it together beares in comparison to them but such proportion according to the Astronomers computation as a point in midle of a circle to the circumference doth with its unmeasurable greatnesse out vie the force of humane understanding to conceave any idea of its dimensions and yet when wee consider but with the least attention these great workemanships of God and search into the nature of them wee must needs be satisfied they are not infinite for that consisting as our senses can informe us of finite parts themselves must likewise bee of the same nature with the parts whereof they are composed who is it that perceives not when hee takes up a shovell full of earth from the ground or but a dish of water out of the Sea that those portions of the two Elements are finite and that our not being able to find out their certaine quantity proceeds not from any contradiction in their natures to bee surveyd or measured but onely from the weaknesse of our forces who is it that can doubt when hee perceives the Sunne draw neerer to us but that the distance betweene us and him is finite since were it otherwise it were not capable of increase or diminution And who in fine can make a question but that the Heavens are circumscribed by certaine bounds and limits when hee beholds them to bee perpetually measured by the Sunn Moone and the other Planets in their severall motions according to whose different races wee give beginning and ending unto our houres dayes months years and to our ages Archimedes was of opinion hee could have mooved the world had there been any other place out of it upon which he might have fixed his instrument and I am certainly perswaded that when wee shall bee freed out of this cage of earth wherein our soules are inclosed during this life wee shall with ease bee able to surveigh and comprehend the Heavens the Earth and all the other workmanships of nature that now appeare to bee so far beyond the reach of humane understanding And yet when our inlarged soules shall have the power to circle earth sound hell and measure all the vast extent of Heaven how little or rather nothing at all will that appeare being compared unto infinity if wee were able to number all the droppes of water in the Sea and count the sands upon the shore and if for every one of them wee were to live an age before wee died yet were this terme as nothing being compared unto Eternity since time would at last consume all that large stocke of our subsistance and Eternity when that were past would still continue constant in the full possession of all its being Aristotle was of opinion the world wherein wee live had no beginning and should never have an ending perswaded thereunto by the incessant vicissitude of generation and corruption and the setled course of Nature which perpetuates all the severall species or kinds of things notwithstanding the continuall decay of the individualls whereof they are composed if this imagination of his were true it would then follow that the duration of the world should bee indeed perpetuall but not infinite and that it would have nothing in it approaching to the pure simplicity of an Eternall being For if time be divided as reason experience and the opinion of all Philosophers assure us t is into past present and to come how can that though nere so farr extended bee without end whose very being consists in a perpetuall fluxe of ending and beginning or how can that bee without bounds whose two parts that is the first and last are not at all and whose third part wherein onely it subsists is circumscribed within such narrow limits that we can hardly think a thought during the terme of its duration and what resemblance can there bee in it of Eternity the one being in a continuall motion and the other in a constant quiet the one perpetually changing and the other never subject to alteration and the one in fine subsisting onely in the short instants of the present time whereas the other comprehends all times past present and to come in the pure simplicity of a present being From this ground there ariseth another consideration of the Nature of Eternity that is of the indivisibility thereof which I make the subject of my next reflection Indivisibility is a terme also negative which represents unto us onely something that cannot bee parcelled out by portions as the things of this inferiour world way bee Divide et impera that is divide and governe is a maxime succesfully practised by the Politicians when making use of the private dissentions either of a City or Common-wealth they obtaine and preserve thereby their Dominion over all the differing parties and we may also with the same truth affirme this other Divide destruâ— divide and destroy God who is Creator of whatsoever hath an existence being himselfe one by the simplicity of his Nature hath placed the subsistence of all things in unity and hath therefore by a working peculiar onely to himselfe united the contraries of heat and cold of draught and moisture unto the making up of all the severall bodies either sensible or insensible which are contained in the rich treasury of nature whilest they continue united by this bond so long they are said to bee but if the union bee once broken either by externall violence or the inward working of the different qualities whereof the body is composed then doth it forthwith lose the former being and becomes some other thing according to the nature of the new form which it acquires As long as our bodies remaine fit to entertaine our soules by the due temperature of the humors and disposition of the Organs to receive her operations wee continue to bee men but when that ceaseth either by inward distemper or outward force wee then leave to be so our soules becomming seperated formes and our bodies returning to the common masse of matter from whence they are extracted the same wee see happens in beasts plants and in all other inanimate bodies of what Nature or quality soever so as there can bee no conclusion truer then this that whatsoever is allready divided hath left to bee what it was formerly whatsoever may bee divided is subject to decay and ruine and whatsoever is indivisible must also of necessity by reason of the simplicity of its Nature bee Eternall Eternity is therefore indivisible and all those happy persons who have gained that blessed part are allwaies in possession of their whole being they lose nothing of what is past they want nothing of what is future but the present in that Celestiall Countrey doth comprehend after an unexpressible manner all those three different and incompatible parts into which time is divided And hence it is that all the happinesse found there is true and solid because those different goods are united in that fixed Mansion which being heere divided mislead the greatest part of humane
suitable unto the seeds they have sowed heere according to that saying of the Apostle quaecunque seminaverit homo eadem metet whatsoever a man hath sowed the same also he shall reap Let us examine the condition of one who hath abandoned himselfe unto his sensuall lusts and placing his chiefe good in them hath imploied all the affections and faculties of his Soule in compassing those objects of his wishes his stock of time is now exhausted whilest hee endeavoured onely to beguile it with the variety of choise delights and death finding him busie in the caressing of his body hath violently snatched it from him The stately Pallaces vast Treasures and ravishing beauties whereof he thought himselfe the owner are now in the possession of another and the poore Soule is exposed naked upon the confines of Eternity Let us with the eyes of contemplation accompany her thither and see what are her thoughts what are her entertainments in that Countrey wherein as yet she is a stranger This rude alarme hath rous'd her now out of that pleasing slumber wherein she retchlessely consumed the time allotted her to labour and shee is come unto the land of rest wherein shee must for all Eternity subsist upon the stocke shee hath brought with her she now begins to take a view thereof and summing her accounts she findes that all her large possessions sumptuous Buildings Friends and Riches have parted with her at the houre of Death that all her pleasures are vanished like a Dreame that her body for whose solace and delight all these were coveted is mouldring into dust and ashes and that in fine of all that shee hath done of all that shee hath seene suffered or enjoyed there remaines nothing with her but her owne inordinate judgements and affections which like a raging fire burne her without consuming whilest all her powers and faculties are racked incessantly when shee considers the excellencie of what shee hath forgone the unworthinesse of what she hath pursued and the impossibility to retract her choice All that which a most violent passion is able to produce in the most capable subject is nothing in comparison of her afflictions Wee read that Pompeys wife shee who was daughter unto Julius Caesar died suddenly with the excesse of griefe caused by the love she bare unto her husband upon the sight but of a bloudy garment which shee knew had beene that day worne by him and if we may believe the Poets that same passion drew Orpheus to Hell among the Ghosts and Fiends in search of his Euridice as being company much more supportable unto him then were his cares and sorrowes occasioned by her absence but alas what comparison is there betweene the cause of their afflictions they sorrowed for their seperation from those they loved but for a time as being well assured that although time would not restore life to those had lost it yet hee would certainly unite them to their loves by giving death to those that sought it whereas Eternity though infinite and boundlesse cannot in all the vastnesse of extension furnish this soule with the least ray of hope that she shal meet again with those deceitfull pleasures wherin she had established her contentment The miseries wee suffer during our union with our bodies have ever with them this double comfort viz. that either they themselves wil change their Nature or wee change our opinions touching the Nature of them The course of things wee see is variable and wee may probably imagine that as our joyes have passed so also will those things that do afflict us or else that the acquaintance wee shall make with misery will in time so farre alter the Nature thereof that wee shall bee no longer troubled at it The strongest Poysons do in tract of time become naturall food to those that are accustomed to them as heeretofore wee read it happened unto that King from whom we have the name and use of Mithridate whereas the miseries of an Eternall condition can never receive ease by any alteration either in the things themselves or in the mindes of those that suffer them Because Eternity is nothing else but a fixed instant allwayes permanent and time is so essentially necessary unto change that it cannot bee wrought but by his meanes according to the before recited Maxime In instanti non fit mutatio The torment which Mazentius mentioned by Virgil in his Aeniods used to his captives hath some imperfect weake resemblance of this poore soules condition that Tyrant used to fasten them unto dead bodies ioyning their hands their feet their mouths their eyes and all their other parts with those of putrid carcasses Let us consider what were the thoughts of those poor miserable wretches who though living in themselves were by this union hindred from exercising any the actions of life and notwithstanding their natural aversion from stench from rottenness and from corruption were yet forced to converse onely with them exchanging all the happinesse of life to entertaine those dismall objects which presented them with nought but ghastlienesse and terrour That unto which those wretches were compelled by outward violence is an imperfect representation of what happens to this soule by her depraved habits and affections shee hath made choice of bodily delights and pleasures as her chiefest good she hath imployed during her life the faculty of her understanding in the contemplating and that of her will in the enjoyment of them the often reiteration of these acts and judgements have powerfully imprinted them within her and being thus disposed her temporall union with the bodie hath beene dissolved and shee s becom a dweller in Eternity where as I have already shewed shee is not capable of alteration shee very well perceives the base unworthinesse and vanity of those delights and the impossibility of ever comming to enjoy them but cannot quit her inclinations to them which not permitting her to exercise her faculties on objects worthy her selfe fill her with notions of earthly fading and corruptible things whereon beginning to bee now sensible of her owne naturall perfections shee cannot cast a thought but doth replenish her with horrour with confusion and afrightment The condition of a soule puffed up with pride of humane knowledge or the ambitious desire of Power and Command after her seperation from the bodie is yet much more deplorable then that of the other The failings of the one have proceeded from a grosse ignorance of the true good was to be followed and from a soft compliance with the bodie whereas this other hath offended out of malice and contempt of the first cause from whom shee hath received her being the one is to bee looked on as a simple Malefactor whereas this other cannot be considered but as a Traytor and a Rebell who hath attempted to invade the rights of her Creator and indeavoured to find out a wisdome and establish a power which should bee independant of him Their passions are proportionable unto the
causes from whence they spring so as if the one give her selfe over to the weake passions of griefe and lamentation this other falling from the height of her ambitious pretences must needs abandon her selfe unto despairer to rage and fury shee hath beene so far blinded during this life by the opinion of her owne wisdome and sufficiency or dazeled with the false lustre of her dignities and Power that she refused to stoop to the Divinity and acknowledge him the onely giver of them she hath therefore proposed her selfe unto her selfe as the maine end of all her actions and having thus established a chiefe good opposite unto that of all the other Creatures and setled in her selfe the notions and affections thereof shee hath beene seperated from the bodie When comming to discover the true Nature and cause of things shee findes that whatsoever hath a being depends on God as the first cause and are willingly subordinate unto him as the end for which they were created that her selfe is like a Prodigie in Nature whom all the other Creatures exprobrate with this her vile ungratitude Treason and Rebellion against their Maker what can shee doe having thus proudly contemned her God being her selfe forsaken and detested by all other things but seeke out a retirement in her selfe where her proud thoughts despoyled of that false greatnesse they had fancied feed her continually with envy rancour and dispite against her fellow Creatures and the Deity Her case in my opinion hath some resemblance with that of Baiazet King of the Turkes hee who was overcome and taken Prisoner by the great Tamerlane this proud Prince saw himselfe master of the better part of Asia and having swallowed in his ambitious thoughts the Monarchy of the whole World had besieged the Grecian Emperour in his Emperiall City which hee was upon the point of taking but in the midst of all his flattering prosperities he was invaded by this Tamerlane who having defeated him in a great battle caused him to bee shut up within an iron cage in which being inclosed he exposed him unto the mockery of all his Army and used him as a footstoole to tread upon whensoever he had occasion to get on horsebacke what were the thoughts of this proud Tyrant who haveing lately had the disposall of a World of men and being regarded by them as a Deity was suddenly become the scorne of Boies and Lackies and having formerly fancied to himselfe the Empire of the World was forced to serve another as his footstoole All his past greatnesse Power and Prosperities had now no other subsistance but in his Memory where they were alwayes present not to give ease to his afflictions but to encrease the anguish and the trouble of them by inspiring him with thoughts of rage and fury against God and men by whom his expectations had beene so foulely disappointed Such we may fancy to our selves are the ravings of this poore soule though with this difference that Bajazet was able to avoid the trouble of them by dashing out his braines against the iorn barres of that his Prison whereas this soule can never quit her selfe from being persecuted by those stings of conscience she carries with her as her torturers for all Eternity Alas how imperfect is that apprehension wee have of the acts which a soule exerciseth after her seperation from the bodie by comparing them unto those wee are capable of during this life hee that should estimate the motion of the primum mobile according unto what hee sees performed heere by a snaile would not fall shorter in his conception of the Rapid swiftness wherewith that Sphear is whirled about this Globe of Earth then wee shall doe in ours if wee resemble the affections of joy and griefe which wee have heere during the union with our materiall bodies to those a soule hath when shee is severed from it whether we shall consider her huge activity when she is purely an immateriall substance in comparison of what shee hath when shee is clogged with flesh and bloud or the perfection of her operations when she beholds clearly the things themselves in their owne Natures without helpe of those Ideas or imperfect represent aions of them in our fancies which wee are forced to use during this life or lastly the exemption from time and place by which our actions heere are all restrained but can have no commerce at all with her who is above the reach of time because of her Eternall being nor can bee circumscribed in place as having neither quantity nor matter The affections of joy and griefe as they-reside in the intellectuall appetite of man are but impulses of our wills upon our other faculties which carry us on to the enjoying of the one or shunning the other with more or lesse violence according to the measure of the impression wee receive touching the good or evill of them the force whereof depends upon the active motion of the soule and therein that of one seperated hugely surpasseth what shee hath heere while shee is mingled with the masse of our terrestriall bodies powder whereof wee have the dayly use when it remaines united in the Masse whereof it is composed is easily restrained by the weake closure of a Tunne or Barrell but if it once take fire will cause an Earthquake and shake the frame of Nature if it bee hindred in its course towards the region of fire which is the proper center whereunto it tends The soul hath some resemblance unto this her passions or impulses during her union with the bodie are weake and feeble but being once devided from it shee then hath an activity surpassing that of fire which makes her passions or impulses become so strong and violent that they bear no proportion at all with those which we have heere and enjoy nothing common with them but their appellation Their force is also very much encreased by the cleare sight she hath of things in their own Natures without the helpe of any Species drawne from the things or the conversion of her selfe unto the Phantasmes from whence ariseth the certainty of knowledge incompatible with doubt or with opinion which are the greatest enemies to action since no man ever vehemently covets or feares a thing of whose Nature hee is uncertain And lastly they are beyond measure heightened by the exemption from time and place which shee enjoyes during her state of seperation whereby shee comprehends after a sort all time and place within her selfe A little time and a small place are capable onely of little alterations wee are not sensible of the falling of one drop of water whereas in time it hath the force to pierce the hardest Marble and the Sunes beames which being divided into sundry places have scarce the Power to warme us doe when they are united by a glasse become a fire that burnes and scorceth What shall wee say then of a passion which hath Eternity and an infinity of place for bounds of its
continuance and situation all degrees of comparison are heere exceeded and wee must needs acknowledge that all the miseries whereof a man is capable during this life are a meere nothing in respect of what these wretched wretched soules are forced to suffer towardes the expiation of their crimes for all Eternity What I have heere set downe hath beene to explicate the miserable state of those unhappy soules during Eternity according to the ordinary course of naturall causes who deviating from the true good for the enjoyment whereof they were created have pursued their owne vitious inclinations and affections in stead thereof But who is hee that can bee able to discover the immense greatness of those punishmēts which the strict justice of an offended Deity will inflict upon them for their ungratitude against him heere all expression is dumb and wee must needs acknowledge our hearts are too too narrow to comprehend the vast abisses of his judgements as well as the ouerflowing torrents of his mercies Yet since himselfe hath by his onely Sonne beene pleased to communicate something concerning them unto mankind I shall with reverence draw neere and without prying curiously into the hidden secrets of them attempt to take a short imperfect view of the proceedings which the Divine iustice will order to bee made against these Malefactors for the condigne punishment of their offences How deplorable is the condition of these soules according unto what I have described already and yet how happy were it in respect of what it is were they but left alone to bee tormented onely by themselves for they have scarce begun to make a sad acquaintance with their miseries when they are suddenly invironed with a multitude of Divells whose ugly shapes cause an affrightment in them equall to that of the imployment upon which they come and that is to convey them unto the dreadfull judgement seat of God These fiends do now begin to glory in the successe of their temptations and whilest they drag them to the place where they are to receive the sentence of their condemnation practise upon them all those barbarous cruelties which an insulting mercilesse enemy can use against a Captived wretch delivered over to his rage and fury They now have executed their commission and these poore guilty soules tremble with horrour to see themselves presented before the dreaded majesty of him whom having formerly rejected for their Advocate and their Redeemer they must now submit unto as Judge of all their actions and deportments those rayes of glory which streaming from his sacred person replenish all the Saints and Angells with unspeakeable content and rleasure fill them with an excesse of horour and despaire by making them reflect upon the innocence wherein they were created the happinesse for which they were ordained the base unworthynesse of that for love whereof they have cast off the first and forfeited the latter the prodigious uglinesse of those affections wherewith they now are filled instead of them and lastly that all this must bee proclaimed and justified against them before the dreadfull Majesty of God in presence of the Saints and Angells by their owne consciences produced as witnesses against them to their Eternall shame and infamy so that incompassed with a Legion of these torturing thoughts as well as Divells they know not whether of the two hath greater torment either the expectation of the sentence or the Execution of it And yet that same is wonderfully terrible for they are thereby banished from the presence of Almighty God and doomed to live in Everlasting Fire provided for the Divell and his Angells from all Eternity A dismall mansion whether wee shall consider the place it selfe which is a Region belching out perpetuall flames and yet covered with an impenetrable darkenesse or the society of the inhabitants thereof who are the Divels implacable enemies of humane kinde whose malice keepes them perpetually busied in the invention of new torments whereby to ad unto the greatness of their afflictions or lastly their entertainments whilest they abide there which as the Sonne of God himselfe informes us are weeping gnashing of their teeth for all Eternity I shall not goe about to reckon up the sundry kindes of punishments inflicted there on severall persons according to the Nature of their severall crimes the sulphurous potions which the drunkard shall there bee forced to swallow downe instead of the delicious wines wherein hee placed his greatest happinesse the loathsome food wherewith the glutton shall there bee crammed in lieu of his choice feasts and sumptuous banquets the scornes indignities and contempts to which the proud ambitious man shall bee exposed in exchange of of that respect and honour hee sought for heere and all those different kindes of tortures which the Divine justice dispenseth with an admirable order amid that horrour and confusion according to the different crimes whereof those soules have heere beene guilty these have already beene copiously deciphered by other excellent pennes and cannot bee comprisde by mee within the compasse of this short discourse nor doe I comprehend how these materiall things may by the ordinary course of Nature worke any alteration in the immateriall soule when she is seperated from the body for I speake nothing of her condition after the resurrection when she shall bee againe united to it but I must needs conclude her torments farr exceed the force of humane and understanding to conceive when I consider the infinite Majesty of that God for satisfaction of whose justice they are appointed the absolute unlimited Power of him by whose order they are inflicted the huge activity of a seperated soule by whom they are suffered and the endlesse continuance of Eternity during all which they are to be endured We have accompanied these miserable soules unto the brinke of that infernall lake wherein who ever falles is irrecoverably lost for all Eternity unhappy persons to have at all received a being since they must there exchang the momētary pleasures they have enjoyd in giving satisfaction to their own unbrideled appetites to live in everlasting flames tormented by the Divells and the sting of their owne consciences more cruell to them then those hellish monsters amongst whom they are confined by the Divine justice for their punishment and our example Let us now alter the Scene and quitting these sad spectacles of horrour and affrightment turne all our thoughts upon the contemplation of a soule who during life hath proposed God unto her selfe as her chiefe good and entring into a serious consideration of the unspekable benefits shee hath received from him in her creation in her redemption and continuall preservation hath by an act of generous gratitude cast off all thoughts of Lust of Vanity or Pride whereunto she was inclined by her concupiscences and affections to sacrifice her selfe intirely unto the performance of his will and pleasure the Divine grace seconding these good dispositions hath so illuminated her with the resplendent beames of Heavenly light
A DISCOURSE UPON THE NATURE OF Eternitie And the Condition of a separated Soule according to the grounds of Reason and Principles of Christian RELIGION By WILLIAM BRENT of Grayes Inne Esquire now Prisoner in the Gate-House LONDON Printed for Richard Moon at the Seven Stars in Pauls Church-Yard 1655. The Preface to the Reader EMpedocles of Agrigentum being demanded why t was so hard to finde out a wise man gave this reason because said he none can finde one out who is not so himselfe therby inferring that unlesse there bee a proportion betweene the object and the power it will never bee able to produce the effects flowing from it Vpon this ground it may be well concluded that t' is impossible for any to give a true description of Eternity who hath no subsistance but in time and certainely although some spirits sublimated by the dayly contemplation of Eternall things may perhaps bee able to shew us some imperfect Ideas of those perfect beauties whereon they are enamoured yet t' is a meere extravagance in mee who have imployed the best part of my time in quest of transitory and fading things to undertake the handling of a subject which cannot bee worthily expressed by lesse then an Angell nor be conceived in this life by human kind Whilest Hannibal was with the King Antiochus in Ephesus where they were busied in making preparation for a war against the Romans he was invited by some of the great Kings favourites to heare one Phormio a Philosopher read a Lecture of military discipline and the duty of a Generall and having performed it with the applause of all the auditory HANNIBALL being demanded his opinion of the man answered that he had indeed formerly seen divers mad men but never any one so mad as PHORMIO who having never viewed troopes on their march never spent one night in the trenches or performed the least duty of a Souldier would notwithstanding take upon himselfe to order an Army prescribe rules unto a General It is certainly much easier to comprehend all millitary knowledge which is contained in the finite number of some precepts drawne from reason and experience then fathom the bottemless Abyss of Eternity which holds no proportion at all with the narrow limits and shallownesse of humane reason and consequently to undertake the handling of this subject is a much greater madnesse then that of PHORMIO This being so I doubt not but there will be some who unsatisfied with what I shall set down will question upon what grounds I have adventured to publish my conceptions upon Eternity so many excellent pennes having already imploied themselves in the deciphering of it and will conclude that as his errour is to bee pittied who contrary to his expectation failes by the weakenesse of his forces to performe what hee hath undertaken so his madnesse is unexcusable who undertakes what himselfe knowes is not to bee performed I will not goe about to justifie my selfe against their reprehensions which perhaps have truth for their foundation all I shall say is I have written this onely for my owne private use that I might at times of leisure view the discoveries I have made of that Countrey to which I tend and on which time at the shutting in of my lives course will land me and I have published it not as conceiving I could better what hath formerly been written but out of an opinion that my conceits though short of what others have delivered might hit the humor of some one or other and waken him from that lethargie wherein the World holds the most part of men during their lives that he might look about in time and provide himselfe for that Eternall habitation those who are stung with the Tarantula cannot be cured but by Musick and I have heard that t' is not alwayes the best Tunes help the diseased Patients but such as how extravagant soever simpathize most with their inclinations Reader having given thee this account of my selfe I proceed briefly to set down the substance of this short Treatise in the first place I shall endeavour to let thee know what Eternity is in the second to describe what our condition will bee in it in the last place to set down such Rules as may being observed render us perfectly happy in that fixed condition wherein Eternity will place us all I require from thee is that if thou approve not what I write thou wilt at least approve the good will wherwith t is written Farewell A Discourse upon the Nature of Eternity c. ONe of the Maximes wherein Philosophers notwithstanding the many different opinions among them doe accord is this Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuit in sensu that is nothing is in our understanding which hath not first gained it's admittance through the senses our soules during the time of their imprisonment in our bodies seeme to bee so narrowly coopt up by our senses who guard all the avenues by which any intelligence of the great workmanships of nature may be convaied to them that they get notice of nothing save what is brought them by their mediation Well may the exterior objects assisted by the Sunns light fill the aire with the representation of their seveverall species but the understanding will not bee able to know any thing either of the shape or colour unlesse they pass through the eye into the common sense and bee transmitted to the fancy The warbling Choristers of the aire may wel cause both the woods vallies eccho with their melodious soundes and all the famous Orators display the utmost charmes of winning Rhetoricke but if our eares deny them entrance to the braine they will at last die in the aire where they were formed without giving us the last information either of their harmony or meaning All the rare spices of the East may well evaporate themselves to nothing before our eyes without leaving any other sense of their rich perfumes but what our smelling shall convey unto us And if another Monarck farr surpassing Assuerus in the richesse and extent of his Dominions should unpeople the three Elements to furnish out a sumptuous feast that might shew forth the greatnesse of his magnificence wee were not able to distinguish any of those exquisite dainties and delicious wines farther then what our tasts should dictate unto us Infine our Soules notwithstanding their immateriall substance and the faculties of will and understanding whereby they thinke themselves equall to the Celestiall Spirits were but those gates dammed up whereof our senses are the Porters would like the Aegyptians during the three daies darkenesse wherewith God plagued them bee forced to sit stil nor could the Heavenly gifts of reasoning and resolving availe them ought towards the discovery of truth or goodnesse which are the onely object of their functions The spotts wee now discover in the Sunn the vallies in the Moon and Starrs that moove in an Epicycle about the Planet Jupiter had been
command unto a Page of his to wake him dayly with this admonition that hee should call to minde hee was a man fearing lest hee might otherwise bee transported by the false lustre of his greatnesse and prosperities as to mistake which his Sonn after did what himselfe was and forget the condition of humanity wherein hee had beene placed by God and Nature And the great Doctor of the Church Saint Jerome thinkes it a matter of that consequence for us to imploy our selves in the consideration of what is future that hee assures us confidently by warrant of the sacred Scripture wee should never sin did wee but carefully ruminate on the last things that doe attend us Memorare novissima tua et in aeternum non peccabis See here the true condition of our being during the succession of time Let us now alter the Scene and from this theater of confusion and disorder raise up our thoughts unto the contemplation of Eternity It is an instant alwayes present never decaying whose infinity comprehends all times past present and to come and whose simplicity presenting us at once with whatsoever can be good or perfect united in their first cause whereof unlesse our sinns debar us from his sight the Divine Nature wee shall be then made glad beholders cleares up the foggy mists of ignorance of forgetfullnesse and of mistake which hang betweene our understandings and the truth of things fills all the powers and faculties of our soules with the enjoyment of their desired objects and doth establish us in the secure possession of our blisse beyond the reach of fortune or of time which shall not there have power to traverse our contentments with the desire of ought that 's past or the apprehension of ought to come When we have once maturely waighed these sollid truths wee shall begin to loath this prison of our bodies subject to the perpetuall injuries of time and death and shall cry out with the Apostle Infaelix ego homo quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus unhappy man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body which belongs to death and with the same Apostle fixing all our affections and thoughts upon Eternity wee shall continually desire to bee dissolved that we may live with Christ in his Eternall habitation and when wee shall receive the summons to dislodge hence brought us by age diseases war famine pestilence or any other officer of time clad in the hideousest dresse that death can weare wee shall with joy prepare our selves unto the journey and with the Prophet David say Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi in domum domini ibimus I am rejoyced in that which hath beene said unto me we will goe into the house of the Lord It seemes being a man according unto Gods owne heart hee had well studied the Nature of that celestiall mansion whose quallities hee doth so excellenty describe in the 2 following verses Stantes erant pedes nostri in atriis tuis Jerusalem Jerusalem quae aedificatur ut civitas cujus participatio ejus in idipsum Our feete were standing in thy Courts Jerusalem Here they are running forced to accompany the motion of time but they shall there be fixed in an Eternal rest never to bee disturbed by time or fortune Jerusalem that is builded as a City whose portion consisteth in the thing it selfe All other places are but Innes where we are entertained as passengers during our pilgrimage and therfore have their buildings subject as are those they harbour unto decay and ruine but this City being the permanent place of our aboade hath its foundations laid upon the never fading basis of Eternity And if you aske what is the stocke or treasure of the inhabitants in that blessed country he forth with tells us that their portion consisteth in the thing it selfe what is the thing it selfe but that which is without dependance upon any other and what is that but hee who being to declare himselfe unto the Patriarch Moses saith hee is hee that is even God himselfe in whom is comprehended the fulnesse of all things and without whom is nothing but the privation of good and happinesse Let us endeavour then so to comport our selves that wee bee not engaged amid these fading transitory things but may bee able to say with the Apostle our life is laid up with Christ in God and let our onely trafficke and negotiation be to hoord up treasures according to the counsell of our blessed Lord and Saviour where neither rust nor mothes can come to wast them nor thieves breake in to steale them from us Wee neede not be to seeke where that should bee since hee informeth us that t is in Heaven the onely proper seat and mansion of Eternity In the precedent discourse I have endeavoured to describe although imperfectly the Nature and condition of Eternity which is the true and proper habitation of our soules who have no commerce with time but onely by their union with our bodies A blessed country but such a one as doth not equally agree with all constitutions to some it is an Ocean of pleasure rest and happiness to others an abisse of everlasting horrour trouble and confusion the reason of which difference proceedes from the diversity of those severall dispositions and affections wee carry with us at our parting hence For the cleare understanding whereof it is necessary that wee consider the Nature of our Soules and examine what are those things which subsist in and together with them after the dissolution of our bodies The Heathen Philosophers guided only by the light of nature did some of them believe the soule of man to bee immortall they perceived well that shee was capable of many operations even in this life without the mediation of the bodie that shee gave a being within her selfe unto an infinite number of thinges abstracted from the severall notions of time place figure or any other property incident unto materiall things which kinde of being because it sorted not unto the things themselves in their owne Nature they must necessarily receive from her and they did thence inferr that shee could not communicate such a being unto them unlesse shee had an immateriall being in her selfe They saw the act of judging was an action purely her own whereby she produced severall conclusions which are new beings out of those premises that present themselves to our imaginations and knowing the infallibility of this argument ex nihilo nihil fit that of nothing there comes nothing they were fully satisfied the soule had a being independant from the body since it was able to communicate a being unto other things without the helpe of any Organes which depend upon her From the assurance of her being they collected also her immortallity for having by the strict observation of all naturall causes found out that nothing whatsoever could lose its former being and acquire a new one which wee terme death
in living creatures but by division and that that same could happen but two wayes viz. either by dividing the matter from the forme or by dividing the matter within it selfe they inferred thence that since both these wayes were incompatible with the soule shee was not capable of a reall change and consequently not of death which of all others is the greatest not the first because that shee is immateriall nor the second because she is a pure forme and that all formes are by their being so incapable of division of increase or diminution according unto these two Maxims among them forma non suscipit majus minus and this other in indivisibili non fit mutatio Upon the same grounds also they inferred that all the resolutions or judgments and all those Sciences and Arts whether speculative or practicke which are in the soule during this life shall remaine also in her after her seperation from the body these being things which depend onely on her and which are in a kind part of her selfe so as without them she would lose something of the perfection of her being And to conclude because they saw nothing among all the workes of Nature which did not at some time or other unlesse t' were hindred by exteriour causes attaine unto a fulnesse and maturity wherby it was enabled to reach that end for which it was ordained and found the reasonable soule alone which hath for the object of her understanding the truth of all naturall causes and their effects was not able at any time during this life wherein shee is united with the body to comprehend the utmost truth may bee discovered in any art or science whatsoever they thence inferred that shee was to enjoy a being after the dissolution of the body wherein she might at freedom exercise the power of reasoning wherwith shee is endued and not onely retaine those sciences shee hath acquired heere but also bee able to conceive all other truth and knowledge whatsoever which may bee deduced out of them by that concatenation and dependance which the verity of one proposition hath upon that of another I have delivered these speculations of the Philosophers with this brevity without setting downe the many arguments used by them for proofe of their assertions and answer of the objections have beene framed in opposition to them wherewith whole volumes might bee filled because they have beene since the most part of them confirmed unto us by the tenets of Christian Religion the truth whereof being revealed by God himselfe is not to bee disputed by mankind and I have taken this short view of the condition of our soules onely to this intent that in the sequell of the ensuing Discourse wee may upon these grounds bee able the better to discover how farr the ordinary working of naturall causes doth cooperate with the Divine justice in the reward of vertuous and the punishment of vitious persons For the clear understanding whereof wee must know that all living creatures whatsoever except man being destitute of reason suffer themselves without repugnance to bee directed by the rules of Nature That is the ordinary power used by God in governing the world which doth sweetly guide them to the performance of those actions and the obtaining of that end whereunto they are ordained But man whose portion is a reasonable soule assumes the conduct of himselfe and blinded by selfe love or overweaning pride forsakes the generall end of other things which is the honour and glory of their Maker to pursue his owne particular good and follow the inordinate affections of his owne corrupted Nature the true cause of which mistake is this that followes Those who have curiously searched into the composition of man observe that he may be considered in a triple capacity according unto every one of which hee hath a severall good that hee proposeth unto himselfe and endeavoureth to attaine unto during this life The first is that of a living creature composed of a materiall body and a forme that doth communicate unto it life and motion The second as he is indued with a reasonable soule capable of Discourse and knowledge participating thereby of the Nature of intellectuall spirits which plaseth him in a ranke above all the materiall creatures of this inferior world And the third as hee is the workemanship of God created by him out of nothing after his owne likenesse that hee might serve him with obedience and perseverance during his temporall being and be the witnesse and pertaker of his glory in Eternity The chiefest good of man according to the first are riches and corporeall pleasures called by the Apostle Concupiscentia carnis oculorum Concupiscence of the flesh and eyes According to the second the vanity of humane knowledge accompanied with the forgetfulnesse of God or the ambitious desire of obtaining Power Honour and command called by the same Apostle superbia vitae pride of life those who consider him according to the third capacity esteeme their chiefest good to consist in the uniting of their wills with God and in procuring the advancement of his glorious Name Now the vast distance there is betweene these ends which men proposâ—… unto themselves causeth the great diversity wee see dayly betweene them in the direction and conduct of their lives each one desiring to obtaine the object of his wishes by actions suitable unto it Those of the first rank abandoning themselves to sensuall lusts forget the dignity of humane Nature and abase themselves into the ranke of beasts Those of the second denying to acknowledge him from whom they have received all those advantages wherein they glory imitate the Divels in their pride ungratitude and rebellion against their maker Those onely of the third ranke entring into the true knowledge of themselves and of the end for which they were created submit their wills unto Almighty God and endeavoring to imitate the Angells in their prompt obedience make themselves during this life fit to enjoy their society after the dissolution of their bodies From the great contrariety of mens judgments resolutions and of the actions and habits that flow from and are acquired by them ariseth the different condition of our soules when they are seperated from our bodies The Corall we see daily growes in the Sea and I have read that being under water it may by reason of its softnesse bee moulded into any shape or figure whatsoever but being once exposed unto the open aire it forthwith hardens and is no more capable of change and alteration the like happeneth unto our soules who while they do continue in this Sea o' th' world are susceptible of the different affections of good and bad according to the severall appearances of things which working on our fancies incline our wills unto the following or forsaking of them but having once finished their voyage heere must alwayes weare the dresse of those affections they have at parting hence and reape their harvest in Eternity
that shee hath beene enabled to discover some little glimps of those admirable perfections of her Creator the sight whereof hath ravished all her Powers so that enamored on his Celestiall beauty she hath conversed during her union with the body onely in Heaven all her thoughts wishes and affections being continually present there where she had placed her onely treasure Death whose grim visage affrights the most couragious spirits is welcome to her and shee doth quit with joy the base attire of flesh and of corruption that she may put on immortallity Let us a little consider the blessednesse of her condition in this state of seperation Knowledge whose object is the true Nature and cause of things is so hard to be attained unto during this life that the Philosophers who have imployed themselves in search of it have a great part of them despaired of being able to find it out The Academicks a sect of them much renowned in antient time pronounced boldly that there was nothing whatsoever could be knowne the Scepticks proceeding something more warily held that no demonstration could bee made and did therefore continue doubtfull denying their assent unto the truth of any proposition And those Philosophers who following Aristotle have established in our Schooles a forme of learning doe by a tyranny they exercise over our reason command us to admit without proofe so many grounds or principles upon which they establish the Doctrine they deliver that divers of our choicest modern wits have thence taken occasion to dispute against them and to endeavour the overthrowing of all that structure they have built upon them This inextricable laberinth wherein truth is shut up being impervious by mortall men caused Socrates after all his study in search of her conclude that hee was ignorant of all things else save onely this that hee knew nothing and the despaire of being able to find her out made Aristotle throw himselfe headlong into the Ocean after hee had long sought in vaine to find the reason of its Ebbs and flowings But she who doth so carefully conceale her selfe from those that live exposeth freely all her beauties to bee viewed over by this seperated soule and fills her with the fulnesse of that knowledge in one instant whose smallest portion wee scarcely gaine by the continuall study of many ages the contemplation whereof is a contentment infinitely surpassing all those pleasures which wee are capable of during this life The Queene of Sheba upon the fame onely of Salomons great wisedome thought it well worth her labour to quit the pleasures of her Court and exposing her selfe unto the trouble toile and dangers incident to a long voyage came from the farthest part of all the East to finde him out that she might have the satisfaction to become a hearer of it Alexander the great prised at so high a rate those notions of Philosophy he had received from Aristotle during the time he was his Pupill that he was used to say hee had a greater obligation to his Tutor then to his Father Phillip and yet he had from him received his being power sufficient to make himselfe the wonder of succeeding ages by reason of his glorious victories and conquests and Archimedes the great Artist had all his powers and faculties so wholly taken up by the contentment hee found in speculating of those demonstrations he had invented touching the Symetry and proportion of bodies that all the rage and fury was practised at the taking in of Siracusa the destruction of these innocent inhabitants which peopled that unlucky City whereof himselfe was one could not divert him from the pleasure of it or once afford him leasure to make answer unto a Souldier who asked his name with an intention to have presreved him If this small dawne of knowledge hath appeared unto the eyes of the beholders with so glorious a luster as made it preferrable before the sumptuous magnificences of a splendid Court the glittering brightnesse of a Crowne and Scepter or life it selfe what shall we say of that excesse of pleasure wherewith this soule is filled when shee enjoyes the fullnesse of all knowledge and clearely sees the causes Nature properties and qualities of all the workmanships of God when she beholds his admirable Wisdome Power and Providence exercised in the continuall upholding of this huge fabrick and how from the great contrariety and strife there is betweene the parts whereof it is composed he drawes the preservation of the whole by a perpetuall Series of generation and corruption how death which seemes to bee ordained for destroying the society of humane kinde is the maine Basis whereupon it restes because the feare thereof witholds vitious persons from falling headlong into the depth of wickednesse and the hope of it animates vertuous men to persist constantly in the rough craggy wayes of good and vertue Those rare effects of Nature that puzzle all our choicest wits in searching out their hidden causes are then made easie to her and shee doth plainly understand whether the fluxes and refluxes of the Ocean are guided by the motion of the Moone or the impulse of that continuall winde raised under the Equator by the Sunne whether that constant inclination of the Loadstone towards the North whereby wee are enabled to make discoveries of the remotest creekes and corners of the Sea is caused by an attractive quallity residing in the poles of the earth which being somwhat different from those wee fancy in the Heavens produceth that small variation we observe dayly in the Compasse or by those streames of atomes drawne by the Sunnes great heate betweene the Tropickes which flowing ever more from North to South and penetrating all the subtile pores whereof the stone is full while it remaines within the Earth in that position doth in continuance of time beget this property which wee can imitate by often heating of an iron and placing it to coole while yet the porâ—… thereof are opened by the fire dâ—â—… North and South Or lastly whether that quallity together with the power whereby the same is by a touch communicated to the needle and that whereby it attracts iron to it selfe depend on causes whereof as yet mankinde is ignorant whose knowledge is by providence reserved to the discovery of posterity in that age which shall succeede us as the experience was to those in that which went before us Whether the cherefull light which wee see darted by the Sunne from East to West is but a quallity communicated by him in an instant to all the aire throughout the vast extent of our horison or is the body of the fire it selfe which being the most active Element and flowing from the Sunne as from its fountaine into the liquid Element of aire prevents by its vast distance from us huge expansion and active swiftnesse our feeling and our sight from being sensible of any thing which might informe our understanding touching the measure of its heat and motion Whether the never