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A07786 The true knowledge of a mans owne selfe. Written in French by Monsieur du Plessis, Lord of Plessie Marly. *And truly translated into English by A.M.. Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly, 1549-1623.; Xenophon. Memorabilia.; Munday, Anthony, 1553-1633. 1602 (1602) STC 18163; ESTC S103514 52,106 260

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as selfe cōceit or ouer-great weening in our owne selues enuie and other such like harmes which drawes vs to cōmit enormous crimes and to trouble sometimes the quiet estate of the publique weale Thus becomes the image of GGD deformed in vs keeps not the true Idea of his first excellence Wherfore it behoueth vs earnestlie to desire with S. Paul that GOD would make perfect his image in vs that by vnderstāding knowing aright the cause authour of all things we may attaine to more noble purer actions as well in our vnderstāding as in our will Likewise that our memorie may euermore retaine good and holy cogitatiōs of god and of commendable actions whereby religion is preserued increased that he would purifie our affections in sted of such as are euill and corrupt excite by his holy spirite working in his Word honest and vertuous motions in our harts Moreouer to worke so graciously in vs that the inferiour powers may be obedient to the superiour beeing euermore guided by the sacred direction in his word contained to the end that by this accord and consonance of vertues in our soule the honor of God may be exalted and reuerenced in vs and publique tranquilitie kept and maintained vntil it shal please him to receiue vs and giue vs eternall rest in his high happie dwellings Of the immortalitie of the soule NOW as concerning the immortality of the soule some doe dispute in this sort by arguments taken and deriued from nature It is impossible say they that all the honest and vvell disposed people which are borne and brought vppe in thys worlde shoulde euermore be vexed or troubled with miseries Yet is it euident that the greater part of good people are most of all and oftnest afflicted greeuously yea many times slaine by the wicked seditious and Tyrants It is then necessary to think and say that GOD hath reserued some port or hauen of safetie for them where after all troubles they may arriue to perpetuall rest Some likewise dispute on the contrarie part of the paines reserued for the wicked for naturally we iudge and say that euil deeds doe iustly deserue punishment Yet oftentimes wee see that they which are oppressours of others both in body and goods are neuerthelesse happy in theyr worldlie enterprises why then it is most certaine that a place is also afterward reserued for them and paines likewise where-with they are to be punished First Plato giueth this reason those thinges that bee not of elementary nature are not subiect at all to coruption nor death The soule cōsisteth no way of the elements it is then cleere that shee is not mortall nor any way corruptible That the soule is no way cōsisting or made of any part of the elements is apparant and manifest by this reason It is impossible that nature being corruptible should cōprehend and conceiue thinges vniuersall and incorruptible as to conceiue and apprehend God with the vniuersality of thinges the numbers the differences of thinges honest and dishonest yet naturally and euen without teaching men doe apprehend these things It is then to bee iudged that the seates of these apprehēsions are not natures elementaries but much more excellent thē corruptible things likewise that they are perpetual see heere what natural reasons are yeelded for the immortalitie of the soule But we whom God hath so much looued and endued with so especiall a fauour as to make the beams of the glory of his Gospell shine vpon our vnderstanding taking receiuing the testimonies of true examples and sayinges of the Prophets which we know to be diuinely bestowed on them confirmed by the words and works of our Lord Iesus Christ assuredlie mee thinkes it is verie meruailous seeing that this epithite of immortalitie is so apparant cōfirmed in vs by many sayings and examples why men doe not better prepare themselues to vnderstād this iudgement aright and that they haue no greater feare or horrour of the paines eternall It remaineth therefore that men of good and vertuous disposition ought to rest assured by the examples of Enoch Elias our Sauiour Iesus Christ liuing already in life perpetuall And if wee will take notice from the verie first age of the worlde we shall find that God declared how he wold one day hold his iudgment to punish the wicked and reward the good according to their seuerall workes as when he said to Caine If thou hast well doone thou shalt finde it and receiue like recōpence but if thou hast doone euill thy sinne shall be hidden vntill such time as it shall be declared and discouered This deferring dilatation of punishment makes the wicked more bolde forward in theyr sinning and begetteth likewise contempt of God but albeit wee see not such transgressiōs punished in this world let vs not therefore thinke that they shall so escape without correction For as the wise man of Greece said GOD deferreth his chastisement but hee recompenceth that delaying with greater measure of pains And let vs likewise remember his own holie words to wit that sinne shal be discouered which let vs not thinke to bee spoken in vaine or that the words are of no effect for although wee beholde not heere the pittifull end of tyrants or others that depart this life vnpunished let vs yet remaine assured that the measure of their scourging will be the greater afterward Enoch who in his liuing body was rapt vp and translated frō thys world giues vs thereby to vnderstand that after this life there remaineth a better then is it not to be doubted but that Enoch Elias and those other holie persons taught and instructed others in the happinesse of this lyfe perpetuall and that it also remained after this present estate Likewise in the Epistle of the Apostle S. Iude there is a part of the sermon of Enoch which speaketh in this manner Beholde the Lord shall come with infinite company of Saints onely to doe iustice to rebuke and punish all those that haue doone euill and vngodly deedes And Helie Eliseus who did raise vp make to liue againe some that were dead and Elias who was taken vp in the presence of his friendes carried to heauen in his intire bodie both in a whirle-wind a flame of fire Many other examples and namely the most euident example of our Sauiour vvho rose againe and to him excited the companie of the prophets holie Fathers to liue with him perpetually to enioy the fruitiō of the company of God By diuine Scripture then it is most cleere that our soules are spirits which are not to be extinct in death like the body but doe remaine seperated afterward liue perpetually God saide that wee neede not to feare such as kill the body and afterward can doe nothing els He said likewise to the cōuerted theefe
saide Miserable wretch that J am who shall deliuer me from this bodie so subiect to darknesse and death Afterward he aunswers The grace of GOD by Jesus Christ. The word then signifies not onely an action sensuall but likewise a vice defect in the vnderstanding and will by which insueth infinite multitudes of mishaps So dooth the Scripture call the harts endeuours because the mouing and agitation of the hart is cōioyned with the will Assuredly if nature had continued in her puritie the knovvledge of GOD would haue been cleere in our vnderstanding whereto the will had franckly obeyed but nowe is hindered only through her obscurity The hart wil haue moouings distort and contrarie to God for the will without the feare of God and trust in him loues himselfe seeks safety in himselfe trusts in his owne dilligence delights in his owne wisedome for a man would be honoured and esteemed and feares more the reproches or blames of the world then of GOD his Creator The very like agitations doe sway the hart the sensuall motions draw the will vnto thē as much to say as when the hart loues the voluptuous pleasures of the sences which are prohibited or when a man hates his neighbour flatly against the lawe of God To this effect spake our Sauiour That out of the hart proceeded euill cogitations thefts blasphemies murders adulteries lies and such like other crimes In this then it appeares most certainely that by the hart is signified the vnderstanding and will as vvhen the hart takes pleasure in false oppinions and such imaginations as are contrary to the honour glory of God The consideration of these thinges shoulde check the pride presumption reigning in vs and induce vs to obedience by often and feruent prayer to God that he would renue in vs the cleere pure and sincere light of our vnderstanding that hee woulde likewise make cleane our harts and plant therein none but good affections As Dauid desired of God A cleane hart a right spirit And Saint Paule who said That Iesus Christ onely reformes the cleerenesse of our vnderstanding and conformes the body to his brightnesse The Motiue power is that whereby the bodie and his parts are transported from one place to another the organes are the nerues the muscles and the cords of the members Alexander Aphrodisianus saith that the soule is the cause of the bodies moouing as weight is the cause why a stone falls downeward This moouing is deuided into two kindes naturall and voluntarie The naturall neyther beginnes or ceasseth according to our imagination and pleasure nor can it be otherwise but as when an obiect is presented thē it is afterward pursued as the ventricle vvhich drawes the receiued foode to it the hart attracts the spirits eyther suddenly or softly The voluntary moouing both begins and ends at our owne pleasure that is the property of this power as is the seuerall mouings of our parts going rūning swimming and such like There is another cōmixed moouing beeing partly naturall and partly voluntary as is the moouing of the brest or stomack The benefit of this power is easily discerned For thereby we seeke what is necessary for our cōseruation and shunne what we imagine therto contrary It remaines to speak of the intellectuall power whereof S. Augustine makes an accommodation to the Trinitie The memorie saith hee forming the intellection represents the Father the intellection represents the Sonne and the will the holie Ghost For the Father considering knowing himselfe begot the Sonne and the holie Ghost is the agitation proceeding of the Father and of the Son This is the povver whereby wee know receiue iudge and discerne hauing in it the beginning of Artes heereto likewise is action riciprocall for therby our actions are seen and iudged This power differs frō the sensitiue for the sensitiue takes knovvledge but of things peculiare and singulerly but this other cōceiues and apprehends both singuler vniuersallie The obiect of thys power is God and the whole vniuersalitie of things as well celestiall as elementarie The offices of thys power are to vnderstand forme in him selfe the images representations of things to retaine and conferre them together thē afterward to see what agreement what difference is between thē The organes of this power are the interior sences wherof we haue discoursed already Plato saith that as the seale imprinteth on the wax so by meanes of the spirits are the shapes of thinges imprinted in the braine But this is the matter most meruailous of all that we should retaine so great a multitude and seueral diuersities of things likewise for so long a time but the reason thereof can neuer bee well or sufficiently expressed Wherfore seeing by our actions our life is guided we should pray vnto GOD that hee would take pittie vpon our weake nature and that hee would renewe his image in vs to the end we may more perfectly know his workes in vs and shewe our selues more reuerent and obedient to him Aristotle makes a deuision between the vnderstanding actiue and that which is tearmed passiue mary hee calls the actiue vnderstanding nothing else but that which inuenteth any thing as the vnderstanding of Archimedes did inuent the Compasse The passiue vnderstanding is that which inuenteth not of it self but makes approbation of an others inuention as he that approued the inuention of Gunpowder or that of the Compasse or the Astralabe The knowledges of the vnderstanding are deuided into actions and habitude The knowledge which is called action is that part of the vnderstanding which apprehendeth somthing by forming the image thereof Habitude is as a constant resident light in the vnderstanding whereof wee make vse whensoeuer we please The vnderstanding somtimes busies it selfe and considers those thinges whereof it can but hardly reach to the knowledge as the changes of the ayre the reuolutions ordinarie of the heauens those are termed speculatiue Sometimes it meditates on thinges that it can easily exercise and then it is called practiue The word reason is that which comprehends and then the vnderstanding cōceiuing things conferreth and makes iudgement of them where-upon the wil makes his coniunction Then may the wil be thus very well defined it is a part or power of the vnderstanding which is called reason working freely after that the vnderstanding hath tried iudged the thing to be good or bad If nature had continued in her first integritie we should neuer haue willed but what of it self had been good honest but the order of nature beeing perturbed makes such an alteration that there is a discord among the powers that the vnderstanding is sometimes deceued in iudging of things And albeit it can easilie discerne the hurtfulnes of things yet many impediments doe happen to crosse it