_MADAM,_
Though I am loth (as I have often told you) to imbarque my self in the
discourse of such a subject, as no body is able naturally to know,
which is the supernatural and divine Soul in Man; yet your _Author_
having, in my judgment, strange opinions, both of the Essence, Figure,
Seat and Production of the Soul, and discoursing thereof, with such
liberty and freedom, as of any other natural Creature, I cannot chuse
but take some notice of his discourse, and make some reflections upon
it; which yet, shall rather express my ignorance of the same subject,
then in a positive answer, declare my opinion thereof; for, in things
divine, I refer my self wholly to the Church, and submit onely to
their instructions, without any further search of natural reason; and
if I should chance to express more then I ought to do, and commit some
error, it being out of ignorance rather then set purpose, I shall be
ready upon better information, to mend it, and willingly subject my
self under the censure and correction of the holy Church, as counting
it no disgrace to be ignorant in the mysteries of Faith, since Faith
is of things unknown, but rather a duty required from every Layman to
believe simply the Word of God, as it is explained and declared by the
Orthodox Church, without making Interpretations out of his own brain,
and according to his own fancy, which breeds but Schismes, Heresies,
Sects, and Confusions. But concerning your _Author_, I perceive by him,
first, that he makes no distinction between the Natural or Rational
Soul or Mind of Man, and between the Divine or Supernatural Soul, but
takes them both as one, and distinguishes onely the Immortal Soul
from the sensitive Life of Man, which he calls the Frail, Mortal,
Sensitive Soul. Next, all his knowledg of this Immortal Soul is
grounded upon Dreams and Visions, and therefore it is no wonder, if
his opinions be somewhat strange and irregular. _I saw, in a Vision,_
says he,[1] _my Mind in a humane shape; but there was a light, whose
whole homogeneal body was actively seeing, a spiritual substance,
Chrystalline, shining with a proper splendor, or a splendor of its own,
but in another cloudy part it was rouled up as it were in the husk of
it self; which whether it had any splendor of it self, I could not
discern, by reason of the superlative brightness of the Chrystal Spirit
contain'd within._ Whereupon he defines _the Soul_ to be _a Spirit,
beloved of God, homogeneal, simple, immortal, created into the Image
of God, one onely Being, whereto death adds nothing, or takes nothing
from it, which may be natural or proper to it in the Essence of its
simplicity._ As for this definition of the Soul, it may be true, for
any thing I know: but when your _Author_ makes the divine Soul to be a
Light, I cannot conceive how that can agree; for Light is a Natural and
Visible Creature, and, in my opinion, a corporeal substance; whereas
the Soul is immaterial and incorporeal: But be it, that Light is not a
substance, but a neutral Creature, according to your _Author_; then,
nevertheless the Immortal Soul cannot be said to be a light, because
she is a substance. He may say,[2] The Soul is an Incomprehensible
Light. But if the Soul be Incomprehensible, how then doth he know that
she is a light, and not onely a light, but a glorious and splendorous
light? You will say, By a Dream, or Vision. Truly, _Madam_, to judg
any thing by a Dream, is a sign of a weak judgment. Nay, since your
_Author_ calls the soul constantly a light; if it were so, and that
it were such a splendorous, bright and shining light, as he says;
then when the body dies, and the soul leaves its Mansion, it would
certainly be seen, when it issues out of the body. But your _Author_
calls the Soul a _Spiritual Substance_, and yet he says, she has _an
homogeneal body, actively seeing and shining with a proper splendor
of her own_; which how it can agree, I leave to you to judg; for I
thought, an Immaterial spirit and a body were too opposite things, and
now I see, your _Author_ makes Material and Immaterial, Spiritual and
Corporeal, all one. But this is not enough, but he allows it a Figure
too, and that of a humane shape; for says he, I _could never consider
the Thingliness of the Immortal Mind with an Individual existence,
deprived of all figure, neither but that it at least would answer to
a humane shape_; but the Scripture, as much as is known to me, never
doth express any such thing of the Immortal Soul, and I should be loth
to believe any more thereof then it declares. The Apostles, although
they were conversant with Christ, and might have known it better, yet
were never so inquisitive into the nature of the Soul, as our Modern
divine Philosophers are; for our Saviour, and they, regarded more the
salvation of Man's Soul, and gave holy and wise Instructions rather,
how to live piously and conformably to God's Will, to gain eternal
Life, then that they should discourse either of the Essence or Figure,
or Proprieties of the Soul, and whether it was a light, or any thing
else, and such like needless questions, raised in after-times onely
by the curiosity of divine Philosophers, or Philosophying Divines;
For though Light is a glorious Creature, yet Darkness is as well a
Creature as Light, and ought not therefore to be despised; for if it
be not so bright, and shining as Light, yet it is a grave Matron-like
Creature, and very useful: Neither is the Earth, which is inwardly
dark, to be despised, because the Sun is bright. The like may be said
of the soul, and of the body; for the body is very useful to the soul,
how dark soever your _Author_ believes it to be; and if he had not
seen light with his bodily eyes, he could never have conceived the
Soul to be a Light: Wherefore your _Author_ can have no more knowledg
of the divine soul then other men have, although he has had more
Dreams and Visions; nay, he himself confesses, that the Soul is an
Incomprehensible Light; which if so, she cannot, be perfectly known,
nor confined to any certain figure; for a figure or shape belongs
onely to a corporeal substance, and not to an incorporeal: and so, God
being an Incomprehensible Being, is excluded from all figure, when as
yet your _Author_ doth not stick to affirm, that God is of a humane
figure too, as well as the humane Soul is; _For_, says he, _Since God
hath been pleased to adopt the Mind alone into his own Image, it also
seems to follow, that the vast and unutterable God is of a humane
Figure, and that from an argument from the effect, if there be any
force of arguments in this subject._ Oh! the audacious curiosity of
Man! Is it not blasphemy to make the Infinite God of a frail and humane
shape, and to compare the most Holy to a sinful Creature? Nay, is it
not an absurdity, to confine and inclose that Incomprehensible Being
in a finite figure? I dare not insist longer upon this discourse,
lest I defile my thoughts with the entertaining of such a subject
that derogates from the glory of the Omnipotent Creator; Wherefore, I
will hasten, as much as I can, to the seat of the Soul, which, after
relating several opinions, your _Author_ concludes to be the orifice
of the stomack, where the Immortal Soul is involved and entertained
in the radical Inn or Bride-bed of the sensitive Soul or vital Light;
which part of the body is surely more honoured then all the rest: But
I, for my part, cannot conceive why the Soul should not dwell in the
parts of conception, as well, as in the parts of digestion, except it
be to prove her a good Huswife; however, your _Author_ allows her to
slide down sometimes: For, _The action of the Mind_, says he, _being
imprisoned in the Body, doth always tend downwards_; but whether
the Soul tend more downwards then upwards, Contemplative Persons,
especially Scholars, and grave States-men, do know best; certainly, I
believe, they find the soul more in their heads then in their heels,
at least her operations. But, to conclude, if the Soul be pure and
single of her self, she cannot mix with the Body, because she needs
no assistance; nor joyn with the Body, though she lives in the Body,
for she needs no support; and if she be individable, she cannot divide
her self into several Parts of the Body; but if the Soul spread over
all the Body, then she is bigger, or less, according as the Body is;
and if she be onely placed in some particular part, then onely that
one part is indued with a Soul, and the rest is Soul-less; and if she
move from place to place, then some parts of the Body will be sometimes
indued with a Soul, sometimes not; and if any one part requires not
the subsistence of the Soul within it, then perhaps all the Body might
have been able to spare her; neither might the Soul, being able to
subsist without the body, have had need of it. Thus useless questions
will trouble men's brains, if they give their fancies leave to work.
I should add something of the Production of the Soul; but being tyred
with so tedious a discourse of your _Author_, I am not able to write
any more, but repose my Pen, and in the mean while rest affectionately,
Madam,
_Your faithful Friend_
_and Servant._
[1] _Ch._ Of the Image of the Mind.
[2] Of the Spirit of Life.