life to the terrene part of it which dies and consumes vvhereas the other hath none So if man have no immortall spirit in him here is no place for a Resurrection it must be an absolute Creation if any thing that gives him life againe but the whole current of Scripture hold forth a Resurrection and therfore man hath something in him immortall In the fift place I might prove that man hath an immortall spirit uncapable of death by the testimony of the ancient Heathen far ancienter many of them then Plato which also is a rationall proofe of a point for what the God of nature hath taught to all men by nature is and must needs be a truth But the God of nature hath taught all men by nature that there is a God that they have an immortall spirit therefore it is a truth I doe not say he hath taught it some one man or some one nation but the whole world the Vniversality of it shewes it to be of God The Divel teacheth not all nations one and the same particular sinne but different according to the constitution of the climate they live in else he would loose his labour and that he knows well enough he hath taught it by nature for those nations that never heard what grace was hold and confesse and leave to posterity this truth all men universally and particularly have learned it in one Schoole from the mouth of one Teacher and he perfect therefore a truth The holy Scripture which teacheth us our salvation useth no Schoole-arguments to make us beleeve there is a God and why so because we find him present in his works neither to prove this point which shines so cleere in nature Both Greeke and Latine Authors have plentifully left it to posterity Phocylides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soule is immortall and liveth perpetually and never waxeth old And againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The remainder of dead men remaines void of death If you aske him the cause of this hee will answer you in another verse thus for he was a rationall man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sybilla The soule is Gods Instrument and Image in mortall men Hitherto comes that of the Sybill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man by all reason is indued with the Image of God of the same opinion also were Orpheus Theognis Piadar in the second song of his Olympiads Homer in the funerals of his Iliads Herm. in his Paenander ◠pag. 10. Homer Hesiod Pindarus and all the Poets of old time which may answer for themselves and their Countries and for the residue of their ages Hermes saith the soul is the garment of the mind and the garment of the soul is a certaine spirit wherby it is united to the body and this mind is that which wee call properly the man that is a heavenly wight not to be compared to the beasts but rather to the gods of heaven if it be not yet more then they the heavenly cannot come downe to the earth without leaving the heaven but man measureth the heaven without removng from the earth to be short his conclusion is that man is double mortall as touching his body immortall as touching his soul which soul is the very man and created of God saith he as the light is bred immediatly of the sunne And Chalcidins saith that at his death he spake these words I goe home againe into mine own country where my better Forefathers and kindred be Zoroastres who is of more antiquity then Hermes this article is reported to be one of his that mens souls are immortall and that one day there shall be a generall rising againe of their bodies and the answer of the wise men of Chaldea Who were the heires of his doctrine doe answer sufficiently for him There is one that exhorteth men to returne with speed to their heavenly father Who hath sent them a soul indued with much understanding Another exhorteth them to seeke Paradice as the peculiar dwelling place of the soule A third saith that the soule hath God as it were shut up in it and that it hath not any mortality therin for saith he the soule is as it were drunken with God and sheweth forth his wonders in the harmony of this mortall body A fourth saith it is a cleare fire proceeding from the power of the heavenly father an incorruptible substance and the maintainer of life containing almost all the whole world with the full plenty therof in his bosome But one of them proseedeth yet further affirming that he that setteth his mind upon Godliness shall save even his body though it be never so fraile and by those words hee acknowledgeth the very glorifying of the body All these are reported by Psellus and he confesseth that Plato and Pythagoras learned the doctrine of the souls Immortality of the Caldeans in so much that some thinke the Caldeans are those that Plato speakes of Lil. Legum 11. ep 2. when hee saith that the ancient and holy Oracles are to be beleeued which affirme mens souls to be immortall and that in another life they must come before a Iudg that wil require an account of all their doings the result wherof commeth to this that the soule of man proceedeth immediatly from God that is to say that the father of the body is one and the father of the soule is another that the soule is not a bodily substance but a spirit and a light that at the departure therof from hence it is to goe to a Paradice therfore ought to make haste unto death and that it is so far from mortality that it maketh even the body Immortall what can wee say more at this day even in the time of light wherin we live of the same opoinion was Hordelitus as is reported by Philolaus Clement of Alexandria Of Epicharmus we have this saying if thou beest a good man in thy heart death can doe thee noe harme for thy soul shall live happily in heaven It were endlesse to recite al the words of the ancient about this subject conifiming this trueth for of this opinion were Thales Anaxagoras Diogenes and Zeno Lucretius Socrates Xenophon read Plato his Timaeus his commonwealth his Phadon his Politicks his laws Aristotle his books of living things of the soul his morralls Michael of Ephesus upon his morrals Cicero his Tusculaves his Comforts his nature of the gods his first booke of lawes his Scipios dreame Seneca to Gallio to Lucillius concerning the Lady Martiaes son the shortnes of his life his book of comforts Prophririus 4. booke of abstinence Plutarke these ancient For moderne Philosophers Epictetus Simplicius Plotinus lib. 1. Aenead 4. concerning the being of the soule lib. 2. Chapter 1. lib. 3. Chapter 18. 14. 20. 21. 23. lib. 4. Chapter 11. and the 7. Book throughout his book of the senses memory his Bk. of doubts concerning the soule these and thousands more confirme the point
THE IMMORTALITY OF Mans Soule PROVED BOTH BY SCRIPTVRE and REASON Contrary to the Fancie of R. O. In his Book Intituled Mans Mortality wherein hee vainely affirmeth hee hath proved Theologically and Philosophically that whole man is a compound wholy mortall and that the present going of the soule into Heaven or Hell is a meer fiction and that at the Resurrection is the beginning of our Immortality and then actuall Damnation or Salvation and not before LONDON Printed by Peter Cole at the signe of the Printing-presse in Cornehill neer the Royall-Exchange 1645. THE IMMORTALITY OF MANS SOVLE Proved both by Scripture and Reason CHAP. 1. That Man consisteth of two parts Soule and Body COncerning GOD we are acknowledge him to be a Spirit as touching the world we are to conceive of it as a body in man we have an abridgment of both of God in respect of the Soule of the world in composition of the Body as though the Creator on purpose to set forth a mirror of all his workes intended to bring into one little compasse both the infinitnesse of his owne nature and also the hugenesse of the whole world together after his own Image in respect of his soule after his other creatures in respect of life sence and moving mortall so farre as he holdeth forth the Image of the creature immortall so farre as hee holdeth forth the Image of GOD his Creator This Arg. 1 may be proved by pregnant arguments 1 No creature can worke out of his owne proper spheare how can man if totally mortal conceive of immortality can mortality comprehend immortality as probably as a man may throw a stone and knock downe the sunne which is farre above his spheare The beasts mind altogether the earth they eate when they are hungry drinke when they are dry and go when they are beaten and regard their Creator no more then they doe the clock when it strikes The fish live in the water as the beasts upon the earth because they are aqueall the other terrene neither rationall and therefore cannot worke above their sphear but man conceives not only the things of this world but also of a better immortality glory eternity therfore must needs have something in him that is immortal Who is hee that desireth not to be immortal how can he desire it unlesse he know what it is how can he know what it is unlesse he have somthing in him immortal none of us covereth to be beginninglesse bcause none of us are so neither can be so and because we are not so we can not comprehend what it is for who can conceive of eternity without beginning but he will end his Wits before his desires but on the contrary there is not so base a mind upon earth which coveteth not to live for ever in so much that whereas we looke not for it by natur we seeke to obtayne it by skill and pollicy some by bookes some by images and some by other devices and even the ignorantest sort of people can well imagine in themselves what immortality is and are able both to conceive it and beleeve it but the wisest and learnedest man alive should he live as long as Mathusalah and studie what it is to be with out beginning all his life time he must at last yeild to death without fulfilling or filling full his desires whence comes this but that our soules being created cannot conceive an everlastingnesse without beginning yet being created immortal can well conceive an everlastingnesse or immortality without end Let us yet wade a little deeper who can dispute or once so much as doubt whether the soule be Immortal or no but he that is capable of Immortality or who can understand a difference betweene mortal and immortal but he that is immortal Though they shall rise again as well as man saith R O. treat of Mortality pag. 50. can a * horse an ox a dogge no why because thy are mortall and can reach no higher than mortality Immortality is out of their Sphear out of their Element as the Proverbe is Man is able to conceive what is reason and what is not and by that wee terme him rationall Man knows a difference betwixt Mortality and Immortality and therefore must needs be immortall for to what end should God teach Immortality to a mortall wight If a man should hold an argument that man is not rationall and dispute it hee needs other confutation then his owne arguments so hee that disputes that the soule is mortall his owne reasoning of it shall to a wise man prove it immortall Secondly it is plainly proved Arg. 2 that man consists of two parts Soule and Body because they performe severall and different works at one and the same time The soule or mind of man will be at Constantinople then at Rome at Paris at Lyons in America in Affrick and dispatch all these journies in a trice looke wheresoever thou directest it there it is and before thou callest it back it is at home while the body al this time is at home at worke or perhaps in bed therefore the soule and body are two different parts nay the soule may and often doth mind and desire good when the body is acting sinne Rom. 7.23.24 25 I find a law in my members warring against the law of my mind or soule and bringing mee into captivity to the law of my members but was it his body that warred against his mind and brought it into captivity reade the next verse you shall see O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or this body of death as the margin more truly hath it this mortall body So then saith he with my mind I will serve the Lord but with my flesh the law of sin thus it plainely appears the soule and body are two different parts Thirdly Arg. 3 that the soule is not the body nor any part of it but soule and body two very different things appears of it selfe without further proofe for if the soule were the body or any part of the body it would nay must needs grow with the body and decline with the body it would be maimed with the body and sick with the body for else how can it dye with the body but daily experience proves the contrary for were soule the same with or part of the body the greater the body were the greater would the soule be but the contrary appears those that are strongest in mind are commonly weakest in body and the soule is seene to be full of livelinesse in a languishing body and to grow the more in force by the decay of the body by growing of the soule I meane mistake me not not that it increaseth or diminisheth it is capable of neither but its profiting in power and vertue againe if the soule were the body or any part of it it would languish with the body hee that is wounded in his body would be wounded in
and the seperation of the soule from the body is commonly called death now then what death can there be of the soule seeing it is immateriall death must worke upon a matter or nothing for as one saith a man may take away the roundnesse or squarnesse of a table of copper because they have no abiding but in the matter but had that or any thing else such a round or square forme as might have abiding without matter or stuffe wherein to be out of all doubt such a forme or shape should continue for ever nay which is more how can that be the corrupter of a thing which is the perfection thereof the lesse our minds are tyed to these bodily things the more lively and cheerfull they be at a word the full and perfect life thereof is the full and perfect with-drawing thereof from the body and whatsoever the body is made of and this follow by direct consequence from the former All these things are so clear that they need no proofe for wee know that every thing worketh according to the proper being thereof and that same which perfecteth the operations of a thing perfecteth the being thereof also it followeth therefore that seeing the seperation of the body from the soule and of the forme from the matter perfecteth the operation or working of the soule as I said before it doth also make perfect strengthen the very being thereof and therefore cannot in any wise corrupt it and what else is dying but to bee corrupted and what else is corrupting but suffering and what else is suffering but receiving and how can that which receiveth all things without suffering receive corruption by any thing fire corrupteth and marreth our bodies and we suffer in receiving it so also doth extreame cold but if wee suffered nothing by it it could not freeze us our sences likewise are marred by the successive force of the things that they light upon and that is because they receive and perceive the thing that grieveth them and for the manner of their behaving themselves towards their objects is subject to suffering but as the reasonable soul which receiveth al things after one manner that is by the way of understanding by which it alway worketh and is never wrought into how is it possible for it to corrupt or marre it selfe For what is the thing whereof our Soule suffereth ought in the substance thereof I meane where by the substance of our soule is any way impaired or hurt by minding or conceiving the same in understanding as little doth the fire hurt it as the ayre and the ayre as the fire as little hurt receiveth it from the frozen Ice of Groenland as from the scorching sands of Africk as little also doth vice annoy it as vertue for vice and vertue are so farre off from incumbring the substance of the soule that our mind doth never conceive or understand them better then by setting together one against the other that thing therefore which doth no whit impaire it selfe but taketh the ground of perfecting it selfe by all things cannot be marred or hurt by any thing In the Second place I said death is the uttermost poynt of moving and the uttermost poynt of this life for even in living we dye in dying we live there is not that step that we make in this life but wee step forward unto death after the manner of a diall or a clocke which endeth its moving in moving from minut to minut take a way moving from a bod it liveth no longer now let us see if the soule also be caryed with the same moving if it be it may dy with the body if not it cannot but we see it moves not with thâ—… body nay we see the contrary a man may have his mind as free as an Emperour though his body be in prison whether the mind rest or whether it be busied bout the proper operations thereof it is not perceived either by the panting of the hart or by the beating of the pulses or by the breathing of the lunges the body carries the soule about like a ship the sticking fast therof or the tying of it to a post hinders not our going up and down in it still Fourthly if the soule be subject to the finall coruption of the body it must needs be subject to the alteration therof also and if it be subject to alterations it is subject to time also for alterations or change are consequents of moving and moving is not made without time now time past in respect of the body cannot be called againe but in respect of the mind it is alwaies present yea and time perfecteth accomplisheth and encreaseth our mind and refresheth it from day to day whereas contrary wise it sorely weareth wasteth away and quit consumeth the body It follws then that the soule is not subject to those changes and corruption that alter the body therefore cannot dy with it Fifth It appears that the soul is immortal incorruptible because it lives by incorruptible things nothing in the world is nourished by things better then it selfe neither doth any of them containe greater things then it selfe but the things that are corruptible doe live of corruptible things and cannot live without corrupting them as for example beasts live by herbs men by beasts both by corrupting them turne them to nourishment of their nature and therefore things that live by incorruptible things and can so disgist them as to turne them into the nourishment of their nature yet not corrupt them are incorruptible themselves too Now the reason able soule or mind of man conceiveth reason and truth and is fed and strengthened with them and reason and truth are things unchangable not subiect to time place or alteration or any thing else that may or can breed corruption but are stedy unchangable and everlasting for that twice two is fowr that there is the same reason in the proportion of eight to six that there is from four to three or that in a triangle the three inner angles are equall to the two right angles and truthes that neither years nor thousands of yeares can chang as true at this day as they were when Euclid first spake them as true in our schooles as in his it followeth then that the Soule comprehending reason and trueth which are things free from coruption cannot it selfe in any wise be subject to corruption And in the sixt and last place we might fitly bring in such an argument as we did in the first Chap. viz. if all that is in us were mortall and transitory we should never question what immortality is for of contraryes the skill is all one if a man had no actuall life or had it only by promise were it only a mortall life hee could not dispute of it till he had it actually neither by the same argument could he speake of immortallity were he not immortall but of this more before therefore I Passe it
not from reason conclude as is said in hatching of chickens the shell is broken but there commeth forth a chicken Secondly for proofe that the soule is immortall see what is the ordinary cause that things perish fire either goeth out for want of nourishment or is quenched by his contrary water water is resolved into ayre by fire which is his contrary the cause why the Plant dieth is extremity of cold or drought or unseasonable cutting or violent plucking up also mans body dieth by encreasing or diminishing the humors called complection or by violence of all these causes which can wee chuse to have any power against our soule I say against the soule of man which notwithstanding it be united to matter to a body is it selfe a substance unbodily unmateriall and only conceivable in understanding nay what can be contrary to that which lodgeth contraries equally in it selfe which understandeth the one of them by the other which coucheth them all under one skill and to be short in which the contrarieties themselves abandon their contrariety so as they doe not pursue but ensue one another Fire is hot and water is cold Contrarieties cannot kil the soule our bodies mislike these contraries and are grieved by them our mind linketh them together without either burning or cooling it selfe and it setteth the one of them against the other to know them the better the things which destroy one another throughout the world maintaine one another in our minds nothing is more contrary to peace then warre and yet mans mind can maintaine peace by preparing for warre and lay earnestly for war in seeking for peace even death it selfe which dispatcheth our life cannot be contrary to the life of the soule for the soule seeketh life by death what can the soule meet withall in the whole world that can be contrary to it which can enjoyne obedience to things most contrary contrarieties then cannot do it Nor want of food What then can want of food How can that want food in the world which can feed on the whole world or how can that forsake food which the fuller it is the hungrier it is the more that it hath digested the better able it is to digest the more it hath the more it desireth take from it the sensible things and the things of understanding abide with it still bereave it of earthly things and the heavenly remaine with it the more abundantly to be short a bridge it of al worldly things yea and of the world it selfe and even then doth it feed with greatest ease and maketh cheer agreeable to its owne nature Also the body filleth it selfe to a certaine measure and delighteth in some certaine things but what can fill the mind fill it as full as you can with the knowledge of things and it is the more eager and sharper set to receive more the more it taketh in the more it still craveth and yet for all that it never feeleth any rawnesse it never catcheth a surfit for want of concoction what shall I say more discharge your understanding from minding it selfe and then doth it live in him and of him in whom all things doe live againe fill it with the knowledge of it selfe and then doth it feele it selfe most empty and sharpest set upon the desire of the other now then can that die for want of food which cannot bee glutted with any thing vvhich is nourished and maintained vvith all things and vvhich in very deed liveth upon him by whom all the things which we wonder at here beneath are upheld Nor violence Well violence you will say perhaps may doe the deed what is violence but a justling of two bodies together but the soul is no body nor bodily substance as I proved before can there be any violence between a bodily and spirituall substance or betweene two sprituall substances seeing that oftentimes when they would destroy one another they uphold one another and if the soule cannot be pushed at neither inwardly nor outvvardly is there any thing in nature that can naturally hurt it No! will some say Object wee see it weakned by an incounter as we may discerne by the senses the more excellent the thing is which the sence receiveth so much the more the sense it selfe offended and grieved therewith As for example the feeling by sire the taste by harshnesse the smelling by strong savour the hearing by the hideousnesse of the noyse whether by a Thunder-clap or by the falling of a River the sight by looking upon the Sun upon fire or any thing that hath a glistering brightnesse I omit that in most of these Answ it is not the sense it selfe but the outward instrument of sence that is offended hurt But let us here see whether ther be the like in the soule or no nay the contrary the more of understanding and excellency the thing is the more doth it comfort and refresh the mind if it be darke so that we understand it by halves it hurteth us nor yet it doth not delight us nay as we increase in understanding it so it liketh us the better and the higher it is the more doth it stir up the power of our understanding and as you would say reach us the hand to draw us to the attainment thereof as for them that are dim-sighted we forbid them to looke upon the things that are over-bright but for them of rawest capacity wee offer them the things that are most intelligible when the sence beginneth to perceive most sharpely then is it faine to give over as if it felt the very death of it selfe contrary wise where the mind beginneth to understand then is it most desirous to hold on still and whence ariseth this but that our sences worke by bodily Instruments our mind worketh by a bodilesse substance which needeth not the helpe of the body and seeing that the nature the nourishment and the actions of the soule are farre different not only from the nature nourishment and actions of the body but also from all that either is done or wrought by the body can there be any thing more childish then for us to demee our soules to be mortall by the abating and decaying of our sences or by the mortality of our bodies nay contrariwise it may be most soundly and substantially concluded thereupon that mans soule is of its owne immortall seeing that all death as well violent as naturall commeth of the body and by the body Thirdly the immortality of the soule may be firmely proved even from death it it selfe The two best definitions of death that eyer I heard of or read of are these and both true 1. Death is a seperating of the matter from his forme 2. Death is the utmost period of moving from both which the immortality of the soule may be proved and first of all from the first Wee have already proved the soule to be the forme and the body must needs be the matter then
of sence so mightily doth reason over-rule sence To be short sence hath his peculiar inclination which is appetite and reason likewise hath his which is will and like as reason doth oftentimes over-rule sence and is contrary to it so will correcteth the apetite or lust that is in us warrath against it for in Agues and feavers wee covet to drink in Apoplexies and Bethargies to sleepe and in hunger to eate yet from all these things doth our will restraine us the more a man follows his lust the lesse is he led by his will for no man wils to be miserable which lust leads him too the more he standeth upon pleasing of his sences the lesse reason ordinarily useth he Secondly let us consider that bruit beasts which have this sensitive part as well as we if wee have no more then that how comes it to passe that a little child driveth whole flocks and herds of them vvhether hee listeth sometimes whether they would not wherof commeth it that many of them in their kind doe all live nestle and sing after one sort whereas men have their Laws Common-wealths manners of buildings and formes of reasoning not only divers but also commonly contrary now what can harbour these contrarieties together but only that which hath not any thing contrary to it and wherein all things doe lay away their contrariety Surely it is not the sence can doe it whose proper and peculiar object is most contrary to sence Beside this as I said before whereas we conceive wisedome skill and vertue and such other things as are all bodilesse our sences can worke upon nothing but the qualities of bodily substances and whereas wee make universall rules of particular things the sences attaine no further then the particular things themselves and whereas wee conclude of the causes by the effects our sences perceive nothing but the bare effects so that hee that denieth that besides the common sence there is a reason or understanding in Man distinct and severed from sence is void both of understanding and sence Yea Object but this reason say they or power of understanding which is in Man is corruptible as well as the power of perceiving by the sences I thinke I have proved the contrary already nevertheles let us examin the reason a little further The forme or shape of every thing say they doth perish with the matter Now the soule is as they would say the forme or shape of the body therefore it corrupteth with the body This Argument were rightly concluded if the soule were a materiall forme but I have proved that the soule is immortall and hath a continuance of it selfe and indeed the more it is discharged of matter the more it retaineth his own particular forme therefore the corrupting of the matter toucheth not the soule at all Another saith if dead mens soules live still why doe none of them come to tell us so And Answ now he thinketh he hath stumbled upon a very subtle device Christ answers Luke 16. ult yet we will see a little the rationality or rather the irrationality of it viz. of the objection What intercourse I pray is there betweene things that have bodies and things that have none wee see there is small or no intercourse betweene some Kingdomes under the Sunne But we would have God send us soules from Heaven to make us beleeve as who should say it stood God greatly in hand to make us beleeve more then it did us that we should beleeve in effect what else is all this but a desiring that some man might returne againe into his Mothers wombe to encourage young babes against the bitter pinches and paines which they abide in the birth which he would no lesse abhorre then wee doe death if he had the knowledge of them Object But they will still beare us in hand that seeing the vegetive and sensitive powers be corrupted and perish the understanding or reasonable part must needs perish by the same rule also To this in a word I answer this is all one Answ as if a man should say you told me such a man was a very religious man a good Fencer and a good Musician but now he hath lost his right hand he can neither handle sword nor lute how then can hee be a religious man still as you reported him to be nay though he loose Instruments yet ceaseth he not to be an honest man yea and a Fencer and Lute-player too in respect of skill likewise when our soules have forgone these exercises yet cease they not to be the same they were before To make this a little cleare yet of the powers of the soule some are exercised by the instruments of the body othersome without any helpe or furtherance of the body at all These which are exercised by the body are the sences and powers of the sences and the powers of the growing which may carry the same like answer that is betweene a Musician and his Lute Breake his Lute his cunning remaineth but his putting it in practice faileth give him another Lute and he fals to playing againe afresh Give unto the oldest Hag in the world the same eyes he had when he was young he shall see as well as ever he did after the same manner it is with the growing and thriving power the vegative power in man restore to it a good stomack a sound Liver and a perfect heart it shall execute its function as well as ever it did before The power which worketh of it selfe without the body is the power of reason and understanding which if wee will wee may call the mind but if you still doubt thereof consider when thou mindest a thing earnestly what thy body furthereth thy mind therein and thou shalt perceive that the more fixedly thou thinkest upon it the lesse thou mindest the things before thee in so much that many times the earnestnesse of his thoughts drives a man that is going out of his way as who should say that the workings of the body are the greatest impediments that can be to the peculiar acts of the mind nay which is more this understanding part groweth so much the stronger and greater the lesse it is occupied busied about these base and contemptible things and is altogether drawne home wholly to it selfe as is plainly seene in those that want their eyes whose minds are commonly most apt to understand and most firme to remember do we debate of a thing in our selves neither our bodies nor sences are busied about it doe wee will the same as little doe they stir for that too to understand and to will which are the operations of the mind the soule hath no need of the body as for working and being they accompany one another saith Aristotle Therefore to continue still in being the soule hath not to doe with the body nor any need of the body therefore for the soule to act well or to be well it had need be