with Consolatory bread and Angels food that true Bread descending from Heaven nor with the Wine of the Grapes of Gomorrha but of the true Vine Christ Iesus the Lamb the Head and Husband of the Church which at the heavenly Mariage shall be drunk new in the kingdome of Heaven There we drink not of this Wine made of water as at the Mariage in Cana but ex botro illo magno terrae promissionis qui interim in vecte portatur dum secundùm carnem novimus ChristuÌ„ hunc crucifixum which we drink at the Lords table in types signs here which are mortal and perishing but in Heaven at that great Supper of the Lord really and truly immortal and incorruptible enduring to eternal life For in Heaven is no labouring for the meat which perisheth the Saints glorified use not corruptible food their food is spiritual and immortal fitting and suitable to that state of glory and their tast is accordingly no carnal rellish no earthly savour nil quippe in his carnale sapit nil seculare nil vanum sed spiritus veritatis caelestis sapientia est cujus in utraque suavitas praelibatur He that cometh to the Lords Supper in his old garments hath not this spiritual relish nor shall he be thought worthy to be partaker of that great Banquet the Supper of the Lamb in Heaven or tast of that food as wel those that come here unworthily as those that refuse to come though invited shall all be excluded hereafter so saith the Lord of the Feast I say unto you none of those men who were called shall tast of my supper And to the unworthy person it is sayd also Friend how camest thou hither not having thy Wedding-garment take him c. And lastly Christ is the object of our sense of Touching we receive him into our hands we take him into our mouthes we feed on him in our hearts we dwell in him and he in us so to every sense is Christ spiritually sensible tangible by the hand as visible to the eye prae manibus as he is prae oculis CHAP. III. Of the Knowledge of the Soul by Intuitive Intellection or Beatifical Vision Chap. 3. Book 3. HItherto of the knowledge fetcht from External objects by the means of outward senses the Internall are not without their use viz. Phantasie and Memory but of these sufficient hath been said already Nor yet shall we further treat of that Internall intellectuall knowledge which the humane soul in its Glorified estate hath of all Material Immaterial created substances viz. of Angels and abstracted Forms other inferior creatures which are represented to its knowledge per speciem by an innate form and similitude chiefly and primarily in their universal natures secundarily in their individuals in one single aspect and intuition which manner of knowledge is natural and essential to Spirits and Essences intellectual for this hath also been elswhere handled But here we shall principally insist upon that Science of the Soul or rather Sapience which consists in the sole intuitive Intellection or Beatifical Vision of the divine Essence and Nature of God himself which is not per aenigma as in this life but facie revelata not in his back parts onely but the infinite Essence and Majesty the very quiddity and being of the great Iehovah as he is in himself so St. Iohn expresseth it fully and clearly manifested And the divine Sapience which comes by this Intuition or Intuitive Intellection surpasseth all other manner of knowledge whatsoever this is not natural to any created Angelical Intellect comes not by any strength of nature created by God into any finite being nor can it stand with natural reason how a finite capacity for so are all created intelligences should perfectly and distinctly clarè perspicuè cognitione perfecta non confusa apprehend see and know an infinite Essence as intensively Infinite this is supra captum humanum and exceeds all natural power Yet above reason is beleeved for so is the Faith of holy Church that the blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven do clearly and fully see and know God do behold him as he is in himself The Mind and Intellect glorified sees the Will enjoyes God its chiefest and most desirable good more fully and more certainly than any man here enjoyes any temporal estate In this Intuitive Vision and Fruition of God is Mans eternal felicity his beatitude his summum bonum seated here comes in the fulness of the Promises here 's the consummation of our Hopes this is the final intrinsical end of Mans Creation to see God clearly and to enjoy him fully our Beatitude consists in this and is the same beatitude wherewith God himself is blessed God is most blessed and therefore most blessed because he alwayes beholds himself as he is and eternally enjoys himself he hath made us partakers in hope of the same chiefest good to be like him in the same felicity together with all the glorious Saints and Angels so saith the Apostle We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is There were certain Hereticks Armenians and others but condemned of old by several Decrees and Councils who held it imposible for any created Intellect by any power whatsoever clearly to see God and therefore they held further the Beatitude which is promised by God and waited for by us to consist non in familiari illo quem speramus divine naturae intuitu sed cujusdam creati fulgoris ab ea manantis And indeed in the eye of Reason it is impossible unto Nature altogether repugnant that any created Intellect by any strength of it own should perfectly know the infinite Godhead but what is impossible with men is notwithstanding possible with God Multa fieâ—i possunt virtute divina quae naturae creatae viribus fieri non possunt saith Suarez nam etsi Deus à nullo intellectu creato clarè cognosci potest viribus naturae videri tamen clarè perspicuè poâ—est ab iis quorum mentes divina bonitas supra naturae modum illustraverit ad quandam divinae naturâ—e participationem evexerit saith Fonseca This is done by a supernatural power fide tenemus quod ratione improbamus Though all power is not excluded from the nature of created Intellection for an Obediential power is founded in the nature of the Reasonable Soul even unto acts of divine and supernatural quality to those supernatural habits of Faith Hope Charity c. not Acquisite by any intrinsical power of it own but infused by God drawn out of the power of the Soul eductione supernaturali ad quam non requiritur ex parte subjecti potentia naturalis receptiva sed obedientialis sufficit which obediential power is founded in the nature of the Soul Suarez tom 1 disp 15. sect 2.9 and in that respect is natural and essential to it In which sense Aquinas is to be understood saying * 1.2 q. 113.
with his about this very point of the soules creation I demand of thee O my soul who gave thee thy being since thou hadst it not from eternity thou wast created in time and lately it was that thou hadst not a being certainly it could not be thy parents in the flesh for what is sprung from flesh is flesh but thou art spirit neither did Heaven or Earth or Sun or Stars produce thee for these are corporeal thou incorporeal neither could Angels or Archangels or any other spiritual creature be the authors of thy being for thou of no matter but meerly of nothing wast created and none but a power omnipotent can create a thing out of nothing therefore God onely without any companion or helper with his own hands which are his Wisdom and his Will when it seemed him best did create thee Again a little after Besides the conjunction of soul and body which is a principal part in the making of the humane nature can be made by none but a workman of an infinite power for by what art except divine can the spirit be joyned with the flesh in so close a bond as to become one substance for there is no likeness and proportion 'twixt the flesh and spirit therefore he onely must doe it who onely doth great wonders Consider then O my soul from whence from whom in what manner and into what thou art come First From whence From heaven thou art descended a pilgrim and a stranger here for a time thou art not here to continue and dwell thy country is above thither then aspire from whence thou camest mind not earthly things but seek those things which are above that when this my earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved thou be not pressed down lower with the weight of carnal l sts into the lowermost hell but maist have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Secondly From whom From God thou camest thou art the spirit and breath of God in men O then breath again out of man to God whilst thou art in this prison of flesh send out thy hot breathings to God and draw in those cooler breathings of the Spirit from God thy hot sighs and zealous prayers to God his cool and gentle refreshments of love and pity from God that when I shall have payd all my rights of nature unto death and am gone into my silence though my body lie in the dust for a time my spirit may return to God that gave it Thirdly In what manner Not per media naturalia by any ordinary means but immediately and modo extraordinario without any companion without any helper 1 Learn then this O my soul that as God hath used no naturall meanes or secundary causes in the work of thy Creation so thou relie upon none in the work of thy salvation thou maist safely and boldly approach the Throne of grace without the mediation of Saints or Angels there is but one Mediator unto us who is both God and man Christ Jesus 2 Since God hath put nothing betwixt thee and him beware that thou thy self interpose nothing sever not what God hath not disjoyned let not thy sin be a Wall of separation twixt thee and him nor the mists and foggs of Carnall concupisence eclipss the Sun of righteousness from thee from whom thou borrowest all thy light and without whom thou art but Cimmerian darkness Fourthly consider whither thou art come into a Humane body a Humane nature fitted and prepared to receive thee but how not as a Subject but as a Prince thou to rule as a Queen it to obey as a Subject Therfore know this O my soul by the concurrent opinion of all Philosophers man is of a midle nature twixt mortal and immortal twixt terrestrial and caelestial things and some way resembles both participates of both in that man is indued with Vegetative and Sensitive faculties he is like unto brutes and ignobler creatures but in regard of his Intellectual faculty especially that which consists in speculation he is most like unto God twixt these two the Humane nature is sâ—ated and in a kind participates of both in this nature the soul sits as Emp ess if Sense rules here man lives as a beast degenerates into a brute if Reason and understanding rule especially the speculative Intellectual faculty man lives as God suffer not then O suffer not my soul thy vassals and slaves Sense and Appetite those ignobler faculties of thine to rule and reign over thee and so to transform the whole man into the nature of beasts but rule and govern thou by those more noble and Diviner faculties of thine Reason and understanding by which man resembles his Maker is made like unto him Lâ—stly consider O my soâ—l this mysterious conjunction of soul and body to become one man flesh and spirit one substance which cannot be but by a power Divine and thou wilt cease though not humbly to admire yet curiously to search into that sacred Mystery that Article of Christian faith touching the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ he Hypostaticall Union of the two natures in Christ St. Athanasius proves it and explaines it from this Union of the soul and body in one man saying The right faith is this that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is God and Man God of the substance of the Father begotten before the World and Man of the substance of his Mother born in the World Perfect God and perfect Man of a Reasonable soul and Humane flesh subsisting Equall to the Father as touching his God-head and inferior to the Father touching his Man-hood Who although he be God man yet he is not two but one Christ One not by conversion of the God-head into Nan but by taking the Man-hood into God One altogether not by confusion of substance but by Unity of person For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man so God and man is one Christ The conjunction of soul and body is a secret and hidden thing but the Incarnation of Christ the Union of the God-head and Manhood far more secret for without doubt great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh and if it be so difficult a matter for man to find out the hidden things of this visible World that none as Solomon saith can comprehend the works thereof from the beginning to the end no not the workings of God within a mans self how shall man attempt to search out those invisible things of Heaven the hidden mysteries the unsearchable things of God therefore if thou beest wise O my soul seek saving knowledge and embrace the wisdom of the Saints which is to fear God and keep his Commandements delight more in supplication and prayer than in vain janglings and disputations in charity that edifies than knowledge that puffs up for this is the way that leads to life the Kingdom of Heaven where shall be
given to us little children humbly ignorant here an equality of knowledge with the Angells which alwaies behold the face of their heavenly Father therefore sing thou with the Psalmist Lord I am not high minded I exercise not my self in things too high for me Psalm 131. But I refrain my soul and keep it low like as a child that is weaned from his mother Yea my soul is even as a weaned child CHAP. II. Of the Attributes of the soul Chap. 2. Book 1. AFter the Original of the soul it will not be amiss before we come to its Definition to treat of the Attributes of the soul viz. the Immortality and Eternity the Indivisibility impatibility Separability and Impermixture of the soul not but that these are more properly touched in the second Book the Metaphysicall science of the soul as it is abstracted from bodily Organs only here to shew as I have already done the Divine principle of the soul how far these properties of the soul have been or may be evidenced by the light of Reason by the truth of naturall Philosophie and first with the last of the soules Separability and impermixture from the body and so in order upwards The Separability and immixture of the soul The soul of man is inorganical and hath its operations out of the body and therefore it is separable from the body separable I mean not as it doth subsist after death without the body as some of the antient Plilosophers onely held but even in this life also whilst it is in the body it is separated from it so the Modern and most of the antients maintain Lib. 3. de anima cap. 5. 6. Aristotle every where affirms it to be a property of the whole Intellect as well the patient as the agent and from this property of the soul is gathered arguments of the souls Immortality by Scotus Piccolomineus Alexander Aphrodiensis Vicomeratus Julius Pacius and others Art thou maried to this weak and frail body O my soul seek not a divorce in any unwarrantable unnatural way for though it be better to be dissolved and to be with Christ yet but for the cause of Christ thou maist not put her away not kill her or hate her but love her as a Wife cherish her as a weaker Vessell yet if she command obey not if she intice consent not let not thy Affections overcome thy Reason to cap ivate thy love to her lust in this case separate thy self from her not in affection but action let thy Diviner faculties Reason and understanding be thy Counsellors and rule thou in her yet above her and without her The Impatibility of the Soul The soul of man is Impatible it suffereth not for the rule is quicquid patitur corrumpitur as the wood suffers by the fire till it be consumed of the fire the soul of man not so it receives Objects and Species yet no way suffers or is hurt by what it receives Object But this property you will say the Sensitive soul hath as well as the Rational for even as the Intellectuall faculty receives intelligible forms yet doth not thereby suffer viz passione corruptiva so doth the Sensitive also receive its forms and Objects and is not hurt by them and therefore saith Aristotle sensus est impaâ—ibilis To this I answer that though this property agree with the Sensitive as well as the Rationall faculty yet with the Rational in a higher and much more eminent manner the Sense is not hurt by any Objects nor suffers any detriment so long as the Objects are presented in an orderly manner and due proportion there the Sense in no sense is patible viz. passione corruptiva but if a due proportion of the Objects be not observed for quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis the Sense is destroyed of its more vehement Object for he that saith sensus est impatibilis meaning in the former sense saith also vehemens sensibile destruit sensum and this vâ—hemens Objectum corrumpit sensum as too great a sound makes a man deaf too great a light will make a man blind But this cannot be said of Humane intellect since there is no such vehement Object which can corrupt it yea rather perfects it for after we have understood the highest and difficultest matters we are not made incapable of understanding easier as with gazing upon the Sun our sight will be so dazled with the light thereof that we cannot presently see lesser lights but much more capable to understand them than before and herein is an argument of the Divinity and immortality of the soul For were it mortall it would certainly be destroyed or wounded by its more forcible Object but vehemens in elligibile perficit intellectum ergo intellellectus non debilitatur in operando so incorruptible so immortall 'T is Scotus his argument for the souls immortality Behold how sin overthroweth as it were the whole Fabrick of Heaven God hath created the Humane soul of an impatible nature not subject to pain or punishment sin enters the soul and makes it liable to greater grief and torment than is imaginable evill of sin begets evill of pain pain privative and pain positive paenam sensus and paenam damni pain of loss the privation of eternal felicity banishment from the heavenly Country loss of the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven absence of God and want of the vision of him and an utter exclusion from all good things for ever this is the privative pain which is more bitter to me saith Saint Chrysostom than the positive torments of Hell nor is it any wonder if this loss cannot be expressed for we have not yet known the beatitude of those things that are reserved for us how then shall we apprehend our misery in the loss of them but besides this pain of loss there is a pain of sense a worm that never dieth a fire that never goeth out nor can any tongue express or heart conceive this pain but such as know them experimentally but a general torture it is in all the parts of the body in all the faculties of the soul the soul as well as the body is passive a passion worst of all passions a passion voyd of corruption voyd of consumption the wood suffers in the fire till it be totally consumed by the fire and well were it with the damned had they such pains which might at last consume them but as the widdows barrel of meal should not waste nor her cruse of oyl be spent so though in a different sense hers in mercy these in judgement the worm shall continually gnaw and eat but they not wast the bush shall burn in the fire and the fire not consume the bush for ever These things are writ for thee O soul that thou come not into this place of torment that if thou canst not patiently abide the eternall fire of hell hereafter thou maist not so patiently suffer sin here but