of Isaack and the God of Jacob for he is not the God of the dead but of the living and living they could not be if the Soule were mortall and so it is for the Power of God still that the soule be immortall And now my soule wilt thou rather detract from Gods Glory from his Justice from his Power than believe and acknowledge that the soule is immortall Shall Heathen men who had scarce any hope of good after this life Shall a Heathen Poet say Et cum frigida mors Anima seduxerit artus making death not a destruction of the soule but onely a separation of it from the body and shall we whose chiefe blessednesse consists in the expectation of our soules blessednes after this life make a doubt whether the soule of man be immortall or no Are there not manifest Arguments to evince it and such as are obvious to sense both in the dead and in the living For is it nothing that in all ages there have beene apparitions of man departed whereof though some perhaps be Fables and some delusions yet many no doubt are true Relations and have beene Reall Representations which could be none if the soule were mortall And if it be doubted whether any such apparitions have been or no have we not the learned Melancthon a reverend Writer of late time affirming himselfe to have beene an eye-witnesse Have wee not the learned Ludovicus Vives affirming many of his acquaintance men worthy of credit to have seene and spoken with them and heard many things related by them above the pitch of Nature that nothing is more certaine than such apparitions which could be none if the soule were mortall What though it were not the true Samuel that appeared to Saul but a delusion of Satan yet was there no ground for his using such delusion which could be none if the soule were mortall Is it nothing that the Devill oftentimes makes Pacts and bargaines with wicked men to doe great matters for them in this present life upon a hope and desire of their destruction in the next which could be none if the soule were mortall and if any doubt of such Pacts with the Devill have we not Confitentes reos daily examples of Delinquents themselves averring it at their deaths no time to dissemble that nothing is more certaine then that such Pacts are made which could be none if the soule were mortall Is it nothing that the consciences of all men whether good or bad give evident testimony of this truth of the soules immortality For why else should good men dye so patiently indeed so joyfully if they had not a hope of a better life after this which could bee none if the soule were mortall Or why should wicked men dye so unwillingly indeed so fearefully if their conscience did not give them there would be sense of paine remaining after death which could be none if the soule were mortal Have not all wise men a the world over affirme and beleeved the soule oâ— man to be immortall onely some few fooles whâ— have said in their hearts there is no God havâ— said also with theiâ— mouthes The soule iâ— mortall and shall we rather joyne in assent witâ— these few fooles thaâ— with those many wise men No my soule let Epicureans and Sadducees and Atheists doubt their pleasures till their doubt be resolved by the feeling Argument of eternall paines but let this be thy Pillar or rather thy Murus Aheneus that after this life there will be reward for the Godly and punishment for the wicked that In memoria aeterna erit justus the Righteous shall bee had in Everlasting remembrance that the number of Angels that fell from Heaven shall be filled up with Saints from the Earth and especially that God is the God of Abraham the God of Isaack and the God of Jacob and then I doubt not thou wilt be satisfied of this doubt and not onâ—y of thine owne but of â—hy bodies immortality that so thou maist por â—onely immortally be Spiritus but immortally be Anima for though thou wilt properly bee but Spiritus till the body rise againe yet after the Reâ—urrection thou wilt proâ—erly be Anima againe and have all thy Faculties not onely in Habit but in Operation and Animate the Body in a greater perfection than ever before for the body will then have greater endowments of thy Facultie 〈◊〉 thou art properly 〈◊〉 by a more vigorous vegetation and perspicacity of sense and greater endowments also of thy Faculties as thou art properly Spiritus by celerity of motion and by subtilty of dimension by which perhaps it was that Christ after his Resurrection came in amongst his Apostles when the doores were shut for so it was fit for a body being then spirituall Now indeede Corpus aggravat Animam the body is a burthen to the soule but as much as the body aggravates the soule now and makes her participate of its infirmities so much and more will the scale then alleviate the body and make it participate of her perfections And who now is so stupid that findes not a sweet showre of perswasion to fall upon him from this cloud of Reasons whereof though every drop by it selfe may seeme to wet but little yet all together make a showre able to wet to the roote but if any mans temper be so hard that no showre will mollifie it if any man be so unreasonable that no reason will satisfie him yet there is hope that Faith will for Faith raines downe a stronger showre of perswasion than Reason can and this beliefe of the soules Immortality is the mayne Root upon which all Faith is grounded For if the soule bee not believed to bee Immortall where is the assurance of forgivenesse of sinnes where the hope of Resurrection from the Dead where the expectation of life everlasting And if any man still be possest with a stupidity of this doubt that neither Reason can perswade him as a man nor Faith over-rule him as a Christian I must then leave him to feede upon grasse with the Beast of the Field like Nabuchadonozer untill like Nabuchodonozer he recover his senses and recant his Errour and then hee will bee able and shall have leave to make a benefit and to take the benefit of this cloud of Reasons And now my soule thou art sure of immortality a Fee Simple that no time can weare out no forfeiture extinguish but alas what good is it to have Immortality if it be not accompanied with Beatitude and accompanied with Beatitude it will never bee if God vouchsafe not his Beatificall Vision and that Vision hee will never vouchsafe thee if thou bee not Mundo Corde of a pure heart in his sight For Beâ—ti mundo Corde quoniam â—psi videbunt Deum Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God O therefore my soule endevour so to serve God with a pure heart in this mortall life that whâ—â— thou commest to thy true Immortality in the next thou mayst be admitted to see that Beatificall Vision â—nd mayst be immortall in â—â—joying of Happinesse and not in feeling of torments thy Joy may bee â—mmortall and not thy Misery And let this bee â—y Pillar upon which to â—â—xe thy Thoughts
thou have raysed thy thoughts to a great height they seeme to have some solidnesse in them yet there is one doubt must bee cleared before they can come to be a Pillar for if the soule perish with the body as some vaine men Imagine what will then become of thy thoughts For the breath of man goeth out he returnes againe to Earth and then all his Thoughts perish and if all his thoughts perish he can then think no more if he can thinke no more there can be no soule For as thesoule is the life of the Body so thinking is the life of the soule That without thinking at least without a power to think it is a thing vaine to think there can be a soule It is more vaine conceite the to build castles in the ayre to think the soule lives whâ— it is vanished into ayre anâ— of which when it dyes it iâ— truly said Et procul in tenuâ— em evanuit auram For thâ— soule is a Breath and thâ— death of the soule is thâ— last gaspe of that breath and this is so plaine thaâ— Salomon affirmes plainely As a Beast dyeth so dyeth a man for they have all one Breath all goe unto one place and who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of a beast that goeth downeward And shall wee now thinke the soule lives because we know not how it dyes shall wee therefore thinke there is a difference after death betwixt the soule of a man and the soule of a Beast because we see there is no difference nor none to be seene What is this but to give the soule a Being out of our owne not-knowing and to make our ignorance her Foundation Had the soule any being but by being in the body and how then can it have any longer being then while it is in the body If it be truely said Infundendo creatur creando infunditur why is it not as truly said Extinguendo Exit Exeundo Extinguitur Is the soule any thing but a temper of the Body and when that temper ceaseth then also the soule as well in man as in beast ' ceaseth If the soule should remaine after the body it must remaine without its Faculties at least without a power to vse its Faculties And were not this a blemish to nature to give the soule Faculties and not give a power to be able to use them and use them it cannot without the body and therefore without the body without wrong to nature we cannot think there can be a soule But O my soule what aspersions are these upon Nature Or rather what blasphemies against the God of Nature For did not God breath the soule of man into his body at first and can Gods breath be ever out of breath No more can the soule ever cease to be Did not God make the body and soule asunder and shall they not continue to be when they are asunder The body gives not life to the soule but it is the soule that gives life to the body and shall that which giveth life cease to bee because that to which it giveth life ceaseth to bee can any thing perish that hath no contraries at least nothing within it or without it to oppose it For all things perish by one of these opposites but the soule is a simple substance uncompounded without mixture and therefore neither hath contraries nor any thing within it or without it to oppose it and therefore cannot perish and therefore is immortall Can any thing perish that is Principium sibi ipsi is life to it selfe and such a Principium hath God made the soule of man and therefore cannot perish and therefore is immortall The body perisheth not by Annihilating but by being turned into its first matter which was not the same that now it is but dust and earth Neither can the soule perish by Annihilating but by being turned into its first matter which was the same at first that now it is and therefore other then now it is it can never bee and therefore is Immortall If the soule were made by God and not made Immortall either it was because hee could not make it such or because hee would not to say hee could not is to make him no God because not omnipotent To say hee would not is to make him not good because no rewarder of his servants for what rewarding if the soule be mortal An Angell can put on a body though nature have ordained it none and yet bee a perfect Angell still and why not the soule put off a body though Nature have assigned it one and yet remaine a perfect soule still God made man in his own image and where iâ— is Gods image so apparâ—â— as in mans immortality and wherein is mans immortality so apparent as in his soule The soule had a beeing when it came into the body and shall it not have a being when it goes out of the body was it separate then and is it inseparable now But then we must not conceive the soule of man to be such a kinde of thing as the soule of a beast is For the soule of a Beast is perhaps nothing else but the very life of the beast or if a soule yet such a one as is endued onely with the Faculties of sense and vegetation which depending upon bodily Organs must needes decay with the decay of those organs and perish with the body but the Soule of man is a heavenly substance endued besides sense and vegetation with the divine Facultie of reason and understanding which not depending upon bodily Organs neither decayeth with their decaying nor yet perisheth with the body but is a substance subsisting of it selfe and as being a spirit when once it leaves the body ascends up to the place of spirits where God himselfe is who is the Father of Spirits as Ecclesiastes saith The Spirit returnes to God that gave it And if the Soule be a Spirit and God the Father of Spirits Then must the soule be needes immortal For though all things perhaps perish of which God is the Creator yet nothing perisheth of which God is the Father God made the Beasts living creatures all at once at least made the Earth bring them forth all at once and as they were made all at once so they perish all at once body and soule such a one as they have both together but God made man a living Creature by parts and if his parts were made severally shall they not continue and subsist severally And although the body separated from the soule cannot long continue because it wants the cement of life that should keepe it together and being a compound matter without its proper forme must needes be soone dissolved into the first matter yet the soule separated from the Body may continue long enough seeing it is a simple forme and a Cement to it selfe which can never be dissolved and therefore is Immortall Is not the soule of
vegetative may well enough be said to be Ex Traduce from the Parents and with them the concupiscible part which is the proper seate and origin of sin and they being originally tainted with sinne as being transmitted from the Parents set a taint also upon the intellectuall part by the union with them and yet no consequence that this as they should be Ex Traduce from the Parents What though the soule were breathed by God entire at first into the body Is it necessary it should be so continued as it was at first given Why more then that the body was made by God all at once at first and yet now by generation is continued and made up by parts For who knowes not the order of Nature in forming the parts of the Body in the Mothers wombe First the heart is formed and lives anâ— this is yet but the vegetative part of the soule theâ— after the forming of some Ministeriall parts the Braine and this is yet buâ— the sensitive part of the soule and thus farre Ex Traduce from the Parents may not unprobably bee allowed but the Rationall part is behind still as having no part of the body for the Fountaine of her operation This therefore remaines to be infused by God and is perhaps one of the workes which Christ meant when hee said Pater meus usque nunc operatur and differs from the first worke but onely in this that where hee then breathed the whole soule into the Body at once hee now leaves to Nature the two inferiour parts and reserves to himselfe onely the consummating part which is the Rationall But would it not follow by this there should bee two soules in man one generated by the Parents another immitted into the Body by God Indeede no for they make all but one soule onely augmented by a Faculty or rather not a Faculty but the true substance which makes it properly to bee a soule For where onely the vegetative is as in Trees or only the vegetative sensitive as in beasts though they be commonly called soules yet truly considered they are but Faculties of life drawne Eâ—potentia materiae from the power of the matter of which the creatures are made and are but as degrees and stages to the Rationall this only that which consummates and perfits it to be a soule and is so a part of the soule that it makes the wholâ— soule indivisible into parts and as comming immediately from God himselfe 〈◊〉 can never be dissolved but by God himselfe and is therefore by his Decree immortall which the vegetative sensitive could never be if the Rationall did not take them into her society or rather joyne them as unisons in Musick â—nd make them one with â—er owne being That which is a Roofe to a lowâ—r roome is but a Floore â—o a higher and so the â—egetative which was a â—oule in Plants is but a Faculty to the sensitive in Beasts and the sensitive which was a soul in Beasts â—s but a Faculty to the Rationall in man for the Rationall is the supreme Roofe that perfits it to be a soule and makes it fixt and therefore immortall But as the Rationall makes the sensitive immortall in one kinde so the sensitive makes the Rationall mortall in another not in duration but in corruption as tainting it with that fin which brought the sentence of Morte morieris upon Adam and justly in Adam upon all his posterity But whether the corruption of the sensitive before the Rationall come to it which according to the best Writers is not till the fourth month after conceptioÌ„ make the Embryon dying within that space obnoxious to originall sin or no is a depth that exceeds the line of my knowledge and perhaps of any mans else without Divine Revelation For though the soule be not actually perfitted till that time yet it is actually prepared and hath an actuall Praeviam pravam dispositionem in it before that time and who can tell whether this may not serve and be sufficient to make obnoxious For why else should David say I was conceived in sinne when the Rationall is not infused till after the conception Or is it not that to say The soule is Ex Traduce from the Parents and the soule is not Ex Traduce from the Parents are both true in the Disjunctive because the Rationall is not the sensitive is but that the whole Soule is guilty of originall sin not onely when borne but when first conceived universally may passe without disjunctive Or is it not that when God at first created Adam it is said Male and female created hee them and therfore though the soule be Ex Traduce from the Parents yet till the Embryon be so farre growne that it may bee said to be Male or Female which is not till the parts be all formed and that it hath its perfit shape which is not till a certaine time after the conception but that certaine time uncertaine how long it cannot be justly thought to bee obnoxious to originall sin because not be murder in any that shall destroy it And this may appeare by the Law which Moses sets downe Exod. 21. If one strike a woman that her fruit go from her which in some Copies is thus exprest that her fruit goe from her not perfitly shaped the punishment shall be the lighter but if perfitly shaped thâ— punishment shall be death And as long as it is in state not to make it murder iâ— any that shall destroy it so long neither can it beâ— in state to be obnoxious to originall sinne Or may it not perhaps be true thaâ— the whole soule with all its Faculties is Ex Traducâ— from the Parents as hath been held by many and so indeed it will be plaine how originall sinne is propagated But then it will not be so plaine how the soule shall be immortall For if it bee Ex Traduce from the Parents it must be drawne E potentia materiae from the power of the matter and if drawn from the power of the matter then must it be materiall as the soule of a Beast is and if materiall then also corruptible and if corruptible then also mortaâ—â— Indeed no for though 〈◊〉 be drawne E potentia materiae from the power of thâ— matter yet not from thâ— power of the matter simply but E potentia materiae inspiratae à Deo from the power of the matteâ— inspired by God as iâ— was at first in Adam and as in Beasts it never was and though the being drawne from the power of â—e matter would make it â—â—e mortall yet Inspiratio â—â—ei the being inspired by God makes it be as himselfe is immortall When God at the Creation breaâ—ed the soule into the boâ—y of Adam there is â—othing spoken of the â—oule of Eve because shee was taken out of Adams â—ide and if it served her â—or a soule that she was made of a part of Adam body why not as well also for all other Descendents