THE SOVLE IS Immortall OR Certaine Discourses defending the immortalitie of the Soule against the limmes of Sathan to wit Saduces Anabaptistes Atheists and such like of the hellish crue of Aduersaries Written by IOHN IACKSON Imprinted at London by W. W. for Robert Boulton dwelling in Smithfield neere Long-lane 1611. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Grace and Peace be multiplied THe Arch-enimie of mankinde Sathan that olde Aduersarie as he dared to giue the assault vpon the Author of Saluation himselfe so hath he not rested from the beginning to lay battrie to the fortresse of Fayth seeking by all meanes to beat it downe and vtterly to rase the very foundations of it And to this end hath he not left vnshaken any one article of our Christian beliefe both by old and new Heretikes the wicked instrumentes of his infernall warringes So maliciously is he set against vs that like a ramping and roring Lion he goeth about seeking whom be may deuower And where GOD hath his Church be euermore adioyneth his Chappell with his counterfaite false and faigned Religion odious to God and wonderfull to the world Amongest the rest he hath not onely of old but euen of late battered the soule yea euen the life of the soule of man yea euen now doth he most stoutly batter it by perswading some that it is corruptible and mortall and putting into their mouthes the most venomed swordes of poysoned sophisticall Argumentes to maintaine the same against the most certaine and necessarie trueth of the Soules immortalitie For not onely the Saduces did dispute against the immortalitie of the Soule yea and they in like manner who sayd in Saint Paules time that the Resurrection was past alreadie to him that beleeueth and made no other resurrection besides the resurrection of the regenerate But also the Anabaptistes of later yeares doe denie the Soule to be immortall And Paul the third of that name Pope of Rome when he was breathing out his Soule and readie to die sayd that now at length he should try and know three things First whether there were a GOD second whether the Soules were immortall third whether there were a Hell or no whereof all his life time he was in much doubt Yea verily euen at this very day there are now wicked Epicures and gracelesse Atheistes whom the Diuell to lull them faster a sleepe in their sinnes and enforce them to heape sinne vpon sinne hath so suggested them that they are fully perswaded that there is no rewarde for the Good nor punishment of the Wicked but that Man perisheth as Beast and the Soule to come to nothing according to that wicked verse of Horace Et redit in nihilum quod fuit ante nihil For they affirme that the Soule of man like as of brute Beastes is nothing else but Life or the vitall power arising of the temperature and perfection of the Body and therefore dyeth and is extinguished togeather with the Body And some againe say that the Soule sleepeth when the Body dyeth that is is without motion or sense vntill the raysing of the Body which indeed is nothing else but that the Soule is mortall that is a meere qualitie onely in the Body which when the body is dissolued becommeth nothing because if it were an incorporeall substaunce it could not be without sense and motion Wherefore hauing my selfe met with some of this badde sort and hearing of moe I thought good euery way to fight in the cause of Christ Iesus with the weapon put in mine hand by my grand Captaine and with might and maine to heaw at these two Monsters and vtter Enemies to the Soule Therefore seeing that the print of the Penne may come vnto the eyes of moe than the sound of the voyce into the cares I by Gods assistance haue set my talent on worke against them both proouing the contrarie First that the Soule is not as they say mortall but immortall Secondly that the Soule is not a forme perfection temperament force power or agitation arising out of the temperature of the Body but a substaunce incorporeall liuing vnderstanding dwelling in the Body and susteining and moouing it And this latter is prooued true by these Scriptures Psalm 48. His Soule shal be blessed in life Heb 12. God is called the Father of Spirites And it is sayd of the faythfull Yee are come to the Celestiall Ierusalem and to the companie of innumerable Angels and to the Spirites of iust and perfect men 1. Cor. 2.11 Noman knoweth the thinges of a man saue the spirite of man which is in man In these and like places of Scripture both the Soule of man is called a Spirit and the properties of a liuing and vnderstanding substaunce are attributed vnto it therefore it is a substaunce And therefore to no purpose doe the aduersaries of this Doctrine oppose those places wherein the soule is taken for the life and will of man as Mat. 6. The Soule is more worth then Meate Iob. 13.14 I put my Soule in my hand For by the fore alleadged places it is manifest that this is not generall but is vsed by figure of speach whereby we call the effect by the name of his cause Now for the former that the Soule is not mortall but immortall and also for a further declaration of this latter I haue translated foorth of latine for their sakes that vnderstande not latine a certaine Treatise of the Immortalitie of the Soule and thereunto haue adioyned other mens iudgments and reasons for the helpe of the matter Scriptures confirming the same and confuted the Aduersarie GVILERMVS HOVPPELANDVS Of the immortalitie of the Soule THat the auncient Philosophers flourished in Witte and profited in Studie it is no common opinion but vnto all men a sure and certaine perswasion For by Studie and Exercise they on euerie side made themselues away vnto those thinges that are by Nature almost incomprehensible And by their benefite there are many thinges publikely left vnto all posterities which we are glad of and doe marueile at their inuentions They measured the World subiected Heauen to their Rules searched out the sundry causes of Nature and in some sort with their eyes contemplated the Worke-man of all the World But of the state of mans Soule and the Immortalitie thereof sundrie sectes haue in their Writinges left sundrie opinions Some say that Soules are Mortall and die togeather with their bodyes Some doe say that they are Immortall and alwaies remaine in a fixed stabilitie Heraciuus affirmed mans Soule to be a Vapour Thales a Moysture Empedocles Blood for hee taught that the Soule is Blood infused in the Heart Diogenes and Anaximenes Ayre The Storkes whereof Zeno and Chrisippus are the chiefe do say it is a Fire Democritus affirmed the Soule to be made by a certaine chauncing course of certaine light and round matter Aristoxenus an Harmonie Aristophanes a due proportion of qualities The Saduces so called of Sadoc denying both Honours and Punishmentes and vniuersally both
animos cum eâ—corporibus excess runt in caelum quasi in domicilium suum peruenirâ— The sentences of others doe bring hope that soules after they be departed foorth of their bodyes doe come vnto heauen as to their owne proper dwelling place Seeing then that Aristotle supposeth that the Soule is not of the nature of the Elementes as Cicero sayth also Saint Augustine in the 22. Booke De ciuitate dej but of that fifth nature whereof he will haue heauen also to be made It seemeth contrarily that as it is thought that Heauen is incorruptible and eternall so also our Soules are incorruptible and immortall for either of them may very well be prooued with the same arguments that the other is for euen as Heauen hath the nature of no Element and neither heauie neither light neither hath any contrarie it followeth then that the Minde and Soule it selfe like as Heauen can neither be generated and bred neither corrupted and brought to naught Seeing then it is thus that he thinketh an infinite multitude of thinges seperated a thing impossible hee might haue confessed with Pithagoras and Plato beleeuing that the Soule doth flit foorth of one body into another for so had I rather haue him to thinke then to beleeue with wicked Auarroys who would haue but one onely Soule and that to be common to and amongst all men And that same fellow Auarroys although hee concluded with his Maister that the Soule is immortall and eternall yet in his second Comentarie vpon the third Booke De anima he playeth Ambidexter and holdeth on hoth sides The vnderstanding which is called Naturall as we haue sayd doth not happen that sometime it vnderstandeth and sometimes not vnlesse in the respect of the forme of Imaginations existing in euery Indiuiduum or thing that can not be deuided But in respect of the Species kind or sort it alwayes vnderstandeth vnlesse humane kind doe fayle which is impossible Yet notwithstanding in this he foulely erreth not only against fayth but also against Philosophie in that hee put all mens Soules into one Soule making them all but one Soule and would not that euery man should haue a seuerall Soule For he setteth downe three false and erroneous thinges hauing no likelihood of trueth but altogeather strange from the minde and meaning of euery one of the Philosophers The first thing is that the reasonable Soule is not Actus primus hominis c. the first act of man or mans substaunciall forme giuing vnto him to be name and reason whereby man is Hoc aliquid This something but a substaunce seperated and a thing outwardly like vnto this For hee setteth downe the vnderstanding to be possible separate which he calleth the pure materiall power in the kind of thinges that are intelligible Secondly he concludeth that such vnderstanding doth not come vnto man a principio sui esse from the beginning of his beeing but then onely when he is of yeares of discretion for then is it in some sort coupled vnto him and continued so that by it he is able to vnderstand Therefore when he saith in the Fifth that it is contimed in a Boy in his childhoode and afterward in the 36. Now we haue found the manner how this vnderstanding is continued in a Child and seeke the cause in the beginning But he setteth downe the manner of the continuance when man by imagined intentions doth concurre with the agent vnderstanding to cause the intention in the materiall vnderstanding so that to cause vnderstandinges in act hee calleth Abstrahere to draw away but to receiue vnderstandinges possible hee calleth Intelligere hominis Thirdly hee concludeth that all men haue but one vnderstanding Against these thinges it is first argued on this wise Anima est actus primus corporis organici physici igitur anima est forma substantialis hominis 1. The Soule is the first act of the naturall organicall body therefore the Soule is the substantiall forme of man The antecedent is plaine for the Philosopher in the second of the Soule affirmeth the Soule to be a Substaunce and not an Accident And afterwarde deuideth the substaunce into matter and forme and compounde and shewing that it is neither matter nor compound concludeth that it is Forme or the first Act of the bodie c. Neither is it auaileable to say that the Philosopher setteth downe a common definition of the Soule but speaketh conditionally saying But if we must say that there is some common thing in euerie Soule it shall verily be that first Act of a naturall instrumentall body And that it is so it is very plaine for in the third Chapter he saith But of the vnderstanding nothing is yet manifest but it seemeth to be an other kind of Soule And then straight after that clause the Philosopher saith Vniuersaliter dictum est quid sit anima Wee haue vniuersally declared what the Soule is And an other Booke hath Iam diximus quid est anima vniuersaliter And in the Chapter following he saith Sicut figurae est vna communis definitio conueniens omni speciei figurae sic et animae oportet esse vnam definitionem conuenientem cuiuslibet partium cius As there is one common definition of a Figure agreeing vnto euery seuerall Figure so also should there be one definition of the Soule agreeing to all the partes thereof Amongst which he expressely nameth the Vnderstanding And therevnto he addeth that such a definition is that which he hath giuen to witte that it is Primus actus c. Neither is the seconde Allegation of any force because the Philosopher when he saith De intellectu aureÌ„ nihil adhuc manifestum est As concerning the Vnderstanding there is yet nothing manifest referreth that Word to a doubtfull premisse to witte whether euery one of the partes of the Soule be separable as it seemeth to the man that doth consider it Secondly it is euident that the Soule is Forma substantialis hominis the substantiall forme of man Out of the twelfth of the Meta. in the Chapter beginning Mouentes autem causae superius allegatae where the Philosopher putteth a difference betweene the formall causes and the efficient causes Also so it should follow that a child before that naturall vnderstanding were coupled vnto him by the spices of imagination should not be a man neither endued with reason and should in specie differ from an other man and also from him selfe the elder he waxeth Neither is the solution of Auerroys any thing auaileable that man is taken dupliciter in a double maner one way for the essence by it selfe onely compounded of the bodie as it were the matter and the soule togeather as it were of the specifying forme thereof which is sometime called of the Doctors Ratio particularis the particular Reason Sometime of the Philosopher Intellectus After an other maner Man is taken for a certaine Substaunce compounded of Man Primo modo after the first maner and the
Spirit and Angell doc impudently say that mens Soules are Mortall and die togeather with their Bodyes The Epicures also affirming the Soule to be Mortall doe place the chiefest Good in Pleasures For Epicurus who as it pleaseth the greatest men did moderately vse Hearbes and Apples such meane Meate was afterward by those that came after being a beastly and filthy companie reproched with infamie for his sottish vnbridled Schollers fell into voluptuousnesse and counted themselues to be most happie with the vse thereof All these and many other moe in the reckoning vp of whom it is not profitable for vs for to stay thought mans Soule to be Mortall Whom Plinie seemeth to fauour when he sayeth in his second Booke of his Naturall Historie that God cannot giue men Eternitie nor call againe the Dead And also many Romaines renowned both for fame and learning for Valerius in his seconde Booke of the Immortalitie of the Soule seemeth to mocke the Frenchmen when he saith That old custome of the Frenchmen commeth to my remembraunce who as it is written doe lend Money that it might be payde them againe in Hell because they were certainely perswaded that the Soules be immortall Fooles are they to thinke that they there weare long Garments as Pithagoâ—as beleeued them to weare Cloakes Moreouer Caesar and Cato as Salust witnesseth plainely said that mens Soules were Mortall and many others also of whom it is not necessarie to speake particularly Against whom it is sayd in the second Chapter of the Booke of Wisedome The vngodly say as they falsely imagine with themselues our life is short and tedious and in the death of a man there is no recouerie neither was any knowne that returned from the Graue For wee are borne at all aduenture and we shall be hereafter as though we had neuer been for the Breath is a Smoake in our Nostrels and the Wordes as a Sparke raised out of our Heartes which being extinguished the Body is turned into Ashes and the Spirit vanisheth as the soft Ayre Our life shall passe away as the trace of a Cloude and come to naught as the Miste that is driuen away with the beames of the Sunne and cast downe with the heate thereof Our name also shal be forgotten in time and no man shall haue our workes in remembrance for our time is as a Shadow that passeth away and after our ende there is no returning For it is fast sealed so that no man commeth againe Come therefore and let vs enioy the pleasures that are present and let vs chearefully vse the creatures as in youth c. Then it followeth at the. 21. verse Such things doe they imagine and goe astray for their owne wickednesse hath blinded them And they doe not vnderstaud the mysterie of God neither hope for the reward of righteousnesse nor can discerne the honour of the Soules that are faultlesse And in the third Chapter The Soules of the righteous are in the hand of God no torment shall touch them In the sight of the vnwise they appeared to die and their ende was thought grieuous and their departing from vs. destruction but they are in peace And though they suffer paine before men yet is their hope full of immortalitie c. There are also others of euery sect and nation as well Poets as Philosophers in witte learning fame and glorie more excellent then the former who speaking more rightly of the state of the Soule haue taught that the Soules of men are not dissolued togeather with their bodyes but are immortall or rewarded with eternitie For Hermes talking in his Dialogues with Asclepius about the eternall Word confesseth that the Soules of men are immortall and that the Euill are punished and the Good eternally rewarded Goe to sayth he Wee must now reason of the Mortall and Immortall way or manner The feare of death vexe and trouble many being ignorant of the true way And a litle after When the Soule shall depart from the Body then shall the tryall of his merite passe into the power of the great Iudge and hee when he shall see it to be iust shall permit it to abide in places fit for it But if it be vnrighteous it shall be throwne downe into the great deepe and condemned to the stormes whyrlewinds of the Ayre and the Water and be snatched vp betwixt the Heauen and the Earth and be heere and there tossed haled and turmoyled in eternall paines But in this is eternitie hurtfull vnto the Soule that by the immortall sentence it is tyed to eternall punishment And thy Graunfather Esculapius O Asclepius saith hee the first finder out of Phisicke to whom is consecrated a Temple vpon a Mountaine of Lybea about the shore of Cocodrilli a man of a very godly life is gone backe againe into Heauen The Pharesies also and the Essies doe say that the Iudgement of God shall come and that the Soules of men be immortall Josephus in his second Booke of the Warres of the Jewes sayth this It is a confirmed opinion amongst vs that our Bodies are corruptible and that the matter of them is not perpetuall but our Soules alwayes remaine immortall And when they be losed from their carnall bondes as though they were deliuered or set free from a long seruitude so doe they foorthwith reioyce and are caryed vp on high The Pharesies also beleeued the same which two sectes were best allowed of among the Jewes as the same Iosephus affirmeth And of the Esseis being put to torments the same Josephus sayeth They smiling in the midst of punishings and laughing those to scorne that eschewed torments did constantly yeeld vp their Soules with a certaine hilaritie as though they should at length receiue theÌ„ againe And what is meant by that in the Sentences of the Greekes that assure them that remaine content with good things that they shall liue beyond the Occean where is promised vnto them a full fruition of the chiefest Ioyes For there verily say they is the Region which is aggrauated neither with Raine Cold Heate nor any Maladies but the Occean orient and gentle blowing Zephirus is there very pleasant But for euill soules they choose and appoint stormy and wintery places which are full of wailings schrikings and howlings of paines intollerable whose continuance is euerlasting and world with out end According to this same intelligence the Greekes haue faigned that for those whom they call Heros 1. noble and halfe Gods Semidij are sequestrated the Ilands of the blessed but for the Soules of the wicked Hell is destinated wherein also they faigne that there is tormented certaine Sysiphos Tantalusses Ixions and Licias For the Greeke say that Herâ—i noble and well deseruing Soules indued with immortalitie dwell vp very high in the Ayre whereof Jsiodore sayeth Heroas dicuntur a Junone traxisse nomen Grece enim luno a herba appellatur c. 1. Heroas are sayd to haue drawne their name from Juno for in the Greeke tongue
the Soule he sayth that there are certaine partes that are not separable from their Matters or the thinges whereof they be made or receiue the name and some are separable as Nauta a Nauj The Mariner from the Ship Vt rationalis anima a ratione and therefore hee concludeth that it is separable from other thinges as that which is perpetual from that which is corruptible And in the third Booke of the Soule putting a difference betweene Sensus and Intellectus the Sense and the Vnderstanding hee saith Excellens sensibile corrumpit sensum excellens autem intelligibile non corrumpit intellectum 1 The excellent sensible thing corrupteth the Sense but the excellent intelligible corrupteth not the Vnderstanding Also in the first Booke where the translation that Auarroys expoundeth the Vnderstanding doth seeme to bee a certaine substaunce which is made indeed and is not corrupted And in his Booke De Animalibus the Philosopher enquireth whether all Soules doe come foorth of their bodies and hee answearing saith That it is not possible for corporall Soules to come foorth of the bodyes It therefore remayneth sayth hee that it is the Vnderstanding that cōmeth foorth and only is diuine And he in his twelfth of Metaphysuks ca. 8. sayth The moueing causes as they were made before it so doe they come foorth of it And in the Booke of the death of Aristotle it is written that he lying on his death-bed comforting his schollars concerning the feare of death said vnto them Et vos vt quid turbatis et de morte timetis quae est via et incessus animae recedentis a corpore et ad comprehendendum gradus diuinos et coniungendum se animabus sapientibus et letis 1. And you why are you troubled and are afraid of death which is the gate entring in of the soule departing from the body to comprehend the heauenly wayes or degrees to ioyne it selfe to the soules that are wise and ioyfull After whose death his scholers praied for him saying Deus qui recolligit animas Philosophorum recolligat animam tuam et reponat eam in thesauris suis 1. The God that gathereth togeather the Soules of the Philosophers gather thy Soule and lay it vp in his treasures And Libro secundo posteriorum he reciteth Pythagoras saying That God doth thunder and sounde as one that threatneth that those that are in Tartarus or in Hell may be afraid And in the 4. Booke of his Ethicks hee sayth Although they sinne yet they suffer whatsoeuer punishment is layd vpon them because they say that immortalitie is life euerlasting for the passion of life seemeth immortalitie c. On the contrarie part Aristotle doth sometime seeme to be against the immortalitie of the Soule for in his Praedicaments he sayth Corrupto animali corruptitur scientia non autem scibile scientia autem non est anima ex quo videtur sequi animam interire cum corpore 1 The liuing creature being corrupted the science or knowledge is also corrupted not the thing that may be knowne for the science is not the Soule whereof it seemeth to follow that the Soule doth die with the Body And in his Booke De longitudine et breustate vitae Of the length shortnes of life hee sayth The liuing creatures being corrupted the science is also corrupted and likewise the healthfulnesse and therefore who of these shall reason for the Soule for if it be not of Nature but as science in the Soule so also shall the Soule be in the Body And of the same another corruption besides the corruption wherewith the corruption is corrupted with the Body therefore it must needes be that it hath cōmunion with the body And in the third De anima Non reminiscimur post mortem corum qui in vita sciuimus We haue no remembrance againe of thē after whom we knew while they were aliue And in the third Booke of Ethickes Terribilissimum autemmors terminus enim c. Death is a most terrible and fearefull thing for it is the tearme or end And there seemeth thencefoorth to be vnto the dead neither good nor euill And Septimo Metaph hee determineth of the Intention that Omnes partes quae possunt manere seperatae a toto sunt elementa hoc ect partes matcriales All partes that may remaine being seperated from the whole are Elementes that is to say partes Materiall And Primo de Caelo he seemeth to hold it for vnpossible against Plato Quod aliquid sit factum perpetuū et incorruptibile et hoc de mundo c. That any thing can be made perpetuall and vncorruptible And this is prooued of the world by two reasons which I omit for breuities sake And Quinto phisico he sayth Cuius est principtum eius est finis As is the beginning of a thing so is the end of it Out of which sayinges it seemed to Scotus and to many others also that Aristotle was alwayes doubtfull of the immortalitie of the Soule yea euen vnto the day of his death And he seemeth sometimes to come nearer the one part then the other and sometimes to agree to that hee seemed before to condemne accordingly as the matter whereof hee entreated was more consonant to the one part rather then the other Yet notwithstanding by Scotus leaue in the foresaid sentence he seemeth to mee not to differ frō his maister Plato in this matter and herein my witnesse is Bessario the Cardinall of Nicea in that which he wrote in the defence of Plato and Cicero also whose testimonie amongst all men is most of authoritie sayth in the first Tusculan question Post multorum Philosopherum de animi quidditate recitatas opiniones Aristoteles longe omnibus Platonem semper excipio c. After the recited opinions of many Philosophers touching questioninges of the Soule Aristotle is farre aboue all but I alwayes except Plato a man very excellent both for witte and wisedome and diligence seeing hee embracing receiuing and allowing those foure knowne kindes thought that there was also a fifth Nature The minde is equall for to cogitate and to prouide to speake and to teach and to inuent somewhat and to remember so many seuerall thinges to loue to hate to couet to feare these thinges and such as be like vnto them are not to be found in any one of these foure kindes and therefore he thinketh there is a fifth nature that is without name and so hee calleth the Minde it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Endelcia quasi quandam contanuatam motionem et perennem As it were a certaine continued and euerlasting motion And speaking also of the sentences of the philosophers which we haue put in the first place hee sayth His omnibus sententijs nihil post mortem pertinere ad quenquam potest By all these sentences nothing can belong to any man after death But of the sentence of Aristotle and Plato he sayth afterward Reliquorum sententiae spem afferunt posse
Soule intellectiue or the naturall Vnderstanding and so man is per se vnum one by him selfe After the first maner a Child is not Homo Man of the same kind with himselfe when he is old nor with other men After the second maner hee is not Man neither endued with reason Nisi potentia but in power Contrarily it should follow that a Child should not be endued with Reason neither Men inwardly reasonable which is absurde Also Man vnderstandeth not seipso primo not by himselfe first therfore by his substantial forme The Antecedent is wel knowne by experience the Consequent is plaine because the proper operation agreeing to any thing compounded cannot be competent vnto it selfe per mateâ—â—am by matter therfore by the former is the Soule the substantial forme of man This is confirmed because then by no operation of an Animall brute creature it could be conuinced that the sensitiue Soule should be the forme therof giuing vnto it esse to bee but the Aduersarie might say that it giueth it operari et non esse to worke and not to bee Adde herevnto that it is an expresse determination of the Church in Clemen Extra de summatri et fide Catholica Against the second that the proper bodies and all thinges shall returne againe vnto the same But such a continuation is not intelligible but faigned vaine and vnprofitable Because that by such continuance man neither after the first maner nor yet after the second could vnderstand Otherwise the painted Wall or the thing wrought on the Wall offred to the sight should see because the colour that is on the Wall doth cause the vision and the sight receiueth it Against the third It should follow that contraries should be togeather in the same thing for it is plaine that in the vnderstanding of one man is Assent and Insent and in the vnderstanding of another in the respect of the same is Dissent Intent And of that thing whereof one man hath Science another hath onely Opinion and an other Ignorance Also according to this we should hardly vnderstand nothing but that whereof the Phantasie should cause Intention But this is false as experience doth prooue by the actes aswell of the Vnderstanding as of the Will and by many others For the notice or knowledge Intuitiue is knowne by beholding or intuitiueely is cause of the Notice reflexed But of the immortall state of the soule after death the foresaid Philosophers are seuered among themselues for some set downe that the soules when they doe depart foorth of the bodyes do straightway enter into the bodyes of Beastes correspondent vnto their Merites As for example the Soules of Princes into Lions of Souldiers into Bores of others into Swine of some into Wolues of others into Birdes and Apes c. Neither in these doth the paine and deiection cease vntill they had put on formes agreeable to those of the wild outragious Beastes Whereof it came to passe as Ambrose saith in his Booke do bono mortis that some said that the chiefest good or summum bonum of the great Philosophers doth consist in this that their Soules after their death doe enter into Apes or Birdes Others there haue been that said and affirmed that they doe change their sexe or kind and doe turne vnto the infirmitie of Womans nature Others will that they goe into strange humaine bodyes as that fabulous Historie of the Greekes doth witnesse for it sheweth that Menelaus after that Euphorbus was ouercome laide vp his Buckler in the Temple of Iuno which Panthoydes tooke away whereof they said that the Soule of Euphorbus was entred into Panthoydes and that he was Euphorbus himselfe whereof Ouid. maketh mention in his fifth Booke of Metamorphosis Ipse egó nam memini Troiani tempore belli Panthoides Euphorbus eram cui pectore Hesit in aduerso grauis hasta minoris Atridae That is to say For I my selfe remember well in time of Troian Warre Panthoides Euphorbus was my selfe and deepe and farre A mighty speare did pearce my breast which dead did downe me throw Atreus mightie younger sonne did strike this deadly blow And to speake nothing of the rest of the Philosophers Plato had the best iudgement what becommeth of Men if notwithstanding saith he they lead their liues righteously and holily then so soone as the Soules are deliuered from their bodyes they are receiued into the bosome of the Gods themselues But they being vnmindfull of supernall thinges doe refuse them as things connexed and doe againe begin to be willing to enter into their bodyes againe For speaking of which out of Plato his doctrine Virgill is very greatly commended Therefore hee thought that the Soules of mortall men were alwayes able to abide in their bodyes but through the necessitie of death must needes be dissolued And that they are not able neither to endure perpetually without their bodyes but thought that by enterchangeable courses the liuing became dead and the dead become liuing indefinitely and for euermore But in this doe Wise-men differ from others that straight-way after death they are carried vnto the Stars that euery one resteth very long in that Starre that is agreeable or meete for him and at length forgetfull of his old miseries and ouercommed with desire of hauing his body returneth againe to the labours and sorrowes of mortall men Therfore by a most hard condition doth Plato make the Soules of men yea euen of the wisest to be happie and blessed Vnto whom are not such bodies distributed as with which they may liue alwayes and immortally neither without them can endure in eternall puritie but doe sometime though not immediatly yet at the length desire to returne vnto the bodies And so indefinitely doe by course returne againe into diuers bodies vntill the great yeare in the which they shall haue againe their owne bodies and all thinges shall come againe vnto their first estate And those that haue ledde a foolish life hee thought should come vnto bodies due to their desertes whether of Men or of Beastes and so long to liue miserably in them vntill they be scoured from their filthinesse and their errours moderated be redacted vnto the rule of reason and temperance and so at length deserue to come vnto the honour of their first estate But Porphirius doth not onely remooue from mens Soules the bodies of Beastes but also will haue the Soules of Wise-men so to be deliuered from the bonds of the bodie that fleeing vtterly from euerie bodie are kept blessed with the Father for euermore It is a foolish thing to speake of that life which cannot be most blessed vnlesse there may be a most sure certaintie of the felicitie of it and for the blessed Soules to desire the blot of corruptible Bodies and to returne backe againe vnto them as though there needed a great Purgation and an iniquination and defiling to be required Truely the sentence of Porphirius is to be preferred before theirs that will
euermore haue a changing of blessednesse miserie Yet notwithstanding he will haue the soules of wicked men to go into other humaine bodies that they might be purged in them And then when they be purged without any returning to their old miseries hee placeth them in eternall felicitie For it shamed Porphirius to say that the Soules of men are posted backe againe into beastiall bodies If Plato and Porphirius had agreed betweene themselues I beleeue that they also should haue seene that it is a consequent that Soules doe returne to their Bodies and should receiue such thinges as whereby they might liue blessedly and immortally Because according to Plato the holy Soules also shall returne to humaine bodies According to Porphirius they shall returne to the euils of this world Porphirius therefore may say with Plato they shall returne vnto bodies and Plato with Porphirius they shall not returne to euill ones Therefore that the Soules may be blessed euerie body must not be eschewed but a body proper and incorruptible must be receiued wherein they may more conueniently reioyce then waile and lament in any that is corruptible So shall there be in them no direfull wretchednesse and calamitie which Virgill concludeth out of Plato when he saith Rursus et incipiant in corpore velle reuerti That is to say And loe they now begin to haue a willing minde For to returne so corps againe So I say they shall not haue a desire to returne to other bodies seeing they shall haue bodies eternally with them into the which they shall couet to returne It is therefore a more honest thing to beleeue that which the Saintes and holy Angels haue shewed which the Prophets haue spoken by the instinct of the holy Ghost which the Messengers of Christ our sauiour haue preached which the blessed Apostles haue taught and written to witte That there shall be a Resurrection of our mortall Bodies or that mens Soules shall once returne vnto their owne proper Bodies and those immortalls There now remaineth for vs so far-foorth as the Lord shall vouchsafe to helpe vs godlily and humbly according to our small Talent to shew or to perswade the Immortalitie of mans Soule or the reasonable Soule whereby we haue sense moue and vnderstande And this will we doe so much the more humbly as we doe suppose it the harder to be done for there is scarcely any trueth more obscure out of humaine strength or the principles of naturall Philosophie more difficile to be perswaded which certainely ought to be counted a worke hard and wonderfull Seeing that it is the greatest thing that may be for the minde it selfe to see and know the minde it selfe For as the corporall eye doth easily see other thinges but can not see it selfe so our Minde doth not so easily contemplate or looke vpon it selfe as it doth other thinges For verily this force as Cicero saith in the first Tusculan question hath that Precept of Apollo in quâ— mouet se quisque noscat 1. Wherein euery one mooueth let him know himselfe For I doe not beleeue that he gaue that Precept to the end to haue vs to know our members or stature figure or shape but that wee should beholde the puritie and dignitie of our minde To know this therfore cannot be any otherwise but diuine and strait This Precept giuen of the GOD could not belong to any sharpe and cruell minde Euerie one therefore that is not content with the perswasions and probable and demonstratiue reasons in this obscure difficile and hard matter which exceedeth passeth or goeth beyonde all mans witte hee I say is worthy to be despised and to be left vnto him selfe in the vaine inquisition of such like reasons For the hard thinges of our Fayth ought rather to be considered by the Oracles of the Fathers then discussed by the vnderstanding For often times humaine sense while it seeketh the reasons of certaine thinges can not finde it doth drowne it selfe in the gulfe of Desperation And when it seeketh to finde out by reason the force of the Immortalitie of the Soule it falleth for the most part into the bottomlesse pitte of Desperation Therefore least through rashnesse and temeritie wee should deserue to be rebuked about the foresayd doubt we will God willing assay to reason and dispute in three Conclusions according to the sentence and iudgement of the auncient Fathers The first Conclusion ALthough the Immortalitie of the reasonable Soule cannot be prooued neither demonstrated by effectuall and euident reason yet by probable reasons it may apparently be perswaded both to the saythfull and to the vnsaythfull The first part is plaine for Augustine in 3. de Trin. speaking of the life Mortall and Immortall saith Hac vtrum caveat humana natura nec parua est quistic humanis quippe argumentationibus â—anc muenue conâ—utes vix pauci magno praediti ingentâ— vacautes octo doctrinisque subtilissimis crudite ad indagandum soluâ—s animae imâ—ortâ—letâ—tem peruenire potuerunt That is to say Neither is it a smal question whether humaine nature doth want this or no for because that they that goe about to finde out this by humaine argumentations scarcely a few endued with good wittes hauing sufficient leasure and learned in most subtile doctrines could attaine to the searching out of the Immortalitie of the Soule onely By reason thus We cannot naturally know the reasonable Soule in it selfe neither intuitiuely nor abstractiuely by a perfect and distinct knowledge therefore we can not euidently and by effectual reason conclude the Immortalitie thereof which naturally and necessarily doe follow it The Antecedent is cleare of the intuitiue of the Abstractiue it is plaine because such a knowledge naturally gotten doth presuppose the intuitiue knowledge touching the same thing Secondly thus euerie thing demonstrated of the subiect is first and more according to knowledge spoken or predicated of that thing by which it is demonstrated then of the subiect wherein it is demonstrated shewed for to bee But it is not naturally neither euidently knowne vnto vs that Immortalitie is first and more according to knowledge spoken of any other thing then of the reasonable Soule Or that proposition wherein Immortalitie is spoken of another is not to vs former or more knowne then this propositioÌ„ The Soule is Immortall The Maior is plaine because the demonstration is of thinges former more knowne and the causes of the conclusion It is confirmed because this Conclusion Anima rationalis est disciplinabilis The reasonable Soule is disciplinable Although it be euident and knowne by experience yet it is not demonstrable therefore neither this Conclusion This Soule is Immortall because it is neither euident nor knowne by experience is demonstrable The Antecedent is plaine because that Proposition is immediate then the which there is not another that is former and principall to conclude this Homo est disciplinabilis Man is disciplinable For I doe not beleeue that the Cause can be giuen why
the Soule is Disciplinable or Immortall but that of it owne nature it is such For the perswading of the second part of the Conclusion we haue excerpt three reasons out of Cicero his first Tusculan Question and out of Cato the elder The first he draweth from as it were a naturall and in-bred opinion of all men but especially of old auncients The second Argument he draweth from the hope and expectation of prudent and good Men. The third he fetcheth from the nigh similitude and likenesse of our Mindes vnto GOD Afterward we will induce other familiar Reasons The first Reason that must testifie this trueth is Antiquitie which the further it was gone from the birth and difference of progenie the better peraduenture it did behold those thinges that were true Therefore sayth he it is sure that old men haue a sense and feeling in death and that man is not so blotted out by the departure out of this life that he should vtterly perish And this to be so may be vnderstood by the Ceremonies vsed at the Sepulchres Graues and Buriall of the dead where is vsed such Rites towardes them as if they were still indued with most excellent Wittes Neither would they haue worshipped with so great regard nor vsed so deuout Religion vnlesse it had cleaned to their minds that Death could not destroy all things but is as it were the Guide Captaine Leader of woorthie Men and Women that doe goe from hence into Heauen and change this fraile brittle miserable and wretched life for a life permanent euerlasting blessed and ioyfull From which opinion it is sprung that many whose names it is not now needfull to reckon vp or rehearse are for their good life and virtuous behauiour while they liued heere in this world amongst men counted after their death amongst the number of the Gods This same may hereof be vnderstood that all men haue a care that these thinges should be after their death to witte Propagation of Name Procreation of Children Adoption of Sonnes and fulfilling of Testaments with many other thinges It is a most great Argument amongst the Philosophers Why wee ought to beleeue that there is Gods although there be no Nation so sauage and outragious whose minde is not indued with opinion of Gods If any one would haue this Reason reduced and brought vnto that strait forme of Logicke wherein it shall haue lesse force they shall summarily haue it thus All men and especially those old ones who as they seeme to haue excelled vs in stature of body so also in excellencie of witte because they found out all good Artes which was an hard thing to doe iudged by nature or were naturally inclined to iudge that the Soules of men be Immortall Therefore the Soules of men are Immortall The Antecedent plainely appeareth to be true of the diligence that all men vse about their Sepulchres or Graues about the propogation of their name fame and glorie about the generation of Children adoption of Sonnes of many other thinges which men would not doe vnlesse they were naturally enclined to iudge that after they be departed out of this life there belongeth something vnto them wherevnto they haue a naturall appetite The second Reason is because that Plato whose authoritie is of such force with Cicero that he counteth him worthie to be beleeued in what he saith although he shew no reason why writing vnto Dionisius in that Epistle that beginneth Audiui ex Archidomo doth perswade saying Natura fieri viaemus vt ignauissimus quisque nihil curet quae sit de eo futura opinin Sapientes autenâ— et boni viri cuncta faciunt quo futura secula bene dese existimant 1. Wee see that it commeth to passe by nature that euery slouthfull sluggard taketh no care what opinion shall hereafter he had of him But wise and good men doe all thinges whereby the ages to come may thinke well of them Whereby I doe coniecture that his meaning is that they that be dead haue some sense feeling or knowledge of our matters or the thinges that we doe This Reason Cato the elder following doth thus reason in Cicero his Booke De Senectute Nemo vnquam mihi Scipio persuadebit aut patrem tuum c. There shall neuer any man perswade mee Scipio that either your Father Paulus or your two Graundfathers Paulus and Affricanus or that Affricanus Father or his Vncle or many other excellent men whom now it is not needfull to reckon vp did endeauour so great thinges which might belong to memorie of their posteritie vnlesse they did see very well in their minds that the posteritie should pertaine vnto them Or doe you thinke that I may glorie somewhat of my selfe as it is the maner of old men to doe that I would haue taken vpon mee so great labours both night and day at home and in warre if I were perswaded that my glorie should end with my life Had it not been a great deale better for mee to haue spent my time in ease and quietnesse without any labour and contention This speach Cicero handling more largely in the first Tusculan question sayth Quae natura in hominum genere melior quam eorum qui se natos ad homines iuuandos tutandos conseruandos arbitrantur etiam vsque ad mortem fortiter sustinendam Quis autem sapiens sine spe immortalitatis se offerret ad mortem Quid enim imprudentius quam sine vsto premio se et vita et virtute propria priuare Cum aut seruitutis aut egestatis labores c. 1. What Nature in Mankind can be better then theirs that thinke them-selues to be borne vnto this end to the intent that they may helpe defend and preserue men yea euen vnto the abyding of the bitter bruntes of direfull death But what wise-man wil offer himselfe vnto death without the hope of immortalitie for what part can a man play more vnwisely then without any rewarde to depriue himselfe of life and his owne proper vertue when be might with the rest of the Citizens patiently abide the labours either of seruitude or of pouertie Who will affirme that Glorie doth profit the dead if they haue no sense or feeling of it What good can this glorie doe to those famous worthy men so diligently notably cammended described of Poets if so be they doe know nothing of it Whether is it our partes then to condemne all those worthy men of foolishnesse who haue valiantly susteyned death for their Countrey or to beleeue that they looked for the immortalitie of their soules whose mindes sentence and iudgement to finde fault withall or to reprehend seemeth to come the nearest vnto temeritie or roshnesse This Reason diffusedly handled may be brought to forme vnder a double maner First wise and good men doe iudge and hope that their Soules shall be immortall therefore it is so The Antecedent is very plaine for otherwise they would not haue so endangered them-selues
nor willingly died that their valiantnesse might be left to them memorie of posteritie vnlesse they iudged that the posteritie did belong to them The Consequent is plaine because the diuinations and opinions of good men are seene as well as of the wicked The second If the Soule were not immortall no man in his right minde would offer himselfe to death for his Countrey or the Commonweale nor yet sustaine death for his Friendes The Consequence doth not seeme false For the Philosopher sayth in the ninth Booke of Ethickes That euerie one ought to suffer for his friendes yea to die for them also it need so required The same he saith in the 3. Booke of Ethicks The Consequence is plaine because none that is in his right wittes ought by good reason to depriue himselfe of the chiefest good or without hope to get some good thing either in this present life or in that which is to come But if the Soule be mortall then it doth by death depriue it selfe of the chiefest good yea of all good thinges without any hope of reward It may be thus confirmed Death doth not profite of it selfe or by it selfe to the conseruation of the Common-weale but is indeed against it Therefore if the Soule be mortall and is not to be rewarded in time to come then no wise man ought to stand to the trueth in the right of his Countrey euen vnto death The Antecedent is plaine Simile est de vno ciue et multis What is the duetie of one Citizen is also the duetie of many But it is a foolishnesse to say that all Citizens ought to die for the conseruation of the Weale publicke seeing that the Publicke weale is the life of the Citizens For what profited them the pertinacie of the Saguntines vnto the safetie of the Common-weale If the Saguntines would haue chosen the safetie of their Common-weale they should either haue forsaken their Fayth or else neuer haue made such Oth But if they must needes keepe their Fayth then must they needes loose their Common-weale as it came to passe Secondly the Consequence is plaine No man of sound reason ought to susteyne a great euill vnlesse it be to eschew a greater euill or for the obtayning of a greater good then that good is whereof by such euill he is depriued because that of two euils the lesse alway is to be choseÌ„ But if the Soule be mortall and after death haue no beeing then no such good can be giuen or be imagined Neither doth it auaile that Scotus saith alleadging the Philosopher in the ninth of the Ethickes that hee that dyeth for his Countrey giueth to himself great good by exercising that great act of vertue Et hoe bono priuaret se omnino vicâ—ose viueret Hee should depriue himselfe of that good thing sayth Scotus and should liue viciously or in reproch and defame If the Soule be mortall there can not theÌ„ be vnto the dead either good or euill or sense For what can either prayse or fame or glorie profite the dead if the dead know not of them for after their death they cannot giue vnto themselues for the said worke either reward ioy or reioycing for these are the affections of the minde Neither againe is that true or by any meanes to be receiued as true or for any colour of trueth which the same Sootus saith that Potest dari coÌ„mune bonum propter quod debet se exponere morti et totum bonuÌ„ exponere destructioni simpliciter etiamsinesciat animaÌ„ immortalem There may be giuen a common good for whose sake euery one ought to offer himselfe to death and what good soeuer he hath to endanger it to destruction simply although he can not tell whether the Soule be Immortall or no. Because it is not certaine whether the common good be alway rather to be chosen then the particular and proper good Yea this is vniuersally true at no time but then when the particular good is included in the common good But where the common good includeth the particular good who is there of sound iudgement and in his right minde that loueth the particular and proper good more then the common For the Philosopher saith in the 8. Eth. Amabile quidem bonuÌ„ ouique c. Euery one loueth his owne good therefore by good reason euery one loueth his owne better theÌ„ an other mans And 9. Eth. Amabilia ad alteruÌ„ mensurantur ex his quae sunt adseipsum Louely things are measured vnto another by those things which a man loueth him selfe The third Reason because I studie to be short The Soule of man according to the most excellent operations is like vnto God And therefore of some it is beleeued to haue a diuine nature But of men of our Religion it is called The image of God Therefore it is to be esteemed like vnto him in immortalitie The Antecedent is plaine and very well knowne a confessed trueth amongst all The Consequence is prooued out of Plato alleadged by Eusebius Praeparationis Euangelicae lib. 11. cap. 14. where are recited these wordes of Porphirius handling this Reason Firmam cortamque rationemeam Plato putauit quae a similitudine â—â—iquorum vim accepit Nam si Deo immortali similis est anima quomodo etiam ipsae sicut exemplar suum immortalis non erit Plato thinketh that to be a firme and sure Reason which taketh force from the similitude of some thinges for if the Soule be like to God that is Immortall how shall not then it selfe be Immortall like as the examplar I passe ouer the rest Which Reason as the same Eusebius saith is drawne out of Moses who first taught that the Soule is Immortal because it is the Image of God yea hee affirmeth that assuredly it is the Image of God Whom the Wise-man following in the 2. Chapter of the Booke of Wisedome doth most briefely touch the same Reason saying Deus creauit hominem inestimabilem ad imaginem similitudinis suae fecit illuÌ„ 1. God created Man inestimable or without corruption and made him after the Image of his owne likenesse This Reason also Salust toucheth in the beginning of his Booke of Catalines Conspiracie where he affirmeth Animum nobis cum dijs communem et virtutem claram et aeternam That we haue a minde common with the Gods and a cleare vertue and eternall Which Sentence in the beginning of the Warre of Iugurtha hee vseth againe Ingenij egregia facinora sicuti et anima immortalia sunt id est The worthy workes of the Witte like as the Soule are Immortall Which also may thus be perswaded These Actes to will to vnderstand to remember to loue to hate wherein the Soules haue conueniencie with God and Angels may both bee and be exercised without the body therfore it is not repugnant to the Soule both to bee to liue without the body The Antecedent is well knowne and the Consequent is plaine because the Accidentis not more
abstract then the Substaunce from which it is sayd to flow Seeing then we doe prooue in our selues that the Soule existing in the bodie doth know many thinges which can not fall vnder our sense and that without the mediation or vsing the meanes of the body for wee prooue or finde by experience that it knoweth the relations following Nature and insensible relations of reason wee finde by experience that it assenteth to the complections without possibilitie of contradicting or erring many other things seeing therefore I say that these Actes haue no conueniencie neither can agree to other formes and thinges corruptible it is most like and agreeable to reason that these Actes are sufficient to prooue that the Soule is immortall Moreouer the Immortalitie of the Soule is prooued by certaine reasons of the Schoole Doctors First In whom there is power and virtue alwayes Proficere to profits in the same also there is power and virtue alwayes to bee Seeing that the subsistence of the Accident cannot be naturally without the Essence of the subiect But in the Soule there is alway power and virtue proficere to profits therefore there is in the Soule power and virtue alwayes to bee The Minor is euident by the saying of a certaine Wise man who sayth Cum consummauirit homo tunc incipit 1. When man shall make his ending then is his beginning And in an other place Multitudinem ingressus saepientiae quis intellexit Who hath euer knowne the multitude of Wisedomes entries Which speach seemeth to haue this sense that by the prosecting and increasing of Wisedome the entrance in vnto her is multiplyed because he seemeth more and more to enter in vnto her that more and more profecteth in her This Exposition is helped by the speach of the Prophet that saith to his Soule Post me ingredi non cessabis Thou shalt not cease to enter in after mee The Answere of Plato doth also further it For he being asked when a man can haue profited so much in Philosophie that there can remaine nothing for him to know more or when he can haue learned so much that there can be nothing left for him to learne Hee answered Hoc solum scio quod nescio 1. This onely I know that I know not As if hee should haue sayd Solum cognosco ignorantiam meam 1. I know onely mine ignorance This I thus confirme The perfections and dispositions that the reasonable Soule can acquire or get are not limitted therefore the life of the reasonable Soule or the existence thereof is not limitted and so by consequence it must needes be Immortall The Antecedent is plaine because the Soule cannot know so many things but it may know more The Consequence is plaine because it is vnpossible for the virtue and power of euerie subiect to be of those dispositions and perfections from the which the subiect is naturally prohibited For this mortall life cannot suffice naturally for the getting or participating of infinite perfections seeing that euery one of them requireth time A second Reason is this If the Soule should be corrupted and so mortall it should be either through the action of the contrarie or else through the corruption of the subiect But it is not corrupted by meanes of the action of the contrarie because it hath no contrarie Neither can it be corrupted by reason of the corruption of the subiect because nothing is corrupted in that wherein it consisteth by it owne perfection For these are contrarie mutations to witte of Corruption and Perfection But the Perfection of the Soule consisteth in a certaine abstraction from the Body for the Body waxing old in men liuing moderately and temperately the Soule is perfected according to the science and knowledge thereof and according to the virtues thereof According to the science and knowledge because in auncient old men is Wisedome and in much time is Prudence According to the Virtues because such men are temperate neither giue place to wicked Concupiscence nor haue any great difficultie in act But young men haue wicked Concupiscences and are delighted therein neither can they refraine them without great difficultie This Argument is confirmed by a double Reason The first is this That when the Body is weakened or some Organ thereof hath receiued some hurt the Soule is more fortified thereby and made more stronger and virtuous in the other senses and powers as though it were vnto them a more inward supply of those thinges that seeme to be taken away by the defect of the members Therefore when the Body dieth the Soule doth not die The Antecedent is knowne to be true by experience for a blind man is more sharpe quicke in hearing and in vnderstanding and in other senses then hee that is well sighted Whereof Guilermus Parisiensis sayth That a certaine Blinde man was so cunning and had so much prosited in experience that he could infallibly tell onely by the touching handling feeling or croping any peece of Monie of his owne Country coyne though there were neuer so many and sundry sortes of them And a certaine blind Boy in the fourteenth yeare of his age learned all liberall Artes knew and vnderstood all the sacred Scriptures and taught them and wrote most largely and amply vpon them as is mentioned in the Tripartue Historie The second Confirmation is thus As is the whole Body to the whole Soule so are the partes of the Body to the parts of the Soule But whē one part or some Organ of the Body is corrupted there is no part of the Soule corrupted nor hurt nor suffereth in it selfe but remayneth sound and perfect Therefore when the Body dyeth the Soule doth not die The Antecedent is plaine by the Philosopher Si senex haberet oculum neuenis videret vtigque vt iuuenis c. If an old man should haue the eye of a young man hee should see as a young man therefore when part of the Body is hurt the Soule is not hurt in it selfe although it be depriued of the act For when our Sauiour Christ restored sight vnto the blind he gaue not nor conferred vnto the Soule any strength or actiuitie but onely repaired the hurt or indisposition of the Organ Also the reasonable Soule by how much more it vnderstandeth and knoweth thinges intelligible by so much more perfect is it made and more disposed to vnderstand But the Soules of all mortall men by how much more they feele and exercise their operations by so much more are they weakened made vnfit for the exercising of their operations Experience doth teach both these to be true and so doth the Philosopher also where hee saith Excellens sensibile currumpit sonsum excellens autem intelligibile non corrumpit intellectum 1. The excellent sensible thing corrupteth the sense but the excellent intelligible thing doth not corrupt the vnderstanding Therefore there is another kind of the Soule from that which is corruptible and so by consequence it must needes be Immortall
Morcouer the formes or Soules which all men iudge or do thinke to be corruptible to be of themselues wholly corrupted and the corruption of the whole to be as is the corruption of the part are corrupted as the part is corrupted because they are extended hauing part without part and are greater in a great body and lesser in a lesse body This Scotus doth very notably deduct in the fourth Booke That in Nutrition is required a new forme and in the Diminution there floweth not onely the matter but also the thing compounded of the matter and the forme Therefore the Nutrition or Nourishing is called a certaine GeneratioÌ„ And it is very manifest that in Nutrition there are more partes of the matter in the whole then was before or else the new part of the matter is in the whole without forme which is not to be graunted neither vnder the whole forme because so it is extended hauing part without part or else vnder a new forme and so we haue our purpose or else vnder part of the forme that was before and then euen that leaueth off to perfect part of the matter which before it perfected and so one and the same part of the materiall forme shall slit from one part of the matter vnto to an other part which is inconuenient or that part of the forme being the same it was before doth in like maner perfect part of the matter that it did before and this part of the matter now new And so it shall togeather perfect two perfectable thinges either whereof is fully matchable to it serfe But the reasonable Soule is not extended or stretched out neither greater in a greater body lesser in a lesser Body but it is whole in the whole Body and wholly or altogeather indiuisible in euery part therefore it is an other kind from the corruptible formes and mortall Soules It is a thing well knowne that all men doe desire blessednesse and that it is the end of good men It is also knowne by reason that blessednesse cannot be otherwise then sempiternall Therefore it is well knowne that Man is ordained to some euerlasting perfection which prooueth that the Soule is Immortall The Minor doth Saint Augustine prooue 13. de Trin ap 8. Si beata vita bearum dâ—â—erat c. If so be the blessed sife doe forsake the blessed man hee being therevnto either willing or not willing or neither of them If not willing how is it a blessed life which is so in the Will as it cannot be in the Power If willing how could that life be blessed which he that had it would not haue it verily and indeed But if neither Then such a life cannot in any wise be blessed in such a case when he that it maketh blessed is a stranger from the loue thereof This may in this wise be confirmed Mans Soule is made to be partaker of blessednesse to receiue it and enioy it For this is certaine truly prooued by the clamor of euery Appetite naturall Therefore the Soule is made to receiue either eternall and perpetuall blessednesse or else temporall If the first then the Soule is Immortall and at the length shall be perpetually blessed Now the second cannot be because like as sorrow commeth of those thinges which happen vnto vs against our willes euen so doth it of those thinges that depart from vs against our willes But blessednesse if we should be vnwilling vnto it should perish and become no blessednesse at all for how can we be blessed against our willes And so blessednesse perishing our Soules by a consequent should haue in them selues a feare and griefe and be alwaies sorrowfull whereby it should follow that they should be miserable Also in euery well ordered ciuill gouernement there are appointed rewards to prouoke men to the doing of good and punishmentes to sound the retreat from vices But in the whole gouernement of Mankind good and virtuous men are not sufficiently rewarded nor euill and naughtie men sufficiently punished yea they cannot sufficiently be rewarded nor punished the one by reason of Gods Promise the other because of his Iustice Therefore there is another life in the which shall be giuen to euery one according as his workes shall be For no man could say that the virtuous be rewarded with the pleasures which Epicures enioy and wherewith all they are delighted Neither can it be said that the goods of Fortune as they call them can sufficiently reward the virtuous seeing that for the most part we see the euill men flow in riches delightes prosperitie and all pleasures that their heartes can desire On the contrarie part the Virtuous doe often want these pleasures and delightes and are excruciated with many sundry sharpe showers of Aduersitie What then shall be giuen vnto the iust man that hath abstayned from delightes euen vnto the day of his death and sustayneth sorrowes pouertie aduersitie and tribulations Moreouer the worke of Virtue is better incomparably then the goods of Fortune And as Aristotle witnesseth Honor and Fame and chiefely of those things which are outward goods hence he sayth Maxime grauiter quisque fert suo honore priuatus as wee vse to say in our English Who is so woe begone as first a man and then none But Honor is not a meete or worthy reward for Virtue as the same Aristotle sayth in the seauenth Booke of Ethickes Virtuti perfectae non vtique dignus honor Honor is no worthy reward for perfect Virtue Neither is it auaileable to say That the Virtuous are sufficiently rewarded with essentiall goodnesse that inseparably followeth a good Act. And that the Euill are punished with the paine that inseparably accompanieth an euill Acte which the Doctors call Paenam derelictam Punishment left off and not Punishment inflicted Of which Augustine sayth in his Booke of Confessions Thou hast commaunded Lord and so it is that euerie sinner is a punishment to himselfe Of the which good as some say the Philosopher speaketh in the 9. Booke of Ethickes saying That euery one that dieth for his Friende doth purchase to himselfe the greatest good that may be Moreouer a lesse delectation for the most part doth follow a greater operation and peraduenture none at all as of the operations of Fortitude Whereof it is that the Philosopher sayth in the third Booke of Ethickes That in all Vertues a man can not be occupied with delight Neither is it of force to say that mans felicitie doth consist in Sciences speculatiue or in the operations of Wisedome and in the knowledge of most high causes And so by a consequent by such like operations of Wisedome a man should sufficiently be rewarded in this life As the Philosopher and Auerrhois doe seeme to say For the CoÌ„mentator vpon the first Booke of Physicks sayth That it is proper to a man concerning his last perfecttion to be perfect according to the Sciences speculatiue And this Disposition is vnto him his vtmost felicitie And that
he can not be deceiued in any thing Who is so perfect that he is perfectly quieted in all thinges and fully satisfied Was not Aristotle deceiued in many thinges and found ignoraunt in many thinges as about the Eternitie of the World and the Perpetuitie of generation and corruption and in very many other thinges also he foully erred The second Conclusion FAyth secluded and set apart in the light of naturall Reason it is more agreeable to Reason and more probable to affirme that the reasonable Soule is Immortall then to say that it is Mortall Or that the opinion of those Philosophers that auouch that the Soule is Immortall is more reasonable and more probable yea Fayth being secluded and set aside then the opposite or contrary thereof First it is very manifest according to the Philosopher that that is probable which doth seeme to the most euen chiefely to the wisest But very many of the Philosophers those whom we see to be preferred aboue all others of euery sect and nation in fame glory wisedome haue verily thought the Soule to be Immortall And but a few and those of the meanest of the Philosophers of no fame and reputation haue said That it is Mortall as hath been shewed before therefore the Soule is Immortall Hereof the Philosopher sayth in the ninth Booke of Ethicks that Opinionibus sapientum oportet acquiescere habent enim fidem quandam 1. Wee ought for to rest and stay our selues in the Opinions of Wisemen for they haue a certaine Fayth Whereof he also sayth That the opinions of Wisemen doe sound togeather c. Also that Opinion is more reasonable and probable whereunto there are more effectuall perswasions or more dialecticall reasons But for this Opinion That the Soule is Immortall there are more effectuall perswasions and more Topicall reasons then for the contrarie opinion Yea for that part the reasons are most slender neither haue they scarsely any shadow of probabilitie for all the reasons wherewith they goe about to impugne the Immortalitie of the Soule are founded in errour or on a false ground as are these wherevnto all for the most part doe leane If the Soule should be Immortall it should follow that all the Soules should be perpetually idle and depriued of their proper act But this Reason is grounded on two thinges whereof both are false and erroneous The first is that the Body being corrupted cannot be repayred and brought againe to the same forme and maner that it was before The second is That the Soule cannot vnderstand but in the Body by the meanes of the Body of which thinges at this present it is not needfull to speake Also Reasons dialecticall how effectuall or forceable soeuer they shall be or multiplied out of the nature of them or from the Empire or Godly affection of the Will cannot cause but an opinion or assent with a feare of the opposite From the same feate are Reasons bred with the empire of the Will the godly Affection thereof to cause a greater assent in the kind of opinion yea verily sometimes Fayth or a firme Assent without feare of the opposite whereof the Philosopher saith in the seauenth Booke of Ethicks that Aligui ita firmiter harent his de quibus habent opinionem sicut alij his quibus habent scientiam 1. Some doe so firmely cleaue to the thinges whereof they haue opinion as others doe to those thinges whereof they haue full knowledge or skill And this proceedes of the empire and godly Affection of the Will Whereof the Text thus lyeth Some that doe hold Opinions doe not doubt but esteeme or thinke that they doe surely know that whereof they hold opinion and doe nothing lesse belieue those that are of opinion then others those that know But euery one well disposed is inclined Ad esse et non ad non esse To bee and not to not bee to the affirmatiue not negatiue and is affected to alwayes to bee if it be possible therefore others being like euery one well disposed is borne to haue a greater Assent yea a firmer and a surer that the Soule is Immortall then of the opposite thereof Therefore it is more agreeable to reason and more probable in the light of naturall reason to suppose or to thinke that the Soule is Immortall then the opposite thereof Whereof our Cicero thought it more saf secure to erre with those Philosophers that hold that the Soule is Immortal then with those meane and base accounted on Philosophers that doe affirme and hold of opinion that the Soule is Mortall If the Soule be Mortall then they that hold it to be Immortal do not therby get any detriment losse hinderance or euill neither can they be blamed in an other life nor noted of ignorance If it be Immortall then they that hold it to be Mortall are worthy in an other life to be reprehended laughed to scorne Therfore it is more agreeable to reason in the light of naturall reason to say that the Soule is Immortall then to say that it is Mortall For so saith Cicero Quod si in hoc erro quod animos hominuÌ„ credebuÌ„ immortales esse lebenter erro Nec mihi hunc errorem quo delector dum viuo extorqueri volo Sin mortuus vt quidam minuti Philosophi censent nihil sâ—ntiam Non vereor ne hunc errorem meum Philosophi mortui irrideant If so be I doe erre in this that I beleeued the Soules to be Immortall I doe willingly erre Neither while I liue will I be wrested away from this error wherein I am delighted But when I am dead as certaine meane Philosophers doe thinke I shall feele nothing I doe not feare least the dead Philosophers should scorne this my errour Therefore the foresayd Philosophers of whom wee haue spoken aboue not ouercome by euident reasons and demonstrations but fully setled and grounded in the foresaid perswasions and all other reasons probable which for breuities sake I omit haue concluded That the Soule is Immortall For the Philosophers in following Naturall reason haue written and taught those thinges which they haue not prooued euidently neither by demonstratiue reason but perswasiuely and dilectically They also supposed thought and concluded many thinges without any great proofe by mingling and conforming themselues to the opinions of the common people and the sentences of the Philosophers that were before them Whereof the Philosopher saith Secundo de caelo cap. Of two hard Questions saith he it is to be tryed which thing we should say is the worthy thing Reputing Promptitude to be imputed a poynt of shamefastnesse rather then of bouldnesse If any do stand on Philosophies part and doth loue few sufficiencies of that thing whereof we haue very great doubtinges whence few sufficiencies perswasions vsually haue sufficed Philosophers where they were not able to attaine to greater thinges neither did they contradict the principles of Philosophie or the opinions of their predecessours wherein
first it is manifest by the wordes of our Sauiour Christ himselfe in the Gospell Mat. 10. vers 28. 28. Feare ye not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soule but rather feare him which is able to destroy both Body and Soule in Hell Mat. ca. 18. v. 9. 9. It is better for thee to enter into Life halt then hauing two feete to be cast into Hell Mar. 9.43.44 43. Wherefore if thy Hand cause thee to offende cut it off it is better for thee to enter into Life maimed then hauing two Handes to goe into Hell into Fire that neuer shal be quenched 44. Where the Worme dieth not and the Fire neuer goeth out c. Mat. 25. 31. When the Sonne of man commeth in his glory and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit vpon the Throne of his glorie 32. And before him shal be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as the Shepheard separateth the Sheepe from the Goates 33. And he shall set the Sheepe on his right hand and the Goates on his left 34. Then shall the King say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed children of my Father inherite the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world 41. Then shall he say to them on his left hand Depart from me yee curssed into euerlasting Fire which is prepared for the Deuill and his Angels Iohn 10. My Sheepe heare my voyce I giue vnto them eternall life ¶ Of these Places I doe conclude that the Soule is Immortall because it liueth eternally or is punished euerlastingly In the Booke of Wisedome cap. 3. 1. The Soules of the Righteous are in the hand of God and no torment shall touch them 2 In the sight of the Vnwise they appeare to die and their end was thought grieuous 3. And their departing from vs Destruction but they are in peace 4. And though they suffer paine before men yet is their hope full of Immortalitie 5. They are punished in few thinges yet in many thinges shall they be rewarded for God prooueth them and findeth them meete for him 6. He tryeth them as Gould in the furnace and receiueth them as a perfect fruit offring 7. And in the time of their vision they shall shine and run through as the sparkles among the stubble 8. They shall iudge the nations and haue Dominion ouer the people and their Lord shall raigne for euer Ecclesiastos 12. Because man shall goe to the house of his eternity Also in the last iudgement euery man that is predestinate to saluation shall rise againe to life euerlasting with the same Bodyes they had heere according to that saying of Job Job 19. 25. I am sure that my Redeemer liueth and that I shall rise againe out of the earth at the last day 26. And though after my skinne Wormes destroy this Body yet shall I see God in my flesh 27. Whom I my selfe shall see yea my selfe shall behold and none other for me So that hereby it is very manifest and plaine that all the Soules of men shall euery one of them take againe their owne proper Bodyes being become Immortall or brought vnto the state of Immortalitie of the good and blessed 1. Thessal 4. 14. If we beleeue that Iesus is dead and is risen euen so them that sleepe in Iesus will God bring with him 16. For the Lord himselfe shall descend from Heauen with a shoute and with the voyce of the Archangell and with the Troumpe of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first 17. Then shall we which liue and remaine be caught vp with them also in the Cloudes to meete the Lord in the Aire and so shall wee euer be with the Lord. Rom. 6. 5. If wee be dead with Christ to the similitude of his death euen so shall we be to the similitude of his resurrection 8. If we be dead with Christ we beleeue that we also shall liue with him 9. Knowing that Christ being raysed from the death dieth no more death hath no more power ouer him ¶ Of all good and bad is plaine in the Epistle to the Corinthians 1. Cor. 15. 51. Wee shall not all sleepe but wee shal be all changed 52. In moment of time by the last Trumpet for the Trumpet shall blow and the dead shall be raysed vp incorruptible and we shall be changed 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortalitie The Conclusion OF these Authorities and Reasons there may in the minde of euery faythfull man that vndoubtedly beleeueth the holy Scriptures be bred a sufficient Fayth of the Immortalitie of the Soule sufficient I say to saluation yea it doth not seeme possible that those that are instructed in the foresayd Scriptures should doubt of the Immortalitie of the Soule For it doth not seeme natuturally to be possible that some one euidently Assent that the Antecedent cannot be true without the Consequent and vndoubtedly Assent to the Antecedent but the must vndoubtedly Assent to the Consequent which he doth euidently know to be concluded and deducted out of the Antecedent But the Reasons Topicall or Perswasions Probable which we haue before set downe to perswade the second part of the first Conclusion although as it is sayd it be not of their nature to breed nothing else but an Opinion or Assent with feare of the Opposite for Opinion is the acception of one part of the Contradiction with feare of the other yet not withstanding out of the empire of the Will they may breed a firme and sure Assent of the Immortalitie of the Soule aboue Opinion and beneath Science by reason of the same euidence and not adherencie From hence may such perswasions or reasons be able manifoldly and sundry wayes to profite and auayle the fayth of the faythfull for they helpe our Fayth for by them in the vnfaythfull is begun the Fayth of the Immortalitie of the Soule By them is the same Fayth presâ—rued and strengthned against the Wicked and Heretickes By the same is it suslayned and defended thereby are the simple at the length throughly mooued and prouoked to true Fayth Wherefore Peter commaundeth To be readie prepared to render to euery one that asketh a reason of the Fayth that is in vs. But the faythfull man hauing such like reasons and perswasions doth not leane to the first trueth and conclusion of Fayth or that the Soule is Immortall principally for those same reasons but rather doth assent to them and vseth them which doe consent to the first trueth that it is well as the Lord sayth by the Samaritanes that worshipped in the Mount By whom are figured and signified the true beleeuers who seeing JESVS by Fayth are called Samaritanes This is to humaine reason Now we doe not beleeue because of thy saying but because wee our selues haue seene and heard Of these thinges it most plainely and most euidently appeareth how great thankes are
to be giuen vnto the most high GOD and Father of Mercies and to our Lord and Sauiour Jesus Christ who hath most certainely assured and fully perswaded his Faythfull ones in these things where vnto the most Wittie the best Learned men that euer were in all the World could not by the light of Naturall reason preuaile sufficiently to attaine to witte of the Last end of the reasonable Creature of the Resurrection of the Dead of the Immortalitie of the reasonable Soule and of the perpetuall Eternitic of the same And this hath that Almighty Lord most merciful Father so done in such sort that now it is not lawfull for vs neither is there any neede to doubt in these thinges or to flow out or run any where else to seeke for props or stayes of our Fayth in these matters Neither is it needfull from hence forward after this time of so great Grace reuealed to seeke or put to new reasons or probable perswasions because wee are most firmely holden without feare of the opposite or without any Ambiguitie to beleeue that the Good iust doe gloriously liue eternally with Christ And that the Euill are tormented perpetually with the Diuell his Angels according to that in the fifth of Iohn And they that haue done euill shall come foorth vnto the resurrection of Iudgement and they that haue done good to the resurrection of Life Which God shall giue to them which neuer change their Fayth from him Which God graunt vnto vs who is blessed for euer and euer Amen FINIS Of the Immortalitie of the Soule out of Palingenius in Capricorne BEcause thou shalt beleeue I will declare to thee By reason good the state of Soule Immortall for to bee For if that God in better thinges doth Cunning still expresse As Wisdome telles and as the good and virtuous must confesse Then doubtlesse must we iudge he gaue the Soules no time to die Since better farre it is for them to liue continually Then with the flesh to be extinct and feele a full decay Which thus I prooue If death do take from vs the Soule away If that we haue no other life but in this body heere Then God may be accounpted ill and shall vniust appeare For thousands euerie day wee see that florish prosperously In Ritches Substance and Renounce in Raignes and Empires hie Yet idle Lubbers naught vnlearnd that sinne at libertie And run the race of all their life in great prosperitie On th' other side we may behold the iust opprest to bee With spightfull chaunce a wretched life and pitious pouertie Thus either God vnrighteous is that doth this thing permit Or after death hath euery man as he deserueth fit Or else he doth disdaine the deedes of mortall men to know Besides what gratious minde in God what goodnes doth he show If this be all that he doth giue a life so short and vaine That swiftly runneth to an end and doth no time remaine The halfe whereof is spent in sleepe the rest in griefe and toyle And dangers great as fast doth fleete as Riuers swift in soyle Therefore goe to ō wretched men build gorgious Churches hie And let with costly Offrings great your Altars pestred lie Set vp your ioy full branch of Bayes your sacred doores about With pompe of proud Procession passe let Hymnes be ratled out Spend Frankincense and let the nose of God be stretched wide With pleasant smoke doe this and adde more honour much beside That he preserue your goodly life wherein doth you torment Somtime great cold and somtime heate now plague now famishment Now bloody warre now sicknesse great or Chance to sorrow at Sometime the busie Flie sometime the stinging Gnat The Chynch and Flea reioyce I say that heere you lead your life With thousand painefull labours great in trauaile toyle and strife And after in a litle space in paine you drop away And lumpish lie in loath some Vault to Wormes a gratefull prey O worthy life O goodly gift Man in this world is bred Among the brutish Beastes and fooles and knaues his life is led Where Stormes and flakie Snows Ice and Durt and Dust and Night And harmfull aire and clowds mistes and windes with hellish fight And griefe and wayling raignes where death beside doth worke his feat Is this our goodly Countrie heere Is this our happy seate For which we owe such seruice heere vnto the Gods aboue For which it seemeth meete with vowes the heauenly Saintes to moone And if none other life we haue then this of body vaine So frayle and full of filthinesse when Death hath Carcasse slaine I see not why such Prayses should of God resound in Ayre For why we should such honour giue to him in Temples fayre That hath vs wretches framed heere in this so wretched soyle That shall for euermore decay after so great a toyle Wherfore least God should seeme vniust and full of cruelnesse Shall well deseruing counted be we must of force confesse That Death doth not destroy the Soule but that it alwayes is None otherwise then Spirit in Ayre or Saintes in heauens blisse Both voyde of body sleepe and meate And more we must confesse That after death they liue in paines or else in blessednesse But let this reason thee suffice for if thou doe it show Vnto the wicked kind they laugh no light the blind doth know But thou beleeue for euermore and know assuredly For ground of sauing health it is that Soules doe neuer die Exempted from the Sisters power and fatall Destinie Palingenius in Libra We need not doubt but Soule proceedes and doth from loue descend And neuer dies whom he permits the World to comprehend What if so be the Atomies which some Wise men do fayne The Soule is rather thought to bee than body to maintaine All Bodyes be of quantitie and may deuided be But Soule is indiuisible and of no grosse degree And as a Centre doth she seeme where many Lines doe meete Which Senses all to her conuey as Floods to Seas doe fleete Wherefore I maruaile much at such as thinke a like decay And iudge the Soule no more to bee when Body fades away For if so be it might be prooude yet should it not be sayd Nor Publisht to the common sort nor euery way displayd For many wicked men and ill there are which if they thought Their Soules as nothing shall remaine when corps to graue is brought Nor that it feeles or suffers ought when it goeth hence away And that no punishment remaines for prancks that here they play A thousand mischifes would they doe take feare from them among And fall to euery vilonie confounding right with wrong Besides a number now that thinke in blessed state to bee When death hath them destroyd hope the face of God to see And euermore with him to ioy and therefore virtuously Doe seeke to passe their present life with godly modeslie If they shall see that after death
doe no rewardes remaine Amased all their virtuous workes shall cease and perish plaine So many stately Temples trimde so many Altars hie With Gold and Marble garnished and decked sumptuously Beside Religion Godly zeale Honour and worshipping Of God shall come to nought if after death remaine nothing That men may hope for if the Soule as Winde doth passe away Of wild and franticke common sort Religion must be stay And feare of smart for mischiuous and full of fraud their braine Is alwayes seene nor of themselues they well doe meane or plaine The common sort doe Virtue loath and euermore her hate Religion is the comlinesse and glorie of our state Which makes the Gods to fauour vs which we winne Heauen by No wise nor good man therefore dare attempt her openly To teach that Soule shal come to nought and so corrupt the mindes Of rude vnskilfull common sort that wauer like the windes Now must we teach by reason good that Soules shall neuer die But free from sting or dart of death doe liue eternally Which euery Christian man doth hold and Greshop eater Iew Who our foreskins abhorres beleeues which God that all thinges knew Would not haue made if he had thought they had been needlesse sure And Nations all besides do thinke that Soules shall aye endure For first the thing resembling most the mightiest Lord of all Of longer lasting life we count and perfecter must call For that which doth not long endure but shortly doth decay That it should be vnperfecter who is that will say nay And therefore do celestiall thinges a greater while endure Because they are more perfecter and more Diuine and pure But thinges that nearer are the earth and farthest off from skies Vnperfect since they are do fade and soonest euer dyes Shall then our Soule sith life in it and knowledge doth appeare Most like vnto the state Diuine be closde and shut vp heere With Body for to end Nor shall it heere haue longer place Then fading flesh Or shall it liue no more nor larger space Besides that Soules cannot decay this Reason witnesse shall Because it is of single state and voyde of matter all Adde this that when the Body fades the force of Minde doth grow As weake and aged Fathers old doe more good Counsell know Then youthful blouds of younger years and often he lacks wit That doth excell in strength and force for rare doth God permit Both strength and wit to any one Wherefore if force brought low By space and course of many yeares the Minde doth stronger grow Of Body doth it not depend but of it selfe consist Another thing and after Graue doth liue and death resist Doth not beside when foote doth ake the Minde iudge thereof plaine It is no doubt But how can griefe to towre of Minde attaine Doth it ascend from lowest partes as Smoke doth vpward flie No for many partes not foote alone if so should ake thereby Nor of the foote but of the part that nearest is to Minde The ake should grieue This shewes that Soule is not of Bodyes kind And is so free from death since it in distance needes no meane Adde this when we would call to minde the thing forgotten cleane Or else deuise some worthy fetch from Minde the Senses all It then behoues to gather vp whereby doth often fall That many better for to muse doe shut vp close their eyes Or else forsaking companie some secret place deuise Or whē the night with darksome cloude the earth doth ouer spread And creatures all with heauie sleepe do take their rest in bed They still do watch and silent all vpon their beds doe rest And light put out in darknesse whet their Minde with Body prest For Senses doe the Minde disturbe Affections it destroyes Amazing it with Dulnesse great and Blindnesse it annoyes None otherwise then Cloudes do hide the Sunne that clearely shines If therefore when it doth remaine within his owne confines And flying farre from Senses all and cares that Body bringes It wiser be then shall it know and vnderstand all thinges In better sort when it is free and from the flesh doth flie More perfect of it selfe it is and liues continually Againe sith Man as Meane consistes the Saintes and Beastes betwixt Some part with each he common holds with Beast his Body mixt And with the Saintes his Minde agrees one of these partes doth die Of th' other death can haue no power but liues continually Death therefore takes not all away for why his deadly dartes Doe neuer harme the Soule a whit when it from Body partes And more then this I haue to say if nothing doe remaine Of vs when Carcasse lyes in Tombe God shall be called plaine Vniust and one that fauour shewes to such as naughtie liue For such for tearme of all their life no Sorrowes do them grieue No Ritches lacke nor Pleasures great but happily reioyce Exalted with Promotions hie and with the Commons voyce On th' other side the Virtuous men a thousand Griefes molest now sore diseasd now plagu'd with need In fine alwayes opprest Therefore the Soule liues after graue and feeles deserued paynes And if it haue done iustly heere a Crowne of Glorie gaines By these and many other wayes I could declare no doubt That Soule of man doth neuer die and Body liues without But thi 's enough time bids me end Not ignorant am I That some the soule although vnapt doe tearme an Harmonie And as of sundry voyces mou'd proceedes a melodie Of sundry Compounds Medcine made which heale with soueraigntie So of the ioyned Elements by certaine meane and way Created of the Heauens eke the Soule to be some say A part whereof in Body dwels and part abroad doth lie As sight doth spring of outward light and virtue of the eye But this opinion is not true for if it should be so The Soule with flesh should neuer striue nor once against it goe But euermore in one agree As euery power doth show That wonted are of mixed thinges By spirit Diuine to grow As in the kind of Hearbes appeares and in the precious Stone Some thinke the Soule doth not remaine when flesh from it is gone Because the heauie sluggish sleepe the nearest thing that may Resembles Death and seemes to take both Sense and Minde away Or for because they see the Minde with sicknesse diuersly So vext and harmd that it cannot the place it hath supply And with the Body to encrease with which it eke decayes As well appeares in Children young and men of elder dayes Fond is the child the man discreete the old man doteth still For weake vnwealdie withered age doth Minde and Body spill And more say they if that the Soule of substaunce be Diuine And seuered from these fleshly limmes may lead a life more fine Then why should it in wretched flesh so seeke it selfe to place by whose defect so many illes and mischifes it deface But fond she is therefore if that
she doe this willingly And if perforce she be compeld in Carcasse caue to lie Who doth constraine doth God himselfe then her he nought esteemes Nay what in Prison vile he puts to hate he rather seemes More of it selfe except it learne sith it doth nothing know And oftentimes forgetfulnesse the Minde doth ouerthrow Therefore they iudge it nothing is when Body heere doth die For learne it cannot senses dead which it knowes all thinges by Some other say that Soule there is in all the World but one Which giueth life to euery thing as Sunne but one alone There is that makes all eyes to see Eternall thinke they this Though Body die or eyes put out the Sunne eternall is These trifles fond it is not hard with Reason to disprooue But heere I longer am I feare then it doth mee behooue There shall not want that such demands shall answere once at full And all the doubtes therein assoyle and knots asunder pull O man of sharpe and pregnant wit thy prayse shall liue with mine Our labours doubt not shall commend the men of later time Thy famous workes attempt and seedes of Heauen on Earth goe sow This one thing will I more put to that euery man may know The Soule Immortall for to be and sprung of Heauenly grace If Senses and Affections all he will restraine a space If that despising worldly ioyes and earthly thought resignde With dayly labour he attempt to God to lift his minde Then perfect Wisedome shall he haue and thinges to come foretell A wake or else in heauie sleepe perceiue the same as well In this sort did the Prophets old the thinges to come declare The sober minde therefore doth come more neare to heauenly fare The farther from the flesh it flies and from the earthly care But like to Beastes the greatest sort doth liue as sense doth will And thinke none other good to be but flesh to haue his fill Hereof it comes that many thinke the Soule with Body dyes Because they see not thinges Diuiâ—e with weake and fleshly eyes But of the Soule this shall suffice Palengenius in Pisces ANd when escapt from mortall chaine the Soule hath passage straight Conueighing with her selfe these three that alwayes on her waite The Minde the Sense Moouing force vnto the Heauens hie Shall ioyfull goe and there remaine in blisse perpetually Matheus Dresserus libro de Anima A Confirmation of the Immortalitie of the Soule THe Sentence of the Soules immortalitie is twofold 1. Philosophicall 2. Theologicall What is the opinion of Philosophers touching the Immortalitie of the Soule Some affirme that the Soule doth die with the Body Others do hold that after the separation of the Body it remayneth aliue and immortall The Argument of Panaetius What soeuer is bred or hath a certaine beginning The same also dieth or hath a cetraine ending But the Soule is bred or hath a certaine beginning Therfore the Soule dieth or hath a certaine ending The Answere The Maior is to be distinguished for some thinges are bred or haue their beginning of the Elementes and doe die againe But others haue a Celestiall and Diuine originall as the Soule which doth not die Thinges that are borne bred or haue beginning are of two sortes Some are Elementarie some Celestiall The Elementarie doe die or perish But the Celestiall doe not die or perish But on the contrarie part Cicero Plato and Xenophon haue iudged the Soule to be Immortall and they prooue it thus 1. Because the originall and nature thereof is Diuine or as the Pythagoreans said the Soule is drawen from the vniuersall Heauenly minde Cicero in 1 Tuscul That which is Diuine that doth not die The Soule is Diuine Ergo The Soule doth not die 2 Because vnto the Soule there is nothing mixt nothing concrete i. the Minde and Soule is not compounded of the Elementes therefore it can not die with the thinges that are compounded of the Elementes Whatsoeuer is compounded the same is conflated or compounded of the Elementes But the Soule is not compound of the Elements Therefore the Soule doth not die 3 Because the workes or effectes of the Minde are Diuine and Celestiall as to perceiue and know thinges past and to come therefore the Minde it selfe also is Celestiall and Incorruptible As is the effect so is the cause But the effectes of the Soule are Diuine Therefore the Soule is also Diuine 4 Because the order of Diuine iustice doth require that rewardes be giuen to Iust and punishments to the Vniust But in this life there often chance no rewardes to the Iust nor punishmentes to the Wicked therefore after this life there remayneth another life wherein it shall goe well with the Godly and ill with the wicked 5 Plato in Exiocho saith Discessus ex hac vita est mutatio mali in bonum that is to say The departing out of this life is a changing of euill into good Therefore after death the Soule also liueth and somewhere remayneth aliue that it may enioy that so great a good Of the Place of the Soule after the separation from the Body SOcrates thought that the Soule when it departeth from the Body doth returne to Heauen from whence it is sprinckled strowed into mans Body But Philosophie doth plainely deny and is vtterly ignoraunt that the Soule shall be ioyned togeather to the Body at the vniuersall raysing againe of the dead Cicero also although he did excellently dispute many thinges of the Soules Diuinitie yet he confesseth that he is in very great doubt and staggering euen as the Shippe is tossed in the middes of the raging Seas And Atticus sayth That hee while he readeth Platos Phaedo doth truely Assent that is to say Approoue the Opinion of the Immortalitie of the Soule But when he had layde the Booke away and beganne to cogitate with himselfe then that Assent slided away Socrates when hee was going to his death sayth in Plato It is time for mee now to goe away from hence that I may die and you liue but whether is better God knoweth I thinke truely no man knoweth There was a Philosopher of great Authoritie who being called to end his life was verie sore vexed in minde doubting of the flitting or departure in what state his soule should be after death And when he found no other Hauen he sent for two Philosophers and bade them dispute of the condition of the Soule after the departure foorth of the Body saying Loe I must flitte hence away forsake this mortall life wherefore tell yee mee what shall become of mee whether my Soule shall liue when this Body is extinct or no for vnlesse this can be prooued vnto me and I therein perswaded with what minde can I depart out of this life Heere the Philosophers began sharply to contende about the Nature of the Soule and the one reason'd it to be Mortall and the other Immortall And when they had a long time disputed neither part preuailing
Goe to sayth the sicke man all sorrowfull I shall now prooue whether of you doth thinke more rightly But Theologie doth discreetly affirme both that the Soule is Immortall and also that it shall at length returne into the tabernacle of the Body doth name the very place also wherein the Soule shall remaine be kept vntill the last Iudgement That the Soule doth not die is thus prooued by the holy Scriptures 1 BEcause it is a Spirit which cannot die Gen. 2. Math. 10. Doe not feare those that can kill the Body but cannot kill the Soule Gen. 2. Hee breathed into him the breath of life 2 Because God is the God of the liuing God is the God of Abraham Therefore Abraham liueth although his body be dead Mat. 22. 3 From Examples Moses and Elias talked with Christ in Mount Thabor Luk. 9. although Moses was dead a thousand and fiue hundred yeares before Ergo they liue 4 From the testimonie of Christ Ion. 11. Hee that beleeueth in me he shall not die for euer Therefore the Soule is not extinguished but liueth alwayes 5 There is also a firme Argument from the Cause vnto the Effect or from the nature of Relatiues Christ is risen and liueth Christ is our Author and Head Therefore we also shall rise againe And the Soule at length coupled with the Body shall liue for euer For what is of force in Christ the same must needes also auaile in his members 1. Cor. 15. Now that the Body being renewed shall of vs be recciued againe in the resurrection of the dead the testimonie of Job in the 19 chap. teacheth plainely I know that my Redeemer liueth and that I shall rise againe out of the Earth in the last day and shall see God in my flesh The Place or Seate into the which the Soule doth flitte being loosed from the fetters of the Body and resteth in the same is called Paradise Luk. 23. The bosome of Abraham Luk. 16. The hand of God Sap. 3. Scheol 1. Hell Gen. 43. The Immortalitie of the Soule prooued by manifest places of the holy Scriptures 1. Numbers 23.10 I Pray God I may die the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his 2. Psal 84.1 2 4 10. 1. O how amiable are thy Tabernacles o Lord of Hostes 2. My Soule longeth yea and fainteth for the Courtes of the Lord for my heart and my flesh reioyce in the liuing God 4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy House they will euer praise thee Selah 10. One day in thy Courtes is better then a thousand other where I had rather be a Dore-keeper in the house of my God then to dwell in the Tabernacles of Wickednesse 3. Ejay 51.6.11 6. Lift vp your eyes to the Heauens and looke vpon the Earth beneath for the Heauens shall vanish away like smoake and the Earth shall waxe old like a garment and they that dwel therein shall perish in like maner but my saluation shal be for euer and my righteousnesse shall not be abolished 11 The redeemed of the Lord shall returne and come with ioy vnto Zion and euerlasting ioy shal be vpon their head they shall obtaine ioy and gladnesse and sorrow and mourning shal be away 4. Esaj 32.18 My people shall dwell in peace and in sure dwellinges in safe resting places in assurance for euer 5. Esaj 49.10 They shall not be hungry neither shall they be thirstie neither shall the heate smite them nor the Sunne for he that hath compassion on them shall lead them euen to the springes of waters shall he driue them 6. Esaj 65.17.18 17 Loe I will create new Heauens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde 18 But be you glad and reioyce for euer in the thinges that I shall create 7. Dan. 12 1.2.3 And at that time shall Michael stand vp the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as neuer was since the time that there began to be a Nation vntill the same time And at that time thy people shall be deliuered euery one that shall be found written in the Booke 2 And many of them that sleepe in the dust of the Earth shall awake some to euerlasting life and some to shame and perpetuall contempt 3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the Firmament and they that turne many to righteousnesse shall shine as the Starres for euer euer 8. 2. Esaras 2.35.36.37 Be readie to the reward of the Kingdome for the euerlasting light shall shine vpon you for euermore 36 Flee the shadow of this world receiue the ioy of your glorie I testifie my Sauiour openly 37 Receiue the gift that is giuen you and be glad giuing thankes vnto him that hath called you to the Heauenly kingdome 9. Sap. 3. The Soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and the paine of death shall not touch them In the sight of the vnwise they appeare to die c. Yet is their hope full of Immortalitie c. 10. Sap. 5. The Faythfull are counted among the Children of God and their portion is among the Saintes The Righteous shall liue for euermore their reward also is with the Lord and their remembraunce with the highest Therefore shall they receiue a glorious Kingdome a beautifull Crowne of the Lords hand 11. Tob. 3. O Lord deale with me according to thy will and commaund my spirit to be receiued in peace 12. Ecclesiastes 7. The day of death is better then the day of birth For precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of this Saintes saith the Psalmist in the 116. Psalme 13. Mat. 13.43 Then shall the Iust men shine as the Sunne in the Kingdome of their father 14. Mat. 19.29 They shall inherite euerlasting life 15. Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed Children of my Father inherite the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world 16. Mat. 22.29.30.31.32 29 Yee are deceiued not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God 30 For in the Resurrection they neither marrie Wiues nor Wiues are bestowed in marriage but are as the Angels of God in Heauen 31 And concerning the Resurrection of the dead haue yee not read what is spoken vnto you of God saying 32 I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob God is not the God of the dead but of the liuing 17. The same is recorded in the 12. of Marke vers 24 25 26 27. By all which places it is a plaine consequent that the Soule is Immortall 18. Luk. 16.22 Lazarus is said to be caried into Abrahams Bosome Now what Abrahams Bosome is let venerable Beda witnesse against the Papistes that so much boast of him who in his Homilie on the Gospell for the first Sunday after Trinitie writeth thus Sinus Abraham requies heatorum pauperum quorum est regnum coelorum quo post
hanc vitam recipiuntur That is Abrahams Bosome is the rest of the blessed poore whose is the kingdome of heauē whither after this life they are receiued So by the iudgement of Beda agreeing with the trueth Abrahams Bosome is the Kingdome of Heauen with Lazarus was caried Out of the same place also it is apparent concerning the Soules of the Wicked For the Rich Glutton is sayd on the contrarie to be carried downe into Hell Therefore the Soules liue after the Body 19. Luk. 23.43 Christ hanging on the Crosse said vnto the Thiefe This day shalt thou be with mee in Paradise Now that Paradise is Heauen is prooued by Saint Paul in the 2. Cor. 12. 1 2 3 4. where he sayth He was taken vp into the third Heauen which hee calleth Paradise But the Thiefe could not be with Christ in Paradise in the Body because that was dead buried Therefore his Soule was with Christs in Paradise and so consequently the Soule liueth and is Immortall 20. Luk. 23.46 Father into thy hands I commende my spirit 21. John 16. Your ioy shall no man take from you 22. John 5.24 Hee that heareth my word and beleeueth in him that sent me hath euerlasting life shal not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life 23. Joe 6.54 Whosoeuer eateth my flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternall life and I will raise him vp at the last day 24. Joh. 11.26 Who soeuer liueth and beleeueth in mee shall neuer die 25. 1. Cor. 2. The eye hath not seene neither eare hath heard neither can it enter into mans heart what thinges God hath prepared for them that loue him 26. 2. Cor. 5.8 8 We loue rather to remoue out of the Body to dwell with the Lord Wherefore the Soules sleepe not as some Anabaptistes will haue them but inioy Immortall life celestiall glory with God 27. Phil. 1.23 I desire to be loosed and to be with Christ He speaketh of the rest and ioy which he should inioy with Christ But they who feele nothing what can their ioy or happinesse be Wherefore they also are refuted in this poynt that say That mens Soules sleepe and so withall denie the Immortalitie of the Soule 28. 1. Thes 4. So shall we euer be with the Lord. 29. Reuel 2. To him that ouercommeth will I giue to eate of the Tree of Life which is in the middest of the Paradise of God Be faythfull vnto the death and I shall giue thee the Crowne of life Reue. 3. Him that ouercommeth will I make a Pillar in the Temple of God and he shall goe no more out To him that ouercommeth will I graunt to sit with me in my seate 31. Reu. 4. The 24. Elders that sate on the Seates were clothed in White rayment and had on their heades Crownes of Gold 32. Reu. 7.15 16 17. 15 They are in the presence of the Throne of God and serue him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne will dwell among them 16 They shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sunne light on them neither any heate 17 For the Lame which is in the middest of the Throne shall gouerne them and shall lead them vnto the liuely Fountaines of waters and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes 1. Cor. 15.19 If in this life onely we hope in Christ then are we most miserable of all men If Christians in this life onely do hope in Christ 1. If they hope of Christ for the blessednesse of this life onely and not of one to come then are they most miserable of all men But Christians are not most miserable of all men Ergo they do not looke or hope of Christ for the blessednesse of this life onely but also of the life to come and by a consequent they shall rise from the dead that they may be partakers of that blessednesse in an other life These testimonies of Scriptures doe teach and confirme most euidently that not onely in the Body before death and after the resurrection of the Body but also in the whole space and time comming betweene the Soules are liue feele vnderstand out of the Body though the manner of their operations be to vs vnknowne Wherefore also this gift of Immortalitie hath some similitude with God who alone is the onely fountaine of life hath Immortalitie as sayth Paul 1 Tim. 6.16 The Aduersaries of this Trueth the deare dearelings of the Diuell fighting with weapons of their graund Captaine Sathan euen as he in tempting our Sauiour Christ wrested the Scriptures to his purpose euen so they peruerting the true sense alleadge sundry places of the Scriptures to disprooue the Immortalitie of the Soule and to approoue their owne wicked assertion that the Soule is Mortall Of which hellish Champions and their vaine and wicked not reasons but wordes I with a reproofe will bring a double disproofe and so thereby giue our side a stronger approofe by enterpreating their false alleadged places according to the right sense and meaning 1. Gen. 2. In the day that thou eatest of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Euill thou shalt die the death Loe say they the death of Body and Soule both Answere interpreating the place The Lord in this Scripture doth not threaten to Man the destruction or extinguishing of his Soule but eternall Death that is the horrible feeling and terrour of Gods wrath and iudgement and to liue forsaken and cast off from God subiect to all miseries torments vnto the which eternall death the separation and parting asunder of the Soule and Body by temporall death is an adiunct which at that time through Gods mercie was deferred that that mankind might be saued For so was Adam dead while he yet liued in Paradise euen so soone as euer he had eaten the forbidden Fruite So in eternall death liue all the damned and reprobate whose Fire shall not be put out and their Worme shall neuer die So in the second to the Ephesians are they sayd To be dead through sinne that liue in sinne without repentance And Ephes 5. Hee who from sinne is reclaymed to God is willed to rise from the dead And Rom. 7.5 Paul saith That through the knowledge of sinne and the wrath of God hee was dead 2. Eccles. 3.19 19 The condition of the Children of men and the condition of Beastes are euen as one condition to them As the one dyeth so dyeth the other for they haue all one breath and there is no excellencie of Man aboue the Beast for all is Vanitie 20 All goe to one place and all was dust shall returne to the dust Therfore the Soule is not Immortall Answere interpreating Heere they are deceiued by a fallation taking that to be spoken simply which is but secundum quid i. in some fort or in some respect For the Preacher doth not simply say That Men die as Beastes and so doe vtterly perish for
this sense cantradicteth other Scriptures But in two respectes the death of Men and the death of Beastes are like 1. Because Men must needes once die and depart out of this life because Men are not heere to continue for euer nor haue heere a setled place 2. Men die as Beastes that is In the sense and iudgement of the Wicked they seeme to perish 3. Psal 78.39 Hee remembred that they were but flesh yea a winde that passeth away and commeth not againe Ergo Mortall Answere By these and such like speaches is described and be wayled the frayltie of all humaine affaires that with God doe perish and come to nothing For as in this place they are likened to a Winde that soone vanisheth away so in Psal 103. they are compared to Dust Earth and Flowers of the field So Iob. 14. Man commeth vp as a Flower and is cutte downe Isa 40.6 All flesh is grasse 4. Psal 88.5 I am counted as slaine lying in the Graue whom thou remembrest no more Answere In these wordes the Psalmist doth not meane that either hee himselfe or the dead are exempted from Gods prouidence But hee complayneth that hee is forsaken of God euen as it seemeth to men that God careth not for the dead And therefore hee speaketh not according to the sense of Fayth but of his owne opinion weaknesse and miserie who iudgeth those thinges to be forsakèn and neglected of God whose deliuerie for a while he doth deferre But what Fayth in the meane season doth suggest and tell the Godly euen when they striue and wrastle with temptation he sheweth in the ii Psal and vers 2. The iust shall be had in an euerlasting remembrance 5. Psal 146.4 His Spirit departeth and returneth to his earth and then all his thoughtes perish Ergo. c. Answere Hee doth not heere say That the Spirit or Soule of men doth not die or vanish or is bereaued of sense But that it departeth to witte from the Body wherein it dwelleth and that not the Spirit but the Body returneth to earth which was made of earth And where he sayth That all his thoughtes perish he meaneth not that the Soule is after this life bereaued of Reason Iudgement and Sense of Gods mercie or wrath but that mans Purposes and Counsailes are made frustrate which in his life he had setled him selfe to bring to passe In which sense it is sayd in Psal 112.10 The desire of the Wicked shall perish 6. Psal 88. 10. Wilt thou shew a miracle to the dead Or shall the dead rise and prayse thee Whereunto we adde all such places as take away worshipping of God from the dead which must needes prooue the Soule not Immortall Answere In such speaches Death and Hell or the Graue haue two significations They who are spiritually dead whether before or after the death of the Body that is they that are depriued of Gods grace and forsaken and reiected of God and are in Hell that is in the place and tormentes of the Damned or else in this life despayring and destitute of comfort shall not prayse God at all neither in this life nor in the life to come But they who are dead not spiritually but corporally onely although they shall not prayse God while their Bodyes are in Hell that is in the Graue for which this word Hell is often vsed in the Scriptures yet in Soule they shall not ceasse to acknowledge and prayse God vntill when they haue receiued their Bodyes againe they shall magnifie him both in Soule and Body in the Celestiall eternitie But in the meane time sith God will be acknowledged and magnified of men in this life also therefore both the whole Church and euery one of the faythfull not onely pray that they may not fall into that forsaking and that sense of Gods wrath wherewith the Wicked are oppressed but also desire that they may be preserued and defended in this mortall life vntill the end thereof appoynted by God be expired for the Saintes doe not simply stand in feare of the bodily Death and Graue but that they may not be forsaken of God neither fall into desperation or destruction or their enimies insult against God when they are ouerthrowne This with dayly and ardent prayers and petitions they begge and craue continually 7. Psal 146. 2. I will prayse the Lord during my life as long as I haue any beeing I will sing vnto my God Heere hee restreyneth prayses to this life onely Answere This place maketh nothing to the purpose For he doth not limit prayses to this life but this he onely sayth that he will spend all the time of this mortall life in Gods prayses which notwithstanding in many other places he extendeth to continuall eternitie as Psal 34. I will prayse the Lord continually But often times this particle Vntill or As long signifieth a continuance of the time going before some euent without any excluding of the time following as 1. Cor. 15.25 Hee must raigne Vntill hee hath put all his enimies vnder his feete I thinke they will not say that when Christes enimies are put vnder his feete that then he shall raigne no longer 8. Job 10.20 Let him ceasse and leaue off from mee that I may take a little comfort before I goe and shall not returne Ergo the Soule is Mortall there is no Resurrection Answere In these wordes he denyeth that hee shall returne into this Mortall life and conuerse amongst men in this World But he denieth not that he in the meane season hath his beeing and doth liue vntill againe he see God in the flesh euen the same Iob who then was afflicted as himselfe sayth chap. 19.26 9. Iob. 3.11 Why died I not when I came out of the Wombe so should I haue lyen quiet and been at rest Answere Iob in these wordes doth not denie that the Soules after death doe liue feele and vnderstand but onely he sayth the Miseries of this present life are not felt Instance Iob would not wish for a bad change but if there be euils felt in the life to come hee wished for a badde change Ergo. c. Answere Iob wished not for the death of the wicked but of the godly Instance But Job maketh Kinges and Princes also which gather Gold vnto them vers 14.15 small and great good and badde vers 16 17 18 19. partakers of this rest Answere It plainely appeareth out of the whole processe and discourse of Jobs wordes that he doth not teach what is the state of men after this life but onely desireth to be ridde out of his present miserie And therefore through humaine infirmitie and impatience he compareth the sense and feeling of his present miseries with the death and state of the Dead whatsoeuer it be As they who are grieuously tormented with present Distresses and Calamities preferre any thing whatsoeuer before that which they suffer So also he sayth in the 7. chap. speaking as one despayring of deliuerie in this life Remember
that my life is but a winde and that mine eye shall not returne to see pleasure For so hee expoundeth himselfe when hee addeth vers 10. Hee shall returne no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more So likewise in the 17. chap. My breath is corrupt my dayes are corrupt the Graue is readie for mee They are wordes of one despayring of life saluation God being wroth and angrie 10. Job 34.14.15 14 If he set his heart vpon man and gather vnto himselfe his spirit and his breath 15. All flesh shall perish togeather and man shall returne vnto dust Answere Job doth not heere say that the Soule doth either sleepe or perish but that by the departure of the Soule from the Bodie the Bodie dieth and is dissolued yet not that the Body doth vtterly perish for so it should repugne other plaine places that warrant the Resurrection 11. Job 14.12 Man sleepeth and riseth not for hee shall not wake againe nor be raised from his sleepe till the Heauen be no more 12. Act. 7.60 And when he had thus spoken he fell asleepe 13. 1. Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleepe but we shal be all changed 14. 1. Thes 4.13 I would not haue you ignoraunt concerning them which are asleepe In these places the dead are sayd to sleepe Ergo The Soule sleepeth Answere In these and such like places is vsed a figure of speach called Synecdoche translating that which is proper vnto the Bodie to the whole man For that this belongeth to the Body which is to be recalled from death to life as it were to awake from sleepe many places of Scripture declare As Iob. 7. Behold now I sleepe in the dust For not the Soule but the Body onely sleepeth in the dust or Graue 15. Mat. 24.46 Blessed is that Seruant whom his Maister when he commeth shall find so doing 16. Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father inherite the Kingdome 17. Mark 13.13 13 And yee shal be hated of all men for my names sake But whosoeuer shall endure vnto the ende the same shall be saued 27 And he shall then send his Angles and gather to geather his elect from the foure Windes 18. Dan. 12.1.2 1 And at that time my people shal be deliuered euery one that shal be found written in the Booke 2 And many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake some to euerlasting life c. These places doe plainely shew that Blessednesse and the Kingdome promised to the godly shall then first fall vnto them at the last day Ergo Soules go not presently to heauen after death of the Body Answere Those places doe not shew that But they shew that at the last day when the Bodies shal be raised vp againe the Soules that alreadie are in Heauen shall by being ioyned to the bodyes againe haue their felicitie and glory consummated and made absolute For so we pray Thy Kingdome come when yet now God also raigneth in vs. 19. 1. Cor. 15.19 If in this life onely we haue Hope we are of all men most miserable Of this place they reason thus Hee that is blessed and happy before the Resurrection is not without the Resurrection most miserable But wee without the Resurrection should be of all men most miserable Ergo wee are not before the Resurrection blessed and happie Answere To the Maior we answere That he is not miserable without the Resurrection who can not onely before it but without it also be blessed But we are in such wise blessed before it that notwithstanding without it following and ensuing we can not enioy that former blessednesse because that God with so inseparable a knot hath ioyned togeather the beginning proceeding and finishing or perfectiō of the Electes blessednesse that none can haue the beginning who must not come to the end and consummation thereof Wherefore we must rise againe or we must want also the Celestiall blessednesse before the Resurrection Rom. 8.11 If the spirit of him that raysed vp Iesus from the dead dwell in you hee that raysed vp Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall Bodies 20. Heb. 11.39 These all through Fayth are dead and receiued not the Promise Therefore they receiued not their Countrie Answere Although when they died they had not found their Countrie yet would it not follow of these wordes that they are not at all or haue no sense after death for he that is not or hath no sense seeketh not his Countrie Secondly it is not there spoken of the life after death which is ledde in the Celestiall countrie spoken of in 2. Cor. 5. from vers 1. vnto 10. but of this life in which the faythfull walking their pilgrimage sought for the Celestiall countrie not finding their Countrie on Earth 21. If presently after death the godly were blessed then iniurie was done vnto them who were called againe into this mortall life Answere It was not iniurions to them seeing God is debtor to no man God did raise them vp for the manifesting of his glorie Now what can happen better or more acceptable vnto the Godly then to serue for the manifesting of his glory either by life or by death Therefore there was no iniurie done vnto them Phil. 1. As alwayes so now Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by life or by death c. 22. The Soule hath neither sense nor action but by bodily instrumentes and therefore being naked of those instrumentes it is also destitute of sense motion and operation Answeré Although we graunt the Antecedent that the Soules action and sense is by the instrumentes of the Body while it is in the Body before this naturall or corporal death yet notwithstanding that it is not so with the Soule after death when it is freed from the Body both learned Philosophers doe confesse and the word of God testifieth 1. Cor. 13.9 Wee know in part and wee prophecie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shal be abolished ¶ Thus I hope are sufficiently disprooned those wicked Aduersaries of this knowne and necessarie Trueth The Soule is Immortall And the Scriptures falsely by them alleadged rightly and fully interpreted according to their true sense By which reproofe of the Aduersarie and disproofe of their cause the trueth is more approoued and stronglier confirmed For contraries by their contraries are euer made more manifest God giue the Trueth a speedie victorie in the heartes of his people that Errours may be beaten downe Sathan confounded and all our Enimies vanquished that we may triumph with our Captaine that Lion of the Tribe of luda our Lord Jesus Christ Athenagoras an Athenian and a Christian Philosopher flourished in the time of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Commodus Emperours of Rome within two hundred yeares after Christ and in his Booke of the Resurrection he reasoueth thus REasons touching thinges belonging to Mankind are some drawne
from Naturall order some from the order of Gods Prouidence such as are the reasons concerning the Resurrection of the Dead If then wee can prooue that God is able to know this and to will it we shall then euen in a manner prooue the thing itselfe God before he made Man knew the whole World and all the partes thereof and how to order mixe and compound the Elementes one with another in the workemanshippe of euerie seuerall man In like manner when he dissolueth his worke he vnderstandeth whither and vnto what estate euery part and parcell thereof shall come at the last He therefore knoweth from whence they are in like manner to be taken againe and by what meanes they are to be brought againe into the same forme they were before and how to compounde the same man againe God his cunning might is the same that was And euen as he was also able to make that which hee knew from the beginning so that which hee yet knoweth is hee in like manner able to make new againe God seeing that he is Wisedome it selfe did therefore make nothing in vaine Hee did not in vaine make Man partaker of Wisedome therefore to some certaine end But not vnto this end that thinges either aboue or beneath vs should vse Man to their owne behoofe for those thinges stand no need of this vse but rather were created themselues for our vse God therefore made Man for himselfe and for the contemplation of Gods Goodnesse and Wisedome in his whole workemanship God indeed made Man to the end hee might liue but yet not to be vtterly extinct like vnto Beastes for vnto this liuing creature that heareth within it selfe the similitude of God it author by the Vnderstanding and Reason hath God giuen Euerlasting life For verily bruite Beastes were not created for themselues but for the vse of others which when it ceaseth the preseruation or restitution of them is not any more necessarie But Men were not so created that they should serue for the vse of others but that their life might so be continued that they considering the Might and Wisedome of their Author and keeping his Lawes might enioy Euerlasting life togeather with those with whom they lead their liues from the beginning For God verily gaue vnto Man a nature that consisteth of a Soule immortall and such a Body as might vnite it selfe to such a Soule contemplating Heauenly thinges and imitating God by the keeping of his heauenly Lawes This Acte therefore concerneth Eternitie This end constitute in the inmost Act declareth that Man shal be euerlasting to witte in his nature which conduceth vnto such like Act by the coupling togeather of the Soule and of the Body Which if at any time it be dissolued is to be restored by the Resurrection hoped for of vs not through a vaine Hope but through Fayth a most certaine sure commander to wit through Gods determinate purpose creating such like nature of man to such like euerlasting end and office God hath not appoynted to any other vse but hath ordained him according to the inward act of his nature to imitate God by the contemplation and obseruation of Heauenly thinges Which end assuredly seeing it is the inmost in his nature and diracted to euerlastingnes doth declare that Man shal be euerlasting Man I say not the Soule onely but the whole compounded of Soule and Body For God to constitute this brought togeather the Soule and Body as partes The procreation of mans composition is the nature and common life of the man compounded gathered of the actions and passions as well of Body as Soule The end therefore of the compound is commune that is to say the imitating of God and the enioying of him by the same Gods Iustice also must draw vnto Iudgement both Soule Body to beare the reward or punishment according to the action passion and common life And the end can not be common and one iustly exhibited vnlesse it should belong vnto one commonthing and that to be men who commonly had wrought it And to this is necessarie the Resurrection of the dead God hath giuen to man the iudgement of Vnderstanding and reason that he may know those thinges that may be vnderstood concerning God to witte his Goodnesse Wisedome and Righteousnesse Seeing then that these are sempiternall it followeth that man also is borne to thinges sempiternall and shall be sempiternall Man I say compounded for vnto him is giuen the vse of Iudgement the office of Virtues and imitation of Heauenly thinges And vnlesse he should remaine compound such-like vse office should not alway continue And it cannot be that Man can be euerlasting if he rise not againe from death And vnlesse Man should be euerlasting rashly and in vaine should the Soule of the Body be ioyned to so many wantes and innumerable passions In vaine should the Body be withdrawne by Reason from following delightes pleasures vaine rash should be the painefull vse of Virtues and the Religious obseruation of Iustice and Lawes Those Creatures that haue their perseueraunce euerlasting doe differ therein according to the diuersitie of their Natures Angels haue it immoueably the Heauenly bodyes moueably but continually But Men moueably interrupt The Soule truely hath a continuall perseuerance the Body a life left for a time but so hath not a bruite Beast For according to the Nature of the Body wee dayly wayting doe feare a dissolution but according to the Nature of the Soule vse of Virtues and knowledge of the Creator we looke for the Resurrection of the Body Moreouer we doe no lesse for all this call the life of the Body Sempiternall for that for a time it lieth dead through the separation of the Soule As also we call euery mans life vntill his death one and continuall although it seeme by the course of times as it were cut off through the changing of ages to be in like manner changed That the Resurrection is of Gods Prouidence and Iustice GOD by the same Wisdome that he made and maketh all thinges doth also dayly and hourely prouide for euery thing And by that Iustice that he placed seuerall degrees in the World by the same doth he giue euerywhere to euery thing the things belonging to it This prouidence prouideth for man compounded of Soule and Body nourishment succession And in like manner for Man compounded he prouideth Iudgement iustly to dispence the common reward or punishment for the actions or passions common to Soule and Body But such-like Iudgement is lesse fulfilled in this present life where the Wicked for the most part are prosperous and the Godly and Righteous almost alwayes in aduersitie Neither in the other life can this Iudgement be fulfilled distributing iustly thinges that are common vnlesse there may follow the Resurrection of the Bodies The Bodie verily as it hath been the fellow of the Soule in all actions and passions as well of Virtues as of Vices and
companion in Holynesse and Martirdome so ought it also to haue like lot in Paine or Rewarde therefore the fame Body must arise againe For vnlesse there remained rewardes of the life to come Gods Prouidence and Iustice might be had in doubt yea and Man should be more miserable then bruite Beastes who for Religion Iustice sake depriueth himself of bodily delights hazardeth himselfe in innumerable daungers yea Virtue her selfe Religion and Lawes should be dotinges and detrimentes Vnlesse the Bodies rife againe Gods Iustice hath no place in the Soule and body Not in the Body because it should be vniust for the Soule to haue reward of those labours wherein the Body suffered a great part and cannot it selfe haue part in that reward Not in the Soule because it should be vniust for the Soule alone to suffer punishment for so many grieuous sinnes which of it selfe it had not committed if the Body had not been ioyned vnto it for thorow the meanes of the Body euen of necessitie Pleasure and Passion it abideth many sharpe showers or perturbations and sinneth very often Vices are not of the Soule only but are in the whole Man drawne from the wantes of the Body and prouoking of the same In like manner are Virtues in the Whole man for if the Soule had neuer come into the Body it should not haue needed Fortitude Continencie Sufferance Counsell in matters of affaires and the like Iustice Virtues then are infused from hence truly in the Soule but from thence in the Body because that all men doe confesse that Virtues at the leastwise those that are Morall are certaine inuringes of our Soule and Body Then it is not iust for the Soule alone to haue either the punishment of Vices or reward of Virtues The Lawes giuen from Heauen are not giuen to the Soule onely but to Man also For there was no need to affray the Soule from Adultry Man slaughter Theft and such like thinges which belong onely to the Bodie bodily vse The whole man then that is tyed to the Lawes must iustly either receiue reward for keeping of the Lawes or else punishment for omitting his duetie Seeing that all thinges euery one haue their proper endes according to the diuersitie of their Natures it must needes be that this Nature indued with Reason should also obtaine her proper end But this end is not lacke of paine for that is also common to other Bodies without life Neither againe is it a sensuall delight for that is common to bruit Beastes but it is rather somewhat agreeable to the proper and chiefe nature virtue and action thereof that is to say reasonable and intellectuall a precept wherein continually to rest and in which estate Virtue her selfe may enioy her rewardes Such like end in this present life we can neuer attaine therefore in the life to come But seeing there is an end of humaine life and actions and that this life and actions are common to the whole man it must needes follow that that end must needs belong to the whole man By the which consequence wee may surely know that there shal be a Resurrection especially because that our Heauenly workeman hath made all thinges for himselfe therefore hath he giuen vnto vs from the beginning Reason and Vnderstanding able to regard Heauenly things that we might contemplate him or behold him in his workes From whence is concluded that the contemplation of God is the firme and absolute end of Man These thinges haue we briefly spoken of the Resurrection not purposing hereby eloquently to set foorth al things that may hereof be spoken but euen a few such as are most fit for the time which the hearers may very easily learne FINIS A Booke of Xenocrates a Philosopher of Plato his sect concerning Death The speakers are Socrates Clinias and Axiochus VVHen I went vnto Cynosarges and was now come to Ilissum I heard ones voyce calling me by names And turning my selfe I saw Clinias the sonne of Axiochus running toward the Well Calliroe and togeather with him Damon the Musition and Carmides the sonne of Glancus of whom that same excellent cunning Musition was my very deare and especiall friend Therefore I thought good to goe backe againe and meete them that we might more leasurely and easily goe togeather But Clinias weeping said O Socrates the present time requireth that wee should shew foorth that Wisedome which you haue alwayes spoken of to vs for my Father is vexed with a sodaine and intollerable Disease and seemeth to be euen at deaths doore and to take it very vnpatiently although in times past hee was wont to mocke those that feared death as though they were afraid at the countenaunce of an imagined Spirit Come I pray you and blame him as you were wont that he may easily beare necessitie Goe therefore with vs and togeather with others doe a godly worke So. You haue made me very desirous O Clinias to do what I can to fulfill your request especially seeing the worke is holy which you craue to be done let vs therefore make hast for if the matter be so it is time to make hast Cli. So soone as he shall see you O Socrates he shall begin to recouer for it hath often hapned that he in some sort repented So. Then we went vnto him by the Walles thorow the Peritoman Fieldes for he dwelt night the Gates towardes the Amazones Pillar And we found him sound of limme and strong of body but weake in minde and greatly standing need of comfort and often times staying to take breath and fetching sighes and grones with many teares and clapping of his handes Which when I saw What now Axiochus said I Where is now that your old boasted Constancie Where are the perpetuall prayses of Virtues Where is your wonderfull magnitude and boldnesse of Minde For euen as an ill or sluggish Wrastler may in the wrastling Scoole appeare couragious till he come to try all so haue you fainted and yeelded in this conflict Why consider you not the order and course of Nature seeing you are so worthy a man and so well learned and if no other thing yet that you are an Athenian Remember you not that vulgar and old worne Sentence wherein it is sayd That this life is a certaine Pilgrimage that we ought to behaue our selues rightly with an equal minde as wanderers in a strange Countrie and so come to that thing which is due and necessarie not with a weake and feeble but with a ioyfull and merrie minde But this tender softnesse is more meete for Infancie then for riper age Axi These thinges O Socrates seeme rightly spoken But I know not how thorow imminent dangers these same most comfortable wordes of patient abiding doe sliely vanish away and are neglected yea there ariseth a certaine repugnant extreame feare which compasseth my minde on euery side Oh alas I shal be depriude of this light of these good thinges I shall lie
in darknesse Hauing lost my taste and sight I shall rot in the earth and be turned to Wormes and Dust So. Thou ô Axiochus doest ioyne Sense with priuation of Sense without the diligent examination of Reason and art contrary to thy selfe both in sayings and doinges Neither do you marke that you do both togeather complaine of the losse of your Senses and doe sorrow for rottennesse and losse of good thinges as though you being about to passe ouer into another life should rather flit into the priuation of euery Sense Priuation I say and that such a one as went before the time that you were borne For as in the Common-weale of Draco and Calisthenes no euill hath touched you for you were one that was not compassed with euill so after death nothing shall ouerthwart you for you shall not be he that may be inuironed with euill Driue away therefore from you all such like triflings and consider thus much that that being dissolued which was compounded and the Soule going vnto her owne place this Body that remayneth being earthly and without reason can by no meanes be Man for we are a Soule an Immortall liuing thing shut vp in a Mortall habitacle which Nature made vs as a shadow wherein to abide euill Whereunto those thinges that are sweete are Adulterous filthy naught vaine fading and mixed with many and sundry miseries griefes troubles vexations But those things that are grieuous vnto it are of their owne nature good whole sound and voyd of sweetnesse Vnto it doe happen hot Tumors and Swellings superfluitie of Humours decay of Senses and corruption of the Bowels Wherewith the Soule must needes be very much grieued and payned being diffused and spread abroad through all the pores and passages to bind and tie all thinges togeather Whereby it commeth to passe that it now desireth the life Celestiall and niest to it of nature and thirsteth thereafter and after the Quire supernall For the loosing or departing out of this life is a passage from an euill thing vnto a good Axtoc Seeing Socrates that you doe iudge this life to be euill why doe you tarry or abide in it especially seeing you doe most of all meditate on these thinges and are ateacher of others and doest excell all the rest in minde Godly virtues Soc. Axiochus you are no sufficient witnesse for me but do thinke esteeme as doe the people of Athens But I would very gladly and wish in my heart to haue the knowledge of these common thinges and not to know thinges superfluous and vaine Those workes which we spake of are the declamations of Prodicus the Wise-man some bought for sixe pence some two groates and some foure for verily he teacheth nothing of free cost and hath alwayes in his mouth that saying of Epicharmus Manus manum lauat dans aliquid aliquid accipe i. The one hand washeth the other giue some thing and take some thing Meaning that one Good turne asketh another On the former dayes when in the house of Callias the sonne of Hippomous he declaymed he brought in so many thinges against life that it wanted but a litle but I euen then ended my life and from that time forward ô Axiochus my Minde doth die continually Axt. What then are those things that he there sayd I will rehearse them all so farre foorth as my memorie will serue mee and thus he sayd What part of life is not full of euilles Doth not the Infant yet scarcely borne foorth-with waile and weepe and beginneth it life with sorrow neither is there any griefe wanting but cryeth and weepeth either for Parentes or want of necessaries or for cold or for heat or for hurtes He cannot yet in words tell what he ayleth he weepeth and cryeth with voyce onely voyce hath he without wordes as a signe of griefe which he endureth Now when he hath fulfilled the seauenth yeare of his age he is troubled and turmoylad with very many labours for then come vp Schoolemaisters and Teachers Alphabetaries and Gramarians with such others and doe beare rule ouer him none otherwise then a Tyrant Then when he is some-what more growen Censores of Arithmeticke Distributors of Geometrie and innumerable Maisters besides these doe beare rule ouer him And whē he is become a stripling then doth Feare circumuent him the Vniuersitie Prentiship Sceptres and the immoderate flowing and rage of euils doe dispossesse him of the pleasures wherein his heart delighteth All the time and course of his youth he is kept in holden vnder by the Censorers of Manners and abideth the sentence of most seuere and vncorrupted Iudges And when he is freed or loosed from their sentence then Care Consultations aduisements come creeping vpō him while he reasoneth discourseth within himselfe what path and course of life is best for him to follow so that by the comparison of the laboures and troubles that are to come those that are past doe seeme both light and onely to be feared of Infantes For then arise expeditions of Warre and Woundes and often Skirmiges Conflictes and Battailes At the length old wrinckled crooking Age creepeth vpon him vpon the which there altogeather floweth euery foule filthie and vncureable euill of Nature as a Banker looketh for aduantage Nature requireth her Pledges of this man Sight of that man Hearing of an other them both which if any doe restore then doth he dissolue waxe weake lame may med and impotent Many liue euen to the vtmost boundes of Old age but then they are in minde twise Children fond decrepite Wherefore God in prouiding for Mans matters doth in a short time call againe vnto himselfe those whom he loueth Therefore Agamedes and Triphonius when they went vnto the Temple of the God Apollo and had prayed for that thing which is the best of all other they straight way fell so fast asleepe that they neuer wakened after The same also happened vnto the Priestes of luno in the Citie Argos when their Mother had prayed for some good gift to be giuen to her Sonnes It should be prolixious and tedious to rehearse the sentences of Poets who in diuine heauenly Poesies doe deplore the Calamities of humaine life I will rehearse one notable and famous Poet that speaketh to this purpose in these wordes The Gods haue decreed that miserable mortall men should liue in perpetuall sorrow Neither is there any thing vpon the earth more miserable then man Therefore they say that Amphirarus was chosen of Iupiter and Apollo with a wonderfull great affect and yet notwithstanding he attained not to the age of an Old man And what dost thou thinke of him who biddeth him that is new borne to bewaile the miserie of his owne life But I will now leaue off least I should seeme to stray and wander wider and farther then my purpose was Who is there I pray you that doth not greatly complaine of that Studie Art Science Trade and Course of life which himselfe hath chosen
thinges and contemplating the hidden secrets of Philosophie not verily vnto the grace of the multitude or Theatre but to the obiect of perspicuous trueth Axio Your Oration hath drawne my Minde and mooued mee to affect the contrarie to that it did before I am now quite changed for I now doe not feare Death but doe wish it But as it is the manner of Rethoricians I also abounding will expresse some thing For now ô Socrates I am caried from hence vp on high and doe run thorow the Diuine circuite and heauenly Throne And being deliuered out of this Weakenesse I am renewed so that I am become altogeather new nothing that I was before Soc. I will also shew and declare vnto you if it please you what Gobrias the Magian did teach mee For sayd hee at that time when as Xerxes passed into Greece with an Armie his Grandfather Gobrias by name was sent into Delos to keepe the Ile werein there were extant two Gods where he sayd That of certaine Brasen Tables which Opis and Hecaergos brought out of the North partes that he learned that in the solution of the Body the Soule doth flit into a hidden place vnder the Earth wherein is the Kingdome of Juno not a straiter Haule of Iupiter because the Earth must holde the middle of the World that must be the sphericall heauen whose one Hemisphere the Gods and Saintes doe enioy The other the Inferiours partly Breathren of the heauenly Saintes partly the children of the Brethren But the places without are the Prouinces of Pluto which are bound and enuironed with Walles Rayles Barres and Chaynes of Iron First doth the Riuer Acheron part these places insunder and then the Riuer Cocytus doth separate them which when silly Soules haue passed ouer they must needes be brought before the vpright Iudges Minos and Radamanthus to wit into that Region which is called Veritatis Campus 〈◊〉 The Field of Trueth Where they sitte in Iudgement examining the life of euery one that commeth vnto them Heere no man can boulster or defend himselfe with lyes Whosoeuer then hath been ledde heere in this life by the good Spirit doe passe ouer into the place of the Godly where the Spring lasteth euer and aboundeth with Fruites of euery kind and floweth with Springs of most cleare and shining Waters and Meadowes moreouer very pleasant and bedecked with faire florishing Flowers of sundry colours and sweete smelling sauours Neither is there wanting the fellowship of Philosophers nor Theatre of Poets There are the companie of Singing-men and Quiristers There is Musicke Singinges and sweete Concentes Pleasant Bankets and Holy and often Meetinges inuiolable ioy of Drinkers and sweete liuing togeather There is no excesse of Heate or cold but the nature of the Ayre is holesome tempered with light beames of the Sunne Here are the Seates of purged Soules where they celebrate the Diuine mysteries What then hindreth but that there may be giuen vnto you first honour and reward seeing you deriue your originall from God Contrarily those that haue defyled their liues with wickednesse are of the Hollish furies sodainely snatched through Hell into Chaos and Herebus the deepest Pit of all where lyeth the Prouince of the Wicked and the vaine labours of the Daughters of Danaeus who in vaine doe labour to fill the Tunne with water out of whose sides filled full of holes the water runneth so fast as they put it in where is the thirst of Tantulus the bowels of Titius the perpetuall rowling Stone of Sisyphus Whereas raging wild Beastes byting Wormes and stinging Serpentrs doe inseparably fould about the Bodyes Where inextinguible Firebrandes that can neuer be put out doe burne vp their flesh Where wicked men are punished with all kind of tormentes and are for euer-more vexed with perpetuall paine These thinges I heard of Gobrias But you O Axiochus shall iudge of these thinges for I being constrayned by reason doe plainely and firmely know this onely that euery Soule remayneth Immortall and that that which goeth pure from these places doe liue without sorrowfulnesse Wherefore O Axiochus whether you goe vpward or downeward it can none otherwise be but you must needes be blessed if so be you doe liue holily and godlily Axi I am ashamed ô my deare friend Socrates and it abasheth mee to speake any further The feare of Death is so farre from mee now that I now doe most earnestly desire to die Your former speach as though it were a Celestiall and Heauenly Oracle hath so perswaded mee Now therefore I doe despise this life seeing that I am about to goe into a better more desired place Wherefore these thinges that are thus spoken I will quietly marke ponder and meditate by my selfe And you ô Socrates I pray you come againe vnto me at afternoone Soc. I will doe as you say But I will now returne againe vnto Cynosarges to walke there fore my recreation from whence I was brought hither vnto you Heere endeth Xenocrates Booke concerning Death Mecaenas good I â—raue of thee my Patron for to bee Gainst carping Zoilus cankred corps and censures bad of mee FINIS Imprinted at London by W. White for R. Bolton and W. White 1611.