water and saw with drie eyes his life fade away But S. Ambrose assures that a good consciēce makes the life happy Be it so but forgets to adde That in the death of the faithfull this happynesse is doubled for it is pretious before God And in the end I deny that those men in whom a melancholy humour doth most abound suffer themselues to bee so abused in their iudgements for this humour is more aduised then all the rest hauing some diuine matter in it as Aristotle saith and therefore more to be credited then the rest and particularly more then the Iouiall sanguine As for the admonition of the Stoicks it was easie for them to speake it but vertue consists in action and I know not whether Epictetus did that himself which he taught to others otherwise as the prouerbe saith I hate the Philosopher which is not wise but for others and not for himselfe You will that I take the most troublesome things on the best fide yea but I see no end of that side it is like vnto occasion which hath long haire before and bald behinde Where is that end then I cannot see it and admit I should I cannot attaine vnto it being borne vnder the planet of Saturne alwaies taking things on that side which is sadde I would haue my neighbour and my aduersarie obserue your precept and he would haue me and so neither of vs doe it and we continue by reason of the one and the other in continuall vexation Finally the pleasure of this world is very small and intermixt with many displeasures It is a Myne where there is gold but it is so fastned to the stones as to draw one crowne it will cost 12. So there is not one ounce of ioy but doth cost a pound of sorrow The 18. Argument taken from the miseries of life Euery Estate that is full of calamity should desire and not apprehend a change This present life is full of calamity c. THe field of this streight life is so spacious and so full of great dangers and extreame miseries as the exchange thereof to him that hath any sence cannot be but delightfull Obserue the diseases of the body measure number their greatnes and their great number consider the tempests stormes of the passions of the soule the clouds and troubles of his vnderstanding and you will conclude that man must of necessity change this life or to be continually miserable in euery degree And therefore he was fitly compared to a Bull which leapt suddenly into his Maisters garden and by chance ouerthrew sundry skepps of Bees which being prouoked came forth assaile him and sting him on the throate backe in the eyes and generally all ouer And it auailes him nothing to pierce the ayre with his homes to beate the earth with his feete to whippe his flankes with his strong tayle to roare make a noyse yee his stingings sticke still-to him and do not leaue him So man since that in his Creatures garden in the earthly Paradise he durst presume to ouerthrow and transgresse his Masters commandments there is no part of him from the head to the foote which is not toucht and pierced euen to the marrow of his bones with many calamities his head is subiect to inflamed Phrensies which make him madd to the Apoplexie which like Lightening depriues him of all motion his eyes are toucht with the Opthalmie or inflāmation the Squinancie takes him by the throate which making the Muscles to swell with a congealed bloud stoppe the passage of respiration the inflamed Pleurisie stabs him in the sides the Feauer burns him the swelled Dropsie drownes him the Iaundise makes war against his Liuer powring forth gall for pure bloud the vngentle Cholike wrings his bowells straitens the passages and makes of his mouth a stinking Iakes the bloudy flux excoriates his gutts the hardened grauell staying his vrine in the bladder pricks him most horribly the Goute knits his sinnews faster then bonds of Iron the Canker burnes his flesh more then fire it selfe the filthie and lousie Phtiriasis eats his skin Finally there is not any member either within or without the body that is not subiect to many infirmities Who can comprehend them all seing the eyes alone by exact search of Physitions is assayled with 113. diseases And who doth not see here that the estate of man is very wretched And that which doth aggrauate this is that euen those helps wherewith they think to ease themselues the medicins are conuerted into worse torments then thé disease the strict dyets the bitter potions the cutting and burning of members which they vse in Cankers and other vlcers that tubbe wherein they boyle the bodies of such as are infected with the venerian scab or the French poxe with a thousand other deuices to restore health and life to man what torments what agonies and what cryes do they not cause vnto the poore patients These miseries are great but those of the minde are greater which seemed for her noble extraction not to be subiect to any Come and let vs runne ouer her faculties the vnderstanding holds the chiefe place at the very entrie of life we see in infants a greater ignorance then in brute beasts Fawns as soone as they are borne know their dammes and without helpe of any goe into the most secret places to seeke the dug and sucke whereas children new borne know not where they are and being neere the breast will crie and perish with hūger rather then suck as S Augustine writes and experience doth teach This ignorance hath taken such deepe roote in the spirit os man as to roote it out and passe vnto the sciences there is found such difficultie as most men had rather liue perpetually in darkenes then to take so much paines to learne Thirdly and that is most lamentable man knowes nothing of his last end in the getting of which knowledge consists his soueraigne good hee goes alwayes astray if God doth not inspire him from aboue Let all the sects of Philosophers be witnesse who by so many diuers waies haue sought it yet could not finde it Fourthly the ignorance in man of his Essence is a notable misery the Angels know themselues perfectly The soule knowes nothing lesse then it selfe and the body which was giuen it for an Organ of the Sciences hinders it that she neither knows her selfe nor any other thing for the body which corrupts makes the soule heauie and this earthly habitation puls downe the spirit that it cannot raise it selfe to thinke of many things For a fift point there is a curiositie or naturall itching to obserue the actions errours of others more willingly and diligently then his owne this misery is great for to know his owne faults is alwayes profitable and many times necessary to examine other mens actions is seldome good and many times pernicious There is for the 6. place and for the deepest degree of the calamitie
it is rather for griefe that hee must dye or some other distemperature and not the death which doth cause some troublesome alteration in his sinewes sensible parts As for death which proceeds from diseases there are some long others short If they be long the paine is little for that nature doth accustome it selfe to that which comes by degrees it turnes to a habite and hee feares no griefe or very little there being nothing but the suddain alteration which nature cannot endure that which causeth pain is that which changeth the good temperature the which in very long languishing diseases comes slowly and insensibly As for example in an Hectick feuer they grow leane and consume away by little and little and dye with paine which is in a manner imperceptible there is nothing but an heauinesse of the spirits but in their bodyes feele no paine It is euen so of the paine of the Lights whereon the rheume distilling it doth consume them by little and little as a spout of water doth a stone so as in the end this infirmity brings the patient insensibly to death As for short diseases the paine is short What great pain can there be in a swoun ding in an Appoplexie that happens by the sudaine dissipation of the spirits What great paine can a moment of time bring to man But you wil reply that there are diseases wonderfully sharpe It is true but if you will obserue them they are least dangerous for death whereof our discourse is Nature giuing death knowes how to mortifie the members so wel and to weaken the vertue of the sinewes as man cannot discerne when death seazeth on him no more thē when sleep surprizeth him It is an Aphorisme of Hipocrates When a sicke body saith he feeles no paine playes with the couering of his bed and pulls off the wooll it is a signe of death and no likelihood of life what paine then when as hoping to recouer and feeling ease of his paine hee shall dye As for famine and thirst which quench the spirit of life that happens very seldome and the Annales in 16. ages haue scarce obserued two the one vnder the Empire of Honorius at what time in the Theater at Rome there was this strange voyce heard You must set a price vpon humane flesh The other vnder Iustinian at what time they did not only eate mans flesh but euen the excrements of men Here in truth is great horror but little paine neither can I beleeue whatsoeuer they say that he which dies of hun ger feeles no great torment examine it by your selfe whē you haue fasted long you shall feele a great debility a great appetite or a great heate in all your members but no great paine it is in the sinewes to feele where the paine lies which sinewes do not suffer any thing in the extreamity of hunger or thirst but the principal parts which receiue the nourishment therefore in this most pittifull and pitty is here taken for the paine Let the death of Charles 7. the French King be an example vnto vs who being full of suspition and way wardnesse entertained in that humor by the dayly reports of his household flatterers that they would attempt against his person yea a Captaine in whom he trusted most assured him that they meant to poyson him he gaue such credit to this aduice as he resolued neither to eate nor drinke in which capricious humor hee continued seuen dayes But in the end being prest not with paine but by his Phisitions and house hold seruants who laid before him the danger of life whereinto he did voluntarily bring his person when hee would haue eaten he could not by reason sayth the History the passages of the stomake were shrunke Let vs weigh these last words and acknowledge that this naturall fire in vs wherewith the lampe of our life is kindled is like vnto the Elementary alwayes actiue wherefore wanting his ordinary nutriment hee turnes himselfe violently vpon that which beares it vpon the radicall humidity the which it doth waste and consume in a short time and this humidity being consumed the members remaine dry and without vigour so as when they offer them the accustomed remedy hauing lost their vsuall vertue they disgest it not but cast it vp againe It is the same reason why such as obserue a certaine houre for their meales when this houre is come they feele certaine motions of an appetite in their stomacke which requires meate But if they passe this houre either by fasting or by diets they lose their appetites for that this heate being frustrated of his ordinary repast falls either vpon the peccant humor or that failing vpon the vitall humour and as we suffer it to do more or lesse so we receiue more or lesse preiudice Now if in the first and most sensible touches of this natural heate we feele no great torment as euery man may try in the religious fasts of the Church which passe the ordinary time of eating three or foure houres I cōclude necessarily that the longer they abstaine from meate the lesse they suffer for the heate decaying still by the want of nourishment the actiue vertue also decreaseth and his subiect the body suffereth lesse by such a languishing action also the body which for his part decayes in force is daily lesse susceptible of paine vntill that all his humor being exhausted and his heate euaporated hee must die Last in ranke come good men who are vniustly put to death by Tyrants to whom the paine is sensible according to the horror of the punishment But I answere First that it happens seldome God holding in his power the Tyrannous resolutions of great men that they may not execute their wicked designes against his seruants wickednesse shall neuer preuaile so much she shal neuer conspire so strongly against vertue but the name of wisedome shall alwayes remaine sacred and venerable Secondly God who suffers it giues them ease in their torments knowes how to restraine and suspend their paines as hee did to his seruants Sidrac Mizac and Abednego in the burning furnace as they go ioyfully to death and sing the praises of the Lord cheerefully in the middest of the fire as hath bene seene in the Martyrs And thus much for this point But if after all these reasons they persist still in a fantasticall apprehension of some great paine in the article of death wee will adde that it is not fitting to accuse death it is life the remainders whereof cause the paine and death is the end Wherefore Diogenes being demanded if death were euil How can it be sayd hee seing we neuer feele it present and that which is absent cannot bee hurtfull to any man whilest that man hath feeling he hath life but if he bee dead hee hath no feeling and that which is not felt is not hurtfull And therefore hee concludes that it was not death which was euill but the way to
death of man-hood at what time the spirit is fortified and growes more ripe in good Counsell and wiser in his actions this life ascends vnto the decrepit age as they call it which begins at 70. yeares where rests the death of age and so runnes on vnto the graue all the remainder of his life and this is the 8. degree of life In the end succeeds in his turne the last principall and most to be desired death I say the principall for that it makes an end of all the other deathes that went before and feares no more the miseries of life I say to be desired for she alone doth crowne the actions of mortal life with glorious immortality it is the hand which sets vpon our heads the flourishing Diadem of eternall life It is the last staffe of the ladder manifested vnto Iacob by vision ordained by God to the end wee may thereby ascend vp into heauen It is that dun horse that is to say pale and mournefull to our opinions but yet wee must backe him to runne the carreere of death to passe vnto that most happy aboad Poore man thou tremblest at the shadow of death thou doest crie and howle when she layes hold on thee euen so thou diddest when thy mothers strength cast thee out of her wombe if then thou haddest had thy iudgement neate as now thou hast thou wouldest haue held thy selfe happy to haue left a most filthy prison within the circuite of that round Citty In like sort if now thou hadst thy vnderstanding and Spirit transformed and renewed as the Apostle speakes thou shouldest see plainely that what doth terrifie thee is that which should assure thee But yet if God hath not imparted vnto thee the light of his grace take aduice of humane reason call Seneca vnto thee who had but the eyes of a man and consider what he sayth thou shalt find that in it are no ambushes nor constraint it is onely pure and simple nature which speakes by reason it is an vndoubted Maxime that nature alwayes tends and attaines for the most part to the perfection of her worke Man is her Master peece all other Creatures are made for him the perfection of man is his perpetuity in a most happy life nature leads man by degrees to this perfection We see she failes not in the second degree seeing that the Infant borne is much more perfect then that which is newly ingendred in the wombe it failes no more in the third nor cōsequently to the eighth as I haue shewed Let vs conclude thereby that it is impossible she shold faile in the principall which is the ninth degree of life which shee must perfectly finish wee must iudge of the end of the worke by the beginning and progresse Finally if the study of Philosophy bee a kinde of death as Philosophers hold for that man is sequestred from the company of men and the vanities of the world to haue his spirit free and at liberty in his braue meditations and if in this estate man is more accomplished and more perfectly happy without comparison then they that trouble themselues continually with the affaires of this actiue life Oh what shall it bee when as the soule purged from the infection of the senses freed from all commerce with the body shall be wholly in it selfe ennobled with a supernaturall grace illuminated with a celestiall flame inspired with an vnspeakeable ioy how beautifull happy and ioyfull shall shee be To this death then let vs direct our vowes and our eies let vs take acquaintance and be familiar with her shee is our friend since that Iesus Christ did vanquish and subdue her for our sakes shee is prepared for vs as a way into which wee must of necessity enter to goe into our Countrey which is heauen It is the onely meanes ordained of God to go vnto that most blessed Mansion Let vs then stretch out our armes couragiously and with a smiling countenance when we shall see her turned towards vs making signe that shee will imbrace vs let vs receiue her for shee is a necessary gift to our cortupted nature which wee must not reiect but imbrace as Saint Chrysostome saith The first Obiection Euery end of a worke is not the finall cause therefore it followes not that death is the finall cause of life although it be the extreame end THere are three cōditions necessary to a finall cause the one is that it be the last point of the operation the other is that the worke bee finished for the loue thereof if the first bee found in death the second which is the principal falls seeing that the actions of life tend not vnto death as to their deare and best beloued Answer I said not that death was the finall cause of life but the way yea the onely way which leades vs vnto it and that for the loue of that great and foueraigne good which is ioyning to the gate of death we should desire it and not bee amazed at it after the example of S. Paule who writing to the Philippians desired to be dissolued and to be with Christ the which was farre better for him that he might bee crowned with a crowne of Iustice and enioy that vnspeakeable good as hee saith else-where But some Infidels will say I demand proofes hereof fauorable to my reason I answer that hee hath put the flame of reason into thy vnderstanding who doth illuminate euery man which commeth into the world hath presented his grace vnto thee in the Gospell to beleeue and there is nothing but the barre of thy sinnes that doth hinder thee neither is this Gospell concealed from any but such as haue the eyes of their vnderstanding blinded by the Prince of this world But if thy reason beeing blinded cannot apprehend the souereigne Good which is in death yet shall you plainly see a meere priuation from all miseries an absolute rest and a tranquility which cannot be interrupted and therfore if there were no other but this reason death should cause no amazement but rather giue contentment considering the estate of this life The second Obiection All demolishings carry deformity and cause horror Death is a demolishing of man therefore death causeth horror PAllaces Temples and other buildings yeeld a pittifull spectacle when we see them ruined and what shall man doe who exceedes in excellency all buildings yea the earth the heauen and all that we behold what can hee doe lying vpon the earth in death but perplexe our mindes To this I answer by distinction to the similitude and then I flatly deny the application I say therefore to the first proposition that there are two sorts of demolishings the one is necessary and wisely vndertaken for a better structure the other is preiudiciall and vndiscreetly done by reuenge for a totall ruine I confesse that this in its deformity should giue cause of horror but I cannot confesse that the like is in death in the
his age giues some light contributes discourses and lends him Counsell Memorie a faithfull register keepes a Iournall booke of all and will quickned by the goodly obiect which presents it selfe to the vnderstanding giues her consent and keepes all ioyfull so as by the Imagination which is alwayes ready at the first sommons that which hath once pleased the minde is often repeated and these are the last and goodliest degrees of life after which a wise man should prepare himselfe to decline it he will not doe it willingly his owne temper which had raised him will draw him force him thereunto maugre his resistance the naturall heate diminisheth the Imagination which consists in a certaine point of heat growes weake the radicall moysture consumes and the memorie is lost reason doats for that the memorie is not firme enough nor the Imagination strong to conclude the will can no more loue any thing shee is still wayward and displeased and the vnderstanding doth nothing but doaâ—…e for that the vigour and vertue of the sences is decayed they which were wont to make a faithfull report of al things in this world vnto the soule haue no more any power the sight growes dimme the hearing hardned the smelling verie dull the mouth without tast the body without appetite the hands knotted with the Goute Finally it is no more what it was And how then should these building of the bodie subsist seeing the foun dations decay daily This facultie which desired and receiued sustenance is altogether distasted that fierie vertue which did concoct it suffers it to goe downe all rawe finally that power which did nourish and giue strength vnto the body is now become vnable so aâ—… the bodie withers growes crooked and leane and in the ende dyes Thou doest imagine O 〈◊〉 that this last period of â—…y bodies fayling is very horrible thou doest beleeue it but thou art deceiued seeing it giues a finall end to all other defects which troubled thee made thee wayward Alas wouldest thou alwaies liue languish in this pittifull infancie to which thy many yeares doe reduce the remember what thou sometimes desired seeing these old men twise children when as thy reason and iudgement being â—…ound and perfect made thee conceiue what a pittie and miserie it was to liue in that estate remember I said that thou desiredst not to liue so long now the effect of thy desire the ende of thy life offereth it selfe which thou canst not nor maist in reason refuse The third Obiection The Losse of Happines causeth an insupportable griefe Death is the losse of happinesse Therefore c. THe rest of the minde is the happinesse of life to the which man iâ—… led of himselfe if he doth not wretchedly resist it for his owne reason makes him easely and distinctly to know his soule his bodie and those thing which are for his body she teacheth him that onely his soule is his and that his body and those things which concerne it depend of an other and therfore should not affect them but so far as they are profitable and not be troubled for any accident that shall befall them as not concerning him seeing it toucheth not the soule so as the spirituall and bodily infirmities to which the body is subiect as pouertie reproach and disdayne of men which may happen to a man without deâ—…rt should be indiffereÌ„t vnto him seeing they are out of his power As for that which is in his power as to allowe desire poursue the good and good things which are honest and according vnto reason and contrariwise to hate and flye the euill hee applyes himselfe 〈◊〉 â—…o easâ—…y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contâ—… vnlesse 〈◊〉 death commâ—… betweene doâ—… interâ—…pt this happiâ—… and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Answer It is true that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 doth 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 parts at all 〈◊〉 aâ—…d in â—…uery place And it is also true that the very meanes â—…o attaiâ—…e vnto it is veâ—…ue But it is likewise 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 the one nor the other can be obtained in this life all wee can haue is but a shadowe of the one and the other as far different from the â—…ffect as night is from day for night is the shadow and the day is the light of the Sun which is 〈◊〉 cause â—…hat they which in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oâ—… a 〈◊〉 full of dagerous beasts being surprized by night desire nothing more 〈◊〉 to see day appaâ—… so 〈◊〉 that are in this life should desire nothing but to see the day of the Lord the Sun of Iustice to shine vpon thâ—…m Iâ—… they 〈◊〉 it noâ—… they are not tâ—…ue â—…n but â—…tish hauing taken the habit of beasts But to answer more categorically to these Sâ—…oicks 〈◊〉 especially â—…o Epictâ—… from whom this obiection is drawne to say that the bodie and those externall thingâ—… which happen vnto man should not bee respected of him it is the farthest from reason that can be euen to the vulgar fort who whollie runne after honour riches and pleasure and to say that a man in some great Infirmitie either of bodie or minde feeles no paine were to make a iest of himselfe Aristotle called the â—…ye of reason is not of that opinion these are his words in his Booke of Manners It is impossible faith hee or verie hard that any one should do wel without means and preparation Many things are effected by friends by wealth by credit and authoritie and they that are depriued of these thinges blemish their happinesse like vnto them that are issued from obscure parents who neither haue children nor good children or that are crooked For he is not perfectly happie that is deformed of a base race and without issue This is too much see what Antipater one of the great authors of the Stoicks sayth who attributs something although but little to exterior things But what sayth Seneca the wise man writes that he is happie yet he can neuer attaine vnto that Soueraigne good vnlesse the naturall Instruments be propicious And although the bodie and the exterior things be not the soule which is the principal seaâ—… of happines yet are they accessories Instruments and meanes which God hath ordayned and vnited and therefore they should tast of the happinesse of the soule if there be any as the fire dâ—…sperseth his heat in the ayer that doth enuiron it As for the other ground of this imaginarie felicitie that man doth easily apply himselfe to seeke that onely which is honest and according vnto reason it is a greater Parodoxe then the precedent for the most vertuous man in the world hath a continual combate against vice is neuer at truce how then hath he any peace or rest The eye oâ—… his vnderstanding is dazeled at the shinning of his â—…oueraigue good his wil straies from the true ende or in ayming mistakes one for an other and therefore most commonly if hee
All that is depraued and there is nothing but a horrible confusion in his will and actions 7. He was absolute Lord ouer all Creatures which trembled at his looke and brought him fruits according to his desire 8. Now they rebell and assaile him yea the earth instead of good corne brings forth nothing but thornes thistles 9. He had frequent conuersation with God inspired of him and breathing by him 10. Now the Prince of the power of the aire the vncleane spirit workes powerfully in the children of rebellion which are all the sonnes of Adam Ephes. 2. 2. 11. A glorious angelical and diuine Maiesty did shine in his face 12. Now they couer their shame with leaues they hide themselues among the trees and crie out Mountains fall vpon vs and couer vs. To conclude there is no greater contrariety betwixt day and night then of these famous qualities to the infamous blemishes of man as he liued in this world before his regeneration in the which by little and little hee recouers this Iustice holinesse and trueth Ephes. 4. 24. But the fulnesse thereof is reserued to heauen whither death leades vs and therefore to be desired The Fourth Argument taken from the efficient cause All that a good and wise mother giueth vnto her Children cannot be hurtfull Nature our good and wise mother giues vs death Death then cannot be hurtfull THe first proposition of this Argument cannot bee denyed after the experience which wee haue seene after the comparison which God makes of himselfe with a mother who cannot forget her child nor he his people After that Iesus Christ had said No man giues a stone instead of bread nor a Scorpion for fish to him that he loues And how then can nature the liuely spring of so liuely a loue giue any thing that is very hurtfull and fayle at neede and in the principall hauing neuer fayled vs in all the course of our life Now to proue that the second proposition is true and that nature hath ordayned death for her children Seneca doth teach vs saying That death is a Law of nature yea that our whole life is but a way vnto it S. Cyprian also doth affirme that it is a decree intimated vnto the world that whatsoeuer is borne should haue an end and from whom is this decree from God the Authour of nature the executioner of this decree but it is a fauourable decree to such as Heauen fauours It is a generall Law to restore that which is lent vs this life is but a loane wee must restore it at the end of the time it is a tribute wee owe for we entred vpon condition to depart when it shall please the master Moreouer what is this life but a harmony rising from the mixture of the foure elements which are the foure ingredients of our bodie and what is death by the censure of Hippocrates but a diuorce of marriage of these foure Elements This diuorce is as naturall to man as it is naturall that fire should be contrarie to water and ayre to earth for their contrarietie is the cause of this diuorce which is death I know that it is not sufficient for humane life to haue a body well tempered with his Organes and to haue the power of life but he must also haue a fist Effence as a Lute well strung and well tuned is not sufficient to make it sound vnlesse there bee a hand to play vpon it And I also maintayne that as the Musitian ceaseth to play when the Instrument is vnstrung so the soule ceaseth to giue life vnto the body yea flyes out when it is destroyed but this destruction is naturall and by consequence death and to that end Nature hath planted this body vpon pyles which take vent vpon boanes not very solide caulkt ouer with soft flesh glued with a viscous humour which may easily melt with heate or dissolue with rayne full of transparent veines easie to pierce watered with vnholesome water tempered with contrarie qualities which a certaine temperature keepes at quiet for a season but when euery one desires to command his companion and time in the end presenting the occasion the common right being forced the body sodainely falls And this force is of nature who must needes effect the words of the Lord spoken vnto man Thou art dust and shalt returne to dust Sonnes of men returne but whither From whence you came to the earth to death death then is of nature and therefore Thales the Milesian said that there was no difference betwixt life and death for that they are both equally according vnto Nature and as one demanded of him why he was in life and dyed not For the same cause answered he that the one is no more excellēt then the other It is also the reason why the Emperor Antonin the gentle seeing his seruants weepe lying sicke in his bed hee sayed vnto them Why weepe you for me and not rather the naturall and mortall condition of all the world that is to say Why doe you not rather weepe for life which is of a mortall condition The answere of Anaxagoras was more vertuous who being aduertised of the death of his deere and onely Sonne sayd O Messenger thou bringest me no vnexpected newes I know well I had begotten a Sonne that was mortall hee was not insensible like a stone but he considered that nothing had chanced to his sonne but what he had foreseene from his birth his long foresight and his sodaine con sideration of the condition of all men for to die had tēpered all sorow in him and brought him to reason which should alwaies holde the helme of this little world man Like was the answere of Lochades father to Siron vp on the like report of the death of one of his children I knew well sayth he that he should dye VVe shall see others hereafter to the ende they may haue no cause to say that this resolution was monstrous in the world To conclude nature to make vs resolue ioyfully vnto death seemes to direct vs to the sweete song of the Swanne a presaging bird consecrated to Apollo by Antiquitie the which dying nature gathers together about the heart the purest and sweetest bloud which makes him Iouiall and to sing a happie presage to whom Socrates Plato and Tully send them that haue so great feare of death An Obiection Satan Man and Sinne are the causes of death Therefore it is not Nature ANswere When it is said in the holy Scripture that Satan holds the empire of death that by one man sinne entred into the world and by sin death finally that death is the reward of sinne we must not vnderstand it of the naturall death whereof the question growes but of the spirituall and eternall death as many of the ancient fathers doe expound it And how else could the threatning of God against Adam be vnderstood touching the tree of knowledge of good and euil Thou shalt not eate
some one returnes from market saith S. Augustin sound and lustie who falling breaks a leg whereof hee shall dye Who semes better assured then he that is set in a strong chaire yet vpon some troublesome newes hee may be disquieted fall and breake his necke Another laughing eating and drinking shal be suddenly surprized with an Apoplexie rising from some vnknowne cause and dye presently What receptacle seemes more safe and commodious for hunters that are wearie and full of sweat and dust then a cleane house with a good fire And yet a Prince with his traine thinking to retire him to such a place found himselfe in such dāger of death in the morning as he could not escape without the losse of his nayles that fell away by the vehemencie of his paine and two of his company found smotheredin the morning whence thinke you proceeded the cause of this strange Accident It was from the wall newly plastered which cast forth a virulent vapor which together with the smoake of a great cole fire fumed vp into the head dispersed his poyson throughout all the members of their bodies Who could haue foreseene this accident but too late Ammianus Marcellinus reports tho like to haue happened to the Emperour Iouinian who was found smothered in the mor ning by the like poyson And to conclude what seemes freer from breaking then a head lying in the shadow far from any house yet it hap pened that the Poet Aeschilus being so retired an Eagle flying in the ayre thinking his bald head had bene a flint stone let fal a Tortose to break it and to haue the meate but falling downe it brake the skull os poore Aeschilus The first Obiection That which shall not happen vnto vs is not to bee accounted among our miseries But these misfortunes shall not happen vnto vs c. THese miseries if it pleaseth God shall not befall vs but where is that warrant from heauen to assure vs The comicall Poet saith That man cannot be exempt from any humane accident No man liuing can say without warrāt This shal not happen vnto mee saith Menander What befalls to one thinke it may happen to thee saith Seneca for thou art a man and therefore retaine this and thinke of it not to be deiected in aduersity nor puft vp in prosperity but haue alwayes before thine eyes the liberty of fortune as being able to lay vpon thee all the miseries shee holds in her hand Man is in continuall warre vpon earth Is there not a course of warre ordayned for mortall men vpon earth saith Iob. If he be freed from his enemies abroad let him beware of some treacherous Synō at home Be alwaies ready sayd Iesus Christ for you know not the day nor the houre no man is no more assured against death then the bird is against the shot of a harquebuze God would saith S. Augustine that wee should watch continually But if changing thy tune thou thinkest that thy neighbour is not afflicted like thy selfe and that hee is much more happy thou art much deceiued Euery man feeles his owne griefe Herodotus hath seene it and written it saying That if all men liuing laden with their owne miseries had brought them together vpon one heape to exchange with them of their neighbours hauing well weighed them and viewed them euery man would willingly carry backe his owne Without doubt this present life is so full of miseries that in comparison thereof death seemes a remedy A long life is but a long torture saith S. Augustine And what other opinion can wee haue seeing that Iesus Christ who was giuen vs for a perfect president is neuer propounded vnto vs laughing but somtimes weeping as when hee approched the Tombe of his friend Lazarus and when as he wept vpon the ingratefull Citie of Ierusalem and therefore the Apostle saith That in the dayes of his flesh hee offered himselfe with great cries and teares to him who could saue him from death What is that but to shew vs that this life is not worthy of ioy but of lamentation not of laughter but of crying as the Philosopher Heraclitus doth esteeme it who alwayes with a weeping voice did lament the estate of this life The second Obiection It is a cowardly consideration not to be willing to die but to cease to liue This reason hath that consideration TO denounce death to end the miseries of this life is sayth one to pro pound a carnall end to the liking of sensuality Vpon death sayth another the priuation of thislife there is no Cataplasme but of a better life for the losse of earth but the enioying of heauen Answere Death is the corruption of the flesh and a priuation of all the sences to the end therefore that the remedy may be proportionable to the flesh it must also be fleshly sensible and palpable I grant that in retiring ourselues we must not think only to fly from humaine miseries but rather to draw neere to diuine fauours But betwixt doing and duty who doth not at this day see an infinite distance That elect vessell of the holy Ghost that great Apostle Saint Paul seeles a Law in his members fighting against the Law of his vnderstanding He complaines there was a thorne thrust into his flesh the angel of Satan did buffer him what is this but the relikes of sin of infirmity distrust what glosse soeuer they will set of it If Saint Paul were such a one what then are we poore dwarses wauering and staggering let vs not flatter and seduce our selues for our workes discouer vs O God fortifie vs and make thy holy Spirit to reigne in vs and attending the happy effect of diuine promises let vs meditate of the Testament sealed with the bloud of Christ. But if the horror of death which doth threaten vs of euery side comes to hinder our holy meditations let vs vanquish it by the darts of reason this may be done and it is that we ought to doe The Surgion which hath sercht a wounde hath applied a fit Cataplasime hath made his patient without passion or paine is to be cō-mended The Philosopher which hath examined the naturall death hath found o◅t the cause of the feare it giues hath accomodated reasons fit to take awaie this feare and to assure mans courage is not to be contemned I know well that hee which through death hath made vs see the life eternall hath done more but this worke is of God and not of men and if the sacred word of the eternall God doe it not no humaine voice can doe it But doe you say there is no Catap◅sme fit for the losse of a pleasant life but the hope of a better Answer You presuppose two suppositions heere which are not First that life is full of pleasures Secondly that in death wee haue a feeling of the losse against that which hath beene and shab be said to the which I will send
the refutation in the meane time for witnes of my saying I propound that great Diuine S. Augustin writing that which followeth The present life is doubtfull blind miserable beaten with the flowing and ebbing of humors weakened with paines dried vp with heate swelled with meate vndermined with famine coÌ„founded with sports consumed with sorrowes distempered with cares dâ—…lled with pride pufâ—… vp with riches deiected with pouertie shaken in youth made crooked in age broken by diseases and tuined by 〈◊〉 c. Many great men who haâ—… not wanted any thing for the enioying of all pleasures yet would they in their life time haue writteÌ„ vpon the Marble which should couer them dead for a conclusion of the Epitaph these last words The life and biâ—…h of mortall men is nothing but toyle and death as one waue driues on another so one miserie thrusts on another the one is no sooner flying but the other followes him And as in the eye one teare springs of another so one sorrow riseth out of another as Buchanan hath learnedly written in his Tragedie of Iepthe The 3. Obiection It is not lawful of himselfe and without other some Command to remaine in a place that is bad and troublesome Life is a place bad and troublesome It is not therefore lawfull of himselfe without other command to remayne in life THis long Iliade of calamities of this present life seems to perswade man to the doctrine of the Stoicks which is to depart when it is too troublesome so speaks Seneca A wise man liues as long as he ought not solong as hee could he will see how with whom how he should liue and what he should doe if many things fal out troublesome crosse his tranquillitie he frees himselfe and he doth it not only in the vrgent necessitie but as soone as fortune seemes suspect vnto him he coÌ„siders that it imports not whether he giue himselfe his ende or that he receiue it Moreouer that it is wretched to liue in necessitie but there is no necessity to liue in necessitie Diogenès meeting one day with Speusippus being sickly causing himselfe to be carried by reason of the Gout he called vnto him in these tearmes God giue thee a good day Diogenes to whom he answered But God giue you no good day that being in this estate hast the patience to liue With the sharpnes of these Cynicall wordes Speusippus was so moued as contrarie to the precepts of his sect he ended his owne life But let vs produce if you please some reasons by the which these men haue debated there follie The 1. Life and death say they are indifferent things and therefore man acoording to his commoditie may vse them indifferently Wherefore saith 〈◊〉 As one that is inuited hauing feasted taken his refection retyres himselfe so being glutted with life why dost thou not depart O foole why doest thou not imbrace a pleà fing rest what interest hast thou that death should come vnto thee or thou goe vnto it Perswade thy selfe that this speech is false and proceeds from an indiscreet man It is a goodly thing to dye his death for it is alwayes thy death and especially that which thou hast procured to thy self The 2. Death is the goodliest port to libertie which is the fruite of wisedome I will not serue said that LaeedemoniaÌ„ child cast him down a precipice who learned to dye in contempt of seruitude he is free from all power what doth a prison a dungeon or fetters touch him he hath an open port The 3. Wherefore hath nature giueÌ„ so streight an entrance vnto life and hath preseÌ„ted vnto man so many large issues vnto death if it shal not bee lawfull for him to depart when he pleaseth On which side soeuer said Seneca thou shalt cast thy miseries thou shalt finde the end of thy miseries doest thou see this precipice by which they descend to liberty doest thou see this sea this riuer this pit there is liberty in the bottome doest thou see this little tree crooked cursed Liberty hangs at it Doest thou see thy throat thy heart These be the fruits of seruitude Plinie saith that the earth our common pareÌ„t hath for pitties sake ordained poysons to this end that beeing able to swallow them easily we may with equall facility dislodge out of this world So in old time Kings and great men did keepe certaine poyson ready for any suddaine vse in the doubtfull euents of fortune as Titus Liuius reports and therefore many haue poysoned themselues being valiant and esteemed great personages Zeno being 98. yeeres old yet strong and lusty returning from the Schoole hee stumbled and fell and being down hee strooke the ground with his hand saying â—…re I am what wilt thou And being come to his house hee layd downe his life of himselfe Cleanthes hauing an Vlcer in his mouth and hauing abstained two dayes from meat by the aduice of the Phisitions was cured Beeing then perswaded by them to eate againe Oh no said he hauing past the greatest part of the way I will not I will not returne againe and so he died of abstinence We could produce many others much coÌ„mended as Lucrece Cato and others if they were not sufficiently knowne Answer I deny that the swarme of miseries of this present life is a sufficient cause to depart when wee please the great God which hath placed vs here must first come and take vs away Pythagoras in Tully forbids to leaue the Corpes de guarde without commandement of the Captaine as a prisoner breaking prison agrauates his crime so the spirit violating his body makes himself guilty of a double torment And he that hath so strictly forbiddeÌ„ to kil meant it as well of himselfe as of others And therefore Virgil platonizing sings vnto vs that they which haue inhumanly slaine themselues hold the first place in hell As for the vertue which they pretend in it the most quick sighted Philosopher hath seene nothing but feare and foolishnesse thus he speaks It is the part of a coward and not of a valiant man to dye by reason of pouerty of loue or for any other thing that is troublesome it is a faintnesse to flie difficult things and after He suffers not death as a good thing but flying the euill Finally he that murthers himselfe wipes himselfe for euer out of the booke of life for that he dies impenitent in the act of sinne neuer to haue remission after this life nor as Saint Augustine sayth any indulgence of correction But to come neerer to our Stoickes wee will first appeale srom Seneca to Epictetus O men sayth hee haue patience attend God vntill hee giue the signe that hee hath dismist you from this ministery then returne vnto him But for the present support couragiously inhabite this region in the which he hath placed you this habitation is short easie not burthensome c. The 1. reason inferring that life and death
it c. ANswere Neither Dauid nor Ezechias nor the other seruants of God feared death as it was death simply alone considered but for that God threatned them in regard of their sins by reason whereof it seemes they had some confused apprehension of hell which is the second death Doubtlesse my fault is great sayd Dauid but I pray thee saue mee by thy great bounty These are the words of God to Ezechias Dispose of thy house for thou shalt die shortly and shall not liue We must note that Ezekias heart was puft vp with glory God would humble him by the consideration of death wherewith he threatned him But these two and all other the seruants of God setting aside these threats being in the fauour of God haue with Saint Paul desired to die and to be freed from this mortal body to be with Christ with God Man here below should not apprehend any thing but the conscience of another life a life which dying without repentance grace leades to death eternall as that of Saul and Iudas who being desperate slue themselues quenching the match of a vicious life to kindle it in the fire of hell where there is a Lake of fire and brimstone As for the death of Christ the great difference it hath both in the cause and the effects from that of the faithful Christians makes it to differ a world The reason is Gods Diuine Iustice to reuenge the iniury which hath beene done him by the diuell in the nature of man the which not able to do in him without his totall ruine hee hath done in his surety in Iesus Christ his Son whom to that end hee sent into the world to take humaine flesh in the Virgins wombe It is he that was wounded for our offences broken for our iniquities censured to bring vs peace and slaine to cure vs as the Prophet speakes and the Apostles testifie The fruites first the glory of God is manifested in his loue in his bounty and in his mercy towards vs to haue so loued the world as to giue his owne Son to death for it to the end that whosoeuer did beleeue in him should not perish but haue life euerlasting as the same eternal Son doth witnes Secondly it is our saluation the redemption of the Church from sinne and death for it is the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world And these are the reasons why Iesus Christ was terrified in death feeling the wrath of God vpon him for our sinnes But the death of the faithfull is nothing like for in the greatest torments which Tyrants can inflict vpon them it mortifies the sence and takes away all paine by the abundance of his consolation as Ruffinus writes of Theodorus and as our Annales testifie of the smiling death of Martirs in the middest of burning fiers for God is satisfied the passage is open the venimous teeth of death are pulled out seeing that the Lord wrestling with her hath slaine her as S. Augustine speakes and like a most expert Phisition hath made a wholesome Treacle to purge our bodies of those corrupt burning stincking and deadly humors and to make it sound holy impassible and immortall The second Obiection Euery iust reward is proportionable to the paine The reward of Martyrsis great Therefore their paine is great THe holy Writ and the ancient Fathers vpon it beare witnesse of the honour and great triumph which the Martyrs obtaine in heauen if their conflict against death bee answerable to this triumph as equity requires it must bee exceeding great and therefore it is no easie thing to dye the which S. Augustine seemes to confirme Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non esset magna Martyrum fortitudo If saith hee there were no bitternesse in death the Martyrs valour should not be great Answer He is truely a Martyr who for the honour of God and for the loue of his neighbour doth constantly seale the contract of the alliance of God with his owne bloud and the true cause of Martyrdome is to suffer death for iustice and for the name of Christ as Christians and in doing well This bloud thus shed is the true seede of the Church the very Commentary of the holy Scripture the Trompet of Gods glory the true Victory of the cruelty and obstinacy of Gods enemies the holy Lampe to lighten and draw to the Kingdome of Christ those which are in the shaddow of death c. In consideration whereof these holy Champions of the faith are honored in heauen with a Crowne of gold clothed with white garments c. Vpon earth in the primi tiue Church vpon the day of their suffring which they called their birth-day the faithfull assembled vpon the place of their Martyrdome did celebrate their happy memory repeated their combates commended their resolution exhorting the assistants to doe the like if they were called to the like combate as well by reading of their bloody history as by the sight of the place where their blood was newly spilt It is that which Cyrillus in the epistle to Smyrne the Paraphrase of Rufynus doth teach vs wherein we may see that it was not the death but the cause of the death which made them to bee so recompenced and recommended And whatsoeuer they haue had in heauen shall bee giuen to all others which shall haue the like will to serue their master though not the effect the like Crowne nor the like garments To mee saith that great Martyr S. Paule the Crowne of Iustice is reserued which the Lord the iust Iudge shall giue mee in that day and not onely to me but vnto all those that shall loue his Comming And what Christian is it that desires not the comming of Christ It is also written that all the Armies which are in heauen wherein all the faithfull are followed the faithfull the true the Word of God vpon white horses clad in white Cypres Finally in this inestimable reward which God giues vnto Martyrs there is not so great a regard had to the merit and grieuousnesse of their death as to the most precious blood of his Sonne Iesus Christ and to his free promise wherefore this Obiection is to no purpose and if it were it doth incite men more to desire then to refuse death if it bee true that the enduring of the first death in the Saints is a freeing frō the second as Saint Augustine teacheth The third Obiection It is impossible but man should be toucht with a great apprehension of euery sharpe combate he is to endure Such is death MAn hath three cruell enemies which present themselues vnto him at his last farewell a sensible paine at the dissolution of the foule from the body sinne represents vnto him heauen gates shut and hell open and Satan tempts him and lets him see his criminall Inditement whereof he is ready to execute the sentence Answer It is
impossible that at the soules departure from the body there should be any great paine the soule leaues the body as the light doth the ayre which it doth inuest as Viues speakes after S. Augustine Wee must not then imagine heere a grosse tearing of the soule from the body as of a piece of cloth for the vnion of the soule with the body is spirituall and incomprehensible But of the pretended paine in death there is sufficiently spoken in the Obiection following As for the two other enemies it is true that the conscience presents vnto a dying man the foulenesse of his sinne and it is true that Satan tempts man to despaire to precipitate him into eternall perdition But for all this must a man that feares God feare death and feare to lose the battaile No but hee ought rather to assure himselfe of the victory and present himselfe boldly to the Combate as a valiant fortunate Champion against one that is weake and vnfortunate They that are for vs are stronger then they that are against vs God which hath begunne continues his worke in vs and ends it to his glory the faith which he hath prāted in vs wil quench the inflamed darts of the wicked spirit the full assurance of the remission of sins by Iesus Christ dead for our sinnes and risen for our iustification will pacifie the conscience and shew him Iesus Christ in heauen sitting on the right hand of God and stretching out his armes to him Thirdly the seales of the holy Ghost in vs for by it we are sealed to the day of Redemption Baptisme the Communion of the body of Christ and the Spirit of sanctification will terrifie Satan and make him flie Finally the good Angels which from our birth and throughout the whole course of our liues haue administred vnto vs guided and comforted vs will redouble their loue and courage in the like offices at our greatest need and at our last gaspe Let vs not feare seeing we haue such assurance in the Word of God which doth plainely witnesse that the Angells are administring Spirits sent to serue for their sakes that shall receiue the inheritance of saluation Here then is no subiect of desperate feare but rather of an assured resolution The 4. Obiection All paine is euill In dying there is paine EPicharmus by the testimony of Cicero sayd that he would not die but to be dead he cared not The reason is in my opinion for that he feared the passage of death not death it selfe which hee thought with vs had no paine There are many at this day of this opinion abhorring death like an internall gulfe for that they conceiue there is some sharp and violent paine which they endure before it comes and thereunto tends the prouerbe He is in bad case that dies And S. Augustine seemes to attribute I know not what sharpe feeling and force against nature in the diuulsion of the soule from the body which were vnited together Answere If death be terrible by reason of the paine we apprehend in it then life by the same reason should be more for in it some man endures more by the cholicke the stone the sciatica yea by the tooth ach and by many other infirmities without death then an other hath felt in dying And there is this aduantage in death that it comes but once wheras the aboue mentioned infirmities are often reiterated in life But to haue a perfect view if this paine bee so great as opinion a bad counsellor doth make vs beleeue let vs search with reason into the immediate cause of that which doth engender this paine in our bodies The pathes which leade man to death are infinite but all bend to one of these foure high wayes outward force subtraction of meate and drinke inward sicknesse and old age These foure kinds of death may happen to al men yea to wise men although by iniustice touching the first by some rare accident as touching the second concerning the third by ordinary corruption of humors and by an infallible defect of nature touching the fourth Paine according to the definition of learned Phisitions is the feeling of some thing that is offensiue and troublesome to the nature of the body for that it is contrary to the health thereof the which happens either by the dissoluing and cutting of his continued substance or by the alteration thereof which alteration proceeds from the intemperate heate or cold for as for humidity and drinesse they are rather passiue qualities then actiue whose operation is very slow and the paine in the member that is altered is suddaine not gentle as if you be exceeding cold and come to a very sensible paine cold settles his paine in disioyning heate in burning and it is to bee noted that any sence may be wounded yet little or nothing is his paine in comparison of that of touching the which is dispersed ouer the whole body from which no other vessell of the sences is exempt which is the cause that wee sometimes feele prickings in the eyes and shootings in the eares c. Let vs now come to the application Death which comes to man by extreame age can be no cause of paine there being nothing in him that tortures his body nothing that doth suddainely alter and change him by extreame cold or heate but his life goes out presently like vnto a Candle that wants tallow by the losse of his radicall humour deuoured by little and little since his birth by his naturall heate and although this heate doth yet striue as it hath formerly done to conuert the meate which is familiar and fit for the body into radicall humor to repaire his losse yet she can worke no more her vertue failes her euery agent hath his vertue limited what soeuer doth act suffers in acting through vse and in continuance of time this heate decayes dissolues is lost and death ensues So as it hath bene disputed in vaine whether life might bee continued this radicall humor being restored by some fit nutriment for that humor being at the first a certaine ayery onely portion of that seede which doth reside in all the sollide parts it is impossible that such an humour and so much as is needefull should be supplied in it's place The only fruite of the tree of life which was in Eden had this secret vertue by the diuine ordinance to make man immortal that shold eate therof and therefore according to the opiniō of the Fathers God suddenly after the sin chased Adam and Eue out of Eden least they should lay hold of that fruite and become immortally miserable with the diuells In processe of time there happens two notable changes to this radicall humour the one in the quality for that it degenerates by little and little of naturall becomes strange the other in the quantity for that it is wholy wasted whereunto man being once reduced he can suffer no paine if hee complaines
vnto Iesus Christ who being disswaded by his Disciples from going vp to Ierusalem he sayd vnto them There are 12 houres of the day after the example of the Apostles namely of Saint Paul who was thrice whipt with rodds continued whole dayes and nights in the bottome of the sea c. We ought to do it for Christ is a gaine to vs both in life and death for that dying we change the drosse of the world for the gold of heauen we going out of life as out of a deepe pit of darknesse and ignorance and wee ascend vp into the heauenly Vniuersity whereas the deepest sciences are learned and wee passe from a miserable seruitude into a most happy freedome of spirit Let vs then quicken our spirits and take courage and not be like vnto the skoÌ„me of the world to whom dying Nature makes this reproch which is read in Seneca What is this I haue put you into the world without couetous desires without feare without superstition without treason and without any other such infections As you entred into the world so depart this life without apprehension feare vexation or passion which torment your soules But especially let vs be carefull to depart without feare of death which among all humaine passions is most desperate it is done if we once put on a Christian courage and magnanimity and shall not flie but offer our selues following our vocation to the greatest dangers As good Macedonius did who seeing two Captaines march to reuenge the irreuereÌ„ce done to the statue of Placilla by the expresse and vnworthy commandement of Theodosius her husband seeing them I say runne to a great Massacre meetes them stayes them pulls them from their horses and by more then humaine authority commands them to desist from such cruelty to tell their master That the greatnesse of his estate shold not make him forget that he is a man that hee seekes to teare that a sunder which he cannot put together deface liuely Images which hee cannot repaire and that this outrage should touch the Creator By the boldnesse of his words and by his constancy he amazed these Captaines with the feare of Gods reuenging wrath and makes them returne towards the Emperour who hauing heard them pacified his rage Obiection Whatsoeuer is a guift of nature cannot be gotten by art Fortitude is a guift of nature c. ANswere It is true that fortitude hath her foundation in the irascible faculty but her culture her instruction and increase is purchased by labour study and continuall exercise If Alexander Caesar and other valiant Captaines had not bene continually thrust into armes hazarded themselues in warre and cast themselues into battailes they had neuer purchased the habite of valour nor gotten so many triumphes vpon their enemies In like manner if wee desire to conquer our selues and our owne passions which are most dangerous enemies wee must exercise our selues continually in these listes of vertue and weede out of our hearts two contrary vices the one is dull negligence which lulling vs asleepe in the world will not suffer vs to consider what this life is how miserable how vaine wauering although wee suppose it be perpetuall contrary to that which experience doth teach vs shewing vs dayly that either necessity doth pull it away or vanity doth swallow it vp or hasty nature doth end it The other extreame vice is feare which is the cause that wee cannot once thinke of such necessity but with trembling and horror And as the eye viciated with some yellow humour or looking through a yellow glasse thinkes all it sees to be yellow yea the purest white So our soules being infected with this terror increased by faintnesse and fortified by cowardise takes quiet things to be horrible the safest port and secuâ—…est from winds to bee more dangerous then the Rocke Capharois and finally death the happy end of all miseries to bee the beginning of most horrible paines But let vs purge this peccant huâ—… â—…ast off this 〈◊〉 scart and clothe our selues with this force with this resolute vâ—…reue and wee shall visibly see and iudge with reason that wee haue beene miserably deceiued taking our friends for enemies the greatest safety for horror and 〈◊〉 happinesse 〈◊〉 death for misery The 26. Argument taken from the instrumentall cause In euery expedition the meanes must be proper vnto it A good conscience is the proper meanes to the expedition of death Therefore we must haue a good conscience IF we consider profoundly of the cause of this terror which man hath of death we shall finde it is a naturall feeling though dull and some what brutish to haue offended his Lord thinking that he attends nothing but death to lay open the volumne of his faults to indite him criminally to pronounce sentence of condemnation against him and to deliuer him ouer to Satan the executioner to cast him into a fire which is neuer quenched Man hath a confused apprehension of all this he sees nothing in life hee feares it in death his conscience within accuseth him and serues for a thousand witnesses It is that which makes the wicked to tremble when the leaf of a tree doth fall and liues no more assured then if his life were tyed to a thread it is the Worme which neuer dies but gnawes the wicked continually It is a bad conscience said Diogenes which keepes man from beeing couragious and without feare Let a man bee by nature hardy yet a bad conscience will make him most fearefull said Pithagoras yea he added that the torments which hee shall suffer will bee much more sharpe and painefull then whipping to the body the diseases of the minde being far more grieuous then of the body which gaue occasion to Poets to paint the Furies armed with burning torches to burne the wicked So was the Emperor Caligula intreated for his cruelties terrified with feare waking awaked suddainely sleeping alwayes troubled neuer in quiet Nero was in the same estate hauing slaine his mother So Saule being forsaken by the Eternall was possest by an euill spirit hauing bad newes of his speedy death he trembles for feare forsakes his meate and drinke is much perplexed falls downe vppon the ground as the Scripture doth obserue for then the Iniustice committed against Dauid whom he had confest with his mouth to bee more lust then himselfe came to his minde Wherefore if we will liue without feare of death let vs liue without wounding of our coÌ„sciences for it alone in life doth neuer feare said wise Bias It is it that makes men liue in tranquility finding theÌ„selues not guilty of any thing Periander sayd that a good conscience made Agis King of the Lacedemonians triumph ouer his enemies in death for as hee was led to execution by the Ephores seeing some moued with compassioÌ„ to weep Weepe not for me said hee for it is against equity and reason that I am led
to this death they which haue condemned mee are more vniust then I am Inferring thereby that he died well and honestly seeing they put him to death wrongfully and without cause Plato doth teach vs that Socrates was wont to insult ouer death in these tearmes I haue beene carefull said he to liue well in my youth and to die well in my age I am not tormented within me with any paine I am not vnwilling to dye for seeing my life hath beene honest I attend death ioyfully This is much but it is nothing in regard of Saint Paule who protesting that he felt not himselfe guilty in any thing cried out with a bold spirit that hee was assured that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers neither things present nor things to come nor height nor depth should separate him from the loue of God Let vs theÌ„ be careful to polish our soules and to settle our consciences let vs apply our selues to a well ordered equity let the body subiect it selfe vnto the soule and follow her motions Let the inferiour powers of the soule obey the commandements of reason Let reason guided by the holy Ghost obserue the Law grafted in euery creature by nature especially in man and most of all the Law of Moses To doe this is to be vertuous and to be vertuous is to haue a good conscience We must then direct all our actions to vertue if wee desire to liue in the world without feare without paine in peace and ioy vertue doth first of all make the soule perfect in her intellectuall part disperseth the clouds of error ignorance illuminating reason doth adorne it with prudence Secondly she labours to polish the will of man and hauing reformed it by her orderly course shee giues him the habite of Iustice. Thirdly she doth temper the angry part pulls away the extreame feare and on the other side prunes away the sprouts of rashnes and plants betwixt both valour and haâ—… dy feare Finally it doth also bridle the faculty of concupiscence and restraines the motions of voluptuousnesse and makes them obedient to the command of Temperance It is in a few words the true meanes to get a pure and vpright conscience especially if we bee carefull to be as honest in our priuate secret actions as if all the world did behold vs Seneca doth recommend this vnto vt in many places Wee reade of one called Virginius whose History was written by Cluuius who presented it vnto the sayd personage and sayd vnto him If there be any thing written otherwise then thou wouldest pardon mee and reforme it Oh no answered Virginius whatsoeuer I haue done hath bene done in that manner to that end that it might bee free for all to write at their pleasures a worthy speech of a noble spirit and content with his conscience in his actions Iulius Drusus when as one promised a great sum of mony to his Master mason that his house might not be subiect to the view of any man and I sayd he will giue twice so much if thou canst build my house in that sort as all men may see into it what is done there This was to saue his conscience not to do more in secret then before all the world And what a madnesse is it in most men not to feare God nor their conscience and yet to feare men who can do least in the correction of their faults What shall we then feare in this world One only God for his feare will inspire our hearts with an hardy courage against the greatest feares The 27. Argument taken from the frequent thinking of Death He that will receiue Death ioyfully must propound it often to his thoughts Wee all desire to receiue it ioyfully c. SOme sayth Seneca come to their death in choler but no man receiues it when it comes with a cheerefull countenance but he that hath long before prepared himselfe for it Let vs try this remedy it cannot be bad In the night after our first sleepe in bed let vs presuppose that we are dead and by a strong imagination let vs settle our selues in that sort as hauing no sence nor feeling that our soule and reason tells vs that it is euen so in death that there is no other difference but that our soule is yet present in the body and then let vs goe vnto our friends or to any other that die let vs view them talke vnto them and touch them being dead and we shall finde that in all this there is nothing to be feared that all is quiet that there is nothing but opinion that 〈◊〉 abuse man Let vs proceed enter the Church-yards and go down into their graues wee shall finde that 〈◊〉 the dead rest in peace yeaâ—… so profound 〈◊〉 peace as no liuing creature can interrupt them Let vs yet go on farther there is no danger for by the saying of Plato the knowledge of death is the goodliest science that man can attaine vnto Let vs do like vnto Iohn Patriarke of Alexandria build our tombes and not finish them but euery day lay one stone Let vs haue some Anatomy or MoÌ„mie in our houses and let vs not passe a day without beholding it let vs handle it it is death Little children by little and little grow familiar with that which they did strangely fly and in the end they play with it and know that it is but a dead image of copper which so terrified them Wee shall also see in death that it was but a shaddow that so amazed vs. Let vs yet do more waking and not dreaming let vs dispose our selues of purpose as Philippe King of Macedon did by chance who wrestling vpon the sand after the manner of the Country saw and measured the length of his body and admired the littlenes thereof in the shape printed in the sand where he had fallen Finally let vs not forget what the Emperour Maximilian 2. or 3. yeares before his death commanded carefully to be done that they should carry with him a coffin of oake in a chest with an expresse command that being dead they should couer his body with a course sheete hauing put lime in his eares nosestrills and mouth and then to lay him in the ground Let vs follow these great examples both high low and wee shall see that when death shall present her selfe vnto vs it will bee without amazement But if wee flie from euery image of death from al thought therof if the ringing of bells a shew of some mans death doth importune vs finally if euery word of death be troublesome as there haue beene such I doubt not but to them death is wonderfull terrible Obiection If the most reasonable feare Death most it is by reason to be feared But the antecedent is true therefore the Consequent must follow SEneca yea experience doth teach vs that Infants little children and such as haue lost their
iudgements feare not death Answere Wee deny the antecedent for making comparison of the most reasonable men with other of lesse capacity wee shall finde that the most iudicious feare not death for that by their reason as through a cleere light they see plainely that there is nothing fearefull or painefull in death but all quiet and ioyfull But they whom the Philosopher meanes haue a reason that is blind weake and fantasticall apprehending Centaures Furies and Cerberus to be in death whereas there is no such matter and therein they haue lesse reason then they that haue none at all Miserable is the sight of the Butterflie who thinking through great errour that the light of the candle is the naturall light of her life flies to it and is there burnt Miserable in like sort is mans Reason who imagining through error that the vitall life is the true life which is the death the mortall body to bee her proper lodging which is the graue thinking then to preserue himselfe hee loseth himselfe and to liue he dies so as his reason doth but trouble and deceiue him And to this doth the Sun of Iustice aime saying Hee that will saue his life shall lose it and he that shall lose it for my sake shall saue it The 28. Argument taken from things conioyned Feare alwayes as an inseparable companion marcheth with hope But nothing can giue man an assured hope And therefore not of feare HOpe is a desire astriuing and eleuation of the mind to attaine to some future good that is difficult and yet possible if this good bee vertuous the hope is commendable and hereof a good man shal bee alwayes replenished and it will neuer suffer him to faint in the mid dest of aduersities but will raise him vp to better things as Apolodorus sayd more holily S. Paul that hope confounds not for that the loue is infused into our soules by the holy Ghost Finally hauing our anchor-hold vpon God from whom shee feeles all motions within wee may assure our selues to obtaine all things necessary how difficult soeuer and to repell whatsoeuer shal bee hurtfull vnto vs how painefull soeuer Neither shall hee euer feare but greedily desire death as the end of his carreer whereas they that haue run and combated shall receiue the Crowne of glory kept promised and hoped for But if this good hee but an imaginary good as the glory of the world of the earth and of this present life then shall the hope be doubtfull and deceiuable and ioyned to feare to lose that which wee enioy a feare which doth alwayes inseparably accompany hope she will let go the flouds of troubles and disquietnesse vpon miserable man and will still vexe him with fearefull apparitions of death Wherefore if we will not feare death let vs not hope for the prolongation of life Thou shalt ceasse to feare saith Seneca if thou doest leaue to hope It is so my friend Lucilius although these thing seeme to be contrary yet are they tied one vnto another as one chaine doth the Sergeant to the prisoner So these things which seeme contradictories are alike the greatest cause both of the one and the other is for that we doe not measure ourselues and stay our selues vpon present things but let flye our thoughts farre before vs so as fore sight the goodliest ornament of man is hurtfull vnto vs. Beasts flie apparent dangers and being past they retaine no shaddow of them but liue in all security and rest and wee trouble our selues for that which is to come for that which is past This is true for either the remembrance of some wrong or some phātasticall reproach past doth vexe vs to the heart or the future feare of dangers troubles our soules onely the present time which we hold and which is only ours and shold chiefly concerne vs seemes not to touch vs wherein the stupidity is as wonderfull as the apprehension is witty Let vs then know as Salomon doth admonish vs That ther is nothing better for man then to ioy in that hee doth for that is his portion For who will bring him backe to see what shall bee after him But wee haue spoken enough in generall of the proposition of the Argument Let vs come to the second part Doubtlesse hee that shall cast his eyes vpon that which doth present it selfe euery day and shall lend his eare to heare what hath beene said cannot doubt of the Minor of our Syllogisme wee see dayly if we will not shut our eyes the effect of Senecaes speech saying That it is a great folly in vs to dispose of our age when wee haue not to morrow at our command O how great is their vanity saith hee which enter into long hopes I will buy I will build I will lend and then I will rest mine olde age in peace O poore man who can promise any thing to himselfe that is to come Who doth not seem to hear the Apostle Saint Iames contesting against couetous merchants and saying Now you that say Let vs goe this day and to morrow to such a City continue there a yeere let vs traffique and gaine and yet you know not what shall befall the next day for seeing the thing which wee hold doth often slippe out of our hands and that of the very time we now enioy a part of it is subiect vnto hazard it were to dreame without sleeping to hope in the incertainty of life as Plato saith and after him Aristotle for that such as future hopes do leade promise to themselues many things which in the end proue vaine these hopes figured in the shaddowes of the future wrest out of our hands the present and make vs runne like vnto Esops dog after the shaddow of a thing and like vnto those who hauing dream'd they had found a treasur when they awaked found nothing but straw in their bed they are netts to take the winde I will not buy future hope with the price of present time the reason is giuen by Horace the short line of life forbids vs to beginne a long hope Euen at this instant night the ghosts and Pluto's streight Mansion will hasten thy end We hope saith another for some great matter by affection but it may be to morrow will close vp our destiny and so deceiue our hope mortifie our affection Mans life is like vnto a game at dice if thy chance falls not to thy desire thou must rest contented for thou canst not correct it by art therefore hope not for any thing but what thou doest presently enioy otherwise if thou makest any assured account that this or that shall happen vnto thee I will tell thee nay common chance will thee that it may bee it will not succeed But the diuine Oracle pronounceth a curse vpon him that puts his trust in the strength of man And hereof ages past present do furnish vs with thousands of examples but I will produce but
their immortalitle Answer This Obiection seemes subtill but to speake truly it hath but the shew not the effect for it is subiect to many pertinent answeres First to alledge an inconuenience is not to dissolue the question 2. It is a consequence ill applied to say Such a one hath not spoken therefore hee is no man Wee haue digged verie deepe into the earth and yet wee neuer heard any of them that goe with their feete against ours therefore there are no Antipodes So the soules speake not vpon dead mens lippes therefore they haue none for beeing thus hindred is the cause they neither heare nor see any signe of their life Thirdly the teares of the dead mans kinsfolkes are ill grounded Socrates a Pagan knew it well when hee said that we must leaue the soule at rest and not trouble it with lamentations The holy Ghosts goes farther and assures That blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord yea for certain saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them this should assure and reioice and not discomfort by a foolish desire that ioy of the soule of the deceased Fourthly God will not that we should be inquisitiue of the dead he forbids it expresly in his law pronounceth abhomination against them that doe it He hath giuen Moses and the Prophets let vs adde the Apostles if they will not beleeue them neither will they beleeue the soules of the deceased If that the liuing are forbidden to enquire how then can the dead haue leaue to speake Fifthly the soules are prest at the departure from their bodyes to yeeld an account of their administration in this life vndergoing a particular iudgement This is beleeued rightly and wholesomely saith S. Augustine that the soules are iudged at the departure from their bodies before the comming to this Iudgement at the which hauing taken againe the same bodyes they must appeare Also S. Hilary saith that immediately without any delay after death we vndergo a Iudgement and passe into Paradise or into Hell Finally Salomon to the end wee should not doubt sayth That God will easily render vnto man according to his workes at that day of his deceasse That the affliction of one houre makes him forget all pleasures and that the ende of man is the manifestation of his workes 6 S. Athanasiws sayeth It is not the will of God that the soules should declare the estate wherein they are for that many should be deceaued many errors wold grow the Deuils being ready to make men thus abused to beleeue what they would suggest as Crepet the Celestin doth well obserue and he adds that the like happened lately to a poore woman of Verum seduced by a diuell which appeared vnto her in the forme of her Grand father perswading her to goe in Pilgrimage to doe other things which were impossible So S. Augustin writes that Vincentius the Donatist was counselled to write against the Christian religion by a spirit which appeared vnto him 7. The Soule destitute of the Organs of her body being not yet glorified nor illuminated with the Celestiall splendor nor adorned with the supernaturall gifts which God cōfers vpon her for her felicitie cannot satifsie the will of the kinsfolkes that be present desiring a testimonie of her blessednes and life for the soule sayth S. Athanasius in the former passage as soone as she hath layed down her body can worke neither good not euill And as for visions that appeare from thē God by a certaine dispensation shewes them as it pleaseth him For as a Lute if there be no man to play of in seems idle and vnprofitable so the soule and body being separated one from another haue no operation The which Ecclesiastes doth confirme saying Certainly the liuing know that they shall dye but the dead know nothing neither doe they get any thing for their memory is forgotten in like manner their loue their hatred and their enuy perish and they haue not any portion in the world of whatsoeuer is done vnder the Sun Wherfore let vs cōclude and say That the soule whilest that shee giues any life to her dying body with the last puffe of life yeeldes a certaine testimony of her ioy and immortality by the inspiration of the holy Ghost as it happens to many good men But to demand instantly vpon death some token from the soule dislodging were to tempt God to mock at the deceased acd to be an vniust demander and therefore iustly to be refused The 5. Argument taken from the aspect of the face Whatsoeuer is represented by a iust mirrour or glasse is true The immortality of the soule is represented by the iust mirror of the face AS the soule of man is the Image of God so the face is the Image of the soule and therefore the Eternall creating the soule of man did breathe it in his face which the holy Ghost cals respiration of life so the property of man is to paint in his face by his diuers colours the diuers affections of his soule Wisedome saith Salomon cleeres the face of man and his fierce and sowre aspect is changed The Latines haue called it vultus for that the will is read in the forehead the manners of the soule follow the humours of the body saith Gallen and if some one belies his inclination it is a maske which hee puts on and therefore Momus did vniustly blame God for that hee had not made man with an open heart Thereon is all the Art of Phisiognomie grounded an Art which without this faining euery man would learn without teaching By the face that Diuiner Egyptian familiar to Marc. Anthony did know the diuers dispositions of men These markes of the face are imprinted with the seale of the soule and hee that will not iudge by such markes ingrauen of the brightnesse and immortality of the soule is without iudgement Homer writes that Vlisses hauing escaped from shipwracke was graciously entertained and reuerenced by the Pheagues hauing no ornament then but this vertue generous disposition the beauty excellency whereof appeared in his fore-head Man in like sort carries on his fore-head the markes of his immortal soule Wherof the first is the carrying his countenance straight vp to heauen proper to man at all times to him alone and to all the generation of mankinde which shewes his be ginning to bee celestiall and immortall for that onely is perishable which is vnder the region of the Moone whatsoeuer is aboue it is not subiect vnto destinie The 2. is that foresight afarre off those beames I say cast farre and wide by the piercing sight without staying vpon that which doth touch it or enuiron it neere which shewes that the flight of the soule must go farre If any one say that certaine birds foure footed beasts see farre but it is not to the same end for man doth it only for the
man being borne and bred in the bottome of a darke caue thinks that he hath no facultie to see is he the therefore blinde the soule being buried in the darkenesse of a mortall body as in a graue sees not her immortalitie hath she therfore none Thirdly we doe not say that man is immortall for that he differs from beasts but for many reasons deliuered to be deliuered Fourthly the Philosophers aboue mentioned would see and touch the soule in her immortalitie she is not subiect to any sence S. Basile hath seene it in spirit written it with his hand The soule sayth he cannot be seene with eyes for that she is not illuminated by any colour nor hath any figure or corporal character Aristotle knew it whengoing out of the fabrike of corporall nature hee sayd that it was not the charge of a Physition to treat of all sorts of soules as is the intellectuall which hee pronounceth to differ from the sensitiue vegetatiue from which he sayth shee may separate her selfe as the perpetuall from the corruptible Gallen had his eyes fixed onlie vpon the body the subiect of Phisick and therefore hee sayd freely that it did not import him in his arte if hee were ignorant how the soules were sent into the bodyes or whether they past from one to an other But if it please Gallen leauing the limites of his arte to take the fresh ayre of diuine Philosophy presently his goodly conception is followed with these words The soule is distilling from the vniuerfall Spirit descending from heauen c. Which hauing left the earth recouers heauen and dwells with the Moderator of all things in the Celestiall places As for Hippocrates his words sound more of the immortalitie then of the death of the soule hauing this sence That the soule goes alwayes increasing vntil the death of the bodie But if you desire effects and not words what conceit could Aristotle Gallen and Hippocrates haue of the soule to bee mortall who by an immortall labour haue purchased such great same throughout the world and whose authoritie is the cause that they are now produced and maintained Finally that which he obiects of the soules thoughts fixed for the most part on the fraile things of this passing world it is no smal signe of the corruption of mankind but no argument that the soule is perishable seeing she retaines still the immortal seale which God hath set vpon her in her first creation The. 2 Obiection The container and that which is contained should entertaine themselues by a iust proportion The body and the soule are the container and contained IF the soule bee immortal seeing the body is mortall what proportion were there betwixt the soule and body How hath nature which doth all things by a iust weight number and measure ioyned things together which are so dislike It serues to no purpose to produce the birde kept in a cage which as soone as shee can get out flies away for he is kept there by force and not as forme in substance Answere Wee grant the whole argument and wee adde that it is sinne which came by accident that hath caused this great disproportion Otherwise man before sinne in his estate of innocency had his body immortall therefore Iesus Christ our Sauiour like a cunning Logitian drew the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soule for that God was called the God of Abraham of Isaacke and of Iacob but God sayth hee is not the God of the dead but of the liuing So sayth Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard that the soule is so separated from the body as there remaines still a naturall inclination to resume it againe to minister to his body and this onely doth hinder her that shee is not affectionate towards God withal her vertue and force as be the Angells and therefore her blessednesse is imperfect For the soules ô flesh saith Bernard cannot without thee bee accomplished in their ioy nor perfect in their glory nor consummated in their felicity and in the same place hee distinguisheth their degrees or places for the soule in this life as in a Tabernacle before the resurrection in heauen as in a gallery and then after the resurrection in the house of God But you will say this answere is Metaphisicall I desire one that is naturall Answere This goodly order which you recommend in nature required this ordering that as there are some Creatures meerely spirituall others meerely corporall so there were some which were mixt both spirituall and corporall and that is man who in that smal forme represents all that is in the world and who by his senses doth communicate with the Creatures and by his vnderstanding with the Angells giuing his right hand to heauen and his left to the earth The 3. Obiection If reason loades vs to the immortality of the soule by the same meanes she shold guide vs to the resurrection of the body But that is not true I Proue the Minor by this knowne Maxime of reason That there is no returne from priuation to the habit nor by consequence from death to life no more then from starke blindnes to sight Wherefore they of Athens where one writes that the men are borne Philosophers hearing S. Paul discourse of many points of heauenly doctrine they gaue an attentiue heare vnto him but when hee came to the Resurrection of Iesus Christ they interrupted him mocking at him as one that doated Ans. I deny it that the resurrectiō of the dead is absolutely beyond the apprehension of nature The West-Indians who are without the Church of Christ beleeue it and practise it as well by the ceremonies of their interrements which aime directly at it as by the vsuall intreaties they make to the Spaniards digging for the gold of their Sepulchres that they should not take out carry away the bones to the end they may rise againe speedily as Benzo reports At Rome this Epitaph is yet to be read in Latine vpon a Pagans tombe The publike hath giuen a place vnto Aurelius Balbus a man of an vnspotted life I rest heere in hope of the resurrection But that which is most wonderfull and exceedes all credit if they that write it were not eye witnesses and worthy of credit that in Egypt in a place neere vnto Caine a multitude of people meete on a certaine day in march to bee spectators of the resurrection of the flesh as they say where from Thursday to Saterday inclusiuely they may see and touch bodies wrapt in their sheetes after the ancient manner but they neither see them standing nor walking but onely the armes or the thighes or some other part of the body which you may touch If you go farther off and then returne presently you shall finde these members to appeare more out of the ground and the more they change place the more diuers these motions appeare This admirable sight is written by
for the onely reason of so great a miserie is to shew himselfe ridiculous Moyses for all the miseries of Adam and his descendants produceth no other reasons DV Bartas hath seene this Obiection hath written in these termes Who shall direct my penne to paint the Story Of wretched mans forbidden bit-loft glory And Though Adams doome in euery Sermon common And founded on the error of a woman Wearie the vulgar and bee iudg'd a iest Of the prophane zealefcoffing Atheists Answer The offence of the first man is not so small as it seemes to an eye troubled with carnall sence But i was a chaine where all the greatest sinnes Were one in other linked fast as twinnes Let vs examine them and condemne them The 1. is Ingratitude to haue receiued from God these soueraigne blessings as wisdome iustice felicitie the gouernement ouer all Creatures and then to haue more honoured the Deuill then his benefactor Secondly Pride not to content himselfe with his honest condition but to seeke to make himselfe equall to his Creator Thirdly his Infidelitie not to giue credit to the threatnings of God Thou shalt die the death and to beleeue SataÌ„ mocking at the threats of God and accusing him of enuie You shall not dye but God knowes that what day you shall eate thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as Gods Fourthly the contempt of God wilfully disobeying and touching the forbidden Tree Fiftly his reuolt from God to his aduersarie from whom hee hopes attends his imaginary greatnesse the which the Doctors of the Church weighing they haue found that it was no small sinne but the greatest in certaine cases that man could commit for three reasons set downe by S. Augustine and these are the contents 1. Neuer man had that facillitie to keepe himselfe from sinne that Adam had for hee had but one Commandement and that most easie hee had no concupiscence that induced him to euill but he had diuine authoritie that grieuous threat to diuert him 2. Man was most happy in the earthly Paradise but we although we haue great blessings from our God yet wee haue them partly in faith as th' IncarnatioÌ„ of Iesus Christ partly in hope as eternall life which is the cause that not tasting them yet wee feele many doubts crossing our minde Besides in the middest of Gods consolations wee are stung with many afflictions so as it is no wonder if many leauing the way of heauen turne themselues to the goods of this world But Adam had receiued infinite blessings of God with a perfect knowledge of him and no vexation and yet hee was an Apostata vnto God 3. That sinne is greatest which brings most ruine vnto mankinde but there is none committed since that hath made a greater spoile By it sayth S. Augustin in the former place the vniuersall Masse of humaine nature is condemned for that hee which did first commit it is punished with his posteritie which was in his rheines It followes then that it is a most horrible sinne and they that speake otherwise haue neuer duly coÌ„sidered thereon or else they are verie bad disputers concluding it a small fault in breaking an easie com mandement of a light thing for it is that which giues most waight vnto the sinne as hath beene already declared To the King of heauen immortall inuisible to God onely wise be honor and Glory for euer and euer Amen FINIS The Errata FOl. 227. l. 11. for death reade life In M. fol. 254. verses set in prose fol. 161. l. 7. for men reade wise men fol. 398. l. 13. for Creatures reade Creator fol. 306. l. penul for daintie reade vanitie fol. 313. l. 7. reâ—… Massachres ead l. 16. for sand reade â—…and fol. 330. l. 7. reade who hath learned fol. 344. l. 17. r. alarmes fol. 355. l. 7. reade Apologie fol. 361. l. 6. reade thousands of offenders fol 372. l. 4. reade seazure fol. 374. l. 1â—… reade for there fol. 382. l. 7. reade seene fol. 404. l. 14. for ioyfull reade pleasant Manud lib. 2. c. 19. Orat. fune in Basil. Epist. 45. Epist. 76. Stobae Serm. 1. Lib. de tranquil vir c. 1. 2. Sam. cha 14. 2. Sam. 2 14. Apoc. 6. 8. Rom. 12. 2. Epist. 24. 103. In 10. Mat. Arist. l. 2. Phys c. 2. c. 1. v. 23. 2. Tim. 4. 1. Cor. 15. 42. Ioh. 5. 25. 2. Cor. 5. 1. Cor. 15. 43. 44. 45. Lib. 7. of his Saturnales Lib. 4. c. 30. de Legib. Elbi ad Nicomaâ—… L. 1. c. 8. Seneca Episâ—… 92. 1. Iohn 3. Coloss. 3. Epist. 71. 1. de Tranquil 11. Eccles. 7 the last verse Epist. 121 Horace Oderunt peccare mali fohmidine poenae Arist. 3. Ethic. 6. Tacâ—…t 4. Histor. The Answer 2. Kin. 22. Gen. 4. 13. 1. King 21. 2. King 9. 30. 31. c. Ecclesi 9. 12. Ionas 3. 4. 10 Isat 38. 1. 5 Lib. de Diuinat Eccles. 3. 2. Psal. 3. 9 Iob 34. Apoc. 6. 8. Iohn 9. Horat Quicquid dearant Reges c. Zonaras Tom. 2. Plato 3. de Repub. Epist. 9. Epist. 20. Mat. 24. Luk 12. 3. de Repu Cic. lib. 3. de repub Stob. serm 69. Pro. 14. 13 Eccle. 4. Chap. 2. Ad Polib 3 Laert. lib. 1 Binson li. 7. Plut. in Lacon Cic. Tusc. Quaest. lib. 1. Lib. de Senect Strab l. 17. Diodor. l. 3. c. 3. Senec. Epist. 91. Heb. 9. 27. epist. 24. 41. Epist. 4. Act. 5. 41. Apoc. 21. 14. Odyss l. 13 Exod. 20. Esay 58. Paul Iou. l. 44. of his Hist. Lib. 1. Du Bartas in Iudic. lib. 6. Ioha 14. Amb. c. 5. of the flight from the world L. 10. Ethic. 〈◊〉 7. Ioh. 17. c 7 Quaest. natu c. vlt. Eccles. 1. c. Iohn 5. 24. Epist. 24. Epist. 78. Epist. 4. Stob. serm 115. Maxim serâ—… 36. Sen. Epist 31. Epist. 70. 120. Plat. Apol. of Socrat. in the end Eipst 7â—… 1. Cor. 15. 1 de Legib. Lib. de Senect 2. Stroma in decore â—…aturae De mundi opiâ—… de Ira. c. 13 Ad Demeâ—… 2. deâ—…irrg Bartas in the 2. day of the 1 weeke Epist. 13. Lucre. 3. Epist. 23. Epist. 59. De vit bea c. 3. 6. Cic. 3. de finibuâ—… 3. Offic. 1. Cic. 3. de finib 5. de finib Sen. epist. 66. 4. De Finib Ephes. 5. 1. Cor. 2. Ephes. 2. Coloss. 2. Math. 12. Epist. 36. Epist. 24. 31. De consol ad Mart. 32. Epist. 202. ad Mart. c. 20. Lib 1. de pec mer. remis c. 38. Wis. 6. Prou. 2. Greg. hom 36. in Eu. Lament 4. 10. Hippoc. Aph. 1. Benz. l. 3. c. 5. Hist. lib. 5. Val. Maâ—… l. 9. c. 12. Epist. 7. 19. Iob. 7. Lib. 7. Ioh. 11. Luk. 19. Heb. 5. Rom. 7. 23. 2. Cor. 12. 7. Lucret 3. Sen. epist. 69. Seneâ—… Epist. 26. De Ira 3. c. 15. Arist. 3. Ethic. c. 7. Ethie ad Eud. lib. 3. Ethic. l. 5. c. vlt. Rom. 8. Curt. l. 5. Iohn 18. 8. 1. Tim. 5. 18 1. Kings 19
These are the differences which distinguish a liuing Creature from a plant the sensitiue life from the vegetatiue If sensible things perceiued by their sence were of themselues to bee desired without doubt the more excellent they were in their kind the more pleasing they should be yet contrariewise we see that the thing that is most sensible offends that sence most which is proper vnto it The fire burnes with touching and doth stupefie and takes from it his sensitiue vertue the thunderclap dulls the hearing troubles the braine and by a long continuance of a great noise makes him deafe and so of the other sences Moreouer if the reason of life consisted in the sences who would beleeue that man were the more perfect creature seeing that many exceed him in sence for the spider in the subtiltie of touching the Ape in the bountie of tast the Vulture in the force of smelling the Boare in the ventue of hearing and lastly the Linx in the seeing facultie exceeds him farre Thirdly these Organs of the sences are ordained only by nature for the vegetatiue life that is to say either for the preseruation of the Indiuiduum by eating and drinking or of the Species by generation It is true that man applyes them also to other ends then we haue obserued but those Creatures which haue nothing but the two first degrees of life whereof we treat imploy their sences to no other end but to entertaine themselues or for generation So the Lyon will start at the sight of a stag but it is for that he sees his preie prepared and not simply for that the stag hath such varietie of colors The Nightingale will answere with a melodious sound hearing another sing it is not for any delight it hath for in a true declaration it sufficeth not that the sence take pleasure in the obiect which is proper and proportionable vnto it but this proportion must also be inwardly apprehended cōceiued the which is neither found in the Nightingale nor in any other creature destitut of reason And whence then comes will you say the cause of this sodaine answer to the voice heard It proceeds from the complexion of the Nigh tingale to the point wherof it mounts when as the sound which beates the ayre strikes his eare and enters thereby into his head as we finde by experience in our selues whenas hearing any one yaune we are moued to doe the like hearing one sing we sing seeing the world runne we runne after it yet know not whither the Quaile by example wil be moued at the singing of the masle not for any delight shee takes but from the motion to generation which she feels kindled in her selfe The Dog will faune and leape vpon his master whom he had lost and yet this doth not proceed from any naturall instinct tends to no other end but to be kept defended and fed by his sayd master Finally hee that will duly obserue it shal finde that all the sences of vnreasonable creatures haue no other end but preseruation generation an end intimated in the vegetatiue life a life we saw had no sufficient reason to moue our desire how then shall the sensitiue haue Moreouer if reason and the desire of life consisted in the pleasure of the sences why haue they which were most giuen vnto it had wretched ends and ignominious liues the Emperour Vitellius Spinter thinking to find his felicitie in it incountred his ruine hee was giuen to lust and gormandize so excessiuely as at one supper hee was serued with 2000 sorts of fish and 7000 of fowle And what was the end of this life He was sodainely slaine pierced through with small darts drawne naked through the streets and cast into Tiber after the eight month of his Empire and before the sixtieth of his age To this wee will adde one in our fathers time Muleasses King of Tunis who although hee were banished from his Realme and had succours denyed by Charles the fift yet he was so drowned in the delights of sensualitie as hee spent a 100 Crownes for the sauce of a Peacocke and the more to bee rauished with musicke he caused his eyes to bee banded and to delight his smelling hee was continually perfumed with Muske What happened He was defeated in battaile by his own Sonne Aminda and as hee fled disguized he was followed by the sent of his perfumes discouered and taken and his eyes put out with a hot Iron by his owne Children O crueltie but a iust iudgement of God for his voluptuousnesse Then comes the sight so piercing and passionate after the faire faces of women and stayes not there onely but O shamefull sight it will see the bodies naked the which is condemned both by God and man Romulus condemned that man to death which suffered himselfe to bee seene naked by a woman how much more is that woman to bee condemned which layes aside all modestie with her smocke as Giges said in Herodotus The Emperours Valentinian Gratian Theodosius religious obseruers of chastitie did forbid vpon great penalties that none should shew themselues naked in publike but to Tiberius Caligula Heliogabalus others who tooke no delight but to defile their eyes and bodies with such shamefull spectacles God did shew his horrible Iudgements in their deaths Finally voluptuousnesse hath not only bene the cause of the ruine of men alone but of whole Estates Sybarides a Towne seated betwixt two riuers in old time strong and flourishing did rule ouer foure bordering people had vnder their obedience 25. Townes and could bring to field 300. thousand men armed yet by the dissolution of the Sybarites in two moneths ten dayes shee was spoiled of all her felicity and greatnes drowned and quite ruined The like excesse was the ouerthrow of that mighty Romaine Empire as wee may easily reade in them that haue written of that subiect As long as Curius and Fabricius led The Romaine Armies that for dainties fed On boiled turnops and the cresses were Amongst the Persians th' only delicate cheare In peace both led their liues retired still And fear'd in warre did with their Trophees fil Almost all earth But when of th' after seede Of Syrian Ninus Persians learn'd to feede On sugar delicacies and that Rome With pleasure of their bellies ouercome In Galba's Rule Vitellio's Nero's liuing No lesse for glory in their dishes striuing Then if in conflict they the field had won Of Mithridates and Alcides son All iustly saw themselues by nations spoy'ld That they long since had fought withall and foil'd Warning those Realmes that take their courses now Lest they their earth with equall ruines strow The Obiection The moderate vse of the sences in worldly things is pleasant and lawfull Therefore it is reason to desire life ANswer The word moderate shewes of it selfe that this reason is verie moderate and weake yea that there is contradiction in the adioinct as they say true pleasure admits no moderation it
Queene of Nations falsesly held to be eternall where art thou destroied ruined burnt and drowned in vaine do they seeke thee for thou art not where thou were built And you Constantinople Venice and Paris your day will come and why not Seeing that whole Monarchies runne swiftly to their ruine the Assirian Persian Grecian and Romaine are perished You Turkes you florish for â—…lme but behold 〈◊〉 Scâ—…thians prepare to wrest the reines of the world out of your hands and what wonder if that riues which by nature is apt to tiue if that which is easie to melt melt if that which is corruptible decayes and if that which is of a mortall condition dies Without doubt if there be any thing to be amazed at it is how we are borne how wee subsist amiddest a thousaÌ„d deaths which reigne vpon vs we haue but one narrow entry into life but wee haue an infinite number to go out which are very large and slippery And yâ—…t o strange brutishnesse we wonder how we die and not how we liue Let vs then conclude with the Spirit of God That euery man is dust and shall returne to dust for such is his condition The 13. Argument taken from the benefit which the thought of death brings Whatsoeuer doth multiply life should be precious to them that loue life The Meditation of death multiplies life Therefore the meditation of Death should be precious to them that loue life A Great Philosopher obseruing the vncertenty of the time of death and finding that life must infallibly fall by a bullet by iron by a dart a stone a haire as Fabius the Pretor was choakt in drinking milke with a kernell as the Poet Anacreon with a flie as Pope Adrian 4. with a splinter be he neuer so well armed as Henry 2. the French King whom a splinter of Captaine Lorges lance flying into the beuer of his caske wounded in the head whereof he dyed by the rush of a doore as Iterenius the Sicilian in the Venerian act a ridiculous death as Gallus Pretorius and Titharius a Romane Knight who were smothered in the bed of lust By the holding of their breath without constraint as it happened to Comon by delight as to Chilon who hearing his sonne commended for that hee had wonne the prized the Olimpike games was so moued with affection as he dyed yea in laughing as old Philemon who hauing seene an Asse eate sigges vpon his table he commanded his seruant to giue him drinke whereat hee did so laugh as hee fell into a hickeâ—… and so dyed Yea life is ruined by the pricke of a needle as in Lucia the daughter of Marcus Aurelius who pricking her selfe dyed By the tooth of a combe like to Rufynius the Consull who combing himselfe hurt his head and ended his life That great Philosopher I say considering that so many accidents and ten thousand others not to bee foreseene might in an instant take away life gaue this wholsome counsell That wee must dispose of euery day in such sort as if it should close vp our life within the compasse of the twelue houres Consider saith hee how goodly a thing it is to consummate life before death and then to attend without care the time that may remayne and the better to induce vs thereunto let vs remember the aduice which Iesus Christ gaue vnto his Disciples of him selfe I must doe saith hee the workes of him that sent me whilst it is day the night comes and then no man can worke Ioh. 9. By the day hee signifies life by night death and his will is that whilst we liue we should doe our duties without any procrastination for that night is neere that is to say death But when a well setled soule saith the same knowes there is no difference betwixt a day and an age shee then beholds as it were from aboue the dayes and successe which shall follow her and laughs at the course and continuance of yeeres The same Seneca doth also make a pleasant discourse of Pacuâ—…ius the vsurper of Syria who being at night buried in wine as as if he had prepared his owne funerall caused himselfe to bee carryed from the table to his bed in the meane time his friends clapping their hands danced and sung He hath liued hee hath liued and there passed no day but this was done And the Authour addes what he did in an vnseemely manner let vs doe with reason that night approching and ready to lay vs in bed let vs sing with ioy I haue runne the course of my prefixed life and if God doth adde an increase of tomorrow let vs account it for gaine In doing so euery day shall bee a life vnto vs and by the multiplication of dayes our life shall be multiplyed and why not seeing that in what day soeuer we dye we dye in our owne proper day as the fame Seneca saith calling the present day that proper day seeing the dayes that are past are no more ours being so lost for vs as they can bee no more restored As for the future we cannot call them ours being not yet come and may bee wrested from vs in an instant by many accidents Moreouer what is there in an age that wee find not in one day the heauen the earth the inhabitants thereof the day and night by the reuolution of the heauens But you will say This pensiue thoght of death hammering continually in our heads doth hasten our death Answ. You are deceiued a wiseman thinkes quietly of it and in thinking of it aduanceth nothing no more then the marriner in seeing the sayles still and the wind to blow it is by the wind and sayles not by his looking that he is carried into the Port So by the waues of this life not by the meditation of death wee are carried to the graue Let vs then end with the saying of the Philosopher Musonius That he imployes not the day rightly who resolues not as if it were his last The 14. Argument taken from a Simile Euery sweete and sound sleepe is pleasing Death is a sweete and sound sleepe Ergo. A Naxagoras sayed there were two excellent instructions in Death the one in sleepe the other in the time going before our birth Let vs now consider of the first instruction We see that most of the heathen Philosophers haue saluted death with the name of sleepe Plato in the end of his Apologie of Socrates Tully in his booke de Senectute Obsenie fayth hee there is no thing so like vnto death as sleepe Homer faith that sleepe death are brother and sister twinnes Let vs obserue with Plutarque that Homer shewes their similitude terming them twinnes for they that are so doe most commonly resemble And in truth wee cannot denie but there is betwixt them great affinitie It is one of the causes of death the cold vapour vndigested and quenching the naturall heate a vapor which appeares vpon the superficies of the bodie which they also
to heauen It is a constant opinion of the Stoickes sayth he that after all humor is consumed this world shall burne and Nature by whom this reuolution is made seemes to giue vs some notice in that the fields being burnt by the labourer or drowned by water as in Egypt as in pooles dried vp and when the sea is retired in that I say this earth remaining is found renewed fat and producing many Creatures yea great and perfect as they write namely of Nile after it is retired Now vnder the wings of these great personages I come to maintaine this combate and refell the reasons of the Obiector Wee haue in our Argument toucht two points simbolizing together although the one be Christian and the other Heathen the first is the Resurrection of the flesh which we extend to man only not of other Creatures And let vs say that he who of nothing could make all may easily ouerthrow the imagined difficulty and raise vp and restore to the same estate the bodies of dead men for he that can do more can do lesse without all controuersie and hee that could of nothing make that which was not may repaire that which was vndone But how shall this Resurrection bee made and what assurance shall wee haue Behold how In the presence of all the world of Angells of men and of diuells with vnspeakable ioy to the good and incomprehensible horror to the wicked the Lord shall come with a cry of exhortation and the voice of the Archangell and the Trumpet of God these are the very words of the text By the sound of this trumpet all the dead shall awake and rise out of their graues and they that shall liue and remaine at this comming shal be suddenly changed and of mortall shal be made immortall by his force and efficacy who can make all things subiect vnto him as the Apostle sayth The bodies of the children of God shall rise againe like the glorious bodie of Iesus Christ impassible spirituall and yet fleshly shining like stars subtil light transparent and full of all happines behold the letters of heauen We attend the Sauiour who will transforme our vile bodies and make them conformable to his glorious body We know sayeth Saint Iohn that after hee hath appeared wee shall bee like vnto him God will wipe away all teares from our eyes sayth hee death shall bee no more there shal bee no mourning cries nor labour The body sowne in corruption shall rise spirituall sayth S. Paul for that no sollide thing can hinder it it may without helpe or wings flye into remote places as Iesus Christ after his resurrection did manifest it more then sufficiently in his body finally hee shall bee spirituall for that hee shal be readily and willingly obedient to his glorified spirit In this flesh and not in any other shall I see my Sauiour sayth Iob c. 1. 9. For this mortal body must put on immortality sayth the Apostle Thirdly they which haue bin vnderstood sayth Daniel 12. shall shine like the heauens and they that bring many to Iustice shall glister like the starres for euer Also the glory of the Sunne is one the glory of the Moon another and the glory of the starres is also different euen so shall bee the resurrection of the dead whereby it followes that the bodyes raised again shal haue no grosse substance but shall be transparent like vnto glasse Fourthly beeing raised againe we shall bee taken vp into the clouds before the Lord and beeing ascended into heauen wee shall haue vnspeakeable ioy such as the eye hath not seene the eare not heard nor hath entred into the heart of man These are wonderfull things but what assurance the Spirit of God doth assure thee if thou beest of God for God doth seale vp an earnest penny of his holy Spirit in their hearts that are his as the Apostle teacheth Secondly If the soule be immortall the body must one day rise immortall to the end that this soule being created for the body may giue it life againe being reunited Moreouer as Saint Ambrose teacheth it is the order and cause of Iustice seeing that the work of man is common to the body and soule and what the soule doth fore-thinke the body effects and therefore it is reasonable that both should appeare in iudgement to receiue either punishment or glory Thirdly Iesus Christ is risen for vs and to assure vs that by the same diuine power that hath drawne him out of the graue we also shal be raised I proue the antecedent by aboue 500. witnesses which at one time haue seene Iesus Christ liuing after that he had beene crucified by the Iewes as the Apostle sheweth and Ioseph also who was a Iew doth witnesse it lib. 18. c. 2. 4. of his Antiquities He was seene precisely by women beleeued by the incredulous and for a ful assurance thereof hee would contrary to the nature of his body which aspired nothing but heauen conuerse forty dayes vpon earth Heere is reason sufficient in this matter of faith whereas reason should yeeld her selfe prisoner and yet to make it appeare visibly and to free all doubt God would both in the ancient and new alliance raise vp some that were seene and admired of the people So Lazarus being called out of his graue was beheld of all men and the malicious Pharisies tooke counsell to put him to death as well as Iesus Christ. The same God would manifest a plot of the future Resurrection to his Prophet Ezechiel when as he had transported him into a field full of drye bones which when hee had seene and prophesied ouer â—…em behold a motion the bones draw neere one vnto another and suddainely behold they had sinewes vppon them and flesh came and then the skinne couered it and in the end after a second dâ—…untiation of the word of God the spirit came and then appeared a great army of men As for this point which concernes an article of our faith the Resurrection of the flesh the Obiector dares not deny but there is matter sufficient in this world to furnish for the restoring of all the dead bodies not since an imaginary Eternity for we are now vpon tearmes of diuinity whereof wee must beleeue the principles and not question them but from the first man vnto the last that shall be Herein there is nothing that inuolues contradiction The other point was that suppose the eternity of the world after the reuolution of all things and the encounter of the same order in all points that is at this present there shall bee the same Superficies the same creatures and the same men that are at this present this also hath no implicity seeing we affirm not that all things the same creatures which haue bin shal be for euer shal be restor'd together at one instant but by degrees and euery one in his turne Behold how this first
matter perisheth not and is not reduced to nothing but flowes dayly vnder new formes This matter is bounded the starres and the heauen which roule about it make it to bring forth creatures continually and man sometimes but by some rare constellation as the Naturallists speake The heauens I say are bounded and their motions limited Wherefore I maintaine it is not impossible that in an eternity of time that which is limited and bounded and hath once met and is ioyned may yet againe meete and be reioyned if we consider that it is not by chance but by fatall necessity that this Vniuerse roules without ceasing as al they among the Pagans which haue had any vnderstanding haue acknowledged Yea one of them said that who so would demande proofes thereof must be answered with a whip but behold a most certaine proof all creatures euen those that haue no vnderstanding tend alwayes to their ends propounded and all encounter in one vniuersall end If there were not a certaine prouidence in the world which prescribes to euery creature that end which it knoweth not and makes it containe it selfe the world should not be a world that is to say a most excellent and well ordained composition but the greatest confusion that could be imagined Seeing then that the heauens in their motions the starres in their coniunctions the causes in their order euen vnto the last may encounter together so those things which wholly deâ—…d of them may bee redâ—… 〈◊〉 the same estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a maxime in Physicks that the matter and the Agent haue such power after the death and destruction of the creature as they had during his life what then can hinder it but by the position of the same causes and the same circumstances of time concurring the same effect may be repaired Moreouer the thing which is no more is no farther from being then that which hath not bene and there is no impossibility but that which hath had no being may come to light neither is ther any repugnancy but that which hath bene once liuing may come againe to life yea and who knowes whether that which is now hath not beene often heretofore I should beleeue it if I did giue credit to the eternity of the world As for the similitude of clay which the Obiect or not vnderstanding me doth presse so strongly it is very fit in this matter for the workeman which hath made a man and then hath wrought it to make a horse and then confounded it to make an ape and in the end an Eagle may if hee please returne and make the same man which he had made first and hauing vndone it may make a horse and so consequently one after an other in infinitum not that hee can make them all foure subsisting at one time therein the Obiector fights with his shadow and not with my saying And to demonstrate the power of Nature turning about her circle returning backe to the point where she had begun and passing ouer all the circumference of the circle to repaire that in place and time which she had dissolued shee would leaue for an earnest penny the Phenix the only bird of his kinde which is seene in Arabia and which the Egyptians in their Hierogliphicall letters painted to describe by his long continuance the immortality of the soule This goodly birde after many ages past to renew himselfe casts himselfe vpon a pile of stickes layd together the which hee doth so beate with his wings and with the helpe of the Sun which hangs perpedicularly ouer him as it takes fire and consumes the body out of which springs a little worme and of that a little birde which being couered with feathers in the end flies away and becomes the same Phenix You will question the truth hereof if the same Nature did not as much or more in the silke-worme whose egge is no bigger then a graine of millet it discouers a little woolly worme the which without dying transformes it selfe into a moth that changeth into a flie which hath scales and this becomes a butterflie which beating it selfe continually layes egges of these egges come little wormes and so consequently by an infinite circulation Wherefore these diuerse changes and formes happening in our bodies should not amaze vs but rather assure vs that hauing bin carried farre about they shall returne to their first estate seeing that their walkes and this Vniuerse haue their limits and bounds and seeing by the testimony of the wise man that which hath beene is now and that which is to come hath also beene God calling backe that which hath past that is to say as the Diuines expound it that God by his administration makes the Creatures succeeding one an other returne in their order as if they went about a wheele which kind of speech is taken from the celestiall Spheares which gouerne the seasons signifying that those things which happen by time are wheeled about with the reuolution of time which containes them These are the words of no vulgar Diuines whereby wee may see how much they yeeld to this opinion The end of the first Booke The Second Booke The first Argument taken from the Immortalitie of the soule That which is free from Death in the principall part should not feare it Man in his soule his principall part is freed frem death Therefore hee should not feare it IF all men could vnderstaÌ„d without doubting perswade themselues without wauering that their soules at the departure from their bodies are happilie immortall there is not any one without contradiction but would goe cheerefully and resolutely vnto death considering the miseries of this life and the heauie burthen of the bodie for it is the sepulcher of the soule as Plato saied The soule is a plant transported from heauen into a strange soyle into a body of earth where it sighs pines away and desires to depart The greatest thing in the world sayth Periander is contayned in a litle space Socrates maintained that the true man was that within which is lodged in the body as in an Inne S. Bernard exhorts the bodie to know it to intreate his guest which is the soule well The which Anaxarchus did apprehend who being beaten in a mortar did crie out couragiously to the tyrant Nicocreon Beat beate O hangman the flesh and boanes of Anaxarachus So M. Laeuius seeing Galba a great Orator with a deformed bodie sayd That great spirit dwels in a poore cottage But S. Paul shewes it better then all these If this earthly lodging be destroied if this bodie returne to ashes we haue a mansion with God And the body is the clothing of the soule the which Esop obiected to one who abused the beautie of his body He are my friend sayd he thou hast a faire garment but thou puttest it off ill Man is a caualier his body is the horse the spirit is the rider if the horse be lame blind
against Ramoth of Gilead were welcome but only Miche◅s who pronounced the contrary was put in prison and yet they were false and this true Let vs beware of the like least that fauour and grace deceiue vs in this matter Let vs take the ballance of equity and weigh the reasons propounded if they be good they wil weigh downe whatsoeuer shall be opposed and if they bee currant they will endure the touch let vs then try the first Huart a great Philosopher of Spaine maintaines that the vnderstanding hath his beginning his increase and his constitution and then his declining like vnto a man hee meanes his body for the vnderstanding is the most excellent part of man and like other Creatures and plants And for this cause hee that will learne at what age hi◅ vnderstanding is most strong and vigorous let him know that it is from 33. vnto fifty at what time the gravest Authors should be made if during their liues they haue had contrary opinions Hee that wil write bookes should compose them at this age neither before or after if hee will not retract or alter them Hitherto Huart which experience doth confirme for we see that as a man doth aduance in age he growes in wisedome and Iesus himselfe made true man aduanced in wisedome and stature Contrariwise age declining the spirit decaies in memory in quicknesse in vnderstanding so as man being very old hee becomes twice a child fumbling with his tong doating in minde As for that the Testators say that they are sound in minde it is to shew that neither age nor sicknesse hath as yet made them lose their spirits and therefore it is a true signe of their decay concluding contrary to the intention of the Author And whereas the labourer spake so diuinely it did not proceed from the neerenesse of death but from the alteration of the temperature of his braine growne whot in the first degree by the force of his infirmity so some women haue prophecied and spoke Latine yet neuer learned it by the same reason of the temperature required yet they die not suddainly in this estate To the 2. Religion proceedes partly from nature partly from institution from nature who to rule all Creatures to make them follow the traine of his order graues in them al a certaine terror indistinct apprehension The Creatures feare man and by this feare are contained in their duties man feares a hidden superiority and maintaines himselfe in society many times hee feares hee knowes not what nor wherefore and therefore it happens that women who are commonly more fearefull are more religious Yea they report of certaine bruite beasts which adore the deity as Elephants yet they do not say that their soules are immortall From institution for as vessells do long retaine the sent of their first liquor wherewith they are seasoned so children maintaine vnto the end the religion wherein they are bred and brought vp although it were the most fantasticke and strange in the world yea if in stead of sauing it should damme them as we may see if we will open our eyes in these times so fertill in religions To the 3. If the soule bee mortall it followeth not that nature hath made any thing in vaine if she hath hope or feare to be immortall it is to encourage it to vertue that is to say to the preseruation of that goodly order and to terrifie it from the infraction thereof if she dies her alteration of the immortality dries away Nature hath also giuen vnto the Bat a desire to see the light of the Sun yet this desire neuer takes effect Finally euery creature flies death and desires life not for a time but for euer and by consequent in their kind desire to be immortall and yet they attaine not to it To the 4. The heart beats continually and is immortal Dogs sleeping dreame and are mortall therefore the vnquiet and vncessant action of the soule can bee no certaine signe of her immortalitie To the Fift Iohn de Seres almost throughout the whole course of his history of France will answer That man findes no miserie but what he seekes The philosophers yea Diuines will say that felicitie proportionable vnto humaine nature consists in an vpright disposition of his will to carry himselfe according to the reason that is in him towards all things that shall present themselues to make his profit of al things not to trouble himselfe with any thing that can happen in this world and to nourish the seeds of vertue which are sowen in his mind To the Sixt Solon will answer that it is a hard matter to please all men some complaine of the shortnes of life if we obserue it these are such as haue prodigally consumed thēselus at cardes dice and haue not found it but toolate Others complaine of the length and cut it off before their time But Seneca wiser then either well say that wee must not be carefull to liue long but enough to liue long is a worke depending of destinie to liue enough is of the minde The life is long if it be full and it is full when the spirit affects her good and tranfers her power to her selfe O excellent speech hee that hath eares let him heare Let vs proceed certen creatures liue longer then man and which Rauens Stags the Phenix I doubt it much as for the Phenix it is a fabulous thing for Stags we know not any thing but by a writing which was found about a Stags necke Caesar gaue me this if it were the first Caesar it is long since but it might be some other whilest that the Emperours reigned in France and that is not long As for the Rauen a most importune and vnfortunate bird who hath tryed it But admit this were true there were but two or three excepted out of the generall rule of nature which is that man her chiefe worke liues longer then any other creature and it is her pleasure to except from the generall as we see else where ceasee then to blame that which you should commend and admire To the Seuenth and last simbolizing much with the second you must receiue the same answer And moreouer there is not found any generous instinct in the soule of man which appeares not as great in brute beasts for the preseruation and defence of their yong As for the confession pretended so easie of an offence committed the diuerse kinds of tortures invented to wrest it out in iustice belie it but you will say they are inwardly tormented how know you that who can see nothing but the exterior part Answere The doctrine of the humaine soule depends of a superior knowledge that is of the Metaphisicke whereof the rule is the Canon of the old and new Testament man must not presume to thinke he can fully comprehend it her perfect intelligence is reserued for vs exclusinely for euer when we shall behold it in
their carnall pleasures As for Sardanapalus hee hath also doubted whether he were a man since that hee tooke vpon him a womans habit among his Courtisans and handled a distaffe with them For my part I beleeue that he had the humour and spirit of a beast as Tully reports that Aristotle hauing read this Epitaphe sayd that they should haue written it vpon the pit of a beast not on the graue of a King The same answere shall serue for the like thing pretended at Brescia As for the third their ignorance and malice would force a beleefe of mortality of soules what others more honest and more wise haue done shall serue to confute them For the same antiquaries write that many caused to bee drawne vpon their tombes doores halfe open shewing thereby that their soules escaped from the tombe If one Philosopher would dispute of it there are others who to get fame haue questioned matters more apparent as Cardan the fourth Element of fire Copernicus the motion of heauen maintaining by the illusion of reason that it is the earth not the heauen that moues There haue beene alwayes and shall be such fantasticke humors who would make themselues famous with the preiudice of the truth As for the Empresse Barbara hee should haue added that shee was an insatiable Letcher therefore she had great interest not to giue an accoumpt of her dissolute life to perswade her self that al was extinguished in death Now followeth this depra ued age into the which as into the bottome of a sinke al the filth of precedent ages haue seemed to run yet there are God bee thanked who beleeue it in their hearts and deliuer it with ther mouthes that their spirit is immortal and they that speake it only with their mouthes it is sufficient that naturall shame will not suffer them to discouer the villany of thier hearts and this bashfulnesse an impression of God is sufficient to make them inexcusable in the great day of the Lord. Moreouer they that with a furious impudency haue beleeued that the soule died with the body haue for the most part in their miserable ends made knowne the iudgements of God who punished them for their frantike opinion as Lucian who was torne in pieces by dogs Lucre tius who grown mad cast him selfe downe a precipice Caligula who was cruelly slaine with infinite others Or else they haue shewed it in their confused and irresolute carriage the distemperature and trouble of their soules impugning their damnable opinion To conclude As for Theodorus and the swarme of his disciples who in a manner alone hold the chaires in all estates I will suffer them to be led in Triumph before the triumphant chariot of faith that which Du Bartas sayth in the beginning of the second song is sufficient to confound them The 4. Argument That which proceeds immediatly f◅om God is euerlasting Such is the soule I will prooue the consequēce of the Maior for the rest is plaine of it selfe whilest the Sun shall last he will cast fo◅th his beames whilest there is fire there will come forth heate whilest the heart beates in the body there remaines life for that the position of the sufficient cause very neere and immediate doth of necessity establish the effect the which continues as long as the cause if there happens no inpeachment But God is a sufficient cause neuer hindered in his effects he is the neere and immediate cause of the soule which hee breathes into the body as soone as it was disposed and fit to receiue that breathing hee is immortall and by consequent the soule is immortall So hee created the Angels the Angels shal subsist for euer so he made the heauen earth and they shall neuer perish If they reply that the heauēs shal passe that God wil cōsume them as a flaming pyle of wood as the Poet speakes after S. Peter The answer is That it is not to be vnderstood of the substance of the world but of the qualities which being vaine and corrupted by reason of man shal be changed and renewed by fire to shine more purely like refined gold They may againe obiect That God with his owne hands had moulded and fashoned the first man who not with standing is dead I answer that God was the efficient and immediate cause of man but not the formall nor the materiall his substance was the slime of the earth which might be dissolued his forme was his soule which might be separated But in the soule and of the soule of man God holds immediatly the foure kinds of causes the efficient for he hath made it of himselfe without any help the materiall not that it is of his essence but that hee hath created it of nothing as hee did the world the formall in like manner his continual inspiration retaines it as his continuall prouidence preserues the world from ruine and therefore Christ sayd my Father works hitherto and I with him Finally he is the finall cause for man liues to know and serue God If they reply againe that God being a voluntarie cause in his actions should not be numbred among the naturall causes which necessarily produce their effects if there be not some let that is most certen but where the word of God is euident we must not doubt of his will but it is apparent in the passages alledged that the soule is immortall And therefore we may profitably and safely conclude That if from the sufficient and neere cause the effect doth necessarilie flow and that this effect doth continue as long as the cause if there happen no lets that vndoubtedly the soule is immortal seeing that God her most sufficient cause and who feares no disturbance is immortall so as to denie this immortalitie is to deny the Deitie Obiection That which hath bin alwaies required to be sufficiently testified yet hath beene still denyed cannot be certaine The immortalitie of the soule hath beene alwayes required to be sufficiently testified yet hath beene still denyed NO great ioy doth at any time accompanie a deepe silence If the soule going out of the bodie felt it selfe immortall shee should feele it if she were so for going out of the body as out of a darke prison shee should haue the fruition of all her light if shee felt her selfe as I say immortall shee would witnesse it by some signe to the poore kinsfolkes that suruiue being desolate by reason of his departure to comfort fortifie and make them ioyfull And although the soules which are in heauen be there detained by a voluntarie prison hindering them from comming downe and on the other side those that are in hell are tyed there by a will that is captiue as one hath affirmed But the soules that goe out of the bodies which are yet on earth euen vpon the lips of them that die why haue they not instantly before they fly to heauen being so often required giuen some smalle proofe of
efficient cause of Immortaliti But the soule is eleuated aboue all time and place IT is without all question that onely time ruines all things yet the vnderstanding is not subiect to time for the time past is present vnto it And therefore man shall see an act plaied before him and yet he shall haue another in his vnderstanding which was done 10. 20. or 30. yeares before and shall haue it so present in his minde as the spirituall intuition thereof will steale from his corporall eyes that which is presently acted before them So Scipio Affricanus sayed that he was neuer lesse alone then when he was alone why For that his actes past his armies led and his triumphes presented themselues vnto him in the most solitarie walkes of his garden Obserue a horse he doth not see seele nor thinke of any thing but the obiect that is before his eyes But contrarie-wise the soule is there where she stayes least she studies and calls to mind what is past becomes wise for the future before shee sees and of three times makes but one for that she is not subiect to time this is plainly seene in the Prophets to whom the future is reuealed in the spirit as it were present by him that hath made time And this is the true reason why the Prophets speak without lying of things to come as if they had bin done So Esay chap. 9. spake of Iesus Christ A child is borne vnto vs a child is giuen vs for hee saw him borne with his Propheticall eyes dead and risen againe I would insist vpon this Argument if it were not as plaine as it is firme As for the naturall place of the Soule she is not definite for she is all in the braine all in the heart all in the liuer all in the Matrix so of the other parts of the bodie not according to the totall of her vertue for she is one in the head an nother the feete another in the sight another in the hearing But she is thus diffused according to the totall of her essence which makes her in some sort infinite and by consequent immortall It is not then of her as of the moouer of a great wheele which touching one part makes all the rest turne Nor as a King who sitting in his Pallace stretcheth out his hands to the farthest confines of his kingdome But as God in the world who is in heauen on earth and all in all The first Obiection All that is distempered by heate and drought is perishable Such is the Soule GAllen thinking that the Soule burnes in the body by a burning feauer is lost with the great losse of bloud and that a strong poyson doth poyson it hee protests plainely that vntill that time hee had doubted what the substance of the Soule was but then growne wiser as well by practise as by age he durst boldly sweare that it was nothing but the temperature of the bodie And therefore calling Plato out of his graue hee demands of him how it is possible the soule should be immortall Answer The heate of a feuer and the corporall force cannot worke vpon the soule neither can she suffer and although the actions which the soule doth by meanes of the Organes of the body be depraued or interrupted by the deprauation and interruption of the Organes yet for all that the soule loseth nothing of her vertue nor of her habilitie He that euen now played excellently well on the Lute must not be held to haue lost his cunning if taking a Lute ill mounted and with 〈◊〉 stringâ—… hee play ill or if hauing no strings at all he ceaseth to play It is euen so of the spirit in the body for in the sinewes flowing from the braine there distills a certain vital spirit as a beame of the Sun of whose force the soule makes vse first to handle the sinewes and by them the Muscles which being afterwards moued reuiue euery member apart and altogether Now if any maligne disease come to depraue this subtile humor the functions of the soule feele it but not the soule Moreouer as certaine vncleane spirits remaining in some darke and filthy house by reason of the vapors agreeing with their dispositioÌ„ if it be clensed the doore windowes set open if a good aire a comfortable Sun and wholsome wind enter into it if it be inhabited by many who passe the time ioyfully and especially if they play vpon many Instruments these spirits quit the place So by a contrary analogie the soule is kept and entertained in the bodie by certaine spirituall qualities and fit for her exercises which comming in time to change to the contrarie they chase away the soule being glad vpon that occasion to dislodge from a place which was not to be held Thirdly if the temperament bee nothing but the Quintâ—…ssence of the mixtion of the foure elements whereof mans body is compounded as the harmonie is the fift sownd rysing from all the parts in Musicke and if Gallen meanes not to speake but of this soule which hee hath felt in the touching of the pulse in the Anatomie of the body I say of the vegetatiue and the sensitiue soule wee may yeelde vnto him But of the reasonable soule which contaynes these two within her compasse as the fift angle doth a triaÌ„gle quadrangle which makes vse of the temper to the bodie as of an instrument to rule and gouerne it as the Pilot doth the Helme to conduct his ship that cannot be for to confound the instrument with the principal agent the Pilot with the Helme were no reason In the actioÌ„s of a vegetatiue sensitiue life although there be a mature teÌ„perature required yet shall they neuer proue that this temper is necessary to vnderstand and contemplate seeing that out of all question the most exquisite contemplation consists in the sequestratioÌ„ of the soule from the communion of the body for that contemplation is the more certen the more it is sequestred from grosse circumstaÌ„ces of matter place and time things which with their accidentarie attires are perceiued by the seÌ„ses do often deceiue How often hath our sight and our hearing deceiued vs thinking to see heare one thing which proued another But the sciences as the Mathematicks which extract the Essences out of bodyes are neuer deceiued following their art and much lesse the Metaphisicke which coÌ„templates the pure spirits free from any contagion of matter But if the reasonable soule were nothing but the temperament of the body it could not bee but among a millioÌ„ of beasts which are in the world some one should bee found which had the same mixture of the the foure first humors which are in man and by consequence the same reasonable facultie and if any reply that the chiefe difference is in the braine I will answer that the Anatomy doth not shew any difference of the braine of men and beasts The 2. Obiection If the soule liued out of
demolition of man but onely the first for as a wise master of a familie when hee sees that his house threatneth ruine that it sinks in many places and the walls open commands it to be pulled downe that with the ruines and materials hee may raise another to cōtinue many yeares euen so nature a most expert Architectrice seeing man ladē with woūds deiected with misery and melancholy cōsumed with age and grown cro◅ked with the gou◅e catar◅es sowe◅ him co◅uptible in the graue that after many changes she may raise him incorruptible by the powerful voice of Christ. If the earthly habitation of this mansion bee destroyed saith the Apostle S. Paule we haue a dwelling with God that is to say an eternal house in heauen which is not made with hands and therefore we sigh and desire so much to be cloathed with our mansion which is in heauen and this is for our soule expecting the Resurrection of her body And this body sayth the same Apostle being sown in dishonour shall rise againe in glory sowne in weakenesse shall rise in strength and sowne a sensuall body shall rise a spirituall body What thē can man produce against this but onely some murmuring of his Incredulity that it exceedes the bounds of reason without the which hee will not assure himselfe of any thing I answer that the full perswasion of that which is written in the holy word is well grounded vpon faith a particular gift of heauen to all true Christians touching the returning of our bodies as for the reasonable coniecture of our future life after death I deny that this hath beene altogether vnknowne to men guided onely by the instinct of nature and I will proue my assertion sufficiently in the 39. Argument if God so please To this first consolation we will adde a second that is nature finding the declining and wasting of the substance of man came by a sacred mariage to stay some portion in the matrix of his deare moity and to fashion and bring forth many other reasonable creatures at diuers times creatures which haue the same flesh and bones of father and mother And if it be true that a good friend is a second selfe what shal a good sonne bee but himselfe without any addition whereby is plainly manifested what Macrobius saith that the body recoiues three aduantages of the reasonable soule that is to say he liues he liues well and in succession of time he remaines immortall Ecclesiasticus goeth ◅art her saying That if the father of a childe dyes it is all one as if hee were not dead for hee hath left his like behind him hee hath seene him and hath ioyed hauing left one who shall take reuenge of his enemies and requite his friends And this was it which moued that great Law-giuer Plato to make a law that euery man at a comperent age should marrie a wife else he shuld be called before the Iudge condemned in a fine and declared infamous for that as he afterwards sayth euery man should consider in himself that there is a certen power efficacie of nature which makes men to purchase an Immortalitie he would inferre that whosoeuer leaues children doth reuiue in some sort in them It is an order of nature which we must inviolablie obserue ingendring we perish of the one side but we begin again of the other If our parents by their fading and dying substance had not giuen vs life we could not haue entred into it of our selues what wrong is it if nature doth that of vs for our children which she bath done of our Parents for vs Moreouer death which is a priuation of life is a beginning of life in nature remayning in the first matter by the which she disposeth her selfe to a new forme not to continue still at this deformed spectacle Thirdly wha◅ great deformitie see you in death which is not in him that sleeps Fourthly that deformitie which may be is not seene by him whom it concernes it is to the suruiuor◅ that it should be hideous but most commonly they find it pleasing reaping by that meanes large successions elboe roome freedome from comptroll and if it were otherwise the world would not be able to containe vs. And thus much for the first part of the obiection As for the 2. which resembleth the demolishing of building to death this similitude hath no proportion yea it is contrary to the state of the question for what makes a ruined building deformed It is the disorder we see in it it is but a heape of stones and timber the stones are not layd in order one vpon another neither is the timber raised as it ought to be It is then the forme that wants when as the materialls remaine but in man or rather a dead carcase the soule which is the forme receiues no blemish she is freed from the surprises of the graue Thou doest not complaine that the egge-shell is broken when a chicken comes forth neither is the body of man to be lamented when as the soule flies away But what great difformitie doest thou see in a dead body thou seest little or no difference at all with one that sleeps this doth not terrifie thee why should the other amaze thee especially if thou doest consider that the body which is dead is truely asleepe the which is a subiect of an other discourse as we shall see if God please But all things haue their period the ladder his last staffe and life her last degree Thou diddest ascend ioyfully so must come downe againe with the like content if in the last steppe or in the midst thou beest not carried away accidentially by some violent death but to returne to the place where thou hast beene taken thy nature doth exhort thee yea it forceth thee If too vniust thou doest not willingly giue thy consent looke into the degrees of life and this contemplation will giue thee cōsolation against death when thou wert borne into the world there was found in thee an appetite to some substāce or meat without thy selfe the which hauing beene supplied thee and sent by the mouth into the stomacke was conuerted into a conco◅ted iuyce and then transformed into bloud by the liuer refined into spirits by the heart and finally fitted to thy decaying body thou didst receiue nourishment force and Ioy these are the first degrees of life then climing higher thou hast extended the fiue faculties of thy senses thine eye to see beautiful things thine eares to heare melodious sounds thy nose to smell pleasing sents thy mouth to tast holesome and delightfull sauours and thy hand to handle smooth and wel polished things these are other degrees of the same life At length the reasonable soule comes to play his part the vnderstanding desires to know whatsoeuer the sences apprehend whatsoeuer his eye sees his eare heareth his hands touch and moreouer what they neither see heare nor touch reason flying to