thoughts or envious malitious thoughts or they be thoughts of gluttony and excess or thoughts of lust and carnal concupiscence or the like Let the mind and Memory be replenished with such pious Meditations and holy Contemplations the thoughts of the World will find no admittance Intus existens prohibet alienum where the strong man armed keeps the house the enemy dares not enter and whilst the soul is armed with the commemoration of Gods blessing it will not open the door to the temptations of Satan or lust of the Flesh but say with Joseph Behold my Master hath committed all into my hands and there is none greater in this house than I neither hath he kept any thing from me but thee Gen. 39.8 9. how then shall I doe this great wickedness and sin against God Praise then the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sin and healeth all thine infirmities call to mind the loving kindness of the Lord and have them in everlasting remembrance exercise thy Memory with such heavenly meditations as may build thee up unto eternal life for this will be thy companion for ever whether in weal or in wo it dieth not with the body but is immortal as thou thy self the rest of the faculties may sleep for a while with the body but this survives to perpetuity This is that Intellectual Memory or Recordation which none but reasonable creatures enjoy which is not diminished by the bodies death but infinitely inlarged when all the thoughts words and deeds done in the flesh shall immediately in a wonderfull manner come into remembrance the secrets of all hearts shall then be disclosed and all such thoughts words and actions which in life time were slipt out of mind shall come again into fresh remembrance with a Conscience Chap. 8. Book 1. a Book which that day shall be opened a Book of Mans life upon Earth an account of Mans workes where they that have done well shall go into life everlasting but they that have done evill into everlasting fire Which Recordation or Intellectual memory if the Saints in Heaven whose bodies yet sleep in the grave had not how should they sing misericordias domini in aeternum the loving kindness of the Lord for ever as the Prophet David hath it which Psalm and Song saith St. Augustine made for the glory of the mercies of Christ by whose blood wee are redeemed the Saints do joyfully sing in Heaven Of which Memorative facul y more shall be said hereafter CHAP. VIII Of the Appetitive faculty and the Motive to a place WEE have done with those Sensitive faculties External and Internal which have power of Judgement Knowledge and Discerning we come now to those which have not this power in themselves but are guided by the Counsell and advice of others being moved by the Object good or evill according as Phantasie or Reason presents it the Phantasie imagineth it good the Appetite is streight moved to desire it This faculty is twofold viz. Appetitive and Motive to a place The Locall Motive Faculty is a power of the Soul moving the living creature from place to place to follow that which the Appetite coveteth as good or to shunne what it lottheth as hurtful so that this Motive faculty is but an effect of the Appetitive and necessarily follows it as the Effect doth the Cause for where the Appetitive facultie is to desire good or shun evill there must needs be this Motive also from place to place otherwise the Appetitive should be given us in vain had we not this Motive faculty to seek after that wee desire as good and pleasant and to avoid what wee conceive to be hurtful unto us Aristotle I grant adds another cause of this Motion besides Appetite to wit Intellect and under Intellect he comprehends Sense to wit Phantasie for what ever is desired or shunned is under the notion of good or evill so desired or lothed now this knowledge must either be from Reason or Phantasie for there is no knowledge but is either Sensitive or Intellectual therefore must Intellect which includes Phantasie be another cause of Motion Vide Suarez de metaphys disp 35. Sect. 5. part 15. fol. 172. neither do I intend to exclude Phantasie and Reason from being a cause for when I mention Appetite onely as the cause I do it partly because Appetite is the chief Phantasie and Intellect are but subordinate causes and partly because I take Appetite here in the largest sense as comprehending Phantasie and Reason for Appetite in general is both Sensitive and Intellectual as shall be said hereafter so this Motive faculty being but an effect of Appetite we shall be the briefer in it and insist more largely upon the cause the knowledge wherof will necessarily conduce to the knowledge of the effect Appetite is a natural desire of the Soule by which the living creature for the cause of preservation is moved either to desire that which Sense judgeth as good or to loth that which it apprehendeth evill and hurtfull so that Appetite is a necessary concomitant of Sense and follows her close for where there is Sense there is sorrow and pleasure and where these are there must be Appetite There is a twofold Operation of Sense one whereby it perceives its Object as the eye beholds colour which is the first and simple Operation of Sense the other whereby upon the preception and apprehension of the Object the Sense is affected with sorrow or pleasure this is the second and in a sort a mixt Operation in as much as with the Object is joyned sorrow or pleasure and to these are joyned Appetite and flight for things pleasant we desire after and things grievous we flie from but this last Operation belongs to Common Sense not to any of the External to perceive good under the notion of good or evill under the notion of evill and accordingly to be affected therewith is the Operation of the Internal not External Senses therefore it is this Common Sense to which the Appetite is so nearly related that Aristotle saith they differ not re nor yet in subjecto but onely ratione not re for they have no distinct being but one and the same essence nor yet subjecto they have one and the same subject for the seat of Appetite is where the Internal Sense is seated to wit in the brain this is to be understood of that Appetite which is called Sensitive and is common to man and brutes But there are three kinds of Appetite according to Arist Appetite is divided into Lust Anger and Will Lust is in that faculty which is called Concupiscible Anger in that which is called Irascible and Will in that is called Intellectual Lust and Anger follow the judgement of Sense for what Sense judgeth pleasant and good Lust desireth and what Sense judgeth grievous the Irascible faculty rejecteth and these are in brutes as well as in man but Will followeth
accidens but the first act of the body not Artificial nor Mathematical but of a Natural body nor of every Natural but that Natural body which is Organical and consists of many parts and members and this body Natural and Organical having life not actu sed potentia this is the Definition given by Aristotle in his book De anima where he also defines the soul to be that beginning by which we have life sense Lib. 2. ca. 1. Another Definition of the soul Lib. 2. c. 2. and understanding chiefly the which as it is a full and perfect definition of the Rational soul so take it disjunctively in it several parts and it will agree with the soul of Plants and of Beasts for the Soul of Plants is principium quo primò vivunt the soul of Beasts quo primò vivunt ac sentiunt the soul of Men quo vivunt sentiunt ac intelligunt primò the Soul is the beginning of life and Vegetation chiefly for when the soul is gone out of the body it ceaseth to live or grow any longer the soul is the beginning of Sense chiefly for the soul being absent the body is altogether insensible and the soul is the beginning of Understanding chiefly for the carcass or cadaver is voyd of understanding when the soul is departed out of the body And it is sayd chiefly because though the body Natural and Organical may be said to be the beginning of life sense and reason yet that is but Organically and Secondarily the Soul is the begining chiefly and primarily TotuÌ„ composituÌ„ dicatur principium ut quod cum sit illud quod agat forma vero principium ut quo cum agat beneficio formae instrumenta denique per quod cum per ipsa operetur Sennert These are the Definitions given by Aristotle the former being drawn from those things which are notiora secundum naturam though nobis ignotiora the latter from those things which are secundum nos notiora though secundum naturam ignotiora and those are the Effects and Faculties of the soul which are called the second act of the soul not the first act and are the companions associates of the soul neither of which do we reject but make use of both since in the subsequent Chapters we shall consider the soul not onely as it is principium corporis animalis tanquam forma or the act and perfection of a Natural Organical body which is according to the former Definition but as it is principium operationum tanquam eftrix as it is considered in the latter so making of two one Definition thus The Soul is the act the perfection and beginning of a Natural Organical body endued with life sense and understanding And now having traced thee O my soul from thy original the place and person à quo to the place and person ad quem from Heaven to Earth from God to Man and find thee clothed in humane nature I shall not raise a consideration from that close conjunction and mysterious union which is betwixt the soul and body flesh and spirit that being formerly couched in the first Chapter of this Book but finding thee seated in humane nature intombed and imprisoned in a body of flesh consider O my soul into what a body thou art come the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato is quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul's prison and sepulcher a dungeon foul and noysom in materiâ primâ even in its first and best matter of which it is made slime and mud red earth and clay For God made man saith the Text of the dust of the ground And again Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return And again Behold I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes And this first matter if we look into its original it was of meer nothing not of any other praeexistent matter for then it would not be materia prima It's true in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth but as true not out of another Heaven and Earth but of meer nothing and thus much of the first matter of this body of flesh But if we look into the second matter this body of sinful flesh contracted by the fall of our first Parents what is it but sanguis menstruus worse than a menstruous cloth or polluted rag which is a thing so vile and filthy as cannot be expressed the eyes refusing to b hold and the hands to touch it and the mind abhorring to think of it into to such a dungeon art thou cast O my soul fettered and fast bound in the chains of carnal lusts and concupiscence having thy Understanding darkned and thy Will and reason captivated and scarce the essence and definition of a soul remaining in thee thy act being turned into power nay rather impotency and weakness thy perfection into much imperfection thy beginning of life into a beginning of death and misery There was a time when the soul of man enjoyed more immunities and though a prisoner as it were in the body yet as Joseph who was made ruler and overseer of the whole house and had the command of all in the prison and whatsoever was done there that did he The soul was not a captive to the flesh so long as man continued in his innocency but contrariwise had the care and command of all the body was subject to the soul the flesh unto the spirit the inhaerent justice in which man was created subjected the inferior and Sensual parts to the superior Intellectual faculty without the least predominancy at any time so long as the superior continued in obedience and subjection to God the body was obedient to the command of the soul but after that the soul had rebelled against God the body took occasion to rebel against the soul so that to this day there hath bin a continual civil war within us the law of our members warring against the law of our mind and bringing us captive to the law of sin which is in our members this is the miserable estate of mankind by nature that in the deep sense thereof we may all cry with Saint Paul O wretched creature that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death But stand thou still O my soul and see the salvation of our God seest thou thy self in the state of nature dead in trespasses and sinnes an heathen an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel without hope without God in the world There is a law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made thee free from the law of sin and death this Christianity teacheth to this Christian Religion not Heaâ—henish superstition leadeth There is a state of Grace which is Christian as well as a state of Nature corrupt and hea henish Rom. 6.14 they that are under this law sin hath power on but they that are under Grace sin shall have no power over Vnto this state
knowest my thoughts afar off God is a searcher of the heart and trier of the reins the desires of the soul thoughts of the heart are not hid from him he long before knows all the free and voluntary acts of men and certainly can foretell the Event of every Future Contingent this is by Vertue of that Infinite Knowledge which is proper to God alone Prevision and Prediction of Contingent Effects none is capabel of but God alone and those to whom God is pleased to reveal it and therefore though the Prophets of old have foretold as we may read in holy Writ of many effects of this Nature which most truly and certainly came to pass yet it was not they but God in them foretold them Luk. 1.70 so saith Zacharie in his Benedictus As he spake by the mouth of his Prophets since the World began and St. Peter in his 2. Epist 1.21 Prophesie in old time came not by the Will of men but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost The Devils have formerly spoken in Oracles and taken upon them to foretel such Future Events but this is above the Nature of any Angel a Conjectural Knowledge they may have at the best such as a Mariner by his long Experience may foretel of the Wind the Husbandman of rain the Physician of diseases and the like by which the Devils have presumed to foretel such things to come in which also often they have both deceived themselves and others And where this Knowledge could not be attained wherein they could have no probable conjecture of Future Events they have in Oracles uttered Amphibologiously and in a double meaning that so if the Event proved otherwaies the fault might be imputed to the Misinterpretation and not to the Prediction But a certain Knowledge of a Future Contingent that they have not it is onely proper to God Your Astrologers Genethlialogists Vide Sennertum lib. 2. cap. 2. fol. 34. a b. and other such Diviners who like Gods Apes take upon them to imitate him in such Predictions are here to be derided and rejected as Impostors and deluders of mankind since they pretend not to Divine Revelation and Inspiration of God from whom alone such Effects do come to be certainly known The consideration hereof may make us with the Appostle cry out and say O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God Great is the Lord and great is his Power yea and his Wisdom infinite sapientiae ejus non est numerus Stand thou in Admiration and Adoration of this Knowledge of God O my Soul say with the Prophet David such Knowledge is too wonderful forme O God I cannot attain unto it for of such Knowledge doth the Prophet David there speak viz. of the Knowledge of Future Cogitations saying thou knowest my thoughts afar of not such as there already are but such as shall be hereafter nor such as shall be but such as may not be hereafter also Now the heart of Man is deep and unsearchable profundum inscrutabile saith the Steptuagint and who can know it It is answered I the Lord which search the heart and trie the Reins this makes the Psalmist crie out such knowledge is too wonderfull for me If we but cast in our mind the number of all mankind that have been since the Creation of the World living upon the face of the Earth and add thereto the number of those that are with those that shall be conversant upon the Earth before the Consummation of this Universe and we shall find they will not fall within the number of Arithmetick Millions of Millions and ten thousand times ten thousand are not the one half of them Let us withall cast in our mind the several various thoughts and desires of the heart which this day and night hath passed us thee and me much less the thoughts of every mans particular heart since the beginning of the World throughout the whole course of his life we are not able to recount them yet such is the infiniteness of his Wisdom and Knowledge that God in the Book of his Remembrance hath the number of all with the names of every one that hath been or now are from the beginning of the World to this very instant with a Register of all and every one of their Thoughts Words and Actions of what Nature soever or how secretly soever committed nor onely so but every mans thoughts and imaginations of heart that shall be nay more every thought that may be though it never be fall within the compass and comprehension of this infinit knowledge of God the thoughts which are not in thy heart O my Soul but furthest from thee nay and against thy mind as loathsom to retain are known to God It was not in Hasaels heart to kill his Master to take the strong holds of the Children of Israel and set them on fire to slay the young men with the sword to dash their Children rip up their women with child when he answered the Prophet What is thy Servant a dog that he should do these great things nor was it in Peters heart he was not guilty of such dissimulation to deny his Master when he answered our Saviour though all should forsake thee yet would not I and again though I should die with thee yet will not I deny thee yet these were foretold and so came to pass as they were foretold by that admirable Knowledge of him who searching the hearts and trying the reines seeth not as Man seeth but knoweth the thoughts afar off even such as are not yea and depend upon the Will of Man whether ever they spall be or not Such Knowledge is too wonderful for thee O my Soul thou canst not attain unto it Naural and Divine CONTEMPLATIONS Of the Passions and Faculties Of the Soul of Man In Three Bookes THE THIRD BOOK The Theological part CHAP. I. BUT oh the Trump hath sounded the Earth hath opened her Womb those that slept are awaked the bodies of the dead are raised to life and blessed are they that have died in the Lord. No longer now shall we view the Souls of those departed in their Metaphysical shapes and abstracted Forms every form to its Individual determinate matter and every Soul to its Numerical body the Soul hath quickned and revived the Body the Body is again reunited to the Soul in an Indissoluble Conjugal knot in an everlasting wedlock But since Corruption cannot Inherit Incorruption or Souls Immortal ever dwell in trunks of clay and dust therefore hath the Body cast off her old Garments and changed her attire she was sown a Natural body she is raised a Spiritual body sown in weakness but raised in Power in dishonor but raised in Glory sowen in Corruption but raised in Incorruption that she may for ever dwell with the Incorruptible Soul in Unity There are no jarrings twixt Soul and Body here as in