to wit the mansion for the pious and vertuous soules in heauen for the wicked Hell And this opinion all Antiquity euer did hold Next he asketh Quanta multitud◠c. how great a multitude is there of soules as of shadowes for so many ages To which is to be answered that the multitude of soules is as great as there is number of men which haue liued from the beginning of the world vnto this day For seeing the world tooke a beginning the number of the soules is not infinite but it is comprehended within a certaine number and that not exceedingly great for it were not very difficult to shew that this number exceedeth not two or three Myriades of millions Now the soules are ignorantly called by Pliny Vmbrae Shadowes seing that they are like vnto light and the body is to be resembled rather to a shadow as the Platonicks were accustomed to say After this Pliny thus expostulateth Quae dementia c. VVhat folly is it to maintaine that life is iterated and begun againe by meanes of death But herein as in all the rest he is deceaued for the life of the soule is not iterated after the death of the body but the body dying it continueth and perseuereth After he further enquireth Quae genitis quies c. VVhat rest can euer be if the sense vigour of the soule remaineth aloofe of in so high a place To which is to be answered that not only rest quyet and fredome from the troubles and miseries of this life belongeth to the soules separated but also wonderfull pleasures and ioy if they haue here liued well but misery if they haue spent their tyme in wickednes without finall repentance And this the Platonicks also acknowledge In the next place he thus further discourseth saying that the feare of what is to succeed after this life doth lessen the pleasures of this life Thus we heere see that this is the chiefe reason why wicked men are loth to belieue the immortality of the soule to wit because this their beliefe confoundeth all their pleasures woundeth their mynds with a continuall feare of what is after to come For being conscious and guilty to themselues of their owne impiety and of what they iustly do deserne therefore they wish that their soule might dy with their body since they cannot expect with reasō a greater benefit For so they should be free from misery and torments which hang ouer their heads And because they earnestly desire this they are easily induced to belieue it to come to passe Now the extinguishing of the soule is not the chiefe good of nature as Pliny thinketh but the chiefe euill rather of nature since euery thing chieffly auoydeth its owne destruction as losing al it goodnes in Nature thereby For how can that be accounted the chiefe good of nature by the which all iustice is ouerthrowne all reward and remuneration is taken away from vertue and all chastisement from vyce For though it were for the good of the wicked that the soule were mortall yet it were most iniurious to the vertuous and hurtfull to the publick good of the vniuerse no otherwise then it would be inconuenient to the good of a temporal commonwealth if no rewards should be propounded for vertue nor reuenge for exorbitancy and transgression of the lawes Certainly the cogitation of death the soules immortality increaseth the anxiety and griefe of the wicked since they do not only complaine for the death of the body which depriueth them of all pleasure of this life but also and this with far greater vehemency for the punishments which after the death of the body they are perswaded through a secret feeling of nature their soules are to suffer But now on the contrary part the former cogitation doth increase the ioy and comfort of the vertuous seing they not only reioyce at the death of the body by meanes whereof they are discharged of al the afflictiōs of the world but also and this in far greater measure at the certaine expectation of that felicity and happines wherwith after their death they shal be replenished Now from all this heretofore deliuered set downe it is euident that the obiections and reasons of Pliny are most weake friuolous as proceding rather from an inueterated hate and auersion of the contrary doctrine then from any force and ground of reason But here one perhaps may reply say Be it so that the soule is immortall notwithstāding it may so be that after this life it shall suffer no euill but enioy great liberty busiyng it selfe in the contemplatiō of things Or if it shall suffer any punishmēt yet this sufferance shall not be perpetuall but longer or shorter according to the proportion nature of its offences committed in this world and that greater sinnes shal be expiated with a more long punishment or at least with a more grieuous and lesser with a shorter or more gentle chastisemēt Indeed I grant the iudgement of the Stoick to haue bene that the soule after this life suffered no euill but that instantly after death it returned to some one appointed starre or other and there remayned either vntill the generall exustion and burning of the world if it were vertuous wise or els only for a short tyme if it were wicked and foolish which period being once ended the soule was to be turned into the Element from whence it was taken But these assertions are friuolous and not warranted with any reason for granting that soules do liue after this life what then is more easy to be belieued then that they receaue either rewards or paynes according to their different comporttments in this world Since otherwise where should the Prouidance of God be Or where Iustice But of this point we haue abundantly discoursed aboue Furthermore if Soules for a certayne tyme can subsist without a body why can they not for euer continue so For seing they are simple and vncompounded substances they cānot in processe of tyme grow old or loose their strength and vigour as bodyes compounded of Elements do Now if they can but for one instant exist and liue without a body thē can they for all eternity perseuer in that state as being not subiect to any extinguishment or destructiō as the whole schoole of the Peripatetiks and Aristotle himselfe do teach For there is nothing which can destroy or corrupt a simple substance subsisting by it selfe And therefore it is houlden that Materia as being a simple substance and inhering in no other thing as in a subiect is incorruptible and inexterminable Now touching that which is spoken of the burning of soules in that sense as if they could be dissolued and vanish away into ayre by meanes of fyer as bodyes is no lesse absurd For the soule is not a body or an oyle-substance which can be set on fire but it is a spirit more thin pure and light then either ayre or fyer But what is
vpoÌ„ heapes therefore the sense of this place it this Euen as the inhabitants of the heaueÌ„ly â—erusalem shall enioy peace and see themselues abounding with all goods so shall they go forth in consideration and contemplation and shall behold sinners subiect both in body in soule to most cruell torments Their worme shall not dye because inwardly in their soule they shal be continually afflicted with the griefe of so great a good lost so infinite an euill contracted through their sinnes Neither shall their fire be quenched because they shall burne for all eternity and these paynes they shall suffer in the sight of the Elect. 14. The 14. is in Daniel c. 12. Multi de his c. Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake some to euerlasting life and some to shame and perpetuall contempt That is the iust shall rise againe that they may enioy eternall saluation sinners that they may suffer and sustaine endles reproach 15. The 15. in Malachy c. 4. Ecce diâ—â—enit c. Behold the day commeth that shall burne as an Ouen and all the proud yea and all that shall do wickedly shal be stuble the day that cometh shall burne them vp saith the Lord of hostes and shall leaue them neither roote noâ— branch The reason hereof being because sinners shall vtterly be rooted out of the earth so as no remembrance of theÌ„ shal be left for heere the Prophet speaketh of the day of iudgment 16. Now we will descend to the new testament And the 16. authority may be taken from the testimony of S. Iohn Baptist who in Matthew 3. in one short admonition doth thrice insinuate the paynes of the life to come And first when he speaketh to the Pharisies Genimina viperarum c. O generation of vipers who hath sorewarned you to flâ—e from the anger to come meaning froÌ„ that eternall reuenge which hangeth ouer the heads of sinners Secondly where he saith Omnis ergo arbor c. Therfore euery tree which bringeth not forth good fruite is heweÌ„ downe cast into the fire Thirdly in these words Cuius ventilabrum c. Who hath his fanne in his hand and will make cleane his flowre gather his wheate into his garner but will burne vp the chaffe with vnquenchable fire For as the husbandmaÌ„ with his fanne seuereth the chaffe from the corne so Christ by his iudging power shall separate the good from the euill assigning to them their fitting place lot or portion 17. The 17. is in Marke c. 9. Si scandaliz auerit c. If thy hand cause thee to offend cut it off It is better for thee to enter into life may med then hauing two hands to goe into Hel into the fire that neuer shal be quenched where the worme dyeth not the fire neuer goet houâ— The like he saith touching the wanting of a foote and an eye In which words he instructeth vs that all things which giue occasion of sinning though they be as profitable to vs as the hand the foot and the eye are are to be forsaken since it is â—arre more secure to want temporall benefits and solaces then to be cast into eternall fire And heare we are to obserue that this sentence is three tymes repeated by our Lord Sauiour therby to insinuate both the certainty of it as also that by the often iteration of it it might be firmly imprinted in the minds of al Christians Heere also we are to note that it was not sufficieÌ„t for Christ to say To go into hell into fire that neuer shal be quenched but ingeminating and doubling the same he addeth VVhere the worme dyeth not and the fire neuer goeth out thus suggesting to vs twice in one sentence the eternity of this fire He further addeth in the end Euery man shal be salted with fire and euery sacrifice shal be salted with salt in which words he insinuateth the reasoÌ„ why sinners are to be burned with fire for as euery sacrifice which according to the prescript law was offered to God was accustomed to be spinkled with salt according to that saying of Leuiticus 2. All thy oblations thou shalt season with salt so all sinners seing hereafter they are to become as certaine oblations to be sacrificed to the Iustice of God are to be seasoned as it were with fire as with salt for here sinners are compared to a sacrifice and fire to salt And indeed we fynd that the holy Scripture in many places calleth the punishment of the wicked a sacrifice or oblatioÌ„ as in Esay 34. Victima domini c. The Lord hath a great sacrifice in Bosra and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. And Ieremy 46. The Lord God of hostes hath a sacrifice in the North country by the riuer Euphrates And finally in Ezechiel 39. Assemble your selues and come gather your selues on euery side to my sacrifice for I do sacrifice a great sacrifice for you vpon the mountaines of Israell For as beasts were killed in honour of God to expiate sinnes and to appease the wrath of God so the whole multitude of the wicked shal be slaine in the last night after a sort shal be sacrificed vnto God that their punishment may in some sort satisfy for the sinnes and so Gods indignatioÌ„ as being appeased therewith may cease Furthermore fire is rightly compared to salt for as salt burneth and conserueth the bodyes wherupon it is sprinkled so fire burneth the bodyes of the damned yet in that sort as it neuer consumeth them but euer keepeth them entyre and whole for further torments 18. The 18. in Matthew 10. Nolite timere c. Feare you not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soule but rather feare him who is able to destroy both soule and body in hell And likewise in Luke 12. Dico autem vobis c. I say vnto you my friends Be not afraid of them that kill the body after that are not able to do any more But I will forewarne you whome you shall feare feare him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say vnto you him feare Here S. Matthew sheweth that only God is to be feared and that all Euils of this life are not of any moment or importance if they be compared with the euils of the life to come which God can afflict 19. The 19. Matthew 13. where he expresseth the paines of Hell in two parables The first is of the tares growing amoÌ„g the corne in those words sicut colliguntur zizania c. As the tares are gathered and burned in the fire so shall it be in the end of the world The sonne of man shall send forth his Angels they shall gather out of his kingdome al things that do offend and them which do iniquity shall cast them into a furnace of fire There shal be wailing and gnashing of teeth Then shall the iust
spouse the Church Thou who art the fountaine of al good suffer the beames of thy infinite mercy to shyne vpon the miserable soules of all such that they may acknowledge their owne cecity blindnes and errours that they may see the danger of their owne eternall damnation that they may imbrace the certainty of thy doctrine the which thou propoundest to all by the Church and finally that they being thus illuminated may acknowledge feare loue praise and reuerence thy Maiesty and prouideÌ„ce both here during the tyme of this temporall life and hereafter for all Eternity Amen FINIS Gentle Reader PAg. 207. lin 17. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rea◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if any the like verball faults haue in otheâ— places escaped it is desired thou wouldst bâ— pleased to correct them by thy owne iudicious reading a Lib. 5. de â—â—uit cap. a Lib 1 de Leg. b Denatura Deoâ—â—â—â— Luer l 1 3. Plin. l. 1â—â— 7. l. 7. c. 55. Man and liuing Creatures CoÌ„pounded bodyes Materia Prima The heauenly Orbes The variety and beauty of things caÌ„not be referred to the Sunne Liuing Nature Mans body Plants Flowers The beauty of â—â—e inward soules or formes of things The sensitiue soule Psalm 93. The Sun not created for it selfe The stares the Orbs and all other bodyes created for the vse of a reasonable soule The motion of the Heauens ordayned for a reasonable soule The 4. seasons of the yeare Wynds showers Cloudes The benefit of wynds The beginning of riuers and welsprings The profit of showers The profit of Snow The profit of frost The wonderfull disposition of the Elements The conformatioÌ„ of the Earth Mountaines The qualityes of the earth and the sea The saltnes of the sea The Caâ—â—â—ityes The world why created Man the end of all visible things of the whole world The CoÌ„sideratioÌ„ of 〈◊〉 body Bones Muscles De formatione â—â—tus The spirits 〈◊〉 The principal parts of the body The engendring of the â—pirits How the spirits are distributed through out the body The distributioÌ„ of the bloud The distribution of the vitall spirits Systole and diastole The distributioÌ„ of the Animall Spirits The production of the brayne and its skins Six payre of sinewes from the brayne Thirty payre of sinewes from the spina dorsi The Composition of the Sinewes How the three principall meÌ„bers are throughout the whole body The thre pâ—incip Membâ—â— are 〈◊〉 in other liuinge Creatures The externall parts of liuing Creatures The shape of Birdes The making of â—ourefooted Beasts The making of fishes a â— 9. c. 33. The naturall weapons and couerings of beasts The fabricke or making of PlaÌ„ts The seminall vertue or power The maner how the seminall vertue worketh The proportion betweene the internall forme the body and betweene the body the seminall vertue The seminall vertue is the impression of a Diâ—yne Art The working of liuing Creatnres are directed to an end The Industry of irrationable Creatures The spyder The industry of Bees The industry of Emmets The Industry of the silk-worme The industry of fishes Oppianus l 5. de piscatura Aâ—lâ—anâ—s l. 8. â— 6. Plutarch de prudentia animal The Industry of Birds Beasts know what is hurtfull to them and what medicinable why naturall instincts guyde beasts like Reason God is euer present to his workes The diuersity of faces Of Pouerty That the former Miracles cannot be said to be forged As S. Augustine l. 3. de Trinit c. 8. teacheth Luke 21. Daniel â— 9. 1 v. 25. 2 v. 26. 3 v. 26. 4 v. 26. 5 v. 27. 6 v. 27. 7 v. 27. 8 v ibid. 1 l. 11. Odiss 2 Exod. 8. 9. â— reg 28. Lib. 2. cap. 7. f Ps 51 An impossible figment cannot be the cause of al vertue If there be no God theÌ„ should Wisedome extinguish all vertue Errour increase vertue VpoÌ„ the foresaid principle the best Men should be the most folish the worst the most wise Vpon the former ground Blasphemyes should not be euill Exod. 7. c. 9. 1 Exod. 16. 2 Ibid. c. 15. 3 Exod. 40. 4 Ibid. 5 Exod. 33. 6 Exod. 17. Num. 20. 7 Num. 11. 8 Num. 26. Num. 16. 28. 9 Num. 10. 10 â—bi supra â— 2â— 11 Ioan 3. 12 Exo. 17. 13 Iosue 3. 14 Ibid. cap. 6. 15 Ibid. cap. 10. 16 Iud. cap. 3. 17 Iud. cap. 3. 18 Iud. cap. 4. 19 Iud. cap. 6. 20 Iud. 10. 21 Iud. c. 14. 15. 16. 22 1. Re 13. 15. 24 3. Reg. 2. 4. 25 2. Paralip c. 13. 26 2. Paralip c. 14. 27 Ibidem 20. 28 4. Reg. 19. 2. Paralip 32. 1 Exod. 5. 2 4. Reâ—s 19. 2 Paâ—â— lip 32. Tobias 1. 3 Daniel c. 3. 4 Daniel 4. 5 Acts 12. Ioseph l. 19. â—ntiquit â— â— 7 2. Ma chab 15. 8 Leuitieus 24. 9 Iudith 6. 10 Ibid. 23. 11 2. Machab. 12 1. Reg. c. 6. 13 Ibiâ—â—â— 14 Daniel â— 15 2. Machab. 3. VVhy diuine Prodence suffereth the courses of the wicked in this VVorld The argument of the Contrary opinion The knowledge of man is illimitable 1 Lib. â— Confess c. â— Aristotle 12. Metaphys c. 9. Whether wicked Men are made in vayne to liue in the world Whether vertue be a reward of it self Pro Archia Poeta Pro Milone 2 Pro Archia Poeâ—â— 3 l. 5. de Ciuit dei c. 12. 2. Ethic. c. 4. Why are men so desirous of prayse Valerius Max c. 8. Prouer b. 22. Eccles 4. 1. Prouerb 16. â— Cor. 4. Psalm 36. Eccles 21. Homeâ— â— 11. aâ—â—bi virgil â— 8. Aenead Ouid. l. 4. Metamorph The 1. ArgumeÌ„t The 2 ArgumeÌ„t The 3. ArgumeÌ„t The Argument of Pliny The vayne iudgmeÌ„t of the Stoicks touching the Soule Vid. Epictetus dissert 1. c. 14. Seneca epist. 92. Cicero Tusc 5. The Errours of Origen The worme of Conscience Mark 9. Esay 66. Math. 13. Sinne the seed of Hell fyre Esay 30. Malach. 4. Math. 25. Psalm 138. Psal 18. Psal 99. Matâ— 5.
who committed no euill do not feare those who haue offended may euer haue their punishment before their eyes He also in another place thus writeth Si optimorum consiliorum c. If our conscience be euer a witnes throughout our whole liues of our good deliberations and actions then shall we liue without feare in great integrity honesty of mind And the reason thereof is because the soule doth presage that good and happynes which is reserued after this life for all true worshippers of vertue THE XXI REASON CHAP. XXII THE Immortality of the Soule is further euicted from the returne backe of Soules after this life For it is euident euen by infinite examples that the dead haue been raised vp and that the Soules of the dead haue returned from the places wherein they were and haue appeared to the liuing We read in the first booke of the Kings cap. 28. and in Ecclesiasticus cap. 49. that the Soule of Samuel then dead appeared to the Enchantresse Pithonissa and to Saul and did prophecy vnto him his destruction Againe the soule of Moyses whether in his owne body restored vnto him at that tyme by diuine power or in a body assumed by him togeather with Elias appeared in the mount Thabor to Christ and to the three chiefe Apostles Peter Iames Iohn as is related in Mathew cap. 17. and Luke cap. 9. The soules of Onias Ieremy the Prophet exhibited themselues to the sight of Iudas Machabeus and much encouraged him to the vanquishing of his Countries Enemies as appeareth in the first of the Machabees c. 15. The Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul appeared in sleepe to Constantine the Emperour and shewed him a meanes to cure his leprosy as it is recorded in the seauenth Synod Act 2. and testifyed by many Historians S. Iohn the Euangelist and S. Philip the Apostle appeared to Theodosius promised him victory against Eugenius which presently followed and not without great miracle The same apparitioÌ„ was seene also by a certaine souldier at the same tyme least otherwise it might be thought to be forged by the Emperour as Theodoret wryteth l. 5. histor c. 24. The same Euangelist with the blessed virgin exhibited theÌ„selues to the â—ight of Gregorius Thaumaturgus then waking and instructed him in the mistery of the Trinity This point with the forme of the doctrine is recorded by Gregorius Nissenus in the life of Thaumaturgus I omit many other apparitions of our blessed Lady recorded by Gregory the great and other more ancient authours In like sort Ambâ—rse serm 90. wryteth that S. Agnes appeared to Constantia the daughter of Constantine and cured her of a most dangerous impostume or swelling Eusebiuâ— reporteth l. 6. histor c. 5. how S. Poâ—â—miâ—â—â— the third day after her martirdome appeared to her Executioner in the night and told him that she had obtained fauour froÌ„ God in his behalfe in recoÌ„pense of his geÌ„tle proceding with her vpon which apparitioÌ„ the Executioner instaÌ„tly became a ChristiaÌ„ after his constaÌ„t professioÌ„ of the ChristiaÌ„ faith suffered a most glorious death and martyrdome It were ouer labour some to recount all the apparitioÌ„s both of the holy and wicked soules which are found in approued authours all which to say to haue bene forged were ouer great impudence since this were to take away the credit of al historyes and to cast an aspersion of falshood and deceite without any shew of reason vpon many most holy learned and graue authours for many both of the ancient Fathers as also of historiographers especially Christians haue made frequent mentioÌ„ of this point yea euen among the very heathens it was a thing generally acknowledged as appeareth out of Homer Virgil others Therefore seing it is a matter most euident by so many examples that the Soules of the dead haue appeared to the liuing we may demonstratiuely conclude that those Soules did not dye with their bodyes but do continue immortall and haue their reward of glory of punishment according to their actions performed in this life This point of the Soules immortality is in like sort made cleare from the raising of the dead to life Now that the dead haue bene recalled to life is proued by many vnanswerable examples And first the Prophet Elias restored to life the dead Sonne of the widow Sareptana as appeareth in the third of the Kings c. 7. Elisaeus also raised the soÌ„ne of Sunamice as we read in the fourth of the Kings c. 4. Yea Elisaeus being himself dead only by the touch of his bones restored to life one that was dead as we find in the 13. chapter of the said booke Christ our Lord and Sauiour besides others raised to life Lazarus being dead foure dayes afore and this was perfourmed in the eye of all Ierusalem as S. Iohn relateth c. 11. Finally to auoyde all prolixity diuers were restored to life by the Apostles and other most holy men as appeareth from Ecclesiasticall historyes and other approued authours Now the resurrection and rising of the dead is an euident signe that the soules are not vtterly extinct but that they remayne separated after death till through a conuenieÌ„t dispositioÌ„ of the body they be reunited to it For so soone as the whole disposition of the body which is necessary to this vnion shal be perfected and that the soule shall there exhibit it selfe in wardly present then doth this vnion imediatly and freely follow partly like as fire touching chips or any other such combustible matter doth through a mutuall attraction naturally cleaue thereunto For the body being made apt and rightly disposed doth couet through a naturall propension to be vnited with the soule as in like sort the soule desireth to be conioyned to the body which propension or inclination is reduced into Act when the Soule and the body after the last disposition once finished are mutually and inwardly present together THE XXII AND LAST REASON CHAP. XXIII TO conclude this point touching the Soules immortality it may be further alledged that the Soules Immortality is the foundation of all religion Iustice Probity Innocency sanctity Now if this ground-worke be false then is the whole sacred Scripture false and a meere fiction then are the Oracles of the Prophets false false also is the doctrine and preaching of Christ false his miracles Finally false are all those things which are deliuered by the Euangelists touching the resurrection of Christ his conuersing with the Apostles fourty dayes after his resurrection his ascension and the descending of the Holy Ghost vpoÌ„ the Apostles and other the faithfull And thus are all deceaued who haue embraced the religion of Christ And therefore in vaine haue so many thousands Saints tamed and brought vnder their flesh practized iustice innocency temperance all other vertues with indefatigable and incessant paynes In vayne are all the Sacraments of the Church all the institutions diuine laudes and praises all Ecclesiasticall Orders all sacred assemblies all labours
pag. 368. 21. The 20. Reason pag. 375. 22. The 21. Reason pag. 377. 23. The 22. and last Reason pag. 382. 24. The Arguments obiected against the Immortality of the soule their solutions or Answers pag. 388. 25. Of the Punishments of the life to come out of holy Scripture pag. 413. 26. The Conclusion pag. 441. THE PREFACE of the Authour IN this Treatise following we vndertake to discusse two questions The first is touching a diuine power to wit whether there be any diuine power or God who with his prouidence sterneth and gouerneth mans affaires and demandeth an account of his actions after this life The other concerneth the Soule of man that is whether it be immortall or perisheth is vtterly extinguished with the body Poynts worthy to be disputed of most claborately succinctly since of all things whatsoeuer which become the obiect of our vnderstanding these are most necessary to be knowne And touching the first supposing that there were no God of whoÌ„ this whole Vniuerse and all negotiations of man were to be gouerned but that all things either by a certaine force of nature or casuall concourse of causes had their euents then should we be freed of great feare for the things to come and might securely and without all impunity do whatsoeuer were best pleasing to our owne dispositions For then no man were obliged to yield an account after the death of the body for things done in his life time no man for his sinnes should hereafter be punished neither should any reward attend the faithfull and veriuous Finally neither of what comportment carriage and conuersation a man is should it be after the dissolution of the body from the soule either preiudiciall or beneficiall vnto him Since sinne then should be nothing but a certaine aery imaginary and a false conceit of a law violated a diuine power offeÌ„ded But now once acknowledging that there is a God through whose prouidence and prescience all things are guided and measured then it ineuitably followeth that we ought greatly to feare and reuerence him and be most cautelous and wary that we do not infringe his lawes saÌ„ctions Since it is most certaine that he will exact an account after this life and will inflict due punishments vpon sinners For it is a point principally iucumbent and belonging to a gouernour to giue a iust retaliation and retribution to men recompensing their enormities and vyces with punishments and their vertues with honours and rewards All kinds of Gouerments aswell of the worser sort whether they be Tyrannicall Oligarchicall and Democratical as of the better as Monarchicall Aristocratical or Political or any other kind of Regiment compounded of these do vnanimously confirme warrant this assertion For it is most euident that all these haue euer set downe rewards and punishments grounding themselues vpon these as vpon certaine foundations without the which they cannot in any sort subsist or continue Therefore admitting that there ought to be proposed both rewards and châ—â—tisâ—enâ—s thereby to debar men from vice incyte them to vertue It also followeth that this diuine power is mightily to be feared of al meÌ„ least they do â—â—â—urre his 〈◊〉 least they purchasâ— to themselues his iust reuenge For no man is able to resist him no man of power to auoyde his power to be short no man there is which liueth not within the bouÌ„dâ— oâ— his dominatioÌ„ Wherefore euery one is chiefly to be most circumspect that he doth not deny the existence being of this power and that he seeke not to beprâ—ue it of prouidence in the disposall of the world and of all things comprehended therein except it euidently aforehand can be euicted by conuincing solid reasons that no such Diuinity or Power there is but that the being thereof is suggested supposed out of a humane conceit only for Policy sake for in the intertaining a rash conceit herof a man exposeth himselfe to the perpetrating of the greatest offence that can be imagined since graÌ„ting the being of such a Deity the denyers therof stand culpable of a most heinous blasphemy and of spirituall treason against so great a Matesty for as that subiect extremly wrongeth his King whoÌ„ he denyeth to be King or his kingdome to be subiect vnto him though this his denyall be grounded vpon some outward shewes of probability Euen so who auerreth the not being of a supreme power by the which the world and the things therin are ruled committeth a most heinous cryme against God and resteth guilty of the highest disloyalty against so powerfull a Deity though otherwise he may seeme to shadow such his blasphemy vnder the tecture of some weake feeble reasoÌ„s Which point being so what then remaineth for such a man to expect then a most heauy reuenge to be inflicted vpon him for his dentall of so soueraigne and so supreme a Power Now then from this it appeareth how absolutly necessary to man is the indubious and certaine confession and acknowledgment of the being of a God And indeed the knowledge of the condition and nature of mans soule is not much lesse to be searched after for if it could be proued that the Soule of man were mortall as the soule in beasts is theÌ„ should we not need to stand in feare of what hereafter might fall vpon vs but we might securely lead a carcles pleasurable life best â—orâ—ing to our owne desires and sensuality Now if the contrary hereto shal be demonstrated to be most true as infallibly it will theÌ„ haue we reason to be mâ—st anxious fearfull and sollicitous least by our wicked life and Conuersation our soule after death may iâ—curre most dreadfull and eternall torments Of both these points I discourse in this treatise to wit in the first booke of the Being of a God a supreme diuine power In the second of the Soules Immortality The contemplation of both which is most gratfull pleasing and comfortable For the presence of a Deity his prouidence wonderfully shâ—neth both in the whole fabrick of the world and in the creatures contained therein as also in the most wise disposall and gouernment of the same things The Immortality of the soule is made demonstrable by force of many irrefragable and conuincing arguments Both these shal be disputed off with as much breuiâ—y and perspicuity as possible I can omitting diuers curious and sublâ—me points which might otherwise serue to enâ—aÌ„gle the Reader and to diuert his iudgment from the principall scope intended by me since my desire herein iâ— that what is here vndertaken may not be performed out of any idle ostentation and vanity but only for the spirituall fruite and benefit of the studious Reader SYR WALTER RAVVLEIGH HIS GHOST Of the being of a Diuine power or God and of his Prouidence LIB I. IN the first place here I will recall to light the names of such of the ancient Authours who haue denyed a Deity or a Diuine power
proportions temperatures vertues colours and smels Now then this Spirit impresseth all these in the seeds of things as the image of his conceite and then worketh and frameth them according to the same For the vertue impressed in the seeds do not otherwise worke then if it enioyed reason the cause hereof being in that it is a footstep of a diuyne conception and as it were a sealed impression thereof Therefore from this supreme Intelligence or Spirit as being the first inuenting and informing cause the beauty proportion and perfection of all things doth take its emanation flowing and proceeding Neither only this visible fayrnes and all variety which is subiect to the eye is to be ascribed to this cause but also all inuisible beauty which is inwardly hid in those visible things can be apprehended only by reason is to be referred therto For froÌ„ this inuisible pulchritude the externall and visible doth ryse since what appeareth externally in these corporall things either in respect of forme proportion colour kynd c. it cometh altogeather from the internall and inuisible substance which substaÌ„ce is so much the more fayre and to be admired by how much it containeth in it selfe more highly and simply the reason cause of those externall perfections In the vegetatiue soule by the vertue whereof trees hearbs flowers and the like according to their seuerall kynds do lyue the reason or cause of their structure whole forme or shape which so much delighteth the eye is latent and vnseene In like sort in the sensitiue soule which animateth all liuing Creatures the whole reason of the fabricke or forme of the body lyes hidden imperceptible by the eye the same is also latent in the genitall vertue or power by the which all these things are formed Therefore how great bewitching is the pulchritudâ— and splendour of these soules in whom all these perfections are secretly and simply included And how stupendious wonderfull are these soules in their owne nature which after one vniforme manner contayne in themselues so great multitude and variety of formes and figures Furthermore in the sensitiue soule is not only comprehended the entyre reason of the structure of the body but also of all the senses the imagination the sensitiue appetite all naturall instincts and operations euery one of which in respect of the wonders discouered therin transcends maÌ„s apprehension For how great is the power of the senses How far of doth the eye penetrate in a moment viewing all things apprehending the formes of them and expressing them in it selfe How forcible is the power of smelling in dogs Vultures many other such like And as touching the imaginatiue faculty it is neuer idle still reuoluing with it selfe and variously compounding the formes and shapes of things which it receaueth by the ministery of the externall sense The appetite draweth and inuiteth the soule to those things which the Imagination afore conceaued if they be conuenient and auerteth it from them if they be dangerous and hurtfull To conclude the motiue power obeyeth the appetite with incredible celerity and speed as appeareth euen in the motion and flying of flees It were ouer laboursome to prosecute al things in this kynd Euery power or faculty hath its obiect instrument operation its peculiar maÌ„ner of working so occult secret and wonderfull as no man is able to apprehend it and yet the reason of all these is contained inwardly in the soules of the said liuing creatures so as whosoeuer could perfectly penetrate the nature and the misteries of the soules should fynd the reasons of all the rest more clearly Wherfore I am fully perswaded if one could attayne the perfect knowledge of one small flye the pleasure of that knowledge would ouerballance and weigh downe all riches honours and dignities of Kings For if Pythagoraâ— as is written of him at his finding out of a mathematicke demonstration did so immoderatly reioyce as for the tyme he perfectly enioyed not himselfe then how much ioy exultation of mynd will a cleare knowledge of so many and so great misteries bring which are in themselues discouerable in the making euen of the least flye they being such as yet the most eminent Philosopher that euer was could not apprehend them and such as may serue to entertaine a most sweet and serious speculation of theÌ„ for the space of many yeares Verily touching my owne priuate censuâ—e I am of this former opinion as I said and I doubt not but all such as attentiuely consider the workes of God would conspire and agree with me in iudgment herein But now to speake something of the reasonable soule it transceÌ„deth in beauty worke and dignity the former by infinite degrees in the which not only the reason of the structure or making of the body and of all the senses but also the faculty of vnderstaÌ„ding of recordation or remembring and of imbracing or reiecting any thing freely in the which is included true electioÌ„ freedome of will is contained By the vnderstanding the soule coÌ„ceaueth the whole world and frameth to it selfe certaine inuisible images or pictures as it were of al things By the memory it retaineth al those images of things wrought by the vnderstanding and when occasion is ministred it maketh practise and vse of them Now how vast spacious are those entrances which are capable of so innumerable formes By the will the soule taketh fruition of all things disposeth of them according to its best liking yea and which is more it maketh to it selfe election or choyce of any course of life Neither is the difference here much to be regarded whether the soule performeth al these things immediatly by its simple substance or by distinct faculties powers seing the reason of all these are contained in its simple essence Therfore it necessarily followeth that the reasonable Soule is of wonderfull pulchritude splendour and perfection in so much that if it were to be knowne perfectly as it is in it selfe it would seeme to be a kynd of diuinity in the contemplation whereof the mind would be as it were absorpt and swallowed vp with an incredible pleasure delight seing the essence of it surpasseth by many degrees all corporeall things as also the vegetatiue and sensitiue soules of Plants and liuing creatures in worth and dignity Therefore out of the premises we may gather that there are foure degrees of beauty of things in this world The first which is lowest is of bodyes which are seene by the ye the secoÌ„d of the vegetatiue soule the third of the sensitiue soule the fourth of the Rationall or reasonable soule Therefore it is euident that not only the first but also the rest are formed by some most prudent and skilful intelligence or mind For if the beauty which is found in bodyes be to be ascribed to some such spirit or diuine power for the wonderful proportions appearing in them then much more the glorious
therefore only in the muscles there are six thousand for thus writeth Galen Eadem ars c. The same art is to be seene about all the bowels indeed about euery part so as if one consider the scopi which the structure of mans body hath the multitude of them would rise vnto some myriades And here upon Galene concludeth that mans body is framed by some most wise and most puissant workeman It was not sufficient that mans body should consist of bones and muscles but withall it was needfull that it should haue naturall heat by the which it might liue bloud by which it might be nourished spirits by the which it might moue and excrcise its senses for without this spirit the soule could neither vse any sense nor the body moue it selfe for seing the spirit is of a most attenuated and thin substance as a thing betwene the most subtile soule and the grosse body it is therefore the immediate and next instrument or Organum of the soule by meanes whereof the soule causeth in the body motion and sense and without the which there can be no distribution of nourishment made through out the whole body Therefore the diuyne Prouidence hath fabricated and made three principall parts in mans body by the which these operations may be performed to wit the Hart the â—â—uar and the braine The Hart is ordained for the vital heat and spirits of the whole body the Liuer for the sanguineous bloody and naturall spirits and the braine for the animal spirits To these three other externall instruments parts of the body are seruiceable To the Liuer belong the teeth the Esophagus and the stomacke to affoard the matter of blood or a certaine concocted iuyce which is called Chylus The Intestinâ—â— or entrals do serue partly to traÌ„smit send this Chylus through the Mesaraical veynes to the Liuer and partly to deonerate disburden the body of the excrementall part of meat and food Furthermore to the Liuer belongs that vessel called folliculus fellis the receptacle of gall that therby after the Chylus is once turned into blood it may draw to it selfe containe the more sharpe matter or substance of nourishment which matter would be otherwise hurtfull to the body The Liene or Splene conduceth that it may attract to it the more grosse and seculent parts of blood The Reynes that they may sucke vp the raw and redundant wheish matter being mixt with blood and after they do send it through the vessels of vryne to the bladder to be auoided in conuenient tyme. The Longs are seruiceable to the Hart wherby the Hart is refrigerated and cooled and the vitall spirits recreated and refreshed through the often attraction and expiration of new and fresh ayre Now the spirits are engendred after this sort The meate being once concocted the best iuyce of it is transferred to the Liuer This transmission or sending it thither is made partly by the vitall compression or closing of the stomacke and partly by the vertue of the veynes of the Intestine called Ieiunum and other innumerable veynes which being placed in the mesenterium or in the midle of the bowels haue apower of sucking to them The Liuer then receiuing the Chylus through a fistula or hollow pipe turneth it throgh its owne natural disposition into blood and after that the more thin parts therof it chaÌ„geth into a vapour which commonly is called spiritus naturalis this vapour distendeth enlargeth and openeth the veynes and pores of the body One part of this blood the liuer by meanes of vena caua which proceedeth or ryseth from it selfe sendeth to the heart Then through the heate of the hart this blood is wonderfully extenuated and refyned first in the right ventricle of the Heart and after in the left ventricle so a great part therof is conuerted into a most subtill and thin vapour of which vapor one part is sent froÌ„ the Heart to the brayne by a great Arterie there being elaborated againe clarifyed tempered in that fould of small arteries which is commonly called rete mirabile it becomes spiritus animalis the Animall spirits do serue only to sense and motion which are peculiar functions of a liuing Creature The rest of these spirits being mingled with most thin and pure blood the Hart distributeth through out the whole body through the Arteries conseruing and maintaining herby the natural heat of the body and this spirit is vsually tearmed spiritus vitalis And here now we are briefly to shew how both kynds of these spirits and bloud is dispersed throughout the whole body that therby we may the better apprehend by how admirable and wonderfull a Wisedome all these things are thus disposed Our body consisteth of heat and moisture The heat dayly consumeth and spendeth the moisture vapouring it away into ayre as the like appeareth by water exposed to the Sunne or to fyer which by little and little vanisheth away And thus all the meÌ„bers and entrals of mans body would soone decay and dry away if there were no instauration and repairing thereof made by nourishment The immediate next nourishment of the body is blood and therefore it is requisite that blood be distributed through the body that all parts of it be nourished therewith The Liuer is the shop as it were of bloud Therefore from the Liuer there are drawne two great veynes the one going vpwards the other downwards the body both which do after braÌ„ch and diuyde themselues into seuerall lesser veynes these againe into lesser and lesser till they end in most small veynes and to the eye scarce visible These veynes go towards the bowels to the muscles in them they are terminated and implanted Seing then that there are aboue six hundred muscles and that for the most part many small veynes do run into euery muscle it coÌ„meth to passe that besides those inuisisible veynes which for their smalnes are called venae capillares as resembling in quaÌ„tity the haires of a mans head there are some thousands of veynes or rather branches of veines which do rise and take their beginning from the two former great veynes Now by this meanes it is effected that there is not the least part of the body but there is nourishment brought to it The making and vertue of the veynes is wonderfull for they consist of fibrae or small strings and these are direct oblique or transuerse By the direct fibrae they attract and suck blood by the oblique they retaine and keep it and by the transuerse they transmit it further to the muscles and other extreme parts The same art and prouideÌ„ce is obserued in the concauityes hollownes of the intestina or bowels they haue the power of keeping bloud which once bursting out of them doth instantly putrifye and ingendreth diseases as we may obserue in Plurisyes Contusions and inflaÌ„mations The wheish humour is mingled with bloud for the more easy
whole body that they may carry nourishment as also vitall and animall spirits to all parts In the meane ty me euery small portion or part of the body doth attract bloud and conuert â—t into its owne substance the spirit still forming euery thing by little and little and giuing each part its due figure measure proportion and connexion with other parts so as from the seauenth day after the conceptioÌ„ the forme of the whole body and distinctioÌ„ of all parts euen of the fingers doth appeare Now how manifold and various is this labour in framing of so many bones veynes arteryes sinewes and Muscles in the apt distribution deduction or drawing out termination or ending of euery part each of them keeping its due forme temper measure place ioyning together and incision What mynd or vnderstanding can be intent to so many things at once What Art may in the least part seeme to equall this Who therfore considering all these things can doubt but that there is some one most wise most potent Mynd or Soule by whome all this operation and working is directed and to whoÌ„ all this admirable artifice is to be ascribed If an indigested informed heape of stones tyles lyme and wood should begin to make to it selfe a house directing it selfe in the doing thereof and framing all parts thereof as the Art of Architecture requyreth who would not affirme that a certaine VnderstaÌ„ding skilful of building were inuisibly and latently in the said things that they could so artificially dispose themselues Or if a pensill being imbued with diuerse colours should moue it selfe and first should but rudely draw the lineaments of a mans face after should perfect euery part therof by framing the eyes drawing the cheeks figuring the nose mouth eares and the other parts seruing in them all a due proportion and fitting colours as the exact science of painting requireth no man would doubt but that this pensill were directed herein by an intelligent spirit But now in the framing of euery liuing Creature far greater art and wit is desired then in any humane worke whatsoeuer since the skill whereof transcendeth by many degrees all mans skill and artifice for it arriueth to that height of perfection as that the worke cannot in that kynd be possibly bettered neither can the parts of it whether internall or externall haue a more pleasing proportion and connexion Therefore who is so voyd of Reason that can enter into any dubious and vncertaine consideration with himselfe whether all this molition and laboursome endeauour in framing a liuing Creature be directed by a power indued with reason wisedome or no Furthermore there are three things here to be considered among which there ought to be a great proportion to wit the Soule of the liuing Creature the body and the Sâ—â—inall vertue And first the Soule ought to be most proportionable to the body For such ought the small body of any little Creature to be as the Anima or soule of the same doth require to performe its proper functions wherfore how great the difference is of Soules so great also the discrepancy is of bodyes if we insist in the figure the temperature and the conformation of the Organs therefore in the nature of euery soule the whole formall reason is contained so as that if a man did perfectly know the nature of the soule from it he might easily collect what the habit figure and temperature of the body ought to bee But who is ignoraÌ„t of the nature thereof must consequently be ignorant of the other for in some one particular or other he shall euer be wanting and neuer attaine to the due proportion in knowledge thereof As for example if the question be touching the small body of a flye how many feet it ought to haue how many flexures or bendings in their legs or thighes what difference betwene euery flexure what temperature proportion connexion how many â—inews in euery thigh how many veines what proportion to its little nayles of which things many are for their smalnes not to bee discerned by the eye for in the small body of the flye there may be found seuerall thousands of proportions as necessary that its soule may rightly sort to the body to all which no man can attaine except the first doth penetrate and consider in his mynd the nature of the soule in the which the reason of all these as in the root dothâ—y hidden and secret Againe the Seminal power ought to haue most perfect proportion with the body that it may produce such a body in al respects as that soule doth require Therefore who first caused and made this seminall power ought afore hand to haue the whole structure of the body exactly knowne vnto him that so he might sute and proportion this seminall seed to the body For as in the soule as in the finall cause the whole reason of the fabrick of the body lyeth and therefore the body ought in a perfect proportion to be accommodated and made fit to the soule In like sort the reason of the making of the same iâ— latent and hidden in the seminall vertue oâ— power as in the efficient cause Wheruponâ— it followeth that there ought to be as aâ— exact proportion betwene the structure oâ— the body and the seminall vertue as is betwene the efficient cause the adequate effect of the said Cause Now from all these premisses it is mosâ— clearly demonstrated that these three to wit the Soule of euery liuing Creature the structure of the body and the seminall vertue haue their source from one and the same beginning which beginning cannot be any nature depriued of reason vnderstanding seing a beginning voyd of reason could not among different things set downe congruous proportions much lesse so exact and so infinite proportions as are betweene the body and the soule and the seminall vertue and the making or fabricke of the body For to performe this requireth a most perfect and distinct knowledge Therefore it is concluded that there is an intelligence or spirit both most wise and most powerfull which through its wisedome is able to excogitate and inuent through its power is of might to performe all these things The reason why this seminall vertue might seeme to be indued with a mynd or vnderstanding is because this vertue is a certaine impression and as it were a foot step of the diuyne art and skil and therefore it worketh as if it had a particuler art and knowledge in working Euen as if a painter could impresse in his pensill a permanent power and vertue of his art and that therupon the pensill should moue it selfe and draw the images as if there were an art and vnderstanding in the Pensill Furthermore it may be here presumed that this diuyue spirit or Intelligence doth conserue this impressioÌ„ with his continuall influxe and doth cooperate with it thus working with his generall concourse Euen as in liuing creatures
these three to wit the Soule the body and the seminall vertue do meet and conspire together in a wonderfull proportion so do they a like in euery kind of Plant for in the Anima and soule of euery plant the whole reasoÌ„ of the structure of the body of the Plant as also of the leaues flowers and fruite is contained The like may be said of the seminall power For the forme or soule of the Plant is a thing simple and vncompounded such also is the seminall vertue For the whole difference the whole multitude of figures colours smels lynes and proportions which is discerned either externally in the body of the Plant or in the leaues flowers fruits rootes barke or iuyce and marrow proceeds from the seminall vertue from the forme or soule of the Plant and therefore all these things are internally after a simple and inuifible maÌ„ner most strangely contained in them both If therefore flowers do appeare externally faire to the eye and admirable for their great variety of figures colours and proportions then how much more fayre and pleasing is the internall forme to wit the soule and the seminall vertue from which all that visible beauty floweth and in the which after a wonderfull particuler and ineffable sort it is wholy contained Neither do only the seeds of things which worketh after a naturall manner without any reflexe or knowledge of its owne working tend to a certaine end in their working but also liuing Creatures do the lyke when they worke by their imagination For all liuing Creatures are moued and inclined to their sense of gust feeding and to the act of generation and these they performe not thinking at all or conceauing the end wherunto those functions do tend and are directed For neither are they stirred vp to the act of generation through the desire of hauing young ones neither do they eate with intention of producing their liues and conseruing themselues but they apprehend the working of these two senses after a confused maner vnder the forme of a dectable thing and in this apprehension they are stirred therto And yet doubtlesly these actions haue a further intention and end For neither eating nor the act of generatioÌ„ are ordained for pleasure since this is to perpetuate and continew the kynds of liuing creatures and that to defend and maintaine the particuler life of euery one Therefore it is needfull that there be some one superiour Mynd or vnderstanding which knowing and intending these ends doth direct bruit beasts to the said ends and which giueth to euery liuing creature according to its nature fitting organs and instruments by the which it may come to those ends To conclude there appeareth in many irrationable creatures a certaine particuler industry by the which they either take their meat build their nests bring vp and defend their ofspring and this in so industrious and witty a manner as that if they were indued with reason they could not performe the same actions better the end for which they thus do and to which all this is finally intended they apprehend not but rest absolutely ignorant of it The Spider for example weaueth her web with wonderfull art lyke a huÌ„ter layeth her nets for the catching of flies the threeds of her web are most fynely and curiously wrought and the further they are distant from the midle or center of the web they alwaies by degrees do make greater Circles and the connexions or insertions of one threed with an other still obseruing a precise distance are most strange She conceaueth the aptnes of her web to hold fast with the fynenes of the threed And when her web is wrought she prouydeth her selfe of a little hole to lye in lyke vnto the custome of fowlers lest she should be espyed When the flye falleth into the web the spider instantly runneth therto taking hold of her and hindering the motion of her wings lest she should fly away then presently she killeth the flye taketh it away layeth it vp against tyme of hunger Now supposing the spider were indued with reason could it do all these things with better art and order and more fitly tending to her designed end The Bees worke their fyne hony-Combs distinguished on each syde with little cells or roomes of six corners which they frame with their six little feete And then they flying abroad and lighting vpon flowers and hearbs they gather from thence the sweet dew of heauen and lay it vp in these small roomes to serue for their prouision in the winter tyme. How they deuyde the labour herein among themselues is most admirable for some of them bring part of flowers with their feete others water with their mouthes others againe serue to build worke and frame their cels within and do disburden such bees as come loaden to the Hyue When their Cels are full of matter then do they couer them with a small membrane or skin least otherwise the liquour therin should slow away when any part of their Combs is ready to fall they support it with a partition wall as it were made of earth in forme of an Arch. All the Bees do rest together they labour together conspire together to performe one generall worke helping one another according to their facultyes powers I here omit what authours haue written of the strange policy and gouerment of Bees obserued curiously by diuers If we come next to Emmets or Ants what sâ—dulity and industry is found in them And how much care is taken for the tyme to come and yet they want all knowledge of the tyme to come They make their habitation and dwelling places in little concauityes of the earth themselues thus labouring the earth which habitations for greater security quietnes are ful of many wyndings and turnings Here they bring forth their Eggs and hither they bring in the sommer their winters prouision they indifferently communicate in their labours as bees do haue a kynd of politicall gouernment and care they do first knaw and byte the corne lest it should take roote againe see herein the wonderfull prouidence of God in these so vyle Creatures The corne being moystened with rayne they lay out to the SuÌ„ne by which it is dryed and after they hord it vp againe They carry their burdens with the pinsers as it were of their mouths It is also strange to obserue how in so great a concuâ—se of them of many hundreds or thousands they meeting one another in a most straite way are no hinderaÌ„ce or let to their passages and they only of all liuing Creature excepting man do bury one another The Silkwormes do worke out of their owne bowels their graues or sepulchres the wolly fertility of their bellies ministring them matter therto In this graue they being shut vp as it were dead at length appeare and come forth in another shape imitating herein a second birth or generation through a
the chastisement of our peace was vpon him and with his stripes we are healed Al we like sheepe haue gone astray we haue turned euery one to his owne way and the Lord hath laid vpon him the iniquity of vs al. He was oppressed he was afflicted yet did he not opeÌ„ his mouth â—â— is brought as a sheep to the slaughter and as a sheepe before the shearer is dumbe so he opeeed not his mouth c. Al which particulers that they were most euidently fulfilled in Christ appeareth out of the Euangelists 14. His CrucifixioÌ„ is recorded in Psalm 22. Foderun manus c They pierced my hands and my feet c. The same was prefigured in the bâ—asen serpent being hanged a height at the beholding wherof al such as were bitteÌ„ by serpents were cured Numer 21. as our Lord himselfe declareth Iohn 3. 15. That the was crucifyed betweene two theeues and that he was to pray to his Father for his persecutours is foretold in Isay 53. Ideo dispertiam c. Therfore I wil giue him a portion with the great and he shall deuide the spoile with the strong because he hath powred out his soule vnto death and he was couÌ„ted with the transgressours and he bare the sinnes of many and prayed for his trespassers 16. The irisions blasphemyes of the Iewes against Christ hanging vpon the Crosse in Psalm 21. Ego sum vermis c. I am a worme and not a man a shame of men contempt of the people All they that see me haue me in dâ—rision make a mowe and nod the head saying he trusted in the Lord let him deliuer him let him saue him seeing he loued him Where we find almost the same words in part in Mathew 27. 17. The diuision of his garments and casting lots for the same in psalm 21. Diuiserunt c. They parted my garments amoÌ„g them did cast lots vpon my vesture For one vestmeÌ„t they diuided into foure parts for the other because it was not to be deuided they did cast lots Iohn 19. 18. That being vpoÌ„ the Crosse he druÌ„ke gall and vinegar psalm 68. DederuÌ„t in escam c. They gaue me gall in my meat in my thirst they gaue me vinegar to drinke 19. That his bones were not to be broken Exod. 12. and Num. 9. Os illius c. You shal not breake a bone thereof That his syde was to be thrust through with a speare appeareth in Zachary 12. Aspiciunt c. They shal looke vpon me whome they haue pierced both which places are expounded of Christ by S. Iohn the Euangelist c. 19. 20. His Resurrection is prophesyed in Psal 15. Non derelinques animaÌ„ c. Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hel neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption c. which passage of Scripture S. Peter instantly after he had receaued the holy Ghost and of a rude ignoraÌ„t fisher became a most wise Doctour of the whole world interpreted of the Resurrection of our Lord. Act. 2. 21. That he was to rise from death the third day Osee c. 6 Viuificabis nos c. After two daies will be reuiue vs and the third day wil be raise vs vp and we shall liue in his sight Of which verity Ionas who was three dayes in the whales belly the third day came out aliue Ionas c. 2. was according to our Sauiours explication a type and figure 22. His Ascension into heauen in Psal 14. Aperite c. Lift vp your heads you gates and be you lifted vp you euerlasting doores the King of glory shall come in And Psal 67. Ascendisti c. Thou art gone on high thou hast led captiuity captiue and receaued guifts for men Which place in the fourth to the Ephesians the Apostle doth thus interprete 23. The sending of the holy Ghost in Ioel. 2. Effundam Spirtum meum c. I wil power out my spirit vpon al flesh and your sonnes your daughters shal prophesy your old men shal dreame dreames and your young men shal see visions Which prophesy was fulfilled in the second of the Acts eue according to the exposition of S. Peter 24. The destruction of the Iewes for the death of Christ was prophesyed in Psalm 69. Fiat mensa c. Let their table be a snare before theÌ„ their prosperity their ruine Let their eyes be blinded that they see not and make their loynes alwaies to tremble powre out thine anger vpon them and let thy wrathful displeasure take them â—et their inhabitans be voyd let noâ—e dwel in their â—ents for they persecuted him whom thou hast smitten c. 25. The tyme wherin al these things are to happen is exactly described by Daniel being taught herein by an EuaÌ„gelical reuelation for thus the Angel speaketh c. 9. Tu animaduerâ—e sermonem c. Vnaerstand the matter and consider the vision Seauenty weekes are determined vpon the people vpon thine holy Citty to finish the wickednes and to seale vp the vâ—sion and prophesy and to annoynt the most holy The sâ—â—â—â—e of which place is that God appointed the space of 490. yeares for so many yeares do seauenty Hebdomadaes or weekes of yeares containe within which compasâ—e of tyme to wit towards the end therof the Messias was to come who being the authour of al holines shal blot away the sinne of mankind shal recoÌ„cile man to God shal bring into the world eternal iustice at whose comming the visions predictios of the Prophets shal be fulfilled And then he declareth where these Hebdomadaes are to begin and where to end Scito ergo animaduerte ab exitu sermonis c. Know therfore and vnderstand that from the going forth of the commandement and to build Ierusalem againe vnto the Messias the prince shal be seauen weeks and threescore and two weekes and that is 69. weekes or 483. yeares Now this Exitus sermonis that is the fulfilling of the kings coÌ„mandement touching the building of Ierusalem to wit when the Citty was finished dedicated as the learned do interprete and proue is made in the 23. yeare of Artaxerxes or as Iosephus wryteth in his 11. Booke of Antiquities c. 5. in the 28. yeare reckoning froÌ„ the beginning of the reigne of Xerxes that is in the third yeare of the 80. Olimpiade which was the seauenth yeare of Artaxerxes then gouerning priuately Furthermore from the third yeare of the 80. Olimpiade to the baptisme of Christ when Christ was declared by his Father to be Dux Populi and that he begun so to shew himselfe in doctrine miracles are precisely 483. yeares And where in the same chapter it is said And the street shall be built againe and the wall in a troublesome tyme. This was often attempted but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the last perfected from the twentith yeare of Artaxerxes til the 23. yeare being in â—â—e 80. Olimpiade And after threscore two weeks which
to the â—â—ue doctrine of the being and not being of a Deity For if there be no supreme oâ— celestiall power then all these acts by the which he is contemned and ignominiously treated are good both because they are certaine protestations of an infallible and secret truth as also in that they fitly serue are of force to take away from mens mynds the false perswasion of the being of a God and his Prouidence no otherwise then as Contumelyes and disgraces committed against the Idols of the Gentils are laudable and good because by those actions we testify no true diuinity to be in those Idols for nothing is more coÌ„temptible then that which neither is nor cannot be Seauenthly it might seeme to follow that the world were as a ship floating on the sea without any Mast or Pylot or as a mighty Commonwealth consisting of all kynds of men in the which there is no lawes no Iudge no gouernour nor any Procurer of tranquillity peace and common good And if it be so how then can the world continue especially seing it consisteth of so different contrary and repugnant things For as a ship without a directour is violently tossed to and fro till it fall vpon some Rock or sands or be ouerwhelmed with flouds or as a Commonwealth wanting a magistrate and ruler wasteth it selfe away with intestine seditious murthers and other calamities so must the world be most exorbitantly and inordinatly menaged and in the end be dissolued through a colluctation and fight of contraries if there be no power which is to sterne the same and to procure a simpathy and accord amoÌ„g those contraries Eightly it followeth that all this vniuerse and disposition and framing of the parts thereof existeth thus by chance For if there be no diuyne power which framed the parts of it digesting them into this forme which now we see then is it necessarily to be acknowledged that it hath its being by chance according to the opinion of Democritus who maintained that all things were first framed of a casual force concourse of Atomi or smal indiuisible bodyes But what is this but mere doting madnes and want of reasoÌ„ for how can it be that that whose frame and making existeth with so great reason prouidence and iudgement should haue its being by chance One seeth a most sumptuous building framed withall art skill all Architects admire the structure of it question being asked who made this curious edifice It is answeared that it is made by no body but that there was long since a mountaine in the same place stored with trees that it falling a suÌ„der through an Earth quake the parts of this mountaine being thus shiuered did through meanes of this collision and fall cast and frame theÌ„selues casually into this curious forme of a pallace Now who is so simple that would belieue this And yet such is the like case in the stupeÌ„dious fabrick of the whole world maintayned not to be made by the hand of any diuine Power These and many other like absurdities incongruences and impossibilities do rise and result from the foresaid deniall of a Deity a Prouidence all which how aduerse they are to all shew of truth how repugnant to the very light of reason how fearefull and dreadfull to be but spoken in words who seeth not Wherefore it followeth that that principle which is the fountaine of such pudled aud stinking waters must of necessity be most far distant estranged from all truth But heere some may reply that euen a false perswasion in matters of religion conduceth much to the deterring and withdrawing man from wickednes and to the perswading and inuiting them to probity iustice and other vertues For the Heathens who belieued diuers Gods to be according to the multitude and diuersity of humane affaires and that their negotiations businesses were guyded by the prouidence of the said Gods that they rewarded and chastised men according to their different deserts al which things were false and impossible did notwithstanding from this strong setled coÌ„ceyt of theirs abstaine from many iniuries offences and enormities as thinking the Gods to be offended therewith and that themselues should be punished by them for the same either in this world or in the world to come I answere hereto and say that this perswasion of the heathens was false in particuler to wit in thinking that there was such a multiplicity of Gods as also in thinking that such and such were Gods as Iupiter Saturne Pallas c. the like and that they had the charge of mens affaires but their persuasion was true in generall that is in thinking that there was a diuyne power that mens affaires were subiect to his prouidence and that he exacted an account of them Wherefore when the Heathens either abstained from euill or did good through feare of offending their Gods or desire of pleasing them they were moued thereto not through any perswasion as it was false in respect of such a God but as it was true in generall Only they did â—rte in the Obiect to wit in ascribing a diuinity and Prouidence to those to whome they ought not and in worshipping it in them Therefore they did not take away or deny the true and formall reason of a deity and of Prouidence but they affirmed and maintayned it and therefore retayned after a certaine manner the true foundation of Politicall iustice But if there were no diuine Power nor any Prouidence then were this foundation of theirs most fictious and false euen in generall and consequently it could haue no force towards vertue and probity of maÌ„ners or if it hath any as by experience we find it to haue then followeth it euideÌ„tly that it is not a thing forged and inuented but most true and vndoubted THE 13 REASON DRAVVNE FROM the Immortality of the Soule CHAP. XV. IF it be so ordayned that the reasonable soule shall not be extinguished with the body but after the death of the body it shall liue and be immortall then there can be no reason pretented for the denying of a diuine power a Prouidence for if the lowest spirit be incorporeall intelligent and immortall why should not then there be a supreme spirit endued with the same proprietyes Since where there are seuerall degrees of natures it is as necessary that there be found one supreme degree as well as the lowest and midle degrees Now it is shewed aboue that there are certaine degrees of spirits far more excellent then mans soule but vnder the soule of man â— there is no lower degree for it selfe is the lowest seing that it is manifest that the soules of beasts do dye with their bodies Furthermore if mans soule be immortall then can we not doubt but there must be after this life a retribution of deeds actions to wit reward for vertue and punishment for vyce for it is most absurd to affirme that those Soules which while they were here
the season and tyme of this world shal be carryed according to their owne peculiar motions and forces the reynes of working thus or not thus being freely granted to mans nature Therefore where greater industry or power is found though lesse iustice or equity there it is commonly accoÌ„panyed with more happy and fortunate euents The reasons of Gods permission here in are aboue set downe and vnfoulded Ad hereto that though the endeauours of the wicked may for the tyme be ouer preuailing yet there is no perpetuity or continuance thereof for this prosperity is for the most part tempered or rather ouer ballanced with many aduersities and afflictions Seing many there are who either in their first beginnings or in their progresse at what tyme they hould themselues most free from all sudden conuulsioÌ„s of misery and infelicity are vtterly ouerthrowne This appeareth first in the most celebrious famous Monarchies that euer haue flourished for we read that the Monarchy of the Assyrians was ouerthrowne by the Chaldeans that of the Chaldeans by the Persians and the Medes this of the Persians by the Grecians the monarchy of the Grecians by the Romans which is at this preseÌ„t much obscured of its former honour and brought to great straits Againe the same point is also made cleare in the persoÌ„s of the Monarchs themselues if we but coÌ„sider the calamityes and miseryes which the most powerfull and most formidable among them haue sustained For Nabuchodonozor being placed vpon the highest pinacle of prosperity and after the ouerthrow of so many Countries and nations was suddeÌ„ly stroken with a sentence from heauen and compelled to liue in desart places after the manner of beasts Baltasar nephew to the former being deuoted and giuen to epicurisme and sensuality was flame in that very night when his Citty was taken Cyrus when he had obtained the honour of so many victories was with the losle of his army pittifully massacred by the Scithians Xerxes with his forces consisting of three hundred thousand fighting men was shafully ouercome by the Grecians almost extinguished Alexander the great after the dissolution of the Persian Empire and subiugation of diuers other kingdomes to his command dyed without any heires and left his kingdomes to be shared by his Generals and Leaders who after through mutuall and inward afflictions so weakned and impouerished themselues as that in the end they were brought vnder the yoâ—ke of the Romans Now for the Romans with what sweating paynes and labours did they rise and grow dreadfull With what calamityes were they often worne out and wearyed With what intestine and ciuill warres were they afflicted What exorbitant and vnaccustomed crueltyes suffered they of their Generals and Emperours Finally how many of their Generals and Emperours after their incessant and indefatigable paines vndertakeÌ„for the honour of their countries were ignominiously and basely handled and in the end cruelly butchered Certainly it were an infinite labour to insist in all the particulars of this kind For if a man will but peruse either the ancient or moderne and later historyes he shall find many in euery age whose vnlawfull attempts and labours though they were extraordinarily furnished and enabled with power forces had most vnfortunate and deplorable successes the Prouidence of God interposing it selfe and disturbing al their wicked motions endeauours according to that of the Psalme 32. Dominus dissipat coÌ„silia gentium c. THE THIRD ARGVMENT CHAP. XX. VVE see that all naturall things do euer proceed after one and the same manner and do retayne one course and order As the Sunne for exaÌ„ple we obserue to ryse to set to runne or renew his circles and to make with his approach and departure the accustomed seasons of the yeare In like sort all sublunary bodyes to grow decay and one to be procreated and generated of another without end to the perpetuity or continuance of it species or kind Now all this procedure and carriage of things riseth from the force of nature which is accustomed to hold so perfect constant an order And therefore saith the Atheist no other Prouidence or Deity besides nature is to be sought after neither any rewards or punishments are to be expected I answere first say that the Atheists of these dayes do chiefly support themselues with this argument as S. Peter prophecyed in his second epistle c. 7. Venient in nouissimis diebus c. To the which point himselfe doth answere to wit that the promises of God by the which he hath promised his eternall kingdome are not to be accouÌ„ted as vaine because they seeme to be deferred for a loÌ„g tyme since what is long in tyme to vs is most short to God for a thousand yeares to him who comprehendeth Eternity it selfe is but as one day or rather as a moment of tyme. Againe all that procrastination and delay proceedeth froÌ„ the benignity of God by the which he expecteth each mans saluation Furthermore they erre who affirme the world euer to continue in one the same state for long since it was ouerflowed with water and hereafter it shal be consumed with fyar then there shal be created new heauens and a new earth Besides all such things as may seeme to proceed by force of nature are indeed the workes of an intelligent mynd and of Prouidence for these two do not impugne the one the other for the motion of the heauens the situation of the stars the disposal of the earth mountaines riuers and seas the formes of liuing Creatures and plants as also their beginnings increase propagation are the works of Prouidence as aboue we haue fully demonstrated Neither is the constancy of things incompatible or repugnant to Prouidence seing this constaÌ„cy is assigned to things by an intellectuall Prouidence that they may the more commodiously serue mankind vntill the end of this world appointed and determined by God be come THE FOVRTH ARGVMENT CHAP. XXI THE fourth argument is taken from the similitude of being borne of growing increasing waxing old and dying which is indifferenly common to men with beasts as also from the conformity of corporeall members in them both From which consideration the Atheist argueth that men are absolutely vtterly extinguished by death as well as vnreasonable creatures I answere that this illation is most inconsequeÌ„t for although man in respect of his affections or passions of the mind be like to beasts yet with refereÌ„ce to the nature of his soule he is infinitly more excellent then they are In which consideration man approacheth more neere to God and incorporeall spirits then to beasts And therefore it is no wonder if the body being corrupted the soule remayneth immortall But this argument rather beloÌ„geth to the second booke wherof the subiect is touching the Immortality of the soule though secondarily and by way of consequence only it impugneth the nature of Prouidence THE FIFTH ARGVMENT CHAP. XXII IF there be a Diuine Power it is credible that
the Immortality of the Soule THE SECOND BOOKE WHEREIN Is proued the Immortality of the Soule CHAP. I. IN the former booke we haue demonstrated that there is a God and a diuine Prouidence In this second the Immortality of the soule is to be proued For these two Articles are in themselues so linked together as that they do reciprocally presuppose the one the other for admitting the one for true the other doth ineuitably follow For if there be a God and a Prouidence it is necessary that the Soule after this life be immortal that it may be rewarded according to its merits and if the Soule doth liue after death it then must needes be that there is a God and a Prouidence which is to dispense to euery one answerably to the deserts of ech mans life as incideÌ„tally we haue shewed out of Chrysostome Againe supposing that there is no Prouidence or deity then is the immortality of the Soule taken away and supposing no immortality of the soule then is the being of a Deity denyed of which point we shall heearefter speake Now because this sentence of the Soules Immortality may be fortifyed and strengthned with many other reasons and that there are not few who do doubt thereof although perhaps they may seeme not altogether to doubt of a deity or of a Prouidence I hould it worthy the labour to discusse this point more elaborately and particulerly And here we dispute of the Soule of maÌ„ not of beasts for it is euident that this is mortall and corruptible since it desireth nothing nor reposeth its delight in any thing but what belongeth to the benefit and pleasure of the body Therefore that the soule of man which as it is endued with vnderstanding and freewill is called Animus or Mens is immortall may be demonstrated by many arguments which we will here briefly and clearly set downe And first if authority should sway or determyne the point herein it is certaine that whosoeuer haue bene at any tyme noted for eminency of wisedome haue belieued the soule of man to be immortall to wit the Sagi and wisemen among the Hebrewes or Iewes among the Chaldeans the Egiptians with their Trismegistus Mercurius among the Indians the Gaules whom they called Druides In like sort the Pithagorians the Platonicks with their first Maisters the Stoicks vnanimously maintayned the Soules Immortality though diuers of them were deceaued in this that they thought al the Soules of men to be certaine partes or particles taken froÌ„ Anima muÌ„di or the Soule of the world which they said was God that they were to be dissolued in the conflagration and burning of the world and being then dissolued they were to returne to their simple forme to wit into the soule of the world like as mixted bodies are resolued into the Elements of which they are framed What Aristotle thought herein is somewhat doubtfull because he speaketh variously and vncertainly yet in his secoÌ„d booke de ortu animalium c. 3. he thus writeth Solam mentem c. Only the soule of Man entreth into the body from without and it only iâ— a certaine diuine thing and the reason hereof is because the operation or working of the body doth not communicate it selfe with the operation of the Soule Now the soules of other liuing Creatures he affirmeth to be ingendred in the matter through the force of the seed in that all their operations depend vpon the body Now heere he euidently teacheth that mans Soule doth not depend of the body and therefore it is not ingendred by the vertue of the seed but proceedeth from without Vpon which ground or reason diuers followers of Aristotle do ascrybe the sentence of the Soules immortality to Aristotle To conclude all men whosoeuer that haue bene illustrious and markable either for sanctity of life the guiâ—t of Prophecy or working of miracles haue euideÌ„tly and indubiously houlden the Soules Immortality and who haue denyed the same were for the mâ—â—â—â—art most impious and wicked men as the Epicureans the Atheists Now if this point should be discussed by Philosophicall reasons the aduerse opinion would â—ynd small firmnes therin seing that reason wherupon it chiefly grounds it selfe is most weake This reason is taken from the similitude of bodyes which is found betwene Man and Beast For we see say the Patrons of this heathenish opinioÌ„ that men and beasts are conceaued formed borne nourished do also increase grow old and dye after one and the same maÌ„ner In like sort they consist of the like parts of the body both internall and externall which like parts haue the like vses in them both Therefore conclude they that wheÌ„ a beast dyeth and breatheth out his last the Soule vanisheth euapourateth it selfe into nothing nor any thing of it remaineth after life so also it may seeme to be said that man dying his soule also dyeth and turneth into nothing But this reason is most feeble and of no force for though there be a great affinity betwene the soule of Man as it is endued with reason is called Mens the soule of beasts the difference is infinite froÌ„ the which great disparity we may deseruedly gather that the Soule of man as being of a high and diuine order or nature dyeth not though that of beasts is absolutly extinguished euen with the body For beasts do not perceaue in any sort those things which belong to men neither is there any communication or commerce of busines or deliberation betwene man and them As for example dogs and horses know not whether their maister be rich or poore noble or ignoble old or young healthfuâ— or diseased maryed or vnmaryed vertuous or wicked an Italian or a Germane None of these I say do beasts vnderstaÌ„d or make difference of whereupon it followeth that they neither conceaue griefe nor ioy of those thinges which happen to men Againe they see the Sunne the Moone trees houses cittyes and villages but they know not nor thinke what they are to what end they are directed or from wheÌ„ce how they proceed All their knowledge is restrayned to few things to wit to those things as are pleasing or displeasing to their nature Of these only they iudge and this after a confused and brutish manner conceauing them vnder the shew and title of being profitable or disprofitable conuenyent or inconuenyent for they loue not their maister for any other respect but because by the help of their phantasy they apprehend him vnder the shew of profit in that he giueth them meat or the like In like sort on the contrary part the sheepâ— flyeth the wolfe for no other cause but by reason that by instinct of nature he conceaueth him as his enemy Therfore seing beasts haue a knowledge so imperfect and limited and apprehend nothing but what appertaineth to the coÌ„seruation of their bodyes and lyues nor are delighted or grieue at any thing but in respect as that thing affecteth their body well or
euill it hereupon manifestly followeth that the Soule of beasts doth perish together with their body For if the soule of a beast cannot eleuate it selfe in knowing and apprehending to some thing which is aboue the body and which properly belongeth to a spirituall nature it is euident that that soule is not spirituall nor eleuated aboue its body but altogether immersed and drowned in a corporeall and bodily nature For the substance of any thing is knowne from it operation and the operation from the obiect about which it is conuersant or busied Therefore seeing this Obiect and its ratio formalis or the true natiue reason which is the profit or hurt comming to the body doth only respect the body it must of necessity be granted that the substance of the soule in beasts is tyed and restrayned to the body But this point is farre otherwise in Man THE FIRST REASON PROVING THE Soules Immortality CHAP. II. THE first reason may bee in that the knowledge of the Soule is altogether illimitable For it conceaueth and apprehendeth all kinds of things all degrees of natures neither doth it appreheÌ„d only things which are but also things which are not for if forgeth in the vnderstanding any thing and frameth therein new worlds It also conceaueth the vniuersall reasons of things as they are abstracted from particulars from sensible matter from place and tyme and contemplateth the same as they are in themselues It searcheth into the reasons causes effectes and proprietyes of al things and finally iudgeth of all things Al which considerations are manifest arguments that the Soule of Man is not immersed in the body but that it is a spirituall substance separable from the body since all these actions and operations beare no reference to the benefit or profit of the body but are ornaments only of the mind In like sort the very Obiects of the former operations are not apprehended as they are advantagious to the body or sense to wit of tast feeling but they are apprehended according to their proper reasons as they are true and conformable to vniuersall and eternall principles or reasons in which respect they belong only to the mind or soule and not in any sort to the body THE SECOND REASON Proouing the same CHAP. III. THE second reason may be taken from Mans desire which is in like sort infinite and boundlesse for the soule doth not only desire such things as belong to the body to wit to satisfy their sense of tasting and feeling as beasts do but it stretcheth it selfe forth to euery truth desiring the knowledge and contemplation of euery verity Neither is it enlarged only to ech truth but also to euery thing that is good to the which goodnes the appetite and loue of all things is finally directed For all particular things whatsoeuer do affect and loue after a certaine manner that which is best sorting and agreable to their natures Now man comprehendeth al those things within his loue seeing he desireth not only those things which are profitable to himselfe but wisheth to euery thing whatsoeuer is best fitting to it and as much as in him lyeth procureth the same Therefore he coueteth both to himselfe and al other things besides what is best agreable to them to himselfe he wisheth those things in knowledge or as the Philosophers do speake in esse cognito to all other particular things in esse realâ— that they may really and truly enioy them Here then appeareth how much the power of desiring in man is eleuated aduanced aboue the matter condition of his body THE THIRD REASON CHAP. IIII. THE same point is further confirmed from the delights and pleasures wherewith the Soule soâ—aceth her selfe For she is delighted chiefly with the contemplation of truth and with truth it selfe She is delighted with the pulchritude and beauty of all things and in admyring the art skill which appeareth in euery thing She is delighted with proportions and mathematicall disciplines She is delighted with the workes of Religion Piety Iustice and the exercise of other vertues Finally she is delighted with fame honour glory rule and domination All these are proper goods of the Soule and are so esteemed by man as that in compare hereof he contemneth and vilifyeth al profits pleasures of the body Therefore seeing the capacity and the largenes of the soule of man is so ample and great that it comprehendeth all things and compasseth about as it were all the latitude altitude and profundity of Ens in generall containing it within it selfe seing also the soule hath her proper motions or knowledge her desires loues delights and peculiar ornaments none of all which belongeth to the benefit of the body but all are touching spirituall obiects or at least concerning such things which are estranged from the benefits or pleasures of the body and lastly seeing the Soule esteemeth all these things farre more then any corporall goods It is therefore most perspicuous and euident that the Soule is of a farre higher more worthy disposition then the body of such a diuine nature as that it dependeth not at all of the commerse or entercourse which she hath with the flesh THE FOVRTH REASON CHAP. V. THIS verity is also warranted from the dominion which the Soule hath ouer the body and from the soules enioying of Freewill For the Soule doth so direct gouerne and ouerrule the body in her affections and passions as that neither the expectation of rewards nor the feare of torments can force the body to say or do any thing then what the Soule willeth which point is euident both from many examples as also from the testimony of Iosephus in his small worke or booke bearing this title Quod ratio affectuum sit Domina Now of this matter no other reason can be assigned but because the Soule doth not depend of the body but is sui iuris of its owne freedome liberty and and finall determination wherupon it riseth that the soule so valueth those things which appertaine to the body as if they did not belong vnto her she being contented and fully satisfyed with her owne proper goods and delights but the contrary falleth out in beasts for seing their Soule is altogeather mancipated and enthralled to the body depending of it in regard of her owne essence she is necessarily and as it were violently carryed to such things as are pleasing and beneficiall to the body and flyeth all those things which seeme aduerse and distastfull to it and hence it is that the Soule in beasts hath neyther her passions nor externall motions in her owne power and at her owne command THE FIFTH REASON CHAP. VI. IF the the Soule should haue all her dependance of the body could not consist the body being once extinct then should she haue against nothing a greater horrour and auersion then against Death nor would she prize any thing at so high a rate which willingly she would not loose
for the preuenting of Death for Death of the body depriuing the soule supposing it to be mortal of all good should become her chiefest infelicity and euill and present life her greatest good and happynesse And therefore it followeth that the soule should feare nothing so much as Death and on the other side affect desire and defend nothing so much as present life But now daily experience teacheth the contrary for many do make so small an estimate of life though abounding with all the goods of fortune as that they willingly spend it for prayse fame liberty auoyding of reproach and dishonour and for the exercise of vertue Yea some there are who for the declyning and shuning of disgrace or griefe and affliction of mynd or for the purchasing of a very little reputation sticke not to become their owne parricides murtherers So much more do those things which belong to the soule or mind preponderate ouerballance al that which appertaines to the body THE SIXTH REASON CHAP. VII SO great is the capacity and largnesse of the soule or mind as that no riches no dignities no Kingdomes not the Empire of the whole world no pleasures briefly no finite and limitable good can quench her insatiable thirst and desire but to this end it is needfull that she enioy some one immense infinite and boundlesse good and such as containeth in it selfe by way of eminency or preheminēcy the fulnes of all good whatsoeuer This the Prophet Dauid insinuateth Psalm 16. when he saith Satiabor cum c. I shal be satisfyed and filled when thy glory shall appeare as if he would say no other thing can giue me full contentment except the manifestation of thy glory which is an infinite and illimitable good And to the same end S. Austin saith Fecisti nos c. Thou hast made vs like vnto thee and our hart is vnquyet till it rest in thee Now if the Soule were restrained to the narrownes of the body it should not be capable of an infinite good neither should her desire be extended to any thing but what were conducing and accommodated to a corporall life as it appeareth in other liuing creatures For the Body and the matter doth restraine the appetite desire and capacity of the forme From whence it proceedeth that by how much the forme of any body is more materiall by so much it is more narrow and lesse capable but the more spirituall and more eleuated the forme is the more ample and the more enlarged it is and extendeth it selfe to more things thereby the better to perfect it selfe For bodyes wanting life as stones and metals as also their formes because they are materiall and grosse in the highest degree do desire nothing out of themselues neither do they endeauour any thing to further their perfection but rest in themselnes quiet and dead But Plants because their forme is more pure and perfect do couet after their manner nourishment and do attract it from without as also they change it distributing it through the whole body and conuerting it into their owne substance Besides they send forth flowers fruits and seedes so they continue dayly working to the augmentation conseruation perfection propagation of themselues but because they haue no sense or feeling of their nourishment they therfore receaue neither pleasure nor griefe thereby Liuing Creatures in that their forme is in a higher degree do not only performe all those operations which plants do but with all they haue knowledge and sense of their nourishment yea they mooue themselues to it they seeke it from the vse of it they take pleasure and from the want of it they receaue griefe and molestation Notwithstanding all their knowledge and affection or liking is limited within certaine narrow bounds for it only extendeth it selfe to the profit or hurt of their bodyes so as they apprehend no other thing they couet and fly no other thing they are delighted and grieue at no other thing which is a manifest demonstration that their Soule depends only of their body for their soule therfore perceaues and desires nothing but what conduceth to the rest good of their corporall life because their soule dependeth of the felicity of their body Aboue all other liuing Creatures is man indued with a reasonable soule or mind whose knowledge affection is not limited to things belonging to the body but is altogeather illimitable extending it selfe to euery truth to euery kind of good as is aboue said both which beare no reference or respect to the body And from hence it followeth that the Souls capacity or ability either in knowing desiring or in taking delight is infinite no otherwise then the ability of spirits or celestiall Intelligences which is an vnanswerable argument that the soule of man is not wholly depending of the body and necessarily tyed to the same This point is further thus confirmed Substantiae separatae as they are called that is incorporeall substances do therfore enioy the force of vnderstanding and do extend themselues ad totum ens to euery thing and ad totum verum bonum to euery verity goodnes because they are simple formes eleuated aboue all matter not depending of the same as Philosophy teacheth And hence it is that there is no spirituall substance but euen in that respect it is intelligent and vnderstanding Therfore seing the Soule of man is endued with the faculty of vnderstanding and is in her selfe of that expansion and largnes as that she stretcheth her selfe to the whole latitude of Ens in generall that is to euery truth and euery thing that is good by vnderstanding what is true and affecting and louing what is good no otherwise then spirituall and separated substances do it followeth that the soule doth not depend vpon any matter or bodily substance For where there is effectus adaequatus there is also causa adaquata that is where there is a proper and peculiar effect there also is to be found a proper and peculiar cause from whence the effect riseth But in the Soule of Man the effect is found to wit the force of vnderstanding and the capacity of euery truth and euery good therefore the cause also is to be found that is a spirituall nature independent of matter or of a body THE SEAVENTH REASON CHAP. VIII THere are in the nature of things some liuing formes which are separated from all matter both in their essence and manner of existence with the Philosophers do cal Intelligences or substantias separatas separated substances and Christians tearme them Spirits or Angels There are also some others which both in their Essence and existence are altogether tyed and immersed in the matter wherin they are and such are the Soules of beasts Therfore there oughtto be some other formes betwene the former two which in regard of their Essence may not depend of their body that so they may be like vnto spirits or Angels yet for their
existence that is that they may exist after a conuenient maner they are to haue a body that therin they may agree with the soules of beasts and these are the soules of men This argument is confirmed from analogy and proportion in that this degree of things seemeth to be best fitting least otherwise we should passe from one extreme to another without a meane to wit from a nature absolutly mortal drowned in a body to a nature absolutly immortal and separated from a body therfore betwene these two there is to be a nature partly mortal and partly immortal mortall according to the body and immortal according to the Soule And the very Soule it selfe according to its Essence is to be immortal and to be ranged with spirits though according to the manner of its existence and as informing a mortal body it is to be like the soules of beasts For the vnion of the Soule of man with the body as also the informing and the viuificâ—tion as I may tearme it of the whole body decayeth no lesse then in beasts And thus it falleth out that man containeth in himselfe the powers and faculties of both the extremes I meane of spirits and beasts being for the body and sense like vnto beastes for the soule to spirits or intelligences Vpon which occasion the Platonicks do cal man the Horizon of the whole Vniuerse of things created For seing the vniuerse of things doth consist as it were of two Hemispheres to wit of a spiritual nature and a corporal nature Man partaking of both these extremes doth ioyne the spiritual nature being the higher Hemisphere with the corporal nature the lower Hemisphere For this very same reason also Man is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the lesser world as coÌ„prehending within himselfe al the degrees of the vniuerse no otherwise then the greaer world containeth THE EIGHT REASON CHAP. IX FOR the more accession of reasons in this point it may be alledged that there is a greater association and affinity in nature betwene the Soule of man and spirits or Angels then betwene man and beasts For as spirits or Angels haue their knowledge and desire circumscribed or encompasled with no limits and are delighted with the beauty of truth and vertue in like sort is the soule or mynd of man In so much that in this respect there is no disparity betwene a soule and a spirit though there be a difference in the perfection of the operations proceeding from the vnderstanding and the will in them both Now the sense knowledge and affection or desire of beasts is restrained to their feeding and to venery Furthermore the Soule of man hath society and familiarity with spirits conuerseth with them intreateth help and ayde from them discourseth disputeth and iudgeth of their â—states and wisheth her selfe to be like in dignity to them But no like affinity is discerned betweene man and beasts for beasts can neither apprehend nor desire the state of man neither is there any communication of Counsell or aduise betweene theÌ„ Therefore so farre forth as belongeth to the condition of Mortality and immortality it is not to be wondred if mans Soule doth rather follow the condition and nature of spirits betweene whome there is so great a similitude and resemblance then of beasts from whome the Soule doth so infinitely differ THE NINTH REASON CHAP. X. IF the Soule could not consist without the body then should the soules chiefest felicity be placed in a corporall life pleasures of the body and her greatest misery in the affliction and death of the body vpon the force of which inference the Sect of Epicures and others who did hold the soule to be vtterly extinguished with the body taught the chiefest good to rest in the pleasures of the body This is further made euident from the testimonyes of those who in the second of the booke of VVisdome conclude that during the tyme of this life we are to giue our selues wholly to pleasure holding this to be mans felicity in that nothing remaineth say they after this life as also froÌ„ the like seteÌ„ce of others who in the 22. of Esay say Consedamus bibamus c. Let vs eate drinke for to morrow we shall dye But if this illation were true then were it laudable in a man to indulge and pamper his belly and studiously to affect and seeke after whatsoeuer may conduce to the same end and the warrant hereof should be because it is most laudable for all things and particularly for man to follow its most supreme good or felicity and to enioy it at all tymes But now iust contrary hereto we find that this coporall sensuality of eating and drinking and the like is holden as a thing dishonourable in man and vnworthy his nature as also that those who abandon themselues wholly to their corporall pleasure are ranged among brute beasts for nothing draweth more neere to the nature of beasts then the pleasure of the body consisting in the senses of tast and feeling And therfore as Tully witnesseth in his booke de senectute Architas Tarentinus was accustomed thus to say Nullam capitaliorem pestem quà m corporis voluptatem à natura hominibus esse datam That Nature had not giuen to man a more capitall plague then the pleasure of the body Againe if the chiefe felicity of man did belong to our corporall life then were it lawfull for the auoyding of death and torments at the commanding and forcing of a tyrant to commit periury and blasphemy to worship Idols and finally to reâ—â—â—quish and shake hands with all piety iustice vertue and truth for it is the law of nature and of it selfe ingrafted in al men that nothing is to be preferred before Summum bonum or the chiefest felicity and that is to be imbraced before all other things that on the other side nothing is more to be auoyded then Summum malum the chiefest infelicity From which position or ground it riseth that in euery euent wherin is necessarily endaÌ„gered the losse of our greatest good or of some other lesser good we are taught euen by nature and reason that euery inferiour good whatsoeuer is to be willingly lost for the retaining of the chiefest good and euery lesser euil to be endured for the auoyding of the greatest euil But now what thing can be imagined more absurd in it selfe or more vnworthy a man then that for the preuenting of death any flagitious or heynous wickednes whatsoeuer may and ought to be cnmmitted THE TENTH REASON CHAP. XI A NATVRE which is intelligent and indued with an vnderstanding is the worthiest nature of all others which are in the world this is proued in that such a nature is capable of all natures for it comprehendeth them all it vseth them al and applyeth them to its owne benefit for it taketh profit not only from terrene and earthly things but also froÌ„ celestial things as from the light darkenes day night wynds
showers heates coldes and from the foure Elements themselues Therefore a nature enioying a mind reason and vnderstanding is in this world as in its owne house furnished with al kind of prouision most fitting either for vse benefit or delight Hence it is gathered that it is an absurd opinion to maintayne this nature vtterly to perish and to be mortall since so it should follow that what is most excellēt in this world and what hath sole dominiō ouer other things and to whome all other things are subiect and serucieable should dye and become absolutly extinct an inference is warranted with no shew or colour of reason for if the earth sea and starres al which were created for the vse of this reasonable or intelligent nature do neuer decay but continue eternall and for euer permament thē with what tecture or pretext of reason can it be auerred that this intelligent nature which is the end scope and mistresse of the former should become mortall and passible If the Soule of man which is this intelligent Nature be so worthy in it selfe that those things which neuer shall decay and be ruined were created for its seruice then how can it stand with any probability that it selfe shall perish and resolue to nothing Certainly it is altogether vniust and vnlawful to affirme that nature to be mortall to the which things that are immortall become seruiceable THE ELEVENTH REASON CHAP. XII THE nature of man according to his Soule is infinitly more worthy then all other Creatures for it is of a higher degree then they are and extendeth it selfe to infinite things as appeareth out of the former considerations therefore it followeth that the Summum bonum or chiefe felicity of Mans nature ought to be infinitely more excellent then the summum bonum of beasts In like sort the action of Mās soule by the which it apprehendeth and feeleth its felicity and the pleasure that it taketh from thence ought infinitly to excell the action and pleasure of beasts in the fruition of their felicity For such ought the proportion to be betweene the obiects betweene the operations betweene the pleasures which is betweene the natures and the facultyes by the which the obiects are apprehended and perceaued But now if the Soule of man be extinguished together with the body then nothing is attended on with greater calamity then Mans nature since almost all the kinds of beasts would be more happy then Man For in this life mans nature stands obnoxious and subiect to innumerable afflictions from which beasts are most free For it is incessantly solicited with cares vexed with feares pyneth away through enuy worne out with griefe burned with desires alwayes anxious sorrowing and complaining neuer content with its owne state nor enioying any true tranquility of mind Besides it often endureth pouerty banishments prisons seruitude infamy the yoake of Matrimony bringing vp of children the losse of temporall goodes a repentance of actiōs past a solicitude and care of things to come many labours and paines taking that the poore flesh may be maintained and that it may be defended from the iniuryes of the ayre and weather to conclude it is encompassed with so many suspitions frauds calumnyes diseases languors and sicknesses as that it was worthily said of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Nothing is so grieuous and full of calamity The weight wherof mans nature cānot beare But now beasts are freed and deliuered almost from all these former calamityes liue in great peace quyetnes and liberty for they are not vexed with any cares with any feares of future euill or with any discontents through aduerse fortune Neither are they solicitous of things to come nor repent them of actions past nor dismayed at any imminent dangers They are not moued with ambition or enuy but rest quyet peaceable in the enioying of their owne states Besides nature doth prouide them of all things necessary for their lyues without any labour or toyle on their part Yf we consider the length of their age we find that many liuing creatures liue a longer tyme then Man as Harts Elephants Crowes If the place or Region wherein they liue what may be more desired then to liue in a high and eminent place farre distant from the durt or myre of the earth and to passe through a great part of the ayre by flying in a most short tyme If the habit or cloathing of the body it is farre more commodious to be couered with haire or feathers which are no hinderance to the agility of the body then to be oppressed with the weight of outward vestments fiually if the pleasures of the body be compared it is certaine that beasts do vse them more daily and freely then Man since they are giuen to their feeding by the space of whole dayes more frequently exercise the act of copulation and this without feare or shame from all which it is most clearly gathered that other liuing Creatures are far more happy then man if the Soule of man doth presently dye vpon the dissolutiō of the body from it THE TVVEFTH REASON CHAP. XIII It would not only follow from the former reason that all other liuing Creatures should be more happy then Man but it also would follow that among men themselues those should be more happy who were more wicked and more giuen ouer and addicted to the flesh and to sensuality and those more vnfortunate who contemning the pleasures of the body do imbrace vertue and iustice yea the best and most holy mē should be the most miserable who most estranging themselues from the pleasures of the body do afflict punish their flesh seuerall wayes Whereupon the Apostle in the first to the Corinthians c. 15. Si in hac vita c. If in this life only we haue hope in Christ that is if nothing remayneth after this life wee are of all men the most miserable and the reason hereof must be according to the Apostles mind because we are depriued of the goods pleasure both of this life and of the next and further we do endure daily labours and sharpe persecutions THE XIII REASON CHAP. XIIII VVE see that things are brought to that perfection whereof they are capable for example Plants and all other kinds of liuing Creatures do by little and little increase and are strengthened so farre forth as belong both to their body and to all the facultyes of the vegetatiue or sensitiue soule that so at the length they may come to that height of perfection whereof each kind of them is capable Therfore it must needes be expected that mans Soule should in like sort arriue and ascend to the highest top of its owne perfection for seing these inferiour and most vyle creatures do obtaine the perfection of their owne nature why should not then that which is most pretious and most worthy among them all in the end gaine the same But this the Soule of
man cannot possibly performe except it continueth after this life immortall Now the perfection of Mans Soule consisteth in wisdome vertue with the which her chiefest powers are beautifyed adorned and by meanes of which those powers obtayne their ends chiefe perfection But few there are who in this life giue themselues to the obtaining of wisdome and therefore the greatest part of men make small or no progresse therein and those who spend their tyme in the search or purchasing of it do scarcely get the hundreth part of that abundance of wisdome wherof the mynd of man is capable for though a man should liue a thousand yeares yet might he daily profit and increase therein yet not obtaine it in its highest measure Therfore it is necessary that the Soule of Man doth liue after the death of the body that in the next life seing in this it cannot it may come arryue to its perfectioÌ„ since otherwise in vaine should that capacity and extension of the Soule be giuen her in vaine should that vnquenchbale desire of knowledge be engrafted in her for that capacity and desire is in vayne which cannot be filled and satisfyed Besides it is most absurd to say that Nature which in the smallest most despicable things neuer doth any thing without a due purpose end should in the most noble creature of all worke and labour so much in vaine and to no designed drift or proiect THE XIIII REASON CHAP. XV. IT is certaine that the Soule of man cannot know it selfe in this life except it be very obscurely and confusedly euen as he which seeth a thing farre of through a cloud perceaueth it imperfectly as not being able to discerne the colours or lineaments of it Now this want of the Soules perfect knowledge of it selfe was the cause of so many different opinions of the Philosophers touching its owne substance some of them teaching it to be of a fiery substance others an â—yery and some others that it was a substance taken from the ayre from the soule of the world as their phrase was The Soule then knoweth not either what it selfe is or of what quality whether a simple or pure spirit or consisting of a most thin body whether it hath distinct faculties and powers in it selfe or that it performeth all her operations immediatly by it selfe what is the power and nature of those faculties how they performe their functions how the obiects do meet and associate themselues with their faculties how the organs and instruments of the senses do concurre and cooperate with the animal spirits In these and almost all other things belonging to her selfe the Soule is strangely blind and diuineth and coniectureth of them as it were in a dreame Therfore if the Soule doth perish togeather with the body she neuer knoweth her selfe but remaines ignorant thereof both when she is first ingendred whyle she liueth and after her death But now it is most fitting both in nature and reason that sometimes she might be able to contemplate her selfe to see and perfectly to apprehend her owne beauty nature and ornaments for as nothing more clearly belongeth to the Soule then her owne Nature and such things as are intrinsecall and inward to her so no knowledge is more necessary to her then the knowledge of her selfe and things appertaining to her for she is most neere and deâ—re to her selfe Therefore it must necessarily be granted that she is not extinguished after this life but that after she is once freed of the body and of all corporall obiects which afore she apprehended by helpe of the externall senses and that by meanes thereof she enioyeth her owne simplicity then shall she see her selfe distinctly and clearly and shall daily esteeme those her goods ornaments which in this life she so smally prized For one kind of vnderstanding agrees to her whiles she is tyed to this mortall body another when by meanes of the bodyes death she shal be set at liberty shal nakedly exist by her selfe For while she remaynes in the body she can know nothing perfectly but what is corporall and vnder a corporall shew wherupon it followeth that she cannot see or know her selfe but after she is once diuorced from the body she shall then take the forme and manner of vnderstanding answerable to spirits and then shall discerne spirituall things as now she apprehendeth by her eyes corporall things For the manner of knowing doth euer answere to the manner of existence and agreeth to the state of the thing which knoweth since euery thing worketh according to the manner of its owne nature THE XV. REASON CHAP. XVI THIS corporeall World as also all things contained therein were made for man as is aboue shewed for all things are disposed in that sort as they may best serue to the benefit and profit of man Thus the world seemeth nothing els then a vast house furnished withall things necessary whose inhabitant possessour or Fructuarius is man So that supposing man were not then were there no vse of the world but it should be as a desart seruing only for a denne of wild beasts and for a wood of thornes Therfore seeing all things are first instituted for man it followeth that man is a most excellent thing and created for a far greater and higher end then it can attaine in this life for seing so many different seruices of things and so wonderfull riches are prepared for man for his better and more easy leading of this short and mortall life how can it be thought that no good or happynes expecteth him after his death but that his Soule vtterly decayeth with his body Doubtlesly this is a great argument that he is ordained to enioy after his emigration passing out of this life a most noble honourable and admirable felicity happines This point is further confirmed If the Soule doth perish with the body theÌ„ it followeth that the world and al its admirable furniture was only framed by nature that man for a short season and tyme might liue eate drinke sleepe in gender and then presently for euer decay Thus this should be all the good the end and the â—ruite oâ— so worthy and admirable a worke But it is not likely that to so meane small an end the heauens should be incessantly caryed about with such a daily motion That the Sunne Moone and Starrs should still continue their courses that the change of day and night and the vicissitude or continuall circles of tymes and seasons as spring summer autumne and winter should be ordained Againe that winds should blow the clouds should be gathered togeather the showers should be powred downe that the earth should cause so many kinds of flowers and fruits should containe within its bosome such inestimable treasure that the Sea should bring forth such seuerall sorts of fish the ayre should abound with so great store of byrds Nature her selfe should so painfully labour in the producing
of all things And all this to no other end but that man being a mortall creature should for a small tyme liue in great misery great ignorance prauity of mynd then instantly should returne to nothing If there be no other end nor fruite of so wonderfull a worke as the world is then in vaine is it all therein created and in vayne doth Nature labour in all her actions For what good doth man reape by liuing a short tyme in so many afflictions of mynd and body since this temporall life in it selfe is not good nor to be wished for both in regard that it is mixed with so many calamities as also in that no corporall good or benefit is for it selfe alone to be desired For as the body is made for the soule so the corporall goods are to be referred and finally directed to the good of the Soule Neither is this temporall life to be wished as being a meanes to a greater good because it is presumed by these men who deny the immortality of the Soule that no such future good remaineth after this life Salomon had a feeling vnderstanding of this point who after he had abundantly tasted al the pleasures of this world did burst out into this sentence Vanitas vanitum omnia vanitas And then after Vâ—di cuncta c. I saw all things which are vnder the Sunne and behold all is vanity and affliction of spirit Salomon also in that his booke of Ecclesiastes prosecuteth many other points of this nature but in the end he as it were preacheth to al men that al the goods of this life delights riches honours and pleasures are to be esteemed as of no worth or price to wit as they are considered in themselues alone and as they conduce nothing to the life to come I ad further that this temporall life hath not only in it no true good for the which it should be desired but it is also intricated and intangled with so many euils that it were far better more conuenient for maÌ„ neuer to haue bene then to receaue a soule lyable and subiect vnto death For besides that man is wasted away with infinite cares diseases and miseries he doth litle or no good or rather in lieu thereof he coÌ„mitteth much euill spending his life for the most part in all turpitude and basenes of manners and conuersation Now let the euill which he perpetrateth be ballanced with the good he doth and we shall find that his wickednes by infinite degrees doth preponderate and weigh downe his vertuous actions If so how then can it be truly conceaued that that creature which is the authour of so great euill and worker of so small good and froÌ„ whome no future good can be expected should be accounted as profitable and necessary to the whole vniuerse Yea rather as being a thing most pernicious and destructiue why should he not be instantly exterminated and banished from thence If in a kingdome or CommoÌ„-wealth there be found any ony Family whose endeauours in no sort tend to the common good but only rest in the violating and breaking of the lawes of the said state it is thought necessary that the said family should be vtterly extirpated rooted out as threatning if it should continue no smal danger and ruine to that kingdome or commonwealth why then by the same reason should not all mankind which betrampleth the law of God and nature vnder its feet be exiled from al this most ample large Commonwealth of the whole Vniuerse as a professed enemy to iustice and vertue From these premises we may further conclude that man and the world it selfe were not only made in vayne since from thence proceedeth so small good but also that Nature much erred in bringing forth mankind For as he deserueth euil at that state who bringeth in an improfitable nation contemning the institutions and decrees therof EueÌ„ so should nature be much blamed for her producing of mankind All which things how far dissonant and estraÌ„ged they are from reason who seeth not Therefore for the auoyding of these otherwise ineuitable absurdities we must coÌ„fesse that the Soule of man remayneth after this life immortall and that then she shal be partaker of most high and inestimable rewards or els of insupportable torments according to her different carriage in this world Thou maist heere reply that granting the former reason for good and sufficient it followeth that all wicked men should be now borne in vaine or rather that in reasoÌ„ they ought not be borne since their being in the world conferreth no good or benefit therto but only dishonoureth and wrongeth the same abusing nature her selfe all the guifts of God to their owne improbity and impiety I answere hereto grant that al meÌ„ in the world who before their deaths shal not be conuerted but shall leaue this world in a finall impenitency may in a certaine manner be said to be borne in vaine since they declyne and swarue from that principall end whereunto they were created far better it had bene for theÌ„ neuer to haue bene borne then so to liue and dye Yet from this acknowledgment it followeth not that all Mankind the whole world it self should be created to no purpose First because many men do here liue vertuously and shall hereafter be partaker of infinite remuneration and reward Now these men alone are worthy that the world should be created to their vse and serue them for the better gayning of so great a good according as the Apostle saith Omnia propter electos c. All things are for the elect that they may obtaine saluation And though the number of the reprobate be imcomparably greater then of the Elect yet this is not either so few nor of so small importance as that God should repeÌ„t himselfe of creating the world and mankynd for as he who husbandeth an Orchard planteth in it many trees of a strange kind of which the greater part proue dead and fruitles the rest do bring forth good fruyt and sufficient for the maintaining of his household cannot be iustly said to haue spent his labour in vaine but rather solaceth himselfe at the thought of his owne paines since the excellency of the fruite recompenceth the small number especially seing the store is able to nourish his family The like by way of proportion and analogy may be conceaued and supposed of God who is the workeman of the world and men who are as it were his engrafted plants or seedes Secondly vpon the former confession it followeth not that the world is made in vayne because wicked men are not altogether in this world to no purpose For they serue to sharpen and stir vp the vertue of the iust For while they afflict the vertuous by seueral meanes they minister vnto the other abundant matter of patience and humility giue them plentifull occasioÌ„ of â—â—ore full exercise of their vertues Since by this
meanes the iust do learne to conteÌ„ne all earthly things to follow and seeke after heauenly matters to flie to God to repose al their confidence and hope in him to giue almes deeds and finally to practise all kinds of good works and vertues This is euident euen by daily examples therfore S. Augustine well said vpoÌ„ the Psalme 54. Ne putetis c. Do not thinke that the wicked are in vaine in this world and that God worketh not good from them for euery bad man therefore liueth that he may either repent or that by him the godly and vertuous may be exercised Thus in this sense God is said to vse and apply the wicked to the benefit and health of the vertuous Againe the greatnes of Gods goodnes and mercy touching the wicked in this life mightily shineth since he bestoweth on them so many benefits and gifts and inuiteth them with such a wonderfull longanimity patience that they may be only partakers of heauenly felicity To conclude the seuerity of his diuine iustice appeareth in them after this life by taking a most iust reueÌ„ge of their sinnes and withall from hence we may gather how great the malignity of sinne is which deserueth so dreadfull a castigation and punishment and lastly there is ministred hereby to the Elect a iust occasion of praising and thanking Gods holy name that they are deliuered froÌ„ these punishments Therfore although the wicked do not arriue to the principall end of their creation in which respect they may be said to be borne in vayne yet this cannot be absolutly pronounced so of them because they attaine the second end whereunto they were ordained vnder condition as it were to wit if through their vicious lyues they made themselues vnworthy and incapable of the first and chiefest end Now if the Soule of man should perish with his body none of these conueniences or profits could haue any place but in lieu thereof it would clearly follow as it shewed aboue that both man and the whole world should be created to no auailable purpose or end THE XVI REASON CHAP. XVII THE beauty of the world and of all the things contained with in the vast circumference thereof is made by the authour of the world to the end that it may be seene knowne and esteemed to wit that we behoulding the wonderfull magnificence of such a worke may admire praise and loue the workeman of it So the pulchritude and goodly structure artifice of Churches pallaces pictures other humane workes is framed that it may be looked vpon and worthily prized For if it be not seene by any it is houlden altogether as vnprofitable for to what conduceth fayrenes due proportion in pourtrature remaining only in darkenes For as smels sapours and pleasing sounds are but superfluous and needles if there be no senses of smelling tasting and hearing Euen so al beauty and splendour of things all subtility and perfection of art is but redundant and in vayne if there be no eye either of body or mynd which cansee apprehend and obserue it But if the Soule doth perish froÌ„ the body the beauty of the world and of all things in it remayne vnknowne vnapprehended and buryed as it were in eternall darkenes For in this life we hardly attaine the thousand part of what is to be knowne and this but confusedly and imperfectly like a man of bad sight behoulding pictures a far off For we wholy rest in the externall and outward grayne of things neuer penetrating into the internall and secret essences of the. And yet there I meane in the essence is shut vp all the beauty and truth of things there is the natiue and speciall â—orme there lyes all the artifice and wit of that great mâ—â—d supreme intelligeÌ„ce which with its wisedome hath inuented and framed all things there are coÌ„tained the reasoÌ„s of al things briefly so great is the beauty of things in their essence and so admirable is the excellency of the diuine art therein as that it may be boldly auerred that to behold clearly the nature of a flie or such like small creature as the Aâ—geis do see is more to be desired then to obtaine the empire of the whole world For the Soule and mind would doubtlesly draw more 〈◊〉 pleasure from this intellectuall light and contemplation then from all corporall delights honours whatsoeuer Such will easily belieue what I say who haue at any tyme tasted the pleaâ—sure of truth which lyeth hidden in these small things And the anâ—yent Philosophers do conspire with me herein who were so rapt and as it were drunke with the fairenes of truth and wisedome as that for their better leasure therein they coâ—reÌ„ned all riches and delights of the body Seing then it is imcompatible with reasoÌ„ that the beauty of the world and of all other things and the inward art discouerable therein should be ordayned but in vayne or but to continue euen in darkenes it is not to be questioned but that the soule of man suruiueth the graue and shall after this life attaine to the perfect knowledge of all things For then all hidden truths the countenance of nature her selfe which now is latent shall appeare in light theÌ„ shall the soule admire and praise the artificer of all who hath impressed a peculiar forme in euery body and hath so framed and disposed it through his infinite wisedome Some men may here say that spirituall substances such as we call Angels do perfectly know the structure of the world and of all other things therein Therfore though man neuer haue any full knowledge therof the world was not in vayne made I answere hereto and deny the inference for the structure of the world ought to be knowne of him for whose cause it was made that by such his knowledge he may giue thanks to his Creatour Now it was framed for the vse and benefit of man not of Angels who haue no need of a corporeal world Therefore man is to haue knowledge of it since to man it is made seruiceable and that in a double respect to wit with it profits and fruites conducing to the leading of a corporeall life with it splendour and pulchritude for the exercise of wisdome and contemplation that so from the worke he may know the workeman in knowing him that he may admyre honour and reuerence him and carefully obey keepe his lawes THE XVII REASON CHAP. XVIII THAT sentence opinion which banisheth away all vertue and introduceth all impurity and vice cannot possibly be holden as agreable to truth For Truth and VVisdome do auert men from al turpitude and vncleanes of conuersation and â—â—cite them to the loue of honesty and vertue For the vertue which is in the vnderstanding is the cause of all vertue which is in the affection and will and this from the other proceedeth no otherwise then the beauty of any worke riseth from the art which is in the
sweet and to be desired and on the contrary part an inward and serious reflexion and meditation of the most seuere punishments prepared hereafter for vyce and wickednes causeth the pleasure of it to seeme bitter and loathsome Now what is hertofore spoken of the operations of vertue to wit that it selfe should not be a sufficient remuneration for it selfe is to be vnderstood of those actions of vertue which can be performed in this life For we do not deny but after this life there is an action of vertue which is a reward of it selfe and of all other precedent operations of vertue And this is the cleare vision of God and the loue and ioy flowing from thence for these functions or actions of vertue are chiefly to be desired for theÌ„selues so as no other further commodity is to be expected therein seing in this vision our supreme felicity formalis beatitudo as the Schoolemen speake consisteth Now that these operations make vs happy this riseth not froÌ„ thence that they are the operations or functions of any vertues but in that they conioyne and vnyte the Soule with God who is summum verum suÌ„mum pulchrum summum bonum our chiefest truth chiefest beauty and good Wherefore from hence we may obserue that we do not place in these actions our happines as the Stoicks did in vertue for they reposed their supreme happines in vertue it selfe and in a resolution of the mynd subiect to reason not in the Obiect to the which vertue tyeth our mynd thus they made vertue it selfe to be both the formall obiectiue beatitude that is the subiect from whence this beatitude riseth and the formal cause why in these functions of vertue consisteth maÌ„s beatitude But we place not this our felicity principally in these operations of vertue but in the Obiect to the which these operations do vnyte our soule and mind so as these operations cannot be called our felicity but with reference as they are a certaine perfect vnion and vitall coniunction with our summum bonum or supreme happines Besides the Stoicks taught the operation of vertue to be in our power flowing at our owne pleasure from the freedome of our will wheras we maintayne that blessed function not to be in our owne power but to be a celestiall constant immutable and sempiternall guift diuinely infused But it may be heere obiected that glory and praise is a sufficient incytement to the study of vertue and consequently that there is no need of rewards or paynes after this life And of this opinion Tully may seeme to be who wonderfully magnifyeth this reward in these words following Nulla merces à virtute c. No other reward is to be expected for vertue then this of honour glory Of all the rewards of vertue glory is the most ample and large which comforteth the shortnes of life with the memory of posterity which maketh that being absent we are present and being dead we do liue by which degrees of honour men may be thought to ascend to heauen In like sort in another place he thus wryteth Non vita haâ— c. This is not to be tearmed life which consisteth of the body and the soule or mind but that euen that is truly life which flourisheth in the memory of all ages which posterity nourisheth and which eternity it selfe euer behoâ—deth I answere hereto and say that glory humane praise is no sufficient reward for vertue and this for diuerse reasons First because the desire of glory corrupteth the good perfectioÌ„ of vertue leauing therof only an outward shew and a mere representation for vertue as Aristotle and al Philosophers defyne it is a loue of that which is good or honest only in that respect that it is good Therefore if one do a vertuous worke not through any loue of vertue but through the hope either of profit pleasure or praise it is not the worke of true vertue but only an external pretext thereof for the inward life and as it were the soule of vertue is absent heere for as a liuing creature consisteth of soule body so a perfect worke of vertue is grounded vpon an inward liking of what is good an outward worke And as when the soule leaueth the body there remaineth only a dead Carcas euen so the desire and affection of what is good and vertuous being extinguished nothing is left but only an empty shew or image of vertue So far short then is glory and praise from being a sufficient and efficacious incytemeÌ„t of vertue as that true vertue is euen corrupted and depraued therby no otherwise then certaine hoat poisons do so stir vp awaken the sleeping spirits of a man as that they do vtterly dissolue dissipate and extinguish them Secondly Glory is not sufficient hereto because the scope and End of glory is preuailing only in certaine few externall actions which are performed vpon the open stage of the world for as it is aboue shewed it doth not excite and perswade a man to the inward affection and loue of vertue but only to the outward action this not to euery action but to such as may be most conspicuous and markable in the eyes of many For the humour of glory praise is fully satisfyed if a man seeme externally vertuous honest and valorous though in the secret closet of his soule he is found to be wicked and cowardly Therfore this desire of praise which is but an idle diuerberation or empty sound of ayre rather engendreth Hypocrites then true followers of vertue Thirdly because the reward of vertue ought to be a certaine solid and intrinsecal good which may affect the soule it selfe which is more noble then vertue since the End ought euer to be more excellent then the meanes But humane glory is a thing merely extrinsecall resting only in the perswasion and iudgement of men but bringing no perfection or worth to the mynd For what can the opinion of a coÌ„pany of poore mortall men aduantage me Or what can their speaches and words auaile me Thou maist heere reply from whence then procedeth it that almost all men are ouerruled with the desire of praise and glory For as one saith There is no such humility of mynd which cannot be mollifyed with the sweetnes of glory Which saying is so true as that this affection of Philotimy and loue of honour reputation hath suddenly crept into the mynds of most holy and deuoute men I answere that there are three causes hereof First because there is in all men an innate appetite and desire of excellency which mightily ruleth and swayeth in the mynd for there is nothing more to be desired in that which is good whether it be vertue power or nobility then to excell others in the same good Now honour is the testimony of this excellency glory a knowledge and opinion of the same excellency and praise a diuulging and dilating of the same Whereupon when
condition Now if this order be kept in the lowest and meanest creatures then with much more reason ought it to be obserued in the worthyest thing of the world which is mans Soule which only is capable of Iustice and iniury right and due Certainly it is absurd that all things agreable to their natures should exactly be measured and giuen by the Prouidence of God to myce gnats wormes and the like who are not capable of iustice or wrong yet those things should not be giuen to the soule of man which are due and best sort to it and which the soule it selfe through her good or bad actions deserueth We cannot but thinke that the care of diuine Prodence is about small matters very preposterous if it be wanting in the greatest things For from this then would fall out not much vnlike as if a Prince should carefully prouide of al things necessary for horses mules and dogs and yet should absolutely neglect his owne family without setting downe any recompensations to his most trusty seruants or chastisement to malefactours Thē the which proceeding what can be imagined more exorbitant or lesse agreable with reason For by how much any thing is more worthy and more neere to God by so much it requyreth a greater care of Prouidence that it may attend its end A reasonable nature is the sole family and household of God since this nature only acknowledgeth God and prosecuteth him with honour and reuerence This also alone contemneth and offendeth him and therfore it alone deserueth reward and punishment Now from these premises it is manifestly conuinced that there is no diuine power nor any Prouidence if the soule be extinguished with the body for if it be extinguished then is there no retribution nor any iustice but iniuryes and wrongs remayne vnsatisfyed vertue becomes dishonoured and finally there is found in the worthyest creature of the world the greatest perturbation and inuersion of order that can be imagined All which inferences being granted do euidently prooue the world to be destitute of a Rectour or Gouernour And hence it is that this consideration chiefly hath in al ages perplexed the minds of men and hath impelled them to deny diuine prouidence and to satisfy their owne affections desires And the greatest motiue to withdraw men from this false opinion was to consider good or euill was prepared for man after this life as the Prophet most excellently explicateth in the 72. Psalme Only the mature ponderation of this appeaseth the mynd and causeth it to tread a vertuous resolued course in all aduersities But it may be heere answered that the soules of the wicked are sufficiently punished for all their wrongs iniustice other their transgressions in that they are extinct with the death of their bodyes but against this I say that this perishing and death of the soule if any such were is ordained not as a punishment but as a condition of nature which no lesse the vertuous and iust do vndergoe then the wicked Like as in a Commonwealth if there were no other other punishments to be inflicted vpon delinquents then the naturall death of body which according to the course of measure is to fall to euery one it might be truly said that no paine or chastisement at all were absolutly set downe for malefactours but that all liberty and impunity preuailed therein for punishment ought to be inflicted for the fault as a iust recompensation of the same So as if there be no fault then is there not any place for punishment Now this supposed extinction of the soule aboue vnderstood is not inflicted for any fault seing the vertuous are no lesse subiect to it then the wicked THE XIX REASON CHAP. XX. THE world was created by God to the end that the perfection of his Diuinity might shine and appeare in it as in his most beautifull and admirable worke for this manifestation is the last end of God or of the first agēt in the framing of the world For nothing is more worthy then God who worketh for his owne sake and intendeth lastly his owne good which good is not intrinsecall to God for this kind of good is euer present vnto him neither can it be increased or diminished but only extrinsecall which is nothing els then an open declaration of his perfections in his Creatures and by his creatures in the which his extrinsecall glory consisteth And in this sense the Philosophers are accustomed to say Idem est primus agens vltimus finis One the same thing is the first agent and the last end The reason hereof being because the first agent doth not necessarily intend in the last place his owne good Which point is warranted out of the holy Scripture Omnia propter semetipsum operatus c. The Lord made all things for his owne sake yea euen the wicked for the day of euill God worketh all things not only by a positiue action in doing but also by a negatiue action in suffering and permitting for the word to worke is heere taken in a large signification God worketh propter semetipsum that is for his owne glory that thereby the perfections of his excellency may be manifested and knowne Impium quoque yea euen the wicked c. because he suffereth a man to be wicked and being wicked he ordaineth him to damnation and eternall punishment all this which God doth tendeth to his glory But if the soule be mortall the diuine perfections in God are so farre off from shining in the fabricke disposition of the world as that they may rather seeme to be obscured for it is no signe of the power of the Creatour but rather of his weaknes that he could not make the Soule of man which is the Lord of things immortall seeing that condition is best sorting to the dignity of the soule It is not a point of wisdome to make such things eternall as are seruiceable and as it were slaues to man as the world which is his house and the like and yet to shut or confyne the Lord of all within a narrow conpasse of tyme and that being once ended himselfe for euer to be extinguished and to resolue to nothing It is not the office of goodnesse to bring all other things to that perfection which is agreable to ech of thē and yet so to neglect the Soule of man as that he can neuer attaine vnto the hundreth part of that good of which it is capable It is no Prouidence to leaue the soule to its own appetites and desires without setting of any rewards which may allure it to vertue or punishments which may deterre it from vice to leaue sinne vnpunished and iustice violated to permit in the world so great a disorder and confusion the impious ruling and tyrannizing and the iust and vertuous remaining oppressed and this without any future hope of bettering of things or of reducing them in any more conuenient order What should I
heere speake of Mercy Iustice For what mercy is it that man should liue so short a tyme and lead his corporall life afflicted with so many miseries without any expectation of happines for the time to come Or what pleasure can this life afford which is mixed with such store of worme wood as that to a prudent man it seemeth most bitter except the sweetnes of a future expectancy doth teÌ„per it Or what equity iustice is it that good men should be oppressed afflicted murthered by the wicked without any reuenge or recompensation of so great and insufferable wrongs that there should be no rewards proposed for piety iustice vertue nor punishments for wickednesse and in iustice that the wicked should abound withal the goods of this life as riches honours pleasures and domination or rule the godly pious should liue plunged into all afflictions and calamities Who considering these things will not repute them rather signes of cruelty and iniustice then of mercy and iustice And that the diuine power is a fauourer of the wicked and an enemy to the vertuous if there be not after this life a iust compensation retaliation made to both these kinds of men And hence it is that the Heathens who thought litle of any retribution after this life did often accuse the Gods of cruelty iniustice Of which point many examples are extant in Homer Euripides Athanâ—us and others Yea such a cogitation will enter into the minds of some Christians whiles they do not cast their eye of things to come after this life And certainly if nothing were to chance to the soule after its separation froÌ„ the body it were not an easy matter to vindicate and free God from the aspersion and note of cruelty iniustice as aboue is shewed out of Chrysostome For who would esteeme that King to be iust benigne who should suffer in his Kingdome so great a coÌ„fusion as that no reward should be proposed for vertue nor punishment for most facinorous crimes but that the wicked should perpetrate any mischiefes though neuer so heinous without any feare of law or feeling of any due punishment or castigation But now acknowledging the soules immortality all the former inconueniences do cease and all secret murmuring and complaints against God are silent For this foresaid confusion lasteth only for a small time which being once passed shall heereafter be corrected in an eternall order for to euery one after this life shal be allotted his place state and degree and there shal be a iust retribution for all actions whatsoeuer there no euil shall remaine vnreuenged nor good irremunerated and vnrewarded For as a skilful painter is not ignorant in what place he is to put each particular colour as black white the rest so God knoweth where to range euery one in this whole Vniuerse be he vertuous or wicked And as from that fitting distribution of colours riseth the beauty of the picture euen so from this disposall of Soules the splendour of the Vniuerse proceedeth which Vniuerse is as it were a certaine portrature of Gods diuinity wonderfully exhibiting to vs his power wisdome goodnesse Prouidence mercy and iustice Therefore there is no true reason why the iust should complaine of the Prouidence of God for their suffering of calamities in this life since the pressures and afflictions heere are but short and but small in a generous mind but the the fruite there of most great magnificent eternall It being true which the Apostle saith then whome no man perhaps in this world hath suffered more Momentaneum leue c. Our affliction which is but for a moment worketh in vs a â—arre more excellent and eternall weight of glory Now that ought not to be accounted grieuous which is recompensed with so great inestimable a reward Besides Tribulations are of force to fyle away the rust of the soule and to cause an abstertion and washing away of its dayly spots for no man in this world is so pure but some small blemishes are dayly contracted in his soule which by meanes of affliction are obliterated remooued In like sort there is no cause why the vertuous should stomacke the prosperity of the wicked since this is short momentary and mixed with much bitternes is hereafter to be attended with euerlasting complaint and lamentation There is no man which will enuy a draught of wyne to be giuen to a thiefe or the enioying of solace for some few houres which is already condemned to the wheele and death And the Prophet saith Noli aemulari c. Fret not thy selfe because of the wicked men neyther be enuious for the euill doers c. for they shall wither â—â— the greene hearbe In like sort the wiseman thus teacheth Stuppa collecta c. The CongregatioÌ„ of the wicked is like tow wrapped togeather their end is like a flame of fire to destroy them The haruest will come when all sinners like hurtful hearbs or chaffe shal be gathered togeather and cast into the fire as our Lord himselfe hath taught in that wonderfull parable of his in Matth. cap. 13. THE XX. REASON CHAP. XXI IT is so prouided by nature that who haue committed grieuous sinnes do suffer a secret sting and touch of Conscience with the which they are sometimes so tormented as that they depriue themselues of their owne liues For their conscience doth dayly accuse condemne them pronounce theÌ„ worthy of punishment cause them euer to stand in feare as if some dreadfull euil were hanging ouer their heads From hence it proceedeth that these men that they may the more diuert their myndes from these thoughts and free themselues of all such trouble giue themselues ouer to all sports recreations bankettings and to other externall societyes thus auoyding their inward accuser and torturer for nothing is more displeasing to them then to be solitary and alone and to enter into any secret discourse with their owne soules Now this horrour of mynd pricke of conscience is a presage of a future iudgment and reuenge which expecteth the soules of the wicked after this life Their sinnes offences are as it were seedes of eminent punishments therefore this their trouble of mynd ryseth euen by an instinct of nature from the remembrance of their owne sinnes But now we are not to thinke that the presages and foretellings of nature are but idle and needlesse instincts for if nothing were to be feared after the bodyes death and that no euill were to ensue thereupon then should in vaine this instinct be implanted in mans soule and in vayne should an euil conscience proiect forecast any such dreadfull and dyrefull matters In like sort a conscience priuy to it selfe of its wel doing bringeth great solace to the mynd and therefore Tully saith Magna est vis conscientiae c. The force of conscience both in the good and in the bad is great that they
of prelates and Pastours all doctrine of the ancient Fathers and all manner of liuing among Christians For all these things are bootlesse and of no fruite or benefit as being grounded vpon a false foundation if the Soule be extinguished with the body Finally all those men haue bene extremely deceaued who at any tyme haue bene excellent for sāctity of life guift of prophecy glory of miracles or heauenly wisdome on the contrary part the truth of this poynt hath bene reuealed only to prophane wicked and sesuall Epicures all which things are most repugnant euen to the light of Reason Thus far now to draw towards an end haue we alledged reasons and arguments by the which the Immortality of the soule is established confirmed which if they be seriously weighed do so conuince the iudgement as that they take away al ambiguity and doubt of this point Now to these we will adioyne a testimony or two of a heathen Therefore Seneca in his 102. Epistle thus wryteth Magna generosares est humanus animus c. The Soule of man is a great and generous thing It suffereth it selfe to be limited with no bounds but such as are common with God Seneca here meaneth because the Soule extēdeth it selfe to all place tyme. Now this authour further explicateth this point in these words Primùm humilem non accipit patriam c. First the Soule admitteth not to it selfe any obscure or meane Coūtry whether it be Ephesus or Alexandria or any other one place though more populous better furnished with buildings and edifices but its Country is all that which is contained within the compasse of this vniuerse yea all this conuexity within the which the Ayre which diuideth all celestiall things from humane and earthly is comprehēded within which so many Numina or powers still ready to performe their operations are included Now here the word Numina Seneca vnderstandeth the starres and perhaps also the Intelligences or spirits And thus far of the place or Country of the Soule Next touching the age or tyme of it he thus writeth Deinde arctam aetatem c. Furthermore the Soule suffereth not any small tyme to be allotted to it for it thus saith All yeares are myne No age is excluded from high VVits and each time lyes open to my contemplation When that shall come which shall dissolue this mixture of what is diuine and what humane then will I leaue the body where I did find it and I will restore my selfe to the Gods Neither now am I altogether estranged from them though I be heere detained with a heauy and earthly matter By meanes of these delayes of this mortall age preparation is made for a better and longer life Euen as our mothers wombe containeth vs nine monthes and prepareth vs not for it selfe but for that place whither it sendeth vs that so we may be fit to breath and to liue here in sight So by the helpe of this tyme which indureth from our infancy to old age we are made ripe and ready for another birth Another beginning expecteth vs and another state of things As yet we cannot enioy heauen but as it were a far off therefore behold that appointed day without feare or dismayednes since it is not the last to the Soule but to the body VVhat thing soeuer doth here cōpasse vs all is to be esteemed but as an vnprofitable cariage or burdē in an Inne for we are to depart Nature leauing this world is depriued of all things as well as entring into it It is not lawfull for thee to carry more out of the world then thou didst bring in Yea a great part of that which cōduced to our life is to be left off The skin wherwith thou art couered as with thy next garment shal be taken away the flesh and blood shal be taken away the bones sinews which are the strong things of the weaker parts shal be taken away That day which thou fearest as the last is the birth day of Eternity Cast of thy burden Why delayest thou as if thou hadst not afore come out of that body wherein thou didestlye Thou now pawsest struglest against it and yet euen at the first thou was brought out with the like paines and labour of thy mother Thou cryest and bewaylest and yet to cry is most peculiar to a body newly borne And thē Seneca thus further enlargeth himselfe Quid ista sic diligis c. Why dost thou so loue these terrene and earthly things as if they were thine owne Thou art couered ouerwhelmed with these The day will come which shall reueale or lay thee open which shall free thee from the company of a filthy smelling belly The secrets and misteries of nature shal be once made euidēt vnto thee this darknes shal be dispelled and thou shalt be encompassed on each side with a shining light Imagine how great that fulgour shal be when so many starres do mingle their lights together No shadow shal hinder this brightnes Euery part of heauen shall equally shine The day and night are but alternations and enterchanges of the lowest part of the ayre Then shall thou say that afore thou liuedst in darkenes I meane when thou shalt at once behold all the brightnes and splendour together which thou now darkly seest by the narrow helpe of thy eyes and yet dost admire it being so farre of from thee what shall that diuine light seeme to thee whē thou shalt se it in its owne natiue place This cogitation admitteth no base vile or inhumane thing in the mind But in lieu thereof it saith that the Gods are witnesses of all things it commandeth vs that we seeke to be approued accepted by the Gods and teacheth vs that they prouide and prepare Eternity for vs. Thus farre Seneca of this point in which discourse he hath deliuered many excellent things as concerning the Soule of man First that the Soule is like vnto God since it extendeth it selfe to all places and to Eternity Secondly that when it leaueth the body it is ranged amongst Gods spirits Thirdly that we heere stay vpon the earth as but in the way of our iourney heauen it selfe being our Country And that al things in this world which are externall or independēt of the soule are to be reputed in that degree as burdens or prouisions are which serue only the more conueniently to finish our iourneys Fourthly that as an Infant is prepared in nyne months for to liue in this world so ought we during all the tyme we liue here to learne to dispose our selues for the entertaining of the immortal life of the world to come Fiftly that the last day of our mortall life is the beginning of Eternity Sixtly that the Soule being departed from the body is then clearly to see the misteries of nature and a diuine light and splendour Seauenthly and lastly that Eternity is euer to be set before eyes as that we
may make our selues apt to enioy it that we ought to lead our life in such sort as it may be approued of God who is the beholder of al things The like matter hereto we may find in Plato Plotinus Cicero Epictetus and other heathen wryters But now it next followeth in Methode that we produce such arguments and after dissolue and answere them as may seeme to impugne the former verity of the Soules Immortality THE ARGVMENTS OBIECTED against the Immortality of the Soule and their Solutions or Answeres CAAP. XXIV THE first may be this That Soule all whose operation and function depends vpon a corporal Organ or instrument cannot consist separated from the body But the reasonable Soule of man is such Therefore the reasonable soule cannot consist separated from the body And thus is this first argument contracted I answere and distinguish of the Maior or first Proposition Two wayes then may the operation of the Soule depend of a corporall or bodily organ or instrument First by it selfe immediatly Secondly accidentally and mediatly Yf the operation and working of the Soule depend of the body in the first manner then is it euident that such an operation cannot be performed without the helpe and assistance of the body and consequently that that Soule whose working dependeth after this sort cannot exist separated from the body And such is the soule of beasts And so in this sense the Maior Proposition is true But if the operation of the soule depend of a corporall instrument after the second māner then is the foresaid Proposition false And the reason hereof is because what agreeth to another thing per accidens as the phraze is per aliud that is accidentally casually and in regard only of a third thing may be taken away Therefore seing the function of the vnderstanding which is an essentiall faculty of the reasonable soule doth not depend of the body by it selfe necessarily and immediatly but only accidentally mediatly there is no hinderance but that it may be performed without the body Now that the function or operation of the vnderstanding doth not depend of the body by it selfe and immediatly may be proued by many reasons And first the function of the vnderstanding chiefly consisteth in iudging but to iudge of a thing the phantasy which is a corporeall internall sense or any Idea or image framed therein is not in any sort furthering or cōducing but rather an impedimēt therto as giuing an occasion oftentimes of erring For the vnderstanding ought not to follow the imagination and conceit of the phantasy neither ought it in iudging to be guided thereby but rather it is to correct the phantasy that it selfe may by this meanes arryue vnto the truth Now if the force of the vnderstanding be so great that it is able to correct the errours and mistakings of the phantasy and to attaine vnto the cleare truth of things which transgresseth the nature or working of the phantasy then may we frō hence conclude that the working of the vnderstanding doth not immediatly or in its owne nature depend of the phantasy Secōdly the former point is further proued because we chiefly couet to know things spirituall of which things the phantasy is in no sort capable Thirdly because the knowledge of truth is not reckoned among the goods of the body but of the mind only and therfore is to be desired for the perfection only of the mind Fourthly because deuout and holy men are somtimes eleuated in an Extasis to that spirituall contemplation which cannot be expressed in words and consequently not to be represented by the imaginatiō or phantasy as may be gathered out of the Apostle in his second Epistle to the Corinthians c. 12. But because I stryue to be short therefore I omit heere to iterate diuers things aboue set downe touching the force of vnderstanding and desiring But some here may demaund How thē cometh it to passe that we cannot vnderstand any thing except we forge a certaine image of it in the phantasy And frō whēce procedeth this necessity To which I answere that this procedeth from the present state of the soule to wit because the soule is the forme of the body actually informing and giuing life to it For as during al that tyme that the soule remaineth in the body it after a certaine manner putteth vpon the state and nature of the body and becometh in a sort grosse and dull that thereby it may better accōmodatate it selfe to the body So all things which then it conceaueth it conceaueth apprehēdeth vnder a certaine corporal shew and forme For it is an axiome in Philosophy that the manner of working followeth the manner of existence But when the soule shal be separated from the body and shal be gathered as it were into it selfe and subsist by it selfe then shall it enioy another degree or kind of vnderstanding neither shall it haue any necessity of framing the Idea's images of things in the phantasy no otherwise then the Intelligences haue which wee call Angels To conclude as long as the Soule is in the body it cānot rightly exercise the vnderstanding and reason except it haue the externall senses loose and it liberty as is euident euen from those dreames which we haue in sleepe Now the cause hereof is not that the function of the senses do aduantage the function of the vnderstanding or that this doth depend of that other but because the faculty of the vnderstanding is the supreme and most excellent faculty of the soule Wherupon it riseth that for the perfect exercise of the vnderstanding it is requisite that the soule be altogether free vnbounded that so it may bend bestow all the force and power of its essence vpon such an operation And of this point a signe is that when we vehemently apply our mind to vnderstand and apprehend any thing we scarcely obserue and note such things as do occurre our sense the force of the soule busiyng it selfe in its most supreme and most noble action of all Ad hereto that there is such a connexiō association and sympathy of the powers of the soule in the body as that the soule cannot exercise the highest most worthy of thē if at the same present it doth alienate and estrange it selfe from the lowest Here I meane of the reciprocall affinity of these powers only which belong to knowledge The second argument Yf the soule after it is disuested of the body be immortall then shall it eyther continually remayne separated from the body or els sometime be restored to it But it seemeth that neither of these can be warranted with reason Not the first because it so should continue in a state which is violent and aduerse to nature for seing the soule of man is the lowest meanest of all spirituall substances it requyreth to be in the body as the forme of it therefore it hath a naturall propension to be vnited with
the body therefore to be separated from the body and to exist and continue separatly is coÌ„trary to its naturall inclination and in some sort violent But Violence perpetuity are incompatible Not the later I meane that sometime after its separatioÌ„ the soule is to be restored and reunited with the body because from hence it would follow that the resurrection of the body should be naturall and due to the naturall course of things which point is not to be granted both because it is a high mistery of Christian fayth as also in that all ancient Heathen Philosophers were vtterly ignorant of this doctrine of the resurrection of bodyes I answere first that Origen and the Platonicks vtterly denyed the reasonable soule to be the forme of the body who placed the same in the body not as a forme in its naturall subiect for the commodity and benefit of the subiect but as one that is guilty and detained in prison for a reuenge of its former errours Whereupon they taught that one substance to wit Man was not properly compounded of the soule and the body but they auerred that only the soule was man and the body the prison therfore they said that euery body was to be auoyded But for confutation of this errouâ— it is manifest that it is repugnant to reason For if the soule be with-houlde in the body as in a prison why then doth it so much feare and auoid death Or why is it so grieuous to the soule to be disioyned and separated from the body Why is it not painful to the soule to stay in a body so stored with filth and impurity As we see it is most displeasing to a man of worth accustomed to places of note and regard to be kept in a sordid and obscure dungeon Why doth it so much affect the commodities and pleasures of the body and is so greatly delighted therewith Why at the hurt and losse of the body is it so infinitly afflicted and molested since otherwise it hath iust reasoÌ„ to reioyce at these corporal endomages no otherwise then captiues and imprisoned persons who are glad to see their chaines fall asunder their prison laid leuell with the ground Therefore seing the reasonabie soule is no lesse seÌ„sible of ioy or griefe touching the pleasures or aduersities of the body then the soules of beasts are it is euident that the reasonable soule is the naturall forme of mans body and that it doth affect and couet to be vnited with it Yet because it is not so immersed in the body as that it ought to be extinguished with it but is able through the benefit of its owne subâ—ilty and spirituall substance to subsist by it selfe Hence then it riseth that it predominateth ouer the affections of the body contemning them at its pleasure so as it yealdeth if it selfe will neither to pleasure nor griefe nor death it selfe which priuiledge is not found in irrationable creatures This opinion then being reiected we affirme that the soule is not to continue separated but sometimes to be â—eunited to the body because it was not first ordained to be an entyre and complete substance as an Angell is but to be only a part of a substance to wit the forme and consequently an imperfect and incomplete substance Whereupon it is needfull that we admit the resurrection of bodies And yet we cannot tearme this to be naturall for although the forming of the body and the vnion of the soule with the body be a naturall thing and due to the naturall state perfection of the soule yet this cannot be accomplished by naturall causes but only by diuine power and therefore it is to be called supernaturalis euen as giuing sight to the blynd is so reputed or restoring of decayed and feeble parts of the body and the curing of incurable diseases Neither ought it to seeme strange that the soule of man cannot obtaine for euer its naturall perfection without the power of God and his extraordinary assistance the reason here of being in that it is capable of a double as it were of a contrary nature to wit spirituall and corporall mortall and immortall Therefore the Soule requireth the body once lost to be restored to it but to be restored so firmely strongly as that it is neuer more to be lost is supernaturall since otherwise there ought to be infinite tymes a resurrection of bodyes The Philosophers were ignorant of this resurrection either because they thought the soule not to be the naturall forme of the body but a complete substance or els in that they thought it lesse inconuenyent to teach that the soule remained after death perpetually separated then to introduce bring in as a new doctrine the resurrectioÌ„ of the body For though it be naturall to the soule to be in the body yet in that respect only as it is separated from it it feeleth no griefe but rather it is freed therby from all the inconueniences and discoÌ„modities of this life obtaineth a more high and more worthy degree and becomes more neere to diuine celestial substances Wherefore I do not thinke that the soule being separated doth of it selfe much couet to be reunited with the body though by the force and weight of nature it hath a propension therto And the reason her of is because those goods and priuiledges it possesseth as it is separated are more to be esteemed then those are which it enioyeth in the body Neither is it true that this separation is violent to the soule for although the want of this vnion be in some sort violent to it to wit by way of negation as it is a priuation of that to which the very essence of the soule doth efficaciously propend and inclyne yet that liberty which it then enioyeth and that vigour of the Soule maÌ„ner of vnderstanding is not in any sort violent but most agreable to its nature as it is in state of separation The third Argument The structure of the body may seeme to intimate imply the mortality of the soule for it is almost wholy framed for the temporal vses of this mortall life to wit that the body may be maintained and preserued and nature propagated and continued Thus the teeth and stomacke are ordained to chew and concoct meate the intestines and bowels to auoyd the superfluous and excrementall matter the liuer to confect bloud the gall to receaue the sharper more bitter parts of the nutriment the splen or milt to containe the more grosse bloud the reynes to part and diuyde the serasus wheish matter of the nourishment from the bloud the bladder to receaue and send out this wheish matter the instruments of the sexe to procreatioÌ„ But after this life there shal be no need either of the vse of meates or of procreation therfore there ought not to be these members which are ordayned to those ends and consequently there ought not to be the soule which
requireth such members and a body so framed and compacted For those members are to be accounted in vayne superfluous of which there neuer shal be any vse I answere This argument directly immediatly oppugneth the resurrection secundarily and by way of coÌ„sequence the immortality of the soule For the composition and structure of mans body prooueth that in it selfe and by its owne nature it is mortall but it doth not prooue the soule to be in like sort mortall But although the body be disolued and do perish yet it is a facill easy matter for God to frame it againe in its due tyme to reinfuse the soule into it and so to cause that the body shall neuer after be dissolued for as Plato in his Timaeo teacheth Quod natura sua solubile est c. VVhat in its owne nature stands subiect to dissolution and obnoxious vnto death the same by the commandement and will of God may be made immortall so as it shall neuer dye Certainly those functions of the members which belong to nourishment of the body and to generation shall cease notwithstanding it followeth not that those members shal be superfluous because they shall serue to the naturall constitution of the body as parts necessary to its perfection and beauty for this is their chiefe and principall vse to wit to conduce to the making of a perfect and complete body and such as is fitting to the condition state of the soule Now these functions are only a secondary end because they are ordained only for the tyme and serue only to repayre the ruines of mortall body the naturall heat feeding vpon and consuming the substance of the flesh whereupon it followeth that as the augmentation or increase of the bodyes greatnesse ceaseth when it once hath attained its iust stature Euen so shall nutrition or nourishment of the body cease and the functions belonging thereto when the body by a diuine hand and power shall become immortall For seeing these functions are oâ— the lowest degree as agreeing to the soule according to its meanest faculty and parte wherein it participateth with plants and is heerein attended with much drosse filth rottennes it was not conuenient that they should be perpetuall but that in due tyme they should be taken away God reducing the body into a better forme Notwithstanding the function of the senses because they are made after a spirituall manner without corruption they shal be perpetuall In like sort the function of the voyce and speach shal be perpetuall to the which those members shall after their manner either neerely or remotely be seruiceable and therefore in this respect also they shall not be in vaine superfluous The fourth argument may be taken froÌ„ those words which Pliny in his seauenth booke of his history c. 55. setteth downe though they be of small force and validity First then he to this purpose saith Omnibus a suprema die c. The same happeneth to all things after thâ—ir last day which was at their beginning Neither after death is there more sense to the body or soule then there was before its birth I answere and say that that is heere assumed which is first to be prooued and therefore it is denyed with the same facility wherwith it was affirmed And that this saying of his is false it is prooued from the whole schoole of the Platonicks and the Pithagoreans For there is no necessity why that which once begun should sometimes cease especialle if it be a simple and vncompounded substance as the soule and euery spirituall nature is But indeed it is otherwise of corporall things consisting of the Elements of whome only that sentence is verifyed Omne genitum potest corrumpi Euery thing that is made may be corrupted Certainly materia prima because it is simple and vncompounded though it had a beginning yet can it not be corrupted The same also according to the doctrine of the Platonicks is to be said of the celestiall Orbs. Therefore although there was no sense of the soule before its creatioÌ„ yet followeth it not that therefore after death it shall haue no sense And the reason hereof is because though the birth as it were of the soule be ioined with the birth of the body and thereupon the soule did exist before the birth of the body notwithstanding the destruction of the soule doth not follow the destruction of the body for death is not a destruction or extinguishmeÌ„t of them both but only a separation of the body from the soule In the next place Pliny demandeth Cur corpus c. why the body followeth and coueteth the soule I answere that no body followeth the soule departing from hence because the soule as being a naked and simple substance can consist without the body Then saith he Vbi cogitatio illi From whence hath the soule separated its cogitation or discourse The soule being in state of separation hath no need of a braine or a body that it may thinke imagine and discourse euen as we grant that God spirituall substances haue not those Organs because the force of vnderstanding by how much it is more remote distant from the body by so much it is more excellent Next asketh Pliny Quomodo visus auditus From whence hath the soule separated seeing and hearing Whereto it is replyed that the soule needeth not the function and operation of the outward senses seing that it perceaueth all things in its mynd For the the mynd then doth not only serue to cogitate or thinke or to know things abstractiuely but also to behold and apprehend all things which in this life we apprehend with our externall senses euen as Pliny himselfe speaketh of God Quisquis est Deus c. VVhosoeuer God is he is all sense all sight all hearing all soule all vnderstanding all himselfe In like sort we say of the soule being separated that it is all sense all sight all hearing all vnderstanding all vigour and life Againe he questioneth Quid agit qui vsus eius What doth the soule separated Or what vse is there of it Of whom by retortioÌ„ I demand what do other spirits and incorporeall substances As if it were nothing to contemplate praise and loue God and to enioy the fellowship of celestiall spirits Certainly the cecity and blindnesse of this man is wonderfull who may be thought not to haue acknowledged the being of any spirits Therefore how much more wisely deliberatly did the Platonicks and the Peripateticks teach who placed maÌ„s chiefe felicity in conteÌ„plating of the first beginning and cause of all things Pliny proceedeth yet further Quid sine sensibus bonum VVhat can be good which is not to be apprehended by the senses I say to acknowledge no good of the soule without the senses is incident to swyne and beasts not to Philosophers next Quae deinde sedes VVhat seate or mansion for the soules seperated The answere is expedite and ready
dissolued with fyer ought to be corporeall and more grosse and corpulent then the fyre it selfe or that into the which it is dissolued It may be further added hereto that the foundation of the Stoicks wherupoÌ„ they grounded theÌ„selues that soules were to suffer no euill after this life notwithstading their great sinnes and enormities here committed was because they were perswaded that our soules were certaine particles or relicks of a diuinity And this diuinity they did hold to be anima mundi the soule of the world from which soule they further taught as being the common and vniuersal soule of al things that the particular soules of liuing Creatures chiefly the soules of men were decerpted takeÌ„ the which being after freed of their corporeall bonds and chaynes were to returne to that principle from whence they are deryued meaning to that vniuersall soule of the world with the which they finally close themselues All which assertioÌ„s are in their owne nature so absurd as that they need not any painfull refutatioÌ„ For if the soules be parcels of God how can they be dissolued with fyre Or finally how caÌ„ they be depraued with so many facinorous crymes and impieties Yea it would from hence follow that Diuinity it selfe should consist as bodyes do of parts and should be obnoxious to all euils and inconueniences whatsoeuer Therefore this vayne imaginatioÌ„ of the Stoicks is to be reiected which heretofore hath bene well refelled by Tully Origen did indeed confesse that soules were immortall and that they were neuer to lose their owne proper kind and nature notwithstanding he taught that the punishments of them were not sempiternall but were to take an end after certaine ages The same he in like sort affirmed of the paynes torments of the Diuels But this errour of Origen which he borrowed of the Platonicks was further accoÌ„panied with many other errours 1. First that all Soules Diuels Angels were of the same nature and consequently that soules were as free from all corporall commere as Angels were 2. That Soules before they were adioyned to the body did sinne and for guilt of such their sinnes were tyed to bodyes and inclosed in them as in prisons 3. That soules were coupled with bodyes in a certayne prescribed order As first with more subtill bodyes then if they continued sinning with grosser bodyes lastly with terrene and earthly bodyes further Origen taught that these seueral degrees of these soules desceÌ„ding into bodyes were represented by the ladder which appeared to Iacob in his sleepe Genesis 24. 4. That all soules as also the Diuels should after certaine ages be set at liberty and restored to an Angelicall light spleÌ„dour to wit when they had fully expiated their sinnes with condigne punishmeÌ„ts 5. That this vicissitude and enterchaÌ„ge of felicity misery should be sempiternal for euer in reasonable creatures so as the same soules should infinite tymes be both blessed and miserable for after they had continued in heauen for many ages blessed and happy then as being againe satiated and cloyed with the fruition of diuyne things they should contaminate defyle themselues with sinne for the which they were againe to be detruded into bodyes in the which if they liued wickedly they were to be cast into the paines of hel which being for a tyme suffered they were to be restored vnto Heauen This condition state Origen imposed vpon euery reasonable creature by what name soeuer it was called whether Angels Principalities Powers Dominations Diuels or Soules See of this poynt S. Ierome in his Epistle ad PaÌ„machâ—um against the Errours of Iohn of IerusaleÌ„ and Augustin l. de hâ—resibus c. 43. But Origen extremely doteth in these things 1. As first in affirming that all spirituall substances are of one nature and condition 2. That Soules are not the formes of their bodyes but separated substaÌ„ces which are inclosed in the bodyes as in certaine prisons 3. That all soules were created from the beginning of the world 4. That blessed spirits could haue a fastidious cloyed conceit of diuine contemplation and that they could sinne 5. That for such their sinnes they were sent into bodyes there for the tyme to be detayned as in prisons 6. That the torments of the Diuels of all soules are once to be expired and ended 7. That all the damned are at length to be saued 8. Finally that this Circle by the which the Soule goeth from saluation to sinne from sinne into the body from the body to damnation from damnation to saluation is perpetuall and continueth for euer Al which dreames of Origen might be refuted by many conuincing and irrefragable reasons but this is impertinent to our purpose would be ouer tedious to perform Only it shall suffice at this present to demonstrate out of holy Scripture that the paines of the wicked and damned are to be most grieuous neuer to receaue a cessation and end Of the Punishments of the life to come out of the holy Scripture CHAP. XXV ALTHOVGH it be most sorting to naturall reason that Gods diuine Prouidence should allot after this life to euery one a iust retribution according to the different comportment of each man in this world Notwithstanding what this reward shal be whether it be conferred vpon the good or the bad and of what continuance neither can mans reason nor the disquisitioÌ„ and search of the best Philosophers giue any satisfying answere hereto The cause of which inexplicable difficulty is partly in that it dependeth of the meere free decree of God and partly because the nature of sinne and consequently the puuishment due to it is not made sufficiently euident and perspicuous by naturall reason Therefore to the end we may haue some infallible certainty herein we are to recurre to the diuine Oracles of Gods written word in the which we are able to see what the holy Ghost by his Prophets other pious men haue pronounced of this point and especially of the paines of the wicked whereof we now intreate 1. The first testimony then may be taken out of Deuteronomy c. 23. in that most admirable and propheticall Canticle or song of Moyses Ignis succensus est c. Fire is kindled in my wrath and shall burne vnto the bottome of hell and shall consume the earth with her encrease and set on fire the foundation of the mountaines In which words fiue things are to be considered First that the fire with the which sinners shal be punished is already kindled both because the fire of hell is prepared from the beginning as our Lord insinuateth in Matth. 25. and the like is in Esay 30. as also in that though that fire with the which the world shal be consumed be not already enkindled yet it now existeth in Gods most certaine prescience and preordinance For what is certaine to come by the force of Gods decree is said after a propheticall manner now to exist or to be
fayrenesse which is in the seuerall kynds of soules which comprehends in it selfe the reason and cause of the bodyes beauty and which is much more admirable then it ought to be refered to the same celestiall power Furthermore I would here demaÌ„d how it can possibly happen that any cause not capable of reason wisedome and vnderstanding could forme and make in the beginning so many diuersities of vegetatiue and sensitiue soules seing euery one of theÌ„ is so aâ—mirable and is the Effect or worke of so great a wisedome as that no humane wit is able to penetrate into the seuerall misteries of it or beget in his mynd the true and proper conceit or image thereof To conclude All the pulchritude and perfection of an Effect ought to be contained in the cause for the cause cannot giue that to the Effect which it selfe enioyeth not wherupon it followeth that all the perfection of liuing creatures and all the vigour and naturall working of the senses ought to be comprehended within that cause by the which they were first framed and this not after the same manner as they are in the creatures but after a more excellent eminent sort to wit as the worke is contained in the mynd or art of the workeman This poynt is further confirmed in that there is no cause excepting a mynd or intelligence in the which so great a diuersity of things can rest but in a mynd or intelligence it may well reside euen as the forme of a house and all the measures and proportions of it are said to be in the phantasy or vnderstanding of the artificer Ad heereto for the greater accesse increase of reason herein that himselfe who framed the soule of man endewing it with reason vnderstanding and frewill cannot possibly want reason vnderstanding and frewill but must haue them in more perfect and excellent manner For how can he want reason vnderstanding and will who first made and gaue reason vnderstaÌ„ding and will The Prophet therfore truly said Qui plantauit aurem c. He which planted the eare shall he not heare Or he that formed the eye shall he not see especially seing these are such perfections as the hauing of them is not any impediment to the fruition and enioying of greater perfections since it is far better to be indued with vnderstanding and frewill then to want theÌ„ or to haue any thing which may be repugnant to them from all these considerations then it is most euident that there is a certaine supreme Intelligence or Spirit which is the inuentour authour and architect of all these visible and inuisible beautyes in which spirit as in its cause al pulchritude splendour doth eminently exist this spirit we call God who be eternally blessed praysed and adored THE FIFTH REASON DRAVVNE FROM the structure and disposition of the parts of the world with reference to their ends CHAP. VII EVEN as not any of these things which are subiect to our sight taketh its being from it selfe but from some efficient cause so nothing is made for it selfe but with respect to some extrinsecal end to the which end the whole structure of the thing as also al its parts and faculties of its parts are after a wonderfull manner disposed and framed Therefore of necessity there must be some one most wise mynd or spirit which aforehand conceaued in it selfe all those ends and ordayned proportionable and fitting meanes to the said ends For Nature which is not capable of reason nor endued therwith as it cannot conceaue or comprehend the ends of things so neither caÌ„ it dispose or set downe sutable meanes to the said ends since this is a chiefe worke of art and wisedome we will make this manifest first in heauenly bodyes The Sunne excelling in fayrenesse all visible things is not for it selfe for it can not apprehend or reflect vpon its owne beauty but for the good benefit of other things to wit that it may enlighten the world and cherish al things with its heat not much vnlike as the hart is in man and other liuing creatures which is not for it selfe but for the good of the whole body for as the heart is in the body endued with life so the Sunne is in the whole body of the world which wanteth life This then being thus the Sunne ought to haue a certaine proportionable measure of light and quantity as also a determinate place in the world least that the light being ouer radiant shyning and great or it self in place ouer neere it should burne the earth or on the contrary side the light being too remisse smal or too far of from the earth should not sufficiently lighten it or heat it Now this disposition of a fitting quantity light and place cannot be assigned by any but only by such a mynd or spirit as is able to consider the end and the meanes and of iudgment to set downe a sorting and conuenient proportion betweene them But if the Sunne be made not for it selfe but for some external end then much more the same may be verifyed of the rest of the starres of the heauenly Orbes and of all other corporeal natural bodyes This poynt may be further fortifyed by this ensuing reason That which is for its owne selfe ought to be of that excellency and perfection as nothing can be more excellent for the good whereof this other may be ordained This is euident euen in reason since otherwise it should not be for it self but for that for the benefit wherof it is disposed Furthermore it ought to be of such a nature as that it may conceaue enioy its owne goodnes for if it hath no sense feeling hereof it is nothing aduantaged by such its excellency For what can the domination and gouerment of the whole earth profit a maÌ„ if he neither can take any pleasure therby nor knoweth that he hath such a principality or rule belonging vnto him Therefore it is an euident signe that what caÌ„ not perceaue its owne good is not made for it selfe but for some other thing to the which it becomes profitable But to apply this now no corporeall nature is so excellent but it may be ordained to some other thing more excellent more worthy for the degree of a reasonable nature transceÌ„ds and exceeds much in worth the degree of a corporeall Nature and this to the former for many vses becomes seruiceable Againe a corporeal nature cannot haue any feeling of its owne good but resteth only in being profitable and expedient for some other thing Therefore it followeth that not corporeall or bodily nature is made for it selfe but euen of its essence being is ordained to some other thing to wit to a reasonable nature for whose behoofe and good it existeth From which it may be gathered that if there were no reasonable nature then all the corporeall nature should exist as in vayne bootles as not being able to bring