affections vpon any creature whatsoeuer or any good that we can naturally attayne to the knowledge of in this life For what naturall good soeuer we loue or enioy here we must by death be diuorced from and as we haue sayd before that separation will cause perpetuall sorrow because the affections remaine vnchāgeable And allthough we should place our felicity in naturall knowledge or any other intellectuall good whatsoeuer yet that cannot satisfy the desires and fill the capacity of the soule though it be neuer so perfectly enioyed for they are infinite and this can be collected but out of particular obiects for the whole created vniuerse is but so and therfore they hold on proportiō together but the soule haueing nothing else to fill it withall allthough it should not be tormented with the former mentioned corrosiues of preposterous affections yet it cānot be at rest and quiet and the thirst of it satisfied by that dropp of water in comparison of the vehement ardor of it And thus it followeth that ether man was not created for a determinate end and for a state conuenient for his nature and able to satisfie the originall appetences of his soule or at the least no mā can by naturall meanes arriue to the end and period of happinesse 7. But now to proceede in the pursuance of this method of reasoning and to follow hence forward the conduct of a supernaturall guide since nature quitteth vs here haueing lead vs on as long as she was able to see we may in the seauenth place consider that God when he created man did not assigne him to remaine in the state of pure nature but did out of his goodnesse and liberality conferre something vpō him that exceeded the sphere of his nature For else the first part of the preceedent consequence would follow which were not only impious but absurd to say to whosoeuer considereth the infinite goodnesse wisedome and omnipotency of God For as heate being essentiall to fire cannot but produce heate in whatsoeuer it application vnto so God being in his owne essence goodnesse it selfe cannot chose but doe vnto whatsoeuer proceedeth from him all that good which the nature of it is capable of whether by naturall or supernaturall meanes and his wisedome can readily contriue the meanes to bring that to passe which his goodnesse disposeth him to doe And his omnipotency as easily acteth what his other two attributes haue proiected so that there wanting an infinit obiect to satisfy the infinite capacity of the soule and without which she must be eternally miserable it remayneth that he who gaue that capacity must allso afforde the obiect and assigne meanes how to compasse and gaine it All which we haue allready proued is out of the reach of nature to discerne and therfore it followeth of consequence that the author of nature must endowe man with some supernaturall giftes if he be in a fit disposition to receaue them which may bring him to the supernaturall end he was created for 8 Our eight conclusion shall be that of these supernaturall giftes the first and the ground and foundation of all the rest is faith For we haue allready determined that we cannot by any naturall meanes attaine to the knowledge of any obiect that may render vs completely happy in the next life And yet such knowledge must be had to the end that we may direct our actions to gaine the fruition of that obiect Therfore there is no way left to compasse this but by the instructions and discipline of some Master whose goodnesse and knowledge we can no wayes doubt of by which two perfections in him we may be secure that he nether can be deceaued himselfe nor will deceaue vs. Now the docctrine that such a Master shall teach for such an ende we call faith 9. In the ninth place we must determine that this Master must be God and man For first by our discourse vpon naturall principles we haue proued that to auoide misery in the next life we must deny our senses the content and satisfaction that they naturally desire in corporall things and that we must withdrawe our affections from all materiall obiects And next we haue collected that the obiect which we must know and loue to be happy doth exceede the reach and view of any created vnderstanding to discerne Therfore we may safely conclude that this doctrine ought to be deliuered vnto vs originally by God himselfe For after the first branch which is of withdrawing our affections from sensible goods allthough out of naturall principles that doctrine is to be collected yet that is not a sufficient meanes to settle mankinde in generall in the beliefe of it For the discourse that proueth it is such an abstracted one as very few are capable of it being that it requireth both a mature age to be able to reason so before which tyme many dye and likewise strong and vigoroux powers of the vnderstanding which we see more doe want then are indowed withall And besides of those that haue both yeares and capacity to wielde such thoughts there are so few that are not in a manner forced away from such interiour recollections by their particular vacations and the naturall necessities they are obliged vnto as to beate it out by themselues is not a sufficient meanes to serue mankind in this case And to thinke that those few who haueing great partes may with much labour haue attayned to the knowledge therof should instruct others that are simpler and are taken vp by other imployments and courses of life were very irrationall since no man be he neuer so wise is such but may be deceiued and then how can it be expected that another man should without sensible demonstration belieue his single word in a matter so cōtrary to sense and wherein he must forgoe so great contentments and present vtility And for the other branch which is in the instructing mankinde concerning the right obiect that he is to know and loue to be happy that is alltogether out of the reache of any man whatsoeuer by himselfe to discouer and therfore much lesse can he in his owne name instruct others therin And if any man should goe about to doe so and to introduce a new doctrine of faith not formerly heard of drawing the arguments for confirmation therof onely out of his owne ratiocination and discourse that alone were enough to conuince him of falsehoode since he should thereby vndertake to know what were impossible for him of himselfe to attayne to the knowledge of Therfore it is necessary that the author of the doctrine we must belieue the instructor of the actions we must performe and the promiser of the happinesse we may hope for be God himselfe who onely knoweth of himselfe what is sayed in matters of these natures and who onely is nether liable to be deceiued nor can deceiue others as being the prime verity it selfe But because the weakenesse of our intellectuall nature is such whiles
we remaine here in our earthly habitations imprisoned in our houses of clay as we cannot lift vp our heauy and drowsie eyes ād steddily fixe our dimme sight vpon the dazeling and indeed inuisible Deity nor entertaine an immediate communication with him like the childrē of Israel who desired that Moses not God might speake vnto them it was necessary that God himselfe should descend to some corporall substance that might be more familiar and lesse dazeling vnto vs And none was so conuenient as humane nature to the end that he might not onely conuerse freely and familiarly with vs and so in a gentle and a sweete manner teach vs what we should doe but also preach vnto vs by his example and himselfe be our leader in the way that he instructed vs to take The conclusion then of this discourse is that it was necessary Christ God and man should come into the world to teach vs what to belieue and what to doe 10. The tenth conclusion shall be that those vnto whom Christ did immediatly preach this faith and vnto whome he gaue commission to preach it vnto others and spread it through the world after he ascended to heauen ought to be belieued as firmely as he himselfe The reason of this assertion is that their doctrine though it be deliuered by secondary mouthes yet it proceedeth from the same fountaine which is God himselfe that is the prime verity and cannot deceiue nor be deceiued But all the difficulty here in is to know who had this immediate commission from Christ and by what seale we should discerne it to haue bin no forged one The solution of this ariseth out of the same argument which proueth that Christ himselfe was God and that the doctrine he taught was true and diuine which is the miracles and workes he did exceeding the power of nature and that could be effected by none but by God hmiselfe for he being truth it selfe cannot by any action immediatly proceeding from him witnesse and confirme à falsehoode In like manner the Apostles doing such admirable workes and miracles as nether by nature nor by art magicke could be brought to passe that must necessarily inferre God himselfe cooperated with them to iustifie what they sayd it is euidēt that their doctrine which was not their owne but receaued from Christ must be true and Diuine 11. Te eleauenth conclusion shall be that this faith thus taught by Christ and propagated by the Apostles and necessary to mankinde to belieue as well that part of it which is written as the whole which is not dependeth intrinsecally vpon the testimony of the Catholicke Church which is ordayned to conserue and deliuer it from age to age By which Catholike Church I meane the congregation of the faithfull that is spread through-out the whole world for we haue proued before that the way to the true faith ought to be open and playne to all men of all abilities and in all ages that haue a desire to embrace it and this cannot be but ether by the immediate preaching of Christ or else by the information ether in writing or by word of mouth of them that learned it from him and their deliuering it ouer to others and so from hand to hand vntill any particular tyme you will pitch vpon But from Christs owne mouth none could haue it but those who liued in the age when he did therfore there remaineth no other meanes to haue it deriued downe to after ages then by this deliuery ouer from hand to hand of the whole congregation of fathers or elders dispersed throughout the world to the whole congregation of sonnes or youngers which course of deducing faith from Christ we call tradition so that this conclusion proueth that the Church is the conseruer both of the whole doctrine of faith necessary for saluation and likewise of the diuine writ dictated by the Holy Ghost and written by the Prophetes Euangelists and Apostles which we are also bound to belieue And the same assent that we are to giue to the truth of Scriptures that is to say that the Scriptures we haue are true Scriptures the very same we are to giue to other articles of faith proposed vnto vs by the Church for they alike depend of the same authority which is the veracity of the Church proposing and deliuering thē vnto vs to be belieued And we may as well doubt that the Church hath corrupted the Scriptures as that she hath corrupted any article of fayth 12. The twelueth conclusion shall be that into the Catholike Church noe false doctrine in any age can be admitted or creepe in that is to say no false proposition whatsoeuer can euer be receiued and imbraced by the Catholike Church as a proposition of faith For whatsoeuer the Church beleeueth as a proposition of faith is vpon this ground that Christ taught it as such vnto the Church he planted himselfe and so it left it in truste to be by it deliuered ouer to the next age And the reason why the present Church belieueth any proposition to be of faith is because the immediate preceeding Church of the age before deliuered it as such And so you may driue it on frō age to age vntill you come to the Apostles and Christ. Therefore to haue any false proposition of faith admitted into the Church in any age doth Suppose that all they of that age must vnanimously conspire to deceiue their children and youngers telling them that they were taught by theire fathers to belieue as of faith some proposition which indeed they were not Which being impossible as it will euidently appeare to any prudent person that shall reasonably ponder the matter that so many men spread throughout the whole world so different in their particular interests and endes and of such various dispositions and natures should all agree together in the forgery of any precise lye it is impossible that any false doctrine should creepe into the Church But because the force of this argument may peraduenture not appeare at the first sight to your Ladyshipp that happily hath not had much occasion to make deepe reflection vpon the certainty that must needs be in the asseueration of any history of matter of fact subiect to the sense which shall be made by a great company of men so distant from one another and of such different interests and affections as they cannot conspire together in the forgery of a falsehood But that you may happily thinke since any one man is lyable to be deceiued or out of some indirect end may be iuduced to deceiue another it is also possible that a whole multitude of men be it neuer so great consisting of particular men may allso deceiue or be deceiued I will therefore for a further declaration of this matter propose for the thirteenth Conclusion that fayth thus deliuered is absolutly more certaine and infallible then any naturall science whatsoeuer And yet sciences are so certaine I meane such as depend of
discouer what will result out of our swifte passadge through this vayle of miseries and what impressions we shall carry with vs out of this pilgrimage since we cannot suspect it is aiourney assigned vs in vaine being the ordinary and naturall course prescribed by the wise author of nature to all mankinde and the ineuitable through-fare for euery man in particular Therfore to proceed on in this methode our third conclusion shall be that what soeuer iudgemēt the soule once frameth in this life that iudgement and that affection will perpetually remaine in the soule vnlesse some contrary impression be made in it to blot it out which only hath power to expell any former one For iudgements and affections are caused in a man by the impression that the obiects make in his soule and all that any agent aymeth at in any operation whatsoeuer be it neuer so forcible in action is but to produce a resemblance of it selfe in the subiect it worketh vpon and therefore it excludeth nothing that it findeth formerly there which in our case is the soule vnlesse it be some such impression as is incompatible with what it intendeth to effect there or that the subiect is not large enough both to retayne the old and receaue the new in which case the first must be blotted out to make roome for the latter But of iudgements and affections none are incōpatible to one another but those that are directly opposite to one another by contradiction Therfore only such haue power to expell one another and all that are not such are immediatly vnited to the very substāce of the soule which hauing an infinite capacity it can neuer be filled by any limited obiects whatsoeuer so that they alwayes reside in the soule although they doe not at all tymes appeare in outward act which proceedeth from hence that new and other images are by the fantasie represented to the soule and she seemeth to busy herselfe onely about what she findeth there which being but one distinct Image at a tyme for corporall organs haue limited comprehensions and are quickly filled with corporall species she therupon seemeth to exercise but one iudgement or but one affectiō at a tyme. But as soone as the soule shall be released out of the body which is like a darke prison to wall it in then she will at one and the same instant actually knowe and loue all those things she knewe and loued in the body with only this difference that her knowledges will then be much more distinct and perfect and her affections much more vehement then they were in this life by reason that her coniunction heere with resistent matter was a burden and a clogge vnto her and hindered the actiuitie and force of her operations The difference of these states may in some measure be illustrated by a grosse ād materiall exāple Represent vnto your selfe a man walled vp in a darke tower that is so close as noe ayre nor light can come into it excepting only at one little hole and that hole too affordeth no cleare and free passage to the sight but hath a thick and muddy glasse before it Now if this man would looke vpon any of the obiects that are about this tower he must gett them to be placed ouer against that hole vnto which he must lay his eye and then he can discerne but one at a time and that but dimmely nether and if he will see seuerall bodies it must be by so many seuerall iterated actes as they are in number But suppose some Earthquake or exteriour violence to breake a sunder and throwe downe to the ground the wals of this tower leauing the man vntouched and vnhurt then at one instant and with one cast of his eyes he beholdeth distinctly clearly ād at ease all those seuerall obiects that with so much labour and tyme he tooke but a mistakinge suruey of before 4. The fourth consideration shall be that after the first instant wherein the soule is separated from the body she is then in her nature no longer subiect or liable to any new impression mutatiō or chāge whatsoeuer For that which should cause any such effect must be ether a materiall or a spirituall agent But a materiall one cannot worke vpon it for that requireth quantitie in the patient whereby it may be applyed unto it to exercise its operation vpon it Nor cā any spirituall agēt cause any succession of new alteration But all that spirits worke one vpō another is done at once and at one instant which we shall discerne the clearer by examining the reason why there is succession and tyme taken vp in the alteratiōs that are wrought amongst materiall things for in them by reason of their quantity that causeth an extention and distance of the parts the agent allthough it haue neuer so much disposition and efficacy to worke must haue his seuerall parts applyed to the seuerall parts of the patient by locall motion which requireth tyme for the performance thereof And besides euen in the agent it selfe the grossenesse ād heauinesse of the matter giueth an allay and is a clogge to the actiuity of the forme and as it were pulleth it backe whiles it is in action But this is not so in spirituall substances and therfore we may conclude that among them in the same instant that the agent is disposed to worke the action is performed for on his part there is nothing to retarde it nor is there required any locall motion which should take vp tyme and likewise by the same reason in the very instant that the patient is disposed to receiue any impression it is wrought in it And thus allthough there were neuer so many agents and euery one of them to performe neuer so many actions they would be all done and ended in one and the same instant 5. The next consideration shall be that those persons who in this world had strong and predominant affections to sensible and materiall obiects and dyed in that state shall be eternally miserable in the next for by what we haue sayed it appeareth that those affections will eternally remaine in the soule and that after the separatiō of it from the body they can neuer be blotted out of it or changed And the affections of a separated soule are much more ardent and vehement then whiles it is in the body But it is impossible they should euer attayne in that state to the fruitiō of what they so violently couet and loue and yet for its sake they neglect all other goods whatsoeuer that they might haue whose beauty and excellēcy notwithstanding they plainly discerne they cannot choose therfore but execrate themselues for their fondly misplaced yet thē eternally necessary affecctions and pine awaye if so I may say with perpetuall anguish and despaire of what they so impatiently and enragedly desire and ueuer can obtayne 6. The sixt consideration shall be that to be happy in the next life one must not settle their predominant