Soul

SOUL. The Word Soul is very equivocal, in the Stile of the Hebrews. It is taken for the Soul that animates Mankind, for that which animates Beasts, for a living Gen. xiv. 21.Person: Give me the Souls, says the King of Sodom to Abraham, and take the Goods to thy self. And elsewhere; Abraham took Sarai his Wife, and Lot his Brother’s Son, and their Substance that they had gathered, and the Souls that they had gotten in Haran; that is to say, the Slaves they had purchased, or the Children that had been born to them.

Gen. xxxii. 30. Genesis xxxvii. 22.The Soul is also taken for the Life: My Life [Heb. Soul] is preserved. And, Kill not his Soul; or, Put him not to Death. My Soul shall live; or, Thou shalt preserve me alive. Those that sought my Soul, or, had a Design upon my Life. Not to take his Soul in vain; or, Not to swear falsely by his Life.

Numbers ix. 6. Num. xix. 11.It is taken sometimes for Death. Who were defiled by the dead Body of a Man, or, by the Soul. And, He that toucheth the dead Body [Heb. Soul] of any Man, shall be unclean seven Days.

‘Tis often used also for Desire, Love, Gen. xxiii. 8. Numbers xi. 6.Inclination. If it be your Mind; Heb. If it please your Soul. And, Our Soul is dried away, or disgusted at the Sight of the Manna. To consume thine Eyes, and to grieve thine Heart; or, Thy Soul shall¹ be dried up with Envy, to see thy Rival in the Temple in thy Place.

Lastly : The Soul is taken for the Life Deut. xii. 23.of a Beast. Be sure that thou eat not the Blood; for the Blood is the Life, or Soul: Their Blood is to them instead of a Soul. I Gen. ix. 9, 10.establish my Covenant with you, and with your Seed after you; and with every living Creature [ Heb. Soul ] that is with you, of the Fowl, of the Cattle, and of every Beast of the Earth with you, from all that go out of the Ark, to every Beast of the Earth. Prov. xii. 10.And, A righteous Man regardeth the Life of his Beast; he compassionates their Labours, and comforts them; but the tender Mercies of the Wicked are cruel.

There is in this Dictionary a particular Article about BEASTS, wherein we enquire into the Sentiments that the ancient Hebrews and Orientals profess’d concerning their Souls.

A great Number of Questions may be proposed, concerning the Soul of Man, its Nature or Essence, and concerning its Creation. Whether all Souls were created at the Beginning of the World, or whether God still creates them every Day? Whether the Soul be immortal? Whether it passes from Body to Body by a Transmigration? Whether all Souls are equally enlightned and perfect? We shall add a Word or two concerning each of these Questions. We have already treated of this Matter at its full Length in a particular Dissertation, which may be found in the new Collection of our Dissertations, printed in three Volumes, t. 1. p. 460, &c.

When God had form’d the Body of Man out of the Dust, or out of the Mud of the Gen. ii. 7.Earth, he breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life, and Man became a living Soul, or, a living Man. This Breath of Life, has been consider’d by some, as the Principle Grot. in Genes.of the Animal Life of Man, which, in this respect, according to them, is in nothing different from that of a Beast. God gives to Men and to Brutes a Breath of Gen.vi.17.Life, or a vivifying Spirit : Omnem carnem in quâ est spiritus vitæ; that is to say, All the Animals that were to be consumed and put to Death by the Waters of the Deluge. ‘Tis this Spirit of Life that God withdraws when he pleases, and brings all Flesh to Job xxxiv. 14.Corruption: Si Spiritum illius & flatum ad se trahat, deficiet omnis caro simul, says Job. And the Psalmist, speaking of the Animals, to which God gives their Subsistence, says, Thou takest away their Psal. civ. 29. Eccl. xii.7.Breath, they die, and return to their Dust. And Solomon; Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was, and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it. And St. Paul, speaking to Acts xvii. 25.the Philosophers of Athens, says, That God requires not a bodily Worship, as having need of any thing, seeing he giveth to all Life, and Breath, and all things.

But besides this Spirit, this Breath, which is in us the Principle of animal Life, which is common to Men and to Brutes, and which is scattered and dispersed after Death, we must acknowledge, that there is in Man a spiritual Substance, a reasonable and immortal Soul, the Origin of our Thoughts, of our Desires, of our Reasonings; which distinguishes us from the Brute Creation, and in which chiefly consists Gen. i. 26.our Resemblance to God: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem & similitudinem nostram. This Substance must be spiritual, Plato, p. 78,80,81, 95, &c. Horat. l.1. sat. 2.because it thinks; it must be immortal, because it is spiritual. Some Philosophers have been of Opinion, that it was a Portion of the Deity: Divinæ particulam auræ. But how can the Deity be conceived to be obnoxious to the Evils and Weaknesses of our Souls; to Sin, to Desire, to Pain?

‘Tis true, the Scripture ascribes both to Man and Beast, a Soul, a Spirit, Life, and Respiration; but it allows to Man alone the Privilege of Understanding, the Knowledge of God, Wisdom, Immortality, the Hope of future Happiness, and of eternal Life. It only threatens Men with the Punishments of another Life, and the Pains of Hell.

But are Souls meerly spiritual, without any Mixure of Matter, even the most fine and subtile? This is the Opinion of Christian Philosophers and Divines. The Antients were not convinced of this Principle. The ancient Compiler of the Book of Enoch thought the Angels to be corporeal, and consequently the Souls of Men; since he supposes Souls to be of the same Nature as the Angels. The ancient Greek and Latin Fathers, who read in the Book of Genesis,² that the Angels of God saw that the Daughters of Men were handsome, and took to themselves such as they thought fit to be their Wives, and from them produced Giants; those Fathers, I say, made no doubt of their having Bodies, and that they were susceptible of all those Passions, which are the natural Consequences of those Bodies, and that Matter, which they imputed to them.

But as it was very difficult to reconcile this Opinion, of the Materiality of the Soul with its other Properties, which can only agree to a pure Spirit; they persuaded themselves, that the Soul was composed of two Parts; one purely spiritual, which has the Faculty of Thinking, and which approaches to the Nature of God; and the other subtile, penetrating, and approaching to the Nature of very fine Air. The Author of the Book of Enoch, of which we have spoken, says, that the Spirits of the Souls of Men put up their Sighs even to Heaven. The Spirit, or the Understanding is inclosed in the Soul, as in its Case. The Soul, when separated from the Body has still a Resemblance of the Body which it animated, and is, as it were, the Image of it. But the Spirit, the Intellectual Part, has nothing that is sensible or corporeal. When Souls appear to Men after Death, ‘tis the Soul, and not the Spirit, that returns. The Soul of PatroclusHomer. Iliad. xxiii. appear’d to Achilles; it resembled the Hero it had animated; it had his Stature, his Eyes, his Voice, and even his very Cloaths. When Ulysses descended into Hell, he there Id. Odyss. A. v.600.saw the divine Hector; that is to say, his Image, his Soul; for as to himself, or his Spirit, it was with the immortal Gods, partaking of their Joys and Festivals.

The Rabbins also ascribe to Souls, after their Separation from the Body, another subtile Body, which they call the Vessel or Scabbard of the Soul. They hold, that immediately after Death, the Souls of the Wicked are invested with a kind of Cloaths, in which they are condemned to suffer: That the Souls of the Saints, on the contrary, are clad in a magnificent Habit, and with a splendid Body, by the Help of which they are inured to the Brightness and Felicity of their happy State. The Apostles made no Doubt of the Apparition of Spirits, and thought these Spirits to have the Form and Appearance, the Voice, and all the outward Marks of the Persons to which they belonged. The Giants Job xxvi. 5. Prov. ix. 18. Isai. xiv. 9. Ezekiel xxxi. 32.of old, who groan’d under the Waters, and the Kings of the Nations that are under the Earth, are represented to us, as having the same Ensigns of Honour, the same outward Form, as they had upon Earth. When Jesus Christ appear’d to his Apostles after his Resurrection, St. Thomas, fearing it was only a meer Phantom, or a Spirit, such as sometimes appear’d, according to the Opinion of the People, and that no Conclusion could be drawn from thence, that the Bodies were risen; our Saviour, to confirm him, and to remove his Scruples, bid him touch him, and lay his Hand upon his Wounds, to convince him that he was really risen: And when all John xx. 25,26,27.on a sudden he presented himself in the midst of his Disciples, he says to them, Why are ye troubled, and why do Thoughts arise in your Hearts? Behold my Hands and my Feet, Luk. xxiv. 38, 39.that it is I my self: Handle me, and see; for a Spirit has not Flesh and Bones, as ye see me have.

Perhaps it will be said, that these Sentiments of the Apostles are only some Remains of those Prejudices that they had imbibed from Judaism, and from which they were afterwards deliver’d, after the Descent of the Holy Ghost. It may be pretended, that the Opinions of the Rabbins, are Errors extracted from the Philosophy of the Pagans, who not being illuminated by the Light of Faith and Revelation, have form’d to themselves plausible Systems, to explain what was advanced concerning Souls. I shall not stay here, only to explain what the ancient Jews believed about this Article, without giving my self the Trouble to refute it.

We commonly believe, that God creates Souls at the time that Bodies are produced, which they are to inform. The Jews,³ on the contrary, think that God created them all at the Beginning, and that they come to join themselves to Bodies, drawn by a certain Attraction which it was not easy to resist. The Angels, the Demons, and Souls, are Substances of the same Nature, says Philo⁴; they differ only in Name. As there are good and bad Angels, so there are also good and bad Souls. The Angels and Souls make their Abode in the purest and highest Region of the Air, from whence they descend into the Bodies which they animate, and bring thither either their good or bad Qualities. The Essenians, says Josephus⁵ hold Souls to be immortal, and that drawn by a certain natural Attraction, they come to shut themselves up in human Bodies, as in Prisons; that after Death, those who have lived well, withdraw into delicious Places beyond the Ocean; and that those who have lived ill, are banish’d to dark Places, there to suffer the Punishment due to their Crimes. And speaking of the Pharisees, he says,⁶ that they of this Sect are persuaded, that Souls that have lived well, return, after Death, to the Place from whence they came, with a Power of still returning into other Bodies, but that the Souls of the Wicked are condemned to eternal Punishment.

John ix. 2.When the Apostles saw a Man that was born blind, they ask’d Jesus Christ, If it was the Man’s own Fault, or that of his Parents, that he was born blind? They thought therefore, that this Man, before his Birth, might have deserved this Punishment for some Sin, and for the bad Use that he had made of his Liberty. Our Saviour tells them, That it was neither as a Punishment for his own Sins, or for those of his Parents; but that God had thus permitted it, that his Works might be made manifest in the Person of this poor blind Man: Thus reproving their vain Curiosity; and insinuating to them, That he restor’d his Sight to him, for the Glory of his heavenly Father.

The Rabbins teach,⁷ that the Souls of such Dead as have not been buried, cannot enter into the Place where the Souls of the Departed are, but that they wander about ‘till their Bodies are laid in their Tomb. This Opinion may be observed among the old Greeks and Latins. Homer relates, that PatroclusIliad. Ψ. v. 70, &c. appear’d to Achilles, and said to him; ” Bury me quickly, that ” I may enter within the Gates of the ” Kingdom of Pluto; because that the ” Souls, those Phantoms of the Dead, drive ” me from thence, and will not suffer me ” to pass over the River; but I wander ” about the Gates of the vast Palace of ” the God of Hell.” And Virgil says,

They were also of Opinion, that the Souls of the greatest Part of the Jews remain’d a Year in a kind of Purgatory, and in a State that was undetermin’d: That during this Time they frequently visit the Bodies they have animated: That they appear, and may receive Assistance from the Prayers and the Alms that are made for them: That the Apparition of Samuel to Saul was during that Year that immediately follow’d his Decease; but that after this Year is pass’d, the Spirits or Demons have no longer any Power over the Souls of the Dead⁸. Justin Martyr⁹ and Origen¹⁰ have thought, that the Souls, even of good Men, were, after Death, under the Power of the Devil, who made them sometimes appear, at the Charms and Evocations Anast. Antioch. in Adeg. qu. 12.of Magicians. Anastasius of Antioch strongly supports the Sentiments of Origen, and maintains, that the Souls of the Just were in the Power of the Devil in Hell, before Jesus Christ descended thither, and deliver’d them from thence by his Power.

Vid. Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. c. 35.The Thalmudists think, that Souls separate from the Body, know all that passes upon Earth, because they are commonly a whole Year before they enter into Heaven: During all this time they go to and fro through the World, and there learn whatever is said or done there. They do not enter into Heaven, ‘till after the Body is reduced to Dust, according Eccles. xii. 7.to those Words of Solomon; Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was, and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it. In a Conference that was held in the Presence of the Pope, in the Year 1412,¹¹ the Jews were accused of lighting up Wax-candles at the Feet or the Head of the Dead, that the Soul might have Light when it came to seek for its Body. It is certain, that even at this Day they light up a Lamp at the Pillow of a dead Man’s Bed, after the Body is carried away to be bury’d, and that this Lamp burns there for seven Days¹²: But they are not agreed that this is done to light the Soul at its Return thither.

Gen. ii. 7. Gen. i. 20. Gen. vi. 3.The Immortality of the Soul, is a fundamental Doctrine of both Jewish and Christian Religion. The ancient Patriarchs liv’d and dy’d in the Persuasion of this Truth. Moses has acknowledg’d it, when he says, that God breathed into Adam’s Nostrils the Breath of Life, and Man became a living Soul. And that God said, Let us make Man in our Image, after our Likeness. And when God had resolved to drown all Mankind by the Waters of the Deluge; ” My Spirit shall no longer abide ” in Man, because he is Flesh”¹³. ‘Twas in the Hope of Immortality and of another Life, that the Patriarchs received the Promises of the Lord. For what Recompence did Abraham receive in this Life, for so many virtuous Actions perform’d by him; he that liv’d all his Life like a Stranger, without possessing one Foot of Land in the Country that had been promis’d him? When this Patriarch died, and was gathered to his Fathers, according to the Language of the Scriptures; this was not to tell us, that his Body was laid in the same Tomb with his Fathers. We know that he was originally of Chaldea, that his Fathers were bury’d there; that as to himself, he was bury’d in the Land of Canaan, in a Sepulchre that he had purchased. It must therefore be meant, that he went to join himself to his Fathers in another Life. The same must be said of Aaron, and of Moses, who at their Deaths were gathered to their Fathers; that is, they enter’d into the Place where their Ancestors were waiting for the Redemption and the Coming of the Messiah.

Numbers xxiii. 10.When Balaam the Sorcerer asked of God, that his Death might be like to that of the Just, or of the Israelites, what did he understand by that, but that he might die, like them, in the Hope and Expectation of a happy Resurrection? For as to other Circumstances, the Death of the Hebrews was not different from that of other Nations. Death is a Tribute that all Men alike must pay to Nature.

Another decisive Proof, which shew’d that the Israelites believed the Immortality of the Soul, was the Persuasion they had, that the Souls of the Dead sometimes appear’d again after their Decease. Samuel 1 Sam. xxviii. 13, 14, 15.appear’d to the Witch of Endor, Jeremiah appear’d to Judas Maccabeus. When the 2 Macc. xv. 14.Apostles saw Jesus Christ walking towards them upon the Sea, they thought him to be Mat. xiv. 26.an Apparition; and when he appear’d to them after his Resurrection, he said to Luk. xxiv. 39.them; Handle me, and see, for a Spirit has not Flesh, and Bones, as ye see me have. They believed also a Resurrection to come, the Punishment of the Wicked in another Life, an Abraham’s Bosom for the Reception of the Just; they had in their Histories Examples of dead Men raised to Life again, as those that were raised by Elijah and Elisha. Moses had forbid them to consult or Deuter. xxviii. 18.inquire of the Dead. All this proves, beyond Contradiction, that the Jews believed the Immortality of the Soul.

If the Saducees have deny’d this Immortality, as also the Resurrection; if the Rabbins Maimonides and Kimchi, who taught the Annihilation of the Soul, were look’d upon by their Nation as a Kind of Hereticks and Innovators; those of whom Solomon has express’d the Sentiments in Eccles. iii. 19, 20.these Terms: That which befalleth the Sons of Men, befalleth Beasts, even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other, yea, they have all one Breath, so that a Man hath no Pre-eminence above a Beast; for all is Vanity. All go unto one Place, all are of the Dust, and all turn to Dust again. These were the Sentiments of impious and wicked People, disapproved and condemned by all good Israelites, and confuted by Solomon himself, Eccles. xii. 7.who says; Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was, and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

We have spoke of the Metempsychosis, or Transmigration of Souls, in its particular Place, as also of Purgatory, of the Rewards and Punishments of another Life, in the Article of A Life to come. As for the Souls of Brutes; see BRUTES. The Reader may consult the Dissertation of Ludovicus Capellus, concerning the State of Souls after their Departure; and our Dissertation concerning the Nature of the Soul, and concerning its State after Death, according to the Opinion of the antient Hebrews. In the new Collection of Dissertations, in three Volumes in Quarto, Tom. 1. p. 460, &c.

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