Part 45

3. Concerning the description of this Astral Spirit or Sydereal Body, (for though it be as a spirit, or the image in the looking-glass, yet it is truly corporeal) we shall give the sum of it, as _Paracelsus_ in his magisterial way, without proof doth lay down. “He positively holdeth that there are three essential parts in Man, which he calleth the three great substances, and that at death every one of these being separated, doth return into, or unto the Womb from whence it came; as The Soul that was breathed in by God, doth at death return unto God that gave it: And that the Body, that is to say, that gross part that seems to be composed of the two inferior Elements of Earth and Water, doth return unto the Earth, and there in time consume away, some bodies in a longer time, some in a shorter: But the third part which he calleth the Astral Spirit, or Sydereal Body, as being firmamental, and consisting of the two superior Elements of Air and Fire, it (he saith) returneth into its Sepulcher of the Air, where in time it is also consumed, but requireth a longer time than the body, in regard it consisteth of more pure Elements than the other, and that one of these Astral Spirits or Bodies doth consume sooner than another, as they are more impure, or pure. And that it is this spirit that carrieth along with it the thoughts, cogitations, desires and imaginations that were impressed upon the mind at the time of death, with the sensitive faculties of concupiscibility and irascibility. And that it is this spirit or body (and not the Soul that resteth in the hands of the Lord) that appeareth, and is most usually conversant in those places, and those negotiations that the mind of the person living (whose spirit it was) did most earnestly follow, and especially those things that at the very point of death, were most strongly impressed upon this spirit, as in the case of the person murthered, whose mind in the very minute of the murther, receiveth a most deep impression of detestation and revenge against the murtherer, which this spirit bearing with it, doth by all means possible seek the accomplishment of that revenge, and therefore doth cause dreams of discovery, bleedings and strange motions of the body murthered, and sometimes plain apparitions of the persons murthered, in their usual shape and habit, and doth vocally and audibly reveal the murther with all the circumstances,” as is apparent in the two forementioned Histories of the apparition of _Fletcher_ to _Raynard_, and of the Woman murthered by _Mark Sharp_, to the Miller _Grimes_.

[Sidenote: _De Anim. Brut._ _c._ 1, 2.]

4. And this Astral Spirit is no more than that part in Man that is commonly called the sensitive Soul, and by the Schools is commonly defined thus: “_Anima sentiens est vis, quæ apprehendit & percipit ea quæ extra ipsam sunt_. And this is corporeal, and (as Dr. _Willis_ holdeth) mortal and coextended with the Body, and that it hath the power of imagination, appetite, desire, and aversion and the like, and in a manner, a sensitive way of ratiocination, and yet is distinct from the rational Soul or _Mens_ that is incorporeal, immortal, and far more excellent.” And perspicacious _Helmont_ holding this sensitive Soul to be distinct from the _mens_ or immortal and rational Soul, saith thus: _Est ergo anima sensitiva, caduca, mortalis, mera lux vitalis data à patre luminum, nec alio modo verboq; explicabilis_. But of the rational Soul he saith: _Ipsa autem mens immortalis, est substantia lucida, incorporea, immediate Dei sui imaginem referens, quia eandem in creando, sive in ipso Empsychosis instanti, sibi insculptam suscepit_. So that both these late and learned Authors hold, that in every Man there are two distinct Souls, the sensitive that is mortal, corporeal, and coextended with the Body, and the rational, that is immortal and absolutely incorporeal: so that though in words and terms they seem to differ, yet in substance they agree. For the Hermetick School, the Platonists, _Paracelsus_, _Jacob Behemen_, and others do hold three parts in Man which they call, Soul, Spirit and Body, and these two last Authors do hold the body to be one part in Man, and two Souls besides, the sensitive and rational that are two distinct parts, the one corporeal and mortal, and the other incorporeal and immortal, and so they do but nominally differ. And now our task must be to prove, that first there are such three parts in Man, and that after death they do separately exist, which we shall attempt in this order.

[Sidenote: Gen. 1. 30.]

[Sidenote: Eccles. 3. 21.]

[Sidenote: _Ibid._ 12. 7.]

[Sidenote: Matth. 10. 28.]

[Sidenote: Acts 20. 10.]

[Sidenote: Luke 23. 46.]

1. Though arguments taken _à notatione nominis_, do not necessarily prove, yet they illustrate, and render the case plain and intelligible; and we shall find that the _Hebrews_ have three distinct appellations for these three parts. As for the Soul, either rational or sensitive, or vital spirit, they use _Nephesh_ which is common to brutes and reptiles as well as to Man, as saith the Text: _And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth in which there is a living soul, Nephesh-Haiah_. And therefore to distinguish the rational and immortal Soul, from this which is sensitive, mortal and common with brutes, the Text saith: _And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul_. Upon which _Tremellius_ gives us this note: _Ut clarius appareret discrimen quod est inter animam hominis, & reliquorum animantium: Horum enim animæ ex eadem materia provenerunt, unde corpora habebant, illius verò anima spiritale quiddam est & Divinum_. And upon the words; _Sic fuit homo. Id est (ait) hac ratione factum est, ut terrea illa statua animata viveret_. Another word they use, which is _Ruah_, and this is also generally attributed to Men and Beasts, as the words of _Solomon_ do witness. _Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upwards, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?_ And in both these, touching both Man and Beast, the word _Ruah_ is used as common to them both; and sometimes it is taken specially for the rational immortal Soul, as, _And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it_. Also they have the word _Niblah_, and _Basar_, that is, _corpus_, _caro_, or _cadaver_, and by these three they set forth, or distinguish these three parts. And the Grecians have likewise their three several names for these parts, as ψυχὴ, _anima_, _vita_, which is taken promiscuously sometimes for the rational and immortal Soul, as in this place; _And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell_. And it is taken for the life in that of the _Acts_: _And Paul said, Trouble not your selves, his life is in him_. Also they have the word Πνεῦμα, _Spiritus, ventus_, _spiritus vitæ_, being variously taken, yet sometimes for the rational and immortal Soul, as _Father into thy hands I commend my spirit_. So they have the word Σῶμα, _Corpus_, the body or gross and fleshly part. And to these accord the three Latine terms for these three distinct parts; _Anima_, _Spiritus_ and _Corpus_.

[Sidenote: _Mens ad Herm._ _p._ 21.]

[Sidenote: _Pimand._ _c._ 12. _p. mihi_ 451.]

[Sidenote: _Comment. in Conviv. Platon._ _p._ 400.]

[Sidenote: _Vid. De Anim. Brutor._ _c._ 7. _p._ 73.]

2. This opinion of these three parts in Man, to wit Body, Soul and Spirit, is neither new, nor wants Authors of sufficient credit and learning to be its Patrons. For _Hermes Trismegistus_ an Author almost of the greatest Antiquity saith thus: καὶ ὁ μὲν Θεὸς ἐν τῷ νῷ, ὁ δὲ νοῦς ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ, ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ ἐν τῇ ὕλη. That is, _God is in the mind, the mind in the soul, and the soul in matter_. But _Marsilius Ficinus_ gives it thus: _Beatus Deus, Dæmon bonus, animam esse in corpore, mentem in anima, in mente verbum pronunciavit_. And further addeth: _Deus verò circa omnia, simul atq; per omnia, mens circa animam, anima circa aërem, aër circa materiam_. And some give it more fully thus. _God is in the mind, the mind in the Soul, the Soul in the Spirit, the Spirit in the blood, and the blood in the Body._ But besides this ancient testimony, it is apparent that the whole School of the Platonists, both the elder and later were of this opinion, and also the most of the Cabalists: For _Ficinus_ from the Doctrine of _Plato_ tells us this: _Humanæ cogitationis domicilium anima ipsa est. Animæ domicilium spiritus. Domicilium spiritus hujus est corpus._ But omitting multitudes of others that are strong Champions for this Tenent, we think for authorities to acquiesce in that of our most learned Physician and Anatomist Dr. _Willis_, and in those that he hath quoted, which we shall give in the English: First he saith: “Lest I be tedious in rehearsing many, it pleaseth me here only to cite two Authors (but either of which is a Troop) for the confutation of the contrary opinion. The one (he saith) is the most famous Philosopher _Petrus Gassendus_, who _Physic. Sect._ 3. _lib._ 9. _c._ 11. doth divide, _toto Cœlo_, (as is said) the mind of man, from the other sensitive power, as much as is possible to be done, by many and most signal notes of discrimination, yea disjoining of them (as it is said in the Schools) by specific differences: Because when he had shewed this to be corporeal, extended, nascible and corruptible, he saith the other is an incorporeal substance, and therefore immortal, which is immediately created, and infused into the body by God; to which opinion he sheweth _Pythagoras_, _Plato_, _Aristotle_, and for the most part all the ancient Philosophers, except _Epicurus_, did much agree; excepting notwithstanding that they did hold, as not knowing the origin of the Soul, which they judged to be immortal, that it being cropt off from the soul of the world, did slide into the body, and that it was poured again into the Soul of the world either immediately, or at the last mediately, after its transmigration into other bodies.”

[Sidenote: _Ibid._ _p._ 74.]

The other suffrage (he saith) upon this matter, is of the most learned Divine Dr. _Hamond_, our Countryman, who opening the Text _Epist. Thessalo._ 1. _c._ 5. _v._ 23. to wit, _your whole spirit and soul and body &c._ “He saith that Man is divided into three parts. 1. To wit, into the body, by which is denoted the flesh and the members. 2. Into the vital soul, which in like manner being animal and sensitive is common to man with the bruits. 3. Into the spirit, by which the rational soul, that was first created of God, is signified, which also being immortal doth return unto God. _Annot. in Nov. Testam._ _lib. p._ 711.” This his exposition he confirmeth by Testimonies brought from Ethnick Authors, and also from the ancient Fathers. From all which the learned Dr. doth make this conclusion: “And from the things above (he saith) it is most evidently manifest, that man being as it were an Amphibious animal, or of a middle nature and order betwixt the Angels and bruits, with these he doth communicate by a corporeal soul, framed of the vital blood and the stock of animal spirit, joyned likewise in one; and with the other he communicates by an intelligent soul immaterial and immortal.” And thus much for arguments brought from humane authority, which are prevalent, if they be brought affirmatively (as these are) from learned men or Artificers, and so we shall proceed to further kind of proofs.

[Sidenote: 1 Thes. 5. 23.]

[Sidenote: Ephes. 4. 17.]

3. But an argument arising from Divine Authority is of the most force of all, and therefore let us a little survey the Text it self, which in our English Translation is thus: _And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly: And I pray God your whole Spirit, and Soul, and Body be preserved blameless, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ_. The Apostle having given the believing _Thessalonians_ all the spiritual counsel that could be necessary, to bring them to the perfection of sanctification, doth pray for them, that the God of peace would sanctifie them wholly, or as the word ὁλοτελοῖς signifieth (as _Arias Montanus_ hath rendered it) _omninòperfectos_, altogether perfect, And that the whole, ὁλόκληρον, that is the whole part, portion or lot (for so the word properly signifieth) which he nameth by _Spirit, Soul and Body, to be preserved blameless, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ_. And therefore to this doth learned _Beza_ add this note: “_Tum demùm igitur (ait) homo integer sanctificatus fuerit, quum nihil cogitabit spiritus, nihil appetet anima, nihil exequetur corpus, quod cum Dei voluntate non consentiat_.” And before he had said: “Therefore _Paul_ by the appellation of spirit doth signifie the mind, in which the principal stain lieth: and by the Soul the rest of the inferior faculties, and by the body the domicile of the Soul.” And in another place he saith: “The mind is become vain, the cogitation obscured, the appetite hardened.” And to the same purpose doth learned _Rollock_ upon the place say thus much: “Sanctification, or transformation is not of any one part, but of all the parts, and of the whole man. For there is no part or particle in man, which was not deformed in that first fall, and made as it were monstrous. Therefore μεταμόρφωσις, or transformation ought to be of the whole man and of every singular part of him. And further he saith: For the whole man the Apostle hath here the enumeration of his principal parts. And they are three in number, Spirit, Soul and Body. By the spirit (he saith) I understand the mind, which the Apostle _Eph._ 4. 24. calleth _the spirit of the mind_, and this is no other thing than the faculty of the rational mind, which is discerned in invention, and in judging of things found out. By the name of soul (he saith) I understand all those inferior faculties of the mind, as are the animal which are also called natural. The body doth follow these parts, to wit that gross part which is the instrument by which the spirit and soul do exert their functions and operations.” By all which it is most clear, that though they call them faculties, yet they are distinct essential parts of the whole man, which is most manifest, in that the body, though one of these three, cannot be a faculty, but a meer instrument, and yet is one of the essential parts, that doth integrate the whole man. But whosoever shall seriously consider, how little satisfaction the definition of a faculty given by either Philosophers or Physicians, will bring to a clear understanding, may easily perceive, that distinct parts are commonly taken to be faculties.

[Sidenote: _Ut supra_ _c._ 7. _p._ 74.]

4. The first argument that this learned Physician urgeth, to prove that there are two Souls in man, the one sensitive and corporeal, the other rational, immortal and incorporeal, is in this order. “But (he saith) whereas it is said that the rational soul doth by it self exercise every of the animal faculties, it is most of all improbable, because the actions and passions of all the animal senses and motions are corporeal, divided and extended to various parts, to perform which immediately the incorporeal and indivisible soul (if so be it be finite) seemeth unfit or unable. Further (he saith) what belongeth unto that vulgar opinion, that the sensitive soul is subordinate to the rational, and as it were swallowed up of it, that that which is the soul in brutes, in man becomes a meer power; these are the trifles of the Schools. For how should the sensitive soul of man, which before hath been in act a subsistent, material and extended substance, losing its essence, at the advent of the rational soul, degenerate into a meer qualitie? But if it be asserted that the rational soul, by its advent also doth introduce life and sensation, then man doth not generate an animated man, but only a formless body, or a rude heap of flesh.”

5. Another argument he useth to prove these two souls in man is this: “Therefore (he saith) it being supposed that the rational soul doth come to the body before animated of the other corporeal soul, we may inquire, by what band or tye, seeing it is a pure spirit, can it be united to this, seeing it hath not parts, by which it might be tied, or adhere to the whole or any of the parts? And therefore he thinketh that concerning this point it is to be said with most learned _Gassendus_: That the corporeal soul is the immediate subject of the rational soul, of which seeing it is the act, perfection, complement and form, also by it the rational soul is made or becometh the form and act of the humane body. But seeing that it doth scarce seem like or necessary, that the whole corporeal soul should be possessed of the whole rational soul; Therefore it is lawful to determine that this rational soul, being purely spiritual, should reside as in its Throne, in the principal part or faculty of it, to wit in the imagination, framed of a small portion of the animal spirits, being most subtile, and seated in the very middle or center of the brain.”

6. Another chief argument that he useth to prove these two souls in man, is the strife and disagreements that are within man: “Because (he saith) the intellect and imagination are not wont to agree in so many things, but that also the sensitive appetite doth dissent in more things: From whose litigations moreover it shall be lawful to argue, that the moodes of the aforesaid souls, both in respect of subsisting and operating, are distinct. For as there is in man a double cognitive power, to wit the intellect and imagination, so there is a double appetite, the Will proceeding from the Intellect, which is the Page or servant of the rational soul, and the sensitive Appetite, which cohering to the imagination, is said to be the hands, or procuratrix of the corporeal soul.”

[Sidenote: Ephes. 4. 18.]

7. To these we shall add, that when the understanding is truly enlightened with the spirit of God, and led by the true light of the Gospel, in the ways of Christ, then is man said to be spiritual, because the carnal mind and the sensitive appetite are subdued and brought under to the obedience of Christ by his grace. So also when the understanding is darkned, as saith the Apostle; _Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God thorow the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts_. Then man becomes wholly led with the carnal and sensual appetite, and is therefore called ψυχικὸς ἄνθρωπος, the natural, animal or soully man: And in both these conditions the organical body is led and acted according to the ruling power, either of the Spirit of God, and so it is yielded up a living sacrifice to God, or of the spirit of darkness, corruption, and the sensitive appetite, and so is an instrument of all unrighteousness. By all which it is most manifest that there are in man these three parts, of Body, Soul, and Spirit, which was the thing undertaken to be proved.

8. Lastly as to this point, it is a certain truth that two extreams cannot be joined or coupled together, but by some middle thing that participated or cometh near to the nature of both. So the Soul which (by the unanimous consent of all men) is a spiritual and pure, immaterial and incorporeal substance cannot be united to the body, which is a most gross, thick and corporeal substance, without the intervention of some middle nature, fit to conjoin and unite those extreams together, which is this sensitive and corporeal Soul or Astral Spirit, which in respect of the one extream incorporeal, yet of the most pure sort of bodies that are in nature, and that which approacheth most near to a spiritual and immaterial substance, and therefore most fit to be the immediate receptacle of the incorporeal Soul: And also it being truly body doth easily join with the gross body, as indeed being congenerate with it, and so becomes _vinculum & nexus_ of the immaterial Soul and the more gross body, that without it could not be united.

Now having (as we conceive) sufficiently proved that there are in man these three distinct parts of Body, Soul, and Spirit, in the next place we are to shew that these three may, and do separately exist, and that we shall endeavour by these reasons.

[Sidenote: _Reas. 1._]

[Sidenote: Eccl. 12. 7.]

[Sidenote: 2 Cor. 5. 1.]

1. It is manifest by Divine Authority that _the spirit_, that is the rational, immortal and incorporeal _soul_, _doth return to God that gave it_. That is not to be annihilated or to vanish into nothing, but to abide and remain forever or eviternally. For the Apostle saith: _For we know, that if our earthly tabernacle or house were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens_. By which it is manifest that the immaterial Soul doth exist eternally _ex parte post_, as the Schools say, and also the gross body being separated from the immortal Soul, doth by it self exist until it be consumed in the grave, or by corruption be changed into earth, or some other things, or that the Atomes be dispersed, and joined unto, or figurated into some other bodies. So it is most highly rational that this sensitive Soul, or Astral Spirit, which is corporeal, should also exist by it self for some time, until it be dissipated and wasted, in which time it may (and doubtlesly doth) make these apparitions, motions and bleedings of the murthered bodies.

[Sidenote: _Reas. 2._]

2. Upon the supposition that the rational Soul be not _ex traduce_, but be infused after the bodily organs be fitted and prepared, which is the firm Tenent of all Divines Ancient, middle and Modern, and must upon the granting of it to be simply, and absolutely immaterial and incorporeal (which is indisputable) of necessity be infused, because no immaterial substance can be produced or generated by the motion of any agent, that is meerly material, or forth of any material substance whatsoever. And therefore I say that the Soul being infused, it must of necessity follow the organized body, that could not exist (except as a lump of flesh) without the corporeal sensitive soul; which must of necessity demonstrate, that as they did separately exist before the union of the Soul and Body, so they also do exist distinctly after their separation by death, and so the Astral Spirit may effect the things we have asserted.

[Sidenote: _Reas. 3._]

[Sidenote: _Histor. rarior. Obs._ 62. _p._ 325, 326.]

3. And if the experiment be certainly true that is averred by _Borellus_, _Kircher_, _Gaffarel_, and others (who might be ashamed to affirm it as their own trial, or as ocular witnesses, if not true) that the figures and colours of a plant may be perfectly represented, and seen in glasses, being by a little heat raised forth of the ashes. Then (if this be true) it is not only possible, but rational, that animals as well as plants, have their Ideas or Figures existing after the gross body or parts be destroyed, and so these apparitions are but only those Astral shapes and figures. But also there are shapes and apparitions of Men, that must of necessity prove that these corporeal Souls or Astral Spirits do exist apart, and attend upon or are near the blood, or bodies; of which _Borellus_ Physician to the King of _France_, gives us these two relations.

[Sidenote: _Hist. 1._]

1. _N. de Richier_ a Soap-maker (he saith) and _Bernardus Germanus_ from the relation of the Lord of _Gerzan_, and others, distilling mans blood at _Paris_, which they thought to be the true matter of the Philosophers-stone; they saw in the cucurbit or glass body, the Phantasm, or shape of a Man, from whom bloody rayes did seem to proceed, and the glass being broken they found the figure as though of a skull, in the remaining fæces.