that they may be no Hindrance to your own Occafions: And I shall take it for a greater Courtefie of you, to take the longer Time to Enlarge your felf fully, then to fend me an Answer lefs Satisfactory fooner. I do not Say this, that I think you cannot very readily Reply to any of thefe: But becaufe, I know this may occafion a confiderable Difcourfe from you; (though propounded with very little Advantage by me and yet, I hope my Meaning will not be obfcur'd through the Meanness

the Expreffion) which I fhould be very unwil ling to be depriv'd of through too much haft; or that you should neglect any thing of more Concernment to your felf for it. Pray pardon the Trouble perpetually occafioned You through the Importunity of,

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LETTER VII.

HETHER God did create the His Anfwer Matter for the Enjoyment of Souls, to the abovefince they Fell by it. mentioned

That I may leave no Scruple behind, I Queries; will break every Quare into as many Questions as I can imagine probably to be included in them. As haply here may Three lye in this First. viz. Whether God

created the Matter, fince it is the Bané " of Souls? 2. If he did this, Whether " he made it for their Enjoyment? 3. Whe"ther the Soul may fall by that which was "made for her Enjoyment?

To the First, that God hath created the Matter, I conceive, I have little less than Demonftrated in my Antidote, Lib. 1. Cap. 8. whither I refer you..

To the Second, I fay, That God did create the Matter for the Good of Souls: Which will feem lefs ftrange, if we confider, that the very Nature of a Soul, is to have an Aptitude of vital Union with the Matter; and for my own Part, I fufpect it scarce ever is wholly difunited from it: But hath either a Body of Light, or of Air, or fome vaporous, or fuch like Confiftency: All which are as truly Matter as the Earth, though finer and purer. So that the grand Difficulty is refolved into this: Why God would at all create Mats d Human Souls, which have of their U 2.

own Nature fuch a vital Congruity and Sympathy with this Corporeal Subftance.

But I answer, That the corporeal Creation doth not at all leffen the Number, or Straiten the Region of pure Intellectual Spirits, that have no Sympathy at all with Matter But when you have phanfied that Creation as ample as you can, though you fhould extend it as far as the Prefence of God himself, yet this doth not exclude the material Creation, no more than the Matter doth God. Wherefore that God might bring into at the Residue of what the Divine Fecundity would afford; he created Matter, and feveral Degrees of Souls, (if I may make use of the Word in fo large a Senfe) that is, of fuch Spirits as had all of them an Aptitude of being vitally conjoyned with the Matter. The lowest Degree of which, (according to fome) is that of Plants; the next, is that of Beafts; in neither of thefe is there Liberty of Will. But from these up to the highest there is. And thofe at the top, I conceive, do very highly and vigorously Inactuate the Matter which falls to their Share for their Vehicles; and confequently are not fo Paffive: Form there fo abundantly mastering the Matter.

Thefe, as many as ftand, are mighty and powerful Angels; if they fall, are as powerful and formidable Devils. None of thefe, I conceive, come into human Bodies. nor haply of thofe that are fome Degrees under them: But at last Order defcends

to

to fuch a Pitch of Souls as are fit to dwell in human Bodies, or to dwell out of them: And all of them, in a very long Period of Years, were to Defcend by turns down to their Perigee, as I may fo fpeak, and to A&t a part for fome Years upon this terreftrial Globe, clad in human Flesh: Which had been Fate, no Sin in them; and in all likelihood their return fafe. And the great Heroes that have appeared in the World, famous for the highest degrees of Beauty, Virtue, and Knowledge, fome not without reafon conceit to be fuch kind of Souls, that the fatal Period, not voluntary Lapfe, hath brought into the Body, to the great Good of the reft of Mankind. But the general Wickedness of the World is too ftrong an Argument that even all almost are of the lapfed Condition.

Having premis'd thus much, I briefly Answer to the Second Part of your Queftion, and more nearly to that Senfe in which, I conceive, you propound it; that the Matter was made for the Enjoyment of human Souls themfelves, though that was not the only End of the Creation of the Matter. For the Soul of Man having Affections as well as Reason, and there being no fmall part of Pleasure in the Exercife of them alfo, and they being more full and high in all likelihood in the Body, then out of the Body, (for the Body hath a more permanent Paffivity than thinner Bodies have:) it feems reafonable, that the U 3 Ex

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Exercife of Paffions is more palpable and fenfible in the Body than out of it. Amongft which, I account Admiration nonẹ of the meanest, nor the least pleasing; efpecially when it afterwards clears up into a more diftinct Knowledge. And I remember Trismegift fomewhere faith; "God placed Man in this World to Amuse him, and make him wonder at the Objects of it. Read the 257 page of my Poems.

Befides, I conceive thofe Souls that are good here, are more fettledly and refolvedly good hereafter from their being here; and with more Eafe; as he that can dance with Shackles will dance with more Ease without them: And he that can run in his Boots, will more nimbly and more easily run in his Stockins. Moreover they having had fo palpable Experience of the human Condition, with more fweet and compaffonate Affection, they are ready to help and affift thofe Souls that are yet toiling in human Bodies, if they be good and fimple hearted. And the being a compaffionate Difpenfer of the Goodness of God, to Subjects capable, I think the most high and beatifick Action that the Soul can ever do ad Extra, as they call it: Nor can a good Soul please it felf more in any thing than in that.

Wherefore it is for the Enjoyment of thefe Souls, that they have Occafion to at according to fo divine and benign a Principle. And the fame is to be conceiv'd of thofe high Souls that never Defcend in

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