imago Dei forma servi My Soul is athirst after Christ my Saviour O when shall I come and appear before him Grant holy Jesu I may so behold thee though veiled here that when this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved when it shall turn to the Lord and be clothed upon with our horse of immortality and glory which is from heaven the veil which to this day is upon my heart may be taken away and I may with open face behold the glory of my Lord being changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Amen Christ in the blessed Eucharist is the object of our Ears speaking unto our hearts both in secret whisperings and in shriller notes and holds a familiar conference with us he is an audible Voice and a speaking Word the sound whereof is gone to the ends of the world that Word which in the beginning was with God and was God but was made Flesh and dwelt among us God made Man the Son of God the Son of Man unicus patris filius hominis verbum quippe caro factum this Word incarnate is that Bread of God which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the World This Word is not onely audible to the Ear but penetrable to the Heart piercing like a two-edged sword to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the marrow and the joynts Those reverend thoughts and meditations we have of Christ especially in this Sacrament are nothing else but so many words of his spoken to our Soules though all our cogitations are not Christs locutions nor all his communications our meditations cum enim mala in corde versamus nostra cogitatio est si bona Dei sermo est illa cor nostrum dicit haec audit our good thoughts are Christs words our evill thoughts are our own words The fool hath sayd in his heart there is no God there 's our own words The Lord speaketh peace unto his people those are Christ's one is spoke from the heart the other is to the heart Our own words again are twofold or have two wayes of proceeding one from Natures corruption another from Satans suggestion but of all these bitter fruits and sinfull effects proceeding from within us it is a hard matter to assign a proper cause and author to demonstrate which are the works of the Devill and which be the fruites of the Flesh we are not able so exactly to distinguish inter morbum mentis morsum serpentis inter malum innatum malum seminatum inter partum cordis seminarium hostis only we may know they both are evill and proceed from evill both in the heart though not both from the heart this I know most assuredly though which to ascribe to my heart which to Satan I know not But for my good thoughts since all our sufficiency is from God I doe undoubtedly believe they are the very words of that very Word verba verbi Dei written in my heart by the finger of his blessed Spirit This is that Word which is not sonans onely but penetrans non loquax sed efficax non obstrepens auribus sed blandiens affectibus Happy art thou O my Soul if when thy God calleth thou answerest with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth or with holy David repliest I will hear what the Lord my God will say unto me Christ is the object of our Sense of Olfaction sâ—nding forth most sweet perfumes he is sweet in his Name Christ Jesus Christ i. e. Annâ—inted so much the name imports Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth he is sweet in his name Iesus a Saviour there is no other name given under heaven whereby we shall be saved neither is there any malady of Mind any disease of the Soul which this precious balm and ointment cannot cure Erit tibi sapor odor in medicinam salubrem morbos si qui fuerint repellentem venturosque caventem He is sweet and pleasant to God the Fath r he is his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased and the smell of his Son is like the smell of a field whom the Lord hath blessed he is that Lamb slain from the foundaâ—ions of the world whose bâ—dy and blood being offered as an Holocaust unto God the Father smelleth a sweet smelling sacrifise unto him and from whom issueth unto his Spouse the Church to every particular Member and to every worthy Communicant partaking of his Body and Blood such streams of precious ointment and oyl of the Holy Ghost runing down not onely to the beard of Aaron that is as St Bernard expounds it to the Apostles and Ministers of Christ but unto the very skirts of his clothing that is to the meanest of his Members in infima membra Ecclesiae quae est tanquam Christi vestimentum that even these vile bodies and soules being offered an oblation smell also a sweet-smelling sacrifise to God through Christ holy and acceptable we are anointed with oyl of gladness but Christ with holy oyl and oyl of gladness above all his fellows It falls first upon Christ the Head so runs down to his beard so descends to the skirts of his garments the meanest member in hi Church the smell of Christs garment is like the smel of Lebanon but the smel of his ointments super omnia aromata is better than all spices Christ is the object of our Spiritual Tast and that food of Saints and Angels in Heaven of which it hath pleased God to give a tast to his Saints on earth feeding them with the bread of Heaven the food of life which comes from Heaven that Heavenly Manna and food of Angels the Prophet speaks of more pleasant and sweet to the tast than honney or the honney-comb But that we might eat Angels food Christ was Incarnate the Word was made Flesh so all are partakers of Christ the Saints on Earth as well as Saints and Angels in Heaven onely with this difference Comedunt Angeli verbum de Deo natum comedunt homines verbum faenum factum pane suo vivunt Angeli in caelis beati sunt faeno suo vivunt homines in terris sancti sunt Yet doth not every man tast of the food that partakes of the outward Elements the Natural man hath no sense or tast no fruit and benefit of this Sacrament because it is spiritually discerned it is food eternal not temporal spiritual not corporal for supernatural nourishment unto Eternal life not for physical and natural which accomplisheth its ends in this life pereat hic physicale nutrimentum cibis iste non ventris sed mentis we feed on him in our heart by Faith and Thanksgiving My Body is nourished with the outward Elements of Bread and Wine my Soul is 2nourished with the inward Graces the Body and Blood of Christ not with the Bread of Affliction the corn arising from the earth but
of Grace O my soul thou art called a state of righteousness and justification by Faith which is the gift of God and say not thou with thy self that this gift of God doth not extend to thee for none are excluded that will lay hold on and receive this gift really tendred to all for as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life The righteousness that comes by Christ doth recompence the loss by Adams transgression and the advantage that comes by Christ is much every way for not as the offence so is the gift for judgement is indeed by one offence unto condemnation but the gift is of many offences unto justification Secondly By this O my soul thou art loosened from thy fetters released from imprisonment grave and hell by this thou art renewed in that image of God wherein thou wast created and restored to thy antient right of rule and dominion by this thou comest again to the true definition of a Soul viz. The very perfection and act of a Natural Organical nay more of a Supernatural Organical Body and the beginning of llfe not a Natural onely but Supernatural not Temporal but Eternal also CHAP. IV. Of the Vnity of the Soul Chap. 4. Book 1. THere be three distinct Effects and Operations of the Soul from which we have drawn our Definition above-mentioned viz. Life Sence and Understanding and these have their distinct Powers or Faculties viz. the Vegetative the Sensitive and Intellectual the Vegetative Faculty hath the proper effects of the Vegetative Soul to produce Life the Sensitive hath the property of producing Sense and the Intellectual Faculty the property of the Rational Soul of begetting Understanding of these we purpose to treat distinctly and apart in the next ensuing Chapters by the way we shall say something of the Soul's Unity to prevent some mistakes and errors which have arisen and still may be touching the Soul in its Essence and Powers for when we see and learn these distinct Faculties and operations of the Soul we are easily drawn to conceit there are also three distinct Soules in Man this was the Error of no mean Philosophers Plato of old Averroes Gandavensis Zabarel and others of later daies and accordingly they held that these Souls had their peculiar and distinct places of residence and abode in Man the Vegetative they placed in the Liver the Sensitive in the Heart and the Rational Soul in the Brain but this doth Aristotle every where confute so do the generality of Philosophers after him Scotus Pacius Faber Faventinus and others For man is certainly One and how comes a Trinity of soules in the Unity of a person What is it that unites man and makes him one it must be his soul or his body but not his body that 's clear for first the body is united and preserved by the soul not the soul by the body wherefore we see by experience that when the soul is departed out of the body the body continues not long after but turns to putrifaction Again man is said to be one not in respect of his body but his soul the body which is materia is nothing but in power 't is the Form which actuates and perfects the Form gives being and since ens bonum convertuntur Forma ut dat esse sic etiam dat unitatem Sennertus that which gives Being gives Unity the soul of man gives him his being dat hoc esse the soul of man gives him to be one now if there were three Forms three distinct souls in man every distinct Form must give him a distinct being so man would not be one but three a Monster a tergeminus Gerion an opinion exploded as well in Divinity as Philosophy See Tertullian in lib. de anima But man is but One therefore but one soul in man though distinct in its powers and faculties there is a Trinity of faculties in the Unity of a Reasonable soul the Vegetative is a faculty of the Vegetative soul the Sensitive of the Sensitive and the Intellectual of the Rational soul yet is there not three souls in man but one soul One Individual soul onely in man according to Aristotle which notwithstanding hath dividual and distinct powers and faculties one simple essence which is the Form of man distinguisht into three faculties of Vegetative Sensitive and Intellectual one in respect of its essence three in respect of its faculties Neither are these faculties one before or after another in time but all are Cotemporarie there is no Priority or Posterity in time onely in order amongst them Object Averroes and Zabarel who maintain three souls in man are against this position and quote the words of Aristotle in his Book de gener animal cap. 3. which are these Man first lives the life of Plants then the life of Beasts and afterwards the life of a Man from whence they would infer that one faculty is in time before another and one succeeds another therefore there are so many several and succeeding souls Ans But to this it may be answered That because the soul hath need of Organs and Instruments of the body to work withall and that these Instruments are too weak and litle fit to exercise the noblest Operations of the soul in the first times therefore doth the soul exercise the Operations of Vegetation first because those Organs are first fitted and prepared and afterwards the Operations of Sense and Reason and in this sense is Aristotle to be understood where he saith A man first lives the life of Plants then the life of a Beast and afterwards the life of a Man to wit in the Operations of the soul which are in time one before another the Operations of the Vegetative soul are first then of the Sensitive and lastly of the Rational and that will be granted by reason of the defect and inability in the other Organs which are not so soon fitted for the other faculties to operate yet the faculties of the soul are in one instant of time without any Priority one of another in time and so they continue after the dissolution of the soul and body though the Operations of some of the faculties are perished because the body whose Organs they require are perished the faculties of the soul as well the Sensitive as Intellectual remain and abide with the soul after the death of man although the Intellectual then is onely operative as hath been elsewhere said and as we cannot say and say truly that the Sensitive faculty is perished with the body and the Intellectual only survives and abides with the soul because it only operates no more truly can we affirm that the Vegetative faculty in the first Generation is first in time because it first operates therefore saith Philosophy There is no Priority or Posteriority in the faculties of the soul there are none
the dayes of their Pilgrimage upon Earth the flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh she who was earst Rebellious is now Obse quious to the Dictates of the Soul now is she wholly subject to the will of her Lord yielding obeysance and obedience with admirable Agility and Celerity of motion now not the least Ponderosity of a Massie substance or Natural body to foreslow her motion appears any more but the Perpensility of a Caelestial and Spiritual body mounted as it were on the wings and Plumes of a Cherub to expedite the Souls Injunctions such Homage and obedience the Body paies unto its Soul that as St Augustine saith ubi volet spiritus ibi protinus erit corpus nec volet aliquid spiritus quod nec spiritum nec corpus possit decere 1. Hereupon is the body enfranchised of sundry Praerogatives and Immunities which are altogether inconsistent with it in its Natural condition whilst it was Elementary its Natural motion tended downward according to the Nature of the Predominant Element the ascendent motion of a Physical body is Excentrique and Irregular which motion is Concentrique and Consonant to a body glorified solo voluntatis impetu c. at the beck and command of the glorious Soul is the body mounted from Earth to Heaven whose Nature it is to be wholly subject to that glorified Spirit from whose Redundancie the body likewise receives its Glorification 2. The Humane body in the state of Nature in a slow Progress marcheth forward step by step and that not without some Earth or other solid body to tread or go on whereupon the Earth is made a cause of our walking Causa fine qua non but in the state of Glory most swiftly and as it were in an instant it moves from place to place from one part of Heaven to another absque adminiculo without the benefit of Earth or other Element to impress the least Vestigias or footsteps of his treadings 3. In the terrene estate the body is Opaque and Luskie Dark and Purblind Beautified onely by the Additaments of External colour but the Spiritual body is Diaphanous transparent transplendent not like those lesser lights which onely appear in the night but like the Sun at noon day in the Firmament of Heaven Matthew 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father The CoÌ„fulgurations of bodies glorifi'd are like the bright shining of the Sun or compare we them to our Saviours glorious Body after his Exaltation which no doubt exceeds all the glory can be expressed or conceived when this transfiguration upon the Mount was so glorious That his face did shine as the Sun Matthew 17.2 and his Raiment was white as the light yet such is the condition and state of these bodies which are fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Phillip 3.21 Yet doth not this transcendent Glory superadded to the Humane body alter the Nature and Essence of the same the same Humanity is retained as well after as before the Resurrection the same body that is laid in the dust the self same body ariseth and ascends into glory that body is resumed in the Resurrection which was assumed in the Conception onely one to a Mortal the other to an Immortal life alterius gloriae sed ejusdem naturae the glory is different but the bodie 's the same The glorified bodies of Saints and the glorious body of our ever blessed Saviour in Heaven all of them of one Nature and Substance made up of Flesh and Blood and Bone Nerves Sinewes Arteries and what else conduceth to the perfection of a Humane body To deny this is to run into the Heresie of Eutiches condemned in the several Councils of Constantinople and Chalcedon who affirmed that the body of Christ was not of the same Nature with ours and that ours also after the Resurrection were not Palpable or Visible but more subtle and slender than VVind or Air. But as we have said the same body that is laid in the dust the same ariseth and puts on Immortality and glory a body of flesh is sown in dishonor but the same body of flesh is raised in glory Consonant hereto are the words of Job Job 19.25 26 27. I know that thy Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day day upon the Earth And though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet in my Flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and my eyes shall behold and not another though my Reines be consumed within me thus we read and thus is our Creed so is preached and so is believed for the Resurrection of the flesh is an Article of our Faith a Fundamental point of that Religion the Church Catholick professeth and that our Saviours body is of the same Substance is another Fundamental Athanasius is plain perfect God and perfect Man Of a Reasonable Soul and Humane Flesh subsisting yea Palpable flesh and Visible even after his Resurrection our Saviours words are full for it behold saith he my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have And therefore those words of the Apostle flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God are to be understood of sinful lusts and corruptions of the flesh 1 Cor. 15.10 and not of the flesh and blood it self dismantled of these And as the substance of a Humane body continues intire so hath she her faculties and qualities perfect though not all for in as much as the body is purged of sin and corruption those qualities which argue corruption and infirmity must needs be perished also absit labes silicet corruptionis assit effigies assit motio absit fatigatio assit vescendi potestas absit esuriendi necessitas c. Soft soft O my Soul dash not thy self on the Rock of Contention be not prolix in Polemick discourses and points Controversal since thou art devoted to thy calmer Theoremes and Diviner Speculations The case standing thus that none have admittance to those glorious Mansions in the new Jerusalem the City of God but bodies purged from their filthy lusts and sinful corrâ—ption bodies morigerous submisse and pliant to Soul and Spirit see then and lament the wretched estate of us Mortals upon Earth An evil it is under the sun an error proceeding from the ruler folly set in great dignity and the rich set in low place servants on horseback and Princes walking as servants upon the Earth Eccles 10.5 6 7. whose lives and conversations Diametrically oppose the glorified Saints in Heaven Apame was but Concubine to the great and mighty King Darius yet was she seen sitting on his right hand and taking the Crown from off his head did set it upon her own she also stroke the King with her
Science of this was Philosophical drawn from the light of Nature Reason teacheth thou art Immortal and capable of everlasting Felicity which consists in the Vision and Contemplation of God thy chiefest good and hast an Innate concreate desire thereto And although the principles of Rational Knowledge are for the most part per se nota so known by their own light as may force an assent yet in as much as God who is thy summum bonum is a light inaccessible such a light as blear-eyed Reason can not behold the full Knowledge of God is not by Rational principle Natural Science is not a scale large enough to contain nor a yard long enough to measure out the true Vertue and full force of this divine Essence but must resolve into principles of a higher nature here thou must run from the principles of Philosophy to the maxims of Divinity here thou must submit thy understanding to the rules and articles of Faith Thy Science of God then is Theological drawn not from the light of Nature but from the revelation of God in the Scriptures the principles of this Theological science are supernatural and resolve not into the grounds of natural reason but into the maxims of divine knowledge supernatural and of this we have just so much light and no more than God hath revealed to us in the Scriptures which is not so full a light as the prime principles of rational Sciences carry along with them to force reason upon the first sight to yeeld unto it such as are these viz. Every whole is greater than a part of the whole and again The same thing cannot be and not be at one and the same time and in one and the same respect These carry a natural light in them clear and evident the Scriptures not so yet such a light as is of force to breed Faith though not to make a perfect Knowledge for though it be life eternal to know God John 17. and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent yet this knowledge is no more than a belief since God requires not a demonstrative knowledge of him here but our Faith in him and such a knowledge as may fit that we walk by faith and not by sight or perfect knowledge for Man having sinned by pride God thought it fittest to humble him at the very root of the tree of knowledge and make him deny his understanding and submit to Faith or hazard his happinesse Faith then is a Christians rule and ground of Science now the evidence of Faith is not so clear as that of Reason tum ratione objecti tum ratione subjecti First Ratione objecti God Faith is the evidence of things not seen Secondly Ratione subjecti the Subject that sees it is but in aegnimate in a glass or dark speech Moreover Faith is an act of the Will primarily and chiefly and not of the Understanding It is not in this Theological Science as in other Sciences where voluntas sequitur dictamen intellectus but contrariwise intellectus sequitur arbitrium voluntatis For Faith is a mixt act of the Will and Understanding and the Will first inclines the Understanding to yeeld full approbation to that whereof it sees not full proof Credere enim est actus intellectus vero assentientis productus ex voluntatis imperio In sent d. 23. q. 2. a. 1. Tho. 2.2 q. 2. a. 2. ad 3 Biel. And again Intellectus credentis determinatur ad unum non per rationem sed per voluntatem And Stapleton contra Whittaker saith Fides actus est non solius intellectus sed etiam voluntatis quae cogi non potest Triplic contra Whittak cap. 6. p. 64 imo magis voluntatis quam intellectus quatenus illa operationis principium est assensum qui propriè actus fidei est sola elicit nec ab intellectu voluntas sed à voluntate intellectus in actu fidei determinatur And though the principles of Faith being concealed from our view and foulded up in the un-revealed counsell of God appear not so evident and manifest unto us as those of Reason yet they are in themselves much more sure and infallible than they for they proceed immediatly from God that heavenly Wisdom which being the fountain and original of ours must needs infinitely precede ours both in nature and excellency And therefore though we be far unable to reach the order of their deductions nor can in this life come to the vision of them yet we yeeld as full and firm consent not only to the articles but to all the things rightly deduced from them as we doe to the most evident principles of natural reason so that thou mayst justly say thy Faith is stronger than thy Reason or Knowledge is because it goes higher and so upon a safer principle than thy Reason or Knowledge can in this life attain unto Hoc intelligendum est ut scientia certior sit certitudine evidentiae fides vero certior firmitate adhaesionis majus lumen in scientia majus robur in fide saith Biel in 3 sent d. 23. q. 3 a. 1. Thus much and more maist thou find couched and excellently handled by the most reverend Father in God William Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury in his book against Fisher pag. 16. And for certainty and assurance in this kind Faith doth not only exceed all certainty that can proceed from any natural Science be it never so demonstrative but in a manner equals the very knowledge by Intuitive Vision in the world to come St Bernard makes it good too in sermonibus Domini Gilleberti super Cantica Canticorum cap. 3. Intelligentia quidem etsi fidem excedit non tamen aliud contuetur quam quod fide continetur in intelligentia quam in fide non major certitudo inest sed serenitas neutra vel errat vel haesitat ubi vel error vel haesitatio est intelligentia non est ubi haesitatio est fides non est et si fides admittere posse videtur errorem non est vera nec Catholica fides sed erronea credulitas Thus are Reason Faith and Vision instrumental and necessary one for another without Reason no Faith without Faith no Vision and this is all the difference amongst them 't is St Bernards still and exquisitely done Fides ut sic dicam veritatem rectam tenet possidet Intelligentia revelatam nudam contuetur Ratio conatur revelare ratio inter fidem intelligentiamque discurrens ad illam se erigit sed ista regit ratio plus aliquid quam credere vult quid aliud conspicere aliud est credere aliud est cernere non tamen aliud quam quod fide concipit conspicere conatur et si nondum sincerè videre potest quibusdam tamen accommodatis experimentis conjicere tentat quae jam solida fide concepit ratio supra fidem conatur fide tamen nititur fide cohibetur in primo devota est in secundo prudens in tertio sobria ut sic dicam fides tenet tuetur ratio intelligentia intuetur bonus iste circuitus in quo mens rationis ductu pervestigando procedit sed à fide non recedit instructa à fide restricta ad fidem Thus have I shewed thee O my Soul thy spiritual progress in the search of thy Felicity this is the circuit and round of the Soul in its Military march to the heavenly Jerusalem in the search of him who is the dearly beloved of my Soul these are the streets it compasseth about bonus quidem rationis circuitus a happy circuit and progress of the Soul doubtless when the Soul prosecutes its felicity by rational disquisition and this search too is bounded and limited by the rules of Faith walking from Faith to Faith or from Faith to Vision and Contemplation till it come to the full fruition of what it so much desireth and loveth And now having brought thee to thy journeys end to thy harbour and haven of joy and bliss I will here sing a Requiem to my soul a nunc dimittis to my Spirit Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation And since the way to this beatitude lies by the gates of Death that there must be a separation of Soul and Body before there be a full Vision and Fruition I doe here desire to set this little house in order and to make this my last Will and Testament where I bequeath my Soul into the hands of God that gave it and my Body to the grave in Christian buriall Earth to Earth Dust to Dust Ashes to Ashes in hope of a joyfull and glorious resurrection unto eternal life through the merits of Christ my Saviour Amen FINIS
ΨΥΧΟΣΟΦΊΑ OR NATURAL DIVINE CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE PASSIONS FACULTIES OF THE SOVL OF MAN In Three Books By NICHOLAS MOSLEY Esq 1 PET. 2.11 Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul Ignat. Epist ad Philip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed for Humphrey Mosley at the Prince's Arms St. Paul's Church-yard 1653. TO My Honoured Kinsman ROBERT BOOTH Esquire T Is not dear Nephew Blood 't is not Consanguinity those several ties and relations of Nature more than a virtuous Mind and understanding Soul those Powers and Faculties of your Soul which I have known from your Childhood Active and Industrious and now find crown'd with Habits Intellectual These have layd an Obligation upon me of a more sacred civill reverence and respect unto your person such Homage will I ever owe to the man where these are seated for though I my self fall very short of such perfection yet is it not the least of my comfort here that I am a Philosopher a Lover of Wisdome and Learning where ever I find it my hand and heart is for it to no petition against it or the Nurseries thereof for which cause I have entred my self a Student in the School of Nature and of Christ there to find out this noble Science of the Soul what I have met with here and there dispersed I have endeavoured to recollect and compile into this Volume It is not therefore my own I am no discoverer of New Lights no teacher of Strange Doctrines I challenge in this Piece nothing but the Composure the Substance or Matter you may find in the old and beaten path of Faith and Truth which our Forefathers have trod and whose Footsteps we may securely follow To you then as no affecter of Novelty but a lover of Truth doe I dedicate these my labours as a pledge of my Love and part of that Debt owe you accept then of these from him who shall ever remain Sir Your obliged Uncle to serve and honor you NICH. MOSLEY The Epistle to the Reader EVery man naturally desires to know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle it is the ground the Philosopher hath laid and placed in the very frontispiece of his Metaphysicks this innate desire to knowledge comes with the Soul of man even that which Forms him and distinguisheth him from beasts and makes him like unto God which is the Reasonable soul immortal and intelectual for when God said Let Vs make man in our own image after our own likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the foul of the air and over the cattell and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth man is not Gods Image in respect of his Body but his Soul which is a spirit as God is and the Image of God in man consists in that wherein man excells and hath dominion over other creatures now man excells not nor rules over Beasts in the parts of his Body which are far stronger in many beasts than in man but in the faculties of his Soul having a minde endowed with reason will and understanding which the soul of a beast is not capable of This Intellectual facultie of the human soul hath one property viz. that it is capable of all knowledge and herein is the excellency of our soules again manifested that nothing is able to know all things besides God the Angels and humane Intellect But forasmuch as human understanding is ignorant of many things and yet the Arch-philosopher saith it understands all things we must distinguish twixt the power and act and then there will be no contradiction the Understanding knoweth not all things actually that is proper to God the Understanding knoweth all things potentially this is true of the humane Intellect thus is Aristotle to be understood This Soul of man hath an innate desire an aptitude and ability of knowing all things which kindles a desire of knowing all things actually and makes the Intellect practick and to be in action Hence are found out so many arts sciences of all sorts the arcana naturae the very depth and secrets of nature comprehended within that general division of Moral Natural and Metaphysical as for that Theological science how hath it been enlarged and exemplified by writers on all points thereof yea upon the deep mysteries of Divinity of the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity of the two natures of Christ of the incarnation of the Son of God and the like all which shewes that even to this day the Tree of knowledge still workes in all men as well Christians as Heathens we still account the attaining of knowledge a thing to be desired and be it good or evill we love to be knowing all the sort of us In this ensuing treatise thou hast Gentle Reader for thy benefit intended what in my Meditations for my own behoof I had digested a discourse upon the Soul of man a Science than which of all that ever were or can bee attained to by the strictest disquisition of humane learning none more necessary as being most excellent most profitable most pleasant and therefore none more desirable if thou beest inflamed with a desire of knowledge learn to know thy own Soul By the knowledge of the Soul we come to the knowledge of our selves which how necessary it is the very Heathens may convince us Christians of by that notable famous sentence which was engraven upon the door of the Temple of Apollo at Delphos and said to descend from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know thy self for a vain and foolish thing it is to understand other things and to be ignorant of our selves to bend a mans studies to know the Heavens Elements and other things and not to know himself is the part of a fool and not of a wise man Zabarell de mente humana saith the Philosopher But we come not to the true knowledge of our selves but by the knowledge of our Soul with its faculties and operations for then wee are said to know our selves when we know our Soul more than our Bodie Especially the Intellectual facultie of our Soul by which we are that we are by which we are distinguished from beasts by which we are made like unto God In one part of this discourse is handled the state of the Soul in the body of man not somuch before the fall of our first parents as in his lowest and weakest condition cloged and pressed down with the fetters of Original sin and depraved Nature inclosed and intombed in these bodies of ours which carry about them a body of sin And thus the Soul is considered as the Formal part of a Man Form and Matter making one Compositum And this takes up the first Book being of the Physical Science of the Soul In another part is handled the state of the Soul of Man not so much in its essence
given to us little children humbly ignorant here an equality of knowledge with the Angells which alwaies behold the face of their heavenly Father therefore sing thou with the Psalmist Lord I am not high minded I exercise not my self in things too high for me Psalm 131. But I refrain my soul and keep it low like as a child that is weaned from his mother Yea my soul is even as a weaned child CHAP. II. Of the Attributes of the soul Chap. 2. Book 1. AFter the Original of the soul it will not be amiss before we come to its Definition to treat of the Attributes of the soul viz. the Immortality and Eternity the Indivisibility impatibility Separability and Impermixture of the soul not but that these are more properly touched in the second Book the Metaphysicall science of the soul as it is abstracted from bodily Organs only here to shew as I have already done the Divine principle of the soul how far these properties of the soul have been or may be evidenced by the light of Reason by the truth of naturall Philosophie and first with the last of the soules Separability and impermixture from the body and so in order upwards The Separability and immixture of the soul The soul of man is inorganical and hath its operations out of the body and therefore it is separable from the body separable I mean not as it doth subsist after death without the body as some of the antient Plilosophers onely held but even in this life also whilst it is in the body it is separated from it so the Modern and most of the antients maintain Lib. 3. de anima cap. 5. 6. Aristotle every where affirms it to be a property of the whole Intellect as well the patient as the agent and from this property of the soul is gathered arguments of the souls Immortality by Scotus Piccolomineus Alexander Aphrodiensis Vicomeratus Julius Pacius and others Art thou maried to this weak and frail body O my soul seek not a divorce in any unwarrantable unnatural way for though it be better to be dissolved and to be with Christ yet but for the cause of Christ thou maist not put her away not kill her or hate her but love her as a Wife cherish her as a weaker Vessell yet if she command obey not if she intice consent not let not thy Affections overcome thy Reason to cap ivate thy love to her lust in this case separate thy self from her not in affection but action let thy Diviner faculties Reason and understanding be thy Counsellors and rule thou in her yet above her and without her The Impatibility of the Soul The soul of man is Impatible it suffereth not for the rule is quicquid patitur corrumpitur as the wood suffers by the fire till it be consumed of the fire the soul of man not so it receives Objects and Species yet no way suffers or is hurt by what it receives Object But this property you will say the Sensitive soul hath as well as the Rational for even as the Intellectuall faculty receives intelligible forms yet doth not thereby suffer viz passione corruptiva so doth the Sensitive also receive its forms and Objects and is not hurt by them and therefore saith Aristotle sensus est impaâ—ibilis To this I answer that though this property agree with the Sensitive as well as the Rationall faculty yet with the Rational in a higher and much more eminent manner the Sense is not hurt by any Objects nor suffers any detriment so long as the Objects are presented in an orderly manner and due proportion there the Sense in no sense is patible viz. passione corruptiva but if a due proportion of the Objects be not observed for quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis the Sense is destroyed of its more vehement Object for he that saith sensus est impatibilis meaning in the former sense saith also vehemens sensibile destruit sensum and this vâ—hemens Objectum corrumpit sensum as too great a sound makes a man deaf too great a light will make a man blind But this cannot be said of Humane intellect since there is no such vehement Object which can corrupt it yea rather perfects it for after we have understood the highest and difficultest matters we are not made incapable of understanding easier as with gazing upon the Sun our sight will be so dazled with the light thereof that we cannot presently see lesser lights but much more capable to understand them than before and herein is an argument of the Divinity and immortality of the soul For were it mortall it would certainly be destroyed or wounded by its more forcible Object but vehemens in elligibile perficit intellectum ergo intellellectus non debilitatur in operando so incorruptible so immortall 'T is Scotus his argument for the souls immortality Behold how sin overthroweth as it were the whole Fabrick of Heaven God hath created the Humane soul of an impatible nature not subject to pain or punishment sin enters the soul and makes it liable to greater grief and torment than is imaginable evill of sin begets evill of pain pain privative and pain positive paenam sensus and paenam damni pain of loss the privation of eternal felicity banishment from the heavenly Country loss of the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven absence of God and want of the vision of him and an utter exclusion from all good things for ever this is the privative pain which is more bitter to me saith Saint Chrysostom than the positive torments of Hell nor is it any wonder if this loss cannot be expressed for we have not yet known the beatitude of those things that are reserved for us how then shall we apprehend our misery in the loss of them but besides this pain of loss there is a pain of sense a worm that never dieth a fire that never goeth out nor can any tongue express or heart conceive this pain but such as know them experimentally but a general torture it is in all the parts of the body in all the faculties of the soul the soul as well as the body is passive a passion worst of all passions a passion voyd of corruption voyd of consumption the wood suffers in the fire till it be totally consumed by the fire and well were it with the damned had they such pains which might at last consume them but as the widdows barrel of meal should not waste nor her cruse of oyl be spent so though in a different sense hers in mercy these in judgement the worm shall continually gnaw and eat but they not wast the bush shall burn in the fire and the fire not consume the bush for ever These things are writ for thee O soul that thou come not into this place of torment that if thou canst not patiently abide the eternall fire of hell hereafter thou maist not so patiently suffer sin here but
fly from it as from a serpent and if with any sin thou chance to be overtaken that thou maist mourn and weep for them here that so thou maist avoid this place of sorrow where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for ever For he that saith Wo unto you that laugh and rejoice now for ye shall mourn saith also Blessed are they that mourn now for they shall be comforted and the Psalmist They that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth good seed shall doubtless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him The Indivisibility or impartibility of the soul The soul of man is a simple essence and is not to be found except pâ—r accidens in the Predicament of Quantity Continuum non constat ex indivisibilibus sed in semper divisibilâ—a est divisibile cum enim ex eis constat in ea resolvetur Sennert lib. 1 cap. 4. Corpori suo modo coextenditur quamvis ex parte anima extensionem non habet Suarez disp 15. sect 3.11 fol. 251. therefore it admits not of fractions and parts is not capable of division If it were corporeal it would be quanta and so divisible as quantity is in semper divisibilia but being a spirit it is simple incorporeal immortal and so an indivisible substance That souls Rational are multiplied according to the multiplication of the Individuals I shall not deny to stand with Christian Religion as well as Philosophical verity but that the soul is divisible or extensible ad extensionem corporis I deny to stand with either the soul of Beasts and Plants is material and corporeal extensible as the body is extended so as part of the soul is in part of the body and the whole in the whole body but the Humane soul which is a spirit indivisible in a most wonderfull manner is tota in toto tota in qualibet parte so saith Philosophy And though it fill the whole body Bellarm. de ascensione mentis in deum c. grad 8. fol. 179. and 180. it takes up no room in the body it increaseth not as the body increaseth only begins to be where before it was not and if the body decrease if any member be cut off or wither the soul is not diminished or dried up onely ceaseth to be in that member it was in before and that without any hurt or blemish to it self Replet non occupat totum corporis locum nec etsi corpus hunc locum jam ante occupaverit impeditur quo minus ipsa in omnibus corporis partibus ad sit videmus eandem formam quae primo infantis corpus replet illud ipsum corpus nihil auctam ubi in vastam aetate virili molem excreverit repleris Sennertus lib. 1. cap. 4. And herein O my soul art thou a lively Character and Image of God a resemblance of thy Creator in his infinite being and omnipresence for God is a Spirit indivisible filling all the World and all the parts thereof yet taking up no room there nor may it be so imagined that God so fills the World as part of God is in part of the World and whole God in the whole World for God hath no parts cannot be divided but as thou art in the litle World Man so he in this great universe whole in the whole and whole in every part of the World and so is every where present with his omnipotencie and wisdom and when any new creature is produced God begins to be in that creature though the same from eternity and when any creature is destroyed or dieth God dieth not nor is destroyed onely ceaseth to be there yet without variation or shadow of change thus far the resemblance holds though thou must ackowledge O my soul Gods Indivisibility infinitely to surpass thine 2 Chron. 6. his omnipresence and illimiâ—ed greatness is such as Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain and truly for if another World were created God would fill it if more Worlds yea infinite Worlds God would fill them all and where he should not be there should be nothing The Immortality and eternity of the soul Touching the Immortality of the soul the Grand Philosopher not onely sets it down as of opinion but with many reasons proves the same I do not say all the operations and faculties of the soul or the soul according to all its faculties and operations Arist de gen anim c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. restat ut mens sola extrinsecus accedat eaque sola divina fit nihil enim cum ejus actione commmunicat actio corporalis which cannot be spoken of the soul were it mortal and therefore I must needs be of Paulus Benius his opinion who saies plainly and proves it too turpiter affixam à quibusdam Arist mortalitatis animae opinionem Benius in Timaeum Platonis Decad. 2. lib. 3. See further Bishop Lawd against Fisher pag. 16. Num. 34. pun 7. fol. 113. in margin did Aristotle hold to be immortal a Christian may doubt of that and not be counted Heterodox since whether the operations of the Sensitive soul as seeing hearing smelling tasting touching remain in the body glorified and in what manner hath been is to this day a controversie in the Schools and as for the Vegetative facultie since there is no accretion or diminution in that state of glory it is perished or altogether useless But that all the operations faculties of the soul which are Essential as to understand c. are immortal that he boldly affirms saying hoc solum est immortale not understanding as Pacius observes the word immortal in that large sense as Plato did to prove every soul to be immortal the soul of Beasts as well as the Humane soul because every soul is life and no life can be the Subject of death therefore every soul is Immortal which argument proves not the Immortality of the soul and to remain after the body onely proves that the soul is not the Subject of death which is true for when any brute beast dieth it is not the soul but the animal or compositum that dieth but Aristoile to shew the Rational soul to be altogether Immortal and to remain after the death of the body he adds the word aeternum adds Eternity to Immortality saying hoc solum est Immortale aeternum not but that the soul had a beginning not Eternal à parte ante but because it never shall have end so Eternal à parte post But wherefore do I spend my time in proving that which hath been so generally received of all of what Religion or Profession soever not Christian Religion onely but all the several Religions in the World have ever taught the Immortality of the Soul were it the Graecian Chaldean or Arabian of old or the Jewes the Turkes or other of the Gentiles in these later times
and therefore they likewise hold there are rewards and punishments for souls departed according as they have acted in the flesh be it good or evill Onely they have differed about the state of souls departed in which some have held ridiculous things Touching which we will proceed to shew how far this verity is evidenced to us by Philosophical principles by the light of natural reason The Soul of man after this life remains and abides for ever whole and intire as to its essence for that is simple and undivided as hath been sayd though not as to all its faculties and operations all the faculties of the soul remain not with the soul after the death of man at least the operations in that condition as before and therefore may be said to be perished The Intellectual faculty abides for ever with the soul so is no way mortal but for as much as the Sensitive faculty is organical and cannot work without a body when the body dyes that faculty is sayd to perish but this in respect of the body not in respect of the soul which faculty abides with the soul for ever potentialiter though not actualiter but is idle and cannot work whilst the body sleepeth in the grave and as Aristotle saith An old man had he the eyes of a young man would see as well as a young man so if after death the soul should enter into a body it would doe all the operations which before it did now since all these faculties as to the soul remain though in respect of the body they are sayd to perish it is necessary and that according to the principles of Philosophy that sometime the soul should reassume a body or else these faculties are reserved and kept in vain But because no power or faculty can be in vain Vide Pacim in Arist de anima lib. 3. c. 6. sect 5. â— Et lib. â— c. 10. sect 5. yet that is in vain which is never reduced into act and that Deus natura nihil frustra operantur according to Aristotle and the rule of Philosophy therefore it must needs be confessed that the soul shall sometime come into the body again which Conclusion is confirmed by very good reason for the soul is according to its essence a Form and a Form naturally desires the Matter to which it relates and without the Matter it is but imperfect for nothing is perfect ex sola forma not by Form alone but Matter and form together so that Matter concurs to the perfection of all created compounded substances otherwise death would not be so terrible if all perfection and happiness consisted in the soul Being thus seasoned with these Philosophical verities thou maist more readily assent to those Theological truths of the soul's eternity and immortality thou seest O my soul how near nature rectified and rightly principled leads to Christ what Affinity there is 'twixt Reason and Faith Nature and Grace they thwart not one the other the Truth of Philosophy agrees with the Truth of Divinity and from this Philosocal Principle will I teach thee a Christian Article of the Resurrection of the body and life everlasting For let me argue with thee O my soul in thine own natural principles if the soul be a Form which naturally desires the Matter to which it is the Form and without which it is imperfect if it have Faculties which it cannot exercise without a body and that God and Nature have made nothing in vain therefore the soul must of necessity reassume a body it must either be the same numerical body or another different from what it had before if another then must thou grant a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Transmigration of souls an error of the Pythagoreans and is an impossibility according to the principles of Philosophy because as Aristotle every where affirmeth a determinate Form requires a determinate Matter a specifical Form a specifical Matter and a numerical Form requires the same numerical Matter so the same Individual Soul requires the same Individual Body and if the soul assume the same body then must thou hold the Resurrection of that body which Christian Religion teacheth also CHAP. III. Of the Definition of the Soul Chap. 3. Book 1. ONe and the same thing may be the subject of several Sciences though diversly handled and considered in every one of them and as it is diversly considered so may it diversly be defined Logick is not tied to certain matter but runs generally through all kind of things not standing so much upon the matter Mathematicks handles things abstracted from matter non re sedratione Metaphysicks handles things altogether separated from matter but Physicks handles things not separated from matter at all nec re nec ratione Thus are the Definitions of one and the same thing various according to the several Sciences which treat of it Aristotle puts an example of Anger that being considered in the Physical Science is defined to be A certain motion of the body for some injury received with desire of revenge being in Logick considered it s defined onely A desire of revenge the one expresseth the matter he other not The Soul of man is a subject for all Sciences Philosophical or Theological and therefore admits of several Definitions but for as much as it is not our purpose at present to treat of the soul of man either Theologically as the Image of God in man nor yet Metaphysically as incorporeal spiritual and abstracted from bodily organs in its diviner contemplative intellectual faculties which resembles the nature divine nor yet to handle it onely in its Sensitive parts which resembles the nature of beasts but as it hath assumed humane nature and is the Form of man and so a part of him who is compounded of Matter and Form who is in that respect of a middle nature 'twixt Terrestrial and Celestial 'twixt Mortal and Immortal creatures and participates of both and this nature too we consider not as in the state of integrity in which it was created but in this lapsed degenerate condition it groaneth under since the fall of man and is intombed in a body of weak and sinfull flesh and operates not but by and with the body The subject therefore of this Book is Physical material and inseparable from the body as well in its Affections which we here handle as in its Essence such then must our Definition be for quale est definitum talis esse debâ—s definitio The Definition of the soul The Soul is the act and perfection of the natural organical body having life in power I shall not stay to coment upon the words of this Definition to shew how the soul is an act and perfection which words are Synonima the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehending both and is the genus in this Definition and how this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the second act to wit the Operation and Motion which is the soules
as shrill and sharp or base and dull sounds and their intermediums the nose and palate are near a kin and have Objects alike of which they Judge the one of sweet or bitter smells the other of sweet or bitter tasts and their mediums the hand or Sense of feeling hath its different Objects of hot and cold moist and dry soft and hard and the like of which it passeth its Judgement And by interjected means The Senses as they require their proper Objects so also fit Mediums for the conveyance of things sensible to the Senses the Objects of the Sense work not immediately upon the senses but by intcrjected means so the eye to discern and judge of colours needs light and a transparent perspicuous body as Air Water Glass Ice or some such diaphanous body actually enlightned to convey the Object to the sight without which interjection the eye could not discern at all and indeed many more things are required to make the Judgement that comes of Sense perfect which otherwise is very uncertain and deceitful though positis omnibus requisitis all necessaries being premised the rule holds true sensus est semper verus and this sensus non fallitur circa proprium objectum and in this sense and no other is Aristoâ—le to be understood The Senses by receiving things sensible are made one or like to those Objects they receive for the Form and similitude of the Object presented to the sight is in the eye and made one with it and so of the other Senses and their Objects the sight and thing seen the ear and thing heard the smell and tast and their Odors and savours are all alike no difference twixt the Sense and its Object but talis est sensus quale est objectum such potestate in power not in Act not in act the same with the Object which is a matter for the matter is not received by the Sense the Form and similitude onely is received into the Sense abstracted from Matter And therefore doth Aristotle compare the Sense to Wax and the Object to a Seal Now as the Wax taketh the impress and Form of the Seal whether it be Iron Brass Gold or Silver but no part of the Iron Brass Gold or Silver So the sense receives the Form and print of the Object or thing discerned but no part of the matter of the Object Nor was there any being in the Sense before but a bare facultie a faculty to receive sensible Forms an aptitude power of receiving colours is in the sight of the eye in that Instrument or Organ of sight which is called pupilla in English the ball or apple of the eye this hath a faculty a power of receiving colours as the Organs of the other Senses have of receiving theirs but is not actually coloured hath no colour in it for then it could not receive those that are without nor have an aptitude thereunto for saith Aristotle intus existens prohibet alienum the good man within doors keeps the stranger forth But that the Senses may more readily receive their Objects therefore are the Organs destitute and naked of the Nature of the Objects they receive as the eye is void of colour and the ear of sounds for if the eye had Actually in it either white or black it could not receive another from without so when any savour or smell is actually in the Organs of those Senses it is an impediment to other savours and smells that they either not at all or at least very weakly are discerned for intus existens prohibet alienum that which is within keeps all others out Lastly these External Senses are the five Ports and Gates of the Intellectual Soul at least of that Intellectual faculty which is called Patient or Practical and there is nothing entreth into this faculty but is let in thorough some of these doors the Cinque-ports of the Soul for so is the rule in Philosophy nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuit in sensu I need not tell thee O my Soul thou hast a conscience within thee is in stead of a thousand witnesses shewing thy miserable seduction and Perdition by following the Judgement of Sense and refusing the dictates of thy own Understanding judging according to the outward appearance of External Objects gilded apples and fruit of the tree bona apparentia onely pleasant to the eye and goood for food bitter in thy belly though sweet in thy mouth gall in digestion though Honey in tast nor need I to shew thee the resemblance and similitude twixt thee and thy Objects which thou hast contracted by receiving and embrasing of them such as thy Object is such art thou sin is thy Object therefore thou art such such in Form and likeness and since sin is a non entity privatio boni the Form of sin is meer deformity this print and Form hast thou within thee as fully and plainly as the Wax retains the Form of the Seal through the Senses it is conveyed unto thee the innumerable sinnes and transgressions wherewith mankind is involved springs from hence even from this Sensitive faculty of the flesh the Senses are the doors thorough which all sins of all kind have entred into the Soul of man the rule in Philosophy nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuit in sensu holds true in sins of all sorts which come not to the Soul but thorough these wider Gates which lead unto destruction thorough these the three Grand enemies of Mans Salvation shoot their poisonous darts at the heart of man Help help me O Lord my God for my Enemies have compassed about my Soul the Flesh the World and the Devill and the dangerousest Enemy is my own Flesh my bosom-friend is become my greatest adversary they of my household are my deadly foes the Flesh which I cannot fly from nor yet drive from me I am constrained to carry about me it is so close conjoyned to my Soul d stroy it I may not though unwillingly I uphold it feed it I must though in feeding of it I nourish my Enemy an Enemy worst of all enemies not an open enemy for against a professed Enemy one may make head but thou my familiar an intestine secret Enemy who slayest unawares as Joab did Abner and Amasa this is the Enemy within that betraies my Soul to its Eenemies without and sets open these Senses the Soul's Cinque-ports through which the World and Devill shoot their poysonous arrows and have grievously wounded me and death through these windowes hath entred my Soul I open my eyes and the world presents me with beautiful Objects a Dalila a Bethshaba the Devill straight shoots his poysonous dars lascivious thoughts unchast desires Carnal lusts and concupisence and fastens in my Soul I open my ears and the World presents me with the various sounds of blasphemy towards God scandalous and reproachful speeches towards our Neighbours perjuries lies cursings from my own mouth and
from the mouths of others straight the Devil shoots his arrows of Anger Malice Strife Envy Murther and the like I would please my palate and behold I am presented with all the delicates the World affordeth the Devil shoots his darts of excess of Gluttony Drunkenness and the like to my feeling is presented the Worlds various Objects of Warm and Moist and soft and Smooth the Devills darts are Adultery Fornication c. Thus whether I See Hear or Speak Tast or Touch I am assaulted on every hand by these my Enemies who bear a Tyrannous hate against me and which way soever I turn me I find no safety Perills and Dangers Temptations and Trialls Snares and Ginnes Bonds and Imprisonment whither soever I goe do attend me darts are continually cast close Siege is laid to my Soul sometimes they assault me vi armis in open field sometimes by underminings sleights and Stratagems somtimes overtly sometimes covertly alwaies maliciously To thee do I fly for help against these evills O my God for vain is the help of Man unto thy Word have I recourse where I find present cures and remedies for all such as will faithfully apply them and first of the remedie against the evils of the eye this I find set down by holy Job and practised by himself I have made saith he a Covenant with my eyes that I will not think upon a maid The words are not I will not lock but I will not think for look I may but not so long look till that aspect doth pierce to my heart and I begin to think of her beauty and to lust after her imbraces St. Augustines rule for chastity accordingly is occuli vestri si jaciantur in aliquem sigantur in neminem we may cast our eyes on some but fasten on none for simple aspect cannot be avoyded nor can that hardly hurt the Soul unless it be continued therefore saith Augustine not the beholding but the continuance in beholding is perilous The remedy against the evill of hearing the Prophet David laies down Psalm the 39. I said I will take heed unto my waies that I offend not in my tongue I will keep my mouth as it were with a bridle whilst the ungodly is in my sight Speak I may that 's not prohibited but a caution given to take heed what I speak I may speak with discretion if I speak with deliberation warily and wisely rashly and foolishly therefore saith David I will take heed to my waye that I offend not in my tongue that is I will ponder and consider beforehand what to say my words shall not be many and ex tempore but few and with premeditation I will keep silâ—nce awhile and muse though it be pain and grief to me and whilst I am musing the fire kindle and at last I speak with my tongue And this rule Saint James prescribes Jam. 1.19 that every man be slow to speak so Saint Bernard Verba antequam proferantur pensanda we must stay to weigh our words before we utter them and b cause we many times receive hurt from others tongues as well as our own Saint Bernard 's rule is for slow hearing as well as slow speaking for the prophane and scandalous speeches of others doe suddenly infect our souls if we lend a willing ear thereto for words saith Democritus are the shadow of deeds for what we doe hear with delight we will as readily act and therefore saith he many lose the benefit that comes by refraining their tongue because they refrain not their ears from others tongues Now against Gluttony and Drunkenness the sins of the Palate and against Adulteand Fornication which come by the Sense of Feeling the Remedies are such as Physicians use to prescribe their Patients in their sick and weak condition viz abstinency from much meat and drink a spare and moderate diet 1 Tim. 5.2 such as Paul prescribes Timothy a little wine for his stomacks sake and his often infirmity a little wine to strengthen him against his often infirmities and but a little wine to avoyd Luxury In lib. de arte bene moriend for in wine is Luxury saith Bellarmine Again Physicians use Phlebotomie lanching and cutting of Veins and prescribe bitter Pils and Potions all which are enemies to Nature and the body of man such are all fastings and watchings and humbling of the body which though they turn to the Mortification of the Flesh yet tend to the Vivification of the Soul and this is the chastising of the body which St. Paul speaks of Cor. 1.9 saying Castigo corpus I chastise I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away But for further remedy against such evils as come to the Soul by these Senses I will shew how the Soul hath five Senses by which it is cured as the Body hath five by which it is wounded As the Body hath five Senses so hath the Soul there are five Organical Corporeal Senses there are also five Inorganical and Spiritual Senses the Body hath five by which it is joyned to the Soul in life the Soul hath five by which it is united to God in love De natura dignitate amoris divini cap. 6. f. 1155. serm 16. parvis sol 481. c. Et de vita quinque sensibus animae fol. 374 a. Et in caena domini serm 5. fol. 1360. 'T is Saint Bernard 's observation his words are these There are five Corporeal Senses by which the Soul gives sense to the body which are beginning with the lowermost and so upwards to the noblest of them Feeling Tasting Smelling Hearing Seeing There are also five Spiritual Senses by which Charity quickens and enlivens the Soul viz. Paternal Love Social or Conjugal Love Natural Love Spiritual Love and Divine Love or the Love of God and as the body by the means of life is joyned to the soul by five Organical Senses so is the soul by the means of Charity joyned to God by these five Spiritual Senses the Love of Parents is the meanest Spiritual Sense and answereth the bodily sense of Feeling the Love of God the highest and noblest Sense and answereth the bodily sense of Seeing So Love runs through the whole Soul and without this Love the Soul is dead to God Love I say not Lust the Soul's Love Chap. 7. Book 1. not the Senses Lust Love the action of Virtue not the passion of Vice Love the fruit of the Spirit not Lust the weed of the Flesh Of which Love we shall speak more in the Chapter of the Affection of the Soul CHAP. VII Of the three Internal Senses viz. Common Sense Phantasie Memory THus much of the External Senses which are seated in the body whose Organs are extra to judg of things out of themselves Now come we to the Internal which are intra cranium seated in the Brain not outward
we ought as wee ought and as much as we ought is not criminal but praise-worthy but when wee have no just cause if then we be angry with our Brother we are guilty of judgement so saith our Saviour yea though we have just cause we may miss it in the measure or in the manner as when our anger exceeds the value of the cause or the proportion of other circumstances and adjuncts thus Moyses anger though for Gods cause and Religion was reproved because it went forth into violent and troublesome expressions and shewed the degree to be inordinate other passions there are which arise out of this which are in themselves sinful and damnable those are hatred and malice Anger persisted in turnes to hatred and malice and these are nothing but a continued anger odium est ira inveterata Anger with deliberation and purpose of revenge which is morally evill and prohibited in the sixth Commandement Envy is another sprig of this root and that which in Greek is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one proceeds from Anger mixt with Sorrow repining at the prosperity and welfare of another the other proceeds from Anger mixt with Joy rejoycing at the calamities and miseries of others A remedy against Anger with its effects in particular the worst and dangerousest of all Passions for prevention whereof propound to thy self the example of meek and patient persons remembring alwaies that there is a Family of meek Saints of which Moses is the President a Family of patient Saints under the conduct of Job every one in the mountain of the Lord shall be gathered to his Tribe to his own Family in the great day of Jubilee Dr. Taylor and the angry shall perish with the effects of anger and peevish persons shall be vexed with the disquietness of an eternal Worm and sting of a vexatious conscience if they suffer here the transportations and sadest effects of an unmortified habitual and prevailing anger But love is the Queen of Vertues the chief of all affections and a duty enjoyned and commanded by God upon this hang the Law and the Prophets it runnes through the decalogue it is the fulfilling of the Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul and thy neighbour as thy self is the whole duty of man Love is an lnseparable affection of the soul Faith and Hope may cease but Charity abides for ever and joynes our souls to God as the Soul is the life of the Body so is Charity the life of the Soul and as the Body by the means of life is joyned to the Soul so is the Soul by the means of Love conjoyned to God Love is the Soul's Sense and the love of God is the Soul's eye There is another love called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is that natural affection which Parents bear towards their Children and the Children again to Parents the like which is one of the Soul's Senses but not the noblest for as the eye is the noblest of the bodily Senses so is Divine love the noblest of the Soul's Senses and is the Soul's eye by which we see God As the body hath two eyes so the Soul hath its eyes Reason and Love these are the eyes which the Spouse in the Canticle speaks of saying Thou hast wounded me my Spouse my Sister thou hast wounded me with one of thy eyes now the eye of Love is the right eye and seeth further than the eye of Reason Ratio deum videre non potest nisi in eo quod non est amor autem non adquiescit requiescere nisi in eo quod est ratio per id quod non est in id quod est videtur proficere amor postponens quod non est in eo quod est gaudere deficere ratio majorem habet sobrietatem amor beatitudinem saith St. Bernard Again there is a twofold love of beatitude one of desire the other of enjoyment est amor desiderii est amor fruitionis t' is St. Bernards still the love of desire is that natural Appetite or pondus naturale which is in every creature towards their chief felicity I mean not such a weight as alwaies tends downward such as is the natural weight of Earth whose perfection lies below in its Center but such as looks upward as the natural weight of fire so mans love of desire lookes up to God who onely is mans summum bonum his chiefest felicity and so beaâ—itude Let the eyes of my Soul O God for ever look up towards thee especially the eye of my Love which though in much weakness it behold thee here not in fruition but in desire Let this innate desire and love of my Soul towards thee so quicken and stir up my elicite acts and abilities to pursue the meanes tending to thee as thou hast prescribed in thy Word that at the last my desires may reach to a Beatifical Vision and full fruition and my love be compleated in the enjoyment of thee that the panting desires of my Soul here may be so taken up hereafter with the cool refreshments of thee the everliving Water that I may say Lord it is enough That I may so behold thy face in righteousnes here that when I awake I may be satisfied with it Amen Amen TO My much honoured Friend and Neighbour HVMPHREY CHEETAM ESQUIRE SIR IN the Garden and Paradise of God not that Terrestrial which long since perished but the Heavenly which hath not suffered by any Cataclysm grows the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge which God as the chief Husbandman and Gardener both planteth and watereth and causeth to encrease Though it hath pleased Almighty God to plant and sow semina quaedam frutices some seeds and shrubs of Knowledge and Life in this earthly Garden and set Man therein to dress and keep it whose fruits though in this life they come not to full maturity and perfection yet serve us for a tast of those spiritual never fading fruits in Heaven since by the pains and industry of some Labourers in this Vineyard and the blessing of God the Sun of Righteousness shining upon their labours some fruits have been here gathered relishing much of the Heavenly perfection The Fruits ensuing are of this nature which I as a Gleaner have gathered from others and dedicate as the choicest of my labours and as I hope the welcomest present unto you the former Treatises adding little benefit but what you have formerly reaped from your own experience being ever the best School-mistris The two parts of this Rational life the Practick and Speculative you may read in the History of your own life who have well nigh by the course of Nature finished both the Clue of your thread being almost spun out and drawing on apace to the period set by the Prophet David Psalm 90. Wherefore leaving those things that are behind looking not backward at time past you press forward to the things that
knowest my thoughts afar off God is a searcher of the heart and trier of the reins the desires of the soul thoughts of the heart are not hid from him he long before knows all the free and voluntary acts of men and certainly can foretell the Event of every Future Contingent this is by Vertue of that Infinite Knowledge which is proper to God alone Prevision and Prediction of Contingent Effects none is capabel of but God alone and those to whom God is pleased to reveal it and therefore though the Prophets of old have foretold as we may read in holy Writ of many effects of this Nature which most truly and certainly came to pass yet it was not they but God in them foretold them Luk. 1.70 so saith Zacharie in his Benedictus As he spake by the mouth of his Prophets since the World began and St. Peter in his 2. Epist 1.21 Prophesie in old time came not by the Will of men but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost The Devils have formerly spoken in Oracles and taken upon them to foretel such Future Events but this is above the Nature of any Angel a Conjectural Knowledge they may have at the best such as a Mariner by his long Experience may foretel of the Wind the Husbandman of rain the Physician of diseases and the like by which the Devils have presumed to foretel such things to come in which also often they have both deceived themselves and others And where this Knowledge could not be attained wherein they could have no probable conjecture of Future Events they have in Oracles uttered Amphibologiously and in a double meaning that so if the Event proved otherwaies the fault might be imputed to the Misinterpretation and not to the Prediction But a certain Knowledge of a Future Contingent that they have not it is onely proper to God Your Astrologers Genethlialogists Vide Sennertum lib. 2. cap. 2. fol. 34. a b. and other such Diviners who like Gods Apes take upon them to imitate him in such Predictions are here to be derided and rejected as Impostors and deluders of mankind since they pretend not to Divine Revelation and Inspiration of God from whom alone such Effects do come to be certainly known The consideration hereof may make us with the Appostle cry out and say O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God Great is the Lord and great is his Power yea and his Wisdom infinite sapientiae ejus non est numerus Stand thou in Admiration and Adoration of this Knowledge of God O my Soul say with the Prophet David such Knowledge is too wonderful forme O God I cannot attain unto it for of such Knowledge doth the Prophet David there speak viz. of the Knowledge of Future Cogitations saying thou knowest my thoughts afar of not such as there already are but such as shall be hereafter nor such as shall be but such as may not be hereafter also Now the heart of Man is deep and unsearchable profundum inscrutabile saith the Steptuagint and who can know it It is answered I the Lord which search the heart and trie the Reins this makes the Psalmist crie out such knowledge is too wonderfull for me If we but cast in our mind the number of all mankind that have been since the Creation of the World living upon the face of the Earth and add thereto the number of those that are with those that shall be conversant upon the Earth before the Consummation of this Universe and we shall find they will not fall within the number of Arithmetick Millions of Millions and ten thousand times ten thousand are not the one half of them Let us withall cast in our mind the several various thoughts and desires of the heart which this day and night hath passed us thee and me much less the thoughts of every mans particular heart since the beginning of the World throughout the whole course of his life we are not able to recount them yet such is the infiniteness of his Wisdom and Knowledge that God in the Book of his Remembrance hath the number of all with the names of every one that hath been or now are from the beginning of the World to this very instant with a Register of all and every one of their Thoughts Words and Actions of what Nature soever or how secretly soever committed nor onely so but every mans thoughts and imaginations of heart that shall be nay more every thought that may be though it never be fall within the compass and comprehension of this infinit knowledge of God the thoughts which are not in thy heart O my Soul but furthest from thee nay and against thy mind as loathsom to retain are known to God It was not in Hasaels heart to kill his Master to take the strong holds of the Children of Israel and set them on fire to slay the young men with the sword to dash their Children rip up their women with child when he answered the Prophet What is thy Servant a dog that he should do these great things nor was it in Peters heart he was not guilty of such dissimulation to deny his Master when he answered our Saviour though all should forsake thee yet would not I and again though I should die with thee yet will not I deny thee yet these were foretold and so came to pass as they were foretold by that admirable Knowledge of him who searching the hearts and trying the reines seeth not as Man seeth but knoweth the thoughts afar off even such as are not yea and depend upon the Will of Man whether ever they spall be or not Such Knowledge is too wonderful for thee O my Soul thou canst not attain unto it Naural and Divine CONTEMPLATIONS Of the Passions and Faculties Of the Soul of Man In Three Bookes THE THIRD BOOK The Theological part CHAP. I. BUT oh the Trump hath sounded the Earth hath opened her Womb those that slept are awaked the bodies of the dead are raised to life and blessed are they that have died in the Lord. No longer now shall we view the Souls of those departed in their Metaphysical shapes and abstracted Forms every form to its Individual determinate matter and every Soul to its Numerical body the Soul hath quickned and revived the Body the Body is again reunited to the Soul in an Indissoluble Conjugal knot in an everlasting wedlock But since Corruption cannot Inherit Incorruption or Souls Immortal ever dwell in trunks of clay and dust therefore hath the Body cast off her old Garments and changed her attire she was sown a Natural body she is raised a Spiritual body sown in weakness but raised in Power in dishonor but raised in Glory sowen in Corruption but raised in Incorruption that she may for ever dwell with the Incorruptible Soul in Unity There are no jarrings twixt Soul and Body here as in
with Consolatory bread and Angels food that true Bread descending from Heaven nor with the Wine of the Grapes of Gomorrha but of the true Vine Christ Iesus the Lamb the Head and Husband of the Church which at the heavenly Mariage shall be drunk new in the kingdome of Heaven There we drink not of this Wine made of water as at the Mariage in Cana but ex botro illo magno terrae promissionis qui interim in vecte portatur dum secundùm carnem novimus ChristuÌ„ hunc crucifixum which we drink at the Lords table in types signs here which are mortal and perishing but in Heaven at that great Supper of the Lord really and truly immortal and incorruptible enduring to eternal life For in Heaven is no labouring for the meat which perisheth the Saints glorified use not corruptible food their food is spiritual and immortal fitting and suitable to that state of glory and their tast is accordingly no carnal rellish no earthly savour nil quippe in his carnale sapit nil seculare nil vanum sed spiritus veritatis caelestis sapientia est cujus in utraque suavitas praelibatur He that cometh to the Lords Supper in his old garments hath not this spiritual relish nor shall he be thought worthy to be partaker of that great Banquet the Supper of the Lamb in Heaven or tast of that food as wel those that come here unworthily as those that refuse to come though invited shall all be excluded hereafter so saith the Lord of the Feast I say unto you none of those men who were called shall tast of my supper And to the unworthy person it is sayd also Friend how camest thou hither not having thy Wedding-garment take him c. And lastly Christ is the object of our sense of Touching we receive him into our hands we take him into our mouthes we feed on him in our hearts we dwell in him and he in us so to every sense is Christ spiritually sensible tangible by the hand as visible to the eye prae manibus as he is prae oculis CHAP. III. Of the Knowledge of the Soul by Intuitive Intellection or Beatifical Vision Chap. 3. Book 3. HItherto of the knowledge fetcht from External objects by the means of outward senses the Internall are not without their use viz. Phantasie and Memory but of these sufficient hath been said already Nor yet shall we further treat of that Internall intellectuall knowledge which the humane soul in its Glorified estate hath of all Material Immaterial created substances viz. of Angels and abstracted Forms other inferior creatures which are represented to its knowledge per speciem by an innate form and similitude chiefly and primarily in their universal natures secundarily in their individuals in one single aspect and intuition which manner of knowledge is natural and essential to Spirits and Essences intellectual for this hath also been elswhere handled But here we shall principally insist upon that Science of the Soul or rather Sapience which consists in the sole intuitive Intellection or Beatifical Vision of the divine Essence and Nature of God himself which is not per aenigma as in this life but facie revelata not in his back parts onely but the infinite Essence and Majesty the very quiddity and being of the great Iehovah as he is in himself so St. Iohn expresseth it fully and clearly manifested And the divine Sapience which comes by this Intuition or Intuitive Intellection surpasseth all other manner of knowledge whatsoever this is not natural to any created Angelical Intellect comes not by any strength of nature created by God into any finite being nor can it stand with natural reason how a finite capacity for so are all created intelligences should perfectly and distinctly clarè perspicuè cognitione perfecta non confusa apprehend see and know an infinite Essence as intensively Infinite this is supra captum humanum and exceeds all natural power Yet above reason is beleeved for so is the Faith of holy Church that the blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven do clearly and fully see and know God do behold him as he is in himself The Mind and Intellect glorified sees the Will enjoyes God its chiefest and most desirable good more fully and more certainly than any man here enjoyes any temporal estate In this Intuitive Vision and Fruition of God is Mans eternal felicity his beatitude his summum bonum seated here comes in the fulness of the Promises here 's the consummation of our Hopes this is the final intrinsical end of Mans Creation to see God clearly and to enjoy him fully our Beatitude consists in this and is the same beatitude wherewith God himself is blessed God is most blessed and therefore most blessed because he alwayes beholds himself as he is and eternally enjoys himself he hath made us partakers in hope of the same chiefest good to be like him in the same felicity together with all the glorious Saints and Angels so saith the Apostle We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is There were certain Hereticks Armenians and others but condemned of old by several Decrees and Councils who held it imposible for any created Intellect by any power whatsoever clearly to see God and therefore they held further the Beatitude which is promised by God and waited for by us to consist non in familiari illo quem speramus divine naturae intuitu sed cujusdam creati fulgoris ab ea manantis And indeed in the eye of Reason it is impossible unto Nature altogether repugnant that any created Intellect by any strength of it own should perfectly know the infinite Godhead but what is impossible with men is notwithstanding possible with God Multa fieâ—i possunt virtute divina quae naturae creatae viribus fieri non possunt saith Suarez nam etsi Deus à nullo intellectu creato clarè cognosci potest viribus naturae videri tamen clarè perspicuè poâ—est ab iis quorum mentes divina bonitas supra naturae modum illustraverit ad quandam divinae naturâ—e participationem evexerit saith Fonseca This is done by a supernatural power fide tenemus quod ratione improbamus Though all power is not excluded from the nature of created Intellection for an Obediential power is founded in the nature of the Reasonable Soul even unto acts of divine and supernatural quality to those supernatural habits of Faith Hope Charity c. not Acquisite by any intrinsical power of it own but infused by God drawn out of the power of the Soul eductione supernaturali ad quam non requiritur ex parte subjecti potentia naturalis receptiva sed obedientialis sufficit which obediential power is founded in the nature of the Soul Suarez tom 1 disp 15. sect 2.9 and in that respect is natural and essential to it In which sense Aquinas is to be understood saying * 1.2 q. 113.