this world you will easily beleive that it is free from the pains of the other world also Heaven were not Heaven if there could be any danger of the second Death or if the pains of Hell might interrupt the delights and Gloryes of the Blessed there The prophet Esay telleth us indeed that there is a Tophet prepared of Old Esay 30.33 and our Savior that there is an everlasting fire prepared for the Divell and his Angels Math. 25.41 a Torment that as St John speaks shall neither have End nor Intermission Rev. 14.11 The smoke of their Torment saith he shall ascend up for ever and ever and they shall have no Rest day nor night The Eternity of this Torment is sufficiently asserted and proved by the Fathers in Opposition to the Heresy of Origen which same proofs may serve to convince all Hereticks and Men of loose principles that now endeavor to Renew the same pernicious doctrine I gave you a particular of them with Answers to the matters objected in another Discourse when I commended unto you the fear and dread of God even of that God who as our Savior declareth is able to cast both Soul and Body into Hell fire And I shall not repeat now what I delivered then It then being granted that the condition of the second Death and the pains of Hell therein are very dreadfull it will be a doctrine worthy of our acceptance that those who are accounted worthy to wear the livery of Christ and to be Citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem shall have security from those pains also David speaks it as well of Himself as of Christ Thou shalt not leave my Soul in Hell For the Souls of the Just are all in the hand of God and no Torment shall touch them Wisd 3.1 The Plagues of Egypt shall not bee seen in Goshen Our Savior who knowes it best hath described unto us the management of that whole affaire and the different portions of the good and the bad Math. 25.30 When saith he the son of Man shall come in his glory and all his Angels with Him All Nations shall be gathered before his Throne and He shall separate the good from the bad as a shepheard separates his sheep from the Goates The good he shall blesse and receive into his own kingdome but unto the wicked shall this sentence be Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divell and his Angels so these shall go into everlasting punishment and the Righteous into life everlasting Give me leave to adde one Observation more It is this That though the damned shall have a sight of Heaven and of the state of Glory yet that sight shall be so far from being any comfort or refreshment to them that it shall greatly augment their torment For that sight shall Cause envy and we know that Envy naturally causeth greif There shall be as our blessed redeemer testifieth weeping and gnashing of Teeth when they shall see Abraham and Isaak and Jacob in the kingdome of God and themselves thrust out This very Circumstance of their seeing Abraham and Isaak and Jacob and the whole company of the professors of Religion men whom they formerly contemned and despised in the possession of that Glorious Happinesse and themselves with all their wisdome and Policy thrust out and excluded this uncomfortable Contemplation shall cause no small accession to their torment Secondly though the blessed have seen sorrow for the time past and shall then see the horror of Hell before their eyes Yet both the Remembrance of the one and the sight of the other shall be so far from causing greif and sadnesse in them that these Contemplations shall greatly augment their Joy Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora Nautis E Terrâ alterius magnum spectare laborem Non quia Vexari quenquam est jucunda voluptas Sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suave est It is a delight saith Lucretius for one that hath escaped to the shore to look back upon the Tempest and to see it break the masts and tear the Sails and create trouble to the mariners who are yet toss't like a Tennis on the waves Not that it is a pleasure for one man to see another toyld but a joy to stand in security and to view so great a danger that He himself in his own particular hath so neerly escaped So likewise the Blessed in Heaven when they are secured in their own particulars then shall they with pleasure remember all the troubles and greifs that they have waded through in the life past and with pleasure look upon the pains of Hell which they see other plunged into but themselves have by the Mercy of God so strangely escaped and thence even from this consideration shall they take Occasion to sing praises to Him who hath placed them in a blessed estate not obnoxious to any of their former greifs and hath also redeemed them from the dreadfull Region of darknesse and brought them to his own marvellous light And now the summe of what I have discours'd is this That there is nothing more desireable to mankind in generall than joy or Happinesse That the greater joy is by all wise men to be prefer'd before the lesse That to the greatest possible joy besides other requisites the absence of all greif is required That the estate of Glory hath this requisite First it is free from all those cares and greifs and pains to which we are here obnoxious by reason of our Bodies For the proof of which I shewed you in particular That though the usuall cares and pains to which we are here obnoxious by reason of our mortality are of Use and necessity in this present world Yet they have no Use nor place nor possibility in the state of Glory Then I shewd you that there shall be none of those pains in Heaven that are purely mentall and last of all That though after this life there is a Tophet of everlasting punishment prepar'd yet that the pains thereof shall not touch the blessed but that the contemplation of them shall even augment their Joy All this have I done to prove that the first condition namely Indolence or security from greifs is one part of the portion of Religious and good men in Heaven But this is but the Negative part but the removing of the Rubbish that there may be a good foundation laid for the superstructure of Happinesse When I shall draw the next Curtain I shall shew You that I may further provoke You to the practice of a Religious and Vertuous life The Glory of the Mansion it self the joy of Heaven the fullnesse of that joy the pleasures of that state even those pleasures that the Psalmist affirmes shall last for evermore Now let the great God of his infinite mercy pardon our sins and purify our hearts and make us first as desirous of his Rewards in Heaven as they are worthy of our Desire then let Him
Brain and that in these folds Memory and reminiscence is performed Yet here the main Questions concerning Memory remain still unexplained Namely how notwithstanding the continued wasting of the parts of the Brain and the supply of fresh parts in their Room and notwithstanding the confluence of all the vast variety of new Impressions yet the memory of the same things continues so many yeares if there be nothing but a transient Elementary matter to be the subject of these Memories Secondly it neither is nor do I ever expect to see it explained how within those Folds Light or Air or Fire or any Elementary Body should be able to Remember or Recollect when neither Fire nor Air nor Light in any other place ever appear'd to have any Faculties in any particulars like those mention'd Wee believe there is a Soul of Man that goeth upward and the Soul of a beast that goeth downward But let none of our Materialists in Philosophy boast that they have demonstrated how either of these Souls can performe its meanest Operations if to speak in Opposition to the Elements it be not a Quintessence somewhat above these Materiall Natures His enim Naturis I must repeat Ciceroes words Nihil inest quod vim Memoriae Mentis Cogitationis habeat Another of Cicero's arguments is this Quod sapit Other old Arguments for the souls immortality from its simplicity causality of its own motions and longings after eternity divinum est To be wise implieth a high and noble Intellect and is a faculty fit not for a corporeall and Elementary but for an excellent pure and simple essence and if it bee not of an Elementary but of a pure and simple Nature it must consequently be eternall Dubitare non possumus quin nihil sit animis admixtum nihil copulatum nihil duplex quod cum ita sit certe nec secerni nec dividi dec discerpi nec distrahi potest Nec interi re igitur Est enim Interitus quasi discessus secretio direptio earū partiū quae ante interitum junctione aliqua teneban tur Cicero Tusc Quaefi lib. 1. It is not to be doubted saith he that the Soul is an incomplex't Being such a one as is not mixt nor join'd nor doubled in its composure Which being so the parts of it can never be divided or sever'd one from another and consequently it can never dye because Death is but a separation of those parts that before Death were in conjuncture Other Arguments he hath for the Immortality of the Soul as that the Soul is the principle of its own Motion and so moveth it selfe and therefore seeing nothing can be deserted of it selfe the soul can never dye nor cease to move as the Body doth which therefore dyeth because it is deserted of the Principle of its Motion which is the soul That the soul hath native Breathings and longings after Eternity implanted in it And that those Breathings and longings are not in vain since God and Nature made nothing in vain Such are the arguments that were anciently used on this subject And let no Man here object the Operations of beasts For it is demonstrable that they are of a kind vastly inferior to ours and therefore we judge their souls to bee so too And truly many considering Men will rather think the Souls of beasts somewhat above Elementary which we understand not and own with Socrates our imperfect knowledge than that such Operations as are performed by the Minds of Men should be the product of Elementary matter only For surely our modern Materialists who are the Philosophers in Fashion have been so far from shewing how the Operations of the Souls of Men may be performed by such matter that they have not given any sufficient satisfaction how it is possible that by such matter and locall Motion alone the actions of bruit beasts may be elicited But enough hath been said to make it evident beyond all contradiction That the doctrine of the Souls Immortality was not built upon the Daemonology of the Greeks but was received and continued from Reasons drawn from the consideration of its own Nature Motions and Operations And Mr Hobbes should do well to answer those Reasons and to shew the credibility of his own Hypothesis seeing He hath exceeded the Atheisme not only of the ancient hereticks in Philosophy but of all pretenders to it in this last and most Atheisticall Age. For he and those of his Clubbe make the human Soul to be little or Nothing but a Modus Entis at best a kind of Motion of some parts of an Organized Body somewhat like that Harmony of parts to which some compared the soul anciently and stand confuted for their pains by Plato and other Philosophers And as if it had been a small matter to corrupt Philosophy he hath done worse and hath shew'd his endeavor to abuse Divinity also when he levells the sense of Scripture to that of his own Philosophy and when he telleth us that the Soul in our Saviors words doth not signify any such distinct and immortall substance as the erroneous world believes it to bee but only the life that is in his sense the Motion of an organized Body that the Body and Soul when spoken of together signify the Body alive that is the Body in its Organicall Motions But all his Wit and Learning will never be able to draw the holy Scriptures to favor the impious Hypothesis of his Philosophy If there be no such thing as Spirit Mr Hobbes misinterprets the scripture which speaks of the soul as independent from the body or incorporeall substance that may informe us if the Soul so much spoken of be nothing but a Modus Entis the motion or harmony of the Body it was neither safe nor wise nor good advise that our Savior gave his Disciples when he commanded them thus Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell For if the Soul were only the Motion or Harmony of the Parts of the Body he that should kill the Body must needs spoil the Harmony or motions of it also and consequently must bee able to destroy the Soul too As he who breaks the Lute must needs spoil all its Musick for ever after It is plain therefore that our Savior speaks of the Soul as of a Being independent from the Body so likewise when his Body was upon the crosse and lay under the cruelty of his deadly Enemies he commended his Soul to God as that which was above their reach The like did his first Martyr St Stephen and all his holy Martyrs and all good Christians ever since have at their Death 's commended their souls to God as that which is distinct and independent from their perishing Bodyes And yet this doctrine concerning the Independence Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul was as I have shewed no peculiar doctrine
malis vitam constitutam eos non pudeat beatam vocare when he is blind and deaf and dumb and cripled in his limbs and leprous in his flesh and tortured with the colick stone and gout and in a word is afflicted which such calamities that they all agree ought to persuade their Sapiens or wiseman fairly to kill himself that he may avoid those accidents I do not say evils for fear of offending the tender Ear of a Stoick and so to make a Way for himself out of this life Oh the Happinesse of this life when their Sapiens is forc'd fairly to dy O vitam beatam quae ut finiatur mortis quaerit Auxili um Si beata est maneaturin eâ Si verò propter mala ista fugitur ab eâ quomodo est beata c. that he may be rid on 't If it be so calamitous that their wiseman chuseth Death rather than such a life how is he then possess 't at the same time of the greatest happinesse Let me interrogate with St Augustine Did Cato the great Example of the Stoicks kill himself out of patience or out of Impatience He would never have done it unlesse he had born the victory of Caesar most impatiently Where then was his fortitude when he run away from that happy life wherein he boasted And why may not those things be accounted Evill that renders a Mans life so miserable as that he must avoid it by his own murder And therefore the Peripateticks and ancient Academicks whose Opinion Varro defends Utrum obsecro Cato ille patientiâ an potius impatientiâ se peremit Non hoc fecisset nisi victoriam Caesaris impatienter tulisset ubi est fortitudo nempe cessit succubuit usque adeo superata est ut ipsam beatam derelinqueret desereret fugeret c. Seneca de M. Catone sic megnis aetatum intervallis sapiens invenitur Neque enim magna exce dentia solitum vulgarem modum crebro gignuntur Caeterum M. Cato vereor ne supra nostrum exemplar sit lib. Quod in Sapientem non cadit Injuria speak more tolerably when they allow these calamities of life to be Evils and the greater Evils the longer they continue But still they hold the erroneous conclusion that their Sapiens may be happy in the midst of those Evils which that they may no longer continue they confessed reasonable that he should kill Himself But let me speak again with St Augustine Do they therefore call such a life happy because by a Voluntary Death they may withdraw themselves from it What if by the judgment of God they should be continued in this life and not permitted to dy nor ever suffered to be without these Evils in these Circumstances at least they would confesse their life to be miserable And this we assume that it is not therefore not miserable because it may be relinquisht Because it is a short misery it ought not therefore to seem none at all or which is more absurd because it is a short misery It ought not therefore to be called Happinesse An ideo beatam vitam dicis quia licet tibi ab his malis morte discede re Quâ—d si ergo in eis aliquo judicio divino tenereris nec unquam sine illis esse sinereris nempe tum saltem miseram talem diceres vitam Non igitur propterea misera non est quia cito relinquitut quandoquidem si sempiterna sit etiam abs teipso misera judicatur Non igitur propterea quoiam brevis est nulla miseria debetvideri aut quod absurdius quia brevis miseria est ideo etiam beatitudo appellari Magna vis est in eis malis quae cogunt hominem secundum ipsos etiam sapientem sibimet auferre quod homo est cum dicant vetum dicant hanc esse naturae primam quodammodo maximam vocem ut homo concilietur sibi propterea mo tem Naturaliter fugiat c. Vita igitur quaestorum tam tamque gravium malorum aut premitur oneribus aut subjacet casibus nullo modo beata diceretur si homines qui hoc dicunt sicut victi malis ingravescentibus cum sibi ingerint mortem cedunt infelicitati ita victi certis rationibus cum quaerunt beatam vitam dignarentur cedere veritati non putarent in ista mortalitate fine summi boni esse gaudendum ubi virtutes ipsae Cymbus hic certe nihil melius atque Utilius in homine reperitur Quanto majora sunt Adjutoria contra Vim peticulor laborum dolorum tanto fidelioria testimonia Miseriarum spe salvi spe beati facti sumus sicut salutem ita beatitudinem non jam tenemus presentem sed expectamus futuram Talis salus quae in futuro erit saeculo ipsa erit etiam finalis beatitude Quam beatitudinem isti Philosophi quoniam non videntes nolunt credere hic sibi conantur falsissimam fabricare quan co superbiore tanto mendaciore virtute Augustinus De Civitate Dei lib. xxx cap. 4. There must needs be a great power in those Evils that make a Mans valor guilty of his own Murder especially seeing that nothing is more Naturall then for a Man to love Himself to avoid Death and to desire to live in this very conjunction of Soul and Body St Augustin's conclusion therefore is and it is the Opinion of all good Christians that in this life which is oppress 't with so many and so great Evils and is subject to so many casualties perfect happinesse is not to be expected and therefore that if the Philosophers had been truly wise they would have left off to project to themselves the Enjoyment of the cheifest Good in this state of Mortality That the Morall vertues themselves then which Nothing is more excellent or profitable in human life are greater Testimonies of the miseries we are here subject to than assistances against them that they cannot give the happinesse designed by them and therefore that by how much the more these vertues are proudly boasted of by so much the more they are vainly belied But this is not all that may be spoken against Philosophy as the Wisdome of it is opposed to and compared with that of Christianity that it attaineth not its End nor maketh any one happy But it may be added that the Happinesse by them designed is but poor and Mean They winne not at their Game but if they did Si ergo virtus per seipsam beata non est quoniam in perferendis malis tota vis ejus est si omnia quae pro bonis concupiscuntur negligit si summus ejus gradus ad mortem patet quandoquidem vitam quae optatur à caeteris saepe respuit mortemque quam caeteri timent fortiter suscipit si necesse est ut aliquid a se magni boni pariat quia suscepti superati labores ad mortem usque sine praemio
Him while he is here Give him but a Quartan Ague let him have but two daies well for one day ill two daies of joy for one of sorrow and it sufficeth Him How infinitely then in the Aim of our profession and the End of our vertue beyond theirs when the Scripture sets forth before us not only the bare Action of vertue for its own reward which was the Aim of the Stoicks anciently and of the vulgar Philosophy that is now read in all Schools Nor only Indolence or security from greif which was the Aim of some Epicureans But such a state as shall contain all these in the first place and besides all these an Addition of joy even of such joy as neitheer Aristippus nor his followers nor any other Philosophers could ever hope for even fullnesse of joy without mixture of greif and pleasures not only during this momentany life but pleasures for evermore And this is another particular of our Triumph namely that besides this That the Philosophers by their Wisdome could not attain their Ends their very Ends and Designes were by no meanes comparable to those which Christians may obtain in the profession and practice of their Religion O let the great God make us for ever humbly thanckfull for these his Mercies Let Him of his great Mercy by all those meanes and methods that He hath sanctified to that purpose first make us fit for and then bring us to those joies and Glories that are the Ends of Christian faith and vertue and which are indeed so infinitely great that Eye hath not seen them nor Ear hard them nor have they ever enter'd into the Heart of Man to be conceived Gloria Trinuni Deo SERMON II. ROM 13.13 14. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in Ryotting and Drunkenesse not in Chambering and Wantonesse not in Strife and Envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provisions for the flesh to fullfill the lusts thereof HAving done with the little learned world whose Wisdome I have prov'd to be but Vanity finely diversifyed with singularities of many curious follies I am now come into the greater where I find the bulk of mankind not poisned with medicines artificially and industriously composed but overwhelmed in an Ocean of Ordinary delights and drown'd as it were in the most commun and duly taken very usefull Element Salomon adviseth us that having found hony we should eat so much as is sufficient But we on the contrary are still ready like drones to suffer our selves to be drowned with the best Enjoyments and to surphet with the abundance of good things here below How many are there in all conditions and places that are tempted to forsake their chiefest good their God and their Heaven The ends of the vulgar Riches and Honor but more especially pleasure in exchange for the Riches Honors and Pleasures of this World And if we look upon examples we shall find that no Temptations have been more powerfull than those from Pleasure Men who are covetous of Riches or ambitious of Honour have no better pretence for their Ambition and covetousnesse than the hope of a continued Enjoyment of their pleasures in the End V. Augustinum lib. 8. confess c. ult St Augustine as he was a man of great wit and Spirit so was he a man subject to great Temptations He confesseth that Pleasures were his old Mistresses Once they had and they strove hard to have kept perpetuall possession of him What Augustine wilt thou leave us thus wilt thou take a Farewell of all thy old delights for ever Succuttebant saith he vestem meam carneam they made a strong concussion upon his carnall part But it happened by the Mercy or God that once as hee had been in a conflict with such Temptations he fell into a deep consideration of his former life and then as he reports of himself he heard as is were a voice saying to him Take up and read Taking up a book which he had there of St Pauls writings he dipt upon this very text not in ryotting and drunkenesse not in chambering and Wantonesse c. Nec ultra volui legere saith he nec opus erat He found enough in that Text for one Reading The word of God as the Apostle well observeth Heb. 4.12 is quick and powerfull and sharper than a two edged sword pierceing even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit and is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judge of our thoughts and Intents but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Executioner of our Lusts So St Augustine found it He obeyed the power of this word and glorieth in the Grace of God that this text was in the hand of God the instrument of his conversion and salvation Oh that the same Spirit of God would so work upon our hearts that the same word might now take the same effect in us There is a great deal contained in this Text and yet let me tell you the profession of Christianity containeth a great deal more we are pressed here to the performance but of one part of one branch of our Baptismall vow namely to make good that part of our baptismall Renuntiation wherein we professe to deny the sinfull lusts of the Flesh Our commun Philosophy teacheth us that the Aimes desires or Lusts of the flesh are twofold some proceed from the Concupiscible Appetite and these in St Pauls Phrase go under the names of ryotting and drunkenesse Chambering and Wantonesse and are contrary to the duty of keeping our Bodies in Temperance sobernesse and chastity commended to us in our Catechisme Secondly there are some Lusts that proceed from the irascible appetite and these in St Pauls Phrase go under the names of strife and Envying whence battell and murder and all breaches of the sixth commandment communly ensue Wee shall plant our Batteries now only against the first squadron of our Lusts that in this late Age have gotten too great an Empire of Mankind and shall leave the second to bee encounter'd at some other time Lust we have and shall have This is that Body of Sin that we carry still about us The fixednesse of Lusts to corrupted Nature St Paul complaines of it as of a deadly dart that stuck fast in his Liver Haeret lateri Lethalis Arundo-who saith he shall deliver me from this Body of death Even naturall men have been still ready to complaine of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarchus ex opinione Pythagorae Et ex Platone Aristotele animam dicit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vid. Plutarchum in comment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very body of death that St Paul speaks of It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch calleth it an extravagant passionate and disorderly appetite This is that Canaanite that we must allwaies fight against but shall never be able utterly to extirpate Some indeed there are and too great a part of the world that