to heauen It is a constant opinion of the Stoickes sayth he that after all humor is consumed this world shall burne and Nature by whom this reuolution is made seemes to giue vs some notice in that the fields being burnt by the labourer or drowned by water as in Egypt as in pooles dried vp and when the sea is retired in that I say this earth remaining is found renewed fat and producing many Creatures yea great and perfect as they write namely of Nile after it is retired Now vnder the wings of these great personages I come to maintaine this combate and refell the reasons of the Obiector Wee haue in our Argument toucht two points simbolizing together although the one be Christian and the other Heathen the first is the Resurrection of the flesh which we extend to man only not of other Creatures And let vs say that he who of nothing could make all may easily ouerthrow the imagined difficulty and raise vp and restore to the same estate the bodies of dead men for he that can do more can do lesse without all controuersie and hee that could of nothing make that which was not may repaire that which was vndone But how shall this Resurrection bee made and what assurance shall wee haue Behold how In the presence of all the world of Angells of men and of diuells with vnspeakable ioy to the good and incomprehensible horror to the wicked the Lord shall come with a cry of exhortation and the voice of the Archangell and the Trumpet of God these are the very words of the text By the sound of this trumpet all the dead shall awake and rise out of their graues and they that shall liue and remaine at this comming shal be suddenly changed and of mortall shal be made immortall by his force and efficacy who can make all things subiect vnto him as the Apostle sayth The bodies of the children of God shall rise againe like the glorious bodie of Iesus Christ impassible spirituall and yet fleshly shining like stars subtil light transparent and full of all happines behold the letters of heauen We attend the Sauiour who will transforme our vile bodies and make them conformable to his glorious body We know sayeth Saint Iohn that after hee hath appeared wee shall bee like vnto him God will wipe away all teares from our eyes sayth hee death shall bee no more there shal bee no mourning cries nor labour The body sowne in corruption shall rise spirituall sayth S. Paul for that no sollide thing can hinder it it may without helpe or wings flye into remote places as Iesus Christ after his resurrection did manifest it more then sufficiently in his body finally hee shall bee spirituall for that hee shal be readily and willingly obedient to his glorified spirit In this flesh and not in any other shall I see my Sauiour sayth Iob c. 1. 9. For this mortal body must put on immortality sayth the Apostle Thirdly they which haue bin vnderstood sayth Daniel 12. shall shine like the heauens and they that bring many to Iustice shall glister like the starres for euer Also the glory of the Sunne is one the glory of the Moon another and the glory of the starres is also different euen so shall bee the resurrection of the dead whereby it followes that the bodyes raised again shal haue no grosse substance but shall be transparent like vnto glasse Fourthly beeing raised againe we shall bee taken vp into the clouds before the Lord and beeing ascended into heauen wee shall haue vnspeakeable ioy such as the eye hath not seene the eare not heard nor hath entred into the heart of man These are wonderfull things but what assurance the Spirit of God doth assure thee if thou beest of God for God doth seale vp an earnest penny of his holy Spirit in their hearts that are his as the Apostle teacheth Secondly If the soule be immortall the body must one day rise immortall to the end that this soule being created for the body may giue it life againe being reunited Moreouer as Saint Ambrose teacheth it is the order and cause of Iustice seeing that the work of man is common to the body and soule and what the soule doth fore-thinke the body effects and therefore it is reasonable that both should appeare in iudgement to receiue either punishment or glory Thirdly Iesus Christ is risen for vs and to assure vs that by the same diuine power that hath drawne him out of the graue we also shal be raised I proue the antecedent by aboue 500. witnesses which at one time haue seene Iesus Christ liuing after that he had beene crucified by the Iewes as the Apostle sheweth and Ioseph also who was a Iew doth witnesse it lib. 18. c. 2. 4. of his Antiquities He was seene precisely by women beleeued by the incredulous and for a ful assurance thereof hee would contrary to the nature of his body which aspired nothing but heauen conuerse forty dayes vpon earth Heere is reason sufficient in this matter of faith whereas reason should yeeld her selfe prisoner and yet to make it appeare visibly and to free all doubt God would both in the ancient and new alliance raise vp some that were seene and admired of the people So Lazarus being called out of his graue was beheld of all men and the malicious Pharisies tooke counsell to put him to death as well as Iesus Christ. The same God would manifest a plot of the future Resurrection to his Prophet Ezechiel when as he had transported him into a field full of drye bones which when hee had seene and prophesied ouer â—…em behold a motion the bones draw neere one vnto another and suddainely behold they had sinewes vppon them and flesh came and then the skinne couered it and in the end after a second dâ—…untiation of the word of God the spirit came and then appeared a great army of men As for this point which concernes an article of our faith the Resurrection of the flesh the Obiector dares not deny but there is matter sufficient in this world to furnish for the restoring of all the dead bodies not since an imaginary Eternity for we are now vpon tearmes of diuinity whereof wee must beleeue the principles and not question them but from the first man vnto the last that shall be Herein there is nothing that inuolues contradiction The other point was that suppose the eternity of the world after the reuolution of all things and the encounter of the same order in all points that is at this present there shall bee the same Superficies the same creatures and the same men that are at this present this also hath no implicity seeing we affirm not that all things the same creatures which haue bin shal be for euer shal be restor'd together at one instant but by degrees and euery one in his turne Behold how this first
〈◊〉 to say death iâ—… we take it as the argument giues it I answere That if there bee a great difference not to haue beene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be he haâ—… the 〈◊〉 â—…nefit that is no more for hee hath this aboueâ—… the other that he hath enioyed life and the fruits thereof which the other haâ—… vnlesâ—… you will deny that hâ—… which hath bin admitted into the Kings Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…th not any 〈◊〉 abâ—…ue â—…im that hath not beene admitted at all and that hee which hath beene a Maior or a Consul in a free Citie is not more honored then hee which hath neuer beene But the Obiector supposeth one thing which is not That this life is adorned which most excellent gifts being full of most sharpe agonies as is iustified in the 18. Argument and theâ—…fore I deny the consequence of his Minor and to prooue the falsehood I produce that which Salomon saith Eccles. 4. that hee more esteemes the dead then those which bee liuing yea hee esteemes him that hath not beene more happy then the one or the other Secondly the losse of fight of sences of the habit of sâ—…iences is grieuous to a liuing man who hath enioyed them for a time for that he is capable of sorrow but to make it a conclusion to a dead man who should be more grieued to haue lost all this and life it selfe there is no consequence for that death is incapable of sorrow and mourning wherein the Prouerbe of Hesiodus may be verrified The moitie is more then the whole the losse of sences and reason are more grieuous and more to bee lamented then the priuation of life Thirdly I deny that man dying loseth any thing hee was but Vsufructuarie of life God the proprietarie demands it and he restores it what losse Thou art not angry if any curious sercher of the most exquisite rarities of the world if hauing suffered thee to see his Cabinet he afterwards drawes the curtaine thou wilt take it patiently how great soeuer thou art If the Seigneurie of Venice hath done theâ—… the honour to see their stately treasure haue dazled thine eyes with the glistering of those 14. Pearles of their Ducall Bonet of the 12. Crownes of gold and of other most rich ornaments wouldest thou not take it patiently to giue place after some houres Know then that it is reasonable that the Lord of Lords hauing brought thee into his house there to behold the golden studdes which adorne the firmament to obserue the diuers motions of the 7. Planets and among the rest of the Sunne the eye of the world to touch and comprehend the 4. Elements and other infinite goodly creatures if it be his pleasure and hee make signe vnto thee to giue place to others that suruiue it is reason thou shouldest dislodge and thanke the Lord for his fauour Finally I maintayne that the depth and horrour is as great to reason to liue perpetually here without end the same life which wee now breathe for our discourse is of this life as great I say and greater then to bee dead depth for who can perfectly comprehend a life without end horrour for who would alwayes liue with the feare of a hundred millions of horrible miseries which may happen in a hundred millions of yeeres not making mention of the vices and sinnes whervnto man is subiect which a good man should feare more then death As for the authoritie of S. Paul it is not nature only but the heauenly grace which makes him to speake so and they that shall be partakers of this grace in the same degree may braue death with S. Paule and say vnto him O death where is thy victory O graue where is thy sting And if S. Paule in this place did contemplate in spirit the excellent ornaments which hee had seene in the third heauen in his extacie and on the other side toucht to the quicke with the venemous sting of sinne he makes no mention but of the simple deliuerance as if it had beene sufficient for him O wretched man that I am sayth he who shall deliuer me from the body of this death Hee makes mention of deliuerance for that he felâ—… Coâ—…bate in himselfe and found himselfe prisoner to the Law of sinne as the verse going before doth declare But you will reply There is nothing to be compared to life it is a naturall desire and common to all men Ansâ—… Man desireth not only to be and to liue but to beeâ—…t ease else what is hee that like to Ixion in the Poet would alwayes liue to be fastened to a wheâ—…le Who would alwayes liue the damnable life of Satan and his angells in the middest of an vnquenchable fire but mad men and fooles And in truth the desire wee haue to roule on alwayes from day to day is that by an abusiue hope we promise vnto our selues some future pleasure and content The Apostles desire better ordered and grounded was to put off this mortall body and to put on one that was bâ—…essed and immortall not vpon earth where it is not to be found but in heauen and by a diuine and celestiall power But that doth contradict this assertion That man desires as much or more to end the miseries of this life as to continue this miserable life and therefore certaine wise men of the world did settle their resolution vnto death vpon this Dilemma saying Either we shal be happy in death if the soule escapes or else we shal be without paine or misery if all remaine No small aduantage doubtlesse seeing the greatest point of happinesse in this life is to beeleast vnhappy The 11. Argument taken from two resemblances of Death Sâ—…ounding is a kinde of Death and the shadow of the body is an Image of it But in swounding there is no paine nor in the shadow any amazement BY Syncope I vnderstand the strongest and most extended swounding not that which is gentle which happeneth sometimes at the opening of a veine in the which the patient neither loseth feeling nor speech but that which carries away all the forces of a man his natural I say and principally his vitall Sleepe is nothing to represent death in regard of this symptome for it is death it selfe only there is in this sometimes a returning to life and there none I haue seene it and obserued it in my father being an old man I haue conferred it with some that were apparantly dead yet could I not finde any difference he lay without any shewe of soule in any of his â—…ects notwithstanding that he was continually rolled vp and downe in a chamber his pulse was not to bee felt he was in a cold swet ouer all the extreamities of his body were exceeding cold And these are the very signes of a right Syncope by the which the truth of our Maior is iustified that to fall into the Syncope is to fall into death for as death is a cessation
it c. ANswere Neither Dauid nor Ezechias nor the other seruants of God feared death as it was death simply alone considered but for that God threatned them in regard of their sins by reason whereof it seemes they had some confused apprehension of hell which is the second death Doubtlesse my fault is great sayd Dauid but I pray thee saue mee by thy great bounty These are the words of God to Ezechias Dispose of thy house for thou shalt die shortly and shall not liue We must note that Ezekias heart was puft vp with glory God would humble him by the consideration of death wherewith he threatned him But these two and all other the seruants of God setting aside these threats being in the fauour of God haue with Saint Paul desired to die and to be freed from this mortal body to be with Christ with God Man here below should not apprehend any thing but the conscience of another life a life which dying without repentance grace leades to death eternall as that of Saul and Iudas who being desperate slue themselues quenching the match of a vicious life to kindle it in the fire of hell where there is a Lake of fire and brimstone As for the death of Christ the great difference it hath both in the cause and the effects from that of the faithful Christians makes it to differ a world The reason is Gods Diuine Iustice to reuenge the iniury which hath beene done him by the diuell in the nature of man the which not able to do in him without his totall ruine hee hath done in his surety in Iesus Christ his Son whom to that end hee sent into the world to take humaine flesh in the Virgins wombe It is he that was wounded for our offences broken for our iniquities censured to bring vs peace and slaine to cure vs as the Prophet speakes and the Apostles testifie The fruites first the glory of God is manifested in his loue in his bounty and in his mercy towards vs to haue so loued the world as to giue his owne Son to death for it to the end that whosoeuer did beleeue in him should not perish but haue life euerlasting as the same eternal Son doth witnes Secondly it is our saluation the redemption of the Church from sinne and death for it is the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world And these are the reasons why Iesus Christ was terrified in death feeling the wrath of God vpon him for our sinnes But the death of the faithfull is nothing like for in the greatest torments which Tyrants can inflict vpon them it mortifies the sence and takes away all paine by the abundance of his consolation as Ruffinus writes of Theodorus and as our Annales testifie of the smiling death of Martirs in the middest of burning fiers for God is satisfied the passage is open the venimous teeth of death are pulled out seeing that the Lord wrestling with her hath slaine her as S. Augustine speakes and like a most expert Phisition hath made a wholesome Treacle to purge our bodies of those corrupt burning stincking and deadly humors and to make it sound holy impassible and immortall The second Obiection Euery iust reward is proportionable to the paine The reward of Martyrsis great Therefore their paine is great THe holy Writ and the ancient Fathers vpon it beare witnesse of the honour and great triumph which the Martyrs obtaine in heauen if their conflict against death bee answerable to this triumph as equity requires it must bee exceeding great and therefore it is no easie thing to dye the which S. Augustine seemes to confirme Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non esset magna Martyrum fortitudo If saith hee there were no bitternesse in death the Martyrs valour should not be great Answer He is truely a Martyr who for the honour of God and for the loue of his neighbour doth constantly seale the contract of the alliance of God with his owne bloud and the true cause of Martyrdome is to suffer death for iustice and for the name of Christ as Christians and in doing well This bloud thus shed is the true seede of the Church the very Commentary of the holy Scripture the Trompet of Gods glory the true Victory of the cruelty and obstinacy of Gods enemies the holy Lampe to lighten and draw to the Kingdome of Christ those which are in the shaddow of death c. In consideration whereof these holy Champions of the faith are honored in heauen with a Crowne of gold clothed with white garments c. Vpon earth in the primi tiue Church vpon the day of their suffring which they called their birth-day the faithfull assembled vpon the place of their Martyrdome did celebrate their happy memory repeated their combates commended their resolution exhorting the assistants to doe the like if they were called to the like combate as well by reading of their bloody history as by the sight of the place where their blood was newly spilt It is that which Cyrillus in the epistle to Smyrne the Paraphrase of Rufynus doth teach vs wherein we may see that it was not the death but the cause of the death which made them to bee so recompenced and recommended And whatsoeuer they haue had in heauen shall bee giuen to all others which shall haue the like will to serue their master though not the effect the like Crowne nor the like garments To mee saith that great Martyr S. Paule the Crowne of Iustice is reserued which the Lord the iust Iudge shall giue mee in that day and not onely to me but vnto all those that shall loue his Comming And what Christian is it that desires not the comming of Christ It is also written that all the Armies which are in heauen wherein all the faithfull are followed the faithfull the true the Word of God vpon white horses clad in white Cypres Finally in this inestimable reward which God giues vnto Martyrs there is not so great a regard had to the merit and grieuousnesse of their death as to the most precious blood of his Sonne Iesus Christ and to his free promise wherefore this Obiection is to no purpose and if it were it doth incite men more to desire then to refuse death if it bee true that the enduring of the first death in the Saints is a freeing frō the second as Saint Augustine teacheth The third Obiection It is impossible but man should be toucht with a great apprehension of euery sharpe combate he is to endure Such is death MAn hath three cruell enemies which present themselues vnto him at his last farewell a sensible paine at the dissolution of the foule from the body sinne represents vnto him heauen gates shut and hell open and Satan tempts him and lets him see his criminall Inditement whereof he is ready to execute the sentence Answer It is
orresty sayth one the rider is not in fault The bodie is a ship the spirit the Pilot the ship suffers wracke but the Pilote saues himselfe by swimming or vpon some boarde the body dies the soule saues it selfe vpon the table of faith and repentance The bodie is a Lanterne the soule the Candle if the glasse be cleare and transparent the light is the greater so by the disposition of the body the soule is knowne more or lesse Man is a bird shut vp in the shell of the egge expecting vntill the shell breake of it selfe that he may come forth so doth the soule that the body my be broken to the ende shee may flie to heauen There are three places assigned to man the first is the matrix the second is this world the third is heauen the first is short the second a litle longer and the third is without ende In the first he cries at the comming forth for that he is ignorant of the goodly spectacle of the world which God as a table couered with all sorts of meate in a great Hall hath prepared for him In the second hee apprehends and desperatly feares his departure for that he knowes not this third heauen the seate of Iesus Christ of the Angells and of the blessed which is prepared for him infinitely more excellent then this base earth where he shall remaine euerlastingly and perfectly happy And these are the liuely similitudes with many other likewise which are continually in the mouthes and writings of such as treate profoundly thereof whereby man may see that he hath no subiect to feare death seeing that by it his soule his principall part and by which hee is man receiues so great a benifit And what shall it bee when the holy Ghost shall assure his Spirit that his body being layd in the ground as in a sacred pawne shal be restored to him immortall in the great and last day But attending this incomparable good let vs proue this immortality byreason first of all The soule reuiues and fortifies it selfe in the greatest agonies of death So Testators witnesse that they are sound in minde though very sicke in body so the disposition of a man at the point of death is of more weight for that hee hath a better conscience a more liuely feeling of his soule And Hippocrates giues aduice to obserue if in diseases there appeare nothing that is Diuine meaning that we should obserue the sighes and the gestures of the sicke patient for if they be vnaccustomed of heauen or of God it is a signe that the soule begins to discouer it selfe seeing it thinkes of heauen her proper mansion So Cyrus being in the bed of death caused his children to approach vnto him to whom hee gaue goodly admonitions but among others hee told them that hee could neuer bee perswaded that the soule lying in the body did remaine after the death of the mortall body as if he would say that vntill then he had studied to assure himself but now he did not doubt of it Nay we shall sometimes see ignorant Countrimen discourse exceeding well at the point of death as wee reade of a certaine labourer altogether vnlearned being nee◅e vnto his death had recommended his health his wife and children with as great Rethorike as Cicero could haue vsed discoursing before the Senate This reason was taken as a strong defence against death by the King of Arr◅gon and represented by Seneca to all that are fearefull in death saying This day which thou fearest so much as the last is the birth day of eternity The 2. is taken from religion and from the homage which man doth owe vnto God for the immortality of his soule not in one Country but in all not in one age but for euer not in one person but generally in all by some adoration prayer of sacrifice in what fashion soeuer man will sooner forget his King his father yea himselfe then his God yet hee makes no doubt but there is a King he sees him he knowes him he honours him and that he hath a father of whom hee holds his life and with whom he doth conuerse dayly and whom he is bound to loue finally he tries himselfe growes conceited and many times abuseth himselfe with the great loue of himselfe and yet hee holds himselfe more bound to God then to all these hee will not feare to displease them if he can no otherwise please God and will hold for Maximes That it is beter to obey God then men that he which doth not renounce father or mother for the loue of God is not worthy of him hee that doth not renounce himselfe and take vp the Crosse of affliction for the seruice of God deserues to bee renounced of him The vnciuill wars which haue swallowed vp so many men in Christendome within these 50. yeares had no other pretexts then these sentences and they had no other foundation then the conscience of the soule that immortall seale which God did graue in the soule when he did infuse it into the body of mā as Chrysostome saith Let vs obserue it in some examples but great in euery respect Alexander the Great being incensed for that the Iewes had denied him succors marcht with his Army to ruine them if the high Priest Iaddus with his ornaments and his holy troupe had not gone out to meete with Alexander Who when he saw the high Priest he admired him and fell downe at his feete whereat his people were amazed and troubled and his most confident Parmenio came vnto him How comes it sayth he since that you worship a man you whom althe earth is ready to acknowledge for a God It is not hee answered Alexander but God in him whom I worship who appeared to me in vision in the like habit in Macedon Whence came this suddaine forgetfulnesse of his owne reuenge from whence this acknowledgement to the Immortall but from an immortall soule As Antiochus held Ierusalem besieged the feast of Tabernacles drew neere the Iewes being resolued to celebrate it they sent an Embassage vnto him to demaunde a truce for seuen dayes that they might attend the holy worship of their great God The soule of this great King being toucht with religion not only yeelded to their demand but also hee himselfe turned to this homage caused oxen with gilded hornes to bee conducted to the Cittie gates with great store of Indense and sweet smells to be sacrificed In which action whether should we admire most either the patience of this great King willingly and deuoutly hindering his ready victory Or the forgetfulnesse of himselfe suffering those sacrifices that he knew to be vndertaken against his honor his fortime and his life And what doth not this confused apprehension of God worke in the immortall spirit of man Cybels Priests wil geld themselues thinking to please their goddesse the Athenian Priests will drinke Hemlocke to liue chastly the Virgins will lye vppon
their carnall pleasures As for Sardanapalus hee hath also doubted whether he were a man since that hee tooke vpon him a womans habit among his Courtisans and handled a distaffe with them For my part I beleeue that he had the humour and spirit of a beast as Tully reports that Aristotle hauing read this Epitaphe sayd that they should haue written it vpon the pit of a beast not on the graue of a King The same answere shall serue for the like thing pretended at Brescia As for the third their ignorance and malice would force a beleefe of mortality of soules what others more honest and more wise haue done shall serue to confute them For the same antiquaries write that many caused to bee drawne vpon their tombes doores halfe open shewing thereby that their soules escaped from the tombe If one Philosopher would dispute of it there are others who to get fame haue questioned matters more apparent as Cardan the fourth Element of fire Copernicus the motion of heauen maintaining by the illusion of reason that it is the earth not the heauen that moues There haue beene alwayes and shall be such fantasticke humors who would make themselues famous with the preiudice of the truth As for the Empresse Barbara hee should haue added that shee was an insatiable Letcher therefore she had great interest not to giue an accoumpt of her dissolute life to perswade her self that al was extinguished in death Now followeth this depra ued age into the which as into the bottome of a sinke al the filth of precedent ages haue seemed to run yet there are God bee thanked who beleeue it in their hearts and deliuer it with ther mouthes that their spirit is immortal and they that speake it only with their mouthes it is sufficient that naturall shame will not suffer them to discouer the villany of thier hearts and this bashfulnesse an impression of God is sufficient to make them inexcusable in the great day of the Lord. Moreouer they that with a furious impudency haue beleeued that the soule died with the body haue for the most part in their miserable ends made knowne the iudgements of God who punished them for their frantike opinion as Lucian who was torne in pieces by dogs Lucre tius who grown mad cast him selfe downe a precipice Caligula who was cruelly slaine with infinite others Or else they haue shewed it in their confused and irresolute carriage the distemperature and trouble of their soules impugning their damnable opinion To conclude As for Theodorus and the swarme of his disciples who in a manner alone hold the chaires in all estates I will suffer them to be led in Triumph before the triumphant chariot of faith that which Du Bartas sayth in the beginning of the second song is sufficient to confound them The 4. Argument That which proceeds immediatly f◅om God is euerlasting Such is the soule I will prooue the consequēce of the Maior for the rest is plaine of it selfe whilest the Sun shall last he will cast fo◅th his beames whilest there is fire there will come forth heate whilest the heart beates in the body there remaines life for that the position of the sufficient cause very neere and immediate doth of necessity establish the effect the which continues as long as the cause if there happens no inpeachment But God is a sufficient cause neuer hindered in his effects he is the neere and immediate cause of the soule which hee breathes into the body as soone as it was disposed and fit to receiue that breathing hee is immortall and by consequent the soule is immortall So hee created the Angels the Angels shal subsist for euer so he made the heauen earth and they shall neuer perish If they reply that the heauēs shal passe that God wil cōsume them as a flaming pyle of wood as the Poet speakes after S. Peter The answer is That it is not to be vnderstood of the substance of the world but of the qualities which being vaine and corrupted by reason of man shal be changed and renewed by fire to shine more purely like refined gold They may againe obiect That God with his owne hands had moulded and fashoned the first man who not with standing is dead I answer that God was the efficient and immediate cause of man but not the formall nor the materiall his substance was the slime of the earth which might be dissolued his forme was his soule which might be separated But in the soule and of the soule of man God holds immediatly the foure kinds of causes the efficient for he hath made it of himselfe without any help the materiall not that it is of his essence but that hee hath created it of nothing as hee did the world the formall in like manner his continual inspiration retaines it as his continuall prouidence preserues the world from ruine and therefore Christ sayd my Father works hitherto and I with him Finally he is the finall cause for man liues to know and serue God If they reply againe that God being a voluntarie cause in his actions should not be numbred among the naturall causes which necessarily produce their effects if there be not some let that is most certen but where the word of God is euident we must not doubt of his will but it is apparent in the passages alledged that the soule is immortall And therefore we may profitably and safely conclude That if from the sufficient and neere cause the effect doth necessarilie flow and that this effect doth continue as long as the cause if there happen no lets that vndoubtedly the soule is immortal seeing that God her most sufficient cause and who feares no disturbance is immortall so as to denie this immortalitie is to deny the Deitie Obiection That which hath bin alwaies required to be sufficiently testified yet hath beene still denyed cannot be certaine The immortalitie of the soule hath beene alwayes required to be sufficiently testified yet hath beene still denyed NO great ioy doth at any time accompanie a deepe silence If the soule going out of the bodie felt it selfe immortall shee should feele it if she were so for going out of the body as out of a darke prison shee should haue the fruition of all her light if shee felt her selfe as I say immortall shee would witnesse it by some signe to the poore kinsfolkes that suruiue being desolate by reason of his departure to comfort fortifie and make them ioyfull And although the soules which are in heauen be there detained by a voluntarie prison hindering them from comming downe and on the other side those that are in hell are tyed there by a will that is captiue as one hath affirmed But the soules that goe out of the bodies which are yet on earth euen vpon the lips of them that die why haue they not instantly before they fly to heauen being so often required giuen some smalle proofe of
death of man-hood at what time the spirit is fortified and growes more ripe in good Counsell and wiser in his actions this life ascends vnto the decrepit age as they call it which begins at 70. yeares where rests the death of age and so runnes on vnto the graue all the remainder of his life and this is the 8. degree of life In the end succeeds in his turne the last principall and most to be desired death I say the principall for that it makes an end of all the other deathes that went before and feares no more the miseries of life I say to be desired for she alone doth crowne the actions of mortal life with glorious immortality it is the hand which sets vpon our heads the flourishing Diadem of eternall life It is the last staffe of the ladder manifested vnto Iacob by vision ordained by God to the end wee may thereby ascend vp into heauen It is that dun horse that is to say pale and mournefull to our opinions but yet wee must backe him to runne the carreere of death to passe vnto that most happy aboad Poore man thou tremblest at the shadow of death thou doest crie and howle when she layes hold on thee euen so thou diddest when thy mothers strength cast thee out of her wombe if then thou haddest had thy iudgement neate as now thou hast thou wouldest haue held thy selfe happy to haue left a most filthy prison within the circuite of that round Citty In like sort if now thou hadst thy vnderstanding and Spirit transformed and renewed as the Apostle speakes thou shouldest see plainely that what doth terrifie thee is that which should assure thee But yet if God hath not imparted vnto thee the light of his grace take aduice of humane reason call Seneca vnto thee who had but the eyes of a man and consider what he sayth thou shalt find that in it are no ambushes nor constraint it is onely pure and simple nature which speakes by reason it is an vndoubted Maxime that nature alwayes tends and attaines for the most part to the perfection of her worke Man is her Master peece all other Creatures are made for him the perfection of man is his perpetuity in a most happy life nature leads man by degrees to this perfection We see she failes not in the second degree seeing that the Infant borne is much more perfect then that which is newly ingendred in the wombe it failes no more in the third nor cōsequently to the eighth as I haue shewed Let vs conclude thereby that it is impossible she shold faile in the principall which is the ninth degree of life which shee must perfectly finish wee must iudge of the end of the worke by the beginning and progresse Finally if the study of Philosophy bee a kinde of death as Philosophers hold for that man is sequestred from the company of men and the vanities of the world to haue his spirit free and at liberty in his braue meditations and if in this estate man is more accomplished and more perfectly happy without comparison then they that trouble themselues continually with the affaires of this actiue life Oh what shall it bee when as the soule purged from the infection of the senses freed from all commerce with the body shall be wholly in it selfe ennobled with a supernaturall grace illuminated with a celestiall flame inspired with an vnspeakeable ioy how beautifull happy and ioyfull shall shee be To this death then let vs direct our vowes and our eies let vs take acquaintance and be familiar with her shee is our friend since that Iesus Christ did vanquish and subdue her for our sakes shee is prepared for vs as a way into which wee must of necessity enter to goe into our Countrey which is heauen It is the onely meanes ordained of God to go vnto that most blessed Mansion Let vs then stretch out our armes couragiously and with a smiling countenance when we shall see her turned towards vs making signe that shee will imbrace vs let vs receiue her for shee is a necessary gift to our cortupted nature which wee must not reiect but imbrace as Saint Chrysostome saith The first Obiection Euery end of a worke is not the finall cause therefore it followes not that death is the finall cause of life although it be the extreame end THere are three cōditions necessary to a finall cause the one is that it be the last point of the operation the other is that the worke bee finished for the loue thereof if the first bee found in death the second which is the principal falls seeing that the actions of life tend not vnto death as to their deare and best beloued Answer I said not that death was the finall cause of life but the way yea the onely way which leades vs vnto it and that for the loue of that great and foueraigne good which is ioyning to the gate of death we should desire it and not bee amazed at it after the example of S. Paule who writing to the Philippians desired to be dissolued and to be with Christ the which was farre better for him that he might bee crowned with a crowne of Iustice and enioy that vnspeakeable good as hee saith else-where But some Infidels will say I demand proofes hereof fauorable to my reason I answer that hee hath put the flame of reason into thy vnderstanding who doth illuminate euery man which commeth into the world hath presented his grace vnto thee in the Gospell to beleeue and there is nothing but the barre of thy sinnes that doth hinder thee neither is this Gospell concealed from any but such as haue the eyes of their vnderstanding blinded by the Prince of this world But if thy reason beeing blinded cannot apprehend the souereigne Good which is in death yet shall you plainly see a meere priuation from all miseries an absolute rest and a tranquility which cannot be interrupted and therfore if there were no other but this reason death should cause no amazement but rather giue contentment considering the estate of this life The second Obiection All demolishings carry deformity and cause horror Death is a demolishing of man therefore death causeth horror PAllaces Temples and other buildings yeeld a pittifull spectacle when we see them ruined and what shall man doe who exceedes in excellency all buildings yea the earth the heauen and all that we behold what can hee doe lying vpon the earth in death but perplexe our mindes To this I answer by distinction to the similitude and then I flatly deny the application I say therefore to the first proposition that there are two sorts of demolishings the one is necessary and wisely vndertaken for a better structure the other is preiudiciall and vndiscreetly done by reuenge for a totall ruine I confesse that this in its deformity should giue cause of horror but I cannot confesse that the like is in death in the
be not directed and animated from aboue he followes that which he should fly and flyes that which he should follow so as he shall neuer hit the white now win the Crowne of Iustice which is the true felicitie of man Let vs then conclude with S. Iohn That what we shal be doth not yet appeare with S. Paul That our life is hidden in Christ That it is in safe keeping and that the ende of this mortall life is the beginning of the immortall Let vs say in the ende that all things haue their Periode that wee are borne to liue We liue to die and wee die to liue againe but without any more turning for the Circle shal be returned to his point and the light of the bodie shall suffer no more eclipse Come then O gentle death which doest make an end of the miseries of this world and beginnest the happinesse of Heauen which dost free vs from mortall paine and bringest vs to enioy immortall good which doest conuert our teares and toyles into ioy rest which doest change our fantasticall treasure into that which is certaine and our temporall into spirituall and eternall Retire then O you deceitfull vanities for the charme of your pleasures cannot preuaile with me who am resolued to die hold your tongue also O vaine deception of Philosophie and humane tradition for I am taught by the death of my Sauiour by his resurrection that my greatest perfection is to acknowledge my imperfection my blindnesse my death in my sinnes and that my greatest happynesse in this world is to obteyne remission of my sinnes and to mortifie my corrupted members to the end that a good death may soone bring mee to the hauen of saluation and eternall life Amen The second Argument taken from the vicious fruits of the extreame feare of death That which breedes many inconueniences in the spirit bodie of man must bee speedily pulled away The extreame feare of death causeth great inconueniences Therefore that must be speedily pulled away SOme one sayed truely speaking of the excessiue apprehension of death that it is the ordinary obiect which troubleth the vnderstanding of man makes him to lose his Iudgement to abandon all duety and to cast himselfe into a shamefull forgetfulnesse of himselfe Let vs. see how Hee that feares death vnmeasurably he must of necessitie feare euery thing that may bring it that is all that hee sees and what he cannot discerne whereas death lyes in ambush whereby it happens that this man doth easily fall into many errours as into foolish superstition thinking by his voluntarie submissions by mâ—…toring of words not vnderstood by adoring of stocks and stones to moue God to pitty him and to turne away death which hee imagines vpon the least accident the flying of a bird or the croaking of a Crow should take him by the throate So we reade of Arislodemus King of the Messeniens who being in warre against his subiects the dogs howled like Woolues and an herbe called Dogstooth grew neere vnto his Altar the which being interpreted by his Soothsayers to bee an ill presage he concoiued such a feare as hee died And as this disordered motion of feare makes men credulous to the words of Satan so doth it make them incredulous to the assured promises of the Eternall the which prouoking the wrath of God in the end hee doth execute vpon them his sentence pronounced against the fearefull incredulous casting them into the Lake burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death Apocal. 21. O how fitly then did Saint Augustine say that by too much fearing the temporall death they did ingulfe themselues in the eternall a fearefull man not onely makes himselfe a slaue to fantasticall diuinity but also a bondman to any one that is subiect vnto him said King Lew. 11. who to assure himself against death shut himselfe vp solitarie at Plessis neere Tours yet could he not bee confident the opening of a doore amazed him he hated all those he suspected and he suspected all the world his most confident were dismisss and put from his person and hee remayned alone melancholie dreaming froward and chollericke nothing pleased him but onely displeasure he grew iealous of his sonne-in-law of his owne Sonne and his Daughter only his Phisitian possest him controlled him and kept him in awe with his words threatning death I know well said hee swearing a great oath that one of these mornings you will send mee away with the rest but you shall not liue eight dayes after Thus this imperious seruant kept his King captiue Thus this King lost his liberty more pretious then his life for maintaining whereof good men should alwaies striue Wherunto Seneca had reference when he sayd that the vilest death was to bee preferred before the honestest seruitude for that this liberty cannot safely confish but in the contempt of death as Agis King of Lacedemon taught him that demanded an assured liberty of him and in truth â—…hee that feares not death may passe freely like a Knight without feare who shall hinder him seeing the extremâ—… dangers of death cannot amaze him Moreouer fearefull persons are the ruine of States and Commonalties for in the least daÌ„gers through feare and the threats of great men they yeeld easily to a mischiefe and subiect themselues to the fauour of the wicked and the will of the base multitude Thirdly a man that trembles so at the apprehension of death runnes into assured misery which depriues him of all pleasure of life makes his facewrincle and grow pale before his time Which the Italian Gentleman will verifie who being imprisoned vpon a certaine accusation and receiuing newes that without all doubt he should lose his head the next day the feare of one night did so trouble his braine and distempered his body with shaking as he became all gray and worne But ô miserable men after all your shifts and escapes in the end you must come and yeeld your selues at the Port of Death So much the more miserable I do not call you miserable for that you are subiect vnto death but for your extreame feare that many thinking to free themselues from death haue run head-long into it some thinking to escape haue cast themselues out at a window and broken their neckes others flying their pursuing enemies swords haue leapt like fishes but without fins into a deepe riuer as into an assured Sanctuary where they haue beene drowned Nay besides all this they which thinking still to delay and escape that which they feare so extreamely when they see themselues in the bed of death then doe they vomit out their rage against heauen and exclaime iniuriously against the true God and being desperate they cast themselues into the infernall gulph Let vs conclude with Seneca That the feare of death will neuer profit any liuing man but drawing him into many miseries which are much more to be feared then death it selfe will make him in the
doe it but he wil neuer do it or very seldome to shew his infinit power by miracle Let vs in the end say That seeing death is ineuitable it must needs follow that the feare of it is vnprofitable On the other side let vs adde that mās life is not to be cut off before the time therefore a carefull waywardnesse to prolong it auailes nothing the Destinies which haue resolued immutably to spinne it out till such a time they will doe it feare it not and in the danger of death will rather shew a miracle to preserue thee as to the Poet Simonides who supping with Scopas in a Towne of Thessalie word was brought him that two young men were at the dore to speake with him the Poet went forth but found no body at the doore but hee heard a great noyse of the chamber which sunke downe and smothered Scopas and al his guests in the ruins We reade that Gelon then a young Infant but appointed to liue longer to gouern Sicile was drawne out of the like but a stranger danger for as hee was at schoole in the presence of his master and many of his companions behold a great Wolfe enters into the school comes to Gelon layes hold of his booke and drawes it by the one end Gelon without amazement holds fast and rather suffers himselfe to bee drawne forth by the Woolfe then to let goe his hold and in the meane time the building happened to sinke and ouerwhelmed both Master and schollers Thus God shewes his prouidence preseruing by his Angels those whom he pleaseth from present and most eminent dangers So would hee saue Lot and his family from the fire of heauen almost against their will For it is written that the Angels tooke them and thrust them out of Sodome yea it is written that the Angell executioner to shew the force of prouidence told Lot that he could not doe any thing vntill hee were retired into a towne adioyning which was afterwards called Zohar into the which he was no sooner entred but the Eternall powred downe fire and brimstone vpon Sodome and Gomorah We reade of Titus Vespasian that two famous knights had conspired to kill him whereof he was aduertised but making no shew thereof he tooke them by the hands led them forth to walke and hauing called for two swords he gaue to eyther of them one as prouoking them to that which they had resolued but being amazed both of the manner and of the Emperours courage You see sayth he that destinie doth iustly hold the principalitie of the world and that in vaine men practise murthers against it be it through hope to purchase greatnesse or for feare to lose it Let vs therefore acknowledge that it is not of vs but of the word of destinie which God hath pronounced that the lengthening or shortning of our liues depends The great God is to vs a God of strength to deliuer vs and the issues of death belong vnto the Eternal therefore the Apostle sayd that Christ is dead and risen againe that he might haue power ouer the dead and the liuing and therfore this vexing care of life nor that great horror of Death cannot profit vs any thing Let vs then leaue these things and finishing our course resolutely ioyfuly let vs yeeld al into the hands of our soue raigne Master neither to tempt him nor to despaire of him for both the one and the other are equally hateful vnto him and if our soule puft vp with the vent of temptation be desquiet within vs let vs say vnto it with Dauid My soule returne vnto thy rest feare nothing Euery kinde of death of them that are beloued of God is precious in his sight verie precious sayeth S. Bernard as being the ende of labour the consummation of the victorie the port of life and the entrie to perfect felicitie The first Obiection If Death did flow from the enchayned order of destinie we should not see it without order sometimes to goe slowly sometimes to runne headlong But that is vsually seene Therefore it seemes not to flow from destinie THe vnequall Issue of life which we see happen to men doth not alter but rather corroborate destinie it is the immutable decree of the Eternal he sees who should amend or impaire in this life he that hath made all for his glory euen the wicked for the day of calamitie And therefore he soone tooke vp Enoch to himself lest that malice shold corrupt his spirit sayth the text Contrariwise if Constantine the Great who was cruel in his youth had beene cut off he had not bin a Christian neither had hee so much extended the kingdome of Christ. There is yet another reason which is the deliuerance of good men from the miseries of the world when death comes I will gather thee vp with thy fathers sayd God to Iosias the good King to the end thy eyes may not see all the miseries which I will bring vpon this place On the other-side a long life is a great languishing to the wicked So Caine after his parricide committed was cursed of God and liuing so pursued by the Iudgement of God as he often cried out that his punishment was insupportable and therefore hee should wander vpon the face of the earth and that whosoeuer should finde him would kill him but God prouided setting a brand vpon his fore-head to the end no man should slay him But how comes it that the death of some is suddaine as the shot of an harquebuze cānot bee more suddaine and so long in others which languish of some long infirmitie I answere that to search into the Counsells of God which is properly the destiny wherof we speake is more infinite then to seeke the bottome of a gulph That great Apostle rapt vp to the third heauen finds nothing but depths incomprehensible Iudgements and wayes impossible to be found out Rom. 11. Moreouer I do not see to speake truely that death is more suddaine to one then to an other is it to them that being sound and vigorous are so strooken as they die presently Yet being thus strooken they know not whether they should suruiue it or no seeing some one hath escaped being thus stroken Wherefore I do not see that death is more slow to one then to an other Is it to them that lie bedred 10. or 20. yeares yea and what know they whether they shal die the first day they take their beds To conclude I say that seeing the comming of death is imperceptible and that it is impossible for any man to say assuredly I am dead or I shal suruiue that death cannot be suddaine or slow to any man other men iudge after the euent but not before And therefore it seemes to mee that the question which is made whether a languishing death or a suddaine be most to be desired is in vaine for that we shall find that death is suddaine to all men seeing it comes
for on that day thou shalt eate of it thou shalt die the death obserue the words from that day for he died not that day but liued long after but from that day being fallen from grace he dyed the spiritual death then what doth this Hebrew phrase to die the death mean but the principall death which is the eternall the second death But this death brought in by Sathan by sin by man hath no power ouer the children of God good men to whom this discourse is onely directed since that it was subdued bound and confined into hell by Iesus Christ our Sauiour as Athanasius hath wel obserued that as the waspe strikes violently against a stone but hurts it not by her incursion but rather bruzeth her selfe and looseth her sting euen so death incountring Christ furiously who is life she could not hold him in her bands but she hath lost her sting so as they whom shee terrified before insult ouer her now So then death simply the laying of the bodie into the ground there to be putrified the way to heauē is good to the good is giuen of God by nature life death are of the Lord sayth wise Ecclesi 11. vers 14. It is he that giues life and death that maks vs to descend into the graue to rise againe saith the Prophetesse Anna. 2. Sam. 2. It is then our good mother that calls vs to death let vs follow and obay her voice seeing we can receiue no harme and how can it bee hurtfull seeing it is the sepulcher of vices and the resurrection of vertues sayth S. Ambrose and how how can it bee dangerous seeing it is that Toad-stone which by his fecret vertue expels and rectifies all vncleane things And in truth as Toades when they are growne olde and heauy with a fat poyson are set vpon by an infinite number of Ants which sucke him and deuour him so as nothing remaines but the said stone which afterwards they may freely handle yea profitably So death hauing beene purged from sinne is now by the almighty power of the Eternall conuerted into a most souereigne remedy against sinne The second Obiection There is not any thing ingenerate in all Creatures by nature in vaine But the feare of death is ingenerate in all Creatures Therefore the feare of death is not in vaine FOr the proofe of this Argument shall suffice the approbation of all Creatures great and small which flye from death the same reason is for man whom the complexion of his flesh being proportionable to the quality of the Elements inclines him to loue the world he may be where he will yet his naturall disposition will draw him towards his countrey although in stead of some sweete liquor which he promised to himselfe hee should drinke wormewood So man beeing borne in the world and accustomed vnto it can hardly leaue it Answer The nature of man doth sometimes affect and abhorre one the same thing but for diuers considerations if he beholds death nakedly there is great feare as we may discouer in many but if he can haue the iudgement and patience to see her attired in her precious ornaments with vertue with heauen gates by the which onely we are brought in of the assured ioy and rest of the minde in the possession whereof shee sets the soule then doe wee affect it and desire it and this desire should be held more natural in man for that it is more proper vnto him seeing it proceeds from the true iudgement of reason which makes him man Moreouer for a more cleare solution of the argument we must distinguish the vniuersall nature from the particular vniuersall nature is that vertue that admirable investigable proportiō infused by God into the Vniuerse the proper Instrument of the principall agent of this soueraigne essence which hauing insinuated into this Chaos the first matter hath brought it in six dayes too this goodly ornament and hath preserued it many thousand of yeares of this nature we de nie that she plants in beasts the feare of that shee giues them that is to say death but as to shew vnto the beasts of the earth al the lights of heauen as well the fixed stars as wandring she turnes about the heauens so to shew vnto heauen all the Creatures she hath giuen the passage returning of life death else it were impossible if as in a tree the dry leaues falling giue place to green that spring so in beasts the first should not giue way to them that follow As for particular nature the very cōplexion of euery one to whom death is so terrible I say it is an ill ordered feare The Order is preposterous when as the particular doth not follow the Law of the generall and it is the ruine of States when as the priuate good is preferred before the publike The Romaine Empire did flowrish when as the Popilij Scipios Fabij and others did choose rather to be poore in a rich estate then rich in a poore estate Euen so is it in the societie of mankind taken in all ages euery one must dispose himselfe to follow this generall order of supreme nature and whosoeuer shall contradict it shall shew himselfe a bad Cittizen of this great Cittie of the world and opposing himselfe let him not therfore think to escape the inexorable destinie of his end but as the bird takē in the limetwig thinking to free her selfe by striuing is caught the faster so man which is ensnared by death the more furiously hee torments himselfe the more he shall aduance the obiect of his torment Let euery one therefore looke vnto his dutie to his children and to them that shall come after to prepare himselfe to giue them place here to tends that great desire the issue of particular nature to ingender that great care of fathers mothers in the nourishing preseruation education and bringing vp of their children to the end they may sucoted them and why then hauing prouided for all left yong oliue plants in our old stock hearing the bell sound a retre◅t wherefore I say should we shew our selues deafe vnwilling faynt hearted The fat all bird drawn by the sent of thy Carcase is perched ouer thy window art thou still restie doest thou not feele thy seditious guests with in thee which cōspireth thy infallible ruine Nature will haue it so she commands thee to depart feare not folthy good mother and thou shalt do well Let vs therfore conclude that although our particular nature our complexion makes vs to abhorre death yet wee must not beleeue her no more then the seruant of the house which is borne to obey It is the mistresse the vniuersal vertue of the world which commands vs to depart and to suffer others to enter let vs follow and obey all our trembling and horror is in vaine But to what ende is it will you say for me to haue flourishing children if in the meane time I become worms
Queene of Nations falsesly held to be eternall where art thou destroied ruined burnt and drowned in vaine do they seeke thee for thou art not where thou were built And you Constantinople Venice and Paris your day will come and why not Seeing that whole Monarchies runne swiftly to their ruine the Assirian Persian Grecian and Romaine are perished You Turkes you florish for â—…lme but behold 〈◊〉 Scâ—…thians prepare to wrest the reines of the world out of your hands and what wonder if that riues which by nature is apt to tiue if that which is easie to melt melt if that which is corruptible decayes and if that which is of a mortall condition dies Without doubt if there be any thing to be amazed at it is how we are borne how wee subsist amiddest a thousaÌ„d deaths which reigne vpon vs we haue but one narrow entry into life but wee haue an infinite number to go out which are very large and slippery And yâ—…t o strange brutishnesse we wonder how we die and not how we liue Let vs then conclude with the Spirit of God That euery man is dust and shall returne to dust for such is his condition The 13. Argument taken from the benefit which the thought of death brings Whatsoeuer doth multiply life should be precious to them that loue life The Meditation of death multiplies life Therefore the meditation of Death should be precious to them that loue life A Great Philosopher obseruing the vncertenty of the time of death and finding that life must infallibly fall by a bullet by iron by a dart a stone a haire as Fabius the Pretor was choakt in drinking milke with a kernell as the Poet Anacreon with a flie as Pope Adrian 4. with a splinter be he neuer so well armed as Henry 2. the French King whom a splinter of Captaine Lorges lance flying into the beuer of his caske wounded in the head whereof he dyed by the rush of a doore as Iterenius the Sicilian in the Venerian act a ridiculous death as Gallus Pretorius and Titharius a Romane Knight who were smothered in the bed of lust By the holding of their breath without constraint as it happened to Comon by delight as to Chilon who hearing his sonne commended for that hee had wonne the prized the Olimpike games was so moued with affection as he dyed yea in laughing as old Philemon who hauing seene an Asse eate sigges vpon his table he commanded his seruant to giue him drinke whereat hee did so laugh as hee fell into a hickeâ—… and so dyed Yea life is ruined by the pricke of a needle as in Lucia the daughter of Marcus Aurelius who pricking her selfe dyed By the tooth of a combe like to Rufynius the Consull who combing himselfe hurt his head and ended his life That great Philosopher I say considering that so many accidents and ten thousand others not to bee foreseene might in an instant take away life gaue this wholsome counsell That wee must dispose of euery day in such sort as if it should close vp our life within the compasse of the twelue houres Consider saith hee how goodly a thing it is to consummate life before death and then to attend without care the time that may remayne and the better to induce vs thereunto let vs remember the aduice which Iesus Christ gaue vnto his Disciples of him selfe I must doe saith hee the workes of him that sent me whilst it is day the night comes and then no man can worke Ioh. 9. By the day hee signifies life by night death and his will is that whilst we liue we should doe our duties without any procrastination for that night is neere that is to say death But when a well setled soule saith the same knowes there is no difference betwixt a day and an age shee then beholds as it were from aboue the dayes and successe which shall follow her and laughs at the course and continuance of yeeres The same Seneca doth also make a pleasant discourse of Pacuâ—…ius the vsurper of Syria who being at night buried in wine as as if he had prepared his owne funerall caused himselfe to bee carryed from the table to his bed in the meane time his friends clapping their hands danced and sung He hath liued hee hath liued and there passed no day but this was done And the Authour addes what he did in an vnseemely manner let vs doe with reason that night approching and ready to lay vs in bed let vs sing with ioy I haue runne the course of my prefixed life and if God doth adde an increase of tomorrow let vs account it for gaine In doing so euery day shall bee a life vnto vs and by the multiplication of dayes our life shall be multiplyed and why not seeing that in what day soeuer we dye we dye in our owne proper day as the fame Seneca saith calling the present day that proper day seeing the dayes that are past are no more ours being so lost for vs as they can bee no more restored As for the future we cannot call them ours being not yet come and may bee wrested from vs in an instant by many accidents Moreouer what is there in an age that wee find not in one day the heauen the earth the inhabitants thereof the day and night by the reuolution of the heauens But you will say This pensiue thoght of death hammering continually in our heads doth hasten our death Answ. You are deceiued a wiseman thinkes quietly of it and in thinking of it aduanceth nothing no more then the marriner in seeing the sayles still and the wind to blow it is by the wind and sayles not by his looking that he is carried into the Port So by the waues of this life not by the meditation of death wee are carried to the graue Let vs then end with the saying of the Philosopher Musonius That he imployes not the day rightly who resolues not as if it were his last The 14. Argument taken from a Simile Euery sweete and sound sleepe is pleasing Death is a sweete and sound sleepe Ergo. A Naxagoras sayed there were two excellent instructions in Death the one in sleepe the other in the time going before our birth Let vs now consider of the first instruction We see that most of the heathen Philosophers haue saluted death with the name of sleepe Plato in the end of his Apologie of Socrates Tully in his booke de Senectute Obsenie fayth hee there is no thing so like vnto death as sleepe Homer faith that sleepe death are brother and sister twinnes Let vs obserue with Plutarque that Homer shewes their similitude terming them twinnes for they that are so doe most commonly resemble And in truth wee cannot denie but there is betwixt them great affinitie It is one of the causes of death the cold vapour vndigested and quenching the naturall heate a vapor which appeares vpon the superficies of the bodie which they also
his enemies terrifie him and his friends are suspect vnto him hee eates not without feare of poison hee sleepes vnquietly for that his aduersaries watch for his mine Enuy filing ouer the triumphs of other men stings him continually hee thinkes himselfe as much deiected as another is aduanced Thou thinkest him happy and hee holds himselfe miserable would confesse it to thee if his ambition did not stay him and if he feared not by this confession to make himself contemptible the which he most abhorreth he would shew thee that in his greatest banquets he hath no more assurance thē he ouer whose head there hangs a naked sword staied onely by a horse haire as in old time that of the Tyrant of Sicile But the aduertisement giuen to Philip King of Macedon growne insolent for the victory of Cheronee by Archidamus King of Sparta after the Spartane manner is notable Philip said hee measure thy shaddow if thou findest it bigger then of custome as if hee would say Why doest thou thus insult ouer thine enemies who in thy person hast receiued no increase vnlesse it he care and feare Then followes Pleasure in eating drinking and in the venerian act this pleasure if it keepes not the bounds of necessity and honesty it is infamous and vnwholesome The throat hath slaine more faith a Phisition then the sword Intemperance is the very bayte of an impure spirit which delights in vnpure and vndigested humours drunkennesse depriues a man of the vse of reason transformes him into a beast yea a furious beast apt to commit many mischiefes And therefore Saint Augustine speakes of drunkennesse that it is the mother of all villanies the subiect of offences the roote of crimes the distēperature of the brain the ruin of the body the shipwrack of chastity the losse of time a volūtary rage an ignominious languishing the corruption of manners c. Either of these voluptuousnesses is like vnto the byting of serpents which they call Tarentula They that are toucht laugh sing and dance but it is a Sardonian laughter which brings them to a fatall end and what pleasure As for the act of venery out of the due of lawfull marriage it is by the testimony of Diogenes wine mixt with poyson which in the beginning seemes sweete but presently after it makes him feele a deadly bittemes it is the mire wherin man doth deuolue ruine and lose himselfe It is in this act onely saith Saint Ierome that God did neuer touch the heart of his Prophets Thrice and foure times wretched Ixion who thinkest to imbrace in thy armes the goddesse Iuno and it is but a cloude thou doest hold The pleasure of this world is but a vaine shadow of felicity the substance is in heauen To bee short wee must abhorre voluptuousnes like the Sirenes as the Ancients haue mystically painted them out all that is seene of them is exceeding faire they glister with the shining of sparkling Diamonds they cast forth a sweete sent of Muske and Amber their greene eyes dart flames into the coldest heart gold binds vp their flaxen haire their necks are circled with rubies a Cypres of siluer wauing ouer their shoulders their breasts of Alablaster open whose pappes like two round curds of milke did seeme to leape on their fore-heads were fixed two of Cupids bowes their cheekes were crimson and their mouthes little but their tayle which is hidden vnder the water is pointed with teeth spotted and venemous finally hideous and fearefull and they that are once stung die without helpe and what pleasure These are the three carreeres which men in this world run by troopes heereunto the most actiue of minde and body straine their sinewes and bend their spirits who shall haue most and al for an imaginary happinesse Some in the beginning of the course fall to the ground others end in the middest and these not able to iudge of the vanity of the world are perished in the middest of it The last beeing come vnto the end finde but it is in the extreamity that r◅ey haue imbraced the shaddow for the body vanity for felicity and desolation for consolation then they crie O deceitfull world O miserable life But before they can come to consider wherein the happinesse of life doth consist and settle themselues in a course to attaine vnto it death seazeth on them Obiection It is no good cōsequence to argue from the abuse to the thing abused Your argument proceeds from the abuse to life THey laugh at Lycurgus causing the Vines to be pull'd vp for that some men were drunke and he were more mad that would cut off his nose because hee is troubled with rheume and what were hee that would take away life vnder colour that one vseth it to couetousnes another to ambition a third to voluptuousnes Let vs banish the abuse and retaine life that knowing with Diogenes the goods of nature to exceed them of fortune let vs refuse Alexanders siluer if hee will depriue vs of our liberty and the true vse of the Sun Let vs imitate Xenocrates who grauely answered his Ambassadours who had brought him 50. tallents or 30000. crownes That he had not vse for so much siluer Finally wilt thou be rich Doe not labour to multiply thy wealth but to make a substraction of thy concupiscence As for the other abuse of ambition let Socrates prescribe vs a Rule who hearing a relation of his praises in a discourse composed by Plato interrupted him crying out Oh what lies this young man speakes of mee Let vs consider rhat glory is mixt with the honey of Trapezonde whose violent vapor doth strangely confound the spirits of such as vse it and makes them forgetfull of God Apostates to the faith and voyd of all naturall reason For Voluptuousnesse let them cast their eies vpon the Curij Fabricij who will bee more then content with turneps and beanes yea vpon Epicurus who with water and a little rice would contend with Iupiter for his felicity Let Cyrus and Zaleucus King of Locres be also heard the first against the excesse of wine the other against whordome Cyrus being roughly demanded by his father in law Astiages why hee had refused to drink the cup which hee had presented vnto him For that said he I conceiued it had beene poyson remembring that at your last feast euery man that vsed it did stagger at euery step and his spirits so confounded as hee could not vnderstand any thing nor speake to purpose Zaleucus made a law that the Adulterer should lose both his eyes wherein he was so strict as his owne son being conuicted he vnderwent the same punishment and by a fatherly compassion pulled out one of his sons and one of his owne eyes Answer I yeeld to all this and doe willingly giue my voyce hauing neuer insisted but for the abuse neither that we may depriue our selues of life for any misery Yea I haue maintained the contrary against the Stoicks heretofore
matter perisheth not and is not reduced to nothing but flowes dayly vnder new formes This matter is bounded the starres and the heauen which roule about it make it to bring forth creatures continually and man sometimes but by some rare constellation as the Naturallists speake The heauens I say are bounded and their motions limited Wherefore I maintaine it is not impossible that in an eternity of time that which is limited and bounded and hath once met and is ioyned may yet againe meete and be reioyned if we consider that it is not by chance but by fatall necessity that this Vniuerse roules without ceasing as al they among the Pagans which haue had any vnderstanding haue acknowledged Yea one of them said that who so would demande proofes thereof must be answered with a whip but behold a most certaine proof all creatures euen those that haue no vnderstanding tend alwayes to their ends propounded and all encounter in one vniuersall end If there were not a certaine prouidence in the world which prescribes to euery creature that end which it knoweth not and makes it containe it selfe the world should not be a world that is to say a most excellent and well ordained composition but the greatest confusion that could be imagined Seeing then that the heauens in their motions the starres in their coniunctions the causes in their order euen vnto the last may encounter together so those things which wholly deâ—…d of them may bee redâ—… 〈◊〉 the same estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a maxime in Physicks that the matter and the Agent haue such power after the death and destruction of the creature as they had during his life what then can hinder it but by the position of the same causes and the same circumstances of time concurring the same effect may be repaired Moreouer the thing which is no more is no farther from being then that which hath not bene and there is no impossibility but that which hath had no being may come to light neither is ther any repugnancy but that which hath bene once liuing may come againe to life yea and who knowes whether that which is now hath not beene often heretofore I should beleeue it if I did giue credit to the eternity of the world As for the similitude of clay which the Obiect or not vnderstanding me doth presse so strongly it is very fit in this matter for the workeman which hath made a man and then hath wrought it to make a horse and then confounded it to make an ape and in the end an Eagle may if hee please returne and make the same man which he had made first and hauing vndone it may make a horse and so consequently one after an other in infinitum not that hee can make them all foure subsisting at one time therein the Obiector fights with his shadow and not with my saying And to demonstrate the power of Nature turning about her circle returning backe to the point where she had begun and passing ouer all the circumference of the circle to repaire that in place and time which she had dissolued shee would leaue for an earnest penny the Phenix the only bird of his kinde which is seene in Arabia and which the Egyptians in their Hierogliphicall letters painted to describe by his long continuance the immortality of the soule This goodly birde after many ages past to renew himselfe casts himselfe vpon a pile of stickes layd together the which hee doth so beate with his wings and with the helpe of the Sun which hangs perpedicularly ouer him as it takes fire and consumes the body out of which springs a little worme and of that a little birde which being couered with feathers in the end flies away and becomes the same Phenix You will question the truth hereof if the same Nature did not as much or more in the silke-worme whose egge is no bigger then a graine of millet it discouers a little woolly worme the which without dying transformes it selfe into a moth that changeth into a flie which hath scales and this becomes a butterflie which beating it selfe continually layes egges of these egges come little wormes and so consequently by an infinite circulation Wherefore these diuerse changes and formes happening in our bodies should not amaze vs but rather assure vs that hauing bin carried farre about they shall returne to their first estate seeing that their walkes and this Vniuerse haue their limits and bounds and seeing by the testimony of the wise man that which hath beene is now and that which is to come hath also beene God calling backe that which hath past that is to say as the Diuines expound it that God by his administration makes the Creatures succeeding one an other returne in their order as if they went about a wheele which kind of speech is taken from the celestiall Spheares which gouerne the seasons signifying that those things which happen by time are wheeled about with the reuolution of time which containes them These are the words of no vulgar Diuines whereby wee may see how much they yeeld to this opinion The end of the first Booke The Second Booke The first Argument taken from the Immortalitie of the soule That which is free from Death in the principall part should not feare it Man in his soule his principall part is freed frem death Therefore hee should not feare it IF all men could vnderstaÌ„d without doubting perswade themselues without wauering that their soules at the departure from their bodies are happilie immortall there is not any one without contradiction but would goe cheerefully and resolutely vnto death considering the miseries of this life and the heauie burthen of the bodie for it is the sepulcher of the soule as Plato saied The soule is a plant transported from heauen into a strange soyle into a body of earth where it sighs pines away and desires to depart The greatest thing in the world sayth Periander is contayned in a litle space Socrates maintained that the true man was that within which is lodged in the body as in an Inne S. Bernard exhorts the bodie to know it to intreate his guest which is the soule well The which Anaxarchus did apprehend who being beaten in a mortar did crie out couragiously to the tyrant Nicocreon Beat beate O hangman the flesh and boanes of Anaxarachus So M. Laeuius seeing Galba a great Orator with a deformed bodie sayd That great spirit dwels in a poore cottage But S. Paul shewes it better then all these If this earthly lodging be destroied if this bodie returne to ashes we haue a mansion with God And the body is the clothing of the soule the which Esop obiected to one who abused the beautie of his body He are my friend sayd he thou hast a faire garment but thou puttest it off ill Man is a caualier his body is the horse the spirit is the rider if the horse be lame blind
heauen in the glasse of the Trinitie and diuine vnitie here this is an Article of our faith vnderstood in the resurrection of the flesh and life eternall When there is any question of faith reason must be silent and yeeld and therefore S. Bernard coÌ„fesseth that when he thinks of the estate of the foule he thinks to see two things in it in a manner coÌ„trarie if he beholds it with his humaine discourse as she is in her selfe and of her selfe he can say nothing more certen but that shee is reduced to nothing c. Next it was affirmed that man was verie credulous to â—…uill incredulous to good suspirion turnes alwaies cun ningly to the worst part said an Ancient hee swallowes downe slanders and impostures sweetly and distrusts honest and vertuous things such is his miserie If he think that the immortalitie of the soule cannot be grownded sollidly vpon any humaine argument let him also thinke that there cannot instance be giuen to the contrarie which is not easily ouerthrowne so as he bring a spirit that is tractable not preiudicate And aboue all that hee doe not perswade him-selfe that he may see it or feele it as the smoake or heate going out of the fire so the soule going out of the bodie for it is a spirit and therefore not possible to be comprehended but by reason and vnderstanding which are spirituall operations but let vs answere him to euery point It seemes the Obiector takes an ill presage of the immortallitie of the soule for that she is fauourable as if it were not the nature of man if he be not brutish to court those things which are worthy excellent as the soule of man is aboue al the world All men applaude men in great authoritie we esteeme pretious things as siluergold Pearle what a sot or rather a madd man is he that will haue a concoit that the thing is not excellent because it is respected As for the 400. Prophets they spake vnto the King according to humaine sence and were found false Micheas according to the word of God reuealed vnto him and it was true The Obiector reasons according to carnall sence he shal be taxed with falsehoode Wee speake according to the spirit of God in his holy writ we shall be found true He desires in the end or makes a shew to desire it that wee should ballance our reasons I am content and I protest it will be to his confusion for the Father of light will not suffer Satan the father of lies to triumph ouer the truth For the first instance then we say that Huart doth not meane the soule by the vnder standing but the intellectual spirits whereof she hath need to argue and to vnderstand the things of this world and to write worthily and these intellectuall spirits holding of the vitall bodie it is not strange if they be more vigourous according to the estate of the body and contrariewise if they perish when the bodie perisheth for although they be of a celestial substance exceeding whâ—…t exceeding light and most substantiall that they may be more ready to serue the soule yet are they mortall but the soule in her substance receiueth no increase nor diminution since the moment of her creation infusion into the body at all times yea in all men she is equally perfect as complete in the Ideot as in the learned in the coward as the couragious these are the diuers instruments of the bodie whereof she makes vse which make her diuers in her effects these instrumeÌ„t 〈◊〉 diuerse for that they are diuersly mixt of the foure first humors Moreouer this Spanish Philosopher defines the immortalitie of the soule against Gallen which he calls a substantiall acte and forme of a humaine bodie Cap. 7. of his Examen of spirits Here the impostor doth impertinently confound mortall spirits with the immorall spirit and our reason grownded vpon this that the soule the bodie dying thinkes of the delightfull places in heauen and foretelles things to come with much certitude according to the opinion of Tully and our owne To the Second This generall submission of all menin all places and at times vnder a powerfull Maiestie shewes the natural bond which man hath to doe his homage by reason of the immortalitie of his soule and that he doth rather worship vaine ridiculous and abominable things then none at all doth not deface this bonde but confirmes it more yet shewing that he wanders in the darknes of this world and in steed of taking the way of the East to goe vnto heauen if he be not guided and directed from aboue he takes the contrarie way and wanders farre The which we yeeld but it is a terror answers he to keepe man in his dutie it is true therefore religion is not in vaine for without it for one disorder man would commit ten thousand it proceeds say you from nature and institution I answer it is from nature only that she takes her beginning education doth manure it better it but what doe you vnderstand by nature For the Philosophers haue beene accustomed to signifie 4. distinct things by the same name which yet symbolize together the lowest is the temperature of the 4. humors in the body of man The 2. is the soule which giues motion vnto the body The 3. is the ordinance and rule which God hath established in the world The 4. is God himself called by some in that regard nature naturant If the Obiector means that feare and religion proceed onely from the temperature of the 4. humors in the body of man hee is condemned of falsehood contradiction by his owne saying in that he attributes feare to other creatures the which he knower differ from man in the same temperature and in truth it is in the soule that the reuerence of the Deâ—…ie that is of God is graueÌ„ it comes from this vniuersall rulâ—… and whereas hee would inferre that in women great feare causeth great religion he must vnderstand that religion in man hath conscience for her chiefe foundation which applyes the naturall apprehension of a superiority to an acknowledgment there of and for accessories shee hath contemplation in the superior part and feare in the lower As for the principall foundation it is common to men and women the two others are diuers Contemplation is greater in men and feare in women Contemplation doth stirre vp the will to the seruice of God by two considerations the one is of the diuine power bounty to haue had wil and power to giue life when as wee dreamt not of it to haue drawne vs out of endlesse dangers and to haue continued the course of his graces notwithstaÌ„ding our ingratitude The other consideration is from the basenesse and weakenesse of man which makes him to feele his imperfections and to repaire vnto the fountaine of all good feare doth stirre vp to humilitie to contrition of heart to confession of mouth
there is a third degree yet more abhominable more iniurious to Iustice when as good men are opprest by the wicked and Iustice troden vnder foot by Iniustice what good or iust man is there but sees it and feels it Why doest thou hold thy peace said Abacuck to the Lord the wicked oppressing the iust So Caine slue Abel so Esau persecuted Iacob so the PagaÌ„s haue alwaies mo lested the Israelites sought to ruine them so the Iewes Infidels haue afflicted Christians so the Arrian Heretikes did with all violence persecute the Catholikes Pompey with the iust Senate was vanquished by Caesar Cato murmures and despayring kills himselfe So the Romaine Emperors haue euen glutted their rage vpon the innocencie of Martirs so the Goathes Barbarians tormented the Romaines as soone as they were become Christians Thirtie Tyrants inuade and ruine that goodly Common-weale of Athens The Turke at this day holds the reynes of the Empire of the world triumphing euery where ouer Christian armies Finally what are these great kingdomes but great thefts as a Pirate did fitly obiect to Alexander the Great who made him to keepe silence with shame This iniustice being obserued by many hath giuen occasion to thinke that all things are turned by chance as Claudian doth represent it Graphically and Dauid himselfe confesseth that hee hath beene readie to leaue the good way and to forsake the partie of God for that he saw the wicked in such abundance These men saies he for all that they possesse Are nothing worth yet still we see they spend There liues whole length in varied happinesse Pamper'd with all things to their very end What shall we then thinke yea whereon can wee assure our selues without wauering that the life of man in this world is a List and Careere in which as he hath wrestled and combated so being departed hee shall receiue either the Crowne of glory or the shame of infamy and this shall bee when as iustice shall appeare in her greatest beauty and lustre But in the mean 〈◊〉 this diuine prouidence will that the good as corne in the aire be thrasht fanned and sifted to the end at their departure they may be laid vp in the granier and on the other side the chaffe that is to say the wicked who haue beene alwayes in ioy shal be cast into the fire that is neuer quenched Affliction is the narrow way into the which he must enter who desires to come into the Kingdome of heauen The reproche of Christ is the honour of the child of God the Crosse of Christ is his Scepter his stripes torments are roses and gilloflowers So Moses saith the text held the reproch of Christ to be greater riches then the treasures of Egypt yea hee did rather choose to bee afflicted with the people of God then to enioy for a time the pleasures of sinne So S. Paule did rather choose the trauells imprisonments beatings and death then all the honour he could expect to be a Pharisian Doctor among the Iewes So a million of Martyrs haue rather made choice of chains fires and of death of serue Christ then of Diadems triumphs and wordly felicitie So Regulus did choose rather to bee tormented in a pipe stucke full of nayles at Carthage then to giue preiudiciall counsell to his countrey Socrates had rather dye then adherre to Pagan Idolatrie Seneca preferred death before the flattering of his vicious Prince verifying by effect the words of his Epistle I loue not torments saith he but if there be question to suffer them I desire to carry my selfe brauely couragiously and honestly Cato spake more as the Poet reports Patience most ioyes when most her crosse abounds Most honor costs most and most ioy redounds But for what reason S. Ambrose saith The wise man is not broken by the paines of the body nor vexed by the discommodities in the midst of miseries he is alwayes happy for that the happinesse of life doth not consist in the tickling pleasures of the body but in the coÌ„science purged from all filth of sinne What wilt thou then doe in this secure peace of the wicked in this continuall ware-fare of good men haue a little patience And thou in the'nd shalt say with comfort driuen Thy vowes are heard euen from the highest heauen The Gods sayth Homer suffer not the sinnes of men to passe vnpunished although they deserre the punishment yet by the waight they recoÌ„pence the slownes If the diuine wrath be slow yet it is violent sayth another It is that which did most fortifie Cyrus in the assurance of the immortality of the soule seeing the wicked in this life to prosper good men decay And what shall wee Christians then doe Wee will attend with Dauid that the measure of sinne may be full and then when they haue made an end to fill vp the measure of their fathers they cannot auoyde the iudgement of Hell fire sayth Iesus Christ I know for a certaine sayth Dauid that God will doe iustice I know the Lord th' afflicted will Reuenge and iudge the poore All these wicked riâ—… men which haue had their pleasures and abundance in this world shall haue miseries in the other and 〈◊〉 â—…se poore Lazares which haue beene here diuersly tormented shal be comforted and enioy an eternall rest as the Euangelist speakes Finally the wicked after this life changing opinion and sighing with the anguish of theirminds wil say among themselues Behold him whom wee haue sometimes derided made prouerbs of dishonor wemad men held his life to be mad and his death infamous and how is hee accounted of a the children of God his portion among the Saints And thus doth a wise man discourse We may therefore conclude that seeing lustice this pretious pearle doth east forth but sun-beames in this world vpon vnreasonable creatures and that her bodie beautiful in perfection is in heauen whither she was forced flying the earth to haue recourse there to receiue such as had cherished sought her vpon earth and contrariewise to banish for euer such as had persecuted her with all violence Wee may I say necessarily coÌ„clude That the soules of men are immortal to the end that the happy may be crowned with this iustice and the wicked cast by the heauie burthen of their iniustice to the bottomlesse pit of hell Amen Obiection If the soule did escape the graue shee might fing the prayses of God But she cannot THE Minor is proued directly by a text of the holy Scripture There is no mention of thee in death who shal worship thee in the graue saith Dauid being grieuously sicke And The dead do no more praise the Lord neither they which descend whereas they speake not Ezechias fearing death speakes thus vnto the Lord the graue shall not worship thee death shall not praise thee and they that descend into the
pit attend no more thy truth Answere These holy men haue neuer thought much lesse spoken that the soule was mortall but only that they whom death takes away do no more declare the glory of God to the liuing that a dead mouth cannot preach the wonderful workes of the Eternall And for proofe hereof Dauid doeth assure vs in another place where he sayth I shal not die but liue and declare the workes of the Eternal and If I descend into the pit what proffit shall there bee in my blood Shall the dust praise thee and preach thy truth By which words hee shewes that he meant not to speake but of the praises of God made by the mouth among the liuing As for Ezechias when hee deliuered these words hee had bene then assured to liue by Esay so as hee makes it knowne that whereas God prolonged his life it was to magnifie him in the world and to declare his mercy and yet that the Saints deceased sing the prayses of God in heauen appeares by many texts but that in the Apoc. is sufficient of the 4. beasts and the 24. Elders who sung a new song Moreouer those innumerable multitudes of all Nations Tribes people and tongues attired in long white robes and hauing branches of palme in their hands crying with a loud voyce Saluation to our God who is set vpon the throne and to the Lambe But some one will reply seeing the Saints in heauen sing most melodiously and holily the praises of the Lord how coms it that they alledge this reason to prolong this life that they may celebrate the name of the Eternall I Answer that the heauens haue no neede of these holy sounders out of the Lords praise that they haue from the beginning the Angells which sing continually Holy holy holy is he which-hath beene which is and which shal be and moreouer the faithfull deceased But the earth is altogether desert wherefore the children of God desire to remaine there the course of their prefixed age to the end they may publish the praises of God to the ignorant world and although it be to their losse yet the seruice of God and the glory of their Maister is more deere vnto them then their owne health as Moses and S. Paul among others haue witnessed The second Obiection If the soule being immortall had bene as they say infused into the body of man immediatly from God it is not possible but there shold remaine some knowledge But there remaines none IF the Soule be created immediatly by God and infused into the body from the very moment of this creation and infusion shee is perfect in her essence and therefore should haue a certaine knowledge but wee do not remember our birth nor our Baptisme by reason of the great imperfection of our nature in that age If then as those Infants of whom Aristotle makes memtion who spake as soone as they were borne we had had the temper of the braine requisite to the vnderstanding and memory we should then haue vnderstood and wee should now remember as well as those things which we haue seene within a yeare and since that time which brings al things to maturity hath ripened our nature But if the soule be immortal and not subiect to time and if from the beginning of her creation shee hath receiued her perfect stature how can time deface her vnderstanding and how is it that she remembreth not any thing no not in dreaming when shee was put into the body Some will reply That this sinfull mortall body is the cause of this misery but I may answere that the corporall cannot worke vpon the spirituall and that the Diuines hold that man by his offence hath lost all supernaturall guifts priuiledges which were freely giuen him but not such as were naturall conferred vpon him by the right of Creation and who doth not see but that to vnderstand to remember are naturall guifts Answere The soule of man is extracted immediatly from God and being once infused into the body shee receiues not in any age neither in her substance or forces any change alteration or increase Yet by vertue of the sentence of condemnation which God pronounced against Adam and al his posterity the Creator not confirming the soule in her excellency and innocency but leauing it to it selfe shee hath in an instant lost her dignity is become ignorant and vicious and the infection of carnall sences which shee hath suckt vp being in the body doth augment her deprauation so as she is not able to remember any thing of this actioÌ„ proceeding from God in her creation and vnion to the body So Adam and Eue not confirmed in their felicity as the Angells and Saints are now in heauen by the benefit of Iesus Christ as soone as they had committed the transgression were in an instant made mortall ignorant and vicious A plate of iron flaming in the fire hath no sooner felt the fresh ayre but it loseth his fiery colour Euen so the soule is no sooner gone out of the Eternallâ—… forge but shee loseth her colour and brightnes and the body is as cold water to the burning iron so as now the soule hath no knowledge in the body but what she gets by the sences and they that are deafe by nature are also naturally dumbe for being vnable to heare the words di stinguished neither can they lâ—…e them And they that are borne blinde cannot distinguish of colours c. Let vs conclude with S. Augustine That the spiritual light in the which man had beene created to know his Creator himselfe and things that are profitable for him was quenched by sinne Let vs add with Nicholas de Cusa That the soule of man sent in to a morrall bodie is like vnto 〈◊〉 infant which as soone as it was borne was carried into 〈◊〉 strang countrie wholy 〈◊〉 of inhabit aâ—… nourished by a she Wolfe being growne great he could in no forâ—… know the place of his birth 〈◊〉 his father mother 〈◊〉 had a conâ—…sed feeling of this truth writing that the soule which liued â—…appy and knowing in the coâ—…panie of the Gods being confined into this prison of the foule infected body to frame it giue it life hath in stantly lost â—…l her happines knowledge by reason of the bad temperature of the body The 3â—… Argument taken frâ—… the voyce of all the world The voyce of the people is the voyces of God and by consequent of the truth But the Soule is immortall according to the voyce of the people MAny writers haue collected the opinions of people and of ages vpon the iudgement of the soule as Macrobius vpon Scipioes Dreame Marsilius Ficinus others And among the Moderns Mons de Plessis Crepet the Celestin with others to whom I send the reader where he may see a woÌ„derful consent of men to conclude that the soule is immortall as holding it not from
man being borne and bred in the bottome of a darke caue thinks that he hath no facultie to see is he the therefore blinde the soule being buried in the darkenesse of a mortall body as in a graue sees not her immortalitie hath she therfore none Thirdly we doe not say that man is immortall for that he differs from beasts but for many reasons deliuered to be deliuered Fourthly the Philosophers aboue mentioned would see and touch the soule in her immortalitie she is not subiect to any sence S. Basile hath seene it in spirit written it with his hand The soule sayth he cannot be seene with eyes for that she is not illuminated by any colour nor hath any figure or corporal character Aristotle knew it whengoing out of the fabrike of corporall nature hee sayd that it was not the charge of a Physition to treat of all sorts of soules as is the intellectuall which hee pronounceth to differ from the sensitiue vegetatiue from which he sayth shee may separate her selfe as the perpetuall from the corruptible Gallen had his eyes fixed onlie vpon the body the subiect of Phisick and therefore hee sayd freely that it did not import him in his arte if hee were ignorant how the soules were sent into the bodyes or whether they past from one to an other But if it please Gallen leauing the limites of his arte to take the fresh ayre of diuine Philosophy presently his goodly conception is followed with these words The soule is distilling from the vniuerfall Spirit descending from heauen c. Which hauing left the earth recouers heauen and dwells with the Moderator of all things in the Celestiall places As for Hippocrates his words sound more of the immortalitie then of the death of the soule hauing this sence That the soule goes alwayes increasing vntil the death of the bodie But if you desire effects and not words what conceit could Aristotle Gallen and Hippocrates haue of the soule to bee mortall who by an immortall labour haue purchased such great same throughout the world and whose authoritie is the cause that they are now produced and maintained Finally that which he obiects of the soules thoughts fixed for the most part on the fraile things of this passing world it is no smal signe of the corruption of mankind but no argument that the soule is perishable seeing she retaines still the immortal seale which God hath set vpon her in her first creation The. 2 Obiection The container and that which is contained should entertaine themselues by a iust proportion The body and the soule are the container and contained IF the soule bee immortal seeing the body is mortall what proportion were there betwixt the soule and body How hath nature which doth all things by a iust weight number and measure ioyned things together which are so dislike It serues to no purpose to produce the birde kept in a cage which as soone as shee can get out flies away for he is kept there by force and not as forme in substance Answere Wee grant the whole argument and wee adde that it is sinne which came by accident that hath caused this great disproportion Otherwise man before sinne in his estate of innocency had his body immortall therefore Iesus Christ our Sauiour like a cunning Logitian drew the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soule for that God was called the God of Abraham of Isaacke and of Iacob but God sayth hee is not the God of the dead but of the liuing So sayth Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard that the soule is so separated from the body as there remaines still a naturall inclination to resume it againe to minister to his body and this onely doth hinder her that shee is not affectionate towards God withal her vertue and force as be the Angells and therefore her blessednesse is imperfect For the soules ô flesh saith Bernard cannot without thee bee accomplished in their ioy nor perfect in their glory nor consummated in their felicity and in the same place hee distinguisheth their degrees or places for the soule in this life as in a Tabernacle before the resurrection in heauen as in a gallery and then after the resurrection in the house of God But you will say this answere is Metaphisicall I desire one that is naturall Answere This goodly order which you recommend in nature required this ordering that as there are some Creatures meerely spirituall others meerely corporall so there were some which were mixt both spirituall and corporall and that is man who in that smal forme represents all that is in the world and who by his senses doth communicate with the Creatures and by his vnderstanding with the Angells giuing his right hand to heauen and his left to the earth The 3. Obiection If reason loades vs to the immortality of the soule by the same meanes she shold guide vs to the resurrection of the body But that is not true I Proue the Minor by this knowne Maxime of reason That there is no returne from priuation to the habit nor by consequence from death to life no more then from starke blindnes to sight Wherefore they of Athens where one writes that the men are borne Philosophers hearing S. Paul discourse of many points of heauenly doctrine they gaue an attentiue heare vnto him but when hee came to the Resurrection of Iesus Christ they interrupted him mocking at him as one that doated Ans. I deny it that the resurrectiō of the dead is absolutely beyond the apprehension of nature The West-Indians who are without the Church of Christ beleeue it and practise it as well by the ceremonies of their interrements which aime directly at it as by the vsuall intreaties they make to the Spaniards digging for the gold of their Sepulchres that they should not take out carry away the bones to the end they may rise againe speedily as Benzo reports At Rome this Epitaph is yet to be read in Latine vpon a Pagans tombe The publike hath giuen a place vnto Aurelius Balbus a man of an vnspotted life I rest heere in hope of the resurrection But that which is most wonderfull and exceedes all credit if they that write it were not eye witnesses and worthy of credit that in Egypt in a place neere vnto Caine a multitude of people meete on a certaine day in march to bee spectators of the resurrection of the flesh as they say where from Thursday to Saterday inclusiuely they may see and touch bodies wrapt in their sheetes after the ancient manner but they neither see them standing nor walking but onely the armes or the thighes or some other part of the body which you may touch If you go farther off and then returne presently you shall finde these members to appeare more out of the ground and the more they change place the more diuers these motions appeare This admirable sight is written by
is vnknowne vnto vs. that we haue a soule sayth Seneca by whose commandement wee are thrust on and called backe all men confesse it but what this soule this Lady and Queene is no man can decide neither yet where shee abides Laertius or rather Heraclitus for him Let vs passe ouer the soule sayth hee for no man can finde it yea if hee should imploy his whole life so profound is the reason thereof Do not vrge that the eye seeth euery thing but it selfe for the eye seeth another eye but one soule knoweth not another soule yea the eye seeth it selfe not his image but his proper substance in the reflexion of his visuall beames by the meanes of the looking-glasse as for the soule al they that haue deliuered their opinions haue seemed to doate Varro hath sayd that it was an aire conceiued in the mouth purified in the lights made lukewarme in the heart diffusedly spred ouer the whole body Zeno that it was a fire kindled in our bodies by the celestiall fire Empedocles and Circias that it was nothing but the blood Hippocrates that it was a subtile spirit insinuated throughout the whole body Thales that it was a nature mouing of it selfe without rest Asclepiades a common exercise of the senses Hippoc. that she goes alwayes on vntill death 6 Epistle part 5. com 5. Finally if it were euer it is in this That so many heads so many opinions Answere The soule flowing from the diuine essence hath that common with God that we see many nega tions of her but few or no affirmations but we know with Aristotle that it is the perfection of a natural body which may haue life that it is the beginning of nourishment feeling motion and vnderstanding And yet more then that although wee cannot climbe so high the reason is that the knowledge which the soule hath of things is from the senses by meanes of the Ideaes but the soule cannot bee perceiued by the senses of her there are no Ideas nor by consequence any knowledge And as for this aire this fire these spirits such as they are fashioned in the braine they are but organes and vessells fit for the soule seeing that wee see them wast and consume euery moment without losse of life the which notwithstanding cannot subsist without the ministery of the soule Finally as for the different opinions of diuers men they shew that they know not what it is but withall they demonstrate that they know there is a soule which they striue to know but who is he that would study to know that which is not in nature vnlesse he were mad The second Obiection If the soule were endowed with a speciall motion she would expresse it by her body But she doth not expresse it IF the soule at the departure out of the body had her flight towards heauen she would giue some signe of it to the body stirring it with some speciall motion Simple Creatures mooue themselues in all sorts of motions differing from plants which without mouing from their place doe but grow vp and spread abroad for that their soules are diuers and why should not man who hath a speciall soule haue a speciall motion As for that he bounds and skips therein a goate or a cat hath more then hee neither is that the reasonable soule that doth it but rather the vegetatiue the mixture of the naturall fire which raiseth him wherfore as soone as a man breathes and exhales this fire hee falls from his leape but of any proper or particular motion of this flying soule hee feeleth nothing Answere Seruius vpon the 6. of Virgil will answer That the soule in the body is like vnto a Lyon shut vp in a streight cage which notwithstanding loseth nothing of his force although he cannot shew it but if he once escape you shal see him as strong as before so as a man would thinke his force had bene abated in his prison Moreouer some haue bene so actiue as they haue flowne as at Paris in the yeare 1551. there was one vndertooke to flie from the Tower of Nefle vnto the Louure the riuer being betwixt both the King expecting him and although hee could not get to the end of his enterprise yet hee got vp into the aire after such an admirable manner as hee came to the mid-way But the flying of the Creature doth not proue his essence immortall for then birds should be immortall And how then can the soules mount vp to heauen going out of the bodies If thou doest beleeue the holy Scriptures the Angells sent to serue them louingly which shall receiue the inheritance of saluation will carry them as the Angell did poore Lazarus Hereunto that good Father Macarius had regard There is a great Mistery saith hee accomplished in soules going out of the bodies for if they bee guilty of sinne troopes of diuells and bad angells flocking about them seaze vpon those soules as their slaues and carry them away c. But if they bee in good estate the companies of good Angells carrying them to a better life present them vnto the Lord yet wee will not deny but in the soule there is an intrinsecall vertue to climbe vp to heauen with a swiftnesse equall to her desire if that fire hath a secret force to mount vp to his proper place being a dead Element what then shall the soule separated do being so actiue and so quicke and whose proper Country is Heauen And although that heauen especially that which is the mansion of happy soules bee so many leagues distant as Astrologers which haue sought to take the height haue found millions being much amazed haue mounted neere to two thousād millions of leagues yet we must not beleeue that the soule is long in passing this great distance for that her motion not being continued but diuided like to that of spirits departing out of the body she is presently in heauen euen as in this corruptible bodie in a moment shee sends the beames of her sight and thoughts vp to heauen But wholy to stoppe the mouth of our aduersarie we say that the true knowledge of the soule in her immortalitie is no humaine inuention but a diuine reuelation as Iustine Martyr sayth and that since shee is fallen from her first integritie which fall hath so amazed dulled her as she knowes not truely what she hath beene what she is or where shee is nor whither she shall goe of whosesinne she is the subiect as Iron is of rust it hath wholie spoyled her dulled her quicknesse and weakned her vigour which is the cause that she stumbles in the way of health is blynde in the knowledge of the least things is interrupted in the course of her brauest discourses by a flye or any toye To conclude shee is so troubled as shee dreames of a thousand fancies in a manner mistakes euery thing The fift Obiection To alledge the desire of a morsell of fruit
their immortalitle Answer This Obiection seemes subtill but to speake truly it hath but the shew not the effect for it is subiect to many pertinent answeres First to alledge an inconuenience is not to dissolue the question 2. It is a consequence ill applied to say Such a one hath not spoken therefore hee is no man Wee haue digged verie deepe into the earth and yet wee neuer heard any of them that goe with their feete against ours therefore there are no Antipodes So the soules speake not vpon dead mens lippes therefore they haue none for beeing thus hindred is the cause they neither heare nor see any signe of their life Thirdly the teares of the dead mans kinsfolkes are ill grounded Socrates a Pagan knew it well when hee said that we must leaue the soule at rest and not trouble it with lamentations The holy Ghosts goes farther and assures That blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord yea for certain saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them this should assure and reioice and not discomfort by a foolish desire that ioy of the soule of the deceased Fourthly God will not that we should be inquisitiue of the dead he forbids it expresly in his law pronounceth abhomination against them that doe it He hath giuen Moses and the Prophets let vs adde the Apostles if they will not beleeue them neither will they beleeue the soules of the deceased If that the liuing are forbidden to enquire how then can the dead haue leaue to speake Fifthly the soules are prest at the departure from their bodyes to yeeld an account of their administration in this life vndergoing a particular iudgement This is beleeued rightly and wholesomely saith S. Augustine that the soules are iudged at the departure from their bodies before the comming to this Iudgement at the which hauing taken againe the same bodyes they must appeare Also S. Hilary saith that immediately without any delay after death we vndergo a Iudgement and passe into Paradise or into Hell Finally Salomon to the end wee should not doubt sayth That God will easily render vnto man according to his workes at that day of his deceasse That the affliction of one houre makes him forget all pleasures and that the ende of man is the manifestation of his workes 6 S. Athanasiws sayeth It is not the will of God that the soules should declare the estate wherein they are for that many should be deceaued many errors wold grow the Deuils being ready to make men thus abused to beleeue what they would suggest as Crepet the Celestin doth well obserue and he adds that the like happened lately to a poore woman of Verum seduced by a diuell which appeared vnto her in the forme of her Grand father perswading her to goe in Pilgrimage to doe other things which were impossible So S. Augustin writes that Vincentius the Donatist was counselled to write against the Christian religion by a spirit which appeared vnto him 7. The Soule destitute of the Organs of her body being not yet glorified nor illuminated with the Celestiall splendor nor adorned with the supernaturall gifts which God cōfers vpon her for her felicitie cannot satifsie the will of the kinsfolkes that be present desiring a testimonie of her blessednes and life for the soule sayth S. Athanasius in the former passage as soone as she hath layed down her body can worke neither good not euill And as for visions that appeare from thē God by a certaine dispensation shewes them as it pleaseth him For as a Lute if there be no man to play of in seems idle and vnprofitable so the soule and body being separated one from another haue no operation The which Ecclesiastes doth confirme saying Certainly the liuing know that they shall dye but the dead know nothing neither doe they get any thing for their memory is forgotten in like manner their loue their hatred and their enuy perish and they haue not any portion in the world of whatsoeuer is done vnder the Sun Wherfore let vs cōclude and say That the soule whilest that shee giues any life to her dying body with the last puffe of life yeeldes a certaine testimony of her ioy and immortality by the inspiration of the holy Ghost as it happens to many good men But to demand instantly vpon death some token from the soule dislodging were to tempt God to mock at the deceased acd to be an vniust demander and therefore iustly to be refused The 5. Argument taken from the aspect of the face Whatsoeuer is represented by a iust mirrour or glasse is true The immortality of the soule is represented by the iust mirror of the face AS the soule of man is the Image of God so the face is the Image of the soule and therefore the Eternall creating the soule of man did breathe it in his face which the holy Ghost cals respiration of life so the property of man is to paint in his face by his diuers colours the diuers affections of his soule Wisedome saith Salomon cleeres the face of man and his fierce and sowre aspect is changed The Latines haue called it vultus for that the will is read in the forehead the manners of the soule follow the humours of the body saith Gallen and if some one belies his inclination it is a maske which hee puts on and therefore Momus did vniustly blame God for that hee had not made man with an open heart Thereon is all the Art of Phisiognomie grounded an Art which without this faining euery man would learn without teaching By the face that Diuiner Egyptian familiar to Marc. Anthony did know the diuers dispositions of men These markes of the face are imprinted with the seale of the soule and hee that will not iudge by such markes ingrauen of the brightnesse and immortality of the soule is without iudgement Homer writes that Vlisses hauing escaped from shipwracke was graciously entertained and reuerenced by the Pheagues hauing no ornament then but this vertue generous disposition the beauty excellency whereof appeared in his fore-head Man in like sort carries on his fore-head the markes of his immortal soule Wherof the first is the carrying his countenance straight vp to heauen proper to man at all times to him alone and to all the generation of mankinde which shewes his be ginning to bee celestiall and immortall for that onely is perishable which is vnder the region of the Moone whatsoeuer is aboue it is not subiect vnto destinie The 2. is that foresight afarre off those beames I say cast farre and wide by the piercing sight without staying vpon that which doth touch it or enuiron it neere which shewes that the flight of the soule must go farre If any one say that certaine birds foure footed beasts see farre but it is not to the same end for man doth it only for the