and orders insomuch as Seneca in his time complained Cessero publicaiura priuatis cepit licitim esse quod publicum est Plotinus 1. lib. 4. ca. 1 And Plotinus entring into consideration hereof doth as it were wonder thereat saying what should be the cause that our soules being of a diuine nature shuld so farre forget God their father and their kindred and themselues And making the answere thereto himselfehe saith The beginning of this mischiefe was acertaine rashnesse and ouer boldnesse throgh which they would needes plucke their necks out of the Coller and bee at their owne commaundement By which abuse turning their libertie into licentiousnesse they went cleane backe and are so farre gone away from God that like children being newly weyned are by and by conueyed from their parents know neither whose nor what they be nor from whence they come Plotin 1. li. 8. cap. 4. And in another place beewailing this corruption hee saith The soule which was bredd for heauenly things hath plunged it selfe in these materiall things and matter of it selfe euill that not onlie 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 beholds darknes is filld with darknes Hierocles the stoicke against Atheists saith that man is of his owne motion enclined to follow the euill and to leaue the good there is saith he a certain strife bred in his affectiōs which stepping vp against the will of nature hath made it to tumble from heauen to hell The Auncient Philosophers taking consideration of the number of affections and passions wherewith the Soule and Reason of man is infected and corrupted which Plutark affirmeth to be much more sorrowful and grieuous then the bodily diseases endeuouring to reduce and bring those intemperate affections and passions to some reasonable order haue made diuers books of Moral vertues and lawes and giuen sundry rules ordinances and precepts to bring them to obediēce In which their exceeding painefull works they positiuely inueigh against the rebelliousnes that is naturally in vs against Reason that is the rebelliousnes that is crept in by this corruption of nature These rebellious affections passions are not as spottes or staynes that may be washed or clensed out of nature but a deepe impression in nature with much ado to be restrained and held short but neuer vtterly to be subdued or ouercome whervpon it is very fitly said by a man of great learning Seeing that reason is somuch more excelēt then passion or affection as the formes shape or fashion is more excellent then the matter or stuffe wherein it is Whence commeth this infection in vs that maketh the matter to ouermaister the forme and causeth the form as it were to receiue shape and fashion of the matter that is to say which putteth Reason in subiection to passions and to the impression which affection yeeldeth contrary to the order which is in al the world beside What else is this intemperance of man but Reason as it now remaineth inwrought or ingrauen with lust concupiscence what is anger but Reason attainted with choser c. Nō sic suit ab initie It was not so in the first creation The motions of lust anger and intemperance which now rule men against Reason were not in the originall nature of man neither proceed they of the first creation for then would not nature be ashamed of them as you see it now is These motions are crept in since by corruption And therefore the grieuing that happeneth to men by those passions is a working of nature which is ashamed to play the bruit beast There are described to be in the reasonable soule of man foure powers or abilities first Witte secondly Will thirdly an abilitie of being angrie fourthly an Abillitie of Lusting In those foure abilities the Philosophers haue entended to place foure vertues In wit wisdome in will righteousnesse in the abilitie of being angrie valor in the abilitie of lust Staidnesse These powers abilities vertues are maymed And those abilities haue not those vertues Wit is maymed with ignorance Wil with doing wrong Valor with cowardice Staidenes with licentiousnes Besides the outward fences imagination and appetite which are cōmon to beastes man had wit or reason and will of the gift of the creator peculiar to man only by which wee esteeme our selues better then the beasts and in regard therof we look to haue them in subiection vnder vs. And al this Reason leadeth vs to vnderstand But obserue the sequell and we shall find as the corrupt cōdition of mans nature is now that whereas imagination ought to rule the fences will to rule the appetite and Reason to rule the imagination it fareth farre otherwise for imagination giueth way to the outward sense Appetite ruleth will and imaginatiō carrieth Reason at her pleasure insomuch that the very sensuall parte which is the meanest carrieth all the rest and maketh Reason an vnderling nay oft times leaueth Reason quite out and rebelleth against her and so this spirit and reason of ours is forward to nothing but euill nor enclined to any thing saue base and transitorie matters It fastneth it self to the earth and is bondslaue to the bodie To discouer how farre the auncient Philosophers out of such reasons as they had waded into these causes would require a long worke therfore a worde or two Philosophie it selfe is said to be an art of healing the soule of the infirmities whereinto it was fallen from hir first perfection The first step thereunto or precept is Nosce teipsum begin to know thy selfe Aristotle coulde not chuse but knowe that the vnderstanding and minde of man was out of tune when in his Moralls he declareth that the affections ought to be ruled by reason and our mind brought from extreames into the meane and from iarring into the right tune Theophrastus saith that the soule payed well for her dwelling in the bodie considering how much it suffred by the bodies meanes shewing that he considered that corruption was entered into man euen into his soule mind and reason Zoriastres the grand-child of Noa and auncientest of Philosophers bewayleth this laps fall and digression of the race of mankinde crying alas alas the whole earth mourneth euen vnto children And Hermes in his Poemander giueth it a most absolute conclusion where he saith God created mā after his owne likenesse and gaue him all things to vse but man in steed of staying vpon the beholding of his father would needes bee medling and doing somewhat of himselfe and so fell from the heauenly contemplation into the sphere of elements or generation And because he had power ouer all things he began to fall in loue with himselfe And gazing and wondring at himselfe he was so intangled that he became a bondslaue to his body being before at libertie Which bondage and abasing hee intendeth to be in the soule mind and reason of man
the trunes of christian Religion saith We see in mans body a wonderfull mixture of the foure Elements the veines spreading foorth like riuers to the vttermost members as many instruments of sense as there be sensible natures in the worlde a great number of sinnewes flesh-strings and knitters a head by speciall priuiledge directed vp to heauen handes seruing to all maner of seruices whatsoeuer hee is that shall consider no more but onely this instrument without life without sence and without mouing cannot but thinke verily that it is made to very great purpose hee must needes crie out that man is a miracle which farre surmounteth not onely those lower Elements but also the very heauen and all the ornaments thereof But if he could out of himselfe beholde his owne body receiuing life and enter into the vse of al his motions hee woulde bee rauished with the consideration thereof But if hee enter into consideration of his immortall and reasonable soule it woulde drawe him from the earth to the heauenly creatures and aboue them to the presence of god from things subiect to mortallitie to the excellencie of all eternitie As there is a contrarietie of the Elementes among themselues directly one against the other yet these by equall mixture make a temperament so betwixt the soule and body the one beeing an immortall spirite the other corrupt and transitorie yet they put together make a perfect man Man by his reasonable soule and yet no man without the body So the reasonable man consisteth of bodie and soule for without the Spirite and soule it were but a lumpe of earth and without the materiall body it were onely an immortall spirite This is the miraculous woorke of God as it were to ioyne mortalitie and immortalitie together in marriage the immortall spirite as the head and husband and the mortall body as the spouse to obey These two in the first creation made perfect man and this perfect man which is properly vnderstoode by the inwarde man was indued with perfect right and true Reason Sect. IIII. The definition of Reason FEaring to exceede the boundes of Reason wherof I haue had care to consider because I finde the depth thereof to be without the comprehension of men I say for my selfe as Cyprianus Leonitius spake concerning his study of Astronomy though he could not attaine the fulnesse thereof yet Est aliquod prodire tenus si nō datur vltra there is a proceeding to some good purpose though all cannot be knowen And as Lactantius saide of the Labours of Hercules that they were Opera viri fortis viri tamen the works of a strong man yet of a man shewing there were imperfections in them so may it bee saide of the best Labours of menne that they come shorte of perfection In like I may say of this thing which I desire to explane by definition and am driuen to confesse as Beza saieth of these wordes 1. Cor. 11 10. Propter Angelos Quid hoc sit nondum mihi constat what this worde Reason meaneth I yet thorowly knowe not But submitting my vnderstanding vnto her worthinesse I make bolde to explane her in the most woorthy sorte I can attaine vnto The Latine woorde is Ratio It is Englished by diuerse Authours and called by diuerse Titles which allude towardes a definition It is sayde to be Reason Counsel Purpose Care Respect Consideration Regarde the Cause the Matter the State the Meanes the Way the Fashion the Forme the Proportion a Rule the Feate the Manner and sort a Mind a Counsell Aduise an Accompt or reckoning Businesse Valew Affaires And lastly the Quantitie wherein is to be obserued that out of the seuerall causes wherevnto the scope of the Authors tended theyr writings haue affoorded these seuerall names or titles describing in parte by them the nature and qualitie of Reason Others haue gone further saying Reason is the eie of the Soule whereby shee looketh into things past present and to come She is saide to be The Empresse of the Senses The Queene of Will An Apprehension of Heauenly and Diuine things The daughter of Vnderstanding Reason is by some termed A worde of diuine inspiration agreeing with that speach of Architus where hee saieth God breathed Reason into Man Reason is saide to be Aprudent guide of the Soule in her actions Shee is saide to be The Medicine of the Soule Hesiodus comming very neere the marke saith Reason is a diuine guide and wisedome inspired from aboue Ratio est quaedam tacita facultas insita mentibus hominum August apud Iurisc Reason is a certaine secret faculty ingrafted in the mindes of men Ratio est rerum humanarum diuinarum indagatrix According to the schoolemen quoad causas Reason is a searcher out of humane and diuine things in respect of the causes thereof Ratio est rerum omnium scrutinum moderamen quoad modos Reason is a finder out and gouernour of all thinges as concerning the manner thereof So haue these men with great indeuour expressed their mindes and vnderstandings which I reuerently accompt of But Reason being not defineable Vt illud quod consistit ex materia as material things are must needs be an immortall qualitie or facultie of the Soule if not essentiall which I haue reason to conceiue yet at the least vnseparable exercising many offices as instruments or intelligencers of Causes according to hir emploiment Out of which Considerations these sayings haue proceeded Domina Regina omnium est ratio quae connexa per se et progressa longiùs fit perfecta virtus haec vt imperet illi parti animi quae obedire debet Id videndum est viro quonam modo inquies velut seruo Dominus velut Imperator militi velut parens filio Reason is the Lady and Queene of all thinges which first vnited by it selfe and proceeding further is made a perfect virtue and how she ought to rule that parte of the minde which ought to obey euery man must consider But you wil aske in what maner she shoulde rule Surely euen as a maister ruleth his seruants an emperour his souldier and as a father his sonne Nihil est Cic. de legibus non dicam in homine sed in omni solo atque terra ratione diuinius quae cum adoleuit atque perfecta est nominatur ritè sapientia There is nothing I will not say in man but in all the world more diuine than Reason the which when it is growne ripe and come to perfection is truly called Wisedome Vt patrimonium homini ab homine Cic. de nat Deorum relinquitur sic ratio homini à Deo As a patrimony is bestowed from man to man so is Reason giuen as a portion from God to man 2. Tnsc Cùm praecipitur vt nobismet ipsis imperemus hoc praecipitur vt ratio coerciat temeritatem When this is commaunded that wee should rule our selues this is intended that Reason should bridle
Rashnesse Sect. V. The diuision of Reason and the errour in vnderstanding thinges to proceede of Reason that doe not REason is of two sorts simple right and true Subtile corrupt and false as by the maner of Schoole distinctions is manifest The manner of reasoning with right and true Reason they call Logicke The arguing with false and corrupt Reason they call Sophistrie But before we enter into this diuision it shal be very necessarie first to discouer the cōmon error of men who vnderstand many things to proceed of Reason that in truth do not which being manifested will bee an easier way to take knowledge of the rest And for the better vnderstanding hereof let vs take them as they offer themselues to be discouered First things that haue being only attaine not to Reason for so haue stones Things that haue being and life only reach not neere Reason for so haue trees To haue being life sence only comprehend things seeming to proceed of Reason as beasts who yet faile thereof And because beastes in many things haue a neerenes vnto Reason being creatures in degree next vnto men Let vs peruse somethings in them which doe deceiue men and wherein most men do erre To mooue to feed to sleepe to wake to see smell or sence any thing commeth not to Reason to feare to eschew to desire to discerne to imagine to generate nor to preserue the young commeth not to right Reason Barely to preuent iminent dangers proceedeth not of Reason for the beasts enioy all these and will flee from their pursuers and eschew to cast themselues headlong from any high place Bare knowledge proceedeth not of Reasons for the birdes know their mates be they neuer so like to others of their plume they know the passage to and from their breeding places and prouide for and feed their young they build curious nests to preserue their egges they sit and hatch their young and know the times of the yeare for that purpose and the strength of their broode to make shift for themselues before they will leaue to feede them In these matchings and keeping to their mated Companions without change though they proceed not of right Reason according to the qualitie of the soules Reason yet may they teach many that come short of that dutie and yet hold themselues to be possessed of Reason Barely to make prouision for a future time to put in store or to hide from wasting and destruction commeth not to that which is called right Reason for so doth the field mouse who makes her way into the ground and chusing the best graines that are in the eare she there placeth it in great abundance for her winter prouision and so ordereth the matter that she keepeth them drie as they may not growe with the moisture The wood-bucke hordeth vp his nettes and the Ante her prouision against winter But enter duely into consideration of the Bee with whō I will conclude her continuall labor cunning working preseruing her food and their knowledge and gouernment and obedience And therin may a man euen with shame behold his owne faultes that such excellent matters should proceed from so small creatures voide of Reason only pertakers of sence Spare your patience to peruse the order of their employments a little at large First beeing small and puisill creatures they gather themselues together into multitudes without confusion They inhabite and dwell together without discord they continue in one house together without alteration they ioyne in working together without larre they giue roome one to another without annoy the vnburdened to the laden without resistance they ioyne to defend themselues against strangers they rob not one anothers house be they neuer so many And in their neighbourhood they haue a kind of regard and knowledge one of another and like a common wealth as it were they ioyne to suppresse others that are of another garden they dispose of their dead out of the hiue least they should annoy and suffer their young to grow and come to maturitie And as they suffer their young to feede on their labour so doe they expell and chace away the idle drones and sluggardes In their labour they prouide for two things hony for their food and waxe to make them welles to put the same in the most skillfull workman in the world cannot frame a more artificiall worke then they who ioyne together in their framing the waxen vessels in an admirable forme that the walles of one worke serueth ten seuerall vses it is a square it selfe seruing for foure sides in that worke for foure other sides to the foure conioyning neighboures either botom serueth for two vesselles euery place after it is full is so fast walled that nothing can fall out and so wel couered that nothing can come in the whole worke is so strongly wrought together that it falleth not off from the place where it is first fastened that after a kind of artificiall geometricall proportion of ponderositie it rather seemeth to be pendent than supported by any thing And marke it well you shall finde the hollow places where the hony is setled in such sort and order as it may be come at without harming or marring any other vessell They labour all together and they feede all together and if they want they perish all together They obey their king to depart from their habitation vpon warning As they were bred all together so they depart all together and it is holden that they chuse a place where to repose themselues before they leaue their former home but at the least it is very euident they continue and keepe together as it were a sworne vnited and incorporate housholde to partake good or euill as it befalleth They make their way thorow the ayre and knowe how to returne Their painful trauell in summer manifests they haue knowledge winter will come If any company of men did ioyne themselues together and performe this kinde of seruice for the mutuall good one of another woulde it not bee holden for the miracle of the world or if any man woulde so order himselfe after that sort in the gouernement of himselfe his passions actions and affections in his little worlde woulde he not be esteemed the rarest of al that liue Consider these thinges well and marke what excellent partes of nature there are herein perfourmed by these seely sensitiue creatures Howe many men liue that will iudge otherwise than that the doing of these things proceede from right and true Reason and yet in very trueth they doe not They are onely those benefites of Nature which God hath bestowed on these kinde of creatures and tend onely and no further than to a temporary a dying finishing corruptible and ending scope for the creatures themselues and their liues being corruptible their actions and dooings can tend no further than to the extreame and vttermost of their liues which Nature taught them to preserue by these meanes Sect. VI. Vnto
what things right Reason reacheth BVt right and true reason duely considered is of a farre higher and more excellent qualitie it extendeth it selfe into thinges corruptible and incorruptible and it reacheth into the things past things present thinges to come First let vs looke howe it extendeth it selfe into the solide and massie parte of the earth Reason discouereth both the matter and forme thereof The superficies and the Chaos or Cuball partes it vnderstandeth that in her intrailes are many veines for water to passe concaue places for the ayre mettalls of gold siluer copper yron tinne lead stone and other excellent things Reason hath searched into the refining of things into a perfection which Nature it selfe hath not yet brought to maturity and ripenes Reason hath put a distinction betwene those mettalls either for their worthines or basenes And out of the consideration of the matter and forme thereof by the whole and by their partes Reason taketh knowledge of God their first Creator All which the onely sensitiue parte of beasts or men doe not conceiue nor vnderstand Reason entreth into the consideration of the diuersitie of creatures and their creation What other thing than the reason of man hath found out the virtues operations of trees plants herbes or discouered that some one thing shall haue diuers powers virtues and workings in diuerse partes thereof colde without hote within of one colour in the outside of an other in the substance colde in the leafe hote in the roote and of an other operation in the rhinde Reason informeth to appoynt some hearbes to bee eaten some for Physicke some to be vsed in hote causes others in cold nay more Reason hath searched into the very solide bodies and substance of things as to vnderstand what speciall vertue is in golde siluer copper yron and other mettalles in trees plants and hearbes and to extract and drawe from them their principal and best vertues and to make vse of them for his owne purpose descending as it were into the very nature and condition of Nature it selfe to help the imperfections of Nature in some part And such other rare and excellent things as being truly considered must needes bee adiudged to proceede from a nature of deeper vnderstanding than all the others that are meerely sensitiue Of beasts and birds Reason chuseth some for meate and others for other vses as our common experience doth teach vs. If we consider the workes that are written by prophane men of Geometrie Geographie Arithmeticke Astronomy Astrologie Musicke the liberall Sciences the Mensuration of the earth the Altitude Longitude Crassitude Magnitude Oppositions Coniunctions Aspects Motions Progressions Retrogradations Courses and Spheres of the celestiall bodies of the Zodiake the Climates Horizons Tropiks Poles Zones of the mouing starres and how they finish their courses of the Orbes their spaciousnesse of their conuex partes and their absides of their natures and gouernement they haue ouer mortall creatures of the Composition of Elements who can iudge otherwise than that these things are wrought into men by the excellent part of Reason If in mechanicall Trades we obserue the curious building of houses the mollifying of harde things to bee wrought by fire to make sollide things fusible liquide things hard the forging of yron and other mettalles the curious spinning and exquisite needle-worke the fashioning of things fitte for mens bodies the Arte of Printing and a thousand other things which we see daily in our view And among all the rest these ordinary things the vse of our speach and discoursing our reading and writing and vnderstanding of languages which being properly ours by Reason ought to bee contained within the bounds of Reason As the reasonable soule hath both contemplated and made vse of all these things so hath she repaire euen to the presence of God himselfe and though she be neuer absent from the bodie during life yet is she not so included in the bodie as that shee is not at one selfe same instant in other places wee see by these examples aforesaid that she maketh her passage into things that cannot be touched nor compassed otherwise then by vnderstanding and Reason Obserue it in thy selfe and thou shalt find thou maist send thy minde reason and vnderstanding into the furthest part of the world and call it backe in a moment though thy bodie stirre not If any man be of opinion that his soule and Reason are shut fast in his bodie and that the bodie carrieth the Soule the minde and Reason at his pleasure he is much deceiued for if he looke truly into his owne actions he shal rather find that the soule doth carrie and moue the body from place to place as the mind and Reason liketh For consider the possibilitie of the one and impossibilitie of the other the Soule may liue and moue without the body but the body cannot possibly moue without the soule Therefore as life consisteth in the Soule so do the moouings or stirrings of the body proceed of the power and working of the soule Therfore as the soule is in the bodie and in euery part thereof by all and by the whole so is the bodie conueyed and mooued by the Soule in all and euery part of the body the actiue part of man is the Soule and the passiue part is his body Marke thine owne actions and and thou shalt see and plainely discouer it to be true hast thou a iourney in hand thy vnderstanding mind Reason doth first determine and appoint before thou mooue to vndertake the labour nay when thy body lieth still thy mind and Reason worketh Be thou in prison thy mind is busie abroade and Reason setteth her selfe aworke how to procure the enlargement of that bodie of thine that cannot stirre a foote out of the doore and if thy bodie were as easely conueied as thy minde and Reason thou shouldest not long remaine in durance But they may not depart absolutely from thee leaue thee a liuing creature Thus is it plaine that the Soule the mind and Reason do carry cause the bodies motions and it is not the bodie that carrieth the Soule What caused Pythagoras Plato Aristotle and the Greekes to repaire to the schollers of Tresmegistes the Egiptians to the Caldeans and Hebrues for the learning of Philosophie but Reason and the Motion of the mind for the worthines of that worthie science The like may be said of Archimides Sulpitius Gallus Thales Iupiter Belus Socrates and others concerning Astrologie Whosoeuer shall looke curiously into the admirable works of Arithmeticke and Geometrie and proportions therof done by Pithagoras Eudoxus Euclides Archimedes and Tresmegistes shall be driuen of necessitie to confesse verie rare curious and profitable helpes by them to bee effected and published to the good of the world And who can but wonder at the worke of Archimedes who by those reasons found out what seuerall mettalls were in the Kings Crowne and how much there was of euery mettall without
either melting or taking it in sunder Plutarch in the life of Solon and Lycurgus If it be demaunded what caused Solon and Lycurgus to trauell into Egypt to learne rudiments and lawes to bring their people into a reasonable gouernment It will be answered that the inclination they had to draw rude and confused matters to some reasonable head and order moued them to take that paines The lawes of dominion and propertie of things both reall and personal of mixt and entire are drawne out of Reason and all their braunches ought to bee tied fast thereunto The law of seueritie and punishment are in the nature of keeping the guiltlesse from receiuing wrong and are as a protection for the well gouerned not drawne out of an vnreasonable desire of punishment without cause or tormenting the offender in respect of his person but to take off the offence In the orderly or fit doing of any thing the mind and Reason beginne their work at the latter end and at the effect as in building a house Reason hath laid the whole plot and the cause to what end it is built before any stone be laid In any iourny Reason either hath or should set downe the probabilitie of good to ensue therof What caused the men of auncient time to enter into consideration of eternitie and to search into the difference of things immortall and things transitorie subiect to corruption of the beginning ending of time and of the world and that time is not in respect of God and eternitie but of things that had beginnings and passe with time and whosoeuer shall looke into the workes of Homer Hesiodus Parminides Mercurius Sophocles Aeschylus Euripides and others shall finde that this Soules qualitie of Reason euen out of nature it selfe had searched farre into these deepe matters It is amongst the Philosophers agreed that there is in man a double speach the one in the mind before we vtter it and the other is called the speach of the voyce vttered with the mouth the one priuate the other serueth to publish that which the minde and vnderstanding haue conceiued and determined to manifest The learned translatours of the Greeke word Logos somtimes call it speach somtimes word and sometimes Reason and it alludeth to this Vox praefert animus ratiocinatur mentis verbum ipsa ratio est The voice vttereth the mind reasoneth and debateth so Reason is the very word or speach of the mind And as it is fitlie said that what proportion is between the voyce or speach of the mind the like is betweene the speach of the mind and the speach of vnderstanding the voyce hath neede of aire and is diuided into partes and requireth leasure the minde is indiuisible but yet hath neede to passe from one conclusion or Reason to another But vnderstanding accomplisheth his action or working in lesse then a moment with one only act filleth the Reason and minde that it is constrayned to make many acts of one so that there is such an indiuisible vniting and putting together of vnderstanding mind and reason in the Soule that they may not be parted nor be one without the other For which cause Reason is properly said to bee the daughter speach or word of our vnderstanding That nature and abilitie of working of the Soule which the Latines call Mens the French translators vnderstand to be the reasonable Soule And as there is described to bee in the reasonable Soule working vnderstanding and willing so are not these three liues nor three soules in vs but one life one soule And these are three powers which the reasonable and immortall soule cannot want The like is said of the memorie of vnderstanding or of mindefull vnderstanding to be an aboundance of reason and as it were a hoorder vp of the continuall influences of the minde which minde Auerhos and Alexander tearme the workefull minde which is a power or force that can skill to extend reason from one thing to an other which they also conclude to be vncorruptible euerlasting and diuine and by this Minde is vnderstoode the immortall reasonable soule of man And as a great learned man writing of the corruption of mans nature sheweth that the worlde and all the creatures were made for the vse of man and commending the vnderstanding and reason of man Hee first speaking of the other creatures sayth To what purpose are all their virtues and excellent properties if themselues know them not The Sunne saith he excelleth among the Coelestiall bodies and the Rose among the flowers The beast is a degree aboue the trees But what skilles it what thou arte or what thou hast if thou know it not nor vnderstand it For what auaileth the light to the blinde meate to him that cannot taste sweete odours to him that smelleth not Or what auaileth the excellencie of thy Creation or thy reasonable and immortall Soule if thou discerne not the woorthinesse thereof By the meanes of Reason onely man of all the things in this inferior world can skill of these things and how to enioy them and so of force it may rightly and truely be concluded that they were made for none but for him That is to speake more properly God hath giuen vnto man al and whatsoeuer al other creatures either haue or be and hath not dealt with him barely as with a creature but rather as with his owne childe for whome he hath expresly created this world and giuen it him to possesse and besides gaue him an vnderstanding mind and reason which I so much labour to aduance to enioy gouerne and order the same Yet to drawe Reason a little higher this excellent qualitie in the soule of man by some is vnderstoode to be a religious regard and vnderstanding of God and to walke in his seruice and a continuall obseruation of good things that tend to immortalitie For as death separateth the body and soule for a time so doth the soule carry with it so much of his substāce power quality as it first brought that is spirite life reason and will which it shall bring to the bodie againe at the time of their second vniting Agayne if Reason bee the Daughter Vnderstanding which is a chiefe power of the soule be the Mother then are these co-relatiues and the one can not be without the other The soule cannot be without vnderstanding and vnderstanding cannot be without reason therefore as the soule is an immortall substāce so is vnderstanding an immortal power and reason an immortall quality of the soule The word Logos which the translators of the Greeke many times call Reason or word is said by the diuines to be incarnate by the holy ghost to make the sonne of God the second person in the Trinity whome we acknowledge and beleeue to bee subsisting of a reasonable Soule and humane flesh To whome the Philosophers giue the names of the Be-er or hee that is Wit or Vnderstanding the beautiful and sometimes speach word
purpose was otherwise howsoeuer men regarde it If thy purpose be in accompanying with men and hauing societie with them respice finem to what end it is whether for thy present pleasure or profit or the endlesse happinesse of immortalitie In these matters there are three speciall things to bee considered First the intent and purpose of thy minde and the conference and conclusion there before any words vttred The second is the words which are the minds messengers to make knowne hir intent The third is the actions practicke parts thereof Consider therefore whether thy mind and thy wordes agree and whether thy words actions agree And in them all haue regarde that thy purpose be honest for nothing is agreeing with right reason that is not truely honest and nothing truly honest which a man desireth to an other and would not haue the same befall to himselfe Now if in thy mind thou conceiue mischiefe fraude and deceit and thy mouth pronounceth smoothe and pleasing wordes send Reason to inquire who it is that sitteth betweene thy minde and thy mouth that causeth this iarre betweene thy heartes intent and thy voyced speech and she will finde there placed that subtil sophister that beguiled Eue with an Apple neuer intending more mischiefe than vnder smoothe wordes Mel in ore verba lactis fel in corde fraus in factis If thy actions and performance accomplish not thy promises thy reason will shew there was corruption in thy minde or weakenesse in thy vnderstanding that wouldest a duenture to promise matters aboue thy abilitie If thy mind be discontēted which is a generall thing among men some in wishing to chāge their sex as men to be women women to be men old men to be yong children to bee of ripe age the single to be married the coupled to bee asunder the seruant to be Master the Maister to be seruant the rich to be more rich the poore to be as rich the needy to haue the wealth of his neighbour the man subiect to obediēce to rule the gouernor oft times to be freed of his great burthen And this which is a generall fault in euery man of aduancement and preferment to excel and to beare Rule insomuch that oft times the subiect vniustly contendeth for the kingdome A thousand other things there are in seeking of nouelty exchange of trades and courses of life of health and libertie and such like which I leaue to rehearse and send thee to thy selfe for resolution Peruse thy whole body and thou shalt finde diuers necessary parts and members as the feete the legges the hands the armes the head the eyes the teeth the liuer stomake lungs yeines sinewes arteries such like Al which tend to the performance of seueral duties and offices to the heart and the life therein placed And as none of these can be wanting to make a perfect bodie so none of thē enuy another nor desire to change being made for these seueral vses cannot exchange places nor offices So is it thy case to be a part or member of another world And as thou wouldest not bee a stone to bee the richest Iewell nor a tree to bee the greatest Cedar a beast to bee the great Behemoth a fish to bee the great Leuiathan nor a Diuell to be Belsabub himselfe So Reason teacheth that thou canst not be Moses nor Elias Salomon nor Dauid not borne of the roote of Iosse no Romane Itulian nor German thou canst haue no other Father nor Mother then thine owne If thou be not borne of the blood Royall it is not Gods fault But if thou rashly aspire to that wherto thou art not borne it is thy fault And the same reason whereby thou requirest to haue dominion ouer thy inferior requireth thou shouldest obey thy superior For the powers that are ordained of God among whom the king is the most excellent carrying representation of the maiestie iustice and mercie of God If thou send forth as thou must of necessity any of thy appetites affections or passions Then giue them their Commission for feare of offending and omitting the rest I will particularly touch these And first concerning necessarie things if thou suffer thy affection or passion of thirst at libertie let her not riott so farre as to ouer-maister thy Reason be as carefull in thy greatest drought to keepe moderation therein as thou art fearefull to burne thy selfe with fier when thou art most colde be as wary in that point as thou woldest be to put a sword into a madde mans hand If thy passion of hunger craue libertie set her boundes that she surfett not nor waste as much in one day as would satisfie thee a moneth If the affectiō of cold require clothes giue her a law that she exceede not hir bounds by putting on thy whole wealth in a sute of apparrell If thy affection of Loue or rather Lust be extraordinarily busie take order in time that shee ouer-runne not her compasse And as Loue is properly said to be a desire of things faire goodly and beautifull so lett her not extend them further then to things honest profitable and possible For if the thing thou loue bee not honest it will be a clogge to thy conscience if not profitable it wil be wearisome to thy life if not possible it will turne into griefe and so either into a desperate or mad humor For if Plato conclude rightly that all things in this world are engendered by loue thou hast Reason to take heede thou abuse it not and it become thine owne confusion If thou hate see it bee vice not vertue for there is none so impudent but will confesse that vertue is a good of the soule and vice beeing the contrary is an euill If Reason be thy medicine the contrary must needs be the sicknes of the Soule If thou feele sadnes or sorrow cōming fast towards thee set Reason stoutly and valiantly to defend thee from it remembring Salomons conclusion that a sorrowfull hart drieth vp a mans bones yet mistake not my meaning for godlie sorrow for thy misdeedes is a good protection against the other In the case of friendship take Aristotles Moral for thy direction perfect friendship is among good men that loue vertue and in all things avoide rashnesse out of this Reason Darius acknowledged he had rather haue one Zopirus then the conquest of twentie Babilons If the thing thou hope for bee grounded vpon Reason and depend vpon a possible attaining the same it will in it selfe protect thee from despaire And if thy hope be rightly in God Reason will teach thee to depend on his prouidence and not to hope for vain or impossible matters And seeing that hope is the fountain trade of al sortes of mens employment in this life there is great cause it should depend vpon Reason not rashly consume that a man hath and foolishly hope for more Many vaine things follow vaine hope which commonly worke confusion As the hope and