But when the soul is freed, both from flesh and sin, and shall enjoy itself in a nature, hke to these pure and holy spirits, the dread of angels is then vanished, and the soul will take great con- tent and satisfaction in their company and communion : The soul then finds itself a fit companion for them ; looks upon them as its fellow-servants, for so they are, Rev. xix. 10. And the angels look upon the !!pints of just men, not as inferiors, or underlings, but with great respect, as spirits, in some sense, nearer to Christ than themselves: So that henceforth no dread falls upon us from the presence of til ese excellent creatures; but each enjoyeth singular delight in each others society. And thus we see in what honour- able and pleasing company the souls of the just go hence to their Father's house, and bosom.
Prop. 5. The soul is not so maimed and prejudiced hy its sepor- ration from the body, but that it both can, and doth live, and act without it ; and performs the acts of cogitation and volition, with- out tlw aid and ministry of the body.
I know it is objected by them that assert the soul's sleeping till the resurrection, that though its essence be not destroyed by death, yet its operations are obstructed by the want and absence of the body, its tool and instrument. And thus they form their objec- tion.
Object. All that the soul understands, it understands hy species* ; that is, the images of things ichich arc Jlrst formed in the phantasy : As "ichcn li-e would conceive the nature of a house, a ship, a man, or a beast: we first form the image, or species thereof in our fancy, and then exercise our thoughts about it : But this depending upon bodily organs, and instruments, the separated soul can form no such images : It hath no such innate species of its own, but comes into the world an abrasta tabula, white paper ; and being deprived by separation of the help of senses and phantasms, it consequently un- derstands nothing.
Thus the soul, in its state of separation, is represented to us as wounded in its powers and operations, to that degree, which seems to extinguish the very nature of it. But,
Sol. 1. We denv that the soul knows nothing now but by phan- tasmsf, and images ; for it knows itself, its own nature and powers, of w4iich it cannot possibly feign, or form any image, or represent
* There are three conditions requisite for the acts of the understanding. 1. The ob- ject, a being that is real and intelligible, 2. The phantasm, or sensible image lurking in the phantasy, o. The intelligible image, which is a spiritual accident, representing to the understanding, iu an ideal way, the material object that exists without the under- standing.
f The understanding contemplates objects incorporeal and immaterial, such as God and intelligent beings. But these by no moans affect the phantasy, for they are beyond the reach of corporeal powers. Cordmb. on the soul. 1. o. c. 8. q. 8,
A TREAl'lSE 6V THE SOUL Ot=* MAlJ. 35
tation. What form^ shape, or figure, can the fancy of a man cast his own soul into, to help him to understand its nature ?
And what shall wc say of its understanding during an ecstasy, or rapture ? Doth the soul know nothing at such a time ? Doth a dull torpor seize and benumb its intellectual powers ? No ; the under- standing is never more bright, clear, apprehensive, and perfect, than when the body, in an ecstasy is laid aside, as to any use or assistance of the mind : The soul for that space uses not the body's assistance^ as the very words ecstasy and rapture convince us.
2. * To understand by sjyecies^ doth not agree to the soul naturally and necessarily, but by accident, as it is now in union with the body : Were it but once loosed from the body, it would understand better without them, than ever it did in the body by them. A man that is on horseback, must move according to the motion of the horse he rides ; but if he were on foot, he then uses his own proper motion as he pleaseth ; so here. But though we grant the soul doth in many cases now make use of phantasms, and that the agitation of the spirits, which are in the brain and heart, are conjunct with its acts of cogitation and intellection: Yet, as a searching -f scholar well observes, the spirits are rather subjects than instruments of those actions ; and the whole essence of those acts is antecedent to the motion of the spirits : As when we use a pen in writing, or a knife in cutting, there is an operation of the soul upon them, before there can be any operation by them : They act as they are first acted, and so do these bodily spirits. So that to speak properly, the body is bettered by the use the soul makes of it in these its noble actions ; but the soul is not advantaged by being tied to such a body ; it can do its own work without it ; its operations follow its essence^ not the body to which it is for a time united.
Upon the whole ; it is much more absonous and difficult to con- ceive a stupified, benumbed, and unactive soul, whose very nature is to be active, lively, and always in motion, than it is to conceive a soul freed from the shackles and clogs of the body, acting freely according to its own nature. I wish the favourers of this opinion may take heed, lest it carry them farther than they intend, even to a denial of its existence and immortality, and turn them into downright Somatists or Atheists.
Proposition 6. That the separated souls of the just having finished all their work of obedience on earthy afidthe Spirit having finished
* For if this belongs not to the nature of the soul, but bj- accident agrees to itj namely from this, that it is tied to the body, a« the Platonists affirm, then tha question is easily solved. For the soul being loosed from the body, \riil return *o ita own nature. Jqidn. p. 1. Q. 8. Art> 1.
f Howe's Ulcssedacss, 2^' 1"4. IT 5,
aO A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
all his work of sanctification upon them, they ascend to God, with all the habits of grace inherent in them ; and all the coiiifortable im^ provements of their graces accompanying and following them.
This proposition is to be opened and confirmed in these four branches.
(1.) When a gracious soul is separated from the body, all its work of obedience in this world is finished. Therefore death is called the " finishing of our course," Acts xx. 24. " The night " when man works no more,""* John ix. 4. " There is no working " in the grave,"' Eccl. ix. 10. for death dissolves the compositum, and removes the soul immediately to another world, where it can act for itself only, but not for others, as it was wont to do on earth. " I shall see man no more (saith Hezekiah) with the mhabitants of the world," Isa. xxxviii. 11. That which was said of David's death, is as true of every Christian, that " having " served his generation according to the will of God, he fell " asleep," Acts xiii. 36.