Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	nature_n	soul_n	unite_v	6,882	5	9.6339	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89326	The soules own evidence, for its own immortality. In a very pleasant and learned discourse, selected out of that excellent treatise entituled, The trunesse of Christian religion, against atheists, epicures, &c. / First compiled in French by famous Phillip Mornay, Lord of Plessie Marlie, afterward turned into English by eloquent Sir Phillip Sydney, and his assistant, Master Arthur Golden, anno Domini M D LXXX VII. And now re-published. By John Bachiler Master of Arts, somtimes of Emanuell Colledge in Cambridge. Published according to order.; De la verité de la religion chrestienne. English	Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly, 1549-1623.; Sidney, Philip, Sir, 1554-1586.; Golding, Arthur, 1536-1606.; Batchiler, John, ca. 1615-1674.	1646 (1646)	Wing M2802; Thomason E324_3	62,858	73

one is as an appendant to the other And in very deed to what purpose were the World created if there were no body to behold it Or to what end behold wee the Creator in the world but to serve him And why should we serve him upon no hope And to what purpose hath he indewed us with these rare gifts of his which for the most part doe but put us to pain and trouble in this life if we perish like the brute Beast or the Hearbes which know him not Howbeit for the better satisfying of the silly Soules which go on still like witlesse Beastes without taking so much leysure in all their life as once to enter into themselves let us indevour here by lively reasons to paint out unto them againe their true shape which they labour to deface with so much filthinesse The Soule of man as I have sayd afore is not a body neyther doth it increase or decrease with the body but contrary wise the more the body decayeth the more doth the understanding increase and the neerer that the body draweth unto death the more freely doth the mind understand and the more that the body abateth in flesh the more workfull is the mind And why then should we think that the thing which becommeth the stronger by the weaknesse of the body and which is advanced by the decay of the body should returne to dust with the body A mans Sences fayle because his eyes fayle and his eyes fayle because the Spirits of them fayle but the blind mans understanding increaseth because his eyes are not buside and the olde mans reason becommeth the more perfect by the losse of his sight Therefore why say we not that the body fayleth the Soul and not the Soule the body and that the Glasses are out of the Spectacles but the eysight is still good Why should we deeme the Soule to be forgone with the Sences If the eye be the thing that seeth and the care the thing that heareth why doe we not see things double and heare sounds double seeing we have two eyes and two ears It is the soule then that seeth and heareth and these which wee take to be our sences are but the instruments of our sences And if when our eyes be shut or picked out we then behold a thousand things in our minde yea and that our understanding is then most quick-sighted when the quickest of our eysight is as good as quenched or starke dead how is it possible that the reasonable soule should be tyed and bound to the sences What a reason is it to say that the soule dyeth with the sences seeing that the true sences doe then grow and increase when the instruments of sense doe die And what a thing were it to say that beast is dead because he hath lost his eyes when we our selves see that it liveth after it hath forgone the eyes Also I have proved that the soule is neither the body nor an appertenance of the body Sith it is so why measure we that thing by the body which measureth all bodies or make that to die with the body whereby the bodies that die yea many hundred years agoe doe after a certain manner live still Or what can hurt that thing whom nothing hurteth or hindereth in the body Though a man lose an arme yet doth his soule abide whole still Let him forgoe the one halfe of his body yet is his soule as sound as afore for it is whole in it selfe and whole in every part of it selfe united in it selfe and in the own substance and by the force and power thereof it sheadeth it selfe into all parts of the body Though the body rot away by piecemeal yet abideth the Soule all one and undiminished Let the bloud dreyn out the moving wax weake the sences faile and the strength perish and yet abideth the minde neverthelesse sound and lively even to the end Her house must be pierced through on all sides ere shee be discouraged her walls must be battered down ere she fall to fleeting and she never forsaketh her lodging till no room be left her to lodge in True it is that the brute beasts forgoe both life action with their bloud But as for our soule if we consider the matter well it is then gathered home into it selfe and when our sences are quenched then doth it most of all labour to surmount it selfe working as goodly actions at the time that the body is at a point to fail it yea and often times far goodlier also than ever it did during the whole life time thereof As for example it taketh order for it selfe for our household for the Common-weale and for a whole Kingdome and that with more uprightnesse godlinesse wisdome and moderation than ever it did afore yea and perchance in a body so far spent so bare so consumed so withered without and so putrified within that whosoever looks upon him sees nothing but earth and yet to heare him speake would ravish a man up to heaven yea and above heaven Now when a man sees so lively a soule in so weake and wretched a body may he not say as is said of the hatching of chickens that the shell is broken but there commeth forth a chicken Also let us see what is the ordinary cause that things perish Fire doth either goe out for want of nourishment or is quenched by his contrary which is water Water is resolved into aire by fire which is his contrary The cause why the Plant dyeth is extremitie of cold or drought or unseasonable cutting or violent plucking up Also the living wight dyeth through contrarietie of humours or for want of food or by feeding upon some thing that is against the nature of it or by outward violence Of all these causes which can we choose to have any power against our Soule I say against the Soule of man which notwithstanding that it be united to matter and to a bodie is it selfe a substance unbodily unmateriall and only conceivable in understanding The contrarietie of things Nay what can be contrarie to that which lodgeth the contraries alike equally in himselfe which understandeth the one of them by the other which coucheth them all under one skill and to be short in whom the contrarieties themselves abandon their contrarieties so as they doe not any more pursue but insue one another Fire is hote and water cold Our bodies mislike these contraries and are grieved by them but our mind linketh them together without eithet burning or cooling it selfe and it setteth the one of them against the other to know them the better The things which destroy one another through the whole world do mainteine one another in our minds Againe nothing is more contrary to peace then warre is and yet mans mind can skill to make or mainteine peace in preparing for warre and to lay earnestly for warre in seeking or inioying of peace Even death it selfe which dispatcheth our life cannot bee contrary

to be seene yet more in that which we read concerning the hearers of Hegesias the Cyrenian who dyed willingly after they had heard him discourse of the state of mens soules after this life and likewise concerning Cleombrotus the Ambraciot who slew himselfe when hee had read a certain treatise of the immortalitie of the soule For had it not been a doctrine most evident to mans wit they would never have bin caried so farre by it as to the hurting of their bodies And if among so many people there be perchance some fewe wretched caytifes that have borne themselves on hand the contrarie which thing neverthelesse they could never yet fully perswade themselves to be out of all doubt or question surely we may beleeve that they had very much adoe and were utterly besotted like Drunkards afore they could come to that poynt so as we may well say of them as Hierocle the Pythagorist sayd namely That the wicked would not have their souls to be immortall to the intent they might not bee punished for their faults But yet that they prevent the sentence of their Judge by condemning themselves unto death afore hand But if they will neither heare God nor the whole world nor themselves let them at leastwise hearken to the Devill as well as they doe in other things who as saith Plutark made this answer to Corax of Naxus and others in these verses It were a great wickednesse for thee to say The Soule to be mortall or for to decay And unto Polytes he answered thus As long as the Soule to the body is tyde Though loth yet all sorowes it needes must abyde But when fro the body Death doth it remove To heaven by and by then it flyes up above And there ever youthfull in blisse it doth rest As God by his wisedome hath set for the best Not that any saying of the Devills owne is to be alledged in witnesse of the truth further foorth than to shew that hee speakes it by compulsion of Gods mightie power as wicked men divers times doe when they be upon the Racke Now we be come to the time or nere to the time that the heavenly doctrine of Jesus Christ was spred over the whole world unto which time I have proved the continuall succession of that doctrine which could not but be unseparably ioyned with the succession of men But from this time forth it came so to light among all Nations all persons that Saint Austin after a short tryumphing over ungodlinesse cryeth out in divers places saying Who is now so very a foole or so wicked as to doubt still of the immortalitie of the Soule Epictetus a Stoikphilosopher who was had in very great reputation among all the men of his time is full of goodly sayings to the same purpose May we not be ashamed sayth he to leade an unhonest life and to suffer our selves to be vanquished by adversitie we be alyed unto God we came from thence and we have leave to returne thether from whence we came One while as in respect of the soule he termeth man the ofspring of GOD or as it were a branch of the Godhead and another while he calleth him a divine Impe or a spark of God by all which words howbeit that they be somewhat unproper for what words can a man finde to fit that matter he sheweth the uncorruptiblenesse of the substance of mans soule And whereas the Philosopher Simplicius hath so diligently commented upon his bookes it doth sufficiently answer for his opinion in that case without expressing his words here Plotinus the excellentest of all the Platonists hath made nine treatises expressely concerning the nature of the soule besides the things which he hath written dispersedly heere and there in other places His chiefe conclusions are these That mens soule proceede not of their bodies nor of the seede of the Parent but come from above and are as ye would say grafted into our bodies by the hand of God That the soule is partly tyed to the body and to the instruments thereof and partly franke free workfull and continuing of it selfe and yet notwithstanding that it is neither a body nor the harmonie of the body but if we consider the life and operation which it giveth to the body it is after a sort the perfection or rather the perfector of the body if we have an eye to the understanding whereby it guydeth the movings and doings of the body it is as a Governour of the body That the further it is withdrawne from the Sences the better it discourseth of things insomuch that when it is utterly separated from them it understandeth things without discoursing reasoning or debating yea even in a moment because this debating is but a certain lightening or brightnesse of the minde which now taketh advisement in matter whereof it doubteth it doubteth wheresoever the body yeeldeth any impedements unto it but it shall neither doubt nor seek advisement any more when it is once out of the body but shall conceive the truth without wavering That the soule in the body is not properly there as in a place or as in a ground because it is not contained or comprehended therein and may also be separated from it but rather if a man had eyes to see it withall he should see that the bodie is in the soule as an accessary is in a principall or as a thing contained in a container or a sheding or liquid thing in a thing that is not liquid because the Soule imbraceth the body and quickneth it and moveth it equally and alike in all parts That every abilitie thereof is in every part of the bodie as much in one part as in another as a whole soule in every part notwithstanding that every severall abilitie thereof seeme to be severally in some particular member or part because the instruments thereof are there as the sensitive abilitie seemeth to rest in the head the irefull in the heart and the quickning in the liver because the sinews heart-strings and veins come from those parts Whereas the reasonable power is not in any part saving so far forth as it worketh and hath his operation there neither hath it any need of place or instrument for the executing of it selfe And to be short that the soule is a life by it selfe a life all in one unpaitable which causeth to grow and groweth not it selfe which goeth through the bodie and yet is not contained of the body which uniteth the sences and is not divided by the Sences and therefore that it is a bodilesse substance which cannot be touched neither from within nor from without having no need of the body either outwardly or inwardly and consequently is immortall divine yea and almost a very God Which things he proveth by many reasons which were too long to be rehearsed here Yea. he proceedeth so far as to say that they which are passed into another

likewise that the soule vvhich causeth man to live to have sence and to reason is but one that is to vvit one certain kinde of life more excellent more lively and of further reach than the life of the Beast But like as sence is as it vvere the forme or Selfebeing if I may so terme it of the life of a beast so is reason or understanding the very forme and Selfebeing of the soule of man and to speak properly it is the soule or life of the soule life as the apple of our eye is the very eye of our eye And in very deed vvhen the minde is earnestly occupied the sences are at a stay and vvhen the sences are overbusied the nourishment and digestion is hindered and contrariwise vvhich thing could not come to passe if the soule vvere any more than one substance vvhich by reason that it is but one cannot utter his force alike in all places at once but yeeldeth the lesse care one vvhere so long as it is earnestly occupyed anotherwhere In this soule of man vvhich yet notwithstanding is but one the diversity of the powers and abilities is very apparant The quickning power doth nourish increase and mayntaine us and Reason and Sence meddle not therewith neyther have they power to impeach the working thereof The truth whereof appeareth in this that those things are best done when our mind is at rest and our sences are asleep insomuch that oftentimes we forg'd the sence and moving of some parts by some Rheume or some Palsey and yet the same parts ceasse not to be nourished still Also the sensitive life seeth and perceiveth a far off yea oftentimes without setting of the mind thereupon or without considering what the Sence conceiveth Some men which have but weak Sences have very quicke understanding and likewise on the contrary part Againe some fall into a Consumption which want not the perfect use of their Sences Sometime the reasonable part is so earnestly bent and occupied about the things that it liketh of that by the increasing of it selfe it hurteth and diminisheth the part that quickneth Also it standeth in argument against the Sences and reproveth them of falshood and concludeth contrary to their information And it may be that the man which hath his digestion perfect and his Sences sound hath not his wit or reason sound in like case Now were the Soule but onely one ability it could not be so But now is the same divided manifestly into wit or understanding and will the one serving to devise and the other to execute For we understand divers things which wee will not and wee will divers things which we understand not which contrary operations cannot be attributed both to one power Neverthelesse the uniting of all these powers together is with such distinctnesse and the distinguishing of them is with such union that ordinarily they meet altogether in one self-same action the one of them as readily by all likelihood as the other howbeit that every of them doth his own work severally by himselfe and one afore another as in respect of their objects Thus have we three sorts of men according to the three powers or abilities of the inward man Namely the earthly man which like the Plant mindeth nothing but sleeping and feeding making all his senses and all his reason to serve to that purpose as in whom the care of this present life onely hath devoured and swallowed up his sences and understanding The Sensuall man as S. Paul himselfe termeth him who is given wholly to these sensible things imbacing and casting down his reason so far as to make it a bond-slave to his sences and the pleasures and delights thereof And the reasonable man who liveth properly in spirit and minde who intereth into himselfe to know himselfe and goeth out of himselfe to behold God making this life to serve to the attainment of a better and using his Sences but as instruments and servants of his reason After as any of these three powers doe reigne and beare sway in man that is to wit after as a man yeeldeth himselfe more to one than to another of them so becommeth he like unto the Spirits the brute Beasts or Plants yea and the very Blocks and Stones But it is our disposition even by kind to be carried away by our corrupt nature and by the obiects which hemme us in on all sides but as for against our nature yea or beyond our nature our nature is not able to do any thing at all Now it is not enough for us to know that wee have a soule whereby wee live feele and understand and which being but one hath in it selfe alone so many sundry powers or abilities for it will be demanded of us by and by what this soule properly is And soothly if I should say I cannot tell what it is I should not belye my selfe a whit for I should but confesse mine own ignorance as many great learned men have done afore me And I should doe no wrong at all to the Soule it self for sith we cannot deny the effects thereof the lesse that wee be able to declare the nature and being thereof the more doth the excellency thereof shine forth Againe it is a plaine case that no thing can comprehend the thing that is greater than it selfe Now our Soule is after a sort lesse than it selfe in as much as it is wrapped up in this body in likewise as the man that hath gyves and fetters on his feet is after a sort weaker than himselfe Neverthelesse let us assay to satisfie such demands as well as wee can And for as much as it is the Image of God not only in respect of the government and mayntenance of the whole World but also even in the very nature thereof as we said heretofore when we spake of the nature of God if we cannot expresse or conceive what it is let us at leastwise be certified what it is not First of all that the Soule and the Body bee not both one thing but two very far differing things and also that the soule is no part of the body it appeareth of it selfe without further proof For if the soule were the body or a part of the body it should grow with the body as the other parts of the body doe and the greater that the body were the greater also should the soule be Nay contrary wise the body increaseth to a certain age and then stayeth after which age is commonly the time that the Soule doth most grow and those that are strongest of minde are commonly weakest of body and the Soule is seen to be full of livelinesse in a languishing body and to grow the more in force by the decay of the bodie The Soule then groweth not with the body and therefore it is not the body nor any part of the body And whereas I speak of growing in the soule by growing I mean the profiting thereof in power and vertue as the

it the more it still coveteth and the greater the things be the fitter is shee to receive them even when they be at the greatest It followeth therefore that the soule which after a sort is infinite cannot be a body And so much the lesse can it so be for that whereas it harboreth so many and so great things in it it selfe is lodged in so small a body Again as a thousand divers places are in the soule or minde without occupying any place so is the minde in a thousand places without changing of place and that ere whiles not by succession of time nor by turns but oftentimes altogether at one instant Bid thy Soule or Mind goe to Constantinople and forthwith to turne backe againe to Rome and straight way to be at Paris or Lyons Bid it passe thorow Amercia or to goe about Affricke and it dispatcheth all these iourneys at a trice looke whether soever thou directest it there it is and or ever thou callest it backe it is at home again Now is there a body that can be in divers places at once or that can passe without removing or that can move otherwise than in time yea and in such time as within a little under or over is proportioned both to his pace and to the lenght of the way which it hath to goe Then is it certain that our Soule is not a bodily substance which thing appeareth so much the more plainly in that being lodged in this body which is so movable it removeth not with the body Also it is a sure ground that two bodies connot mutually enter either into other nor conteine either other but the greater must alway needes conteine and the lesser must needes be conteined But by our Soules we enter not only either into others bodies but also either into others minds so as we comprehend either other by mutuall understanding and imbrace either other by mutuall loving It followeth then that this substance which is able to receive a bodilesse thing can be no body and that so much the rather for that the body which seemeth to hold it conteineth it not Nay verily this Soule of ours is so farre of from being a bodily substance and is so manifestly a Spirit that to lodge all things in it selfe it maketh them all after a sort spirituall and bereveth them of their bodies and if there were any bodylinesse in it it were unable to enter into the knowledge of a bodie So in a Glasse a thousand shapes are seene but if the cleere of the Glasse had any peculiar shape of it owne the Glasse could yeeld none of those shapes at all Also all visible things are imprinted in the eye but if the sight of the eye had any peculiar colour of it owne it would be a blemish to the sight so as it should either not see at all or else all things should seeme like to that blemish Likewise whereas the Tongue is the discerner of all tasts if it be not cleere but cumbered with humours all things are of taste like to the humour so as if it be bitter they also be bitter if it be waterish they be waterish to yea and if it be bitter it can not judge of bitternes it self That a thing may receive all shapes all colours and all tasts it behoveth the same to be cleere from all shapes from all colour and from all savour of it own And that a thing may in understanding know and conceive all bodies as our soule doth it behoveth the same to be altogether bodilesse it selfe for had it any bodilinesse at all it could not receive any body into it If we look yet more neerly into the nature of a body we shall finde that no body receiveth into it the substantiall forme of another body without losing or altering his own ne passeth from one form into another without the marring of the first as is to be seen in wood when it receiveth fire in seeds when they spring forth into bud and so in other things What is to be said then of mans soul which receiveth and conceiveth the forms and shapes of all things without corrupting his own and moreover becommeth the perfecter by the more receiving For the more it receiveth the more it understandeth and the more it understandeth the more perfect it is If it be a bodily substance from whence is it and of what mixture If it be of the foure Elements how can they give life having no life of themselves Or how can they give understanding having no sence If it be of the mixture of them how may it be said that of divers things which have no being of themselves should be made a thing that hath being Or that of divers outsides should be made one body or of divers bodies one Soul or of divers deaths one life or of divers darknesses one light Nay rather why say we not that he which beyond nature hath made the mixture of these bodies hath for the perfecting of our body breathed a Soul also into the body To be short the property of a body is to suffer and the property of our Soule is to doe And if the body be not put forth by some other thing than it self it is a very block whereas the mind that is in our Soul ceaseth not to stir up and down in it selfe though it have nothing to move it from without Therefore it is to be concluded by these reasons and by the like that our Soul is a bodilesse substance notwithstanding that it is united to our body And hereupon it followeth also that our Soule is not any materiall thing for as much as matter receiveth not any forme or shape but according to his owne quantity and but onely one forme at once whereas our Soule receiveth all formes without quantity come there never so many at once or so great Againe no matter admitteth two contrary formes at once but our Soule contrariwise comprehendeth and receiveth them together as fire and water heat and cold white and black and not only together but also the better by the matching and laying of them together To be short seeing that the more wee depart from matter the more wee understand surely nothing is more contrary to the substance of our Soule than is the nature of matter Furthermore if this reasonable soule of ours is neither a bodily nor a materiall thing nor depending upon matter in the best actions thereof then must it needs be of it self and not proceed either from body or from matter For what doth a body bring forth but a body and matter but matter and materiall but materialls And therefore it is an unmateriall substance which hath being of it selfe But let us see whether the same be corruptible and mortall on no Soothly if Plutarch be to be beleeved it is in vain to dispute thereof For he teacheth that the doctrine of Gods providence and the immortalitie of our Soules are so linked together that the

to the life of our Soule for it seeketh life by death and death by life And what can that thing meet withall in the whole world that may be able to overthrow it which can inioyne obedience to things most contrary What then Want of food How can that want food in the world which can skill to feed on the whole world Or how should that forsake food which the fuller it is so much the hungryer it is and the more it hath digested the better able it is to digest The bodily wight feedeth upon some certain things but our mind feedeth upon all things Take from it the sensible things and the things of und●rstanding abide with it still bereave it of earthly things and the heavenly remayne abundantly To be short abridge it of all worldly things yea and of the world it selfe and even then doth it feed at greatest ease maketh best cheere agreeable to his owue nature Also the bodily wight filleth it selfe to a certain measure and delighteth in some certain things But what can fill our mind Fill it as full as ye can with the knowledge of things and it is still eager and sharpe set to receive more The more it taketh in the more it still craveth and yet for all that it never feeleth any rawnesse or lack of digestion What shall I say more discharge our understanding from the minding of it selfe and then doth it live in him and of him in whom all things doelive Againe fill it with the knowledge of it selfe and then doth it feele it selfe most empty and sharpest set upon desire of the other Now then can that die or decay for want of food which cannot be glutted with any thing which is nourished and maintained with all things and which liveth in very deed upon him by whom all the things which we wonder at here beneath are upheld And what else is violence but a iustling of two bodies together and how can there be any such betweene a bodie a spirituall substance yea or of two spirits one against another seeing that oftentimes when they would destroy one another they uphold one another And if the Soule cannot be pushed at neither inwardly nor outwardly is there any thing in nature that can naturally hurt it No but it may perchance be weakened by the very force of his encounter as we see it doth befall to our sences For the more excellent and the more sensible the thing is in his kind which the sence receiveth so much the more also is the sence it selfe offended or grieved therewith As for example the feeling by fire the tast by harshnesse the smelling by savours the hearing by the hideousnesse of noyse whether it be of Thunderclap or of the falling of a River and the sight by looking upon the Sunne upon Fire and upon all things that have a glistering brightnesse I omit that in the most of these things it is not properly the sense it selfe but the outward instrument of sense onely that is offended or hurt But let us see if there bee the like in our reasonable soule Nay contrariwise the more of understanding and excellencie that the thing is the more doth it refresh and comfort our minde If it be darke so as wee understand it but by halves it hurteth us not but yet doth it not delight us Nay as we increase in understanding it so doth it like us the better and the higher it is the more doth it stir up the power of our understanding and as you would say reach us the hand to draw us to the attainment thereof As for them that are dim-sighted we forbid them to behold the things that are over-bright But as for them that are of rawest capacity wee offer them the things that are most understandable When the sence beginneth to perceive most sharply then it is fain to give over as if it felt the very death of it selfe Contrariwise when the minde beginneth to understand then is it most desirous to hold on still And whereof commeth that but that our senses work by bodily instruments but our mind worketh by a bodilesse substance which needeth not the help of the body And seeing that the nature the nourishment and the actions of our soule are so far differing both from the nature nourishment and actions of the body and from all that ever is done or wrought by the body can there be any thing more childish than to deem our soul to be mortall by the abating decaying of our sences or by the mortallity of our bodies Nay contrariwise it may be most soundly and substantially concluded thereupon that mans soule is of its own nature immortall seeing that all death as well violent as naturall commeth of the body and by the body Let us see further what death or corruption is It is say they a separating of the matter from his forme And forasmuch as in man the soule is considered to be the forme and the body to be as the matter the separation of the soule from the body is commonly called death Now then what death can there be of the soule sith it is unmateriall as I have said afore and a forme that abideth of it selfe For as one saith a man may take away the roundnesse or squarenesse from a table of copper because they have no abiding but in the matter but had they such a round or square form as might have an abiding without matter or stuffe wherein to be out of doubt such forme or shape should continue for ever Nay which more is how can that be the corrupter of a thing which is the perfection thereof The lesse corsinesse a man hath the more hath he of reason and understanding The lesse our minds be tyed to these bodily things the more lively and cheerefull be they At a word the full and perfect life thereof is the full and utter withdrawing thereof from the bodie and whatsoever the bodie is made of All these things are so cleere as they neede no proofe Now wee know that every thing worketh according to the proper being therof and that the same which perfecteth the operations of a thing perfecteth the being thereof also It followeth therefore that sith the separation of the body from the Soule and of the forme from the matter perfecteth the operation or working of the soule as I have sayd afore it doth also make perfect and strengthen the very being thereof and therefore cannot in any wise corrupt it And what else is dying but to be corrupted And what els is corrupting but suffering And what els is suffering but receiving And how can that which receiveth all things without suffering receive corruption by any thing Fire corrupteth or marreth our bodies and we suffer in receiving it So doth also extreme colde but if we suffered nothing by it it could not freese us Our sences likewise are marred by the excessive force of the things which they light upon And that is because

perceiving by the Sences I think I have proved the contrary already neverthelesse let us examine their reasons yet further The forme or shape of every thing say they doth perish with the matter Now the soule is as you would say the forme or shape of the body therefore it corrupteth with the body This argument were rightly concluded if it were meant of the materiall forme But I have proved that the soule is unmateriall and hath a cōtinuance of ir self And indeed the more it is discharged of matter the more it retaineth his own peculiar forme Therfore the corruption of the matter toucheth not the foule at all Again if mens souls live say they after their bodies then are they infinite for the world is without beginning without ending and as we know nature can away with no infinite thing therefore they live not after their bodies Yes say I for I have proved that the world hath a beginning and that with so substantial reasons as thou art not able to disprove Therfore it followeth that the inconvenience which thou alledgest can have no place Another sayth If dead mens souls live stil why come they not to tell us so And he thinketh he hath stumbled upon a wonderfull subtle device But how doth this follow in reason There hath not come any man unto us from the Indies a long time ergo there be no Indies May not the same argument serve as well to prove that we our selves are not because we never went thither Again what intercourse is there between things that have bodies and things that have no bodies or between heaven and earth considering that there is so smal intercourse even between men which live under one selfesame Sun He that is made a Magistrate in his own Countrey doth not willingly return to the place of his banishment Likewise the Soule that is lodged in the lap of his God and come home into his native soyle forgoeth the desire of these lower things which to his sight beholding them from above and lesse then the point of a needle On the other side he that is put in close prison how desirous soever he be cannot goe out so that soule which is in the Jarle of his soveraign Lord God hath no respit or sporting time to come tell us what is done there Unto the one the beholding of the everlasting God is as a Paradice wherein he is willing to remain and unto the other his own condemnation is an imprisonment of his will But we would have God to send both the one the other unto us to make us to believe As who would say it stood him greatly on hand to have us to believe and not rather us that we should believe And in effect what else is all this but a desiring that some man might return into his mothers womb again to incourage young babes against the pinches and pains which they abide in their birth wherof they would be as shie as we be of death if they had the like knowledge of them But let us let such vanities passe and come to the ground Yee beare us on hand say they that the soul of man is but one though it have divers powers Whereof we see the sensitive and the growing powers to be corrupted and to perish therefore it should seeme that the understanding or reasonable power also should doe the like At a word this is all one as if a man should say you tell mee that this man is both a good man a good Sword-player and a good luteplayer altogether and that because his sword falls out of his hand or his hand it selfe becommeth lame therefore he cannot be a good or honest man still as you reported him to be Nay though he lose those instruments yet ceaseth he not therefore to be an honest man yea and both a Sword-player and a Lute-player too as in respect of skill Likewise when our soules have forgone these exercises yet cease they not to be the same they were afore To inlighten this point yet more of the powers of our Soule some are exercised by the instruments of the body and othersome vvithout any help or furtherance of the body at all Those vvhich are exercised by the body are the sences and the powers of the sences and the powers of the grovving vvhich may carrie the sime likenesse that is between a Luter and a Lute Breake the Luters Lute and his cunning remaineth still but his putting of it in practice faileth Give him another Lute and hee falls to playing new again Put out a mans eye and yet the ability of seeing abideth still with him though the very act of seeing be disappointed But give unto the oldest Hag that is the same eyes that he had when he was young and he shall see as well as ever he did After the same manner is it with the growing or thriving power Restore unto it a good stomack a sound liver and a perfect heart and it shall execute his functions as well as ever it did afore The power that worketh of it selfe and without the body is the power of reason or understanding which if we will we may call the mind And if thou yet still doubt thereof consider when thou mindest a thing earnestly what thy body furthereth thy minde therein thou shalt perceive that the more fixedly thou thinkest upon it the lesse thou seest the things before thee and the more thy minde wandereth the more thy body resteth as who would say that the workings of the body are the greatest hinderance and impediment that can bee to the peculiar doings of the minde And this ability of understanding may be likened to a man which though he have lost both his hand and his lute ceaseth not therefore to bee a man still and to doe the true deeds of a man that is to wit to discourse of things to minde them to use reason and such like yea and to be both a Luter and a man as he was afore notwithstanding that he cannot put his Lute-playing in exercise for want of instruments Nay which more is this understanding part groweth so much the stronger and greater as it is lesse occupied and busied about these base and corruptible things and is altogether drawn home wholy to it selfe as is to be seen in those which want their eyes whose mindes are commonly most apt to understand and most firme to remember Doe we debate of a thing in our selves Neither our body nor out sences are busied about it Doe we will the same As little doe they stir for that too To understand and to will which are the operations of the minde the soule hath no need of the body and as for working and being they accompany one another sayth Aristotle Therefore to continue still in being the soule hath not to doe with the body nor any need of the body but rather to worke well and to be well the soule ought either to be without the

world have their memory still notwithstanding that to some mens seeming it goe away with the sences as the treasury of the sences Howbeit he affirmeth it to be the more excellent kinde of memory not that which calleth things again to minde as already past but that which holdeth and beholdeth them still as always present Of which two sorts this latter he calleth Mindfulnesse and the other he calleth Remembrance I will add but onely one sentence more of his for a full president of his Doctrine The soule sayth he hath had company with the Gods and is immortall and so would we say of it as Plato affirmeth if we saw it faire and cleere But for as much as we see it commonly troubled we think it not to be either divine or immortall howbeit that he which will discerne the nature of a thing perfectly must consider it in the very own substance or being utterly unmingled with any other thing For whatsoever else is added unto it doth hinder the perfect discerning of the same Therefore let everyman behold himselfe naked without any thing save himselfe so as he look upon nothing else than his bare soule and surely when he hath viewed himselfe in his own nature meerly as in respect of his minde he shall believe himselfe to be immortall For he shall see that his minde aymeth not properly at the sensible and mortall things but that by a certain everlasting power it taketh hold of the things that are everlasting and of whatsoever is possible to be conceived in understanding insomuch that even it selfe becommeth after a sort a very world of understanding and light This is against those which pretend a weaknesse of the soule by reason of the inconveniencies which it indureth very often in the body Of the same opinion are Numenius Jamblichus Porphirius and Proclus notwithstanding that now and then they passe their bounds suffering their wits to run ryot For in their Philosophie they had none other rule than onely the drift of their own reason It was commonly thought that Alexander of Aphrodise believed not the immortality of the soule because hee defined it to be the forme of the body proceeding of the mixture temperature of the Elements Surely these words of his doe us to understand either that he meant to defiue but the sensitive life onely as many others do and not the reasonable soule or else that he varieth from himselfe in other places And in very deed he sayth immediately afterward that he speaketh of the things which are subject to generation and corruption But speaking of the soule he sayth it is separable unmateriall unmixed and voyd of passions unlesse perchance we may thinke as some doe that by this soule hee mean but onely God and not also the soule that is in us for the which thing hee is sharply rebuked by Themistius who notwithstanding spake never a whit better thereof himselfe Howsoever he deale elsewhere these words of his following are without any doubtfulnesse at all That the Soule sayth he which is in us commeth from without and is uncorruptible I say uncorruptible because the nature thereof is such and it is the very same that Aristotle affirmeth to come from without And in his second Booke of Problems searching the cause why the abilities of the soule are oftentimes impeached If a mans brain be hurt sayth he the reasonable soule doth not well execute the actions that depend thereon But yet for all that It abideth still in it selfe unchangeable of nature ability and power through the immortality thereof And if it recover a sound instrument it putteth her abilities in execution as well as it did afore But I will reason more at large hereafter against the opinion that is fathered upon him What shall we say of Galen who fathereth the causes of all things as much as he can upon the Elements and the mixture and agreeable concord of them if after his disputing against his own soule hee bee constrained to yield that it is immortall Surely in his book concerning the manners of the soule he doth the worst that he can against Plato and in another place he doubteth whether it be immortall and whether it have continuance of it selfe or no Yet notwithstanding in his book of the doctrine of Hippocrates and Plato It must needs be granted sayth he that the Soule is either a sheare body and of the nature of the skie as the Stoicks and Aristotle himselfe are inforced to confesse or else a bodilesse substance whereof the body is as it were the Chariot and whereby it hath fellowship with other bodies And it appeareth that he inclineth to this latter part For he maketh the vitall spirit to be the excellentest of all bodily things and yet he granteth the soule to be a far more excellent thing than that What shall we then doe Let us wey his words set down in his book of the conception of a childe in the mothers wombe The Soule of man sayth hee is an influence of the universall Soule that discendeth from the heavenly Region a substance that is capable of knowledge which aspireth always to one substance like unto it selfe which leaveth all these lower things to seeke the things that are above which is partaker of the heavenly Godhead and which by mounttng up to the beholding of things that are above the heavens putting it selfe into the presence of him that ruleth all things Were it reason then that such a substance comming from else where than of the body and mounting so far above the body should in the end die with the body because it useth the service of the body Now hereunto I could adde infinite other sayings of the ancient Authors both Greeke and Latine Philosophers Poets and Orators from age to age wherein they treat of the judgement to come of the reward of good men of the punishment of evill men of Paradise and of Hell which are appendants to the immortality of the Soule but as now I will but put the reader in minde of them by the way reserving them to their peculiar places To be short let us run at this day from East to West and from North to South I say not among the Turks Arabians or Persians for their Alcoran teacheth them that mans soule was breathed into him of God and consequently that it is uncorruptible but even a mong the most barbarous ignorant beastly people of the World I meane the very Caribies and Canniballs and we shall finde this beliefe received and imbraced of them all Which giveth us to understand that it is not a doctrine invented by speculations of some Philosophers conveyed from Countrey to Countrey by their Disciples perswaded by likelyhoods of reasons or to be short entered into mans wit by his ears but a native knowledge which every man findeth and readeth in himselfe which he carryeth everywhere about with himselfe and which is as easie to be perswaded

THE SOULES Own evidence for its own IMMORTALITY In a very pleasant and learned discourse Selected out of that excellent Treatise entituled The trunesse of Christian Religion against Atheists Epicures c. First compiled in French by Famous Phillip Mornay Lord of Plessie Marlie afterward turned into English by Eloquent Sir Phillip Sydney and his assistant Master Arthur Golden Anno Domini MDLXXXVIII And now re-published By John Bachiler Master of Arts somtimes of Emanuell Colledge in Cambridge Published according to Order LONDON Printed by M. S. for Henry Overton in Popes-head Ally 1646. To the Reader IUdicious Reader the iniquity of the times having so far corrupted the minds of some that the very innate and inbred principles of Nature especially about a Deity the sovereigne welfare and the Immortality of the Soule seeme in a manner to be quite obliterated and extinct in them I thought it would not be unseasonable to recommend to thy most serious Meditations that excellent Treatise mentioned in the Frontispiece as an Antidote against the Atheisticall and dangerous Tenets now abroad The Noble Authour of it thou wilt soone find was a man of no meane parts and of no common Learning Delicacy of Wit strength of Reason streams of Eloquence with varieties both of solid and curious notions come all flowing from him Hee will tell thee more even from the Ancient doctrine of the very Heathen than happily thou ever heard'st of or at leastwise evertookest much notice of though borne and bred in so bright an Age and among such too as passe for no meane Proficients in Christianity Those Mysterious though glorious Truths which like Mines of Gold under ground run along more hiddenly through the letter of the Scriptures thou maist there meet with discussed at large with as much sobriety as cleernesse Dost thou desire to know by what arguments even of reason thou maist prove a Deity that Deity to be but one only and yet distinguished by a Trinity of Beings that which wee call a Trinity of persons viz. Father Son and Spirit if thou wilt take the pains I might say the pleasure rather to gaine the knowledge of such high yet necessary points In the first six Chapters of the said Treatise thou maist more fully than thou art aware instruct thy self Dost thou enquire after the highest and most sovereigne Good wherein it lyeth and wherein it lyeth not in the 18 and 19 Chapters thou findest that also very sweetly and fully resolved Lastly next unto the knowledge of God what hee is in Himself and what to His creatures dost thou seek to understand thy Self what once thou wert and what still thou art Read but this ensuing Paragraph peculiarly selected out for thy present use and thou shalt easily perceive what Divine a sparks lye raked up under ashes within thine own bosome sparks which when b once stirred up do but blow a little and thou shalt know farther as well what the duration as the excellencie of thy being is And that thou art a creature bearing in thee besides a plurality c of present lives the very seed of Immortality In all which severall enquiries whilst thou readest and considerest thou maist expect that the reasonable part darke and cloudy notwithstanding as it may be shall quickly receive an Irradiation and that not onely from the intrinsecall operations of thine own minde but also from the consent of the wisest men among all Nations Zoroastres the Chaldean Trismegistus the Aegyptian Orpheus the Greeke Pherecides the Syrian after them Pythagoras Socrates Plato Aristotle Plotinus Porphyrius Amelius c all teach thee in their severall ages And if that be not sufficient Thou hast the confession of the very Devils viz. that there is a God and but one God with Trinity of persons in unitie of Essence That the Soul is an Immortall substance and the aforesaid Deity The sovereigne welfare of it according to what thou believest from the only true sacred Oracle Let not then that Treatise rare and singular as it is be neglected by thee for though it hath a long time layn obscurely as a Diamond in the dark little knowne and lesse looked after yet I dare say by that time thou hast well examined it and shalt have tasted the sublime Heavenly matter conteined in it thou wilt estimate it at a very great value even worthy many passages of it to be written in characters of gold Buy it therefore and read it that from the very light of nature thou mayst be enabled to confute blasphemers Judge the whole by this little piece which if thou readest thorough and with diligent attention thou mayst benefit thy selfe and therein answer the desire of him who heartily wisheth the true good of Thine Immortall soul JOHN BACHILER CHAP. I. That the Soul of Man is immortall or dyeth not HItherto I have treated of the world that is to be conceived in understanding and of the sensible World as the Platonists tearm them that is to say of God and of this World Now followeth the examining of the little World as they terme it that is to say of man Concerning God we have acknowledged him to be a Spirit and as touching the world we have found it to be a body In man we have an abridgement of both namely of God in respect of spirit and of the world in composition of body as though the Creator of purpose to set forth a mirrour of his works intended to bring into one little compasse both the infinitenesse of his own nature and also the hugenesse of the whole world together We see in mans body a wonderfull mixture of the foure Elements the veyns spreading forth like Rivers to the uttermost members as many instruments of sense as there be sensible natures in the world a great number of sinews flesh-strings and knitters a head by speciall priviledge directed up to Heaven-ward and hands serving to all manner of services Whatsoever he is that shall consider no more but onely this instrument without life without sense and without moving cannot but thinke verily that it is made to very great purpose and he must needs cry out as Hermes or as the Sarzin Ab●ala doth that man is a miracle which far surmounteth not onely these lower Elements but also the very Heaven and all the ornaments thereof But if he could as it were out of himselfe behold this body receiving life and entering into the use of all his motions with such forwardnesse hands bestirring themselves so nimbly and after so sundry fashions and the Senses uttering their force so far off without stirring out of their place thinke you not that he would be wonderfully ravished and so much more wonder at the said life moving and sense than at the body as he wondered afore at the body to behold the excellencie of the proportion thereof above the masse of some stone For what comparison is there betweene a Lute and a Lute-player or between a dumbe instrument and

him that maketh it to sound What would hee say then if he could afterward see how the same man being now quickned attaineth in one moment from the one side of the earth to the other without shifting of place descending downe to the centre of the world and mounting up above the outtermost circle of it both at once present in a thousand places at one instant imbracing the whole without touching it keeping upon the earth and yet containing it beholding the Heavens from beneath and being above the Heaven of Heavens both at once Should he not bee compelled to say that in this silly body there dwelleth a greater thing then the body greater then the earth yea greater then the whole world together Then let us say with Plato that man is double outward and inward The outward man is that which we see with our eys which forgoeth not his shape when it is dead no more then a Lute forgoeth his shape when the Lute-player ceaseth from making it to sound howbeit that both life moving sense and reason be out of it The inward man is the Soule and that is properly the very man which useth the body as an instrument whereunto though it be united by the power of God yet doth it not remove when the body runneth It seeth when the eyes be shut and somtimes seeth not when the eyes be wide open It travelleth while the body resteth and resteth when the body travelleth that is to say it is able of it selfe to performe his own actions without the help of the outward man whereas on the contrary part the outward without the help of the inward that is to wit the body without the presence of the Soule hath neither sense moving life no nor continuance of being In the outward man we have a Counterfet of the whole world and if you rip them both up by piecemeale ye shall finde a wonderfull agreement betwixt them But my purpose in this book is not to treat of the things that pertain peculiarly to the body In the inward man wee have a summe of whatsoever life sence and moving is in all creatures and moreover an Image or rather a shadow for the Image is defaced by our sinne of the Godhead it self And that is the thing which wee have to examine in this Chapter In Plants we perceive that besides their bodies which wee see there is also an inward vertue which we see not whereby they live grow bud and beare fruit which vertue wee call the quickening Soule and it maketh them to differ from Stones and Metalls which have it not In sensitive living things we finde the selfesame vertue which worketh while they sleep and are after a sort as the Plants and there withall we finde another certaine vertue or power which seeth heareth smelleth tasteth and feeleth which also in many of them doth hoord up the things brought in by the sences which manner of power the Plants are void of This do we terme the sensitive Soule because the effects thereof are discerved and executed by the Sences In man we have both the quickning and the Sensitiue the former uttering it self in the nourishing and increasing of him and the latter in the subtility of sence and imagination where through he is both Plant and Beast together But yet moreover wee see also a Mind which considereth and beholdeth which reapeth profit of the things that are brought in by the Sences which by his seeing conceiveth that which it seeth not which of that which is not gathereth that which is finally which pulleth a man away both from earth and from all sensible things yea and after a sort from himself too This doe we call the reasonable Soule and it is the thing that maketh man to bee man and not a Plant or a brute Beast as the other two do and also to be the Image or rather a shadow of the Godhead in that as we shall say hereafter it is a Spirit that may have continuance of being alone by it selfe without the bodie And by the way whereas I say that the inward man hath a quickening power as a Plant hath a sensitiue power as a Beast hath and a power of understanding wherby he is a man my meaning is not that he hath three Soules but onely one Soule that is to wit that like as in the brute Beast the sensitive Soule comprehendeth the quickening Soule so in man the reasonable Soule comprehendeth both the sensitive and the quickening and executeth the offices of them all three so as it both liveth feeleth and reasoneth even as well and after the same manner as the mind of a man may intend to his own household-matters to the affaires of the Commonweale and to heavenly things all at once Or to speake more fitly these three degrees of Soules are three degrees of life whereof the second exceedeth and conteineth the first and the third exceedeth and conteineth both the other two The one without the which the bodie cannot live is the Soule or life of the Plant and is so tied to the bodie that it sheweth not it selfe in any wise out of it The second which cannot live without the bodie is the Soule or life of the Beast which doth well utter forth his power and force abroad but yet not otherwise then by the members and instruments of the body whereunto it is tyed The third which can of it selfe live and continue vvithout the body but not the body vvithout it is the soule of man vvhich giveth life inwardly to all his parts sheweth forth his life abroad in the perceiving of all things subject to sence and retaineth still his force as shall be said hereafter yea and increaseth it even when the strength of the body and the very livelinesse of the sences fail And in very deed you shall see a man forgoe all his sences one after another as the instruments of them decay and yet have still both life and reason unappaired The cause whereof is that some of the instruments of life and sense doe faile but the life it selfe vvhich quickneth them fayleth not And therefore the Beast forgoeth not life in losing sense but hee utterly forgoeth sence in forgoing life And that is because life is the ground of the abilities of sense and the sensitive life is a more excellent life than the quickning life as wherein those powers and abilities are as in their ●oot To be short he that bereaveth man or beast of the use of sences or man of the right use of reason doth not thereby bereave him of life but he that bereaveth the beast or the outward man of their life doth therewithall bereave them of sence and reason Therefore it is a most sure argument that the soule which causeth a beast to live and the soule that causeth it to have sence are both one that is to wit one certain kind of life more lively and more excellent than the life that is in Plants And

body groweth in greatnesse by further inlarging Again if the Soule were the body it should lose her strength and soundnesse with the body so as the maimed in body should therewith feele also a mayme in his understanding as well as in his members whosoever were sick of any disease should also be sick in his reason he that limpeth or halteth should therewith halt in soule also the blinde mans soule should bee blinde and the lame mans soule should be lame But we see contrariwise that the maymed and the sick the cripples and the blinde have their soules whole and sound and their understanding perfect and cleer-sighted in itselfe To be short many a man dyeth whose body is sound and differeth not a whit in any part from that it was when it was alive and yet notwithstanding both life moving sense and understanding are out of it Let us say then that in the body there was a thing which was not of the body but was a far other thing than the body Some wilfull person will object here that the force and strength of the soule groweth with the body as appeareth in this that a man grown will remove that which a child cannot and that a child of two years old will goe which thing a babe of two moneths old cannot doe But he should consider also that if the selfesame man or the selfesame child should have a mischance in his leg or in his arme he should thereby forgoe the strength and moving thereof whereas yet notwithstanding his soule should have her former force and power still to move the other as shee did afore Therefore it is to be said not that the childs soul is grown or strengthened by time but rather that his sinews are dryed and hardened which the soule useth as strings and instruments to move withall and therefore when age hath loosened and weakned them a man hath need of a staffe to help them with although he have as good a will to run as he had when he was young The soule then which moveth them all at one beck hath the selfesame power in infancie which it hath in age and the same in age which it hath in the prime of youth and the fault is onely in the instrument which is unable to execute the operations thereof like as the cunning of a Lute-player is not diminished by the moistnesse or slacknesse of the Lutestrings nor increased by the over high straining and tight standing of them but indeed in the one he cannot shew his cunning at all and in the other he may shew it more or lesse Likewise the speech of children commeth with their teeth howbeit that the speech doe manifestly utter it selfe first in that they prattle many things which they cannot pronounce and in old men it goeth away again with their teeth and yet their eloquence is not abated thereby As for Demosthenes although hee surmounted all the Orators of his time yet were there some letters which he could not pronounce Give unto old age or unto infancie the same sinews and teeth and as able and lusty limbs and members as youth hath and the actions which the soule doth with the body and by the body I meane so farre forth as concerne the abilities of sence and livelynes shall be performed as well in one age as in another But haddest thou as great indifferencie in iudging of the force and power of thyne owne soule as of the cunning of a Lute-player I say not by the nimblenes of his fingers which are perchance knotted with the gout but by the playne and sweet Harmonie of his Tabulatorie as they terme it which maketh thee to deeme him to have cunning in his head although hee can no more utter it with his hands so as thou wouldest consider how thou hast in thy selfe a desire to go though thy feet be not able to beare thee a discretion to iudge of things that are spoken though thyne eyes cannot convey it unto thee a sound eloquence though for vvant of thy teech thou cannot vvell expresse it and vvhich is above all the rest a substantiall quicke and heavenly reason even vvhen thy body is most earthly and drooping Thou vvouldest soone conclude that the force and power of quickning moving and perceiving is vvhole and sound in thy soule and that the default is altogether in thy body Insomuch that if she had a nevv body and nevv instruments given unto her she vvould be as lusty and cheerely as ever she vvas and that the more she perceiveth the body to decay the more she laboureth to retire into her self vvhich is a plaine proofe of that she is not the body nor any part of the body but the very life and in worker of the body And sith it is so there needeth no long scanning vvhether the soul be a substance or a qualitie For seeing that qualities have no being but in another thing than themselves the life vvhich causeth another thing to be cannot be a qualitie Forasmuch then as the Soul maketh a man to be a man who otherwise should be but a carcasse or carion doubtlesse unlesse we will say that the onely difference which is betwixt a man and a dead carcasse is but in accidents we must needs grant that the soule is a forming substance and a substantiall forme yea and a most excellent substance infinitely passing the outward man as which by the power and vertue thereof causeth another thing to have being and perfecteth the bodily substance which seemeth outwardly to have so many perfections But hereupon inseweth another controversie whether this substance be a bodily or an unbodily substance which cause requireth somewhat longer examination Soothly if we consider the nature of a body it hath certain measurings and comprehendeth not any thing which is not proportioned according to the greatnesse and capacity thereof For like as it selfe must be fain to have a place in another thing so must other things occupie some certain place in it by reason whereof it commeth to passe that things can have no place therein if they be greater then it without annoying the one the other To be short if the thing be lesse than the body that containeth it the whole body shall not contain it but onely some part thereof And if it be greater then must some part thereof needs be out of it for there is no measuring of bodies but by quantity Now we see how our soule comprehendeth heaven and earth without annoying either other and likewise time past present and to come without troubling one annother and finally innumerable places persons and towns without cumbering of our understanding The great things are there in their full greatnesse and the small things in their uttermost smallnesse both of them whole and sound in the soule whole and sound and not by piecemeale or onely but in part of it Moreover the fuller it is the more it is able to receive the more things that are couched in

himselfe immortall Thou sayest the soule cannot be immortall and why Because sayst thou that to be so it would behove it to worke severally by it selfe from the body When thou thinkest that in thy minde consider what thy body doth at the same time Nay yet further who hath taught thee so much of the immortall nature if thou thy selfe be not immortall Or what worldly wight can say what the inworking of a reasonable wight is but the wight which in it selfe hath the use of reason Yet sayest thou still if the soule be immortall it is free from such and such passions How enterest thou so far into the Nature that is so far above thee if thou thy selfe beest mortall All the reasons which thou alleadgest against the immortality of the soule doe fight directly to the proofe of it For if thy reason mounted no higher than to the things that are mortall thou shouldest know neither mortall nor immortall Now it is not some one covetous man above all other that desireth immortality nor some one man excelling all others in wisdome that comprehendeth it but all mankind without exception It is not then some one severall skill or some one naturall property that maketh such difference between man and man as we see to be between many but rather one selfesame nature common to all men whereby they be all made to differ from other living wights which by no deed doe shew any desire to over live themselve● ne know how to live and therefore their lives doe vanish away with their bloud and is extinguished with their bodies If ever thou hast looked to die consider what discourse thou madest then in thy minde thou never couldest perswade thy conscience nor make thy reason to conceive that the soule should dye with the body but even in the selfesame time when it disputeth against it selfe it shifteth it selfe I wot not how from all thy conclusions and faileth to consider in what state it shall be and where it shall become when it is out of the body The Epicure that hath disputed of it all his life long when he commeth to death bequeatheth a yearly pension for the keeping of a yearly feast on the day of his birth I pray you to what purpose serve feastings for the birth of a Swine seeing he esteemeth himselfe to be no better than so Nay what else is this than a crying out of his nature against him which with one word confuteth all his vain arguments Another laboureth by all means possible to blot out in himselfe the opinion of immortallity and because he hath lived wickedly in this world he will needs beare himselfe on hand that there is no Justice in the world to come But then is the time that his own nature waketh and starteth up as it were out of the bottome of a water and at that instant painteth againe before his eyes the selfesame thing which he tooke so much pains to deface And in good sooth what a number have we seen which having been despisers of all Religion have at the hower of death been glad to vow their soules to any Saint for reliefe so cleere was then the presence of the life to come before their eyes I had lever sayd Zeno to see an Indian burne himselfe cheerfully than to heare all the Philosophers of the World discoursing of the immortality of the soule and in very deed it is a much stronger and better concluded argument Nay then let us rather say I had lever see an Atheist or an Epicure witnesse the immortallity of the soule and willingly taking an honourable farewell of nature upon a scaffold then to heare all the Doctors of the world discoursing of it in their pulpits For whatsoever the Epicures say there they speake it advisedly and as ye would say fresh and fasting whereas all that ever they have spoken all their life afore is to be accounted but as the words of Drunkards that is to wit of men besotted and falne asleepe in the delights and pleasures of this world where the wine and the excesse of meat and the vapors that fumed up of them did speake and not the men themselves What shall I say more I have told you already that in the inward man there are as ye would say three men the living the sensitive and the reasonable Let us say therefore that in the same person there are three lives continued from one to another namely the life of the Plant the life of the Beast and the life of the Man or of the Soule So long as a man is in his mothers womb he doth not onely live and grow his spirit seemeth to sleep and his sences seem to be in a slumber so as he seemeth to be nothing else then a plant Neverthelesse if ye consider his eyes his ears his tongue his sences and his movings you will easily judg that he is not made to be for ever in that prison where he neither seeth nor heareth nor hath any room to walk in but rather that he is made to come forth into an opener place where hee may have what to see and behold and wherewith to occupy all the powers which we see to be in him As soon as he is come out he beginneth to see to feel and to move and by little and little falleth to the perfect using of his limbs and findeth in this world a peculiar object for every of them as visible things for the eye sounds for his hearing bodily things for his feeling and so forth But besides al this we find there a mind which by the eys as by windows beholdeth the world and yet in all the world finding not any one thing worthy to rest wholly upon mounteth up to him that made it which minde like an Empresse lodgeth in the whole world and not alonely in this body which by the sences and oftentimes also without the sences mounteth above the sences and streyneth it self to go out of it self as a child doth to get out of his mothers wombe And therefore we ought surely to say that this Mind or Reason ought not to be ever in prison That one day it shall see cleerly and not by these dimme and cloudy spectacles That it shall come in place where it shall have the true object of understanding and that hee shall have his life free from these fetters and from all the affections of the body To be short that as man is prepared in his mothers wombe to be brought forth into the world so is he also after a sort prepared in this body and in this world to live in another world We then understand it when by nature it behoveth us to depart out of the world And what child is there which if nature did not by her cunning drive him out would of himself come out of his Covert or that cometh not out as good as forlorn and half dead or that if he had at that time knowledge and speech would not