the partes and members of which the body of man is made that are not found in any of the other as wee haue sufficiently shewed in our former discourses vpon this matter Whereby God would teach vs that hee hath prepared and built this lodging for an other manner of inhabitant then he built the bodies of beastes euen for a soule that differeth farre from theirs For seeing he maketh nothing without good reason or that is without his profit he sheweth by the instruments prepared for the workeman whom he will set on worke what maner of one he ought to be what workes he hath to make And because hee hath appointed workes and offices for the soule of man which he woulde not haue in the soule of brute beastes hee hath giuen to man such members and instruments as hee hath not giuen to other liuing creatures As for those instrumēts which he hath common with beasts God hath otherwise disposed and placed in his bodie according to the office euery one hath as wee may learne by their discourses It is very euident that man is not onely this masse and lumpe of skinne flesh sinewes bones and of such other matter gathered altogether in one bodie whereof we haue spoken alreadie but that there is yet in him another nature whose substance is inuisible ouer and aboue this bodily nature which we see For experience sheweth vs what difference there is betwixt one and the same body when it is aliue and when it is dead When there is no life in it none of all those faculties and vertues whereof the former discourse intreated appeare within it as we see they doe so long as life dwelleth therein And yet then the body is not depriued of those members which it had before death but keepeth them still vntill such time as they corrupt and waste away of themselues and finally faile altogether for want of the soule and life that shoulde preserue and keepe them sounde In the meane time we see that they are without force and as vnfit for vse as if they were not at all because they want soule and life which giueth them vigour and setteth thē a working It is very cleere then by death that the body hath no life of it selfe nor any of those faculties and vertues which life bringeth with it but that it receiueth them from another nature then from it owne And this nature is called Soule hauing sundry offices in man as we haue alreadie vnderstood and will hereafter handle them more particularly and in order But in the meane time we must note that although the soule be not bodily neuerthelesse it vseth a bodily nature and instruments which it receiueth from that for the performance of those workes that are assigned vnto it which the soule coulde not doe without such instruments as are necessary thereunto For as we heard in the former speech that among the creatures of God some are spirituall others corporall so we are to knowe also that among the spirituall creatures there are two sortes of spirits of which some namely the Angels were created to liue a spiritual life agreeable to their nature approching neerer to the nature and life that is in God then any other not being vnited or conioyned to any bodies that belong vnto them vnto which they should giue life as if they were creatures compounded of body and spirite Therefore we call them not by the name of soules as wee doe the spirites of men which God hath created to dwell in bodies to giue them life and to be ioyned with them in one person made of two natures to wit of a spirite and of a bodie These spirites which are also called humane soules can liue wel enough and preserue themselues in their substance hauing life alwayes in them euen after they are separated from their bodies But the like cannot bee saide of the bodies which cannot liue nor be preserued in their substance without their soules and spirites Therefore Iesus Christ sayde Feare not them that kill the bodie and cannot kill the soule but rather feare him that can destroy both bodie and soule in hell Wherefore albeit wee cannot see the soule neyther when it entreth into the bodie and is ioyned vnto it nor when it dwelleth there nor yet when it departeth yet it followeth not therevppon that it is not at all or that it commeth to nothing For the effectes thereof shewe vs the contrarie so long as that life which it giueth to the bodie continueth therein And albeit wee see no more effectes of it when it is seuered by death yet it followeth not therevpon that the same thing shoulde befall it that doeth to the bodie and so corrupt therewith For it is so farre from corrupting with the bodie that it keepeth the same from corruption so long as it is therein And being separated no maruaile if it effect no more that which it did in the bodie by those instruments which it had because it hath them no longer Wherefore in this respect it is like to an excellent Woorkeman who cannot labour in his occupation without such instrumentes as necessarily belong thereunto Yet in the meane season the Woorkeman continueth alwayes in the same estate and hath no lesse knowledge and arte in him without his instruments then when hee hath them albeit hee vse them not when they are away And although hee enioyeth both his instrumentes and his arte yet can hee not well vse them nor perfourme those woorkes which hee hath to make if they bee not founde but corrupted or spoyled as wee see in an instrument of musicke For if the chaunter or Musicion bee very expert in his arte and handle his instrument as hee ought to doe yet can hee neuer deliuer those soundes tunes and harmonie which otherwise hee woulde if his instrument were good And yet that shall not hinder the Musicion from beeing alwayes as skilfull and expert in his arte as if his instrument were very good and sounde Likewise if a man dwell in a darke lodging hee cannot see so well and cleerely as in another that is very lightsome and yet hee shall not haue sundrie eyes but the selfe same in both places So that it followeth that his dimnesse of sight in the one lodging rather then in the other proceedeth not of any defect in his eyes but of the house and habitation wherein hee is The like may bee saide of the soule lodged in the bodie whose actions and woorkes therein are much hindered if it bee badly lodged if any part of the lodging bee not good or if it want those instruments and tooles that are necessary for it For although it hath the vertue of sight in it selfe yet it cannot without eyes see those thinges which by meanes of them it beholdeth And although it hath in it selfe the vertue to cause the handes and feete to mooue and to set them on woorke according to their office yet
ought to depart and the place where they are to be receiued according to the estate of euery one euen vntill they returne into their bodies at the resurrection If they be soules of the reprobate they are deteined in Hel in eternall fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth if they be the soules of Gods elect they shine as the sunne in the kingdome of heauen in a life accompanied with perpetual ioy and happinesse But wee must vrge them better that require testimonie for the immortalitie of soules by their returne into this world or of some that haue come from another world For it is an easie matter for vs to bring them as credible witnesses as any can bee to tell them most certaine newes if they will beleeue them according as they deserue it And for the first haue wee not Iesus Christ who first came downe from heauen and became man to bring vs newes and to declare the same vnto vs in his owne person not onely before his death but also after his resurrection Besides how many other witnesses haue we that haue testified most certainly of the same who saw with their eyes and touched with their hands euen to the number of moe then fiue hundred according as Saint Paul testifieth Moreouer they that were raised as wel by him as by Elias and Elizeus and by the Apostles and disciples may they not serue vs also for good withnesse to assure vs not onely that soules are immortall but also that their bodies shall rise againe and that God is of sufficient vertue power to doe it as he hath promised I omit here the testimonie which the Angels haue giuen both of the resurrection and ascension of Iesus Christ besides that of the holy spirite which is the chiefest of all with signes and giftes wherewith he came accompanied and those woorkes and effectes that followed them Wherefore seeing wee haue for this point the worde of God that is most certaine cleere which teacheth vs what we ought to beleeue and hold let vs rest our selues in the testimonie thereof and not desire to make further inquiry For it is he that said to Moses I am the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Iacob Whereupon Iesus Christ concludeth that Abraham Isaac and Iacob doe liue yet after their death seeing God is the God of the liuing and not of the dead that is to say of them that are yet in being and not of them that are nothing at all For otherwise if all men should so perish by death that nothing of them should remaine in life at leastwise in regard of the soule then should he be the God of nothing And although it seemeth that Iesus Christ alleaged this place against the Sadduces not onely to proue against them by the doctrine of Moses the immortality of soules but also the resurrection of bodies we may well gather that if it be fitte to proue that bodies arise it is much more strong to assure vs of the immortality of soules For when the Lord spake these words Abraham Isaac and Iacob were not aliue in regarde of their bodies but onely of their soules And yet Iesus Christ alleaged it to confirme also therby the resurrection of the dead although at the first sight it may seem not to be very fit firm to proue that so much as the immortality of soules But if it be narrowly looked into his argumēt shal be found to be very well deduced grounded vpon inuincible reason For Iesus Christ had respect to the promise which God made to those holy Patriarkes of whom he spake which was not made only to their soule but to the whole man together compounded of body soule Wherfore al they to whō it was made to whom it appertaineth should not haue the whole effect of it nor the ful fruition of that which it cōtaineth if they were not whole inheriters therof both in body soule For if it were otherwise the promise should be accomplished but in one part of man not in the whole man Wherupon it followeth that seeing the promise is not of a tēporal benefit but of an eternal therefore the whole man that must enioy the same must of necessitie liue an euerlasting life beeing of the same nature that the benefit is of which he must inherit Wherefore seeing the course of mans life is brokē off by death in regard of the body the body must necessarily rise again to liue again with his soule in a better longer life to the end that the whole man may possesse that inheritance which is promised him of God or els the promise made by God to his seruants is altogether vain or the testimony which the holy scripture beareth is wholly false so also the scripture that propoundeth the same vnto vs. But none may once think either of these two last points without great horror of blasphemy contained in thē So that the first point concludeth very strongly according to that groūd which it hath most certaine in the word of God Whereunto may be added further that seeing the soule of man is created not to liue alwaies without a body as the Angels do nor yet to wander from body to body but to be knit and ioyned to that body which is assigned to it of God it must needs be that being part therof as of her lodging she should once againe returne thither Besides seeing the body hath serued the soule either in obeying God or in disobeying of his wil the nature of Gods iusticerequireth that it should be rewarded also with the soule according to the qualitie of those workes whereof it hath bin an instrument Therefore according to that which we haue discoursed of this matter the resurrection of the body doth so depend of th'immortality of soules that it foloweth necessarily vpō this so that if we haue assurance of the one we ought to haue it of the other seeing both of them are certainely grounded vpō the iustice of God which cānot be iust vnlesse he iudge men both in body soule according to his word according as euery one liueth But seeing the matter of th'immortality of soules that of the resurrection of bodies are sundry questions and that wee are to handle but one of them we must returne to our first point of the soule touching th'immortality thereof which is easily beleeued of al that approue of the doctrine of holy Scriptures that giue credit to the word of God For they are throughly resolued therof Yea we may know by the writings of al antiquity that the common opinion of all people nations of what religion soeuer they haue bin hath bin this that mens soules were immortal Wherfore in regard of this point we are to fight only against Epicures Atheists And because they wil not beleeue the word of God but deride it as tales made vpō pleasure I am of opinion that now we
and that hath moe or so many reasons as this whereof wee dispute at this present Howe many things doe these fellowes beleeue according to naturall Philosophie for which they haue not so many nor so euident reasons And howe many things shoulde bee doubted of except so many arguments coulde bee brought for their proofe and confirmation as wee haue alleadged and as might yet bee found out for this matter Nowe what can they alleadge on the contrary side For if they beleeue nothing but what they see and whereof they haue experience I demaund of them howe many things there are in humane Philosophie where of they are throughly resolued and yet haue no experience at all in them neither can haue any certainetie but onely as they giue credite to such as haue written of them who yet are deceiued themselues oftentimes so haue deceiued others And yet they are not so hardly brought to beleeue their reasons as to giue credite to them that maintaine the immortalitie of soules which is a matter of so great consequence and waight And as Spiders turne into poison the sweetest liquors they sucke so they maliciously gather the reasons testimonies and places not onely of Poets Philosophers and others but also of the holie Scriptures which they thinke will serue to confirme them daily more and more in their errours and in their false and wicked opinions howe little likelihoode soeuer they seeme to haue and howe flenderly soeuer they make for them In the meane season they dissemble and make shewe that they see not all the other reasons that fight directly against them which being in number infinite are so cleere and so certaine as nothing can bee more There are many of them that haue no other reason but their opinon who can alleadge no other thing but this It is not so or I beleeue it not or I doubt of it or Peraduenture it is otherwise And in trueth none of them all in a manner haue any reasons of greater shewe or that can vrge them that haue neuer so little iudgement as wee may easily iudge by the examination of one of their cheefe Maisters and strong Pillers I meane Pliny by whome we may iudge of all the rest For if hee who is so much esteemed among them shewed himselfe to be such a grosse and blockish beast and so farre from reason in that which hee wrote touching this matter a man may soone guesse what can bee in the others who are no body in respect of him or at leastwise haue not gotten so great credite and authoritie But let vs heare the reasons of this venerable Doctor First he derideth all that men haue spoken or written of the beeing of soules after the death of the bodies accompting all this to be but toyes and dreames and then hee propoundeth his resolution that there remaineth no more of a man after his corporall death then there was of him before hee was conceiued and borne After that he laugheth at the vanitie of men in that they are so foolish as at the very time of their death voluntarily to flatter and beguile themselues in promising to themselues life euen after life some by the immortalitie of the soule others by the transfiguration thereof and a third sort by attributing sense to the dead and by honoring their soules and making a god of that which hauing beene a man is now nothing at all I maruaile not if Plinie mocked at many foolish opinions that were among the Heathen touching this matter and namely the fooâ—eries of the Pythagoreans and Platonists which I doubt not but hee meant by the transfiguration of soules whereof hee maketh mention For Plato was so farre from yeelding that the soule of man was mortall that hee will not confesse the soule of beasts to bee so because according to his opinion of the creation of soules hee thinketh that there is but one kinde of soule for all sortes of bodies that haue life and that soules passe and repasse from one to an other as wee heard vntill that being well purged they come to the place of the blessed Likewise this Authour of the naturall historie had reason to deride the follie and vanitie of men in deifying them that died and in making them immortall gods that had beene before but mortall men But from these fond opinions he had no reason to conclude that if soules did not passe and repasse from bodies to bodies and if men coulde not become gods after their death therefore they ceased to be men any longer and nothing remained of them but their ashes so that their soules also perished as well as their bodies But what reasons hath hee to vpholde this conclusion For the first hee alleadgeth that men breathe not otherwise then beasts doe because hee seeth nothing of the soule of either of them and goeth no further then to the externall senses as if the soule of men as well as of beasts were nothing else but a breath Wherby we see what a grosse beast he sheweth himselfe to be We may say the same of him in that he requireth both the internall and externall senses after the death of a man and the same offices which the soule performed in the bodie when it dwelled therein concluding that without these things there could be no good for maÌ„ after death Then he taketh this for an other argument that there are many other things in the world which liue a great deale longer then man doth and yet we attribute no immortality vnto them After he demandeth whither maÌ„ goeth after death what lodging he hath and what a multitude of soules there should be in the world from the time it hath bin a world if al they shuld liue that haue bin so concludeth that they should be but as it were so many shadows We haue sufficiently answered all these goodly arguments before when we spake of brutish men who rest only in the witnes of their senses and go no further then beasts doe Besides what an argument is that for so great a man to say that we attribute not immortalitie to many things that out-liue men and therefore why should wee rather beleeue it of mens soules There are not only many beasts whose life is longer then the life of men but also many trees and therefore wee must aske of man why we should think that he is rather capable of reason and more excellent then other creatures are that he hath a soule of another nature more noble then they But I will further vrge these arguments against himselfe according as we made answere to the complaint of som Philosophers who accused nature because she had graÌ„ted loÌ„ger life to many beasts then to meÌ„ seeing it was so necessary for them For seeing Nature hath endued man with so many goodly gifts and so excellent wherewith she hath not adorned beasts certainly she should be a stepmother and no true mother or if she were a
and of the waters and cloudes contayned therein and in what perils men are 〈◊〉 why the soule and blood are put one for another of the temperature of the humors necessarie for the health and life of the body of the causes of health and of diseases and of life and death Chap. 65. 368 Of the vses and commodities of the humors ioyned with the blood and what vessels are assigned vnto them in the body and of their nature and offices and first of the cholericke humor and of the spleene then of the flegmaticke humor and of the kidneys and other vessels which it hath to purge by Chap. 66. 373 Of the names whereby the humors of the body are commonly called with the causes wherefore of the comparison betweene the corruption and temperature of the humors of the body and betweene the manners and the affections of the soule of the meanes whereby the humors corrupt and of the feauers and diseases engendred thereby of the sundry naturall temperatures in euery one Chap. 67. 379 Of the diuers temperatures and complexions of men according to the nature of humors that beare most sway in them of the disposition whereunto they are naturally mooued by them eyther to vertues or vices of the means to correct the vices and defects that may be in our naturall inclinations Chap. 68. 383 Of the restauration and reparation of all natures created by the generatiue power and vertue that is in them and namely in man what generation is and what the generatiue power of the soule is what the seede is and how generation proceedeth of strength and of infirmity Chap. 69. 388 Of the powers of the generatiue vertue and of their offices of the principall cause why God gaue to man the power of generation in what sence the reines are taken for the seate of generation how we ought rightly to consider of the generation of man Chap. 70. 393 Of the fashion of a childe in the wombe and how the members are framed one after another in the mothers belly of the time and daies within which a child is perfectly fashioned Chap. 71. 398 Of childbirth and the natural causes thereof of the great prouidence of God appearing therein of the image of our eternall natiuitic represented vnto vs in our mortall birth Chap. 72. The tenth dayes worke 404 WHy God created man naked and with lesse natural defence then he did all other liuing creatures how many wayes he recompenceth this nakednesse of the generall beauty of the whole body of man ioyned with profite and commodity Chap. 73. 409 Whether the life of the body can proceede eyter of the matter or of the composition forme and figure or of the qualities thereof or else of the harmony coniunction and agreement of all these whether any of these or al of them together can be the soule of the length and shortnes of the diuers degrees and ages and of the ende of mans life of death and of the causes both of life and death of the difference that is betweene naturall and supernaturall Philosophy in the consideration of things Chap. 74. 414 Of the causes generally of the length and shortnesse of bodily life of naturall and of violent death in what maner the life of man consisteth in his breath of the principall things required to life and without which it cannot be of the difference betwixt the life of men and the life of beastes of the image of the spirituall death in the corporall of the true comfort which wee ought to haue therein Chap. 75. 420 Of the chiefe consolations which the wisest among the Pagans and Infidels could draw from their humane reason and naturall Philosophy against death of the blaspemies vsed by Atheists and Epicures against God and nature what nature is and who they be that attribute vnto it that which they ought to attribute to God Chap. 76. 426 That there is but one soule in euery seuerall body that one and the some soule hath in it all those vertues and powers whose effects are dayly seene of the seate of the soule in the body and of the principall instrument thereof of the vnion of the body and soule of the diuers degrees of nature and of the excellency that is in it of the fountaines and bounds of all the powers and vertues of the soule Chap. 77. 432 Of the nature and varietie of the animal spirits how they are only instruments of the soule and not the soule it selfe of the nature of those bodies wherin the soule may dwell and worke of the difference that is not onely betweene the soule and the instrumente by which it worketh but also betweene the instruments themselues and their natures and offices and which of them are nearest or farthest off of the degrees that are in the vnion and coniunction of the soule with the body Chap. 78. 438 Of the diuisions of man made in the holy scriptures aswell in respect of the soule as of the body in what significations the names of soule spirit and heart are vsed therein and the causes why of the intier sanctification of man how the soule is taken for the life and for the members and instrumentes of nourishment and for nourishment it selfe Chap. 79. 444 What is meant by a liuing soule what by a sensuall and naturall body and what by a spirituall body how the name of soule is taken for all the desires of the flesh and for all things belonging to this life and not onely for the whole person aliue but also for the person being dead and for a dead 〈…〉 for the spirite sepâ—rate from the body Chap. 80. The Eleuenth dayes worke 490 WHether the soule of man is engendred with the body and of the same substance that the body is of or whether it be created by it selfe and of another substance whether it be needefull for vs to knowe what the soule is and what is the eâ—â—ence thereof or onely to knowe of what qualitie it is with the workes and effects thereof Chap. 81. 495 Whether there be any thing mortall in the soule of man of the distinction betweene the soule and the powers of it of the opinion of Philosophers and what agreement is betweene them touching the soule of brute beasts and the nature and substance of it of their opinion that deriue the soule of man and the soule of beasts from one souâ—taine of them that ascend higher and of their reasoâ—â— Chap. 82. 499 Of the opinion of Galen of Plato and of Aristotle touching the substance and nature of mans soule of the opinion of Occâ—m touching the vegetatiue and sensitue power thereof and of the distinction of soules he maketh in man of the sentence of the Platonists and of Origen touching the creation birth and nature of the soule of the coniunction of the soule with the body and the estate thereof in the same Chap. 83. 503 Of the opinion of the Platonists and some others touching the substance of mens
they call it the foundation of iustice Therefore faithfull signifieth as much as true constant and firme in that which a man hath spoken and promised namely when one hath kept his faith Heereof it is also that God is so often in the holy Scriptures called Faithfull in respect of vs because hee neuer falfifieth his faith but is alwayes firme and constant in al his words and workes But when the Scripture speaketh of Faith in regarde of men towardes God it doth not onely comprehend a beleefe whereby wee beleeue that to bee true which wee heare and which is spoken vnto vs as when one telleth vs some historie but it is also a trust which assureth vs that God will performe that vnto vs which he hath promised vs. Therefore true faith includeth in it a certaine and vndoubted confidence of heauenly things and an assured perswasion of the accomplishment of Gods promises towards vs. Now to prosecute our purpose seeing we haue learned that the knowledge of the truth which is the principall obiect of reason and vnderstanding is verie hard for men to attaine vnto let vs consider of the meanes whereby wee may bee certaine and sure of those things which we are to beleeue This discourse ARAM. belongeth vnto thee Of the meanes whereby a man may haue certaine knowledge of those thinges which he ought to beleeue and take for true of the naturall and supernaturall light that is in man and how they beare witnesse of the image of God in him Chap. 31. ARAM For a man to knowe himselfe to be ignorant is a goodlie science and so necessary for men that without it they cannot be truely skilfull For the ignorant person that knoweth not himselfe to be such a one but supposeth hee knoweth that which hee doeth not in deede is as vnteachable a beast as can be because hee will neuer seeke for a master to be instructed by but if any offer themselues hee will reiect them and rather himselfe take vpon him to teach them Therefore Socrates was greatly commended by the ancients because he saide that hee knewe but one onely thing namely that he was ignorant and knewe nothing True it is that if wee speake of things which may be knowen by the corporall and spirituall senses of men euen as nature hath giuen them vnto vs and of things belonging to naturall and morall Philosophie there are many men to bee founde whose knowledge therein is so great that other men in respect of them may seeme to bee but poore beasts But when we must ascend vp to the knowledge of things reuealed vnto vs in Iesus Christ and in the Gospell no sense or vnderstanding of man is able to comprehend any thing therein if the spirite of God doe not teach him and dwell in him to seale and to confirme in his soule the doctrine of those heauenly mysteries wherein the skilfullest men are no better taught of themselues then those that are most ignorant For that abideth alwayes true which Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the naturall man perceiueth not the things of the spirite of God for they are foolishnesse vnto him neither can hee knowe them because they are spiritually discerned Nowe I finde foure meanes whereby men may be made certaine of those things vnto which they ought to giue credite whereof three of them are naturall and according to naturall Philosophie the fourth goeth further and is proper to diuinitie The first is generall experience the second the knowledge of principles the third naturall iudgement of these three wee will first speake and then come to the fourth Generall experience is that iudgement which al men of sound mindes doe giue all after one sort of those things whereof they haue certaine experience by their corporall senses as is to be seene in naturall things For who knoweth not that the fire is hote And who woulde not take him for a senselesse man that should affirme the contrary Yea who coulde affirme it being conuinced of the trueth thereof by his owne senses Likewise who seeth not the difference that is betweene death and life and what are the effectes both of the one and the other For euery one knoweth these thinges by a generall experience common to all Wherefore this knowledge is certaine and where it is so there needeth no other proofe or demonstration fetched farther then from such experience For God hath so created the nature of things that men must needes confesse it to be so as generall experience doth declare it to be And he that will not beleeue it let him take triall thereof himselfe and he shall know whether it be so or no. So that whosoeuer would stand against this common and generall experience he should make open warre against God and nature in denying all order which he hath set downe therein Concerning the knowledge of principles wee must first knowe that there is vnderstoode by principles that naturall knowledge that is borne with vs which is the seede of all Artes and a beame of the light of God in vs to the ende that by this meanes all Artes necessary for life should be inuented and put in vse As for example euery one knoweth naturally that the whole of any thing is more then the halfe or then a part of it onely and that three are moe then two To be briefe the knowledge of numbers of measures and of other such like things is naturall vnto vs and is not found in the nature of beastes and therefore they haue neither the inuention nor vse of any Arte as wee haue already heard But let vs proceede farther and consider whether there be no natural knowledge in men whereby they vnderstand that there is a diuine nature wise iust true good that loueth goodnesse and hateth and punisheth euil with which nature the soule of man hath some agreement and is as it were an image thereof for which cause he ought to be made conformable to God by folowing after wisedome trueth iustice goodnesse and all vertue and by shunning the contrary vices In this respect he that followeth this rule obeyeth God doing that which is pleasant and right in his eies and he that leaueth this rule disobeyeth and displeaseth him committing wicked and dishonest things whereby hee becommeth woorthy of punishment In a worde wee may referre to these naturall principles whatsoeuer God hath imprinted in mens hearts and mindes of the law of nature which serueth all men for naturall diuinitie the Bookes of which they carry printed in their soules And yet out of all question this diuinitie will scarce serue vs but to condemnation if we go no farther because the booke thereof is so blotted in vs that there is not so much as one small peece or leafe thereof whole sound which is not very much blurred torne Neuertheles that which remaineth is a sufficient processe against vs before God and able to conuince and condemne vs at
euil must of necessitie be fled from And of this naturall inclination to good proceede all those affections of the soule that draw it hither and thither to seeke for it but because of her badde iudgement proceeding of the darkenesse of ignorance which is in the minde she chooseth oftentimes the cleane contrary to that which she desireth as we haue already touched We call then properly by the name of affections the motions and acts of that naturall power of the soule which consisteth in following after good eschewing of euil For receiuing of God in our first creation to be to be wel we haue still some naturall seedes of the perfection of these two great gifts which teach vs naturally that it is a good thing for one to preserue himselfe and his beeing as also to be wel and happy in his beeing but this is only generally For wheÌ„ we are to come from these generalities vnto particulars there are wonderful errors and disorders throughout the whole course of mans life Now among the motions of the soule some go before iudgement others follow after although oftentimes they are so sodaine headstrong withall that it appeareth plainly they haue shaken off the bridle neuer expected staied for any iudgemeÌ„t Notwithstanding it is true that the hart is not moued before there hath bin some iudgement to determine whether that which is then offred vnto it be good or euil But bicause the motions of our spirit mind are very light sodain and need not so long time as otherwise is requisit for vs if wee will take good heede to our matters hereof it is that they seem to vs many times to preuent goe before iudgement giuen when indeed they follow it And as for those naturall motions which in truth go before it they are such as are bred borne of the disposition of the body as the desire to eate in hunger and to drinke in thirst sorrow in time of sickenes or the motion of a melancholike humor or ioy proceeding from good and pure blood in the heart But the other motions follow the aduice of iudgement as that is mooued and changed diuersly by such meanes as haue alreadie bin declared so the affections alter and increase or decrease or otherwise vanish cleane away and come to nothing Whereof it followeth that they are appeased by the same meanes by which they are moued according as they are applied vnto them But although it behooueth that the affections should be pricked forward by iudgement yet it followeth not thereupon that they can not be stirred vp except this mature ripe iudgement be alwaies there which ordaineth things to be done after the discourse of reason For it is enough for them if they haue another iudgement that obserueth not such an exact diligent examination but onely that which fantasie offereth without any other discoursing And this iudgement thus moued by fancie is most vsual ordinary and that which most guideth ruleth the affections of men Therfore it is a sodain tumultuous iudgement of which a man may truly say a short sentence of a sottish iudge Thus fancie being very turbulent skittish drawing to it selfe confusedly some shew and apparance of opinion iudgement whereby it deemeth that which is offred vnto it to be either good or bad is the cause that wee liue in the middest of marueilous troubles in respect of our affections of feare of desire of sorrow of ioy and that one while we weep and sodainly we laugh againe And because it hath great power ouer the body as wee haue already declared these perturbations doe manifestly incline that way We see also by experience that there is great agreement betweene the qualities and temperature of the body and the affections of the soule insomuch that as the bodies of men are compounded of the qualities of heate colde moisture and drienesse so among the affections some are hote others colde some moist others drie some mingled of these diuers qualities So that euery one is most subiect to those affections that come neerest to the nature temperature complexion of his body As for example the affection of ioy is hote and moist therefore they that are hot and moist as children yong men sound and healthy folkes and idle persons are more easily inclined to that affection Contrariwise sorrow is a colde and drie affection and therefore they that are colde and drie are most giuen to that affection and such are olde folkes and they that are of a melancholy humour which is earthy cold and drie For the like reason they that haue a soft and tender heart receiue more easily the impression of ioy and griefe as wax taketh the print of a seale and they that haue a haâ—d and hote heart quickly receiue ioy keep it a long time And on the other side they that haue hard and cold hearts receiue sorrowe and grieâ—e very soone and retaine it long as appeareth in melancholy and melancholike persons And as the affections followe the temperature and complexion of the body so they for their parts haue great vertue and power ouer the body Therefore we see that ioy is as it were a medicine to the body and foode to the naturall heate and moisture in which two qualities life chiefely consisteth as we haue already heard For it greatly preserueth and increaseth them forasmuch as it strengtheneth the animall and naturall vertues stirreth vp the spirites helpeth digestion and generally profiteth the habite and disposition of the whole body For the heart thereby sendeth with the blood much naturall heate and more spirites vnto all parts of the body By meanes whereof the members are watred and moistned by the humiditie contained in the fountaine of blood whereupon it followeth that all the partes increase in bignesse and waxe fatte For this cause Physicions alwayes exhort sicke persons to be as merry as they may and to auoide sorrowe and sadnesse which being colde and drie is contrary to life and so consumeth men For it drieth vp the whole body because the heart thereby is closed vp and restrained so that no great quantitie of spirites can bee made there and those fewe that are there can not easily bee distributed and dispersed with the blood throughout the members Whereupon the vitall vertue and her companions being weakened the liuely colour of the face waxeth wanne and pale and in a manner vanisheth cleane away and so consequently the whole bodie becommeth leane and consumeth as if it tooke no nourishment yea death oftentimes followeth thereupon This agreement therefore which is as we see betweene the temperature and complexion of the body the affections of the soule ought to teach vs to be very temperate in our eating and drinking and in all other things belonging to our life For as wee arre either temperate or intemperate so will the qualities be whereof our bodies are
the world shall reioyce ye shall sorrow but your sorrow shal be turned into ioy And then he compareth their sorrowe and their ioy to that which a woman with childe hath which is pained so long as shee is in trauaile but when shee seeth it borne shee receiueth ioy and soone forgetteth her anguish Whereby the worde of God teacheth vs that the griefe of good men shall be turned into double ioy that their sorrow shal be short and their felicitie of long continuance For there is one ioy euen in being deliuered from euill although it be not so great as when any Good happeneth vnto vs. But the ioy is doubled when besides this deliuerance there commeth vnto vs some ioy which we had not which is procured vnto vs by meanes of that paine and euill which we suffered Therefore our Sauiour saieth further to this effect Yee are nowe in sorrow but I will see you againe and your hearts shall reioyce and your ioy shall no man take from you If this ioy can not be taken away it is eternall so that death it selfe can not abolish it Whereupon it followeth that it remaineth yet after death and that there is an other life after this in which wee shall haue fulnesse of ioy Therefore wee may well call it our owne seeing it alwayes continueth with vs. For if it were not so Iesus Christ who is the trueth it selfe shoulde not bee true But as hee cannot lie so wee may assure our selues of his promise For seeing it is grounded on him and vpon his grace resurrection and immortall life we may bee as certainely perswaded of it as wee are assured of his resurrection and of his eternall ioy and life wherein hee liueth and raigneth for euermore Wherefore all those to whome it is promised and that are assured of the fruition thereof by faith in him haue iust occasion to liue in great ioy So that Saint Paul not without good cause saieth Reioyce alwayes in the Lorde and againe I say reioyce But of the ioy of carnall men wee must say as Salomon writeth That it is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting And that there is away that seemeth right to a man but the issue thereof is the way of death yea in laughter the heart shall be greeued and the ende of ioy is sorrowe The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fooles is in the house of mirth For they thinke of nothing but of iollitie whereas wise men meditate on the miseries of this worlde Therefore wee may know howe greatly Epicures and such as giue themselues to pleasures and dissolutenesse beguile themselues For they thinke there is no ioy nor pleasure but in their life and that there is no life more sadde or melancholy then that of the children and seruants of God But it is cleane contrary For they that feare and honour GOD haue more ioy in their heart in the middest of their greatest sorrowes by reason of that sense and feeling ingrauen in them of heauenly and eternall ioy which thy certainely expect and beginne already to taste here then all worldlings and carnall men can haue in the greatest triumphs of al their pleasures Now as there are two kinds of ioy in the hear of men so are there also of sorrows For we do not only feele ioy for some Good or sorrow for some euill which we now taste of but also for that which we attend and looke for Concerning this latter kind of ioy it is properly called Hope which is an affection and motion of the heart whereby it wisheth some Good to come and prepareth to open it selfe and to receiue it Therefore wee saide before that Hope was comprehended vnder desire vnto which it giueth forme and being For Hope is a desire ioyned with confidence that the Good which wee wish for will come to passe Therefore the motions of Ioy and Hope are very like seeing Hope is alwayes mingled with Ioy neither is there any difference but in the time because the one is of a present Good and the other of that which is looked for In the meane time Hope hath no euidence or science but is grounded onely vpon coniecture of opinion or likelihoode and probabilitie or possibilitie And yet there is nothing so light or so small or strange vnto which the heart will not easily ioyne it selfe and take holde of it when it seeketh for helpes and proppes to ground and stay it selfe vpon Neuertheles there is great difference betweene hauing already and hoping for a thing namely in respect of men and of hope which hath no other grounds then those of which I nowe made mention But when the expectation is grounded vpon God his promises it is as sure of that which it expecteth as if it did already possesse it which is very comfortable to a man in respect of that which hapneth to them who can haue no certaine hope or expectation of Good For although there bee hope yet if it be not grounded vpon God it can bring no certaine ioy or of any long continuance Besides when such a one shall faile of his hope his griefe wil be doubled Wherefore they that build not their hope vpon the word of God can haue no true and certaine hope but they feed thēselues only with their fantasies as they that dreame they find great riches which vanish away whē they awake Such is the hope of the wicked of al worldly and carnall men Neuerthelesse the perswasion of hope which holdeth vs vp with the expectation of better things is very pleasant and necessary for the life of man in the midst of so many miseries of so many sharpe almost intolerable paines and trauailes which accompany them So that it bringeth great comfort to men and is in steade of sawce vnto them without which they woulde find al things to be not only without taste but also of a very bitter and vnpleasant taste Therefore hath the prouidence of God prouided a remedy for this namely that hope shuld breed of very light causes should leane stay it self easily vpon them as if it self were very light or very hooked and gluish being ready to take hold of and to retaine whatsoeuer it meeteth withall or can lay hands vpon to ground and leane thereon Nowe if men finde so great comfort in hope such as it is and being laide vpon so weake a foundation it is easy to iudge what ioy the faithful receiue by that most certaine hope of eternall life and of al the good things that God hath promised them in regard whereof S. Paul saith There is one body one spirit euen as ye are called in one hope of your vocation It is not then without cause that he saith in another place We reioyce in tribulations knowing that tribulation bringeth forth patience and patience experience and experience hope and
hope maketh not ashamed because the loue of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which is giuen vnto vs as if he should say that they which stay themselues vpon such a hope shal neuer be ashamed nor deceiued For the expectation thereof is neuer frustrated but it hath alwaies a good a happy issue For when we perceiue that we are deceiued of our hope we are ashamed and confounded But this neuer hapneth to true hope which proceedeth of a sound faith in Iesus Christ by means whereof we haue accesse through him vnto this grace wherein wee stand and reioyce vnder the hope of the glory of God as Saint Paul said alitle before Therefore he exhorteth christiaÌ„s to reioice in hope calleth God the God of Hope praying that he would fil the Romans with al ioy peace in belieuing that they may abound in hope through the power of the holy ghost And in the epistle to the Hebrews hope is compared to a sure and stedfast ancre of the soule For this cause God is so often called in the holy Scriptures the hope and fortresse of his people and of his It is written also that they which hope in the Lord do reioyce For hee that hopeth in him shal be healed and preserued Therefore it is not without cause that the spirite of God so often repeateth vnto vs this sentence Blessed are they that put their trust in the Lord for they shal neuer be confounded It is better to hope in him then to put any confidence in Princes But vnfaithful and wicked men can neuer be partakers of such a Good because they haue no such hope For it is written The expectation of the iust is gladnesse but the hope of the wicked shall perish And againe The hope of the hypocrite shall perish his confidence shal be cut off and his truct shall be as the house of a spider He shall leane vpon his house but it shall not stand he shall holde him fast by it yet shall it not endure But to prosecuâ—e our matter nowe that wee haue seene the hope of good men together with their ioy let vs consider what remaineth to the wicked of their vaine and false ioy namely Feare which is the second kinde of sorrowe mentioned by vs. Tell vs then AMANA what Feare is with the nature and effectes thereof Of Feare and of the nature and effects thereof towards the body the minde and soule and how it troubleth them of the true harnesse and armour against Feare Chap. 46. AMANA As wicked men can haue no certaine hope of any good they looke for so they neuer haue any true ioy of any present good because they alwayes forsake the true Good and stay in that which is not Good but in their opinion and fantasie neither doe they at any time refâ—rre the ende of good things vnto God but looke onely vpon the things themselues Therefore it is neuer in their power to reioice in that ioy which they accompt to be their true ioy but only by offending God as we heard before Which is the cause why they seek after nothing more then to hide themselues to depart from him as much as they can possible so that they would neuer heare any speech of him but desire to bury the remembrance of him for euer because they can heare nothing spoken of him but as of their iudge neither think of him but he awakeneth their coÌ„science which they labor with might and maine to rocke asleepe Wherein they take a cleane contrary course to that which they ought to follow to obtaine the true Good For seeing God is the soueraigne Good of all creatures what Good can they finde that is greater wherein they can fully reioyce and satisfie themselues Or what other Good dare they promise to themselues to finde without him and when they haue him for their enemy But they are like to drunken men who cannot vnderstand this Diuinitie vntill they haue slept out their wine and are awaked out of their drunkennesse Then shall they knowe what is true and false Ioy what is good and badde Hope when their ioy shall bee turned into sorrowe their expectation and hope into feare and terrour wherewith the wicked shall be continually haunted as the Spirite of God teacheth vs. Nowe as sorrow is a griefe for some euil which a man presently feeleth shutting vp the heart as vnwilling to receiue it so feare is a sorrow which the heart conceiueth of some looked for euill that may come vnto it Therefore it restraineth the heart also and closeth it vp as being desirous to auoide the euill Wee see then that there is the same difference betwixt sorrowe and feare in respect of euill that is betweene Ioy and Hope in regarde of Good So that we may well say that Feare is not onely a fantasie and imagination of euill approching or a perturbation of the soule proceeding from the opinion it hath of some euill to come but it is also a contraction and closing vp of the heart which commeth from that which euery one iudgeth to be euill for himselfe when hee thinketh it is at hand and will light vpon him Therefore first of all it draweth in and shutteth vp the heart and so weakneth the same Whereupon nature being desirous to relieue and succour it sendeth heate vnto it from the vpper partes and if that bee not sufficient shee draweth away that heate also which is in the neather parts By which doing she sodainely calleth backe the blood and spirites vnto the heart and then followeth a generall palenesse and cold in all the outward partes and chiefly in the face with a shiuering throughout the whole body For seeing the first moouing thereof is in the heart the other alwayes followeth so that when the heart trembleth the whole body doth so likewise Whereupon it followeth that by reason of the great beating and panting of the heart the tongue faltereth and the voice is interrupted Yea it commeth to passe sometimes that present death followeth a great and sodaine feare because al the blood retiring to the heart choaketh it and vtterly extinguisheth naturall heate and the spirites so that death must needes ensue thereof Therefore we cannot doubt but that feare hath greaâ— power ouer all the body and ouer life it selfe For this cause Esaias after he had denounced the iudgement of God against the Babylonians the comming of the Medes and Persians by whome their citie shoulde be taken and themselues slaine saieth thus Therefore shall all handes be weakened and all mens hearts shall melt which is as much to say as that their hearts shall faile them for feare And therefore hee addeth They shal be afraid anguish sorrow shall take them and they shall haue paine as a woman that trauaileth euery one shal be amased at his neighbour their faces shal be like flames of fire But here we
then at the good things themselues in regarde of which men are honoured and esteemed For the enuious man careth not for the vertues that bring renowne and glory but onely for the honour and glory which follow them as the shadow doeth the body Forasmuch then as a prowde man desireth still to be preferred before all therefore hee is more greedy of these goods of honour and glory then of true goods of which the other are but shadowes Hereof it is that a prowde man is naturally enuious because enuy springeth from such a desire of preferrement yea it is commonly bredde of pride Yea the farther a man is off from that which hee woulde be thought to be and the lesse endued with those good things for which he woulde be honoured the more enuious he is But amongst al the good things against which enuy striueth most and for which it is most stirred vp those of the soule are the chiefest because they are more excellent then those of the body and such as neuer haue end Therefore also the reputation and honor which men obtaine by their meanes abide with them continually But the contrary falleth out in corporall and externall goods as they that haue more narrowe bounds Wherefore as they cannot growe to that greatnes vnto which the other doe so their vse also is nothing so great and consequently the price and reputation that proceedeth from them is not so great Therefore if the question be of honour and glory no man of any good iudgement but will more willingly giue ouer that which may be gotten by corporall and outward things then that which foloweth knowledge wisedome vertue and the other goods of the soule So that enuy may stand vs in steade of a witnesse to testifie and shewe vnto vs which are the greatest goods of all seeing it is alwayes busied about the highest noblest and most excellent Good Now as there is no wicked affection which carrieth not about it owne torment to take vengeance thereof by the iust iudgement of God so this of enuy passeth all the rest in this respect Therefore it was well saide of them that taught that enuy is most iust because of selfe it is the same punishment to the enuious man which it deserueth For first it is vile and seruile because an enuious man knoweth this in himselfe that he iudgeth the good things in an other to be greater and more excellent then his owne or at leastwise hee feareth least it shoulde so come to passe Therefore there is no affection in a man which he dare lesse disclose then this of enuy so that hee receiueth lesse comfort in this then in any other For by opening our heart to an other wee receiue solace and comfort whereas the enuious person iudgeth his affection of enuy to be so vile that hee dare not discouer it but hideth and concealeth it as much as hee can If hee be angry or hate any one he will declare it a great deale sooner And albeit feare be thought to be dishonourable yet will a man rather disclose this affection then he will enuy The like may be saide of sorrow and of loue But the enuious body is constrained to bite on his bridle to chew and to deuoure his enuy within himselfe and to locke vp his owne miserie in the bottome of his heart to the ende it breake not foorth and shew it selfe whereby the body receiueth great detriment For it becommeth pale wanne swart and leane the eyes sinke into the head the lookes are askew and the whole countenance is disfigured And within the heart the furies are enclosed which giue him so small rest that greater torment can not be imagined Therefore Salomon saieth very well That a sound heart is the life of the body but enuy is the rotting of the bones And Ecclesiasticus saieth That death is better then a bitter life that enuy and wrath shorten the life and that carefulnesse bringeth age before the time To conclude although al the euil affections trouble and corrupt the minde very much yet none of them offendeth it so much as enuy doth Which commeth not to passe so much because it selfe iudgeth or esteemeth good to be euill as because it desireth that others should so esteeme thereof But howsoeuer this vice be very vile and infamous and hurtful both to the body and soule yet in this affection of enuy we must put a difference betweene that part of it which proceedeth from sound nature as it was first giuen of God to man and that which is in it through the corruption of nature For there is a kind of enuy which serueth vs in steade of spurres to pricke vs forward and to worke in vs a wil and desire both to obtaine and to keepe great good things And this enuy is very good when wee apply our selues to the true Goods and are not grieued at the prosperitie and vertues which wee see in others but are mooued by their example to desire and to seeke after the selfe same Goods yea greater if the meanes be offered prouided that all be referred to the glory of God to our owne saluation and to the profite of our neighbours Vnto this kinde of Enuy Saint Paul exhorteth vs when he writeth to the Corinthians speaking of the diuersity of gifts wrought by the spirite of God in his Church Be enuious of the best gifts albeit in our vsuall translation it be Desire yet the Greeke worde signifieth to enuy but the sense is in a manner all one And the same Apostle speaking of the reliefe collection made for the poore saieth Achaia was prepared a yeere agoe and your zeale hath prouoked many that is to say the emulation and enuy which they haue conceiued by your example and this was a good holy and christian enuy But if we seeke our owne glory and in that respect are grieued that others excell vs in vertues and in the gifts and graces of GOD onely because we would haue that honour which they haue and be equall with them or aboue them this is a peruerse and Satanicall affection declaring euidently that we seeke our selues and our owne glory more then the glory of God For if we had respect to that which wee ought it woulde be all one to vs who were the instruments either our selues or others so that God were glorified and that were well done which ought to be done As for the euill sorts of enuy of which wee haue spoken they are placed by Saint Paul amongst the woorkes of darknesse and of the flesh where he saieth that They which are defiled with them shal not inherit the kingdome of God But forasmuch as in this discourse we placed Iealousie amongst the kindes of Enuy and yet it is often taken in the good part proceeding as it were of true loue as Zeale also is bredde thereof it shall be good for thee ASER to begin the dayes worke to morrow with a
and to diminish and as it were to retire backe and to restrayne it selfe And as for the vertue of engendering it differeth from both the other first in that it is not giuen so generally to all liuing creatures as they are and then in that it beginneth not so soone For it commeth then when the liuing creature through nourishment and growth hath attayned to those vertues that are necessary for generation Besides it hath this common with the vertue of augmentation that it hath certaine limites and bounds vnto which after it is once come it weakeneth and in the ende decayeth vtterly Wherein it differeth from the nourishing vertue Nowe the vertue of growing greater hath as many other particular vertues vnder it for the execution of it owne office as the vertue of nourishing hath according as was touched before Whereby wee learne that bodies growe not greater neither augment by the heaping vp of much matter outwardely applied as when a house is set vp wee see timber ioyned to timber and stone to stone in the building of it but this is done by the same hidden and secrete arte and cunning in nature whereby wee are nourished For in this poynt there is no difference betweene the vertue of nourishing and that of augmenting but onelie heerein that in nourishment the meate is turned into the substance of the bodie and in augmenting the foode beeing thus turned doeth from within stretch foorth the quantitie of the bodie outwardly And so this vertue of augmenting dependeth of the nourishing vertue For meate nourisheth as it is a substance with qualities meete for nourishment and augmenteth by reason of the quantitie it hath For this cause hath God created the bodies of liuing creatures with such a substance that as they haue sundrie passages and holes in them like to sponges to the ende to purge by them so he would that the substance they receiue by their foode might passe by the same holes that they might augment and grow greater So that all of them haue their pores and litle holes albeit they appeare not to the eye whereby nourishment entreth and extendeth it selfe in greatnesse length and thicknesse The consideration hereof hath caused some skilfull men to place mettals and stones in the ranke of liuing creatures because they growe in the earth as the bodies of plants and liuing creatures doe Neither is their opinion without some shewe of reason For wee knowe that they grow and increase and that inwardly which seemeth not to bee done without drawing vnto themselues some inward nourishment as liuing creatures vse to doe Besides they haue also their pores and passages to stretch foorâ—h and augment themselues by Notwithstanding all this there is greater reason to place them in the ranke of those natures and creatures which augment and grow greater by adding and ioyning of matter vnto them as wee see fountaines and riuers to increase and so likewise fire Which albeit it seemeth to be nourished and augmented with that matter which is put vnto it yet is it not nourished as liuing creatures are by meanes of that foode which they receiue For they haue their boundes of growing set them which they cannot passe as wee see the like also in plantes but fire hath no limites as that which alwayes increaseth as long as it findeth any matter to burne Whereby we may conclude that naturall heate in man or in other liuing creatures is not the cause of their nourishing and growth but onely the instrument and that the true cause in regarde of second causes is in the soule next after God who is the first cause of all things yea the cause of causes Therefore it is hee that hath alotted out to euerie man the terme first of his life and growth and then of his declining and death so that according as hee will eyther prolong or shorten our life and cause vs to encrease or diminish so hee disposeth the seconde causes and those meanes whereby hee will bring it to passe Nowe wee must consider what instrumentes the soule vseth to execute in the bodie of man her naturall woorkes of nourishing and augmenting it of which wee haue nowe spoken and after what manner shee vseth them First then wee will looke into the ventricle and stomacke and see what figure what Orifices and filaments it hath This matter then ASER belongeth to thee to intreate of What instrumentes the Soule vseth in the bodie about the naturall woorke of nourishing and augmenting of the Ventricle or stomacke and of the figure Orifices and Filaments it hath of the coates of the stomacke and of what substance and nature it is of the causes of hunger and of appetite of the inferiour Orifice Chap. 61. ASER. Wee shoulde bee very happie if wee knewe howe to followe that order in all our doings which God hath set downe in all his woorkes and whereof he giueth nature vnto vs for a Mistresse But if the simplicitie of our vnderstanding bee not able to attaine to so high wisedome at the least we may knowe howe farre short euery one of vs commeth of our duetie and from whence proceedeth all the confusion that is in the life of man and all those miseries which wee commonly beholde On the other side nothing coulde hinder vs were it not a voluntarie and malicious ignorance in that wee consider not what a marueilous and excellent Woorkemaster God the Creator sheweth himselfe to bee in this part of the soule whereof our present discourses are and in that order which hee hath set therein and in those vertues which hee hath bestowed vpon it For his woorke is so excellent and woorthie of so great admiration that no wisedome or power whatsoeuer is able so much as to imitate it Wherefore wee are to account it a very great and noble blessing to haue onely some knowledge of it and to bee able to comprehende some thing thereof by our vnderstanding For there will be alwayes enough whereat to marueile greatly and namely in the consideration of those instruments which the soule vseth in the nourishment and growth of bodies as we shall know in the sequele of our discourses Therefore as heeretofore wee haue handled and spoken of the diuers powers of the soule and of those instruments it hath in regarde of the Animal and Vital partes as of the braine heart head and other externall members of the bodie so nowe wee are to consider of the internall instruments which serue the naturall powers of the soule And first it hath the liquors and humours of the bodie tempered together by a certaine Lawe and reason of the Creator that created them Secondly the other instruments of the soule are those members both externall and internall which are framed and haue their seuerall proportion euery one as neede requireth for the office assigned vnto them by God their Creator For before the soule bee clothed with the bodie these instrumentes are fashioned and made fitte for it by nature
iudgementes of God whereby he punisheth men neuertheles these water-floods which we alwaies carie about vs ought to admonish and induce vs to feare him to call vpon him by prayer and day and night yea hourely to recommend our life vnto him seeing he can take it from vs by stopping our breath yea by a very small matter or at least depriue vs of all motion and sense as though our bodies had neither soule nor life in them but were like to poore dead carkases For the doing hereof hee needeth not to thunder or lighten from heauen against vs but onely to cause a small showre of water to powre downe from our head which is the highest the goodliest and most noble part of all the bodie and as it were the heauen of the litle world or if it please him to cause a fewe droppes onely to distill downe vpon the sinewes and ioyntes it will torment men more grieuously then if they were in some continuall torture as the daily songs of such gowtie persons doe testifie who are impatient and voyde of the feare of God Now besides this profitable aduertisement which euery one may take by that which hath bin here vttered wee ought on the other side to consider the prouidence and goodnesse of God towardes men in that as he holdeth vp in the aire and cloudes the water that hangeth ouer vs not suffering them to breake downe vpon vs all at once to ouerwhelme all the earth by them with all the beastes and other creatures conteined in it but distributeth them by good and iust measure so dealeth he with the humours that ascend vp continually and are kept in our braine where they haue their vessels to retaine them in as it were in sponges which yeeld foorth water according as they are either loosened or restrayned and closed together And as for that which is said of the testimony which we haue of the frailtie of our life appearing in the principal and most noble part of our bodie as the like was shewed vs before in that instruction which we learned by the office that God assigned to our lungs and to the passages allotted by him for the taking in end letting out of the aire so wee haue a very notable lesson in the consideration of the liuer and of the blood of which that is the forge and fountaine and of the distribution thereof into all the partes and members of the bodie by meanes of the veynes as wee hearde yesterday For as a man may iudge by outward appearance that the life of man consisteth in his breath and that he giueth vp both soule and life when hee dyeth as it were in giuing vp the last gaspe so it seemeth also that it is placed in the blood as that which goeth as it were with the blood so that when the blood is drawen out of a mans bodie the life also may seeme to bee drawne out therewithall Herevpon as the soule is oftentimes in holy Scripture put for the life because it giueth life to the bodie so it is also put for the blood and the blood likewise called soule because it is the instrument and meanes whereby the soule giueth life and when the Lorde forbiddeth his people to case the flesh with his soule that is the blood thereof Whereby his meaning is to teach men to abhorre the effusion of mans blood and therefore hee sayeth further I will require your blood euen the blood of your soules Wherefore hee that sheadeth blood doeth as much as if hee drewe the soule out of the bodie Nowe forasmuch as the blood is so necessarie vnto life wee are likewise to vnderstande that as it is either pure and sounde or vnpure and corrupted so is it disposed either to health or sicknesse and to life or death For as the naturall life of man consisteth especially in heate and moysture so a man may easily iudge that as euery thing is bred by meanes of them chiefely liuing and sensible creatures so nothing can bee preserued in this bodily life without these two qualities that are proper to the ayre and to blood as wee haue alreadie hearde But these qualities must bee so tempered that there bee no excesse on either side And for this cause GOD woulde haue all the humours to bee mingled together with the blood that so it might bee tempered as is requisite for the life of man For if it bee too hote and drie or too moyst and colde it cannot doe that office for the performance whereof it is ordayned but in steede of bringing health and life it will breede diseases and in the ende cause death For naturall death commeth onely of diseases amongest which olde age is to bee reckoned which is an incurable sicknesse that lasteth vntill death Neither doe diseases proceede but onely of the distemperature that is in mens bodies and in the humours of which they are compounded For as long as they are in a good moderate and proportionable temper and are distributed to all the partes of the bodie according as neede requireth so that none of them exceedeth then is there an equalitie in all the bodie which doeth not onely preserue it in life but in health and good disposition For there is the like concorde and harmonie betweene these humours that is betweene the partes of a good consort of musicke agreeing well together or of an instrument of musicke well tuned from which you shall heare nothing but pleasaunt melodie Whereas if all the partes thereof agree not well together there will bee no musicall harmonie but onely a very vnpleasant discorde The like may bee saide of all the concordes and discordes that may fall out in the humours of our bodies And therefore GOD had so tempered them in the first creation of man as was requisite so that hee woulde haue preserued him in a perpetuall life if by true obedience hee had alwayes beene knit and vnited vnto God his Creatour But since man fell at variance with God through sinne all this goodly concorde which God had placed not onely in mans bodie but also betweene the rest of his creatures hath been troubled and turned into discord by meanes of sinne So that all this goodly temperature and harmonie of the humours in which mans bodie was created was dissolued and broken asunder and that in such sort that it was neuer since sounde and perfect in any man of howe good constitution soeuer hee hath beene For euen in the best complexions there is alwayes some defect or excesse in some of the humours so that if there were no other cause yet no body coulde naturally bee immortall For alwayes in the ende the excesse or defect that is in it woulde cause it to decay and finally bring it to corruption But besides this there are so many other wantes and superfluities throughout the whole life of man whereby this euill alreadie become naturall is so much augmented that there die moe without
comparison of ordinarie diseases and of violent death then of olde age and naturall death and all this by meanes of sinne Therefore we may well conclude that health is the effect and fruite of peace and concord betweene all the partes and humors of mans bodie and so consequently is life as contrariwise sicknesse death proceed of discord dissention and warre betweene them For as concord bringeth peace and peace all good things with it so contrariwise discord breedeth warre and warre a heaped measure of all miseries and euils Wherefore a sounde body of a good constitution is like the bodie of a whole people and societie that hath the members agreeing well together so that euery one keepeth his ranke not hurting one another But a sicke and diseased body is like to the body of a mutinous and seditious people that breaketh the order it ought to keepe and goeth beyond the appoynted bounds Therefore we haue a goodly image of peace and of that peaceable life whereunto men are created and borne in the disposition and temperature of the humors and members of our bodie whereby wee ought to learne what great account we are to make of peace amitie and concord and howe we ought to hate and abhorre all warre discord and dissention seeing the one is as it were health and life and the other as diseases and death Now let vs see the vse and profite the particular and speciall properties of the humors ioyned with the blood and what vessels are assigned vnto them together with their nature and offices It belongeth to thee AMANA to handle this matter Of the vses and commodities of the humors ioyned with the blood and what vessels are assigned vnto them in the bodie and of their nature and offices and first of the cholericke humour of the gall and vessell thereof next of the melancholike humour and of the spleene then of the flegmatike humour and of the kidneyes and other vessels which it hath to purge by Chap. 66. AMANA As we ought to labour to cut off all discord and to nourish all concord that wee may enioy peace and those benefites that proceede thereof so wee must be very carefull to preserue all the partes of our bodie in such a temperature as may keepe them in a harmonie and concord that we may liue in health For this cause as God hath tempered all the humors one with another so he hath assigned to euery one his proper place seate both to withdraw it self therin and to performe the office enioyned vnto it and also to purge and clense it selfe and to discharge the body of superfluities and corruptions that otherwise might hurt it Nowe we haue alreadie heard how he hath assigned the liuer to be the seat of the blood because he hath appointed the blood to water all the body and to giue life and nourishment vnto it out of which also the vital spirits arise as smal mild windes proceed out of riuers and fountaines As for the cholericke humour it is ioyned with the blood for the concoction of humors that abound and to awake and stirre vp the bodie least it become heauie sleepie and dull as also to penetrate and open the passages when it goeth with the blood and therewithall to nourish those members that agree with the nature of it as the lungs with whose nourishment cholericke blood doeth better agree then any other Whereby it appeareth euidently that this humour holdeth of the nature of fire which giueth vnto it this quicknesse and vertue And because it is hote and drye it serueth also to temper the moysture of the blood and to meete with all colde that might come vnto it and helpeth to preserue it in his naturall heate Nowe forasmuch as it is not all caried and distributed with the blood but the greatest part of it remaineth for other vses God hath assigned a vessell vnto it into which it retireth and is contained therein so farre foorth as is requisite The ende hereof is that the blood should not bee infected with too much choler mingled therewith as also that it might descend into the guttes by those passages that are giuen vnto it to that purpose to be voyded by them and to prouoke them to discharge those excrements which they receiue and so to purge the whole body For this cause there is a bladder in fashion like to a long peare placed vnder the middest of the liuer about the hollowe part of the right side of it within which it is halfe hidden This bladder is the vessell into which that yellowe humour withdraweth it selfe and is conteined therein which wee call Gall. And as this bladder hath his filaments and threedes both to draw vnto it and to reteine as also to expell forth so it hath two branches comming out of the necke of it the one vpwarde to draw away the cholericke humour in the purifying of the blood the other downeward towardes the guttes to carie this humour vnto them both for the thrusting forwarde of nourishment and for the casting foorth of the excrements For it was necessary that the great abundance of this humour should retire into some place in the purging of the blood and therfore it was as requisite that it shoulde haue a fitte vessell to retire into wherein it was not to remaine vnprofitable For besides the vses alreadie spoken of it serueth not onely to cleanse all the guttes of ordure but also to heate the liuer and to hinder the putrefaction of the blood Besides experience sufficiently sheweth how needefull it is that the blood should haue such a vessell wherewith to purge it selfe For when the passages thereof are stopped great diseases followe thereupon as inflammation of the liuer and the dropsie but especially the yellowe iaundies For when this humour is not duely separated from the blood so that it is not purged thereof as nature requireth then doeth it beginne to corrupt whereupon it cannot send such foode to the members as is necessarie for them but that which is corrupted by this gall whereby they are driuen out of their naturall disposition And this wee may see chiefely in the yellowe iaundies by reason of this yellowe and bitter humour that maketh the bodie yellowe into which it is dispersed by meanes of the veynes in steede of beeing nourished with good blood The like may bee saide of the melancholicke humour which is as it were the lees of the blood For if the blood bee corrupted and infected great inconueniences ensue thereof vnto the whole bodie through which this humour is dispersed after the same manner that the cholerick humour is insomuch as it becommeth blacke thereby as the cholericke humour maketh it yellowe and for the like cause breeding the like disease the difference of humours onely excepted Nowe because we haue not in our vsuall speech a speciall name to declare this difference this disease is commonly called the blacke iaundies Therefore God hath
the compression and contraction of the Midriffe I speake not heere of the stone which wee carie in our kidneyes or of that which oftentimes breedeth both in the kidnes and in the bladder I meane of such stones as bake there as it were in a Tile-kill or potters fornace I omitte also the passions of the kidneyes and the extreame paines proceeding from thence which are further instructions vnto vs of our infirmities and miseries and of the frailetie of mans life but the handling of these things properly belongeth to the Physicions I will onely adde to that which I haue spoken of the necke of the bladder where the Vrinary pipes ende that the hole thereof is full of wreathings and turnings to the ende it may the better holde and keepe in the water And for this cause also it hath a muskle as well as the fundament to open and to shut and to yeelde and retaine the vrine according to natures will euen as it is with the other excrementes that are purged by the bowels Wee propounde these things as it were a generall Anatomie of the bodie because if I should lay them open at large and by peece-meale eche member hath in it sufficient whereof to make a great booke For as I haue alreadie declared the artificiall woorkemanship of mans bodie is incredible and incomprehensible if a man consider all the partes of it For there is nothing bee it neuer so small but the woorke of it is very marueilous the vse great and so fitted to the purpose as cannot possibly be better But wee neede not discourse more particularly of the composition and nature of mans body and of the partes of it seeing our intent is not to become Physicions but in some sort naturall Diuines by learning to knowe the prouidence of God in his woorkes especially in our creation composition nourishment and preseruation that wee may glorifie him in them as becommeth vs. Nowe in all that wee haue hitherto propounded of the foure naturall humours of the bodie wee haue spoken of them according as naturally they are and ought to bee without corruption and such as are necessary for the life of man But forasmuch as they are of great vertue and power in regarde of the affections and manners of men whether they abide in their right nature or whether they be corrupted wee must speake somewhat of their corruption and of the hurt that commeth thereby not onely to the health and life of the bodie but also to that of the soule considering withall what are the sundry naturall temperaments of men Marke therefore ARAM what you haue to say vnto vs concerning this matter Of the names wherby the humors of the bodie are commonly called with the causes wherefore of the comparison betweene the corruption and temperature of the humors of the body and betweene the manners and affections of the Soule of the meanes whereby the humours corrupt and of the Feuers and diseases engendred thereby of the sundry natural temperatures in euery one Chap. 67. ARAM. The nourishment of mans body hath many degrees and passeth through many pipes and vessels before it bee perfect and conuerted by true generation into the proper substaunce of euery member whither it is caried as wee may iudge by that which wee haue alreadie hearde to this purpose But there is such an accorde betweene all the members of the bodie whereby euery one executeth his office and such a communion of all their powers that eche member keepeth his ranke and order neyther doeth any one retayne and keepe to it selfe more nourishment then is requisite but sendeth as much as is needefull vnto the rest euen vnto the nayles and haires and vttermost excrements Nowe if through some defect or corruption falling out in their nature any of them breake the order of this equall distribution a common detriment seazeth vpon the whole bodie and vpon all the members generally so that those partes also taste of the hurte that offered wrong vnto the residue For they cannot liue alone nor without helpe from others The like is seene in the Common-wealth and in the members thereof For what is the cause that some are readie to burst for farnesse and multitude of meates whereas others are emptie and die of hunger that some haue so much wealth that they are greately troubled therewith and others are so poore Nay what is the cause of all the confusion in the worlde but that euerie one raketh to himselfe and no such equalitie and communion is obserued as becommeth the estate of euerie one Wherefore as sundrie diseases are bredde in mans bodie whereby in the ende it is vtterly ouerthrowen when there is no such communion betweene the members thereof nor any such distribution of the nourishment as there ought to bee so is it with the bodie of the Common-wealth when some oppresse others and when euerie one hath not that that belongeth vnto him For first there followeth great confusion and of confusion subuersion as diseases followe faultes committed by the members and after diseases death it selfe Nowe the infinite number of infirmities and ordinarie diseases whereby moe violent deathes are procured then naturall by reason of the defectes and excesses brought in by sinne into the whole life of man causeth men to speake diuersely of the foure humours of the bodie necessarie for the preseruation and nourishment thereof For they are more often taken for the vices and excesses whereby they are corrupted then for the true naturall humours which are the chiefe instruments of the soule whereby it giueth life and nourishment to the bodie The cause whereof as I thinke is because men doe sooner and more easily perceiue and marke what is euill and hurtfull vnto them then that which breedeth their good and profite And indeede it falleth out commonly that they knowe not the good thinges they haue vntill they haue lost them or else are become hurtfull vnto them No marueile then if they knowe not from whence these good things come or of whome they haue receiued them and so become ingratefull towardes GOD. Wherefore let vs not woonder when God withdraweth them from vs or suffereth them to corrupt and to bee spoyled that they might hurt vs in steede of helping vs to the ende that by this meanes wee might learne to acknowledge that good which before wee knewe not and not to despise it when wee haue it I meane that wee shoulde learne this by the euill that succeedeth after wee haue lost the good For wee are such scholers as cannot otherwise imprint in our mindes those good thinges which God bestoweth vpon vs but by beeing depriued of them and by our owne hurt Heereof it is that wee alwayes learne to our owne cost as wee say because wee cannot conceiue so well as wee ought to doe of the free goodnesse of God Nay it were well if all coulde learne aright by their owne harmes For there are but fewe that profite
holes vnable to hold in and keepe anie secret matter they are fierce in assailing but inconstant in sustaining the assault in some sort resembling the nature of dogges which barke and bite if they can and afterward flie away And if there bee excesse of the melancholike humour the natures of such are sadde still hard to please suspicious conceited obstinate some more and some lesse And if the cholericke and melancholike humours be corrupt and mingled together their natures become monstrous prowd full of enuy fraud subtilties venemous and poisonfull hatefull and diabolicall And when the malignant spirits know mens natures thus disposed no doubt but they take occasion thereby to intermingle themselues if God permit them and purpose to vse them for the punishing of men I say they will ioyne themselues vnto them and make them their instruments as God on the other side vseth those natures that are most moderate and best tempered making them instruments of his glorie Now we may call to mind what we learned before almost to the same ende touching the meanes whereby euill spirites might trouble the imagination fantasie and mindes of men We may say as much of the humours of the body whose motions and nature they knowe very well Whereby they can so much the more easily abuse them in their damnable worke and will as wee may iudge by the example of him that was possessed and lunatike of whom the Euangelists make mention and whome they call by those two names And by that which they wrote of him it seemeth that he was subiect to the falling sickenesse that returneth oftentimes according to the course of the moone which naturally hath great affinitie with the humors and great power ouer them And therefore it is very likely that the euill spirit which tormented this poore lunatike watched the occasions of his disease to afflict him the more and to cause him to fall either in the fire or in the water as he did indeede thereby to worke his death if he had could Which example sheweth vnto vs what is the malice of the deuil what pleasure hee taketh in hurting of men what meanes and what occasions he seeketh for and maketh choice of and what accesse vnto vs we may offer him through our corrupt nature through our vices and sinnes and through our inclinations and manners that are naturally euill and peruerse if God letteth him loose the bridle by his iust iudgement seeing he spareth not the little children as it appeareth in that which is written of him of whom we spake euen now For this cause we ought to take good heede that we giue not our common enemie those occasions that he seeketh to haue from vs to the ende that hee abuse vs not nor any thing that is ours and which God hath bestowed vpon vs. This is the reason why the consideration of our temperature complexion and naturall inclination is very necessary for vs because the knowledge hereof affoordeth vnto vs many good instructions that may stand vs in great steade throughout our whole life as well for the preseruation of the health of our bodies as for the rule and gouernement of our affections and manners as also in regarde of the familiaritie and acquaintance which wee haue one with an other For through the contemplation hereof wee may knowe not onely the causes of health and sickenesse of the life and death of the body but also of that of the soule For as the good humours corrupt in our bodies according as wee haue heard and breede in them sundry diseases which finally leade them vnto death euen so by means of sinne all those good and naturall affections which ought to bee the seedes of vertues in vs are corrupted and turne into vices that are the diseases of the soule and bring vnto it the second and eternall death as contrariwise vertues are the health and life thereof But as GOD hath prouided corporall medicines for the bodie so hee hath prepared spirituall Physicke for the soule against all the diseases thereof Therefore when wee consider with our selues vnto what vices wee are inclined by nature wee must labour to correct and bridle them and to quench such inclinations as much as wee can through sobrietie vigilancie and continuall practise to the contrary least wee nourish and encrease them when as wee ought to diminish and wholy to abolish them For the common prouerbe is not without reason that Education passeth Nature or that it is another nature Wee see by experience what Education and Instruction are able to doe both to goodnesse and vice according as they are either good or euill For as there is no nature so good which can not bee corrupted and peruerted through euill education and teaching so there is none so vicious and euill which can not at the least in some measure through the helpe and grace of GOD bee corrected and amended by good education instruction and discipline And because conuersation and familiaritie are of great efficacie in this point wee are diligently to consider with what persons and natures wee acquaint our selues and bee carefull to eschew such natures as are vicious prowd fierce enuious hatefull malicious suspicious disloyall and traiterous as well in regarde of the corruption of manners wherewith wee may bee infected by them as also in respect of other harmes that may befall vs by reason they are vnsociable natures or at the least very difficult to conuerse withall being indeede such as towardes whome no man can beare any true loue or firme friendship But when wee haue vsed all the diligence wee can possible about these things the chiefest point wherein the whole consisteth is this that wee haue recourse to Iesus Christ the eternall sonne of GOD to the end that by his holy Spirit hee woulde correct represse and quench in vs all the vicious affections and disordered motions that wee haue contrary to his holy will according to that promise which is made vnto vs wherein it is saide that if fathers knowe howe to giue good gifts to their children and such things as are necessarie for them much more will our heauenly Father giue his holie Spirite to them that aske it of him And this is the true meanes wee ought to keepe for the correcting of these vices and defectes that are in our naturall inclinations Now wee haue spoken sufficiently of those things which concerne the naturall powers of the soule in respect of the nourishment and growth of the body and of those instruments which it hath in the same for the performaunce of her actions It remaineth nowe that wee consider what effectes it hath in Generation First then ASER thou shalt handle the restauration and reparation of all natures by that vertue and power of Generation that is in them and namely in man to the end wee may after proceede with those other points that concerne this matter Of the restauration and reparation of all
natures created by the Generatiue power and vertue that is in them and namely in man what Generation is and what the Generatiue power of the soule is what the seede is and how Generation proceedeth of strength and of infirmitie Chap. 69. ASER. When Salomon sayeth in the Psalme entituled with his name Except the Lorde builde the house they that build labour in vaine wee must not thinke that by the building whereof he speaketh hee vnderstandeth a frame of stone and wood to make a lodging and dwelling place of it but hee respecteth specially that building that consisteth of houses and families through the generation of children and their good education and instruction as himselfe sheweth plainely when by and by after hee sayeth in the same Psalme Beholde children are an inheritance from the Lorde and the fruit of the wombe a rewarde Whereby wee haue a sure testimony as in many other places of the Scripture that wee must acknowledge the Generation of children to come from God and not from nature and the fruitfulnesse and barrennesse both of men and women By our former speeches we may learn what was the creation of the the first man and first woman with the lawfull coniunction betwixt them by means whereof God would haue mankind preserued multiplied by good order and not by a brutish confusion such as is amongst the beasts Now it remaineth that folowing the order of our discourses we speake of generation whereby we shall know the vertue that God gaue for that purpose to our first parents when hee saide vnto them Bring foorth fruit and multiplie and fill the earth Which hath had such power and vertue that from thence haue issued all the men women and children that haue bene since the beginning of the world that are now and that shall be vnto the end thereof The like also proceeded from the blessing which God gaue not onely to al other liuing creatures but also to al herbs and plants For we haue already heard how after the liuing body is growen vp to his full vigor and strength it beginneth then by little and little to faile and to tend vnto death whereby in the end it falleth away altogether For according to that comparison and similitude which hath bene already propounded vnto vs of a lamp the flame whereof cannot be ioyned stil with the week except there be some cleauing moisture to knit the parts together so there is in a liuing body a certaine humiditie that holdeth of the nature of the aire which moisture is very good and is dispersed throughout the whole body hauing his propagation of the seede and ioyning together all the parts of the body This is commonly called the Radicall humour because it is as it were the roote of life and hath the celestial and quickening heate brought immediately and directly vnto it so that when this moisture is extinguished the heate also vanisheth and fadeth away And looke as the heate drinketh vp and consumeth by litle and litle this humidity so doth the heate it selfe diminish and languish away because his foode faileth that is in the moisture euen as the flame lesseneth and looseth his vigor as the oile or tallow or wax faileth in a lamp or in a candle And although this radicall humiditie be nourished by the ordinary food which the body daily receiueth neuerthelesse forasmuch as that nourishment which euery member receiueth is not so pure nor so fit nor so naturall as the radicall humour it selfe neither can wholy restore that which diminisheth and consumeth thereof it must needes bee that life shoulde faile in processe of time by reason that neither the vigour of the heate nor the purenesse of his nourishment continueth sound and entire For the same thing agreeth to this radicall humour which we see by experience in wine which so long as it is pure and in his naturall strength doeth easily turne a litle water into it owne nature so that it can not be perceiued that there is any water at all in it But if yee continue still powring in of water and mingling it therwith it will weaken by litle and litle and alwayes loose of his pure substance so that in the ende it will bee no better then water And thus the radicall humour and the naturall heate destroy one an other For the humour that is gotten by sustenaunce differeth much from the Radicall that was consumed by naturall heate Whereupon it followeth also that this naturall heate hath not so good and pure nourishment as before so that it must needes growe weaker and being thus weakened it hath lesse vertue to concoct well and to turne that humour into nourishment wherewith it ought to be maintained By this meanes it commeth to passe that the radicall humiditie naturall heate faile and perish both together Wereby wee may easily vnderstand why mens bodies abide not alwayes in their strength but faile and waxe old and so death followeth olde-age Wee haue already spoken somewhat before both of the length and shortnes of mans life and of naturall violent death but we will speake more fully of them hereafter God willing Nowe wee are to consider howe the prouidence of God hath prouided for this defect of nature through that vertue of Generation which by his blessing hee hath giuen vnto it and whereof I spake euen nowe to the ende that the whole race and seuerall-kindes of things created shoulde not perish Whereupon wee may well say that that nature which hath this vertue is no other thing then the blessing of God whereunto all honour is to be giuen For as GOD hath created all things by his mightie worde so by the selfe same worde hee hath created and placed in the first kindes of the creatures that hee hath created those seedes whereby hee woulde haue euery one preserued both in the whole and in his seuerall kinde And therefore as in blessing the earth after hee had created it and commaunding it to bring foorth herbs trees and plants with their fruits according to their kindes hee did therewithall endue it with vertue to doe so as it hath alwayes done so hitherto doeth so daily and will doe so to the end of the worlde euen so is it with that blessing which hee hath giuen to all the plants and to all liuing creatures and namely to man and woman and with that commaundement which he hath giuen them to growe to multiplie and to fill the earth Wherefore wee ought without ceasing to consider and to contemplate God the Creator in the generation of all things and principally in that of man as if we beheld him daily pursuing his worke of creation For although he worke now by other meanes then he did in the first creation of the whole frame yet he is no lesse nowe the Creator of all men and of all other creatures that grow daily in the world by generation then hee was of the first man and
no more after that fashion so hee is in an estate that differeth much from the former So fareth it with man when hee is to depart out of the life of this worlde as if hee were to bee deliuered of it in childbirth for another life For hee dieth in regarde of this life to the ende he may liue another life which as farre excelleth this as this is better then the other which hee enioyed before in his mothers bellie yea it is so much the better of higher price in that the length of time of this second and blessed life shal be eternall and endles Moreouer as a childe commeth out when hee is borne so doth a man when he dieth And in comming forth both of them enter into a new and vnacquainted light into a place where they finde all things much altered and farre differing from those which they vsed to haue in their other kind of liuing For which cause both the one the other being troubled and scared with this nouelty are vnwilling to come forth of their clapper to forsake their closet were it not that they are vrged constrained thereunto by the arte lawes rights of nature wherby God hath better prouided for our affaires then wee our selues could conceiue or cōprehend both in our natiuity life also in our death The ignorance whereof causeth our spirit to abhorre the departure out of this life in regard of this great chāge that is therein because it knoweth not what good is brought to it thereby no more then the litle child knoweth wherefore he is borne into the world or what he shall finde there And therefore albeit nature presseth to come foorth neuerthelesse according to that sense which it can haue it weepeth by and by after it is borne as if it were fallen into some great inconuenience and that some great euil were fallen vnto it as we doe also at our death for the cause before alleged not considering that it is our second and better birth Thus you see what I haue thought requisite to be noted in the discourse of our generation and to morow God willing we must looke into the life and death of mans bodie But it shall not be without profite if first we speake somewhat of the causes why God created man naked and with lesse defence for himselfe then hee did other liuing creatures It belongeth then to thee ASER to speake of this matter The end of the ninth dayes worke THE TENTH dayes worke Why God created man naked and with lesse naturall defence then hee did all other liuing creatures how many wayes he recompenceth this nakednes of the generall beautie of the whole bodie of man ioyned with profit and commoditie Chap. 73. ASER As often as men shall consider in such sort as becommeth them that they are borne men and not brute beasts they wil be suffciētly admonished of the ciuil and sociable nature in which God hath created them of that humanitie for which he hath endued them with such a nature so that they wil keepe them selues from being transformed into sauage cruell beasts to hurt one another as commonly they do Truly it is not without some great and notable cause that among al liuing creatures there is not one to be found that hath a more delicate tender skin lesse furnished with couerings for the defence thereof then man hath considering that God himselfe created him as his principall woorke amongest all visible creatures and made him as it were Lorde of the whole worlde And yet hee is of that nature that the skinne wherewith he is clothed is not so sufficient a garment for him as is necessary to keep him from heat cold from other inconueniences that might happen vnto him except he be clad with some other couering then that which he bringeth frō his mothers belly For hee neither hath feathers as birds haue nor wooll as sheepe haue nor bristles as swine haue neither yet any skin or hide so hard nor so well couered and furnished with haire as foxes wolues beares bulls and other foure footed beasts haue Neither hath he any skales as fishes haue nor any shells as cockles sea creuisses tortoises and such other creatures haue But we haue foure things to consider of touching this point The first is that if man had not sinned after that God by creation had in great larges made him partaker of his heauenly giftes and graces he should not haue bene subiect to the want either of garments or of any such like thing whereunto he is nowe after a sort brought in subiection at leastwise he should haue had all these things without paine and griefe For this cause it is sayd in Genesis that after our first parents had transgressed the ordinance of God by eating of the forbidden fruite they knewe that they were naked and couered themselues with leaues And for a punishment of their offence it was sayd vnto them that they should eate their bread in the sweate of their face vnder which worde of bread was comprehended all things whereof they stood in neede for the maintenance preseruation of their life as we vnderstand it in that prayer which we dayly make to God when wee demaund of him our dayly bread The second point which we ought to note in this matter touching the nakednes of man is this that God would admonish him not onely by the whole frame and composition of his body and of all his members but also by his very skinne that he created him to liue in company and felowship and in peace with those of his owne kinde to helpe all and to hurt none Therefore hee did not create him with naturall weapons as he did other liuing creatures vnto whome he gaue all things necessary for their defence preseruation For some of them haue strength and weapons by nature to resist their enemies others wanting this haue swiftnes to conuey themselues out of all dangers and some wanting both these haue yet subtiltie places of refuge to defend themselues withall As for man God hath placed him in this world vnarmed and naked so that if men be disposed to hurt and to warre one vpon another they must deforme themselues and borowe weapons from others wherby they transforme themselues become monstrous as though they were transfigured into sauage beasts into monsters For they haue not as hath bene said hard strong hydes as some brute beasts haue neither prickles darts in them as Hedge-hogs and Porcupines haue Neither are their feete hands nailes like to the hoofes of Horses Asses Mules or to the tallents of birds that liue by praye or to the pawes of wild beasts neither yet are their teeth like to theirs God hath not giuen them sharp bils like to birds neither hath he armed them with stings or with venim as he hath done venimous beasts True it is that man hath
weapons both because that had bene superfluous hauing giuen vnto him that which is farre better as also because his beautie had bene thereby much diminished and his spirit should not haue bene so well knowen as now it is by meanes of that skill and of those artes of which God hath made it capable For what could he inuent and doe and wherein should he shew that naturall light and dexteritie that is in him if nature had furnished him with all those things wherewith his reason giuen vnto him is able to inrich him But to conclude our speech hauing spoken sufficiently of the creation generation and birth of man let vs looke into this beautie that is in the forme and figure of mans body by calling to remembrance our former discourses And let vs know that both for the matter also for the forme and composition thereof there is not the like worke in all the worlde none so goodly so proper nor so well vnited knit together none so wel proportioned polished in euery respect in euery part thereof So that when we consider thereof from one end of it vnto the other we shal find that the workemaster that made this body hath throughout the whole worke ioyned beautie and profit together But there is yet another excellencie worthy of great admiration in that hee hath not only beautified this body with so goodly a shape as we see it hath but hath also endued it with vertue and abilitie to make other bodies altogether like it selfe as we heard yesterday Wherefore men shewe indeede that they knowe nothing of the excellencie of their nature and that they haue altogether forgotten or at leastwise very ill considered of that instruction which God hath giuen them by the composition of their bodies but principally by the soule that is lodged therein if despising celestiall and eternal things for which they are created they affect and seeke after earthly and transitorie things preferring the earth before heauen as commonly they doe Which is all one as if they declared openly that they are displeased that God hath made them men and not beastes ramping on the earth or marching vpon all foure and turning their snoute alwayes downeward because they haue nothing in them that sauoureth of a diuine and celestiall nature as man hath and so they deale no otherwise then as if they would reproch God for that honour which hee hath bestowed vpon them by creating them differing from brute beastes vnto whome notwithstanding they had rather be like But enough is spoken of this matter And seeing wee may be sufficiently instructed by all our former discourses what are those principall partes powers and offices of the soule I meane the animall vitall and naturall vertues as also what instruments they haue in mans body let vs nowe looke into the life and death thereof and consider more narowly then hitherto we haue done what are the causes both of the one and the other Whether the life of the body can proceede either of the matter or of the composition forme and figure or of the qualities thereof or els of the harmony coniunction and agreement of all these whether any of these or all of them together can be the soule of the length and shortnes of the diuers degrees and ages and of the end of mans life of death and of the causes both of life and death of the difference that is betweene naturall and supernaturall Philosophie in the consideration of things Chap. 74. AMANA Iesus Christ purposing to teach vs that we cannot haue life but in him by him who is the life and who hath the words of eternal life compareth himselfe to a Vine his disciples vnto Branches For as the branch hath life vigor and beareth fruite so long as it remaineth in the vine receiueth nourishment from thence so if it receiueth no sap from thence or if it be cut off it withereth and dyeth We may say the same of the members of the body if the soule be not in euery one of them and if it giue not life vertue and vigor to them all for the performance of their offices For if it fall out so that it withdraweth it selfe altogether from any one part of the body that part is without life as we see by experience in a member dried vp or putrified or cut off from the body And so is it with the whole body when the soule is separated frō it But we are to handle this matter more at large By our former discourses wee may learne the nature both of the soule and of the body what is that vnion and coniunction which they haue together albeit their natures substances and essences are diuers and very different also we haue learned that the one of them namely the spirituall essence is a great deale more excellent then the other which is corporall Wherefore we may well conclude that the life in the body proceedeth not of the matter whereof it is made nor of the qualities ioyned vnto it nor yet of the composition forme and figure thereof For if the life and soule were in the matter of the body the larger and greater mens bodies were and the more matter they had in them the more life and soule the more wit spirit and vnderstanding should be in them But we see by experience that it is farre otherwise and that there is no more life soule in a great body then in a litle And if it were so that the life proceeded from the matter a dead body should bee as well a man as a liuing body We may say the same both of the qualities ioyned to the matter according to the nature of the elements as also of that conformation and agreement that is betweene all the members both within and without And as for the harmony coniunction and concord that floweth from the diuersitie of these qualities and from their temperature it may be increased and diminished Wherefore that cannot be the effect of nature which causeth a thing to be that which it is and giueth vnto the same thing his forme and kinde that continueth alwayes in his estate and naturall disposition For if it were otherwise the nature of kindes might bee changed which neuer any of the Philosophers did so much as imagine or thinke to affirme And as for the composition and figure of the body there is yet lesse reason to say it commeth from thence forasmuch as that continueth the same in a dead body which it was in a liuing Againe those liuing creatures that resemble most the nature and forme of the members of mans body and the matter thereof are oftentimes farther off from the nature of humane sense and vnderstanding then they that do lesse resemble thē Which we may easily know by considering the natures of a Hog and of an Elephant For they that through want and famine haue bene constrained to eate
mans flesh haue testified that no flesh or meate whatsoeuer approcheth neerer in taste or is more like it then the flesh of a Hog And if we consider the inward members and parts there is no beast if we will giue credite to them that haue had the experience thereof that hath them liker to those in man then the Hog hath both for substance disposition forme and figure Contrariwise wherein doeth the Elephant resemble man either for forme or composition of body or of the members both internal and external in comparison of a Hog And yet there is no beast more teachable then the Elephant or that approcheth neerer to the sense and vnderstanding of man as on the other side there is no beast further off in this respect nor more hard to be taught and more brutish then is the Hog And if any man thinke that the industry and docilitie of an Elephant proceedeth either from the greatnesse of the matter whereof it is made or from the abundance of the qualities ioyned vnto the matter or from the harmony coniunction and concorde that is betweene them or lastly from the composition forme figure of his body and of the members thereof wee will oppose vnto him the Ant which is one of the least among the creatures of the earth as the Elephant is the greatest of all as farre as we know The like may be said of the Bee For are there many creatures although greater in substance that yet haue such industrious ingenious natures as these litle beasts haue that are to be reckoned among the smallest of them And by this it appeareth plainly that the soule of beasts is of some other substance nature then their bodies notwithstanding there is great difference betwixt the soule of beasts the soule of mē But we haue further to note touching the soule of man that the spirit doth not only not folow the nature of the body but which is more gouerneth carieth recarieth it whither it pleaseth yea it withstandeth the affections which approch neerest to the corporal terrestrial nature And as for the facultie of sense of the senses it is a vertue that surpasseth all bodily power and vertue all things depending of the body so that there is no facultie of the body that is able to expresse the actions thereof What shall we say then of the vertue of vnderstanding which is the highest and most soueraigne facultie that is in man Which wee cannot say is a body compounded of matter and forme For that thing is the fountaine and original of life which first mooueth a liuing creature to the works belonging vnto life So that when wee inquire what this fountaine and spring is then doe we seeke to know what the soule is Nowe we may soone know by that which hath bene spoken what the soule is not but as yet we cannot perceiue what the proper substance and nature thereof is And in deede it is not that which wee haue to speake of at this time hereafter we may say somewhat of that matter Let it suffice for this present that we know that the true cause of the life of the body in regard of second causes is in the soule next vnto God who is the first and principall cause of all things Therefore it is hee that hath ordained and limitted to euery liuing creature his appointed time wherein to liue and to grow and next to decrease and to dye and as it pleaseth him either to prolong or to abridge their life so doeth he dispose of the second causes and meanes whereby hee will haue it brought to passe Wherefore although euery one hath his certaine bounds and terme of life set him yet none but God onely can attaine to the knowledge thereof For all come not to the last age which hee hath appointed to be the ordinarie end of euery ones life following those degrees into which it is diuided according to that diuision which we make of dayes and yeeres For the infancie of man may be resembled to the morning and to the spring time of the yeere mans age to midday and to the sommer olde-age to the Euening and to Autumne and death to night and to winter Therefore Iob sayth very well speaking of man the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which he cannot passe Nowe if it be demaunded what is the ordinarie terme of life appointed by God we are to know that nature by the ordinance of God appropriateth the matter being in the forme of members vnto the soule that is to giue life vnto the whole body Nowe when the soule is entred into it and hath taken possession thereof by little and little it prepareth and maketh fit the internall instruments vntil at length it hath brought them to that perfection which the qualitie constitution and composition of the matter is able to receiue and to beare And after these instruments are come to their greatest perfection by vsage they waste and consume away returning by little and little vnto their first nature so in the end wholy corrupt and dye Thus you see how the members are appropriated in the belly of the mother howe the spirits and humors are fitted in the time of infancie after which the flower of age in youth is as it were the vigor and vse of the perfection of the instruments and olde-age is the decreasing age wherein they decay continually become worse and worse euen vntill they come to their corruption which is death And this death we call naturall when following this course it attaineth without violence to these bounds Nowe although this bee no long course yet there are but very fewe that hold out to the vttermost end thereof in regard of them that stay by the way of whome some are cut off euen before they haue begunne their course others presently after they haue begun it and some in the midway and that through so many sortes of sicknesses with other inconueniences and accidents that a man cannot possibly comprehend or conceiue them all Therefore Moses sayd long since that the time of our life is threescore yeeres and ten and if they be of strength foure score yeeres yet their strength is but labour and sorowe for it is cut off quickly and we flee away And after hee hath compared man to a streame of water caried violently away to a Morning dreame to the grasse that florisheth and groweth in the Morning and in the Euening is cut downe withereth he giueth the reason of all this saying for we are consumed by thine anger and by thy wrath are we troubled Thou hast set our iniquities before thee and our secret sinnes in the light of thy countenance for all our dayes are past in thine anger we haue spent our yeeres as a thought Iob also agreeth well with Moses in this point when hee sayeth Man that is borne of a
woman is of short continuance and full of trouble He shooteth forth as a flowre and is cut downe he vanisheth also as a shadow and continueth not Nowe it is certaine that if we looke to the causes of the life death of men layd downe by vs we shal thinke that all this is done naturally that there is a certaine order of nature vnto which we must all be subiect and a naturall necessitie which none can eschew But wee see that Moses mounteth aloft and searcheth higher for the cause for hee seekth it in God and in his determination yea in his wrath conceiued against our sinnes Therefore the children and seruants of God that haue bene instructed in his worde doe not onely consider of that in death which prophane men beholde there but they mount vp euen to this highest cause and behold there the wrath of God against sinne against all mankinde for the same So that wee may knowe by that whith hath bene sayd what difference there is betweene humane and naturall Philosophie and that which is diuine and supernaturall and wherein they deceiue themselues that stay altogether in naturall Philosphie And hereby also wee may learne the cause why so many become Atheists and Epicures thereby whereas it should serue them in place of steps and degrees to cause them to ascend vp to that Philosophie that is supernaturall and heauenly For their noses are altogether poring in this base kitchin of which we haue intreated in our former discourses as though God had not created men for another life and end then hee hath done beasts Whereupon we may imagine what true ioye and consolation they can haue I say not only in death but also throughout their whole life seeing their life wil they nill they must passe through so many dangers and miseries For whether they will or no they must be subiect to this sentence passed from God against all mankinde in the person of our first parents when hee sayd to Adam Cursed is the earth for thy sake in sorow shalt thou eate of it all the daies of thy life Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eate the herbe of the fielde In the sweate of thy face shalt thou eate bread till thou returne to the earth for out of it wast thou taken because thou art dust to dust shalt thou returne Therefore Eliphaz sayth in the booke of Iob that miserie proceedeth not out of the dust that affliction buddeth not out of the earth Which is asmuch to say as that the cause of barrennes of ground proceedeth not from the earth but from the sinne of man Wherefore men cannot lay the blame vpon any other beside themselues as being the cause of all the euils which they suffer because they beare the matter of them in themselues Now if any thinke that this sentence pronounced by God against all mankinde is not so much executed vpon the wicked that are without God as vpon others because wee see commonly that they are richest liue in greatest ease in pleasures in delightes we must know that they are not therefore exempted from those miseries whereunto the life of man is subiect and which are all comprehended vnder this sweate of the face mentioned in the holy Scriptures For there is not one of them to be found that can so saue himselfe but that he hath alwayes his part portion in these things And if we could consider wel the whole course of their life who seeme to be the happiest amongst them and had the patience to waite vntill the end of their race we should still finde by experience the trueth of that we speake of But let vs goe on with our speeches touching the causes of the length and shortnes of this bodily life and of naturall death as also of that which is violent whereof wee haue not yet spoken Also let vs consider of the things that are chiefly required for the vpholding of this bodily life and without which it could not consist This then shall be the matter subiect of which thou ARAM shalt take vpon thee to discourse Of the causes generally of the length and shortnes of bodily life of naturall and of violent death in what manner the life of man consisteth in his breath of the principall things required to life and without which it cannot be of the difference betwixt the life of men the life of beasts of the image of the spirituall death in the corporall of the true comfort which we ought to haue therein Chap. 75. ARAM. This lawe was layde vpon nature by GOD the Creator thereof that the things which it should bring forth in this inferiour world should haue small beginnings at the first and after growe by litle and litle when they were come to their full greatnes should stand a while at a stay and then fall by litle and litle and returne to their originall and first beginning as we see a patterne hereof and an example twise a day in the Ocean sea For after it is mounted vp to the highest and hath spread it selfe in length and breadth as much as it may it returneth againe vnto the fountaine and wombe from whence it came and there closeth vp it selfe For God hath compassed it with certaine bounds beyond which it cannot passe So likewise euery thing hath his course and set time of continuance neither doe we see any thing vnder the Moone either of the workes of God or of the inuentions of men which keepeth not this course And so is it with the body which being created by litle and litle decayeth after the same maner as it were by the same degrees by which it mounted vpward And that which we see in euery particular body the same we perceiue to be in the whole frame and course of the world in all the estates thereof For the world hath had his infancie next his youth then his mans estate and now he is in his olde-age For we see howe all things decline dayly and continually waxe worse and worse as it were approching to their end In like maner if we would consider the course and estate of all Common-wealths Principalities Kingdomes and Empires and of all the greatest and chiefest Monarchies that euer were from the creation of the world we should finde that all of them were very small and weake in their beginnings and that afterwards they increased and mounted vp vntill they came to their highest degrees and after they had attained thither they descended fell by litle and litle continually vntill in the ende they were wholy ruinated Nowe the first causes of all these things proceeding from God and from his eternall counsell we know that the second causes are in the nature of euery thing that hath beginning and must end and chiefly in the nature of mens bodies By our formmer speech wee haue learned already howe
this corporall life consisteth in the preseruation of those instruments which the soule vseth in the body and that the chiefest of them is heate the second moysture agreeable to the heate which must needes haue something to feede it and keepe it in a moderate stay Lastly wee learned that the nourishing and cherishing of the heate is the preseruation of the moysture and therefore those liuing creatures that are best able to mainteine and keepe these two qualities within themselues are of longest continuance in life So that the chiefe naturall cause of the long continuance of life consisteth in euery mans composition namely if it be hot and moyst by due proportion both in the sinewes and in the marrow in the liquors and humors and in the spirits The second cause consisteth in the long continuance of this temperature which being interrupted and marred by diseases the instruments of life are thereby also spoyled so they failing life it selfe must needes cease Whereupon death ensueth euen as when the instruments and tooles of some handicraftes man are worne and faile him it cannot be but that his arte and occupation should also be at an ende So that death is a defect of those instruments of the soule whereby life is prolonged For the soule leaueth the body by reason of the defect of instruments and not for any disagreement that is betweene the body and it as may appeare by this that it was not any proportion or agreement that ioyned the soule and the body together For albeit a workeman vseth his instruments yet there is no proportion and agreement betweene him and them in regard of the matter and forme of him and of his tooles vnlesse peraduenture this proportion may be imagined 〈◊〉 be betweene the arte of the workeman as he is a workeman and betweene the aptnesse of the toole he vseth whereby it is made fit for the doing of that which the workeman hath in hand Seeing then all life consisteth both in heate as we haue already sayd and also in moysture requisite for the heate wee call that naturall death when heate faileth by reason that the moysture is dryed vp through the heate that drinketh it vp which heate also in the end vanisheth away euen as a lampe doeth when the oyle of it is consumed But that is called a violent death when through some accident either the moysture is drawne out of the body or the heate is put out and extinguished either by some inward or els some outward oppression and violence Internall violence is either by poyson or by gluttony and drunkennes or by such excesse as a when a lampe goeth out because there is too much oyle powred into it And if this oppression be done outwardly it is called externall as when the ayre and breath that refresheth the heart is shut vp and reteined either in the sharpe artery or in the mouth For it is as if a fire were suddenly couered and choked by some great heape of stones or of earth or of ashes layde vpon it We heard before that if the Lungs had no respiration by the mouth nostrils no man could breath but he should be choked by and by as we see it by experience in them that are strangled The reason hereof is because the pipe that reacheth from the Lungs to the throat is so closed vp that it is altogether stopr or at least so narrow and strait that there is not space enough for the ayre and breath to passe in and out by We see also dayly how this windpipe is troubled if whiles wee eate or drinke there fall into it a litle crumb of bread or meate or els a drop of water or of wine or of any other drinke yea although it were but a little drop of our owne spettle For the breath that ascendeth vp from the lungs by this pipe will not suffer any other thing to enter in thereat except it be as subtill and thinne as the ayre is but it driueth it vpward insomuch as when that happeneth to any man hee is in great paine and as it were stifeled for the time We see the like also in the cough For from whence proceedeth it but onely of those distillations that descend from the braine vnto the lungs by this pipe And truely the consideration of all this ought to be vnto vs in place of an other speciall testimony of the infirmitie of our nature that wee may alwayes learne the better by this to humble our selues For what an excellent gift is this life which God hath giuen to man and yet a matter of nothing will depriue him of it For let his breath onely bee taken away which is but a little winde and beholde hee is stifled and dead by and by And for the taking away of his breath and so of his life withall there needeth nothing else but the stopping of his mouth and nosethrilles or of his windepipe onely which is soone done and hee is dispatched presently without all help and remedy by man Therefore Esay hath a good speach depart saieth he from the man whose breath is in his nosethrilles for wherein is hee to be esteemed In a worde his meaning is that man is but as it were a little winde and blast as if hee had his life in his nosethrilles and as if it were as easie a matter to take away his life as his breath Moreouer the mixture and temperature of all the elementary qualities and of all the humours is so necessary for life as wee haue already heard that if anie one be wanting our life can not continue But the chiefest and most necessary of all are heate and moisture placed in the blood which is so necessary for the maintenance of life that after it is out of the body death followeth presently Concerning the members of the body it hath beene tolde vs already that there are som of thē without which the body can not keep life nor bee kept therein amongest which the heart is the chiefest of all for the reasons which wee haue already heard Nowe these things standing thus wee must consider what difference there is betweene the death of bruite beastes and that of man namely this that the soule of beastes perisheth vtterly in their death as doeth the vigour of mens senses in the death of man But the soule of man suruiueth after the death of his body and continueth alwayes in beeing and in life For considering that beastes doe in this life all that can bee done by them according to those giftes which they haue receiued of nature therefore they liue and die heere altogether hauing nothing bestowed vpon them for an other better life But forasmuch as GOD hath giuen vnto man a diuine and immortall spirite which hath heere great impediments and can not well exercise all his offices it is requisite that it shoulde haue an other life wherein it may display all the vertues it hath and
enioy whatsoeuer GOD hath prepared for it euen that which is most agreeable and proper to the nature thereof Wherefore wee may say that the death of man is a separation or a departure of the soule from the body wherein GOD propoundeth vnto vs a perfect image of our separation and departure from him which commeth by the meanes of sinne For wee see what becommeth of the body when the soule is gone from it and what it is during the time that it is ioyned therewith The difference is very great Let vs then propound our soule as if it were in the place of the bodie and imagine that God were insteade of the soule in it as wee fee the soule is in the body Then let vs consider what might be the estate of the soule both when it is ioyned with GOD and when it is separated from him For there is greater difference betweene the soule separated from GOD then betweene a body separated from his soule Forasmuch as there is no bodie so stincking nor so infected when it is separated from the soule as the soule is when it is separated from GOD if wee will compare spirituall things with corporall things And contrariwise wee may iudge of the estate thereof when it is ioyned with God by the estate of a body ioyned with his soule and by that difference which is betweene a dead body and a quicke Nowe if wee woulde well consider these things and compare the corporall death of the bodie with the spirituall death of the soule wee woulde abhorre sinne in greater measure then wee doe and bee more afraid of it then of anie thing that may come vnto vs. For there is nothing either in heauen or earth that can hurt vs but sinne as in deede nothing can bring dammage to vs but that which can hurt the soule But it is sinne onely that is able to hurt the soule because by it those meanes are taken away from the soule whereby GOD bestoweth spirituall life vpon it Therefore wee ought not to thinke that bodily death can anie way hurt the soule vnlesse it be in regarde of the euill life past It is true that seeing GOD hath created man to bee of such a nature as to be compounded of a bodie and of a soule and that his true and perfect estate consisteth heerein that they shoulde liue vnited and ioyned together it is very like that there is some euil in the seuering of thē asunder especially if any of them corrupt and perish and the euill may seeme to be doubled if both of them should corrupt perish as many epicures and atheists would haue it For if it be euill to haue but halfe a beeing the euill and imperfection is much more not to be at all seeing there is nothing more goodly or more excellent then to haue a beeing And if it be an excellent thing to bee then to bee well is a farre more goodly and excellent thing For therein consisteth the perfection and absolute felicitie of man Nowe there is no sound or perfect estate of anie man but onely that in which and for which GOD created him And although man bee fallen from that estate yet it hath pleased GOD not onely to restore him againe thereunto by his Sonne Iesus Christ but also to make it vnto him more entire and more perfect yea much more sure and stedfast then it was in the beginning For this cause if besides the benefite of creation wee consider also that of regeneration and of the restauration and repairing of man wee shall finde therein ample matter of true and sound consolation against death For wee knowe that this tabernacle of our body which is infirme faulty corruptible fraile and tending to putrifaction shall bee destroyed and as it were pulled downe to the ende that afterwardes it may bee restored vnto a perfect firme incorruptible and celestiall glorie Wee see that by death wee are called backe againe from a miserable exile to the ende that wee may dwell in our countrie euen in our heauenly countrie In a worde wee are assured by death to enioy such a blessed and permanent estate as the like whereof appeareth no where vpon the earth And if the brute beastes euen the insensible creatures as Saint Paul teacheth vs as wood and stone hauing some sence of their vanitie and corruption doe waite for the day of iudgement that they may bee deliuered from the same shall not wee bee very miserable hauing both some light of nature and also boasting that wee are inspired with the spirite of GOD if wee doe not lift vp our eyes aboue this earthly corruption when the question is concerning our beeing Shall wee not contemne and disdaine the vanitie of the worlde to aspire after the good beeing of the immortalitie to come Let vs knowe then that wee can not finde any true and sound consolation without this consideration and hope which is most assured to them that beleeue in Christ Iesus Therefore they that went not beyond the boundes of naturall Philosophie coulde neuer enioy anie true consolation either against the miseries of mans life or against corporall death And although they beleeued that together with the body whatsoeuer is in man was extinguished or otherwise that after the death of the body the soule remained immortall yet notwithstanding some haue done nothing else but mourne and complaine in this life insomuch as they haue laid violent handes as it were vpon Nature reuiling her and calling her the stepmother rather then the mother of mankind others haue doubted of their future estate and condition not being able to learne and knowe whether their soules should liue either in ioy and rest or els in paine torment but only by opinion Of which if we would discourse at large and consider particularly of their reasons we should be confirmed more and more in that true consolation that ought to bee in the heart of euery Christian against the honour of death Therefore I greatly desire ACHITOB to heare thee discoursing vpon this matter Of the chiefe consolations which the wisest amongst the Pagans and Infidels coulde drawe from their humane reason and naturall Philosophie against death of the blasphemies vsed by Atheists and Epicures against God and Nature what Nature is and who they bee that attribute vnto it that which they ought to attribute vnto God Chap. 76. ACHITOB. Trees haue their seasons in which they beginne to budde and afterwards do blossome which blossome in conuenient time taketh the forme and fashion of the fruite and after that it continueth growing vntill it becommeth ripe and beeing come to the greatest maturitie and ripenesse that it can haue it falleth down of it selfe and still consumeth more and more The same may bee saide of leaues But this happeneth not to all nor yet altogether after the self same maner to all those vnto whō it doth happen For some fruits perish euen in the very bud or els
in the floure and some after they are come to the fashion of fruit And of these latter sort some fade away sooner some later according to their sundry accidents For some are eaten by wormes other by noisome flies and some through diuers kinds of creeping things which bred in the fruite it selfe Againe some are shaken downe violently either through great mighty showres huge stormes blustering windes or els by haile and tempest beeing plucked forcibly from the trees before they can come to any ripenesse By all which things God propoundeth vnto vs a goodly picture and representation of the whole course of mans life yea of all estates and conditions of men in the worlde both generally and particularly For although in our former speech wee hearde what order nature vsually followeth in naturall thinges and namely in that which respecteth the estate of Empires and Monarchies yet if wee looke well into it wee shall there finde also this very difference which we haue obserued to bee betwixt naturall death and that which wee call violent death For as amongest men all come not to the vttermost of olde age but manie are stayed by the way so is it with estates Wee see some men ascende vp through all degrees euen vntill they attaine to the highest and then by the same degrees descend againe vntil they come to the ende and period of all But we see others that are staied in ascending or if they come to the highest degree are sodainely throwne downe Moreouer among those fruites which attaine to maturitie and ripenes all haue not one and the selfe same time of rypening but euery one hath his proper season and those that are most forward and soonest rype are of shortest continuance and quickly gone This selfe same thing also we see to be obserued in the life of men and in the course of this world Wherefore if we had no hope of another life besides this our estate would be more miserable not onely then the estate of beastes but also then that of trees For as trees decay yeerely in regard of their flowers fruites and leaues so they are yeerely renewed whereas many men perish after that manner that being once dead they shall neuer be raised vp and renewed againe to glory For although they haue some opinion of another life yet if by the certaintie of faith they doe not apprehende the fruition of eternall happinesse which is prepared for the blessed through the grace of Christ Iesus they can neither liue nor die without some doubt of that which they desire most to be perswaded of When the greatest and most skilfull Philosophers the wisest and most vertuous personages that haue byn amongst the Heathen went about to comfort either themselues or their friends in their great afflictions and chiefly in death this was thought to be one of their strongest reasons that the lawes of nature are vnauoydable and that it must be so For they had no hope of the resurrection of their bodies as indeed it is a doctrine that humane Philosophy doth not vnderstand And as for the immortalitie of the soule albeit the best Philosophers and most learned men amongst them were of that opinion which also was for the most part generally receiued of the people yet they were neuer so assured thereof but that still there remained some doubt in them because they had no certaine knowledge of it but onely so much as they could get by their naturall light and humane Philosophie Therefore when such as excelled others amongst them laboured to comfort and strengthen men against the feare of death and would perswade them that there was no euill in it they vsed for their principal reason this disiunctiue speech saying Either man is wholly extinguished by death or els some part of him remaineth afterwards If he perish altogether so that nothing of him continueth still then he feeleth no ill and so death hurteth him not but deliuereth him from all those euils whereunto he is necessarily subiect in this life But if some part of him abideth still so that he die not altogether then is death no death vnto him or at leastwise it is not euill vnto him seeing his principall part which is his soule and in regard of which he is man liueth and abideth whole and sound Nowe these are very leane and slender consolations For seeing GOD hath created man of that nature that hee is compounded of body and soule no doubt but his true and perfect estate consisteth heerein that these two natures be vnited and lincked together as in deede they shoulde haue done had it not bene for the sinne of our first parents who thereby brought vpon man both bodily and spirituall death And it is against reason to thinke that a separation of these two natures so well knit together coulde bee made and that one of them shoulde corrupt and perish and all this without griefe Nowe if they perish both together the euill that followeth thereupon is the greater For nothing can bee imagined to bee more goodly and excellent then to haue a beeing Nowe can any body call that thing excellent which ceaseth to bee or which hauing a beeing fadeth incontinently But what a horrour is it to a man onely to thinke of death And howe much more will his horrour bee encreased when he shall thinke that hee must so vanish away by death that no part of him afterward shall haue any more beeing then if hee had neuer beene at all And what profite ariseth to him that was neuer borne more then to the brute beast But yet the estate of this man is more miserable For to what ende shoulde the reasonable soule serue which God hath giuen him as also the vnderstanding reason and all the other vertues wherewith God hath endued it aboue the soule of beastes but to make him more miserable and wretched then if hee had beene created a beast For seeing beastes haue no minde vnderstanding or reason to conceiue and knowe what a benefite and gift of GOD it is to haue a beeing and to liue they haue no such vehement apprehension either of death as men haue or of the losse of any good thing which they are in danger to loose And by this reason it followeth that the more blockish and brutish men are the lesse miserable they shoulde bee as contrariwise the greater spirites they haue and the more they acknowledge the excellencie of mans nature and those gifts wherewith God hath endued it so much the more miserable and wretched shoulde they be instead of receiuing greater ioy and consolation Whereupon it commeth to passe that they are more ready to despite and blaspheme God then to praise and glorifie him for those graces and benefits wherewith hee hath adourned mankinde We see howe Epicures and Atheists and all they that consider in man this present life onely and goe no further drawe neere to this point of which wee speake Therefore some
that ye henceforth walke not as other Gentiles walke in vanitie of their minde hauing their cogitation darkened and beeing strangers from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the hardnes of their heart We see here that in the first place he putteth the mind by which he meaneth vnderstanding and reason which is the principal faculty and power of the soule that which is so much magnified by the Philosophers that it is called of thē the Queene Damé Mistres Neuertheles S. Paul testifieth clearely that all of it is vanity without Christ so that a man may well iudge what wee are to esteeme of the rest that is in man Therefore also wee see howe from the minde hee commeth to the thought whereby hee comprehendeth both imagination and memory and all the faculties and powers of the internall senses which he testifieth to be shadowed with darkenesse so that there is no heauenly light at all therein without Iesus Christ who is the light of the world For which cause also he affirmeth that they are estranged from the life of God that is to say from that life by which he liueth in his and which he commaundeth and approoueth Afterward hee referreth the cause thereof to their ignorance which he ioyneth with darknesse and with the thought obscured thereby Finally hee commeth to the will and affections which he comprehendeth vnder the name of heart to whose hardnesse hee referreth their ignorance as to the fountaine thereof For by reason that through their malice and contumacie they reiect the light of God that is offered to their hearts and mindes they blinde themselues by the iust iudgement of God by which also they are made blinde as they iustly deserue seeing they loue darkenesse more then light and lying more then the trueth Now when al these faculties of the soule are reformed with the body according as we haue already declared then is man come to that entire sanctification of which Saint Paul speaketh in the place before alleadged which is requisite for the true children and seruantes of God But it seemeth that in all these diuisions and distinctions of the faculties and powers of the soule rehersed out of the Scriptures there is not one of them wherein any mention is made of the naturall powers by which the soule giueth life and nourishment to the body notwithstanding that this office also is assigned vnto it as well as the rest Heereof three reasons may be rendered The first is that the word of GOD maketh expresse mention of the chiefe faculties and powers which most properly belong to the nature of the soule and are giuen vnto it more specially to knowe and honour God by and which appertaine not onely to this life but also to the other The second is because these naturall powers may bee comprehended vnder the vitall and vnder the seate of the affections by reason of that communication which they haue both with the spirites and with the humours vsed by the soule in the body not onely to nourish it and preserue life in it but also to serue for all other things spoken of before The third reason is that forasmuch as these naturall powers are more terrestriall then celestiall and more corporall then spirituall and the vse and profite of them endeth with this humane life we may comprehend them vnder the name of body as things more neerely ioyned to it for the vse of this life and of which it shall haue no neede after this life when it shall bee made incorruptible and immortall And because this power of the soule appeareth more in this life then any of the rest therefore it is better knowen For this cause the name of soule is oftentimes taken not onely for this naturall power which wee call Vegetatiue and Nutritiue but also for the life it selfe and for all the commodities and desires thereof yea for the whole estate of life We may call to minde what wee heard before of the soule which is in the blood And when Reuben sayde to his brethren that woulde haue slaine Ioseph Let vs not strike his soule it is as much as if hee had saide Let vs not kill the soule Nowe it is certaine that the soule can neither bee slaine nor striken therefore by the soule hee meaneth the life And so his speech was all one as if hee had sayde Let vs not take his life from him as himselfe declareth it by and by after in the verse following where hee sayeth Shead not blood Also when Moses speaketh of the Lawe that requireth punishment like to the euill committed as hee sayeth Eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand and foote for foote so hee sayeth Soule for soule that is life for life And to seeke the soule of one in many places of Scripture signifieth to lye in waite for the life and to pursue it vnto death as it is written of the enemies of Ieremy and of Herod against Christ Iesus There are infinit such like places both in the olde and newe Testament in which the soule is taken for this corporall and naturall life Nowe because the soule giueth life by meanes of the stomach belly and other members and instruments of nourishment of which wee haue spoken before therefore it is often taken for them also as when Esay sayeth Therefore Hell that is to say the graue hath enlarged his soule and hath opened his mouth without measure and their glorie and their multitude and their pompe and hee that reioyceth among them shall descend into it The Prophet propoundeth heere the graue as a great and horrible monster that hath a throate with a stomach and belly as it were a deepe gulfe and bottomlesse pit to swallowe vp and to consume all And therefore as hee sayeth that hee hath opened his throate or mouth so hee sayeth that hee hath enlarged his soule that is to say his stomach and belly that it may bee more capable to receiue greater store of meate The same Prophet in an other place meaning to set downe the vaine hope that shall deceiue them that band themselues and enterprise any thing against the people of GOD and that looke for aide and deliueraunce from any other besides him sayeth that They are like to an hungry man who dreameth that hee eateth but when hee awaketh his soule is emptie or to a thirstie man who dreameth that hee is drinking but when hee awaketh beholde hee is faint and his soule longeth Which is as much as if hee had sayde that such a one supposing hee hath well eaten and well drunke findeth his stomach and his belly emptie and is still as hungrie and thirstie as hee was before Also when Ieremy saieth I haue satiate the weary soule and haue replenished euery languishing soule it is certaine that by the soule he meaneth the members and instruments of nourishment with the bodie that receiueth it and the life
that is preserued for the soule neither eateth nor drinketh But Ezechiel sheweth vs this yet more clearely saying They shall not satisfie their soules nor fill their bowelles For himselfe expoundeth that by the worde Bowelles which before hee called soules Moreouer wee haue further to note that forasmuch as the soule can no more giue life to the body without foode then without these members and instruments by which it distributeth and deliuereth the same it is likewise taken not onely for the foode of the bodie but also for those instruments and meanes whereby men get and obtaine foode Therefore it is written in the Lawe of the hired seruant that is poore and needy Thou shalt giue him his hire for his day that is the same day hee laboureth neither shall the sunne goe downe vpon it for hee is poore and therewith sustaineth his soule as if hee shoulde say it is his life and foode whereby hee must bee sustained So that hee which beguileth him of his hire taketh away his soule and life from him as much as in him lieth It is written also That no man shall take the neather nor the vpper milstone to pledge for this gage is his soule By which phrase of two milstones that serue to grinde the corne the Lorde comprehendeth all those instruments wherewith men get their liuing by their labour of what occupation and trade soeuer they be For as a man can not grinde without a milstone or without corne to haue meale for breade to maintaine life withall so poore Artificers and Handicraftsmen can not grinde nor consequently liue if those tooles and instruments bee taken from them whereby they must get both their owne liuing and the liuing of their wiues and children Therefore God sayeth that such a gage is the soule by which he vnderstandeth the life and by life the foode and nourishment that preserueth it and consequently the instrumentes by which poore men and Artificers get their liuing To conclude it seemeth that this kinde of phrase vsed by the Hebrewes agreeth well enough with our common speech in which we often take the life for foode and charges to maintaine life As when wee say that a man getteth and purchaseth his life or liuing with the sweate of his face We say likewise that we giue life to those whome wee feede and take life from them whom we depriue of foode and nourishment and of the means to get it But wee must learne some other significations of this worde soule taught vs in the holy Scriptures And first what is meant by a liuing soule and what by a naturall or sensuall body and what is a spirituall body and howe the name of soule is taken for the desires of the flesh and for all things belonging to this life Therefore it belongeth to thee ACHITOB to discourse vpon this matter What is meant by a liuing soule what by a sensuall and naturall body and what by a spirituall body howe the name of soule is taken for all the desires of the flesh and for all things belonging to this life and not onely for the whole person aliue but also for the person being dead and for a dead corps and lastly for the spirite separate from the bodie Chap. 80. ACHITOB. Men may well study in the schooles of the most skilfull and excellent Law-makers Philosophers Oratours and Doctors that are in the worlde yet they shall reape small profit thereby except they come to that schoole where the spirite of God is our master and teacher For this cause Iesus Christ after he heard the confession that Peter made of him saide thus vnto him Blessed art thou Simon the sonne of Ionas for flesh and blood hath not reueiled it vnto thee but my Father which is in heauen Nowe in that hee opposeth flesh and blood to the Father in heauen hee declareth sufficiently that according to the manner of the Hebrew speach hee vnderstandeth by these two words whatsoeuer is in man that is of man As when Saint Iohn saieth that as many as receiued Christ to them hee gaue power to bee the sonnes of God euen to them that beleeue in his name which are borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God And to confirme this it is saide elsewhere What man knoweth the things of a man saue the spirite of a man which is in him euen so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirite of God Now we haue receiued not the spirite of the worlde but the spirite which is of God that wee might know the things that are giuen to vs of God To this purpose when Saint Paul opposeth a spirituall man to him whome he called before a naturall man and altogether vncapable of the spirite of God he saith that the spirituall man discerneth all things and is iudged of no man For being such a one he hath certaine knowledge of heauenly things to be able to discerne light from darkenesse and trueth from lies that hee be not deceiued by a false shewe of trueth Neither is hee iudged of any body because the trueth of God is not subiect to the iudgement of men how skilfull and conceited soeuer they be without the spirit of regeneration Nowe then as wee haue heard that the soule is taken in sundrie significations declared by vs wee may nowe knowe that it is taken oftentimes in the holy Scriptures for al the vertues for al naturall gifts and graces for all affections and desires for all pleasures and commodities and for other things appertaining to this life For this cause liuing soule signifieth in the Scriptures as much as creature hauing soule and naturall life and it is so taken for all liuing creatures of what nature and kinde soeuer they be And Saint Paul in the place alleadged and in the fifteenth of the same Epistle calleth a naturall man and a naturall body that man and that body which liueth with such a soule and such a life vnto whome hee opposeth diuersly a spirituall man and a spirituall body For by a naturall man hee vnderstandeth a man not regenerated by the Spirite of GOD and by a spirituall a man regenerated and by a naturall body hee meaneth a body that liueth by this corporall life such as it is in this worlde before the death and resurrection thereof By a spirituall bodie he vnderstandeth not only such a body as men haue that are already regenerated in this life but also such a one as it shall bee after the resurrection when it shall bee fully regenerated and made immortall and like to the glorious body of Iesus Christ For besides the humane soule wherewith it liueth heere and in regarde of which Saint Paul called it naturall it shall haue also a diuine vertue that shall wholly change in it all corruptible and mortall qualities and all humane infirmities vnto which it is subiect in this life into incorruptible
the graue hee sheweth after very euidently what he vnderstandeth by his soule when he saieth Thou hast reuiued me from them that goe downe into the pit Hee taketh this worde Soule in the same sense when he saieth that God deliuered his soule from death and from the midst of lions and when he prayeth him to deliuer his soule from the sword his desolate soule from the power of the dogge For it is easie to iudge by these wordes that he taketh not the soule in these places for the essence of the soule and proper substance thereof because the soule can not be smitten with the sword nor deuoured of lions nor carried away by dogges Therefore seeing the soule is so often put in the Scripture for corporall life which endeth with the body and which the soule giueth vnto it by meanes of those instruments which it hath in the body the name of Spirite is many times vsed therein to signifie more specially this essence and spirituall substance which wee call the soule and which may be separated both from the body and blood as that which liueth after the death of the body Therefore Dauid did so vse the word Spirite when he recommended his soule to God by the same wordes which Iesus Christ vsed vpon the crosse Afterward Saint Steuen tooke it in the same sense when he saide Lorde Iesus receiue my spirite For this is that spirite of which Salomon saieth that it returneth to God that gaue it after that the body is returned to the earth and to dust of which it consisteth And yet this difference is not alwayes obserued in the Scriptures For as wee haue already heard both the heart and soule and spirite are oftentimes generally and indifferently put for all the partes and powers of the soule and not onely for those of men but also of beastes as when the Wise man attributeth spirit vnto them hauing regard to this corporall life For when Salomon speaketh so it is in consideration of this life that consisteth in breath which is also called Spirit in the holy Scriptures which vse one the same word to signifie both wind and breathing and whatsoeuer we call spirit taking it both for the soule of man for the Angelicall natures and for the Diuine nature Therefore Iob speaking of this present life sayth So long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God in my nosethrilles my lippes surely shall speake no wickednesse and my tongue shall vtter no deceit But when Saint Paul saieth The same spirite beareth witnesse with our spirite that wee are the children of God hee taketh the worde Spirite in an other sence then Iob did in the place nowe alleadged For in the first place hee taketh the name of Spirite for the Spirite of GOD and in the second place for the Spirite of man which signifieth the humane soule It is true that in this place hee taketh it for the soule and for the spirit such as it is in regenerate men but when hee saieth elsewhere that the spirite of man knoweth the things of man hee taketh the spirite simply for a humane Spirite and for the vnderstanding part thereof Likewise the name of soule is put not onely for this naturall life and for the will and affections but also for the selfe same thing that is comprehended by this worde Spirite when one woulde signifie thereby the greatest excellencie of the soule As when Dauid sayeth Our soule waiteth for the Lord for hee is our helpe and our shield Surely our heart shall reioyce in him because wee trusted in his holie name And againe My soule reioyceth in the Lorde and is glad in his saluation And when Saint Peter sayeth Abstaine from fleshly lustes which fight against the soule and haue your conuersation honest among the Gentiles hee taketh the name of Soule for the spirituall man who hath his minde and all his affections well ruled according to the will of GOD. As then wee haue heard in what sort the soule may die in regarde of this corporall life according to the phrase of the Scriptures and of the Hebrewes so by this which Saint Peter saieth that fleshly lustes fight against the soule wee may learne after what manner the soule may be said to die and to be slaine For nothing can bring death vnto it but sinne Wherefore it is not said without good reason in the Booke of Wisedome that the mouth that telleth lies slayeth the soule Albeit then the soule is immortall in that it can neuer be without life no more then the Angelles who are spirites like to it neuerthelesse it is after a sort mortall so farre forth as being farre off separated from God through sinne it liueth no more that blessed life wherewith it shoulde liue if it were vnited and ioyned vnto him by true faith and sincere obedience For it shoulde enioy the selfe same life which the heauenly Angelles with the soules and spirites of the blessed doe enioy As contrariwise the soules of the wicked liue with the same life that the Diuelles doe which is called dead because it is a more accursed life then death it selfe and therefore called the second and eternall death Nowe wee may thinke our selues sufficiently taught touching the diuerse significations in which the name of Soule is taken It seemeth to mee that wee haue spoken enough of the Anatomy of the bodie and soule of which the most of our discourses hitherto were made which may suffice for the contentation of euery one that will keepe himselfe within the bounds and limits set downe vnto vs by the wisedome of GOD in his word But to finish this whole matter concerning the soule which we haue chiefly considered in her parts powers and effects we are further yet to be instructed in the creation generation nature and immortalitie thereof And because they are marueilous difficult matters and such as are not without great contrarieties of opinions euen amongest the learned I am of opinion that these things are to be discoursed of according to that manner of teaching of the ancient Academickes which wee followed in our first meeting namely vpon the theame propounded vnto vs to ballance the arguments on the one part with the reasons of the other side that so we may diligently search out the trueth Notwithstanding it shal be lawfull for vs to deliuer our opinion so long as wee ground it vpon the infallible testimonie of the worde of God leauing to euery one his libertie to iudge which is best and to embrace and follow the same For our entrance therefore into so goodly a matter thou shalt beginne ASER to morrowe to declare vnto vs what thou shalt thinke good concerning this proposition namely whether the soule is begotten with the body and of the seede thereof or whether it be created apart and of another substance and what is requisit for vs to know therein The end of the
recouery neither was any knowen that hath returned from the graue For we were borne at all aduenture and wee shall be heereafter as though wee had neuer beene for the breath is a smoke in the nosethrilles and the woordes as a sparke raised out of our hearts Which being extinguished the body is turned into ashes and the spirite vanisheth as the soft ayre Our life shall passe away as the trace of a cloude and come to naught as the mist that is driuen away with the beames of the Sunne and cast downe with the heate thereof Our name also shall be forgotten in time and no man shall haue our woorkes in remembrance For our time is as a shadowe that passeth away and after our ende there is no returning for it is fast sealed so that no man commeth againe Come therefore let vs enioy the pleasures that are present and let vs cheerfully vse the creatures as in youth Let vs fill our selues with costly wine ointments and let not the floure of life passe by vs. I omit other speeches of a voluptuous wicked vniust life which they purpose to lead exercising al iniustice violence cruelty without al regard had to any right or iustice either to poore or rich yong or old but chiefly against the seruants of God who approue not their kind of life but reproue condemne it Therefore it is said after al the discourse that they imagined such things and went astray For their owne wickednes blinded them They do not vnderstand the mysteries of God neither hope for the reward of righteousnes nor can discerne the honor of the soules that are faultlesse For God created man without corruption and made him after the image of his owne likenesse Neuerthelesse through enuy of the deuill came death into the world and they that hold of his side proue it But the soules of the righteous are in the hands of God and no torment shall touch them In the sight of the vnwise they appeared to die and their end was thought grieuous and their departing from vs destruction but they are in peace Wee see then that these men go no farther then they can see with their bodily senses and because they see that man liueth by breathing and cannot liue without and that hee dyeth when his breath faileth they thinke that the soule of man is but a litle winde and breath and so is scattered and vanisheth away as it were winde and breath or as a cloude in the ayre The same iudgement they are of in regard of the blood because life leaueth the body with the blood as if it had no other soule but the blood or breath And forasmuch as the eye discerneth no difference betweene men and beasts in death they iudge also that there is no difference betweene their soules But if they be resolued to giue credit to nothing but to their corporall senses and in death consider only what difference there is betweene men and beasts they wil not beleeue that either beasts or men haue any soule at all that giueth them life because they see nothing but the body onely And then by the like reason we must conclude that not onely the whole man is no other thing but this body which we see but also that there is nothing in all the world but that which may bee seene by the eyes and perceiued by the other senses and so all that which we haue not seene and knowen by them shal be nothing Which being so men shal differ nothing from beasts as indeed we can say no better of these men For beastes thinke of nothing but that which they beholde and perceiue by their senses and goe no further which is so farre from all science and discipline and from all iudgement of man as nothing can be more Therefore they that beleeue nothing but their corporall senses deserue to be compared not onely to little children or to fooles who when they see pictures or their face in a glasse suppose they are liuing men because they goe no farther then they see but euen to the brute beastes who haue lesse sense and vnderstanding then children It is woonderfull to consider howe men take such great pleasure paines to become brutish For if they doe but see a smoke come out of a place they will iudge that there is some fire within although they behold it not and if they smell any ill sauour their nose will tell them that there is some place infected or some carion lying not farre off albeit they see it not What is the cause then that when by their senses they perceiue somewhat more in men then in beastes they are not induced thereby to thinke that of necessitie there must be some what within them which causeth them to differ much from beasts Which is not by reason of the bodie but of the soule that is not seene but onely by her actions workes and effects Whereupon it followeth that if their actions differ from the actions of that soule whereby beastes liue the cause also from which they proceed must needes differ and so consequently that there is great difference betwixt the soule of men and the soule of beastes For let them consider onely the diuersitie of artes which man exerciseth with his hands and the varietie of so many wittie and woonderfull workes as are wrought by him which cannot proceede but from a great spirite and from a passing excellent nature the like whereof is not to bee seene in beastes or in anie thing they can doe Besides doe they not see how the spirite of man discourseth throughout all nature what reason is in him and howe his speech followeth reason which are such things as haue a certaine vertue and the image of a diuine spirite shining in them Wherefore albeeit wee shoulde make man wholly like to a beast by reason of his bodie both in regarde of his birth and death yet wee must needes confesse that hee is of a farre more excellent nature in respect of that great and manifest difference which wee see is in his soule If then the soule of man bee mortall as well as that of beastes to what purpose serue those graces which it hath aboue the other and from what fountaine shall wee say they flowe in it and to what ende were they giuen vnto it But for this time I will leaue these Atheists hoping that to morowe wee will not leaue any one naturall reason able to vrge them in their demnable opinion which shal not bee laide out at large And I demaund of them that haue anie taste of the holy Scriptures and yet seeme to doubt of the immortalitie of the soule or at leastwise are not fully resolued therein howe man is said to be created after the image of God if he shall be altogether dissolued and brought to nothing and where shall we then seeke for this image in him It is certaine that this is not in
of all Atheists and Epicures who haue receiued their name of him For hee appointed therein that the day of his natiuitie shoulde be yeerely celebrated and that at certaine times assigned by him a banket should bee made for those of his sect in remembrance of his name Whereby wee see that this dogge himselfe who made no difference betweene the death of men and of beastes and who denied vtterly the immortalitie of the soule of man coulde not for all that plucke out of his owne soule the desire of immortalitie but doeth what lay in him to make himselfe immortall after his death by the perpetuitie of his name and memorie We may take the like argument from that which men vsually appoynt at their death touching their funerals sepulchres and tombes For why is it that they will haue sumptuous funeralles and stately and magnificent tombes Why haue manie caused Churches and chappels to bee erected themselues to bee engrauen and their escutchions to be hung vp where they haue laide themselues It is certaine that if they desired not to make their name as immortall as they coulde and their memorie eternall among men their death would not bee so ambitious neither would they leaue behinde them such markes of their ambition and of their desire of immortalitie And as great men affoorde this testimonie of their desire so the common people are not without some one or other for their part For a poore Artificer as a Tayler or Shoemaker or some such like if hee bee able hee will appoynt to haue a stone layde vpon his graue in which his name shall bee ingrauen and his marke or some such like thing to this ende that the Suruiuors and they that come after him should knowe that hee once liued and was in the worlde and that hee woulde still liue at leastwise in name and memorie And this is further confirmed by them who albeeit they cannot continue their name and memorie by any good deedes and valiant actes yet they striue to make themselues immortall by wicked and execrable dooings As among others wee haue the example of Herostratus who set on fire the Temple of that great Diana of Ephesus for no other cause but onelie that hee might bee spoken of and that the memorie of him might remaine and continue for euer amongest men as in deede it hath done notwithstanding the contrarie endeuour of the Ephesians who by a publicke Edict ordayned that his name shoulde neuer be written in any place But it may bee obiected vnto mee that this argument deriued from the desire of men to continue their name to proue the immortalitie of soules thereby is not very fit nor of great force because this desire is rather found in men that are most foolish vaine carnal and wicked then in the wiser sort of men and such as are more graue spirituall and vertuous For who couet more this immortalitie of name and memorie then they that are most vainglorious and ambitious vnto whose ambition death it selfe can bring no end but it reuiueth and liueth still therein We see also that they who least of all beleeue the immortalitie of soules and scoffe most at it are greatliest affected with this ambition and labor most to become immortall after that maner because they expect no other immortalitie All this I confesse is true yet mine argument continueth still firme For first we haue alwayes this testimonie from them that they know and acknowledge a certaine immortalitie and perpetuitie and desire to enioy the same as much as they may thinking to continue the same euen after their death which knowledge and desire is not to be found in brute beasts And whereas the vainest and worst men are more moued with this foolish desire then the wisest most vertuous men are the reason thereof is good and euident For the wisest men and such as are endewed with most vertue make least accompt of this temporary and fading immortalitie which is but as it were a winde that goeth from mouth to mouth or is but in paper parchment wood stone brasse or in some such corruptible matter because they expect a better perpetuitie that is more certaine more glorious and of longer continuance of which they are certainely perswaded Which perswasion can not be vaine in them seeing it is grounded vpon the testimony of Gods Spirit which saith that the iust shal be had in euerlasting remembrāce not onely before men but also before God and Angelles But the other sort of men busie themselues about an immortalitie which deserueth not to be accompted so much as a shadowe and image of true immortalitie because the desire thereof is infected and corrupted with that darkenesse of errour and of ignorance which sinne hath brought vpon the minde of man with those peruerse affections that proceede from the same and with their euil educcation and instruction who are not taught in the word of God By means whereof this natural desire of true immortalitie degenerateth into a foolish desire greedy of fame name amōg men euen as whē good seed falleth into bad groūd but stil it proceeds from a good beginning fountaine if it were not corrupted As we see also that it falleth out with the greater part of men in that natural desire they haue of skil knowledge which albeit it be in them by nature yet they turne it into a vaine and foolish curiositie that endeuoureth to knowe that which is not onely not profitable but very hurtfull and dangerous for them in stead of seeking to know that which is more profitable and necessary But besides that which wee haue already spoken our affections also tell vs plainely what the nature is as well of our spirite as of our senses both internall and externall and what difference there is betweene them For if the Spirite entreth into a cogitation of it owne death the internall senses with fancie and imagination are not greatly moued or troubled therewith but passe it ouer well enough as if they had no feeling thereof supposing that this corporall life will last a long time but the spirit is so confounded and troubled that it feareth and flieth nothing more then it And surely I doubt not but that they who being pressed and oppressed with great euilles desire death through a blind fury of their mind and wish to be wholly extinguished woulde change their purpose and abhorre that kinde of death and thinke it to be a greater mischiefe then all those which they suffer if they might haue leasure and means for some small time to come out of their dispaire and to returne to their right minde that so they might haue some rest from the troubles of their spirite and thinke seriously vpon the death thereof And as all the senses are presently troubled and as it were carried out of themselues through the cogitation of corporall death so the spirite contrariwise if it be found quiet and well setled abideth
firme and derideth the ignorance error and terrour of the senses correcting and reproouing them for the same We may then conclude from the euidence of these things that the death of the Spirite is contrary to the nature of it and therefore is afraide of it and abhorreth euen to thinke of it or to make any mention thereof But the senses care not but for this bodily life which the Spirite contemneth in regarde of the other whereby it appeareth that the death of the body doth affect touch it nothing at all but the body onely and those things that are ioyned vnto it as namely both the external and internal senses For this cause those men that are carnall and ledde most by their senses thinke little either vpon the one or the other except it bee when they see themselues in danger of corporall death For perswading themselues that they shall liue long in this worlde or at leastwise gathering to themselues as much hope thereof as they can they thinke nothing at all in a manner of death during the whole life no more almost then if they were borne immortall vntill such time as they see in good earnest that they must dislodge Then are they awaked out of their sleepe and if they be not altogether become brutish they are constrained to thinke both vpon the death of the body and the death of the spirite and the lesse they are prepared against them both the more astonished and amased they are in themselues Contrariwise good and iust men who of a long time yea all their life haue thought vpon both finde themselues lesse troubled a great deale because they are resolutely perswaded and assured of a better life Moreouer wee finde by experience that when the spirit is troubled with affections or cōfounded through fancies and imaginations or ignorant vicious prophane wicked without feare of God and voide of religion it is a great deale more mooued at the cogitation and remembrance of corporall death then if it be sound well disposed and setled quiet skilfull innocent religious and fearing God Whereupon we may consider learne which of these two iudgements is more certaine and true either that of a spirite that is troubled diseased ignorant euill without feare of God and voide of religion or that of a spirite which hath all those perfections rehearsed by vs contrary to these vices It is an easie matter to iudge Therefore if we attribute more as in reason wee ought to that Spirite whose iudgement is most true and certaine the conclusion that I haue made shal be confirmed thereby And as by the difference of desires we may easily iudge of the nature essence of mans soule so we may do the like by those delights wherein it taketh pleasure But I leaue thee ACHITOB to go forward with the discourse of this matter Of the argument that may be taken from the delights and pleasures of the soule to prooue the immortalitie thereof an argument to the same ende taken from the insatiable desires and pleasures of men euen from such as are most carnall of the testimony which they may find euen in their vices to prooue the immortalitie of their soule Chap. 92. ACHITOB. It hath beene a saying heeretofore that it belonged not to a vile person to deny God Which Prouerbe came of this that the nobilitie and gentlemen were so ill taught and so ignorant of true nobilitie that they reserued this occupation to themselues as proper to their estate turning it to their glory and endeuouring to bee feared by this meanes And surely these were faire Armes and goodly scutcheons to set foorth the Nobilitie of their estate by namely horrible and execrable blasphemies which the very Iewes and Turkes would neuer suffer among themselues I woulde to God wee might nowe say rightly that this was once but is no more and so likewise that there were not some among them that think themselues the greatest men who haue this in their thoughts if they dare not speake it openly that it belongeth not to men of courage to beleeue in God and in his word or to thinke that there is a iudgement to come at which men shall appeare but that this appertaineth to the simple and foolish not to these great and noble spirites which flie aboue the clouds and indeede know more then they ought to leade them into hell But as by the difference of appetites and desires wee haue shewed them that the soule cannot be mortall which concludeth a diuine prouidence and a second life as we declared before so it is an easie matter to prooue the same by those pleasures in which the soule taketh delight For by how much the more those things that bring delights do resemble the vertue of the soule that is delighted and the greater affinitie proportion and agreement they haue with it so much the greater sweeter and more pleasant are the delights as also more firme and of longer continuance Indeede it may be obiected vnto me that if we looke to this we shal find that the greatest part of men take more pleasure in those delights which they can receiue by their senses which are more earthy and brutish then in others that are more naturall to the spirit and more spirituall and heauenly and therefore the iudgement that we can gather from hence of the nature and essence of the soule may seeme not to agree to this we speake of It is very certaine that some men are of such a brutish nature that a man may well doubt whether they be men or no and whether they deserue not rather to be reckoned in the number of beasts to which they are more like then to men except it be for their face in which respect also a man may compare them with Apes For if they bee led by the same desires and lustes and satisfie themselues therein as brute beasts and goe no further wherein doe they differ from them and to what purpose serueth that which God hath bestowed vpon their soules more then vpon the soules of beasts if they content themselues with a brutish life pleasure as they do For where is the vse of reason vnderstanding which God hath bestowed vpon them more then vpon beasts And if they vse them no more then beasts doe that are altogether voide of them who can knowe whether they are partakers of them more then they And so consequently how shal that definition cōmonly giuen of man agree to them wherein he is called a liuing creature partaker of reson Therefore when we enquire of the nature and substance of the soule wee must followe that rule which is vsually propounded in searching out the nature and essence of all other things For when a man would haue true knowledge of them hee taketh not in ech kind of them that which may bee in some of the same kinde lesse perfect and monstrous As if there bee occasion to iudge of the nature of
oftentimes cruell death What comfort can such a bodie haue if hee thinke that there is no other rewarde after this life nor anie better estate for him then for the most wicked and abhominable person in the worlde And although none of all this shoulde euer happen to good men yet what contentation coulde they finde in all the rewardes which they shoulde receiue in this worlde for recompence of their vertue It is an easie matter to iudge by this that the memorie of the name and prayse of well-doing doeth not alwayes take effect neither is it alwayes due to them that haue it but oftentimes verie vniustly giuen But from thee ARAM wee shall receiue more full instruction touching this matter Of that praise and reward which wisedome and vertue may receiue of men in this world how miserable it is if there be no better prepared for them els-where how death would be more grieuous and lamentable to the best learned and wisest men then to the ignorant and foolish if the soule were mortall how the best and most certaine iudgement of men is for the immortalitie of the soule of them who not beleeuing the same say that it is good for men to be in such an errour Chap. 95. ARAM. If the Philosophers might draw many arguments of great waight from the natural desires of men to proue the immortality of soules this which we haue now to propound of the purpose reward which euery one naturally desireth is of great consideration touching this matter For it is very certain that the best most iust among mē albeit they could auoide all hurt from wicked men wherewith commonly they are rewarded from procuring their good yet they should not enioy any true and sound contentation in any of these rewardes which they might haue in this world as a recompence of their vertue But rather whilest they were expecting and hoping for them they should be euer in doubt and feare of missing them by reason of the inconstancie of men and of the vncertaintie of all humane things So that nature might well seeme to haue giuen vnto them this desire of praise and of reward if they should neuer enioy their desire els-where but in this present life Whereof wee may easily iudge by the reasons that are to be set downe For the first the memory of a mans name and the praise for wel doing doth not alwaies come to passe neither doth it fal out aright in regard of all but is for the most part very vniust For how often is glorie and honour attributed to vices yea to very execrable crimes and to the wicked whereas it ought to be giuen to vertue and to good men And if these haue sometime any commendation yet it is very sparing But it falleth out much woorse when vertue receiueth blame in stead of praise And when something is giuen to them vnto whom it appertaineth it cannot be stretched out farre by reason of the diuersity and contrarietie of natures of minds and of opinions of the manners of men and of people and nations For howe often commeth it to passe that some condemne and blame that which others approoue and prayse Yea manie times one and the same man will contradict himselfe through the inconstancie of his iudgement nowe dispraysing that which before hee had praysed and contrariwise On the other side albeit fame and commendation should be neuer so great yet it could not bee of any long continuance considering that time consumeth and bringeth an ende to all that is vnder the heauens Moreouer we see what great alterations are daily wrought by time and although praise were perpetuall among the liuing yet what could it profite the dead or what feeling can they haue of that more then of blame and infamie For the praise which good kings and Princes haue purchased by their vertues and the memorie they haue left behinde them among men can profit them no more in regard of the world then the memorie of that infamie and dispraise which tyrants haue left behind them can doe them any hurt For how wel or ill soeuer men speake and thinke one of another the dead haue no sense at all thereof Yea it is likely that they care not greatly for it and that they rest neuer the lesse at their ease for all that Therefore wee may well conclude that notwithstanding all the praise and reward which wisedome and vertue can receiue from men in this world yet they are still very miserable if there be no better prouided for them else where And if wise and vertuous men hope for another rewarde they must needes beleeue a second life in which they shall bee recompensed for their good and iust works But further when a learned and wise man hath by his spirite discoursed and gone through the heauens the planets and starres beasts men and through all nature yea hath reached to the Angels and euen to God himselfe the Creator and king of the whole worlde and hath passed through all histories both new old and hath gotten the knowledge of all things contained in them that haue come to passe in the world I pray you let vs consider what hee can be tolde of that wil be more grieuous more bitter and feareful vnto him then of death and what consolation can he receiue when hee shall vnderstand that his soule which hath seene and beheld so great riches so many goodly and excellent things and which hath beene as it were the storehouse and treasurie of them shall be wholly extinguished in the middest of such a goodly pleasaunt and wonderfull scaffold and theatre that is so excellently adorned with all kinde of beautie so that it shall neuer be againe at any time or in any place nor shal haue any more sense and feeling then the soule of a beast hath What is he who after such a consideration of death should not haue great cause to feare it in so great misery as may befall him in this life Doe we thinke that these men among the Heathen who haue heeretofore slain themselues to eschew the hands of their enemies and that shame and infamie which they feared to receiue among men and who haue accounted it an acte of great vertue and constancie to kill themselues in that maner for the auoyding of shame would haue done that which they did if they had not thought that there had beene another life besides this At leastwise Cato Vticensis for his part part testifieth this vnto vs who the same night in which hee had purposed to kill himselfe which he did because he would not fal into the hands and subiection of Iulius Caesar against whom he had taken Armes in that ciuil warre caused those Dialogues of Plato to bee read vnto him in which hee mainteineth and confirmeth the immortalitie of the soule according to the doctrine of his master Socrates We may then iudge by the contrarie what consolation it is to a
good and wise man against all the miseries that can befall him in this world if he knoweth and is assuredly perswaded that there is a resting place prepared for him not therein to be depriued of all sense of good and euill as they imagine who seeke for rest in death without all hope of another life but a place of happines for them that with a good heart and Will haue giuen themselues to vertue and holinesse which is appointed by God who is aliust almightie and algood For what rest can that thing find which is not at all So that if man bee no more after the death of the bodie then death cannot bring him any rest at all And therefore wee may say of this rest that as God is not the God of the dead but of the liuing according to the testimonie of Iesus Christ so rest is not for them that are not but for them that are For rest presupposeth a beeing because the thing it selfe must needes be as well as the rest that belongeth to it otherwise neither of them both should haue any being Thus then we may iudge after so many reasons taken from nature and hauing had so many testimonies as haue hitherto beene alleged from the authoritie and sayings of men on which side the truth is most certaine whether with them who haue all good and wise men on their side or with the other who haue none but foolish and wicked men Wee haue then in this matter which now wee follow the iudgement authoritie and sentence of all the greatest and most excellent men in the world with the greatest and chiefest part of all mankinde Vnto whose testimony we may further adde religion iustice holines and all vertues which are so grounded and laide vpon the immortalitie of mans soule that if this foundation bee taken from them they are altogether ouerthrowen For albeit they haue their chiefest foundation in God neuerthelesse he hath so ordained and ordered them that they cannot take place if there be no immortalitie of soules and that for the reasons alreadie declared It followeth then well that trueth is on their side For trueth will rather stande for them then for vices villanies and notorious wickednesse vnto which the mortality of the soule is more agreeable then the immortalitie And if all the Philosophers were not able to attaine to the knowledge of the soules nature nor define the immortalitie thereof wee ought not to bee greatly abashed if such as were most ignorant vile and abiect of them as they are called by some of the best of the Ancients abused themselues so grossely and spake so vnreuerently seeing many of the greater sort and of good account fell so shamefully and shewed themselues to be woorser then beastes in some things whereof a man may iudge by the outwarde senses For haue there not some beene founde who albeeit they sawe the snowe white yet they durst maintaine that it was blacke and that pepper was white and although they felt the fire hote and burning yet affirmed that it was colde But for this time let vs leaue the opinions of Philosophers and speake somewhat of them who although they doe not beleeue the immortalitie of soules nor yet all that is spoken of GOD or of religion say notwithstanding that it is good for the life of man that men shoulde bee of that opinion without which humane societie could not be kept inuiolable neither would men do any thing as they ought if they were not as it were with a bridle kept backe by this feare that there is another life after this and that there are gods to take vengeance of such as haue done euill And therefore they say that feare ws the first that made gods Heereof they conclude that religion is nothing but onely in opinion yea that it is nothing else but superstition which proceedeth from this foolish opinion But seeing this errour serueth for the benefit of mans life it is good say they to vpholde it and to confirme men therein And they that vse this speech are none of them that are taken to bee fooles and ignoraunt persons but of the greater and skilfuller sort of people yea of the wisest men of the worlde according to the iudgement of men For when wee speake of good men and such as are wise wee must iudge of them according to the matter which wee handle and according to the iudgement of God in his worde Therefore if according to this reason wee iudge of these men of whome wee nowe speake they shall be found to be the grosest and most blockish beasts that the earth beareth For all science wisedome and greatnes separated from vertue are not the things themselues indeed but brutishnesse rather and vile basenesse And if we iudge otherwise what is all the knowledge wisedome greatnesse that is in all men in respect of that which is in one Deuil onely For what want the deuils from being Angels like to those blessed Angels that continue still in their obedience vnto God If there be any question made for greatnesse of spirite they are all spirite If for such wisedome and knowledge as the cunning and wise men of this worlde haue of whome haue worldly wise men learned their skill but of them in comparison of whom they are but young schollers If the question bee for greatnesse what King or Prince in the worlde is so great as they For who is called the prince of this worlde by Iesus Christ the God of this worlde by Saint Paul principalities powers worldly gouernours and the princes of the darknesse of this worlde Are not the deuils so called who rule and gouerne the great ones of the whole worlde that are great indeede according to men but not according God What then doe they want of beeing celestiall Angels but vertue and goodnesse But because these men of whome wee speake nowe beleeue not that there are Angels or diuels wee will beate them with other arguments For of these men also there bee some that say wee must hue as the most doe but followe the opinion of the fewest Nowe then when they woulde haue men to bee perswaded to vertue and to doe their duetie by lying and errour namely by intertayning in them an opinion of religion and of a second life although there bee no such thing is not this a very proper meanes to call all trueth into question and to trample all vertue vnder foote For if any propounde the immortalitie of soules vnto men not as if it were a true matter but as a fayned and false thing which yet they would haue them beleeue as true to the ende that through the feare of Gods iudgement they might bee kept backe from euill and lead vnto goodnesse euerie one may guesse easily howe men will dispence with themselues when they once knowe that whatsoeuer is spoken and propounded vnto them is but as a scarre-crowe to make them afraide as wee vse to
mother yet shee should be a very cruel mother if she had giuen longer life to beasts then to men had not reserued a better a longer for them But this reason would not greatly moue Pliny who is the man himselfe that gaue these goodly titles to nature vnder which name he blasphemed God whom he knew not Neuertheles this argument wil be of force with them that waigh it aright considering the prouidence and goodnesse of God towards mankinde He addeth further that this fantasticall opinion is entred into mens braines because they woulde neuer faile but be eternall But this pretended reason is so far from confirming his opiniō that contrariwise it greatly weakneth the same in that it agreeth with the argument for the immortalitie of soules that was taken from this natural desire which God hath not giuen to men in vaine as hath bin shewed vnto vs by good reasons Moreouer he iudgeth it great follie to keepe bodies in hope that they shall liue and rise againe according to the vaine promise of the Philosopher Democritus who did not rise againe himselfe But I maruel not if Pliny spake so of the resurrection of bodies seeing he held that opinion of the mortalitie of soules seeing those Philosphers who maintained the immortalitie of soules did not so much as once dreame of the resurrection of bodies except this Democritus only at whom I much more woonder then at all this which Pliny writeth of the mortalitie of soules For it seemeth that Democritus could not learn this of reason and of natural philosophy vnles it were so that he builded his doctrine vpon the same foundation that he took from his Motes cōcerning the matter of which all things are made For according to this opinion hee taught that all the essences that euer were shoulde in time haue their beeing againe by the meeting together of those matters of which they had beene compounded Surely a very fond opinion for a Philosopher so that Pliny may well derde it although the argument hee maketh against him is not strong enough to ouerthrowe his imagination For hee woulde haue had Democritus to haue confirmed his opinion by his owne resurrection But his Philosophie did not insinuate so much that it shoulde haue beene done so quickely but after the reuolution of many Ages which Pliny shoulde haue stayed for before hee coulde haue euicted Democritus of his foolish opinion if hee had no better argument to ouerthrowe it Nowe if this Philosopher did not lay this ground for his opinion which I haue mentioned I woulde haue thought that hee might haue vnderstoode the same by some speech come to his eares of the doctrine of the holie Patriarkes and of the Hebrewes touching this matter by meanes of the Aegyptians amongest whome those good Fathers long dwelt because they that wrote the liues of the Philosophers put Democritus in the number of them that descended into Aegypt to learne the wisedome of that people as Pythagoras Plato Orpheus Socrates and Pherecydes with others did the same But let vs returne to Pliny and heare his other reasons such as they be He accounteth it great follie in men to thinke that by death a man may enter into a second life and thereupon breaketh foorth into an exclamation as if men were out of their wits so to thinke But he would haue found it no lesse impossible that generation shoulde come of corruption and that of seede which is but as it were a little slime a man coulde be engendered or a beast if experience had not taught the fame And because hee hath not seene a soule liue after the death of the bodie nor a dead man risen againe therefore hee concludeth that there is neither immortalitie of the soule nor resurrection of the bodie But wee may call to minde that which was vttered to this purpose when wee spake of the similitude that is betweene our first and second birth I omit that which he saieth of the rest and quietnesse taken away for euer from men that are borne if that diuision of the soule separated from the body which some Heathen Philosophers made shoulde take place namely when they so diuided it that the sence of soules remained aboue and their shadowes beneath among the dead for all this is but fopperie Neuerthelesse the argument taken from the common consent of men touching the immortalitie of soules remaineth still and is confirmed euen by Plinie himselfe in this place although peraduenture hee neuer thought it Let vs then come to the finall conclusion which hee maketh of this whole matter Hee calleth it deceit of woordes and foolish credulitie whatsoeuer men speake or beleeue of their immortalitie and accompteth it as a poison that destroyeth the chiefe good of Nature which as hee sayeth is death adding further that by this meanes death shall doubled or as some reade it the greefe of him that is to die shall be doubled when hee shall thinke vpon that which is to come For if it bee a sweete and pleasant thing to liue to whome can it bee pleasant to thinke that hee did once liue Therefore hee setteth this downe for his last resolution that it is more easie and certaine for euery one to beleeue himselfe and that whereof hee hath experience in himselfe then to trust any other and to fetch his assurance from that which a man was before hee was borne Thus wee see howe hee laboureth to perswade that no man can bee blessed in the life to come because the cheefe good thing hee can haue in nature is taken from him except hee bee wholly like to beastes in his death and except hee beleeue that there remaineth no more of him after death then there was before his conception and natiuitie And to confirme and assure himselfe in this opinion hee woulde haue euery one to fetch an argument and proofe heereof from the similitude of that estate in which hee was before hee was conceiued or borne to compare it with that which followeth his death that a man may iudge of the one by the other But what reason is in that For is there the same reason from not beeing to beeing that is from beeing to not beeing Wee knowe well howe man is come from not beeing to beeing but can wee heereby bee so assured that hee shall bee no more after hee hath beene as we knowe hee hath beene after a time wherein he was not And whereas hee woulde haue vs giue more credite to our owne experience in our death then to all that can bee saide by others I woulde demaund of him what that is of which wee haue experience and whether wee ought to conclude that wee die wholly as beastes doe because to the sence of man wee see no difference betwixt their deaths and the death of man It seemeth this is his meaning But as they of his coate aske who euercame from the dead to testifie that soules are immortall so we may aske of him
who euer returned from thence to assure vs of that which euery one may haue experience of in his death and whether they perceiued themselues to bee altogether like to beastes after the same For they can haue no more certaine testimonie of this by their senses then they haue of the other point Also I woulde gladly aske of him howe hee founde himselfe when hee was choked neere to the mountaine Vesuuius with smoake and with the smell of brimstone issuing out of the same and what consolation he found in death which hee sayeth is the greatest good of Nature Whereby hee shewed howe smally hee had profited in the knowledge of God the Creatour of Nature by the contemplation of his workes therein No maruaile then if knowing him no better hee called her step-mother and cruell mother seeing that according to his Philosophie the greatest good which shee bringeth to men is death and seeing shee neuer doeth them a better turne then when he bringeth them backe againe to that estate in which they were before they were conceiued or borne into the world According to which conclusion a man may wel approue of that desperate sentence of theirs who affirmed resolutely that it were good for men either neuer to be borne or to die presently after their birth So that the first and cheefest benefite of nature shoulde be neuer to bee borne and the second to be borne before the time or to be as soone dead as borne Moreouer it should follow by Plinies Philosophie that nature had made men with such a condition that they can not but be miserable if they liue after this life and if death doe not wholy destroy them and if they be not resolutely perswaded of this to haue no hope at all of another life For that which he sayeth importeth as much Is not this then a goodly resolution and conclusion of so great a searcher of nature whereof he hath written the historie With what eies did hee looke vpon all that which hee might haue scene Howe much differed they from the eyes of beastes and what profite reaped hee by that knowledge which hee had more then they In trueth wee haue in this man a wonderfull example of Gods iudgement vpon the learned and wise men of the worlde who so vilely abuse that reason knowledge and vnderstanding which GOD hath giuen them And forasmuch as this dogge was permitted to vomite out such horrible blasphemies both against God and against Nature and yet receiued no punishment for the same from man therefore GOD himselfe tooke vengeance of him by smoke whereby hee was choaked to death For seeing he esteemed the soule to be no better then a little winde or breath he deserued well to loose the same in the middest of smoake and brimstone But we haue spoken enough of him Nowe you may ARAM tell vs some more lies rather then reasons wherewith Atheists fortifie themselues against the trueth of this matter we haue in hand and howe wee ought to consider of the iudgements of God vpon them Of them who say that we can not knowe by the light of nature but that the soule is mortall of them that alleadge a place of Salomon against the immortalitie of the soule how we ought to consider of the iudgements of God vpon Epicures and Atheists howe the absurdities which followe their doctrine declare plainely the grosenesse of it of the force of those arguments that were produced before for the immortalitie of the soule Chap. 99. ARAM. It is a great matter when men iudge of things not according to reason but according to their affections because then their eares are closed vp against all reasons as wee haue the example of the Iewes who were the enemies of Iesus Christ For after they had once resolued not to acknowledge him neither to receiue him for the true Annointed of the Lorde but to reiect and condemne him with all his doctrine and workes no reason was euer sufficient to remoue them from this their purpose But to confirme them in their obstinacie there needed no great arguments no not in shew as it appeareth in that difficultie of theirs to beleeue his resurrection For neither all these witnesses of which they had so great a number nor all their doctrine nor all their holinesse nor all their signes and miracles were of any force with them in regarde of that testimonie which the theeuish and murdering souldiers corrupted with money gaue them to the contrary and that by a lowd lie which ouerthrew it selfe Therefore we may easily iudge what the minde of man is when it is corrupted and peruerted and when men suffer themselues to be carried away with their euill and froward affections so that God doeth euen blindfold and forsake them We see many such examples in this matter which we now hādle touching the immortalitie of the soule For on the contrary side what are the strongest reasons which these doggish Epicures Atheists enemies to God to mankind and to all nature against whom we now dispute can alleadge for themselues What would they do if they had as much against vs as we haue against them How would they lift vp themselues against those that maintaine the contrary and tread them vnder their feete We heard in the former speech the strongest arguments vpon which their error leaneth wherby we may know what a badde foundation it hath Others there are who say that in the light of faith the soule is immortall but in the light of nature it is mortal so that whilest they would seeme Philosophers they shew themselues to be ignorant and grosse beasts For there is but one only truth both of nature and of faith trueth neuer being double but alwayes one Therefore if the soule be immortall in the light of faith it can not be mortall in the light of nature but onely in the darkenesse thereof For wee see howe this small remnant of naturall light that yet remaineth in the corrupt nature of men sendeth them with one common and publike consent to this trueth of the immortalitie of mens soules so that none besides those in whome it is as it were vtterly put out and whome God hath by his iudgement wholly reiected and cast into a reprobate sense but acknowledge the same Howe then would this light of nature shewe it selfe if it had still continued in integritie Therefore I demaund of these men what it is which they call naturall light and whether it be not the reason of man and if it be that reason whereby men differ from beastes I aske againe of them whether any thing that may be knowen by arguments and reasons although they were all gathered together and examined narrowly hath greater and more euident light of reason then this hath Neuerthelesse I agree with them heerein that the light of faith maketh vs a great deale more certaine of all this matter then any reason that can be alleadged because that is the light
of Gods Spirite which illuminateth the eies of the minde a great deale more cleerely then any naturall light can doe as being grounded vpon the testimonie of God himselfe Some also there are who persuade themselues that Salomon putteth no difference betwene the soule of men and of beasts and that he doeth not affirme that one of them is more or lesse mortall or immortall then the other I considered in mine heart saith the Wiseman the state of the children of men that God had purged them yet to see to they are in themselues as beasts For the condition of the children of men and the condition of beasts are euen as one condition vnto them As the one dieth so dieth the other for they haue all one breath and there is no excellencie of man aboue the beast for all is vanitie All goe to one place all was of the dust and all shall returne to the dust Who knoweth whether the spirite of man ascend vpward and the spirite of the beast descend downeward to the earth But they are greatly deceiued that thinke to defend their impietie by this saying of Salomon For it is most certaine that his meaning is not to conclude that it is so indeede as hee speaketh in that place as it appeareth manifestly by his finall resolution in the same Booke made of the matter hee hath in hand wherein he concludeth touching the body of man that dust returneth to the earth as it was and that the spirite returneth to God that gaue it Nowe wee may well thinke that this excellent man or rather the Spirite of God which spake by him woulde not contradict himselfe especially in the very same Booke Wherefore wee must rest in the conclusion he maketh therein in which hee giueth vs the meaning of al his former speech And as for the place alleadged by vs which as Epicures and Atheists thinke maketh for them he would giue vs to vnderstand thereby what a man may iudge of the life and soule both of men and beasts and of the difference between them according to that wee see and perceiue by our corporall sences and that may bee comprehended by the minde and reason of man if wee haue no other testimonie that looketh beyond this life in which these dogges and hogges and all carnall and brutish men stay themselues For if there remained no more of man after his death then there doeth of a beast both the one and the other woulde come to one passe Nay the life of man shoulde bee so farre from happinesse that it woulde bee a great deale more miserable then that of beastes So that it shoulde seeme to bee better for men to passe away the time merrily and to liue like beasts according to the Philosophie of Epicures And although they shoulde take this course yet in the ende all woulde be but vanitie according to Salomons theame which hee handleth in his Booke of the Preacher Therefore being to set downe the conclusion of his Booke hee saieth Remember nowe thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth whiles the euill dayes come not nor the yeeres approch wherein thou shalt say I haue no pleasure in them Nowe if there were no difference betweene the soule of men and the soule of beastes both which the Prophet calleth by the name of Spirite taking spirite for soule what profit should men reape by this instruction and exhortation For what greater benefite coulde hee looke for who from his youth had giuen ouer himselfe to the seruice of God and had alwayes remembred him then he that forgat him and turned himselfe away from him Thus ye see how Epicures and Atheists feare not to prophane the holy Scriptures by snatching at some places of them very maliciously to the ende to set some colour vpon their damnable opinion against the immortalitie of the soule But wee see what a goodly bulwarke they are able to make euen all one with the rest of the arguments which wee haue already heard of the same matter And although they alleadge heere in defence of their cause Lucian and Lucretius two other Patriarkes and Patrons beside Pliny whome they accompt as principall pillers of their impietie yet wee can heare from them no other arguments woorthie to be so much as once thought vpon besides those which wee haue already handled But wee may obserue the like iudgement of GOD vpon them that was vpon Pliny the great searcher of Nature For Lucian according as Suidas testifieth was torne in peeces and eaten of dogs and Lucretius being madde and franticke slew himselfe For hauing abused so vilely that good wit and skill which God had giuen him did he not worthily deserue to loose it vtterly and to haue lesse of it then brute beasts Hee became so brutish that hee woulde not acknowledge that any either GOD or man had brought so great a benefite to the whole race of mankinde or that was for this cause more woorthie of greater prayse then Epicurus was because by his Philosophie and Doctrine hee abolished all diuine prouidence and so consequently all Diuinitie and immortalitie of the soule all hope of an other life all religion and conscience all difference betweene vertue and vice betweene honest and dishonest thinges and reduced all nature both Diuine and Humane into meere brutishnesse This beastly fellowe thus admiring Epicurus concludeth that men can not but be wretched and miserable all their life time so long as they haue anie opinion of all these thinges because they will holde them in continuall feare and so consequently in perpetuall torment but being dispossessed of all such thoughtes and so of all feare of GOD it will followe thereupon that they shall haue no more conscience to resist or gaine-say them whatsoeuer they thinke speake or doe And so their conscience shall not torment them with any feare and terrour especially of any iudgement of GOD but will suffer them to bee in quiet and not hinder in any respect their carnall pleasures and brutish affections Nowe when they are come to this point they accompt themselues happie For then they are all of them not onely as Kings and Princes but euen as it were gods fearing no other power aboue themselues and hauing no bodie to hinder their pleasure but that they may freely followe their owne heartes lustes So that the last and best conclusion of all this Philosophie will bee this that men can not bee happy except they become very beasts and being spoiled of all things wherein they excell them waxe altogether brutish and retaine nothing at all of mans nature but onely the outward shape of a man Therefore wee may iudge by the examples of these personages of so great skill and so highly esteemed among men what man can doe by his naturall light if it bee not guided by GOD but vtterly forsaken of him seeing those selfe same men who haue beene such great inquisitours and admirers of nature haue
is the Original of all mouing he must of necessitie bee firme and stable because otherwise he could not giue motion to others as we haue dayly experience hereof in our selues For if we would moue one of our feete the other must abide steddie and firme and both the one and the other must alwayes haue some stay whereby to take their motion Nowe because God cannot haue stay from any other hee hath it in himselfe in that manner which hath beene declared alreadie For as hee is alwayes one so all things are present to him yea hee is euery where by reason that hee is eternall and infinite without beginning and without ende Iudge of all and is iudged of none gouernour of all and gouerned by none Secondly we haue those spirituall natures and creatures which are a great Good but not the greatest and chiefest Good which cannot be found but in the Creator This second Good hath qualities because all things in it are not substantial It hath also motion but receiueth the same from the first Good of which it dependeth and then it giueth the same to others This motion is in time but without place and this Good both iudgeth and is iudged gouerneth and is gouerned The Angels and humane soules are this great Good and these spiritual natures which are spirites hauing all these things But there is betweene them that difference before spoken off namely that Angels are spirits which were created to liue an immortal life and not to bee ioyned vnto any earthly bodies and that the spirite of men are created to dwell in bodies and to giue them life Therefore I let passe Angels for this time and purpose to speake onely of the spirite of man which is not immutable as God is but may receiue change of qualities as wee see in that it beeing created good became bad and of euill may also become good by the grace of God But no such thing can befall God For hee cannot but bee good in the highest degree and the soueraigne good of euery creature because goodnes is not accidental to him as it is to a creature but substantial and essential And as God is the soueraigne mouer who giueth motion to all creatures in this great world so the soule and spirite of man giueth mouing to the whole body of man who is the little world and to all the members thereof neither hath it this motion from any other creature beside it selfe as the body receiueth the same from it but onely of the Creator Nowe although this motion bee made in time yet it is not made by any change of place For what motion soeuer there is in the spirite yet it abideth alwaies in his place so long as it dwelleth in the body which it gouerneth vnder God the great gouernour by whome also it is iudged as it selfe iudgeth the body and all that is vnder the same Lastly followeth the body which is another Good but not so great as the spirit This hath not only quality but quantitie also whereas the spirite hath onely qualitie without quantitie For to speak properly no nature hath quantitie except it be corporal Therfore the soule of a great man is not greater then the soule of a little man in regard of corpulency because it hath none as the body hath So that when we say that a man is of a great spirite we meane it not in regard of bodily quantitie as when we speake of a great body but wee consider in him the experience of giftes agreeable to his nature wherewith he is endued aboue others And in taking it so it will often come to passe that the least bodies shall haue the greatest spirites and the greatest bodies the least spirites And by the same reason we consider in a little infant euen as soone as he hath receiued mouing in his mothers bellie the selfe-same soule that is in all the ages that followe his infancie vntill his olde-age and in death it selfe But according as those instruments whereby it worketh during life are fitte for their offices and as afterwarde when they waxe olde they faile of their naturall force and vertue so the soule sheweth her powers and wonderful effects in them and by them continuing still one and the same in substance and nature as these things haue beene at large declared vnto vs. And as for the motion of the body it is made both in time and in place and is gouerned and iudged but it selfe neither gouerneth nor iudgeth Thus wee may see howe these two good things the spirite and the bodie of which the one is greater then the other are vnited and ioyned together in man as if he caried heauen and earth linked together Wee may learne also howe in this coniunction the spirite occupieth the middle betwixt God and the bodie and agreeth with them both Wee see also the admirable workes of the soule during this coniunction all which are so many testimonies of the wonderfull workes of God and of his prouidence ouer all nature Moreouer we behold a very goodly disposition and excellent order in all the powers and faculties both of soule and body Let vs then make our profit of all these things and of these instructions and lessons which God giueth vs in them to leade vs to the principall end for which man was created namely to know and to honour his Creator Wherefore we ought chiefly to consider that seeing God in the wonderful compositiō of our nature hath placed the heart between the head and the belly and the vital vertue of the soule betweene the animal and the nutritiue vertue and the will betweene the vnderstanding and the most sensual part that is in vs therefore the heart and will must alwayes looke vpward and not downeward to the end that they may ioyne themselues to the noblest and most diuine part and not to the basest most sensuall and earthly part For they are in mans body as if they were placed betweene heauen and earth so that as man holdeth the middle place between Angels and other liuing creatures by reason of that communication of nature which he hath with them both so fareth it with the heart and the will betweene the head and the belly and betweene reason with that part which is capable thereof and the sensuall part which is without reason Wherefore if the will of man be ioyned with reason which is celestial and diuine and followeth the same it will become like vnto it and shal be able easily to gouerne the sensual part vnderneath it to be mistresse ouer it and to compel it to obey But if the Will despise reason and the counsaile thereof and if instead of mounting vpward towardes the noblest part it desecendeth to the sensual part and ioyneth it selfe thereunto then shall the Will be made like to that and shal serue it in place of commanding it And by this meanes the Will shall become altogether brutish wheras contrariwise
our birth What similitude there is betweene our spirituall and our natural birth Why we abhorre natural death The first point to be considered touching mans nakednes Gen. 3. 19. The second point Man by nature hath least defence for himselfe A commendation of the hand of man The third point A double vse to be made of our wants Wherin men excell all other liuing creatures The fourth point What we ought to learne by the proportion of our bodies What man is The excellent frame of mans body Who they be that know not themselues Ioh. 15. 1 2 3 4 The soule proceedeth not of the matter Nor of the qualities Nor of the harmonie Nor of the composition of the body The nature of a Hog And of an Elephant The soule of a beast differeth from the substance and nature of his body The facultie of sense commeth not from the body The cause of the life of the body The degrees of mans age Iob 14. 5. The cause of the length and shortnes of life What naturall death is Psal 90. 10. Psal 7. 8 9. Iob 14. 1 2. Of the true difference betweene naturall and diuine Philosophie The cause of so many Atheists Gen. 3. 17 18. Iob 5. 6. The cause of barrennes Nothing abideth still in the same state The cause of the length of life What death is Naturall death Violent death Of the windpipe From whence the cough commeth Esay 2. 22. The blood necessary for life The difference betweene the death of beasts and of man An image of our spirituall death in the bodily Only sinne hurteth the soule What it is to be well A comfort against death Rom. 8. 22. Naturall philosophie affoordeth no found comfort against afflictions or death A profitable contemplation in nature The miserable estate of Atheists that haue no hope of another life Philosophicall reasons against the feare of death Sinne the cause of death Atheists more miserable then beasts The common sayings of Atheists Naturall reason not sufficient to stay the conscience Two sorts of Atheists Why there must needes be a second life What Nature is Nature is a creature The error of Galen such like Atheists nowe adayes What we are to iudge of Nature 1. Thes 5. 23. Dan. 9. 24. Man diuided into three parts One soule in one bodie The soule like to a man that hath many offices Of the seate of the soule in the body The soule compared to an Husbandman The chiefe instruments of the soule Two kinds of vniting things together Of the vnion betweene the soule and the body How the soule is ioyned to the bodie Diuers degrees of nature in the soule Beasts haue some kinde of knowledge The originall of the powers of the Soule An admirable worke of God Why God hath ioyned the body to the soule The naturall knowledge of mans body very profitable Why the soule worketh with sundry instruments Of the Vital and Animal spirites and of their operations The effects of the Vital and Animal spirits in man The Vital Animal spirits are not the soule A wonderfull worke of God 1. Sam. 18. 10. 31. 4. 2. Sam. 17 23. Matth. 27. 5. 1. Thess 5. 23. A comparison of the soule and a workeman A similitude Against the transmigration of soules The aptest instrument for the soule The necessary vse of the humours The humors are in continuall motion What partes of the body come nerest to the soule 1. Cor. 6. 19. Of the entire sanctification of mans bodie The body liueth not to eate but eateth to liue 1. Thes 5. 23. The name of Soule taken diuersly Math. 10. 28. Gen. 6. 17. esai 40. 6. luc 3. 6. leuit 4. 2. ezech 18. 4. rom 13. 1. Gen. 14. 21. 46. 27. When a man is perfectly sanctified Esay 26. 8 9. Luk. 1. 46 47. The soule deuided into three partes Ephe 4. 17 18. Iohn 1. 9. and 8. 12. and 9. 5. and 12. 46. Why the naturall powers are not mentioned in these diuisions Genes 37. 21. Deut. 19. 21. Ierem. 11. 21. Matth. 2. 20. Esay 5. 14. Esay 29. 8. Ierem. 31. 25. Ezech. 7. 19. Deut. 24. 15. leuit 19. 13. Deute 24. 6. Matth. 16. 17. Iohn 1. 12 13. 1. Cor. 2. 11 12 What is meant by liuing soule Genes 1. 1. Cor. 15. 44. What is meant by a naturall and by a spirituall man Genes 2. 7. What is meant by an animal or naturall man The soule put so the affections Gen. 34. 3. Gen. 44. 30. 1. Sam. 18. 1. Deut. 6. 5. matth 10. 39. mar 8. 35. luke 9. 24. iohn 12. 25. How we are to vnderstand that the soule dieth Num. 23. 10. Gen. 22. 16. Ierem. 51. 14. Amos 6. 8. Leuit. 21. 1. The name of soule put for the dead body Iob 33. 18 22. Psalme 30. 3. Psalm 56. 13. and 22. 20. What is meant by Spirite in the Scriptures Psalme 31. 5. luke 23. 46. Actes 7. 59. Eccles. 12. 7. Iob 27. 3 4. Rom. 8. 16. 1. Cor. 2. 11. Psal 33. 20 21. 1. Pet. 2. 11 12. Wisd 1. How the soule is after a sort mortall The ancient Academicall kinde of teaching Pâ—atâ—n Phad The word of God the true glasse for the minde Who know the soule best The soule is not bred of corporall seede Genes 1. Modestie requisite in searching the trueth How we become guiltie of original sinne What originall sinne is How wee must learne to know the soule When wee shall know our sâ—lues perfectly What the soule is Varietie of opinions touching the essence of the soule Iohn 3. 6. Why one soule is called vegetatiue another sensitiue the third reasonable Iohn 3. 12. Of the distinction of the soule from the powers there of The soule of the beast is of a corporal substance Gen. 9. 4. Leui. 17. 14. The Vitall spirite compared to the flame of a lampe It is engendred of the blood in the heart God the author of nature Sundry opinion of the reasonable soule The soule proceedeth not froÌ„ the elements Rom. 11. 33. Galens opinion of the soule Gal. dâ— plâ—s Hip. Platoes opinion touching the soule Aristotles opinion of the soule Occams opinion of the soule Of the creation of soules according to the Platonists Lib 11. chap. 23. of the citie of God Origens opinion of soules The Platonists opinion of the soule confuted God is not the soule of the world Act. 17. 28. Arat. Phae. How men are the linage of God Platoes opinion of Daemones or celestial spirits Plato dwelt with the Egyptians Lactautius lib. 2. cap. 13. Ecclus. 24. 5. The Soule created of nothing Of the transmigration of soules The regeneration of the Pythagoreans A fond opinion of certaine Heretikes Against the transmigration of soules Why Plato inuented the transmigration of soules Mans nature compared to a Monster How meÌ„ become like to beasts The ignorant wrest the sence of good writers Math. 14. 2. marke 6. 14. Luke 9. 7 8. Mat. 16. 13 14. luke 9. 19. Of the Iewes opinion of the transmigration
of soules Mark 6. 3. matt 13 55 56 iohn 6. 42. Mala. 4. 5. Iohn 1. 21. Matth. 11. 14. and 17. 12 13 Luke 1. 15 16 17. Numb 11. 25. 1. Cor. 12. 11. The fountaine of Gods graces diminisheth not 2. King 2. 9. Esay 29. 14. 2. tim 3. 2 3. 2. thes 2. 10 11. The Pythagoreans of our time Of the true transmigration of soules Of the creation and generation of soules How God rested the seuenth day Actes 17. 28. Another opinion of the creation of the soule Gen. 2. 7. The nature of the soule is not curiously to be searched after How the soule is stained with sinne Rom. 5. 12 15. Verse 19. Humane philosophie is blinde The causes of errours Three faculties vnder the vegetatiue vertue Two parts of the sensitiue vertue How the Astronomers referre the powers of the soule to the starres Powers proper to the â—easonable soule Of speech Of speech Of the speculatiue and actiue vertue Of the politike vertue The kindes of it Of the heroicall vertue Against the astronomicall influence of vertues Philosophers esteeme too highly of mans nature What iustice God approoueth Foure contemplatiue vertues according to the Platonists Howe those agree in some sort to foure christian vertues Why men encline to lies rather then to the trueth The diuelish infection of Atheisme Reasons to proue the immortalitie of the soule Why men beleeue not the immortalitie of the soule Wisd 2. 1 2 c. The sayings of Epicures Verse 21 c. Wisd 3. 1. The corrupt opinion of Atheists and Epicures Atheists may wel be compared to beasts Reasons to shew the soule of men to differ from that of beasts The image of God is to bee sought in the soule An answere to an obiection A reason of Atheists confuted by a similitude Luke 16. 26. marke 16. 14. Math. 28. 9. luke 24. 36. iohn 20. 19 20 act 1. 2 3 10. 1. Cor. 15 6. Exod. 3. 6. mat 22. 32 33. mar 12. 26. luk 20. 37 38. The resurrection of the dead proued 2. Thess 1. 6 7. How we know the hidden things in nature An argument taken from the knowledge of the soule to proue it immortall Eternitie considered diuerâ—ly A speciall difference betweene the soule of man and 〈◊〉 beasts A firme proofe of the soules immortalitie A fitte comparison Gen. 1. 26. Why man was saide to be a liuing soule How God dayly createth soules What a miracle is Buggery violateth the law of nature God is the onely father of our spirite Three things vnseperable The desire of perpetuitie an argument of the soules immortalitie Another desire which is to continue our memory for euer Another desire of perpetuitie appearing in funerals An obiection The answere to it Of the true immortalitie An argument taken from the apprehension of death to prooue the immortalitie of soules Of the ende of good and euill men The right Armes of Machâ—auâ—llian Nobilitie An argument of the pleasures of the soule to shew the immortalitie thereof Some more like to beasts then men How we must iudge of the nature of the soule Of the true pleasures of the soule An argument from insatiable pleasures for the immortalitie of the soule A corrupt spirite taketh the shadow of things for the things themselues An argument taken from vices for the immortalitie of the soule How God punisheth vicious deâ—ires Esay 38. 12. 2. Pet. 1. 13 14. 2. Cor. 5. 1 2. Hebr. 13. 14. An argument taken from the frame of mans body to prooue the immortalitie of his soule Another argument taken from the motion and rest of the soule Of a fish called Vranoscopos Except the soule be immortal man is created in vaine The immortalitie of the soule is linked to the religion prouidence of God An argument taken from the consent of all people Other reasons to the same end Actes 3. 21. What the endâ— of a thing is Of the multitude and qualitie of witnesses to prooue the immortalitie of the soule What kinde of Philosophers Atheists and Epicures were An argument taken from the desire of wisedometo prooue the immortalitie of the soule 1. Cor. 13. 12. An obiection made by some Philosophers The answere Aristoteles opinion touching the immortalitie of the soule How the vnderstanding commeth to the knowledge of outward things by the senses Howe the outward senses looke vpon things How the internal senses receiue the same things How the Spirite receiueth them from the internall senses Other reasons for the immortalitie of the soule The soule can not be diuided Other reasons for the immortality of the soule Prou. 10. 24. Euery one naturally desireth life Reasons taken from reward and praise to proue the immortality of the soule The dead haue no feeling of praise Death most lamentable to the best men if the soule were not immortal Cato beleeued the immortality of the soule What comfort it is to beleeue a place of rest after this life What store of testimonies stand for the immortality of the soule Of such as say it is good to keepe men in this opinion of the immortalitie of the soule and yet themselues beleeue it not How wee must iudge of a wise man Ioh. 12. 31. 2. cor 4. 4. Ephe. 6. 12. The inconueniences which follow the former opinion of perswading men to goodnesse by false meanes That which corrupteth the spirit is contrary to the nature of it The difference betwixt conuincing and conâ—ounding a man Internal testimonies of the immortality of the soule The cause of true ioy in the spirite Where God is said to be especially The true cause of grief torment How men cary about them the matter of two fires Deut. 4. 24. heb 12. 29. Esay 66. 24. matth 22. 13. 25. 30. A sure argument in the wicked of their future torment in another life Naturall reasons to proue the immortalitie of mens soules The naturall knowledge of good and euill an argument of our immortality The nature of loue and hatred The necessitie of another life after this Gen. 4. 6 7. A similitude Sorow euer followeth sinne What conscience is Why it is called Synteresis Of the Philosophers Anticipations Ephes 4. 19. Atheists compared to drunkards and madde folks A sit similitude The wicked alwaies condemne themselues Foure offices of the conscience The more wicked a maÌ„ is the greater is his feare The Deitie prooued by that feare which is naturally in men The greatest persons liue in most feare The Atheists prouerbe that feare made gods turned against themselues The difference betwixt the feare in men and in beasts Strong reasons against Atheists Feare is a natural testimonie of a diuine essence What this worde Animal signifieth Atheists are reasonable beasts Atheists sitly resembled to Spiders Plinies brutish opinion touching the immortality of the soule Plato his opinion of the creation of soules Plinies reasons against the immortalitie of the soule Plin. lib. 7. ca. 55. Pliny blasphemed God vnder the name of Nature Democritus beleeued the resurrection of bodies What Philosophers went into Egypt to learne wisedome The conclusion of Plinie touching this matter The iudgement of God in Plinies death Plin. Nep epist ad Oâ—â— Taâ— The absurd consequents of Plinies opinion Mat. 28. 12 13. Against them who say that the soule can not be knowen to bee immortall according to nature Of them that alleadge Salomon against the immortalitie of the soule Eccles. 3. 18 19 20 21. Eccles 12. 7. Chap. 12. 1. The iudgement of God vpon Lucian and Luâ—retius two Arch-Atheists Euseb Hier. Crin de Pâ—â—at The doctrine of Epicurus commended by Lâ—cretius Epicures thinke themselues kings and gods The blasphemie of Atheists The absurdities that follow the opinion of the Atheists Of the force of arguments alleaged before for the immortalitie of the soule The summe of this whole book The world compared to mans body and God to his soule Against such as say that God is the soule of the world The image of God in mans soule Iohn 3. 12. Of that coniunction which is betweene God and his creatures Of God the first greatest Good Mal. 3. 6. Of spirituall natures which are the second Good The spirit of a man moueth not in place Of the body which is the 〈◊〉 Good The right end of our creation Mans will must looke vp to the head not downe to the bellie Man is a middle creature between Angels beasts A spirite is not shut vp in a place It is inuisible The coniunction of our soule and body is a wonderful work of God