dum mori post mortem timent interim mori non timent ita illis pavor fallax spes solatio redivivo blanditur Whereby it appears that in things which Nature hath not made our Reason capable of foreseeing as is the Souls future estate there strong belief is not alway a sign of Truth For in some cases who so bold as blind Bayard There never was any Sect so sottish and false but may boast of its Martyrs Let this be understood of corrupt unenlightned Nature that we may not confound Christianity with Paganism Many good men have died to justifie what Vaninus died madly to oppose so contrary are mens perswasions Some of the Aegyptians died fighting for the Deity of Garlick others for the Deity of Onions so that a mistaken Martyrdom rather betrays the easiness of the Party than the truth of his Cause For to believe otherwise were to do too great an honour to those Atheists or Hereticks who have suffer'd for their Irreligion under the Laws of Christianity The Apostles suffer'd for the truth of what they saw with their own eyes whereas many of the Heathens did but like Knights of the Post affirm the verity of things they knew not only had receiv'd by a Traditional hear-say from others whose vain Opinion of their great knowledge fill'd them with pride as being the only men which knew the secrets of Heaven like Aesop's Conjurer they pretended to know all things which were done in Heaven and Earth but was ignorant that his own House was on fire at home XVI The two primitive Essentials which constitute all compounded things were by the Ancient Greeks term'd Psyche and Hyle that is Spiritus and Materia Soul and Body Both these they held as consider'd in their single Natures to be from all Eternity and to continue to Eternity which together united in one Infinite they held to be God whom they believ'd to be Maker of the World Not by operation from without as a Cook makes a Pye of several materials which he hath gather'd together and being no part of him can after it is made subsist without him but by inoperation rather resembling the Soul in a living Creature which by its intrinsick plastick vertue forms the Animal with all its faculties and parts both internal and external not being able to subsist without that Spirit which did first animate and inform it however perform'd with no less trouble and concern to the Anima Mundi than the hairs of our head are to us and to this inoperation of the Divine Nature Virgil alludes saying Principio Coelum ac Terras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Luna Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet This I say was an opinion generally receiv'd among the Heathens only the wiser sort so reputed asserted that God made all things of nothing but Himself whom they acknowledge to be Infinite and therefore could not imagine that there were any other real things besides him supposing that if there were then God must have been but one eminent thing among many others which to speak or think might be esteem'd as great and sottish a blasphemy in Philosophy as Religion and to this purpose Lucan speaks Iupiter est quodcunque vides c. Also Ovid Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum But the absurdity of this Opinion is already by several ingenious Pens made known unto the World As 1. If every thing be God or a portion of God some parts of the Deity must perceive what others do not 2. Several parts of the Deity as Stones Metals c. must be void of understanding 3. Idolatry were no crime but only an amicable officiousness in one part of the Deity toward another To which purpose Athenagoras writes saying If God and Matter be the same thing under various appellations then were it no less than Impiety in us to deny Divine honour to Stones Trees or Metals Lastly there would be no such thing as Virtue or Vice Pain or Pleasure unless you will make God to commit the one and suffer the other XVII Now they who held this vain Opinion term'd every Creature especially Man who is esteem'd the most excellent of all others a Microcosm or little World as composed of Psyche and Hyle Also Moses hath been thought to intimate as much in saying That in the beginning of the Creation the Spirit moved upon the Waters for so the Rabbins and Cabbalists expound him They say it was the Ruah Elohim viz. the Spirit of God which moved upon the Waters Hippocrates seems likewise to agree with this Doctrine asserting the beginning of Sublunary things to proceed from Fire and Water But Moses who was skill'd in all the Aegyptian Learning alludes perhaps to their Hieroglyphicks wherein the figure of an unit signified God as a Cypher stood for a Non-entity i. e. for Nothing the character of Ten did signifie the World and in the old Hebrew Characters as in our modern Figures of a different shape the figure of an unit placed before a Cypher signified Ten by which was meant the World as I said and hereby they express'd that God made the World of Nothing And perhaps in further conformity herewith he is said to make Man more excellent than other Creatures after his own Image that is not in outward Effigies or Features of face and limbs but as the Universe composed of Spirit and Body And so they held the World to be consisting of a Being partly corporeal and visible and partly spiritual and invisible the visible or material part by reason of its more or less gross and solid corporeity is of it self more or less unfit for motion but properly capable to receive the impulses of the more active spiritual part And thus in the little World of Man as long as his Spirit remains in him it quickens his gross Body carrying it up and down from the remotest parts of the Earth contriving many projects and working great things however in a moment after that Spirit is gone the Body is left a dull putrid piece of Earth and all his Thoughts perish XVIII But here give me leave to Montaignize and so far to digress from my subject as to acquaint you with a great dispute which happen'd among the Ancients concerning Motion for although as I lately told you there were some who thought the material part of the World unfit for motion yet there were others of a contrary sentiment and from hence arose the dispute concerning the motion of the Earth Aristotle Ptolomy and Tycho Brahe hâ—…ld that it was immovable especially the two former because they saw the Sun rise in one place and set in another as also their Houses stand in the same place to day as they did yesterday they thought it an infallible truth that the Sun danced about the Earth whilst that stood still to receive its Salutation In opposition to
this Doctrine there have risen up several men both Ancient and Modern who have affirm'd the contrary it hath been disputed for above these 2000 years That the Globe of the Earth moved was of old the opinion if not of Orpheus of Thales Aristarchus and Philolaus the Pythagorean and is maintain'd by Copernicus Kepler Zongomontanus Origanus c. They held that the Sun like the Heart of Man is plac'd in the midst of the Body of the Universe as the most convenient seat to heat and animate the whole and that the Earth mov'd about it For say they we do not place a Candle in the corner but in the midst of the Room when we would have it give most light Besides the circular motion of the Planets round about the Sun seems to argue that the Earth doth the same and the Sun stands still Further it is more reasonable to believe that the Earth which hath need of light and heat should go to seek what it wants than that the Sun should go to seek what it wants not The Fire doth not turn before the Roast-meat but the Roast-meat before the Fire Again 't is urged Rest and Immobility is a more noble condition than Motion wherefore more proper for the Sun a type and resemblance of God And then they observ'd heavy things were kept up in the Air only by virtue of motion as a Stone mounted in the Air by a Sling and therefore how do we know say they but that the Earth like a Child's Humming-Top may be kept up by its own motion and the swiftness of that motion like that of the Tops might make it seem immovable They who deny the motion of the Earth must also deny it to hang in aequilibrio which were an absurdity Lastly it may seem much more credible that the Earth moves five Leagues in a minute than that the eighth Sphere in the same time moves above fourty millions which it must do if it be true that the extent of the Heavens be infinite so that to have all the Heavens move round in twenty four hours were to measure an infinite by a finite XIX But to return to our Anima Mundi The dullest sort of the Vulgar People used this word Soul as we do that of Materid Prima or the Philosophers Stone they thought it be some strange excellent Thing but had no particular form'd Notion thereof And so did not conceive of being Alive in any thing beside their living Body and as soon as that was in the Grave Actum est they were at an end To which effect Seneca speaks Post mortem nihil est ipsaque mors nihil c. There were another sort clean contrary to them as holding the Soul to be the Man considering it as inhabiting this Tabernacle of Clay or cloath'd with this Mortal Body which in death they shed as the Stag doth his Horns or the Snake her Hackle Sed magis ire foras vestemque relinquere ut Anguis Gauderet praelonga sâ—…nex aut cornua Cervus Whereupon the more easie sort advised with their Heathen-Priests to learn what kind of Renovation they should have when the time came Which Priests aiming at their own Gain and to render themselves necessary did ever invent some Tale agreeable to that purpose As Varro himself ingenuously confesses That it is convenient that the Vulgar should be ignorant of many Things that are True and believe others that are False Quum veritatem qua liberetur inquirat credatur ei expedire quod fallitur Nay and Plato himself in his Republick acknowledges That for the Benefit of Mankind it is often necessary to deceive them So as it seems their Religion serv'd but as a Curb wherewithal to ride the Commonalty From whence we may observe that the Religion of Nature when corrected only by a Temporal Interest doth but like Antimony prepared and made Stitium become more Poisonous by its Correction and Preparation The Pseudo-Fathers of their Church being such as brought Religion to their Interest and not Interest to their Religion fulfilling that Verse of the Poet 's Atque ipsa utilitas justi prope Mater Aequi. Nevertheless there were others among them who being more opinionated of their own Abilities would not so easily suffer themselves to be imposed upon but using their own Reason consulted Nature upon that point and in so doing took into our more usual way of searching Knowledge à Notioribus ad Ignotiora When finding their present Souls not to be kept in any separate Immaterial Estate but all their Life long to have been very agreeably lodged and entertain'd in a bodily Subject did conceive it probable that they might in like manner be disposed of here-after XX. Now this last sort of Men as well in former Ages as at this day are thought to be the most numerous and greatest part of Mankind that is the People that believe the Transmigration of Souls from one Body to another which is by some restrain'd within the same Species by others not The Soul of a Tyrant they thought after his death would go into a Lyon Tyger or some other Beast of Prey because they equally thirst after Blood and by the same Reason the Soul of a Poet into a Grashopper who sings till he starves Pythagoras writes of himself That he was first Euphorbus then Callidus then Hermotimus then Pyrrhus and last of all Pythagoras This Doctrine as we may learn from the Holy Scriptures and Iosephus had tainted not only the Pharisees but Herod himself and almost the whole Nation of the Jews as appears in that they held Christ to have been Elias or one of the antient Prophets Nay some of the Apostles themselves as St. Cyril observes were misled by this Errour as is evident by their Question touching the Man that was born blind Master Who did sin this Man or his Parents For How could they conceive that he could sin before he was born unless in some other Body which his Soul actuated before in another Life But what was more strange many of the Iews thought Christ to be St. Iohn Baptist who had not then been dead full three Years So as by this it may appear that the Transmigration of a New Soul was by them supposed to be not only at the time of ones Birth but sometimes in ones Liâ—…e also and this Conceit perhaps they might receive from observing how strangely Men are often-times changed either for better or worse both in Mind and Body from what they were before XXI This Progress of the Soul seem'd to many to be better disposed for Reward and Punishment when not restrain'd into any one species but of more free Dissolution and more suitable to that variety wherein Nature delights as better befitting and more approaching to its Infinity And by this Liberty they thought it often pass'd from a Man to a Beast from thence to a Plant and next to
a Stone if the Circle were in the Descendent But if in the Ascendent then its Progress was from more gross Subjects to more Spiritual ones for God is able of Stones to raise up Children unto Abraham They thought that in Nature there was no such thing as Quies the very hardest Stone in time mouldring into Dust only by a circular Motion from Rarefaction to Condensation and from Condensation to Rarefaction again as the Poet in these follwing Verses describes it Resolutaque Tellus In liquidas rarescit aquas tenuatur in auras Aëraque Humor habet dempto quoque pondere rursùs In superos aēr tenuissimus emicat ignes Indè retrò redeunt idemque retexitur ordo Ignis enim densum spissatus in aëra transit Hinc in aquas Tellus glomeratâ cogitur undâ The course which Nature takes in Governing the World is by one Contrary prevailing over another Thus the Moisture in the Air prevails over the Driness of the Fire the Coldness of the Water over the Heat of the Air the Driness of the Earth over the Moisture of the Water and so the Moisture of the Water over the Driness of the Earth the Heat of the Air over the Coldness of the Water and the Driness of the Fire over the Moisture of the Air And thus the various Alterations are made and produced out of one Extream into another Alternativè XXII The most ingenious of this Sect as if they had met with some blind Hint of the Evil Angels cast out of Heaven supposed two Creations The first to have been Spiritual and that the Fall of those Evil Angels occasion'd our Corporeal Creation that so there might be Bodies of divers Tempers and duration in whom those wicked Spirits their Souls should be for expiating their Guilt included and according to their Merits rendred sensible of more or less Pain and Grief whereof in their Spiritual Condition not cloath'd with Flesh and Blood they were uncapable as they conceived For as the Body hath no Sense without a Soul so they believ'd the Soul could have no Sense without a Body And this they grounded upon Erroneous Observations as ex gr If say they you take out your Eye-balls you have as much Soul in you as you had before but cannot see for want of those Organs and the Soul will be devested of all its other Powers in operating as well as in that of seeing when it wants its Eye-balls Which Errour proceeded from their not understanding of how much a Diviner Nature and Power the Soul is than the Body XXIII Now by Men of this vain Opinion our Sublunary Orb was esteem'd the only Hell they thinking this World more proper and better proportion'd to the Offences and Capacities of the wicked Soul in our passionate and momentary Condition than the Tradition of everlasting Torments for acting those Vices which their Nature prompted them to or as a learned Gentleman of our own Nation expresses it for not being sound when we are created sick An Excuse so unlikely to procure our Pardon with God that it should prove uneffectual with one of us if a Man that had robbed and wounded us should tell us He was prompted thereunto by his Nature or Inclinations I do not find by their Writings that they believ'd evil actions so much to proceed from the Devil as their own corrupt Natures Format enim Natura priùs nos intùs c. And therefore many of them thought that the only evil Spirits which hurried men to ruine were their own passions Love Fear Anger Ambition Revenge Lust c. which passions are generally the causes of mens destruction both in lives and fortunes That Passion is an enemy to the knowledge of the Truth both in discourse and writing we our selves experience God came not in the Earthquake nor Whirlwind but in the still Voice and we shall never hear Reason deliver'd in Passion But that which chiefly induc'd the Heathens to impute all their Vices to their own corrupt Natures was this because they could hardly believe that God would suffer a declared Enemy so far to prevail against him as when he would have all men saved the Devil should so far over-rule as through his instigation a thousand men should be damn'd for one that is saved which would happen if all vicious persons were denied Salvation But this objection of theirs will be rendred vain if we consider the Devil as God's Executioner having no power but from above XXIV As for the aforementioned Doctrine of Transmigration it abounds much at this day in China and both the Indies especially the East where the great swarms of Mankind live besides vast numbers in America and Africa As for the Mahometans who are no small part of Mankind although they have a Religion so craftily fitted to vulgar capacities as 't is thought to be the most politick and likely to spread and last that ever was invented Yet even among them they have a Sect or Heresie exceeding numerous call'd by the Arabians Altenasack which signifies those that hold Transmigration of Souls and the whole Mahometan Superstition although it gives not the Soul a new Body in this life allows departed Souls new Bodies fresh lusty in the life to come without which it could not enjoy their sensual Paradise which the Alchoran promises them But it still censures those of the Altenasack for Hereticks chiefly because they can't believe the everlasting and merciless Hell esteeming it a thing that would rob God of his Attribute of Mercy which they hold were not infinite as all his Attributes must be if in no measure it extended to the most wicked and wretched Creatures Not considering how short soever a mans life is it matters not for he hath an offer made him either of eternal happiness or misery and he might chuse either which he pleases Nor is Eternal misery more disproportionable to a vicious life than Eternal happiness to a vertuous so that he plays but upon the square either way Now amongst those Heathens there were a third sort of men whose fancy as they themselves thought was of very obvious experience but seem'd to be stifled and suppressed as neither suiting to the wishes of men nor conducive to the governing of them And these are those which conceiv'd a man to be neither Soul nor Body but only the Result of their Conjunction which vanishing he was for ever unconcern'd and lost Because that which in its best estate was esteem'd but a shadow upon Earth they ignorantly supposed must on the parting of the Body whose shadow it was be for ever lost Yea and as I shew'd before out of Lucretius they held that if the same Body could return upon Earth again and be reunited to it that might constitute a new man but of no concern to the former no more than my shadow which I shall have next year will be to my this years shadow although I have the same body next year as I