heauen in the glasse of the Trinitie and diuine vnitie here this is an Article of our faith vnderstood in the resurrection of the flesh and life eternall When there is any question of faith reason must be silent and yeeld and therefore S. Bernard coÌ„fesseth that when he thinks of the estate of the foule he thinks to see two things in it in a manner coÌ„trarie if he beholds it with his humaine discourse as she is in her selfe and of her selfe he can say nothing more certen but that shee is reduced to nothing c. Next it was affirmed that man was verie credulous to â—…uill incredulous to good suspirion turnes alwaies cun ningly to the worst part said an Ancient hee swallowes downe slanders and impostures sweetly and distrusts honest and vertuous things such is his miserie If he think that the immortalitie of the soule cannot be grownded sollidly vpon any humaine argument let him also thinke that there cannot instance be giuen to the contrarie which is not easily ouerthrowne so as he bring a spirit that is tractable not preiudicate And aboue all that hee doe not perswade him-selfe that he may see it or feele it as the smoake or heate going out of the fire so the soule going out of the bodie for it is a spirit and therefore not possible to be comprehended but by reason and vnderstanding which are spirituall operations but let vs answere him to euery point It seemes the Obiector takes an ill presage of the immortallitie of the soule for that she is fauourable as if it were not the nature of man if he be not brutish to court those things which are worthy excellent as the soule of man is aboue al the world All men applaude men in great authoritie we esteeme pretious things as siluergold Pearle what a sot or rather a madd man is he that will haue a concoit that the thing is not excellent because it is respected As for the 400. Prophets they spake vnto the King according to humaine sence and were found false Micheas according to the word of God reuealed vnto him and it was true The Obiector reasons according to carnall sence he shal be taxed with falsehoode Wee speake according to the spirit of God in his holy writ we shall be found true He desires in the end or makes a shew to desire it that wee should ballance our reasons I am content and I protest it will be to his confusion for the Father of light will not suffer Satan the father of lies to triumph ouer the truth For the first instance then we say that Huart doth not meane the soule by the vnder standing but the intellectual spirits whereof she hath need to argue and to vnderstand the things of this world and to write worthily and these intellectuall spirits holding of the vitall bodie it is not strange if they be more vigourous according to the estate of the body and contrariewise if they perish when the bodie perisheth for although they be of a celestial substance exceeding whâ—…t exceeding light and most substantiall that they may be more ready to serue the soule yet are they mortall but the soule in her substance receiueth no increase nor diminution since the moment of her creation infusion into the body at all times yea in all men she is equally perfect as complete in the Ideot as in the learned in the coward as the couragious these are the diuers instruments of the bodie whereof she makes vse which make her diuers in her effects these instrumeÌ„t 〈◊〉 diuerse for that they are diuersly mixt of the foure first humors Moreouer this Spanish Philosopher defines the immortalitie of the soule against Gallen which he calls a substantiall acte and forme of a humaine bodie Cap. 7. of his Examen of spirits Here the impostor doth impertinently confound mortall spirits with the immorall spirit and our reason grownded vpon this that the soule the bodie dying thinkes of the delightfull places in heauen and foretelles things to come with much certitude according to the opinion of Tully and our owne To the Second This generall submission of all menin all places and at times vnder a powerfull Maiestie shewes the natural bond which man hath to doe his homage by reason of the immortalitie of his soule and that he doth rather worship vaine ridiculous and abominable things then none at all doth not deface this bonde but confirmes it more yet shewing that he wanders in the darknes of this world and in steed of taking the way of the East to goe vnto heauen if he be not guided and directed from aboue he takes the contrarie way and wanders farre The which we yeeld but it is a terror answers he to keepe man in his dutie it is true therefore religion is not in vaine for without it for one disorder man would commit ten thousand it proceeds say you from nature and institution I answer it is from nature only that she takes her beginning education doth manure it better it but what doe you vnderstand by nature For the Philosophers haue beene accustomed to signifie 4. distinct things by the same name which yet symbolize together the lowest is the temperature of the 4. humors in the body of man The 2. is the soule which giues motion vnto the body The 3. is the ordinance and rule which God hath established in the world The 4. is God himself called by some in that regard nature naturant If the Obiector means that feare and religion proceed onely from the temperature of the 4. humors in the body of man hee is condemned of falsehood contradiction by his owne saying in that he attributes feare to other creatures the which he knower differ from man in the same temperature and in truth it is in the soule that the reuerence of the Deâ—…ie that is of God is graueÌ„ it comes from this vniuersall rulâ—… and whereas hee would inferre that in women great feare causeth great religion he must vnderstand that religion in man hath conscience for her chiefe foundation which applyes the naturall apprehension of a superiority to an acknowledgment there of and for accessories shee hath contemplation in the superior part and feare in the lower As for the principall foundation it is common to men and women the two others are diuers Contemplation is greater in men and feare in women Contemplation doth stirre vp the will to the seruice of God by two considerations the one is of the diuine power bounty to haue had wil and power to giue life when as wee dreamt not of it to haue drawne vs out of endlesse dangers and to haue continued the course of his graces notwithstaÌ„ding our ingratitude The other consideration is from the basenesse and weakenesse of man which makes him to feele his imperfections and to repaire vnto the fountaine of all good feare doth stirre vp to humilitie to contrition of heart to confession of mouth
is vnknowne vnto vs. that we haue a soule sayth Seneca by whose commandement wee are thrust on and called backe all men confesse it but what this soule this Lady and Queene is no man can decide neither yet where shee abides Laertius or rather Heraclitus for him Let vs passe ouer the soule sayth hee for no man can finde it yea if hee should imploy his whole life so profound is the reason thereof Do not vrge that the eye seeth euery thing but it selfe for the eye seeth another eye but one soule knoweth not another soule yea the eye seeth it selfe not his image but his proper substance in the reflexion of his visuall beames by the meanes of the looking-glasse as for the soule al they that haue deliuered their opinions haue seemed to doate Varro hath sayd that it was an aire conceiued in the mouth purified in the lights made lukewarme in the heart diffusedly spred ouer the whole body Zeno that it was a fire kindled in our bodies by the celestiall fire Empedocles and Circias that it was nothing but the blood Hippocrates that it was a subtile spirit insinuated throughout the whole body Thales that it was a nature mouing of it selfe without rest Asclepiades a common exercise of the senses Hippoc. that she goes alwayes on vntill death 6 Epistle part 5. com 5. Finally if it were euer it is in this That so many heads so many opinions Answere The soule flowing from the diuine essence hath that common with God that we see many nega tions of her but few or no affirmations but we know with Aristotle that it is the perfection of a natural body which may haue life that it is the beginning of nourishment feeling motion and vnderstanding And yet more then that although wee cannot climbe so high the reason is that the knowledge which the soule hath of things is from the senses by meanes of the Ideaes but the soule cannot bee perceiued by the senses of her there are no Ideas nor by consequence any knowledge And as for this aire this fire these spirits such as they are fashioned in the braine they are but organes and vessells fit for the soule seeing that wee see them wast and consume euery moment without losse of life the which notwithstanding cannot subsist without the ministery of the soule Finally as for the different opinions of diuers men they shew that they know not what it is but withall they demonstrate that they know there is a soule which they striue to know but who is he that would study to know that which is not in nature vnlesse he were mad The second Obiection If the soule were endowed with a speciall motion she would expresse it by her body But she doth not expresse it IF the soule at the departure out of the body had her flight towards heauen she would giue some signe of it to the body stirring it with some speciall motion Simple Creatures mooue themselues in all sorts of motions differing from plants which without mouing from their place doe but grow vp and spread abroad for that their soules are diuers and why should not man who hath a speciall soule haue a speciall motion As for that he bounds and skips therein a goate or a cat hath more then hee neither is that the reasonable soule that doth it but rather the vegetatiue the mixture of the naturall fire which raiseth him wherfore as soone as a man breathes and exhales this fire hee falls from his leape but of any proper or particular motion of this flying soule hee feeleth nothing Answere Seruius vpon the 6. of Virgil will answer That the soule in the body is like vnto a Lyon shut vp in a streight cage which notwithstanding loseth nothing of his force although he cannot shew it but if he once escape you shal see him as strong as before so as a man would thinke his force had bene abated in his prison Moreouer some haue bene so actiue as they haue flowne as at Paris in the yeare 1551. there was one vndertooke to flie from the Tower of Nefle vnto the Louure the riuer being betwixt both the King expecting him and although hee could not get to the end of his enterprise yet hee got vp into the aire after such an admirable manner as hee came to the mid-way But the flying of the Creature doth not proue his essence immortall for then birds should be immortall And how then can the soules mount vp to heauen going out of the bodies If thou doest beleeue the holy Scriptures the Angells sent to serue them louingly which shall receiue the inheritance of saluation will carry them as the Angell did poore Lazarus Hereunto that good Father Macarius had regard There is a great Mistery saith hee accomplished in soules going out of the bodies for if they bee guilty of sinne troopes of diuells and bad angells flocking about them seaze vpon those soules as their slaues and carry them away c. But if they bee in good estate the companies of good Angells carrying them to a better life present them vnto the Lord yet wee will not deny but in the soule there is an intrinsecall vertue to climbe vp to heauen with a swiftnesse equall to her desire if that fire hath a secret force to mount vp to his proper place being a dead Element what then shall the soule separated do being so actiue and so quicke and whose proper Country is Heauen And although that heauen especially that which is the mansion of happy soules bee so many leagues distant as Astrologers which haue sought to take the height haue found millions being much amazed haue mounted neere to two thousād millions of leagues yet we must not beleeue that the soule is long in passing this great distance for that her motion not being continued but diuided like to that of spirits departing out of the body she is presently in heauen euen as in this corruptible bodie in a moment shee sends the beames of her sight and thoughts vp to heauen But wholy to stoppe the mouth of our aduersarie we say that the true knowledge of the soule in her immortalitie is no humaine inuention but a diuine reuelation as Iustine Martyr sayth and that since shee is fallen from her first integritie which fall hath so amazed dulled her as she knowes not truely what she hath beene what she is or where shee is nor whither she shall goe of whosesinne she is the subiect as Iron is of rust it hath wholie spoyled her dulled her quicknesse and weakned her vigour which is the cause that she stumbles in the way of health is blynde in the knowledge of the least things is interrupted in the course of her brauest discourses by a flye or any toye To conclude shee is so troubled as shee dreames of a thousand fancies in a manner mistakes euery thing The fift Obiection To alledge the desire of a morsell of fruit
by the fauourable winde of diuine grace may to morrow str◅ke against the rockes of incredulitie haue a contrary winde and suff◅r shipwracke and so haue ◅eede of the answeres ◅ere set downe To conclude counterp◅ysons are not for the sound but for the sicke and infected these confutations are not for them which bee cleane in heart and sound in spirit but for such as irreligion and presumption of humane wisedome haue bewitched Othou the Cr◅ator of all things the Authour of our life the Inspirer of our soules the Father Sonne and holy Ghost one true and onely God I humbly beseech thee illuminate the eyes of my vnderstanding that I may plainely see the happy issue of fearefull death that it will please thee so to purifie the thoughts of my soule that shee may fully apprehend the true causes of her immortality that it will please thee so to fauour my penne that it may write worthily vpon so worthy a subiect that the worke finished thou mayest be glorified the Reader edified and my selfe fortified Amen The Combate betwixt Man and Death The first Argument taken from the Instrumentall cause of eternal life The only meanes to attaine to the perfection of that good which the world so much desireth should not giue any amazement to the world Death is the only meanes Therefore Death should not giue any amazement to the world THE first proposition of this Argument doth plainely iustifie it selfe for without exception all men desire the happinesse of life the perfection of Soueraigne good which is the beatitude of the holy Spirit called eternal life I except not ill doers for they erre in doing ill and either beleeue that it is good or the way which tends vnto it But there is but one way to attaine vnto this good which is death Now then to abhorre this death more then horror it selfe greedily to desire that good which only death can giue vs to desire health and reiect the potion whereby we may recouer it to affect the pleasures which they say are in those fortunate Ilands but without any figure in that heauenly Paradice to refuse to enter into that shippe which alone can bring vs thither were to mocke at himselfe Let vs proceed and come to the proofe of the 2. proposition for thereon is grownded the force of our Syllogisme That Death is the onely meanes to attaine vnto the perfection of life is manifest in that the perfection of euery thing is the enioying of the ends all the lines of our dessignes all the proiects of our enterprises all our sweating and toyle tend and aime at the end Who knowes not that death is the first end of life feeles not but that life in her greatest vigour driues him directly thither all men may see that life is vnited inseparably vnto death by the con tinuance of the same succession of times cōsider this time whereof the enioying is the life There are three parts that which is past the present and the future the presēt is the bond of that which is past and of the future and as this article of the present time runnes as violently towards the future as the Primum Mobile turnes in the heauē so doth ourlife run vio lently towards her end This life is a very way as soone as thou doest enter into it and makest but one step it is the first pace towards the end of the way towards the end of life which is death for the going out of the cradle is the beginning of the entry to the graue whether thou wilt or wilt not whether thou thinkest of it or not yet it is true yea as certaine as in an howre-glasse where the first graine of sand which runnes is a guide vnto the last to the end of the hower Euery day we passe carries away some part of our life yea as we grow life decreaseth this very day which we now enioy is deuided betwixt Death and vs for the first howres of the morning being past to the present in their flowing are dead to vs wherefore Seneca had often this sentence very fitly in his mouth Death hath degrees yet that is not the first Which diuides vs in twaine but of the death is the last And it is the very reason why that wise Tekohite sayd vnto Dauid in the present time For certaine we die and slide away as the waters which returne no more So many degrees as there are in life so many deaths so many beginnings of another life Let vs examine them and take speciall note of the first death to iudge of the latter for herein as in all the other workes of wise Nature the end is answerable to the beginning The first degree of mans life is when being fashioned and framed hee liues in the wombe of his mother this is a vegetatiue life a life proper to plants only wherein hee may receiue nourishment grow in this life he continues commonly but nine moneths at the end of which time hee dies but a happy death whereby he gaines the vse of the goodly sences of nature that is to say of sight hearing smelling tasting and touching behold then the first death when as the Infant by the force of nature is driuen out of that fleshie prison comming from which place he striues and stretcheth out himselfe hee is angry with nature and cries incessantly but he is ill aduised it is his good and the beginning of his perfection Now followeth the infantiue life not differing from that of beasts which extends vnto seuen yeares compleate of this life child-hood is the death which begins at eight yeares and retaines nothing of the Infancy As for the exterior of man which is the body not the flesh nor bones not the foure principall humors if that bee true which the Phisitions hold for a Maxime that our bodies change all their substance euery seuen yeares And in truth how could our sliding nature so long subsist if it were not maintained by drinke and meate the which by a certaine vertue infused into all the members of the body digested purged and applied doth transubstantiat it selfe into our very bodies proportionably as the substance decayes as appeares by the words in the booke of Wisedome cap. 5. Being borne wee suddenly desist from that being wherein wee were borne It is no more the first body which wee brought into the world that is dead wee haue an other in our child-hood the third degree of life which extends vnto 18. yeares at the end wherof his death encounters him in the which beginnes the 4. degree of life which goes vnto 22. and then dies but from this death riseth youth the 5. degree which florisheth vnto 30. yeares then his flower falls and his youth is lost but a rich losse seeing thereby man-hood the perfect age is gotten which being strong and vigorous climbes vnto 50. yeares and this is the 6. degree of life Then comes age the 7. degree of life and the
this base estate I know not why I liue hauing no more to doe here to fore I had a desire to liue to see thee liue to Christ I see it why then stay I longer here and soone after yeelded vp her soule to the Spirit of all power Euen so O mortall men liue as long as you list exceede the many yeeres of Nestor or the 969. of Methusalem yet shall you not see any other thing in this world but those foure great Princesses the foure seasons of the yeere holding hands together and dancing this round continually sometimes shewing their gracious aspects sometimes their backs deformed as Philo the Iew speaks It is like Sysiphus stone which being thrust vp by force to the top of the Mountayne returnes presently backe againe to the foote of it and like the Sunne which hath no sooner toucht one of the Tropikes but hee suddenly turnes to the other To conclude it is Danaes tonne pierced full of holes they may well poure in water but they shall neuer fill it These are fictions but they haue their mysticall hidden sences The holy Scripture hath Parables and Philosophie figures let no man therefore reiect them for so did the ancient Philosophers shadow their Philosophie And as mercenarie labourers toyling and sweating in the longest day of Sommer reioyce when they see the Sunne decline and neere his setting so wee after such painefull trauaile whereunto this life doth force vs let vs reioyce when wee draw neere vnto our declining and let vs not refuse being weary and tyred to rest our selues in the sweet armes of death to the which without doubt there is no bed in the world how pleasing soeuer to be compared There is nothing here but ignorance that keepes vs backe If the Israelites had truely vnder stood the beauty and bounty of the land of Canaan if they had beene assured of the enioying thereof they had not so often murmured against Moses being ready to stone him they had not wisht for the oynions and leekes of Egypt they would haue taken courage in the midst of the desart Let vs then conclude that there is nothing but the blindnesse of man which hinders him from seeing the ioyes of heauen whereunto death is the waye Wherefore let vs open the eyes of our vnderstanding not grieue for the grosse foode of this world for in heauen there is prepared for vs the meate of Angels Obiection Any exchange from a place that is pleasing and certaine for one that is vncertaine must needs cause trouble vexation Death is the exchange of the world which is pleasing and certaine for a place wholly vncertaine MOst part of the world when the Lampe of this life is almost wasted are so perplexed as they do lose themselues In the chiefe Citie of Aragon vpon a Knights tombe this Epitaph is written in Latine I know not whither I goe I die against my will Farewell suruiuers The Emperour Titus dying said Alas must I die that haue neuer deserued it There is to be read at Rome vpō the stone of a Sepulcher of Sextus Perpenna to the Infernall gods I haue liued as I list I know not why I die Whereunto may be added the verses which the Emperour Adrian a little before his death made vnto his soule My pretty soule my daintiest My bodies sociable Guest Whither is my sweetest going Naked trembling little knowing Of that delight depriuingme That while I liu'd I had from Thee Many at this day in the light of the Gospell shew by their actions that they are no better resolued then these were although that shame will not suffer them to confesse it when as death approcheth Answer Wee deny the Minor of the Argument for it is not true that death is of it selfe to bee beloued if it appeares so it is but in comparison of some extreame misery which we apprehend in leauing it for the liuing are as we haue said like vnto them which are carried away violently with a stream who to saue themselues lay hold of that which comes first to hand yea if it were a barre of burning Iron If you will then aske them how pleasing that estate is you may easily ghesse what they will say That if they were as certaine as it is most certaine that there were no harme in death as shall appeare they would not breake out into such complaints It is also false that this place is certaine Gorgias the Rhetorician will not depose it for being demanded if hee died willingly Yea said hee for I am not grieued to leaue a lodging which is rotten and open of all sides And Epicurus had often in his mouth that against any thing in the world wee might finde some place of safety but we all liued in a City which was not fortified against death and in truth this body is but a little plot of earth commanded of euery side flanked of none hauing furious enemies without mutinous within Ingeners haue made many impregnable forts but neuer able to resist death Physitions haue drawne out the quintessence of their spirits if they haue any time found a delay yet must they in the end yeeld and pay the interest Fabulous Aeson returned to youth by the Sorceresse Medea and true Lazarus raised againe by the Sauiour of the world haue not yet for all that escaped death But you will reply It is that which wee would say that without death life shold be certaine I answere that you know not what you say for life as it is made here and whereof our question is cannot bee without death to desire to be a man and not be willing to die is not to desire to liue for it is one of the conditions of life as shall appeare in the following Argument Moreouer I adde that what incertainty of the future Estate soeuer you pretend doubtlesse it cannot bee so miserable except the reprobate as that of this life Thirdly admit that life were certaine yet the pleasures would not be so but rather the displeasures certaine That wise King of Macedon saw it feared it and protested against it For newes comming vnto him of three great prosperities that hee had won the price at the Olympike games that hee had defeated the Dardanians by his Lieutenant and that his wife had brought him a goodly sonne hee cried out with his hands lift vp to heauen O Fortune let the aduersity which thou preparest for me in exchange of thy fauours be moderate But I will sommon you Merchants which make a profession of trafficke There is a bargaine offered vnto you in the which you finde of the one side gaine to bee made and of the other losse I demand if like a good husband you will not weigh the losse with the gaine to the end that finding the losse the greater you may breake off the bargaine And why should not man obserue the like in life which is much more important Why should bee not ballance the pleasures
water and saw with drie eyes his life fade away But S. Ambrose assures that a good consciēce makes the life happy Be it so but forgets to adde That in the death of the faithfull this happynesse is doubled for it is pretious before God And in the end I deny that those men in whom a melancholy humour doth most abound suffer themselues to bee so abused in their iudgements for this humour is more aduised then all the rest hauing some diuine matter in it as Aristotle saith and therefore more to be credited then the rest and particularly more then the Iouiall sanguine As for the admonition of the Stoicks it was easie for them to speake it but vertue consists in action and I know not whether Epictetus did that himself which he taught to others otherwise as the prouerbe saith I hate the Philosopher which is not wise but for others and not for himselfe You will that I take the most troublesome things on the best fide yea but I see no end of that side it is like vnto occasion which hath long haire before and bald behinde Where is that end then I cannot see it and admit I should I cannot attaine vnto it being borne vnder the planet of Saturne alwaies taking things on that side which is sadde I would haue my neighbour and my aduersarie obserue your precept and he would haue me and so neither of vs doe it and we continue by reason of the one and the other in continuall vexation Finally the pleasure of this world is very small and intermixt with many displeasures It is a Myne where there is gold but it is so fastned to the stones as to draw one crowne it will cost 12. So there is not one ounce of ioy but doth cost a pound of sorrow The 18. Argument taken from the miseries of life Euery Estate that is full of calamity should desire and not apprehend a change This present life is full of calamity c. THe field of this streight life is so spacious and so full of great dangers and extreame miseries as the exchange thereof to him that hath any sence cannot be but delightfull Obserue the diseases of the body measure number their greatnes and their great number consider the tempests stormes of the passions of the soule the clouds and troubles of his vnderstanding and you will conclude that man must of necessity change this life or to be continually miserable in euery degree And therefore he was fitly compared to a Bull which leapt suddenly into his Maisters garden and by chance ouerthrew sundry skepps of Bees which being prouoked came forth assaile him and sting him on the throate backe in the eyes and generally all ouer And it auailes him nothing to pierce the ayre with his homes to beate the earth with his feete to whippe his flankes with his strong tayle to roare make a noyse yee his stingings sticke still-to him and do not leaue him So man since that in his Creatures garden in the earthly Paradise he durst presume to ouerthrow and transgresse his Masters commandments there is no part of him from the head to the foote which is not toucht and pierced euen to the marrow of his bones with many calamities his head is subiect to inflamed Phrensies which make him madd to the Apoplexie which like Lightening depriues him of all motion his eyes are toucht with the Opthalmie or inflāmation the Squinancie takes him by the throate which making the Muscles to swell with a congealed bloud stoppe the passage of respiration the inflamed Pleurisie stabs him in the sides the Feauer burns him the swelled Dropsie drownes him the Iaundise makes war against his Liuer powring forth gall for pure bloud the vngentle Cholike wrings his bowells straitens the passages and makes of his mouth a stinking Iakes the bloudy flux excoriates his gutts the hardened grauell staying his vrine in the bladder pricks him most horribly the Goute knits his sinnews faster then bonds of Iron the Canker burnes his flesh more then fire it selfe the filthie and lousie Phtiriasis eats his skin Finally there is not any member either within or without the body that is not subiect to many infirmities Who can comprehend them all seing the eyes alone by exact search of Physitions is assayled with 113. diseases And who doth not see here that the estate of man is very wretched And that which doth aggrauate this is that euen those helps wherewith they think to ease themselues the medicins are conuerted into worse torments then thé disease the strict dyets the bitter potions the cutting and burning of members which they vse in Cankers and other vlcers that tubbe wherein they boyle the bodies of such as are infected with the venerian scab or the French poxe with a thousand other deuices to restore health and life to man what torments what agonies and what cryes do they not cause vnto the poore patients These miseries are great but those of the minde are greater which seemed for her noble extraction not to be subiect to any Come and let vs runne ouer her faculties the vnderstanding holds the chiefe place at the very entrie of life we see in infants a greater ignorance then in brute beasts Fawns as soone as they are borne know their dammes and without helpe of any goe into the most secret places to seeke the dug and sucke whereas children new borne know not where they are and being neere the breast will crie and perish with hūger rather then suck as S Augustine writes and experience doth teach This ignorance hath taken such deepe roote in the spirit os man as to roote it out and passe vnto the sciences there is found such difficultie as most men had rather liue perpetually in darkenes then to take so much paines to learne Thirdly and that is most lamentable man knowes nothing of his last end in the getting of which knowledge consists his soueraigne good hee goes alwayes astray if God doth not inspire him from aboue Let all the sects of Philosophers be witnesse who by so many diuers waies haue sought it yet could not finde it Fourthly the ignorance in man of his Essence is a notable misery the Angels know themselues perfectly The soule knowes nothing lesse then it selfe and the body which was giuen it for an Organ of the Sciences hinders it that she neither knows her selfe nor any other thing for the body which corrupts makes the soule heauie and this earthly habitation puls downe the spirit that it cannot raise it selfe to thinke of many things For a fift point there is a curiositie or naturall itching to obserue the actions errours of others more willingly and diligently then his owne this misery is great for to know his owne faults is alwayes profitable and many times necessary to examine other mens actions is seldome good and many times pernicious There is for the 6. place and for the deepest degree of the calamitie
matter perisheth not and is not reduced to nothing but flowes dayly vnder new formes This matter is bounded the starres and the heauen which roule about it make it to bring forth creatures continually and man sometimes but by some rare constellation as the Naturallists speake The heauens I say are bounded and their motions limited Wherefore I maintaine it is not impossible that in an eternity of time that which is limited and bounded and hath once met and is ioyned may yet againe meete and be reioyned if we consider that it is not by chance but by fatall necessity that this Vniuerse roules without ceasing as al they among the Pagans which haue had any vnderstanding haue acknowledged Yea one of them said that who so would demande proofes thereof must be answered with a whip but behold a most certaine proof all creatures euen those that haue no vnderstanding tend alwayes to their ends propounded and all encounter in one vniuersall end If there were not a certaine prouidence in the world which prescribes to euery creature that end which it knoweth not and makes it containe it selfe the world should not be a world that is to say a most excellent and well ordained composition but the greatest confusion that could be imagined Seeing then that the heauens in their motions the starres in their coniunctions the causes in their order euen vnto the last may encounter together so those things which wholly deâ—…d of them may bee redâ—… 〈◊〉 the same estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a maxime in Physicks that the matter and the Agent haue such power after the death and destruction of the creature as they had during his life what then can hinder it but by the position of the same causes and the same circumstances of time concurring the same effect may be repaired Moreouer the thing which is no more is no farther from being then that which hath not bene and there is no impossibility but that which hath had no being may come to light neither is ther any repugnancy but that which hath bene once liuing may come againe to life yea and who knowes whether that which is now hath not beene often heretofore I should beleeue it if I did giue credit to the eternity of the world As for the similitude of clay which the Obiect or not vnderstanding me doth presse so strongly it is very fit in this matter for the workeman which hath made a man and then hath wrought it to make a horse and then confounded it to make an ape and in the end an Eagle may if hee please returne and make the same man which he had made first and hauing vndone it may make a horse and so consequently one after an other in infinitum not that hee can make them all foure subsisting at one time therein the Obiector fights with his shadow and not with my saying And to demonstrate the power of Nature turning about her circle returning backe to the point where she had begun and passing ouer all the circumference of the circle to repaire that in place and time which she had dissolued shee would leaue for an earnest penny the Phenix the only bird of his kinde which is seene in Arabia and which the Egyptians in their Hierogliphicall letters painted to describe by his long continuance the immortality of the soule This goodly birde after many ages past to renew himselfe casts himselfe vpon a pile of stickes layd together the which hee doth so beate with his wings and with the helpe of the Sun which hangs perpedicularly ouer him as it takes fire and consumes the body out of which springs a little worme and of that a little birde which being couered with feathers in the end flies away and becomes the same Phenix You will question the truth hereof if the same Nature did not as much or more in the silke-worme whose egge is no bigger then a graine of millet it discouers a little woolly worme the which without dying transformes it selfe into a moth that changeth into a flie which hath scales and this becomes a butterflie which beating it selfe continually layes egges of these egges come little wormes and so consequently by an infinite circulation Wherefore these diuerse changes and formes happening in our bodies should not amaze vs but rather assure vs that hauing bin carried farre about they shall returne to their first estate seeing that their walkes and this Vniuerse haue their limits and bounds and seeing by the testimony of the wise man that which hath beene is now and that which is to come hath also beene God calling backe that which hath past that is to say as the Diuines expound it that God by his administration makes the Creatures succeeding one an other returne in their order as if they went about a wheele which kind of speech is taken from the celestiall Spheares which gouerne the seasons signifying that those things which happen by time are wheeled about with the reuolution of time which containes them These are the words of no vulgar Diuines whereby wee may see how much they yeeld to this opinion The end of the first Booke The Second Booke The first Argument taken from the Immortalitie of the soule That which is free from Death in the principall part should not feare it Man in his soule his principall part is freed frem death Therefore hee should not feare it IF all men could vnderstaÌ„d without doubting perswade themselues without wauering that their soules at the departure from their bodies are happilie immortall there is not any one without contradiction but would goe cheerefully and resolutely vnto death considering the miseries of this life and the heauie burthen of the bodie for it is the sepulcher of the soule as Plato saied The soule is a plant transported from heauen into a strange soyle into a body of earth where it sighs pines away and desires to depart The greatest thing in the world sayth Periander is contayned in a litle space Socrates maintained that the true man was that within which is lodged in the body as in an Inne S. Bernard exhorts the bodie to know it to intreate his guest which is the soule well The which Anaxarchus did apprehend who being beaten in a mortar did crie out couragiously to the tyrant Nicocreon Beat beate O hangman the flesh and boanes of Anaxarachus So M. Laeuius seeing Galba a great Orator with a deformed bodie sayd That great spirit dwels in a poore cottage But S. Paul shewes it better then all these If this earthly lodging be destroied if this bodie returne to ashes we haue a mansion with God And the body is the clothing of the soule the which Esop obiected to one who abused the beautie of his body He are my friend sayd he thou hast a faire garment but thou puttest it off ill Man is a caualier his body is the horse the spirit is the rider if the horse be lame blind
orresty sayth one the rider is not in fault The bodie is a ship the spirit the Pilot the ship suffers wracke but the Pilote saues himselfe by swimming or vpon some boarde the body dies the soule saues it selfe vpon the table of faith and repentance The bodie is a Lanterne the soule the Candle if the glasse be cleare and transparent the light is the greater so by the disposition of the body the soule is knowne more or lesse Man is a bird shut vp in the shell of the egge expecting vntill the shell breake of it selfe that he may come forth so doth the soule that the body my be broken to the ende shee may flie to heauen There are three places assigned to man the first is the matrix the second is this world the third is heauen the first is short the second a litle longer and the third is without ende In the first he cries at the comming forth for that he is ignorant of the goodly spectacle of the world which God as a table couered with all sorts of meate in a great Hall hath prepared for him In the second hee apprehends and desperatly feares his departure for that he knowes not this third heauen the seate of Iesus Christ of the Angells and of the blessed which is prepared for him infinitely more excellent then this base earth where he shall remaine euerlastingly and perfectly happy And these are the liuely similitudes with many other likewise which are continually in the mouthes and writings of such as treate profoundly thereof whereby man may see that he hath no subiect to feare death seeing that by it his soule his principall part and by which hee is man receiues so great a benifit And what shall it bee when the holy Ghost shall assure his Spirit that his body being layd in the ground as in a sacred pawne shal be restored to him immortall in the great and last day But attending this incomparable good let vs proue this immortality byreason first of all The soule reuiues and fortifies it selfe in the greatest agonies of death So Testators witnesse that they are sound in minde though very sicke in body so the disposition of a man at the point of death is of more weight for that hee hath a better conscience a more liuely feeling of his soule And Hippocrates giues aduice to obserue if in diseases there appeare nothing that is Diuine meaning that we should obserue the sighes and the gestures of the sicke patient for if they be vnaccustomed of heauen or of God it is a signe that the soule begins to discouer it selfe seeing it thinkes of heauen her proper mansion So Cyrus being in the bed of death caused his children to approach vnto him to whom hee gaue goodly admonitions but among others hee told them that hee could neuer bee perswaded that the soule lying in the body did remaine after the death of the mortall body as if he would say that vntill then he had studied to assure himself but now he did not doubt of it Nay we shall sometimes see ignorant Countrimen discourse exceeding well at the point of death as wee reade of a certaine labourer altogether vnlearned being nee◅e vnto his death had recommended his health his wife and children with as great Rethorike as Cicero could haue vsed discoursing before the Senate This reason was taken as a strong defence against death by the King of Arr◅gon and represented by Seneca to all that are fearefull in death saying This day which thou fearest so much as the last is the birth day of eternity The 2. is taken from religion and from the homage which man doth owe vnto God for the immortality of his soule not in one Country but in all not in one age but for euer not in one person but generally in all by some adoration prayer of sacrifice in what fashion soeuer man will sooner forget his King his father yea himselfe then his God yet hee makes no doubt but there is a King he sees him he knowes him he honours him and that he hath a father of whom hee holds his life and with whom he doth conuerse dayly and whom he is bound to loue finally he tries himselfe growes conceited and many times abuseth himselfe with the great loue of himselfe and yet hee holds himselfe more bound to God then to all these hee will not feare to displease them if he can no otherwise please God and will hold for Maximes That it is beter to obey God then men that he which doth not renounce father or mother for the loue of God is not worthy of him hee that doth not renounce himselfe and take vp the Crosse of affliction for the seruice of God deserues to bee renounced of him The vnciuill wars which haue swallowed vp so many men in Christendome within these 50. yeares had no other pretexts then these sentences and they had no other foundation then the conscience of the soule that immortall seale which God did graue in the soule when he did infuse it into the body of mā as Chrysostome saith Let vs obserue it in some examples but great in euery respect Alexander the Great being incensed for that the Iewes had denied him succors marcht with his Army to ruine them if the high Priest Iaddus with his ornaments and his holy troupe had not gone out to meete with Alexander Who when he saw the high Priest he admired him and fell downe at his feete whereat his people were amazed and troubled and his most confident Parmenio came vnto him How comes it sayth he since that you worship a man you whom althe earth is ready to acknowledge for a God It is not hee answered Alexander but God in him whom I worship who appeared to me in vision in the like habit in Macedon Whence came this suddaine forgetfulnesse of his owne reuenge from whence this acknowledgement to the Immortall but from an immortall soule As Antiochus held Ierusalem besieged the feast of Tabernacles drew neere the Iewes being resolued to celebrate it they sent an Embassage vnto him to demaunde a truce for seuen dayes that they might attend the holy worship of their great God The soule of this great King being toucht with religion not only yeelded to their demand but also hee himselfe turned to this homage caused oxen with gilded hornes to bee conducted to the Cittie gates with great store of Indense and sweet smells to be sacrificed In which action whether should we admire most either the patience of this great King willingly and deuoutly hindering his ready victory Or the forgetfulnesse of himselfe suffering those sacrifices that he knew to be vndertaken against his honor his fortime and his life And what doth not this confused apprehension of God worke in the immortall spirit of man Cybels Priests wil geld themselues thinking to please their goddesse the Athenian Priests will drinke Hemlocke to liue chastly the Virgins will lye vppon
man being borne and bred in the bottome of a darke caue thinks that he hath no facultie to see is he the therefore blinde the soule being buried in the darkenesse of a mortall body as in a graue sees not her immortalitie hath she therfore none Thirdly we doe not say that man is immortall for that he differs from beasts but for many reasons deliuered to be deliuered Fourthly the Philosophers aboue mentioned would see and touch the soule in her immortalitie she is not subiect to any sence S. Basile hath seene it in spirit written it with his hand The soule sayth he cannot be seene with eyes for that she is not illuminated by any colour nor hath any figure or corporal character Aristotle knew it whengoing out of the fabrike of corporall nature hee sayd that it was not the charge of a Physition to treat of all sorts of soules as is the intellectuall which hee pronounceth to differ from the sensitiue vegetatiue from which he sayth shee may separate her selfe as the perpetuall from the corruptible Gallen had his eyes fixed onlie vpon the body the subiect of Phisick and therefore hee sayd freely that it did not import him in his arte if hee were ignorant how the soules were sent into the bodyes or whether they past from one to an other But if it please Gallen leauing the limites of his arte to take the fresh ayre of diuine Philosophy presently his goodly conception is followed with these words The soule is distilling from the vniuerfall Spirit descending from heauen c. Which hauing left the earth recouers heauen and dwells with the Moderator of all things in the Celestiall places As for Hippocrates his words sound more of the immortalitie then of the death of the soule hauing this sence That the soule goes alwayes increasing vntil the death of the bodie But if you desire effects and not words what conceit could Aristotle Gallen and Hippocrates haue of the soule to bee mortall who by an immortall labour haue purchased such great same throughout the world and whose authoritie is the cause that they are now produced and maintained Finally that which he obiects of the soules thoughts fixed for the most part on the fraile things of this passing world it is no smal signe of the corruption of mankind but no argument that the soule is perishable seeing she retaines still the immortal seale which God hath set vpon her in her first creation The. 2 Obiection The container and that which is contained should entertaine themselues by a iust proportion The body and the soule are the container and contained IF the soule bee immortal seeing the body is mortall what proportion were there betwixt the soule and body How hath nature which doth all things by a iust weight number and measure ioyned things together which are so dislike It serues to no purpose to produce the birde kept in a cage which as soone as shee can get out flies away for he is kept there by force and not as forme in substance Answere Wee grant the whole argument and wee adde that it is sinne which came by accident that hath caused this great disproportion Otherwise man before sinne in his estate of innocency had his body immortall therefore Iesus Christ our Sauiour like a cunning Logitian drew the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soule for that God was called the God of Abraham of Isaacke and of Iacob but God sayth hee is not the God of the dead but of the liuing So sayth Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard that the soule is so separated from the body as there remaines still a naturall inclination to resume it againe to minister to his body and this onely doth hinder her that shee is not affectionate towards God withal her vertue and force as be the Angells and therefore her blessednesse is imperfect For the soules ô flesh saith Bernard cannot without thee bee accomplished in their ioy nor perfect in their glory nor consummated in their felicity and in the same place hee distinguisheth their degrees or places for the soule in this life as in a Tabernacle before the resurrection in heauen as in a gallery and then after the resurrection in the house of God But you will say this answere is Metaphisicall I desire one that is naturall Answere This goodly order which you recommend in nature required this ordering that as there are some Creatures meerely spirituall others meerely corporall so there were some which were mixt both spirituall and corporall and that is man who in that smal forme represents all that is in the world and who by his senses doth communicate with the Creatures and by his vnderstanding with the Angells giuing his right hand to heauen and his left to the earth The 3. Obiection If reason loades vs to the immortality of the soule by the same meanes she shold guide vs to the resurrection of the body But that is not true I Proue the Minor by this knowne Maxime of reason That there is no returne from priuation to the habit nor by consequence from death to life no more then from starke blindnes to sight Wherefore they of Athens where one writes that the men are borne Philosophers hearing S. Paul discourse of many points of heauenly doctrine they gaue an attentiue heare vnto him but when hee came to the Resurrection of Iesus Christ they interrupted him mocking at him as one that doated Ans. I deny it that the resurrectiō of the dead is absolutely beyond the apprehension of nature The West-Indians who are without the Church of Christ beleeue it and practise it as well by the ceremonies of their interrements which aime directly at it as by the vsuall intreaties they make to the Spaniards digging for the gold of their Sepulchres that they should not take out carry away the bones to the end they may rise againe speedily as Benzo reports At Rome this Epitaph is yet to be read in Latine vpon a Pagans tombe The publike hath giuen a place vnto Aurelius Balbus a man of an vnspotted life I rest heere in hope of the resurrection But that which is most wonderfull and exceedes all credit if they that write it were not eye witnesses and worthy of credit that in Egypt in a place neere vnto Caine a multitude of people meete on a certaine day in march to bee spectators of the resurrection of the flesh as they say where from Thursday to Saterday inclusiuely they may see and touch bodies wrapt in their sheetes after the ancient manner but they neither see them standing nor walking but onely the armes or the thighes or some other part of the body which you may touch If you go farther off and then returne presently you shall finde these members to appeare more out of the ground and the more they change place the more diuers these motions appeare This admirable sight is written by
efficient cause of Immortaliti But the soule is eleuated aboue all time and place IT is without all question that onely time ruines all things yet the vnderstanding is not subiect to time for the time past is present vnto it And therefore man shall see an act plaied before him and yet he shall haue another in his vnderstanding which was done 10. 20. or 30. yeares before and shall haue it so present in his minde as the spirituall intuition thereof will steale from his corporall eyes that which is presently acted before them So Scipio Affricanus sayed that he was neuer lesse alone then when he was alone why For that his actes past his armies led and his triumphes presented themselues vnto him in the most solitarie walkes of his garden Obserue a horse he doth not see seele nor thinke of any thing but the obiect that is before his eyes But contrarie-wise the soule is there where she stayes least she studies and calls to mind what is past becomes wise for the future before shee sees and of three times makes but one for that she is not subiect to time this is plainly seene in the Prophets to whom the future is reuealed in the spirit as it were present by him that hath made time And this is the true reason why the Prophets speak without lying of things to come as if they had bin done So Esay chap. 9. spake of Iesus Christ A child is borne vnto vs a child is giuen vs for hee saw him borne with his Propheticall eyes dead and risen againe I would insist vpon this Argument if it were not as plaine as it is firme As for the naturall place of the Soule she is not definite for she is all in the braine all in the heart all in the liuer all in the Matrix so of the other parts of the bodie not according to the totall of her vertue for she is one in the head an nother the feete another in the sight another in the hearing But she is thus diffused according to the totall of her essence which makes her in some sort infinite and by consequent immortall It is not then of her as of the moouer of a great wheele which touching one part makes all the rest turne Nor as a King who sitting in his Pallace stretcheth out his hands to the farthest confines of his kingdome But as God in the world who is in heauen on earth and all in all The first Obiection All that is distempered by heate and drought is perishable Such is the Soule GAllen thinking that the Soule burnes in the body by a burning feauer is lost with the great losse of bloud and that a strong poyson doth poyson it hee protests plainely that vntill that time hee had doubted what the substance of the Soule was but then growne wiser as well by practise as by age he durst boldly sweare that it was nothing but the temperature of the bodie And therefore calling Plato out of his graue hee demands of him how it is possible the soule should be immortall Answer The heate of a feuer and the corporall force cannot worke vpon the soule neither can she suffer and although the actions which the soule doth by meanes of the Organes of the body be depraued or interrupted by the deprauation and interruption of the Organes yet for all that the soule loseth nothing of her vertue nor of her habilitie He that euen now played excellently well on the Lute must not be held to haue lost his cunning if taking a Lute ill mounted and with 〈◊〉 stringâ—… hee play ill or if hauing no strings at all he ceaseth to play It is euen so of the spirit in the body for in the sinewes flowing from the braine there distills a certain vital spirit as a beame of the Sun of whose force the soule makes vse first to handle the sinewes and by them the Muscles which being afterwards moued reuiue euery member apart and altogether Now if any maligne disease come to depraue this subtile humor the functions of the soule feele it but not the soule Moreouer as certaine vncleane spirits remaining in some darke and filthy house by reason of the vapors agreeing with their dispositioÌ„ if it be clensed the doore windowes set open if a good aire a comfortable Sun and wholsome wind enter into it if it be inhabited by many who passe the time ioyfully and especially if they play vpon many Instruments these spirits quit the place So by a contrary analogie the soule is kept and entertained in the bodie by certaine spirituall qualities and fit for her exercises which comming in time to change to the contrarie they chase away the soule being glad vpon that occasion to dislodge from a place which was not to be held Thirdly if the temperament bee nothing but the Quintâ—…ssence of the mixtion of the foure elements whereof mans body is compounded as the harmonie is the fift sownd rysing from all the parts in Musicke and if Gallen meanes not to speake but of this soule which hee hath felt in the touching of the pulse in the Anatomie of the body I say of the vegetatiue and the sensitiue soule wee may yeelde vnto him But of the reasonable soule which contaynes these two within her compasse as the fift angle doth a triaÌ„gle quadrangle which makes vse of the temper to the bodie as of an instrument to rule and gouerne it as the Pilot doth the Helme to conduct his ship that cannot be for to confound the instrument with the principal agent the Pilot with the Helme were no reason In the actioÌ„s of a vegetatiue sensitiue life although there be a mature teÌ„perature required yet shall they neuer proue that this temper is necessary to vnderstand and contemplate seeing that out of all question the most exquisite contemplation consists in the sequestratioÌ„ of the soule from the communion of the body for that contemplation is the more certen the more it is sequestred from grosse circumstaÌ„ces of matter place and time things which with their accidentarie attires are perceiued by the seÌ„ses do often deceiue How often hath our sight and our hearing deceiued vs thinking to see heare one thing which proued another But the sciences as the Mathematicks which extract the Essences out of bodyes are neuer deceiued following their art and much lesse the Metaphisicke which coÌ„templates the pure spirits free from any contagion of matter But if the reasonable soule were nothing but the temperament of the body it could not bee but among a millioÌ„ of beasts which are in the world some one should bee found which had the same mixture of the the foure first humors which are in man and by consequence the same reasonable facultie and if any reply that the chiefe difference is in the braine I will answer that the Anatomy doth not shew any difference of the braine of men and beasts The 2. Obiection If the soule liued out of
my reason shall driue me there will I cast Anchor he speakes like a Poet in an extacie Seneca with a moâ—…e setled spirit will say That the election and direction we must take in this point is from perfect reason by the which we exceede bruite beasts and come neere vnto God â—…e might as well haue named the Euangelicall faith the true consuâ—…ation of reason but hee understood not the name But before I conclude I beseech you Gentlemen reade the whole Discourse and then giue your censures for as one Swallow makes no Summer but many flying in diuerse places and at seuerall times so if one reason shall not seeme sufficient vnto you many ioyned together will chase away the apprehension of death I meane not all apprehension but the excesse for it is the end of this Combat which tends to no other end but to reduce the extreame feare of death to a iust meane and to sweeten the imaginary bitternesse but wholly to pull this feare vp by the roote is neither possible nor profitable to the â—…nd that no man deceiue himselfe It is not possible for that man being naturally subiect to passion hee cannot disrobe himselfe vtterly of all passions but with his humanitie it is the worke of death why then should we feare it seeing that by the benefit thereof we cast away all feare Neither is it profitable during this life for as Architas saith Vertue springs from passions and prooceding from them dwels with them euen as the best harmony is composed of a sharpe Superius and a graue base euen so feare like to other passions being reduced to a mediocritie to the seate of true reason is conuerted into valour a vertue most necessary in a man Moreouer a wise and vnderstanding man must not cast himselfe rashly into dangers for hee cannot eclipse himselfe of this life but to the great preiudice not of himselfe but of the Church or Common-weale Finally I expect not herein to please all the world I haue bâ—…ene long of Solons minde that in a matter of importance it is a hard thing to please all men but I will adde impossible On the other side I know that Momus the Cynick will shoote against this butte the blackest arrows of his enuie and disdayne yet I entreate you Gentlemen not to beleeue his saying vntill that hee hath done better vpon this subiect otherwise as you know he is not to bee admitted in his opposition There are twelue houres in the day if this Discourse be forced to hide it selfe at the first it may be it will haue passage at the last and admit it should not happen that which one spake brauely I will protest freely It is enough if I haue few readers enogh if one enough if none at all for in this matter the aduice which Seneca gaue to his friend Serenus for a point of tranquillitie pleaseth me and I wâ—…ll depend thereon What neede is there saith hee to compose bookes which last whole ages wilt thou breake thy braine that posteritie may speake of thee Thou art borne to dye funerals without pompe are not so full of trouble wherfore if thou doest compose any thing let it be in a plaine stile to imploy thine iâ—…le time and for thine owne vse Euen so I haue ioyfully imployed my selfe according to my poore facultie to gather together the points of reason dispersed here and there against the feare of Death if it bee for no other then my selfe yet my labour shall not be in vaine and hauing done what I could I shall be acquited But I had almost forgot to defend my selfe from the iâ—…uectiue of some seuere Areopagite to haue produced the strongest obiections of the most â—…rofane against the immortalitie of the soule These are hee will say stinking irruptions of pestilent excrements which should be buried in the bottomlesse pit of hell and not infect the pure ayre of our Horizon To thiâ—… crimination I oppose foure reasons for my iustification the one is that the ayre of our Horizon is not pure but much infected with such contagion hee that doth not feele it nor heare it is a lepar and deafe There is one hath written aboue 20. yeeres since that impiety which before did but whisper in the eare and mutter betwixt the teeth presumed now to come into the Pulpit and to poure forth her blasphemies and doe wee not see and heare in this age which is much impaired that the most prophane are in most fauour and authoritie In this latter plague at Paris the chiefe Chirurgians of the Citie assembled in their Colledge where they published by writing all the poyson of this malignant disease and haue according to their Arte propounded counterpoysons to quench it who will blame them nay who will not thanke them The plague of the soules the damned doctrine of her death is propounded and refuted by sollide reasons who will repine at it The second is taken from the thing it selfe which is the immortalitie of the soule Truth will not be flattered nor disguised shee contents her selfe with her owne constancie and her naturall Ornaments shee is like the Palme tree which the more it is prest downe the higher it growes It is like gold the more it is tried the brighter it shines Hee that doubts of his cause likes not many questions we doubt not of the immortality of the soule the more she strikes against the stone of contention the more the fire of her immortall extraction will appeare The third reason comes from them that contradict the trueth if you suffer them alwayes to braue it in the end they will proclaime a triumph It is not the part of a braue soldier but of a coward to suffer his enemy to keepe the field he must chase him away and vanquish him if it bee possible Answere the foole according to his folly saith the wise man to the end hee esteeme not himselfe wise Finally the order of my disputation hath held me vnto it the equall Law of duels binds mee to withstand all the attempts which my aduersarie shall deuise to make against me I entertaynâ—… him in the chiefe charge of the feare of death I am bâ—…nd to doe it in the accessory of the immortality of the soule least I should be held a Preuaricatour a turnecoate and a perfidious dissembler of the cause But it may be some consor will reply You plant distrustfull thornes in the hearts of the simple which heretofore dia flie ioyfully vpon the wings of the immortality of their soules I answere That to pull vp the thornes which Satan and his adherents haue planted to resolue difficulties propounded by Sâ—…phisticall reasons is not to plant Moreouer simple soules whâ—…ch haue bin taught in the Lords Schoole the honour which they owe vnto him will not suffer themselues to bee dazeled nor deceiued with the illusion of carnall reasons Thirdly humane fragilitie is such that these which now saile happily in the sea of this world
impossible that at the soules departure from the body there should be any great paine the soule leaues the body as the light doth the ayre which it doth inuest as Viues speakes after S. Augustine Wee must not then imagine heere a grosse tearing of the soule from the body as of a piece of cloth for the vnion of the soule with the body is spirituall and incomprehensible But of the pretended paine in death there is sufficiently spoken in the Obiection following As for the two other enemies it is true that the conscience presents vnto a dying man the foulenesse of his sinne and it is true that Satan tempts man to despaire to precipitate him into eternall perdition But for all this must a man that feares God feare death and feare to lose the battaile No but hee ought rather to assure himselfe of the victory and present himselfe boldly to the Combate as a valiant fortunate Champion against one that is weake and vnfortunate They that are for vs are stronger then they that are against vs God which hath begunne continues his worke in vs and ends it to his glory the faith which he hath prāted in vs wil quench the inflamed darts of the wicked spirit the full assurance of the remission of sins by Iesus Christ dead for our sinnes and risen for our iustification will pacifie the conscience and shew him Iesus Christ in heauen sitting on the right hand of God and stretching out his armes to him Thirdly the seales of the holy Ghost in vs for by it we are sealed to the day of Redemption Baptisme the Communion of the body of Christ and the Spirit of sanctification will terrifie Satan and make him flie Finally the good Angels which from our birth and throughout the whole course of our liues haue administred vnto vs guided and comforted vs will redouble their loue and courage in the like offices at our greatest need and at our last gaspe Let vs not feare seeing we haue such assurance in the Word of God which doth plainely witnesse that the Angells are administring Spirits sent to serue for their sakes that shall receiue the inheritance of saluation Here then is no subiect of desperate feare but rather of an assured resolution The 4. Obiection All paine is euill In dying there is paine EPicharmus by the testimony of Cicero sayd that he would not die but to be dead he cared not The reason is in my opinion for that he feared the passage of death not death it selfe which hee thought with vs had no paine There are many at this day of this opinion abhorring death like an internall gulfe for that they conceiue there is some sharp and violent paine which they endure before it comes and thereunto tends the prouerbe He is in bad case that dies And S. Augustine seemes to attribute I know not what sharpe feeling and force against nature in the diuulsion of the soule from the body which were vnited together Answere If death be terrible by reason of the paine we apprehend in it then life by the same reason should be more for in it some man endures more by the cholicke the stone the sciatica yea by the tooth ach and by many other infirmities without death then an other hath felt in dying And there is this aduantage in death that it comes but once wheras the aboue mentioned infirmities are often reiterated in life But to haue a perfect view if this paine bee so great as opinion a bad counsellor doth make vs beleeue let vs search with reason into the immediate cause of that which doth engender this paine in our bodies The pathes which leade man to death are infinite but all bend to one of these foure high wayes outward force subtraction of meate and drinke inward sicknesse and old age These foure kinds of death may happen to al men yea to wise men although by iniustice touching the first by some rare accident as touching the second concerning the third by ordinary corruption of humors and by an infallible defect of nature touching the fourth Paine according to the definition of learned Phisitions is the feeling of some thing that is offensiue and troublesome to the nature of the body for that it is contrary to the health thereof the which happens either by the dissoluing and cutting of his continued substance or by the alteration thereof which alteration proceeds from the intemperate heate or cold for as for humidity and drinesse they are rather passiue qualities then actiue whose operation is very slow and the paine in the member that is altered is suddaine not gentle as if you be exceeding cold and come to a very sensible paine cold settles his paine in disioyning heate in burning and it is to bee noted that any sence may be wounded yet little or nothing is his paine in comparison of that of touching the which is dispersed ouer the whole body from which no other vessell of the sences is exempt which is the cause that wee sometimes feele prickings in the eyes and shootings in the eares c. Let vs now come to the application Death which comes to man by extreame age can be no cause of paine there being nothing in him that tortures his body nothing that doth suddainely alter and change him by extreame cold or heate but his life goes out presently like vnto a Candle that wants tallow by the losse of his radicall humour deuoured by little and little since his birth by his naturall heate and although this heate doth yet striue as it hath formerly done to conuert the meate which is familiar and fit for the body into radicall humor to repaire his losse yet she can worke no more her vertue failes her euery agent hath his vertue limited what soeuer doth act suffers in acting through vse and in continuance of time this heate decayes dissolues is lost and death ensues So as it hath bene disputed in vaine whether life might bee continued this radicall humor being restored by some fit nutriment for that humor being at the first a certaine ayery onely portion of that seede which doth reside in all the sollide parts it is impossible that such an humour and so much as is needefull should be supplied in it's place The only fruite of the tree of life which was in Eden had this secret vertue by the diuine ordinance to make man immortal that shold eate therof and therefore according to the opiniō of the Fathers God suddenly after the sin chased Adam and Eue out of Eden least they should lay hold of that fruite and become immortally miserable with the diuells In processe of time there happens two notable changes to this radicall humour the one in the quality for that it degenerates by little and little of naturall becomes strange the other in the quantity for that it is wholy wasted whereunto man being once reduced he can suffer no paine if hee complaines
it is rather for griefe that hee must dye or some other distemperature and not the death which doth cause some troublesome alteration in his sinewes sensible parts As for death which proceeds from diseases there are some long others short If they be long the paine is little for that nature doth accustome it selfe to that which comes by degrees it turnes to a habite and hee feares no griefe or very little there being nothing but the suddain alteration which nature cannot endure that which causeth pain is that which changeth the good temperature the which in very long languishing diseases comes slowly and insensibly As for example in an Hectick feuer they grow leane and consume away by little and little and dye with paine which is in a manner imperceptible there is nothing but an heauinesse of the spirits but in their bodyes feele no paine It is euen so of the paine of the Lights whereon the rheume distilling it doth consume them by little and little as a spout of water doth a stone so as in the end this infirmity brings the patient insensibly to death As for short diseases the paine is short What great pain can there be in a swoun ding in an Appoplexie that happens by the sudaine dissipation of the spirits What great paine can a moment of time bring to man But you wil reply that there are diseases wonderfully sharpe It is true but if you will obserue them they are least dangerous for death whereof our discourse is Nature giuing death knowes how to mortifie the members so wel and to weaken the vertue of the sinewes as man cannot discerne when death seazeth on him no more thē when sleep surprizeth him It is an Aphorisme of Hipocrates When a sicke body saith he feeles no paine playes with the couering of his bed and pulls off the wooll it is a signe of death and no likelihood of life what paine then when as hoping to recouer and feeling ease of his paine hee shall dye As for famine and thirst which quench the spirit of life that happens very seldome and the Annales in 16. ages haue scarce obserued two the one vnder the Empire of Honorius at what time in the Theater at Rome there was this strange voyce heard You must set a price vpon humane flesh The other vnder Iustinian at what time they did not only eate mans flesh but euen the excrements of men Here in truth is great horror but little paine neither can I beleeue whatsoeuer they say that he which dies of hun ger feeles no great torment examine it by your selfe whē you haue fasted long you shall feele a great debility a great appetite or a great heate in all your members but no great paine it is in the sinewes to feele where the paine lies which sinewes do not suffer any thing in the extreamity of hunger or thirst but the principal parts which receiue the nourishment therefore in this most pittifull and pitty is here taken for the paine Let the death of Charles 7. the French King be an example vnto vs who being full of suspition and way wardnesse entertained in that humor by the dayly reports of his household flatterers that they would attempt against his person yea a Captaine in whom he trusted most assured him that they meant to poyson him he gaue such credit to this aduice as he resolued neither to eate nor drinke in which capricious humor hee continued seuen dayes But in the end being prest not with paine but by his Phisitions and house hold seruants who laid before him the danger of life whereinto he did voluntarily bring his person when hee would haue eaten he could not by reason sayth the History the passages of the stomake were shrunke Let vs weigh these last words and acknowledge that this naturall fire in vs wherewith the lampe of our life is kindled is like vnto the Elementary alwayes actiue wherefore wanting his ordinary nutriment hee turnes himselfe violently vpon that which beares it vpon the radicall humidity the which it doth waste and consume in a short time and this humidity being consumed the members remaine dry and without vigour so as when they offer them the accustomed remedy hauing lost their vsuall vertue they disgest it not but cast it vp againe It is the same reason why such as obserue a certaine houre for their meales when this houre is come they feele certaine motions of an appetite in their stomacke which requires meate But if they passe this houre either by fasting or by diets they lose their appetites for that this heate being frustrated of his ordinary repast falls either vpon the peccant humor or that failing vpon the vitall humour and as we suffer it to do more or lesse so we receiue more or lesse preiudice Now if in the first and most sensible touches of this natural heate we feele no great torment as euery man may try in the religious fasts of the Church which passe the ordinary time of eating three or foure houres I cōclude necessarily that the longer they abstaine from meate the lesse they suffer for the heate decaying still by the want of nourishment the actiue vertue also decreaseth and his subiect the body suffereth lesse by such a languishing action also the body which for his part decayes in force is daily lesse susceptible of paine vntill that all his humor being exhausted and his heate euaporated hee must die Last in ranke come good men who are vniustly put to death by Tyrants to whom the paine is sensible according to the horror of the punishment But I answere First that it happens seldome God holding in his power the Tyrannous resolutions of great men that they may not execute their wicked designes against his seruants wickednesse shall neuer preuaile so much she shal neuer conspire so strongly against vertue but the name of wisedome shall alwayes remaine sacred and venerable Secondly God who suffers it giues them ease in their torments knowes how to restraine and suspend their paines as hee did to his seruants Sidrac Mizac and Abednego in the burning furnace as they go ioyfully to death and sing the praises of the Lord cheerefully in the middest of the fire as hath bene seene in the Martyrs And thus much for this point But if after all these reasons they persist still in a fantasticall apprehension of some great paine in the article of death wee will adde that it is not fitting to accuse death it is life the remainders whereof cause the paine and death is the end Wherefore Diogenes being demanded if death were euil How can it be sayd hee seing we neuer feele it present and that which is absent cannot bee hurtfull to any man whilest that man hath feeling he hath life but if he bee dead hee hath no feeling and that which is not felt is not hurtfull And therefore hee concludes that it was not death which was euill but the way to
his enemies terrifie him and his friends are suspect vnto him hee eates not without feare of poison hee sleepes vnquietly for that his aduersaries watch for his mine Enuy filing ouer the triumphs of other men stings him continually hee thinkes himselfe as much deiected as another is aduanced Thou thinkest him happy and hee holds himselfe miserable would confesse it to thee if his ambition did not stay him and if he feared not by this confession to make himself contemptible the which he most abhorreth he would shew thee that in his greatest banquets he hath no more assurance thē he ouer whose head there hangs a naked sword staied onely by a horse haire as in old time that of the Tyrant of Sicile But the aduertisement giuen to Philip King of Macedon growne insolent for the victory of Cheronee by Archidamus King of Sparta after the Spartane manner is notable Philip said hee measure thy shaddow if thou findest it bigger then of custome as if hee would say Why doest thou thus insult ouer thine enemies who in thy person hast receiued no increase vnlesse it he care and feare Then followes Pleasure in eating drinking and in the venerian act this pleasure if it keepes not the bounds of necessity and honesty it is infamous and vnwholesome The throat hath slaine more faith a Phisition then the sword Intemperance is the very bayte of an impure spirit which delights in vnpure and vndigested humours drunkennesse depriues a man of the vse of reason transformes him into a beast yea a furious beast apt to commit many mischiefes And therefore Saint Augustine speakes of drunkennesse that it is the mother of all villanies the subiect of offences the roote of crimes the distēperature of the brain the ruin of the body the shipwrack of chastity the losse of time a volūtary rage an ignominious languishing the corruption of manners c. Either of these voluptuousnesses is like vnto the byting of serpents which they call Tarentula They that are toucht laugh sing and dance but it is a Sardonian laughter which brings them to a fatall end and what pleasure As for the act of venery out of the due of lawfull marriage it is by the testimony of Diogenes wine mixt with poyson which in the beginning seemes sweete but presently after it makes him feele a deadly bittemes it is the mire wherin man doth deuolue ruine and lose himselfe It is in this act onely saith Saint Ierome that God did neuer touch the heart of his Prophets Thrice and foure times wretched Ixion who thinkest to imbrace in thy armes the goddesse Iuno and it is but a cloude thou doest hold The pleasure of this world is but a vaine shadow of felicity the substance is in heauen To bee short wee must abhorre voluptuousnes like the Sirenes as the Ancients haue mystically painted them out all that is seene of them is exceeding faire they glister with the shining of sparkling Diamonds they cast forth a sweete sent of Muske and Amber their greene eyes dart flames into the coldest heart gold binds vp their flaxen haire their necks are circled with rubies a Cypres of siluer wauing ouer their shoulders their breasts of Alablaster open whose pappes like two round curds of milke did seeme to leape on their fore-heads were fixed two of Cupids bowes their cheekes were crimson and their mouthes little but their tayle which is hidden vnder the water is pointed with teeth spotted and venemous finally hideous and fearefull and they that are once stung die without helpe and what pleasure These are the three carreeres which men in this world run by troopes heereunto the most actiue of minde and body straine their sinewes and bend their spirits who shall haue most and al for an imaginary happinesse Some in the beginning of the course fall to the ground others end in the middest and these not able to iudge of the vanity of the world are perished in the middest of it The last beeing come vnto the end finde but it is in the extreamity that r◅ey haue imbraced the shaddow for the body vanity for felicity and desolation for consolation then they crie O deceitfull world O miserable life But before they can come to consider wherein the happinesse of life doth consist and settle themselues in a course to attaine vnto it death seazeth on them Obiection It is no good cōsequence to argue from the abuse to the thing abused Your argument proceeds from the abuse to life THey laugh at Lycurgus causing the Vines to be pull'd vp for that some men were drunke and he were more mad that would cut off his nose because hee is troubled with rheume and what were hee that would take away life vnder colour that one vseth it to couetousnes another to ambition a third to voluptuousnes Let vs banish the abuse and retaine life that knowing with Diogenes the goods of nature to exceed them of fortune let vs refuse Alexanders siluer if hee will depriue vs of our liberty and the true vse of the Sun Let vs imitate Xenocrates who grauely answered his Ambassadours who had brought him 50. tallents or 30000. crownes That he had not vse for so much siluer Finally wilt thou be rich Doe not labour to multiply thy wealth but to make a substraction of thy concupiscence As for the other abuse of ambition let Socrates prescribe vs a Rule who hearing a relation of his praises in a discourse composed by Plato interrupted him crying out Oh what lies this young man speakes of mee Let vs consider rhat glory is mixt with the honey of Trapezonde whose violent vapor doth strangely confound the spirits of such as vse it and makes them forgetfull of God Apostates to the faith and voyd of all naturall reason For Voluptuousnesse let them cast their eies vpon the Curij Fabricij who will bee more then content with turneps and beanes yea vpon Epicurus who with water and a little rice would contend with Iupiter for his felicity Let Cyrus and Zaleucus King of Locres be also heard the first against the excesse of wine the other against whordome Cyrus being roughly demanded by his father in law Astiages why hee had refused to drink the cup which hee had presented vnto him For that said he I conceiued it had beene poyson remembring that at your last feast euery man that vsed it did stagger at euery step and his spirits so confounded as hee could not vnderstand any thing nor speake to purpose Zaleucus made a law that the Adulterer should lose both his eyes wherein he was so strict as his owne son being conuicted he vnderwent the same punishment and by a fatherly compassion pulled out one of his sons and one of his owne eyes Answer I yeeld to all this and doe willingly giue my voyce hauing neuer insisted but for the abuse neither that we may depriue our selues of life for any misery Yea I haue maintained the contrary against the Stoicks heretofore
to heauen It is a constant opinion of the Stoickes sayth he that after all humor is consumed this world shall burne and Nature by whom this reuolution is made seemes to giue vs some notice in that the fields being burnt by the labourer or drowned by water as in Egypt as in pooles dried vp and when the sea is retired in that I say this earth remaining is found renewed fat and producing many Creatures yea great and perfect as they write namely of Nile after it is retired Now vnder the wings of these great personages I come to maintaine this combate and refell the reasons of the Obiector Wee haue in our Argument toucht two points simbolizing together although the one be Christian and the other Heathen the first is the Resurrection of the flesh which we extend to man only not of other Creatures And let vs say that he who of nothing could make all may easily ouerthrow the imagined difficulty and raise vp and restore to the same estate the bodies of dead men for he that can do more can do lesse without all controuersie and hee that could of nothing make that which was not may repaire that which was vndone But how shall this Resurrection bee made and what assurance shall wee haue Behold how In the presence of all the world of Angells of men and of diuells with vnspeakable ioy to the good and incomprehensible horror to the wicked the Lord shall come with a cry of exhortation and the voice of the Archangell and the Trumpet of God these are the very words of the text By the sound of this trumpet all the dead shall awake and rise out of their graues and they that shall liue and remaine at this comming shal be suddenly changed and of mortall shal be made immortall by his force and efficacy who can make all things subiect vnto him as the Apostle sayth The bodies of the children of God shall rise againe like the glorious bodie of Iesus Christ impassible spirituall and yet fleshly shining like stars subtil light transparent and full of all happines behold the letters of heauen We attend the Sauiour who will transforme our vile bodies and make them conformable to his glorious body We know sayeth Saint Iohn that after hee hath appeared wee shall bee like vnto him God will wipe away all teares from our eyes sayth hee death shall bee no more there shal bee no mourning cries nor labour The body sowne in corruption shall rise spirituall sayth S. Paul for that no sollide thing can hinder it it may without helpe or wings flye into remote places as Iesus Christ after his resurrection did manifest it more then sufficiently in his body finally hee shall bee spirituall for that hee shal be readily and willingly obedient to his glorified spirit In this flesh and not in any other shall I see my Sauiour sayth Iob c. 1. 9. For this mortal body must put on immortality sayth the Apostle Thirdly they which haue bin vnderstood sayth Daniel 12. shall shine like the heauens and they that bring many to Iustice shall glister like the starres for euer Also the glory of the Sunne is one the glory of the Moon another and the glory of the starres is also different euen so shall bee the resurrection of the dead whereby it followes that the bodyes raised again shal haue no grosse substance but shall be transparent like vnto glasse Fourthly beeing raised againe we shall bee taken vp into the clouds before the Lord and beeing ascended into heauen wee shall haue vnspeakeable ioy such as the eye hath not seene the eare not heard nor hath entred into the heart of man These are wonderfull things but what assurance the Spirit of God doth assure thee if thou beest of God for God doth seale vp an earnest penny of his holy Spirit in their hearts that are his as the Apostle teacheth Secondly If the soule be immortall the body must one day rise immortall to the end that this soule being created for the body may giue it life againe being reunited Moreouer as Saint Ambrose teacheth it is the order and cause of Iustice seeing that the work of man is common to the body and soule and what the soule doth fore-thinke the body effects and therefore it is reasonable that both should appeare in iudgement to receiue either punishment or glory Thirdly Iesus Christ is risen for vs and to assure vs that by the same diuine power that hath drawne him out of the graue we also shal be raised I proue the antecedent by aboue 500. witnesses which at one time haue seene Iesus Christ liuing after that he had beene crucified by the Iewes as the Apostle sheweth and Ioseph also who was a Iew doth witnesse it lib. 18. c. 2. 4. of his Antiquities He was seene precisely by women beleeued by the incredulous and for a ful assurance thereof hee would contrary to the nature of his body which aspired nothing but heauen conuerse forty dayes vpon earth Heere is reason sufficient in this matter of faith whereas reason should yeeld her selfe prisoner and yet to make it appeare visibly and to free all doubt God would both in the ancient and new alliance raise vp some that were seene and admired of the people So Lazarus being called out of his graue was beheld of all men and the malicious Pharisies tooke counsell to put him to death as well as Iesus Christ. The same God would manifest a plot of the future Resurrection to his Prophet Ezechiel when as he had transported him into a field full of drye bones which when hee had seene and prophesied ouer â—…em behold a motion the bones draw neere one vnto another and suddainely behold they had sinewes vppon them and flesh came and then the skinne couered it and in the end after a second dâ—…untiation of the word of God the spirit came and then appeared a great army of men As for this point which concernes an article of our faith the Resurrection of the flesh the Obiector dares not deny but there is matter sufficient in this world to furnish for the restoring of all the dead bodies not since an imaginary Eternity for we are now vpon tearmes of diuinity whereof wee must beleeue the principles and not question them but from the first man vnto the last that shall be Herein there is nothing that inuolues contradiction The other point was that suppose the eternity of the world after the reuolution of all things and the encounter of the same order in all points that is at this present there shall bee the same Superficies the same creatures and the same men that are at this present this also hath no implicity seeing we affirm not that all things the same creatures which haue bin shal be for euer shal be restor'd together at one instant but by degrees and euery one in his turne Behold how this first
against Ramoth of Gilead were welcome but only Miche◅s who pronounced the contrary was put in prison and yet they were false and this true Let vs beware of the like least that fauour and grace deceiue vs in this matter Let vs take the ballance of equity and weigh the reasons propounded if they be good they wil weigh downe whatsoeuer shall be opposed and if they bee currant they will endure the touch let vs then try the first Huart a great Philosopher of Spaine maintaines that the vnderstanding hath his beginning his increase and his constitution and then his declining like vnto a man hee meanes his body for the vnderstanding is the most excellent part of man and like other Creatures and plants And for this cause hee that will learne at what age hi◅ vnderstanding is most strong and vigorous let him know that it is from 33. vnto fifty at what time the gravest Authors should be made if during their liues they haue had contrary opinions Hee that wil write bookes should compose them at this age neither before or after if hee will not retract or alter them Hitherto Huart which experience doth confirme for we see that as a man doth aduance in age he growes in wisedome and Iesus himselfe made true man aduanced in wisedome and stature Contrariwise age declining the spirit decaies in memory in quicknesse in vnderstanding so as man being very old hee becomes twice a child fumbling with his tong doating in minde As for that the Testators say that they are sound in minde it is to shew that neither age nor sicknesse hath as yet made them lose their spirits and therefore it is a true signe of their decay concluding contrary to the intention of the Author And whereas the labourer spake so diuinely it did not proceed from the neerenesse of death but from the alteration of the temperature of his braine growne whot in the first degree by the force of his infirmity so some women haue prophecied and spoke Latine yet neuer learned it by the same reason of the temperature required yet they die not suddainly in this estate To the 2. Religion proceedes partly from nature partly from institution from nature who to rule all Creatures to make them follow the traine of his order graues in them al a certaine terror indistinct apprehension The Creatures feare man and by this feare are contained in their duties man feares a hidden superiority and maintaines himselfe in society many times hee feares hee knowes not what nor wherefore and therefore it happens that women who are commonly more fearefull are more religious Yea they report of certaine bruite beasts which adore the deity as Elephants yet they do not say that their soules are immortall From institution for as vessells do long retaine the sent of their first liquor wherewith they are seasoned so children maintaine vnto the end the religion wherein they are bred and brought vp although it were the most fantasticke and strange in the world yea if in stead of sauing it should damme them as we may see if we will open our eyes in these times so fertill in religions To the 3. If the soule bee mortall it followeth not that nature hath made any thing in vaine if she hath hope or feare to be immortall it is to encourage it to vertue that is to say to the preseruation of that goodly order and to terrifie it from the infraction thereof if she dies her alteration of the immortality dries away Nature hath also giuen vnto the Bat a desire to see the light of the Sun yet this desire neuer takes effect Finally euery creature flies death and desires life not for a time but for euer and by consequent in their kind desire to be immortall and yet they attaine not to it To the 4. The heart beats continually and is immortal Dogs sleeping dreame and are mortall therefore the vnquiet and vncessant action of the soule can bee no certaine signe of her immortalitie To the Fift Iohn de Seres almost throughout the whole course of his history of France will answer That man findes no miserie but what he seekes The philosophers yea Diuines will say that felicitie proportionable vnto humaine nature consists in an vpright disposition of his will to carry himselfe according to the reason that is in him towards all things that shall present themselues to make his profit of al things not to trouble himselfe with any thing that can happen in this world and to nourish the seeds of vertue which are sowen in his mind To the Sixt Solon will answer that it is a hard matter to please all men some complaine of the shortnes of life if we obserue it these are such as haue prodigally consumed thēselus at cardes dice and haue not found it but toolate Others complaine of the length and cut it off before their time But Seneca wiser then either well say that wee must not be carefull to liue long but enough to liue long is a worke depending of destinie to liue enough is of the minde The life is long if it be full and it is full when the spirit affects her good and tranfers her power to her selfe O excellent speech hee that hath eares let him heare Let vs proceed certen creatures liue longer then man and which Rauens Stags the Phenix I doubt it much as for the Phenix it is a fabulous thing for Stags we know not any thing but by a writing which was found about a Stags necke Caesar gaue me this if it were the first Caesar it is long since but it might be some other whilest that the Emperours reigned in France and that is not long As for the Rauen a most importune and vnfortunate bird who hath tryed it But admit this were true there were but two or three excepted out of the generall rule of nature which is that man her chiefe worke liues longer then any other creature and it is her pleasure to except from the generall as we see else where ceasee then to blame that which you should commend and admire To the Seuenth and last simbolizing much with the second you must receiue the same answer And moreouer there is not found any generous instinct in the soule of man which appeares not as great in brute beasts for the preseruation and defence of their yong As for the confession pretended so easie of an offence committed the diuerse kinds of tortures invented to wrest it out in iustice belie it but you will say they are inwardly tormented how know you that who can see nothing but the exterior part Answere The doctrine of the humaine soule depends of a superior knowledge that is of the Metaphisicke whereof the rule is the Canon of the old and new Testament man must not presume to thinke he can fully comprehend it her perfect intelligence is reserued for vs exclusinely for euer when we shall behold it in
the body she should haue some actions without the body But this is not true ARistotle saith that the soule in the body vnderstandeth nothing but by her conuersation with the Ideas which the imagination represents vnto her whether that shee gets new knowledge or contemplates that which is gotten But the Ideas perish with the body and by consequence the soule Answer The excellent effects of the soule suffice to conuince her presence and essence as for the vnderstanding it is double passiue and actiue and these two faculties remaine still although the figures which imagination hath furnished bee vanished So a man in the bottome of an obscure Caue hath not lost his faculty of seeing although hee cannot plainely iudge of colours But the soule you will say vnderstands not any thing beeing out of the body seeing that within it she vnderstands not any thing without him It followes not That great Workman who after a manner incomprehensible to vs hath vnited and ioyned the soule vnto the body two such different natures without any apparent meane to reconcile them that great workeman I say is powerfull to furnish new meanes to her operations when hee hath called it vnto him and what wee shall know when it shall be fit In the meane time if we will beleeue Thomas Aquinas it shall be by the conuersion of the soule to things which are simply intelligible as the other spirituall substances doe Iesus Christ also hath vouchsafed to teach vs that in heauen we shall be like vnto the Angels Let vs not then trouble our selues heere no more then for the childe comming into the world In the mothers wombe it liued by the nauell this meanes is cut off by his birth but nature hath prouided him a mouth another passage in another life It is euen so of the soule it is nourished in this corruptible life by a carnall meanes and in the heauenly by another which is spirituall But you will reply that the soule is to returne into the body and not the infant into the wombe I answer That it is sufficient the similitude explaining the thing shewes it not to be impossible Moreouer it is not likely that in the Resurrection the body which shall bee spirituall should furnish the same meanes for the actions of the soule as it doth in this life but this businesse is too intricate Let vs put in practise what S. Augustine propounds vnto vs Let not the soule saith he labour do fore know it selfe absent but to know it selfe well being present and how much shee differs from other things Aso shee hath not taken her forme from Christ but her saluation and therefore the Sonne of God descended and tooke vpon him mans soule not to the end the soule should know it selfe in Christ but that shee should know Christ within her selfe for by the ignorance of her selfe her saluation is not onely in danger but by the ignorance of the eternall word as Tertullian doth learnedly teach lib. de Car. Christ. The third Obiection If the soule of man were immortall it should also be immateriall But she is materiall IF the soule bee materiall she is dissoluble into her first matter with all other sublunary things but she is materiall if shee proceedes from the Fathers seede as Tertullian Origen and other ancient moderne Diuines thinke and mainetaine it by their written bookes And in truth how can it bee said that the infant is the sonne of his father if hee hold nothing from him but his basest part the body not his form not his soule how could the holy Ghost say that all the soules which came out of Iacobs thigh were 66 How can originall sinne flow from the father vpon the sonne which hath no seat but in the soule And this made S. Augustine doubt in his fourth booke of the beginning of the soule the which he did write being olde to doubt I say of this beginning not daring to deliuer his opinion and some more hardy haue maintained that she proceeded from the congression of the two seedes of man and woman as by the striking of the iron against the stone fire comes forth Answer The principall foundation of the immortality of the soule is the word of God so they which haue had more feeling of this word haue better acknowledged it as Zoroastres Mercurius Trismegistes Pithagoras and Plato surnamed the Diuine for that effect but Aristotle Gallen and others who would measure all by humaine reason haue wonderfully deceiued themselues in matters which exceeded this measure as in this Doctrine If then the Obiector will beleeue this witnesse of whom he cites a passage the question will be soone ended the holy Scripture sayth that the Eternall breathed the spirit of life into the nosestrills of Adam he being framed of the slime of the earth the which is not spoken of any other creature In Ecclesiastes it is said that the spirit returnes to God that gaue it Iesus dying cryed out Father into thy hands I commit my soule Hee promiseth to the beleeuing theefe that he shal be that day with him in Paradise finally S. Stephen dying made this prayer Lord Iesus receiue my soule with a thousand other passages As for that which he speakes of the generatiō of the soule we first will oppose the authoritie of Tertullian lib. de Anima c. 13. You mothers sayeth he which are newly deliuered answer the question is of the truth of your nature if you feele in your fruite any other viuacitie from you but what your arteries do breath And for this cause the infant is sayd to be the true sonne of his father and mother from whom the bodie with his Organes proceeded to make which perfect God infused the spirit so as this spirit is made for this bodie and not the body for this spirit simply Moreouer the generation is not ended nor consisteth in the production of the forme or of the matter onely but of all that is composed therfore he that composeth or that ioynes the matter with the forme the flesh with the soule he doth truly ingender man But it is he that makes this coniunction who disposeth so of matter and forme as the soule followes infallibly and it is that which makes man in the generation and man and woman are the begetters of the infant As for the passage of Moses who doth not see the intellectuall figure who means one thing for another the body for the soule by reason of their strict vnion Finally that which made S. Augustin doubt of the generation of the soule was that hee could not comprehend how the sin which dwells in the soule of the father doth pasfe vnto the sonne But that is so plainely fet downe by the Diuines at this day as it is needlesse to speake of here neither were it to the pourpose It sufficeth that the Pagans themselues haue acknowledged that the soule came into man otherwise then from man Aristotle sayes plainly that it is
something from without vs Seneca The soule sayth he if thou lookest vnto her first beginning is not made of that masse of heauy flesh but is descended from the celestiall Spirit Epictetus calls the soule a branch puld from the diuinitie Plutarque in the Platonicall questions sayth that the soule participating of the vnderstanding and reason is not onely a worke of God but a part of him and not onely made by him but of him these are Hyperbolicall Elogies but by them these personages haue made it knowne how reuerently they did esteeme of a reasonable Soule hauing no thought that shee was materiall The 7. Argument taken from the effects of the Immortalitie of the soule Manifest effects doe manifestly shew their cause Consolation in the greatest heauines hope in the most desperate euents fortitude in the sharpest assaults are effects in man proceeding from the immortalitie of the soule MAn floating vpon the sea of this world at euery puffe of winde of aduersity would swound away and perish if the consideration of the immortall being of his soule as a most sure anchor did not comfort forti fie him they that haue strooke against the rocks of aduersity can witnesse it and such as haue not must prepare themselues for it for prosperitie which seemeth to be married vnto them wil crosse them and ouerthrow them in the end if they be not very wary for that her greatest happines is miserably to supplant her fauorites therefore euery man should in time make prouision of a strong Antidote against fortune And the true Antidote is a full perswasion of the immortalitie of the Soule For happen what can happen let the heauens riue let the earth open let the waues ouerflow the world such a man will continue constant vndaunted By this resolution Crates Diogenes Socrates the Curij Fabricij Decij and others desired rather to leaue their riches Scepters fauors the quiet rest of their bodies yea their owne liues then to abandon the least point of their dutie and honour By this beleefe Regulus did ioyfully suffer the inhumane torments of the Cathaginians to maintaine the Maiestie of his Countrie Attilius stood vnstirr'd at death that grew And with a deathles spirit ouerflew Foes highst inflictions smiling in disdaine At all the terrors in the Punique paine It is also the onely assurance which giues firme footing to the doctrine of Christ and makes a Christian hope in the middest of despaire which seemes howrely ready to swallow him vp either in the outward gulfe of persecution or in the inward gulfe of his flesh of his sences of his owne reason which hee must renounce to reuerence this doctrines of the Crosse of Christ which is a scandall vnto the Iewes and follie vnto the Gentiles which offends the most deuout and is reiected by most learned of this world How shall hee hope as some haue sayd in things so farre from reason what shall a man ioy when hee is a daptiue and force his reason by the which he is a man to giue glorie to God immortall Whence can it flow but from the spring of his immortall soule doubtlesse it was an admirable thing that contrary to the Edict of Nere whereby whosoeuer confest himselfe a Christian without any farther search should be put to death as an enemie to mankind men and women went by thousands to Christian Assemblies and to death not sadly but ioyfully But this exceeds all wonders that all thefe miseries endured haue no other foundation but to beleeue in a man whom no man sees to haue one for King who hath beene hanged on the crosse and to haue him sor the only and true God whom they had seene to haue but the disfigured forme of an infamous seruant to men of iudgement and to such as the truly faithfull are this would seeme impossible if their immortall spirits did not atâ—…end after this life nay rather this miserable death a most happie life as after a sharpe Winter a most sweet Spring Finally the onely apprehension of the immortalitie of the soule is it which giues force in the fiercest alarmes and sharpest temptations which made weake Dauid to triumph ouer strong Goliath Debora and Iudith of powerfull Tyrants this made Sceuola a prisoner to amaze king Porsenna to raise his seege from before Rome with many other examples both ancient and moderne all which had no other reasoÌ„ to moue them in their braue exploicts but the glorious brething of their immortall Soules The first Obiection From deluding opinions many times there follow strange and true effects Therefore the effects do not alwayes argue their cause to be true THE false Prophets of Baal did cut theÌ„selues the Anabaptists at this day do strange acts many others deceiued with vaine fancies which in them hold the place of certaine knowledge act terrible things Answere That false pastor that very impostor as counterfeit as lying being directly opposite to the truth cannot bee conceiued but by comparing with the truth whereof he is the shadow and priuation Euen so false religion presupposeth the true necessarily for hauing held her place shee makes terrible worke as in the false Prophets aboue mentioned in the Anabaptists and other Heretickes As then all religions haue for their first foundation the adoration of the Diuinity although diuers and variable which more or lesse follow the patterne which hath bene giuen vs by God in his holy word so all the Heroicke deeds all the worthy actions though thrust on diuersly by diuers passions yet haue they all the immortality of the soule for their first foundation without the which men like vnto beasts would onely care for the belly and not performe any worthy act much lesse endure so many reproches and miseries in this world as hath beene shewed and as is dayly seene The second Obiection If the soule were immortall it should be an euident Principle to euery man by his owne light as that two 2. make 4. that the whole is bigger then the part that we must flie euill and do good â—… things which wee know without learning ANswere I grant the consequence of the Maior for that the soule is immortal it is cleere by her owne brightnesse although she hath beene much darkened by sinne This is knowne to all men in all places and at all times which are the very conditions of the Principle And all that which they alledge is but to defend this truth against the cunning Sophistrie of the wicked spirit and of his supporters laboring by cauillings to dazle the eye of the soule that not seeing her immortality she might be intrapt in the snatos of Satan and suffer shipwradke of her faith The third Obiection If the soule were an essence subsisting of her selfe she should be knowne of all But no man could euer know it ALL men that enter into this question of the soule cry out O darkenesse ô pitty That which leades vs to the knowledge of things