The nature and immortality of the soul proved in answer to one who professed perplexing doubtfulness / by Richard Baxter. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1682 Approx. 96 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 37 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A26963 Wing B1317 ESTC R37298 16347153 ocm 16347153 105299 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A26963) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 105299) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1604:20) The nature and immortality of the soul proved in answer to one who professed perplexing doubtfulness / by Richard Baxter. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 72 p. Printed for B. Simmons ..., London : 1682. Errata: p. 72. Imperfect: print show-through with slight loss of print. Reproduction of original in the Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Soul -- History of doctrines -- 17th century. Immortality. Faith and reason. 2005-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-08 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-01 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2006-09 Aptara Rekeyed and resubmitted 2007-02 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2007-02 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE NATURE AND IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL PROVED . In Answer to one who professed perplexing Doubtfulness . By RICHARD BAXTER . LONDON : Printed for B. Simons , at the Three Golden Cocks , at the West End of St. Pauls . 1682. SIR , I Have Reason to judg you no Stranger to such Addresses as these : and therefore have adventured more boldly to apply my self to you . Others would , it may be , rigedly censure this Attempt ; but your more Christian Temper will induce you , I hope , to judg more charitably , did you but understand with what reluctancy I undertook this task . I have had many Disputes with my self , whether or no I should stifle these Doubts , or seek Satisfaction . Shame to own such Principles bid me do the first ; but the weight of the Concern obliged me to the last . For I could not with any chearfulness , or with that vigor I thought did become me , pursue those unseen Substances , those Objects of Faith Religion holds forth , except I did really believe their existence , and my own capacity of enjoyning them . I thought at first to satisfie my self in the certainty of the things I did believe , to confirm and establish my Faith by these Studies , that I might be able to render a Reason of the hope that is in me : but instead of building up , I am shaken ; and instead of a clearer evidence , I am invironed with uncertainties . Unhappy that I am ! I had better have taken all upon Trust , could I so have satisfied my Reason , than thus to have involved my self in an endless Study . For such I am afraid it will prove without help : for that I may not in this Concern rest without satisfaction ; and yet the more I consider , and weigh things , the more are my doubts multiplied . I call them only doubts , not to palliate any opinions ; for I have not yet espoused any ; but because they have not yet attained so much maturity or strength , as to take me off those things , my doubts being satisfied , I should conclude of indispensable necessity ; they are but yet in the Womb : assist to make them Abortives . I have not been wanting to my self , but in the use of all means to me known , have sought satisfaction , both by Prayer , Reading , and Meditation . I have weighed and consulted things according to my Capacity . I have been as faithful to my self in all my reasonings , as I could , and void of prejudice , have passed impartial Censures on the things in debate , so far as that light I have would enable me ; and what to do more , I know not , except this course I now take , prove effectual , you inclining to assist me , that I know have studied these things . My request to you therefore is , If your more publick Studies will permit you , That you would condescend to satisfie me in the Particulars I shall mention . I assure you , I have no other design , but to know the Truth : which in things of such moment , certainly cannot be difficult , tho to my unfurnished Head they have proved so : I hope my shaking may prove my establishment . That I may therefore put you to as little trouble as I can , I will first tell you what I do believe , and then what I stick at . First , therefore , I do really believe , and am very well satisfied , That there is a God , or a first Cause that hath created all things , and given to every thing its Being . For I am not acquainted with any independent Being . I know not any thing that is able to subsist without the Contribution of its Fellow-Creatures . I am conscious to my self , when sickness invades me , and death summons my Compound to a dissolution , I can do nothing to the preservation of the Being I enjoy . And if I cannot preserve my self as I am , much less could I make my self what I am : For when I was nothing , I could do nothing . And Experience and Sense tells me , As it is with me , so it is with others ; as there is none can preserve their Beings , so there is none could acquire to themselves the Being they have ; and if none , then not the first man. And indeed that was it I enquired after , from whence every species had at first their Beings ; the way , how , and means by which they are continued . I know not any Cause of the Being of any thing , of which again I may not enquire the Cause : and so from Cause to Cause , till through a multitude of Causes , I necessarily arrive at the first Cause of all Causes , a Being wholly uncaused , and without Cause , except what it was unto it self . My next Enquiry was into my self ; and my next business , to find what Concern I have with my Creator : which I knew no better way to attain , than by searching the bounds of humane Capacity . For I concluded it reasonable to judg those attainments I was capable of in my Creation , I was designed for . Now if man is nothing more than what is visible , or may be made so by Anatomy or Pharmacy , he is no Subject capable of enjoying , or loving God , nor consequently of a life of Retrobution . In this Enquiry I found Man consisted of something visible and invisible ; the Body which is visible , and something else that invisibly actuates the same . For I have seen the Body , the visible part of man ; when the invisible , either through indisposition of its Orgains , or its self , or being expelled its Mansion , hath ceased to act ( I speak as one in doubt ) : the Body hath been left to outward appearance the same ; it was yet really void of Sense , and wholly debilitated of all power to act : But then what this invisible is , what to conclude of it , I know not : Here I am at a stand , and in a Labyrinth , without a Clue : For I find no help any where . Many have , I acknowledg , defended the Souls Immortality ; but none have proved the existence of such a Being , and a life of Retrobution , and that copiously enough ; but none have proved a Subject capable of it . I know all our Superior Faculties and Actings , are usually attributed to the Soul ; but what it is in man they call so , they tell us not . To say it is that by which I reason , or that now dictates to me what I write , is not satisfactory : For I look for a definition , and such an one , as may not to ought else be appropriated . Is it therefore a real Being , really different from the Body , and able to be without it ? or is it not ? If not , whatever it be , I matter not . If it be , is it a pure Spirit , or meerly material ? If meerly material , and different only from the Body gradually , and in some few degrees of subtilty , it is then a question , whether or not that we call Death , and suppose a separation of the Compound , be not rather a Concentration of this active Principle in its own Body , which through some indisposition of the whole , or stoppage in its Orgains , through gross Corporeity , hath suffocated its actings . If it be a pure Spirit , I would then know , what is meant by Spirit ? and whether or no all things invisible , and imperceptable to Sense , are accounted such ? If so , it is then only a term to distinguish between things evident to Sense , and things not . If other wise , how shall I distinguish between the highest degree of material , and the lowest degree of spiritual Beings , or know how they are diversified , or be certain the Being of the Soul is rightly appropriated . For to me , an immaterial and spiritual Being , seems but a kind of Hocus , and a Substance stript of all materiality , a substantial nothing . For all things at first had their Origine from the deep dark Waters : witness Moses Philosophy , in the 1 st of Genesis , on which the Spirit of God is said to move . I am far from believing those Waters such as that Element we daily make use of ; but that they were material , appears by those multitudes of material Productions they brought forth . And if those Waters were material , such were all things they d●d produce , among which was Man , of whom the Text asserts nothing more plain ; for it saith , God created man of the dust of the earth ; the most gross part and sedement of those Waters , after all things else were created . Now the Body only is not Man ; for Man is a living Creature : it is that therefore by which the Body lives and acts , that constitutes the Man. Now the Apostle mentioneth Man to consist of Body , Soul and Spirit . My Argument then is this , God created man of the dust of the earth . But Man consists of a Body Soul and Spirit : Therefore Body , Soul and Spirit are made of the dust , &c. and are material . The major and minor are undeniable ; and therefore the conclusion . Yet do I not therefore conclude its annihilation : for I know all matter is eternal ; but am rather perswaded of its concentration ( as afore ) in its own body . But of its real Being , purely spiritual , and stript of all materiality , really distinct from its body , I doubt . Because that by several accidents happening to the body , the man is incapacited from acting rationally , as before ; as in those we call Ideots , there is not in some of them so much a sign of a reasonable Soul , as to distinguish them from Bruits : Whereas were the Soul such as represented , it would rather cease to act , than act at a rate below it self . Did it know its Excellencies , such as we make them , it would as soon desert its being , as degrade its self by such bruitish acts : It is not any defect in its Organs could rob the Soul of its Reason , its Essential Faculty . Tho the Workman breaks his Tools , his hands do not lose their skill , but ceaseth to act , rather than to do ought irregularly : so likewise would the Soul then act contrary to its own nature . Secondly , Because all the species both of the Mineral , Vegitable , and Animal Kingdoms , appear to me , but as the more eminent Works of a most excellent Operator , as Engines of the most accurate Engineer ; they all live , and have a Principle of Life manifest in their growth and augmentation , and so far as they are living weights , as I can perceive from the same source . But then comes in those Natures and Faculties whereby each is distinguished from other , even like several pieces of Clock , or Watch-work : the one shews the hour of the day , and no more ; the next shews the hour and minutes , another shews both the former , and likewise the Age of the Moon ; another hath not only the three former motions , but an addition of the rise and fall of Tides ; yet all this , and many more that in that way are performed , are several distinct motions , arising all from the same Cause , the Spring or Weight , the Principle of motion in them . So among living Weights , the first do only grow and augment their bulk , and have no possibility in nature to augment their kind ; the next , to wit , Vegitables , do not only grow and increase their bulk , but likewise have a power of propagating their like : the third Family , I mean the Animal Kingdom , do not only live and encrease their kind , but likewise are made sensative . And lastly , we our selves that are not only possest of all the former , but of something , I know not what , we think more excellent , and call Reason , and all this from the same source ; namely ▪ that we live ; which if we did not , we could not perform any of these acts . For life in us is the same as the Spring or Weight in the Watch or Clock , which ceasing , all other motion ceaseth , as in a Watch or Clock , the Spring or Weight being down . As Life therefore is the Cause of all Motion , and all natural Operation and Faculties ; yet those multifarious Operations and Faculties , manifest in , and proper to the particular species of the Three Kingdoms , requires not divers Principles of Life , no more than divers motions specified in a Watch or Clock , requires divers Weights or Springs . And as the diversity of motion in Watch or Clock , ariseth not from diversity of Weights or Springs , but rather from other means : so those diversities of Natures and Faculties , manifest throughout the Three Kingdoms , arise not from divers Principles of Life , but from one Principle of Life , manifesting its power in Bodies diversly organized . So that a Tree or Herb that only vegitates and propagates its kind , hath no other Principle of Life than an Animal that hath Sense , and more eminent Faculties . The difference only , as I conceive , is , this Principle of Life in the vegitable , is bound up in a Body organized to no other end , by which Life is hindred exerting any other power : but in the Animal it 's kindled in a purer matter , by which it 's capacitated to frame more excellent Orgains , in order to the exerting more eminent Acts. For the Principle of Life can no more act rationally in matter capable of naught but vegitation ( for it acts in matter according to the nature thereof , advancing it to its utmost excellency ) , than a man can saw with a Coult-Staff , or file with an Hatchet , or make a Watch with a Betle and Wedges . I am apt to believe those rare Endowments , and eminent Faculties , wherewith men seem to excel meer Sensatives , are only the improvement of Speech , wherein we have the advantage of them , and the result of reiterated Acts , until they become habits . For by the first we are able to communicate our Conceptions and Experiments each to other ; and by the other we do gradually ascend to the knowledg of things . For is all the knowledg either in the acts , Liberal or Mechanical , any more than this acts reiterated , until they become habits ; which when they are , we are said to know them ? And what is all our reasoning , but an Argument in Discourse tossed from one to another , till the Truth be found , like a Ball between two Rackets , till at last a lucky blow puts an end to the sport ? We come into the World hardly men ; and many whose natures want cultivation , live , having nothing to distinguish them from Brutes , but the outward form , speech , and some little dexterity , such as in Apes or Monkeys , in the things they have been taught , and the Affairs they have been bred to . And could we imagine any man to have lived Twenty or Thirty years in the World , without the benefit of Humane Converse , What would appear then , think you , of a rational Soul ? which the wise man well saw when he asserted the Condition of Men and Beasts to be the same what a meer Ignorant hath , Moses himself made of Adam , that in his supposed best state , knew not that he was naked : but I believe the Nine Hundred and Thirty years Experience of his own , and the continual Experiments of Posterity , in that time communicated to him , might quicken his Intellect . So that he died with more Reason than he was created , and humane nature in his posterity . The next Generation was imbellished with his attainments , to which their own Experiences still made a new addition . The next Generation built on their Foundation , and the next on their ; and so on : and we are got on the shoulders of them all . So that it 's rather a wonder , that we know no more , than that we know so much . So that what we have , seems rather times product , through the means aforesaid , than what our Natures were at first enricht with . The which appears likewise in those whose memory fails , and in whom the vestigia of things is wore out ; the habits they had contracted , and manner of working in their several acts being forgotten , what silly Animals are they ? Whereas were the Soul such as repesented , who could rob it of its Endowments ? It 's true the debilitating of a hand , may impead a manual labour ; but rase what hath formerly been done out of the Memory , and you render Man a perfect Bruit , or worse : for he knows not how to give a signification of his own mind . And indeed , I know not any thing wherein Man excels the Beasts , but may be referred to the benefit of Speech and Hands , capable of effecting its Conceptions ; nor find any better way to attain a right knowledg of our selves , but by beholding our selves in Adam , and enquiring , what Nature had endued him with , which will fall far short of what we now admire in our selves . But now supposing all this answer'd , what will it avail us to a Life of Retrobution , if all return to one Element , and be there immerged as Brooks and Rivers in the Sea ? If we lose our Individuation ; and all the Souls that have existed , be swallowed up of one , where are the Rewards and Punishments of each individual . And we have reason to judg it will be thus , rather than otherwise , because we see every thing tends to its own Centre , the Water to the Sea , and all that was of the Earth to the Earth , from whence they were taken . And Solomon saith , The spirit returns to God that gave it . Every thing then returning to its own Element , loseth its Individuation . For we see all bodies returning to the earth , are no more individual bodies , but earth : Have we not reason then to judg the same of Spirits returning to their own Element ? And what happiness then can we hope for , more than a deliverance from the present calamity ? or what misery are we eapable of , more than what is common to all ? The same is more evident in the body with which we converse , and are more sensibly acquainted with , seems wholly uncapable of either , &c. For all bodies are material , and matter it self is not capable of multiplication , but of being changed . Therefore Nature cannot multiply bodies , but changeth them ; as some bodies arise ▪ others perish . Natures expence in continual Productions being constantly supplied by the dissolution of other Compounds : were it otherwise , her Store-house would be exhausted ; for it s by continual Circulations , Heaven and Earth is maintain'd ; and by her even Circular motion , she keeps her self imployed on the same stock of matter , and maintains every species . There is no body the same to day it was yesterday , matter being in a continual flux ; neither immediately on the dissolution of a Compound , and Corruption of the body , doth the earth thereof retain any specifick difference of that body it once was , but is immediately bestowed by Nature , and ordered to the new production of other things . That part of matter therefore which constituteth a humane body , in a short time is putrified , and made earth , which again produceth either other inferior Animals , or Grass , or Corn , for the nourishment of Beasts and Fowl , which again are the nourishment of men . Thus circularly innumerable times round , Nature continually impressing new forms of the same matter . So that that matter that now constitutes my body , it may be a thousand years ago was the matter of some other mans , or it may be of divers mens , then putrified ; which in this time hath suffered infinite changes , as it may be sometime Grass , or Corn , or an Herb , or Bird , or Beast , or divers of them , or all , and that divers times over , before my body was framed ; who then can say , why this matter so changeable , should at last be restored , my body rather than his , whose formerly it was , or the body of a Bird , or other Animal ? For by the same Reasons that the body of man is proved to arise again , may , I think , be proved the Restoration of all other bodies , which is equally incredible to me ( if understood at one time ) . For Natures stock of matter being all at first exhausted , she could not employ her self in new Productions , without destroying some of the old ; much less can she at once fabricate out of the same quantity of matter , all the bodies that ever were , are , or shall be ; which yet , notwithstanding could she , they could not be said to be the same bodies , because all bodies suffer such alteration daily , that they cannot be said to be the same to day they were yesterday ; how then can they be capable of Reward or Punishment ? These are now my doubts ; but are they the fruits of Diligence ? and am I thus rewarded for not believing at a common rate ? A great deal cheaper could I have sate down , and believed as the Church believes ; without a why , or a wherefore , have been ignorant of these Disputes , and never have emerged my self in this gulf , than thus by Reflection to create my own disturbance . Had I been made a meer Animal , I had had none of these Doubts nor Fears that thus torment my mind ; for doubting , happy Bruits happy , far more happy than my self ! With you is none of this ; with you only is serenity of mind , and you only void of Anxieties ; you only enjoy what this world is able to accommodate with , and it may be too have those Caresses we know not of , while we , your poor purveyors , go drooping and disponding , doubting , fearing , and caring about , and our whole lives only a preying on one another , and tormenting our selves . You have the carnal content and satisfaction ; we nothing but the shell , a vain glorious boast of our Lordship over you , with which we seek to satisfie our selves , as Prodigals , with husks , while the truth is , we are afraid to confront our Vassals , except we first by craft and treachery beguile them from whom likewise we flee , if once enraged : and what a poor comfort is this ? Is this a Priviledg to boast of ? Is this all Reason advanceth to , only a Purveyor to Beasts , and to make my life more miserable , by how much more sensible of misery ! Well might Solomon prefer the dead before the living ; and those that had not been , before both ; intimating thereby , that being best , least capable of misery ; that is , of Trees , of Herbs , of Stones , and all inanimates , which wanting sense , are insensible of misery . Better any thing than man therefore , since that every brute and inanimate stock or stone , are more happy in that measure : they are less capable of misery . What the advantage then , what the benefit that occurs to us from them , or what preheminence have we above them , seeing as dieth the one , so dieth the other , and that they have all one breath ? Pardon this Degression ; the real sense and apprehension I have of things , extort it from me . For I , as Job , cannot refrain my mouth , but speak in the bitterness of my Spirit , and complain in the anguish of my Soul , Why died I not from the womb ? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly ? Why did the knees prevent me ? or why the breasts , that I should suck ? I had then been among Solomon 's happy ones : I should now have lain still and been quiet ; I should have slept , and been at rest : whereas now I am weary of life . For tho I speak , my grief is not asswaged ; and tho I forbear , I am not eased ; but now he hath made me weary , and made desolate all my company : he hath filled me with wrinkles , which is a witness against me ; and my leanness rising up in me , beareth witness to my face , God hath delivered me to the ungodly , and turned me cver into the hand of the wicked , and my familiar friends have forgotten me . I said , I shall die in my nest , and shall multiply my days as the sand , when my root was spread out by the waters , and the dew lay all night on my branch ; when my glory was fresh , and my bow was renewed in my hand : but I find while my flesh is upon me , I shall bave pain , and while my soul is in me , it shall mourn . Have pity upon me , O my friend ! for the hand of God hath touched me . The wicked live , and become old ; yea , they are mighty in power , their seed is established in their sight with them , and their off-spring before their eyes ; their houses are safe from fear , neither is the rod of God upon them , &c. they are planted , and take root , they grow ; yea , they bring forth fruit , yet God is never in their mouth , and far from their reins . In vain then do I wash my hands in innocency , seeing all things come alike to all . There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked , to the good , to the clean , and to the unclean ; to him that sacrificeth , and to him that sacrificeth not : as is the good , so is the sinner ; and he that sweareth , as he that feareth an oath . I have now done ( tho I hardly know how ) , lest I too far trouble you ; and only beg your perusal of these lines , and two or three in answer of them by this Bearer , who shall at your appointment wait on you for the same . Let me farther beg these two things of you : first , That you would consider you have not to do with a Sophistick Wrangler , or with one that would willingly err , but with one that desires to know the Truth . Let therefore your Answer be , as much as you can , void of Scholastick Terms , or Notions that may lead me more into the dark . And then , as Job did beg , That God would withdraw his hand far from him , and that his dread might not make him afraid ; so I. And further , That you would not awe me with his greatness , nor suppress my Arguments with his Omnipotence . Then call thou , and I will answer ; or let me speak , and answer thou me . Thus begging the Divine Influence to direct you , and enlighten me , I subscribe myself , SIR , § . 1. IT is your wisdom in Cases of so great moment , to use all just endeavours for satisfaction ; and I think you did but your duty , to study this as hard as you say you have done . But 1. I wish you had studied it better ; for then you would not have been a stranger to many Books which afford a just solution of your Doubts , as I must suppose you are , by your taking no notice of what they have said . 2. And I wish you had known , that between the solving of all your Objections , and taking all on Trust from men , or believing as the Church believeth , there are Two other ways to satisfaction ( which must be conjunct ) : 1. Discerning the unanswerable evidences in Nature and Providence , of the Souls future Life . 2. And taking it on trust from Divine Revelation ; which is otherwise to be proved , than by believing as the Church by Authority requireth you . I have written on this Subject so much already , that I had rather you had told me , why you think it unsatisfactory , than desire me to transcribe it , while Print is as legible as Manuscript . If you have not read it , I humbly offer it to your consideration . It is most in two Books : The first which I intreat you to read , is called , The Reasons of the Christian Religion : the other is called , The Unreasonableness of Infidelity . If you think this too much labour , you are not so hard or faithful a Student of this weighty Case , as it deserveth , and you pretend to be . If you will read them ( or the first at least ) , and after come to me , that we may fairly debate your remaining Doubts , it will be a likelier way for us to be useful to each other , than my going over all the mistakes of your Paper will be . And I suppose you know , that we have full assurance of a multitude of Verities , against which many Objections may be raised , which no mortal man can fully solve , especially from Modes and Accidents . Nay , perhaps there is nothing in the World which is not liable to some such Objections . And yet I will not neglect your writing . § . 2. When you were convinc'd , That there is a first Cause , it would have been an orderly progress to think what that Cause is ; and whether his Works do not prove his Infinite Perfection , having all that eminently which he giveth formally to the whole World , as far as it belongeth to perfection to have it . For none can give more than he hath . And then you should have thought what this God is to man , as manifest in his Works : and you should have considered what of man is past doubt , and thence in what relation he stands to God , and to his fellow-creatures : And this would have led you to know mans certain duty : and that would have assured you of a future life of Retribution . Is not this a just progress ? § . 3. But you would know a Definition of the Soul. But do you know nothing but by Definitions ? Are all men that cannot define , therefore void of all knowledg ? You know not at all what seeing is , or what light is , or what feeling , smelling , tasting , hearing is , what sound or odor is , what sweet or bitter , nor what thinking , or knowing , or willing , or loving is , if you know it not before defining tell you , and better than bare defining can ever tell you . Every vital faculty hath a self-perception in its acting ; which is an eminent sense : Intuition also of outward sensible Objects , or immediate perception of them , as sensata & imaginata , is before all Argument and Definition , or reasoning action . By seeing , we perceive that we see ; and by understanding ; we perceive that we understand . I dare say , That you know the Acts of your own Soul by acting , tho when you come to reasoning or defining , you say you know not what they are . You can give no definition what substance is , or Ens at least , much less what God is . And yet what is more certain than that there is Substance , Entity , and God ? § . 4. But I 'le tell you what the Soul of man is : It is a Vital , Intellectual , Volitive Spirit , animating a humane organized Body . When it is separated , it is not formally a Soul , but a Spirit still . § . 5. Qu. But what is such a mental Spirit ? It is a most pure Substance , whose form is a Power or Virtue of Vital Action , Intellection , and Volition ( three in one ) . § . 6. I. Are you not certain of all these Acts , viz. That you Act vitally , understand and will ? If not , you are not sure that you see , that you doubt , that you wrote to me , or that you are any thing . II. If you act these , it is certain that you have the power of so acting . For nothing doth that which it cannot do . III. It is certain , that it is a Substance which hath this power : For nothing can do nothing . IV. It is evident , that it is not the visible Body , as composed of Earth , Water and Air , which is this mental Substance . Neither any one of them , nor all together have Life , Understand●●g , or Will. They are passive Beings , and act not at all of themselves , but as acted by invisible Powers . They have an aggregative inclination to Union , and no other . Were it not for the Igneous Nature which is active , or for Spirits , they would be cessant . Therefore you are thus far past the dark , That there is in man an Invisible Substance , which hath , yea , which is a Power or Virtue of Vital Action , Intellection , and Volition . V. And that this Active Power is a distinct thing from meer Passive Power , or mobilitie per aliud , Experience puts past doubt . There is in every living thing a Power , or Virtue of self-moving , else Life were not Life . VI. And that this is not a meer accident of the Soul , but its essential form , I have proved so fully in my Methodus Theologiae , in a peculiar Disputation , that I will not here repeat it . It 's evident , That even in the igneous Substance , the Vis Motiva , Illuminativa , Calefactiva , is more than an accident , even its essential form : But were it otherwise , it would but follow , That if the very accidental Acts or qualities of a Soul be so noble , its essential must be greater . VII . But it is certain , That neither Souls , nor any thing , have either Being , Power , or Action , but in constant receptive dependence on the continued emanation of the prime Cause ; and so no Inviduation is a total separation from him , or an Independence , or a self-sufficiency . Thus far natural light tells you what Souls are . § . 7. You add your self , That those attainments which you were made capable of you were designed to . Very right . God maketh not such noble Faculties or Capacities in vain ; much less to engage all men to a life of duty , which shall prove ▪ deceit and misery . But you have Faculties capable of thinking of God , as your Beginning , Guide , and End , as your Maker , Ruler , and Benefactor ; and of studying your duty to him , in hope of Reward , and of thinking what will become of you after Death , and of hoping for future Blessedness , and fearing future Misery : all which no Bruit was ever capable of . Therefore God designed you to such ends which you are thus capable of . § . 8. You say ( p. 3. ) Many have defended the Souls Immortality ; but none have proved a Subject capable of a life of Retribution . It 's a Contradiction to be immortal , or rewarded , and not to be a Subject capable ▪ For nothing hath no accidents . Nothing hath that which it is not capable of haing . § . 9. You say , None tell us what it is . How many Score Volumes have told it us ? I have now briefly told you what it is . You say , [ To say it is that by which I reason , is not satisfactory . I look for a Definition ] . But on Condition you look not to see or feel it , as you do Trees or Stones , you may be satisfied . I have given you a Definition . The Genus is Substantia purissima ; the Differentia is Virtus Vitalis , Activa , Intellectiva , Volitiva ( trinum a Imago Creatoris ) . What 's here wanting to a Definition ? I have told you , That there is an antecedent more certain Perception , than by Definition ; by which I know that I see , hear , taste , am , and by which the Soul , in act , is conscious of it self . § . 10. You ask , 1. Is it a real Being ? Answ . I told you , Nothing can do nothing . 2. Is it really different from the Body ? Answ . A Substance which hath in it self an Essential Principle of Life , Intellection , and Volition , and that which hath not , are really different . Try whether you can make a Body feel , or understand without a Soul. 2. Those that are seperable , are really different . 3. You ask , Is it able to be without it ? Answ . What should hinder it ? The Body made not the Soul : A viler Substance giveth not being to a nobler . 2. Nothing at all can be without continued Divine sustentation . But we see , Juxta naturam , God annihilateth no Substance : Changes are but by composition , and separation , and action , but not by annihilation . An Atome of Earth or Water , is not annihilated ; and why should we suspect , that a Spiritual Substance is ? Yea , the contrary is fully evident , tho God is able to annihilate all things . § . 11. You say , If it be meerly material , and differ from the Body but gradually , Death may be but its concentration of this active Principle in its own Body . Answ . If you understand your own words , it 's well . 1. Do you know what material signifieth ? See Crakenthorp's Metaphysicks , and he will tell you in part , it 's an ambiguous word . Sometime it signifieth the same as substantia ; and so Souls are material . Sometime it signifieth only that sort of Substance which is called corporeal . Dr. More tells you , That Penetrability , and Indivisibility , difference them . But what if fire ▪ should differ from air materially , but in degree of subtilty and purity , or sensitive Souls from igneous , and mental from sensitive , but in higher degrees of purity of matter ; Is it not the form that maketh the specifick difference ? Air hath not the igneous Virtue of Motion , Illumination , and Calefaction ; nor ignis , the sensitive Virtues , nor meer sensitives the rational Virtues aforesaid . Forma dat esse & nomen . This maketh not a meer gradual difference , but a specifick . There is in Compounds matter , and materiae dispositio receptiva , & forma . There is somewhat answerable in spiritual uncompounded Beings . There is substantia , and substantiae dispositio , & forma . These are but intellectually distinct , and not divisible , and are but inadequate conceptions of one thing ▪ That substantia is conceptus fundamentalis , is confest . Some make penetrability and indivisibility , substantiae conceptus dispositicus . But the Virtus vitalis activa , intellective , volitiva , in one , is the conceptus formalis . 2. But what mean you by [ the active Principles concentration in its own body ] ? It is a strange Expression : 1. If you mean , that it 's annihilated , then it ▪ remaineth not . 2. If you mean , that it remaineth an active Principle , you mean a substance , or accident . If a substance , it seems you acknowledg it a self-subsisting being , only not separate from its carcass . And if they be two , why are they not separable ? If separable , why not separated ? When the dust of the Carcass is scattered , is the Soul concentred in every atome , or but in one ? And is it many , or one concentred Soul ? If you mean , That it 's but an accident , that 's disprov'd before ; what accident is it ? If concentred in the body , the body , and every dust of it , is vital and intellectual . And if so , every clod and stone is so ; which I will not so much wrong you , as to imagine that you think . § . 12. But you would know what 's meant by a spirit , whether all that is not evident to sense ? Ans . It is a pure substance ( saith Dr. More , penetrable and indivisible ) essentially vital , perceptive and appetitive . § . 13. You add , [ How shall I know the difference between the highest degree of materials , and lowest of immaterials ? To me an immaterial , and spiritual being , seems a kind of Hocus , a substantial nothing . Ans . If you take matter for the same with substance , it is material . But not if you take matter , as it 's usually taken , for corporeal ; or gross , and impenetrable , and divisible substance , uncapable of essential , vital , self-moving perception and appetite . If this seems nothing to you , God seems nothing to you , and true Nature , which is Principium motus , seems nothing to you : And all that performeth all the action which you see in the world ; seems nothing to you . It 's pity that you have converst so little with God and your self , as to think both to be nothing . § . 14. What you say out of Gen. 1. is little else but mistake , when you say [ all was made out of the deep waters by the spirit of God ] . The Text nameth what was made of them . It saith nothing of the Creation of Angels , or Spirits , out of them ( no , nor of the Light , or Earth , or Firmament . ) And whereas you say , [ God made man of the dust of the ground ; but the body only is not man , ergo . Ans : You use your self too unkindly , to leave out half the words , Gen. 2. 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground , and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life , and man became a living soul ; when the Text tells us the two works by which God made man , will you leave out one , and then argue exclusively against it ? What if I said , [ The Chandler made a Candle of Tallow , and then by another kindled it ] ? or [ a man made an house of Bricks , and cemented them with Mortar , &c. ] ? will you thence prove , That he made a Candle burning without fire , or the House without Mortar ? Words are useless to such Expositors . § . 15. Page 4. you say ; You know all matter is eternal . But you know no such thing . If it be Eternal , it hath one Divine perfection : and if so , it must have the rest , and so should be God. But what 's your proof ? You again ( believe the Souls concentration in its body ] . Ans . Words insignificant . It 's Idem or Aliud . If Idem , then dust is Essentially Vital and Intellectual . Deny not spiritual forms , if every clod or stone have them . If. Aliud , how prove you it to be there , rather than elsewhere ? And if you considered well , you would not believe essential , substantial life and mind , to lye dead and unactive , so long as the dust is so . § . 16. You come to the hardest Objecti - [ The Souls defective acting in infants , ideots , the sick , &c. and say , [ It would rather not act , if it were as represented . ] Ans . 1. It cannot be denied , but the Operations of the Soul here , are much of them upon the organized body ; and tho not organical , as if they acted by an Organ , yet organical , as acting on an Organ ; which is the material Spirits primarily . And so there go various Causes to some Effects , called Acts. 2. And the Soul doth nothing independently , but as dependent on God , in Being and Operation : and therefore doth what God knoweth , and useth it too , as his Instrument , in the forming of the body ; and in what it knoweth not it self . And as God , as fons naturae ▪ necessitateth the natural agency of the Soul ▪ as he doth the Soul of Bruits . But as the wise and free Governor of the world , he hath to moral acts , given mans Soul free-will , and therefore conducting Reason ; which it needs not to necessitated acts , as digestion , motion of the blood , formation of the body , &c. And as it is not made to do all its acts freely and rationally , so neither at all times , as in Apoplexies , Infancy , Sleep , &c. It is essential to the Soul , to have the active power or virtue of Intellection and Free-will , but not always to use it . As it is essential to the substance of fire , tho latent in a flint , to have the power of motion , lighe and heat . And its considerable , that as a traveller in his journey , thinking and talking only of other things , retaineth still a secret act of intending his end , ( else he would not go on ) when he perceiveth and observeth it not at all . He that playeth on the Lute or Harpsical , ceaseth when his Instrument is out of tune ; because he acteth by free-will . But the Soul of an Idiot or mad-man acteth only per modum naturae , not by free-acts , but necessitated by God by the order of nature . Only moral acts are free ; and that some other are but brutish ▪ and some but vegitative , is no more a wonder , than that it should understand in the head , and be sensible only in the most of the body , and vegitative only in the hairs and nails . It operateth in all the body by the Spirits , as valid ; but about the eyes , and open sensoria , by Spirits also as lucid , for that use . § . 14. But never forget this , That nothing at any time doth what it cannot do : but many can do that which they do not . Tho the Soul in the Womb , or Sleep , remember not , or reason not ; if ever it do it , that proveth it had the power of doing it . And that power is not a novel accident , tho the act may be so . § . 18. To your Explications p. 4. I say , 1. None doubts , but all the world is the work of one prime operating Cause ; Whom I hope you see in them , is of perfect power , wisdom and goodness , the chief efficient dirigent and final cause of all . 2. I doubt not , but the created universe is all one thing or frame ; and no one atome or part totally separated from , and independent on the rest . 3. But yet the parts are multitudes , and heterogeneous , and have their Individuation , and are at once many and one in several respects . And the unity of the Universe , or of inferior universal Causes ( as the Sun , or an anima telluris , &c. ) are certainly consistent with the specifick and individual differences of the parts . E. g. Many individual Apples grow on the same Tree ; yea , Crabs and Apples by divers grafts , nourished on the same stock : One may rot , or be sower , and not another . Millions of Trees , as also of Herbs and Flowers , good and poysonous , all grow in the same earth . Here is Unity , and great Diversity . And tho self-moving . Animals be not fixed on the earth , no doubr they have a contiguity , or continuity , as parts with the Universe . But for all that , a Toad is not a Man , nor a man in torment , undifferenced from another at ease , nor a bad man all one with a good . § . 19. And if any should have a conceit , That there is nothing but God and matter . I have fully confuted it in the Appendix to Reas . of Christian Religion . Matter is no such omnipotent sapiential thing in it self , as to need no cause or maker , any more than Compounds . And to think , that the infinite God would make no nobler Creature than dead matter , no liker himself ▪ to glorifie him , is antecedently absurd , but consequently notoriously false . For tho nothing be acted without him , it 's evident that he hath made active Natures with a principle of self-moving in themselves . The Sun differs from a clod , by more than being matter variously moved by God , even by a self-moving power also . Else there were no living creature , but bodies in themselves dead , animated by God. But it would be too tedious to say all against this that 's to be said . § . 20 ▪ When you tell us of [ One life in all , differenc'd only by diversity of Organs ] , you mean God , or a common created Soul. If God , I tell you where I have confuted it . It 's pity to torment or punish God in a murderer , or call ▪ him wicked in a wicked man : or that one man should be hang'd , and another prais'd , because the Engines of their bodies are diverse . But the best Anatomists say , That nothing is to be seen in the brain of other Animals , why they might not be as rational as Men. And if it be an Anima creata communis that you mean , either you think it is an universal Soul to the universal world , or only to this Earth or Vortex . If to all the World , you feign it to have Gods Prerogative . If to part of the world , if each Vortex , Sun , Star , &c. have a distinct individuate superior Soul , why not men also inferiors ? And why may not millions of individual Spirits consist with more common or universal Spirits , as well as the life of Worms in your belly with yours . That which hath no Soul or Spirit of its own , is not fit for such reception and communion with superior Spirits , as that which hath . Communion requireth some similitude . We see God useth not all things alike , because he makes them not like . § . 21. But if the difference between Beasts , Trees , Stones , and Men , be only the organical contexture of the body ; then 1. Either all these have put one Soul , and so are but one , save corporeally . 2. Or else every Stone , Tree and Beast hath an Intellectual Soul : for it is evident that man hath , by its Operations . I. Had you made but Virtue and Vice to be only the effects of the bodies contexture , sure you would only blame the maker of your body , and not your sclf , for any of your Crimes : For yon did not make your own body , if you were nothing . Is the common light and sense of Nature no Evidence ? Doth not all the world difference Virtue and Vice , moral good and evil ? Is it only the difference of an ▪ Instrument in Tune , and out of Tune ? Either then all called sin is good ; or God , or the universal Soul , only is to be blamed . Then to call you a Knave , or a Lyar , or Perjured , &c. is no more disgrace , than to say , that you are sick , or blind . Then all Laws are made only to bind God , or the Amima mundi ; and all punishment is threatned to God , or this common Soul. And it is God , or the common Soul only in a body , which sorroweth , feareth , feeleth pain or pleasure . II. And if you equal the Souls of Beasts , Trees , Stones and Men , you must make them all to have an Intellectual Soul. If man had not , he could never understand . And if they have so also , frustra fit potentia quae nunquam producitur in actum . It is certain that it is not the body ( Earth , Air or Water ) that feeleth , much less that understandeth or willeth . If therefore all men have but one Soul , why is it not you that are in pain or joy , when any , or all others are so ? Tour suffering and joys are as much theirs . You hurt your self when you hurt a Malefactor . Why are you not answerable for the Crimes of every Thief , if all b●● one ? § . 22. You vainly liken several Natures and Faculties to several pieces of Clock-work . For Natures and Faculties are self-acting Principles under the prime Agent : but a Clock is only passive , moved by another : Whether the motus gravitationis in the poise , be by an intrinsick Principle , or by another unseen active Nature , is all that 's controvertible there . All that your similitude will infer , is this , That as the gravitation of one poise , moves every wheel according to its receptive aptitude ; so God , the universal Spirit , moveth all that is moved , according to their several aptitudes , passives as passive , actives as active , vitals as self-movers , intellectuals as intellectual-free-self-movers under him . No Art can make a Clock feel , see or understand . But if the world have but one soul , what mean you by its concentring in the Carcass ? Is the universal Soul there fallen asleep , or imprisoned in a Grave , or what is it ? § . 23. Add page 5. You well say , That Life is the cause of all motion : Yea , infinite Life , Wisdom and Love , is the cause of all : but there be second Causes under it : Plurima ex uno . And it maketh things various , which it moveth variously ; and maketh them vital , sensitive or mental , which he will move to vital , sensitive and mental acts . Operari sequitur esse . § . 24. You are apt to believe , That those eminent Faculties wherewith men seem meer Sensitives , are only the improvement of Speech , and reitorated Acts , till they become Habits . Ans . 1. I had a Parrot that spoke so very plainly , that no Man could discern but he could have spoke as well as a Man , if he had but had the Intellect of a Man ; and quickly would learn new words , but shewed no understanding of them . 2. Many men born deaf and dumb , are of a strong understanding ( enquire of a Brother of Sir Richard Dyett's , a Son of Mr. Peter Whalley of Northampton , a Son in Law of the Lord Wharton's , &c. 3. The Faculty and the Habit are Two things . The Faculty is the Essential form of the Substance . The Habit , or Act , is but an Accident . The Faculty is nothing but the active Power . And the Power goeth before the Act. Doth acting , without Power to act , cause the Power ? What need you the Power , if you can act without it ? And What 's a Contradiction , if this be not , to say , I do that which I cannot do , or I can do that which I have no power to do ? You are not a man without the Faculty , but you are without the Act ; or else you are no man in your sleep . The act then is but the Faculties act ; and Habits are nothing but the Faculties promptitude to act . And this indeed is caused sometime by very strong acts , and sometime , and usually , by frequent acts ; and sometime suddenly , by a special Divine Operation . No doubt , but Oratory , and all Arts and Sciences , are caused by frequent acts , and their Objects : But those acts are caused by humane Faculties , under God , the first Cause . You can never cause a Carcass , or a Parrot , or any Bruit , to think of God , and the glory to come , nor to do any proper humane act . Credible History assureth us , That Devils , or separate Souls , have acted Carcasses , and discoursed in them , and seemed to commit Fornication in them , and left them dead behind them ; and they were known to be the same that were lately executed or dead , and were re-buried . Here the dead Organ was capable , when a Spirit did but use it . You too much confound Intellection and Ratiocination . The prime acts of intellective Perception ; are before Ratiocination . And there are a multitude of Complex Verities , which all found men know without , Syllogisms . The disposition to know them , is so strong , that some call it Actual Knowledg . § . 25. Add page 6. It 's well known , That the Natives in New England , the most barbarous Abassines , Gallanes , &c. in Ethicpia , have as good natural Capacities as the Europeans . So far are they from being but like Apes and Monkeys ; if they be not Ideots , or mad , they sometime shame learned men in their words and deeds . I have known those that have been so coursly clad , and so clownishly bred , even as to Speech , Looks and Carriages , that Gentlemen and Scholars , at the first congress , have esteemed them much according to your description , when in Discourse they have proved more ingenious than they , And if improvement can bring them to Arts , the Faculty was there before . When will you shew us an Ape or a Monkey , that was ever brought to the Acts or Habits before mentioned of Men ? Yea , of those that were born deaf and dumb ? § . 26. Your mistake of Adam's case , and Solomon's words , is so gross , that I will not confute it , lest the description of it offend you . § . 17. The case of failing memories is answered before , in the case ▪ of Infancy and Apoplexies , &c. Out memory faileth in our sleep ▪ and yet when we awake , we find that there remains the same knowledg of Arts and Sciences . They did not end at night , and were not all new made the next morning . The Acts ceased , because the receptivity of the passive Organ ceased : but the Habit and Faculty continued . And when memory in old men faileth about names , and words , and little matters , their judgments about great things are usually stronger ( by better Habits ) than young mens : § . 28. You say , You know nothing wherein Man excels Beasts , but may be referred to the benefit of speech and hands , capable of effecting its Conceptions . Ans . This is answered before . Those Conceptions are the cause of words and actions : and is there no cause of those Conceptions ? And if mans Conceptions differ from the beasts , the causes differed . And if the first Conceptions did not differ , the Subsequent would not differ neither , without a difference in the causal Faculties . Why do not Beasts speak as well as Men ? Parrots shew , That it is not in all for want of a speaking Organ . If one be born dumb , and not deaf , he will know but little the less for his dumbness . If he be born dead and dumb , and not blind , he will still be rational , as Dr. Wallis can tell you , who hath taught such to talk and converse intelligibly by their fingers , and other signs , without words . I confess , if all the outward Senses were stopt from the Birth , I see not how the Soul could know outward sensible things , as being no Objects to it . And how it would work on it self alone , we know not ; but understand , and will , we are sure it doth : and therefore can do it . And it 's one thing to prove Beasts to be men , or rational , and another thing to prove Men to be Beasts , or irrational . If you could prove the former , viz. That Beasts have Souls that can think of God , and the Life to come , if they could but speak , this would rather prove them immortal , than prove man unreasonable , or of a mortal Soul. Your whole speech makes more to advance bruits , than to deny the reason of man. § . 29. You say , You know no better way to attain a right knowledg of our selves , than by beholding our selves in Adam , and enquiring what Nature had endued him with , which will fall far short of what we now admire in our selves . Answ . 1. As a multitude of Objects , and Experiences , more tend to Wisdom than one alone ; so to know both what Adam was , and what all men are , and do , doth evidence more to our information , than to know Adam's first Case alone . 2. Adam's first Powers are to be known by his acts ; and his acts were not to be done at once , in a minute or a day : And we have not the History of his Life much after his Fall. But we may be sure , that Adam's Nature in Innocency , was no baser than ours corrupted . And therefore Adam had the Powers of doing whatever other men since have done . 3. But let us come to your Test : 1. Adam was made a living Soul by the breath of God , after the making of his body of the earth . 2. Adam and Eve were blessed with a generative multiplying Faculty : but they did not generate God ; nor did every bruit that had also that Faculty . Therefore there is a Soul which is not God , in every Animal , ( nor yet an Universal Soul ) . 3. Adam , no doubt , could not know external sensible Objects , till they were brought within the reach of his sense : no more can we . 4. Adam knew the Creatures as soon as he saw them ; and gave them Names suitable . This is more than we could so soon do . 5. Adam had a Law given him ; and therefore knew that God was his Ruler . He knew that God was to be obeyed ; he knew what was his Law : else it had been no sin to break it . He knew that he ought to love , and believe , and trust God , and cleave to him : else it bad been no sin to forsake him , and to believe the Tempter , and to love the forbidden Fruit better than God. He knew that Death was the threatned Wages of Sin. In a word , He was made in the Image of God : And Paul tells us , it is that Image into which we are renewed by Christ : And he describeth it to consist in wisdom , righteousness , and true holiness . 6. And we have great reason to think , that it was Adam that taught Abel to offer Sacrifice in Faith , and delivered to his Posterity the Traditions which he had from God. Tho Adam did not do all this at once , he did not receive a new Soul or Faculty for every new act . Can Apes and Monkeys do all this ? Doth God give them Laws to know and keep as moral free-agents ? But you say , Adam knew not that he was naked . Ans . What! and yet knew God and his Law , and how to name the Creatures , and how to dress and keep the Garden ? He knew not that nakedness was shameful ; for he had newly made it shameful . Perhaps you think of Adam's forbidden desire of knowledg , and his miserable attainment of it . But that did not make him a new Soul , that had no such Faculty before . Adam was the Son of God by Creation , Luk. 3. and it was his duty and interest to live as a Son , in absolute trust on his Fathers care and love : and instead of this , he was tempte● 〈◊〉 self-dependance , and must needs know more than his duty , & his fathers love and reward : He must know good and evil f●● himself : like a Child that must know what Food , and Rayment , and Work is fittest for him , which he should know only by trusting his Fathers choice , or as a Patient that must needs know every Ingredient in his Physick , and the Nature and Reason of it , before he will take it , when he should implicitly trust his Physician . Man should have waited on God for all his Notices , and sought to know no more than he revealed . But a distrustful , and a selfish knowledg , and busy enquiring into unrevealed things , is become our sin and misery . § . 36. You say , Suppose all this answered : what will it avail , as to a life of Retribution , if all return to one element , and be there immerged as Brooks and Rivers in the Sea , and we lose our individuation . Ans . I answer'd this in the Appendix to the Rea●… of the Christian Religion . I add ● . Do you believe , that each one hath now one individual Soul , or not ? If not , how can we lose that which we never had ? If we have but all one universal mover , which moveth us as Engines , as the Wind and Water 〈◊〉 Mills , how come some motions to be 〈…〉 ( as a Swallow ) , and others so slow , or none 〈◊〉 all , in as mobile a body ● ? Yea , how cometh 〈◊〉 motion to be so much in our Power , that we can sit still when we will , and rise , and go , and run ▪ and speak when we will , and cease , or change it when we will ? A stone that falls , or an arrow that is shot , cannot do so . Sure it is some inward formal Principle ; and not a material Mechanical mobility of the matter , which can cause this difference . Indeed if we have all but one Soul , it 's easie to love our Neighbours as our selves , because our Neighbours are our selves . But it 's as easie to hate our selves as our Enemies , and the good as the bad , if all be one ( for forma dat nomen & esse ) . But it is strange , that either God , or the Soul of the World , shall hate it self , and put it self to pain , and fight against it self , as in Wars , &c. But if you think still , That there is nothing but God and dead matter actuated by him , I would beg your Answer to these few Questions . 1. Do you really believe , that there is a God ? that is , an eternal infinite self-being , who hath all that power , knowledg , and goodness of will , in transcendent ●●●●…ey , which any Creature hath formally , and is the efficient Governor of all else that is . If not , all the world condemneth you ▪ for it is not an uncaused Being , and can have nothing but from its Cause , who can give nothing greater than it self . 2. Do you think this God can make a Creature that hath a subordinate Soul , or Spirit , to be the Principle of its own Vital Action , Intellection , and Volition , or not ? Cannot God make a Spirit ? If not , it is either because it is a Contradiction ( which none can pretend ) , or because God is not Omnipotent ; that is , is not God ; and so there is no God ; and so you deny what you granted . But if God can make a Spirit , 3. Why should you think he would not ? Some of your mind say , That he doth all the good that he can ; or else he were not perfectly good . Certainly his goodness is equal to his greatness , and is commmunicative . 4. Hath he not imprinted his Perfections in some measure , in his Works ? Do they not shew his glory ? Judg of his Greatness by the Sun , Stars , and Heavens ; and of his Wisdom , by the wonderful Order , Contexture , and Goverument of all things . Even the Fabrick of a Fly , or any Animal , poseth us . And do you think , that his love and goodness hath no answerable effect ? 5. Do you think , that passive matter doth as much manifest Gods Perfection , and honour the Efficient , as vital and Intellectual Spirits ? If it be a far nobler Work for God to make a free , vital , mental Spirit , to act under him freely , mentally , and vitally , than to make meer atomes , why should you think that God will not do it ? 6. And do you not dishonour , or blaspheme the prime Cause , by such dishonouring of his Work , as to say , he never made any thing more noble than Atomes , and Compositions of them . 7. Is there not in the Creature a communicative disposition to cause their like ? Animals generate their like : Fire kindleth fire : Wise men would make others wise : God is essential infinite Life , Wisdom and Love : and can he , or would he make nothing liker to himself than dead Atomes ? Yea , you feign him to make nothing but by Composition , while you say , That matter it self is eternal . 8. But when the matter of Fact is evident , and we see by the actions , that there is a difference between things moved by God , some having a created Life and mind , and some none , what needs then any further proof ? § . 31. But if you hold , That we have now distinct Spirits , which are individual , Substances , why should you fear the loss of our individuation , any more than our annihilation , or specifick alteration ? If God made as many substantial individual Souls , as men , is there any thing in Nature or Scripture , which threatneth the loss of Individuation ? I have shewed you , and shall further shew you enough against it . § . 32. You say , page 7. Every thing returneth to its element , and loseth its individuatiou : Earth to Earth , Water to the Sea , the Spirit to God that gave it . What happiness then can we hope for more than deliverance from the present calamity ; or what misery are we capable of , more than is common to all ? Ans . 1. Bodies lose but their Composition , and Spiritual forms . Do you think , that any Atome loseth its individuation ? If it be still divisible in partes infinitas , it is infinite . And if every Atome be infinite , it is as much , or more than all the world ; and so is no part of the world ; and so there would be as many Worlds , or Infinites , as Atomes . It is but an aggregative motion which you mention . Birds of a Feather will flock together , and yet are Individuals still . Do you think any dust , or drop , any Atome of Earth or Water , loseth any thing of it self , by its union with the rest ? Is any Substance lost ? Is the simple Nature changed ? Is it not Earth and Water still ? Is not the Haecceity , as they call it , continued ? Doth not God know every dust , and every drop from the rest ? Can he not separate them when he will ? And if Nature in all things tend to aggregation , or union , it is then the Perfection of everything . And why should we fear Perfection ? 2. But Earth , and Water , and Air , are partible matter . Earth is easily separable : The parts of Water more hardly , by the means of some terrene Separaror . The parts of Air yet more hardly : and the Sun-beams , or substance of fire , yet harder than that ( tho it's contraction and effects are very different ) : And Spirits either yet harder , or not at all . Some make it essential to them to be indiscerptible ; and all must say , That there is nothing in the Nature of them , tending to division , or separation . And therefore tho God , who can annihilate them , can divide them into parts , if it be no Contradiction ; yet it will never be , because he useth every thing according to its nature , till he cometh to miracles . Therefore their dissolu●ion of parts is no more to be feared , than their annihilation . 3. But if you take Souls to be partible and unible , then you must suppose every part to have still its own existence in the whole . And do you think , that this doth not more advance Souls than abase them ? Yea , you seem to Deifie them , while you make them all to return into God , as drops into the Sea. And if you feign God to be partible , is it not more honour and joy to be a part of God , who is joy it self , than to be a created Soul ? If a thousand Candles were put out , and their light turned into one Luminary , as great as they all , every part would have its share in the enlightning of the place about it . Is it any loss to a single Soldier , to become part of a victorious Army . 4. But indeed this is too high a Glory for the Soul of man to desire , or hope for . It is enough to have a blessed union with Christ , and the holy Society , consistent with our Individuation . Like will to like , and yet be it self . Rivers go to the Sea , and not to the Earth . Earth turns to Earth , and not to the Sun , or Fire . And the holy and blessed , go to the holy and blessed : And I believe , that their union will be nearer than we can now well conceive , or than this selfish state of man desireth : But as every drop in the Sea , is the same Water it was , so every Soul will be the same Soul. 2. And as to the incapacity of misery which you talk of , why should you think it more hereafter than here ? If you think all Souls now to be but one , doth not an aking Tooth , or a gouty Foot , or a calculous Bladder , suffer pain , tho it be not the body that feeleth ; but the same sensitive Soul is pain'd in one part , and pleas'd in another . And if all Souls be now but God in divers Bodies , or the Anima mundi , try if you can comfort a man under the torment of the Stone , or other Malady , or on the Rack , or in terror of Conscience , by telling him , That his Soul is a part of God. Will this make a Captive bear his Captivity , or a Malefactor his Death ? If not here , why should you think that their misery hereafter will be ever the less , or more tolerable for your conceit , that they are parts of God ? They will be no more parts of him then , than they were here . But it 's like , that they also will have an uniting inclination , even to such as themselves ; or that God , will separate them from all true unity , and say , Go you cursed into everlasting fire , prepared for the Devil and his Angels , &c. § . 33. No doubt it 's true , that you say , page 7 , and 8. That matter is still the same , and liable to all the changes which you mention . But it 's an unchanged God , who doth all this by Spirits , as second Causes , who are not of such a changeable , dissoluble , partible nature , as Bodies are : It is Spirits that do all that 's done in the world ! And I conjecture , as well as you , That universal Spirits are universal Causes . I suppose , That this Earth hath a vegitative form , which maketh it as a matrix to receive the Seeds , and the more active influx of the Sun. But Earth and Sun are but general Causes . Only God , and the seminal Virtue , cause the species , as such . The Sun causeth every Plant to grow ; but it causeth not the difference between the Rose , and the Nettle . and the Oak . The wonderful unsearchable Virtue of the Seed causeth that . And if you would know that Virtue , you must know it by the effects . You cannot tell by the Seed only of a Rose ; a Vine , an Oak , what is in it . But when you see the Plants in ripeness , you may see that the Seeds had a specifying Virtue , by the influx of the general Cause , to bring forth those Plants , Flowers , &c. Neither can you know what is in the Egg , but by the ripe Bird ; nor what the Soul of an Infant is , but by Manhood and its Acts. § . 34. You here pag. 7. divert from the point of the Immortality or Nature of the Soul , to that of the Resurrection of the Body : of which I will now say but this ; Christ rose , and hath promised us a Resurrection , and nothing is difficult to God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oft signifieth our living another life after this . The Body hath more parts than Earth and Water . The Spirits as we call them , which are the igneous parts , lodged in the purest aereal in the blood , &c. are that body in and by which the Soul doth operate on the rest . How much of these material Spirits the Soul may retain with it after Death , we know not : and if it have such a body , it hath partly the same ; and God can make what Addition he please , which shall not contradict identity : Paul saith of Corn , God giveth it a body as pleaseth him ▪ in some respect the same , &c. in some not the same that was sown . We do not hold , That all the flesh that ever a man had , shall be raised as that mans . If one man that was fat , grow lean in his sickness , we do not say , that all the flesh that sickness wasted , shall rise : It shall rise a spiritual body . God knoweth that which you and I know not . § . 35. You add , how easie it would have been to you to believe as the Church believeth ▪ and not to have immerged your self in these difficulties ? Ans . 1. The Church is nothing but all individual Christians ; and it is their Belief which makes them capable of being of the Church : As we must be men in order of Nature , before we are a Kingdom of men ; so we are Believers before we are a Church of Believers . A Kingdom or Policy maketh us not men , but is made of men ; and Church-society or Policy maketh us not Believers , but is made up of Believers . Therefore Belief is first , and is not caused by that which followeth it ? And why doth the Church believe ? Is it because they believe ? And whom do they believe ? Is it themselves ? I doubt you have fallen into acquaintance with those whose Interest hath made it their Trade to puzzle and confound men about things as hard to themselves as others , that they may bring them to trust the Church , and then tell them that it 's they that are that Church , as a necessary means to the quieting their minds . And they tell them , You are never able by reason to comprehend the mysteries of Faith ; the more you search , the more you are confounded . But if you believe as the Church believeth , you shall speed as the Church speedeth , But it 's one thing to believe the same thing which the Church believeth ; and another to believe it with the same faith , and upon the same Authority . If a man believe all the Articles of the Creed only because men tell him that they are true , it is but a human Faith , as resting only on mans Authority ; but the true Members of the Church believe all the same things , because God revealeth and attesteth them ; and this is a Divine Faith : And so must you . If you love light more than darkness and deceit , distinguish , 1. Believing men for Authority . 2. Believing men for their Honesty , 3. Believing men for the natural impossibility of their deceiving . And the foundation of this difference is here : Mans Soul hath two sorts of acts , Necessary and Contingent , or mutably free ▪ To love our selves , to be unwilling to be miserable , and willing to be happy ; to love God as good , if known , &c. are acts of the Soul as necessary , as for fire to burn combustible contiguous matter ; or for a Bruit to eat ; so that all the Testimonies which is produced by these necessary acts by knowing men , hath a Physical certainty , the contrary being impossible . And this is infallible historical knowledg of matter of fact . Thus we know there is such a City as Rome , Paris , Venice , &c. and that there was such a man as K. James , Ed. 6. Hen. 8. William the Conqueror , &c. And that the Statutes now ascribed to Ed. 3. and other Kings and their Parliaments are genuine . For Judges judge by them , Lawyers plead them , Kings own them , all men hold their Estates and Lives by them . Contrary mens Interest by Lawyers are daily pleaded by them against each other ; and if any one would deny , forge or corrupt a Statute , Interest would engage the rest against him to detect his fraud . 1. The certain effect of natural necessary Causes hath natural necessary evidence of Truth . But when all knowing men of contrary Dispositions and Interests ▪ acknowledg a thing true , this is the effect of natural necessary Causes . Ergo it hath natural necessary evidence of Truth . 2. It is impossible there should be an Effect without a sufficient Cause . But that a thing should be false which all knowing men of contrary Dispositions and Interests acknowledg to be true , would be an Effect without a Cause ▪ for there is no Cause in nature to effect it . It is impossible in nature that all men in England should agree to say , There was a King James , K. Edward , Q. Mary , or that these Statutes were made by them , if it were false . This is infallible Historical Testimony . It were not so strong if it were only by one Party , and not by Enemies also , or men of contrary Minds and Interests . And thus we know the History of the Gospel ; and this Tradition is naturally infallible . II. But all the Testimony which dependeth on humane Acts , not necessary , but free , have but an uncertain moral humane Credibility . For so all men are Lyars ; i. e. fallible , and not fully to be trusted . And I. Those Testimonies which depend on mens Honesty , are no farther credible , than we know the Honesty of the men : which in some is great , in some is none , in most is mixt , and lubricous , and doubtful , Alas ! what abundance of false History is in the world ! Who can trust the Honesty of such men , as multitudes of Popes , Prelates , and Priests have been ? Will they stick at a Lye , that stick not at Blood , or any wickedness ? Besides , the ignorance which invalidates their Testimony . II. And to pretend Authority to rule our Faith , is the most unsatisfactory way of all . For before you can believe that Jesus is the Christ , and his Word true , how many impossibilities have you to believe ? 1. You must believe that Christ hath a Church . 2. And hath authorized them to determine what is to be believed , before you believe that he is Christ . 3. You must know who they be whom you must believe ; whether all , or some , or a major vote . Whether out of all ▪ the world , or a party . 4. And how far their Authority extendeth ? Whether to judg whether there be a God , or no God ; a Christ , or no Christ ; a Heaven , or none ; a Gospel , or none : or what . 5. And how their determinations out of all the world may come with certainty to us : and where to find them . 6. And when Countreys and Councils contradict and condemn each other , which is to be believed . Many such impossibilities in the Roman way , must be believed , before a man can believe that Jesus is the Christ . In a word , you must not puzzle your head to know what a man is , or whether he have an immortal soul ; but you must , 1. believe the Church of Believers , before you are a Believer in Christ . 2. And you must believe , that Christ was God and Man , and came to save man , before you believe that there is such a creature as man , or what he is , and whether he have a soul capable of salvation . But I have oft elsewhere opened these Absurdities and Contradictions ; where you may see them confuted , if you are willing . § . 36. Your question about the souls nature , existence , and Individuation , may be resolved by a surer and easier way as followeth : I. By your own certain experience . 1. You perceive that you see , feel , understand , will and execute . 2. You may know , as is oft said , that therefore you have an active power to do these . 3. You may thence know , that it is a substance which hath that power . Nothing can do nothing . 4. You may perceive , that it is not the terrene substance , but an invisible substance , actuating the body . 5. You may know , that there is no probability , that so noble a substance should be annihilated . 6. Or that a pure and simple substance should be dissolved by the separation of parts ( or if that were every part would be a spirit still ) . 7. You have no cause to suspect , that this substance should lose those powers or faculties which are its essential form , and be turned into some other species , or thing . 8. And you have as little cause to suspect , that an essential vital intellective power , will not be active , when active inclination is its Essence . 9. You have no cause to suspect , that it will want Objects to action in a World of such variety of Objects . 10. And you have as little cause to suspect , that it will be unactive , for want of Organs , when God hath made its Essence active ; and either can make new Organs ; or that which can act on matter , can act without , or on other matter . He that can play on a Lute , can do somewhat as good , if that be broken . 11. And experience might satisfie you , that several men have several souls , by the several and contrary Operations . 12. And you have no reason to suspect , that God will turn many , from being many , into one ; or that unity should be any of their loss . All this , Reason tells you , beginning at your own experience , as I have ( and elsewhere more fully ) opened . § . 37. II. And you have at hand sensible proof of the individuation of spirits , by Witches , Contracts , and Apparitions : of which the world has unquestionable proof , tho there be very many Cheats . Read Mr. Glanvill's new Book , published by Dr. Moore , Lavater de Spectris , Zanchy de Angilii , Manlii Collect. Bodin's Daemonolog . Remigius of Witches , besides all the Mallei Malificorum , and doubt if you can . If you do , I can give you yet more , with full proof . § . 38. III. But all that I have said to you , is but the least part , in comparison of the assurance which you may have by the full revelatson of Jesus Christ , who hath brought life and immortality to light in the Gospel , where the state , the doom , the rewards and punishment of souls is asserted . And without dark and long Ambages , or Roman Juggles , we prove the truth of this Gospel , briefly and infallibly thus : I. The History of Christ's Life , Miracles , Doctrine , Death , Resurrection , Ascension , the Apostles Miracles , &c. is proved by such forementioned evidence , as hath physical certainty : Not such as dependeth only on mens honesty , or moral argument , much less on a pretended determining authority ; but such as dependeth on necessary acts of man , even the consent of all sorts of contrary minds and interests , as we know the Statutes of the Land , or other certain History . But we are so far from needing to ask , which part of Christians it is that is this Church , that is to be believed , that it tendeth to the assertaining of us , that all the Christian World , Papists , Protestants , Greeks , Moscovites , Armenians , Jacobites , Nestorians , &c. herein agree , even while they oppose each other . To know whether there was a Julius , or Augustus Caesar , a Virgil , Ovid Cicero , and which are their Works ; yea , which are the Acts of Councils , no man goeth to an authorized determining Judg for the matter of Fact , but to historiCal proof . And this we have most full . II. And if the History be true , the Doctrine must needs be true , seeing it is fully proved by the matters of Fact. Christ being proved to be Christ , all his words must ●eeds be true . § . 39. The Gospel of Christ , hath these four parts of its infallible evidence . I. The antecedent and inhererent Prophecies fulfilled . II. The inherent impress of Divinity on the Gospel it self , unimitable by man. It hath Gods Image and Superscription ; and its Excellency , propria luce , is discernible . III. All the Miracles , and Resurrection , and Ascention of Christ , the Gift of his Spirit , and extraordinary Miracles of the Apostles , and first Churches . IV. The sanctifying work of the Spirit by this Gospel , on all Believers in all Ages of the World , by which they have the Witness in themselves . A full constant unimitable Testimony . § . 40. And now how highly soever you think of Bruits , think not too basely of Men , for whom Christ became a Saviour : And yet think not so highly of Men , Bruits and Stones , as to think that they are God. And think not that your true diligence hath confounded you , but either your negligence , or seducers , or the unhappy stifling of obvious truth , by the ill ordering of your thoughts . And I beseech you remember , that Gods Revelationt are suited to mans use ▪ and our true knowledg to his Revtlations . He hath not told us all that man would know , but what we must know . Nothing is more known to us than that of God which is necessary for us : Yet nothing so incomprehensible as God. There is much of the Nature of Spirits , and the world to come , unsearchable to us , which will pose all our Wits : yet we have sufficient certainty of so much as tells us our duty and our hopes . God hath given us Souls to use , and to know only so far as is useful . He that made your Watch , taught not you how it 's made , but how to use it ▪ Instead therefore of your concluding complaints of your condition , thank God , who hath made man capable to seek him , serve him , love him , praise him , and rejoyce in hope of promised Perfection . Live not as a willful stranger to your Soul and God. Use faithfully the Faculties which he hath given you : sin not willfully against the truth revealed ; and leave things secret to God , till you come into the clearer light : and you shall have no cause to complain , that God , whose goodness is equal to his greatness , hath dealt hardly with mankind . Instead of trusting fallible man , trust Christ , who hath fully proved his trustiness ; and his Spirit will advance you to higher things than bruits are capable of . God be merciful to us dark unthankful sinners . Ri. Baxter . Mar. 14. 1681. ERRATA . IN the Second Part , p. 12. l. 9. for primus r Prime . p. 16. l. 21. for is r. are . I have not leisure to gather the rest , if there be any . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A26963-e120 Here 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 want 〈◊〉 the A●… Copy .