The Catechizing of Families, Chapter 2
CHAP. II. How to know our selves by Nature.
Qu. 1. WHat is the first thing that a man must know?
Ans. The first in Being and Excellency is GOD▪ But the first in Time known by Man, or the lowest step where our Knowledge beginneth, are the sensible things near us, (which we see, hear, feel, &c.) and especially our selves.a1 Io. 1. 1, 2, 3. Act. 1. 3. & 4. 20. & 26. 16.
Q. 2. What know we of the things which we se… and feel, &c?
A. A Man of sound senses and understanding knoweth them to be such as Sense apprehendeth, whil… they are rightly set before him; the Eye seeth Ligh… and Colours, the Ear heareth Sounds and words, and so of the rest; and the sound Understanding judgeth them to be such as the sense perceiveth, unles… distance or false Mediums deceive us.bIoh. 20▪ 20, 25, 27.
Q. 3. But how know you that sense is not deceived? you say that is Bread and Wine in the Sacrament, which the Papists say is not?
A. God hath given us no other faculties bu… Sense, by which to judge of sensible things, as Ligh… and Darkness, Heat and Cold, Sweet and Bitter, Soft and Hard, &c. Therefore if we be here deceived, God is our Deceiver, and we are remediless; even Faith and Reason suppose our Senses, and their true Perception; and if that first Perception be false, Faith and Reason could be no truer: God expecteth not that we should Judge by other Faculties than such as he hath given us for the Perception of those Objects.
Q. 4. What doth a Man first perceive of himself?
A. We first feel that we are real Beings; and we perceive that we use and have our Senses, that we See, Hear, Feel, Smell, Taste; and then we perceive that we Understand and Think of the things so Seen, Felt, &c. And that we gather one thing from another, and that we Love Good, and Hate Evil; and Choose, Refuse, and Do accordingly.
Q. 5. What do you next know of your selves?
A. When we perceive that we See, Feel, &c. and Think, Love, Hate, &c. we know that we have a Power of Soul to do all this, for no one doth that which he is not made able to do.
Q. 6. And what do you next know of your self?
A. When I know what I Do, and that I can do it, I know next that I am a Substance endued with this Power; for nothing hath no Power nor Act, it can do nothing.
Q. 7. What know you next of your self?
A. I know that this Substance which Thinketh, Understandeth and Willeth, is an unseen Substance, for neither I nor any mortal Man seeth it, and that is it which is called a Spirit.
Q. 8. What next perceive you of your self?
A. I Perceive that in this one Substance there is a Threefold Power, marvellously but One, and yet Three as Named from the Objects and Effects, that is, 1. A Power of meer Growing motion, common to Plants. 2. A Power of Sense common to Beasts. 3. And a Power of Understanding and Reason about things above Sense, proper to a Man; three Powers in one spiritual Substance.
Q. 9. What else do you find in your self?
A. I find that my spiritual Substance as Intellectual, hath also a Threefold Power in one, that is, 1. Intellectual Life, by which I move and act my faculties, and execute my purposes. 2. Understanding. 3. And Will, and that these are marvellously diverse, and yet one.
Q. 10. What else find you by your self?
A. I find that this unseen Spirit is here United to a humane Body, and is in Love with it, and careth for it, and is much limited by it, in its Perceivings, Willings and Workings; and so that a Man is an Incorporate Understanding Spirit, or a humane Soul and Body.
Q. 11. What else perceive you by your self?
A. I perceive that my higher Powers are given me to rule the lower, my Reason to rule my Senses and Appetite, my Soul to rule and use my Body, as Man is made to rule the Beasts.
Q. 12. What know you of your self as related to others?
A. I see that I am a Member of the World of Mankind, and that others are better than I, and multitudes better than one; and that the Welfare of Mankind depends much on their Duty to one another; and therefore that I should Love all according to their worth, and faithfully endeavour the good of all.
Q. 13. What else know you of your self?
A. I know that I made not my self, and maintain not my self in Life and Safety, and therefore that another made me and maintaineth me; and I know that I must Die by the Separation of my Soul and Body.
Q. 14. And can we tell what then becomes of the Soul?
A. I am now to tell you but how much of it our Nature tells us, the rest I shall tell you afterward; we may know, 1. That the Soul being a Substance in the Body, will be a Substance out of it, unless God should destroy it, which we have no cause to think he will. 2. That Life, Understanding and Will being its very Nature, it will be the same after Death, and not a thing of some other kind. 3. That the Soul being naturally Active, and the World full of Objects, it will not be a sleepy or unactive thing. 4. That its Nature here being to mind its Interest in another Life, by Hopes or Fears of what will follow, God made not its Nature such in vain, and therefore that Good or Evil in the Life that's next will be the Lot of all.