heauen in the glasse of the Trinitie and diuine vnitie here this is an Article of our faith vnderstood in the resurrection of the flesh and life eternall When there is any question of faith reason must be silent and yeeld and therefore S. Bernard coÌ„fesseth that when he thinks of the estate of the foule he thinks to see two things in it in a manner coÌ„trarie if he beholds it with his humaine discourse as she is in her selfe and of her selfe he can say nothing more certen but that shee is reduced to nothing c. Next it was affirmed that man was verie credulous to â—…uill incredulous to good suspirion turnes alwaies cun ningly to the worst part said an Ancient hee swallowes downe slanders and impostures sweetly and distrusts honest and vertuous things such is his miserie If he think that the immortalitie of the soule cannot be grownded sollidly vpon any humaine argument let him also thinke that there cannot instance be giuen to the contrarie which is not easily ouerthrowne so as he bring a spirit that is tractable not preiudicate And aboue all that hee doe not perswade him-selfe that he may see it or feele it as the smoake or heate going out of the fire so the soule going out of the bodie for it is a spirit and therefore not possible to be comprehended but by reason and vnderstanding which are spirituall operations but let vs answere him to euery point It seemes the Obiector takes an ill presage of the immortallitie of the soule for that she is fauourable as if it were not the nature of man if he be not brutish to court those things which are worthy excellent as the soule of man is aboue al the world All men applaude men in great authoritie we esteeme pretious things as siluergold Pearle what a sot or rather a madd man is he that will haue a concoit that the thing is not excellent because it is respected As for the 400. Prophets they spake vnto the King according to humaine sence and were found false Micheas according to the word of God reuealed vnto him and it was true The Obiector reasons according to carnall sence he shal be taxed with falsehoode Wee speake according to the spirit of God in his holy writ we shall be found true He desires in the end or makes a shew to desire it that wee should ballance our reasons I am content and I protest it will be to his confusion for the Father of light will not suffer Satan the father of lies to triumph ouer the truth For the first instance then we say that Huart doth not meane the soule by the vnder standing but the intellectual spirits whereof she hath need to argue and to vnderstand the things of this world and to write worthily and these intellectuall spirits holding of the vitall bodie it is not strange if they be more vigourous according to the estate of the body and contrariewise if they perish when the bodie perisheth for although they be of a celestial substance exceeding whâ—…t exceeding light and most substantiall that they may be more ready to serue the soule yet are they mortall but the soule in her substance receiueth no increase nor diminution since the moment of her creation infusion into the body at all times yea in all men she is equally perfect as complete in the Ideot as in the learned in the coward as the couragious these are the diuers instruments of the bodie whereof she makes vse which make her diuers in her effects these instrumeÌ„t 〈◊〉 diuerse for that they are diuersly mixt of the foure first humors Moreouer this Spanish Philosopher defines the immortalitie of the soule against Gallen which he calls a substantiall acte and forme of a humaine bodie Cap. 7. of his Examen of spirits Here the impostor doth impertinently confound mortall spirits with the immorall spirit and our reason grownded vpon this that the soule the bodie dying thinkes of the delightfull places in heauen and foretelles things to come with much certitude according to the opinion of Tully and our owne To the Second This generall submission of all menin all places and at times vnder a powerfull Maiestie shewes the natural bond which man hath to doe his homage by reason of the immortalitie of his soule and that he doth rather worship vaine ridiculous and abominable things then none at all doth not deface this bonde but confirmes it more yet shewing that he wanders in the darknes of this world and in steed of taking the way of the East to goe vnto heauen if he be not guided and directed from aboue he takes the contrarie way and wanders farre The which we yeeld but it is a terror answers he to keepe man in his dutie it is true therefore religion is not in vaine for without it for one disorder man would commit ten thousand it proceeds say you from nature and institution I answer it is from nature only that she takes her beginning education doth manure it better it but what doe you vnderstand by nature For the Philosophers haue beene accustomed to signifie 4. distinct things by the same name which yet symbolize together the lowest is the temperature of the 4. humors in the body of man The 2. is the soule which giues motion vnto the body The 3. is the ordinance and rule which God hath established in the world The 4. is God himself called by some in that regard nature naturant If the Obiector means that feare and religion proceed onely from the temperature of the 4. humors in the body of man hee is condemned of falsehood contradiction by his owne saying in that he attributes feare to other creatures the which he knower differ from man in the same temperature and in truth it is in the soule that the reuerence of the Deâ—…ie that is of God is graueÌ„ it comes from this vniuersall rulâ—… and whereas hee would inferre that in women great feare causeth great religion he must vnderstand that religion in man hath conscience for her chiefe foundation which applyes the naturall apprehension of a superiority to an acknowledgment there of and for accessories shee hath contemplation in the superior part and feare in the lower As for the principall foundation it is common to men and women the two others are diuers Contemplation is greater in men and feare in women Contemplation doth stirre vp the will to the seruice of God by two considerations the one is of the diuine power bounty to haue had wil and power to giue life when as wee dreamt not of it to haue drawne vs out of endlesse dangers and to haue continued the course of his graces notwithstaÌ„ding our ingratitude The other consideration is from the basenesse and weakenesse of man which makes him to feele his imperfections and to repaire vnto the fountaine of all good feare doth stirre vp to humilitie to contrition of heart to confession of mouth
demolition of man but onely the first for as a wise master of a familie when hee sees that his house threatneth ruine that it sinks in many places and the walls open commands it to be pulled downe that with the ruines and materials hee may raise another to cōtinue many yeares euen so nature a most expert Architectrice seeing man ladē with woūds deiected with misery and melancholy cōsumed with age and grown cro◅ked with the gou◅e catar◅es sowe◅ him co◅uptible in the graue that after many changes she may raise him incorruptible by the powerful voice of Christ. If the earthly habitation of this mansion bee destroyed saith the Apostle S. Paule we haue a dwelling with God that is to say an eternal house in heauen which is not made with hands and therefore we sigh and desire so much to be cloathed with our mansion which is in heauen and this is for our soule expecting the Resurrection of her body And this body sayth the same Apostle being sown in dishonour shall rise againe in glory sowne in weakenesse shall rise in strength and sowne a sensuall body shall rise a spirituall body What thē can man produce against this but onely some murmuring of his Incredulity that it exceedes the bounds of reason without the which hee will not assure himselfe of any thing I answer that the full perswasion of that which is written in the holy word is well grounded vpon faith a particular gift of heauen to all true Christians touching the returning of our bodies as for the reasonable coniecture of our future life after death I deny that this hath beene altogether vnknowne to men guided onely by the instinct of nature and I will proue my assertion sufficiently in the 39. Argument if God so please To this first consolation we will adde a second that is nature finding the declining and wasting of the substance of man came by a sacred mariage to stay some portion in the matrix of his deare moity and to fashion and bring forth many other reasonable creatures at diuers times creatures which haue the same flesh and bones of father and mother And if it be true that a good friend is a second selfe what shal a good sonne bee but himselfe without any addition whereby is plainly manifested what Macrobius saith that the body recoiues three aduantages of the reasonable soule that is to say he liues he liues well and in succession of time he remaines immortall Ecclesiasticus goeth ◅art her saying That if the father of a childe dyes it is all one as if hee were not dead for hee hath left his like behind him hee hath seene him and hath ioyed hauing left one who shall take reuenge of his enemies and requite his friends And this was it which moued that great Law-giuer Plato to make a law that euery man at a comperent age should marrie a wife else he shuld be called before the Iudge condemned in a fine and declared infamous for that as he afterwards sayth euery man should consider in himself that there is a certen power efficacie of nature which makes men to purchase an Immortalitie he would inferre that whosoeuer leaues children doth reuiue in some sort in them It is an order of nature which we must inviolablie obserue ingendring we perish of the one side but we begin again of the other If our parents by their fading and dying substance had not giuen vs life we could not haue entred into it of our selues what wrong is it if nature doth that of vs for our children which she bath done of our Parents for vs Moreouer death which is a priuation of life is a beginning of life in nature remayning in the first matter by the which she disposeth her selfe to a new forme not to continue still at this deformed spectacle Thirdly wha◅ great deformitie see you in death which is not in him that sleeps Fourthly that deformitie which may be is not seene by him whom it concernes it is to the suruiuor◅ that it should be hideous but most commonly they find it pleasing reaping by that meanes large successions elboe roome freedome from comptroll and if it were otherwise the world would not be able to containe vs. And thus much for the first part of the obiection As for the 2. which resembleth the demolishing of building to death this similitude hath no proportion yea it is contrary to the state of the question for what makes a ruined building deformed It is the disorder we see in it it is but a heape of stones and timber the stones are not layd in order one vpon another neither is the timber raised as it ought to be It is then the forme that wants when as the materialls remaine but in man or rather a dead carcase the soule which is the forme receiues no blemish she is freed from the surprises of the graue Thou doest not complaine that the egge-shell is broken when a chicken comes forth neither is the body of man to be lamented when as the soule flies away But what great difformitie doest thou see in a dead body thou seest little or no difference at all with one that sleeps this doth not terrifie thee why should the other amaze thee especially if thou doest consider that the body which is dead is truely asleepe the which is a subiect of an other discourse as we shall see if God please But all things haue their period the ladder his last staffe and life her last degree Thou diddest ascend ioyfully so must come downe againe with the like content if in the last steppe or in the midst thou beest not carried away accidentially by some violent death but to returne to the place where thou hast beene taken thy nature doth exhort thee yea it forceth thee If too vniust thou doest not willingly giue thy consent looke into the degrees of life and this contemplation will giue thee cōsolation against death when thou wert borne into the world there was found in thee an appetite to some substāce or meat without thy selfe the which hauing beene supplied thee and sent by the mouth into the stomacke was conuerted into a conco◅ted iuyce and then transformed into bloud by the liuer refined into spirits by the heart and finally fitted to thy decaying body thou didst receiue nourishment force and Ioy these are the first degrees of life then climing higher thou hast extended the fiue faculties of thy senses thine eye to see beautiful things thine eares to heare melodious sounds thy nose to smell pleasing sents thy mouth to tast holesome and delightfull sauours and thy hand to handle smooth and wel polished things these are other degrees of the same life At length the reasonable soule comes to play his part the vnderstanding desires to know whatsoeuer the sences apprehend whatsoeuer his eye sees his eare heareth his hands touch and moreouer what they neither see heare nor touch reason flying to
All that is depraued and there is nothing but a horrible confusion in his will and actions 7. He was absolute Lord ouer all Creatures which trembled at his looke and brought him fruits according to his desire 8. Now they rebell and assaile him yea the earth instead of good corne brings forth nothing but thornes thistles 9. He had frequent conuersation with God inspired of him and breathing by him 10. Now the Prince of the power of the aire the vncleane spirit workes powerfully in the children of rebellion which are all the sonnes of Adam Ephes. 2. 2. 11. A glorious angelical and diuine Maiesty did shine in his face 12. Now they couer their shame with leaues they hide themselues among the trees and crie out Mountains fall vpon vs and couer vs. To conclude there is no greater contrariety betwixt day and night then of these famous qualities to the infamous blemishes of man as he liued in this world before his regeneration in the which by little and little hee recouers this Iustice holinesse and trueth Ephes. 4. 24. But the fulnesse thereof is reserued to heauen whither death leades vs and therefore to be desired The Fourth Argument taken from the efficient cause All that a good and wise mother giueth vnto her Children cannot be hurtfull Nature our good and wise mother giues vs death Death then cannot be hurtfull THe first proposition of this Argument cannot bee denyed after the experience which wee haue seene after the comparison which God makes of himselfe with a mother who cannot forget her child nor he his people After that Iesus Christ had said No man giues a stone instead of bread nor a Scorpion for fish to him that he loues And how then can nature the liuely spring of so liuely a loue giue any thing that is very hurtfull and fayle at neede and in the principall hauing neuer fayled vs in all the course of our life Now to proue that the second proposition is true and that nature hath ordayned death for her children Seneca doth teach vs saying That death is a Law of nature yea that our whole life is but a way vnto it S. Cyprian also doth affirme that it is a decree intimated vnto the world that whatsoeuer is borne should haue an end and from whom is this decree from God the Authour of nature the executioner of this decree but it is a fauourable decree to such as Heauen fauours It is a generall Law to restore that which is lent vs this life is but a loane wee must restore it at the end of the time it is a tribute wee owe for we entred vpon condition to depart when it shall please the master Moreouer what is this life but a harmony rising from the mixture of the foure elements which are the foure ingredients of our bodie and what is death by the censure of Hippocrates but a diuorce of marriage of these foure Elements This diuorce is as naturall to man as it is naturall that fire should be contrarie to water and ayre to earth for their contrarietie is the cause of this diuorce which is death I know that it is not sufficient for humane life to haue a body well tempered with his Organes and to haue the power of life but he must also haue a fist Effence as a Lute well strung and well tuned is not sufficient to make it sound vnlesse there bee a hand to play vpon it And I also maintayne that as the Musitian ceaseth to play when the Instrument is vnstrung so the soule ceaseth to giue life vnto the body yea flyes out when it is destroyed but this destruction is naturall and by consequence death and to that end Nature hath planted this body vpon pyles which take vent vpon boanes not very solide caulkt ouer with soft flesh glued with a viscous humour which may easily melt with heate or dissolue with rayne full of transparent veines easie to pierce watered with vnholesome water tempered with contrarie qualities which a certaine temperature keepes at quiet for a season but when euery one desires to command his companion and time in the end presenting the occasion the common right being forced the body sodainely falls And this force is of nature who must needes effect the words of the Lord spoken vnto man Thou art dust and shalt returne to dust Sonnes of men returne but whither From whence you came to the earth to death death then is of nature and therefore Thales the Milesian said that there was no difference betwixt life and death for that they are both equally according vnto Nature and as one demanded of him why he was in life and dyed not For the same cause answered he that the one is no more excellēt then the other It is also the reason why the Emperor Antonin the gentle seeing his seruants weepe lying sicke in his bed hee sayed vnto them Why weepe you for me and not rather the naturall and mortall condition of all the world that is to say Why doe you not rather weepe for life which is of a mortall condition The answere of Anaxagoras was more vertuous who being aduertised of the death of his deere and onely Sonne sayd O Messenger thou bringest me no vnexpected newes I know well I had begotten a Sonne that was mortall hee was not insensible like a stone but he considered that nothing had chanced to his sonne but what he had foreseene from his birth his long foresight and his sodaine con sideration of the condition of all men for to die had tēpered all sorow in him and brought him to reason which should alwaies holde the helme of this little world man Like was the answere of Lochades father to Siron vp on the like report of the death of one of his children I knew well sayth he that he should dye VVe shall see others hereafter to the ende they may haue no cause to say that this resolution was monstrous in the world To conclude nature to make vs resolue ioyfully vnto death seemes to direct vs to the sweete song of the Swanne a presaging bird consecrated to Apollo by Antiquitie the which dying nature gathers together about the heart the purest and sweetest bloud which makes him Iouiall and to sing a happie presage to whom Socrates Plato and Tully send them that haue so great feare of death An Obiection Satan Man and Sinne are the causes of death Therefore it is not Nature ANswere When it is said in the holy Scripture that Satan holds the empire of death that by one man sinne entred into the world and by sin death finally that death is the reward of sinne we must not vnderstand it of the naturall death whereof the question growes but of the spirituall and eternall death as many of the ancient fathers doe expound it And how else could the threatning of God against Adam be vnderstood touching the tree of knowledge of good and euil Thou shalt not eate
for on that day thou shalt eate of it thou shalt die the death obserue the words from that day for he died not that day but liued long after but from that day being fallen from grace he dyed the spiritual death then what doth this Hebrew phrase to die the death mean but the principall death which is the eternall the second death But this death brought in by Sathan by sin by man hath no power ouer the children of God good men to whom this discourse is onely directed since that it was subdued bound and confined into hell by Iesus Christ our Sauiour as Athanasius hath wel obserued that as the waspe strikes violently against a stone but hurts it not by her incursion but rather bruzeth her selfe and looseth her sting euen so death incountring Christ furiously who is life she could not hold him in her bands but she hath lost her sting so as they whom shee terrified before insult ouer her now So then death simply the laying of the bodie into the ground there to be putrified the way to heauē is good to the good is giuen of God by nature life death are of the Lord sayth wise Ecclesi 11. vers 14. It is he that giues life and death that maks vs to descend into the graue to rise againe saith the Prophetesse Anna. 2. Sam. 2. It is then our good mother that calls vs to death let vs follow and obay her voice seeing we can receiue no harme and how can it bee hurtfull seeing it is the sepulcher of vices and the resurrection of vertues sayth S. Ambrose and how how can it bee dangerous seeing it is that Toad-stone which by his fecret vertue expels and rectifies all vncleane things And in truth as Toades when they are growne olde and heauy with a fat poyson are set vpon by an infinite number of Ants which sucke him and deuour him so as nothing remaines but the said stone which afterwards they may freely handle yea profitably So death hauing beene purged from sinne is now by the almighty power of the Eternall conuerted into a most souereigne remedy against sinne The second Obiection There is not any thing ingenerate in all Creatures by nature in vaine But the feare of death is ingenerate in all Creatures Therefore the feare of death is not in vaine FOr the proofe of this Argument shall suffice the approbation of all Creatures great and small which flye from death the same reason is for man whom the complexion of his flesh being proportionable to the quality of the Elements inclines him to loue the world he may be where he will yet his naturall disposition will draw him towards his countrey although in stead of some sweete liquor which he promised to himselfe hee should drinke wormewood So man beeing borne in the world and accustomed vnto it can hardly leaue it Answer The nature of man doth sometimes affect and abhorre one the same thing but for diuers considerations if he beholds death nakedly there is great feare as we may discouer in many but if he can haue the iudgement and patience to see her attired in her precious ornaments with vertue with heauen gates by the which onely we are brought in of the assured ioy and rest of the minde in the possession whereof shee sets the soule then doe wee affect it and desire it and this desire should be held more natural in man for that it is more proper vnto him seeing it proceeds from the true iudgement of reason which makes him man Moreouer for a more cleare solution of the argument we must distinguish the vniuersall nature from the particular vniuersall nature is that vertue that admirable investigable proportiō infused by God into the Vniuerse the proper Instrument of the principall agent of this soueraigne essence which hauing insinuated into this Chaos the first matter hath brought it in six dayes too this goodly ornament and hath preserued it many thousand of yeares of this nature we de nie that she plants in beasts the feare of that shee giues them that is to say death but as to shew vnto the beasts of the earth al the lights of heauen as well the fixed stars as wandring she turnes about the heauens so to shew vnto heauen all the Creatures she hath giuen the passage returning of life death else it were impossible if as in a tree the dry leaues falling giue place to green that spring so in beasts the first should not giue way to them that follow As for particular nature the very cōplexion of euery one to whom death is so terrible I say it is an ill ordered feare The Order is preposterous when as the particular doth not follow the Law of the generall and it is the ruine of States when as the priuate good is preferred before the publike The Romaine Empire did flowrish when as the Popilij Scipios Fabij and others did choose rather to be poore in a rich estate then rich in a poore estate Euen so is it in the societie of mankind taken in all ages euery one must dispose himselfe to follow this generall order of supreme nature and whosoeuer shall contradict it shall shew himselfe a bad Cittizen of this great Cittie of the world and opposing himselfe let him not therfore think to escape the inexorable destinie of his end but as the bird takē in the limetwig thinking to free her selfe by striuing is caught the faster so man which is ensnared by death the more furiously hee torments himselfe the more he shall aduance the obiect of his torment Let euery one therefore looke vnto his dutie to his children and to them that shall come after to prepare himselfe to giue them place here to tends that great desire the issue of particular nature to ingender that great care of fathers mothers in the nourishing preseruation education and bringing vp of their children to the end they may sucoted them and why then hauing prouided for all left yong oliue plants in our old stock hearing the bell sound a retre◅t wherefore I say should we shew our selues deafe vnwilling faynt hearted The fat all bird drawn by the sent of thy Carcase is perched ouer thy window art thou still restie doest thou not feele thy seditious guests with in thee which cōspireth thy infallible ruine Nature will haue it so she commands thee to depart feare not folthy good mother and thou shalt do well Let vs therfore conclude that although our particular nature our complexion makes vs to abhorre death yet wee must not beleeue her no more then the seruant of the house which is borne to obey It is the mistresse the vniuersal vertue of the world which commands vs to depart and to suffer others to enter let vs follow and obey all our trembling and horror is in vaine But to what ende is it will you say for me to haue flourishing children if in the meane time I become worms
meat I answer Thou art not all wormes meat for the subtilest part of thee liues in thy children all thy person is not food for wormes for thy soule the most excellēt part escapes thou art not long the foode of wormes for another forme and it may be another soule shal be soone adapted The Fift Argument from the end of Nature Euery end whereunto the Law of Nature doth direct all the actions of our life is for our good Death is the end whereunto the Law of Nature directs all the actions of our life Therefore death is for our good IT is a wonderfull strange thing so to feare that passage whereunto our breathing and the course of our life seemes to tend For although the life be but a swift course of some dayes running swifter then a Weauers shettle yet the greatest part of the world desires to haue them shorter and would see them as soone shut vp as discouered As wee may see in playes which for that they hold their eyes and spirits captiues are very pleasant vnto them for that they rauish their thoughts and sences expell all languishing conceits Inquire of a Dancer a Tennis-player a Dicer or a Courtier why they liue continually in a Dancing-schoole a Tennis-Court in a Dicing-house or in great mens houses They will answere you if they vouchsafe you answere That the time would be tedious if they should not spend it in some thing and euen we our selues being more retired if some more profitable imployment did not make vs to spend the time we would say Oh how long this day is when will it be night And if this slow night came not to interrupt our complaints they would breake out into mournefull lamentations in the meane this night presenting herselfe vnto vs the longer through death we are quite cōfounded her countenance defaceth the remembrance of all our former miserie What inconstancie is this wee will and wee will not see our end we desire that euery day should passe away swiftly else wee complaine we wil not haue our life to slide away for then wee howle and yet our life is nothing but a multiplying of many dayes whence comes it It is for that this waywardnesse which cleaues vnto vs by reason of this slow course of euery day of our life proceedes from our nature who finds neither hir appointed abode nor hir setled perfection here and this pale feare which seazeth vpon vs at the discouerie of the gate of death proceedes from the corruption which hath happened to our nature For proofe whereof the table of Natures innocencie in the beginning which is described vnto vs at the entrie of the Bible doth testifie sufficiently for Adam and Eue in Eden were alwayes cheared with delights and pleasures they had continually the vse of an hundred thousand wonders neuer thinking of the future nor desiring presently the end of the day which held them they had their happinesse in the present life the which hath beene hidden in heauen by reason of their transgression whither we must ascend through death to enioy it thither our nature doth call vs from the which our corruption doth diuert vs. Were it not then better to obey nature so officious towards vs then a pernicious deprauatiō which hath possessed vs And therefore the Ancients to taxe this vnreasonable desire of liuing here without end left vs in their pictures how that Tithon beloued of Aurora obtained of the gods at the entreatie of the Goddesse that he should not die But this man being tired with a million of sundry calamities and ouerladen with a burthensome old age so as like vnto little Infants he was saine to be bound vp swadled and rockt hee besought the Gods that he might be suffered to die like other men Whereby they shew that death hath bene granted by the gods as a fauour vnto men as being the safe port of all the tempest of this world Nature hath set a measure and fulnesse to all thing wee finde it in the greatest pleasures which continuing long are in the end distastfull vnto vs Even so hath she done in life wherefore there are old men which would not willingly returne backe to the first beginning of their Infants life vpon condition to run the same dangers which they past the which Tully affirmes of himselfe that if any god would giue him force to become young againe hee would refuse it no sayth he hauing finished my course I will not bee brought backe from the end to the beginning for what commodities hath life nay what toyles hath it not And admit I should confesse that it hath pleasure without any distast must shee not haue her full measure and saciety who can contradict this The sixt Argument taken from the Vntuersall Law All freeing from a common miserie carries in it selfe consolation Death is a freeing from a common miserie It therefore carries in it selfe consolation THe consolation of the miserable is to haue companions sayeth the old Prouerbe for men by conference of their common misery reape some ease and discharge as if they carried a heauy burthen in common Now ô you which dying thinke your selues debarred of felicity consider how death with an equall foote beates and ouerthrowes the Castells of Princes and the Cabinnes of Sheepheards Search Salomon and you shal find that neither wisedome nor riches could preserue him from death nor Sampson his force nor Absolon his beauty Hercules with all his exploites is laid in the graue Alexander with his Empires Caesar with his happy victories Craesus with all his pompe is gone Xerxes is vanished with his miraculous bridge vpon the sea of Helles pont all all gone to the Pallace of Ruine whereas death commands Call these great Princes in whose ambitious hearts their greatnesse had stirred vp enuious vapours we haue them all for companions in death the Oracle hath sayed it and experience doth shew it You are gods but yet you must die You Princes you shall passe like to one of vs. Behold a great man who dying sayed with a mournfull voyce Helas I am rich powerful and mighty and yet can I not wrest the shortest terme from pale destinie It is a great consolation sayeth Seneca to Polib c. 21. to think that whatsoeuer shall happen to vs by death hath bene suffered by all and all must suffer it and therefore hee cries out in the beginning of this Chapter in these termes What man saith hee is so full of artogancie and yet so vnable that will exempt himselfe or his from the necessitie of nature calling all things to one end In life men are vnequall but their beginning and ending are equall all are borne with one poore nakednesse and all dye with a stinking cold and liuing no man is more certaine of the next day then his neighbour hee onely is happy to whom the most miserable kinde of life doth not befall Happy then are wee if wee compare our selues with those people of
certentime of the death passiō of our Sauiour Tertullian sayes that it was in the 30. yeare of Iesus Christ and the 15. of Tiberius but Ignatius and Eusebius witnes that it was in the 33. yeare of Christ and the 18. of Tiberius Onuph rius Mercator and other late writers will sweare that it was in the 34 yeare of Iesus Christ and if we yeeld some thing to antiquitie we shall beleeue that Iesus Christ was 50. yeeres old when hee was crucified and that it was not vnder Tiberius but vnder Claudius to this the Iewes discourse tended Thou art not yet 50. yeeres old and yet thou sayest thou hast seen Abraham If in this so holy a thing where there is not any cause of blind passion there appeares such apparent contrarietie what shall wee thinke of History where as the penne puft vp with passion and transported with flatterie or slander hath eyther aymed too high or too low at the white of truth the onely commendation of an historie And admit wee should find writers void of all passion the which seemes impossible if we except the secretaries of God who were guided with the holy Spirit yet their Histories should be vncertaine for the most part for that they haue not beene spectators of the times places and persons necessary circumstances in a History how can they know them seeing that many times that which is done in our owne Towne in the streete yea in our house is concealed from vs Nay the most exquisite and most certaine science is nothing but vanitie trouble of mind saith Salomon And if wee shall rightly obserue it we shall find the most learned most disquieted and the most vnlearned most at rest S. Augustine hath seene it and was amazed crying out with S. Paule The vnlearned rise vp and lay hold of heauen and we are plunged into hell with our learning It is the reason why Nicholas de Cusa hath written bookes of learned Ignorance where hee commends them that make not so great account to know and vnderstand many things as to doe well and liue well Knowledge then being for the most ignorance in this life cannot contayne any subiect to loue life And therfore wee will conclude That seeing in all the degrees of life there appeares no sufficient reason to desire it so vehemently that this desire is not commendable but to be blamed namely in man who being man for that hee hath a reasonable facultie should not will any thing much lesse affect it with passion but by a true iudgement of vnpassionate reason An Obiection All that is ordayned for the seruice of God is grounded vpon good reason Life is ordayned for the seruice of God ANswer That life is good which in all her motions actions and meditations seeks nothing but the humble seruice of her Creator but it it a chiefe point of their seruice that man liuing should doe that honour vnto his Lord to giue certaine credit vnto his oath and to the writings of his testament sealed with his bloud Verily I say vnto you that whosoeuer heares my words and beleeues in him that sent me hath eternal life the which is repeated in many other places Whosoeuer hath this certain assurance of faith in him what can he feare death nay rather desire it seeing that in heauen by this death which serues vs as a bridge to passe thither we shall be like vnto the Angels and shall doe the will of our heauenly Father obtayning the Petition which we should daily make vnto him by the expresse command of his Son in the Lords prayer Thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen Let vs say the will is good which aimes directly at the honor of God so long as it shall please him to keepe it in his fauour but yet death is better which the Eternal sends to giue vs thereby a better life The 11. Argument taken from the description of Death No Cessation from a labour vnprofitably renewed is vnpleasing Death is a Cessation from a labor vnprofitably renewed THere is no neede of Eagles eyes to pierce into the truth of this argument the least attention will comprehend it For what is this life but a daylie weauing of Penelopes Webb it is finished in the euening but the night vndoes it in the morning we beginne againe with as great eagernes as if it had neuer beene The which made Seneca to poure forth these complaints When shal we cease to weaue daily one worke I rise and then goe to bed I hunger then fill my selfe I am a cold and then I warme me There is no ende the head and tayle hold fast together whereas the same things in their courses doe incessantly approch and recoyle againe It is day and night comes sōmer appears and winter doth aduance still they walke one rounde I neither see nor doe any thing that is new I doe but goe about this wheele sayth the same Philosopher If I be layed I say when shall I rise and when will night fill vp her measure to glut me with distemperatures vntill day sayth Iob Chap. 7. It is the true bodie of the infernall shadow of Ixion who tied vnto a wheele turnes about perpetually There is not any one so dul but sees this earthly Labyrinth and yet no man will leaue it Euen so they that are borne in a prison affect not their libertie so they that dwell among the Cimmerians in darknes desire not a cleere skie So the children of Israel would not leaue the house of bondage they quarrelled with Moses who spake vnto them they cursed him and being come forth they would haue returned often what was the cause custome which was become another nature feare to finde worse in their iorney ignorance a cruell beast No man will leaue this miserable earth fearing to fall into greater miserie so much doth the loue of the place custome retaine the inhabitants in their miseries saith Seneca Many floate miserably betwixt the torments of life the horrour of death they will not liue yet know not how to die like to Vlysses in Homer who tooke fast hold of a wild Fig-tree fearing to fall into bottomlesse Charybdis but yet ready to leaue it if the feare were past So Tiberius confest that hee held the Empire as a Wolfe by the eares the which if hee might without danger haue abandoned hee would willingly doe it So Seneca and so experience doth teach that many keepe themselues close in life like vnto them whom a violent torrent hath carryed into some rough and thornie places But let vs learne of a silly woman That death is the calme port for the stormes of this sea to the end that with her wee may take pleasure in it Monica speaking to her sonne S. Augustine vsed these words As for me my sonne I take no more any pleasure in any thing in this impure world what should I doe here longer in
with the displeasures and finding these greater and more grieuous why should hee feare to lose the pleasures to auoyd the displeasures A Poet speaking of a solitary life sayd That if there be not so great ioy without doubt there is not so great paine If death haue not the ioyes of this world it hath not the torments of life which are farre greater Obserue it for a certaine Maxime that there are three things here below which march equally with an inconstant pace the estate of the aire which they call time life and the opinion of man And that which is worse there are more cloudy dayes then cleere more miserable dayes for man then happy and more changes to bad then good But that which should fully assure vs going out of this life is Iesus Christ who protests That no man shall pull his sheepe out of his hands Ioh. 10. We know whose wee are by the faith that is in vs by the which we are fully perswaded that God will keepe our pledge vntill that day 2. Tim. 1. Moreouer we are assured of the end by the beginning for to him that hath shal be giuen more Luc. 19. Finally we doubt no more For the holy Spirit doth witnesse with our Spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8. 16. This is certaine but admit that it were not so there is no pleasure in the world be it neuer so short but it leaues behind a venimous sting of serious repentance I see thy large possessions thy stately houses the amiable aspect of thy children thy treasure the greatnesse of thine honors finally all the pompe in the world raise thee vp with their goodly shewes but beleeue me these things are not so happy as thou doest hold them for proofe looke vpon them that haue them in a higher degree then thy selfe if notwithstanding they bee not miserable they be transitory things if thou leauest not them first they will leaue thee if thou doest affect them more then as an exercise for thy spirit thou hast neither witt nor iudgement This vnderstanding which makes the man should not crouch vnder these carnall things it must rayse vp himselfe to those which are eternall to the beauties bounties exquisite workmanship of this vniuers All the pinching care which thou takest for the world is but a toyle to the bodie vexation of minde and a losse of time do what thou wilt enioy all the possessions of the earth but know this for certaine that one onely houre can take them from thee Doest thou not see that all runnes to change in this world like vnto the Moone which immediatly doth gouerne it Art thou mounted to the highest degree thou must descend againe he that loues thee wil hate thee he whom thou hast saued it may be will kill thee as it happened to Iulius Caesaer thou doest laugh to day it may be to thou shalt weep to morrow Doest thou triumph to day an other day thou shalt be led Captiue finally art thou aliue to day another day will carrie thee to the graue and not knowing what day if thou art wise thou wilt suspect euery day like vnto that good old man Messodan who being inuited by one of his friends to a feast the next day sayed vnto him Doest thou put me off vntill tomorrow who after so many yeares did neuer hold any one day assuredly mine but I haue held euery day as if it had beene my last a resolution which differs much from these young old men who hauing one footein the graue yet thinke they may liue one yeare more at the least and the yeare being past yet another and so alwaies what is this but against the order of nature to thinke to liue euer The 12. Argument from the condition of life No man should hate any essentiall condition of that which he pursues Death is an essentiall condition of life Therefore no man should hate Death that seekes life IT wee consider of death not in her introduction but as she hath beene blest by God since by his grace it is no fearefull paine to life as we conceiue but an inseparable qualitie Life is a burning Lampe the body is the cotten the radicall humour the oyle the naturall heate the fire this fire consumes the oyle and cotten by little and little and in few houres had deuoured it all if nutriment supplied and changed by a secret vertue did not kepe it repayred yet can it not preserue life from naturall ruine but for a time for that the vertue ingrafted into all the members of the body wearing by degrees in the transubstantiation of meates and application thereof to the fading substance comes in the ende to waste the humor dryes vp the fire is quenched death followes and seeing that we see death inclosed in the bodie of life he should be verie indiscreet that would seeke life and hate death and hee wise and vertuous that will no more regard death then life seeing it concernes his dutie Heare what Pompey the Great returning out of Sicily with Corne to famished Rome in a great storme said vnto the Master of the ship being halfe dead Gowe goe we the question is not to liue but to goe This great personage did consider that it was as naturall for man to dye as to liue and in truth all that haue liued are dead what force soeuer they pretended to oppose the most puissant beasts in the world the Elephants goe to dust yea Nature willing to shew how little that is which here seemes great and how vpon the least occasion all force decayes shee suffereth the Elephant at the sight of the least and basest creatures of a Mouse or an Ant to bee so seazed with feare as he trembles strangely The Tyrants were smothered with lightning in the Phlegrean fields The Tyrant Maximine with his 8 foot in length with his great thumb carrying his wiues bracelet for a ring who drew carts laden brake an horse teeth with his fist and did split trees with his hands Although he thought himselfe immortall by reason of his force yet he lyes slaine by his subiects In the same estate is Marius whose fillips were like blowes with a hammer Among the Moderns George Castriot Prince of Albania valiant and fortunate in his exployts who with his owne hands had slain 2000 Turks who neuer gaue but one blow to cleaue a man in two and to ouerthrow the strongest yet in the end death subdued him and layd him in his graue Let the Idolatrous Turkes search his Tombe for his bones and from those reliques draw an inuincible force to themselues yet hee is dead doth not this suffice Behold Cities Common weales and kingdomes they haue their youth and vigor so in like manner their age and death where is Thebeâ—… that great City whereof the name is scarce remaining where are those 〈◊〉 Cities of Candie where is Sparta and Athens wherof there remains nothing but the base ruines And thou the
death which was miserable which if we feare what is all the life said he but a path tending vnto death And S. Augustine aboue named means no other thing whilst they haue feeling they are yet liuing if liuing they are rather sensible before death then in death by whose comming all sense is lost The 25. Argument taken from the indignity That which is repugnant to one of the principall vertues is vnworthy of man The extreame feare of death is repugnant to fortitude one of the principall vertues WE meane not here to speak of bodily force but of that of the minde by the which Caesar but of a weake body did more braue exployts thē Hercules There is nothing more worthy of a man then Fortitude a vertue whereunto he should aime al the actions of his life for that alone doth neuer faile to yeeld a recompence either aliue or dead saith Seneca Epist. 81. and hee doth not perish that dies adorned with vertue saith another Saint Augustine confirmes this when he attributes the disdain of life and the contempt of death to the force of the minde The greater and more desperate the danger is the more doth magnanimity increase in a generous minde to free all difficulties that hee shall encounter And seeing that the end is better and more excellent then that which tends vnto it hee will conclude with reason That hee were better to lose his life then vertue But Fortitude one of the foure cardinall vertues besides the generall hath a particular reason why man should seeke to preserue it in her greatest perfection for by it hee enioyes the true tranquility of the minde the which as Cicero reports is nothing else but a quiet sweete and pleasing disposition of the soule in all the euents of life Which carries two Crownes patience in paine resolution in death By which the confirmation of the Minor is inferred there beeing nothing that doth more oppugne and in the end ouerthrow all force and resolution then the extreame feare of death Feare and especially that of death beeing destitute of reason iudgement wounds the soule with amazement alienates his right sense makes it idle and without action it doth waste him vndermine him and consume him as rust doth Iron and the worme an apple A man alwayes shaking with feare is without heart and courage but halfe a man such as histories report Claudius Caesar the 5. Emperour to haue beene whom nature had begun but not finished for that hee was base and faint-hearted Moreouer feare by the terrible obiect of death causeth the heate which is the chariot of force to retire into the bottome of the belly in stead of drawing it about the heart as courage doth so as the heart is alwayes panting and which is worse whereas it should extend it selfe by dilatation in his natural motion hee shrinkes himselfe vp against nature whereby there followes a great debility in all the members of the body and sometimes death as it happened to Lycas who vppon the very report of Hercules force was so terrified as beeing retired into the corner of an Altar dyed there But a generous man resolute to death will not feare any thing that shall present it selfe to crosse him in the course of his duty like vnto Anaxarchus whom Alexander threatning to hang he said Threaten thy Courteours who feare death for my part I care not whether I rot aboue or vnder the earth Socrates also beeing blamed by one for that hee did a thing which would cause his death he answered My friend thou art not well informed if thou thinkest that a man of honor shold apprehend danger yea death in his actions but only consider whether they bee iust or vniust good or bad Such was the courage of the Prophet Micheas when he resisted King Achas and told Israel of his sinnes being filled with vertue by the Spirit of the Eternal with iudgement and with force as he himselfe speakes Thirdly feare not onely hurts it selfe causing his arms to fall out of his hands and laying him open to his enemies darts but like vnto the plague it infects others And therefore King Agamemnon would not that a rich man and a fearefull should goe to the warres of Troy but to stay him he would haue sent him a distaffe if he would not eouer his shame honestly But on the other side a valiant man finds meanes to free himselfe in the greatest dangers So Aristomenes a Lacedemonian being taken prisoner and deliuered bound to two souldiers hee found meanes to burne his bonds and his flesh to the quicke then falling couragiously vpon his guardes hee slue them and so escaped It is a common saying among men That vertue hath no vertue if it be not in paine and the greatest paine in the opinion of man is when hee is at the point of death then should a valiant heart shew his inuincible courage to vāquish this terror of death It is this courage which made Saint Paule to say That if he did serue for an aspersion vpon the sacrifice seruice of faith hee was ioyfull It is the same Spirit that made Ignatius to say beeing condemned by Infidels to be cast to wild beasts I am the wheate of God I shall bee ground in the teeth of beasts to bee made pure and cleane bread If the Trumpet which sounds an alarme be pleasing to a valiant Souldier what shall death bee to a vertuous man when shee shall sound with her siluer Trumpet ordained by God to call the assembly the Church to heauen and to make men leaue the earth where they haue no a biding place what feare we They that haue the chollicke and the gout are not so much terrified with the returne of their paine and can vertuous men so much feare death which hath not so much paine no none at all seeing that what we feel whē death approcheth is of the re mainder of life not of death to what end serues this cowardly feare Fly an honorable death of the one side and a shamefull end will find thee of the other So Sisera left his Armie and fled into the house of Iahel but when he thought to take his rest Iahel came and draue a nayle of the Tabernacle into the temples of his head and slue him But to haue this courage and resolution to resist the terror of death it is not sufficient to speake in the time of health as Souldiers do of their valour at the table learned discourses sayth Seneca make no demonstrations of true magnanimity the most feareful will sometimes speak more boldly then they shold We must meditate seriously of death according to the obiects which are presented vnto vs and not make any difficulty to go and comfort our dying neighbours for it is better to enter into the house of mourning then of seasting sayth the wise man To offer ourselues to al dangers of death when our vocation doth call vs like
certaine leaues fit to mortifie their lusts and Cicero will crie out to countenance thē that they must come chastly to the gods Yea Agam◅mnon will sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to pacific Diana Adrian in Egypt will sacrifice his Mignion Axtinons Vialerian will vse the superstitious custome to offer vp children the Hetrusci had that institution in their Countrey the ancient Gaules in Prouence in the City of Arles had two pillars erected and thereupon an altar of stone to offer humaine sacrifices The third is taken from the wise ordinance of nature which in many millions of things hath made nothing in vaine nothing that wauers or leanes sometimes of this side sometimes on that as Erasistratus said how then should it be in man her master-peece in the soule the principall part Hath she planted a vehement desire of immortality the chiefe point of her excellency hath shee giuen her a taste in this miserable life to leaue her altered for euer The fourth is from the continual action of the soule which neuer takes rest day nor night like vnto the Sun sleepe doth not shut her eies as it doth the bodyes neither by consequence death Consider it when as the body is in a found sleep without motion not in the beginning of his rest when as the vapours of his disgestion fuming vp into the braine trouble it but after mid-night and especially at the point of day Then when the soule her faculties holds free From seruing bodily variety Then when alone and dead to life in fort Sau'd from dayes waues she enters nights calme port It is then that being raised aboue time she reades in future which is present to her the things which God is ready to doe So Asti◅ges last King of the Medes in his dreame saw the stocke of a Vi◅e comming out of his daughters belly which couered all Asia with her branches The Interpreters being consulted with they answered that his daughter should haue a sonne which should enioy all Asia and dispossesse him of his Kingdome the euent fayled not notwithstanding all the opposition that Astiages could make Tertullian reports that the daughter of Polycrates dreamed that her father raised vp on high was washt by Iupiter and annoynted by the Sun The euent expounded her dreame soone after for that Polycrates being hanged the raine washt him and the Sun m◅ing his gr◅ase annoynted him But who is ignorant of Iosephs dreame of his future greatnesse of Pharaohs touching the fertility and famin which should follow in Egypt of Daniel touching the foure Monarchies of the world of ◅ilats wise vpon the false accusation of Iesus Christ the iust of infinite others yea and of our selues if we haue obserued them For what is he saith Tertullian so voyd of humanity that hath not sometimes felt in himselfe some faithfull vision Thus the Eternal doth vnto the good to assure them of the immortall action of their soules and to the wicked to terrifie them with his eternal iudgement send such dreames of future things to amaze or assure according to his good pleasure So hee spake by his Prophet Your sonnes and your daughters shall prophesie your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dreame dreames Let vs conclude with Tertullian That seeing sleepe the image of death cannot seaze vpon the soule that the soule being alwaies liuely and actiue can not fall in Veritatem mortis into the verity of death The fifth Man in this life is more miserable then any of the creatures and more capable of felicity then any of them they being all made for him who neuer heere vpon earth attaines vnto his soueraigne good which hee most desireth as Aristotle and Theophrastus haue acknowledged and as euery man is a good witnesse in himselfe Who will not then thinke but his true place is in heauen and in it his soueraigne good And what part of man can flie thither but his immortall soule which in a momēt not parting out of the body transports it selfe thither in Idea Tully in his Tusuculans and others The sixth complaint of Theophrastus of nature as of a step-mother seemes most iust to haue giuen a lōg life to no end to certain creatures and to haue denied it vnto man who might therby haue attained vnto wisedome the greatest good in this world if the soule dyed with the body for then onely we beginne to be wise when wee dye and many times were preuented by death But nature hath done nothing but most wisely and therefore shee hath satisfied this complaint another way The seuenth is drawne from mans conscience which being good makes Innocency to lift vp her head by the feeling of another life and to looke down for an offence by the apprehension of a future iudgement There is no light so cleere nor testimony so glorious as when truth shines in the spirit and the spirit is seene in truth saith Saint Bernard A good conscience is stronger then a brazen wall said Horace Let him speake boldly and confidently for himselfe that hath not offended saith Plautus and with the shaking of his chinne retort the false reports of a bad fame as Ouid speakes This did emboldē innocent Susanna against the two old men chusing rather to dye then to offend God This made Ioseph rather to leaue his robe with his mistresse then his heart Finally it is that which in the middest of many deaths gaue resolution vnto Cato Phocion and many other heathen as to Philip King of Macedon who beeing animated by some to take reuenge of such as spake dishonorably of him O no said he I will make them all lyars in doing well On the other side there is nothing that doth more terrifie and torment then a bad conscience Let the most resolute wretch that is come and I will make him confesse in some sort howsoeuer his crime committed in secret in the night without witnesses and without any accuser yea although he had his pardon or were acquite before men or were so aduanced as he were not iustifiable before any man yet he must needes confesse that hee is inwardly troubled and furiously tormented the Swallowes by their importune noyse will publish the parricide attempted by a cauterized conscience as hath hapned in old time Or imaginary flies wil buzze continually in the eares of the seruant that hath killed his master vntill the fact be reuealed Whence is the spring of this liuely feeling in the soul but from the apprehension of immortall paine Gods wil being that for the loue of iustice iudgement should rather go against the life of the body then that which is hidden should not come to light Obiection Counsell giuen by fauour vpon weake coniectures doth rather shake then support a right Such are these reasons THE steppes of such as bring good tydings are pleasing and welcome and they that bring bad distastfull and reiected So the 400. Prophets which promised victory vnto Achab
perfectly complete by the aggregation of all sorts of happines but there was neuer any such seene neither shall there bee in that estate he shall alwaies want more good things then he doth enioy as the earth doth not beare all sorts of fruits nor man enioy all manner of good if he abound in some gifts of the minde he is defectiue it others gifts are diuers as the Apostle teacheth 1. Cor. 12. yea contrary one vnto another as a great iudgement to a great memory and both these to a great imagination Moreouer if hee haue a viuacity of spirit hee hath a debility of body if he be fortunate to the good of this world he is barren of heauenly graces so it hath pleased God to entertaine humane society not to make man happy in al points as Horace hath said Now if to this defect of good things we make an addition of an infinite number of badde which crosse him what shall become of this poore man But hee will reply with the Stoicks that vertue may so frame and dispose the soule of man as hee will not be troubled at any thing that shall happen vnto him but will apply all to his owne good Answer This is not so easie to bee spoken but it is as hard to be performed If vertue were not difficult to learne to what end doth S. Augustine speake of so many Schoolemasters so much seuerity rods whips and so much discipline and why doth the holy Scripture say that we must often whip the well-beloued child lest hee should become stubborne and then it will be hard yea impossible to tame him And farther what signifie those notable punishments inuented by our Elders the Scaffolds gibbets strapados wheeles fires and others but that such seuerity is necessary to suppresse the sury of man to vice Finally there is nothing so difficult as vertue saith Aristotle But that which is worst of all when we thinke after a thousand crosses to haue attained to this throne of vertue what a combate doe wee feele in our selues seeking to put it in execution now wee will and instantly wee will not the same thing What a monster is this saith S. Augustine and whence comes it If the spirit commands the body it presently obeyes but if he commands himself hee findes nothing but resistance and in the chapter following I had disposed my selfe saith hee after a good resolution to serue my God and Lord it was I that wold and I that would not I neither had an absolute will nor a full power to resist wherefore I had a battaile within me and was diuided within my selfe and this diuision happened in despite of me Hitherto S. Augustine that good man so fashioned to vertue confesseth to be in a continuall warre and where there is war there is no peace nor rest Moreouer wee must not wonder at these rodomontadoes of the Stoicks they haue spoken others more strange but more vnsauory A wise man saith Seneca is alwayes ioyfull actiue quiet and assured as a rocke and liuing equall to the gods Cicero playing the Stoicke A happy life sayth he subsisteth by the vertues like vnto that of the gods and yeelding in nothing vnto them but in the immortality which is of no moment to liue will But behold the fulnesse of folly There is something saith Seneca wherein a wise man surpasseth God he is wise by the benefit of nature not by his owne a strange case to haue the imbecility of man compared with the assurance of God So Crysippus both impudently and flatteringly compared Dion of Syracusa to Iupiter his soueraigne God and maintained that he was not inferiour vnto him neither in knowledge nor in vertue These are goodly fantasies or rather frenzies I will aduise such people not to take Elleborum nor to purge or neuer to awake out of their doting dreames for being in health or awake they shall finde themselues naked and miserable like vnto the mad page who thought himselfe to be the greatest Emperour in the world that all Kings were his vassalls and did him hommage but beeing cured he found himselfe to be only but a poore Page and bound the next day to serue him whom hee would not haue accepted beeing sicke for his lacquay In the sixth obiection hee auerres that Solon hath determined how hard it was to please all I answer That Solons meaning was to speake of man to man whereas the defectiue worke is often censured by a weake braine but of God it is otherwise his worke is so excellent as there is not any thing but is admirably commendable and not to be censured in any point but by fooles And if man had not in his soule another life then this terrestriall the most resined brains would be to seek for that man the most excellent of Creatures is of no more continuance but hee doubts of this proposition Hee doubts of that which all the world hold for certaine if the Phenix in his first breeding and in his sole Indiuiduum be strange yet it followes not but that there may be such a bird most rare and very long liued Moreouer the Stagge found in the Forrest of Senlis during the reigne of Charles 6. whereof Belle forrest makes mention Admit wee should take the computation from the time that the Emperors reig ned in France yet should we finde fiue hundred yeares which is the age they giue vnto a Stagge As for the Ralien Virgil assignes him much more age He thinkes hee hath well satisfied when hee saith that it is natures sport to make exception in generall rules For as true as it is in matters indifferent of small donse quence and without preiudice to the creature that is found excepted from the generality so is it as false in matters of great consequence and which turne to great harme I will then that the diuine prouidēce be obserued sporting it selfe to make Lawes and to giue exemptions that all beasts haue the ends of their haire bending towards the taile and that the Origes is exempt hauing it towards the head that all beasts can moue their eares and not man that whatsoeuer flies hath feathers but the Batte hath none Finally that all things in the world are in perpetuall motion the earth not But what doth this import But for the last instance which God would haue for the great good of the earth She should rest firme still in her fixed fight Not to her left hand stirring nor her right As it is in the 104. Psalme But man if hee haue nothing but this life he hath need of a very long life Who shall see and iudge of this goodly frame this goodly order of the world but man the goodliest workmanship of nature and how can he doe it but by along life he doth not equall nor exceede the long continuance of the celestiall motions before they bee returned to their first point motions which giue life to euery thing by their
the body she should haue some actions without the body But this is not true ARistotle saith that the soule in the body vnderstandeth nothing but by her conuersation with the Ideas which the imagination represents vnto her whether that shee gets new knowledge or contemplates that which is gotten But the Ideas perish with the body and by consequence the soule Answer The excellent effects of the soule suffice to conuince her presence and essence as for the vnderstanding it is double passiue and actiue and these two faculties remaine still although the figures which imagination hath furnished bee vanished So a man in the bottome of an obscure Caue hath not lost his faculty of seeing although hee cannot plainely iudge of colours But the soule you will say vnderstands not any thing beeing out of the body seeing that within it she vnderstands not any thing without him It followes not That great Workman who after a manner incomprehensible to vs hath vnited and ioyned the soule vnto the body two such different natures without any apparent meane to reconcile them that great workeman I say is powerfull to furnish new meanes to her operations when hee hath called it vnto him and what wee shall know when it shall be fit In the meane time if we will beleeue Thomas Aquinas it shall be by the conuersion of the soule to things which are simply intelligible as the other spirituall substances doe Iesus Christ also hath vouchsafed to teach vs that in heauen we shall be like vnto the Angels Let vs not then trouble our selues heere no more then for the childe comming into the world In the mothers wombe it liued by the nauell this meanes is cut off by his birth but nature hath prouided him a mouth another passage in another life It is euen so of the soule it is nourished in this corruptible life by a carnall meanes and in the heauenly by another which is spirituall But you will reply that the soule is to returne into the body and not the infant into the wombe I answer That it is sufficient the similitude explaining the thing shewes it not to be impossible Moreouer it is not likely that in the Resurrection the body which shall bee spirituall should furnish the same meanes for the actions of the soule as it doth in this life but this businesse is too intricate Let vs put in practise what S. Augustine propounds vnto vs Let not the soule saith he labour do fore know it selfe absent but to know it selfe well being present and how much shee differs from other things Aso shee hath not taken her forme from Christ but her saluation and therefore the Sonne of God descended and tooke vpon him mans soule not to the end the soule should know it selfe in Christ but that shee should know Christ within her selfe for by the ignorance of her selfe her saluation is not onely in danger but by the ignorance of the eternall word as Tertullian doth learnedly teach lib. de Car. Christ. The third Obiection If the soule of man were immortall it should also be immateriall But she is materiall IF the soule bee materiall she is dissoluble into her first matter with all other sublunary things but she is materiall if shee proceedes from the Fathers seede as Tertullian Origen and other ancient moderne Diuines thinke and mainetaine it by their written bookes And in truth how can it bee said that the infant is the sonne of his father if hee hold nothing from him but his basest part the body not his form not his soule how could the holy Ghost say that all the soules which came out of Iacobs thigh were 66 How can originall sinne flow from the father vpon the sonne which hath no seat but in the soule And this made S. Augustine doubt in his fourth booke of the beginning of the soule the which he did write being olde to doubt I say of this beginning not daring to deliuer his opinion and some more hardy haue maintained that she proceeded from the congression of the two seedes of man and woman as by the striking of the iron against the stone fire comes forth Answer The principall foundation of the immortality of the soule is the word of God so they which haue had more feeling of this word haue better acknowledged it as Zoroastres Mercurius Trismegistes Pithagoras and Plato surnamed the Diuine for that effect but Aristotle Gallen and others who would measure all by humaine reason haue wonderfully deceiued themselues in matters which exceeded this measure as in this Doctrine If then the Obiector will beleeue this witnesse of whom he cites a passage the question will be soone ended the holy Scripture sayth that the Eternall breathed the spirit of life into the nosestrills of Adam he being framed of the slime of the earth the which is not spoken of any other creature In Ecclesiastes it is said that the spirit returnes to God that gaue it Iesus dying cryed out Father into thy hands I commit my soule Hee promiseth to the beleeuing theefe that he shal be that day with him in Paradise finally S. Stephen dying made this prayer Lord Iesus receiue my soule with a thousand other passages As for that which he speakes of the generatiō of the soule we first will oppose the authoritie of Tertullian lib. de Anima c. 13. You mothers sayeth he which are newly deliuered answer the question is of the truth of your nature if you feele in your fruite any other viuacitie from you but what your arteries do breath And for this cause the infant is sayd to be the true sonne of his father and mother from whom the bodie with his Organes proceeded to make which perfect God infused the spirit so as this spirit is made for this bodie and not the body for this spirit simply Moreouer the generation is not ended nor consisteth in the production of the forme or of the matter onely but of all that is composed therfore he that composeth or that ioynes the matter with the forme the flesh with the soule he doth truly ingender man But it is he that makes this coniunction who disposeth so of matter and forme as the soule followes infallibly and it is that which makes man in the generation and man and woman are the begetters of the infant As for the passage of Moses who doth not see the intellectuall figure who means one thing for another the body for the soule by reason of their strict vnion Finally that which made S. Augustin doubt of the generation of the soule was that hee could not comprehend how the sin which dwells in the soule of the father doth pasfe vnto the sonne But that is so plainely fet downe by the Diuines at this day as it is needlesse to speake of here neither were it to the pourpose It sufficeth that the Pagans themselues haue acknowledged that the soule came into man otherwise then from man Aristotle sayes plainly that it is