body whereof it is a more refined part as necessary and requisite thereto and without which we cannot so much as imagine it were capable to have duration and continuance in that form it is But yet withal no ways comprehending or desiring any matter or thing further than in relation to the sustentation or preservation of the same body And therefore for such a Soul or Spirit to perish with the body and to resolve again into its first elements is not altogether incongruous to our reason And we may I think further conjecture in reason that though for his pleasure all things are and were created Yet he being worthy to receive glory and honour voluntary from some terrestrial creature For whose sake next and immediately after his own Glory and Honour it may seem to us all others were made He might endow the most excellent of his terrestrial creatures us men with such a spirit as might not only have some glimmering light of him here but might have continuance to magnify him for ever when the Earth and Heavens should be no more Yet herein again I must acknowledge that the thoughts of the immortality of our soul are more apt and ready to encounter and stagger our reason than the mortality or vanishing of that of Brutes Since we are not able with reason to imagine but that as I have already said in my Treatise de Anima whatsoever thing had a beginning may or will have an end and that there is nothing Eternal but God alone the Maker and Creator of all things out of nothing And therefore there is no perfect Medicine to cure those reeling cogitations of ours about our immortality but Gods promise in his Holy Word with his special grace to believe it to be his Word Nor any thing else to strengthen us therein more than some specifick and not barely gradual difference to be found out and espied between our Spirit and that of Beasts That is some acts or thoughts of man even extra-corporeal or peculiar to a soul or Spirit wholly separate and disjoined from a body and which indeed are no ways discernable in the wisest Animal whereof I have made some mention in my Treatise de Anima and which seriously and duely weighed and considered I leave to the World to judge of and shall repeat nothing of it here in relation to our present subject only or chiefly now inquiring about their Mortality or Immortality without questioning our own There are indeed many and various different kinds of operation between the soul of Beast and that of us in many things as not only sufficiently distinguish us without appropriating to our selves and wholly ingrossing the word rational but seem plainly to demonstrate their Soul rather essential with the Body and a peculiar substance of the body than ours and therefore more probably terminating in and with the body some whereof having now and then occurred to my thoughts and drawn my reason to accept and allow thereof I here present you and submit the weight and consequent thereof to your more serious or solid judgement though they have already somewhat prevailed over mine to conclude the Spirit of Beast though an admirable work in nature to be a thing only temporary and fading or mortal There is in all living Creatures whatever not humane either immediately upon their first being and motion or so soon as there is any vigorous bodily strength for motion a perfect clear and evident apparency of that intellect they at any time have or enjoy as a special present attendant of their being and subsistence And whatever Adages we have of a cunning old Fox or proverbial interdiction of catching old Birds with chaff I could never yet discern but that the young Fox or the young Hawk had the same compleat stratagems to preserve themselves as the old and that if they sooner fall as a prey to the Dog 't is want of strength rather then subtilty The Kitling sure needs no instruction to catch a Mouse with a kind of cunning watchfulness as soon as it hath strength and the young Bird makes her nest with as much curious art as the old one And what is somewhat wonderful most creatures at their first production into the world are able to distinguish sounds and capable to understand the very language of their kind I have observed a very young Lamb to distinguish the bleating of its Dam from twenty other doing the like almost at the same instant and to move at her bleat only and not otherwise 'T is observable in Fowls and I have taken more special notice of it in the Turky that whereas they use three or four several notes or tones to their young ones one of allurement for food another of attraction for covering with their wings a third for progression or motion along with them when they move a fourth of admiration and wonder or warning to preserve themselves upon apprehension of danger and approach of Birds of prey they have within an hour or two after they have been brought forth apprehended the differences of these several tones and readily observed the old one's dictates Especially it would almost amaze one to behold these little things of an hour or two old upon that alarm of danger how instantly they will couch down and approach the next covert to hide themselves Nay many of these Creatures need little of document from their Parents or Dams or yet our Mistress experience there being in them a Native intellectual perception as I may say of every special and more peculiar destructive nature or quality towards them in as much as we may observe Birds taken out of the Nest never so young and bred up in a Cage shall upon the first sight of an Hawk or other Bird of Prey brought into the room presently by their fluttering and otherwise discover a kind of knowledge of some approaching danger or adstant peril which upon the sight of any other Fowl or Beast they will not Whereas most probably or undoubtedly rather to a man brought up in a Have or otherwise never beholding before any creature save humane A Lyon and a Calf would prove equally terrible upon their first approach And whereas there are many Herbs Plants and Insects too of a poysonous nature and of an absolute destructive quality to Man and Beast if received into the body for food What creature is there to be found young or old except man not able by sense or otherwise to distinguish between what is agreeable and what destructive to his nature and will at all times most certainly avoid and reject the latter unless by man inserted or intermixt with some food agreeable to its nature We see many of these brute creatures even Physicians to themselves and all of them naturally avoiding such of the Elements as are destructive to them Let a Duck hatch Chickens trial whereof
of such honest tendency of his own Affections beyond those of another mans moving another way and take such satisfaction and acquiescence therein and now and then to hugg and please himself in his own choice as either to pity or deride another whose labour or indeavour is exercised in a different way though that of either unless in relation to the advancement or setting forth the glory of that first cause which few behold is equally vain Do we not think our State Politicks look on all others as Fools and Ideots And on the other side some whose Affections are not so Worldly mounting though perhaps they carry about as able a purveyor or contriver for their Affections laugh at those gins and traps those men lay to catch themselves as often as another Surely if a man could become a discerner of the thoughts he might espy in a number of Mechanicks very mean if not derisory ones of a man imploying his time beating his brains as we say or at study for some rare new or useful invention although without some such labour or study at first such a kind of Democritus had neither known his craft or mystery so called nor had been acquainted with that God he adores and so much labours for Mammon And on the other side every ordinary Virtuoso is ready to deride and contemn such a Craftsman whose ordinary course of life in his Shop has little more of sagacity to be imputed to it than that of a Spider in his Web nimbly running and catching at every one that enters to suck some profit or advantage therefrom Neither of these perhaps beholding a wise disposal from above or so much as once extracting from their Intellect any such Moral as might be deducible from such like story or Fable as is made of a blind and lame man's meeting together that the ones sight was given to direct the others legs and the others legs to assist his eyes or sight Now though some things have obtained the general assent of the best and clearest Intellects as we observe by the daily pursuit to be good and desirable as Power Dominion and Empire Ornaments rather than goods and allowed as good to please the Ringleader of Affections to Perdition Pride Yet that judgment is passed over before the enjoyment and though Pride will not suffer it publickly to be reversed I dare boldly say 't is ever done in private and were it not for somewhat of Pride every publick man would become private Indeed the Soul which pursues dominion may at preview expect beautiful Attendants and Concomitants and to have many if not most desirable goods in its power as Riches Pleasure Ease c. I and Wisdom too by imputation Yet were it possible to resort to the greatest Favourite the World ever had in that case and for instance let that Favourite be the first Caesar and obtain his response as to his own happiness while here I do believe and am fully perswaded in my self it would be to little or no other effect than what we have received at home from one of our own Nation already That men in great power and place must borrow other mens fancies and opinions to think themselves happy by because they are never so in their own I would not be thought here to descant upon those whom this cross is barely laid on doubtless God makes it more easy to them that we can reasonably imagine but I speak of such as snatch up this cross to lay it on their own backs who certainly are Fools therein and I know not why we may not well account that man Caesar of the number There was never any thing attributed to him or said of him and much has been said which I protest I ever held upon serious thoughts worthy emulation unless his great mercy and clemency which every private man is capable to appear with though not in the same luster and splendor Solomon's truth is able to extort confession from any man in a sedate and sober temper with an only added to it that that is to be desired of a man is his goodness and it was a magnanimous and noble saying of Alexander whom upon comparison with the other I cannot but ever prefer to Taxiles a great and wise King by the story I will fight with thee in honesty and courtesie because thou shalt not exceed me in bounty and liberality A great Commander though not so great as either of the other could once say that were not the mercies of God great and infinite men of their profession and course of life could have little hopes of any future bliss of happiness And certainly as little real happiness or quiet is to be expected here even in this World by one whose course of life is a very bereaving of many innocent Souls of their very outward and present peace ease and rest And yet we would most willingly be all Caesars if we could obtain that Title Power and Dignity without labour and pains What 's the cause of all this Why I will say it is Pride and 't was that only that in labour and travel brought forth those words from Caesar That he had rather be the first man in a mean Village than the second man in Rome which I think neither was a wise or a manly Saying though others will think otherwise and that it was the thought of future fame and glory that framed it Fame with her painted wings memorious fame well 't is a great sign of the Souls immortality that seeing she must not always abide here would leave a perpetual remembrance of her self behind And yet as it is vain to think that the Soul of the right Caesar is at all sensible of its fame with us so I offer whether any of us may not if we please be an imaginary Caesar and that 's as well in this case of Fame For if a man will but take the advice given to the covetous man in the Fable who had lost his hid treasure that he should take and hide a stone and imagine it to be Gold and it would have the same effect towards his happiness So let a man but think that after his death that Soul which is so much magnified by the name of Caesar shall be his It will be then all one as if he had been the man while he lived But who is so mad to part with any one Virtue for Honour as necessity often inforces if a man will needs get it It was a pretty Saying and it may be a true one of the Priest to Marcellus about to build a Temple to Honour and Virtue that those two Gods could not dwell together under one roof nor I think be brought together to attend on one Soul unless Honour were Native with it A man of a stirring Spirit if he be not building Temples here for Diana that is gains a thing not of so great esteem in the World though as generally affected he will usually
happen to be without Reason for it is Reason's assent that creates a belief or gives it that denomination If Reason be absent 't is no more than a bare short cogitation of a thing such as is or may be in Beast which is driven away by the next thought But belief solely attending Reason or being the off-spring of Reason has somewhat of permanency in it though it be subject to change habits Faith says the author to the Hebrews is the evidence of things not seen the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems more full and of a larger extent or signification than we can well render by that word Evidence or any one single word in our language it is a demonstration by argument or ratiocination which may be I think without the present help of Sense He gives us this instance Through it we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear The latter part of conclusion is no more than what every ordinary Heathen might espy from his Reason that visibility could not be the product of visibility that the framer and the framed must necessarily differ in a vast degree and therefore conclude by way of argument from Reason and as it were rest satisfied that it was no visible substance but some eternal omnipotent invisible wise power or mind that created the World in this admirable visible beauty and lustre as it is And this as we call it Faith so it is no more than ordinary But for the Soul to lay hold on such a thing as Word and pierce into the depth of that monosyllable which Saint Iohn with his Eagle eyes had so deep an inspect into It must I think necessarily be reached down from Heaven and be an heavenly light which first shewed it unto man The Power and strength of Reason in man able of it self upon consideration to raise an evidence of things not seen is the chief and main ground which induces me to think that no sober wise man that is no man whose Reason is in any measure clear is an Atheist but that it must be the fool only who says in his heart there is no God And yet that there are and may be as well rational Infidels as Christians since that Word incarnate is above the reach of the clearest human Reason In my Treatise de Anima after my plain way and manner I set down the grounds of my belief of the immortality of an human Soul only and that was chiefly from its Reason such a Reason as is able to weigh things without the help of Sense I know that human Reason by the delusion of Satan and for want of good exercise is often captivated and brought to accept any thing almost for true and current that is so represented and laid before it whuch thing I call Credulity yet that very Credulity is to me a clear evidence of the Soul's immortality and therefore I mean here to speak a little of Faith or Belief as it is described by the Author to the Hebrews The evidence of things not seen for surely by that we may be distinguished from all other Creatures Faith or belief we men alone have in us whether by way of ratiocination or immediately given us shall not be our present inquiry a capacity to imbrace or catch or lay hold on things at a distance which capacity we think is only the product of human Reason A capacity in the Soul of man which though it may seem at first view to come far short of knowledge yet in dignity or worth far surmounts any thing which we call or can properly so call Knowledge such as it is in us or any Creature is the off-spring of Sense and Faith the off-spring only of Reason For of things unseen or of the true Nature or original cause of any thing we have no knowledge at all But that things are so or so and that they differ in specie one from another we and Beasts have both equal certain knowledge from Sense unless they whose Sense is clearest may be said to exceed a little therein Sense certainly penetrates quicker into the substance of things than Reason can do into the Nature and causes of them and therefore the termination of one may well be accounted knowledge when the other acquires only the title of Belief And yet that belief arises from a much deeper sight than the other Which kind of light in the Soul and such thing as may create a belief we can in no wise discern in Brutes although we do discern and allow knowledge in them Because belief in its lowest degree and at the least proceeds from Reason and such a Reason as is or may be separate and distinct from Sense I cannot but allow a kind of Reason in Beasts concomitant and attendant upon Sense sufficient to determine their election and choice or if you please their will But it is such as vanishes with the act and nothing from thence can amount unto or be said to be a belief in any case It is stirred only by and vanishes with Sense and the ground of its work being gon and past there might be a knowledge pro tempore but no such thing as a belief because there remains no fixed footsteps or hold of its operation But belief ever depending upon somewhat and being a thing of permanency and continuance it must necessarily depend upon such a Reason as subsists of it self and is able to work of it self For that is it which makes a belief Otherwise there is no more than a cogitation or memory the renewer of a cogitation and such as the coming of one usually drives away the other as I said both in man and Beast And though I cannot be said properly between cogitation and cogitation to remember a thing all the while yet I may be said to believe the same all the while without so much as a thought of the object matter of my belief As to knowledge such as it is in man or Beast it is but a present plain demonstration of Sense and a thing of no permanency without the continued help of Sense For though I knew a man yesterday I cannot properly say I know him till I see him again and then I may but I believe all the while I shall know him if I see him again and if a man shall ask me the question whether I know such a man it is most proper for me to say I believe I do or shall when I see him I will give you this plain instance if you please a little to distinguish knowledge and belief The wind blows Now seeing the effects of its motion in the Clouds on the Trees c hearing the noise it causes upon resistance feeling the coolness of the air ventilated I know it blows or there is such kind of motion and so do's a Beast but this neither of us know longer than