his age giues some light contributes discourses and lends him Counsell Memorie a faithfull register keepes a Iournall booke of all and will quickned by the goodly obiect which presents it selfe to the vnderstanding giues her consent and keepes all ioyfull so as by the Imagination which is alwayes ready at the first sommons that which hath once pleased the minde is often repeated and these are the last and goodliest degrees of life after which a wise man should prepare himselfe to decline it he will not doe it willingly his owne temper which had raised him will draw him force him thereunto maugre his resistance the naturall heate diminisheth the Imagination which consists in a certaine point of heat growes weake the radicall moysture consumes and the memorie is lost reason doats for that the memorie is not firme enough nor the Imagination strong to conclude the will can no more loue any thing shee is still wayward and displeased and the vnderstanding doth nothing but doaâ—…e for that the vigour and vertue of the sences is decayed they which were wont to make a faithfull report of al things in this world vnto the soule haue no more any power the sight growes dimme the hearing hardned the smelling verie dull the mouth without tast the body without appetite the hands knotted with the Goute Finally it is no more what it was And how then should these building of the bodie subsist seeing the foun dations decay daily This facultie which desired and receiued sustenance is altogether distasted that fierie vertue which did concoct it suffers it to goe downe all rawe finally that power which did nourish and giue strength vnto the body is now become vnable so aâ—… the bodie withers growes crooked and leane and in the ende dyes Thou doest imagine O 〈◊〉 that this last period of â—…y bodies fayling is very horrible thou doest beleeue it but thou art deceiued seeing it giues a finall end to all other defects which troubled thee made thee wayward Alas wouldest thou alwaies liue languish in this pittifull infancie to which thy many yeares doe reduce the remember what thou sometimes desired seeing these old men twise children when as thy reason and iudgement being â—…ound and perfect made thee conceiue what a pittie and miserie it was to liue in that estate remember I said that thou desiredst not to liue so long now the effect of thy desire the ende of thy life offereth it selfe which thou canst not nor maist in reason refuse The third Obiection The Losse of Happines causeth an insupportable griefe Death is the losse of happinesse Therefore c. THe rest of the minde is the happinesse of life to the which man iâ—… led of himselfe if he doth not wretchedly resist it for his owne reason makes him easely and distinctly to know his soule his bodie and those thing which are for his body she teacheth him that onely his soule is his and that his body and those things which concerne it depend of an other and therfore should not affect them but so far as they are profitable and not be troubled for any accident that shall befall them as not concerning him seeing it toucheth not the soule so as the spirituall and bodily infirmities to which the body is subiect as pouertie reproach and disdayne of men which may happen to a man without deâ—…rt should be indiffereÌ„t vnto him seeing they are out of his power As for that which is in his power as to allowe desire poursue the good and good things which are honest and according vnto reason and contrariwise to hate and flye the euill hee applyes himselfe 〈◊〉 â—…o easâ—…y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contâ—… vnlesse 〈◊〉 death commâ—… betweene doâ—… interâ—…pt this happiâ—… and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Answer It is true that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 doth 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 parts at all 〈◊〉 aâ—…d in â—…uery place And it is also true that the very meanes â—…o attaiâ—…e vnto it is veâ—…ue But it is likewise 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 the one nor the other can be obtained in this life all wee can haue is but a shadowe of the one and the other as far different from the â—…ffect as night is from day for night is the shadow and the day is the light of the Sun which is 〈◊〉 cause â—…hat they which in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oâ—… a 〈◊〉 full of dagerous beasts being surprized by night desire nothing more 〈◊〉 to see day appaâ—… so 〈◊〉 that are in this life should desire nothing but to see the day of the Lord the Sun of Iustice to shine vpon thâ—…m Iâ—… they 〈◊〉 it noâ—… they are not tâ—…ue â—…n but â—…tish hauing taken the habit of beasts But to answer more categorically to these Sâ—…oicks 〈◊〉 especially â—…o Epictâ—… from whom this obiection is drawne to say that the bodie and those externall thingâ—… which happen vnto man should not bee respected of him it is the farthest from reason that can be euen to the vulgar fort who whollie runne after honour riches and pleasure and to say that a man in some great Infirmitie either of bodie or minde feeles no paine were to make a iest of himselfe Aristotle called the â—…ye of reason is not of that opinion these are his words in his Booke of Manners It is impossible faith hee or verie hard that any one should do wel without means and preparation Many things are effected by friends by wealth by credit and authoritie and they that are depriued of these thinges blemish their happinesse like vnto them that are issued from obscure parents who neither haue children nor good children or that are crooked For he is not perfectly happie that is deformed of a base race and without issue This is too much see what Antipater one of the great authors of the Stoicks sayth who attributs something although but little to exterior things But what sayth Seneca the wise man writes that he is happie yet he can neuer attaine vnto that Soueraigne good vnlesse the naturall Instruments be propicious And although the bodie and the exterior things be not the soule which is the principal seaâ—… of happines yet are they accessories Instruments and meanes which God hath ordayned and vnited and therefore they should tast of the happinesse of the soule if there be any as the fire dâ—…sperseth his heat in the ayer that doth enuiron it As for the other ground of this imaginarie felicitie that man doth easily apply himselfe to seeke that onely which is honest and according vnto reason it is a greater Parodoxe then the precedent for the most vertuous man in the world hath a continual combate against vice is neuer at truce how then hath he any peace or rest The eye oâ—… his vnderstanding is dazeled at the shinning of his â—…oueraigue good his wil straies from the true ende or in ayming mistakes one for an other and therefore most commonly if hee
All that is depraued and there is nothing but a horrible confusion in his will and actions 7. He was absolute Lord ouer all Creatures which trembled at his looke and brought him fruits according to his desire 8. Now they rebell and assaile him yea the earth instead of good corne brings forth nothing but thornes thistles 9. He had frequent conuersation with God inspired of him and breathing by him 10. Now the Prince of the power of the aire the vncleane spirit workes powerfully in the children of rebellion which are all the sonnes of Adam Ephes. 2. 2. 11. A glorious angelical and diuine Maiesty did shine in his face 12. Now they couer their shame with leaues they hide themselues among the trees and crie out Mountains fall vpon vs and couer vs. To conclude there is no greater contrariety betwixt day and night then of these famous qualities to the infamous blemishes of man as he liued in this world before his regeneration in the which by little and little hee recouers this Iustice holinesse and trueth Ephes. 4. 24. But the fulnesse thereof is reserued to heauen whither death leades vs and therefore to be desired The Fourth Argument taken from the efficient cause All that a good and wise mother giueth vnto her Children cannot be hurtfull Nature our good and wise mother giues vs death Death then cannot be hurtfull THe first proposition of this Argument cannot bee denyed after the experience which wee haue seene after the comparison which God makes of himselfe with a mother who cannot forget her child nor he his people After that Iesus Christ had said No man giues a stone instead of bread nor a Scorpion for fish to him that he loues And how then can nature the liuely spring of so liuely a loue giue any thing that is very hurtfull and fayle at neede and in the principall hauing neuer fayled vs in all the course of our life Now to proue that the second proposition is true and that nature hath ordayned death for her children Seneca doth teach vs saying That death is a Law of nature yea that our whole life is but a way vnto it S. Cyprian also doth affirme that it is a decree intimated vnto the world that whatsoeuer is borne should haue an end and from whom is this decree from God the Authour of nature the executioner of this decree but it is a fauourable decree to such as Heauen fauours It is a generall Law to restore that which is lent vs this life is but a loane wee must restore it at the end of the time it is a tribute wee owe for we entred vpon condition to depart when it shall please the master Moreouer what is this life but a harmony rising from the mixture of the foure elements which are the foure ingredients of our bodie and what is death by the censure of Hippocrates but a diuorce of marriage of these foure Elements This diuorce is as naturall to man as it is naturall that fire should be contrarie to water and ayre to earth for their contrarietie is the cause of this diuorce which is death I know that it is not sufficient for humane life to haue a body well tempered with his Organes and to haue the power of life but he must also haue a fist Effence as a Lute well strung and well tuned is not sufficient to make it sound vnlesse there bee a hand to play vpon it And I also maintayne that as the Musitian ceaseth to play when the Instrument is vnstrung so the soule ceaseth to giue life vnto the body yea flyes out when it is destroyed but this destruction is naturall and by consequence death and to that end Nature hath planted this body vpon pyles which take vent vpon boanes not very solide caulkt ouer with soft flesh glued with a viscous humour which may easily melt with heate or dissolue with rayne full of transparent veines easie to pierce watered with vnholesome water tempered with contrarie qualities which a certaine temperature keepes at quiet for a season but when euery one desires to command his companion and time in the end presenting the occasion the common right being forced the body sodainely falls And this force is of nature who must needes effect the words of the Lord spoken vnto man Thou art dust and shalt returne to dust Sonnes of men returne but whither From whence you came to the earth to death death then is of nature and therefore Thales the Milesian said that there was no difference betwixt life and death for that they are both equally according vnto Nature and as one demanded of him why he was in life and dyed not For the same cause answered he that the one is no more excellēt then the other It is also the reason why the Emperor Antonin the gentle seeing his seruants weepe lying sicke in his bed hee sayed vnto them Why weepe you for me and not rather the naturall and mortall condition of all the world that is to say Why doe you not rather weepe for life which is of a mortall condition The answere of Anaxagoras was more vertuous who being aduertised of the death of his deere and onely Sonne sayd O Messenger thou bringest me no vnexpected newes I know well I had begotten a Sonne that was mortall hee was not insensible like a stone but he considered that nothing had chanced to his sonne but what he had foreseene from his birth his long foresight and his sodaine con sideration of the condition of all men for to die had tēpered all sorow in him and brought him to reason which should alwaies holde the helme of this little world man Like was the answere of Lochades father to Siron vp on the like report of the death of one of his children I knew well sayth he that he should dye VVe shall see others hereafter to the ende they may haue no cause to say that this resolution was monstrous in the world To conclude nature to make vs resolue ioyfully vnto death seemes to direct vs to the sweete song of the Swanne a presaging bird consecrated to Apollo by Antiquitie the which dying nature gathers together about the heart the purest and sweetest bloud which makes him Iouiall and to sing a happie presage to whom Socrates Plato and Tully send them that haue so great feare of death An Obiection Satan Man and Sinne are the causes of death Therefore it is not Nature ANswere When it is said in the holy Scripture that Satan holds the empire of death that by one man sinne entred into the world and by sin death finally that death is the reward of sinne we must not vnderstand it of the naturall death whereof the question growes but of the spirituall and eternall death as many of the ancient fathers doe expound it And how else could the threatning of God against Adam be vnderstood touching the tree of knowledge of good and euil Thou shalt not eate
from all action and motion so the Syncope interrupts all motion and all the functions both of sense and life And that in this accident there is not any paine experience doth witnesse and the report of such as reuiue is to bee credited and serue for as good a testimony to the curious and incredulous as if they were â—…isen from the dead They depose and will depose that in the incursion of this death there is nothing but quiet rest so sound a sleepe as the naturall is nothing in comparison of this And in truth when my father was restored to his health and as it were returned to life againe hee was much amazed to see the company which came to succour him and his first words were What is the matter Be ing demanded if hee had felt no paine he answered No did not remember that hee had any accident so as all the time betwixt the first accesse of his disease and his separation was without his feeling or memory Thus if the body becomes so insensible that the soule although it be present suspends her action and agitation what shall it then be in death when being separated shee shall haue no communion with it how much more shall it bee without paine As for the bodies shaddow there are none but litle children that are afraid being not able for the weakenesse of their iudgement to know what it is But they that haue any vnderstanding and take a little leasure to obserue this obscure Image moouing at the shaking of their bodies finde that it is only a priuation of the light in the ayre opposed to their bodyes for the Sun the candle or any other thing that shines not able by his beams to pierce through a solid body is forced to fall vpon the Superficies so as it cannot lighten the ayre which is beyond the said body Wherevpon it remains obscure and without light and is fashioned according to the proportion of the body Man therefore being assured that death is nothing to the body but the priuation of life by reason of the leâ—… which happens in the light of life which is the soule the which notwithstanding no lesse then the Sun or a Candle doth retaine her life and remaine immortall Man I say being assured of this truth hee should not feare death no more then the shadow of the body for neither the shadow nor death haue any setling of any thing but onely a simple priuation of another The seuenteenth Argument taken from diuersity which is pleasant to man That wherein the nature of man is pleased should not displease the minde The nature of man is pleased in diuersitie c. WE proue the maior of our argument by the suffrages of many wise men No man can erre sayth Cicero that follows nature for his guide And againe To follow the conduct of good nature is to follow and obey God Chrysippus doth willingly heare nature according to the which wee must liue conformably sayth Laertius it is common nature and properly humaine whervnto Seneca wil giue his conseÌ„â—… Sen. de vit beat c. 8. Naturae rerum asseÌ„tior saith he Moreouer it is our intent to liue ac cording to nature for sayth he to liue according to it to be happy is the samething This common nature is interpreted by the Stoicks to be God as Clemens AlexaÌ„drinus doth witnes The Stoicks sayth he haue setled the end of man to liue according to nature changing the name of God into the beautie of nature Let the world sayth Philon consent and concurre with the Law and the Law with the world Let euery good man as soone as he is made a Cittizen of the world direct his actions according to the arbitrement and will of Nature by the which all this vniuers is gouerned We are afflicted saith Seneca with diseases but curable for Nature which hath made vs perfect if wee demande correction helps vs Wherefore S. Ierome saith that in our spirits there is a certen naturall sanctitie if we may so speake the which being president in the fortresse of the spirit exerciseth the iudgement of good and euill which is saith he in the same place that Law which by the testimonie of the Apostle is infused into al men and as it were written in the tables of the heart Wherefore the spirit of man should neuer part from the motions of this nature according to which all this world moues anâ—… 〈◊〉 entertayned But to come to the minor of our 〈◊〉 that nature is pleased in diuers chaÌ„ges we see that this world doth neuer subâ—…ist any moment of time in one estate not heauen nor the seasons much lesse the earth our common mother For Nature hauing with a varied loue Wounded the Heart Not able to remoue The formes of all the fauorâ—… to one part And at one time she takes into the heart Forme after forme so that one face embraces Forme by that Tract aâ—…ther forme defaces But aboue all there is no poulpe nor Proteus so changeable as maâ—… for what pleaseth him in the euening is in the morning distastful euery day he layes new foundations for his life sayth Senâ—… he reuiues new hopes at the end yea before the last periode of the thing hoped for he often changes aduice and turnes to the contrary of that which he pursued and therefore life is to many a very sport sayth hee No man knowes what he would haue and yet he is alwaies in quest still desirous to change place as if he might there plant his change sayth Lucretius And seeing that man delights so much in change seeing that his particular complexion leades him and forceth him vnto it seeing that the vniuer sall nature guides him to it as by the hand seeing that in this life a death rather then life he could not find his contentment but misery vpon misery why doth he not run ioyfully to the end of this life and seeke to finde a better Obiection Man cannot lose that which is pleasant vnto him without displeasure But life is pleasant to man c. IN this Theater of the world there is nothing so admirable as man sayth Abdala Sarasin he may if hee will take the part of God and bee happy and ioyfull in this world for by his free wil he may become wise and be in a good happy and pleasing estate as certaine Philosophers do shew I will not sayth Seneca to his Lucilius that thou euer want content I will that it grow in thy house which it shall doe if it dwell within thee other petty ioyes fill not the spirit but make smooth the brows they are light vnlesse thou wilt hold him ioyfull that laughes the spirit should be cheerefull assured and eleuated aboue all and presently after he sayth the ioy whereof I speake is sollid and the greater for that it is deepe in the heart And in another place the spirit of a wise
water and saw with drie eyes his life fade away But S. Ambrose assures that a good consciēce makes the life happy Be it so but forgets to adde That in the death of the faithfull this happynesse is doubled for it is pretious before God And in the end I deny that those men in whom a melancholy humour doth most abound suffer themselues to bee so abused in their iudgements for this humour is more aduised then all the rest hauing some diuine matter in it as Aristotle saith and therefore more to be credited then the rest and particularly more then the Iouiall sanguine As for the admonition of the Stoicks it was easie for them to speake it but vertue consists in action and I know not whether Epictetus did that himself which he taught to others otherwise as the prouerbe saith I hate the Philosopher which is not wise but for others and not for himselfe You will that I take the most troublesome things on the best fide yea but I see no end of that side it is like vnto occasion which hath long haire before and bald behinde Where is that end then I cannot see it and admit I should I cannot attaine vnto it being borne vnder the planet of Saturne alwaies taking things on that side which is sadde I would haue my neighbour and my aduersarie obserue your precept and he would haue me and so neither of vs doe it and we continue by reason of the one and the other in continuall vexation Finally the pleasure of this world is very small and intermixt with many displeasures It is a Myne where there is gold but it is so fastned to the stones as to draw one crowne it will cost 12. So there is not one ounce of ioy but doth cost a pound of sorrow The 18. Argument taken from the miseries of life Euery Estate that is full of calamity should desire and not apprehend a change This present life is full of calamity c. THe field of this streight life is so spacious and so full of great dangers and extreame miseries as the exchange thereof to him that hath any sence cannot be but delightfull Obserue the diseases of the body measure number their greatnes and their great number consider the tempests stormes of the passions of the soule the clouds and troubles of his vnderstanding and you will conclude that man must of necessity change this life or to be continually miserable in euery degree And therefore he was fitly compared to a Bull which leapt suddenly into his Maisters garden and by chance ouerthrew sundry skepps of Bees which being prouoked came forth assaile him and sting him on the throate backe in the eyes and generally all ouer And it auailes him nothing to pierce the ayre with his homes to beate the earth with his feete to whippe his flankes with his strong tayle to roare make a noyse yee his stingings sticke still-to him and do not leaue him So man since that in his Creatures garden in the earthly Paradise he durst presume to ouerthrow and transgresse his Masters commandments there is no part of him from the head to the foote which is not toucht and pierced euen to the marrow of his bones with many calamities his head is subiect to inflamed Phrensies which make him madd to the Apoplexie which like Lightening depriues him of all motion his eyes are toucht with the Opthalmie or inflāmation the Squinancie takes him by the throate which making the Muscles to swell with a congealed bloud stoppe the passage of respiration the inflamed Pleurisie stabs him in the sides the Feauer burns him the swelled Dropsie drownes him the Iaundise makes war against his Liuer powring forth gall for pure bloud the vngentle Cholike wrings his bowells straitens the passages and makes of his mouth a stinking Iakes the bloudy flux excoriates his gutts the hardened grauell staying his vrine in the bladder pricks him most horribly the Goute knits his sinnews faster then bonds of Iron the Canker burnes his flesh more then fire it selfe the filthie and lousie Phtiriasis eats his skin Finally there is not any member either within or without the body that is not subiect to many infirmities Who can comprehend them all seing the eyes alone by exact search of Physitions is assayled with 113. diseases And who doth not see here that the estate of man is very wretched And that which doth aggrauate this is that euen those helps wherewith they think to ease themselues the medicins are conuerted into worse torments then thé disease the strict dyets the bitter potions the cutting and burning of members which they vse in Cankers and other vlcers that tubbe wherein they boyle the bodies of such as are infected with the venerian scab or the French poxe with a thousand other deuices to restore health and life to man what torments what agonies and what cryes do they not cause vnto the poore patients These miseries are great but those of the minde are greater which seemed for her noble extraction not to be subiect to any Come and let vs runne ouer her faculties the vnderstanding holds the chiefe place at the very entrie of life we see in infants a greater ignorance then in brute beasts Fawns as soone as they are borne know their dammes and without helpe of any goe into the most secret places to seeke the dug and sucke whereas children new borne know not where they are and being neere the breast will crie and perish with hūger rather then suck as S Augustine writes and experience doth teach This ignorance hath taken such deepe roote in the spirit os man as to roote it out and passe vnto the sciences there is found such difficultie as most men had rather liue perpetually in darkenes then to take so much paines to learne Thirdly and that is most lamentable man knowes nothing of his last end in the getting of which knowledge consists his soueraigne good hee goes alwayes astray if God doth not inspire him from aboue Let all the sects of Philosophers be witnesse who by so many diuers waies haue sought it yet could not finde it Fourthly the ignorance in man of his Essence is a notable misery the Angels know themselues perfectly The soule knowes nothing lesse then it selfe and the body which was giuen it for an Organ of the Sciences hinders it that she neither knows her selfe nor any other thing for the body which corrupts makes the soule heauie and this earthly habitation puls downe the spirit that it cannot raise it selfe to thinke of many things For a fift point there is a curiositie or naturall itching to obserue the actions errours of others more willingly and diligently then his owne this misery is great for to know his owne faults is alwayes profitable and many times necessary to examine other mens actions is seldome good and many times pernicious There is for the 6. place and for the deepest degree of the calamitie
of man the deprauation of his will he wils not that which hee should and wils that which hee should not that which hee should do is conformable to nature to reason to vertue whereof the Law is written in his heart and the seed cast in his spirit Other creatures moue speedily and easily to that which is proper vnto them and seemely and contrariwise they go vnwillingly and by force to that which is repugnant to their nature But men they reioyce when they haue done euill they take delight in their impious works saith wife Salomon Man drinkes sinne as the fish doth water saith Iob. Yea the corruption is so generall as it is become a prouerb It is a humane thing to erre he thoght so who to excuse his sinne of adultery said The night loue wine and my yong age perswaded me vnto it c. Finally wil you see a great signe of great misery in the spirit of man which is that he is neuer content with his condition an other pleaseth him better Other creatures apply themselues easily to the course that is offered vnto them seeke no change it is the property of sicke persons to affect sometimes one thing sometimes an other to change beds hourely as if in the bed only consisted the remedy of their griefe they desire one kind of meate and are presently distasted Wee sayeth S. Gregory borne in the misery of this pilgrimage are presently loathed we know not what we should desire and a little lower In the end we grow into a consumption for that we are distasted of euery thing and we are wonderfully tired with the want of eating and drinkking Saint Chrysostome doth also sharpely censure this fitrious dainty for that euery man doth commonly complaine of that whereunto he is most bound as if it were an insupportable charge Homil. 60. Cleobulus in Plutarke obseruing the inconstancy and foolish demands of many sent them for answere to the mother of the moone On a time sayd he the moone intreated her mother to make her a little garment that might sit close to her body And how is it possible answe red shee seeing that sometimes thou doest encrease then thou art full and after decreasest If now from this most eminent part of the soule wee descend vnto the sensitiue how many men are borne blind or deafe and dumbe or lame or in some other part counterfeite and monstrous who although they were not so in the beginning yet are growne so how few be there but feele it in their old age Looke into other Creatures if you finde these defects In man that facultie of anger which was giuen him as a strong man at armes to repulse all that outwardly should offer to trouble him behold how it seeks to domineere ouer reason how it treads it vnder foote and turnes man into a madd dog to bite and into a Scorpion to flatter and sting and into worse then that Let vs proceede and leauing those naturall infirmities Let vs obserue the accidentall How many haue endured an vnspeakable torment by thirst which hath forced them to drinke their owne vrine yea that of others Then hunger which could not abstaine from humaine bloud but hath fallon vpon dead carcasses and liuing men not onely vpon strangers but euen mothers vpon their own children deuowring them cruelly and greedily whereof the sacred historie and Pagan is full Thirdly there is so great paine to maintaine this dying life that man in this world hath lesse rest then a Mill Asse Man is borne to labour as a bird to flie sayth the holy writ and the Eternall cries from heauen Thou shalt eate thy bread with the sweate of thy browes Doe not tell me that this is no generall Law it is for without exception hee that trauells not with his bodio trauels in minde thinke you that ambitious and voluptuous men yea theeues are not more troubled and vexed then handy-crafts men If you reply that at the least students are happie yea in com parison of them that are more miserable but being considered absolutely they haue their part of miserie by their sitting life which is necessarie to meditation they haue sooner filled their bodies with diseases then their soules with knowledge Moreouer he that adds know ledge adds torment sayth the wise man and yet most part of students haue no sooner learned the tongues the instruments of sciences nor the principles but they must leaue all eyther through death which cutsthem off or through age which tends vnto it which depriues them of all ablenes memorie industrie sight c. Wherefore one dying complaynes that when he began to know many things and to gouerne his life well he was called out of life Another beginnes his booke with these words Life is short the arte long the occasion hasty the experience dangerous the iudgement difficult as if he would say Miserable man who cannot possibly for his short continuance for his weeke iudgement for the slownesse of his flesh for the slippery estate of the world attaine vnto that knowledge which is so necessary for him But this is not all we haue yet but lightly runne ouer the miseries which man hatcheth in his bosome they which assayle him without are more violent Hee hath his God and Lord interessed and angry against him wee are all borne the children of wrath the whole world makes warre against him and what wonder is it seeing that hee that rules it is his enemy he is infe sted with the incursions of spiritual malices which dwelling in the most cloudy ayer are alwayes ready like carrion kites to fall vpon the prey of man Man is alwayes to man in al places a troublesome enemy and the ancient prouerbe sayeth That man is a wolfe to man and the more meanes he hath to hurt the more dangerous hee is and in truth neuer Tigers Onces or Lyons haue so torne men in pieces as the Phelares the Busines the first Emperors the Massachiers the Spaniards at the West Indies Fourthly there is not any little Creature which doth not shoote out the darts of his poore splene against man being grieued to see such a Tyrant reigne vpon the 〈◊〉 Fiftly the heauen fire ayre sea sand are armed against him dart out against him their wenimous influences lightening and hayle They shake him with their earthquakes they swallow him with there opening they drowne him they burne him If thou thinkest in fayre weather to walke into thy Garden to recreate thy selfe the Aspike attends thee in ambush vnder ome flower or herbe which thou doest intend to gather If thou doest enter into a strangers house the mastiue will take thee by the thigh if into thine owne yet art thou not without feare for thine owne dog may be madd byte thee and make thee mad Fynally that which exceeds all these miseries is that when thou shalt thinke thy selfe most safe a thousand vnexpected accidents may ouerthrow thee
coniecture proued true for presently an earthquake swallowed vp the lodging with this Mignion of Fortune and al them of the family euen in the sight of S. Ambrose being not yet farre off Prosperity the stepdame of vertue plants and waters whom shee pleaseth but is soone wearied by the inconstancy of her loue shee supplants them not without amazement shee applies her selfe vnto them for a time by some miserable happines but in the end shee crosseth them and ouerthrowes them and therefore Valerius Maximus sayd truely That greatnes riches were nothing but frailty misery and like vnto little childrens babies toies and what hope then is there in such things But some Idolatrous flatteror of Princes will perswade them that all things yeeld vnder their power and vndergo what yoake it shall please them to impose To this flattery I will oppose the sincere confession made by Canute a powerfull King of England who adds words to the effect for a memorable example to al the monarchs of the world Seeing the sea begin to flow he commanded his chaire to be set vpon the shore sate himselfe downe in it and still obserued the waues as they approched Then the Prince begaÌ„ this speech Stay ô sea the Land whereon I sit is mine thou art on it and in that respect thou doest belong to mee neuer yet any one gaine-sayd mee but was punished I forbid thee to mount any higher beware thou doest not touch nor wet thy Lords garments The sea had no more respect then eares but trembling at the voyce of a greater Monarke came on his course and did wet the Kings feete which was the thing he expected then hee added Let all the Inhabitants of the world know that the power of Kings is so weake as the least creature guided by the Almighty disdaines it Whereunto the embleme of Alcâ—… doth allude representing the Beetle a little weake animall yet banding against the Eagle findes meanes to reuenge himselfe for creeping into her feathers he is carried by her into her nest where he breakes her egs and doth extinguish the race We reade of Sapores King of Persia who hauing besieged Nifibis a Christian Towne hee was chased away by an Army of Hornets and Waspes which succors they did attribute to the prayers of Ieames the faithfull Pastor of that Church I omit the miserable Prelate of the Abbey of Fulden in Germany who was pursued in the end deuoured by rattes notwithstanding all his force and deuices whereof the Tower built in the middest of the riuer of Rhine beares witnesse Plinie makes mention of Conies which did vndermine ouerthrow a Towne in Spaine Moules ruined another in Thessaly Frogs made the Inhabitants of a certaine Towne in Gaule to abandon the place But it is well knowne to all men how God incountered the arrogancy of Pharao King of Egypt with armies of diuers smal beasts If the lâ—…ast wormes of the earth opposing against the great enterprizes of great men ouerthrow them and what hope then is there in this world What shall wee say more but with Lipsius That the most shining Diamond of constancy a vertue so necessary in the inconstancy of Fortune is not to bee transported with hope nor feare a supernaturall ornament neere vnto God which makes man free from passions exempt from the insulting of Fortune and makes him a free King subiect to God only whose seruice is to reigne as the wiseman sayeth The 29. Argument taken from the vnprofitablenesse of life The freeing from a most vaine vanity should not make man sad Death is a freeing from a most vaine vanity SAlomon a powerful King wise and rich hauing sought examined and tasted all that is excellent pleasant happy in this world yet in the end hee cried out with a true voyce in the booke of truth Vanity of vanities all is but vanity The Paraphrase vpon this Sermon doth teach vs that the end of it is to let the world know That they deceiue themselues to their great confusion which either within aboue or vnder the world hope to finde any thing so firme wherein there is assured contentment no sayeth hee there is nothing in the world but is inconstant without stay fraile most vaine And in truth when man hath past his youth and leaues his passions comming to a more perfect age his life promiseth felicity yet vpon condition that hee shall imploy himselfe with all his force either to heape vp store of riches or to purchase much credit or to wallow in voluptuousnesse but after that hee hath toyled turmoyled and killed both body and soule she leaues him empty lost finding her deceite too late For Had man of wealth such store That much still heap't vp more And held in his free hold A spring of liquid gold His coffers seeing fill'd With treasures still instill'd Pearles that best choises please Brought from the bloody seas And in rich labour could To breake his fruitefull mould A hundred Oxen yoke Yet would desire still choke His throate with thirst of more And yet of all the store His heart affects to haue Hee carries nothing to his graue Euen as Boetius exclaimes against sencelesse greedinesse for in truth all shee hath is nothing shee desires all shee hath not and that is infinite she gapes alwaies after gaine one lucre sommons another and she holds al lost that she cannot attaine vnto Finally Couetousnesse is the anuile whereon are forged the chaines of iniquity to binde and â—…ast couetous men headlong into hel these chaines are foure Impiety Inhumanity forgetfulnesse of Gods Iudgements and Distrust whereby we may inferâ—…e that in stead of happinesse there is nothing heere but misery Now comes the second Ambition which knowes no bounds and hath neither end nor meane if shee possesseth this day a whole Countrey to morrow shee will seeke to conquer a new Kingdome after this conquest she wold seaze vpon all the world and theÌ„ pierce through the earth to finde new words a strange thing as Valerius saith that man should thinke his glory hath too streighr a lodging in this world which notwithstanding was sufficient for al the gods but it is more strange that man should bee so tormented for the enioying of a handfull of earth who hath the fruition of the Sunne the heauen and of all the elements in regard wherof this earthly Globe is nothing for the Sunne alone by the iust computation of Philosophers is a 166. times bigger then the earth Why should a little portion of this little earth breed him so much care Hee that hath more should he care for lesse Man hath the common enioying of the principal of life of the sea heauen and stars and must he for a little point of earth depriue himselfe of the quiet enioying of al these things which be farre greater An ambitious man is alwayes shaken with feare and musâ—…led with enuy he feares continually the crosses of fortune
to heauen It is a constant opinion of the Stoickes sayth he that after all humor is consumed this world shall burne and Nature by whom this reuolution is made seemes to giue vs some notice in that the fields being burnt by the labourer or drowned by water as in Egypt as in pooles dried vp and when the sea is retired in that I say this earth remaining is found renewed fat and producing many Creatures yea great and perfect as they write namely of Nile after it is retired Now vnder the wings of these great personages I come to maintaine this combate and refell the reasons of the Obiector Wee haue in our Argument toucht two points simbolizing together although the one be Christian and the other Heathen the first is the Resurrection of the flesh which we extend to man only not of other Creatures And let vs say that he who of nothing could make all may easily ouerthrow the imagined difficulty and raise vp and restore to the same estate the bodies of dead men for he that can do more can do lesse without all controuersie and hee that could of nothing make that which was not may repaire that which was vndone But how shall this Resurrection bee made and what assurance shall wee haue Behold how In the presence of all the world of Angells of men and of diuells with vnspeakable ioy to the good and incomprehensible horror to the wicked the Lord shall come with a cry of exhortation and the voice of the Archangell and the Trumpet of God these are the very words of the text By the sound of this trumpet all the dead shall awake and rise out of their graues and they that shall liue and remaine at this comming shal be suddenly changed and of mortall shal be made immortall by his force and efficacy who can make all things subiect vnto him as the Apostle sayth The bodies of the children of God shall rise againe like the glorious bodie of Iesus Christ impassible spirituall and yet fleshly shining like stars subtil light transparent and full of all happines behold the letters of heauen We attend the Sauiour who will transforme our vile bodies and make them conformable to his glorious body We know sayeth Saint Iohn that after hee hath appeared wee shall bee like vnto him God will wipe away all teares from our eyes sayth hee death shall bee no more there shal bee no mourning cries nor labour The body sowne in corruption shall rise spirituall sayth S. Paul for that no sollide thing can hinder it it may without helpe or wings flye into remote places as Iesus Christ after his resurrection did manifest it more then sufficiently in his body finally hee shall bee spirituall for that hee shal be readily and willingly obedient to his glorified spirit In this flesh and not in any other shall I see my Sauiour sayth Iob c. 1. 9. For this mortal body must put on immortality sayth the Apostle Thirdly they which haue bin vnderstood sayth Daniel 12. shall shine like the heauens and they that bring many to Iustice shall glister like the starres for euer Also the glory of the Sunne is one the glory of the Moon another and the glory of the starres is also different euen so shall bee the resurrection of the dead whereby it followes that the bodyes raised again shal haue no grosse substance but shall be transparent like vnto glasse Fourthly beeing raised againe we shall bee taken vp into the clouds before the Lord and beeing ascended into heauen wee shall haue vnspeakeable ioy such as the eye hath not seene the eare not heard nor hath entred into the heart of man These are wonderfull things but what assurance the Spirit of God doth assure thee if thou beest of God for God doth seale vp an earnest penny of his holy Spirit in their hearts that are his as the Apostle teacheth Secondly If the soule be immortall the body must one day rise immortall to the end that this soule being created for the body may giue it life againe being reunited Moreouer as Saint Ambrose teacheth it is the order and cause of Iustice seeing that the work of man is common to the body and soule and what the soule doth fore-thinke the body effects and therefore it is reasonable that both should appeare in iudgement to receiue either punishment or glory Thirdly Iesus Christ is risen for vs and to assure vs that by the same diuine power that hath drawne him out of the graue we also shal be raised I proue the antecedent by aboue 500. witnesses which at one time haue seene Iesus Christ liuing after that he had beene crucified by the Iewes as the Apostle sheweth and Ioseph also who was a Iew doth witnesse it lib. 18. c. 2. 4. of his Antiquities He was seene precisely by women beleeued by the incredulous and for a ful assurance thereof hee would contrary to the nature of his body which aspired nothing but heauen conuerse forty dayes vpon earth Heere is reason sufficient in this matter of faith whereas reason should yeeld her selfe prisoner and yet to make it appeare visibly and to free all doubt God would both in the ancient and new alliance raise vp some that were seene and admired of the people So Lazarus being called out of his graue was beheld of all men and the malicious Pharisies tooke counsell to put him to death as well as Iesus Christ. The same God would manifest a plot of the future Resurrection to his Prophet Ezechiel when as he had transported him into a field full of drye bones which when hee had seene and prophesied ouer â—…em behold a motion the bones draw neere one vnto another and suddainely behold they had sinewes vppon them and flesh came and then the skinne couered it and in the end after a second dâ—…untiation of the word of God the spirit came and then appeared a great army of men As for this point which concernes an article of our faith the Resurrection of the flesh the Obiector dares not deny but there is matter sufficient in this world to furnish for the restoring of all the dead bodies not since an imaginary Eternity for we are now vpon tearmes of diuinity whereof wee must beleeue the principles and not question them but from the first man vnto the last that shall be Herein there is nothing that inuolues contradiction The other point was that suppose the eternity of the world after the reuolution of all things and the encounter of the same order in all points that is at this present there shall bee the same Superficies the same creatures and the same men that are at this present this also hath no implicity seeing we affirm not that all things the same creatures which haue bin shal be for euer shal be restor'd together at one instant but by degrees and euery one in his turne Behold how this first
matter perisheth not and is not reduced to nothing but flowes dayly vnder new formes This matter is bounded the starres and the heauen which roule about it make it to bring forth creatures continually and man sometimes but by some rare constellation as the Naturallists speake The heauens I say are bounded and their motions limited Wherefore I maintaine it is not impossible that in an eternity of time that which is limited and bounded and hath once met and is ioyned may yet againe meete and be reioyned if we consider that it is not by chance but by fatall necessity that this Vniuerse roules without ceasing as al they among the Pagans which haue had any vnderstanding haue acknowledged Yea one of them said that who so would demande proofes thereof must be answered with a whip but behold a most certaine proof all creatures euen those that haue no vnderstanding tend alwayes to their ends propounded and all encounter in one vniuersall end If there were not a certaine prouidence in the world which prescribes to euery creature that end which it knoweth not and makes it containe it selfe the world should not be a world that is to say a most excellent and well ordained composition but the greatest confusion that could be imagined Seeing then that the heauens in their motions the starres in their coniunctions the causes in their order euen vnto the last may encounter together so those things which wholly deâ—…d of them may bee redâ—… 〈◊〉 the same estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a maxime in Physicks that the matter and the Agent haue such power after the death and destruction of the creature as they had during his life what then can hinder it but by the position of the same causes and the same circumstances of time concurring the same effect may be repaired Moreouer the thing which is no more is no farther from being then that which hath not bene and there is no impossibility but that which hath had no being may come to light neither is ther any repugnancy but that which hath bene once liuing may come againe to life yea and who knowes whether that which is now hath not beene often heretofore I should beleeue it if I did giue credit to the eternity of the world As for the similitude of clay which the Obiect or not vnderstanding me doth presse so strongly it is very fit in this matter for the workeman which hath made a man and then hath wrought it to make a horse and then confounded it to make an ape and in the end an Eagle may if hee please returne and make the same man which he had made first and hauing vndone it may make a horse and so consequently one after an other in infinitum not that hee can make them all foure subsisting at one time therein the Obiector fights with his shadow and not with my saying And to demonstrate the power of Nature turning about her circle returning backe to the point where she had begun and passing ouer all the circumference of the circle to repaire that in place and time which she had dissolued shee would leaue for an earnest penny the Phenix the only bird of his kinde which is seene in Arabia and which the Egyptians in their Hierogliphicall letters painted to describe by his long continuance the immortality of the soule This goodly birde after many ages past to renew himselfe casts himselfe vpon a pile of stickes layd together the which hee doth so beate with his wings and with the helpe of the Sun which hangs perpedicularly ouer him as it takes fire and consumes the body out of which springs a little worme and of that a little birde which being couered with feathers in the end flies away and becomes the same Phenix You will question the truth hereof if the same Nature did not as much or more in the silke-worme whose egge is no bigger then a graine of millet it discouers a little woolly worme the which without dying transformes it selfe into a moth that changeth into a flie which hath scales and this becomes a butterflie which beating it selfe continually layes egges of these egges come little wormes and so consequently by an infinite circulation Wherefore these diuerse changes and formes happening in our bodies should not amaze vs but rather assure vs that hauing bin carried farre about they shall returne to their first estate seeing that their walkes and this Vniuerse haue their limits and bounds and seeing by the testimony of the wise man that which hath beene is now and that which is to come hath also beene God calling backe that which hath past that is to say as the Diuines expound it that God by his administration makes the Creatures succeeding one an other returne in their order as if they went about a wheele which kind of speech is taken from the celestiall Spheares which gouerne the seasons signifying that those things which happen by time are wheeled about with the reuolution of time which containes them These are the words of no vulgar Diuines whereby wee may see how much they yeeld to this opinion The end of the first Booke The Second Booke The first Argument taken from the Immortalitie of the soule That which is free from Death in the principall part should not feare it Man in his soule his principall part is freed frem death Therefore hee should not feare it IF all men could vnderstaÌ„d without doubting perswade themselues without wauering that their soules at the departure from their bodies are happilie immortall there is not any one without contradiction but would goe cheerefully and resolutely vnto death considering the miseries of this life and the heauie burthen of the bodie for it is the sepulcher of the soule as Plato saied The soule is a plant transported from heauen into a strange soyle into a body of earth where it sighs pines away and desires to depart The greatest thing in the world sayth Periander is contayned in a litle space Socrates maintained that the true man was that within which is lodged in the body as in an Inne S. Bernard exhorts the bodie to know it to intreate his guest which is the soule well The which Anaxarchus did apprehend who being beaten in a mortar did crie out couragiously to the tyrant Nicocreon Beat beate O hangman the flesh and boanes of Anaxarachus So M. Laeuius seeing Galba a great Orator with a deformed bodie sayd That great spirit dwels in a poore cottage But S. Paul shewes it better then all these If this earthly lodging be destroied if this bodie returne to ashes we haue a mansion with God And the body is the clothing of the soule the which Esop obiected to one who abused the beautie of his body He are my friend sayd he thou hast a faire garment but thou puttest it off ill Man is a caualier his body is the horse the spirit is the rider if the horse be lame blind
pit attend no more thy truth Answere These holy men haue neuer thought much lesse spoken that the soule was mortall but only that they whom death takes away do no more declare the glory of God to the liuing that a dead mouth cannot preach the wonderful workes of the Eternall And for proofe hereof Dauid doeth assure vs in another place where he sayth I shal not die but liue and declare the workes of the Eternal and If I descend into the pit what proffit shall there bee in my blood Shall the dust praise thee and preach thy truth By which words hee shewes that he meant not to speake but of the praises of God made by the mouth among the liuing As for Ezechias when hee deliuered these words hee had bene then assured to liue by Esay so as hee makes it knowne that whereas God prolonged his life it was to magnifie him in the world and to declare his mercy and yet that the Saints deceased sing the prayses of God in heauen appeares by many texts but that in the Apoc. is sufficient of the 4. beasts and the 24. Elders who sung a new song Moreouer those innumerable multitudes of all Nations Tribes people and tongues attired in long white robes and hauing branches of palme in their hands crying with a loud voyce Saluation to our God who is set vpon the throne and to the Lambe But some one will reply seeing the Saints in heauen sing most melodiously and holily the praises of the Lord how coms it that they alledge this reason to prolong this life that they may celebrate the name of the Eternall I Answer that the heauens haue no neede of these holy sounders out of the Lords praise that they haue from the beginning the Angells which sing continually Holy holy holy is he which-hath beene which is and which shal be and moreouer the faithfull deceased But the earth is altogether desert wherefore the children of God desire to remaine there the course of their prefixed age to the end they may publish the praises of God to the ignorant world and although it be to their losse yet the seruice of God and the glory of their Maister is more deere vnto them then their owne health as Moses and S. Paul among others haue witnessed The second Obiection If the soule being immortall had bene as they say infused into the body of man immediatly from God it is not possible but there shold remaine some knowledge But there remaines none IF the Soule be created immediatly by God and infused into the body from the very moment of this creation and infusion shee is perfect in her essence and therefore should haue a certaine knowledge but wee do not remember our birth nor our Baptisme by reason of the great imperfection of our nature in that age If then as those Infants of whom Aristotle makes memtion who spake as soone as they were borne we had had the temper of the braine requisite to the vnderstanding and memory we should then haue vnderstood and wee should now remember as well as those things which we haue seene within a yeare and since that time which brings al things to maturity hath ripened our nature But if the soule be immortal and not subiect to time and if from the beginning of her creation shee hath receiued her perfect stature how can time deface her vnderstanding and how is it that she remembreth not any thing no not in dreaming when shee was put into the body Some will reply That this sinfull mortall body is the cause of this misery but I may answere that the corporall cannot worke vpon the spirituall and that the Diuines hold that man by his offence hath lost all supernaturall guifts priuiledges which were freely giuen him but not such as were naturall conferred vpon him by the right of Creation and who doth not see but that to vnderstand to remember are naturall guifts Answere The soule of man is extracted immediatly from God and being once infused into the body shee receiues not in any age neither in her substance or forces any change alteration or increase Yet by vertue of the sentence of condemnation which God pronounced against Adam and al his posterity the Creator not confirming the soule in her excellency and innocency but leauing it to it selfe shee hath in an instant lost her dignity is become ignorant and vicious and the infection of carnall sences which shee hath suckt vp being in the body doth augment her deprauation so as she is not able to remember any thing of this actioÌ„ proceeding from God in her creation and vnion to the body So Adam and Eue not confirmed in their felicity as the Angells and Saints are now in heauen by the benefit of Iesus Christ as soone as they had committed the transgression were in an instant made mortall ignorant and vicious A plate of iron flaming in the fire hath no sooner felt the fresh ayre but it loseth his fiery colour Euen so the soule is no sooner gone out of the Eternallâ—… forge but shee loseth her colour and brightnes and the body is as cold water to the burning iron so as now the soule hath no knowledge in the body but what she gets by the sences and they that are deafe by nature are also naturally dumbe for being vnable to heare the words di stinguished neither can they lâ—…e them And they that are borne blinde cannot distinguish of colours c. Let vs conclude with S. Augustine That the spiritual light in the which man had beene created to know his Creator himselfe and things that are profitable for him was quenched by sinne Let vs add with Nicholas de Cusa That the soule of man sent in to a morrall bodie is like vnto 〈◊〉 infant which as soone as it was borne was carried into 〈◊〉 strang countrie wholy 〈◊〉 of inhabit aâ—… nourished by a she Wolfe being growne great he could in no forâ—… know the place of his birth 〈◊〉 his father mother 〈◊〉 had a conâ—…sed feeling of this truth writing that the soule which liued â—…appy and knowing in the coâ—…panie of the Gods being confined into this prison of the foule infected body to frame it giue it life hath in stantly lost â—…l her happines knowledge by reason of the bad temperature of the body The 3â—… Argument taken frâ—… the voyce of all the world The voyce of the people is the voyces of God and by consequent of the truth But the Soule is immortall according to the voyce of the people MAny writers haue collected the opinions of people and of ages vpon the iudgement of the soule as Macrobius vpon Scipioes Dreame Marsilius Ficinus others And among the Moderns Mons de Plessis Crepet the Celestin with others to whom I send the reader where he may see a woÌ„derful consent of men to conclude that the soule is immortall as holding it not from
any other Master then themselues from their vnderstanding from their conscience from which knowledge proceeds the loue of iustice the desire of honour and the care of interring their bodies c. And as in old time so at this day there is no nation but beleeues it Iohn de Lyra in his voyage of America writes that it is constantly beleeued there They haue found the inhabitants of the Westerne Ilands to be verie brutish yet haue they a tast of the immor talitie of the Soule Thomas Heriot in his Historie of the inhabitants of Virginia a country not long since discouered writes that these people make the same profession and hold that presently after the soule is separated from the body she is carried away according to the workes which she hath done either into the māsion of the Gods to be there happie for e◅er or into a Gulfe which they call Popogusso to burne eternally Finally there can bee no instance giuen against this generall beleefe of Nations dispersed ouer the face of the whole earth If any one will oppose himselfe it is the excrement and scomme of the people to which Hierocles a Pithagorean hath long since giuē a holy precaution saying That a wicked man will not haue his soule immortall to the end he may not be punish ed for her offences but hee preuents the sentence of him that must iudge him condemning himselfe to death and yet shall be therein deceiued for wheras he thought this death would be without paine he shal feele it as sharp ly as it shal be long But some one will obiect that to finde out a hidden verity one mans deepe iudgement is of more force then a hundred thousand that are meane such as the vulgar haue commonly for that to the vnderstanding invention serues more then number for it is not of him his vertue as of corporal forces the which may be vnited together and take vp a great burthen wherefore to make a peace sayeth the Wiseman many are required but for coū sel one among a 1000. Moreouer Seneca doth stil exhort not to follow the multitude Answer It is true that the best things do not please many matters are so ordained as one sayth that we sooner follow the euil then the good Yet this doth not impeach but the generall testimony of al men concerning the soule should be of great moment for that there be no opposite parties here one for the mortality another for the immortality and not onely the simple people but euen the learned assure the immortality of the soule Moreouer it is not an institution of life to suruiue but a truth to beleeue and therefore this obiection doth in no sort weaken this reason of the immortality of the soule Obiection If the soule were immortall no man would doubt especially the learned and wise But many doubt and in a manner none but the simple and ignorant beleeue it to be immortall THe consequence of the propositiō is good for who is hee that doubts whether he be a man a dog or a wolfe Who seeing and feeling doubts whether hee sees and feeles c. As for the Assumption it is sufficiently verified by thē that haue not doubted but haue cōstantly beleeued that the soule was immortall VVe reade of Sardanapalus a powerfull King of Assiria who not onely held this beleefe but would haue posterity know it commanding that vpon his tombe there should bee carued the Image of a woman holding her hand vppon her head and some of the fingers closed like vnto them that sound their cliquets with this inscription as if the Image had spoken it Sardanapalus Sonne of Anacyndaraxes built Anchiale and Tarsis in one day Eate drink and sport for the rest is not worth the playing with the fingers that is to say A point for all the rest In the Towne of Brescia there is another Tombe to be seene whereon is written D. M. and among other prophane words these of a milder temper I haue liued and haue beleeued nothing besides this life and haue wholly dedicated my selfe to pleasing Ven◅s The Antiquaries obserue that among the Pagans such as held the soule to bee mortall caused the doores to bee hanged close shut vpon their graues and of this sort there are many noted The Philosopher Aristoxenus by the report of Lactantius durst maintaine that the soule of mā was nothing yea during the time shee was in the body but as the strings of an instrument being tuned make an accord so in mans body the gathering together of the bowells and the vigour of the members produce all that harmonie which appeares in man The Saduces in the Church of God haue denied the immortality of the foule Barbara wife to the Emperour Sigismond in the yeare 1400. derided her women for that they praied and fasted saying that they must liue merily and imbrace all pleasures for that after death the soule did perish with the body And many at this day shew by their liues that only for ciuility and outward honesty they must confesse the soule to be immortall And what a great wisedome is it to beleeue nothing inwardly Du Bartas in his Triumph of faith speakes of one I meane that Monster Theodorus hight Who shamelesse saies there is no God at all And that the wise may when occasions fall Be Lier Traitor Theefe and Sodomite And he addes that this killing of-spring hath past to Rome from thence into France and that it buddes forth in the Courts of Kings in seates of Iustice and in the Church finally there are scarce any other impes that put forth at this day to haue no God and the soules to be mortall are held equall things Answere I should wonder at the admirable patience of God to suffer that the seede of Atheisme should produce such branches of prophanation if I did not see blasphemers and such as make a profession to deny God parricides yea diuells to bee tollerated by him who with patience attends vntill the measure of their sinnes bee full But to answere categorically I deny the consequence of the proposition It is true there hath beene such a one who hath doubted whether hee were a man witnesse the Philosopher Pyrrhon who makes profession to doubt all and maintaine that whatsoeuer wee thinke to be say or do is but by an vncertaine opinion Moreouer you shall finde some one so wounded in the imagination by the force of some deepe melancholy as he hath thought himselfe to be transformed into a wolfe and also hath gone out of his house by night howling and imitating the actions of a wolfe the which bred the opiniō of becoming wolues In like manner I say that the darke fumes of voluptuousnesse the depraued humours of wickednesse may also ouerthrow the vnderstanding of some men and make them doubt of that which they would not vnderstand the immortality of the soule least that the apprehension of an eternall iudgement should trouble
their immortalitle Answer This Obiection seemes subtill but to speake truly it hath but the shew not the effect for it is subiect to many pertinent answeres First to alledge an inconuenience is not to dissolue the question 2. It is a consequence ill applied to say Such a one hath not spoken therefore hee is no man Wee haue digged verie deepe into the earth and yet wee neuer heard any of them that goe with their feete against ours therefore there are no Antipodes So the soules speake not vpon dead mens lippes therefore they haue none for beeing thus hindred is the cause they neither heare nor see any signe of their life Thirdly the teares of the dead mans kinsfolkes are ill grounded Socrates a Pagan knew it well when hee said that we must leaue the soule at rest and not trouble it with lamentations The holy Ghosts goes farther and assures That blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord yea for certain saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them this should assure and reioice and not discomfort by a foolish desire that ioy of the soule of the deceased Fourthly God will not that we should be inquisitiue of the dead he forbids it expresly in his law pronounceth abhomination against them that doe it He hath giuen Moses and the Prophets let vs adde the Apostles if they will not beleeue them neither will they beleeue the soules of the deceased If that the liuing are forbidden to enquire how then can the dead haue leaue to speake Fifthly the soules are prest at the departure from their bodyes to yeeld an account of their administration in this life vndergoing a particular iudgement This is beleeued rightly and wholesomely saith S. Augustine that the soules are iudged at the departure from their bodies before the comming to this Iudgement at the which hauing taken againe the same bodyes they must appeare Also S. Hilary saith that immediately without any delay after death we vndergo a Iudgement and passe into Paradise or into Hell Finally Salomon to the end wee should not doubt sayth That God will easily render vnto man according to his workes at that day of his deceasse That the affliction of one houre makes him forget all pleasures and that the ende of man is the manifestation of his workes 6 S. Athanasiws sayeth It is not the will of God that the soules should declare the estate wherein they are for that many should be deceaued many errors wold grow the Deuils being ready to make men thus abused to beleeue what they would suggest as Crepet the Celestin doth well obserue and he adds that the like happened lately to a poore woman of Verum seduced by a diuell which appeared vnto her in the forme of her Grand father perswading her to goe in Pilgrimage to doe other things which were impossible So S. Augustin writes that Vincentius the Donatist was counselled to write against the Christian religion by a spirit which appeared vnto him 7. The Soule destitute of the Organs of her body being not yet glorified nor illuminated with the Celestiall splendor nor adorned with the supernaturall gifts which God cōfers vpon her for her felicitie cannot satifsie the will of the kinsfolkes that be present desiring a testimonie of her blessednes and life for the soule sayth S. Athanasius in the former passage as soone as she hath layed down her body can worke neither good not euill And as for visions that appeare from thē God by a certaine dispensation shewes them as it pleaseth him For as a Lute if there be no man to play of in seems idle and vnprofitable so the soule and body being separated one from another haue no operation The which Ecclesiastes doth confirme saying Certainly the liuing know that they shall dye but the dead know nothing neither doe they get any thing for their memory is forgotten in like manner their loue their hatred and their enuy perish and they haue not any portion in the world of whatsoeuer is done vnder the Sun Wherfore let vs cōclude and say That the soule whilest that shee giues any life to her dying body with the last puffe of life yeeldes a certaine testimony of her ioy and immortality by the inspiration of the holy Ghost as it happens to many good men But to demand instantly vpon death some token from the soule dislodging were to tempt God to mock at the deceased acd to be an vniust demander and therefore iustly to be refused The 5. Argument taken from the aspect of the face Whatsoeuer is represented by a iust mirrour or glasse is true The immortality of the soule is represented by the iust mirror of the face AS the soule of man is the Image of God so the face is the Image of the soule and therefore the Eternall creating the soule of man did breathe it in his face which the holy Ghost cals respiration of life so the property of man is to paint in his face by his diuers colours the diuers affections of his soule Wisedome saith Salomon cleeres the face of man and his fierce and sowre aspect is changed The Latines haue called it vultus for that the will is read in the forehead the manners of the soule follow the humours of the body saith Gallen and if some one belies his inclination it is a maske which hee puts on and therefore Momus did vniustly blame God for that hee had not made man with an open heart Thereon is all the Art of Phisiognomie grounded an Art which without this faining euery man would learn without teaching By the face that Diuiner Egyptian familiar to Marc. Anthony did know the diuers dispositions of men These markes of the face are imprinted with the seale of the soule and hee that will not iudge by such markes ingrauen of the brightnesse and immortality of the soule is without iudgement Homer writes that Vlisses hauing escaped from shipwracke was graciously entertained and reuerenced by the Pheagues hauing no ornament then but this vertue generous disposition the beauty excellency whereof appeared in his fore-head Man in like sort carries on his fore-head the markes of his immortal soule Wherof the first is the carrying his countenance straight vp to heauen proper to man at all times to him alone and to all the generation of mankinde which shewes his be ginning to bee celestiall and immortall for that onely is perishable which is vnder the region of the Moone whatsoeuer is aboue it is not subiect vnto destinie The 2. is that foresight afarre off those beames I say cast farre and wide by the piercing sight without staying vpon that which doth touch it or enuiron it neere which shewes that the flight of the soule must go farre If any one say that certaine birds foure footed beasts see farre but it is not to the same end for man doth it only for the
Olaus Magnus by certaine Venetian Ambassadors by a Iacopin of Vlmes others but I leaue the interpretation free to the iudgement of the reader Thirdly if it were a worke without the compasse of reasō Plutarque Herodotus nor Plato wold euer haue beene credited in writing that one Thespesius Aristeus and Erus were raised vp againe Plinie who beleeued nothing but what hee saw among many that were raysed vp he reports of a woman which was dead seuen dayes and raised againe and that one Gabienus a valiant souldier of Caesars being put to death by order of iustice and left vpon the publike place was found afterwards speaking and asking for Pompey who came vnto him and had much speech with him Melchior Flauian makes mention of a woman whom hee had seene whose name was Mellula neere vnto Damas in Syria raysed vp againe the 6. day after her death in the yeare 1555. God will bring such tokens to assure the world of a future and vniuersall Resurrection As for the Maxime that there is no returning againe to the habite it is abusiue not only to God who can do all but euen to nature and to the order of the world which hath his forces limited So in a little child whose teeth haue beene pulled out the vegetatiue vertue will bring vp new So we reade of a certaine Abbesse who being an 100. yeares olde grewe young againe had her monethly courses her teeth put forth againe her haire grew black the wrinckles of her face filled vp Finally shee became as fresh and as faire as shee had beene at the age of 20. yeeres And if wee may beleeue histories she was not alone but followed and preceded by many others The naturall vertue at a certaine time as trees in the Spring did renue her worke euen foure times as to that man seene in the yeere 1536 by the Viceroy of the Indies who examined it carefully and found out the truth Fourthly that which shewes an insenfible impression of nature of the future Resurrection is the earnest and generall care to burie the dead honorably yea to keep them from corruption by balmes and Aromaticall sents by images of brasse and nayles fastened in the bodies for that brasse hath a speciall vertue against corruption There are yet other deuices which the Egyptians haue and doe vse and particularly obserued by thē of Arran an insularie region whereas the bodyes hang in the ayre and rot not so as the families without any amazement know their Fathers Grandfathers and great-grandfathers and a long band of their predecessors Peter Martir of Milan writes the same of some West-Indians of Comagra Moreouer I deny that man may alwayes see the tayle of that wherof he sees the head the resurrection of the body seeing the immortality of the soule that he must needes see the consequent if he discouers the Antecedent for the one hiding it selfe the other appeares sometimes to the sight of the vnderstanding And to conclude I deny not but that it is true which mans reason cannot verifie vntill it hath found out why the Adamant doth so powerfully draw iron vnto it and holds it fast by an vnknowne vertue why forked sticks of Elder are proper to discouer veines of gold and siluer Why long aftrr a man is dead the bloud will gush out if the murtherer approcheth Why if some desperate man hang himselfe will there rise suddaine stormes and tempests Why the stone called the Amede drawes iron to it on the one side and reiects it on the other with infinite other secrets of Na ture The third Obiection We onely feare that which wee think should be hurtfull vnto vs. The soule feareth death Therfore the soule thinks death should be hurtfull vnto her SOme make a question how the soule can be immortall seeing she hath so great feare of death Men laugh at the attempt of little children be they neuer so in choler for that they cannot hurt them why should not the soule thē mock at death Doth she not in like manner see the immortality feele it in her selfe without giuing so great apprehension to the poore◅ body which of it selfe without her should neuer feare death no more then a bruit beast Why is not the power of death dissolued whereas the authority of immortality intercedes as Tertullian speakes in the first booke of the Trinity Answer This is a most euident signe not of the mortality of the soule but that man is degenerate and corrupt That her Port is no more so free and braue But casts her eye downe like a fearefull slaue He seeles in his Conscience that he is guilty of high treason to God that this voluntary offence must soon or late bring a necessary punishmēt he feels in this life some smal touch he fears not without reason if by faith repentance his pardon bee not inrowled and his absolution sealed that at the departure from this life the executioner of diuine vengeance should stand lurking behind death to take him by the throat and to punish him according to his merits Wherefore if corruption did not generally possesse al men she would suppresse this fear reuerence her Creator and do her duty vnto him and then she should see that by that respectiue feare to offend her God she should be fully deliuered from all other feare shee should see that fearing onely the death of the soule which is onely to be feared shee should not feare that of the body which is to be desired But for that most men as S. Augustine doth teach feare the separation of the soule from the body and not the true death which is the separation from God it happens that fearing that they fall often into this So the soule beeing willing to shake off this feare of the Creator she must needes feare euery creature euen the smallest frogs mice and flies which flying about awake him suddainely and many times trouble him much but in the end death is aboue all extreame feares the most fearefull And why is this if like vnto bruite beasts all dyed in him and if in death there were nothing to bee feared Wherefore Propertius saith The spirit is something death leaues it in store The palest shadowes scapes to the burning shore But to conclude The soule hauing beene too familiar with the flesh shee hath gotten a habite she hath drawne such corruption as being ignorant of the happinesse which attends her in heauen shee cannot leaue this valley of misery this obscure prison but with great griefe being like vnto the man which being carried away an Infant by a she wolfe was nourished by wolues did houle with them and did liue and would liue among them and if hee were taken by other men he would leaue them to returne to his wolues as the History makes mention of one verifying the Prouerbe That nourishment passeth nature The sixt Argument from the efficient cause of Immortalitie The eleuation aboue time and place is the
the body she should haue some actions without the body But this is not true ARistotle saith that the soule in the body vnderstandeth nothing but by her conuersation with the Ideas which the imagination represents vnto her whether that shee gets new knowledge or contemplates that which is gotten But the Ideas perish with the body and by consequence the soule Answer The excellent effects of the soule suffice to conuince her presence and essence as for the vnderstanding it is double passiue and actiue and these two faculties remaine still although the figures which imagination hath furnished bee vanished So a man in the bottome of an obscure Caue hath not lost his faculty of seeing although hee cannot plainely iudge of colours But the soule you will say vnderstands not any thing beeing out of the body seeing that within it she vnderstands not any thing without him It followes not That great Workman who after a manner incomprehensible to vs hath vnited and ioyned the soule vnto the body two such different natures without any apparent meane to reconcile them that great workeman I say is powerfull to furnish new meanes to her operations when hee hath called it vnto him and what wee shall know when it shall be fit In the meane time if we will beleeue Thomas Aquinas it shall be by the conuersion of the soule to things which are simply intelligible as the other spirituall substances doe Iesus Christ also hath vouchsafed to teach vs that in heauen we shall be like vnto the Angels Let vs not then trouble our selues heere no more then for the childe comming into the world In the mothers wombe it liued by the nauell this meanes is cut off by his birth but nature hath prouided him a mouth another passage in another life It is euen so of the soule it is nourished in this corruptible life by a carnall meanes and in the heauenly by another which is spirituall But you will reply that the soule is to returne into the body and not the infant into the wombe I answer That it is sufficient the similitude explaining the thing shewes it not to be impossible Moreouer it is not likely that in the Resurrection the body which shall bee spirituall should furnish the same meanes for the actions of the soule as it doth in this life but this businesse is too intricate Let vs put in practise what S. Augustine propounds vnto vs Let not the soule saith he labour do fore know it selfe absent but to know it selfe well being present and how much shee differs from other things Aso shee hath not taken her forme from Christ but her saluation and therefore the Sonne of God descended and tooke vpon him mans soule not to the end the soule should know it selfe in Christ but that shee should know Christ within her selfe for by the ignorance of her selfe her saluation is not onely in danger but by the ignorance of the eternall word as Tertullian doth learnedly teach lib. de Car. Christ. The third Obiection If the soule of man were immortall it should also be immateriall But she is materiall IF the soule bee materiall she is dissoluble into her first matter with all other sublunary things but she is materiall if shee proceedes from the Fathers seede as Tertullian Origen and other ancient moderne Diuines thinke and mainetaine it by their written bookes And in truth how can it bee said that the infant is the sonne of his father if hee hold nothing from him but his basest part the body not his form not his soule how could the holy Ghost say that all the soules which came out of Iacobs thigh were 66 How can originall sinne flow from the father vpon the sonne which hath no seat but in the soule And this made S. Augustine doubt in his fourth booke of the beginning of the soule the which he did write being olde to doubt I say of this beginning not daring to deliuer his opinion and some more hardy haue maintained that she proceeded from the congression of the two seedes of man and woman as by the striking of the iron against the stone fire comes forth Answer The principall foundation of the immortality of the soule is the word of God so they which haue had more feeling of this word haue better acknowledged it as Zoroastres Mercurius Trismegistes Pithagoras and Plato surnamed the Diuine for that effect but Aristotle Gallen and others who would measure all by humaine reason haue wonderfully deceiued themselues in matters which exceeded this measure as in this Doctrine If then the Obiector will beleeue this witnesse of whom he cites a passage the question will be soone ended the holy Scripture sayth that the Eternall breathed the spirit of life into the nosestrills of Adam he being framed of the slime of the earth the which is not spoken of any other creature In Ecclesiastes it is said that the spirit returnes to God that gaue it Iesus dying cryed out Father into thy hands I commit my soule Hee promiseth to the beleeuing theefe that he shal be that day with him in Paradise finally S. Stephen dying made this prayer Lord Iesus receiue my soule with a thousand other passages As for that which he speakes of the generatiō of the soule we first will oppose the authoritie of Tertullian lib. de Anima c. 13. You mothers sayeth he which are newly deliuered answer the question is of the truth of your nature if you feele in your fruite any other viuacitie from you but what your arteries do breath And for this cause the infant is sayd to be the true sonne of his father and mother from whom the bodie with his Organes proceeded to make which perfect God infused the spirit so as this spirit is made for this bodie and not the body for this spirit simply Moreouer the generation is not ended nor consisteth in the production of the forme or of the matter onely but of all that is composed therfore he that composeth or that ioynes the matter with the forme the flesh with the soule he doth truly ingender man But it is he that makes this coniunction who disposeth so of matter and forme as the soule followes infallibly and it is that which makes man in the generation and man and woman are the begetters of the infant As for the passage of Moses who doth not see the intellectuall figure who means one thing for another the body for the soule by reason of their strict vnion Finally that which made S. Augustin doubt of the generation of the soule was that hee could not comprehend how the sin which dwells in the soule of the father doth pasfe vnto the sonne But that is so plainely fet downe by the Diuines at this day as it is needlesse to speake of here neither were it to the pourpose It sufficeth that the Pagans themselues haue acknowledged that the soule came into man otherwise then from man Aristotle sayes plainly that it is
is vnknowne vnto vs. that we haue a soule sayth Seneca by whose commandement wee are thrust on and called backe all men confesse it but what this soule this Lady and Queene is no man can decide neither yet where shee abides Laertius or rather Heraclitus for him Let vs passe ouer the soule sayth hee for no man can finde it yea if hee should imploy his whole life so profound is the reason thereof Do not vrge that the eye seeth euery thing but it selfe for the eye seeth another eye but one soule knoweth not another soule yea the eye seeth it selfe not his image but his proper substance in the reflexion of his visuall beames by the meanes of the looking-glasse as for the soule al they that haue deliuered their opinions haue seemed to doate Varro hath sayd that it was an aire conceiued in the mouth purified in the lights made lukewarme in the heart diffusedly spred ouer the whole body Zeno that it was a fire kindled in our bodies by the celestiall fire Empedocles and Circias that it was nothing but the blood Hippocrates that it was a subtile spirit insinuated throughout the whole body Thales that it was a nature mouing of it selfe without rest Asclepiades a common exercise of the senses Hippoc. that she goes alwayes on vntill death 6 Epistle part 5. com 5. Finally if it were euer it is in this That so many heads so many opinions Answere The soule flowing from the diuine essence hath that common with God that we see many nega tions of her but few or no affirmations but we know with Aristotle that it is the perfection of a natural body which may haue life that it is the beginning of nourishment feeling motion and vnderstanding And yet more then that although wee cannot climbe so high the reason is that the knowledge which the soule hath of things is from the senses by meanes of the Ideaes but the soule cannot bee perceiued by the senses of her there are no Ideas nor by consequence any knowledge And as for this aire this fire these spirits such as they are fashioned in the braine they are but organes and vessells fit for the soule seeing that wee see them wast and consume euery moment without losse of life the which notwithstanding cannot subsist without the ministery of the soule Finally as for the different opinions of diuers men they shew that they know not what it is but withall they demonstrate that they know there is a soule which they striue to know but who is he that would study to know that which is not in nature vnlesse he were mad The second Obiection If the soule were endowed with a speciall motion she would expresse it by her body But she doth not expresse it IF the soule at the departure out of the body had her flight towards heauen she would giue some signe of it to the body stirring it with some speciall motion Simple Creatures mooue themselues in all sorts of motions differing from plants which without mouing from their place doe but grow vp and spread abroad for that their soules are diuers and why should not man who hath a speciall soule haue a speciall motion As for that he bounds and skips therein a goate or a cat hath more then hee neither is that the reasonable soule that doth it but rather the vegetatiue the mixture of the naturall fire which raiseth him wherfore as soone as a man breathes and exhales this fire hee falls from his leape but of any proper or particular motion of this flying soule hee feeleth nothing Answere Seruius vpon the 6. of Virgil will answer That the soule in the body is like vnto a Lyon shut vp in a streight cage which notwithstanding loseth nothing of his force although he cannot shew it but if he once escape you shal see him as strong as before so as a man would thinke his force had bene abated in his prison Moreouer some haue bene so actiue as they haue flowne as at Paris in the yeare 1551. there was one vndertooke to flie from the Tower of Nefle vnto the Louure the riuer being betwixt both the King expecting him and although hee could not get to the end of his enterprise yet hee got vp into the aire after such an admirable manner as hee came to the mid-way But the flying of the Creature doth not proue his essence immortall for then birds should be immortall And how then can the soules mount vp to heauen going out of the bodies If thou doest beleeue the holy Scriptures the Angells sent to serue them louingly which shall receiue the inheritance of saluation will carry them as the Angell did poore Lazarus Hereunto that good Father Macarius had regard There is a great Mistery saith hee accomplished in soules going out of the bodies for if they bee guilty of sinne troopes of diuells and bad angells flocking about them seaze vpon those soules as their slaues and carry them away c. But if they bee in good estate the companies of good Angells carrying them to a better life present them vnto the Lord yet wee will not deny but in the soule there is an intrinsecall vertue to climbe vp to heauen with a swiftnesse equall to her desire if that fire hath a secret force to mount vp to his proper place being a dead Element what then shall the soule separated do being so actiue and so quicke and whose proper Country is Heauen And although that heauen especially that which is the mansion of happy soules bee so many leagues distant as Astrologers which haue sought to take the height haue found millions being much amazed haue mounted neere to two thousād millions of leagues yet we must not beleeue that the soule is long in passing this great distance for that her motion not being continued but diuided like to that of spirits departing out of the body she is presently in heauen euen as in this corruptible bodie in a moment shee sends the beames of her sight and thoughts vp to heauen But wholy to stoppe the mouth of our aduersarie we say that the true knowledge of the soule in her immortalitie is no humaine inuention but a diuine reuelation as Iustine Martyr sayth and that since shee is fallen from her first integritie which fall hath so amazed dulled her as she knowes not truely what she hath beene what she is or where shee is nor whither she shall goe of whosesinne she is the subiect as Iron is of rust it hath wholie spoyled her dulled her quicknesse and weakned her vigour which is the cause that she stumbles in the way of health is blynde in the knowledge of the least things is interrupted in the course of her brauest discourses by a flye or any toye To conclude shee is so troubled as shee dreames of a thousand fancies in a manner mistakes euery thing The fift Obiection To alledge the desire of a morsell of fruit
demolition of man but onely the first for as a wise master of a familie when hee sees that his house threatneth ruine that it sinks in many places and the walls open commands it to be pulled downe that with the ruines and materials hee may raise another to cōtinue many yeares euen so nature a most expert Architectrice seeing man ladē with woūds deiected with misery and melancholy cōsumed with age and grown cro◅ked with the gou◅e catar◅es sowe◅ him co◅uptible in the graue that after many changes she may raise him incorruptible by the powerful voice of Christ. If the earthly habitation of this mansion bee destroyed saith the Apostle S. Paule we haue a dwelling with God that is to say an eternal house in heauen which is not made with hands and therefore we sigh and desire so much to be cloathed with our mansion which is in heauen and this is for our soule expecting the Resurrection of her body And this body sayth the same Apostle being sown in dishonour shall rise againe in glory sowne in weakenesse shall rise in strength and sowne a sensuall body shall rise a spirituall body What thē can man produce against this but onely some murmuring of his Incredulity that it exceedes the bounds of reason without the which hee will not assure himselfe of any thing I answer that the full perswasion of that which is written in the holy word is well grounded vpon faith a particular gift of heauen to all true Christians touching the returning of our bodies as for the reasonable coniecture of our future life after death I deny that this hath beene altogether vnknowne to men guided onely by the instinct of nature and I will proue my assertion sufficiently in the 39. Argument if God so please To this first consolation we will adde a second that is nature finding the declining and wasting of the substance of man came by a sacred mariage to stay some portion in the matrix of his deare moity and to fashion and bring forth many other reasonable creatures at diuers times creatures which haue the same flesh and bones of father and mother And if it be true that a good friend is a second selfe what shal a good sonne bee but himselfe without any addition whereby is plainly manifested what Macrobius saith that the body recoiues three aduantages of the reasonable soule that is to say he liues he liues well and in succession of time he remaines immortall Ecclesiasticus goeth ◅art her saying That if the father of a childe dyes it is all one as if hee were not dead for hee hath left his like behind him hee hath seene him and hath ioyed hauing left one who shall take reuenge of his enemies and requite his friends And this was it which moued that great Law-giuer Plato to make a law that euery man at a comperent age should marrie a wife else he shuld be called before the Iudge condemned in a fine and declared infamous for that as he afterwards sayth euery man should consider in himself that there is a certen power efficacie of nature which makes men to purchase an Immortalitie he would inferre that whosoeuer leaues children doth reuiue in some sort in them It is an order of nature which we must inviolablie obserue ingendring we perish of the one side but we begin again of the other If our parents by their fading and dying substance had not giuen vs life we could not haue entred into it of our selues what wrong is it if nature doth that of vs for our children which she bath done of our Parents for vs Moreouer death which is a priuation of life is a beginning of life in nature remayning in the first matter by the which she disposeth her selfe to a new forme not to continue still at this deformed spectacle Thirdly wha◅ great deformitie see you in death which is not in him that sleeps Fourthly that deformitie which may be is not seene by him whom it concernes it is to the suruiuor◅ that it should be hideous but most commonly they find it pleasing reaping by that meanes large successions elboe roome freedome from comptroll and if it were otherwise the world would not be able to containe vs. And thus much for the first part of the obiection As for the 2. which resembleth the demolishing of building to death this similitude hath no proportion yea it is contrary to the state of the question for what makes a ruined building deformed It is the disorder we see in it it is but a heape of stones and timber the stones are not layd in order one vpon another neither is the timber raised as it ought to be It is then the forme that wants when as the materialls remaine but in man or rather a dead carcase the soule which is the forme receiues no blemish she is freed from the surprises of the graue Thou doest not complaine that the egge-shell is broken when a chicken comes forth neither is the body of man to be lamented when as the soule flies away But what great difformitie doest thou see in a dead body thou seest little or no difference at all with one that sleeps this doth not terrifie thee why should the other amaze thee especially if thou doest consider that the body which is dead is truely asleepe the which is a subiect of an other discourse as we shall see if God please But all things haue their period the ladder his last staffe and life her last degree Thou diddest ascend ioyfully so must come downe againe with the like content if in the last steppe or in the midst thou beest not carried away accidentially by some violent death but to returne to the place where thou hast beene taken thy nature doth exhort thee yea it forceth thee If too vniust thou doest not willingly giue thy consent looke into the degrees of life and this contemplation will giue thee cōsolation against death when thou wert borne into the world there was found in thee an appetite to some substāce or meat without thy selfe the which hauing beene supplied thee and sent by the mouth into the stomacke was conuerted into a conco◅ted iuyce and then transformed into bloud by the liuer refined into spirits by the heart and finally fitted to thy decaying body thou didst receiue nourishment force and Ioy these are the first degrees of life then climing higher thou hast extended the fiue faculties of thy senses thine eye to see beautiful things thine eares to heare melodious sounds thy nose to smell pleasing sents thy mouth to tast holesome and delightfull sauours and thy hand to handle smooth and wel polished things these are other degrees of the same life At length the reasonable soule comes to play his part the vnderstanding desires to know whatsoeuer the sences apprehend whatsoeuer his eye sees his eare heareth his hands touch and moreouer what they neither see heare nor touch reason flying to
hath such circumstances as it is very horrible of it selfe Therefore it is not possible but it should terrifie MAny dissembling the feare which they haue of death when they come to thinke and speake of some kinde of sicknesse drawing neere vnto death and especially of the plague they cannot finde blacke enough to set it forth nor horrour sufficient to abhorre it But let vs see what reasons they can pretend It was a great scourge say they of the wrath of God executed vpon the people for Dauids ambition so as there dyed 70. thousand in lesse then one day threatned in the Apocalipse to embrace the fourth part of the earth It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the liuing God Moreouer it is an vnspeakeable paine to be burnt with the sore to bee strangled with the plague c. Thirdly it is a sorrow which exceeds all extreames to bee abandoned of wife Father mother children friends and kinsfolkes Finally it is a perpetuall griefe to die and haue no meanes to settle his estate Answer These reasons are but goodly shewes to shaddow the feare they haue of death and the shame which lies lurking in their hearts for seeing they must leaue this life what doth it import them whether it be by water or by land or by any other meanes As for the first reason Dauid wil answere for vs that we must not iudge rashly of the poore man in his torment His son will adde that none can discerne whether he be worthy of loue or hatred by that which happens exteriorly The Apostle will say The iudgements of God beginne by his owne house Iob the Apostles the Martyrs will manifest by their examples that they whom God loues are most chastized in this world Finally Iesus Christ will teach vs That in the blind man so borne neither his sinne nor the sinne of his father and mother was the cause that hee was borne blind that neither the Galileans so cruelly intreated by Pilate nor the Iewes smothered in the ruines of the Tower which was in Silo were more guilty then those which had escaped this disaster A faithfull man is not tempted aboue his strength if affliction abounds consolation will superabound He dies happily which layes downe his soule with a setled spirit feeling in himselfe the peace grace of God through Iesus Christ in the remission of his sinnes And it is a thousand times better to be quickned by the light affliction of the plague and to carry away an inestimable weight of glory then to be smothered in the delights of sinne and in danger of a finall ruine both of body and soule The example produced of Dauid makes for this against the Obiector Who sinned Dauid in ambitiously numbring his people who is punished the people the Grecians are plagued for the foolish resolutions of their Kings sayd the ancient Prouerbe But where is the duty of Iustice will you say God knowes it his will is the rule of equitie it is iust seeing God will haue it so And on the other side it was not the wil of God for that it is not right But we commonly see that the plague layes hold of the poorer sort whereupon Galen calls it Epidemique that is to say popular whereof the baites are famine sluttishnesse and stinkes rather then the chiefe of the Towne infected who notwithstanding will be found much more faulty before God Looke vpon that long plague which vnder the Empire of Gallus and Volusian continued 15. whole yeares and which comming out of Ethiopia vnpeopled all the Romane prouinces reade it and iudge of it As for that pretended paine wee must not apprehend it to be greater then in simple swellings and Impostumes or in Cauteries the poison rather mollifying then increasing the paine But there are two kinds of plagues as Phisitions do obserue the one is simple when as the spirits onely are infected by a venemous and contagious ayre which hath bin suckt in by the mouth or the nose or that hath gotten insensibly into the body by the pores of the skinne so as a man shal be stroken that shal not feele any thing it may be he shall be more faint and heauy then of custome but with very little heate and alteration so as hee shall bee sometimes smothered vp before he feeles any paine The other is a compound when as the Contagion seazing the spirits doth communicate his poyson with the foure humours infects them and alters them but without paine for these humours are incapable yet these humours beeing infected and altered infect and alter the parts of the body in the which they reside as in the head the heart and elsewhere and there growes the paine but no greater then in Feauers and swoundings yea lesse by reason of the putrid vapour which doth dull and mortifie the members so as the paine is no more then a small incision yea lesse then the pricking of a pinne The greatest is a certaine inflammation in the hypocondriake parts in the bowells which enuiron the heart for as poyson is the capitall enemy of life so this enemy of life strikes furiously at the heart The worst is a certaine heate whereof the Patient complaines as Thucidides obserues in the plague which happened at Athens but what paine in this heat that is not greater in the burning of a little finger or in a Tertian Ague But if your opinion will not yeelde to these reasons inquire of them which haue beene toucht with this infection they will answer that feare hath beene their greatest paine and if they had been assured of recouery they had felt no paine I know you will reply that there is a difference betwixt them that recouer and them that die But I will answer you that the paine is equall yea greater in them that recouer then in them that dye they that recouer are more vigorous and the vicious humour stings them and is more sensible then in them that are weaker when the parts lesse able to resist are sooner gotten and lost As a Leper hauing his flesh infected with Leprosie and rottennesse feeles little or no paine in the most sensible pricking euen so a weake woman hath lesse torment in her deliuerie although the throwes bee more dangerous wherein appeares the admirable wisedome of Nature which doth not afflict the afflicted Now followeth the third reason obiected the abandoning of wife kinsfolkes and friends Answer It is an accident which happens seldome or not at all this day hardly can that which life hath vnited by marriage consanguinity and friendship be dissolued in death Moreouer a wise man who should haue learned to bee content with himselfe in life should not be discontented if he die alone It was a constant Doctrinein the resolute Stoicks that he is happy that is content with himselfe and depends not vpon any other man nor vpon any thing in the world but like Iupiter liues and moues of himselfe rests in
himselfe gouernes himself enioies his worthy thoughts as Seneca saith And how can hee bee happy who beeing subiect to anothers command is not master of himselfe Let him drag after him fetters of gold yet hee shall stil be in fetters We wil not heere commend the Stiloons Timons and other haters of mē which like wolues fled from all company but those that offering themselues to company and seeking their friendship are wretchedly chased away and being forsaken of others retire themselues into themselues lose nothing but augment their felicity So as Seneca said rightly thinke and desire this thing aboue all the prayers which thou shalt make vnto God to bee content with thy selfe and with those things that may spring from thy selfe What felicity saith he can be neerer vnto God Whereunto Saint Ambrose subscribeth In what Desart saith hee is not that man accompanied that doth enioy a happy life He then that can liue alone wil neuer grieue to be abādoned by men in death being accompanied by Angels by his Sauiour the true God Thirdly Physitions Surgions and other expert men imploy themselues for thee are about they to assist thee and to restore thee to thy health Thy wife thy children thy friends with their teares would bathe thy bed increase thy sorrow and be infected with thy disease It this then better both for thee and them that they be absent Thou hast proued their affection in liuing why wouldst thou try it in dying thou doest leaue thy worldly friends in death but thou goest to purchase more faithfull and better in heauen euen Iesus Christ the Angells and the Saints whereat then doest thou complaine thou a Christian whereas a Pagan reioyceth Mercurius Trismegislus by the report of Calcidius sayd when he dyed that he returned into his countrie where his kinsfolkes and best friends were Finally thou accusest thy disease for that it takes from thee means to dispose of thy affayres A wise man should not forbeare to settle his estate vntill the extreamitie of an in curable disease for he hath then other matters to thinke of then worldly affayres he should haue foreseene it and prouided in time a good souldier when the trompet sounds to battaile doth not begin to discourse of his house and to thinke of some peece of ground but prepares to fight for his life is in question Euen so a wise man at the point of death should not once thinke of the world but of the conflict which he hath against the Diuell and sinne there is question of his conscience of the life of his soule of the inheritance of heauen which he loseth if he be vanquished our life is vncertain many other diseases besides the plague may cut it off sodenly the Apoplexie Lethargie Catarre Squinancie and many others when they come leaue no place for affayres Therefore during the time of health let vs compound our quarrells with our neighbors and dispose of our estates with our children kinsfolks that we may bee ready at the first sommons of our God prepared at the first signe of that spirituall Combate which shal be giuen vs to fight well to liue or to dye as it shall please the Lord. Watch and pray sayd Iesus Christ to his Disciples for you know not when that time shall be And Let your loynes bo girded and your candells light The sixt Obiection The losse of that which is happy and ioyful causeth horror Life is happy and ioyfull Therefore the losse of life causeth horror PLato is cited to proue the Minor who writes that man may enioy felicitie in his body and that he is happy aboue all the Creatures therefore Gallen in his booke of the parts of the body doth wonderfully extoll the author of nature for hauing delt so bountifully with man And Dauid of more authoritie then all these seemes to sing the praises of the Eternall for the good he hath done vnto man saying Thou Lord hast made him little lesse Then Angells in degree And thou hast crown'd him in like sort With glory state and dignitie ANswer All the Philosophers except Plato Gallen and some few others being dazeled with the brightnesse of some guists remaining in man after his shipwracke in the beginning of the world did not poure forth such prayses of the condition of man but in a manner all with one voice haue called nature not a mother but a cruell stepdame for the many miseries wherewith shee hath ouercharged man as we see in Tully and as Saint Augustine reports Euen so Aristotle who is held the Ensigne bearer of Philosophers being demanded what man was he is sayeth he the patterne of Imbecillity the booty of time the sport of fortune the image of inconstancy the ballance of enuy and calamity the rest is nothing but spittle and choller Demccrites also required to giue his aduice of the condition of man answered that it was a miserable fortune seeing that the goods which were carefully sought after hardly came vnto him but miseries which were not sought for nor any way expected nor suspected ranne vnto him Wherefore the Comedian Neoptolimus being demanded what admirable thing hee did obserue in Aeschilus Sophocles and Euripides Nothing sayeth hee in their words doth amaze mee but that which I haue seene touching Philippe who celebrating the marriage of his daughter Cleopatra and being at a stately supper honored with the name of the 13. god was the next day stabbed and cast vpon a dunghill But you will say This life wants no pleasures Without doubt if you obserue them well they are poore pleasures bitter pinching and intermixt with displeasures yea in laughing the heart shal be grieued his ioy end with care sayeth Salomon in his Prouerbes He also running ouer breefely in Ecclesiastes the vanity toyle of the body vexation of mind and heauines of soule concludes That he thinkes him more happy that was neuer borne then the liuing or the dead for sayeth hee he hath not seene the bad workes which are done vnder the Sunne As for that passage of the Psalme alledged it makes nothing to the purpose for that he considers not man as he is but as he was in his integrity and innocencie in the earthly Paradice or as hee is restored in Iesus Christ man as the Apostle expounds it in the Epistle to the Hebrews That no man was for his transgression degraded from the rancke he held and lost the priuiledges he had it appeareth by the comparison of that which he is with the titles which are giuen him 1. God had made man 2. Sinne had vndone him and all his naturall life is but a spirituall death Ephes. 2. 1. 3. That is to say with a true perfect and healthfull knowledge of God of his wil and of his workes 4. Hee hath lost all that and there hath succeeded ignorance blindnes strange darkenesse 5. His desire and actions were conformable to the lawes of God 6.
call the sweat of death Sleepe proceedes from the fume which the meat digesting causeth this fume mounted vp and thickned by the coldnes of the braine descends againe and disperseth it selfe ouer all enters into the nerues by the which both sence and motion is distributed throughout the whole body so as death makes all the actions of the body to cease euen so sleepe doth all the feeling of the sinnewes of the senses and all motion of the exterior members For as wee doe often finde children lying asleepe vpon the ground thinking they were dead so man dying doth ofteÌ„ deceiue them that stand by being not able to iudge whether he be dead or sleepes Man cannot alwayes watch he must sleepe neither can he liue for euer he must dye and as he growes idle that can take no rest so hee is madd that thinkes not to die As he that stooping to his worke doth stemm with trafficke Boate along the shore the streame and pouring out himselfe in watrie sweate breakes all the bancks in vprore In retreate made to his Cottage from the laboring light strecht on the straw sleepes soundlie all the night As man after that hee hath sweat with tedious labour being broken and growne crooked with age after that he hath tost and turmoyld kept a great stir in the world being layed in the earth rests in death he that goes to bed puts off his clothes he that dyes vnclothes his bodie and his soule departs And as he that hath eaten and drunke freely feels in his stomacke a gnawing and cruditie which hinders his rest so hee that hath busied himself too much with worldly affayers feels vpon the approching of rest a remorse of conscience and an irresolution which will not suffer him to imbrace death quietly sleepe seazeth vpon mâ—…n lying awake in his bed insensibly so can he not obserue the verie moment of approaching death when sleep comes he feels no paine no more that the verie instant of death If men be froward and cry out when death approcheth so do they especially little children who crie most when sleepe comes vpon them Finally as in our soundest sleepe wee feele no paine we hold it a wrong to be awaked so let vs assure our selues we shall feele lesse paine in death seeing her sound sleepe cannot be troubled nor interrupted in any sort and therefore Diogenes taken with a sound sleepe a little before his death the Physition inquiring if he had felt no paine no answered he the brother comes before his sister So Gorgias LeoÌ„tinus being neere his end his bodie without streÌ„gth he had many slumbers so as a friend of his demanding how hee found himselfe Well saith he the brother beginnes to deliuer mee into his sisters hands Moreouer Nature which hath made nothing in vaine seems to assure vs of this proportion by the Dormouse which sleepes all Winter so foundly as it will rather endure all extremities then awake I haue seene a man of good credite put one into water boyling on the fire the which did not awake but only mooue the hinder legs a little yet in the Spring it is nimble leaps from branch to branch a goodly signe of the Refurrection of the dead The fifteenth Argument taken from former experience Not to be yet and to be no more are alike yea the same We â—…ere in peace and rest when we were not yet Therefore when we shall bee 〈◊〉 moreâ—… shall be iâ—… peace and râ—…st IT is an humane Argument which takes matters at the â—…orst and death for the 〈◊〉 priuation of the whâ—…le man yet without preiudicâ—… of his right if there bee any fouÌ„d Of necessity saith Pâ—…o death must bee one of these two a with-drawing or extinguishing of al sense and of the soule likewise or a transmigra tion as they holâ—… into some other place if death doth extinguish all and be like vnto sleepe the which most commonly when it is not troubled with dreames and fancies bring a â—…uiet rest O God what a gaine is death 〈◊〉 c. But if it be true which some say that death is a â—…ransport â—…o the happy regions that our soules hauing shined in these mortall bodies on this bare earth go to shine elewhere as when the Sâ—…nne aftâ—… that he hath enligâ—…ned ouâ—… horizon descâ—…nds to giue day vnto an other and then returnes to make his course anew what decease is there of the soule morâ—… then of the Sun which runnes his course through our horizon all the day and at night seemes extinct and dead to vs Or suppose there were an vtter extinguishing decease of the Soule aswel as of the Body what cause were there of feare in this extinguishing since not to haue bene at all and to cease to be is all one because the effect both of the one and the other is not to be Then why should wee feare that now when by the experience of aboue fiue thousand yeares when we were not that is to say that we were dead we neuer felt any kind of paine Hereunto king Aâ—…asis had re gard obseruing one who lamented much for the losse of his sonne If sayd hee thoâ—… didst not mourne when thy sonne was not at all neither shouldest thou now grieue that he be no more Let vs conclude with Seneea That according to the opinion of all the world he carries the supreame degree of folly that weepes for that hee liued not a thousand yeares since so hee doth second him which grieues that he shall not bee here the like â—…e oâ—… oâ—… it iâ—… all onâ—… â—…ou â—…d noâ—… be and You haue â—…ot benâ—… So spakâ—… the wiâ—…e man by the mouth of mâ—… saying We 〈◊〉 as if we 〈◊〉 not bâ—… Obiection Not to haâ—… had â—…llent things and â—…o 〈◊〉 loâ—… them â—…fter the enioyng them a time are verie different â—…t he that hath not beene is like to him that hath â—…ot had those exâ—…llent things life and the 〈◊〉 thereof and he that is no more like him that hath lost them after the enioying of them Therefore not to haue bin and not to be are verie diffâ—… things THe verie word â—…o losâ—… iâ—… of it selâ—…e 〈◊〉 he thaâ—… after a clâ—… fight 〈◊〉 lose his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then he which hath loâ—… 〈◊〉 knowledge of his sences oâ—… reason anâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…out thâ—… which we had not bin Whaâ—… is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not see himselfe swallowed vp in a guâ—… of darkenesse â—…ay in eternall horrorâ—… And therfore S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name oâ—… the faithfull â—…aith 2. Cor. 5. That we whicâ—… in this lodging groane vnder the burthen dâ—…sire not to â—…e vncloathed buâ—… to be clothed againe to the ende thaâ—… mortal may be swallowed 〈◊〉 by life Which shewes that the desire of man is to be if he enclines to deâ—…h it is 〈◊〉 assured â—…oÌ„sideration â—…hat by â—…ath he enters into a 〈◊〉 and morâ—… perfect being elsâ—… he would alwaies 〈◊〉 not to be that
kind of death was the worst That sayth hee which the Lawes haue ordained inferring thereby that a naturall death is not euill but that which crimes haue deserued the which is not giuen by nature but by a hangman and yet not so much by the execu tioner who is but the instrument as by a villanie perpetrated which is the true cause So sayd S. Peter Let none of you suffer as a murtherer theese malefactor or too curious in other mens affaires But if any one suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God in that behalfe The 24. Augument taken from the testimonie of wise men All wise men in the conflict of Death depose that death is not euill But that is true which all wise men depose c. THe troupes of Christian Martirs heathen Philosophers marching so boldly vnto death are so many witnesses without reproch to conuince them of falshood which hold death to be so great an euill Let vs be carefull lest this blasphemie creep into our thoughts that they were in despaire or mad No no their verie enemies dare not speake it haâ—…ng knowne that they were for the most part men famous in pietie iustice vertue and wisedome and for such as were recommended by all men The Ecclesiasticall Historie is gored with thousands of such Martires the author of the tables hath set downe some in the end of his first booke of whom I make no mention But behold the manly courage of Blandina who by her ioyfull countenance doth summon vs vnto death whereunto she doth march with such a grace and state as if she had gone to a nuptiall feast Then followes happie Tiburtins conuerted vnto Christ by Vrban in the yeare 227 who marching vpon burning coales seemed to tread vpon Roses These Christians with infinite others as well ancient as moderne had neuer any horror of death but haue desired it yea sought it as a refreshing and refection to their bodies soules but for that no man doubts but the zeale of Christians hathmade them continue constant vnto the death and the diuine power had so fortified their resolutioÌ„s that neither their reason could be swallowed vp nor drowned by the horror of persecution Let vs come to others of a multitude let a few suffise Socrates accused by the Athenians to thinke ill of the Gods for that he reiected pluralitie adored an vnitie was condemned to dye before the which he would first censure his iudges saying To feare death O my Lords Areopagites is to make shew to be wise and not to be for it is to seem to know death to be euil which they vnderstand not He did so little apprehend death as when as eloquent Lisias had giuen him an Oration artificially penned which hee should vse for his Apologie whereby hee should be absolued he read it and found it excellent yet he sayd vnto Lycias If thou hadst brought me Sicionian shoes admit they had beene fit for my foote yet would I not vse them for that they were not decent for me So thy discourse is most eloquent and fluent but not fit for men that are graue and resolute The executioner then presented him poysoÌ„ in a cup which Socrates tooke with a constant hand and demanded of him as a sicke patient would doe of the Physition to recouer health how he should swallow it then without any stay drunk it vp after which he walked a little then tooke his bed his boy vncouering him felt his parts to grow cold Socrates being wak't directed his speech to Criton who aboue all others wished him a longer life and to make him thinke of it had propounded vnto him his children his deare friends that for their sakes if not for his owne hee would preserue his life which was necessarie for them No no answered hee God who hath giuen me my childreÌ„ wil care for them when I shall be gone from â—…ce I shall finde friends either like vnto you or better neither shall I bee long depriued of your company for you must soone come to the same place Then as if he had by this potion recouered his health hee cried â—…ut O Criton we owe a Cock to Aesculapius be not forgetfull to sacrifice vnto him Let vs obserue that in the last passages of life he was in no sort amazed but dying ioyfully comforted his suruiuing friend and let vs not doubt but hee who was the first among the seuen Sages of Greece knew before Demosthenes that which this Orator spake couragiously to Phiâ—… King of Macedon who threatned him to cause his head to be câ—…t off Well saith hee if thou giuest mee death my Countrey will giue mee immortality And doublesse Socrates liues and will liue eternally so the suruiuing hauing seene the assurance of his death held him most happy as going to liue another life and in another place And Aristippus that ioyfull Philosopher beeing demanded in what sort Socrates was dead In that manner said he that I my selfe desire Inferring that death was more to bee wished for then a happy life Let vs heare a second that is Theramenes to whom they presented a great cup of poyson the which he dranke resolutely and returned the cup to Critiâ—… the most cruell of the 30. Tyrants which had condemned him Theramenes therein alluding to the manner obserued at this day in Germanie which is that hee which drinkes to any one sends him the same glasse full of wine that hee may pledge him These deathes are full of courage but behold a woman dying who exceedes them all and that onely to incourage her husband to dy it is Arria the wife of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This woman being aduertised that Petus was condemned to what death hee would choose went vnto him to perswade him both by word the effect to dislodge out of this life she had a naked dagger vnder her gowne and giuing her husband heâ—… last â—…well shee thrust her selfe to the hart and drawing it forth againe with the like courage she held it vnto Petus and spake these her last words vnto him Pâ—… non doleâ—… Pete O my deere Petus it doth not paine mee and then dyed Let vs seale vp these examples with two women who commonly doe passionatly loue the presentation of their children yet a certen Lacedemonian hauing heard that her Son fighting valiantly had beene slaine in battaile O sayd shee this was a braue Sonne not lamenting the death of her Sonne but reioycing at his vertue Another hearing that her Sonne returned safe from battaile and that hee had â—…d shed cryed out vnto him There is a bad report of thee thou must eyther deface it or not liue holding it better to dye then to suruiue an Ignominie Obiection If the greatest fauorites of God haue feared death it is to bee feared But Dauid Ezechias and others fauored by God feared Death and especially Iesus Christ the only and wel-beloued Sonne of God feared
impossible that at the soules departure from the body there should be any great paine the soule leaues the body as the light doth the ayre which it doth inuest as Viues speakes after S. Augustine Wee must not then imagine heere a grosse tearing of the soule from the body as of a piece of cloth for the vnion of the soule with the body is spirituall and incomprehensible But of the pretended paine in death there is sufficiently spoken in the Obiection following As for the two other enemies it is true that the conscience presents vnto a dying man the foulenesse of his sinne and it is true that Satan tempts man to despaire to precipitate him into eternall perdition But for all this must a man that feares God feare death and feare to lose the battaile No but hee ought rather to assure himselfe of the victory and present himselfe boldly to the Combate as a valiant fortunate Champion against one that is weake and vnfortunate They that are for vs are stronger then they that are against vs God which hath begunne continues his worke in vs and ends it to his glory the faith which he hath prāted in vs wil quench the inflamed darts of the wicked spirit the full assurance of the remission of sins by Iesus Christ dead for our sinnes and risen for our iustification will pacifie the conscience and shew him Iesus Christ in heauen sitting on the right hand of God and stretching out his armes to him Thirdly the seales of the holy Ghost in vs for by it we are sealed to the day of Redemption Baptisme the Communion of the body of Christ and the Spirit of sanctification will terrifie Satan and make him flie Finally the good Angels which from our birth and throughout the whole course of our liues haue administred vnto vs guided and comforted vs will redouble their loue and courage in the like offices at our greatest need and at our last gaspe Let vs not feare seeing we haue such assurance in the Word of God which doth plainely witnesse that the Angells are administring Spirits sent to serue for their sakes that shall receiue the inheritance of saluation Here then is no subiect of desperate feare but rather of an assured resolution The 4. Obiection All paine is euill In dying there is paine EPicharmus by the testimony of Cicero sayd that he would not die but to be dead he cared not The reason is in my opinion for that he feared the passage of death not death it selfe which hee thought with vs had no paine There are many at this day of this opinion abhorring death like an internall gulfe for that they conceiue there is some sharp and violent paine which they endure before it comes and thereunto tends the prouerbe He is in bad case that dies And S. Augustine seemes to attribute I know not what sharpe feeling and force against nature in the diuulsion of the soule from the body which were vnited together Answere If death be terrible by reason of the paine we apprehend in it then life by the same reason should be more for in it some man endures more by the cholicke the stone the sciatica yea by the tooth ach and by many other infirmities without death then an other hath felt in dying And there is this aduantage in death that it comes but once wheras the aboue mentioned infirmities are often reiterated in life But to haue a perfect view if this paine bee so great as opinion a bad counsellor doth make vs beleeue let vs search with reason into the immediate cause of that which doth engender this paine in our bodies The pathes which leade man to death are infinite but all bend to one of these foure high wayes outward force subtraction of meate and drinke inward sicknesse and old age These foure kinds of death may happen to al men yea to wise men although by iniustice touching the first by some rare accident as touching the second concerning the third by ordinary corruption of humors and by an infallible defect of nature touching the fourth Paine according to the definition of learned Phisitions is the feeling of some thing that is offensiue and troublesome to the nature of the body for that it is contrary to the health thereof the which happens either by the dissoluing and cutting of his continued substance or by the alteration thereof which alteration proceeds from the intemperate heate or cold for as for humidity and drinesse they are rather passiue qualities then actiue whose operation is very slow and the paine in the member that is altered is suddaine not gentle as if you be exceeding cold and come to a very sensible paine cold settles his paine in disioyning heate in burning and it is to bee noted that any sence may be wounded yet little or nothing is his paine in comparison of that of touching the which is dispersed ouer the whole body from which no other vessell of the sences is exempt which is the cause that wee sometimes feele prickings in the eyes and shootings in the eares c. Let vs now come to the application Death which comes to man by extreame age can be no cause of paine there being nothing in him that tortures his body nothing that doth suddainely alter and change him by extreame cold or heate but his life goes out presently like vnto a Candle that wants tallow by the losse of his radicall humour deuoured by little and little since his birth by his naturall heate and although this heate doth yet striue as it hath formerly done to conuert the meate which is familiar and fit for the body into radicall humor to repaire his losse yet she can worke no more her vertue failes her euery agent hath his vertue limited what soeuer doth act suffers in acting through vse and in continuance of time this heate decayes dissolues is lost and death ensues So as it hath bene disputed in vaine whether life might bee continued this radicall humor being restored by some fit nutriment for that humor being at the first a certaine ayery onely portion of that seede which doth reside in all the sollide parts it is impossible that such an humour and so much as is needefull should be supplied in it's place The only fruite of the tree of life which was in Eden had this secret vertue by the diuine ordinance to make man immortal that shold eate therof and therefore according to the opiniō of the Fathers God suddenly after the sin chased Adam and Eue out of Eden least they should lay hold of that fruite and become immortally miserable with the diuells In processe of time there happens two notable changes to this radicall humour the one in the quality for that it degenerates by little and little of naturall becomes strange the other in the quantity for that it is wholy wasted whereunto man being once reduced he can suffer no paine if hee complaines
to this death they which haue condemned mee are more vniust then I am Inferring thereby that he died well and honestly seeing they put him to death wrongfully and without cause Plato doth teach vs that Socrates was wont to insult ouer death in these tearmes I haue beene carefull said he to liue well in my youth and to die well in my age I am not tormented within me with any paine I am not vnwilling to dye for seeing my life hath beene honest I attend death ioyfully This is much but it is nothing in regard of Saint Paule who protesting that he felt not himselfe guilty in any thing cried out with a bold spirit that hee was assured that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers neither things present nor things to come nor height nor depth should separate him from the loue of God Let vs theÌ„ be careful to polish our soules and to settle our consciences let vs apply our selues to a well ordered equity let the body subiect it selfe vnto the soule and follow her motions Let the inferiour powers of the soule obey the commandements of reason Let reason guided by the holy Ghost obserue the Law grafted in euery creature by nature especially in man and most of all the Law of Moses To doe this is to be vertuous and to be vertuous is to haue a good conscience We must then direct all our actions to vertue if wee desire to liue in the world without feare without paine in peace and ioy vertue doth first of all make the soule perfect in her intellectuall part disperseth the clouds of error ignorance illuminating reason doth adorne it with prudence Secondly she labours to polish the will of man and hauing reformed it by her orderly course shee giues him the habite of Iustice. Thirdly she doth temper the angry part pulls away the extreame feare and on the other side prunes away the sprouts of rashnes and plants betwixt both valour and haâ—… dy feare Finally it doth also bridle the faculty of concupiscence and restraines the motions of voluptuousnesse and makes them obedient to the command of Temperance It is in a few words the true meanes to get a pure and vpright conscience especially if we bee carefull to be as honest in our priuate secret actions as if all the world did behold vs Seneca doth recommend this vnto vt in many places Wee reade of one called Virginius whose History was written by Cluuius who presented it vnto the sayd personage and sayd vnto him If there be any thing written otherwise then thou wouldest pardon mee and reforme it Oh no answered Virginius whatsoeuer I haue done hath bene done in that manner to that end that it might bee free for all to write at their pleasures a worthy speech of a noble spirit and content with his conscience in his actions Iulius Drusus when as one promised a great sum of mony to his Master mason that his house might not be subiect to the view of any man and I sayd he will giue twice so much if thou canst build my house in that sort as all men may see into it what is done there This was to saue his conscience not to do more in secret then before all the world And what a madnesse is it in most men not to feare God nor their conscience and yet to feare men who can do least in the correction of their faults What shall we then feare in this world One only God for his feare will inspire our hearts with an hardy courage against the greatest feares The 27. Argument taken from the frequent thinking of Death He that will receiue Death ioyfully must propound it often to his thoughts Wee all desire to receiue it ioyfully c. SOme sayth Seneca come to their death in choler but no man receiues it when it comes with a cheerefull countenance but he that hath long before prepared himselfe for it Let vs try this remedy it cannot be bad In the night after our first sleepe in bed let vs presuppose that we are dead and by a strong imagination let vs settle our selues in that sort as hauing no sence nor feeling that our soule and reason tells vs that it is euen so in death that there is no other difference but that our soule is yet present in the body and then let vs goe vnto our friends or to any other that die let vs view them talke vnto them and touch them being dead and we shall finde that in all this there is nothing to be feared that all is quiet that there is nothing but opinion that 〈◊〉 abuse man Let vs proceed enter the Church-yards and go down into their graues wee shall finde that 〈◊〉 the dead rest in peace yeaâ—… so profound 〈◊〉 peace as no liuing creature can interrupt them Let vs yet go on farther there is no danger for by the saying of Plato the knowledge of death is the goodliest science that man can attaine vnto Let vs do like vnto Iohn Patriarke of Alexandria build our tombes and not finish them but euery day lay one stone Let vs haue some Anatomy or MoÌ„mie in our houses and let vs not passe a day without beholding it let vs handle it it is death Little children by little and little grow familiar with that which they did strangely fly and in the end they play with it and know that it is but a dead image of copper which so terrified them Wee shall also see in death that it was but a shaddow that so amazed vs. Let vs yet do more waking and not dreaming let vs dispose our selues of purpose as Philippe King of Macedon did by chance who wrestling vpon the sand after the manner of the Country saw and measured the length of his body and admired the littlenes thereof in the shape printed in the sand where he had fallen Finally let vs not forget what the Emperour Maximilian 2. or 3. yeares before his death commanded carefully to be done that they should carry with him a coffin of oake in a chest with an expresse command that being dead they should couer his body with a course sheete hauing put lime in his eares nosestrills and mouth and then to lay him in the ground Let vs follow these great examples both high low and wee shall see that when death shall present her selfe vnto vs it will bee without amazement But if wee flie from euery image of death from al thought therof if the ringing of bells a shew of some mans death doth importune vs finally if euery word of death be troublesome as there haue beene such I doubt not but to them death is wonderfull terrible Obiection If the most reasonable feare Death most it is by reason to be feared But the antecedent is true therefore the Consequent must follow SEneca yea experience doth teach vs that Infants little children and such as haue lost their
orresty sayth one the rider is not in fault The bodie is a ship the spirit the Pilot the ship suffers wracke but the Pilote saues himselfe by swimming or vpon some boarde the body dies the soule saues it selfe vpon the table of faith and repentance The bodie is a Lanterne the soule the Candle if the glasse be cleare and transparent the light is the greater so by the disposition of the body the soule is knowne more or lesse Man is a bird shut vp in the shell of the egge expecting vntill the shell breake of it selfe that he may come forth so doth the soule that the body my be broken to the ende shee may flie to heauen There are three places assigned to man the first is the matrix the second is this world the third is heauen the first is short the second a litle longer and the third is without ende In the first he cries at the comming forth for that he is ignorant of the goodly spectacle of the world which God as a table couered with all sorts of meate in a great Hall hath prepared for him In the second hee apprehends and desperatly feares his departure for that he knowes not this third heauen the seate of Iesus Christ of the Angells and of the blessed which is prepared for him infinitely more excellent then this base earth where he shall remaine euerlastingly and perfectly happy And these are the liuely similitudes with many other likewise which are continually in the mouthes and writings of such as treate profoundly thereof whereby man may see that he hath no subiect to feare death seeing that by it his soule his principall part and by which hee is man receiues so great a benifit And what shall it bee when the holy Ghost shall assure his Spirit that his body being layd in the ground as in a sacred pawne shal be restored to him immortall in the great and last day But attending this incomparable good let vs proue this immortality byreason first of all The soule reuiues and fortifies it selfe in the greatest agonies of death So Testators witnesse that they are sound in minde though very sicke in body so the disposition of a man at the point of death is of more weight for that hee hath a better conscience a more liuely feeling of his soule And Hippocrates giues aduice to obserue if in diseases there appeare nothing that is Diuine meaning that we should obserue the sighes and the gestures of the sicke patient for if they be vnaccustomed of heauen or of God it is a signe that the soule begins to discouer it selfe seeing it thinkes of heauen her proper mansion So Cyrus being in the bed of death caused his children to approach vnto him to whom hee gaue goodly admonitions but among others hee told them that hee could neuer bee perswaded that the soule lying in the body did remaine after the death of the mortall body as if he would say that vntill then he had studied to assure himself but now he did not doubt of it Nay we shall sometimes see ignorant Countrimen discourse exceeding well at the point of death as wee reade of a certaine labourer altogether vnlearned being nee◅e vnto his death had recommended his health his wife and children with as great Rethorike as Cicero could haue vsed discoursing before the Senate This reason was taken as a strong defence against death by the King of Arr◅gon and represented by Seneca to all that are fearefull in death saying This day which thou fearest so much as the last is the birth day of eternity The 2. is taken from religion and from the homage which man doth owe vnto God for the immortality of his soule not in one Country but in all not in one age but for euer not in one person but generally in all by some adoration prayer of sacrifice in what fashion soeuer man will sooner forget his King his father yea himselfe then his God yet hee makes no doubt but there is a King he sees him he knowes him he honours him and that he hath a father of whom hee holds his life and with whom he doth conuerse dayly and whom he is bound to loue finally he tries himselfe growes conceited and many times abuseth himselfe with the great loue of himselfe and yet hee holds himselfe more bound to God then to all these hee will not feare to displease them if he can no otherwise please God and will hold for Maximes That it is beter to obey God then men that he which doth not renounce father or mother for the loue of God is not worthy of him hee that doth not renounce himselfe and take vp the Crosse of affliction for the seruice of God deserues to bee renounced of him The vnciuill wars which haue swallowed vp so many men in Christendome within these 50. yeares had no other pretexts then these sentences and they had no other foundation then the conscience of the soule that immortall seale which God did graue in the soule when he did infuse it into the body of mā as Chrysostome saith Let vs obserue it in some examples but great in euery respect Alexander the Great being incensed for that the Iewes had denied him succors marcht with his Army to ruine them if the high Priest Iaddus with his ornaments and his holy troupe had not gone out to meete with Alexander Who when he saw the high Priest he admired him and fell downe at his feete whereat his people were amazed and troubled and his most confident Parmenio came vnto him How comes it sayth he since that you worship a man you whom althe earth is ready to acknowledge for a God It is not hee answered Alexander but God in him whom I worship who appeared to me in vision in the like habit in Macedon Whence came this suddaine forgetfulnesse of his owne reuenge from whence this acknowledgement to the Immortall but from an immortall soule As Antiochus held Ierusalem besieged the feast of Tabernacles drew neere the Iewes being resolued to celebrate it they sent an Embassage vnto him to demaunde a truce for seuen dayes that they might attend the holy worship of their great God The soule of this great King being toucht with religion not only yeelded to their demand but also hee himselfe turned to this homage caused oxen with gilded hornes to bee conducted to the Cittie gates with great store of Indense and sweet smells to be sacrificed In which action whether should we admire most either the patience of this great King willingly and deuoutly hindering his ready victory Or the forgetfulnesse of himselfe suffering those sacrifices that he knew to be vndertaken against his honor his fortime and his life And what doth not this confused apprehension of God worke in the immortall spirit of man Cybels Priests wil geld themselues thinking to please their goddesse the Athenian Priests will drinke Hemlocke to liue chastly the Virgins will lye vppon
certaine leaues fit to mortifie their lusts and Cicero will crie out to countenance thē that they must come chastly to the gods Yea Agam◅mnon will sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to pacific Diana Adrian in Egypt will sacrifice his Mignion Axtinons Vialerian will vse the superstitious custome to offer vp children the Hetrusci had that institution in their Countrey the ancient Gaules in Prouence in the City of Arles had two pillars erected and thereupon an altar of stone to offer humaine sacrifices The third is taken from the wise ordinance of nature which in many millions of things hath made nothing in vaine nothing that wauers or leanes sometimes of this side sometimes on that as Erasistratus said how then should it be in man her master-peece in the soule the principall part Hath she planted a vehement desire of immortality the chiefe point of her excellency hath shee giuen her a taste in this miserable life to leaue her altered for euer The fourth is from the continual action of the soule which neuer takes rest day nor night like vnto the Sun sleepe doth not shut her eies as it doth the bodyes neither by consequence death Consider it when as the body is in a found sleep without motion not in the beginning of his rest when as the vapours of his disgestion fuming vp into the braine trouble it but after mid-night and especially at the point of day Then when the soule her faculties holds free From seruing bodily variety Then when alone and dead to life in fort Sau'd from dayes waues she enters nights calme port It is then that being raised aboue time she reades in future which is present to her the things which God is ready to doe So Asti◅ges last King of the Medes in his dreame saw the stocke of a Vi◅e comming out of his daughters belly which couered all Asia with her branches The Interpreters being consulted with they answered that his daughter should haue a sonne which should enioy all Asia and dispossesse him of his Kingdome the euent fayled not notwithstanding all the opposition that Astiages could make Tertullian reports that the daughter of Polycrates dreamed that her father raised vp on high was washt by Iupiter and annoynted by the Sun The euent expounded her dreame soone after for that Polycrates being hanged the raine washt him and the Sun m◅ing his gr◅ase annoynted him But who is ignorant of Iosephs dreame of his future greatnesse of Pharaohs touching the fertility and famin which should follow in Egypt of Daniel touching the foure Monarchies of the world of ◅ilats wise vpon the false accusation of Iesus Christ the iust of infinite others yea and of our selues if we haue obserued them For what is he saith Tertullian so voyd of humanity that hath not sometimes felt in himselfe some faithfull vision Thus the Eternal doth vnto the good to assure them of the immortall action of their soules and to the wicked to terrifie them with his eternal iudgement send such dreames of future things to amaze or assure according to his good pleasure So hee spake by his Prophet Your sonnes and your daughters shall prophesie your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dreame dreames Let vs conclude with Tertullian That seeing sleepe the image of death cannot seaze vpon the soule that the soule being alwaies liuely and actiue can not fall in Veritatem mortis into the verity of death The fifth Man in this life is more miserable then any of the creatures and more capable of felicity then any of them they being all made for him who neuer heere vpon earth attaines vnto his soueraigne good which hee most desireth as Aristotle and Theophrastus haue acknowledged and as euery man is a good witnesse in himselfe Who will not then thinke but his true place is in heauen and in it his soueraigne good And what part of man can flie thither but his immortall soule which in a momēt not parting out of the body transports it selfe thither in Idea Tully in his Tusuculans and others The sixth complaint of Theophrastus of nature as of a step-mother seemes most iust to haue giuen a lōg life to no end to certain creatures and to haue denied it vnto man who might therby haue attained vnto wisedome the greatest good in this world if the soule dyed with the body for then onely we beginne to be wise when wee dye and many times were preuented by death But nature hath done nothing but most wisely and therefore shee hath satisfied this complaint another way The seuenth is drawne from mans conscience which being good makes Innocency to lift vp her head by the feeling of another life and to looke down for an offence by the apprehension of a future iudgement There is no light so cleere nor testimony so glorious as when truth shines in the spirit and the spirit is seene in truth saith Saint Bernard A good conscience is stronger then a brazen wall said Horace Let him speake boldly and confidently for himselfe that hath not offended saith Plautus and with the shaking of his chinne retort the false reports of a bad fame as Ouid speakes This did emboldē innocent Susanna against the two old men chusing rather to dye then to offend God This made Ioseph rather to leaue his robe with his mistresse then his heart Finally it is that which in the middest of many deaths gaue resolution vnto Cato Phocion and many other heathen as to Philip King of Macedon who beeing animated by some to take reuenge of such as spake dishonorably of him O no said he I will make them all lyars in doing well On the other side there is nothing that doth more terrifie and torment then a bad conscience Let the most resolute wretch that is come and I will make him confesse in some sort howsoeuer his crime committed in secret in the night without witnesses and without any accuser yea although he had his pardon or were acquite before men or were so aduanced as he were not iustifiable before any man yet he must needes confesse that hee is inwardly troubled and furiously tormented the Swallowes by their importune noyse will publish the parricide attempted by a cauterized conscience as hath hapned in old time Or imaginary flies wil buzze continually in the eares of the seruant that hath killed his master vntill the fact be reuealed Whence is the spring of this liuely feeling in the soul but from the apprehension of immortall paine Gods wil being that for the loue of iustice iudgement should rather go against the life of the body then that which is hidden should not come to light Obiection Counsell giuen by fauour vpon weake coniectures doth rather shake then support a right Such are these reasons THE steppes of such as bring good tydings are pleasing and welcome and they that bring bad distastfull and reiected So the 400. Prophets which promised victory vnto Achab
heauen in the glasse of the Trinitie and diuine vnitie here this is an Article of our faith vnderstood in the resurrection of the flesh and life eternall When there is any question of faith reason must be silent and yeeld and therefore S. Bernard coÌ„fesseth that when he thinks of the estate of the foule he thinks to see two things in it in a manner coÌ„trarie if he beholds it with his humaine discourse as she is in her selfe and of her selfe he can say nothing more certen but that shee is reduced to nothing c. Next it was affirmed that man was verie credulous to â—…uill incredulous to good suspirion turnes alwaies cun ningly to the worst part said an Ancient hee swallowes downe slanders and impostures sweetly and distrusts honest and vertuous things such is his miserie If he think that the immortalitie of the soule cannot be grownded sollidly vpon any humaine argument let him also thinke that there cannot instance be giuen to the contrarie which is not easily ouerthrowne so as he bring a spirit that is tractable not preiudicate And aboue all that hee doe not perswade him-selfe that he may see it or feele it as the smoake or heate going out of the fire so the soule going out of the bodie for it is a spirit and therefore not possible to be comprehended but by reason and vnderstanding which are spirituall operations but let vs answere him to euery point It seemes the Obiector takes an ill presage of the immortallitie of the soule for that she is fauourable as if it were not the nature of man if he be not brutish to court those things which are worthy excellent as the soule of man is aboue al the world All men applaude men in great authoritie we esteeme pretious things as siluergold Pearle what a sot or rather a madd man is he that will haue a concoit that the thing is not excellent because it is respected As for the 400. Prophets they spake vnto the King according to humaine sence and were found false Micheas according to the word of God reuealed vnto him and it was true The Obiector reasons according to carnall sence he shal be taxed with falsehoode Wee speake according to the spirit of God in his holy writ we shall be found true He desires in the end or makes a shew to desire it that wee should ballance our reasons I am content and I protest it will be to his confusion for the Father of light will not suffer Satan the father of lies to triumph ouer the truth For the first instance then we say that Huart doth not meane the soule by the vnder standing but the intellectual spirits whereof she hath need to argue and to vnderstand the things of this world and to write worthily and these intellectuall spirits holding of the vitall bodie it is not strange if they be more vigourous according to the estate of the body and contrariewise if they perish when the bodie perisheth for although they be of a celestial substance exceeding whâ—…t exceeding light and most substantiall that they may be more ready to serue the soule yet are they mortall but the soule in her substance receiueth no increase nor diminution since the moment of her creation infusion into the body at all times yea in all men she is equally perfect as complete in the Ideot as in the learned in the coward as the couragious these are the diuers instruments of the bodie whereof she makes vse which make her diuers in her effects these instrumeÌ„t 〈◊〉 diuerse for that they are diuersly mixt of the foure first humors Moreouer this Spanish Philosopher defines the immortalitie of the soule against Gallen which he calls a substantiall acte and forme of a humaine bodie Cap. 7. of his Examen of spirits Here the impostor doth impertinently confound mortall spirits with the immorall spirit and our reason grownded vpon this that the soule the bodie dying thinkes of the delightfull places in heauen and foretelles things to come with much certitude according to the opinion of Tully and our owne To the Second This generall submission of all menin all places and at times vnder a powerfull Maiestie shewes the natural bond which man hath to doe his homage by reason of the immortalitie of his soule and that he doth rather worship vaine ridiculous and abominable things then none at all doth not deface this bonde but confirmes it more yet shewing that he wanders in the darknes of this world and in steed of taking the way of the East to goe vnto heauen if he be not guided and directed from aboue he takes the contrarie way and wanders farre The which we yeeld but it is a terror answers he to keepe man in his dutie it is true therefore religion is not in vaine for without it for one disorder man would commit ten thousand it proceeds say you from nature and institution I answer it is from nature only that she takes her beginning education doth manure it better it but what doe you vnderstand by nature For the Philosophers haue beene accustomed to signifie 4. distinct things by the same name which yet symbolize together the lowest is the temperature of the 4. humors in the body of man The 2. is the soule which giues motion vnto the body The 3. is the ordinance and rule which God hath established in the world The 4. is God himself called by some in that regard nature naturant If the Obiector means that feare and religion proceed onely from the temperature of the 4. humors in the body of man hee is condemned of falsehood contradiction by his owne saying in that he attributes feare to other creatures the which he knower differ from man in the same temperature and in truth it is in the soule that the reuerence of the Deâ—…ie that is of God is graueÌ„ it comes from this vniuersall rulâ—… and whereas hee would inferre that in women great feare causeth great religion he must vnderstand that religion in man hath conscience for her chiefe foundation which applyes the naturall apprehension of a superiority to an acknowledgment there of and for accessories shee hath contemplation in the superior part and feare in the lower As for the principall foundation it is common to men and women the two others are diuers Contemplation is greater in men and feare in women Contemplation doth stirre vp the will to the seruice of God by two considerations the one is of the diuine power bounty to haue had wil and power to giue life when as wee dreamt not of it to haue drawne vs out of endlesse dangers and to haue continued the course of his graces notwithstaÌ„ding our ingratitude The other consideration is from the basenesse and weakenesse of man which makes him to feele his imperfections and to repaire vnto the fountaine of all good feare doth stirre vp to humilitie to contrition of heart to confession of mouth
there is a third degree yet more abhominable more iniurious to Iustice when as good men are opprest by the wicked and Iustice troden vnder foot by Iniustice what good or iust man is there but sees it and feels it Why doest thou hold thy peace said Abacuck to the Lord the wicked oppressing the iust So Caine slue Abel so Esau persecuted Iacob so the PagaÌ„s haue alwaies mo lested the Israelites sought to ruine them so the Iewes Infidels haue afflicted Christians so the Arrian Heretikes did with all violence persecute the Catholikes Pompey with the iust Senate was vanquished by Caesar Cato murmures and despayring kills himselfe So the Romaine Emperors haue euen glutted their rage vpon the innocencie of Martirs so the Goathes Barbarians tormented the Romaines as soone as they were become Christians Thirtie Tyrants inuade and ruine that goodly Common-weale of Athens The Turke at this day holds the reynes of the Empire of the world triumphing euery where ouer Christian armies Finally what are these great kingdomes but great thefts as a Pirate did fitly obiect to Alexander the Great who made him to keepe silence with shame This iniustice being obserued by many hath giuen occasion to thinke that all things are turned by chance as Claudian doth represent it Graphically and Dauid himselfe confesseth that hee hath beene readie to leaue the good way and to forsake the partie of God for that he saw the wicked in such abundance These men saies he for all that they possesse Are nothing worth yet still we see they spend There liues whole length in varied happinesse Pamper'd with all things to their very end What shall we then thinke yea whereon can wee assure our selues without wauering that the life of man in this world is a List and Careere in which as he hath wrestled and combated so being departed hee shall receiue either the Crowne of glory or the shame of infamy and this shall bee when as iustice shall appeare in her greatest beauty and lustre But in the mean 〈◊〉 this diuine prouidence will that the good as corne in the aire be thrasht fanned and sifted to the end at their departure they may be laid vp in the granier and on the other side the chaffe that is to say the wicked who haue beene alwayes in ioy shal be cast into the fire that is neuer quenched Affliction is the narrow way into the which he must enter who desires to come into the Kingdome of heauen The reproche of Christ is the honour of the child of God the Crosse of Christ is his Scepter his stripes torments are roses and gilloflowers So Moses saith the text held the reproch of Christ to be greater riches then the treasures of Egypt yea hee did rather choose to bee afflicted with the people of God then to enioy for a time the pleasures of sinne So S. Paule did rather choose the trauells imprisonments beatings and death then all the honour he could expect to be a Pharisian Doctor among the Iewes So a million of Martyrs haue rather made choice of chains fires and of death of serue Christ then of Diadems triumphs and wordly felicitie So Regulus did choose rather to bee tormented in a pipe stucke full of nayles at Carthage then to giue preiudiciall counsell to his countrey Socrates had rather dye then adherre to Pagan Idolatrie Seneca preferred death before the flattering of his vicious Prince verifying by effect the words of his Epistle I loue not torments saith he but if there be question to suffer them I desire to carry my selfe brauely couragiously and honestly Cato spake more as the Poet reports Patience most ioyes when most her crosse abounds Most honor costs most and most ioy redounds But for what reason S. Ambrose saith The wise man is not broken by the paines of the body nor vexed by the discommodities in the midst of miseries he is alwayes happy for that the happinesse of life doth not consist in the tickling pleasures of the body but in the coÌ„science purged from all filth of sinne What wilt thou then doe in this secure peace of the wicked in this continuall ware-fare of good men haue a little patience And thou in the'nd shalt say with comfort driuen Thy vowes are heard euen from the highest heauen The Gods sayth Homer suffer not the sinnes of men to passe vnpunished although they deserre the punishment yet by the waight they recoÌ„pence the slownes If the diuine wrath be slow yet it is violent sayth another It is that which did most fortifie Cyrus in the assurance of the immortality of the soule seeing the wicked in this life to prosper good men decay And what shall wee Christians then doe Wee will attend with Dauid that the measure of sinne may be full and then when they haue made an end to fill vp the measure of their fathers they cannot auoyde the iudgement of Hell fire sayth Iesus Christ I know for a certaine sayth Dauid that God will doe iustice I know the Lord th' afflicted will Reuenge and iudge the poore All these wicked riâ—… men which haue had their pleasures and abundance in this world shall haue miseries in the other and 〈◊〉 â—…se poore Lazares which haue beene here diuersly tormented shal be comforted and enioy an eternall rest as the Euangelist speakes Finally the wicked after this life changing opinion and sighing with the anguish of theirminds wil say among themselues Behold him whom wee haue sometimes derided made prouerbs of dishonor wemad men held his life to be mad and his death infamous and how is hee accounted of a the children of God his portion among the Saints And thus doth a wise man discourse We may therefore conclude that seeing lustice this pretious pearle doth east forth but sun-beames in this world vpon vnreasonable creatures and that her bodie beautiful in perfection is in heauen whither she was forced flying the earth to haue recourse there to receiue such as had cherished sought her vpon earth and contrariewise to banish for euer such as had persecuted her with all violence Wee may I say necessarily coÌ„clude That the soules of men are immortal to the end that the happy may be crowned with this iustice and the wicked cast by the heauie burthen of their iniustice to the bottomlesse pit of hell Amen Obiection If the soule did escape the graue shee might fing the prayses of God But she cannot THE Minor is proued directly by a text of the holy Scripture There is no mention of thee in death who shal worship thee in the graue saith Dauid being grieuously sicke And The dead do no more praise the Lord neither they which descend whereas they speake not Ezechias fearing death speakes thus vnto the Lord the graue shall not worship thee death shall not praise thee and they that descend into the
their carnall pleasures As for Sardanapalus hee hath also doubted whether he were a man since that hee tooke vpon him a womans habit among his Courtisans and handled a distaffe with them For my part I beleeue that he had the humour and spirit of a beast as Tully reports that Aristotle hauing read this Epitaphe sayd that they should haue written it vpon the pit of a beast not on the graue of a King The same answere shall serue for the like thing pretended at Brescia As for the third their ignorance and malice would force a beleefe of mortality of soules what others more honest and more wise haue done shall serue to confute them For the same antiquaries write that many caused to bee drawne vpon their tombes doores halfe open shewing thereby that their soules escaped from the tombe If one Philosopher would dispute of it there are others who to get fame haue questioned matters more apparent as Cardan the fourth Element of fire Copernicus the motion of heauen maintaining by the illusion of reason that it is the earth not the heauen that moues There haue beene alwayes and shall be such fantasticke humors who would make themselues famous with the preiudice of the truth As for the Empresse Barbara hee should haue added that shee was an insatiable Letcher therefore she had great interest not to giue an accoumpt of her dissolute life to perswade her self that al was extinguished in death Now followeth this depra ued age into the which as into the bottome of a sinke al the filth of precedent ages haue seemed to run yet there are God bee thanked who beleeue it in their hearts and deliuer it with ther mouthes that their spirit is immortal and they that speake it only with their mouthes it is sufficient that naturall shame will not suffer them to discouer the villany of thier hearts and this bashfulnesse an impression of God is sufficient to make them inexcusable in the great day of the Lord. Moreouer they that with a furious impudency haue beleeued that the soule died with the body haue for the most part in their miserable ends made knowne the iudgements of God who punished them for their frantike opinion as Lucian who was torne in pieces by dogs Lucre tius who grown mad cast him selfe downe a precipice Caligula who was cruelly slaine with infinite others Or else they haue shewed it in their confused and irresolute carriage the distemperature and trouble of their soules impugning their damnable opinion To conclude As for Theodorus and the swarme of his disciples who in a manner alone hold the chaires in all estates I will suffer them to be led in Triumph before the triumphant chariot of faith that which Du Bartas sayth in the beginning of the second song is sufficient to confound them The 4. Argument That which proceeds immediatly f◅om God is euerlasting Such is the soule I will prooue the consequēce of the Maior for the rest is plaine of it selfe whilest the Sun shall last he will cast fo◅th his beames whilest there is fire there will come forth heate whilest the heart beates in the body there remaines life for that the position of the sufficient cause very neere and immediate doth of necessity establish the effect the which continues as long as the cause if there happens no inpeachment But God is a sufficient cause neuer hindered in his effects he is the neere and immediate cause of the soule which hee breathes into the body as soone as it was disposed and fit to receiue that breathing hee is immortall and by consequent the soule is immortall So hee created the Angels the Angels shal subsist for euer so he made the heauen earth and they shall neuer perish If they reply that the heauēs shal passe that God wil cōsume them as a flaming pyle of wood as the Poet speakes after S. Peter The answer is That it is not to be vnderstood of the substance of the world but of the qualities which being vaine and corrupted by reason of man shal be changed and renewed by fire to shine more purely like refined gold They may againe obiect That God with his owne hands had moulded and fashoned the first man who not with standing is dead I answer that God was the efficient and immediate cause of man but not the formall nor the materiall his substance was the slime of the earth which might be dissolued his forme was his soule which might be separated But in the soule and of the soule of man God holds immediatly the foure kinds of causes the efficient for he hath made it of himselfe without any help the materiall not that it is of his essence but that hee hath created it of nothing as hee did the world the formall in like manner his continual inspiration retaines it as his continuall prouidence preserues the world from ruine and therefore Christ sayd my Father works hitherto and I with him Finally he is the finall cause for man liues to know and serue God If they reply againe that God being a voluntarie cause in his actions should not be numbred among the naturall causes which necessarily produce their effects if there be not some let that is most certen but where the word of God is euident we must not doubt of his will but it is apparent in the passages alledged that the soule is immortall And therefore we may profitably and safely conclude That if from the sufficient and neere cause the effect doth necessarilie flow and that this effect doth continue as long as the cause if there happen no lets that vndoubtedly the soule is immortal seeing that God her most sufficient cause and who feares no disturbance is immortall so as to denie this immortalitie is to deny the Deitie Obiection That which hath bin alwaies required to be sufficiently testified yet hath beene still denyed cannot be certaine The immortalitie of the soule hath beene alwayes required to be sufficiently testified yet hath beene still denyed NO great ioy doth at any time accompanie a deepe silence If the soule going out of the bodie felt it selfe immortall shee should feele it if she were so for going out of the body as out of a darke prison shee should haue the fruition of all her light if shee felt her selfe as I say immortall shee would witnesse it by some signe to the poore kinsfolkes that suruiue being desolate by reason of his departure to comfort fortifie and make them ioyfull And although the soules which are in heauen be there detained by a voluntarie prison hindering them from comming downe and on the other side those that are in hell are tyed there by a will that is captiue as one hath affirmed But the soules that goe out of the bodies which are yet on earth euen vpon the lips of them that die why haue they not instantly before they fly to heauen being so often required giuen some smalle proofe of
pleasure of the sight to obserue the beauty of his celestial habitation whereas other creatures are sharpe sighted either to obserue their enemies to flie from them or to looke after their prey to deuour it not to heauen to obserue heauen and to send vp thither by the beames of their sight their most ardent vowes as man alone doth Moreouer this farre flying sight of man is a noble signe of his spirituall knowledge which vniting the time past to the presēt doth alwayes casts her goodly thoughts vpon the future The third is the reuerent maiesty of the whole face that sparkling fire of the eyes striking a colde feare into the fiercest creatures and a flying amazement which are eye-witnesses of some hidden nature very diuerse to that of beasts We reade of the Emperour Ma◅imilian I. who being detained a prisoner by them of Bruges entreated vnworthily reduced to extreame dangers and hourely ready to bee slaine yet nothing daunted nor abating the greatnes of his courage his cruellest enemies durst not behold him in the face the most mutinous did him reuerence and the beames of his eyes saith the History did amaze and pierce the consciences of the Rebels to the quicke We may say as much of the French King Francis I. taken prisoner at the battaile of Pauia for hee had no prison but a royall Court What cause was there of such amazement in their victorious enemies in regard of their prisoners if it were not that in them being in that estate apeared marks of their royall dignity of their spirituall vnction of their diuine Lieutenancie which did melt and co◅found the hearts of their aduersaries Let vs say the same of man for although he be a prisoner sold vnder sinne and slaue to Satan yet hath he in him the diuine character the breathing of the mouth of God the liuely Image of the liuing God who giues him a royalty ouer all creatures who terrifies them with his onely looke puts them to flight by his bare words and makes them obey and serue by his commandement And if at any time they make shew to reuenge themselues they are either prest on by famine or thrust on by feare to defend their liues or else God would haue it so by reason of the sinnes of man The fourth are his goodly words expressing the diuine cōceptions of the soule proper to man onely The speech is the Image of the soule he that shall mince and digest it shewes himselfe ◅o be an hypocrite See farther what Serres saith in the first of the signes Let no man obiect the speaking of parrots for these words found nothing of their intention but rashly giue againe the sound of the words which are tun'd into their eares without any vnderstanding As for Balaams Asse which spake with sence to her vniust master saying What haue I done that thou hast beaton me thrice am not I thine Asse haue I beene accustomed to doe so vnto thee shewing that there was some strong reason that forced her to stay It is so rare a miracle as it may bee neither before nor since the like hath not happened therefore Moses saith that the Eternall opened the Asses mouth or framed by his pow er a humaine voyce in the Asses mouth As for the Oakes of Done and the Oxen which drawing at Plough in the second Punike warre spake these words Beware Rome either it is fabulous or the Diuell spake by them But the most excellent words of man being set downe immortally in writing or flying eternally in memorie of men shewes that their spring is immortall as much as the effect can represent the cause Oh God how could this knowledge of the immortalitie this ardent desire thereof the expression of this desire by immortal words come into the thought of man and from man if all in him were mortall And to finish it wee may add the quicknes of hearing vnderstanding the singing of birds the musicke of voices and the harmomie of instruments Let no man obiect other creatures vnto me they heare the soūd but not the ac cord of tunes Moreouer this hearing of man is so perswaded by the charms of a diuine tongue speaking from a Pulpit of truth as she would willingly leaue the world to enioy the heauenly felicitie no small coniecture that the soule is capable of immortalitie seeing she hath such power ouer the eare her Organ to make it vnderstand desire at the declining of the dying body See moreouer what Iohn de Serres sayth in the 45. profe of the immortality of the soule The first Obiection Whatsoeuer is built vpon an vncertaine foundation is doubtfull and wauering The immortalitie of the soule is built vpon an vncertaine foundation IT seemes that the reason of the preaching of the soule in her exēption from the graue flowes originaly for that she vnderstāds immortal things that by the ioyning of time past with the present she infers the future wherein she is chiefely distinguished from beasts which are mortall but this ground-worke is not sollid Some one speaking of the soule to shew her immortalitie saith that they did not iudge her eternall for that no man could comprehend the Eternitie that is to say that long terme past without beginning If this be admitted the question is decided and the soule will be found mortall seeing that she cannot perfectly comprehend the immortalitie for it is as difficult to conceaue a continuitie to come without end as it is of that which is past without beginning More ouer the difference of a reasonable man hath no aduantage by his continuance ouer beasts seeing that continuance is but an accident and beasts are not longer liued then trees yea shorter yet are they are as much aboue trees as men are aboue beasts Thirdly they whom we wholy follow as Aristotle that myracle of the world Gallen the first fauorite of nature Hippocrates surnamed the diuine and others haue spoken doubtfully or denyed it flatly Gallen Aristoxenus and Dicearchus Aristotles disciples yea and Plutarke himselfe do witnesse that Aristotle denyed it Hippocrates sayd that the soule went alwayes on vnto death Finally if she be of heauen and immortall why doth she not participate of heauen immortalitie why are her thoughts fixt vpon earth and perishable things The plant retaines something of the soyle what hath the soule of heauen Answer Mans vnderstanding comprehends in a certen fashion a continuance without end and for proofe giue him a terme of an hundred Millions of yeares hee will extend his spiritual sight an hundred Millions beyond that and if you will as farre beyond it for that this visible force cannot be in any sort limited by time The heauens and starres in their substance shall continue without end yet in their quallities they must change but the soule doth well comprehend this continaunce Moreouer it is no good consequence to say Bulls feele not the vigour of their force therefore they haue none A
man being borne and bred in the bottome of a darke caue thinks that he hath no facultie to see is he the therefore blinde the soule being buried in the darkenesse of a mortall body as in a graue sees not her immortalitie hath she therfore none Thirdly we doe not say that man is immortall for that he differs from beasts but for many reasons deliuered to be deliuered Fourthly the Philosophers aboue mentioned would see and touch the soule in her immortalitie she is not subiect to any sence S. Basile hath seene it in spirit written it with his hand The soule sayth he cannot be seene with eyes for that she is not illuminated by any colour nor hath any figure or corporal character Aristotle knew it whengoing out of the fabrike of corporall nature hee sayd that it was not the charge of a Physition to treat of all sorts of soules as is the intellectuall which hee pronounceth to differ from the sensitiue vegetatiue from which he sayth shee may separate her selfe as the perpetuall from the corruptible Gallen had his eyes fixed onlie vpon the body the subiect of Phisick and therefore hee sayd freely that it did not import him in his arte if hee were ignorant how the soules were sent into the bodyes or whether they past from one to an other But if it please Gallen leauing the limites of his arte to take the fresh ayre of diuine Philosophy presently his goodly conception is followed with these words The soule is distilling from the vniuerfall Spirit descending from heauen c. Which hauing left the earth recouers heauen and dwells with the Moderator of all things in the Celestiall places As for Hippocrates his words sound more of the immortalitie then of the death of the soule hauing this sence That the soule goes alwayes increasing vntil the death of the bodie But if you desire effects and not words what conceit could Aristotle Gallen and Hippocrates haue of the soule to bee mortall who by an immortall labour haue purchased such great same throughout the world and whose authoritie is the cause that they are now produced and maintained Finally that which he obiects of the soules thoughts fixed for the most part on the fraile things of this passing world it is no smal signe of the corruption of mankind but no argument that the soule is perishable seeing she retaines still the immortal seale which God hath set vpon her in her first creation The. 2 Obiection The container and that which is contained should entertaine themselues by a iust proportion The body and the soule are the container and contained IF the soule bee immortal seeing the body is mortall what proportion were there betwixt the soule and body How hath nature which doth all things by a iust weight number and measure ioyned things together which are so dislike It serues to no purpose to produce the birde kept in a cage which as soone as shee can get out flies away for he is kept there by force and not as forme in substance Answere Wee grant the whole argument and wee adde that it is sinne which came by accident that hath caused this great disproportion Otherwise man before sinne in his estate of innocency had his body immortall therefore Iesus Christ our Sauiour like a cunning Logitian drew the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soule for that God was called the God of Abraham of Isaacke and of Iacob but God sayth hee is not the God of the dead but of the liuing So sayth Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard that the soule is so separated from the body as there remaines still a naturall inclination to resume it againe to minister to his body and this onely doth hinder her that shee is not affectionate towards God withal her vertue and force as be the Angells and therefore her blessednesse is imperfect For the soules ô flesh saith Bernard cannot without thee bee accomplished in their ioy nor perfect in their glory nor consummated in their felicity and in the same place hee distinguisheth their degrees or places for the soule in this life as in a Tabernacle before the resurrection in heauen as in a gallery and then after the resurrection in the house of God But you will say this answere is Metaphisicall I desire one that is naturall Answere This goodly order which you recommend in nature required this ordering that as there are some Creatures meerely spirituall others meerely corporall so there were some which were mixt both spirituall and corporall and that is man who in that smal forme represents all that is in the world and who by his senses doth communicate with the Creatures and by his vnderstanding with the Angells giuing his right hand to heauen and his left to the earth The 3. Obiection If reason loades vs to the immortality of the soule by the same meanes she shold guide vs to the resurrection of the body But that is not true I Proue the Minor by this knowne Maxime of reason That there is no returne from priuation to the habit nor by consequence from death to life no more then from starke blindnes to sight Wherefore they of Athens where one writes that the men are borne Philosophers hearing S. Paul discourse of many points of heauenly doctrine they gaue an attentiue heare vnto him but when hee came to the Resurrection of Iesus Christ they interrupted him mocking at him as one that doated Ans. I deny it that the resurrectiō of the dead is absolutely beyond the apprehension of nature The West-Indians who are without the Church of Christ beleeue it and practise it as well by the ceremonies of their interrements which aime directly at it as by the vsuall intreaties they make to the Spaniards digging for the gold of their Sepulchres that they should not take out carry away the bones to the end they may rise againe speedily as Benzo reports At Rome this Epitaph is yet to be read in Latine vpon a Pagans tombe The publike hath giuen a place vnto Aurelius Balbus a man of an vnspotted life I rest heere in hope of the resurrection But that which is most wonderfull and exceedes all credit if they that write it were not eye witnesses and worthy of credit that in Egypt in a place neere vnto Caine a multitude of people meete on a certaine day in march to bee spectators of the resurrection of the flesh as they say where from Thursday to Saterday inclusiuely they may see and touch bodies wrapt in their sheetes after the ancient manner but they neither see them standing nor walking but onely the armes or the thighes or some other part of the body which you may touch If you go farther off and then returne presently you shall finde these members to appeare more out of the ground and the more they change place the more diuers these motions appeare This admirable sight is written by
efficient cause of Immortaliti But the soule is eleuated aboue all time and place IT is without all question that onely time ruines all things yet the vnderstanding is not subiect to time for the time past is present vnto it And therefore man shall see an act plaied before him and yet he shall haue another in his vnderstanding which was done 10. 20. or 30. yeares before and shall haue it so present in his minde as the spirituall intuition thereof will steale from his corporall eyes that which is presently acted before them So Scipio Affricanus sayed that he was neuer lesse alone then when he was alone why For that his actes past his armies led and his triumphes presented themselues vnto him in the most solitarie walkes of his garden Obserue a horse he doth not see seele nor thinke of any thing but the obiect that is before his eyes But contrarie-wise the soule is there where she stayes least she studies and calls to mind what is past becomes wise for the future before shee sees and of three times makes but one for that she is not subiect to time this is plainly seene in the Prophets to whom the future is reuealed in the spirit as it were present by him that hath made time And this is the true reason why the Prophets speak without lying of things to come as if they had bin done So Esay chap. 9. spake of Iesus Christ A child is borne vnto vs a child is giuen vs for hee saw him borne with his Propheticall eyes dead and risen againe I would insist vpon this Argument if it were not as plaine as it is firme As for the naturall place of the Soule she is not definite for she is all in the braine all in the heart all in the liuer all in the Matrix so of the other parts of the bodie not according to the totall of her vertue for she is one in the head an nother the feete another in the sight another in the hearing But she is thus diffused according to the totall of her essence which makes her in some sort infinite and by consequent immortall It is not then of her as of the moouer of a great wheele which touching one part makes all the rest turne Nor as a King who sitting in his Pallace stretcheth out his hands to the farthest confines of his kingdome But as God in the world who is in heauen on earth and all in all The first Obiection All that is distempered by heate and drought is perishable Such is the Soule GAllen thinking that the Soule burnes in the body by a burning feauer is lost with the great losse of bloud and that a strong poyson doth poyson it hee protests plainely that vntill that time hee had doubted what the substance of the Soule was but then growne wiser as well by practise as by age he durst boldly sweare that it was nothing but the temperature of the bodie And therefore calling Plato out of his graue hee demands of him how it is possible the soule should be immortall Answer The heate of a feuer and the corporall force cannot worke vpon the soule neither can she suffer and although the actions which the soule doth by meanes of the Organes of the body be depraued or interrupted by the deprauation and interruption of the Organes yet for all that the soule loseth nothing of her vertue nor of her habilitie He that euen now played excellently well on the Lute must not be held to haue lost his cunning if taking a Lute ill mounted and with 〈◊〉 stringâ—… hee play ill or if hauing no strings at all he ceaseth to play It is euen so of the spirit in the body for in the sinewes flowing from the braine there distills a certain vital spirit as a beame of the Sun of whose force the soule makes vse first to handle the sinewes and by them the Muscles which being afterwards moued reuiue euery member apart and altogether Now if any maligne disease come to depraue this subtile humor the functions of the soule feele it but not the soule Moreouer as certaine vncleane spirits remaining in some darke and filthy house by reason of the vapors agreeing with their dispositioÌ„ if it be clensed the doore windowes set open if a good aire a comfortable Sun and wholsome wind enter into it if it be inhabited by many who passe the time ioyfully and especially if they play vpon many Instruments these spirits quit the place So by a contrary analogie the soule is kept and entertained in the bodie by certaine spirituall qualities and fit for her exercises which comming in time to change to the contrarie they chase away the soule being glad vpon that occasion to dislodge from a place which was not to be held Thirdly if the temperament bee nothing but the Quintâ—…ssence of the mixtion of the foure elements whereof mans body is compounded as the harmonie is the fift sownd rysing from all the parts in Musicke and if Gallen meanes not to speake but of this soule which hee hath felt in the touching of the pulse in the Anatomie of the body I say of the vegetatiue and the sensitiue soule wee may yeelde vnto him But of the reasonable soule which contaynes these two within her compasse as the fift angle doth a triaÌ„gle quadrangle which makes vse of the temper to the bodie as of an instrument to rule and gouerne it as the Pilot doth the Helme to conduct his ship that cannot be for to confound the instrument with the principal agent the Pilot with the Helme were no reason In the actioÌ„s of a vegetatiue sensitiue life although there be a mature teÌ„perature required yet shall they neuer proue that this temper is necessary to vnderstand and contemplate seeing that out of all question the most exquisite contemplation consists in the sequestratioÌ„ of the soule from the communion of the body for that contemplation is the more certen the more it is sequestred from grosse circumstaÌ„ces of matter place and time things which with their accidentarie attires are perceiued by the seÌ„ses do often deceiue How often hath our sight and our hearing deceiued vs thinking to see heare one thing which proued another But the sciences as the Mathematicks which extract the Essences out of bodyes are neuer deceiued following their art and much lesse the Metaphisicke which coÌ„templates the pure spirits free from any contagion of matter But if the reasonable soule were nothing but the temperament of the body it could not bee but among a millioÌ„ of beasts which are in the world some one should bee found which had the same mixture of the the foure first humors which are in man and by consequence the same reasonable facultie and if any reply that the chiefe difference is in the braine I will answer that the Anatomy doth not shew any difference of the braine of men and beasts The 2. Obiection If the soule liued out of
it c. ANswere Neither Dauid nor Ezechias nor the other seruants of God feared death as it was death simply alone considered but for that God threatned them in regard of their sins by reason whereof it seemes they had some confused apprehension of hell which is the second death Doubtlesse my fault is great sayd Dauid but I pray thee saue mee by thy great bounty These are the words of God to Ezechias Dispose of thy house for thou shalt die shortly and shall not liue We must note that Ezekias heart was puft vp with glory God would humble him by the consideration of death wherewith he threatned him But these two and all other the seruants of God setting aside these threats being in the fauour of God haue with Saint Paul desired to die and to be freed from this mortal body to be with Christ with God Man here below should not apprehend any thing but the conscience of another life a life which dying without repentance grace leades to death eternall as that of Saul and Iudas who being desperate slue themselues quenching the match of a vicious life to kindle it in the fire of hell where there is a Lake of fire and brimstone As for the death of Christ the great difference it hath both in the cause and the effects from that of the faithful Christians makes it to differ a world The reason is Gods Diuine Iustice to reuenge the iniury which hath beene done him by the diuell in the nature of man the which not able to do in him without his totall ruine hee hath done in his surety in Iesus Christ his Son whom to that end hee sent into the world to take humaine flesh in the Virgins wombe It is he that was wounded for our offences broken for our iniquities censured to bring vs peace and slaine to cure vs as the Prophet speakes and the Apostles testifie The fruites first the glory of God is manifested in his loue in his bounty and in his mercy towards vs to haue so loued the world as to giue his owne Son to death for it to the end that whosoeuer did beleeue in him should not perish but haue life euerlasting as the same eternal Son doth witnes Secondly it is our saluation the redemption of the Church from sinne and death for it is the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world And these are the reasons why Iesus Christ was terrified in death feeling the wrath of God vpon him for our sinnes But the death of the faithfull is nothing like for in the greatest torments which Tyrants can inflict vpon them it mortifies the sence and takes away all paine by the abundance of his consolation as Ruffinus writes of Theodorus and as our Annales testifie of the smiling death of Martirs in the middest of burning fiers for God is satisfied the passage is open the venimous teeth of death are pulled out seeing that the Lord wrestling with her hath slaine her as S. Augustine speakes and like a most expert Phisition hath made a wholesome Treacle to purge our bodies of those corrupt burning stincking and deadly humors and to make it sound holy impassible and immortall The second Obiection Euery iust reward is proportionable to the paine The reward of Martyrsis great Therefore their paine is great THe holy Writ and the ancient Fathers vpon it beare witnesse of the honour and great triumph which the Martyrs obtaine in heauen if their conflict against death bee answerable to this triumph as equity requires it must bee exceeding great and therefore it is no easie thing to dye the which S. Augustine seemes to confirme Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non esset magna Martyrum fortitudo If saith hee there were no bitternesse in death the Martyrs valour should not be great Answer He is truely a Martyr who for the honour of God and for the loue of his neighbour doth constantly seale the contract of the alliance of God with his owne bloud and the true cause of Martyrdome is to suffer death for iustice and for the name of Christ as Christians and in doing well This bloud thus shed is the true seede of the Church the very Commentary of the holy Scripture the Trompet of Gods glory the true Victory of the cruelty and obstinacy of Gods enemies the holy Lampe to lighten and draw to the Kingdome of Christ those which are in the shaddow of death c. In consideration whereof these holy Champions of the faith are honored in heauen with a Crowne of gold clothed with white garments c. Vpon earth in the primi tiue Church vpon the day of their suffring which they called their birth-day the faithfull assembled vpon the place of their Martyrdome did celebrate their happy memory repeated their combates commended their resolution exhorting the assistants to doe the like if they were called to the like combate as well by reading of their bloody history as by the sight of the place where their blood was newly spilt It is that which Cyrillus in the epistle to Smyrne the Paraphrase of Rufynus doth teach vs wherein we may see that it was not the death but the cause of the death which made them to bee so recompenced and recommended And whatsoeuer they haue had in heauen shall bee giuen to all others which shall haue the like will to serue their master though not the effect the like Crowne nor the like garments To mee saith that great Martyr S. Paule the Crowne of Iustice is reserued which the Lord the iust Iudge shall giue mee in that day and not onely to me but vnto all those that shall loue his Comming And what Christian is it that desires not the comming of Christ It is also written that all the Armies which are in heauen wherein all the faithfull are followed the faithfull the true the Word of God vpon white horses clad in white Cypres Finally in this inestimable reward which God giues vnto Martyrs there is not so great a regard had to the merit and grieuousnesse of their death as to the most precious blood of his Sonne Iesus Christ and to his free promise wherefore this Obiection is to no purpose and if it were it doth incite men more to desire then to refuse death if it bee true that the enduring of the first death in the Saints is a freeing frō the second as Saint Augustine teacheth The third Obiection It is impossible but man should be toucht with a great apprehension of euery sharpe combate he is to endure Such is death MAn hath three cruell enemies which present themselues vnto him at his last farewell a sensible paine at the dissolution of the foule from the body sinne represents vnto him heauen gates shut and hell open and Satan tempts him and lets him see his criminall Inditement whereof he is ready to execute the sentence Answer It is