theirs that Nature cannot abyde any infinitenesse Or if they bee euerlasting and yet of some certeyne number going and comming into newe bodies by course is not that the opinion of Pythagoras which Aristotle doth so greatly mislike And if our Soules at their departing out of our bodies doe goe to the enioying of the blessed immortalitie doth it not followe that from after the passingouer of that reuolutiō men must moue without Soule dispute without reason and iudge without mynd yea and that euen Aristotle himselfe speaketh and reasoneth without wit To bee short what hooteth it to bee godly or religious if our Soules acknowledge no better thing than themselues What auayleth it to looke for the blessed Contemplation if they bee perfectly blessed of themselues But perfectly blessed they be if they be eternall And whereto then serueth the rewarding of them with immortall life if they haue the eternitie or immortalitie alreadie What els then is his vpholding of the world to be eternal than a turning of the whole world vpside downe But there are sayth Aristotle Godlinesse Blessednesse Immortalitie then doth it follow that our Soules are not eternall And if they be not eternall then haue they a beginning and that beginning haue they either of God or of the world Of the world they haue it not for as I haue sayd were the world eternall the Conuersions or turnings about thereof should bee eternal too and consequently so should our Soules be also as which should be bred of their power But now are all things mortall that are ingendred by those Conuersions as Aristotle himself graunteth But we put the case that they haue an originall notwithstanding that they be immortall Therfore it remayneth that the same is from God Now they could not procéede from God as beames of his substance for all of the Philosophers vphold that he is a single and vndiuided substance vnited in it selfe and most perfectly one but we be subiect to alteration to ignorance to euill affections and such other things It remayneth therefore and otherwise it cannot bée that our Soules are the worke of Gods power Now if our Soules which after a sort doe comprehend the Worlde and all things therein bee the effects of Gods power which through his goodnesse vttereth it selfe when he listeth shall not the world it selfe and the senslesse and transitorie things which serue vs yea and our bodies also which are but the Cotes or Instruments of our soules be so in likewise Now then let Aristotles Disciples choose whether they will giue ouer the eternitie of the world or the immortalitie of their Soules the euerlasting turning about of a whéele or the immortal settlednesse of blessed state for both of them together cannot stand But surely his Disciple Theophrastus seemeth to haue perceiued these inconueniences and contradictions well when he procéedeth so farre as to say that God created the world yea euen of nothing And so doth Algazel the Saracen against Auerrhois vnto whom he sayth that God for the creating of the world néeded neither stuffe nor newe aduisement but that like a most perfect workman hauing all things in a readinesse he tooke his owne leisure for the performance of his worke when it pleased him And yet it seemeth that Aristotle towards the ende of his life repented him of that doctrine insomuch that in his booke of the world he sayth that GOD is the bréeder and preseruer of all things in the world after what maner soeuer it be And euen in his Metaphisicks hauing reiected the opinions of many men concerning these things he sayth thus He that sayth that GOD or the souereyne Mynd is the Cause Author not only of liuing things but also of Nature it selfe and of the World and of all the order therein seemeth to speake discreetly and wel aduisedly and they that speake otherwise speake vnaduisedly And they that are of the former opinion haue very well set downe that Cause for the ground of all things that are as the which is such a beginning as giueth mouing to all things And in his booke of Wonders if it be his he speaketh yet more euidently saying that naturally the Sea should couer the Earth as higher than it but that God hath caused the Sea to withdraw it self that the Earth might be vncouered for the vse of man and of other liuing wights And this is in effect a commingbacke to the opinion of his predecessors from the which he would so fayne haue departed afore Howsoeuer the case stand all the auncient Philosophers doe eyther conclude the Creation of the world with vs or els yéeld vs arguments into our hands wherewith to conclude it against themselues To bee short whē Aristotle who was the first that stepped out of the high way sayth that the world is without beginning he seemeth to bee Aristotle no more he doth so often gainsay himself and offend against his owne rules And where he chaunceth to say that the world was created he seemeth to be minded to yéeld himself to vs. And where the case concerneth not at leastwise expressely the one nor the other he leaueth vs many Conclusions which doe quite ouerthrow and destroye the sayd opinion of his and make him whether he wil or no to conclude on our side The Latins fel to Philosophie somewhat later than the Greekes by reason wherof they had the more cause to ouershoote themselues in the case of Eternitie but yet wee see that the most part of them followed the opinion of Plato That man sayth Cicero that first gathered together men afore dispersed was surely a great Personage And as sayth Pythagoras so was he which did first giue names to things and which first comprised within a certeyne number of letters the sounds of mans voyce which seemed to bee infinite and which marked the Courses and proceedings of the wandring Planets and which first found out Corne Cloth building defences against wilde Beasts and the rest of the things that make our liues the more ciuill What els is this than an acknowledging of a beginning For if mē were from euerlasting did they not from euerlasting speake Did they not from euerlasting giue names to things Could they not inuent euery thing from euerlasting Yes and therfore he concludeth We be not created by haphazard but surely there was a certeyne Might or Power which had a care of Mankynde and which would not haue begotten him to fall into the mischiefe of endlesse death after hee hath outworne the great and innumerable aduersities and toyles of this world Now if we were created and that there bee a souereyne power which hath had care of Mankynd surely then hath there bene a beginning seeing that the sayd power had a care of vs eyther when as yet wee were not at al or after the tyme that we were And in another place he saith That God created and furnished man and that it was his wil that he should haue
only eyther into others bodies but also eyther into others mynds so as wee comprehend eyther other by mutual vnderstanding and imbrace either other by mutual louing It followeth then that this substance which is able to receiue a bodilesse thing can bee no body and that so much the rather for that the body which seemeth to hold it conteyneth it not Nay verely this Soule of ours is so farre of from being a bodily substance and is so manifestly a Spirit that to lodge all things in it selfe it maketh them all after a sort spirituall and bereueth them of their bodies and if there were any bodylinesse in it it were vnable to enter into the knowledge of a bodie So in a Glasse a thousand shapes are seene but if the cléere of the Glasse had any peculiar shape of it owne the Glasse could yéeld none of those shapes at all Also all visible things are imprinted in the eye but if the sight of the eye had any peculiar colour of it owne it would be a blemish to the sight so as it should eyther not see at all or els all things should seeme like to that blemish Likewise whereas the Tongue is the discerner of all tastes if it be not cléere but combered with humours all things are of tast like to the humour so as if it be bitter they also be bitter and if it be watrish they be watrish too yea and if it bee bitter it can not iudge of bitternesse it self That a thing may receyue al shapes all colours and all tastes it behoueth the same to be cléere from all shapes from all colour and from all sauour of it owne And that a thing may in vnderstanding knowe and conceiue all bodies as our Soule doth it behoueth the same to bée altogether bodylesse it self for had it any bodylinesse at all it could not receiue any body into it If wée looke yet more néerely into the nature of a body wée shall finde that no body receiueth into it the substantial forme of another body without losing or altering his owne ne passeth frō one forme into another without the marring of the first as is to bee seene in wood when it receyueth fire in seedes when they spring foorth into bud and so in other things What is to be said then of mans soule which receiueth and conceyueth the formes and shapes of al things without corrupting his owne and moreouer becommeth the perfecter by the more receyuing For the more it receyueth the more it vnderstandeth and the more it vnderstandeth the more perfect is it If it bee a bodily substance from whence is it and of what mixture If it be of the fower Elements how can thei giue life hauing no life of themselues Or how can thei giue vnderstanding hauing no sence If it bee of the mixture of them how may it bee sayd that of diuers things which haue no beeing of themselues should bee made a thing that hath being Or that of diuers outsides should bee made one body or of diuers bodies one Soule or of diuers deaths one life or of diuers darknesses one light Nay rather why say wee not that he which beyond nature hath made the mixture of these bodies hath for the perfecting of our body breathed a Soule also into the body To be short the propertie of a body is to suffer and the propertie of our Soule is to doe And if the body bée not put foorth by some other thing than it selfe it is a very blocke wheras the mynd that is in our Soule ceasseth not to stirre vp and downe in it selfe though it haue nothing to moue it from without Therefore it is to bee concluded by these reasons and by the like that our Soule is a bodylesse substance notwithstanding that it is vnited to our body And herevpon it followeth also that our Soule is not any material thing forasmuch as matter receyueth not any forme or shape but according to his owne quantitie and but onely one forme at once whereas our Soule receyueth all formes without quantitie come there neuer so many at once or so great Agayne no matter admitteth two contrary formes at once but our Soule contrarywise comprehendeth and receyueth them together as fire and water heate and cold white and blacke and not only together but also the better by the matching and laying of them together To bée short seeing that the more wee depart from matter the more wée vnderstand surely nothing is more contrary to the substance of ou◠Soule than is the nature of matter Furthermore if this reasonable Soule of ours is neither a bodily nor a materiall thing nor depending vpon matter in the best actions therof then must it néedes be of it self and not procéede eyther from body or from matter For what doth a body bring foorth but a body and matter but matter and materiall but materialles And therefore it is an vnmateriall substance which hath being of it selfe But let vs see whether the same bee corruptible and mortall or no. Soothly if Plutarke bee to beléeued it is in vayne to dispute thereof For he teacheth that the doctrine of Gods prouidence and the immortalitie of our Soules are so linked together that the one is as an appendant to the other And in very déed to what purpose were the World created if there were no body to behold it Or to what ende behold wee the Creator in the world but to serue him And why should wee serue him vppon no hope And to what purpose hath he indewed vs with these rare giftes of his which for the most part doe but put vs to payne and trouble in this life if we perish like the brute Beast or the Hearbes which knowe him not Howbeit for the better satisfying of the sillie Soules which go on still like witlesse Beastes without taking so much leysure in all their life as once to enter into themselues let vs indeuer héere by liuely reasons to paynt out vnto thē againe their true shape which they labour to deface with so much filthinesse The Soule of man as I haue sayd afore is not a body neyther doth it increase or decrease with the body but contrarywise the more the body decaieth the more doth the vnderstanding increase and the néerer that the body draweth vnto death the more fréely doth the mynd vnderstand and the more that the body abateth in flesh the more woorkfull is the mynd And why then should we think that the thing which becommeth the stronger by the weakenesse of the body and which is aduaunced by the decay of the body should returne to dust with the body A mans Sences fayle because his eyes fayle and his eyes fayle because the Spirits of them fayle but the blynd mans vnderstanding increaseth because his eyes are not busied and the olde mans reason becommeth the more perfect by the losse of his sight Therfore why say we not that the body fayleth the Soule and not the Soule
all things and which liueth in very déede vppon him by whom all the things which we wonder at here beneath are vphild And what els is vyolence but a iustling of two bodies together and how can there be any such betwéene a bodie and a spiritual substance yea or of two spirits one against another seeing that oftentymes when they would destroye one another they vphold one an other And if the Soule cannot be pushed at neither inwardly nor outwardly is there any thing in nature that can naturally hurt it No but it may perchaunce bee weakened by the very force of his encounter as wee see it doth befall to our sences For the more excellent and the more sensible the thing is in his kynd which the sence receiueth so much the more also is the sence it self offended or gréeued therwith As for example the féeling by fire the taste by harshnesse the smelling by sauours the hearing by the hideousnesse of noyse whether it be of Thunderclappe or of the falling of a Riuer and the sight by looking vpon the Sunne vpon Fyre and vpon all things that haue a glistering brightnesse I omit that in the most of these things it is not properly the sence it selfe but the outward instrument of sence only that is offended or hurt But let vs see if there be the like in our reasonable Soule Nay contrarywise the more of vnderstanding and excellencie that the thing is the more doth it refresh and comfort our mynd If it bee darke so as wee vnderstand it but by halues it hurteth vs not but yet doth it not delight vs. Nay as we increase in vnderstanding it so doth it like vs the better and the higher it is the more doth it stirre vp the power of our vnderstanding and as ye would say reache vs the hande to drawe vs to the atteynement thereof As for them that are dim-sighted wee forbid them to behold the things that are ouerbright But as for them that are of rawest capacitie wee offer them the things that are most vnderstandable When the sence beginneth to perceyue most sharply then is it fayne to giue ouer as if it felt the very death of it selfe Contrarywise when the mynd beginneth to vnderstand then is it most desirous to hold on still And whereof commeth that but that our sences work by bodily instruments but our mynd worketh by a bodilesse substance which néedeth not the helpe of the body And seeing that the nature the nourishment and the actions of our Soule are so farre differing both from the nature nourishment and actions of the body and from al that euer is done or wrought by the bodie can there be any thing more childish than to déeme our Soule to be mortal by the abating and decaying of our sences or by the mortalitie of our bodies Nay contrariwise it may be most soundly and substantially concluded therevpon that mans Soule is of it owne nature immortall seeing that all death as well vyolent as naturall commeth of the bodie and by the bodie Let vs see further what death or corruption is It is say they a separating of the matter from his forme And forasmuch as in man the Soule is considered to be the forme and the bodie to be as the matter the separation of the Soule from the bodie is cōmonly called Death Now then what death can there bee of the Soule sith it is vnmaterial as I haue sayd afore and a forme that abideth of it selfe For as one sayth a man may take away the roundnesse or squarenesse from a table of Copper because they haue no abyding but in the matter but had thei such a round or square forme as might haue an abyding without matter or stuffe wherein to be out of doubt such forme or shape should continue for euer Nay which more is how can that be the corrupter of a thing which is the perfection thereof The lesse corsinesse a man hath the more hath he of reason and vnderstanding The lesse our mynds be tyed to these bodily things the more liuely and chéerefull be they At a word the full and perfect life thereof is the full and vtter withdrawing thereof from the bodie and whatsoeuer the bodie is made of All these things are so cléere as they néede no proofe Now we knowe that euery thing worketh according to the proper being therof and that the same which perfecteth the operations of a thing perfecteth the being thereof also It followeth therefore that sith the separation of the body from the Soule and of the forme from the matter perfecteth the operation or working of the Soule as I haue sayd afore it doth also make perfect and strengthen the very being thereof and therefore cannot in any wise corrupt it And what els is dying but to be corrupted And what els is corrupting but suffering And what els is suffering but receyuing And how can that which receyueth all things without suffering receyue corruption by any thing Fyre corrupteth or marreth our bodies and we suffer in receyuing it So doth also extreme colde but if wee suffered nothing by it it could not fréese vs. Our sences likewise are marred by the excessiue force of the things which they light vpon And that is because they receyue and perceyue the thing that gréeueth them and for that the maner of their behauing of themselues towards their obiects is subiect to suffering But as for the reasonable Soule which receiueth al things after one maner that is to wit by way of vnderstāding wherethrough it alway worketh is neuer wrought into how is it possible for it to corrupt or marre it selfe For what is the thing whereat our Soule suffereth aught in the substance thereof I meane whereby the substance of our Soule is any whit impayred or hurt by mynding or conceyuing the same in vnderstanding As little doth the fire hurt it as the ayre and the ayre as the fire As little hurt receiueth it by the frozen yce of Norwey as by the scorching sands of Affricke As little also doth vyce anoye it as vertue For vyce and vertue are so farre of from incombering the substance of the Soule that our mynd doth neuer conceiue or vnderstand them better than by setting them together one against another That thing therfore which doth no whit appayre it selfe but taketh the ground of perfecting it self by all things can not be marred or hurt by any thing Agein what is death The vttermost poynt of mouing and the vttermost bound of this life For euen in liuing we dye and in dying we liue and there is not that step which we set downe in this life which dooth not continewally step foreward vnto death after the maner of a Dyall or a Clocke which mounting vp by certeine degrées forgoeth his mouing in mouing from Minute to Minute Take away mouing from a body and it doth no more liue Now let vs sée if the soule also be caryed with the same mouing If it be caryed
with the same mouing then doth it vndoutedly moue therewithall Nay contrariwise whether the mynd rest or whether it be buzyed about the proper operations thereof it is not perceiued eyther by any panting of hart or by any beating of pulses or by any breathing of Lungs It is then as a Shippe that carieth vs away with it whether we walke or sit still the stickingfast whereof or the tying thereof to a poste hindereth not our going vp and downe in it still Ageine if the Soule be subiect to the finall corruption of the body then is it subiect to the alterations thereof also and if it be subiect to the alterations it is subiect to tyme also For alterations or chaunges are spices or rather consequents of mouing and moouings are not made but in tyme. Now man in respect of the body hath certeine full poynts or stoppes at the which he receiueth manifest chaunges and thereafter groweth or decayeth But commonly where the decay of the body beginneth there beginneth the cheef strength of the mynd Houbeit that in some men not only their chinnes are couered with downe but also their beards become gray whose minds for want of exercise shewe no signe at all either of rypenesse or growing Moreouer time as in respect of the body cannot be called ageyne but in respect of the mynd it is alwayes present Yea and tyme perfecteth accomplisheth and increaseth our mynd and after a sort reneweth and refressheth it from day to day whereas contrarywise it forweareth wassheth away and quight consumeth both it self and the body with the life thereof It followeth then that the reasonable Soule is not subiect to time nor consequently to any of the chaunges and corruptions that accompanye tyme. Nay we may say thus much more That nothing in the whole World is nurrished with things better than itself neither dooth any of them conteyne greater things than itself But the things that are corruptible do liue of corruptible things and cannot liue without corrupting them as for example beasts liue by herbes men by beasts and sofoorth And therefore things which liue by vncorruptible things and can so receiue and digest them as to turne them into the nurrishment of their nature and yet not corrupt them are vncorruptible them selues to Now the Soule of man I meane the reasonable soule or mynd conceiueth reason and trueth and is fed and strengthened with them And reason trueth are things vnchaungeable not subiect to tyme place or alteration but stedye vnchaungeable and euerlasting For that twice two be fower and that there is the same reason in the proportion of eight vnto six that is of fower vnto three or that in a Tryangle the three inner angles are equall with the too ryght angles and such like are truethes which neither yeeres nor thousands of yeeres can change as true at this day as they were when Euclyde first spake them And so foorth of other things It followeth then that the Soule comprehending reason and trueth which are things free from corruption cannot in any wyse be subiect to corruption Agein who is he of all men that desireth not to be immortall And how could any man desire it if he vnderstoode not what it is Or how could he be able to vnderstand it vnlesse it were possible for him to atteyne vnto it Surely none of vs coueteth to be beginninglesse for none of vs is so neither can any of vs be so And as we cannot so be so also can we not comprehend what it is For who is he that is not at his witts end but only to think vppon eternitie without beginning On the contrarie part there is not so bace a mynd which coueteth not to liue for euer insomuch that wheras we looke not for it by nature we seeke to obteyne it by skill and pollicie some by bookes some by Images and some by other deuices and euen the grossest sort can well imagine in themselues what immortalitie is and are able both to conceyue it and to beleeue it Whence comes this but that our soules beeing created cannot conceiue an euerlastingnesse without beginning and yet neuerthelesse that forasmuch as they be created immortal they doe wel conceiue an immortalitie or euerlastingnes without end And whereto serues this vniuersall desire if it be not naturall or how is it naturall if it be in vaine and not onely in vayne but also too bring vs to Hell and to Torment Let vs wade yet déeper Who can dispute or once so much as doubt whether the Soule bee immortall or no but he that is capable of immortalitie And who can vnderstand what difference is betwixt mortall and immortall but hee that is immortall Man is able to discerne the difference betwéene that which is reason and that which is not and therevpon wee terme him reasonable Whosoeuer would hold opinion that a man is not reafonable should neede none other disproofe than his owne disputing thereof for he would go about to proue it by reason Man can skill to discerne the mortall natures from the immortall And therefore we may well say he is immortall For hee that should dispute to the contrarie shal be driuen to bring such reasons as shall of themselues make him to prooue himselfe immortall Thou sayest the Soule can not be immortall and why Because sayest thou that to be so it would behoue it to woorke seuerally by it selfe froÌ„ the body When thou thinkest that in thy mynd consider what thy body dooth at the same tyme. Nay yet further who hath taught thee so much of the immortall nature if thou thy selfe be nor immortall Or what worldly wight can say what the inwoorking of a reasonable wight is but the wight which in it selfe hath the vse of reason Yet sayest thou still if the Soule be immortall it is frée from such and such passions How enterest thou so farre into the Nature that is so farre aboue thée if thou thy selfe beest mortall All the reasons which thou alledgest against the immortalitie of the soule doe feight directly to the proofe of it For if thy reason mounted no higher than to the things that are mortall thou shouldest knowe neither mortall nor immortall Now it is not some one couetous man aboue all other that desireth immortalitie nor some one man excelling all others in wisdome that comprehendeth it but al mankind without exception It is not then some one seuerall skill or some one naturall propertie that maketh such difference betwéene man and man as we sée to be betwéene many but rather one selfesame nature common to all men whereby they be all maâ—â— to differ from other liuing wights which by no deede doe shewe any desire too ouerliue themselues ne know how to liue therefore their Lyues doe vanish away with their bloud and is extinguished with their bodies If euer thou hast looked to dye consider what discourse thou madest then in thy mynd thou couldest neuer perswade thy conscience nor make thy reason
which we see afarre of is round whereas our reason deemeth it to be square or that a thing is small which our reason telleth vs is greate or that the ends of lyues in a long walke do meete in a poynt whereas our reason certifieth vs that they runne ryghtfoorth with equall distance one from another For want of this discretion certeine Elephants sayth Vitellio which were passing ouer a long bridge turned backe beeing deceyued and yet they wanted not sight no more than we do But they that led them were not deceyued Their Leaders then besides their eysight had in them another vertue or power which corrected their sight and therefore ought to be of hygher estimation In lyke â—ase is it with the rest of the other sences For our hearing telleth vs that the thunderclappe is after the lyghtening but skill assureth vs that they be both togither For there is a certeine power in vs which can skil to discerne what proportion is betweene hearing and seeing Also the tong of him that hath an Agew beareth him on hand that euen sugre is biâ—â—er which thing he knoweth by his reason to be vntrew To be short those which haue their sences most quicke and lyâ—ely be not of the greatest wisdum and vnderstanding A man therefore differeth from a beast and excelleth men by some other power than sence For whereas it is comonly sayd that such as haue séene most are comonly of greatest skill we see that many haue traueled farre both by sea and land which haue come home as wise as they wentfoorth A horse hath as good eyes as he that rydes vpon him and yet for all his traueling neither he nor paraduenture his Ryder whom he beareth become any whit the wyser by that which they haue seene whereby it appereth that it is not enough to see things vnlesse a man do also mynd them to his benefite Now there is great difference betweene the lyuelynes of the Sence and the power that gouerneth the Sence lyke as the report of a Spye is one thing and the Spye himself is another and the wisdum of the Capteine that receyueth the report of the Spye is a third Nay who can deny that Sence and Reason are dyuers things or rather who wilnot graunt that in many things they be cleane contrarie Sence biddeth vs shun and eschew greef whereas Reason willeth vs to profer our leg sometyme to the Surgion to be cut of Sence plucketh our hand out of the fire and yet we our selues put fire to our bare skin He that should sée a Sceuola burne of his owne hand without so much as once gnashing his téeth at it would thinke he were vtterly senslesse so mightily dooth Reason ouerrule sence To be short Sence hath his peculiar inclination which is appetite and Reason lykewyse hath his which is will And lyke as reason doth oftentymes ouerrule sence and is contrarie to it so will correcteth the sensuall appetyte or lust that is in vs and warreth ageinst it For in an Agew we couet to drink and in an Apoplexie we couet to sleepe and in hungre we couet to eate and yet from all those things doth our will restreyne vs. The more a man followeth his lust the lesse is he led by will and the more he standeth vpon the pleasing of his Sences the lesse reason vseth he ordinarily Againe let vs consider the brute Beastes which haue this sensitiue part as well as we If we haue no more than that how commeth it to passe that a little child driueth whole flockes and heards of them whether he listeth and sometymes whether they would not Whereof commeth it that euery of them in their kynd doe all liue nestle and sing after one sorte whereas men haue their lawes Commonweales maners of buylding and formes of reasoning not only diuers but also commonly contrary Now what can harber these contrarieties together but onely that which hath not any thing contrary vnto it and wherein all contrary things doe lay away their contrarietie Surely it is not the Sence that can doe it whose proper or peculiar obiect is most contrary to the sence Besides this as I haue sayd afore whereas we conceyue wisedome skill vertue and such other things which are all bodilesse our sences haue none other thing to worke vpon than the qualities of bodily substances And whereas we make vniuersall rules of particular things the Sences atteyne no further than to the particular things themselues And wheras we conclude of the causes by their effects our Sences perceyue no more but the bare effects And whereas concerning the things that belong to vnderstanding the more vnderstandable they bee the more they refresh vs Contrarywise the stronger that the sensible things are the more do they offend the Sence To be short the selfesame thing which wee speake in behalfe of the Sences procéedeth from elswhere than from the Sences And we will easely discerne that he which denyeth that besides the common Sence there is in man a reason or vnderstanding distinct and seuered from the Sence is voyd both of vnderstanding and of Sence But see here a grosse reason of theirs This reason or power of vnderstanding say they which is in man is corruptible as well as the power of perceyuing by the Sences I thinke I haue prooued the contrary alreadie neuerthelesse let vs examine their reasons yet further The forme or shape of euery thing say they doth perish with the matter Now the Soule is as ye would say the forme or shape of the body therfore it corrupteth with the body This argument were rightly concluded if it were ment of the materiall forme But I haue proued that the Soule is vnmateriall and hath a continuance of it selfe And in déede the more it is discharged of matter the more it reteyneth his owne peculiar forme Therefore the corrupting of the matter toucheth not the Soule at all Again if mens Soules liue say they after their bodies then are they infinite for the world is without beginning and without ending and as wee knowe nature can away with no infinite thing therefore they liue not after their bodies Yes say I for I haue proued that the world had a beginning and that with so substantiall reasons as thou art not able to disproue Therefore it followeth that the inconuenience which thou alledgest can haue no place Another saith If dead mens Soules liue still why come they not to tell vs so And he thinketh he hath stumbled vpon a woonderful suttle deuise But how doth this followe in reason There hath not come any man vnto vs from the Indies of a long tyme ergo there be no Indies May not the same argument serue as well to proue that wee our selues are not because wee neuer went thether Againe what intercourse is there betwéene things that haue bodies and things that haue no bodies or betwene heauen and earth considering that there is so small intercourse euen betwéene men which liue all vnder
Porphirius and Proclus notwithstanding that now and then they passe their bounds suffering their wits to runne royet For in their Philosophie they had none other rule than only the drift of their owne reason It was commonly thought that Alexander of Aphrodise beléeued not the immortalitie of the Soule because he defined it to be the forme of the body proceeding of the mixture temperature of the Elements Surely these words of his doe vs to vnderstand either that he ment to define but the sensitiue lyfe onely as many others doe and not the reasonable soule or els that he varieth from himselfe in other places And in very déede hee sayeth immediatly afterward that he speaketh of the things which are subiect to generation and corruption But speaking of the Soule he sayeth it is separable vnmateriall vnmixed and voyd of passions vnlesse perchaunce we may thinke as some doe that by this Soule he meane but onely God and not also the Soule that is in vs for the which thing he is sharply rebuked by Themistius who notwithstanding speaketh neuer a whit better thereof himselfe Howsoeuer he deale elsewhere these words of his following are without any doubtfulnes at all The Soule sayth he which is in vs commeth from without and is vncorruptible I say vncorruptible because the nature thereof is such and it is the very same that Aristotle affirmeth to come from without And in his second booke of Problemes searching the cause why the abilities of the Soule are oftentimes impeached If a mans brayne be hurt sayth he the reasonable soule dooth not well execute the actions that depend thereon But yet for all that it abydeth still in itselfe vnchaungeable of nature abilitie and power through the immortalitie thereof And if it recouer a sound instrument it putteth her abilities in execution as well as it did afore But I wil reason more at large hereafter against the opinion that is fathered vpon him What shall we say of Galene who fathereth the causes of all things as much as he can vpon the Elements and the mixture and agréeble concord of them if after his disputing against his owne Soule he be constreyned to yéeld that it is immortall Surely in his booke concerning the manners of the Soule he doeth the worst that he can against Plato and in another place hee doubteth whether it be immortall and whether it haue continuance of it selfe or no. Yet notwithstanding in his booke of the doctrine of Hippocrates and Plato It must needes be graunted sayeth hee that the Soule is either a sheere body and of the nature of the Skye as the Stoiks Aristotle himself are inforced to confesse or els a bodilesse substance whereof the body is as it were the Chariot and whereby it hath fellowship with other bodyes And it appeareth that hee inclyneth to this latter part For hee maketh the vitall spirit to be the excellentest of all bodily things and yet he graūteth the Soule to bee a farre more excellent thing than that What shall we then doe Let vs wey his words set downe in his booke of the conception of a Child in the Moothers Wombe The Soule of Man sayeth he is an influence of the vniuersall Soule that descendeth from the heauenly Region a substance that is capable of knowledge which aspyreth alwayes to one substance lyke vnto it selfe which leaueth all these lower things to seeke the things that are aboue which is partaker of the heauenly Godhead and which by mounting vp to the beholding of things that are aboue the heauens putteth it selfe into the presence of him that ruleth all things Were it reason then that such a substance comming from elsewhere than of the body and mounting so farre aboue the body should in the ende dye with the body because it vseth the seruice of the body Now hereuntoo I could adde infinite other sayings of the auncient authors both Greeke and Latin Philosophers Poets and Orators from age to age wherein they treate of the iudgement to come of the reward of good men of the punishment of euill men of Paradise and of Hell which are appendants to the immortalitie of the Soule but as now I will but put the reader in mynd of them by the way reseruing them to their peculiar places To bée short let vs runne at this day from East to West and from North to South I say not among the Turkes Arabians or Persians for their Alcoran teacheth them that mans Soule was breathed into him of God and consequently that it is vncorruptible but euen among the most barbarous ignorant beastly people of the Wold I meane the very Caribies and Cannibals and we shall find this beléefe receiued and imbraced of them all Which giueth vs to vnderstand that it is not a doctrine inuented by speculations of some Philosophers conueyed from Countrie to Countrie by their disciples perswaded by likelyhods of reasons or too be short entered into mans wit by his eares but a natiue knowledge which euery man findeth and readeth in himself which he carieth euerywhere about with himselfe and which is as easie to bée perswaded vnto all such as viewe themselues in themselues as it is easie to perswade a man that neuer sawe his owne face to beléeue that he hath a face by causing him to behold himselfe in a glasse There remayne yet two opinions to be confuted The one is the opinion of Auerrhoes and the other is the opinion of Alexander of Aphrodise who affirme themselues to hold both of Aristotle namely in that they vpholde that there is but one vniuersall reasonable Soule or mynd which worketh al our discourses in vs howbeit diuersly in euery seuerall person And this thing if wee beléeue Auerrhoes is done according to the diuersitie of the Phantasies or Imaginations wherewith the mynd is serued as with instruments But if we beléeue Alexander it is done according too the diuersities of the capable mind as they terme it that is to say of the abilitie or capabilitie that is in men to vnderstand things by receyuing the impression of the vniuersall mynd that worketh into euery of them which in respect thereof is called of them the woorker Soothly these opinions are such as may bee disprooued in one worde For this onely one Mynd whether in possibilitie or in action could not haue receiued or imprimted in euery man one selfesame common beléef and conceit of the immortalitie of the Soule in so great diuersitie of imaginations and in so many Nations as we sée doe beléeue it considering that the very same conceit is directly repugnant against it Nay it may well bée sayde that Auerrhoes and Alexander had very diuers conceits and imaginations one from another and very contrary to all other mens seeing they had so diuers and cōtrarie opinions imprinted either in their mind or in their imagination Howbeit forasmuch as there may be some the will make a doubt of it Let
that man holdeth not himself in his state but is falne from the seate of honour wherein God had placed him God had set him aloft aboue the Stones aboue the Plantes aboue the Brute beastes yea and aboue the world it selfe If he abyde still in his degree whence commeth it that so many men make themselues bondflaues to Gold and other mettals and that so many men doe leade the life of Plants and brute beastes in the bodyes of men some giuing themselues to nought els than to eating drinking and sléeping and neuer lifting themselues vp any higher and othersome consuming and wasting themselues in most beastly delights pleasures For what beast is there that would be a Plant or Plant that shooteth not vp to get out of the ground To be short what thing is there in the whole world sauing onely man which doth not very precisely kéepe the owne state and degree I pray you if a man should see one with a princely Crowne al myry on his head tilling the ground and following the Plough what would he thinke but that he were deposed from his Throne and that some mischief were befalne him And what then is to be sayd of that man which toyleth in Doonghils and skulketh into corners to wallowe himselfe in a thousand sorts of filthines and imployeth all his wit vpon such things but that he is falne from the toppe of his mynde and that by the greeuonsnes of that fall he hath so lamed and maymed all his abilities that it lyeth not in him to returne againe from whence he is falne For who can deny but he is borne to greater things than hee doeth Or who can thinke that GOD hath giuen him an immortall Soule to the intent he should imploy himselfe altogether about things which are not so much as worthy to be mortall Or a countenance which he calleth continually to the mynding of Heauen to looke groueling on the myre Or a Scepter to play the dizard with it in a Playe Or a triple Mace to rake Dounghilles withall or too digge the ground withall Againe how is the Lawe and order of gouernement which shineth forth in the whole world and in all the partes thereof turned vpside downe in man who is the Litle World by the disobedience of the Body to the Soule In Plantes in Trees and in brute beastes the soule distributeth nurrishmēt by proportion Their bodyes obeye the direction of their Soules without geynsaying and euery abilitie performeth his duetie accordingly The nurrishing abilitie followeth his appetites and goeth not beyond them The sensitiue followeth his naturall delights but it violateth them not But as for man what shall wee say of him Surely that his body commaundeth his Soule as if the Plough should drawe the Horses as they say that his will suffereth it selfe to be ruled by his appetites that his reason is an vnderling to his sences and that his very whole nature is most commonly quite out of order So must we needes confesse an ouerthrowe of nature in him for whom neuerthelesse nature it selfe was made and that man was swarued aside from his right way seeing that all other partes of the World doe followe their Nature and that Nature itselfe teacheth vs it What is to be sayd then but that man is not onely falne from the state wherein he was to be set in lower degree than he was afore but also that he is falne in himselfe and from himselfe in and from his owne peculiar nature Moreouer it is manifest that the world was created for mans vse for the world knoweth not it selfe nor the creatures that are therein And ageine as for the Angels they needed it not and as for the brute beastes they haue no skill to vse it Onely man hath vnderstanding to vse the seruice thereof and a body that hath neede of their seruice Sith it is so who can doubt that God created man with a knowledge of his creatures and also gaue him power ouer them Whereof commeth it then that the beastes doe naturally knowe their seasons the remedies of their diseases and the Herbes that haue a proprietie of nature to heale them and that only man among all other liuing things knoweth them not insomuch as he is fayne to goe to Schoole to the brute beastes to learne them Also whereof commeth it that these creatures which surely GOD made not to be snares to man for that had bene repugnant to the goodnes of the Creator but for mans benefite and seruice doe now kicke and spurne ageinst man yea euen those which haue no power or strēgth at all to withstand him Let vs omit Woolues Leopards and Lyons which seeme to haue some force to ouermatch the weakenes of man What meaneth it that wormes make vs warre within our Bowels that vermin deuoureth our Corne and that the earth yeeldeth vs not any kind of fruit which hath not a peculiar enemie in it to marre it ere it come to our hand but to driue vs to confesse that man must needes haue offended his maker right greeuously and that whereas Gods putting of his creatures in subiection to man was to the end that man should haue continued in obedience vnto GOD now because man hath rebelled against Gods Maiestie God also suffereth those to rebell against man whom he had put in subiection to man yea euen to the very off kourings of the earth For what els is this contrarietie of the earth to him that tilleth it of the Sea to him that sayleth it and of the aire to the successe of all our labours and trauels but a protestation of whole nature that it disdeineth to serue a creature that was so presumptuous as to disobey his Creator a creature I say which by doing seruice to the creatures hath forgone the authoritie which he had receiued of this Maker Now consequently let vs consider man towards man What is there more disordered or more cōtrarie to nature than is the nature of man himselfe If beastes of one kind doe kill or eate one another wee take it for an ougly thing What an ouglynesse then ought it to be vnto vs when wee see how men who alonly be indued with reason doe euery howre kill one another and roote out one another Nay rather is it not a great wonder to see good agreement and frendship not among Nations not betwéene Coūtries not among Companies but euen in households yea and betweene Chamberfellowes Wolues are cruell but yet in what race of Wolues shall wee find Caribies and Cannibals Lyons also are cruell but yet where were they euer seene in Battell one against another Now what is warre but a gathering and packing vp together of all the sorts of beastlines that are in the world And yet what is more common among men than that A Beast say some will barke or grunt ere he byte a house will cracke ere it fall downe and the Wind whistleth ere it breake things But contrariwise what is man towards man
owne indytement and willingly beare witnesse against himselfe by his owne voluntarie confession Surely that man is straungly infected with vyce it is witnessed sufficiently by the Histories of all ages which in effect are nothing els but registers of the continuall Manslaughters Whoredomes Guyles Rauishments and Warres And when I say Warres I thinke that in that worde I comprehend all the mischief that can be imagined And that these vyces were not created in mans nature but are crept into it it appeareth sufficiently by the bookes of the Ceremonies of al Nations all whose Church-seruices are nothing but Sacrifices that is to say open protestations both euening and morning that we haue offended God and ought to bee sacrifized and slayne for our offences according to our desarts in stead of the sillie Beastes that are offered vnto him for vs. Had man bene created with vyce in him he should haue had no conscience of sinne nor repentance for it For repentance presupposeth a fault and conscience misgiueth the insewing of punishment for the same And there can be neither fault nor punishment in that which is done according to creation but onely in and for our turning away from creation Now the Churchseruice and Ceremonies of all Nations doe witnesse vnto vs a certeyne forthinking and remorce of sinne against God And so they witnesse altogether a forefeeling of his wrath which cannot bee kindled against nature which he himselfe created but against the faultinesse and vnkindlynesse that are in nature Also what els are the great number of Lawes among vs but authenticall Registers of our corruption And what are the manifold Commentaries written vppon them but a very corruption of the Lawes themselues And what doe they witnesse vnto vs but as the multitude of Phisitions doth in a Citie namely the multitudes of our diseases that is to wit the sores and botches whereto our Soules are subiect euen to the marring and poysoning of the very playsters themselues Againe what doe the punishments bewray which we haue ordeyned for our selues but that wee chastise in vs not that which GOD hath made or wrought in vs but that which wee our selues haue vndone or vnwrought nor the nature it selfe but the disfiguring of nature But yet when we consider that among all Nations that Lawmaker is beléeued and followed by and by which sayth Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steale thou shalt not beare false witnesse whereas great perswasion is required in all other lawes which are not so naturall It must néedes be concluded that the Consciences of all men are perswaded of themselues that the same is sinne and that sinne deserueth punishment that is to wit that sinne is in nature but not nature it selfe But to omit the holy Scripture which is nothing els but a Lookingglasse to shewe vs our spots and blemishes what are all the Schooles of the Philosophers but instructions of the Soule And what els is Philosophie it selfe but an arte of healing the Soule whereof the first precept is this so greatly renowmed one know thy selfe Aristotle in his Moralles sheweth that the affections must be ruled by reason and our mynd bee brought from the extremes into the meanes and from iarring into right tune Which is a token that our mynd is out of tune euen of it owne accord seeing that it néedeth so many precepts to set it in tune agayne And yet is not Aristotle so presumptuous as to say that euer he brought it to passe in his owne mynd Theophrast his Disciple was woont to say that the Soule payd wel for her dwelling in the bodie considering how much it suffered at the bodies hand And what els was this but an acknowledgement of the debate betwéene the bodie and the mynd But as sayth Plutarke he should rather haue sayd that the bodie hath good cause to complayne of the turmoyles which so irksome and troublesome a guest procureth vnto him Plato who went afore them sawe more cléerly than both of them He condemneth euerywhere the companie and fellowship of the body with the soule and yet he condemneth not the workmanship of God But he teacheth vs that the Soule is now in this bodie as in a prison or rather as in a Caue or a graue And that is because he perceiued euidently that contrarie to the order of nature the Soule is subiect to the bodie notwithstanding that naturally it should and can commaund it The same Plato sayth further that the Soule créepeth bacely vpon these lower things and that it is tyed to the matter of the bodie the cause whereof he affirmeth to be that she hath broken her wings which she had afore His meaning then is that the soule of her owne nature is winged and flyeth vpward that is to say is of a heaueÌ„ly diuine nature which wings she hath lost by meanes of some fall But to get out of these bonds and to recouer her wings the remedie that Plato giueth her is to aduaunce her selfe towards God and to the things that concerne the mynd By the remedie we may coniecture what he tooke the disease to be namely that our Soule hauing bin aduaunced by God to a notable dignitie the which it might haue kept still by sticking vnto God fell to gazing at her gay feathers till she fell headlong into these transitorie things among the which she créepeth now like a sillie woorme reteyning nothing as now of her birdlike nature saue onely a rowsing of her feathers and a vayne flapping of her wings Now he sayth that he learned all this of a secret Oracle the which he had in great reuerence And of â—â—â—cueth in this doctrine of the originall of our corruption wee haue to marke the same poynt which wee haue noted in some other things afore namely that the néerer wee come to the first world the more cléere and manifest we finde the matter Empedocles and Pythagoras taught that the Soules which had offended God wâ—â— condemned and banished into bodies here belowe And Philâ—â—â—aus the Pythagorian addeth that they receyued that opinion from the Diuines and Prophets of old tyme. Their meaning is that the body which ought to be the house of the soule is by Gods iust iudgemeÌ„t turned into a prison to it and that which was giuen it for an instrument is become Manicles and Stocks So then there is both a fault and the punishment and the fault must néedes procéede from one first man euen in the iudgement of those men of olde tyme which acknowledged the Creation of the world Also those auncient fathers seeme to haue heard what prouoked the first man to sinne For Homer speaketh of a Goddesse whom he calleth Até that is to say Waste Losse or Destruction which troubled heauen and therefore was cast downe to the earth where she hath euer since troubled Mankynd And herevpon Euripides calleth the Féendes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Falne from Heauen And the
Seede but that he corrupted it afterward Anotherwhile hee sayth that he delt with reason as perfumers doe with Oyles which neuer ceasse medling and mingling of them till there remayne no sent of Oyle at all And in one place perceiuing by all likelihod this corruption to be so vniuersal he saith further that at the very beginning and from their first comming into the Worlde men intangled and confounded themselues with sinne Whereby we may perceiue that had the thing bin declared vnto him in such sort as wée beléeue it surely hee would willingly haue imbraced and receiued it as the only solution of so many perplexities wherein he was intangled Let vs come to the Platonists All of them agrée in these points That the Soule of Man is a spirit and that a spirit cannot naturally receiue any affection from a body neither which may cause it to perish nor which may doe so much as once trouble it Yet notwithstanding on which side so euer they turne themselues they cannot deny but that our mynds are trubbled with infinite affections and passions in this body and that they be subiect one while to starting besides themselues through pryde anger or enuie an another while to be cast downe with Riottousnes Gluttonie and Idlenes yea and to receiue diuers impressions not only from the body but also from the aire the water and from Mistes and finally from euery little thing in the world Now how can this contrarietie be reconciled except their meaning be as ours is that naturally our Soules are not subiect to any of these things but that they bee put in subiection to them beyond the course of nature If it bee beyond the course of nature by whome is it doone but by him that commaundeth nature to whome it is as easie to put a spirit in Prison as to lodge a man in a house If it be done by him who is the rightuousnes it selfe doth it not followe that it was for some fault committed by the Soule If for some fault then seeing that the punishment thereof is in all men in whome should that first fault be but in that man which was the originall of all men as in whom all of vs say I were materially Now againe this fault cannot bee imputed to the body for it is in the will and the body of it selfe hath no will neither can it be imputed to any â—â—fection receiued first from the body for the Soule could not be wrought into by the body In the Soule therefore must the fault of mankind néedes be and for the soules offence doth the Soule itself suffer punishment and make the body also to suffer with her Howbeit that we may the better iudge of their opinions let vs heare them in the chief of them one after another Plotine hauing considered that the Soule is of nature diuine heauenly and spirituall concludeth that of itselfe it is not wrought into by the body But afterward perceiuing how it is defiled ouermaistred by sinne and by force of necessitie linked vnto lust he commeth backe to this solution That hir béeing here beneath is but a banishment too her which he termeth expresly a fall and otherwise as Pato doth a losing of hir wings That the vertue which she hath is but a Remnant of hir former nature That the vyce which she hath is taken by dealing by these bace and transitorie things and too bee short that al the vertue which is learned is but a purging of the Soule which must be fayne to be as it were newfurbished to scoure of the greate Rust that hath ouergrowen it In these Contradictions therefore hee maketh this question to himselfe What should bee the cause sayth hee that our Soules being of a diuine nature should so forget both God their father and their kinred and themselues Surely answereth he the beginning of this mischeef was a certeine rashnes ouerboldnesse wherethrough they would needes plucke their neckes out of the collar and be at their owne commaundement by which abuse turning their libertie into licentiousnes they went cleane backe and are so farre gone away from GOD that like Children which being newly weaned are byanby conueyed away from their Fathers and Moothers they knowe neither whose nor what they be nor from whence they came Now in these words he agreeth with our Diuines not only in this that corruption came in by sin but also in the kind of sinne namely Pryde wherby we be turned away froÌ„ our Maker In another place The Soule saith he which was bred for heauenly things hath plundged itselfe in these materiall things and matter of itselfe is so euill that not onely all that is of matter or matched with matter but also euen that which hath respect vnto matter is filled with euill as the eye that beholdeth darknes is filled with darknes Here ye sée not onely from whence we be turned away but also too what that is too wit from God to vanitie from the Creator to the creature from good to euill But of this inclyning to the materiall things he sometymes maketh the body to be the author as though the body had caried the Soule away by force of his imaginations and he acquitteth the mynde thereof as much as he can insomuch as hee sticketh not to affirme that notwithstanding all this marrednesse yet the Soule liueth and abideth pure and cleane in God yea euen whyle the Soule whereof the Mynd is as yee would say the very eisight or apple of the eye dwelleth in this body Howbeit besides that he is reproued for it by Porphyrius Proclus and others his owne reasons whereby he proueth that the Soule is not naturally subiect to the body be so strong that it were vnpossible for him too shift himself from them In this the great Philosopher is ouershot that he will needes seeke out the cause of sinne in Man as Man is now Where finding Reason caried away by Imagination and Imagination deceiued by the Sences he thought the fault to haue procéeded of that wheras in deede he should haue sought the cause in Man as he was first created when he had his Sences and Appetites absolutely at commaundement whose wilfull offending hath brought vppon vs the necessitie of punishment which we indure And in good sooth this saying of his in another place cannot be interpreted otherwise namely that the cause why the Soule indureth so many trubbles and passions in this body is to be taken of the life which is led afore out of the body that is to say that the subiection of the Soule to the Body is not the originall cause of the sinne therof but rather a condemnation thereof to punishment Neither also can he scape froÌ„ these conclusions of his owne namely that the Soule beeing separated from the body hath her wings sound and perfect and that the Body being ioyned to the Soule hath no power to breake her wings and yet that she findeth herself there
haue an eye vnto him are by and by healed of the Serpents deadly sting And whereas some thinke it straunge that so great a thing should bee figured by so vyle and base things the figure is the more profitable and the lesse dauÌ„gerous in that it is so For had so high things bene figured 〈◊〉 foretokened by things approching to their highnesse men might haue bene deceyued by theÌ„ and haue taken the figures for the things themselues and so haue rested vpon the gaynesse of the sheath without looking into it As for example if in stead of the Goate they should haue Sacrificed the man of greatest reputation in the Congregation Men béeing giuen to yéeld too much vnto man would haue mistaken him for the very Mediatour himselfe But when the figure of our reconcilement vnto God and of the forgiuenesse of our sinnes is taken at a brute beast which hath nothing sutable thereto sauing that he is giltlesse and capable of death wee bee taught that it is but a figure and that it behoueth vs to â—ade into the thing it selfe that so much the more because those Sacrifices are so solemnely and so expressely commaunded to posteritie as things which for the welfare of mankynd ought to be alwaies in remembrance or rather present before mens eyes But yet the Hebrewes held opinion that Asar Elcana and Abiasaph the three sonnes of Chore mentioned in the sixt Chapter of Exodus were authors of diuers of the Psalmes that are gathered into the second booke of Dauids Psalter and so is Moyses also of some one or two in the third booke whereby they comforted the Fathers in the wildernesse assuring them of the coÌ„ming of Christ. Unto Dauid who was of the Trybe of Iuda God himselfe constâ—â—ieth the sayd promise telling him that the blessed séed should come of him I will rayse vp saith he thy seede after thee which 〈◊〉 come one of thy loynes his kingdome will I stablish for euer I will be to him for a Father and he shall be to mee for a sonne And although this may séeme to be ment of Salomon Dauids sonne who was in déede but a figure of Christ yet notwithstanding the often repeating of these words eternally euerlastingly and for euer giueth vs to vnderstand that it cannot bee 〈◊〉 but of the thing figured that is to wit of the eternall or euerlasting King And in very deede Dauid sheweth well in his Psalmes that hee hath looked further with the eyes of his mynde than to his sonne Salomon For in the second Psalme Thou art my sonne saith the Euerlasting this day haue I begotteÌ„ thee I will giue thee the Gentyles for thyne inheritance and the vtmost coastes of the earth for thy possession And in the fiue and fortieth Psalme speaking of the mariage of this Sonne with an extraordinary preface Thy Throne ô God sayth he is from euerlasting and the Scepter of thy kingdome is a Scepter of righteousnes And in the seauen and fortith The princes of the Nations are assembled togither sayth he to be the people of the God of Abraham And in the thréescore and seauenth Thou shalt iudge folk righteously Thy sauing health shal be knowen to al Nations and thou shaâ—t direct the Nations of the earth And this later clause is shet vp with this worde Selah which the Hebrewes are not wont to vse but in some profound misterie To be short in the thréescore and twelfth Psalme after he hath sayde All Kings shall worship him and all Nations shall serue him Hée addeth for he shall deliuer the poore that cry vnto hym and the distressed that hath no helpe Yea and which more is All Nations shall report themselues to be blessed in him and they shall also blesse him Dauid is full of such sentences which shewe that he speaketh of a King howbeit of another than Salomon his owne sonne For Salomons kingdom extended not much further than his fathers neither did the Nations méete togither vnder him and as for his kingdome it ended wich his beath and within day or twayne after was rent in peeces And therefore the auncient Synagog did alwayes vnderstand those texts to be ment of Christ who was to be borne of the séede of Dauid as we may perceyue by the Chaldee translation which interpreteth them to be spoken concerning the same partie Howbeit sith it is not said in any of the Psalmes Reioyce thou Israel for thou shalt reigne ouer the Gentiles but Reioyceye Gentyles be glad ye Nations and Kings for I will giue you a King surely it is euident that the ioy which he reporteth to be so greate is not for that they should haue a Iewe to be their king for euery Nation had leuer to haue one of their owne countrie or for that this King should haue a souereine Monarke aboue them all to controll them for euery of them had leuer to reigne by himselfe alone but rather because this King should bee of a farre other nature and qualitie than all other Kings namely a King of soules a deliuerer of men from the bondage of sinne and a spirituall Monarke Also the Song of Songs is an expresse poetrie coÌ„ceruing the vnion of Christ his Church and hath bene so vnderstoode of the Iewes as it appeereth by the Chaldee Paraphrase therof which we haue As for the Prophets we find nothing els in them almost line by lyne but foretellings of Christ to come of the Nature of his Kingdome of the calling of the Gentiles of the stablithing agein of godlynes and such other matters as wel to put the people then present in remembrance of them as to prepare the aftercommers to receiue them Insomuch that if the Prophets speake of the returne from Babylon of the stablishing ageine of the kingdome of the building ageine of the Temple and such other things by and by within two or thrée verses yee shal see them caried away to the spirituall kingdome of Christ and to the true Temple which is the Church as though they had ment to say vnto vs that we must not rest vpon these temporall things which are but shadowes but remember that we be men that is to say Soules and that our welfare coÌ„sisteth not in liuing in gouerning and in reigning heere but in seruing God that we may be vnited vnto him ruled by him howbeit not so as we should reigne in the world but that God should reigne in vs by the Scepter of his word and by the power of his spirit and be obeyed of vs. It shall come to passe sayth Esay that in the latter dayes the hill of the Lords house shal be set vp vpon the toppe of the mountaynes and that all Nations shal come flocking to it and many folke shall say Come let vs goe vp to the Lords hill and to the GOD of Iacobs house This text is spoken manifestly of Christ and of his reigne and of the blessing that was to be shed out vpon all
which is the second marke of the true Religion That throughout the whole processe of the Bible or olde Testament there are things which caÌ„not proceed but froÌ„ God That the things which seeme most wonderful in our scriptures are confirmed by the heathen themselues Also the solutions of their obiections That the meane which God hath ordeyned for mans saluatioÌ„ hath bene reuealed from time to time to the people of Israel which is the 3. mark of the true religion That the mediator or Messias is promised in the Scriptures to be both God man that is to wit the eternall Sonne of God taking mans flesh vnto him That the time whereat the mediator was promised to come is ouerpast therfore that he must needes bee come already as wel according to the Scriptures as according to the traditions of the Iewwes That resus the Son of Mary came at the time promised by the scriptures that he is the mediator and Messias A solution of the Obiections which the lews alledge against Iesus that he might not bee receiued for the true Christ or Messias That Iesus Christ was is god the son of god coÌ„trary to the opinioÌ„ of the Gentiles A solution of the obiections of the Gentiles against the Sonne of God That the Gospell doth in very deede conteine the historie and doctrine of Iesus Christ the Sonne of God ¶ The Conclusion of the whole booke OF THE TREWNES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION The first Chapter That there is a God and that all men agree in the Godhead SUch as make profession to teach vs doo say they neuer finde lesse what too say then when the thing which they treate of is more manifest and more knowne of 〈◊〉 selfe then all that can bee alledged for the setting foorth thereof And such are the principles of all the Sciences and specially of the certeynest as which consist in Demonstration The whole will Euclyde say is greater then his part And if from equall things ye take equall things the Remaynder shall be equall This is rather perceiued of euery man by commoÌ„ sence then prooued by sharpnesse of Reason And like as they that would goe about too proue it doo shewe themselues worthie to bee laughed at as which should take vpon them to inlighten the Sunne with a Candle so they that deny it doe shewe themselues to bee wranglers and vnworthie of all conference as contenders against their owne mother wit yea and against their owne confession according to this common saying of the Schooles That there is no reazoning against those which deny the Principles Now if there bée any matter wherein this Rule is found trew it is most peculiarly in this that there is a God For it is so many waies and so liuely paynted foorth in all things and so peculiarly ingrauen in mans hart that all that euer can bée deuized sayd and written thereof is much lesse then that which is séene thereof euery where and which men feele thereof in themselues If yée looke vpward yée see there infinite bodies and infinite mouings diuers and yet not trubling one another If yée looke downeward yée see the Sea continuasly threatening the Earth and yet not passing his bounds and likewise the Earth altoogither heauie and massie and yetnotwithstanding settled or rather hanged in the Ayre so as it stirreth not awhâ— These bodies direâ— vs incontinently too a Spirit and this orderlines too a certeine Gouerner forsomuch as it is certeine in nature that bodies haue of themselues no mouing and that euen those bodies which are quickened could not agrée stedfastly either with other bodies or with themselues but by the ordering and gouerning of a Superiour But when wée enter afterward intoo our selues and finde there an abridgement of the whole vniuersall a bodie fit for all sorts of mouings a Soule which without remouing maketh the bodies too mooue which way it listeth a Reazon therein which guydeth them euerychone in their dooings and yetnothwithstanding this Soule too bée such as wée can neither see it nor conceiue it It ought in all reazon too make vs all too vnderstand that in this great vniuersall masse there is a soueraine Spirite which maketh mooueth and gouernâ—â—â— all that wée see there by whom wée liue moue and bée who in our bodies hath framed a Counterfet of the whole world and in our Soules hath ingrauen an image of himself This is it that caused one auncient Philosopher too say that whereas our eyes cannot pearce vnto God he suffereth himselfe too bée felt with our hands And another too say that the very first vse of Reazon is imployed in conceiuing the Godhead not properly by knowing it but as it were by feeling it which is more certeine yea and that the béeing of our Soule is nothing els but the knowing of God vpon whom it dependeth And Auicen speaketh yet more boldly saying that he which acknowledgeth not the Godhead is voyd not of Reason but euen of Sence Now if these Sences from whence our first knowledge proceedeth doo witnesse the thing vnto vs and wée do firmly beléeue a thing when we feele it and that as they teach vs wée may féele GOD as well in the world as in our selues Surely vnto him that treateth of ReligioÌ„ it ought too bée graunted as an vnuiolable Principle That there is a God and all men ought too bée forbidden too call it into question vpon paine of â—ot being men any more For if euery Science haue his Principles which it is not lawfull to remoue bée it neuer so little much more reason is it that it should be so with that thing which hath the ground of all Principles for his Principle Neuerthelesse let vs with the leaue of all good men bestowe this Chapter vpon the wickednesse of this our age and if there bée any which by forgetting God haue in very déede forgotten their owne shape and mistaken their owne nature let them learne heereby too reknowledge themselues againe It is a straunge cace that these men which ordinarily speake of nothing but the world will not see in the world the thing which the world sheweth and teacheth in all parts For let vs begin at the lowest mount vp too the highest and let vs consider it whole together or in his parts and wée shall not finde any thing therein either so great or so small which leadeth vs not step by step vntoo a Godhead In this world too consider it first in the whole we haue fower degrées of things to wit which haue Béeing which haue Life which haue Sence and which haue Reason Some are indewed with all these giftes and some but with some of them The Ayre the Sea and the Earth are great and haue a great scope They beare vp and susteyne all things that haue Life all things that haue Sence and all things that haue Reason And yet notwithstanding they themselues haue not any more then onely bare Béeing without Life without Sence without
deuise or vppon euerlasting forepurpose If he doe them vppon newe deuise thou stumblest at that which thou wouldest eschewe for by thy reckoning God doth that which he did not afore namely in sheading foorth his influence anewe and in producing by that influence the thing that was not afore Or if he do them vpon euerlasting forepurpose then confessest thou that which thou meanest to denye to wit that God determined euerlastingly to make or doe things by his power and that according to that determination he giueth to euery thing in their tymes whatsoeuer hée had foreallotted them of his goodnesse For what difference makest thou in the cace betwéene one Plant and all Plants betwéene the Plant that is newe sprong vp to day and the Plant that was withered a thousand yeeres agoe betwéene the whole World and the least thing conteyned therein if thou be fayne too admit a new deuice as well for the least thing as for the greatest Nay thou hast deuised thée a God that is turned about vppon his Whéele a God that hath but a little more wit than thy selfe and a little more strength than thy selfe and yet such are thy spéeches of him sometime that I cannot tell whither thou wouldest be contented to be likened to him or no. Let vs sée his other Reasons All the auncient Philosophers sayth he sauing Plato beleeued that tyme is without beginning A strange case that he which taketh so great pleasure in controlling all men that went afore him will now néedes shéeld himselfe vnder them But I haue alreadie prooued that that saying of his is false And againe what greater contraries can there be than tyme and eternitie Also The Heauen sayth he is a diuine body vncorruptible the dwelling place of the Goddes wherein there hath not any corruption bin seene that can be remembred Ergo it is eternall But how will he proue this Diuinitie and this Quintessence of his Whence will hée prooue this vncorruptible nature What wil he answere to this saying of his owne that the Goddes and Godheads dwell aboue Heauen and vtterly without the compasse or reache of tyme Is not this a setting downe of that thing for a ground which is the thing that resteth to be proued and to speake after his owne maner a crauing of the principle But if we beléeue Plutarke who affirmeth that Aristotle helde opinion that the Heauen is a mingled nature of heate and moysture together shall it not bee corruptible of it selfe as well as the grounds are whereof it is composed hee addeth that the auncient Greekes called it AEther as ye would say Ayrun because it ronneth about continually And what will hee answere to Plato who saith that the Heauen or Skye is called AEther of his brightnesse in which respect also he calleth the Starre of Mars Aithon Also what will he answere to al the former Philosophers who are of opinion that the Skye is as Cristall composed of Water And finally what is this Running about but a departing froÌ„ one place to another Soothly great reasons to maynteine eternitie for if a man doe but breathe vpon them they vanish into smoke And therfore Plotin in his booke of the World and Damascius in expounding Aristotles booke of the Skye and Proclus in his second booke vpon Platoes Iimeus haue very well noted that for the prouing of the eternitie Aristotle hath set downe many things which néede none other disproofe than bare denyall and which would be as hard for him to proue as to proue the eternitie it selfe What is to bée thought then if euen by the propositions of Aristotle himselfe and of his Schollers wee proue against him and his Schollers that the World had a beginning The World say they is eternall and yet as eternall as it is it dependeth vpon God In that poynt they all agráe The disagréement among them is in this that some of them make the depending thereof vpon God to bee as vpon an efficient cause and some as vpon a finall cause and euery of them draweth Aristotle to his side as much as he can Now if it depend vpon GOD as an effect dependeth vpon his efficient cause who séeth not that an effect is after his cause and that there went a working power afore the effect distinguished essentially from the cause therof And where is theÌ„ this goodly ground of theirs become that the World is eternall because no foreworking power went afore it Or if it depend vppon God as the finall cause thereof that is to say if it were for him and not from him so as it was not a thing of his making but a thing that he could not conueniently forbeare wheresoeuer an ende is intended is there not also a forecast And where forecast is can chaunce and necessitie beare there any sway And if God had no néede of the World was it not at his choyce whether it should be or no And being at his choyce can it bee beginninglesse seeing that the being therof dependeth vpon another than it selfe Againe if the World depend vpon God as vpon the end thereof the working power which they themselues require in the creation of all things shall eyther haue gone afore it or not If it must néedes haue gone afore it then was it not from euerlasting for this word forego being a betokener of tyme excludeth the world from eternitie or euerlastingnesse Or if there néeded not any foreworking power to haue gone afore the world but that it be simply an issewe procéeding from the force of the cause why should it not procéede as well in tyme as from euerlasting seeing that the sayd force or power is directed by Reason and by Will And why then hold they this principle That the World cannot be of creation because that if it were so some cause must néedes haue gone afore it Again whence hath the Skye his beginning of mouing but from an Instant And whatsoeuer could be neuer so little a while without mouing why might it not be without mouing a longer while seeing that the respect is all one both of eternitie vnto all tymes and of infinitenesse vnto all places Therefore whereas Aristotle sayth that the World notwithstanding that it is eternall dependeth vpon God he graunteth consequently that it is not eternall Secondly contrary to the teaching of all that went afore him he deliuereth vs thrée first grounds namely Matter Substance or Stuffe forme shape or fashion and Priuation Want or bereaâ—ing and his Schooles are so greatly delighted therwith that there is nothing els to bee heard spoken of in them But if these be the first beginnings or grounds of things where is then their eternitie And if they kéepe a circuit in going round about how can it bee that they had not a beginning Also how can a substance be imagined to be without forme shape or fashion or forme shape or fashioÌ„ to be without a substance seeing that euen mishapennesse it selfe is a kynd
of shape and also that a shape is nothing els than the forme or fashion of a substance Moreouer what greater absurditie can there be than to make that a beginning of being which hath by it selfe no being at all nor can haue any being but in another thing as if a man would make blindnesse to bee the beginner of sight or darknesse the beginner of light Agayne seeing that neither substance nor shape haue of themselues any being at all how can they cause other things to bee Or how comes it to passe that two things which haue had no being at all doe méete together in one essence or being but by vertue of the souereine Béeer who hath willed and determined that it should be so And if his willing or determining be the cause of the being of them who is he that did set or appoynt him the terme wherein to doe them But to excuse one vntrueth a man telles a thousand and to shift of one error he falleth into ten thousand and yet it cannot bee eschewed but that the trueth will sparkle out of the Contrarietie of vntrueths as fire sparkles out of the knocking of one Flintsâ—â—one against another In his booke of Problemes which seeme notwithstanding to bee of many mens gathering he sayth concerning the ingendring of liuing things that the small things as Woormes Cutfoules and such other are ingendred by the ordinarie alterations of the tyme the greater by the greater alterations as things that haue néede of greate â—â—â—ginnings or grounds and that there hath in tyme past bin such an alteration as of it selfe hath ingendred them yea euen the notablest liuing things and man himselfe supplying therein both the roome of the efficient cause and also of the materiall both at once And it may bee that that is the cause why Vaâ—ro sayth that Aristotle beléeued that there was no beginning of liuing things or that liuing things haue bene from euer without beginning Also in another place he sayth that there was such an alteration at the same tyme that liuing things were first brought foorth and that if it behoue Nature to bring foorth any mo of them there must be such another alteration going afore namely by a rare Coniunction of some Starres And in another place he sayth further that if Man and other liuing wights had a beginning it was eyther in egge in séede or in woorme and so foorth What a number of Monsters are héere for the stablishing of one Monstar and yet he hath not alledged any thing which is not against himselfe The lesser Coniunctions sayth he doe bréede the smaller liuing things the meane bréede the meane and the great ones bréede the great Well be it so Yet these Coniunctions méet not but by the course of the Starres and that course is a mouing and euery mouing hath a beginning and therefore it followeth that wights had a beginning Againe if the mouing of the Skye and of the Starres be euerlastingly the CoÌ„iunctions thereof are euerlastingly also as Aristotle himselfe concludeth and so on the contrary For if it haue turned about from euerlasting the Coniunctions haue likewise incountred from euerlasting But euerlastingly they could not incounter for the small ones the meane ones and the great ones are not all at once together but they come seuerally one after another with the space of certeyne hundred yéeres with diuers reuolutions betwixt them whereas if they were eternall none of them could goe or come afore another Therefore it followeth that there is a beginner of liuing wights and a beginner of the goings about of the Skye and of all the whole order which we see And that is euen God himself How much better had Aristotle done if he had hild himselfe to that which he sayth well in other places namely that forasmuch as most things cannot haue a perpetuall continuance in the particular that is to say in themselues by reason of being too farre distant from their beginning therefore God hath continued them by the spreading foorth of their kind and to that end hath made them male and female and ordeyned copulation betwixt them For if we make the liuing things without beginning doe we not make them to be euerlasting And if we ground their beginnings vpon some reuolutions of the Skyes can those Reuolutions be euerlasting Also how shall they haue bene brought foorth in full growth or young seeing that at the bringing foorth of al things the things are tender and vnperfect And if the things be not euerlasting where then is the euerlasting mouing of the Heauen that is to say where is Aristotles eternitie become The same followeth also of that which he sayth in another place namely that he which did first gather men together was the author of very great good For in acknowledging that there was a tyme wherein folke liued like the men of Brasilie or like the wandering Nomades he acknowledgeth also an infancie of the World For els what should let that men haue not bene either euerlastingly dispersed or els euerlastingly vnited together And how comes it to passe O Aristotle that there haue not bene Aristotles from euerlasting Agayne who shall choose out the very instant in eternitie for the bréeding and bringing foorth of any thing perticularly but he that is the Lord of eternitie it selfe Aristotle in his Moralles commendeth godlinesse and be highteth blessednesse to them that followe it teaching vs that it consisteth in Contemplation Now seeing that this Contemplation or beholding is the meane to make vs blessed it must néedes bee the beholding of a thing that is right blesfull but blesfull it cannot bée if it consist in these inferiour things which are base and subiect to so many miseries and turmoyles Therefore he meaneth the Contemplation which is the beholding of the only one God Also in other places he sayth that our Soules are of a diuine nature that they be immortal that they come into vs from without that they be after a sort a kin to the Gods and his Disciples would be offended at him that should say that their Mayster dowted of the immortalitie of the Soule And whereto is all this if the World bée eternall If it be eternall eyther our Soules also be eternall that is to say without beginning or els they be not eternall If they be how happeneth it that they haue imprisoned themselues in these our bodies Or if they bee so imprisoned at the appoyntment of an other who shall that other be but God And if God appoynt or allot them to this newe state in tyme certeyne who hath made one eternitie subiect to another And what is then become of this Maximée of theirs that the World is eternall because God maketh not any thing there a newe Moreouer if they be euerlasting who hath made them proportionable to their bodies that is to wit infinite Soules to infinite Bodies And theÌ„ what becomes againe of this other Rule of
euill meanest thou towardes him when thou weanest him from his Dugge Now then thinkest thou it straunge that GOD should cast thy goodes into the Sea which els would haue helped to drowne thée in destruction O how greatly did Platoes Shipwracke aduauntage him to make him wise Or that he should plucke the Sword of authoritie out of thy hand wherof thou art so desirous which els peraduenture had slayne thyne owne Soule Or that to prepare thée to another life better than this he should serue thee with such fit meanes as might make thée to bee in loue with it Thou wilt say that thou wouldest haue vsed them well but what a number of men haue bin seene which vnder the chastisement of pouertie were good men whom riches and honor did afterward marre corrupt Thou sufferest the Phisition to take frō thée some kynds of meates which thou louest well and to abridge thée both of thy fare and of thyne exercises and of thy pleasures because he hath seene thy water or felt sometymes thy pulse and wilt thou not suffer God who hauing created thee and shaped thee feeleth euerlastingly the pulse of thy Soule wilt thou not suffer him I say to bereue thée of some outward thing which he himselfe made and which would worke thy destruction Thou commendest the Captayne who to make his iourney the speedier against his enemie dispatcheth away all bag and baggage from his Armie that his Souldiers may go the lighter and that the breaking of a Chariot may not stay him by the way and canst thou not finde in thyne heart that he which made thee and gouerneth thée should dispose of thy baggages that is to wit of thy purchases or inheritances which thou hast gotten heere belowe to make thée the nimbler against vice and against the continuall temptations of this world But Enuie pricketh thee Why taketh he them not sayst thou aswell from this man and that man as from mée And why loueth he thée perchaunce better than them Tell mée why the Phisition appoynteth thee a greater portion of Rhewharbe than him Because such a one is more moued with one dramme than another is with three One is better purged with a single Clister than another is with a very strong Purgation One man is sooner warned of God by the losse of his cropp of Grapes or Corne than another is by the burning of his house the losse of all his goodes and the taking of his Children prisoners So Iob sawe the losse of his Cattell the burning of his houses and the death of all his Children and yet for all that he praysed God still That which was constancie in him might haue seemed blockishnesse in another But when God came once to the touching of his person he could not then forbeare to dispute with him Now then séeing that the things which thou termest euilles and mischiefes are in very déede both Medicines and Salues wilt thou not haue them ministred according to the complexion of the patient And thinkest thou thy selfe wiser in discerning the disposition of thy Soule thā he that created it thou I say which darest not trust to thyne own knowledge in the curing of thy bodie The same is to bee sayd of diuers Nations whereof some one may happen to be afflicted a longer tyme more sharply with the Plague or with Warre than another and oftentymes also euen for the selfesame causes For God knoweth both the common nature of whole Nations and the peculiar natures of euery seueral person Some nature if it should not sée the scurge alwaies at hand would become too too proude and presumptuous Another if it should see it continually would be quite out of hart and fall into dispayre If some were not kept occupyed with their owne aduersities they could not refrayne from working mischief to others Another agayne beeing more giuen to quietnesse is contented to sweate in tilling his grounds in trimming his Gardynes without coueting other mens goodes so he may keepe his owne In like case is it with Plants some require dunging some rubbing to make them cleane some proyning some new graffing againe with the same to take away the harshnesse of their fruite and some to haue their head cropped quite and cleane off One selfesame Gardyner doth all these things and a Childe of his that stands by and sees it woonders at it but he that knoweth the natures of things will count him the skilfuller in his arte Yea sayst thou but though these euilles may be Medicines and Salues how may death be so For what a number of Innocents doe wee see slayne in the world What a number of good folke doe we see put to the slaughter not onely good in the iudgement of vs but also euen in the iudgement of those that put them to death Nay rather what is death but the common passage which it behoueth vs al to passe And what great matter makes it whether thou passe it by Sea or by Land by the corruption of thyne owne humors or by the corruptnesse of thy Commonweale Agayne how often haue Iudges condemmed some man for a cryme whereof he hath bene giltlesse and in the denyall whereof he hath stoode euen vpon the Scaffold and yet hath there confessed himselfe faultie in some other cryme vnknowne both to the Iudges and to the standers by a manifest reproofe either of the ignorance or of the vniustice of the Iudges but a playne acknowledgement of the wisedome and iustice of the eternall God And if God hring them to that poynt for one fault and the Iudge for another what vniustice is in God for suffering them to bee condemned wrongfully by the Iudge yea and to be punished with death or otherwise for a cryme whereof their owne conscience cleareth them as giltlesse when as God and their owne conscience doo iustly condemne them for some other As for example The Iudge condemneth them for conspiracie against the commonweale whereas God condemneth them perchaunce for behauing themselues loosely in defending the commonweale The Iudge vnder colour of offence giuen to the Church and God for not rebuking the Churchmen freely inough For I speake as well concerning Heathenfolke as Christians in this behalfe And what a nomber doe wee see which confesse of themselues and witnesse of their familiar freends that by thy punishing of them wherewith thou being the Iudge mentest to haue put them in feare and too haue restrained them they haue taken warning to amend and bin the more quickened vp and incoraged And what els is this but that as in one selfesame deede God had one intent and thou another so also he guyded it to the end that he himselfe amed at yea and to a contrarie end to that which thou diddest purpose But what a thing were it if thou sawest the fruite that GOD draweth out of it The Childe that beholde his Father treading of goodly Grapes could find in his heart too blame him for so doing for he thinketh
man the Countie of Mirandula praying them to consider at least wyse whether the greate studye and peynes which those greate Clerks haue takâ—n to disprooue this destinie can by any meanes bee fathered vppon destinie Now then for a small conclusion of this whole discourse let vs say that God is a souereine Beeing and a souerein mynd and that Beeing and Mynding are all one in him and therefore that as in creating things the might and power of his Beeing extended euen to the least things or els they had not bin at all so the Prouidence forecast and direction of his mynd extend to all things or else they could not continue Let not the confusion of things which we see â—eere belowe trubble vs for the greater the same is the greatâ—â— doth Gods prouidence shewe it self therein as the skill of a Phisition doth in the intricatenesse of a disease But who is he that can limit the sight of the Euerlasting God Surely not the prosperities of the wicked for they be but visors nor the aduersities of the godly for they be but exercises nor the Deathes of the giltlesse for it is but a poudering of their vertewes to preserue them to the vse of posteritie Nay let not euen sinne it selfe which is the very euill in deede cause any grudge of mynd in vs for God Created Nature good but euill is sproong thereof He Created freedome and it is degenerated into Loocenesse But let vs prayse God for giuing vs powers and let vs condemne our selues for abusing them Let vs glorifie him for chastising vs by our owne Loocenesse for executing his Iustice by our vniust Dealings and for performing the ordinaunce of his rightfull will by our inordinate passions It we see a thing whereof we knowe not the cause let vs acknowledge our ignorance and not name it fortune The causes that are furthest a sunder are neere at hand vnto him to performe whatsoeuer he listeth If we do any vnreasonable thing let vs not alledge necessitie He can skill to vse all things without marring them the moouable according to their moouings the things indewed with will according to their passions and the things indewed with reason according to their reasonings In thinking to do our owne will we bring his to passe We be free to followe out owne Nature and our Nature is becomme euill through sinne O wretched fréedome which bringeth vs vnder such bondage And aâ—fore this nature of ours we can neither shun it nor driue it from vs for we be bonâ—â—laues to it and it to sinne and there behoueth a stronger than our selues to rid vs thereof Therefore let vs pray God to bring the fréedome of our wills in bondage to his will and to frée our soules from this hard and damnable kind of fréedome and to graunt vs by his grace not as to the wicked to doe his will in béeing vnwilling to do it but as to his Children at least wise to be willing to doe it euen in not doing it The xiiij Chapter That the Soule of Man is immortall or dyeth not HIthertoo I haue treated of the world that is to be conceiued in vnderstanding and of the sensible World as the Platonists tearme them that is to say of God and of this World Now followeth the examining of the Little World as they terme it that is to say of man Concerning God we haue acknowledged him to be a Spirit and as touching the World we haue found it to be a body In man wee haue an abridgment of both namely of God in respect of Spirit and of the World in composition of body as though the Creator of purpose to set forth a mirror of his woorks intended to bring into one little compasse both the infinitenesse of his owne nature and also the hougenesse of the whole world together Wee see in mans body a Woonderfull mixture of the fower Elements the veynes spreading forth like Riuers to the vttermost members as many instruments of sence as theere be sensible natures in the world a greate nomber of sinewes Fleshstrings and knitters a Head by speciall priuiledge Directed vp too Heauen-ward Hands seruing to all maner of seruices Whatsoeuer he is that shall consider no more but onely this instrument without life without sence and without mouing cannot but think verily that it is made to verie greate purpose and he must needes krie out as Hermes or as the Sarzin Abdala doth that man is a miracle which farre surmounteth not only these Lower Elements but also the verie Heauen and all the ornaments thereof But if he could as it were out of himself behold this body receiuing life and entering into the vse of all his motions with such forewardnesse hands bestirring themselues so nimbly and after so sundrie fashions and the Senses vttering their force so farre of without stirring out of their place think you not that he would be woonderfully rauished and so much more woonder at the sayd life mouing and sence than at the body as he woondered afore at the body to behold the excellencie of the proportion thereof aboue the masse of some stone For what comparison is there betweene a Lute and a Luteplayer or betweene a dumb instrument and him that maketh it to sound What would he say then if he could afterward see how the same man being now quickned atteyneth in one moment from the one side of the earth to the other without shifting of place descending downe to the centre of the world and mounting vp aboue the outtermost circle of it both at once present in a thousand places at one instant imbracing the whole without touching it kreeping vpon the earth and yet conteyning it beholding the Heauens from beneath and beeing aboue the Heauens of Heauens both at once Should hee not be compelled to say that in this sillie body there dwelleth a greater thing than the body greater than the earth yea greater than the whole world togither Then let vs say with Plato that man is dubble outward and inward The outward man is that which we see with our eyes which forgoeth not his shape wheÌ„ it is dead no more than a Lute forgoeth his shape when the Luteplaier ceasseth from making it to sound howbeit that both life mouing sence and reason be out of it The inward man is the Soule and that is properly the very man which vseth the body as an instrument whereunto though it be vnited by the power of God yet doth it not remoue when the body ronneth It seeth when the eyes be shut and sometymes seeth not when the eyes be wyde open It traueleth while the body resteth and resteth when the body traueleth that is to say it is able of it self to parforme his owne actions without the help of the outward man wheras on the contrarie part the outward without the help of the inward that is to wit the body without the presence of the Soule hath neither sence mouing life no nor continewance of
to conceiue that thy Soule should dye with the Body but euen in the selfesame tyme when it disputeth ageinst it selfe it shifteth it self I wote not how from all thy conclusions and falleth too consider in what state it shall bee and where it shal become when it is out of the body The Epicure that hath disputed of it all his lyfe long when he commeth to death bequeatheth a yerely pension for the keeping of a yéerely feast on the day of his birth I pray you to what purpose serue feastings for the birth of a Swyne séeing he estéemeth himselfe to be no better than so Nay what els is this than a crying out of his Nature against him which with one word confuteth all his vaine arguments Another laboureth by all meanes possible to blot out in himselfe the opinion of immortalitie and bicause he hath liued wickedly in this world he will néedes beare himselfe on hand that there is no Iustice in the world tocome But then is the tyme that his owne nature waketh and starteth vp as it were out of the bottome of a water and at that instant painteth againe before his eyes the selfsame thing which he tooke so much paynes to deface And in good sooth what a number haue wee seene which hauing bene despisers of all ReligioÌ„ haue at the hower of death bin glad to vow their Soules to any Sainct for releefe so cléere was then the presence of the life to come before their eyes I had leuer sayd Zeno to see an Indian burne himselfe chéerefully than to heare al the Philosophers of the world discoursing of the immortalitie of the Soule and in very déede it is a much stronger and better concluded argument Nay then let vs rather say I had leuer see an Atheist or an Epicure witnessing the immortalitie of the Soule and willingly taking an honorable farewell of nature vpon a Scaffold than to heare all the Doctors of the world discoursing of it in their Pulpits For whatsoeuer the Epicures say there they speake it aduisedly and as ye would say fresh and fasting wheras all that euer they haue spoken all their life afore is to bee accounted but as the wordes of Drunkards that is to wit of men besotted and falne asléepe in the delights and pleasures of this world where the Wine and the excesse of meate and the vapors that fumed vp of them did speake and not the men themselues What shall I say more I haue tolde you alreadie that in the inward man there are as ye would say thrée men the liuing the sensitiue and the reasonable Let vs say therefore that in the same person there are thrée liues continued from one to another namely the life of the Plant the life of the Beast and the life of the Man or of the Soule So long as a man is in his moothers wombe he doth but only liue and growe his Spirit seemeth to sléepe and his sences seeme to bee in a slumber so as he seemeth to bee no thing els than a Plant. Neuerthelesse if ye consider his eyes his eares his tongue his sences and his mouings you will easely iudge that he is not made to be for euer in that prison where he neither seeth nor heareth nor hath any roome to walke in but rather that he is made to come forth into an opener place where he may haue what to see and behold and wherewith to occupye al the powers which wee see to bee in him As soone as he is come out he beginneth to see to féele and to moue and by little and little falleth to the perfect vsing of his limbes and findeth in this world a peculiar obiect for euery of them as visible things for the eye sounds for his hearing bodily things for his feeling and so forth But besides all this we finde there a mynd which by the eyes as by windowes beholdeth the world and yet in al the world finding not any one thing woorthy to rest wholly vppon mounteth vp to him that made it which mynd like an Empresse lodgeth in the whole world and not alonly in this body which by the sences and oftentymes also without the sences mounteth aboue the sences and streyneth it self to goe out of it selfe as a child doth to get out of his mothers wombe And therefore wee ought surely to say that this Mynd or Reason ought not to bee euer in prison That one day it shall see cléerely and not by these dimme and clowdie spectacles That it shall come in place where it shall haue the true obiect of vnderstanding and that he shall haue his life free from these fetters and from all the affections of the body To be short that as man is prepared in his moothers wombe to be brought foorth into the world â—o is he also after a sort prepared in this body and in this world to liue in another world We then vnderstand it when by nature it behoueth vs to depart out of the world And what child is there which if nature did not by her cunning driue him out would of himself come out of his Couert or that commeth not out as good as forlorne and halfe dead or that if he had at that tyme knowledge spéech would not call that death which we call birth and that a departure out of life which we call the enterance into it As long as we be there we see nothing though our eyes be open Many also doe not so much as stirre except it bee at some sodaine scaring or some other like chaunce and as for those that stirre they knowe not that they haue eyther sence or mouing Why then should wee thinke it straunge that in this life our vnderstanding seeth so little that many men do neuer mynd the immortall nature vntill they be at the last cast yea and some thinke not themselues to haue any such thing howbeit that euen by so thinking they shew themselues to haue part thereof And imagine wee that the vnborne babe hath not as much adoe by nature to leaue the poore skinne that he is wrapt in as we haue hinderance in our sences and in our imprisoned reason when we be at the poynt to leaue the goods and pleasures of this world and the very flesh it selfe which holdeth vs as in a graue Or had the babe some little knowledge would he not say that no life were comparable to the life where he then is as we say there is no life to the life of this world wherein we be Or would he not account the stage of our sences for a fable as a great sort of vs account the stage that is prepared for our Soules Yes surely and therfore let vs conclude where wee began namely that man is both inward and outward In the outward man which is the bodie he resembleth the béeing and the proportion of all the parts of the world And in the inner man he resembleth whatsoeuer kyâ—nd of life is in all things
now euerlasting sayth he and in the best state berest of this earthly baggage which was none of his set free to himselfe For these bones these sinewes this coate of skin this face and these seruiceable hands are but fetters and prisons of the Soule By them the Soule is ouerwhelmed beaten downe and chased away It hath not a greater batterll than with that masse of flesh For feare of being torne in peeces it laboureth to returne from whence it came where it hath readie for it an happie and euerlasting rest And agayn This Soule cannot be made an Outlaw for it is a kin to the Gods equall to the whole world and to all tyme and the thought or conceyt thereof goeth about the whole Heauen extending it self from the beginning of al tyme to the vttermost poynt of that which is to come The wretched coarse being the Iayle setters of the Soule is tossed to and fro Vpon that are tormeÌ„ts murthers and diseases executed As for the Soule it is holy and euerlasting and cannot bee layd hand on When it is out of this body it is at libertie and set free from all bondage and is coÌ„uersant in that beautifull place wheresoeuer it be which receyueth mens Soules into the blessed rest thereof as soone as they bee deliuered from hence To bee short he seemeth to pricke very nere to the rysing againe of the dead For in a certeyne Epistle to Lucilius his words are these Death wherof we be so much afrayd doth not bereue vs of life but only discontinew it for a tyme and a day will come that shall bring vs to light agayne This may suffise to giue vs knowledge of the opinion of that great personage in whom wee see that the more he grewe in age the nerer he came still to the true birth For in his latest bookes he treateth alwaies both more assuredly and more euideÌ„tly therof Also the saying of Phauorinus is notable There is nothing great on earth sayth he but Man and nothing great in Man but his Soule If thou mount vp thether thou mouÌ„test aboue Heauen And if thou stoope downe agayne to the bodie and compare it with the Heauen it is lesse than a Flye or rather a thing of nothing At one word this is as much to say as that in this clod of clay there dwelleth a diuine and vncoruptible nature for how could it els be greater than the whole world As touching the Nations of old tyme we reade of them all that they had certeyne Religions and diuine Seruices so as they beléeued that there is a Hell and certeyne fieldes which they call the Elysian fields as we see in the Poets Pindarus Diphilus Sophocles Euripides others The more supersticious that they were the more sufficiently doe they witnesse vnto vs what was in their Conscience For true Religion and Superstition haue both one ground namely the Soule of man and there could be no Religion at all if the Soule liued not when it is gone hence Wee reade of the Indians that they burned themselues afore they came to extreme oldage terming it the letting of men loose and the fréeing of the Soule from the bodie and the sooner that a man did it the wiser was he estéemed Which custome is obserued still at this day among the people that dwell by the Riuer Niger otherwise called the people of Senega in Affricke who offer themselues willingly to be buryed quicke with their Maisters All the demonstrations of Logicke and Mathematicke sayth Zeno haue not so much force to proue the immortalitie of the soule as this only doing of theirs hath Also great Alexander hauing taken prisoners ten of their Philosophers whom they call Gimnosophists asked of one of them to trye their wisedome whether there were moâ—men aliue or dead The Philosopher answered that there were moe aliue Because sayd he there are none dead Ye may wel think they gaue a drye mocke to all the arguments of Aristotle and Callisthenes which with all their Philosophie had taught their scholer Alexander so euill Of the Thracians we reade that they sorrowed at the birth of men and reioyced at the death of them yea euen of their owne chidren And that was because they thought that which wee call death not to be a death in déede but rather a very happie birth And these be the people whom Herodotus reporteth to haue bene called the Neuerdying Getes and whom the Greekes called the Neuerdying Getes or Thracians Who were of opinion that at their departing out of this world they went to Zamolxis or Gebeleizie that is to say after the interpretation of the Getish or Gotish tongue to him that gaue them health saluation or welfare and gathered them together The like is sayd of the Galles chiefly of the inhabiters about Marsilles and of their Druydes of the Hetruscians and their Bishops and of the Scythians and their Sages of whom all the learning and wisedome was grounded vpon this poynt For looke how men did spread abroad so also did this doctrine which is so déeply printed in man that he cannot but carie it continually with him Which thing is to bee seene yet more in that which wee reade concerning the hearers of Hegesias the Cyrenian who dyed willingly after they had heard him discourse of the state of mens Soules after this life and likewise concerning Cleombrotus the Ambraciote who slewe himselfe when he had read a certeyne treatise of the immortalitie of the Soule For had it not bene a doctrine most euident to mans wit they would neuer haue bin caried so farre by it as to the hurting of their bodies And if among so many people there be perchaunce some fewe wretched caytifes that haue borne themselues on hand the contrarie which thing neuerthelesse they could neuer yet fully perswade themselues to be out of all doubt or question surely wee may beléeue that they had very much adoe and were vtterly besotted like Drunkards afore they could come to that poynt so as wee may well say of them as Hierocle the Pythagorist sayde namely That the wicked would not haue their Soules to bee immortall to the intent they might not be punished for their faults But yet that they preuent the sentence of their Iudge by condemning themselues vnto death afore hand But if they wil neither heare God nor the whole world nor themselues let them at leastwise hearken to the Deuill as well as they doe in other things who as sayth Plutark made this answer to Corax of Naxus and others in these verses It were a great wickednesse for thee to say The Soule to be mortall or for to decay And vnto Polytes he answered thus As long as the Soule to the body is tyde Though loth yet all sorowes it needes must abyde But when fro the body Death doth it remoue To heauen by and by then it styes vp aboue And there euer youthfull in blisse it doth rest
who euen in laughing threatneth in saluting sleaeth vnder faire countenance of courteous interteynement cloketh a thousand Serpents a thousand Lyons a thousand Quickesands and a thousand Rockes at once Well let vs leaue the wicked which discouer themselues too much What doe wee in all our bargayning buying and selling but beguyle one another or what doe we in our dalying but delude one another And what els is the whole societte of man which we so highly commend but a selfgaine and a very incroching one vppon another the greater sort as tyrants vppon the meaner the meaner vpon the inferiour sort and the inferiour sort one vppon another too take him in some trippe To bee short if wee doe any good it is but to the end to bee seene asfor in secret wee will doe none at all Ageine if wee forbeare to doe euill it is but for feare least the World should knowe it and were that feare away wee would stick at nothing Wherto then serueth vs our reason which should further vs vnto all goodnes but to couer our naughtinesse that is to say to make vs woorse and more vnreasonable yet notwithstanding how vnreasonable so euer wee bee in all our doings we cannot but knowe that there is a reason and were it not in vs we could not conceiue it and were it not corrupted we should not swarue from it and yet if we examine oure selues we shalnot bee able to deny but that we digresse very farre from it Therefore we may well deeme of our reason as of an eysight that is either impayred or inchaunted It hath the ground of sight still but yet it standeth the partie in no stead but onely to beguyle him by false images and illusions Let vs come to man in himselfe and see whether at leastwise he loue himselfe better than other men and the more wee stirre him the more shall we feele the stinche of his corruption When a diseased man feeles peine wee say there is corruption in his body and furthermore that there is a default in Nature or that the partie hath taken some great surfet which hath brought him to that case Nowthen what shal we say of the great nomber of diseases wherwith mankind is peyned and wherewith he is so wholy ouerwhelmed that there is not any age of his life any part of his body or any small string in any part of his flesh which hath not some peculiar disease Nay I say further that man alone is subiect too mo diseases than all other liuing things in this World togither The Philosophers sawe it and haue made bookes expresly thereof and are vtterly amased and graueled in seeking out the cause thereof and they could neuer yet yéelde any Reason thereof which might satisfie others or themselues Neuerthelesse the most parte of them come to this point that man is the most vnhappiest of all liuing wights and they find fault with God and nature for it whom notwithstanding they confesse to haue doone nothing but iustly in that behalfe One sayes that onely Man fleaeth himselfe through impatience of greef Another sayes That the lyfe of man is such as that death is rather to bee desired of him than lyfe And of such speeches doe all their Schooles ring There is another which with great woonderment reckeneth vp certeine hundreds of diseases whereunto the eye alone is subiect Now which of all the beastes hath so much as the thirtith part of them in his body Is it likely that God which hath giuen to Man so great preheminence aboue all his creatures created him of purpose to torment him aboue all other creatures Or rather is it not to be sayd that man in his originall was created farre after another sort than he now is whether it be in respect of the Creator himselfe or of the ende for which hee created him Surely then let vs say as we haue sayde afore that the very cause why Man alone hath mo diseases in his body than all other Creatures toogither is for that hee hauing abused Gods gracious gifts hath doone more euill than all they could skill too doe and that the very euill and vntowardnes that is in them is but to punish man withall as for example the Hayle and Snowe serue not to hurt the earth or the fruites of the earth but to punish him that should take the benefite of them Againe when we come to consider the Soule and the body knit together what a number of affections doe we méete withall there which as saith Plutark are so much more sorowfull and gréeuous than the bodily diseases as the Soule is more sinfull and blame-worthie than the bodie To bring these passions to some reasonable order the Philosophers haue made bookes expresly of Morall vertue and giuen precepts say they to bring them to obedience wherein they confesse the rebelliousnesse that is naturally in vs against reason But who feeleth not in himselfe that their remedies serue not so much to take away the mischief as to cloke it Which is a playne declaration that it is not a spot which may bee washed away but a déepe impression bronded in nature as it were with a fearing yron which in very déede is not to bee wyped out agayne but couered nor to be subdewed and ouercome but with much a do to be restreyned and hild short Furthermore seeing that reason is so much more excellent than passion or affection as the forme shape or fashion say they is more excellent than the matter or stuffe wherin it is whence commeth this infection in vs that maketh the matter to ouermayster the forme and causeth the forme as ye would say to receyue shape and fashion of the matter that is to say which putteth reason in subiection to affection to the impressions which affection yéeldeth contrary to the order which is obserued in all the whole world beside For what els is this Intemperance of ours but reason such as it now remayneth imprinted with lust and concupiscence And what els is anger but reason atteynted with choler and so foorth of the rest And if a man will say that these things are naturall in vs whereof commeth it that of these affections wee conceyue inwardly remorse and outwardly shame yea and that so naturally as wee must of necessitie néedes feele them whether wee will or no and can no more let them than we can restreyne the beating of our Pulses or the panting of our Hearts but because that shame and remorse for sinne are naturall in vs but the sinne it selfe is against nature As for example there be things the doing wherof is in vs vyce and in brute Beasts nature for they be angry they aduenge themselues and they company together indifferently and in open sight and of so doing they bee not ashamed because it is their nature Now were these affections and fleshly pleasures as naturall in vs as in the Beastes as little should we bee ashamed of them as they But
and Stayednesse with Licentiousnes so as in this worlde they can neither be cured without skarre nor be brought to a skar Also we perceiue there are in man the outward sences Imagination and Appetite which thrée the brute beasts haue as well as he ouer and besides the which hee hath also wit and will as peculiar giftes giuen him of God And if we be men we estéeme our selues better than beastes and looke to haue them to be our vnderlings Contrariwise whereas Imagination ought to rule the Sences and Reason to rule Imagination and will to rule Appetite now the outward sence carieth away Imagination Imagination Reason and Appetite will insomuch that the onely sence being bewitched or beguyled carieth a man headlong into all euill after the maner of Phaeton whom the Poets speakeof It is a playne case therefore that man hath made himselfe an vnderling to the beast and consequently that mankind is turned strangely vpsidedowne and doubtlesse farre more monstruously than if we sawe him goe vpon his head with his heeles vpward Nowthen seeing that man is so ouerturned whereof can he brag but of offending God vncessantly in this life and of infinite punishment in another lyfe according to the infinitenesse of him whom he hath offended And to what purpose therefore shall his immortalitie serue him but to dye euerlastingly and neuer to be dead But let vs leaue this matter to another place And forasmuch as by considering man what he is to Godward to the worldward to Manward and to himselfe I haue euidently proued his corruption frowardnesse namely that he is vtterly contrary to the ende to which he was created of God to the order of the whole World to the welfare of all Mankinde and to his owne benefite Let vs henceforth coÌ„sider from whence and from what tyme this mischief may haue befalne him and what may haue bene the cause thereof Certesse if we say it came of God and that he had it of his creatioÌ„ we blaspheme God too too grossely For God is good and the very goodnesse it selfe and therfore he cannot haue made any thing euill Also it appeareth throughout the whole gouernmeÌ„t of the world that he is the mayster and mainteyner of order And therefore how is it possible that he should make the little world namely man to be a mould of confusion and disorder Agayne no other thing than his owne glorie and the welfare of man moued him to create man and yet man beeing in case as hee is forbeareth not to blaspheme Gods name and to purchase his owne destruction Néedes then must it be that Man was made a farre other creature at the beginning than he is now as in very déede the Husbandman createth not the wiuell in the Corne nor the Uintener the sowernesse in the Wine nor the Smith the rust in the yron but they come in from elswhere Neuerthelesse the man that neuer dranke other drinke than Uineger would think it to be the naturall sap and taste of the Grape And wee likewise who neuer felt other in ourselues than corruption and are bred and brought vp in darknesse like the Cimmerians would beare ourselues on hand that GOD is the cause and author thereof Now let vs which haue tasted both the Wine and the Uineger iudge what maner of creatures we may haue bin in our first creation in doing whereof there is yet notwithstanding this great difference that the paâ—at of our bodily mouth is able to discerne the swéete froÌ„ the sower but the palat or tasâ—â— of our soule is vnable to do eyther of them both the one because corruption can not iudge of cleannesse and the other because it cannot iudge well of it selfe In Wine and Uineger we discerne a liquid nature common to them both but as concerning their qualities the Wine is swéete warme and friendly to nature whereas the Uineger is sharpe cold and corrosiue yea and the very colours of them are vnlike one another Lo here two things vtterly contrary and yet notwithstanding the Uineger is nothing els but Wine altered from his nature And because we haue seene the one as wel as the other we will neuer bee made to beléeue that the Uineger was Uineger from the very Grape Let vs iudge of our Soules with like discretion We finde there a spirituall nature immateriall and immortall and that is the onely remaynder of her first originall But yet this Spirit of ours is foreward to nothing but euill nor inclyned to any other thau bace and transitorie things It clingeth to the earth and is a bondslaue to the body To be short in stead of stying vp it crauleth I wote not how contrary to the nature of a Spirit which mounteth vp on high and cannot bee shut vp in these vyle and drossie things Therefore it must néedes bee sayd that this nature of ours was not so of nature it departed not such as it now is from the hand of the workmayster but contrarywise good frée pure and indewed with farre other qualities than it hath now for now it is steyned with naughtinesse bondage of sinne and corruption Nay will some man say seeing it was created cléere from all corruptioÌ„ who was able to corrupt it as we see it to be now Sure wee be that it is a spirituall nature and therefore neyther the Elements nor any other bodie could naturally do any hurt vnto it and as little also could tyme doe any thing thereto for tyme is nothing but the mouing of bodies Moreouer it was free of it selfe and Ladie of the bodie and therefore could not receyue her first corruption from the bodie And yet notwithstanding wee see that as now it is subiect to be corrupted both of her owne flesh and of the vanities of the world which by nature had no power ouer it Néeds then must the maker of nature himselfe haue giuen a power to these things aboue their nature whereby they might preuayle agaynst the nature of the Soule the doing whereof surely could not but haue bin rightfull in him considering that he is the very rightuousnesse it selfe For Iustice layeth not any punishment but where some fault or offence hath gone afore Therefore it must néedes bee sayd that man had committed some heyâ—â—â—s crime against his maker whervpon such penaltie and bondage were appoynted iustly vnto him And therefore let vs say that the Soule of man being the first corrupter of it self did of it owne accord vanish away as Wine turneth in it selfe and of it self into Uineger whereas if the Soule had hild her selfe in awe and vnder couerture and had rested on her Lées as is sayd of Wine that is to say if she had abidden stedfast in beholding her maker without seeking her welfare in her selfe she might haue continued vtterly vncorrupted still And agayne that by turning so away from GOD to her selfe she offended her maker and forwent the gracious giftes which she had receyued of him wherevpon followed the curse
well to the life which the Goddesse her selfe had led and to the miracles of the Féends to the marke that they shot at namely to giue the more boldnesse to Claudia to continue her leaud life and occasion vnto others to followe her Also one was counted a God because he draue away Grashoppers another because he killed Frogges Crickets and Flyes And hereof it came that the Chananites called their Belzebub and the Greekes their Iupiter by the name of Scareflye Another sayth Zosimus sent Birds to deuoure the Grashoppers Admit that all these effects haue not their particuler causes yet what miracles are they to make Gods withal For by that reckoning why should not those also which by certeyne receyts doe kill Serpents Rats and Féeldmyce or which doe moreouer driue away vermin out of mens bodies bee counted Gods Nay if wee will see miracles let vs looke vppon the doings of the onely one God which are vtterly vnpossible wonderfull and vncommunicalle to any creature He made the world and he destroyed it He made the Sea and he dryeth it vp He made the Sunne and he causeth it to stand still Yea and which is yet much more he made all these things by his word and with a blast of his mouth he chaungeth them as he listeth These are the miracles of the God of Israell which haue not their like among the other Gods And if they will deale vprightly in disputing they must as well beléeue our bookes for these miracles as we beléeue their bookes for theirs Also if wee looke vpon the miracles of the good Spirites and of the seruants of that one God they be not castes of Legierdemame to dazle mens eyes withall nor nimble tricks sleyghts nor wonders to no end to no reason to no instruction but when they strike it is to chastize men and when they heale it is to glorifie God If they speake it is to teach and if they appeare to vs it is to leade vs to welfare If they foretell they doe it as messengers from God and if they worke miracles they doe it as executers of his power And they bee so farre of from being angrie at a Song mistuned or at a Gambauld misbegun in the honor of them after the maner of the Heathen Gods that as wee reade in our Scriptures they bée offended with nothing more than when men thank them or honor them for the things which they ought to thank and to worship the Creator By the tokens which the Platonists giue vs thereof wee shall percieue yet better whether those Gods were good Spirits or bad Angels or Diuelles notwithstanding that that Sect was tootoo much ouertaken in the seruing of them The Diuelles or wicked Spirits saith Porphirius delight in bludshed in filthy and rybawdly speeche in giuing Poyson in furnishing folke with charmes of loue and in prouoking them to lechery and to all vyces Yea and they beare men on hand that all the Gods and the very Souereyne GOD himselfe taketh pleasure in such things either feyning themselues to bee the Sowles of some deadfolkes or taking vppon them to be Gods Which of all these tokens haue I not noted already in their Gods Agein saith Porphirius They turkining themselues as much as they can into Gods that is to say into Angels of light to beguile our sence and imagination with straunge vanities Insomuch that he that is the cheefe of them will needes bee estemed to bee the souerein God And yet notwithstanding their foretelling of things is but by gesse and all of them generally bee subiect to lying and deceyuing They be angry at euery small tryfle are pacified againe with fond and vaine things Neuerthelesse they haue beguyled some vayne Poets and Philosophers and consequently by them haue drawen the silly people to the worshipping of them as Gods What is all this but a description of the very same Gods whom hee himselfe worshipped Likewise Iamblichus who maketh an Anatomie of them saith thus They transforme themselues saith he into good Spirits but in deed it is but a brag wherby they pretend more than they be in deede They make a galant showe and daunt men with their words They play the Gods and yet are troubled with light passions But the greate Witch Apuleius sayth yet more They be pacified with gifts saith he and wroth with wrongs They be pleased with Ceremonies and angred with the want of them be it neuer so little They take vpon them the ruling of Birdgazers and Bowelgazers and of the Oracles and Miracles of Witches and Wizards To be short they be vnkindly wights passionate of Spirit reasonable of vnderstanding ayry of body and endlesse of time To whom can these things agree but to his owne Gods And what remayneth then but that they were Diuels so much the more miserable as they bee more vehement in their passions and immortall in their nature Now is there nothing behind but their owne Confession and thereof we shall not yet fayle Apollo therefore as one vppon the Racke doth in many of his Oracles acknowledge the Souereine God and to make the most of himselfe he termeth himselfe one of his Angels as appéereth by this Oracle of his alledged afore We Angels are a parcell of the Souereine God of all And beeing asked vppon a tyme by what name he would be called and prayd vnto he answered Call mee the feend that knowes all things to whom belongs all skil And in another The witty Feend the Harmony and Cresset of the World And ageine Wee Feendes which runne through Sea and Land do tremble shrink and shake To see the Whip of that great God which makes the World to quake And yet notwithstanding the Greeke word Demon which is the word whereby they termed their Gods and which in this place I english Feend was so odious euen among the learned men themselues who knewe the originall thereof that they would haue bene loth to call a Slaue so But when as wee reade further that these Gods do quake at the naming of the Stigian marris that is to say of Hell insomuch that euen Iupiter himselfe sweareth thereby and is afrayd to be forsworne what els is to bee thought thereof but that these Gods which feine themselues to reigne in heauen are tormented in hell Besides this the miracles and Oracles of these Gods are come to an end and their Seruices and Sacrifices are come to nought and at length folke haue acknowledged the only one GOD the maker of Heauen and Earth and ruler of the whole world to be the same whome the Iewes haue worshipped And in that respect it is that Seneca cryed out That the Slauish Iewes had giuen lawe to the whole Earth But who can maruell that hee which made both the worlde and man should in the end make men to acknowledge him to be as he is So then let vs conclude for these last three Chapters That there is but onely
spirituall inheritance but only grace by the true Iesus And therefore the Saint Rabbi sayth That because Christ shall saue folke therefore he shall be called Iesus and because he shall be both God and Man therfore he shall be called Emanuell that is to say God with vs. And in another place The Gentyles sayth he shall call him Iesus And he draweth this name out of the nine and fortith Chapter of Genesis by a certeyne rule of the Cabale which they terme Notariak by taking the first letters of the wordes Iabho schilo velo which make the word Ieschu and likewise of these wordes in the 72. Psalme Ijnnur schemo veijthbarecu and also of these in the 96. Psalme iagnaloz sadai vecol all which are texts that are ment expresly of the Messias Although I force not of these their doings yet haue I alledged them against them selues because it is their custome to shewe the cunning of the arte of their Cabale And after the same maner haue the Machabies also their name that is to wit of the first Letters of the words of this their deuice Mi camocha baelim Iehouah that is to say Which of the Gods is like thee ô Iehouah That the name Iesus should bee reuealed vnto them it is no strange matter considering that in the third fourth bookes of Esdras Iesus Christ the sonne of God is named expresly and diuers tymes and the tyme of his comming precisely set downe according to Daniels wéekes For although the Iewes account those bookes for Apocriphase the Primatiue Church hath not graunted the like authoritie to them as to the other Canonicall bookes yet is it a cléere case that they were written afore the comming of Iesus Christ of whome neuerthelesse they speake by name Now the Scripture promised also a Foreronner that should come afore the manifesting of the Messias to the world For Malachie sayth Behold I send my Ambassadour to make way before him and by and by after shall the Lord whom you seeke enter into his Temple And in the next Chapter following he is called Elias by reason of the lykenesse of their offices and this text as I haue shewed afore is vnderstood by them concerning the Messias And soothly we haue certeine footestepes thereof in these words of the Gospel The Scrybes say that Elias must first come And in another place Art thou Christ or Elias or one of the Prophets A little afore that Christ disclosed himself Iohn the Baptist stoode vp in Israell and was followed by such a multitude of people that all the greate ones grudged at him and he is the same man whō by way of prerogatiue the Chronicle of the Iewes calleth Rabbi Iohanan the greate Preest Concerning this Iohn the Baptist forasmuch as they suspect our Gospel let them beléeue their owne Storywriter There was sayeth he a very good Man that exhorted the Iewes to vertue and specially to Godlynes and vpryght dealing inuiting them to a cleannesse both of body and mynd by baptim But when Herod perceyued that great multitudes of people followed him which to his seeming were at his commaundment to auoyd insurrections he put him in prison where anon after he cut of his head And therefore it was the common opinion that when Herods army was afterward ouercome and vtterly put to the swoord it was through Gods iustiudgement for putting of Iohn Baptist vniustly to death By this witnesse of Iosephus we sée what his office was namely to preache repentance and to Baptize or as Malachie sayth to turne the heartes of the Fathers to their Children and the heartes of the Children to their Fathers But the thing which we haue chiefly to note here is that hauing the people at commaundement yet when Iesus came he gaue Iesus place and humbled himselfe to him and yeelded him the glory the which thing man beeing led by affection of man would neuer haue done Insomuch that after that Iesus had once shewed himselfe the Disciples of this greate maister shewed not themselues as his disciples any more and that was because his trayning and teaching of them was not for himselfe but for Iesus And as touching the peculiar act of Baptizing it seemeth that the Leuites wayted for some speciall thing vpon it in that they asked of Iohn How happeneth it that thou Baptizest if thou bee neither Christ nor Elias the Prophet But let vs come now to treate of the lyfe of Iesus not according to our Gospells but according to such Histories as the Iewes themselues cannot denie and what els is it than the verie body of the shadowes of the old testament and the very pith and substance of the words that were spoken afore concerning the Messias Let vs call to rememberance to what end he came namely to saue Mankind and the nature of his Kingdome how it is holy and spirituall Whereof are all his Preachings but of the forgiuenesse of sinnes and of the Kingdome of Heauen his Disciples were alwayes importunate vppon him in asking him Lord when wilt thou set vp the Kingdom of Israel agein In sted of contenting their fancyes he answereth them concerning the Kingdome of Heauen They Imagined some Empyre of Cyrus or Alexander that their Nation might haue bene honored of all other nations of the earth One of them would néedes haue sit on his right hand and another on his left What answereth he to this Nay saith he whosoeuer will be greatest let him be the leaft and if I béeing your Maister be as a Seruant among you what ought you to bee Yee shal be brought before Magistrates that is farre from reigning Ye shall be persecuted imprisoned tormented and crucifyed that is farre of from triumphing I wil giue you to vnderstand how great things ye be to suffer for my names sake that is very farre from parting of Countryes Yet notwithstanding happy shall you bee when you suffer these things and he that holdeth out to the end shal be saued Who can imagine any temporall thing in this kingdome whereof the first and last Lesson is that a man to saue his lyfe must lose it and to become happy must wed himselfe to wretchednes The people followe him for the miracles which hee woorketh and the Iewes deny not but he did very greate ones But let vs see wherto they tended He fed a greate multitude of people in the wildernes with a feawe Loaues This miracle was matter enough for him to haue hild them with long talke but he preacheth vnto them of the heauenly bread which feedeth vnto euerlasting life Also hee healeth all sicke and diseased folke that come vnto him howbeit to shewe that that was but an appendant or rather an income to that for the which he came Thy sinnes sayth he be forgiuen thee To be short from Abrahams Well hee directeth the Woman of Samaria to the Fountaine of lyfe Béeing shewed the goodly buildings of Hierusalem and of the
but to shewe that it was not in the power of the great Emperour of the world to make folk beléeue a man to be a God what payne or cost soeuer he put himselfe vnto Yea say they but to beléeue the myracles of Iesus we would see myracles still The tyme hath bene that they were seene the tyme hath bene that they were beléeued and tyme hath altered the course of them what a number of things doe we beléeue which we see not And what reason or what benefite should leade vs to the beléeuing of any other rather than of them But we should bée the more assured of them As much might the former ages haue sayd and as much may the ages say that are to come and so should it behoue myracles to bee wrought to all men and at all tymes And were it once so then should myracles bee no myracles forsomuch as in trueth they haue not that name but of the rare and seeldome sight of them The Sunne giueth light daylie to the world he maketh the day the yéere and the seasons of the yéere Trées hauing borne flowers and fruite become bare and afterward shoote out their buddes and florish agayne The Uyne turneth the moysture of the Earth into Wine the graine of Corne turneth it into eares of Corne and the Pipen or kernell of an Apple into an Appletrée And infinite men receyue shape and birth euery hower Al these are very greate miracles and God and none other is the doer of them nature teacheth it thée and thou caÌ„st not denie it But forasmuch as thou séest them euery day thou regardest them not and yet the leasf of them would make thée to wonder if it were rare To succour thyne infirmitie the Sunne forgoeth his lyght a drye sticke florisheth water is turned into wyne and the dead are raysed to lyfe and all this is too shewe vnto thée that the same power which wrought in creating things at the beginning woorketh now still wheÌ„soeuer it listeth and that if the effects liue the cause of them is not dead And if thou shouldest sée euery day some miracle in the Sunne in Plants and in man surely in lesse than a hundred yeres miracles would be chaunged into nature with thee and the helpes of thyne infirmitie would turne thee to vnbeleef and to make the world beleeue agein God should be faine to create a new world for the world An example whereof may bee the people of Israell who hauing their meate their drinke their trayning vp and their gouernement altogither of miracle did in lesse than forty yeres turne them al into nature and lyke folke accustomed continewally to phisick which turne their medicines into nourishment of their bodies they abused the stayes of their fayth by turning them into occasions of distrust and vnbeleef Now God created nature and hath giuen it a Lawe which Lawe he will haue it to followe Neuerthelesse sometymes for our infirmities sake he interrupteth it to the intent to make vs to knowe that he is Lord of nature But if he should do it at our appoyntment then should we be the Lords both of nature and of him and if he should do it in all caces we would make a rule of it and we would make bookes and calculations of it no lesse than of the Eclipses of the Sunne or of the Moone or rather than of the motions of the eyghth Sphere and we would impute all those interruptions and chaunges to the nature of nature itself Therefore it is both more conuenient for his glorie and more behooffull to our saluation that nature should still followe hir nature and that miracles should continue miracles still that is to say that they should be rare as necessarie helpes to the infirmities of our nature I meane not of one man or of one age but of all mankynd or at leastwise of al the Church togither which is but as one comonweale and one man Yet remayneth Mahomet and he séemeth to be a iolly fellowe for he made a great part of the world to beléeue in him He was an Arabian and tooke wages of the Emperour Heraclius to serue him in his warres anon after the declyning of the Empyre and in a mutinie among the Arabian Souldyers he was chosen by them to be their commaunder as we sée dyuers tymes in the bands of the Spanyards Whether he were a good man or no let the people of Mecha who woorshippe him at this day iudge which condemned him to death for his Robberies and murthers And he himself in his Alcoran confesseth himself to bee a sinner an Idolater an adulterer giuen to Lecherie and subiect to women and that in such words as I am ashamed to repeate But he hath inlarged his Empyre by his successors and layd his Lawe vppon many Nations What maruell is that For why Auendge your selues sayeth he with all your harts take as many wiues as ye be able to kéepe Spare not euen nature itself What is he though he were the rankest Uarlet in the world that myght not leuie men of that pryce considering the corruption that is in mankynd Hee reigned as a Lord say they but yet by worldly meanâ—â— yea and vtterly vnbeséeming a man If ye enquyre of his Doctryne say they it is holy conformable to the old and new TestameÌ„t and admitted of God But as good as yée make it yet may yée not examin it nor dispute of it vpon peyne of death And what man of iudgement would not haue some suspition of the persone though he were very honest which should say Behold ye be payed and in good monny but yée may not looke vpon it by daylyght If yée looke for his miracles In déede God sent Moyses and Christ with miracles but Mahomet comes with his naked swoord to make men beléeue and asfor other miracle he woorks none And therefore al his Alcoran is nothing els but kill the Infidells reuendge your selues he that kills most shall haue greatest share in paradise and he that feyghteth lasily shal be damned in hell How farre is this geare of from suffering and both from conquering and continewing by sufferance What wickednesse myght not bee stablished by that way of his Notwithstanding to allure the Iewes he exalteth Moyses and reteyneth Circumcision and to the intent he myght not estraunge the Christians he sayeth that Christ is the Spirit Woord and Power of God and that Mahomet is Christes seruant sent to serue him and Prophesied of by him afore Ageine to please the Heretiks called Nestorians he affirmeth that yet for all this Christ is not very God nor the Sonne of God but that he hath in déede the Soule of God Thus doe ignorance and violence in him incounter one another the one to choke the trueth and the other to inforce the falsehod What practyses what wyles what countersayings what inforcements what armyes what cruelties vseth he not too perswade men And yet what hath he wonne by all this