Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A46060
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The immortality of mans soule, proved both by scripture and reason contrary to the fancie of R.O. in his book intituled Mans mortality ...
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Hooker, Thomas, 1586-1647.
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1645
(1645)
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Wing I57; ESTC R9011
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27,478
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48
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THE IMMORTALITY OF Mans Soule PROVED BOTH BY SCRIPTVRE and REASON Contrary to the Fancie of R. O. In his Book Intituled Mans Mortality wherein hee vainely affirmeth hee hath proved Theologically and Philosophically that whole man is a compound wholy mortall and that the present going of the soule into Heaven or Hell is a meer fiction and that at the Resurrection is the beginning of our Immortality and then actuall Damnation or Salvation and not before LONDON Printed by Peter Cole at the signe of the Printing-presse in Cornehill neer the Royall-Exchange 1645. THE IMMORTALITY OF MANS SOVLE Proved both by Scripture and Reason CHAP. 1. That Man consisteth of two parts Soule and Body COncerning GOD we are acknowledge him to be a Spirit as touching the world we are to conceive of it as a body in man we have an abridgment of both of God in respect of the Soule of the world in composition of the Body as though the Creator on purpose to set forth a mirror of all his workes intended to bring into one little compasse both the infinitnesse of his owne nature and also the hugenesse of the whole world together after his own Image in respect of his soule after his other creatures in respect of life sence and moving mortall so farre as he holdeth forth the Image of the creature immortall so farre as hee holdeth forth the Image of GOD his Creator This Arg. 1 may be proved by pregnant arguments 1 No creature can worke out of his owne proper spheare how can man if totally mortal conceive of immortality can mortality comprehend immortality as probably as a man may throw a stone and knock downe the sunne which is farre above his spheare The beasts mind altogether the earth they eate when they are hungry drinke when they are dry and go when they are beaten and regard their Creator no more then they doe the clock when it strikes The fish live in the water as the beasts upon the earth because they are aqueall the other terrene neither rationall and therefore cannot worke above their sphear but man conceives not only the things of this world but also of a better immortality glory eternity therfore must needs have something in him that is immortal Who is hee that desireth not to be immortal how can he desire it unlesse he know what it is how can he know what it is unlesse he have somthing in him immortal none of us covereth to be beginninglesse bcause none of us are so neither can be so and because we are not so we can not comprehend what it is for who can conceive of eternity without beginning but he will end his Wits before his desires but on the contrary there is not so base a mind upon earth which coveteth not to live for ever in so much that whereas we looke not for it by natur we seeke to obtayne it by skill and pollicy some by bookes some by images and some by other devices and even the ignorantest sort of people can well imagine in themselves what immortality is and are able both to conceive it and beleeve it but the wisest and learnedest man alive should he live as long as Mathusalah and studie what it is to be with out beginning all his life time he must at last yeild to death without fulfilling or filling full his desires whence comes this but that our soules being created cannot conceive an everlastingnesse without beginning yet being created immortal can well conceive an everlastingnesse or immortality without end Let us yet wade a little deeper who can dispute or once so much as doubt whether the soule be Immortal or no but he that is capable of Immortality or who can understand a difference betweene mortal and immortal but he that is immortal Though they shall rise again as well as man saith R O. treat of Mortality pag. 50. can a * horse an ox a dogge no why because thy are mortall and can reach no higher than mortality Immortality is out of their Sphear out of their Element as the Proverbe is Man is able to conceive what is reason and what is not and by that wee terme him rationall Man knows a difference betwixt Mortality and Immortality and therefore must needs be immortall for to what end should God teach Immortality to a mortall wight If a man should hold an argument that man is not rationall and dispute it hee needs other confutation then his owne arguments so hee that disputes that the soule is mortall his owne reasoning of it shall to a wise man prove it immortall Secondly it is plainly proved Arg. 2 that man consists of two parts Soule and Body because they performe severall and different works at one and the same time The soule or mind of man will be at Constantinople then at Rome at Paris at Lyons in America in Affrick and dispatch all these journies in a trice looke wheresoever thou directest it there it is and before thou callest it back it is at home while the body al this time is at home at worke or perhaps in bed therefore the soule and body are two different parts nay the soule may and often doth mind and desire good when the body is acting sinne Rom. 7.23.24 25 I find a law in my members warring against the law of my mind or soule and bringing mee into captivity to the law of my members but was it his body that warred against his mind and brought it into captivity reade the next verse you shall see O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or this body of death as the margin more truly hath it this mortall body So then saith he with my mind I will serve the Lord but with my flesh the law of sin thus it plainely appears the soule and body are two different parts Thirdly Arg. 3 that the soule is not the body nor any part of it but soule and body two very different things appears of it selfe without further proofe for if the soule were the body or any part of the body it would nay must needs grow with the body and decline with the body it would be maimed with the body and sick with the body for else how can it dye with the body but daily experience proves the contrary for were soule the same with or part of the body the greater the body were the greater would the soule be but the contrary appears those that are strongest in mind are commonly weakest in body and the soule is seene to be full of livelinesse in a languishing body and to grow the more in force by the decay of the body by growing of the soule I meane mistake me not not that it increaseth or diminisheth it is capable of neither but its profiting in power and vertue againe if the soule were the body or any part of it it would languish with the body hee that is wounded in his body would be wounded in
made the mixture of these bodies hath for the perfecting our body beyond nature breathed a soul into it to be short the property of a body is to suffer the property of a soule is to doe if the body be not put forth by some other thing then it selfe it is a very blocke whereas the soul which is in our body ceaseth not to stirre up down though it have nothing to move it from without therefore it is to be concluded fom these reasons and the like that might be alleaged that the soule is a substance incorporeall unbodily notwithstanding it be united to our bodies Thirdly as our soule is a substance unbodily 3 Immateriall so is it unmateriall likewise that appeareth first because matter receiveth not any forme or shape but according to his owne quantity and but only one forme at once wheras our soule receiveth all formes without quantity come there never so many at once or never so greate Secondly no matter receiveth contrary formes at once but our soule comprehendeth and receiveth them together as fire and water heat cold white and blacke and not only together but also better by laying and matching of them together Lastly to be short it appeares that the soule is not materiall seeing the more we depart from matter the more we understand surely there is nothing more contrary to the substance of the soule then the nature of matter then is this reasonable soule of ours neither a bodily nor a materiall thing nor depending upon matter in the best action thereof then must needs be of it selfe and not proceed from body or matter for what can a body bring forth but a body matter but matter and materialls but materialls and therfore the soule is an unmateriall substance which hath being of it selfe 4 Imomrtall and incorruptible Plutarke de sera â—uminis vindicta tractat Fourthly the soule as it is a substance incorporeall immateriall so is it incorruptible and immortall Plutarke saith it is in vaine to dispute thereof for saith he the doctrine of Gods providence that of the immortallity of the soule are so lincked together that take away the one the other follows God grant that experience prove not Plutarkes words true in some now living for saith he to what purpose was the world created if there were no body to behold it or to what end behold we the creatures in the world but to serve him and why should wee serve upon no hope and to what end hath he endewed us with these rare gifts of his which for the most part doe but put us to paine and trouble in this life if we perish like the bruit beasts which know not God But because all are not of Plutarkes mind wee will see if we can satisfie the contrary minded by reason for the better satisfying of those who take not so much paines as to enter into themselves I shall indeavour to paint out to them their right shapes by lively reason which they have defaced by ignorance and therefor now to the purpose First I shewed before that the soule is not a body neither increaseth nor decreaseth with the body but contrary wise the more the body decreaseth the more the understanding increaseth the neerer the body draweth to death the more freely doth the mind understand the more the body abateth the more powerfull is the mind why then should we thinke that the thing which becommeth the stronger by the weaknesse of the body which is advanced by the decay of the body should perish to dust with the body a mans seeing fails because his eyes faile but the blind mans understanding encreaseth because his eyes are not busied and the old mans reason becommeth more perfect by the losse of his sight therefore why say we not that the body failleth the soule but the soule faileth not the body that the glasses are out of the spectacles but the eyes good still Objoct 1 But Mans mortality pag. 13. saith R.O. the part or member is endowed with the faculty so seeing is in the eye naturally really and not the soule sees by the eye and hearing locally in the eare and so common sence judgment memory locally adherent to and inherent in their places hee proveth it with this frigid argument because if the member be perished the sence falles Answ To which I answer if the ey be the thing that seeth and the eare the thing that heareth why doe we not see things double and heare sounds double seeing wee have two eys two ears it is the soul then that seeth heareth and these which hee taketh to be our sences are but the instruments of our sences for when our eys are shut or pickt out we then behold a thousand things in our mind yea and then our understanding is most quick sighted when the quickest of our eye-sight is as good as quenched or quite dead how is it possible that the reasonable soule should be tied to the sences what a worthy reason is it to say the soule dyeth with the sence seeing the true sences do grow increas even then when the instruments of the sences doe die Also I pproved before that the soule is not the body nor any part of the body seeing then it is so why measure we that by the body which measureth al bodies or make that to dye with the body wherby the bodies that died many hundred yeares agoe do after a certaine manner live still or who can hurt that thing whom nothing hurteth or hindreth in that body though a man loose an arme yet doth his soule remaine whole stil let a man forgoe the one halfe of his body yet is his soule as sound as before for it is united in its owne substance by the force and power of its selfe it sheddeth it self into all parts of the body though the body rot a way by peice meale yet abideth the soule whole undiminished let the blood drain out the moving wax weake the strength perish yet abideth the mind sound lively it never forsakes its lodging till there be no roome left for it to lodge in when our sences are overcome by death then it doth most labour to surmount it selfe working as goodly Godly actions at that time when the body is at poynt to faile it yea and oftentimes more godly too then ever it did while the body was in health as for example it taketh order for it selfe for our houshold for the commonwealth for a whole kingdome that with more uprightnesse goodnesse wisedome and modration then ever it did before yea and perchance in a body so far spent so bare so consumed so withered without and so putrified within that he that lookes upon him sees nothing but earth and yet to hear him speake would ravish a man up to heaven now when a man sees so lively a soule in so weake and wretched a body may he