accidens but the first act of the body not Artificial nor Mathematical but of a Natural body nor of every Natural but that Natural body which is Organical and consists of many parts and members and this body Natural and Organical having life not actu sed potentia this is the Definition given by Aristotle in his book De anima where he also defines the soul to be that beginning by which we have life sense Lib. 2. ca. 1. Another Definition of the soul Lib. 2. c. 2. and understanding chiefly the which as it is a full and perfect definition of the Rational soul so take it disjunctively in it several parts and it will agree with the soul of Plants and of Beasts for the Soul of Plants is principium quo primò vivunt the soul of Beasts quo primò vivunt ac sentiunt the soul of Men quo vivunt sentiunt ac intelligunt primò the Soul is the beginning of life and Vegetation chiefly for when the soul is gone out of the body it ceaseth to live or grow any longer the soul is the beginning of Sense chiefly for the soul being absent the body is altogether insensible and the soul is the beginning of Understanding chiefly for the carcass or cadaver is voyd of understanding when the soul is departed out of the body And it is sayd chiefly because though the body Natural and Organical may be said to be the beginning of life sense and reason yet that is but Organically and Secondarily the Soul is the begining chiefly and primarily TotuÌ„ composituÌ„ dicatur principium ut quod cum sit illud quod agat forma vero principium ut quo cum agat beneficio formae instrumenta denique per quod cum per ipsa operetur Sennert These are the Definitions given by Aristotle the former being drawn from those things which are notiora secundum naturam though nobis ignotiora the latter from those things which are secundum nos notiora though secundum naturam ignotiora and those are the Effects and Faculties of the soul which are called the second act of the soul not the first act and are the companions associates of the soul neither of which do we reject but make use of both since in the subsequent Chapters we shall consider the soul not onely as it is principium corporis animalis tanquam forma or the act and perfection of a Natural Organical body which is according to the former Definition but as it is principium operationum tanquam eftrix as it is considered in the latter so making of two one Definition thus The Soul is the act the perfection and beginning of a Natural Organical body endued with life sense and understanding And now having traced thee O my soul from thy original the place and person à quo to the place and person ad quem from Heaven to Earth from God to Man and find thee clothed in humane nature I shall not raise a consideration from that close conjunction and mysterious union which is betwixt the soul and body flesh and spirit that being formerly couched in the first Chapter of this Book but finding thee seated in humane nature intombed and imprisoned in a body of flesh consider O my soul into what a body thou art come the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato is quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul's prison and sepulcher a dungeon foul and noysom in materiâ primâ even in its first and best matter of which it is made slime and mud red earth and clay For God made man saith the Text of the dust of the ground And again Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return And again Behold I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes And this first matter if we look into its original it was of meer nothing not of any other praeexistent matter for then it would not be materia prima It's true in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth but as true not out of another Heaven and Earth but of meer nothing and thus much of the first matter of this body of flesh But if we look into the second matter this body of sinful flesh contracted by the fall of our first Parents what is it but sanguis menstruus worse than a menstruous cloth or polluted rag which is a thing so vile and filthy as cannot be expressed the eyes refusing to b hold and the hands to touch it and the mind abhorring to think of it into to such a dungeon art thou cast O my soul fettered and fast bound in the chains of carnal lusts and concupiscence having thy Understanding darkned and thy Will and reason captivated and scarce the essence and definition of a soul remaining in thee thy act being turned into power nay rather impotency and weakness thy perfection into much imperfection thy beginning of life into a beginning of death and misery There was a time when the soul of man enjoyed more immunities and though a prisoner as it were in the body yet as Joseph who was made ruler and overseer of the whole house and had the command of all in the prison and whatsoever was done there that did he The soul was not a captive to the flesh so long as man continued in his innocency but contrariwise had the care and command of all the body was subject to the soul the flesh unto the spirit the inhaerent justice in which man was created subjected the inferior and Sensual parts to the superior Intellectual faculty without the least predominancy at any time so long as the superior continued in obedience and subjection to God the body was obedient to the command of the soul but after that the soul had rebelled against God the body took occasion to rebel against the soul so that to this day there hath bin a continual civil war within us the law of our members warring against the law of our mind and bringing us captive to the law of sin which is in our members this is the miserable estate of mankind by nature that in the deep sense thereof we may all cry with Saint Paul O wretched creature that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death But stand thou still O my soul and see the salvation of our God seest thou thy self in the state of nature dead in trespasses and sinnes an heathen an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel without hope without God in the world There is a law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made thee free from the law of sin and death this Christianity teacheth to this Christian Religion not Heaâ—henish superstition leadeth There is a state of Grace which is Christian as well as a state of Nature corrupt and hea henish Rom. 6.14 they that are under this law sin hath power on but they that are under Grace sin shall have no power over Vnto this state
left hand Semblable to which is the rule and Dominion which Impetuous and Implacable flesh usurpeth and excerciseth over the Souls of Mortal men in their Pilgrimage here below leading them Captive to the Law of sin and death This is that miserable Bondage under which the Sons of men in this Vale of â—ars do groan from which Bondage of Corruption and body of sin they wait with earnest expectation to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And not onely they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies not that we should be found naked and our bobodies unclothed but clothed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of life It is not a change of our bodies but of our Raiment and Vestments which we do look for a Crown of glory for a Crown of thornes the Robes of Righteousness for the Raggs of Sin This change must be inâ—hoate here though compleated hereafter the Foundation must be layed on Earth in Grace but finished in Heaven in Glory the Garments of the Old man laid aside and the Garments of the New man put on the lusts of the flesh mortified the fruits of the Spirit quickned Ephe. 4.22 23 24. We must put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceiptful lusts and be renewed in the Spirit of our mind and we must put on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness that we may henceforth serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter For if we live after the flesh wee shall die but if we through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live Woe is me that I am constrained to live in Mesech to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar my Soul hath long dwelt with them that are Enemies to peace they are daily fighting and troubling it the Body with all its sinful lusts rebel against my Soul and when I labour for Peace they make them ready for Battel they will not have her rule over them whom thou O Lord hast made the Monarch and sole Empress of this little World but attempt by continual Insurrections and Intestine Wars to introduce an Arbitrary Power over an Athenian and Popular Government For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned in the inward Man in the spirit of my mind by the might and Power of his Spirit who raised up Jesus from the dead that as he died for my sin and rose again for my justification so I may die to sin and live unto righteousness and being buried with Christ into death by Baptism may walk in newness of life that being planted together in the likeness of his death I may be also in the likness of his Resurrection kowing this that my old man is Crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth I should not sin And though I live and walk in the flesh yet that I may not war after but against the flesh the weapons of my warfare being Spiritual and mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds to the casting down of Imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the Knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience of the flesh against the Law of my mind which is onely subject to the Law of God Help me O God so to keep under my body and bring it into subjection that I my self be no a castaway Thy will O Heavenly Father be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and as thou hast praepared an Heaven and fitted the body with all Obsequiousness to serve and the Soul to rule and command with all just Authority and moderation all this in the Resurrection of the body at the last day when Soul and Body meet again in a glorified estate to Possess the Heavenly Mansions so fit and and prepare them here that whilst they are in this Earthly Tabernacle all Schism being abandoned all Rebellion Anathemaâ—ized the heel may not kick against the body or the foot tread upon the head but however it fareth in the body Politick there may be such an orderly subjection in the body Natural that my flesh may be subject not Predominant to my Spirit my Body unto my Soul and both Soul and Body subject unto thee O my God do thou thus set my foot over the threshold of thy Heaven Chap. 2. Book 3. put thou my Soul into this happy condition of an inchoate blessedness so shall I cheerfully spend the remaindâ—r of my daies in a joyful expectation of the full Consummation of my glory Amen Bish Hall his Susurium cum Deo CHAP. II. Of the Organs of the body and the Exercise of the Sensitive faculties of the Soul by them in the state of glory AS the appearance of the Bride newly come from her Chamber in the daies of her Espousals on the Solemnity of her brideale and other Nuptial Rites bedecked and adorned with all the Ornaments both of body and mind that may render her gratious and Amiable in the eyes of her Betrothed or like the Kings Daughter all glorious within and without in clothing of wrought Gold brought into the Kings Palace attended on among the Honorable VVomen by a Train of Virgins that be her fellows Even such is the inward grace and outward Magnificence Pomp and State of the body in the morning of her Resurrection and Ascension from the Chamber of death to be Espoused again to the Soul in an everlast-VVedlock the Bill of Divorcement being cancelled and Nullified by an Act of perpetual Oblivion Her Soporiferous bed of rottenness she thenceforth lotheth and outrunneth leaving behind her load of inward Corruption all waywardness of mind and frowardness of disposition and her Troops of Natural Imperfection Deafness Dumbness Blindless Lameness c. such Sons of sorrow and servants of sin and perdition presume not to approach the marriage Chamber all other her Companions in the flesh that were faithful and serviceable to her and instrumental to the Soul in the Acts of grace are still her attendants and are admitted into the Royal Palace and invested with the Robes of Glory and Immortality as a badge and livery of the glorified Soul whose Servants and Ministers they are Those Organical parts of the body in which the Soul was exercised and without which it could not Operate in which respect the Soul as to such faculties and Operations might be termed Mortal are revived with the body and useful to the Soul in their several Stations I do not I dare not here affirm that all the parts of
they fall not under the object of Memory properly things present fall under the External senses those things we hear or see without any use of our Memory nor of time future that is not the notion of Memory things future we remember not they fall not under Memory but under Faith Opinion Hope and Expectation but the object of Memory is the form of External objects conserved and kept under the notion of time past onely And of this there are two sorts in man a Sensitive Memory which is common with Beasts and perisheth with the Body and an Intellectual Memory proper to Man which is Immortal and remains with the Soul after death this Intellectual Memory is called Recordation or Remembrance and onely found in such creatures as can rationally discourse and this is a Memory of such things which were once in a manner clean forgotten but brought again into our mind and re-imprinted in our Memory by reason and deliberation and weighing of repeated circumstances of time place person or other like things We shall not insist upon that faculty which is called Common Sense it being the same with the five External they as the Rivulets it as their Spring it as the Point they as the Lines drawn from the Point of which we have raised our consideration before Phantasie is the highest faculty that irrational creatures are capable of this sits as supreme Judge in the Sensitive Soul yea and I may say too in the Rational Soul even since the Fall of man by which his Understanding was darkened and captivated to the lusts of the fâ—esh and whose operations are slower and more obstructed than the operations of our Phantasie the operations of Reason and Understanding are impedited many waies upon any perturbation of mind either by immoderate Love or Anger Fear or Grief or the like or else by some sickness and distemper of the body or else by sleep for then the External Senses rest neither doth the Understanding that while work but in all these cases the Phantasie is working and let a man sleep or wake his Phantasie is seldom idle but man is slothfull and loth to goe to that strict inquisition and painful search of things which the Understanding standeth upon therefore he goeth to Phantasie which is more nimble easie and ready at hand This causeth man to run into so many errors for whilst right reason was his guide he continued upright Intellectus est semper verus is a Maxim in Philosophy for that judgement which Reason passeth upon things as it is with deliberation so it is voyd of error but when man rejected the judgement of his own Understanding and followed the judgement of sensual Phantasie which was our first Parents case and in them of us all he runs himself upon a thousand errors and involves himself in a sea of miseries for the judgement of the Understanding is not so sure and true but that of Phantasie is as deceitfull for though Sense may give a true judgement in some cases pofitis omnibus requisitis as a proper object present and presented to an Organ fitted and prepared to receive it by due mediums convenient distance and the like yet Phantasie sticks not to these rules but passeth her sentence on all objects that have been presented to her by the Senses whether they be present or absent proper or common near or far off and who seeth not upon what weak principles how rotten a foundation this judgement of Phantasie standeth yet from hence all things are conveighed into our Memory and there registred as they are by our Phantasie apprehended true or false good or bad there they are reserved and kept And thus we descend to the consideration of our Memorative faculty from whence they pass into our Affections Soul The Memorative faculty as it takes and retains the impression of all vain objects presented by the Phantasie so its operation is to think of them so retained Memory then is the Magazine and Nurserie of our thoughts this is the source of sin and sink of all uncleanness from whence springs every wicked invention every foolish imagination every evill thought and cogitation and these are the beginnings of sorrow hinc illae lachrymae sin creeps first into our thoughts then into our words then into our actions in our Memory our destruction is first hatched Memory sends forth lusts lust when it hath conceived brings forth sin sin when it is finished brings forth death Saint Bernard makes three degrees of sin one in thought that 's from our Memory another in affection that 's from our Will the third in purpose and resolution that 's from our Mind the thought to sin defiles and stains the soul the affection to sin wounds the soul but the resolution to sin kils the soul thoughts breed delight delight consent consent action action custom custom necessity necessity death Thus sin like the cloud arising at the first in the compass of a hand soon overspreads the surface of Heaven or like a Gangrene beginning in the Memory but quickly overrunning all the parts and faculties both of soul and body this is that Basiliâ—k which must be crushed in the shell lest it grow to a Dragon and drive the woman into the wilderness and this is done by resisting the beginnings by driving all lustfull thoughts out of our Memories It may seem and really it is so a difficult work to expel all those various thoughts and imaginations of the heart which are evill onely evill and that continually but when once the Memory is seasoned with other cogitations the evill and corrupt will not so easily find entertainment vitious and virtuous thoughts will not cohabit together the love of the World and the love of God the lust of the Flesh and love of the Spirit cannot consist in one subject If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him they are contrary which cannot be in one place at one and the same time the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and pride of life is not of the Father but of the World The remedy against these is the same with that against the evils of the eye set down by Job I have made a covenant with my eyes how then shall I think upon a Maid if I resolve to withdraw mine eyes from beholding vanitie much more my mind from thoughts of vanity wherefore that my Memory be seasoned with purer meditations I will call to remembrance the loving kindness of the Lord I will think of God and in him will I rejoyce I will think upon my Redeemer how and what he suffered for me I will think on the hour of death and day of Judgement of the joyes of Heaven and of the torments of Hell the consideration of these is of force to affright and drive away all the wicked thoughts of the World the Flesh or the Devil of what kind soever whether they be ambitious proud thoughts or light and vain
and Form cloged with the weight of misery and body of corruption as in its Operations and Faculties abstracted from Matter and use of the body which is a more Spiritual and Divine condition and this is the subject of the second Book whether we consider the Soul abstracted from the body in those purer workings of the Intellect the Soul still quickning and remaining in the body or consider it as the body lying in the grave and the Soul totally and really separated from it In another is touched the state of the Soul after death in a body glorified when this corruption shall have put on incorruption and this mortal have put on Immortality wherein as the Body so the Soul is in the highest pitch of bliss and glory that ever it was or can be capable of which is infinite therein being restored to the likeness of his Maker not onely by that Righteousnes Freedom of Wil and clearness of Understanding in which it was first created but in a far more eminent manner resembling his Maker in endless glory bliss and happiness we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is not in a glass darkly but then face to face And this Beatifical Vision of God is also a full Fruition of him who is our summum bonum the final cause of our Creation the Intrinsical end thereof viz. our perfection of state which consists in the full Fruition of God who onely is our summum bonum The first Book then is Natural or Physical the second is Metaphysical the third is Theological Consider we our Souls under the first Notion and as by a ladder whereof this is the first or lower most step we may raise up our selves in an orderly ascent into Heaven till we come to see God not onely as far as is possible to behold him in this Vale of tears and Veil of Flesh but till we come to be transformed into his Image to enjoy and see God even as he is If thou desire Knowledge the study of the Soul is most useful for thee what Science soever thou most affectest or what manner of Person soever thou art Bee'st thou a Philosopher it is necessary for thee for if thou addict thy self to Natural Philosophy and to know the causes of things the Soul is a subject for it it is principium animalium that which gives being to al living creatures so saith Aristotle is it the Mathematical Science which for certainty and plain demonstration thou desirest this thou hast in the Soul the Soul of Man gives this demonstration is it Metaphysicks thou affectest for the Nobleness of the subject therein handled Spirituall and abstracted from matter the Soul of man is spiritual immortal impassible abstracta à materia saith Aristotle so a Metaphysical subject Nay higher yet Art thou a Christian wouldst come to the knowledge and fruition of God the Soul of man runns through the whole body of divinity poynting and leading thee all along through the same Mistake me not I doe not judge it possible by any humane art and Science only to attain to true wisdome by any light of Nature to reach to saving grace or to that true light which lighteneth every man that commeth into the world by the eye of sense to come to the eye of faith I have not so learned Christ yet as Philosophy is said to bee hand-maid to Divinity and the Law a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ so must the Reasonable soul be judged a necessary instrument towards the attainment of supernatural gifts for as natural Reason without Grace can never find the way to Heaven so Grace is never placed but in the Reasonable soul and proves by the very seat which it hath taken up that the end it hath is to be spiritual eye-water to make Reason see what by Nature it only cannot but never to blemish Reason in that which it can apprehend Grace hinders not the work of Nature wherein it is able to work nor faith blemish the eye of Reason in that which it can see and comprehend and doubtless that is very far even to the eternal power and God-head which makes the very heathens inexcusable where Nature is weak and cannot see Grace affords an helper and instrument to the eye of Reason to bring to its sight those things which for want of due requisites as convenient distance c. it was not of it self able to discern such are all the Mysteries of Divinity as the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity the Hypostatical Union the Incarnation of the Son of God c. all which are supra captum humanum Mans Reason cannot attain unto here Faith comes in and supplies this defect through the prospect of Faith Reason looks and without Reason Faith is useless here Faith perfects Reason and where it is wrong sets it right never undermines it may be above it but not against it nor without it So then is it Grace is it Faith thou seekest thou findest it in Humane Nature in a reasonable Soul This is a gift of God proper to man onely and to no other creature the meer Sensitive creatures have not this gift of Faith their nature is not capable of Faith they are below it this prospect of Faith would nothing avail the eye of Sense The meer Intellectual creatures as Saints and Angels in Heaven they have not need of Faith they are above it their Intuitive intellect needs no glass to see him whom they behold face to face onely to Man this glass is given this glass of Faith to the eye of Reason to make the soul see what by nature it cannot whilst it is veiled and imprisoned in this mortall and fraile body but after death Faith ceaseth then whether in the body or out of the body viz. before the Resurrection whilst the body sleeps or after the Resurrection when the body is raised to glory and both are reconjoyned we shall not need any help of Faih but shall see him even as he is know him even as we are known and be as the Angels in Heaven Reader being too conscious of my own weakness the importunity of my friends prevailed not with mee to make these papers publique till I had received encouragement herein from some more knowing men who took the paines to peruse them and then to return use this account ensuing MOSLEIO suo generoso Pietatis Philosophiae vindici ἘΥΧΆΙΡΕΙΠMUlta voluptate vir mihi charissime scripta tua quae pridiè hujus diei ad me dederas recensui ne dignitati tuae pro necessitudine nostra defuisse viderer quid de instituto tuo sentiam Doctissimo viro tuique amantissimo RUTTERO nostro palam feci omnia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gravia arguta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita mihi apparent ut Sacramento quod ait Orator contenderim tua esse nec vero quicquam scriptione hac tua video quod non utile sit antiquae
fly from it as from a serpent and if with any sin thou chance to be overtaken that thou maist mourn and weep for them here that so thou maist avoid this place of sorrow where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for ever For he that saith Wo unto you that laugh and rejoice now for ye shall mourn saith also Blessed are they that mourn now for they shall be comforted and the Psalmist They that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth good seed shall doubtless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him The Indivisibility or impartibility of the soul The soul of man is a simple essence and is not to be found except pâ—r accidens in the Predicament of Quantity Continuum non constat ex indivisibilibus sed in semper divisibilâ—a est divisibile cum enim ex eis constat in ea resolvetur Sennert lib. 1 cap. 4. Corpori suo modo coextenditur quamvis ex parte anima extensionem non habet Suarez disp 15. sect 3.11 fol. 251. therefore it admits not of fractions and parts is not capable of division If it were corporeal it would be quanta and so divisible as quantity is in semper divisibilia but being a spirit it is simple incorporeal immortal and so an indivisible substance That souls Rational are multiplied according to the multiplication of the Individuals I shall not deny to stand with Christian Religion as well as Philosophical verity but that the soul is divisible or extensible ad extensionem corporis I deny to stand with either the soul of Beasts and Plants is material and corporeal extensible as the body is extended so as part of the soul is in part of the body and the whole in the whole body but the Humane soul which is a spirit indivisible in a most wonderfull manner is tota in toto tota in qualibet parte so saith Philosophy And though it fill the whole body Bellarm. de ascensione mentis in deum c. grad 8. fol. 179. and 180. it takes up no room in the body it increaseth not as the body increaseth only begins to be where before it was not and if the body decrease if any member be cut off or wither the soul is not diminished or dried up onely ceaseth to be in that member it was in before and that without any hurt or blemish to it self Replet non occupat totum corporis locum nec etsi corpus hunc locum jam ante occupaverit impeditur quo minus ipsa in omnibus corporis partibus ad sit videmus eandem formam quae primo infantis corpus replet illud ipsum corpus nihil auctam ubi in vastam aetate virili molem excreverit repleris Sennertus lib. 1. cap. 4. And herein O my soul art thou a lively Character and Image of God a resemblance of thy Creator in his infinite being and omnipresence for God is a Spirit indivisible filling all the World and all the parts thereof yet taking up no room there nor may it be so imagined that God so fills the World as part of God is in part of the World and whole God in the whole World for God hath no parts cannot be divided but as thou art in the litle World Man so he in this great universe whole in the whole and whole in every part of the World and so is every where present with his omnipotencie and wisdom and when any new creature is produced God begins to be in that creature though the same from eternity and when any creature is destroyed or dieth God dieth not nor is destroyed onely ceaseth to be there yet without variation or shadow of change thus far the resemblance holds though thou must ackowledge O my soul Gods Indivisibility infinitely to surpass thine 2 Chron. 6. his omnipresence and illimiâ—ed greatness is such as Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain and truly for if another World were created God would fill it if more Worlds yea infinite Worlds God would fill them all and where he should not be there should be nothing The Immortality and eternity of the soul Touching the Immortality of the soul the Grand Philosopher not onely sets it down as of opinion but with many reasons proves the same I do not say all the operations and faculties of the soul or the soul according to all its faculties and operations Arist de gen anim c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. restat ut mens sola extrinsecus accedat eaque sola divina fit nihil enim cum ejus actione commmunicat actio corporalis which cannot be spoken of the soul were it mortal and therefore I must needs be of Paulus Benius his opinion who saies plainly and proves it too turpiter affixam à quibusdam Arist mortalitatis animae opinionem Benius in Timaeum Platonis Decad. 2. lib. 3. See further Bishop Lawd against Fisher pag. 16. Num. 34. pun 7. fol. 113. in margin did Aristotle hold to be immortal a Christian may doubt of that and not be counted Heterodox since whether the operations of the Sensitive soul as seeing hearing smelling tasting touching remain in the body glorified and in what manner hath been is to this day a controversie in the Schools and as for the Vegetative facultie since there is no accretion or diminution in that state of glory it is perished or altogether useless But that all the operations faculties of the soul which are Essential as to understand c. are immortal that he boldly affirms saying hoc solum est immortale not understanding as Pacius observes the word immortal in that large sense as Plato did to prove every soul to be immortal the soul of Beasts as well as the Humane soul because every soul is life and no life can be the Subject of death therefore every soul is Immortal which argument proves not the Immortality of the soul and to remain after the body onely proves that the soul is not the Subject of death which is true for when any brute beast dieth it is not the soul but the animal or compositum that dieth but Aristoile to shew the Rational soul to be altogether Immortal and to remain after the death of the body he adds the word aeternum adds Eternity to Immortality saying hoc solum est Immortale aeternum not but that the soul had a beginning not Eternal à parte ante but because it never shall have end so Eternal à parte post But wherefore do I spend my time in proving that which hath been so generally received of all of what Religion or Profession soever not Christian Religion onely but all the several Religions in the World have ever taught the Immortality of the Soul were it the Graecian Chaldean or Arabian of old or the Jewes the Turkes or other of the Gentiles in these later times
and therefore they likewise hold there are rewards and punishments for souls departed according as they have acted in the flesh be it good or evill Onely they have differed about the state of souls departed in which some have held ridiculous things Touching which we will proceed to shew how far this verity is evidenced to us by Philosophical principles by the light of natural reason The Soul of man after this life remains and abides for ever whole and intire as to its essence for that is simple and undivided as hath been sayd though not as to all its faculties and operations all the faculties of the soul remain not with the soul after the death of man at least the operations in that condition as before and therefore may be said to be perished The Intellectual faculty abides for ever with the soul so is no way mortal but for as much as the Sensitive faculty is organical and cannot work without a body when the body dyes that faculty is sayd to perish but this in respect of the body not in respect of the soul which faculty abides with the soul for ever potentialiter though not actualiter but is idle and cannot work whilst the body sleepeth in the grave and as Aristotle saith An old man had he the eyes of a young man would see as well as a young man so if after death the soul should enter into a body it would doe all the operations which before it did now since all these faculties as to the soul remain though in respect of the body they are sayd to perish it is necessary and that according to the principles of Philosophy that sometime the soul should reassume a body or else these faculties are reserved and kept in vain But because no power or faculty can be in vain Vide Pacim in Arist de anima lib. 3. c. 6. sect 5. â— Et lib. â— c. 10. sect 5. yet that is in vain which is never reduced into act and that Deus natura nihil frustra operantur according to Aristotle and the rule of Philosophy therefore it must needs be confessed that the soul shall sometime come into the body again which Conclusion is confirmed by very good reason for the soul is according to its essence a Form and a Form naturally desires the Matter to which it relates and without the Matter it is but imperfect for nothing is perfect ex sola forma not by Form alone but Matter and form together so that Matter concurs to the perfection of all created compounded substances otherwise death would not be so terrible if all perfection and happiness consisted in the soul Being thus seasoned with these Philosophical verities thou maist more readily assent to those Theological truths of the soul's eternity and immortality thou seest O my soul how near nature rectified and rightly principled leads to Christ what Affinity there is 'twixt Reason and Faith Nature and Grace they thwart not one the other the Truth of Philosophy agrees with the Truth of Divinity and from this Philosocal Principle will I teach thee a Christian Article of the Resurrection of the body and life everlasting For let me argue with thee O my soul in thine own natural principles if the soul be a Form which naturally desires the Matter to which it is the Form and without which it is imperfect if it have Faculties which it cannot exercise without a body and that God and Nature have made nothing in vain therefore the soul must of necessity reassume a body it must either be the same numerical body or another different from what it had before if another then must thou grant a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Transmigration of souls an error of the Pythagoreans and is an impossibility according to the principles of Philosophy because as Aristotle every where affirmeth a determinate Form requires a determinate Matter a specifical Form a specifical Matter and a numerical Form requires the same numerical Matter so the same Individual Soul requires the same Individual Body and if the soul assume the same body then must thou hold the Resurrection of that body which Christian Religion teacheth also CHAP. III. Of the Definition of the Soul Chap. 3. Book 1. ONe and the same thing may be the subject of several Sciences though diversly handled and considered in every one of them and as it is diversly considered so may it diversly be defined Logick is not tied to certain matter but runs generally through all kind of things not standing so much upon the matter Mathematicks handles things abstracted from matter non re sedratione Metaphysicks handles things altogether separated from matter but Physicks handles things not separated from matter at all nec re nec ratione Thus are the Definitions of one and the same thing various according to the several Sciences which treat of it Aristotle puts an example of Anger that being considered in the Physical Science is defined to be A certain motion of the body for some injury received with desire of revenge being in Logick considered it s defined onely A desire of revenge the one expresseth the matter he other not The Soul of man is a subject for all Sciences Philosophical or Theological and therefore admits of several Definitions but for as much as it is not our purpose at present to treat of the soul of man either Theologically as the Image of God in man nor yet Metaphysically as incorporeal spiritual and abstracted from bodily organs in its diviner contemplative intellectual faculties which resembles the nature divine nor yet to handle it onely in its Sensitive parts which resembles the nature of beasts but as it hath assumed humane nature and is the Form of man and so a part of him who is compounded of Matter and Form who is in that respect of a middle nature 'twixt Terrestrial and Celestial 'twixt Mortal and Immortal creatures and participates of both and this nature too we consider not as in the state of integrity in which it was created but in this lapsed degenerate condition it groaneth under since the fall of man and is intombed in a body of weak and sinfull flesh and operates not but by and with the body The subject therefore of this Book is Physical material and inseparable from the body as well in its Affections which we here handle as in its Essence such then must our Definition be for quale est definitum talis esse debâ—s definitio The Definition of the soul The Soul is the act and perfection of the natural organical body having life in power I shall not stay to coment upon the words of this Definition to shew how the soul is an act and perfection which words are Synonima the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehending both and is the genus in this Definition and how this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the second act to wit the Operation and Motion which is the soules
of Grace O my soul thou art called a state of righteousness and justification by Faith which is the gift of God and say not thou with thy self that this gift of God doth not extend to thee for none are excluded that will lay hold on and receive this gift really tendred to all for as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life The righteousness that comes by Christ doth recompence the loss by Adams transgression and the advantage that comes by Christ is much every way for not as the offence so is the gift for judgement is indeed by one offence unto condemnation but the gift is of many offences unto justification Secondly By this O my soul thou art loosened from thy fetters released from imprisonment grave and hell by this thou art renewed in that image of God wherein thou wast created and restored to thy antient right of rule and dominion by this thou comest again to the true definition of a Soul viz. The very perfection and act of a Natural Organical nay more of a Supernatural Organical Body and the beginning of llfe not a Natural onely but Supernatural not Temporal but Eternal also CHAP. IV. Of the Vnity of the Soul Chap. 4. Book 1. THere be three distinct Effects and Operations of the Soul from which we have drawn our Definition above-mentioned viz. Life Sence and Understanding and these have their distinct Powers or Faculties viz. the Vegetative the Sensitive and Intellectual the Vegetative Faculty hath the proper effects of the Vegetative Soul to produce Life the Sensitive hath the property of producing Sense and the Intellectual Faculty the property of the Rational Soul of begetting Understanding of these we purpose to treat distinctly and apart in the next ensuing Chapters by the way we shall say something of the Soul's Unity to prevent some mistakes and errors which have arisen and still may be touching the Soul in its Essence and Powers for when we see and learn these distinct Faculties and operations of the Soul we are easily drawn to conceit there are also three distinct Soules in Man this was the Error of no mean Philosophers Plato of old Averroes Gandavensis Zabarel and others of later daies and accordingly they held that these Souls had their peculiar and distinct places of residence and abode in Man the Vegetative they placed in the Liver the Sensitive in the Heart and the Rational Soul in the Brain but this doth Aristotle every where confute so do the generality of Philosophers after him Scotus Pacius Faber Faventinus and others For man is certainly One and how comes a Trinity of soules in the Unity of a person What is it that unites man and makes him one it must be his soul or his body but not his body that 's clear for first the body is united and preserved by the soul not the soul by the body wherefore we see by experience that when the soul is departed out of the body the body continues not long after but turns to putrifaction Again man is said to be one not in respect of his body but his soul the body which is materia is nothing but in power 't is the Form which actuates and perfects the Form gives being and since ens bonum convertuntur Forma ut dat esse sic etiam dat unitatem Sennertus that which gives Being gives Unity the soul of man gives him his being dat hoc esse the soul of man gives him to be one now if there were three Forms three distinct souls in man every distinct Form must give him a distinct being so man would not be one but three a Monster a tergeminus Gerion an opinion exploded as well in Divinity as Philosophy See Tertullian in lib. de anima But man is but One therefore but one soul in man though distinct in its powers and faculties there is a Trinity of faculties in the Unity of a Reasonable soul the Vegetative is a faculty of the Vegetative soul the Sensitive of the Sensitive and the Intellectual of the Rational soul yet is there not three souls in man but one soul One Individual soul onely in man according to Aristotle which notwithstanding hath dividual and distinct powers and faculties one simple essence which is the Form of man distinguisht into three faculties of Vegetative Sensitive and Intellectual one in respect of its essence three in respect of its faculties Neither are these faculties one before or after another in time but all are Cotemporarie there is no Priority or Posterity in time onely in order amongst them Object Averroes and Zabarel who maintain three souls in man are against this position and quote the words of Aristotle in his Book de gener animal cap. 3. which are these Man first lives the life of Plants then the life of Beasts and afterwards the life of a Man from whence they would infer that one faculty is in time before another and one succeeds another therefore there are so many several and succeeding souls Ans But to this it may be answered That because the soul hath need of Organs and Instruments of the body to work withall and that these Instruments are too weak and litle fit to exercise the noblest Operations of the soul in the first times therefore doth the soul exercise the Operations of Vegetation first because those Organs are first fitted and prepared and afterwards the Operations of Sense and Reason and in this sense is Aristotle to be understood where he saith A man first lives the life of Plants then the life of a Beast and afterwards the life of a Man to wit in the Operations of the soul which are in time one before another the Operations of the Vegetative soul are first then of the Sensitive and lastly of the Rational and that will be granted by reason of the defect and inability in the other Organs which are not so soon fitted for the other faculties to operate yet the faculties of the soul are in one instant of time without any Priority one of another in time and so they continue after the dissolution of the soul and body though the Operations of some of the faculties are perished because the body whose Organs they require are perished the faculties of the soul as well the Sensitive as Intellectual remain and abide with the soul after the death of man although the Intellectual then is onely operative as hath been elsewhere said and as we cannot say and say truly that the Sensitive faculty is perished with the body and the Intellectual only survives and abides with the soul because it only operates no more truly can we affirm that the Vegetative faculty in the first Generation is first in time because it first operates therefore saith Philosophy There is no Priority or Posteriority in the faculties of the soul there are none
as shrill and sharp or base and dull sounds and their intermediums the nose and palate are near a kin and have Objects alike of which they Judge the one of sweet or bitter smells the other of sweet or bitter tasts and their mediums the hand or Sense of feeling hath its different Objects of hot and cold moist and dry soft and hard and the like of which it passeth its Judgement And by interjected means The Senses as they require their proper Objects so also fit Mediums for the conveyance of things sensible to the Senses the Objects of the Sense work not immediately upon the senses but by intcrjected means so the eye to discern and judge of colours needs light and a transparent perspicuous body as Air Water Glass Ice or some such diaphanous body actually enlightned to convey the Object to the sight without which interjection the eye could not discern at all and indeed many more things are required to make the Judgement that comes of Sense perfect which otherwise is very uncertain and deceitful though positis omnibus requisitis all necessaries being premised the rule holds true sensus est semper verus and this sensus non fallitur circa proprium objectum and in this sense and no other is Aristoâ—le to be understood The Senses by receiving things sensible are made one or like to those Objects they receive for the Form and similitude of the Object presented to the sight is in the eye and made one with it and so of the other Senses and their Objects the sight and thing seen the ear and thing heard the smell and tast and their Odors and savours are all alike no difference twixt the Sense and its Object but talis est sensus quale est objectum such potestate in power not in Act not in act the same with the Object which is a matter for the matter is not received by the Sense the Form and similitude onely is received into the Sense abstracted from Matter And therefore doth Aristotle compare the Sense to Wax and the Object to a Seal Now as the Wax taketh the impress and Form of the Seal whether it be Iron Brass Gold or Silver but no part of the Iron Brass Gold or Silver So the sense receives the Form and print of the Object or thing discerned but no part of the matter of the Object Nor was there any being in the Sense before but a bare facultie a faculty to receive sensible Forms an aptitude power of receiving colours is in the sight of the eye in that Instrument or Organ of sight which is called pupilla in English the ball or apple of the eye this hath a faculty a power of receiving colours as the Organs of the other Senses have of receiving theirs but is not actually coloured hath no colour in it for then it could not receive those that are without nor have an aptitude thereunto for saith Aristotle intus existens prohibet alienum the good man within doors keeps the stranger forth But that the Senses may more readily receive their Objects therefore are the Organs destitute and naked of the Nature of the Objects they receive as the eye is void of colour and the ear of sounds for if the eye had Actually in it either white or black it could not receive another from without so when any savour or smell is actually in the Organs of those Senses it is an impediment to other savours and smells that they either not at all or at least very weakly are discerned for intus existens prohibet alienum that which is within keeps all others out Lastly these External Senses are the five Ports and Gates of the Intellectual Soul at least of that Intellectual faculty which is called Patient or Practical and there is nothing entreth into this faculty but is let in thorough some of these doors the Cinque-ports of the Soul for so is the rule in Philosophy nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuit in sensu I need not tell thee O my Soul thou hast a conscience within thee is in stead of a thousand witnesses shewing thy miserable seduction and Perdition by following the Judgement of Sense and refusing the dictates of thy own Understanding judging according to the outward appearance of External Objects gilded apples and fruit of the tree bona apparentia onely pleasant to the eye and goood for food bitter in thy belly though sweet in thy mouth gall in digestion though Honey in tast nor need I to shew thee the resemblance and similitude twixt thee and thy Objects which thou hast contracted by receiving and embrasing of them such as thy Object is such art thou sin is thy Object therefore thou art such such in Form and likeness and since sin is a non entity privatio boni the Form of sin is meer deformity this print and Form hast thou within thee as fully and plainly as the Wax retains the Form of the Seal through the Senses it is conveyed unto thee the innumerable sinnes and transgressions wherewith mankind is involved springs from hence even from this Sensitive faculty of the flesh the Senses are the doors thorough which all sins of all kind have entred into the Soul of man the rule in Philosophy nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuit in sensu holds true in sins of all sorts which come not to the Soul but thorough these wider Gates which lead unto destruction thorough these the three Grand enemies of Mans Salvation shoot their poisonous darts at the heart of man Help help me O Lord my God for my Enemies have compassed about my Soul the Flesh the World and the Devill and the dangerousest Enemy is my own Flesh my bosom-friend is become my greatest adversary they of my household are my deadly foes the Flesh which I cannot fly from nor yet drive from me I am constrained to carry about me it is so close conjoyned to my Soul d stroy it I may not though unwillingly I uphold it feed it I must though in feeding of it I nourish my Enemy an Enemy worst of all enemies not an open enemy for against a professed Enemy one may make head but thou my familiar an intestine secret Enemy who slayest unawares as Joab did Abner and Amasa this is the Enemy within that betraies my Soul to its Eenemies without and sets open these Senses the Soul's Cinque-ports through which the World and Devill shoot their poysonous arrows and have grievously wounded me and death through these windowes hath entred my Soul I open my eyes and the world presents me with beautiful Objects a Dalila a Bethshaba the Devill straight shoots his poysonous dars lascivious thoughts unchast desires Carnal lusts and concupisence and fastens in my Soul I open my ears and the World presents me with the various sounds of blasphemy towards God scandalous and reproachful speeches towards our Neighbours perjuries lies cursings from my own mouth and
Act is that which is reduced into act and exercise so that it doth not not onely actually receive what formerly was but in power but also operates and works about those things it receives and actually Understands them which is done when the Phantasmes which are illustrated and made Intelligible by the Intellect Agent are actually received of the Patient Intellect by which that knowledge which formerly it had not is acquired The property of the Patient is to receive Intelligible Forms from Phantasmes illustrated by the Agent Intellect and from this property and Office of receiving Intelligible Forms it is called Intellectus patiens For as Sense is said to suffer because it receives Sensible Forms so the Intellecct by receiving Intelligible Forms recipiendo paâ—itur it suffers from Intelligible Forms as Sense suffers by its Sensible Forms But the Intellect Agent is no way passive being of it self perfect and needs not an Object to supply its defects being nothing in power but as Aristotle hath it essentialit r actus a pure act and receives not Intelligible Forms Its Office is to illustrate the Phantasm and to make of sensible Intelligible Forms and of Particulars Universalls and therfore the Intellect Agent is said omnia facere as the Patient is said omnia fieri Of these two Operations of the Agent Intellect viz to illustrate the Phantasm and to Understand the latter is onely Essential and remaines after death of the body the other is less Essential and therefore remaines not with the Soul after this life for although the Office of the Intellect Agent in this life be to illustrate the Phantasmes and to make that Actually Intelligible which was before but Potentially so and to reduce the Intellect Patient into Act yet this is not the sole and Essential Office of this Intellect for as much as after this life it continues not with it for after this life there remaines another manner of knowledge Proper and Essential to this Intellect not per species impressas by Intelligible Forms imprinted from some Sensible Object but per species in elligibiles congenitas innatas as shall hereafter be demonstrated And this is a part and faculty of that Reasonable Soul which is forma informans hominem and not an Extrinsecal assisting Form as a Mariner is of a Ship as some would have it it is that part of the Soul by which it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligere sapere vel cognoscere prudentis munere fungi as Aristotle hath it By which there ariseth another distinction of the Intellect into Practick and Speculative for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intelligere is an Operation of the Intellect generally but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sapere seuprudentis munere fungi is the proper Operation of the Practick Intellect whose end is Action and Object such things as fall under Action and such Action as falls under Sense and subject thereto and whose Science is Morality being conversant about Manners and Moral Vertues This Practick Intellect for of the Speculative is our whole discourse in the subsequent Chapters is that faculty or Operation of the Soul whereby Man is distinguisht from Beasts who live a Sensitive life and Angells who live a Contemplative life And that Beatitude or summum bonum which every man naturally coveteth after consists in action viz. in the perfect state of Moral virtues this Happiness appertains to man as man and without this Moral virtue none in this life can be accounted happy De perfecta possibilia secundum naturam non de perfecta absolute â—ut extraordinario dei munere Forsâ—ca lib. 2 Metaph. cap. 1. q. 2. Sect. 7 fol. 420. I speak of mans Natural and Temporal happiness in this life and not of that Supernatural and Eternal in the world to come in Heaven which consists in the sole intuitive Vision knowledge of the divine Essence Aristotle I grant makes two parts of Natural and Temporal felicity the one Practical consisting in the perfection of Moral virtues the other Speculative consisting in the perfection of virtues Intellectual and this Speculative and Intellectual part of a mans life he esteemeth the nobler part as a virtue of an higher order and sufficient in his kind to make a man happy But this Intellectual part doth not necessarily make him good who is endowed therewith or bring him to that perfect state of felicity in this life since it is here commonly mixed with vices and may be found in such who though they know God yet do not glorifie him as God Besides this part of Intellectual Contemplative Virtue viz that Intuitive Vision of God or the perfect knowledge of the divine Essence is not natural to Man Man attains not thereto by any strength of Nature it is the gift of God unto this light of Glory unto these supernal Joys no man attains by his own strength onely that which is practical and consists in well doing in the exercise of Moral virtues is proper to man in his Natural estate which is the operation of the Practick Intellect and therefore Aristotle in the tenth of his Ethicks saith The practick Beatitude agreeth with man as man that which consists in Contemplation doth not agree with man as man sed quatenus in eo est divinum quiddam degit vitam quandam divinam And in this respect the Soul may be sayd mortal because that part which consists in the exercise of Moral virtues whose end iâ— Action and such as is taken from Sense and Phantasie which is mortal and perishing operates only in this life by the help of Phantasie and without Phantasms the Soul understands not any thing so saith Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Soul meaning this Practical part for the Speculative part of the Soul doth not alwaies and altogether work by means of Sense and Phantasie since it knoweth such things as are immaterial and not subject to Sense as God abstracted Forms and Intelligences and it own self as elswhere shall be shewed Though to speak properly and truly the Rational Soul is not mortal in any part of its Essence or Faculties though the operations may cease in defect of requisite Organs neither is there two several Intellects really distinguisht but one intire Intellect belonging to this Soul onely in regard of its several wayes of knowledge and manner of operation in this life Practical and Speculative the Intellect hath obtained its distinction of Practick and Speculative which is but one in râ— though divers ratione But some have gone about to prove a real and essential difference 'twixt the one and the other making Reason or the Rational faculty of the Soul which is that part of the Intellect which is Practical and acquires knowledge by discourse and that not without great labour difficulty and uncertainty runing from the Causes to the Effects and from Effects to the Causes groaning under the perplexity of framing demonstrations by wresting deducing infering and concluding one proposition from
Science of this was Philosophical drawn from the light of Nature Reason teacheth thou art Immortal and capable of everlasting Felicity which consists in the Vision and Contemplation of God thy chiefest good and hast an Innate concreate desire thereto And although the principles of Rational Knowledge are for the most part per se nota so known by their own light as may force an assent yet in as much as God who is thy summum bonum is a light inaccessible such a light as blear-eyed Reason can not behold the full Knowledge of God is not by Rational principle Natural Science is not a scale large enough to contain nor a yard long enough to measure out the true Vertue and full force of this divine Essence but must resolve into principles of a higher nature here thou must run from the principles of Philosophy to the maxims of Divinity here thou must submit thy understanding to the rules and articles of Faith Thy Science of God then is Theological drawn not from the light of Nature but from the revelation of God in the Scriptures the principles of this Theological science are supernatural and resolve not into the grounds of natural reason but into the maxims of divine knowledge supernatural and of this we have just so much light and no more than God hath revealed to us in the Scriptures which is not so full a light as the prime principles of rational Sciences carry along with them to force reason upon the first sight to yeeld unto it such as are these viz. Every whole is greater than a part of the whole and again The same thing cannot be and not be at one and the same time and in one and the same respect These carry a natural light in them clear and evident the Scriptures not so yet such a light as is of force to breed Faith though not to make a perfect Knowledge for though it be life eternal to know God John 17. and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent yet this knowledge is no more than a belief since God requires not a demonstrative knowledge of him here but our Faith in him and such a knowledge as may fit that we walk by faith and not by sight or perfect knowledge for Man having sinned by pride God thought it fittest to humble him at the very root of the tree of knowledge and make him deny his understanding and submit to Faith or hazard his happinesse Faith then is a Christians rule and ground of Science now the evidence of Faith is not so clear as that of Reason tum ratione objecti tum ratione subjecti First Ratione objecti God Faith is the evidence of things not seen Secondly Ratione subjecti the Subject that sees it is but in aegnimate in a glass or dark speech Moreover Faith is an act of the Will primarily and chiefly and not of the Understanding It is not in this Theological Science as in other Sciences where voluntas sequitur dictamen intellectus but contrariwise intellectus sequitur arbitrium voluntatis For Faith is a mixt act of the Will and Understanding and the Will first inclines the Understanding to yeeld full approbation to that whereof it sees not full proof Credere enim est actus intellectus vero assentientis productus ex voluntatis imperio In sent d. 23. q. 2. a. 1. Tho. 2.2 q. 2. a. 2. ad 3 Biel. And again Intellectus credentis determinatur ad unum non per rationem sed per voluntatem And Stapleton contra Whittaker saith Fides actus est non solius intellectus sed etiam voluntatis quae cogi non potest Triplic contra Whittak cap. 6. p. 64 imo magis voluntatis quam intellectus quatenus illa operationis principium est assensum qui propriè actus fidei est sola elicit nec ab intellectu voluntas sed à voluntate intellectus in actu fidei determinatur And though the principles of Faith being concealed from our view and foulded up in the un-revealed counsell of God appear not so evident and manifest unto us as those of Reason yet they are in themselves much more sure and infallible than they for they proceed immediatly from God that heavenly Wisdom which being the fountain and original of ours must needs infinitely precede ours both in nature and excellency And therefore though we be far unable to reach the order of their deductions nor can in this life come to the vision of them yet we yeeld as full and firm consent not only to the articles but to all the things rightly deduced from them as we doe to the most evident principles of natural reason so that thou mayst justly say thy Faith is stronger than thy Reason or Knowledge is because it goes higher and so upon a safer principle than thy Reason or Knowledge can in this life attain unto Hoc intelligendum est ut scientia certior sit certitudine evidentiae fides vero certior firmitate adhaesionis majus lumen in scientia majus robur in fide saith Biel in 3 sent d. 23. q. 3 a. 1. Thus much and more maist thou find couched and excellently handled by the most reverend Father in God William Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury in his book against Fisher pag. 16. And for certainty and assurance in this kind Faith doth not only exceed all certainty that can proceed from any natural Science be it never so demonstrative but in a manner equals the very knowledge by Intuitive Vision in the world to come St Bernard makes it good too in sermonibus Domini Gilleberti super Cantica Canticorum cap. 3. Intelligentia quidem etsi fidem excedit non tamen aliud contuetur quam quod fide continetur in intelligentia quam in fide non major certitudo inest sed serenitas neutra vel errat vel haesitat ubi vel error vel haesitatio est intelligentia non est ubi haesitatio est fides non est et si fides admittere posse videtur errorem non est vera nec Catholica fides sed erronea credulitas Thus are Reason Faith and Vision instrumental and necessary one for another without Reason no Faith without Faith no Vision and this is all the difference amongst them 't is St Bernards still and exquisitely done Fides ut sic dicam veritatem rectam tenet possidet Intelligentia revelatam nudam contuetur Ratio conatur revelare ratio inter fidem intelligentiamque discurrens ad illam se erigit sed ista regit ratio plus aliquid quam credere vult quid aliud conspicere aliud est credere aliud est cernere non tamen aliud quam quod fide concipit conspicere conatur et si nondum sincerè videre potest quibusdam tamen accommodatis experimentis conjicere tentat quae jam solida fide concepit ratio supra fidem conatur fide tamen nititur fide cohibetur in primo devota est in secundo prudens in tertio sobria ut sic dicam fides tenet tuetur ratio intelligentia intuetur bonus iste circuitus in quo mens rationis ductu pervestigando procedit sed à fide non recedit instructa à fide restricta ad fidem Thus have I shewed thee O my Soul thy spiritual progress in the search of thy Felicity this is the circuit and round of the Soul in its Military march to the heavenly Jerusalem in the search of him who is the dearly beloved of my Soul these are the streets it compasseth about bonus quidem rationis circuitus a happy circuit and progress of the Soul doubtless when the Soul prosecutes its felicity by rational disquisition and this search too is bounded and limited by the rules of Faith walking from Faith to Faith or from Faith to Vision and Contemplation till it come to the full fruition of what it so much desireth and loveth And now having brought thee to thy journeys end to thy harbour and haven of joy and bliss I will here sing a Requiem to my soul a nunc dimittis to my Spirit Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation And since the way to this beatitude lies by the gates of Death that there must be a separation of Soul and Body before there be a full Vision and Fruition I doe here desire to set this little house in order and to make this my last Will and Testament where I bequeath my Soul into the hands of God that gave it and my Body to the grave in Christian buriall Earth to Earth Dust to Dust Ashes to Ashes in hope of a joyfull and glorious resurrection unto eternal life through the merits of Christ my Saviour Amen FINIS