The Reasons of the Christian Religion Part 1, Conclusion · Objection 18 – Objection 19
OBJECTION XVIII.
THe Platoniſts, and ſome Platonick Divines, have ſo many dreams and fopperies about the ſoul's future ſtate, in aerial and aethereal vehicles, and their durations, as maketh that doctrine the more to be ſuſpected.
Anſw. 1. Whether all ſouls hereafter be incorporate in ſome kind of bodies, which they call vehicles, is a point which is not without difficulty. A ſober Chriſtian may poſſibly doubt, whether there be any incorporeal ſimple eſſence in a ſeparated exiſtence beſides God alone. Thoſe that doubt of it, do it on theſe grounds. 1. They think, that abſolute ſimplicity is a divine incommunicable perfection. 2. They think that Chriſt is the nobleſt of all creatures; and that ſeeing he ſhall be compound of a humane Soul and Body, (though glorified and ſpiritual) to eternity, therefore no Angel ſhall excell him in natural ſimplicity and perfection.Plotinus his Enn… 4. de Anima, has great deal of doe in it, much wiſer wholeſome than the Epicurus and the tomiſts. 3. Becauſe it is ſaid that we ſhall be equal with the Angels: and yet we ſhall, (at the Reſurrection) be compounded of a ſoul and body. 4. Becauſe it is ſaid, that He made his Angels ſpirits, and his miniſters a flame of fire. 5. Becauſe the ancient Fathers, who firſt thought Angels to be ſubtil bodies, were confuted by thoſe (as Mammertus forementioned) who aſſerted them to be fiery bodies, animated with incorporeal ſouls. 6. Becauſe they read of the Devils dwelling in the air, as one caſt down: therefore they think that he hath an aery body, inſtead of an ethereal or fiery. 7. Becauſe they ſee the Sun ſo glorious a creature, in compariſon of a body of fleſh: therefore they think that the ſymmetry and proportion among God's works requireth, that bodies and forms, or ſouls, be ſuitable. 8. Becauſe they know not what elſe becometh of the ſenſitive ſoul of man, when he dieth; which they take to be but a ſubtil body: and therefore think it goeth as a body or vehicle with the rational ſoul. 9. Becauſe they miſtake that difficult Text, 2 Cor. 5.1, 2, 8. think by the 7 and 8 verſes, that it ſpeaketh of the inſtant after death; and thinking by the firſt and ſecond verſes, that (as Beza and moſt think) it ſpeaketh of a celeſtial body as our cloathing, and not of a meer ſtate of glory to the ſoul.
I name their reaſons, that you may be charitable in your cenſures; but the truth is, they talk of unrevealed or uncertain things, which do but trouble the heads of Chriſtians to no purpoſe, who may live better, and ſpeed better, by following the naked precepts of Chriſtianity, and hoping for ſuch a glory as Chriſt hath plainly deſcribed, without prying into that which doth leſs concern them to be acquainted with.
2. And Satan knoweth that over-doing is one way of undoing. Thus men on all extremes do harden one another. As in theſe times among us it is notorious, that the men of one extreme in Church affairs do harden the other, and the other harden them. And as Fanaticiſm riſeth from the diſliking of ſenſuality and prophaneneſs; incautelous, and ſenſual and prophane men run into hell to avoid fanaticiſm; even ſo the bruitiſh groſsneſs of the Somatiſts driveth ſome Philoſophers into Platonick dreams, and the Platonick fictions harden the Epicureans in a far worſer way. Lactantius, de ira Dei, cap. 13. thinks, that Epicurus was moved to his opinion againſt Providence, by ſeeing the hurt that good men and Religious endure from the wo…ſer ſort here in this world. But why ſhould you run out on one ſide the way, becauſe other men run out on the other? why do you not rather argue from the doctrine in the ſober mean, that it is true; than from the extreams that the truth is falſhood? When reaſon will allow you to conclude no more than that thoſe extremes are falſhood. But ſurely I had rather hold Plato's Anima mundi, or Ariſtotle's Intellectus agens, and his moving Intelligences, than Epicurus his Atoms and motion only. And I had rather think with Alexander Arphad. that omnis actio corporis eſt ab incorporeo principio; yea, or the Stoicks doctrine of Intellectual Fire doing all; than Gaſſendus his doctrine, that no incorporeal thing can move a corporeal, or that Atoms and their motion only do all that we find done in nature.
When I look over and about me, I find it a thing quite paſt my power to think, that the glorious parts above us are not repleniſhed with much nobler creatures than we. And therefore if the Platoniſts, and the ancient Platonick Fathers of the Church, did all think that they lived in communion with Angels, and had much to do with them, and that the ſuperiour intelligences were a nobler part of their ſtudies than meer bodies, they ſhall have the full approbation of my reaſon in this, though I would not run with them into any of their preſumptions, and uncertain or unſound conceits.
Saith Aeneas Gazaeus, pag. 778. when he had told us that Plato, Pythagoras, Plotinus and Numenius were for the paſſing of men's ſouls into bruits, but Porphyry and Jamblichus were againſt it, and thought that they paſſed only into men, Ego quidem hac ipſa de cauſa filium aut famulum ob id quod commiſerint peccatum puniens, antequam de ipſis ſupplicium ſumam, praemoneo, ut meminerint ne poſthac unquam in eadem mala recurrant. Deus autem quando ultima ſupplicia decernit, non edocet eos qui poenarum cauſas, ſed ſcelerum memoriam omnem tollet? vide pag. 382. For this reaſon and many others, we aſſume not their conceit of the ſoul's pre-exiſtence, and think all ſuch unproved fancies to be but ſnares to trouble the world with. We think not that God puniſheth men for ſin in another world, while he totally obliterateth the memory of the other world and of their ſin: When he hath told us that In Adam all die, and By one mans diſobedience many are made ſinners, and ſo condemnation paſſed upon all, Rom. 5. Nor will we with Origen thus tempt men to look for more ſuch changes hereafter, which we can give them no proof of. Nor will we diſtribute the Angelical Hierarchy into all the degrees, which the pſeudo-Dionyſius doth; nor with the Gnoſticks, Baſilidians, Saturninians, Valentinians, and abundance of thoſe antient Hereticks, corrupt Chriſtianity with the mixture of fanatick dreams, about the unrevealed Powers and worlds above us, either worſhipping Angels, or prying into thoſe things which he hath not ſeen, (and are not revealed) vainly puft up by his fleſhly mind, (or without cauſe puffed up by the imagination of his own fleſh, as Dr. Hammond tranſlateth it) Col. 2.18. Nor will we make a Religion with Paracelſus, Behmen, the Roſicrucians, or the reſt, deſcribed by Chriſt. Beckman, Exercit. of the Philoſophical whimſies of an over-ſtretch'd imagination. And yet we will not reject the ſaying of Athenagoras, Apol. pag. 57. Magnum numerum Angelorum & Miniſtrorum Dei eſſe fatemur; quos opifex & architectus mundi Deus Verbo ſuo tanquam in claſſes ordinavit centuriavitque, ut elementa, coelos, mundum, & quae in mundo ſunt, viceſque & ordinem omnium moderarent. Though we may adde with Junilius Africanus, that [Whether the Angels meddle with the government of the world of ſtabliſhed creatures, is a difficult queſtion.]
OBJECTION XIX.
See Plotin. Ennead. 4. l. 3. p 185. ſhewing, that in ſeparated ſouls Reaſon is ſo powerful, that it ex tempore conceiveth all things propounded by the Intellect; and that ſouls in Heaven converſe without voice, but daemons and ſouls that are in the air converſe by voice.IF the ſoul do continue individuate, yet its actings will not be ſuch as they are now in the body, becauſe they have not ſpirits to act by: And as Gaſſendus thinketh, that the reaſon of oblivion in old men, is the wearing out of the veſtigia of the former ſpirits, by the continual flux or tranſition of matter; ſo we may conceive that all memory will ceaſe to ſeparated ſouls, on the ſame account: and therefore they will be unfit for Rewards or Puniſhments, as not remembring the cauſe.
Anſw. 1. I… Gaſſendus his opinion were true, men ſhould forget all things once a year, if not once a month, conſidering how many pounds of matter are ſpent every 24 hours. And why then do we better, when we are old, remember the things which we did between nine or ten years old, and twenty,Vid. Porphyr. de occaſion. de Paſſionibus Animae & corp. than moſt of the later paſſages of our lives, (as I do for my part very ſenſibly.)
2. What is mans memory (for with bruits we meddle not) but ſcientia praeteritorum? Is not remembring a knowing of things paſt? ſurely we may perceive that it is; and that it is of the ſame kind of action with the knowing of things preſent. And therefore we may make not memory a third faculty, becauſe it is the ſame with the underſtanding.
3. We have little reaſon to think, that the ſurviving ſoul will loſe any of its eſſential powers, and grow by its change not only impotent, but another thing. Therefore it will be ſtill an intelligent power. And though remote actions and effects (ſuch as writing, fighting, &c.) are done by inſtruments, which being removed we cannot do them without; yet eſſential acts are nothing ſo, (which flow immediately from the eſſence of the agent, as light, heat and motion of the fire:) If there be but due objects, theſe will be performed without ſuch inſtruments: Nor will the Creator, who continueth at an active intelligent power, continue it ſo in vain, by denying it neceſſaries for its operations. There is like to be much difference in many reſpects, between the ſoul's actings here and hereafter: but the acts flowing from its eſſence immediately, as knowledge, volition, complacency, (called Love) and Diſplacencie, &c. will be the ſame.Plotin. ubi ſupr. p. 391. ſect. 26. ſheweth, that Memory is more pertinent to the ſoul than the body, and oft without the body. Et ſect. 29, &c. Et c. 31, 32. the difference between the ſenſitive and rational memory. Et l. 2 he ſheweth, that the ſoul in heaven forgetteth theſe trifles, not through ignorance, but contempt. How far the ſoul here doth act, without any idea or inſtrument, I have ſpoken before. And the manner of our acting hereafter, no man doth now fully underſtand: But that which is eſſentially an intellectual volitive power, will not be idle in its active eſſence, for want of a body to be its inſtrument. If we may ſo far aſcribe to God himſelf ſuch Affections or Paſſions, as the ingenious Mr. Samuel Parker, in his Teutam. Phil. l. 2. c. 8. p. 333, &c. hath notably opened, we have no reaſon to think that ſcientia praeteritorum is not to be aſcribed to a ſoul, when it is ſeparated from the corporeal ſpirits.
Or if the ſoul out of the body were as liable, as it is by diſeaſes of the body while it is in it, to the loſs of memory, yet all thoſe arguments which prove the Life of Retribution hereafter, do fully prove that God will provide it a way of exerciſe, and prevent all thoſe hinderances of memory, which may make his Judgment and Retribution void. Again, therefore I ſay, To argue ab ignotis againſt clear evidence, in matters that our own everlaſting joy or ſorrow is concerned in ſo deeply, is a folly, that no tongue can expreſs with its due aggravations.