The simplicity and spirituality of its nature, of which I spake before, plainly shews us, that it is in its very nature designed for immortality ; for such a being or substance as this hath none of the seeds of corruption and death in its nature, as all material and compounded beings have. It hath nothing within it tending to dissolution : No jarring elements, no contrary qualities are found in spirits as there are in other creatures of a mixed nature. Phy- sicians and Philosophers have disputed and contended eagerly about the true causes of natural death ; " J and whilst they have been con- " tending about the way, they have come to the end.1' The in- gress of the soul is obscure, and its egress not clear. But this seems to be the thing in which they generally centre, that the expence and destruction of the § natural moisture, or radical balsam, as others call it, which is the oil that maintains natural heat, or the bridle that restrains that flame of life from departing, as others express it : this is the cause of natural death : Others ||
* Anima autem mentis particeps facto, wm solum Dei opus est, verum etiam pars ; nrque ah eo, sed de eo, et ex eojhcta. l'lut. de Qu. Platon.
■f Quomodo credibile videtur tarn eziguum vxentem kumanam membranula cerebri^ nut cordU haud amplis spaciis mclusam ; totam cceli mundique mapiUudinom raphe, nisi ilUus duin'vjlrlicisque animre parti cula esset indivisibilis ? Philo.
\ LitigamitS de via, interinm ad tenninurn rapimur.
§ As/ yao Xa£s/i/ oti to Zuov s?i <pv6n uygov zcu Qigfiov xai to Zt^ toustov. To 6i yrigag -yc/^ov, xou %/jpov xai to TSihr.y.os $ainrou yets uTog. i. e. For we must understand, that the animal hath a natural moisture and heat, which make*; it to live. But old age drying up that moisture, and changing that heat into coldness, occasions death. Aristotle, on lona and short life. l\ Tumjlamnuit et mice calidu >n aativum cnrporU noUri in humido priiuigcnio^ ejus huv\i->
502 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
assign the unequal reparation of the parts of the body as the cause of death. But be it one or another, it is evident the soul, which consists neither of contrary qualities, nor of dissimilar parts, must be above the reach and stroke of death. For if the soul die, it must be either from some seeds, and principles of death and cor- ruption within itself, or by some destructive power without itself. In itself you see there is no seed or principle of death ; and if it be destroyed by a power without itself, it must be either by the stroke of some creature, or from the hand of God that first formed and created it : But the hand and power of no creature can de- stroy it ; the creature's power reaches no farther than the body, Mat. x. 28. " They cannot kill the soul." And though the Al- mighty power of God, that created it out of nothing, can as easily reduce it to nothing ; yet he will never do so. For besides the de- signation for eternity, which is discernible in its very nature, (as before was observed) and which speaks the intention of God to perpetuate the threatenings of eternal wrath, and promises of ever- lasting life, respectively made to the souls of men, as they shall be found in Christ, or out of Christ, puts it beyond all doubt that they shall never die ; as will be more fully evidenced in the fol- lowing discourse.
Well then, I hope so far our way is clear, in the search of the nature of the soul, that it is a substance, a spiritual substance, and being so, it is also an immortal substance. No doubt remains with me as to either of these. Let us then proceed to the consideration of its faculties and powers by which it maybe yet more fully known, and we shall find that, It is a vital, spiritual, and immortal substance, endued with an understanding.
This is the noble leading faculty of the soul : We are not distin- guished from brutes by our senses, but by our understanding. As grace sets one man above another, so understanding sets the mean- est man above the best of brutes. Strange and wonderful things are performed by the natural instinct and sagacity of beasts ; but yet what is said of one, is true of them all, " God hath not im- u parted understanding to them,'1 Job xxxix. 17. This is a jewel which adorns none but rational creatures, men and angels.
di substantia consumitur, non aliter quam in lampade oleum ajlamma exhauritur. Heorni- us Aphor. 1. Turn diu durat vigor vitee, quam diu stat calidum nativum, donee ad mortem Juerit dev-ntum. Et quantum a calido et humido receditur, tantus ad mortem sit accessus* J. Bapt. Montan. Ortus nostri primordio, caloris es humoris nativi habent summum com~ plementum, S-c. Fernclius liber de spir. et. eal. Vergente estate, incequalis admodum sit reparalio, alia? partes reparantur satis Jeelicitur, sed alice cegre, et in pejus. Ut ab eo tempore corjyora humana subiri incipiunt tormentum illud Mezentii, ut viva in amplern mortvjrum immoriantur. Verulam, in additu Hist. vit?. et. mort.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 503
The understanding is a faculty of the reasonable soul by which a man apprehends and judges all intelligible things.
The object of it is every being, so tar as it is true in itself, and apprehensible by man. It hath a two-fold use in the life of man, viz.
(1.) To distinguish truth from error and falsehood. By this candle of the Lord, lighted up in the soul of man, he may discern betwixt duty and sin, good and evil : It is the eye of the soul, by which it seeth the way in which we should go, and the dangerous precipices that are on either side. It is the soul's taster, and dis- cerns wholesome food from baneful poison, Job xii. 11. " Doth not " the ear (i. e. the understanding by the ear) try words, as the %c mouth tasteth meat ?" It brings all things as it were in the lump before it, and then sorts them, and orderly ranks them into their proper classes of lawful and unlawful, necessary and indifferent, ex- pedient and inexpedient, that the soul may not be damnified by mistaking one for another. And this judgment of discretion every man must be allowed for himself. No man is obliged to shut the eves of his own understanding, and follow another man blind- fold.
(2.) To direct and guide us in our practice. This faculty is by philosophers rightly called ro rr/zpovixov, the leading faculty ; because the will follows its practical dictates. It sits at the helm, and guides the course of the soul ; not impelling, or rigorously enforcing its dictates upon the will ; for the will cannot be so imposed upon ; but by giving it a directive light, or pointing, as it were, with its fin- ger, what it ought to chuse, and what to refuse.
To this faculty belong two other excellent and wonderful powers of the soul, viz.
1. Thoughts. 2. Conscience.