Handicrafts-men Hyrelinges and such let vs view and consider them a litle that sit vp labouring and toyling night by night and doe scarcely get thinges necessarie for their liuing Moreouer day and night doe they their wiues and children liue full of complaintes and fill all the house with weeping teares What shall I say of Mariners how many dangers are they hourely in Rightly in sooth did Bias count Marriners in the number neither of those that are dead nor of those that are aliue For they being earthly men are in a doubtful-wise partakers of either estate But Husbandry is sweete let it be so but hath it not alwayes found occasion of Sorrow For in trueth the Husbandman sometime accuseth findeth fault with and bewayleth Drought sometime showers and Raine sometime Heate exustions and parching burning Sunne sometimes extreamitie of Cold and such vnseasonable weather sometime Wormes Caterpillers Grashoppers and such like deuowrers What Is not the Common-wealth in safetie and quiet Truely it is honourable But with how many euilles and sorrowes is it turmoyled Truely it hath a certaine moouing soft pleasant swelling deceiueable and troublous ioy euen like to swelling and boyling Cholar but a losse sorrowfull and worse then a thousand deathes For who can be happy when there is no remedie but he must needes liue at the peoples becke And he is mocked and hissed at as though he were a Play or a Fable of the people berated flouted fined miserable and wretched Soc. Where ô ciuill Axiochus dyed Melchindes Where Thomistocles Where Ephialtes Where all the other Captaines These thinges verily I neuer thirsted after Neither doth it seeme to be an honorable thing to execute the Magistrates duetie amongst the madde multitude But those waitelayers that about Theramenes and Calixenus did the day after bring vnder the Iudges or Rulers condemned the men vndiscreetly to death whom you Axiouchus togeather with Triptolamus did repugne in three thousand speaches vnto the people Axioc You say true ô Socrates And therefore from that same time euen vntill this day I haue euer eschewed the Tribunalshippe Neither doth any thing seeme more difficile and hard then the gouernement of the Common-weale This is very plaine and well knowne to them who themselues haue to doe in ciuill matters But you doe so speake of these thinges as one that a farre off did see them out of a Glasse or from the top of a Rocke or the prospect of a faire Tower But my selfe doe right well know them seeing I was my selfe conuersant in the matter For verily the common sort O Socratus my friende is ingratefull full of mockes and scornes vaine soone angried cruel enuious rude heaped full of troubles and trifles and whoseuer doth familiarly acquaint himselfe with them conuerse amongst them doth at the length become farre more miserable then they be themselues Socr. Seeing then O Axiochus you doe iudge that this Discipline is aboue all other most to be eschewed What doe you thinke of others Are not they also to be fledde from I haue furthermore more heard Prodicus when once he said that Death doth not belong neither to the dead nor to those that are aliue Axi Which way O Socrates or in what manner Socr. Because Death is not about the liuing and the dead are not or haue no beeing Wherefore neither is Death about you Axiochus because you are not yet dead neither if you depart this life shall Death be about you because you shall not bee Therefore griefe should be vaine if Axiochus doe bewaile that which is not about Axiochus neither shal be hereafter For you doe in like manner as if you were afraide of Scylla and Centaurus when as these Monsters are neither now about you neither shall be at any time hereafter For that which is horrible and to be feared happeneth to those which are But to those which are not nothing is to be feared Axi You gather these thinges out of that light vaine babling which is now common all abroad amongst the vulgar sort For from amongst them commeth this copie of vaine wordes composed for young mens sakes But I who am depriued of the good thinges of this life doe still mourne although you haue before in your Discourse brought very strong reasons For my sorrowing head doth not vnderstand the finenesse of your wordes neither discerne the colours of your speach Although it heare the pompe and shining of speach yet it neglecteth and is farte away from the trueth neither can it abide those rehearsed captious Sophismes it onely attendeth on those thinges which can knocke vpon and pearce the Minde and Soule So. Without reason Axiochus doe you ioyne togeather the sense of euill thinges and the priuation of good thinges And this lyeth closely hidden that he indeed is dead who is depriued of good thinges the passion of euill thinges afflicteth the contraries But hee that is not can neither marke or regard the orbitie or priuation By what meanes therefore where there is wanting the notice of the things afflicting can there be affliction For vnlesse in the beginning you should put a certaine senses by Iustice you should be afray de of Death But now you peruert and fore turmoyle your selfe fearing least you should loose your Soule But you doe condemne your Soule to amission that it shal be lost and not had againe you feare least Sense should be taken from you and doest thinke that Sense existing cannot be comprehended of that Sense whereas there are many and those notable Sermons of the Immortalitie of the Soule For neither had Mortall nature risen to so great excellencie that it should contemne the violence of outragious Beasts sayle and passe ouer the Sea build Cities prescribe order to Common-weales looke vp into Heauen measure the circuit of the Starres marke the progresse of the Sunne and Moone and their rysings and settinges defectes moreouer and swift restitutions Meridian and double conuersions the seauen Starres Winter in like manner and Sommer the flawes of Winde and the force of Raine and Stormie weather the tempostions whurring Whorlewinde and flashing of the Lightning and to conclude how the passions of the world should so wonderfully stande in eternitie vnlesse there were in the Minde some Diuine spirit by which it should get the intelligence of so great thinges Wherefore ô my deare Axiochus you doe not flit vnto Death but vnto Immortalitie it selfe Neither shall good thinges be taken away from but you shall enioy the sound possession of good thinges Neither shall you and more receiue and enioy Pleasure mixt with a mortall Body but shall quite be set free and vtterly voyde of euery sorrow Thither I say you shall goe free from this Prison where you shall haue all thinges quiet and remooued from sorrowfull Old age Where the exultation and reioycing of the inhabiters is an holy ioy and their life hath no conuersing with euilles but is quiet and nourished with Peace viewing the nature of
Spirit and Angell doc impudently say that mens Soules are Mortall and die togeather with their Bodyes The Epicures also affirming the Soule to be Mortall doe place the chiefest Good in Pleasures For Epicurus who as it pleaseth the greatest men did moderately vse Hearbes and Apples such meane Meate was afterward by those that came after being a beastly and filthy companie reproched with infamie for his sottish vnbridled Schollers fell into voluptuousnesse and counted themselues to be most happie with the vse thereof All these and many other moe in the reckoning vp of whom it is not profitable for vs for to stay thought mans Soule to be Mortall Whom Plinie seemeth to fauour when he sayeth in his second Booke of his Naturall Historie that God cannot giue men Eternitie nor call againe the Dead And also many Romaines renowned both for fame and learning for Valerius in his seconde Booke of the Immortalitie of the Soule seemeth to mocke the Frenchmen when he saith That old custome of the Frenchmen commeth to my remembraunce who as it is written doe lend Money that it might be payde them againe in Hell because they were certainely perswaded that the Soules be immortall Fooles are they to thinke that they there weare long Garments as Pithagoâ—as beleeued them to weare Cloakes Moreouer Caesar and Cato as Salust witnesseth plainely said that mens Soules were Mortall and many others also of whom it is not necessarie to speake particularly Against whom it is sayd in the second Chapter of the Booke of Wisedome The vngodly say as they falsely imagine with themselues our life is short and tedious and in the death of a man there is no recouerie neither was any knowne that returned from the Graue For wee are borne at all aduenture and we shall be hereafter as though we had neuer been for the Breath is a Smoake in our Nostrels and the Wordes as a Sparke raised out of our Heartes which being extinguished the Body is turned into Ashes and the Spirit vanisheth as the soft Ayre Our life shall passe away as the trace of a Cloude and come to naught as the Miste that is driuen away with the beames of the Sunne and cast downe with the heate thereof Our name also shal be forgotten in time and no man shall haue our workes in remembrance for our time is as a Shadow that passeth away and after our ende there is no returning For it is fast sealed so that no man commeth againe Come therefore and let vs enioy the pleasures that are present and let vs chearefully vse the creatures as in youth c. Then it followeth at the. 21. verse Such things doe they imagine and goe astray for their owne wickednesse hath blinded them And they doe not vnderstaud the mysterie of God neither hope for the reward of righteousnesse nor can discerne the honour of the Soules that are faultlesse And in the third Chapter The Soules of the righteous are in the hand of God no torment shall touch them In the sight of the vnwise they appeared to die and their ende was thought grieuous and their departing from vs. destruction but they are in peace And though they suffer paine before men yet is their hope full of immortalitie c. There are also others of euery sect and nation as well Poets as Philosophers in witte learning fame and glorie more excellent then the former who speaking more rightly of the state of the Soule haue taught that the Soules of men are not dissolued togeather with their bodyes but are immortall or rewarded with eternitie For Hermes talking in his Dialogues with Asclepius about the eternall Word confesseth that the Soules of men are immortall and that the Euill are punished and the Good eternally rewarded Goe to sayth he Wee must now reason of the Mortall and Immortall way or manner The feare of death vexe and trouble many being ignorant of the true way And a litle after When the Soule shall depart from the Body then shall the tryall of his merite passe into the power of the great Iudge and hee when he shall see it to be iust shall permit it to abide in places fit for it But if it be vnrighteous it shall be throwne downe into the great deepe and condemned to the stormes whyrlewinds of the Ayre and the Water and be snatched vp betwixt the Heauen and the Earth and be heere and there tossed haled and turmoyled in eternall paines But in this is eternitie hurtfull vnto the Soule that by the immortall sentence it is tyed to eternall punishment And thy Graunfather Esculapius O Asclepius saith hee the first finder out of Phisicke to whom is consecrated a Temple vpon a Mountaine of Lybea about the shore of Cocodrilli a man of a very godly life is gone backe againe into Heauen The Pharesies also and the Essies doe say that the Iudgement of God shall come and that the Soules of men be immortall Josephus in his second Booke of the Warres of the Jewes sayth this It is a confirmed opinion amongst vs that our Bodies are corruptible and that the matter of them is not perpetuall but our Soules alwayes remaine immortall And when they be losed from their carnall bondes as though they were deliuered or set free from a long seruitude so doe they foorthwith reioyce and are caryed vp on high The Pharesies also beleeued the same which two sectes were best allowed of among the Jewes as the same Iosephus affirmeth And of the Esseis being put to torments the same Josephus sayeth They smiling in the midst of punishings and laughing those to scorne that eschewed torments did constantly yeeld vp their Soules with a certaine hilaritie as though they should at length receiue theÌ„ againe And what is meant by that in the Sentences of the Greekes that assure them that remaine content with good things that they shall liue beyond the Occean where is promised vnto them a full fruition of the chiefest Ioyes For there verily say they is the Region which is aggrauated neither with Raine Cold Heate nor any Maladies but the Occean orient and gentle blowing Zephirus is there very pleasant But for euill soules they choose and appoint stormy and wintery places which are full of wailings schrikings and howlings of paines intollerable whose continuance is euerlasting and world with out end According to this same intelligence the Greekes haue faigned that for those whom they call Heros 1. noble and halfe Gods Semidij are sequestrated the Ilands of the blessed but for the Soules of the wicked Hell is destinated wherein also they faigne that there is tormented certaine Sysiphos Tantalusses Ixions and Licias For the Greeke say that Herâ—i noble and well deseruing Soules indued with immortalitie dwell vp very high in the Ayre whereof Jsiodore sayeth Heroas dicuntur a Junone traxisse nomen Grece enim luno a herba appellatur c. 1. Heroas are sayd to haue drawne their name from Juno for in the Greeke tongue
the Soule is Disciplinable or Immortall but that of it owne nature it is such For the perswading of the second part of the Conclusion we haue excerpt three reasons out of Cicero his first Tusculan Question and out of Cato the elder The first he draweth from as it were a naturall and in-bred opinion of all men but especially of old auncients The second Argument he draweth from the hope and expectation of prudent and good Men. The third he fetcheth from the nigh similitude and likenesse of our Mindes vnto GOD Afterward we will induce other familiar Reasons The first Reason that must testifie this trueth is Antiquitie which the further it was gone from the birth and difference of progenie the better peraduenture it did behold those thinges that were true Therefore sayth he it is sure that old men haue a sense and feeling in death and that man is not so blotted out by the departure out of this life that he should vtterly perish And this to be so may be vnderstood by the Ceremonies vsed at the Sepulchres Graues and Buriall of the dead where is vsed such Rites towardes them as if they were still indued with most excellent Wittes Neither would they haue worshipped with so great regard nor vsed so deuout Religion vnlesse it had cleaned to their minds that Death could not destroy all things but is as it were the Guide Captaine Leader of woorthie Men and Women that doe goe from hence into Heauen and change this fraile brittle miserable and wretched life for a life permanent euerlasting blessed and ioyfull From which opinion it is sprung that many whose names it is not now needfull to reckon vp or rehearse are for their good life and virtuous behauiour while they liued heere in this world amongst men counted after their death amongst the number of the Gods This same may hereof be vnderstood that all men haue a care that these thinges should be after their death to witte Propagation of Name Procreation of Children Adoption of Sonnes and fulfilling of Testaments with many other thinges It is a most great Argument amongst the Philosophers Why wee ought to beleeue that there is Gods although there be no Nation so sauage and outragious whose minde is not indued with opinion of Gods If any one would haue this Reason reduced and brought vnto that strait forme of Logicke wherein it shall haue lesse force they shall summarily haue it thus All men and especially those old ones who as they seeme to haue excelled vs in stature of body so also in excellencie of witte because they found out all good Artes which was an hard thing to doe iudged by nature or were naturally inclined to iudge that the Soules of men be Immortall Therefore the Soules of men are Immortall The Antecedent plainely appeareth to be true of the diligence that all men vse about their Sepulchres or Graues about the propogation of their name fame and glorie about the generation of Children adoption of Sonnes of many other thinges which men would not doe vnlesse they were naturally enclined to iudge that after they be departed out of this life there belongeth something vnto them wherevnto they haue a naturall appetite The second Reason is because that Plato whose authoritie is of such force with Cicero that he counteth him worthie to be beleeued in what he saith although he shew no reason why writing vnto Dionisius in that Epistle that beginneth Audiui ex Archidomo doth perswade saying Natura fieri viaemus vt ignauissimus quisque nihil curet quae sit de eo futura opinin Sapientes autenâ— et boni viri cuncta faciunt quo futura secula bene dese existimant 1. Wee see that it commeth to passe by nature that euery slouthfull sluggard taketh no care what opinion shall hereafter he had of him But wise and good men doe all thinges whereby the ages to come may thinke well of them Whereby I doe coniecture that his meaning is that they that be dead haue some sense feeling or knowledge of our matters or the thinges that we doe This Reason Cato the elder following doth thus reason in Cicero his Booke De Senectute Nemo vnquam mihi Scipio persuadebit aut patrem tuum c. There shall neuer any man perswade mee Scipio that either your Father Paulus or your two Graundfathers Paulus and Affricanus or that Affricanus Father or his Vncle or many other excellent men whom now it is not needfull to reckon vp did endeauour so great thinges which might belong to memorie of their posteritie vnlesse they did see very well in their minds that the posteritie should pertaine vnto them Or doe you thinke that I may glorie somewhat of my selfe as it is the maner of old men to doe that I would haue taken vpon mee so great labours both night and day at home and in warre if I were perswaded that my glorie should end with my life Had it not been a great deale better for mee to haue spent my time in ease and quietnesse without any labour and contention This speach Cicero handling more largely in the first Tusculan question sayth Quae natura in hominum genere melior quam eorum qui se natos ad homines iuuandos tutandos conseruandos arbitrantur etiam vsque ad mortem fortiter sustinendam Quis autem sapiens sine spe immortalitatis se offerret ad mortem Quid enim imprudentius quam sine vsto premio se et vita et virtute propria priuare Cum aut seruitutis aut egestatis labores c. 1. What Nature in Mankind can be better then theirs that thinke them-selues to be borne vnto this end to the intent that they may helpe defend and preserue men yea euen vnto the abyding of the bitter bruntes of direfull death But what wise-man wil offer himselfe vnto death without the hope of immortalitie for what part can a man play more vnwisely then without any rewarde to depriue himselfe of life and his owne proper vertue when be might with the rest of the Citizens patiently abide the labours either of seruitude or of pouertie Who will affirme that Glorie doth profit the dead if they haue no sense or feeling of it What good can this glorie doe to those famous worthy men so diligently notably cammended described of Poets if so be they doe know nothing of it Whether is it our partes then to condemne all those worthy men of foolishnesse who haue valiantly susteyned death for their Countrey or to beleeue that they looked for the immortalitie of their soules whose mindes sentence and iudgement to finde fault withall or to reprehend seemeth to come the nearest vnto temeritie or roshnesse This Reason diffusedly handled may be brought to forme vnder a double maner First wise and good men doe iudge and hope that their Soules shall be immortall therefore it is so The Antecedent is very plaine for otherwise they would not haue so endangered them-selues
nor willingly died that their valiantnesse might be left to them memorie of posteritie vnlesse they iudged that the posteritie did belong to them The Consequent is plaine because the diuinations and opinions of good men are seene as well as of the wicked The second If the Soule were not immortall no man in his right minde would offer himselfe to death for his Countrey or the Commonweale nor yet sustaine death for his Friendes The Consequence doth not seeme false For the Philosopher sayth in the ninth Booke of Ethickes That euerie one ought to suffer for his friendes yea to die for them also it need so required The same he saith in the 3. Booke of Ethicks The Consequence is plaine because none that is in his right wittes ought by good reason to depriue himselfe of the chiefest good or without hope to get some good thing either in this present life or in that which is to come But if the Soule be mortall then it doth by death depriue it selfe of the chiefest good yea of all good thinges without any hope of reward It may be thus confirmed Death doth not profite of it selfe or by it selfe to the conseruation of the Common-weale but is indeed against it Therefore if the Soule be mortall and is not to be rewarded in time to come then no wise man ought to stand to the trueth in the right of his Countrey euen vnto death The Antecedent is plaine Simile est de vno ciue et multis What is the duetie of one Citizen is also the duetie of many But it is a foolishnesse to say that all Citizens ought to die for the conseruation of the Weale publicke seeing that the Publicke weale is the life of the Citizens For what profited them the pertinacie of the Saguntines vnto the safetie of the Common-weale If the Saguntines would haue chosen the safetie of their Common-weale they should either haue forsaken their Fayth or else neuer haue made such Oth But if they must needes keepe their Fayth then must they needes loose their Common-weale as it came to passe Secondly the Consequence is plaine No man of sound reason ought to susteyne a great euill vnlesse it be to eschew a greater euill or for the obtayning of a greater good then that good is whereof by such euill he is depriued because that of two euils the lesse alway is to be choseÌ„ But if the Soule be mortall and after death haue no beeing then no such good can be giuen or be imagined Neither doth it auaile that Scotus saith alleadging the Philosopher in the ninth of the Ethickes that hee that dyeth for his Countrey giueth to himself great good by exercising that great act of vertue Et hoe bono priuaret se omnino vicâ—ose viueret Hee should depriue himselfe of that good thing sayth Scotus and should liue viciously or in reproch and defame If the Soule be mortall there can not theÌ„ be vnto the dead either good or euill or sense For what can either prayse or fame or glorie profite the dead if the dead know not of them for after their death they cannot giue vnto themselues for the said worke either reward ioy or reioycing for these are the affections of the minde Neither againe is that true or by any meanes to be receiued as true or for any colour of trueth which the same Sootus saith that Potest dari coÌ„mune bonum propter quod debet se exponere morti et totum bonuÌ„ exponere destructioni simpliciter etiamsinesciat animaÌ„ immortalem There may be giuen a common good for whose sake euery one ought to offer himselfe to death and what good soeuer he hath to endanger it to destruction simply although he can not tell whether the Soule be Immortall or no. Because it is not certaine whether the common good be alway rather to be chosen then the particular and proper good Yea this is vniuersally true at no time but then when the particular good is included in the common good But where the common good includeth the particular good who is there of sound iudgement and in his right minde that loueth the particular and proper good more then the common For the Philosopher saith in the 8. Eth. Amabile quidem bonuÌ„ ouique c. Euery one loueth his owne good therefore by good reason euery one loueth his owne better theÌ„ an other mans And 9. Eth. Amabilia ad alteruÌ„ mensurantur ex his quae sunt adseipsum Louely things are measured vnto another by those things which a man loueth him selfe The third Reason because I studie to be short The Soule of man according to the most excellent operations is like vnto God And therefore of some it is beleeued to haue a diuine nature But of men of our Religion it is called The image of God Therefore it is to be esteemed like vnto him in immortalitie The Antecedent is plaine and very well knowne a confessed trueth amongst all The Consequence is prooued out of Plato alleadged by Eusebius Praeparationis Euangelicae lib. 11. cap. 14. where are recited these wordes of Porphirius handling this Reason Firmam cortamque rationemeam Plato putauit quae a similitudine â—â—iquorum vim accepit Nam si Deo immortali similis est anima quomodo etiam ipsae sicut exemplar suum immortalis non erit Plato thinketh that to be a firme and sure Reason which taketh force from the similitude of some thinges for if the Soule be like to God that is Immortall how shall not then it selfe be Immortall like as the examplar I passe ouer the rest Which Reason as the same Eusebius saith is drawne out of Moses who first taught that the Soule is Immortal because it is the Image of God yea hee affirmeth that assuredly it is the Image of God Whom the Wise-man following in the 2. Chapter of the Booke of Wisedome doth most briefely touch the same Reason saying Deus creauit hominem inestimabilem ad imaginem similitudinis suae fecit illuÌ„ 1. God created Man inestimable or without corruption and made him after the Image of his owne likenesse This Reason also Salust toucheth in the beginning of his Booke of Catalines Conspiracie where he affirmeth Animum nobis cum dijs communem et virtutem claram et aeternam That we haue a minde common with the Gods and a cleare vertue and eternall Which Sentence in the beginning of the Warre of Iugurtha hee vseth againe Ingenij egregia facinora sicuti et anima immortalia sunt id est The worthy workes of the Witte like as the Soule are Immortall Which also may thus be perswaded These Actes to will to vnderstand to remember to loue to hate wherein the Soules haue conueniencie with God and Angels may both bee and be exercised without the body therfore it is not repugnant to the Soule both to bee to liue without the body The Antecedent is well knowne and the Consequent is plaine because the Accidentis not more
Philosophers on all sides rested because of their probable probations and sometime for the assertions of their formors because of necessarie reason And in the same Chapter De alijs astris dicunt Aegiptij et Babilonicj c. Of other Starres doe speake the Aegiptians and Babilonians from whom wee haue many thinges that wee doe beleeue of euery our of those Starres But in the sciences of Astrologie and Astronomie haue flourished the sonnes of Seth Noe Abraham Salomon and the holy Fathers which haue taught Philosophers of secrets Celestiall and Diuine vnto the which they could not haue attained by humaine strength and naturall reason But Iosephus in the first Booke of the Antiquities of the Iewes sayth That Seth when he came to that age that could discerne good thinges gaue him selfe to the studie of Virtue and when he was become an excellent man he left his Sonnes to be followers of himselfe they all being the Sonnes of a good Father tarryed in the same Land liuing most happily without any vexation and first found out the discipline and learning of thinges Celestiall and the trimnesse of them And least they should slide away from men and vtterly perish seeing they had learned of Adam that there should be one extermination of all thinges by Fire and an other by the power and force of Water they made two Pillars one of Brasse and an other of Stone and wrote therein what they had found out of Celestiall thinges that they might leaue vnto men the knowledge of Celestiall secrets And in the Secrets of Secrets it is said That the glorious GOD hath ordained the meane and remedie to temper Humors and preserue Health and how to get many other thinges And hath reuealed it to Prophets and Holy men and others whom he fore-chose and illustrated with the spirit of his Wisedome Of these the men that followed had the beginning and originall of Philosophie Aegiptians Greekes Latines from whom the latter haue drawne and written the principles of Artes and Sciences And sayth he to Alexander it is meete and worthy that he know noble Phisicke which is sayd to be a glory inestimable and is called The Treasure of Philosophers I truely haue neuer truely or perfectly enough learned it neither doe I know who it was that inuented it Some affirme that Adam was the inuentor thereof Some say that it was Esculapius and Hermogenes the Phisition Hirsos and Domastiâ—â— and Matiâ—dos hebrewes and Dioris and Carus glorious Philosophers Many say that Henooh by a vision knew this secret whom many will haue to be that great Hermogenes whom the Greekes do prayse and to him commend all Science secret celestiall Wherefore in the Prologue of the Books of Hermes Mercurius Triplex Trismegistus it is thus sayd We read in old Histories of Diuines that there were Three Philosophers whereof the first was Henoch who is also called Hermes and Mercurie The second Noe who was called Hermes for he as Albumuzar witnesseth was a great Prophet and first builded peopled Babilon after the Flood and instructed them in knowledge and learning His sonne Sem also taught the Babilonians or Caldeans and deliuered vnto them the science of the Starres The third was called Hermes Mercurius Triplex because he was a King a Philosopher a Prophet hee flourished after the Flood with great equitie gouerned the Kingdome of Aegipt and clearely brightened Astronomie And in the Booke of the Death of Aristotle it is said that After Noe was Abraham borne who being wiser then all did thorowly come to the great degree of Philosophie for he knew that Sol and Luna had a first moouer and therefore he followed not the way of his Father neither of his Kindred that worshipped Idols But as Josephus witnesseth in his Booke of the Antiquities of the Iewes hee preuayled to change innouate that opinion which then all had of God for hee first presumed to pronounce God one God to be the only Creator of all things for he according to the Histories of the Caldeans taught the Aegiptians Arithmeticke and also Astronomie These and many other secrets were planted in Aegipt which are knowne to haue come to the Greekes By the doctrines therefore of these Fathers illuminated from Heauen the Philosophers that came after being informed as it were strengthned by the Oracles of Prophets haue conscribed many glorious Sciences which they could not attaine vnto by the force of mans witte Did not Plato goe into Aegipt to learne Astrologie And there as it is thought of all for the most part hee learned what great thinges soeuer were there had and taught And chiefely these things which are knowne to be agreeing to our Fayth Not that Hieremias as some suppose saw or read the Translation of the Seauentie For Plato was borne almost an hundred yeares from the time that Jeremie prophecied Who seeing that he liued fourescore yeares and one from the yeare of his death to the translation of the seauentie Interpreaters are found threescore yeares Wherefore Ieremie could neither see nor read the Translation of the holy Scriptures seeing hee was dead so long before they were translated into the Greeke tongue But because he was a man of a very sharpe witte as the Aegiptians are hee so did learne the foresayd holy Scriptures by an Interpreater as those thinges in Timaeo which hee there wrote of the trueth of our Religion doe witnesse Out of Aegipt they say that Plato came into Italie and there learned all the doctrine of Pythagoras But of the Immortalitie of mens Soules hee did not onely perceiue and know the same that Pythagoras did but also brought and added thereunto reasons which they afore him in a maner did not Whose Booke of the Immortalitie of the Soule a worke most elegant Cato the later before hee flew himselfe did twise read ouer as Plutarch reporteth which when hee had read he so departed this life that he reioyced that he was borne to the end to die so great surely was the force and power of this Booke to perswade the Immortalitie of mens mindes that Therebrotus a certaine man of Ambrochia when no aduersitie would befall him to end his life he got him vp vpon a very high Wall and cast himselfe into the Sea after that he had read the foresayd Booke of Plato of whom Saint Augustine in his first Booke De ciuitate Dej and the 22. chapter writeth thus Therebrotus libro Platonis vbi de immortalitate animae disputauit se praecipitem dedit e muro vt sic ab ista vita migraret ad eandem quam credidit mehorem 1. Therebrotus when he had read ouer the Booke of Plato where he hath disputed of the Immortalitie of the Soule cast himselfe downe headlong from a Wall that so he might flit away from this life vnto that same which he beleeued to be better The third Conclusion BY vndoubted Fayth and Beliefe it is to be holden that the Soule of euery man is Immortall And
to be giuen vnto the most high GOD and Father of Mercies and to our Lord and Sauiour Jesus Christ who hath most certainely assured and fully perswaded his Faythfull ones in these things where vnto the most Wittie the best Learned men that euer were in all the World could not by the light of Naturall reason preuaile sufficiently to attaine to witte of the Last end of the reasonable Creature of the Resurrection of the Dead of the Immortalitie of the reasonable Soule and of the perpetuall Eternitic of the same And this hath that Almighty Lord most merciful Father so done in such sort that now it is not lawfull for vs neither is there any neede to doubt in these thinges or to flow out or run any where else to seeke for props or stayes of our Fayth in these matters Neither is it needfull from hence forward after this time of so great Grace reuealed to seeke or put to new reasons or probable perswasions because wee are most firmely holden without feare of the opposite or without any Ambiguitie to beleeue that the Good iust doe gloriously liue eternally with Christ And that the Euill are tormented perpetually with the Diuell his Angels according to that in the fifth of Iohn And they that haue done euill shall come foorth vnto the resurrection of Iudgement and they that haue done good to the resurrection of Life Which God shall giue to them which neuer change their Fayth from him Which God graunt vnto vs who is blessed for euer and euer Amen FINIS Of the Immortalitie of the Soule out of Palingenius in Capricorne BEcause thou shalt beleeue I will declare to thee By reason good the state of Soule Immortall for to bee For if that God in better thinges doth Cunning still expresse As Wisdome telles and as the good and virtuous must confesse Then doubtlesse must we iudge he gaue the Soules no time to die Since better farre it is for them to liue continually Then with the flesh to be extinct and feele a full decay Which thus I prooue If death do take from vs the Soule away If that we haue no other life but in this body heere Then God may be accounpted ill and shall vniust appeare For thousands euerie day wee see that florish prosperously In Ritches Substance and Renounce in Raignes and Empires hie Yet idle Lubbers naught vnlearnd that sinne at libertie And run the race of all their life in great prosperitie On th' other side we may behold the iust opprest to bee With spightfull chaunce a wretched life and pitious pouertie Thus either God vnrighteous is that doth this thing permit Or after death hath euery man as he deserueth fit Or else he doth disdaine the deedes of mortall men to know Besides what gratious minde in God what goodnes doth he show If this be all that he doth giue a life so short and vaine That swiftly runneth to an end and doth no time remaine The halfe whereof is spent in sleepe the rest in griefe and toyle And dangers great as fast doth fleete as Riuers swift in soyle Therefore goe to ō wretched men build gorgious Churches hie And let with costly Offrings great your Altars pestred lie Set vp your ioy full branch of Bayes your sacred doores about With pompe of proud Procession passe let Hymnes be ratled out Spend Frankincense and let the nose of God be stretched wide With pleasant smoke doe this and adde more honour much beside That he preserue your goodly life wherein doth you torment Somtime great cold and somtime heate now plague now famishment Now bloody warre now sicknesse great or Chance to sorrow at Sometime the busie Flie sometime the stinging Gnat The Chynch and Flea reioyce I say that heere you lead your life With thousand painefull labours great in trauaile toyle and strife And after in a litle space in paine you drop away And lumpish lie in loath some Vault to Wormes a gratefull prey O worthy life O goodly gift Man in this world is bred Among the brutish Beastes and fooles and knaues his life is led Where Stormes and flakie Snows Ice and Durt and Dust and Night And harmfull aire and clowds mistes and windes with hellish fight And griefe and wayling raignes where death beside doth worke his feat Is this our goodly Countrie heere Is this our happy seate For which we owe such seruice heere vnto the Gods aboue For which it seemeth meete with vowes the heauenly Saintes to moone And if none other life we haue then this of body vaine So frayle and full of filthinesse when Death hath Carcasse slaine I see not why such Prayses should of God resound in Ayre For why we should such honour giue to him in Temples fayre That hath vs wretches framed heere in this so wretched soyle That shall for euermore decay after so great a toyle Wherfore least God should seeme vniust and full of cruelnesse Shall well deseruing counted be we must of force confesse That Death doth not destroy the Soule but that it alwayes is None otherwise then Spirit in Ayre or Saintes in heauens blisse Both voyde of body sleepe and meate And more we must confesse That after death they liue in paines or else in blessednesse But let this reason thee suffice for if thou doe it show Vnto the wicked kind they laugh no light the blind doth know But thou beleeue for euermore and know assuredly For ground of sauing health it is that Soules doe neuer die Exempted from the Sisters power and fatall Destinie Palingenius in Libra We need not doubt but Soule proceedes and doth from loue descend And neuer dies whom he permits the World to comprehend What if so be the Atomies which some Wise men do fayne The Soule is rather thought to bee than body to maintaine All Bodyes be of quantitie and may deuided be But Soule is indiuisible and of no grosse degree And as a Centre doth she seeme where many Lines doe meete Which Senses all to her conuey as Floods to Seas doe fleete Wherefore I maruaile much at such as thinke a like decay And iudge the Soule no more to bee when Body fades away For if so be it might be prooude yet should it not be sayd Nor Publisht to the common sort nor euery way displayd For many wicked men and ill there are which if they thought Their Soules as nothing shall remaine when corps to graue is brought Nor that it feeles or suffers ought when it goeth hence away And that no punishment remaines for prancks that here they play A thousand mischifes would they doe take feare from them among And fall to euery vilonie confounding right with wrong Besides a number now that thinke in blessed state to bee When death hath them destroyd hope the face of God to see And euermore with him to ioy and therefore virtuously Doe seeke to passe their present life with godly modeslie If they shall see that after death
she doe this willingly And if perforce she be compeld in Carcasse caue to lie Who doth constraine doth God himselfe then her he nought esteemes Nay what in Prison vile he puts to hate he rather seemes More of it selfe except it learne sith it doth nothing know And oftentimes forgetfulnesse the Minde doth ouerthrow Therefore they iudge it nothing is when Body heere doth die For learne it cannot senses dead which it knowes all thinges by Some other say that Soule there is in all the World but one Which giueth life to euery thing as Sunne but one alone There is that makes all eyes to see Eternall thinke they this Though Body die or eyes put out the Sunne eternall is These trifles fond it is not hard with Reason to disprooue But heere I longer am I feare then it doth mee behooue There shall not want that such demands shall answere once at full And all the doubtes therein assoyle and knots asunder pull O man of sharpe and pregnant wit thy prayse shall liue with mine Our labours doubt not shall commend the men of later time Thy famous workes attempt and seedes of Heauen on Earth goe sow This one thing will I more put to that euery man may know The Soule Immortall for to be and sprung of Heauenly grace If Senses and Affections all he will restraine a space If that despising worldly ioyes and earthly thought resignde With dayly labour he attempt to God to lift his minde Then perfect Wisedome shall he haue and thinges to come foretell A wake or else in heauie sleepe perceiue the same as well In this sort did the Prophets old the thinges to come declare The sober minde therefore doth come more neare to heauenly fare The farther from the flesh it flies and from the earthly care But like to Beastes the greatest sort doth liue as sense doth will And thinke none other good to be but flesh to haue his fill Hereof it comes that many thinke the Soule with Body dyes Because they see not thinges Diuiâ—e with weake and fleshly eyes But of the Soule this shall suffice Palengenius in Pisces ANd when escapt from mortall chaine the Soule hath passage straight Conueighing with her selfe these three that alwayes on her waite The Minde the Sense Moouing force vnto the Heauens hie Shall ioyfull goe and there remaine in blisse perpetually Matheus Dresserus libro de Anima A Confirmation of the Immortalitie of the Soule THe Sentence of the Soules immortalitie is twofold 1. Philosophicall 2. Theologicall What is the opinion of Philosophers touching the Immortalitie of the Soule Some affirme that the Soule doth die with the Body Others do hold that after the separation of the Body it remayneth aliue and immortall The Argument of Panaetius What soeuer is bred or hath a certaine beginning The same also dieth or hath a cetraine ending But the Soule is bred or hath a certaine beginning Therfore the Soule dieth or hath a certaine ending The Answere The Maior is to be distinguished for some thinges are bred or haue their beginning of the Elementes and doe die againe But others haue a Celestiall and Diuine originall as the Soule which doth not die Thinges that are borne bred or haue beginning are of two sortes Some are Elementarie some Celestiall The Elementarie doe die or perish But the Celestiall doe not die or perish But on the contrarie part Cicero Plato and Xenophon haue iudged the Soule to be Immortall and they prooue it thus 1. Because the originall and nature thereof is Diuine or as the Pythagoreans said the Soule is drawen from the vniuersall Heauenly minde Cicero in 1 Tuscul That which is Diuine that doth not die The Soule is Diuine Ergo The Soule doth not die 2 Because vnto the Soule there is nothing mixt nothing concrete i. the Minde and Soule is not compounded of the Elementes therefore it can not die with the thinges that are compounded of the Elementes Whatsoeuer is compounded the same is conflated or compounded of the Elementes But the Soule is not compound of the Elements Therefore the Soule doth not die 3 Because the workes or effectes of the Minde are Diuine and Celestiall as to perceiue and know thinges past and to come therefore the Minde it selfe also is Celestiall and Incorruptible As is the effect so is the cause But the effectes of the Soule are Diuine Therefore the Soule is also Diuine 4 Because the order of Diuine iustice doth require that rewardes be giuen to Iust and punishments to the Vniust But in this life there often chance no rewardes to the Iust nor punishmentes to the Wicked therefore after this life there remayneth another life wherein it shall goe well with the Godly and ill with the wicked 5 Plato in Exiocho saith Discessus ex hac vita est mutatio mali in bonum that is to say The departing out of this life is a changing of euill into good Therefore after death the Soule also liueth and somewhere remayneth aliue that it may enioy that so great a good Of the Place of the Soule after the separation from the Body SOcrates thought that the Soule when it departeth from the Body doth returne to Heauen from whence it is sprinckled strowed into mans Body But Philosophie doth plainely deny and is vtterly ignoraunt that the Soule shall be ioyned togeather to the Body at the vniuersall raysing againe of the dead Cicero also although he did excellently dispute many thinges of the Soules Diuinitie yet he confesseth that he is in very great doubt and staggering euen as the Shippe is tossed in the middes of the raging Seas And Atticus sayth That hee while he readeth Platos Phaedo doth truely Assent that is to say Approoue the Opinion of the Immortalitie of the Soule But when he had layde the Booke away and beganne to cogitate with himselfe then that Assent slided away Socrates when hee was going to his death sayth in Plato It is time for mee now to goe away from hence that I may die and you liue but whether is better God knoweth I thinke truely no man knoweth There was a Philosopher of great Authoritie who being called to end his life was verie sore vexed in minde doubting of the flitting or departure in what state his soule should be after death And when he found no other Hauen he sent for two Philosophers and bade them dispute of the condition of the Soule after the departure foorth of the Body saying Loe I must flitte hence away forsake this mortall life wherefore tell yee mee what shall become of mee whether my Soule shall liue when this Body is extinct or no for vnlesse this can be prooued vnto me and I therein perswaded with what minde can I depart out of this life Heere the Philosophers began sharply to contende about the Nature of the Soule and the one reason'd it to be Mortall and the other Immortall And when they had a long time disputed neither part preuailing
this sense cantradicteth other Scriptures But in two respectes the death of Men and the death of Beastes are like 1. Because Men must needes once die and depart out of this life because Men are not heere to continue for euer nor haue heere a setled place 2. Men die as Beastes that is In the sense and iudgement of the Wicked they seeme to perish 3. Psal 78.39 Hee remembred that they were but flesh yea a winde that passeth away and commeth not againe Ergo Mortall Answere By these and such like speaches is described and be wayled the frayltie of all humaine affaires that with God doe perish and come to nothing For as in this place they are likened to a Winde that soone vanisheth away so in Psal 103. they are compared to Dust Earth and Flowers of the field So Iob. 14. Man commeth vp as a Flower and is cutte downe Isa 40.6 All flesh is grasse 4. Psal 88.5 I am counted as slaine lying in the Graue whom thou remembrest no more Answere In these wordes the Psalmist doth not meane that either hee himselfe or the dead are exempted from Gods prouidence But hee complayneth that hee is forsaken of God euen as it seemeth to men that God careth not for the dead And therefore hee speaketh not according to the sense of Fayth but of his owne opinion weaknesse and miserie who iudgeth those thinges to be forsakèn and neglected of God whose deliuerie for a while he doth deferre But what Fayth in the meane season doth suggest and tell the Godly euen when they striue and wrastle with temptation he sheweth in the ii Psal and vers 2. The iust shall be had in an euerlasting remembrance 5. Psal 146.4 His Spirit departeth and returneth to his earth and then all his thoughtes perish Ergo. c. Answere Hee doth not heere say That the Spirit or Soule of men doth not die or vanish or is bereaued of sense But that it departeth to witte from the Body wherein it dwelleth and that not the Spirit but the Body returneth to earth which was made of earth And where he sayth That all his thoughtes perish he meaneth not that the Soule is after this life bereaued of Reason Iudgement and Sense of Gods mercie or wrath but that mans Purposes and Counsailes are made frustrate which in his life he had setled him selfe to bring to passe In which sense it is sayd in Psal 112.10 The desire of the Wicked shall perish 6. Psal 88. 10. Wilt thou shew a miracle to the dead Or shall the dead rise and prayse thee Whereunto we adde all such places as take away worshipping of God from the dead which must needes prooue the Soule not Immortall Answere In such speaches Death and Hell or the Graue haue two significations They who are spiritually dead whether before or after the death of the Body that is they that are depriued of Gods grace and forsaken and reiected of God and are in Hell that is in the place and tormentes of the Damned or else in this life despayring and destitute of comfort shall not prayse God at all neither in this life nor in the life to come But they who are dead not spiritually but corporally onely although they shall not prayse God while their Bodyes are in Hell that is in the Graue for which this word Hell is often vsed in the Scriptures yet in Soule they shall not ceasse to acknowledge and prayse God vntill when they haue receiued their Bodyes againe they shall magnifie him both in Soule and Body in the Celestiall eternitie But in the meane time sith God will be acknowledged and magnified of men in this life also therefore both the whole Church and euery one of the faythfull not onely pray that they may not fall into that forsaking and that sense of Gods wrath wherewith the Wicked are oppressed but also desire that they may be preserued and defended in this mortall life vntill the end thereof appoynted by God be expired for the Saintes doe not simply stand in feare of the bodily Death and Graue but that they may not be forsaken of God neither fall into desperation or destruction or their enimies insult against God when they are ouerthrowne This with dayly and ardent prayers and petitions they begge and craue continually 7. Psal 146. 2. I will prayse the Lord during my life as long as I haue any beeing I will sing vnto my God Heere hee restreyneth prayses to this life onely Answere This place maketh nothing to the purpose For he doth not limit prayses to this life but this he onely sayth that he will spend all the time of this mortall life in Gods prayses which notwithstanding in many other places he extendeth to continuall eternitie as Psal 34. I will prayse the Lord continually But often times this particle Vntill or As long signifieth a continuance of the time going before some euent without any excluding of the time following as 1. Cor. 15.25 Hee must raigne Vntill hee hath put all his enimies vnder his feete I thinke they will not say that when Christes enimies are put vnder his feete that then he shall raigne no longer 8. Job 10.20 Let him ceasse and leaue off from mee that I may take a little comfort before I goe and shall not returne Ergo the Soule is Mortall there is no Resurrection Answere In these wordes he denyeth that hee shall returne into this Mortall life and conuerse amongst men in this World But he denieth not that he in the meane season hath his beeing and doth liue vntill againe he see God in the flesh euen the same Iob who then was afflicted as himselfe sayth chap. 19.26 9. Iob. 3.11 Why died I not when I came out of the Wombe so should I haue lyen quiet and been at rest Answere Iob in these wordes doth not denie that the Soules after death doe liue feele and vnderstand but onely he sayth the Miseries of this present life are not felt Instance Iob would not wish for a bad change but if there be euils felt in the life to come hee wished for a badde change Ergo. c. Answere Iob wished not for the death of the wicked but of the godly Instance But Job maketh Kinges and Princes also which gather Gold vnto them vers 14.15 small and great good and badde vers 16 17 18 19. partakers of this rest Answere It plainely appeareth out of the whole processe and discourse of Jobs wordes that he doth not teach what is the state of men after this life but onely desireth to be ridde out of his present miserie And therefore through humaine infirmitie and impatience he compareth the sense and feeling of his present miseries with the death and state of the Dead whatsoeuer it be As they who are grieuously tormented with present Distresses and Calamities preferre any thing whatsoeuer before that which they suffer So also he sayth in the 7. chap. speaking as one despayring of deliuerie in this life Remember