who committed no euill do not feare those who haue offended may euer haue their punishment before their eyes He also in another place thus writeth Si optimorum consiliorum c. If our conscience be euer a witnes throughout our whole liues of our good deliberations and actions then shall we liue without feare in great integrity honesty of mind And the reason thereof is because the soule doth presage that good and happynes which is reserued after this life for all true worshippers of vertue THE XXI REASON CHAP. XXII THE Immortality of the Soule is further euicted from the returne backe of Soules after this life For it is euident euen by infinite examples that the dead haue been raised vp and that the Soules of the dead haue returned from the places wherein they were and haue appeared to the liuing We read in the first booke of the Kings cap. 28. and in Ecclesiasticus cap. 49. that the Soule of Samuel then dead appeared to the Enchantresse Pithonissa and to Saul and did prophecy vnto him his destruction Againe the soule of Moyses whether in his owne body restored vnto him at that tyme by diuine power or in a body assumed by him togeather with Elias appeared in the mount Thabor to Christ and to the three chiefe Apostles Peter Iames Iohn as is related in Mathew cap. 17. and Luke cap. 9. The soules of Onias Ieremy the Prophet exhibited themselues to the sight of Iudas Machabeus and much encouraged him to the vanquishing of his Countries Enemies as appeareth in the first of the Machabees c. 15. The Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul appeared in sleepe to Constantine the Emperour and shewed him a meanes to cure his leprosy as it is recorded in the seauenth Synod Act 2. and testifyed by many Historians S. Iohn the Euangelist and S. Philip the Apostle appeared to Theodosius promised him victory against Eugenius which presently followed and not without great miracle The same apparitioÌ„ was seene also by a certaine souldier at the same tyme least otherwise it might be thought to be forged by the Emperour as Theodoret wryteth l. 5. histor c. 24. The same Euangelist with the blessed virgin exhibited theÌ„selues to the â—ight of Gregorius Thaumaturgus then waking and instructed him in the mistery of the Trinity This point with the forme of the doctrine is recorded by Gregorius Nissenus in the life of Thaumaturgus I omit many other apparitions of our blessed Lady recorded by Gregory the great and other more ancient authours In like sort Ambâ—rse serm 90. wryteth that S. Agnes appeared to Constantia the daughter of Constantine and cured her of a most dangerous impostume or swelling Eusebiuâ— reporteth l. 6. histor c. 5. how S. Poâ—â—miâ—â—â— the third day after her martirdome appeared to her Executioner in the night and told him that she had obtained fauour froÌ„ God in his behalfe in recoÌ„pense of his geÌ„tle proceding with her vpon which apparitioÌ„ the Executioner instaÌ„tly became a ChristiaÌ„ after his constaÌ„t professioÌ„ of the ChristiaÌ„ faith suffered a most glorious death and martyrdome It were ouer labour some to recount all the apparitioÌ„s both of the holy and wicked soules which are found in approued authours all which to say to haue bene forged were ouer great impudence since this were to take away the credit of al historyes and to cast an aspersion of falshood and deceite without any shew of reason vpon many most holy learned and graue authours for many both of the ancient Fathers as also of historiographers especially Christians haue made frequent mentioÌ„ of this point yea euen among the very heathens it was a thing generally acknowledged as appeareth out of Homer Virgil others Therefore seing it is a matter most euident by so many examples that the Soules of the dead haue appeared to the liuing we may demonstratiuely conclude that those Soules did not dye with their bodyes but do continue immortall and haue their reward of glory of punishment according to their actions performed in this life This point of the Soules immortality is in like sort made cleare from the raising of the dead to life Now that the dead haue bene recalled to life is proued by many vnanswerable examples And first the Prophet Elias restored to life the dead Sonne of the widow Sareptana as appeareth in the third of the Kings c. 7. Elisaeus also raised the soÌ„ne of Sunamice as we read in the fourth of the Kings c. 4. Yea Elisaeus being himself dead only by the touch of his bones restored to life one that was dead as we find in the 13. chapter of the said booke Christ our Lord and Sauiour besides others raised to life Lazarus being dead foure dayes afore and this was perfourmed in the eye of all Ierusalem as S. Iohn relateth c. 11. Finally to auoyde all prolixity diuers were restored to life by the Apostles and other most holy men as appeareth from Ecclesiasticall historyes and other approued authours Now the resurrection and rising of the dead is an euident signe that the soules are not vtterly extinct but that they remayne separated after death till through a conuenieÌ„t dispositioÌ„ of the body they be reunited to it For so soone as the whole disposition of the body which is necessary to this vnion shal be perfected and that the soule shall there exhibit it selfe in wardly present then doth this vnion imediatly and freely follow partly like as fire touching chips or any other such combustible matter doth through a mutuall attraction naturally cleaue thereunto For the body being made apt and rightly disposed doth couet through a naturall propension to be vnited with the soule as in like sort the soule desireth to be conioyned to the body which propension or inclination is reduced into Act when the Soule and the body after the last disposition once finished are mutually and inwardly present together THE XXII AND LAST REASON CHAP. XXIII TO conclude this point touching the Soules immortality it may be further alledged that the Soules Immortality is the foundation of all religion Iustice Probity Innocency sanctity Now if this ground-worke be false then is the whole sacred Scripture false and a meere fiction then are the Oracles of the Prophets false false also is the doctrine and preaching of Christ false his miracles Finally false are all those things which are deliuered by the Euangelists touching the resurrection of Christ his conuersing with the Apostles fourty dayes after his resurrection his ascension and the descending of the Holy Ghost vpoÌ„ the Apostles and other the faithfull And thus are all deceaued who haue embraced the religion of Christ And therefore in vaine haue so many thousands Saints tamed and brought vnder their flesh practized iustice innocency temperance all other vertues with indefatigable and incessant paynes In vayne are all the Sacraments of the Church all the institutions diuine laudes and praises all Ecclesiasticall Orders all sacred assemblies all labours
to the â—â—ue doctrine of the being and not being of a Deity For if there be no supreme oâ— celestiall power then all these acts by the which he is contemned and ignominiously treated are good both because they are certaine protestations of an infallible and secret truth as also in that they fitly serue are of force to take away from mens mynds the false perswasion of the being of a God and his Prouidence no otherwise then as Contumelyes and disgraces committed against the Idols of the Gentils are laudable and good because by those actions we testify no true diuinity to be in those Idols for nothing is more coÌ„temptible then that which neither is nor cannot be Seauenthly it might seeme to follow that the world were as a ship floating on the sea without any Mast or Pylot or as a mighty Commonwealth consisting of all kynds of men in the which there is no lawes no Iudge no gouernour nor any Procurer of tranquillity peace and common good And if it be so how then can the world continue especially seing it consisteth of so different contrary and repugnant things For as a ship without a directour is violently tossed to and fro till it fall vpon some Rock or sands or be ouerwhelmed with flouds or as a Commonwealth wanting a magistrate and ruler wasteth it selfe away with intestine seditious murthers and other calamities so must the world be most exorbitantly and inordinatly menaged and in the end be dissolued through a colluctation and fight of contraries if there be no power which is to sterne the same and to procure a simpathy and accord amoÌ„g those contraries Eightly it followeth that all this vniuerse and disposition and framing of the parts thereof existeth thus by chance For if there be no diuyne power which framed the parts of it digesting them into this forme which now we see then is it necessarily to be acknowledged that it hath its being by chance according to the opinion of Democritus who maintained that all things were first framed of a casual force concourse of Atomi or smal indiuisible bodyes But what is this but mere doting madnes and want of reasoÌ„ for how can it be that that whose frame and making existeth with so great reason prouidence and iudgement should haue its being by chance One seeth a most sumptuous building framed withall art skill all Architects admire the structure of it question being asked who made this curious edifice It is answeared that it is made by no body but that there was long since a mountaine in the same place stored with trees that it falling a suÌ„der through an Earth quake the parts of this mountaine being thus shiuered did through meanes of this collision and fall cast and frame theÌ„selues casually into this curious forme of a pallace Now who is so simple that would belieue this And yet such is the like case in the stupeÌ„dious fabrick of the whole world maintayned not to be made by the hand of any diuine Power These and many other like absurdities incongruences and impossibilities do rise and result from the foresaid deniall of a Deity a Prouidence all which how aduerse they are to all shew of truth how repugnant to the very light of reason how fearefull and dreadfull to be but spoken in words who seeth not Wherefore it followeth that that principle which is the fountaine of such pudled aud stinking waters must of necessity be most far distant estranged from all truth But heere some may reply that euen a false perswasion in matters of religion conduceth much to the deterring and withdrawing man from wickednes and to the perswading and inuiting them to probity iustice and other vertues For the Heathens who belieued diuers Gods to be according to the multitude and diuersity of humane affaires and that their negotiations businesses were guyded by the prouidence of the said Gods that they rewarded and chastised men according to their different deserts al which things were false and impossible did notwithstanding from this strong setled coÌ„ceyt of theirs abstaine from many iniuries offences and enormities as thinking the Gods to be offended therewith and that themselues should be punished by them for the same either in this world or in the world to come I answere hereto and say that this perswasion of the heathens was false in particuler to wit in thinking that there was such a multiplicity of Gods as also in thinking that such and such were Gods as Iupiter Saturne Pallas c. the like and that they had the charge of mens affaires but their persuasion was true in generall that is in thinking that there was a diuyne power that mens affaires were subiect to his prouidence and that he exacted an account of them Wherefore when the Heathens either abstained from euill or did good through feare of offending their Gods or desire of pleasing them they were moued thereto not through any perswasion as it was false in respect of such a God but as it was true in generall Only they did â—rte in the Obiect to wit in ascribing a diuinity and Prouidence to those to whome they ought not and in worshipping it in them Therefore they did not take away or deny the true and formall reason of a deity and of Prouidence but they affirmed and maintayned it and therefore retayned after a certaine manner the true foundation of Politicall iustice But if there were no diuine Power nor any Prouidence then were this foundation of theirs most fictious and false euen in generall and consequently it could haue no force towards vertue and probity of maÌ„ners or if it hath any as by experience we find it to haue then followeth it euideÌ„tly that it is not a thing forged and inuented but most true and vndoubted THE 13 REASON DRAVVNE FROM the Immortality of the Soule CHAP. XV. IF it be so ordayned that the reasonable soule shall not be extinguished with the body but after the death of the body it shall liue and be immortall then there can be no reason pretented for the denying of a diuine power a Prouidence for if the lowest spirit be incorporeall intelligent and immortall why should not then there be a supreme spirit endued with the same proprietyes Since where there are seuerall degrees of natures it is as necessary that there be found one supreme degree as well as the lowest and midle degrees Now it is shewed aboue that there are certaine degrees of spirits far more excellent then mans soule but vnder the soule of man â— there is no lower degree for it selfe is the lowest seing that it is manifest that the soules of beasts do dye with their bodies Furthermore if mans soule be immortall then can we not doubt but there must be after this life a retribution of deeds actions to wit reward for vertue and punishment for vyce for it is most absurd to affirme that those Soules which while they were here
euill it hereupon manifestly followeth that the Soule of beasts doth perish together with their body For if the soule of a beast cannot eleuate it selfe in knowing and apprehending to some thing which is aboue the body and which properly belongeth to a spirituall nature it is euident that that soule is not spirituall nor eleuated aboue its body but altogether immersed and drowned in a corporeall and bodily nature For the substance of any thing is knowne from it operation and the operation from the obiect about which it is conuersant or busied Therefore seeing this Obiect and its ratio formalis or the true natiue reason which is the profit or hurt comming to the body doth only respect the body it must of necessity be granted that the substance of the soule in beasts is tyed and restrayned to the body But this point is farre otherwise in Man THE FIRST REASON PROVING THE Soules Immortality CHAP. II. THE first reason may bee in that the knowledge of the Soule is altogether illimitable For it conceaueth and apprehendeth all kinds of things all degrees of natures neither doth it appreheÌ„d only things which are but also things which are not for if forgeth in the vnderstanding any thing and frameth therein new worlds It also conceaueth the vniuersall reasons of things as they are abstracted from particulars from sensible matter from place and tyme and contemplateth the same as they are in themselues It searcheth into the reasons causes effectes and proprietyes of al things and finally iudgeth of all things Al which considerations are manifest arguments that the Soule of Man is not immersed in the body but that it is a spirituall substance separable from the body since all these actions and operations beare no reference to the benefit or profit of the body but are ornaments only of the mind In like sort the very Obiects of the former operations are not apprehended as they are advantagious to the body or sense to wit of tast feeling but they are apprehended according to their proper reasons as they are true and conformable to vniuersall and eternall principles or reasons in which respect they belong only to the mind or soule and not in any sort to the body THE SECOND REASON Proouing the same CHAP. III. THE second reason may be taken from Mans desire which is in like sort infinite and boundlesse for the soule doth not only desire such things as belong to the body to wit to satisfy their sense of tasting and feeling as beasts do but it stretcheth it selfe forth to euery truth desiring the knowledge and contemplation of euery verity Neither is it enlarged only to ech truth but also to euery thing that is good to the which goodnes the appetite and loue of all things is finally directed For all particular things whatsoeuer do affect and loue after a certaine manner that which is best sorting and agreable to their natures Now man comprehendeth al those things within his loue seeing he desireth not only those things which are profitable to himselfe but wisheth to euery thing whatsoeuer is best fitting to it and as much as in him lyeth procureth the same Therefore he coueteth both to himselfe and al other things besides what is best agreable to them to himselfe he wisheth those things in knowledge or as the Philosophers do speake in esse cognito to all other particular things in esse realâ— that they may really and truly enioy them Here then appeareth how much the power of desiring in man is eleuated aduanced aboue the matter condition of his body THE THIRD REASON CHAP. IIII. THE same point is further confirmed from the delights and pleasures wherewith the Soule soâ—aceth her selfe For she is delighted chiefly with the contemplation of truth and with truth it selfe She is delighted with the pulchritude and beauty of all things and in admyring the art skill which appeareth in euery thing She is delighted with proportions and mathematicall disciplines She is delighted with the workes of Religion Piety Iustice and the exercise of other vertues Finally she is delighted with fame honour glory rule and domination All these are proper goods of the Soule and are so esteemed by man as that in compare hereof he contemneth and vilifyeth al profits pleasures of the body Therefore seeing the capacity and the largenes of the soule of man is so ample and great that it comprehendeth all things and compasseth about as it were all the latitude altitude and profundity of Ens in generall containing it within it selfe seing also the soule hath her proper motions or knowledge her desires loues delights and peculiar ornaments none of all which belongeth to the benefit of the body but all are touching spirituall obiects or at least concerning such things which are estranged from the benefits or pleasures of the body and lastly seeing the Soule esteemeth all these things farre more then any corporall goods It is therefore most perspicuous and euident that the Soule is of a farre higher more worthy disposition then the body of such a diuine nature as that it dependeth not at all of the commerse or entercourse which she hath with the flesh THE FOVRTH REASON CHAP. V. THIS verity is also warranted from the dominion which the Soule hath ouer the body and from the soules enioying of Freewill For the Soule doth so direct gouerne and ouerrule the body in her affections and passions as that neither the expectation of rewards nor the feare of torments can force the body to say or do any thing then what the Soule willeth which point is euident both from many examples as also from the testimony of Iosephus in his small worke or booke bearing this title Quod ratio affectuum sit Domina Now of this matter no other reason can be assigned but because the Soule doth not depend of the body but is sui iuris of its owne freedome liberty and and finall determination wherupon it riseth that the soule so valueth those things which appertaine to the body as if they did not belong vnto her she being contented and fully satisfyed with her owne proper goods and delights but the contrary falleth out in beasts for seing their Soule is altogeather mancipated and enthralled to the body depending of it in regard of her owne essence she is necessarily and as it were violently carryed to such things as are pleasing and beneficiall to the body and flyeth all those things which seeme aduerse and distastfull to it and hence it is that the Soule in beasts hath neyther her passions nor externall motions in her owne power and at her owne command THE FIFTH REASON CHAP. VI. IF the the Soule should haue all her dependance of the body could not consist the body being once extinct then should she haue against nothing a greater horrour and auersion then against Death nor would she prize any thing at so high a rate which willingly she would not loose
for the preuenting of Death for Death of the body depriuing the soule supposing it to be mortal of all good should become her chiefest infelicity and euill and present life her greatest good and happynesse And therefore it followeth that the soule should feare nothing so much as Death and on the other side affect desire and defend nothing so much as present life But now daily experience teacheth the contrary for many do make so small an estimate of life though abounding with all the goods of fortune as that they willingly spend it for prayse fame liberty auoyding of reproach and dishonour and for the exercise of vertue Yea some there are who for the declyning and shuning of disgrace or griefe and affliction of mynd or for the purchasing of a very little reputation sticke not to become their owne parricides murtherers So much more do those things which belong to the soule or mind preponderate ouerballance al that which appertaines to the body THE SIXTH REASON CHAP. VII SO great is the capacity and largnesse of the soule or mind as that no riches no dignities no Kingdomes not the Empire of the whole world no pleasures briefly no finite and limitable good can quench her insatiable thirst and desire but to this end it is needfull that she enioy some one immense infinite and boundlesse good and such as containeth in it selfe by way of eminency or preheminēcy the fulnes of all good whatsoeuer This the Prophet Dauid insinuateth Psalm 16. when he saith Satiabor cum c. I shal be satisfyed and filled when thy glory shall appeare as if he would say no other thing can giue me full contentment except the manifestation of thy glory which is an infinite and illimitable good And to the same end S. Austin saith Fecisti nos c. Thou hast made vs like vnto thee and our hart is vnquyet till it rest in thee Now if the Soule were restrained to the narrownes of the body it should not be capable of an infinite good neither should her desire be extended to any thing but what were conducing and accommodated to a corporall life as it appeareth in other liuing creatures For the Body and the matter doth restraine the appetite desire and capacity of the forme From whence it proceedeth that by how much the forme of any body is more materiall by so much it is more narrow and lesse capable but the more spirituall and more eleuated the forme is the more ample and the more enlarged it is and extendeth it selfe to more things thereby the better to perfect it selfe For bodyes wanting life as stones and metals as also their formes because they are materiall and grosse in the highest degree do desire nothing out of themselues neither do they endeauour any thing to further their perfection but rest in themselnes quiet and dead But Plants because their forme is more pure and perfect do couet after their manner nourishment and do attract it from without as also they change it distributing it through the whole body and conuerting it into their owne substance Besides they send forth flowers fruits and seedes so they continue dayly working to the augmentation conseruation perfection propagation of themselues but because they haue no sense or feeling of their nourishment they therfore receaue neither pleasure nor griefe thereby Liuing Creatures in that their forme is in a higher degree do not only performe all those operations which plants do but with all they haue knowledge and sense of their nourishment yea they mooue themselues to it they seeke it from the vse of it they take pleasure and from the want of it they receaue griefe and molestation Notwithstanding all their knowledge and affection or liking is limited within certaine narrow bounds for it only extendeth it selfe to the profit or hurt of their bodyes so as they apprehend no other thing they couet and fly no other thing they are delighted and grieue at no other thing which is a manifest demonstration that their Soule depends only of their body for their soule therfore perceaues and desires nothing but what conduceth to the rest good of their corporall life because their soule dependeth of the felicity of their body Aboue all other liuing Creatures is man indued with a reasonable soule or mind whose knowledge affection is not limited to things belonging to the body but is altogeather illimitable extending it selfe to euery truth to euery kind of good as is aboue said both which beare no reference or respect to the body And from hence it followeth that the Souls capacity or ability either in knowing desiring or in taking delight is infinite no otherwise then the ability of spirits or celestiall Intelligences which is an vnanswerable argument that the soule of man is not wholly depending of the body and necessarily tyed to the same This point is further thus confirmed Substantiae separatae as they are called that is incorporeall substances do therfore enioy the force of vnderstanding and do extend themselues ad totum ens to euery thing and ad totum verum bonum to euery verity goodnes because they are simple formes eleuated aboue all matter not depending of the same as Philosophy teacheth And hence it is that there is no spirituall substance but euen in that respect it is intelligent and vnderstanding Therfore seing the Soule of man is endued with the faculty of vnderstanding and is in her selfe of that expansion and largnes as that she stretcheth her selfe to the whole latitude of Ens in generall that is to euery truth and euery thing that is good by vnderstanding what is true and affecting and louing what is good no otherwise then spirituall and separated substances do it followeth that the soule doth not depend vpon any matter or bodily substance For where there is effectus adaequatus there is also causa adaquata that is where there is a proper and peculiar effect there also is to be found a proper and peculiar cause from whence the effect riseth But in the Soule of Man the effect is found to wit the force of vnderstanding and the capacity of euery truth and euery good therefore the cause also is to be found that is a spirituall nature independent of matter or of a body THE SEAVENTH REASON CHAP. VIII THere are in the nature of things some liuing formes which are separated from all matter both in their essence and manner of existence with the Philosophers do cal Intelligences or substantias separatas separated substances and Christians tearme them Spirits or Angels There are also some others which both in their Essence and existence are altogether tyed and immersed in the matter wherin they are and such are the Soules of beasts Therfore there oughtto be some other formes betwene the former two which in regard of their Essence may not depend of their body that so they may be like vnto spirits or Angels yet for their
existence that is that they may exist after a conuenient maner they are to haue a body that therin they may agree with the soules of beasts and these are the soules of men This argument is confirmed from analogy and proportion in that this degree of things seemeth to be best fitting least otherwise we should passe from one extreme to another without a meane to wit from a nature absolutly mortal drowned in a body to a nature absolutly immortal and separated from a body therfore betwene these two there is to be a nature partly mortal and partly immortal mortall according to the body and immortal according to the Soule And the very Soule it selfe according to its Essence is to be immortal and to be ranged with spirits though according to the manner of its existence and as informing a mortal body it is to be like the soules of beasts For the vnion of the Soule of man with the body as also the informing and the viuificâ—tion as I may tearme it of the whole body decayeth no lesse then in beasts And thus it falleth out that man containeth in himselfe the powers and faculties of both the extremes I meane of spirits and beasts being for the body and sense like vnto beastes for the soule to spirits or intelligences Vpon which occasion the Platonicks do cal man the Horizon of the whole Vniuerse of things created For seing the vniuerse of things doth consist as it were of two Hemispheres to wit of a spiritual nature and a corporal nature Man partaking of both these extremes doth ioyne the spiritual nature being the higher Hemisphere with the corporal nature the lower Hemisphere For this very same reason also Man is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the lesser world as coÌ„prehending within himselfe al the degrees of the vniuerse no otherwise then the greaer world containeth THE EIGHT REASON CHAP. IX FOR the more accession of reasons in this point it may be alledged that there is a greater association and affinity in nature betwene the Soule of man and spirits or Angels then betwene man and beasts For as spirits or Angels haue their knowledge and desire circumscribed or encompasled with no limits and are delighted with the beauty of truth and vertue in like sort is the soule or mynd of man In so much that in this respect there is no disparity betwene a soule and a spirit though there be a difference in the perfection of the operations proceeding from the vnderstanding and the will in them both Now the sense knowledge and affection or desire of beasts is restrained to their feeding and to venery Furthermore the Soule of man hath society and familiarity with spirits conuerseth with them intreateth help and ayde from them discourseth disputeth and iudgeth of their â—states and wisheth her selfe to be like in dignity to them But no like affinity is discerned betweene man and beasts for beasts can neither apprehend nor desire the state of man neither is there any communication of Counsell or aduise betweene theÌ„ Therefore so farre forth as belongeth to the condition of Mortality and immortality it is not to be wondred if mans Soule doth rather follow the condition and nature of spirits betweene whome there is so great a similitude and resemblance then of beasts from whome the Soule doth so infinitely differ THE NINTH REASON CHAP. X. IF the Soule could not consist without the body then should the soules chiefest felicity be placed in a corporall life pleasures of the body and her greatest misery in the affliction and death of the body vpon the force of which inference the Sect of Epicures and others who did hold the soule to be vtterly extinguished with the body taught the chiefest good to rest in the pleasures of the body This is further made euident from the testimonyes of those who in the second of the booke of VVisdome conclude that during the tyme of this life we are to giue our selues wholly to pleasure holding this to be mans felicity in that nothing remaineth say they after this life as also froÌ„ the like seteÌ„ce of others who in the 22. of Esay say Consedamus bibamus c. Let vs eate drinke for to morrow we shall dye But if this illation were true then were it laudable in a man to indulge and pamper his belly and studiously to affect and seeke after whatsoeuer may conduce to the same end and the warrant hereof should be because it is most laudable for all things and particularly for man to follow its most supreme good or felicity and to enioy it at all tymes But now iust contrary hereto we find that this coporall sensuality of eating and drinking and the like is holden as a thing dishonourable in man and vnworthy his nature as also that those who abandon themselues wholly to their corporall pleasure are ranged among brute beasts for nothing draweth more neere to the nature of beasts then the pleasure of the body consisting in the senses of tast and feeling And therfore as Tully witnesseth in his booke de senectute Architas Tarentinus was accustomed thus to say Nullam capitaliorem pestem quà m corporis voluptatem à natura hominibus esse datam That Nature had not giuen to man a more capitall plague then the pleasure of the body Againe if the chiefe felicity of man did belong to our corporall life then were it lawfull for the auoyding of death and torments at the commanding and forcing of a tyrant to commit periury and blasphemy to worship Idols and finally to reâ—â—â—quish and shake hands with all piety iustice vertue and truth for it is the law of nature and of it selfe ingrafted in al men that nothing is to be preferred before Summum bonum or the chiefest felicity and that is to be imbraced before all other things that on the other side nothing is more to be auoyded then Summum malum the chiefest infelicity From which position or ground it riseth that in euery euent wherin is necessarily endaÌ„gered the losse of our greatest good or of some other lesser good we are taught euen by nature and reason that euery inferiour good whatsoeuer is to be willingly lost for the retaining of the chiefest good and euery lesser euil to be endured for the auoyding of the greatest euil But now what thing can be imagined more absurd in it selfe or more vnworthy a man then that for the preuenting of death any flagitious or heynous wickednes whatsoeuer may and ought to be cnmmitted THE TENTH REASON CHAP. XI A NATVRE which is intelligent and indued with an vnderstanding is the worthiest nature of all others which are in the world this is proued in that such a nature is capable of all natures for it comprehendeth them all it vseth them al and applyeth them to its owne benefit for it taketh profit not only from terrene and earthly things but also froÌ„ celestial things as from the light darkenes day night wynds
man cannot possibly performe except it continueth after this life immortall Now the perfection of Mans Soule consisteth in wisdome vertue with the which her chiefest powers are beautifyed adorned and by meanes of which those powers obtayne their ends chiefe perfection But few there are who in this life giue themselues to the obtaining of wisdome and therefore the greatest part of men make small or no progresse therein and those who spend their tyme in the search or purchasing of it do scarcely get the hundreth part of that abundance of wisdome wherof the mynd of man is capable for though a man should liue a thousand yeares yet might he daily profit and increase therein yet not obtaine it in its highest measure Therfore it is necessary that the Soule of Man doth liue after the death of the body that in the next life seing in this it cannot it may come arryue to its perfectioÌ„ since otherwise in vaine should that capacity and extension of the Soule be giuen her in vaine should that vnquenchbale desire of knowledge be engrafted in her for that capacity and desire is in vayne which cannot be filled and satisfyed Besides it is most absurd to say that Nature which in the smallest most despicable things neuer doth any thing without a due purpose end should in the most noble creature of all worke and labour so much in vaine and to no designed drift or proiect THE XIIII REASON CHAP. XV. IT is certaine that the Soule of man cannot know it selfe in this life except it be very obscurely and confusedly euen as he which seeth a thing farre of through a cloud perceaueth it imperfectly as not being able to discerne the colours or lineaments of it Now this want of the Soules perfect knowledge of it selfe was the cause of so many different opinions of the Philosophers touching its owne substance some of them teaching it to be of a fiery substance others an â—yery and some others that it was a substance taken from the ayre from the soule of the world as their phrase was The Soule then knoweth not either what it selfe is or of what quality whether a simple or pure spirit or consisting of a most thin body whether it hath distinct faculties and powers in it selfe or that it performeth all her operations immediatly by it selfe what is the power and nature of those faculties how they performe their functions how the obiects do meet and associate themselues with their faculties how the organs and instruments of the senses do concurre and cooperate with the animal spirits In these and almost all other things belonging to her selfe the Soule is strangely blind and diuineth and coniectureth of them as it were in a dreame Therfore if the Soule doth perish togeather with the body she neuer knoweth her selfe but remaines ignorant thereof both when she is first ingendred whyle she liueth and after her death But now it is most fitting both in nature and reason that sometimes she might be able to contemplate her selfe to see and perfectly to apprehend her owne beauty nature and ornaments for as nothing more clearly belongeth to the Soule then her owne Nature and such things as are intrinsecall and inward to her so no knowledge is more necessary to her then the knowledge of her selfe and things appertaining to her for she is most neere and deâ—re to her selfe Therefore it must necessarily be granted that she is not extinguished after this life but that after she is once freed of the body and of all corporall obiects which afore she apprehended by helpe of the externall senses and that by meanes thereof she enioyeth her owne simplicity then shall she see her selfe distinctly and clearly and shall daily esteeme those her goods ornaments which in this life she so smally prized For one kind of vnderstanding agrees to her whiles she is tyed to this mortall body another when by meanes of the bodyes death she shal be set at liberty shal nakedly exist by her selfe For while she remaynes in the body she can know nothing perfectly but what is corporall and vnder a corporall shew wherupon it followeth that she cannot see or know her selfe but after she is once diuorced from the body she shall then take the forme and manner of vnderstanding answerable to spirits and then shall discerne spirituall things as now she apprehendeth by her eyes corporall things For the manner of knowing doth euer answere to the manner of existence and agreeth to the state of the thing which knoweth since euery thing worketh according to the manner of its owne nature THE XV. REASON CHAP. XVI THIS corporeall World as also all things contained therein were made for man as is aboue shewed for all things are disposed in that sort as they may best serue to the benefit and profit of man Thus the world seemeth nothing els then a vast house furnished withall things necessary whose inhabitant possessour or Fructuarius is man So that supposing man were not then were there no vse of the world but it should be as a desart seruing only for a denne of wild beasts and for a wood of thornes Therfore seeing all things are first instituted for man it followeth that man is a most excellent thing and created for a far greater and higher end then it can attaine in this life for seing so many different seruices of things and so wonderfull riches are prepared for man for his better and more easy leading of this short and mortall life how can it be thought that no good or happynes expecteth him after his death but that his Soule vtterly decayeth with his body Doubtlesly this is a great argument that he is ordained to enioy after his emigration passing out of this life a most noble honourable and admirable felicity happines This point is further confirmed If the Soule doth perish with the body theÌ„ it followeth that the world and al its admirable furniture was only framed by nature that man for a short season and tyme might liue eate drinke sleepe in gender and then presently for euer decay Thus this should be all the good the end and the â—ruite oâ— so worthy and admirable a worke But it is not likely that to so meane small an end the heauens should be incessantly caryed about with such a daily motion That the Sunne Moone and Starrs should still continue their courses that the change of day and night and the vicissitude or continuall circles of tymes and seasons as spring summer autumne and winter should be ordained Againe that winds should blow the clouds should be gathered togeather the showers should be powred downe that the earth should cause so many kinds of flowers and fruits should containe within its bosome such inestimable treasure that the Sea should bring forth such seuerall sorts of fish the ayre should abound with so great store of byrds Nature her selfe should so painfully labour in the producing
these are ascribed and giuen to any one there riseth in him an apprehension of his owne excellency with the which he is wonderfully delighted Euen as on the contrary by conuicious speaches and reproach there is stirred vp a cogitation of ones vility and basenes which is displeasing and distasting to euery one Therefore all men loue praise and glory because these are signes of excellency and hate contumely disgrace as markes and badges of abiection and vnworthines of mynd Secondly all men couet honour because as the mynd greatly desireth to be eminent and excelling so it desireth to be so reputed in the iudgements of others for the soule or mynd of man deemeth this to belong to it as a certaine new essence or as a new intelligible life as I may call it vnder the glorious shew and forme whereof it being knowne it seemeth to liue in the mynds of men For as the Philosophers do say Intelligere est quoddam rei intelligibilis esse to vnderstand and know a thing giueth a certaine essence and being to the thing so knowne This point Tully may be wel thought to insinuate in the words aboue recyted Eâ— est vita c. That is the life which flourisheth in the memory of all ages which posterity nourisheth and through the which we being absent are present and being dead do liue Therefore this memory this estimation eternizing of ones fame is a certaine life of the soule and her endowments which is not discerned by the eye but vnderstood by the mynd consisteth not by nature but by the iudgments and censures of mynds doth not intrinsecally in here to the soule but is extrinsecally possessed by which meanes the soule may be said to liue in the mynds of men to haue so many liues as there are men in whose hearts it is highly magnified and valewed This life is so much esteemed sometimes by the soule as that it is content oftentimes to contemne corporall life for the preseruing of it and to expose the body to most certaine death before it will suffer the least blemish losse of reputation name so holding it more worthy to liue by memory in the mynds of others then in his owne person and body by nature Which is an euident argument that glory although it be but an imaginary and empty thing is more worthy and preciable then riches or pleasures For such is the excellency of the mynd as that it preferreth the least goods properly belonging to it before the greatest corporall goods Thirdly All do seeke after glory because glory is conducing and profitable to many things for it retayneth and keepeth man in his duty withdrawing him from all turpitude â—loth and improbity least otherwise he should loose his good name for want of shame and an vtter contempt of what honest men do thinke of one is a point most dangerous Furthermore Glory maketh that men may with pleasure grace credit negotiate with others in publicke in the eye of the world where base and degenerous persons dare not appeare Againe it procureth that men are aduanced to magistracy and publike gouerment since the gates of honours and dignityes are shut to the infamous and such as are abiect Lastly it causeth that we conuerse among men with fruite for whether it be in a course of doctrine and learning or in the administration of iustice neither of them can be performed without the reputation of a good name and therefore the VViseman truly said Melius est c. A good name is to be chosen aboue great riches as also in another place Curam habe c. haue regard to thy good name for that shall be prized with thee aboue a thousand treasures of gold THE XVIII REASON CHAP. XIX AGAINE if the Soule dyeth with the body then besydes all the former inconueniences aboue alleadged these two do follow First that iniuries and wrongs should remayne vnreuenged and that any wickednes whatsoeuer in mankind should be committed with all impunity without any suffering on the delinquents side Secondly that there should be no reward allotted for vertue piety nor no fruite thereof That in this life oftentimes there is no reuenge or compensation taken for wrongs is manifest for we see daily many most wicked and impious men and oppressours of the innocent to flourish greatly in this life and to abound with all kinds of temporall goods as riches honours and delights but the iust and vertuous to be still entangled with diuers calamities and to passe their whole time in affliction as if Prosperity should be the reward of Impiety and calamity of iustice and piety Therefore of there be no retribution of these matters after this life then in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perturbation of order it is most euident to wit that all heynous offences and crimes should be vnpunished vertue vnrewarded Iustice troden vnder foote through contempt and iniquity erected For wrongs and flagitious sinnes are supposed to continue and to pollute this Common wealth of the whole Vniuerse till they be reuenged and become expiated by due punishments as is euident from the common iudgment of all men It also further might be inferred that if there be no chastisement of vice nor remuneration for vertue there were no diuine power or prouidence vndertaking the care of mens affaires but that all things are carryed with temerity rashnes that euery maÌ„s will power becomes a law to himselfe for nothing can be more aduerse repugnaÌ„t to the nature of Prouidence then this kind of licence impunity For as we may truly say that that Kingdome or State if any such were eyther wanted a gouernour or that the gouernour were iniust a defender of wicked men if therein there were decreed no reuenge for notorious publicke transgressours Euen so if in this Kingdome as it were of all mankind all actions should proceed freely without any expectation either of rewards or feare of punishments we might well collect that there were no prouidence nor any supreme moderatour by whome humane affaires are gouerned or if there were any yet that he is vniust This is confirmed in that the first office of a gouernour is that Lawes may be obserued with due distribution of rewards and punishments according to mens different coÌ„portment and carriage for thus all actions are brought to the ballance of iustice then the which nothing is more desired in this world Now where this is wanting it is certaine that prouidence and true gouerment is also wanting The same point is also further made euident because it chiefly belongeth to Prouidence to giue to euery one what is his owne this being the inuiolable law of iustice which in gouerment true administration of things is most religiously to be obserued whereupon Diuine Prouidence obserueth this most precisely in all things created according to their different capacities giuing to euery one what is agreable to their nature and
condition Now if this order be kept in the lowest and meanest creatures then with much more reason ought it to be obserued in the worthyest thing of the world which is mans Soule which only is capable of Iustice and iniury right and due Certainly it is absurd that all things agreable to their natures should exactly be measured and giuen by the Prouidence of God to myce gnats wormes and the like who are not capable of iustice or wrong yet those things should not be giuen to the soule of man which are due and best sort to it and which the soule it selfe through her good or bad actions deserueth We cannot but thinke that the care of diuine Prodence is about small matters very preposterous if it be wanting in the greatest things For from this then would fall out not much vnlike as if a Prince should carefully prouide of al things necessary for horses mules and dogs and yet should absolutely neglect his owne family without setting downe any recompensations to his most trusty seruants or chastisement to malefactours Thē the which proceeding what can be imagined more exorbitant or lesse agreable with reason For by how much any thing is more worthy and more neere to God by so much it requyreth a greater care of Prouidence that it may attend its end A reasonable nature is the sole family and household of God since this nature only acknowledgeth God and prosecuteth him with honour and reuerence This also alone contemneth and offendeth him and therfore it alone deserueth reward and punishment Now from these premises it is manifestly conuinced that there is no diuine power nor any Prouidence if the soule be extinguished with the body for if it be extinguished then is there no retribution nor any iustice but iniuryes and wrongs remayne vnsatisfyed vertue becomes dishonoured and finally there is found in the worthyest creature of the world the greatest perturbation and inuersion of order that can be imagined All which inferences being granted do euidently prooue the world to be destitute of a Rectour or Gouernour And hence it is that this consideration chiefly hath in al ages perplexed the minds of men and hath impelled them to deny diuine prouidence and to satisfy their owne affections desires And the greatest motiue to withdraw men from this false opinion was to consider good or euill was prepared for man after this life as the Prophet most excellently explicateth in the 72. Psalme Only the mature ponderation of this appeaseth the mynd and causeth it to tread a vertuous resolued course in all aduersities But it may be heere answered that the soules of the wicked are sufficiently punished for all their wrongs iniustice other their transgressions in that they are extinct with the death of their bodyes but against this I say that this perishing and death of the soule if any such were is ordained not as a punishment but as a condition of nature which no lesse the vertuous and iust do vndergoe then the wicked Like as in a Commonwealth if there were no other other punishments to be inflicted vpon delinquents then the naturall death of body which according to the course of measure is to fall to euery one it might be truly said that no paine or chastisement at all were absolutly set downe for malefactours but that all liberty and impunity preuailed therein for punishment ought to be inflicted for the fault as a iust recompensation of the same So as if there be no fault then is there not any place for punishment Now this supposed extinction of the soule aboue vnderstood is not inflicted for any fault seing the vertuous are no lesse subiect to it then the wicked THE XIX REASON CHAP. XX. THE world was created by God to the end that the perfection of his Diuinity might shine and appeare in it as in his most beautifull and admirable worke for this manifestation is the last end of God or of the first agēt in the framing of the world For nothing is more worthy then God who worketh for his owne sake and intendeth lastly his owne good which good is not intrinsecall to God for this kind of good is euer present vnto him neither can it be increased or diminished but only extrinsecall which is nothing els then an open declaration of his perfections in his Creatures and by his creatures in the which his extrinsecall glory consisteth And in this sense the Philosophers are accustomed to say Idem est primus agens vltimus finis One the same thing is the first agent and the last end The reason hereof being because the first agent doth not necessarily intend in the last place his owne good Which point is warranted out of the holy Scripture Omnia propter semetipsum operatus c. The Lord made all things for his owne sake yea euen the wicked for the day of euill God worketh all things not only by a positiue action in doing but also by a negatiue action in suffering and permitting for the word to worke is heere taken in a large signification God worketh propter semetipsum that is for his owne glory that thereby the perfections of his excellency may be manifested and knowne Impium quoque yea euen the wicked c. because he suffereth a man to be wicked and being wicked he ordaineth him to damnation and eternall punishment all this which God doth tendeth to his glory But if the soule be mortall the diuine perfections in God are so farre off from shining in the fabricke disposition of the world as that they may rather seeme to be obscured for it is no signe of the power of the Creatour but rather of his weaknes that he could not make the Soule of man which is the Lord of things immortall seeing that condition is best sorting to the dignity of the soule It is not a point of wisdome to make such things eternall as are seruiceable and as it were slaues to man as the world which is his house and the like and yet to shut or confyne the Lord of all within a narrow conpasse of tyme and that being once ended himselfe for euer to be extinguished and to resolue to nothing It is not the office of goodnesse to bring all other things to that perfection which is agreable to ech of thē and yet so to neglect the Soule of man as that he can neuer attaine vnto the hundreth part of that good of which it is capable It is no Prouidence to leaue the soule to its own appetites and desires without setting of any rewards which may allure it to vertue or punishments which may deterre it from vice to leaue sinne vnpunished and iustice violated to permit in the world so great a disorder and confusion the impious ruling and tyrannizing and the iust and vertuous remaining oppressed and this without any future hope of bettering of things or of reducing them in any more conuenient order What should I
the body therefore to be separated from the body and to exist and continue separatly is coÌ„trary to its naturall inclination and in some sort violent But Violence perpetuity are incompatible Not the later I meane that sometime after its separatioÌ„ the soule is to be restored and reunited with the body because from hence it would follow that the resurrection of the body should be naturall and due to the naturall course of things which point is not to be granted both because it is a high mistery of Christian fayth as also in that all ancient Heathen Philosophers were vtterly ignorant of this doctrine of the resurrection of bodyes I answere first that Origen and the Platonicks vtterly denyed the reasonable soule to be the forme of the body who placed the same in the body not as a forme in its naturall subiect for the commodity and benefit of the subiect but as one that is guilty and detained in prison for a reuenge of its former errours Whereupon they taught that one substance to wit Man was not properly compounded of the soule and the body but they auerred that only the soule was man and the body the prison therfore they said that euery body was to be auoyded But for confutation of this errouâ— it is manifest that it is repugnant to reason For if the soule be with-houlde in the body as in a prison why then doth it so much feare and auoid death Or why is it so grieuous to the soule to be disioyned and separated from the body Why is it not painful to the soule to stay in a body so stored with filth and impurity As we see it is most displeasing to a man of worth accustomed to places of note and regard to be kept in a sordid and obscure dungeon Why doth it so much affect the commodities and pleasures of the body and is so greatly delighted therewith Why at the hurt and losse of the body is it so infinitly afflicted and molested since otherwise it hath iust reasoÌ„ to reioyce at these corporal endomages no otherwise then captiues and imprisoned persons who are glad to see their chaines fall asunder their prison laid leuell with the ground Therefore seing the reasonabie soule is no lesse seÌ„sible of ioy or griefe touching the pleasures or aduersities of the body then the soules of beasts are it is euident that the reasonable soule is the naturall forme of mans body and that it doth affect and couet to be vnited with it Yet because it is not so immersed in the body as that it ought to be extinguished with it but is able through the benefit of its owne subâ—ilty and spirituall substance to subsist by it selfe Hence then it riseth that it predominateth ouer the affections of the body contemning them at its pleasure so as it yealdeth if it selfe will neither to pleasure nor griefe nor death it selfe which priuiledge is not found in irrationable creatures This opinion then being reiected we affirme that the soule is not to continue separated but sometimes to be â—eunited to the body because it was not first ordained to be an entyre and complete substance as an Angell is but to be only a part of a substance to wit the forme and consequently an imperfect and incomplete substance Whereupon it is needfull that we admit the resurrection of bodies And yet we cannot tearme this to be naturall for although the forming of the body and the vnion of the soule with the body be a naturall thing and due to the naturall state perfection of the soule yet this cannot be accomplished by naturall causes but only by diuine power and therefore it is to be called supernaturalis euen as giuing sight to the blynd is so reputed or restoring of decayed and feeble parts of the body and the curing of incurable diseases Neither ought it to seeme strange that the soule of man cannot obtaine for euer its naturall perfection without the power of God and his extraordinary assistance the reason here of being in that it is capable of a double as it were of a contrary nature to wit spirituall and corporall mortall and immortall Therefore the Soule requireth the body once lost to be restored to it but to be restored so firmely strongly as that it is neuer more to be lost is supernaturall since otherwise there ought to be infinite tymes a resurrection of bodyes The Philosophers were ignorant of this resurrection either because they thought the soule not to be the naturall forme of the body but a complete substance or els in that they thought it lesse inconuenyent to teach that the soule remained after death perpetually separated then to introduce bring in as a new doctrine the resurrectioÌ„ of the body For though it be naturall to the soule to be in the body yet in that respect only as it is separated from it it feeleth no griefe but rather it is freed therby from all the inconueniences and discoÌ„modities of this life obtaineth a more high and more worthy degree and becomes more neere to diuine celestial substances Wherefore I do not thinke that the soule being separated doth of it selfe much couet to be reunited with the body though by the force and weight of nature it hath a propension therto And the reason her of is because those goods and priuiledges it possesseth as it is separated are more to be esteemed then those are which it enioyeth in the body Neither is it true that this separation is violent to the soule for although the want of this vnion be in some sort violent to it to wit by way of negation as it is a priuation of that to which the very essence of the soule doth efficaciously propend and inclyne yet that liberty which it then enioyeth and that vigour of the Soule maÌ„ner of vnderstanding is not in any sort violent but most agreable to its nature as it is in state of separation The third Argument The structure of the body may seeme to intimate imply the mortality of the soule for it is almost wholy framed for the temporal vses of this mortall life to wit that the body may be maintained and preserued and nature propagated and continued Thus the teeth and stomacke are ordained to chew and concoct meate the intestines and bowels to auoyd the superfluous and excrementall matter the liuer to confect bloud the gall to receaue the sharper more bitter parts of the nutriment the splen or milt to containe the more grosse bloud the reynes to part and diuyde the serasus wheish matter of the nourishment from the bloud the bladder to receaue and send out this wheish matter the instruments of the sexe to procreatioÌ„ But after this life there shal be no need either of the vse of meates or of procreation therfore there ought not to be these members which are ordayned to those ends and consequently there ought not to be the soule which
requireth such members and a body so framed and compacted For those members are to be accounted in vayne superfluous of which there neuer shal be any vse I answere This argument directly immediatly oppugneth the resurrection secundarily and by way of coÌ„sequence the immortality of the soule For the composition and structure of mans body prooueth that in it selfe and by its owne nature it is mortall but it doth not prooue the soule to be in like sort mortall But although the body be disolued and do perish yet it is a facill easy matter for God to frame it againe in its due tyme to reinfuse the soule into it and so to cause that the body shall neuer after be dissolued for as Plato in his Timaeo teacheth Quod natura sua solubile est c. VVhat in its owne nature stands subiect to dissolution and obnoxious vnto death the same by the commandement and will of God may be made immortall so as it shall neuer dye Certainly those functions of the members which belong to nourishment of the body and to generation shall cease notwithstanding it followeth not that those members shal be superfluous because they shall serue to the naturall constitution of the body as parts necessary to its perfection and beauty for this is their chiefe and principall vse to wit to conduce to the making of a perfect and complete body and such as is fitting to the condition state of the soule Now these functions are only a secondary end because they are ordained only for the tyme and serue only to repayre the ruines of mortall body the naturall heat feeding vpon and consuming the substance of the flesh whereupon it followeth that as the augmentation or increase of the bodyes greatnesse ceaseth when it once hath attained its iust stature Euen so shall nutrition or nourishment of the body cease and the functions belonging thereto when the body by a diuine hand and power shall become immortall For seeing these functions are oâ— the lowest degree as agreeing to the soule according to its meanest faculty and parte wherein it participateth with plants and is heerein attended with much drosse filth rottennes it was not conuenient that they should be perpetuall but that in due tyme they should be taken away God reducing the body into a better forme Notwithstanding the function of the senses because they are made after a spirituall manner without corruption they shal be perpetuall In like sort the function of the voyce and speach shal be perpetuall to the which those members shall after their manner either neerely or remotely be seruiceable and therefore in this respect also they shall not be in vaine superfluous The fourth argument may be taken froÌ„ those words which Pliny in his seauenth booke of his history c. 55. setteth downe though they be of small force and validity First then he to this purpose saith Omnibus a suprema die c. The same happeneth to all things after thâ—ir last day which was at their beginning Neither after death is there more sense to the body or soule then there was before its birth I answere and say that that is heere assumed which is first to be prooued and therefore it is denyed with the same facility wherwith it was affirmed And that this saying of his is false it is prooued from the whole schoole of the Platonicks and the Pithagoreans For there is no necessity why that which once begun should sometimes cease especialle if it be a simple and vncompounded substance as the soule and euery spirituall nature is But indeed it is otherwise of corporall things consisting of the Elements of whome only that sentence is verifyed Omne genitum potest corrumpi Euery thing that is made may be corrupted Certainly materia prima because it is simple and vncompounded though it had a beginning yet can it not be corrupted The same also according to the doctrine of the Platonicks is to be said of the celestiall Orbs. Therefore although there was no sense of the soule before its creatioÌ„ yet followeth it not that therefore after death it shall haue no sense And the reason hereof is because though the birth as it were of the soule be ioined with the birth of the body and thereupon the soule did exist before the birth of the body notwithstanding the destruction of the soule doth not follow the destruction of the body for death is not a destruction or extinguishmeÌ„t of them both but only a separation of the body from the soule In the next place Pliny demandeth Cur corpus c. why the body followeth and coueteth the soule I answere that no body followeth the soule departing from hence because the soule as being a naked and simple substance can consist without the body Then saith he Vbi cogitatio illi From whence hath the soule separated its cogitation or discourse The soule being in state of separation hath no need of a braine or a body that it may thinke imagine and discourse euen as we grant that God spirituall substances haue not those Organs because the force of vnderstanding by how much it is more remote distant from the body by so much it is more excellent Next asketh Pliny Quomodo visus auditus From whence hath the soule separated seeing and hearing Whereto it is replyed that the soule needeth not the function and operation of the outward senses seing that it perceaueth all things in its mynd For the the mynd then doth not only serue to cogitate or thinke or to know things abstractiuely but also to behold and apprehend all things which in this life we apprehend with our externall senses euen as Pliny himselfe speaketh of God Quisquis est Deus c. VVhosoeuer God is he is all sense all sight all hearing all soule all vnderstanding all himselfe In like sort we say of the soule being separated that it is all sense all sight all hearing all vnderstanding all vigour and life Againe he questioneth Quid agit qui vsus eius What doth the soule separated Or what vse is there of it Of whom by retortioÌ„ I demand what do other spirits and incorporeall substances As if it were nothing to contemplate praise and loue God and to enioy the fellowship of celestiall spirits Certainly the cecity and blindnesse of this man is wonderfull who may be thought not to haue acknowledged the being of any spirits Therefore how much more wisely deliberatly did the Platonicks and the Peripateticks teach who placed maÌ„s chiefe felicity in conteÌ„plating of the first beginning and cause of all things Pliny proceedeth yet further Quid sine sensibus bonum VVhat can be good which is not to be apprehended by the senses I say to acknowledge no good of the soule without the senses is incident to swyne and beasts not to Philosophers next Quae deinde sedes VVhat seate or mansion for the soules seperated The answere is expedite and ready
to wit the mansion for the pious and vertuous soules in heauen for the wicked Hell And this opinion all Antiquity euer did hold Next he asketh Quanta multitud◠c. how great a multitude is there of soules as of shadowes for so many ages To which is to be answered that the multitude of soules is as great as there is number of men which haue liued from the beginning of the world vnto this day For seeing the world tooke a beginning the number of the soules is not infinite but it is comprehended within a certaine number and that not exceedingly great for it were not very difficult to shew that this number exceedeth not two or three Myriades of millions Now the soules are ignorantly called by Pliny Vmbrae Shadowes seing that they are like vnto light and the body is to be resembled rather to a shadow as the Platonicks were accustomed to say After this Pliny thus expostulateth Quae dementia c. VVhat folly is it to maintaine that life is iterated and begun againe by meanes of death But herein as in all the rest he is deceaued for the life of the soule is not iterated after the death of the body but the body dying it continueth and perseuereth After he further enquireth Quae genitis quies c. VVhat rest can euer be if the sense vigour of the soule remaineth aloofe of in so high a place To which is to be answered that not only rest quyet and fredome from the troubles and miseries of this life belongeth to the soules separated but also wonderfull pleasures and ioy if they haue here liued well but misery if they haue spent their tyme in wickednes without finall repentance And this the Platonicks also acknowledge In the next place he thus further discourseth saying that the feare of what is to succeed after this life doth lessen the pleasures of this life Thus we heere see that this is the chiefe reason why wicked men are loth to belieue the immortality of the soule to wit because this their beliefe confoundeth all their pleasures woundeth their mynds with a continuall feare of what is after to come For being conscious and guilty to themselues of their owne impiety and of what they iustly do deserne therefore they wish that their soule might dy with their body since they cannot expect with reasō a greater benefit For so they should be free from misery and torments which hang ouer their heads And because they earnestly desire this they are easily induced to belieue it to come to passe Now the extinguishing of the soule is not the chiefe good of nature as Pliny thinketh but the chiefe euill rather of nature since euery thing chieffly auoydeth its owne destruction as losing al it goodnes in Nature thereby For how can that be accounted the chiefe good of nature by the which all iustice is ouerthrowne all reward and remuneration is taken away from vertue and all chastisement from vyce For though it were for the good of the wicked that the soule were mortall yet it were most iniurious to the vertuous and hurtfull to the publick good of the vniuerse no otherwise then it would be inconuenient to the good of a temporal commonwealth if no rewards should be propounded for vertue nor reuenge for exorbitancy and transgression of the lawes Certainly the cogitation of death the soules immortality increaseth the anxiety and griefe of the wicked since they do not only complaine for the death of the body which depriueth them of all pleasure of this life but also and this with far greater vehemency for the punishments which after the death of the body they are perswaded through a secret feeling of nature their soules are to suffer But now on the contrary part the former cogitation doth increase the ioy and comfort of the vertuous seing they not only reioyce at the death of the body by meanes whereof they are discharged of al the afflictiōs of the world but also and this in far greater measure at the certaine expectation of that felicity and happines wherwith after their death they shal be replenished Now from all this heretofore deliuered set downe it is euident that the obiections and reasons of Pliny are most weake friuolous as proceding rather from an inueterated hate and auersion of the contrary doctrine then from any force and ground of reason But here one perhaps may reply say Be it so that the soule is immortall notwithstāding it may so be that after this life it shall suffer no euill but enioy great liberty busiyng it selfe in the contemplatiō of things Or if it shall suffer any punishmēt yet this sufferance shall not be perpetuall but longer or shorter according to the proportion nature of its offences committed in this world and that greater sinnes shal be expiated with a more long punishment or at least with a more grieuous and lesser with a shorter or more gentle chastisemēt Indeed I grant the iudgement of the Stoick to haue bene that the soule after this life suffered no euill but that instantly after death it returned to some one appointed starre or other and there remayned either vntill the generall exustion and burning of the world if it were vertuous wise or els only for a short tyme if it were wicked and foolish which period being once ended the soule was to be turned into the Element from whence it was taken But these assertions are friuolous and not warranted with any reason for granting that soules do liue after this life what then is more easy to be belieued then that they receaue either rewards or paynes according to their different comporttments in this world Since otherwise where should the Prouidance of God be Or where Iustice But of this point we haue abundantly discoursed aboue Furthermore if Soules for a certayne tyme can subsist without a body why can they not for euer continue so For seing they are simple and vncompounded substances they cānot in processe of tyme grow old or loose their strength and vigour as bodyes compounded of Elements do Now if they can but for one instant exist and liue without a body thē can they for all eternity perseuer in that state as being not subiect to any extinguishment or destructiō as the whole schoole of the Peripatetiks and Aristotle himselfe do teach For there is nothing which can destroy or corrupt a simple substance subsisting by it selfe And therefore it is houlden that Materia as being a simple substance and inhering in no other thing as in a subiect is incorruptible and inexterminable Now touching that which is spoken of the burning of soules in that sense as if they could be dissolued and vanish away into ayre by meanes of fyer as bodyes is no lesse absurd For the soule is not a body or an oyle-substance which can be set on fire but it is a spirit more thin pure and light then either ayre or fyer But what is
rest at whose command all the others do moue or rest quyet Now then by force of this reasō there ought much more to be the like order among spirits so as all are in regard of soueraignty ouer them to be reduced to one supreme spirit for by how much any thing is more excellent by so much it ought to enioy a more perfect order in the world but spirits are far more worthy in nature then corporall things therefore among thē there ought to be the perfectest order to wit of subiection and domination For it were most absurd to grant an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and confusion in the noblest ranke of Creatures seeing we fynd the lowest and most inferiour degree of things to be so orderly disposed and distributed This poynt is further confirmed from the most dangerous and imminent inconueniences accompanying the contrary doctrine for if among spirits there were no order that the rest should not be subiect vnto one at the command wherof the power of them were to be restrained then might euery one of them trouble and afflict the world at its owne pleasure might take away mens goods burne and destroy all things might infest mens bodyes with griefes diseases death to be briefe might destroy and ouerthrow all mankynd neither could any redresse be found to the contrary seing there were no supreme spirit to the which this other did stand subiect and so the world could not in any sort long consist For how prone wicked spirits are to hurt and afflict men appeareth both frō the history of Iob all whose substance the Diuell destroyed killed his sonnes and daughters infected his body with most grieuous vlcers as also frō the innumerable sacrifices of the heathens in the which the malignant spirits commāded that mens bodyes should be sacrificed vnto thē still making choyce of that which was most deare to the sacrificer as his sonne his daughter or one who was in great estimation in the Common wealth finally frō the warres and tumults to the which the Diuels vnder the shew of diuyne and celestiall powers haue stirred men Now if they are thus cruell and merciles towards men God but giuing them in some sort the bridle for the offences of men what would they not do with what calamities would they not afflict men and what honours worships would they not extort at our hands if they were at their owne power and liberty receauing from no superiour spirit any restraint or inhibition Yea amōg themselues warres emulations dissētiōs would grow if there were not one that could impose a command ouer them For as among Princes who acknowledge no superiour oftētimes wars are stirred vp with the which the world is miserably afflicted because there is none to whose souerainty they stand subiect and who is of power to compose the rising controuersies among them Euen so among spirits there would grow repinings contentions wars with the which the world would be vtterly extinguished if they stood not in subiection to some one supreme power for euery one of them would seeke to aduance himselfe and labour to draw all things to his owne pleasure and desire wherfore Homer most truly did leaue it registred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is It is not good that there be many Princes in one kingdome let one Prince one King be And answerably hereto Aristotle as borrowing it out of Homer thus writeth in the twelth booke of his Metaphisickes c. vlt. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Things in nature do not couet to be gouerned in an euill sort and manner To conclude seeing there are many spirits as is shewed aboue I would here demand from whence this multitude had its begining Or who brought thē into the world They proceed not from bodies in that they are of a more excellent and eminent nature then bodyes are as also in that bodyes do bring forth only bodies Neither is one of them ingendred of another as we see liuing creatures are propagated seeing this kind of generation is peculiar to things which are subiect to corruptiō to wit that by this meanes the species kinds of things may be perpetuated whiles the nature being extinct in the parent is conserued in the issue Neither can it be said that euery one of these spirits haue their being from themselues so as they depend of no other cause granting that any thing receaueth its existence and being from it selfe it is far more probable that this so taking it existēce should be but one not many For it is much more fitting that there should be one certaine Nature independent of any in the which the whole fulnes of beeing resteth eminenter and vnitedly from which one nature the beeing of all things is deriued according to the degree of euery such thing thē to maintaine that there are many Natures which depend not of one supreme nature For where there is a multitude of seuerall species or Indiuidua and particuler things there is also a limitation and imperfection seeing those many things are altogither distinct and seuerall neither do one comprehend the perfection and vertue of another And hence it ryseth that none of those is for it selfe but for another and all together conspyre and meet in one and are as it were parts of one entyre whole which riseth out of them Thus do many bodies make the world many men a Common wealth many spirits one kingdome or cōmon wealth of spirits but what is of it self ought to be altogether perfect and sufficiēt to it selfe needing not the support help of any other thing And what may be the reason thereof Euen this that what is of it selfe is also for it selfe according to that Quod caret principio effectiué caret etiam fine What wanteth an efficient cause wanteth also a finall cause and therefore it selfe becomes the end to it selfe not seeking out of it selfe any ayde light truth ioy or beatitude but hauing all these things in it selfe and from it selfe Therefore that which is of it selfe and independent of another must needes be but one not many to wit a primordiall or illimitable essence sufficient by it selfe being the fountaine of euery thing and of each limitable nature We may ad hereto that to grant a being of many spirits independent of any is to introduce a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or confused company of Gods and many first beginnings as blynd Gentility was accustomed to do assigning proper and peculiar Gods to euery particuler busines affaires of man who should be the authours directours and vpon whome that kind of particuler negotiation should be peculiarly incumbēt So they made Venus the goddesse of loue and lust Diana of hunting Ceres of fruyte Mercury of negotiation Esculapius of curing diseases Mars of warre Pallas of wisedome Apollo and the Muses of Poetry Fortune of casuall euents and the like in diuers other things but all this with a strāge blindnes of iudgment as if one
with a vast opennes mighty fragour and noyse it did absorpe and swallow downe Core Dathan and Abiron with all their tabernacles and goodes and after closed it selfe togeather not leauing any print or shew of its former opening and as touching the other two hundred and fifty being their associates in rebelling a huge fire from heauen rushed vpon them coÌ„sumed them so as no parcels of their bodies remayned The day after when as the people began another insurrection against Moyses and Aaron as esteming them the authours of the former destruction and that God for their sakes punished with death as they thought innocent men at which God was so highly offended that he sent a fyar among them with the which fourteene thousand and seauen hundred were instantly burned to death 10. Another tyme in like sort the people through the tedious wearisomnes of their iourney murmuring against God he againe sent a fyar among them which deuoured and consumed the vttermost parts of their camps and tents had wasted further therein if Moyses had not prayed to the contrary at whose prayers the earth opening the fyar descended downewards and so ceased 11. Not long after this the people againe murmuring against the diuine Maiesty by reason of the length of their trauell God sent among them certaine fiery serpetns at whose stingings and by tings many of the people submitted themselues to Moyses with acknowledgment of their sinne Thereupon Moyses by the coÌ„mandement of God erected the brazen serpent hanging it vpon a high Pole or forke at the beholding only whereof all those were cured that were afore wounded by the foresaid dangerous serpents This was a most illustrious and cleare type or figure of Christ our Lord hanging vpon the Crosse in the beliefe and faith of whome alone the wounds of the old serpent are cured and eternall saluation is purchased 12. To conclude during those forty yeares of the Israelites stay in the wildernes neither their clothes nor their shoes became worse or old with wearing Gods good prouidence so preseruing them in that they had not there conuenient meanes of procuring of new Add to all these former so many helpes and furtherances in their warrs so many famous victories obtained through Gods particuler assistance so many of their enemies slaine either with no losse or with very small on the Israelites side we read that the Army of Amalec was ouercome by the Israelites through the prayers of Moyses for during all that tyme that Moyses was lifting vp his hands to God Israell ouercame and when he suffered his hands to fall downe Amalec vanquished which point no doubt serued as a great mistery The riuer of Iordan did deuide it selfe in the presence of the Arke to wit the higher part of it swelling as a mountaine and the lower part altogether dry and gaue passages to all the people The walles of Iericbo being most stroÌ„g fell downe to the ground only at the sound of the trumpets voice or clamour of the â—â—â—ple Many of the army of the fiue kings of the Amorrheans being discomfited by the Israelites and flying away were in their flight killed by haile stones sent from heauen The Sunne and the Moone at the commandement of Iosue God yealding to his petition for the space of ten or twelue houres stayed their motions vntill he had vanquished his enemyes I omit many other fauours granted to the people of Israel for their obtaining of the land of Promise all which do euidently demonstrate the peculiar prouidence assistance of God Now all these euents serued but as figures and types of such things as should happen in the Church during the tyme of the new testament also they are of force to secure vs now in tyme of grace of Gods prouidence besides in freeing his seruantes from the bondage of the Diuel for our entrance into the heauenly country Fiftly those things are to be considered which chanced to the Israelites when they were gouerned by Iudges and after they entred into the land of Promise for as ofteÌ„ as after the custome of other countries they fell to the worship of Idols they were most grieuously afflicted by God as being brought vnder the yoke and seruitude of their enemyes but when soeuer they grew truly penitent of such their Idolatry returning vnto God with a contrite and sincere mind then God being at hand ready to commiserate the distressed raised vnto theÌ„ a Captaine or leader which did vindicate and free them from their thraldome and oppression and did reduce theÌ„ to their former liberty For seauen seuerall tymes a thing most strange and wonderfull while they were gouerned by captaines this hapned for as often they relapsed into Idolatry so often they were deliuered into the hands of their enemies and so often flying with true penitency vnto God they were succoured And first Iosue and others of the more ancient being dead who were behoulders of the wonderfull workes of God and contained the people in the true religion they left God mancipating and subiecting themselues to the worshipping of the Idols of Baalim and Astaroth For which sinne God deliuered them into the hands of Chusan Rathasaâ—m King of Mesopotamia whome they serued eight yeares Now this subiection seeming in the end very heauy vnto them and they through the admonition of holy men acknowledging it to be inflicted by God for their sinne of â—dolatry being penitent for it earnestly beseeched mercy and helpe therefore our Lord taking mercy of them sent them Othoniell who gathering forces ouerthrew the King of Mesopotamia and freed the people from their bondage After the death of Othoniell the people againe forgetful of Gods benefits and commandements led with the custome of other countries returned to Idolatry for the punishment of which their sinne our Lord stirred vp Eglon King of Moab with the Amalites and Amalacites by whome they were badly intreated for the space of eighteene yeares but they after loathing their former sinnes and flying vnto God for pardon God sent them Aod who with the death of the King and destruction of the army of the Moabites set the people at liberty Aod being dead they returned againe to Idolatry in reuenge of which wickednes our Lord deliuered them vp vnto the power of Iabin King of Chanaan who afflicted them twenty yeares together but tribulation giuing them againe vnderstaÌ„ding they grieued for their sinnes and supplicated Gods mercy who moued there with raysed vp Debora a prophetesse Barac a man of armes who gathering an army vanquished the forces of the King of Iabin with the death of Sisara his captaine by the hands of a woman called Iahel The people of Israel enioying peace and quiet fell againe to idolatry and became therefore subiect to the Madianits by whome during seauen yeares they were grieuously oppressed But they being in this calamity repented and prayed help froÌ„ God whereupon they were first sharply
heere speake of Mercy Iustice For what mercy is it that man should liue so short a tyme and lead his corporall life afflicted with so many miseries without any expectation of happines for the time to come Or what pleasure can this life afford which is mixed with such store of worme wood as that to a prudent man it seemeth most bitter except the sweetnes of a future expectancy doth teÌ„per it Or what equity iustice is it that good men should be oppressed afflicted murthered by the wicked without any reuenge or recompensation of so great and insufferable wrongs that there should be no rewards proposed for piety iustice vertue nor punishments for wickednesse and in iustice that the wicked should abound withal the goods of this life as riches honours pleasures and domination or rule the godly pious should liue plunged into all afflictions and calamities Who considering these things will not repute them rather signes of cruelty and iniustice then of mercy and iustice And that the diuine power is a fauourer of the wicked and an enemy to the vertuous if there be not after this life a iust compensation retaliation made to both these kinds of men And hence it is that the Heathens who thought litle of any retribution after this life did often accuse the Gods of cruelty iniustice Of which point many examples are extant in Homer Euripides Athanâ—us and others Yea such a cogitation will enter into the minds of some Christians whiles they do not cast their eye of things to come after this life And certainly if nothing were to chance to the soule after its separation froÌ„ the body it were not an easy matter to vindicate and free God from the aspersion and note of cruelty iniustice as aboue is shewed out of Chrysostome For who would esteeme that King to be iust benigne who should suffer in his Kingdome so great a coÌ„fusion as that no reward should be proposed for vertue nor punishment for most facinorous crimes but that the wicked should perpetrate any mischiefes though neuer so heinous without any feare of law or feeling of any due punishment or castigation But now acknowledging the soules immortality all the former inconueniences do cease and all secret murmuring and complaints against God are silent For this foresaid confusion lasteth only for a small time which being once passed shall heereafter be corrected in an eternall order for to euery one after this life shal be allotted his place state and degree and there shal be a iust retribution for all actions whatsoeuer there no euil shall remaine vnreuenged nor good irremunerated and vnrewarded For as a skilful painter is not ignorant in what place he is to put each particular colour as black white the rest so God knoweth where to range euery one in this whole Vniuerse be he vertuous or wicked And as from that fitting distribution of colours riseth the beauty of the picture euen so from this disposall of Soules the splendour of the Vniuerse proceedeth which Vniuerse is as it were a certaine portrature of Gods diuinity wonderfully exhibiting to vs his power wisdome goodnesse Prouidence mercy and iustice Therefore there is no true reason why the iust should complaine of the Prouidence of God for their suffering of calamities in this life since the pressures and afflictions heere are but short and but small in a generous mind but the the fruite there of most great magnificent eternall It being true which the Apostle saith then whome no man perhaps in this world hath suffered more Momentaneum leue c. Our affliction which is but for a moment worketh in vs a â—arre more excellent and eternall weight of glory Now that ought not to be accounted grieuous which is recompensed with so great inestimable a reward Besides Tribulations are of force to fyle away the rust of the soule and to cause an abstertion and washing away of its dayly spots for no man in this world is so pure but some small blemishes are dayly contracted in his soule which by meanes of affliction are obliterated remooued In like sort there is no cause why the vertuous should stomacke the prosperity of the wicked since this is short momentary and mixed with much bitternes is hereafter to be attended with euerlasting complaint and lamentation There is no man which will enuy a draught of wyne to be giuen to a thiefe or the enioying of solace for some few houres which is already condemned to the wheele and death And the Prophet saith Noli aemulari c. Fret not thy selfe because of the wicked men neyther be enuious for the euill doers c. for they shall wither â—â— the greene hearbe In like sort the wiseman thus teacheth Stuppa collecta c. The CongregatioÌ„ of the wicked is like tow wrapped togeather their end is like a flame of fire to destroy them The haruest will come when all sinners like hurtful hearbs or chaffe shal be gathered togeather and cast into the fire as our Lord himselfe hath taught in that wonderfull parable of his in Matth. cap. 13. THE XX. REASON CHAP. XXI IT is so prouided by nature that who haue committed grieuous sinnes do suffer a secret sting and touch of Conscience with the which they are sometimes so tormented as that they depriue themselues of their owne liues For their conscience doth dayly accuse condemne them pronounce theÌ„ worthy of punishment cause them euer to stand in feare as if some dreadfull euil were hanging ouer their heads From hence it proceedeth that these men that they may the more diuert their myndes from these thoughts and free themselues of all such trouble giue themselues ouer to all sports recreations bankettings and to other externall societyes thus auoyding their inward accuser and torturer for nothing is more displeasing to them then to be solitary and alone and to enter into any secret discourse with their owne soules Now this horrour of mynd pricke of conscience is a presage of a future iudgment and reuenge which expecteth the soules of the wicked after this life Their sinnes offences are as it were seedes of eminent punishments therefore this their trouble of mynd ryseth euen by an instinct of nature from the remembrance of their owne sinnes But now we are not to thinke that the presages and foretellings of nature are but idle and needlesse instincts for if nothing were to be feared after the bodyes death and that no euill were to ensue thereupon then should in vaine this instinct be implanted in mans soule and in vayne should an euil conscience proiect forecast any such dreadfull and dyrefull matters In like sort a conscience priuy to it selfe of its wel doing bringeth great solace to the mynd and therefore Tully saith Magna est vis conscientiae c. The force of conscience both in the good and in the bad is great that they