nourish and exercise Knowledge The reason whereof is that unseparable union which is in all things between the Truth and Good of them for it being the property of Truth to unite and apply Goodnesse nothing being apprehended as Good unlesse that Goodnesse be apprehended as true the more Appetite enjoyeth of this the deeper inquiry doth it make and the more compleat union doth it seeke with that the Heart and the Treasure can seldome be severed the Eagles will alwayes resort to the body Davids Love gave length and perpetuity to his meditation even all the day And herein methinkes may consist another proportion betweene the strength of Love and Death for as in Death nature doth collect and draw in those spirits which before lay scattered in the outward parts to guard and arme the heart in its greatest conflict uniting all those languishing forces which are left to testifie the naturall love which each living creature beareth to its owne conservation so doth Love draw and unite those Spirits which administer either to the Fancie or Appetite to serve onely for the nourishing of that Affection and for gazing upon that treasure whereunto the Heart is wholly attracted Which Spirits being of a limited power and influence doe therefore with the same force whereby they carry the mind to the consideration of one thing withdraw it from all other that are heterogeneall no determined power of the Soule being able to impart a sufficient activity unto diverse independing operations when the force of it is exhausted by one so strong and there being a sympathy and as it were a league between the faculties of the Soule all covenanting not to obscure or hinder the Predominant Impressions of one another And therefore as in Rome when a Dictatour was created all other Authority was or that time suspended so when any strong Love hath taken possession of the Soule it gives a Supersedeas and stop unto all other imployments It is therefore prescribed as a Remedy against inordinate Love Pabula Amoris Absterrere sibi atque aliò convertere mentem To draw away the â—…ewell from this fire And turne the minde upon some new desire For Love is Otiosorum Negotium as Diogenes spake the businesse oftentimes of men that want imployments Another effect of Love is Iealousie or Zeale Whereby is not meant that suspicious inquisitive quick-sighted quality of finding out the â—…lemishes and discovering the imperfections of one another for it is the property of true Love â—…o thinke none evill but onely a provident and solicitous feare least some or other evill should either disturbe the peace or violate the purity of what we love like that of Iob towards his sons â—…nd of the Apostle towards his Corinthians I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie So Penâ—… lope in the Poet was jealous of the safety of Vlisses In tâ—… singebam violentos Troas ituros Nomine in Hectoreo pallida semper eram How oft my decre Vlisses did I see In my sad thoughts proud Trojans rush on thee And when great Hectors name but touch'd mine-ears My cheeks drew palenes froÌ„ my paler fears Zeale is a compounded affection or a mixture of Love and Anger so that it ever putteth forth it selfe to remove any thing which is contrary to the thing we love as we see in Christ whose zeale or holy anger whipped away the buyers and sellers out of the Temple In which respect it iâ—… said that the zeale of Gods house did consume him As water when it boyleth from which metaphoâ—… the word zeale is borrowed doth in the boyling consume or as the candle wasteth It selfe with burning In which respect likewise it is said that much water cannot quench Love It is like Lime the more water you cast upon it the hotter it growes And therefore the sinne of Laodieeâ—… which was contrary unto zeale is compared unto lukâ—…warme water which doth not boyle and so cannot worke out the scumme or corruption which is in it And from hence it is that Love makes Weake things strong and turneth Cowardice into Valouâ—… and Meekenesse into Anger and Shame into Boldnesse and will not conceive any thing too hard to undertake The fearefull Heâ—… which hath nothing but flight to defend her selfe from the Dogge or the Serpent will venter with courage against the strongest creatures to defend her little chickens Thus Zeale and Love of God made Moses forget his meekenesse and his Anger was so strong that it brake the Tables oâ—… the Law and made the people drink the Idol which they had made And this is wiâ—…lly expressed by Seneca that Magnus dolor iratus amor est a great griefe is nothing else but Love displeased and made angrie It transporteth Nature beyond its bounds or abilities putteth such a force and vigour into it as that it will adventure on any difficulties as Mary Magdalen would in the strength of her Love undertake to carry away the dead body of Christ as she conceived of him not considering the weight of that or her owne weakenesse It hath a constraining vertue in it and makes a man do that which is beyond his power as the Corinthians when they were poore in estate were yet rich in Liberality It makes a man impatient to be unacquainted with the estate of an absent friend whom wee therefore suspect not sufficiently guarded from danger because destitute of the helpe which our presence might afford him In one word it makes the wounds and staines of the thing loved to redound to the grief and trouble of him that loveth it He that is not jealous for the credit security and honour of what hee pretendeth affection to loves nothing but himselfe in those pretenses Another Effect of Love is Condescension to things below us that wee may please or profit those whom we love It teacheth a man to deny his owne judgement and to doe that which a looker on might happily esteeme Weaknesse oâ—… Indecencie out of a fervent desire to expresse affection to the thing beloved Thus Davids great Love to the Arke of Gods presence did transport him to leaping and dancing and other such familiar expressions of joy for which Michall out of pride despised him in her heart and was contented by that which she esteemed basenesse to honour God herein expressing the love of him unto Mankind who was both his Lord and his Sonne who emptied and humbled and denied himselfe for our sakes not considering his owne worthinesse but our want nor what was honourable for him to doe but what was necessary for us to be done Quicquid Deo indignum mihi expedit what ever was unworthy of him was expedient for us Thus Parents out of Love to their children doe lispe and play and fit their speeches and dalliances to the Age and Infirmities of their children Therefore Themistocles being found playing and riding on a reed with his little boy
is understood Because as the Wax after it is stamped is in some sort the very Seale it selfe that stamp'd it namely Representative by way of Image and resemblance so the Soule in receiving the species of any Object is made the picture and image of the thing it selfe Now the understanding being able to apprehend immortality yea indeed apprehending every corporeall substance as if it were immortall I meane by purging it from all grosse materiall and corruptible qualities must therefore needs of it selfe be of an immortall Nature And from the latter of those two Principles which I spake of namely that the quality of the Being may be gathered from the Nature of the Operation Aristotle inferres the separability and independance of the understanding on the Body in the third de Animâ afore-named For the Soule being able to work without the concurrence of any bodily Organ to the very act it selfe as was before shewed must needs also be able to subsist by its owne nature without the concurrence of any matter to sustaine it And therefore hee saith in the same place that the understanding is separable uncompounded impassible all arguments of immortality Other reasons are produced for the proofe hereof taken from the causes of corruption which is wrought either by Contraries working and eating out Nature or by Defect of the Preserving cause as light is decayed by absence of the Sunne or thirdly by corruption of the subject whereon it depends None whereof can be verified in the Soule For first how can any thing be contrary to the Soule which receiveth perfection from all things for Intellectus omnia intelligit saith Aristotle yea wherein all Contraries are reconciled and put off their Opposition For as a great man excellently speaketh those things which destroy one another in the World maintaine and perfect one another in the Minde one being a meanes for the clearer apprehension of the other Secondly God who is the only Efficient of the Soule being else in it selfe simple and indivisible and therefore not capable of death but only of Annihilation doth never faile and hath himselfe promised never to bring it unto nothing And lastly the Soule depends not as doe other Formes either in Operation or Being on the Body being not only Actus informans but subsistens too by its owne absolute vertue CHAP. XXXV Of the Honour of Humane Bodies by Creation by Resurrection of the Endowments of Glorified Bodies ANd now that this particular of immortality may farther redound both to the Honour and comfort of Man I must fall upon a short digression touching mans Body wherein I intend not to meddle with the Question How mans Body may be said to be made after the Image of God which sure is not any otherwise than as it is a sanctified and shall be a Blessed Vessell but not as some have conceited as if it were in Creation Imago Christi futuri nec Dei opus tantum sed Pignus As if Christ had beene the patterne of our Honour and not wee of his Infirmity since the Scripture saith Hee was made like unto us in all things and that he Assumed our Nature but never that we were but that we shall be like unto him not I say to meddle with this I will only briefly consider the Dignity thereof in the particular of immortality both in the first structure and in the last Resurrection of it The Creation of our Bodies and the Redemption of our Bodies as the Apostle calls it What Immunity was at first given and what Honour shall at last be restored to it In which latter sense it shall certainly be Secundum Imaginem after his Image who was Primitiae the First fruits of them that rise That as in his Humility his Glory was hid in our Mortality so in our Exaltation our Mortality shall be swallowed up of his Glory And for the first estate of Mans Body we conclude in a word that it was partly Mortall and partly Immortall Mortall in regard of possibility of Dying because it was affected with the mutuall Action and Passion of corruptible elements for which reason it stood in need of reparation and recovery of it selfe by food as being still Corpus Animale and not Spirituale as St. Paul distinguisheth a Naturall but not a Spirituall Body But it was Immortall that is Exempted from the Law of Death and Dissolution of the Elements in vertue of Gods Covenant with man upon condition of his Obedience It was Mortall Conditione Corporis by the Condition of a Body but immortall Beneficio Conditoris by the Benefit of its Creation else God had planted in the Soule such naturall desires of a Body wherein to work as could not be naturally attained For the Soule did naturally desire to remaine still in the body In the naturall Body of Adam there was no sin and therefore no death which is the wages of sinne I come now to the Redemption of our Bodies already performed in Pignore in Primiâ—…its In our Head in some few of his Members Enoch Ellas and as is probable in those dead Bodies which arose to testifie the Divine power of our crucified Saviour and shall be totally accomplished at that day of Redemption as the same Apostle calls the Last day that day of a full and finall Redemption when Death the last enemy shall be overcome And well may it be called a day of Redemption not only in regard of the Creature which yet groaneth under the Malediction and Tyrannie of sinfull Man nor yet only in respect of Mans Soule which though it be before admitted unto the purchased Possession of the Glorifying Vision and lives no more by Faith alone but by sight shall yet then receive a more abundant fulnesse thereof as being the day of the Manifestation and plenary discovery both of the Punishing Glory of God in the Wicked and of his Merciful and Admirable Glory in the Saints but also and as I think most especially in respect of the Body For there is by vertue of that Omnipotent Sacrifice a double kinde of Redemption wrought for us The one Vindicative giving us Immunity from all spirituall dangers delivering us from the Tyrannie of our Enemies from the Severity Justice and Curse of the Law which is commonly in the New Testament called simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Deliverance from evill The other Purchasing or Munificent by not only freeing us from our own wretchednesse but farther conferring upon us a Positive and a Glorious Honour which St. Iohn calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Power Priviledge Prerogative and Title unto all the Glorious Promises of Immortality which like wise St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Redemption of a purchased Possession and a Redemption unto the Adoption of Sonnes Now then the Last day is not Totally and Perfectly a day of Redemption unto our Soules in either of these
an Itch or Vicer in the Body which is with the same nayles both angered and delighted and hath no pleasure but with vexation Thirdly they are ever attended with Repentance both because in promises they disappoint and in performances they deceive and when they make offers of pleasure do expire in pains as those delicates which are sweet in the mouth are many times heavy in the stomacke and after they have pleased the Palat doe torment the bowels The Minde surfets on nothing sooner than on unnaturall Desires Fourthly for this reason they are ever changing and making new experiments as weake and wanton stomacks which are presently cloy'd with an uniforme dyet and must have not onely a painefull but a witty Cooke whose inventions may be able with new varieties to gratifie and humour the nicenesse of their appetite As Nero had an officer who was called Elegantiae Arbiter the inventor of new Lusts for him Lastly unlimited Desires are for the most part Envious and Malignant For he who desires every thing cannot chuse but repine to see another have that which himselfe wanteth And therefore Dionysius the Tyrant did punish Philoxenus the Musitian because he could sing and Plato the Philosopher because he could dispute better than himselfe In which respect hee did wisely who was contented not to be esteemed a better Orator than he who could command thirty legions Secondly unbounded Desires doe worke Anxiety and Perturbation of Minde and by that means disappoint Nature of that proper end which this Passion was ordained unto namely to be a means of obtaining some further good whereas those Desires which are in their executions Turbid or in their continuance Permanent are no more likely to lead unto some farther end than either a misty and darke or a winding and circular way is to bring a Man at last unto his journeyes end whereof the one is dangerous the other vaine And together with this they doe distract our noble Cares and quite avert our thoughts from more high and holy desires Martha her Many things and Maries One thing will very hardly consist together Lastly there is one Corruption more in these unlimited Desires they make a man unthankfull for former benefits as first because Caduca memoria fâ—…turo imminentium It is a strong presumption that he seldome looks backe upon what is past who is earnest in pursuing some thing to come It is S. Pauls Profession and Argument in a matter of greater consequence I forget those things which are behind and reach forth unto those things which are before And secondly though a man should looke backe yet the thoughts of such a benefit would be but sleight and vanishing because the Mind finding present content in the liberty of a roving Desire is marvellous unwilling to give permanent entertainment unto thoughts of another Nature which likewise were they entertained would be rather thoughts of murmuring than of thankful fulnesse every such man being willing rather to conceive the benefit small than to acknowledge the vice and vastnesse of his owne Desires The next rule which I observed for the government of these Passions do respect those Higher and more glorious Objects of Mans Felicity And herein 1 Our Desires are not to be Wavering and In constant but Resolute and full of Quicknesse and Perseverance First because though we be poore and shallow vessels yet so narrow and almost shut up are those passages by which wee should give admittance unto the matter of our true happines yea so full are we already of contrary qualities as that our greatest vehemency wil not be enough either to empty our selves of the one or to fill our selves with the other And therefore the true Desires of this Nature are in the Scripture set forth by the most patheticall and strong similitudes of Hunger and Thirst and those not common neither but by the pantâ—…ng of a tyred Hart after the rivers of water and the gaping of the dry ground after a seasonable showre Secondly overy desirable Object the higher it goes is ever the more united within it selfe and drives the faster unto an unity It is the property of Errours to be at variance whereas Truth is One and all the parts thereof doe mutually strengthen and give light unto each other So likewise in things Good the more noble the more knit they are Scelera disiâ—…dent It is for sinnes to be at variance amongst themselves And those lower Goods of Riches Pleasure Nobility Beauty though they are not Incomparable yet they have no naturall Connexion to each other have therfore the lesse power to draw a conslaâ—… and continued Desire But for nobler and immateriall goods wee see how the Philosopher hath observed a connextion betweene all his morall vertues whereby a man that hath one is naturally drawne to a desire of all the rest for the minde being once acquainted with the sweetnes of one doth not onely apprehend the same sweetnesse in the others but besides findeth it selfe not sufficiently possest of that which it hath unlesse it bee thereby drawne to procure the rest all whose properties it is by an excellent mutuall service to give light and lustre strength and validity and in some sort greater Vnity unto each other And lastly for the highest and divinest good the truth of Religion that is in it selfe most of all other One as being a Beame of that Light and Revelation of that Will which is Vnity it selfe And therefore though we distinguish the Creed into twelve Articles yet Saint Paul calleth them all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Faith as having but one Lord for the Object and End of them Now then where the parts of good are so united as that the one draweth on the other there is manifestly required united desire to carry the soule thereunto II. The last Rule which I observed was that our Desires ought not to bee faint and sluggish but industrious and painefull both for the arming us to avoid and withstand all oppositions and difficulties which we are every where likely to meet withall in the pursuit of our happinesse and also for the wise and discreet applying of the severall furtherances requisite thereunto And indeed that is no True which is not an Operative Desire a Velleity it may be but a Will it is not For what ever a man will have hee will seek in the use of such meanes as are proper to procure it Children may wish for Mountaines of gold and Balaam may wish for an happy death and an A theist may wish for a soule as earthly in substance as in Affection but these are all the ejaculations rather of a Speculative fancie than of an industrious affection True desires as they are right in regard of their object so are they laborious in respect of their motion And therefore those which are idle and impatient of any paines which stand like the Carman in the Fable crying
derive this Nature Nature I say first fallen for unto Nature Innocent belonged Originall Righteousnesse and not Originall sinne 2. Nature derived by ordinary generation as the fruit of the loynes and of the womb For though Christ had our Nature yet hee had not our sinne 3. Nature whole and entire For neither part as some conceive is the Totall spring and fountain of this sinne For it is improbable that any staine should be transfused from the Body to the Soul as from the foule vessell to the cleane water put into it The Body it selfe being not Soly and alone in it selfe corrupt and sinfull else all Abortions and miscarrying conceptions should be subject to damnation Nothing is the seat of sin which cannot be the seat of Death the wages of sinne Originall sinne therefore most probably seemeth to arise by Emanation partiall in the parts totall in the whole from Mans Nature as guilty forsaken and accursed by God for the sinne of Adam And from the parts not considered absolutely in themselves but by vertue of their concurrence and Vnion whereby both make up one compounded Nature Though then the Soule be a partiall subject or seat of Originall sinne yet wee have not our sinne and our soule from one Author because sinne followes not the part but the Nature whole and entire And though we have not from our Parents Totum naturae yet we have totam naturam wee have our whole nature though not every part of our nature Even as whole Christ was the Son of Mary who therefore by vertue of the Communication of properties in Christ is justly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of God against the Nestorians in the Councell of Chalcedon Though in regard of his divine Nature he was without beginning the reason is because the integrity of Nature ariseth from the Vnion of the two parts together which is perfected by Generation so then wee say that Adam is the Originall and meritorious cause Our next Parents the instrumentall and immediate cause of this sinne in us not by way of Physicall Emission or Transmigration of sinne from them to us but by secret contagion as S. Augustine speaks For having in the Manner aforesaid from Adam by our Parents received a nature most justly forsaken by God and lying under the Guilt and Curse of the first praevarication from this Nature thus derived as guilty and accursed doth immediately and intimately flow Habituall pollution So then Habituall Concupiscence is from Adam alone meritoriously by reason of his first praevarication From Adam by the mediation of our Parents seminally by naturall generation And from Nature generated not as Nature but as in Adam guilty forsaken and accursed by secret and ineffable Resultancy and Emanation This is that which I conceive of this Great difficulty not unmindfull in the meane time of that speech of S. Augustine That there is nothing more certaine to be knowne and yet nothing more secret to be understood than Originall sinne For other Arguments to prove the Traduction of the Soul they are not of such moment And therefore I passe them by and proceed to the consideration of the Soule in its Nature CHAP. XXXIII Of the Image of God in the Reasonable soule in regard of its simplicity and spirituality COncerning the dignity of the soule in its nature and essence Reason hath adventured thus farre to confesse that the soule of man is in some sort a spark and beame of divine brightnesse And a greater and more infallible Oracle hath warranted that it was breathed into him by God himselfe and was made after his Image and likenesse not substantially as if there were a Real Emanation and Traduction of the Soule out of God which were blasphemous and impious to conceive but only by way of Resemblance and imitation of God properties in mans originall created nature which is more notable in him than in the otheâ—… parts of the world there is indeed in all God works some kind of image and lineaments anâ—… footsteps of his glory Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque Tractusque maris Coelumque profundum c. For all the tracts of Earth of Sea and Sky Are filled with divine immensity The whole world is a great book wherein we read the praise glory power and infinitenesse of him that made it but man is after a more peculiar manner called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the image and glory of God the greater world is only Gods workmanship wherein is represented the wisdom and power of God as in a building the Art and cunning of the workman but man in the originall purity of nature is besides that as wax wherein was more notably impressed by that divine spirit whose work it is to seale a spirituall resemblance of his owne goodnesse and sanctity Againe the greater world was never other than an Orator to set forth the power and praises of God but he made the soule of man in the beginning as it were his Oracle wherein he fastned a perfect knowledge of his law and will from the very glimpses and corrupted Reliques of which Knowledge of his Law some have beene bold to call men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the kindred of God And Senec. Liber Animus Diis cognatus which is the same with that of Aratus cited by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for wee are his off-spring yea Euripides as Tully in his * Tusculans observes was bold to call the soule of man by the name of God and Seneca will venture so farre too Quid aliud vocas animum quà m deum in humano corpore hospitantem But to forbeare such boldnesse as it may be one of the Originals of heathen Idolatry Certaine it is that there are as Tully many times divinely observes sundry similitudes betweene God and the minde of man There are indeed some Attributes of God not only incommunicable but absolutely inimitable and unshadowable by any excellency in mans soule as immensity infinitenesse omnipotency omniscience immutability impassibility and the like but whatsoever spirituall and Rationall perfections the power bounty of God conferr'd upon the soule in its first Creation are all of them so many shadowes and representations of the like but most infinite perfections in him The Properties then and Attributes of God wherein this Image chiefely consists are first these three Spirituality with the two immediate consequents thereof Simplicity and Immortality in which the soule hath partaked without any after corruption or depravation Concerning the former it were vast and needlesse to confute those sundry opinions of ancient Philosophers concerning the substance of the soule many where of Tully in the first of his Tusculans hath reported And Aristotle confuted in his first de Anima Some conceived it to be blood others the braine some fire others ayre some that it consists in Harmony and Number and the Philosopher Dicaearchus that
it was nothing at all but the body disposed and fitted for the works of life But to let these passe as unworthy of refutation and to proceed to the truth of the first property There are sundry naturall reasons to prove the Spirituality of the soule as first the manner of its working which is immateriall by conceiving objects as universall or otherwise purified from all grosnesse of matter by the Abstraction of the Active understanding whereby they are made in some sort proportionall to the nature of the Intellect Passive into which the species are impressed Secondly it s in dependance on the body in that manner of working for though the operations of the soule require the concurrence of the commonsense and imagination yet that is by way only of conveyance from the object not by way of assistance to the elicite and immediate act They only present the species they doe not qualifie the perception Phantasmata are only objecta operation is the objects they are not instrumenta operandi the instruments of the soules working The Act of understanding is immediatly from the soule without any the least concurrences of the body there unto although the things whereon that act is fixed and conversant require in this estate bodily organs to represent them unto the soule as light doth not at all concurre to the act of seeing which solely and totally floweth from the visive faculty but only serves as an extrinsecall assistance for qualification of the Medium and object that must be seene And this reason Aristotle hath used to prove that the understanding which is principally true of the whole soule is not mixt with any body but hath a nature altogether divers there-from because it hath no bodily organ as all bodily powers have by which it is enabled to the proper acts that belong unto it And hereon is grounded another reason of his to prove the Soule immateriall because it depends not on the body in its operations but educeth them immediately from within it selfe as is more manifest in the Reflexion of the soule upon its owne nature being an operation as hee expresly speaketh seperable there-from the soule being not only actus informans a forme informing for the actuating of a body and constitution of a compound substance but actus subsistens too a forme subsisting And that per se without any necessary dependance upon matter It is an act which worketh as well in the body as whereby the body worketh Another reason of Aristotle in the same place is the difference betweene Materiall and Immateriall powers For saith he all bodily cognoscitive faculties doe suffer offence and dammage from the too great excellency of their objects as the eye from the brightnesse of the Sunne the eare from the violence of a sound the touch from extremity of heat or cold and the likâ—… But the understanding on the contrary side is perfected by the worthiest contemplations and the better enabled for lower enquiries And therefore Aristotle in his Ethicks placeth the most compleat happinesse of man in those heavenly intuitions of the minde which are fastned on the divinest and most remote objects which in Religion is nothing else but a fruition of that beatificall vision which as farre as Nature goes is call'd the contemplation of the first cause and an eternall satiating the soule with beholding the Nature Essence and glory of God Another reason may be drawn from the condition of the Vnderstandings Objects which have so much the greater conformity to the soule by how much the more they are divine and abstracted Hoc habet animus argumentum suae divinitatis saith Seneca quòd illum divina delectam This argument of its divinenesse hath the minde of man that it is delighted with divine things for if the soule were corporeal it could not possibly reach to the knowledge of any but materiall substances and those that were of its owne Nature otherwise we might as well see Angels with our eyes as understand any thing of them in our minds And the ground of this reason is that axiome in Philosophy that all reception is ad modum recipientis according to the proportion and capacity of the receiver And that the objects which are spirituall and divine have greatest proportion to the soule of man is evident in his Understanding and his will both which are in regard of truth or good unsatisfiable by any materiall or worldly objects the one never resting in enquiry till it attaine the perfect knowledge the other never replenished in desire till it be admitted unto the perfect possession of the most divine and spirituall good to wit of him who is the first of Causes and the last of Ends. From this Attribute of Spirituality flowes immediatly that next of Simplicity Vnity or Actuality for Matter is the root of all perfect composition every Compound consisting of two Essentiall parts matter and forme I exclude not from the Soule all manner of composition for it is proper to God only to be absolutely and perfectly simple But I exclude all Essentiall composition in respect whereof the Soule is meerely Actuall And so I understand that of Tully Nihil est Animus admixtum nihil concretum nihil copulatum nihil coagmentatum nihil duplex CHAP. XXXIV Of the Soules immortality proved by its simplicity independance agreement of Nations in acknowledging God and duties due unto him dignity above other Creatures power of understanding things immortall unsatiablenesse by objects Mortall freenesse from all causes of corruption ANd from this Simplicity followes by a necessary unavoydable consequence the third property spoken of Immortality it being absolutely impossible as Tully excellently observes it is the argument of Iul. Scaliger on this very occasion for any simple and uncompounded Nature to be subject to death and corruption For saith Tully Interitus est discessus secretio ac direptus earum partium quae conjunctione â—…liqua tenebantur It is a separation and as it were a divulsion of parts before united each to other so that where there is no Union there can be no separation and by consequence no death nor mortality Another reason may be the same which was alledged for the spirituality of the soule namely independance in operation and therefore consequently in Being upon the body And that Independance is manifest First because the acts of the soule are educ'd immediately in it selfe without the Intercedence of any organ whereby sensitive faculties work Secondly because the soule can perceive and have the knowledge of truth of universals of it selfe of Angels of God can assent discourse abstract censure invent contrive and the like none of which actions could any wayes be produced by the Intrinsecall concurrence of any materiall faculty Thirdly because in Raptures and Extasies the soule is as it were drawne up above and from the body though not from informing it yet certainely from borrowing from it any assistance to the
produceing of its operation All which prove that the soule is separable from the body in its Nature and therefore that it is not corrupt and mortall as the body Another reason may be taken from the Universall agreement of all Nations in the Earth in Religion and the worship of some Deity which cannot but be raised out of a hope and secret Resolution that that God whom they worshipped would reward their piety if not here yet in another life Nulla gens adeo extra leges est projectâ—… ut non aliquos deos credat saith Seneca whence those fictious of the Poets touching Elyzium and fields of happinesse for men of honest and well ordered lives and places of Torment for those that doe any way neglect the bonds of their Religion Ergo exercentur poenis veterumque malorum Supplicia expendunt Therefore they exercised are with paine And punishments of former crimes sustaine For in this life it is many times in all places seene that those which have given themselves most liberty in contempt of Gods Lawes and have suffered themselves to be carried by the swinge of their owne rebellious Passions unto all injurious ambitious unruly Practises have commonly raised themselves and their fortunes more than others who out of tendernesse and feare have followed no courses but those which are allowed them And yet these men who suffer so many indignities out of regard to Religion doe still observe their duties and in the midst of all contempt and reproach fly into the bosome of their God And as Lucretius himselfe that Arch-Atheist confesseth of them Multò in rebus acerbis Acriâ—…s advertunt animos ad religionem Their hearts in greatest bitternesse of minde Unto Religion are the more enclinde Their very terrors and troubles make them more zealous in acknowledging some Deity and in the worship of it Hic Pietatis hâ—…s would not this easily have melted their Religion into nothing and quite diverted their minds from so fruitlesse a severity had they not had a strong and indeleble perswasion fastned in their soules that a state would come where in both their Patience should be rewarded and the insolencie of their Adversaries repayed with the just Vengeance they had deserved As for that Atheisticall conceit that Religion is only grounded on Policie and maintained by Princes for the better Tranquillity and Setlednesse of their States making it to be only Imperiorum Vinculum a Bond of Government that the Common-weale might not suffer from the fury of minds secure from all Religion it is a fancie no lesse absurd than it is impious For that which hath not only beene observed and honour'd by those who have scarce had any forme of a civill Regiment amongst them but even generally assented unto by the opinions and practice of the whole world is not a Law of Policie and civill Institution but an inbred and secret Law of Nature dictated by the consciences of men and assented unto without and above any humane imposition Nor else is it possible for Legall institutions and the closest and most intricate conveyances of Humane Policy so much to entangle the hearts of men of themselves enclinable to liberty nor to fetter their consciences as thereby only to bring them to a regular conformity unto all government for feare of such a God to whose Infinitnesse Power and Majestie they Assent by none but a civill Tradition It must be a visible character of a Deitie acknowledged in the Soule an irresistible Principle in Nature and the secret witnesse of the heart of man that must constraine it unto those sundry religious ceremonies observed among all Nations wherein even in places of Idolatry were some so irksome and repugnant to Nature and others so voyd of Reason as that nothing but a firme and deepe Assurance of a Divine Judgement and of their owne Immortality could ever have impos'd them upon their consciences And besides this consent of men unto Religion in generall we finde it also unto this one part hereof touching the Soules immortality All the wisest and best reputed Philosophes for Learning and stayednesse of life and besides them even Barbarians Infidels and savage people have discerned it Adeò nescio quo modâ—… inhaeret in menibus quasi seculorum quoddam augurium futurorum saith Tully The Soule hath a kinde of presage of a future world And therefore he saith that it is in mans Body a Tenant tanquam in dome alâ—…enâ as in anothers house And is only in Heaven as a Lord tanquam in domo suâ as in its owne Though in the former of these the ignorance of the Resurrection made him erre touching the future condition of the Body wherein indeed consists a maine dignity of Man above other creatures And this Opinion it is which he saith was the ground of all that care men had for posterity to sow and plant Common-wealths to ordaine Lawes to establish formes of Government to erect Foundations and Societies to hazard their Blood for the good of their Country all which could not have beene done with such freedome of Spirit and prodigality of life unlesse there were withall a conceit that the good thereof would some way or other redound to the contentment of the Authors themselves after this life for it was a speech savouring of infinite Atheisme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When I am dead and in mine Vâ—…ne What care I though the World burns Now although against this present Reason drawne from the consent of men which yet Heathens themselves have used It may be alledged that there hath beene a consent likewise of some That the Soule is nothing else but the Eucrasie or good Temperature of the Body and that it is therefore subject to those Maladies Distempers Age Sicknesse and at last Death which the Body is as amongst the rest Lucretius takes much paines to prove yet the Truth is that is Votum magic quà m Iudicium never any firme opinion grounded on Judgement and Reason but rather a desire of the heart and a perswasion of the Will inticing the Understanding so to determine For the conscience of lewd Epicures and sensuall minds being sometimes frighted with the flashes and apprehensions of Immortality which often times pursues them and obtrudes it selfe upon them against their wills shining like lightning through the chinks crevises as I may so speak of their Soules which are of set purpose closed against all such light sets the Reason on work to invent arguments for the contrary side that sâ—… their staggering and fearefull impiety may bâ—… something emboldned and the Eye of their conscience blinded and the Mouth mustled from breathing forth those secret clamors and shrikes of feare The Deniall then of the Immortality of the Soule is rather a Wish than an Opinion a corruption of the Heart and Will than any Naturall Assertion of the understanding which cannot but out of the footsteps and reliques of those first sacred Impressions acknowledge a spirituall
senses since they are in this life delivered from the Malediction of the Law from the Wrath of the Judge from the Tyrannie of the Enemie from the Raigne of Sinne and by Death freed not only from the Dominion but from the Possession or Assault of the Enemie not only from the Kingdome but from the Body of Sinne and is withall in good part possessed of that Blisse which it shall more fully enjoy at last But our Bodies though before that Great day they partake much of the benefits of Redemption as being here sanctified vessells freed from the Authority and Power of the Devill World Flesh and from the Curse of Death too wherein they part not only with life but with sinne yet after all this doe they want some part of either Redemption as namely to be raised and delivered from that dishonour and corruption which the last Enemie hath brought upon them and to be Admitted into those Mansions and invested with that Glory whereby they shall be Totally possessed of their Redemption In a word the Soule is in its separation fully delivered from all Enemies which is the first and in a great measure enjoyeth the Vision of God which is the second part or degree of mans Redemption But the Body is not till its Resurrection either quite freed from its Enemie or at all possessed of its Glory I meane in its selfe though it be in its Head who is Primitiae P◅gnus Resurrectionis the first fruits and earnest of our Conquest over Death Touching the Dignity of our Bodies though there be more comfort to be had in the Expectation than Curiosity in the enquirie after it yet what is usually granted I shall briefly set down And first it shall be Raised a whole entire and perfect Body with all the parts best fitted to be Receptacles of Glory freed from all either the Usherers in or Attendants and followers on the Grave Age Infirmity Sicknesse Corruption Ignominie and Dishonour And shall rise a true whole strong and honourable Body For though every part of the Body shall not have those peculiar uses which here they have since they neither eat nor drink marry nor are given in marriage but are as the Angels of God yet shall not any part be lost Licet enim officiis liberentur judiciis re◅inentur Though they are freed from their Temporall service for which they were here ordained yet must they be reserved for receiving their judgment whether it be unto Glory or unto Dishonour The second Dignity is that Change and Alteration of our Body from a Naturall to a Spirituall Body whereby is not meant any Transubstantiation from a Corporeall to a Spirituall substance For our Bodies shall after the Resurrection be conformable unto Christs body which though glorious was not yet a Spirit but had flesh and bone as we have Nor is it to be understood of a thinne Aereall Invisible Body as some have collected since Christ saith of his Body after he was risen Videte Palpate Wheresoever it is it hath both its quantity and all sensible qualities of a Body Glorified with it It is a strong Argument that it is not there where it is not sensible And therefore the Doctrines of Vbiquity and Transubstantiation as they give Christ more thā he is pleased to owne an Immensity of Body so doe they spoyle him of that which hee hath beene pleased for our sakes to assume Extension Compacture Massinesse Visibility and other the like sensible Properties which cannot stand with that pretended miracle whereby they make Christs Body even now a Creature and like unto ours in substance though not in qualities of Corruptibility Infirmity Ignominie Animality to be truly invested with the very immediate properties of the Deity True indeed it is that the Body of Christ hath an efficacie and operation in all parts of the world it worketh in Heaven with God the Father by Intercession amongst the blessed Angels by Confirmation in Earth and that in all ages and in all places amongst Men by Justification and Comfort in Hell amongst the Devils and Damned by the Tremblings and Feares of a condemning and convicting Faith But Operation requireth only a presence of Vertue not of Substance For doth not the Sunne work wonderfull effects in the bowels of the Earth it selfe notwithstanding being a fixed Planet in the Heaven And why should not the Sunne of Righteousnesse work as much at the like distance as the Sunne of Nature Why should he not be as Powerfull Absent as he was Hoped Or why should the Not presence of his Body make that uneffectuall now which the Not existing could not before his Incarnation Why should we mistrust the Eyes of Stephen that saw him in Heaven at such a Distance of place when Abraham could see him in his own bowels through so great a Distance of Time That Speech then that the Body shall be a Spirituall Body is not to be understood in either of those former senses but it is to be understood first of the more immediate Union and full Inhabitation of the vertue and vigour of Gods Spirit in our Bodies quickning and for ever sustaining them without any Assistance of Naturall or Animall qualities for the repairing and augmenting of them in recompence of that which by labour and infirmity and the naturall opposition of the Elements is daily diminished Secondly it shall be so called in regard of its Obedience Totall Subjection to the Spirit of God without any manner of Reluctance and dislike Thirdly in respect of those Spirituall qualities those Prerogatives of the Flesh with which it shall be adorned which are First a Shining and Glorious Light wherewithall it shall be cloathed as with a Garment for the Iust shall shine as the Sunne in the Firmament Now this shal be wrought first by vertue of that Communion which wee have with Christ our Head whose Body even in its Mortality did shine like the Sunne and had his cloathes white as light And secondly by diffusion and Redundancie from our Soule upon our Body which by the Beatificall Vision filled with a Spirituall and unconceiveable brightnesse shall work upon the Body as on a Subject made throughly Obedient to its Power unto the Production of alike qualities The second Spirituall Property shall be Impassibility not in respect of Perfective but in respect of annoying disquieting or destructive Passion There shall not be any Warre in the members any fighting and mutuall languishing of the Elements but they shall all be sustained in their full strength by vertue of Christs Communion of the Inhabitation of the Spirit of the Dominion of the Glorified Soule There shall be no need of rest or sleepe or meat all which are here requisite for the supply of our Infirmities and daily defects and are only the Comforts of Pilgrimage not the Blessednesse of Possession For although Christ after his Resurrection did eat before his Disciples yet this was none otherwise done than that other
any the least Prints of those Pure and Divine Impressions of Originall Righteousnesse yet still there remaines even in depraved and Polluted Nature fome shadowes thereof There is stil the Opus Operatum in many Actions of Mortality though the Obliquity of the Heart and Ignorance of the true end whether it should be directed take away the Goodnesse and the Sanctity thereof The top and highest pitch of Nature toucheth the hemme and lowest of Grace We have in us the Testimonies though not the Goodnesse of our first estate the Ruines of a Temple to be lamented though not the holy Places thereof to be Inhabited It is true indeed those great endowments of the most severe and illightned Heathen were indeed but glorious miseries and withered Vertues in that they proceeded from a depraved Nature and aymed at sinister and false ends yet withall both the corruption of them proves their praecedent losse which also the Heathen themselves espied in their distinction of Ages into Golden and Iron times And likewise the pursuit and practice of them though weak imperfect corrupt imply manifestly that there was much more an Originall Aspiring of Nature in her perfection to be like her Maker in an absolute and universall Purity Now in this Rectitude and Perfect Regularity of the Soule in this divine Habit of Originall Justice did man most eminently beare the Image and Signature of God on him And therefore notwithstanding we continue still Immortall Spirituall Reasonable yet we are said to have defaced that Image in us by our hereditary Pollution And hee alwayes recovereth most thereof who in the greatest measure repaireth the ruines and vindicateth the Lapses of his decayed estate unto that prime Originall Purity wherein he was Created These are the Dignities of the Soule considered wholy in it selfe In all which it farre surmounts the greatest perfections which the Body or any Faculty thereof are endowed withall And yet such is the preposterous and unnaturall basenesse of many men that they are content to make their Soules vassals to their owne Servant How do they force their Understandings which in their owne worthiest objects those deepe and Divine Contemplations are as drowzie as Endymion to spend and waste themselves in proud luxurious vanishing Inventions How doe they enthrall that Supreame and Architectonicall Power in Mans little World his Will to the Tyrannie of slavish appetite and sensuall desires as if they served here but as Cookes to dresse their owne Bodies for the Wormes Strange is it that Man conscious to himselfe of Immortality and of an Heroicall and Heavenly complexion that hath received such immediate Impressions of God and is the very Modell of all Natures Perfections should so much degrade himselfe as to doat only on that part which is the vassall and slave of Death If there were no other mischife which sinne did the Soule but to debase it even that were argument sufficient for noble spirits to have it in detestation For man being in honour and which understandeth not is like the beasts that perish CHAP. XXXVII Of the Faculty of Vnderstanding Its operations outward upon the Object Inward upon the Will Of Knowledge What it is The naturall Desire and Love of it Apprehension Iudgement Retention requisite unto right Knowledge Severall kindes of Knowledge The Originall Knowledge given unto Man in his Creation The Benefits of Knowledge Of Ignorance Naturall Voluntary Penall Of Curiosity Of Opinion the Causes of it Disproportion betweene the Object and the Faculty and an Acute Versatilousnesse of Conceits The benefit of Modest Hesitancie NOw it followes to speak of the parts or principall powers of the Soule which are the Vnderstanding and the Will Concerning the Understanding the Dignity thereof though it may partly be perceived in the Latitude and excellent Variety of its Objects being the whole world of things for Ens Intelligibile are reciprocall omnia intelligit saith Aristotle of the understanding yet principally it proceeds from the Operations of it both Ad extra in respect of the Objects and ad intra in respect of the Will The one is a Contemplative the other a more Practique office whereby the speculations of the former are accommodated unto any either Morall or Civill Actions Those which respect the Objects are either Passive or Active Operations Passive I call those first Perceptions and apprehensions of the Soule whereby it receiveth the simple species of some Object from immediate Impression thereof by the Ministry of the Soule as when I understand one Object to be a Man another a Tree by Administration and Assistance of the Eye which presents the Species of either Another sort of Passive Operations that is of such as are grounded on Impressions received from Objects are mixed Operations of Compounding Dividing Collecting Concluding which wee call Discourse Of all which to speake according to their Logicall Nature would be impertinent Their Excellencie chiefly stands in the End whereunto they move and serve which is Knowledge of the which I shall therefore here speak a few things Knowledge is the Assimilation of the Understanding unto the things which it understandeth by those Intelligible Species which doe Irrâ—…diate it and put the power of it into Act. For as the beames of the Sunne shining on a glasse doe there work the Image of the Sunne so the species and resemblances of things being convayed on the Understanding doe there work their owne Image In which respect the Philosopher saith That the Intellect becommeth All things by being capable of proper impressions from them As in a Painters Table wee call that a face a hand a foot a tree which is the lively Image and Representation of such things unto the eye There is not any Desire more noble nor more Naturall unto a Man who hath not like Saul hid himselfe amongst the stuffe and lost himselfe in the Low and perishing provisions for Lust than is this Desire of Knowledge Nature dictating to every Creature to be more intent upon its Specificall than upon its Genericall perfection And hence it is that though Man be perfectest of all Creatures yet many doe excell him in sensitive Perfection Some in exquisitenesse of Sight others of Hearing others of Tast Touch and Smell others of Swiftnesse and of Strength Nature thereby teaching us to imitate her in perfecting and supplying of our Desires not to terminate them there where when wee have made the best Provision wee can many Beasts will surpasse us but to direct our Diligence most to the improving of our owne specificall and rationall perfection to wit our Understandings Other Faculties are tyred and will be apt to nauseate and surfet on their Objects But Knowledge as knowledge doth never either burden or cloy the Minde no more than a Covetous man is wearied with growing Rich And therefore the Philosopher telleth us that Knowledge is the Rest of the Vnderstanding wherein it taketh delight as a Thing in its naturall Place And so
Inquiry but Iudgement is the Ballace to Poise and the Steere to guide the course to it s intended End Now the manner of the Iudgements Operation in directing either our Practise or Contemplation is by a discourse of the Mind whereby it â—…educeth them to certaine Grounds and Principles whereunto they ought chiefly to be conformable And from hence is that Reason which Quintilian observes why shallow and floating Wits seeme oftentimes more fluent than men of greater sufficiencies For saith he those other admit of every sudden flash or Conceipt without any Examination but apud Sapientes est â—…lectio Modus They first weigh things before they utter thâ—…m The maine Corruption of Iudgement in this Office is Prejudice and Prepossession The Duty of Iudgement is to discerne between Obliquities and right Actions and to reduce all to the Law of Reason And therefore t is true in this as in the course of publique Iudgements That respect of persons or things blind the Eyes and maketh the Vnderstanding to determine according to Affection and not according to Truth Though indeed some Passions there are which rather hood-winke then distemper or hurt the Iudgement so that the false determination thereof cannot bee well called a Mistake but a Lye Of which kind flattery is the principall when the Affections of Hope and Feare debase a man and cause him to dissemble his owne opinion CHAP. XL. Of the Actions of the Vnderstanding upon the Will with respect to the End and Means The Power of the Vnderstanding over the Will not Commanding but directing the Objects of the Will to bee good and convenient Corrupt Will lookes only at Good present Two Acts of the Vnderstanding Knowledge and Consideration It must also be possible and with respect to happinesse Immortall Ignorance and Weaknesse in the Understanding in proposing the right means to the last End HItherto of the Actions of the Vnderstanding Ad extra in regard of an Object Those Ad Intra in regard of the Will Wherein the Vnderstanding is a Minister oâ—… Counsellor to it are either to furnish it with an End whereon to fasten its desires or to direct it in the means conducible to that end For the Will alone is a blind Faculty and therefore as it cannot see the right Good it ought to affect without the Assistance of an Informing Power So neither can it see the right way it ought to take for procuring that Good without the direction of a Conducting power As it hath not Iudgment to discover an End So neither hath it Discourse to judge of the right Means whereby that may be attained So that all the Acts of the Will necessarily presuppose some precedent guiding Acts in the Vnderstanding whereby they are pro portioned to the Rules of right Reason This Operation of the Vnderstanding is usually by the Schoole-men called Imperium or Mandatum a Mandate or Command because it is a Precept to which the will ought to be obedient For the Rules of Living and Doing well are the Statutes as it were and Dictates of right Reason But yet it may not hence be concluded that the Vnderstanding hath any Superiority in regard of Dominion over the Will though it have Priority in regard of Operation The Power of the Vnderstanding over the Will is onely a Regulating and Directing it is no Constraining or Compulsive Power For the Will alwaies is Domina sâ—…orum actuum The Mistresse of her owne Operation For Intellectus non imperat sed solummâ—…dò significat voluntatem imperantis It doth only intimate unto the Will the Pleasure and Law of God some seeds whereof remaine in the Nature of man The Precepts then of right Reason are not therefore Commands because they are proposed by way of Man date but therfore they are in that manner proposed because they are by Reason apprehended to be the Commands of a Divine Superior Power And therefore in the breach of any such Dictates we are not said properly to offend our Vnderstanding but to sinne against our Law giver As in Civill Policy the offences of men are not against inferiour Officers but against that soveraigne Power which is the Fountaine of Law and under whose Authority all subordinate Magistrates have their proportion of government Besides Ejus est imperare Cujus est punire For Law and Punishment being Relatives and mutually connotating each the other it must necessarily follow that from that power only canbe an imposition of law from which may be an Infliction of Punishment Now the Condition under which the Vnderstanding is both to apprehend and propose any either end or means convenient to the Nature of the Will and of Sufficiency to move it are that they have in them Goodnesse Possibility and in the end if we speak of an utmost one Immortality too Every true Object of any Power is that which beareth such a perfect Relation of convenience fitnes therunto that it is able to accomplish all its desires Now since Malum is Destructâ—…vum all Evill is Destructive It is impossible that by it selfe without a counterfeit and adulterate face it should ever have any Attractive Power over the Desires of the Will And on the other side since Omne bonum is Perfectivum since Good is perfective and apt to bring reall satisfaction along with it most certainly would it be desired by the Will were it not that our Vnderstandings are clouded and carried away with some crooked misapprehensions and the Will it selfe corrupted in its owne Inelinations But yet though all mans Faculties are so depraved that he is not able as he ought to will any Divine and Perfect Good yet so much he retains of his Perfection as that he cannot possibly desire any thing which he apprehends as absolutely disagreeable destructive to his Nature since all Naturall Agents ayme still at their owne Perfection And therefore impossible it is that either Good should be refused without any apprehension of Disconvenience or Evill pursued without any appearance of Congruity or Satisfaction That it may appeare therefore how the Vnderstanding doth alwaies propose those Objects as Good to the Will which are notwithstanding not only in their owne Nature but in the Apprehension of the Vnderstanding it selfe knowne to be evill And on the contrary why it doth propose good Objects contrary to its owne Knowledge as Evill We may distinguish two opposite conditions in Good and Evill For first all Evill of Sin though it have Disconvenience to mans Nature as it is Destructive yet on the other side it hath agreement thereunto as it is crooked and corrupt As continuall drinking is most convenient to the distemper of an Hydropticke Body though most disconvenient to its present welfare Now then as no man possessed with that disease desires drinke for this end because he would dye though he know that this is the next way to bring him to his Death but only to give satisfaction to his present Appetite So neither doth man