diftinct in his Judgment; and the promifcuous Ufe of the Words, tho' it should be thro' the whole Current of his Writing proves nothing at all to the contrary; nor argues any Inconfiftency in the Author; no hor fo much as Impropriety of Speech; if the Language he writes in will account for it. And this alfo I take to be fo evident, that, without more Words, I fubmit it.

Pag. 207.

By what I have said in answer to this Propofition, I wou'd perfuade Eftibins to believe, that as ftrong as his Reafoning is, he is not always Master of his Adverfary's Senfe; for he feems not to have forefeen any thing like fuch an Anfwer, when he puts into our Mouths only this Distinction for our full Anfwer, That Life is not the Soul, but the confequent of it. Let us fee what he fays to this Distinction; and, tho' it must be confefs'd that he's but a very weak Difputant, that falters when he has both Ob. and Sol. of his own managing; yet we shall find that Eftibius has not faid enough to invalidate this Solution. First, he fays, that fuch an Affertion is not reasonable to be granted,becaufe the Pfycomuthift fuppofes, and not proves the Existence of fuch a spiritual Substance. This is faid purely in Ignorance of the Laws and Method of Difpute, which allow the Refpondent to fuppofe, and oblige the ObT jector

Ibid.

jector to prove all along; however one of thefe I hope has done more than suppose the Distinction, before he undertook to defend it. 2dly, Says he, Because the very Words fignifying Soul, do not, in the Senfe of three Languages, denote any thing more than Life; nor give the least Umbrage to call it a fpiritual Substance. From whence I conclude, if I may prefume to conclude any thing from it, that never any Man who wrote in these three Languages, cou'd by Soul mean a fpiritual Subftance; let the Scripture, Ariftotle, and Tully explain themselves (which I have fhewn they have done as clearly for fuch a meaning, as an intelligible Writer need to do to an intelligent Reader. 3dly, He fays, because if Life were only a confequent, or neceffary effect of the Soul, then Knowledge, as its infeparable Attribute, won'd attend that Soul to its place of Exiftence; and confequently even dead Men wou'd know, or have Knowledge; but we never heard, or read of any Lazarus rais'd from the Dead, that ever pretended to give us the least account from the other World; which me thinks is very strange, fuch an intelligent Being as our Soul is call'd, fhou'd not in fome Cafes be able to do. I do not intend, throughout this Difcourfe, to meddle with the Prophane History of Apparitions. For, tho' I am as fully perfuaded of the Truth of fome

of

of these Relations, as I am that there were fuch Perfons in the World as thofe of whom they are related; yet I am not willing my fuppofed Credulity fhou'd be made a Piea for any Man's Infidelity; and I am entirely of this Opinion, that they, especially they who after an Examination, reject all the other Evidence there is for the separate, as well as future State, are far from deferving, and wou'd be as far from making a right Use of fuch Conviction: but the Sight, as well as the Story, wou'd with them, as furely, tho' perhaps not so soon, turn into a Jest.

But to the Objection. It's true we read of but one Lazarus actually rais'd from the Dead; and he gives no Account of the feparate State, in which he had been four Days (for he that rais'd him was better able to do that, and had another End in raifing of him ;) but we read of another Lazarus, that was folicited to come from that State, and give an Account of it in this. To come, I fay, from the intermediate State, for fuch must be the State Dives was in, while his Brethren were alive upon Earth; therefore his Request proves the thing at least bare ly poffible, tho' we make a Parable of t whole Relation: For I believe none of our Bleffed Saviour's Parables proceed upon impoffible Suppofitions. And if it be poffible for a Lazarus to come from fuch a State, T 2 then

then there is actually fuch a State

and that's as full Proof as if he did actually come from it. I know not what Eftibius will fay to this, unless it be that God might revive Lazarus to work the Repentance of those Sinners; and that this wou'd more effectually do it, than his ordinary Difpenfation: But then I ask, where was Dives all this while? I am fure Knowledge, a fad experimental Knowledge, was his infeparable Attribute in that State; and I wou'd defire to know, what Argument Lazarus, on Supposition he had gone the Errand, cou'd make ufe of, befides the Frightfulness of his own Appearance (and that was to convince them of the separate State,) or what fort of an Account his wou'd have been of a State of Annihilation. But I think Abraham's Answer confirms the Reality of the feparate State, by giving fo juft a Reason why Lazarus does not appear from it; and not telling him, as before, where he pray'd that Lazarus might be fent for fome time to his Place of Torment, that the Gulph was fix'd, and the Way impaffable.

This was the Cafe of one of the two azarus's we read of in Scripture; and had the mention of the other brought this to mind, it shou'd have ftop'd, methinks, that Rant that follows; No, no, it is all a Popish Fable; and the Return

Pag.208,

1

of

All

of the Souls from the Dead, or any Purgatory, nought but an advantageons Fiction. Fiction. a Popish Fable! I am forry to hear the Primitive Fathers were Papifts: For they, as Eftibius often tells us, thro' great Ignorance held the separate Existence of the Soul. He brings it as an Objection against the Pre-existence of Human Souls, that it is not to be found in ChurchHiftorians; and his Reading must not be difputed as to that Point; but in what Church-Hiftorian he found Popery and Purgatory as old as Chriftianity, or the first Centuries of it, I cannot, nor I hope can he himself tell.

Pag. 76.

Pag.211.

From hence to Pag. 213 he takes occafion to explain his meaning of Life and Soul being the fame; particularly by the Parallel of Light; in which Notion he seems to be wonderfully delighted, and to expatiate in expreffing it for a Page and half. It is too tedious to transcribe, and too metaphorical to fet down as an Objection; but here is the Senfe, and doubtlefs the Original of this elegant Simile. As when the Sun Beams fhine into a dark Room, and enlighten it, Mundi, p. 27. you may easily exclude it from fhi

Blount Anima

ning into the Room, but can never intercept, or cut thofe Beams off from their Original, the Sun The like Relation they [the Hea T 3 thens