all things and which liueth in very déede vppon him by whom all the things which we wonder at here beneath are vphild And what els is vyolence but a iustling of two bodies together and how can there be any such betwéene a bodie and a spiritual substance yea or of two spirits one against another seeing that oftentymes when they would destroye one another they vphold one an other And if the Soule cannot be pushed at neither inwardly nor outwardly is there any thing in nature that can naturally hurt it No but it may perchaunce bee weakened by the very force of his encounter as wee see it doth befall to our sences For the more excellent and the more sensible the thing is in his kynd which the sence receiueth so much the more also is the sence it self offended or gréeued therwith As for example the féeling by fire the taste by harshnesse the smelling by sauours the hearing by the hideousnesse of noyse whether it be of Thunderclappe or of the falling of a Riuer and the sight by looking vpon the Sunne vpon Fyre and vpon all things that haue a glistering brightnesse I omit that in the most of these things it is not properly the sence it selfe but the outward instrument of sence only that is offended or hurt But let vs see if there be the like in our reasonable Soule Nay contrarywise the more of vnderstanding and excellencie that the thing is the more doth it refresh and comfort our mynd If it bee darke so as wee vnderstand it but by halues it hurteth vs not but yet doth it not delight vs. Nay as we increase in vnderstanding it so doth it like vs the better and the higher it is the more doth it stirre vp the power of our vnderstanding and as ye would say reache vs the hande to drawe vs to the atteynement thereof As for them that are dim-sighted wee forbid them to behold the things that are ouerbright But as for them that are of rawest capacitie wee offer them the things that are most vnderstandable When the sence beginneth to perceyue most sharply then is it fayne to giue ouer as if it felt the very death of it selfe Contrarywise when the mynd beginneth to vnderstand then is it most desirous to hold on still And whereof commeth that but that our sences work by bodily instruments but our mynd worketh by a bodilesse substance which néedeth not the helpe of the body And seeing that the nature the nourishment and the actions of our Soule are so farre differing both from the nature nourishment and actions of the body and from al that euer is done or wrought by the bodie can there be any thing more childish than to déeme our Soule to be mortal by the abating and decaying of our sences or by the mortalitie of our bodies Nay contrariwise it may be most soundly and substantially concluded therevpon that mans Soule is of it owne nature immortall seeing that all death as well vyolent as naturall commeth of the bodie and by the bodie Let vs see further what death or corruption is It is say they a separating of the matter from his forme And forasmuch as in man the Soule is considered to be the forme and the bodie to be as the matter the separation of the Soule from the bodie is cōmonly called Death Now then what death can there bee of the Soule sith it is vnmaterial as I haue sayd afore and a forme that abideth of it selfe For as one sayth a man may take away the roundnesse or squarenesse from a table of Copper because they haue no abyding but in the matter but had thei such a round or square forme as might haue an abyding without matter or stuffe wherein to be out of doubt such forme or shape should continue for euer Nay which more is how can that be the corrupter of a thing which is the perfection thereof The lesse corsinesse a man hath the more hath he of reason and vnderstanding The lesse our mynds be tyed to these bodily things the more liuely and chéerefull be they At a word the full and perfect life thereof is the full and vtter withdrawing thereof from the bodie and whatsoeuer the bodie is made of All these things are so cléere as they néede no proofe Now we knowe that euery thing worketh according to the proper being therof and that the same which perfecteth the operations of a thing perfecteth the being thereof also It followeth therefore that sith the separation of the body from the Soule and of the forme from the matter perfecteth the operation or working of the Soule as I haue sayd afore it doth also make perfect and strengthen the very being thereof and therefore cannot in any wise corrupt it And what els is dying but to be corrupted And what els is corrupting but suffering And what els is suffering but receyuing And how can that which receyueth all things without suffering receyue corruption by any thing Fyre corrupteth or marreth our bodies and we suffer in receyuing it So doth also extreme colde but if wee suffered nothing by it it could not fréese vs. Our sences likewise are marred by the excessiue force of the things which they light vpon And that is because they receyue and perceyue the thing that gréeueth them and for that the maner of their behauing of themselues towards their obiects is subiect to suffering But as for the reasonable Soule which receiueth al things after one maner that is to wit by way of vnderstāding wherethrough it alway worketh is neuer wrought into how is it possible for it to corrupt or marre it selfe For what is the thing whereat our Soule suffereth aught in the substance thereof I meane whereby the substance of our Soule is any whit impayred or hurt by mynding or conceyuing the same in vnderstanding As little doth the fire hurt it as the ayre and the ayre as the fire As little hurt receiueth it by the frozen yce of Norwey as by the scorching sands of Affricke As little also doth vyce anoye it as vertue For vyce and vertue are so farre of from incombering the substance of the Soule that our mynd doth neuer conceiue or vnderstand them better than by setting them together one against another That thing therfore which doth no whit appayre it selfe but taketh the ground of perfecting it self by all things can not be marred or hurt by any thing Agein what is death The vttermost poynt of mouing and the vttermost bound of this life For euen in liuing we dye and in dying we liue and there is not that step which we set downe in this life which dooth not continewally step foreward vnto death after the maner of a Dyall or a Clocke which mounting vp by certeine degrées forgoeth his mouing in mouing from Minute to Minute Take away mouing from a body and it doth no more liue Now let vs sée if the soule also be caryed with the same mouing If it be caryed
but to vexe our minds in this lyfe In his bookes of the Soule hee not onely separateth the Body from the Soule but also putteth a difference betwixt the Soule it selfe the Mind terming the Soule the inworking of the body and of the bodily instruments and the mynd that reasonable substance which is in vs whereof the doings haue no fellowship with the doings of the body and whereof the Soule is as Plato saieth but the Garment This Mynd sayth he may be seuered from the body it is not in any wyse mingled with it it is of such substaunce as cannot be hurt or wrought vpon it hath being and continuance actually and of it selfe and euen when it is separated from the body then is it immortall and euerlasting To be short it hath not any thing like vnto the body For it is not any of al those things which haue being afore it vnderstād them And therefore which of all bodily things can it be And in another place he sayeth thus As concerning the Mynd and the contemplatiue powre it is not yet sufficiently apparant what it is Neuerthelesse it seemeth to bee another kind of Soule and it is that onely which can bee separated from the corruptible as the which is Ayeuerlasting To be short when as he putteth this question whether a Naturall Philosopher is to dispute of all maner of Soules or but onely of that Soule which is immateriall it followeth that he graunteth that there is such a one And againe when as he maketh this Argument Looke what God is euerlastingly that are wee in possibilitie according to our measure but hee is euerlastingly separated from bodily things therefore the time will come that wee shall bee so too He taketh it that there is an Image of God in vs yea euen of the Diuine nature which hath continuance of itselfe Uery well and rightly therfore doth Simplicius gather therof the immortalitie of the Soule For it dependeth vpon this separation vpō continuance of being of it self Besides this he sayth also that hunting of beasts is graūted to man by the lawe of Nature because that thereby man chalengeth nothing but that which naturally is his owne By what right I pray you if there be no more in himself than in them And what is there more in him than in them if they haue a soule equall vnto his Herevnto make all his commendations of Godlines of Religion of blessednes and of contemplation For too what ende serue all these which doe but cumber vs here belowe Therefore surely it is to be cōcluded that as he spake doubtfully in some one place so he both termed and also taught to speake better in many other places as appeareth by his Disciple Theophrastus who speaketh yet more euidently thereof than he The Latins as I haue sayd before fell to Philosophie somewhat later then the Gréekes And as touching their common opinion the exercises of superstition that were among them the maner of speeches which we marke in their Histories their contempt of death and their hope of another life can giue vs sufficient warrant thereof Cicero speaketh vnto vs in these words The originall of our Soules and Myndes cannot bee found in this lowe earth for there is not any mixture in them or any compounding that may seeme to bee bred or made of the earth Neither is there any moysture any wyndinesse or any firy matter in them For no such thing could haue in it the powre of memorie Vnderstanding and conceit to beate in mynd things past to foresee things to come and to consider things present which are matters altogither Diuine And his conclusion is that therefore they bee deriued from the Mynd of GOD that is to say not bred or begotten of Man but created of God not bodily but vnbodily wherevpon it followeth that the Soule cannot be corrupted by these transitorie things The same Cicero in another place sayeth that betwéene God and Man there is a kinred of reason as there is betwéene man man a kinred of blud That the fellowship betwéene man and man commeth of the mortall body but the fellowship betwéene God and man commeth of God himselfe who created the Soule in vs. By reason whereof sayth hée we may say we haue Alyance with the heauenly sort as folke that are descended of the same race and roote whereof that we may euermore be myndfull we must looke vp to heauen as to the place of our birth whether we must one day returne And therfore yet once againe he concludeth thus of himself Think not sayth he that thou thy selfe art mortall it is but thy body that is so For thou art not that which this outward shape pretendeth to be the Mynd of Man is the man in deede and not this lumpe which may bee poynted at with ones Fingar Assure thy selfe therefore that thou art a GOD For needes must that be a God which liueth perceyueth remembereth foreseeth and finally reigneth in thy body as the Great God the maker of all things doth in the vniuersall world For as the eternall God ruleth and moueth this transitory world so doth the immortall Spirit of our soule moue rule our fraile body Hereuntoo consent all the writers of his tyme as Ouid Virgill and others whose verses are in euery mans remembrance There wanted yet the wight that should all other wights exceede In loftie reach of stately Mynd who like a Lord in deede Should ouer all the resdewe reigne Then shortly came forth Man Whom eyther he that made the world and all things els began Created out of seede diuine or els the earth yet yoong And lately parted from the Skie the seede thereof vncloong Reteyned still in frutefull wombe which Iapets sonne did take And tempering it with water pure a wight thereof did make Which should resemble euen the Gods which souereine state doe hold And where all other things the ground with groueling eye behold He gaue to man a stately looke and full of Maiestie Commaunding him with stedfast looke to face the starry Skie Here a man might bring in almost all Senecaes wrytings but I will content my selfe with a fewe sayings of his Our Soules sayth he are a part of Gods Spirit and sparkes of holy things shining vpon the earth They come from another place than this lowe one Whereas they seeme to bee conuersant in the bodie yet is the better part of them in Heauen alway neere vnto him which sent them hither And how is it possible that they should be from beneath or from anywhere els thā from aboue seeing thei ouerpasse al these lower things as nothing and hold skorne of all that euer we can hope or feare Thus ye sée how he teacheth that our Soules come into our bodies from aboue But whether go they agayne when they depart hence Let vs here him what he sayes of the Lady Martiaes Sonne that was dead He is
vnto the Earth and yet neuerthelesse continue still fast knit together in one bond by one vnitie Now all these parts which procéede from one and tend to one doe make vs to beléeue that all procéede from one most single one Againe in the things that haue life as in Hearbes and Trées wee see a barke a stalke or trunke many boughes or braunches and an infinite number of leaues The bodie hath no likenesse to the leaues nor the leaues to the fruite nor the fruite to the blossomes And yet doe all these come from one roote which hath his force vnited to it selfe and the roote springing of a kernell or of a grayne which cannot be the work of any mo then one workman conteyueth all the sayd diuersities in his vniformitie and of it selfe alone yéeldeth foorth infinite of the same kinde and of one beginning of life which is not multiplyed in it selfe maketh it selfe a beginning of life as well within it selfe as without it selfe vnto many things that haue life Likewise as touching wights wee see in euery of them a thousand diuers parts Outwardly Head Eyes Nose Eares Téeth Tongue Féete Tayle and so foorth and inwardly the Heart the Lungs the Stomacke the Liuer the Bowelles the Kidneys the Bones the Sinewes the Heartstrings the Ueynes and such other things The beginning of this whole Masse and of all those so manifold parts is next cousen vnto nothing a very small drop of one shape but onely one Yet notwithstanding it hath the beginning of life and sence vnited in it selfe which multiplyeth it self into many abilities sences actions and mouings and that not inwardly onely but also outwardly in infinite numbers of the same kinde which in processe of tyme doe fill whole Countries So certeyne is this principle in nature that all multitudes come from an vnitie or One and that there cannot bee any multitude vnlesse the same haue first bin no multitude But wee take no héede of it because wee see it euery day and yet is it giuen vs to looke vpon to the end we should haue regard of it Howbeit forasmuch as man is both the image of God and the Counterpane of the world together wee cannot sée this vnitie so apparantly in any thing as in man himselfe If we looke vpon his bodie all the parts thereof are made one for another and minister one to another with mutuall dueties and without so doing he could not continue nor liue The Eyes guyde the Féete the Féete beare the Eyes by one part the things that are néedful are taken in and by another the things that are superfluous are voyded out and all and euery of them referre their doings to the benefite of the whole bodie This vnion of diuers operations tending al to one poynt shewes that the framing of man was made by one onely workemanship And as the workemanship is but one so must the workemaister also néedes bée but one For like as by a building that is made by péeces and of diuers proportions we deeme the diuersitie of the maysterbuilders so by the vniformitie thereof we iudge it to be the deuise and woâ—kmanship of one alone The Ueynes are spred foorth throughout the whole bodie howbeit from one welhead that is to say from the Liuer so be the Sinewes howbeit from the Brayne So likewise are the Heartstrings howbeit from the Heart By these thrée sorts of Cunditpypes are life sence and breath shead foorth euen to the least and vttermost parts and the braunches thereof are without number but the originall of all is onely one But yet doth this shine foorth more cleerely in the Soule of man It hath life sence and mouing All these are dealt foorth maynteyned and guyded by the onely one Soule Here ye see alreadie one vnitie The Soule which hath his powers so diuers and so farre spred is whole thorowout all the whole bodie and whole in euery part thereof as much in the least as in the greatest and as much in the least as in the whole There ye see yet a streighter vnitie Againe the Soule is yet more streightly shut vp into Mynde which is the Soule of the Soule as the Apple of the Eye is the Eye of the Eye and yet notwithstanding this Mynd as entierly one as it is conceiueth and doth infinite things entereth into a thousand places without remouing passeth ouer the Seas mounteth vp to the Heauens and reacheth downe to the deapth of the Earth Lo here an vnitie most streight in it selfe and yet extended to the vtmost parts of the world Hermes saith that the Sunnebeames of God are his Actions the Sunnebeames of the World are the Natures of things and the Sunnebeames of Man are Artes and Sciences Therefore let vs see whether the Artes and Sciences will guyde vs to the same vnitie whereunto those Actions and the natures of things haue led vs alreadie beginning at the lower and mounting vp to the higher Grammer teacheth vs to bring the diuers parts of spéech into oue congruetie and the end thereof is to speake and the end of speaking is societie Rhetorike teacheth to drawe mennes minds to one selfsame opinion Logike teacheth to sift out the trueth from a noÌ„ber of falshods which treuth can be but one Their ends then are congruetie societie vnitie of mind and trueth which are but sundrie sortes of vnitie Arithmetick proceedeth from vnitie Geometrie from a pricke and Musick from agréement of sounds and the end of them is to reduce things to one comon reason to one proportion and to one harmonie all which are kinds of vnitie and their braunches are braunches of the same For Perspecttiue draweth all his lynes to one poynt Masourie and Carpentrie tende to vniformitie The handicraft indeuereth to bring many powers and many mouings vnder one to ouerrule them all All which again are but sundry sorts of vnitie Phisick tendeth to the preseruation or restitution of health and health is nothing els but a wel-proportioned vnion of diuers humors togither The skill of Lawe tendeth to Right and there is but one Right though there be infinite wrongs Then serues it but to mainteyne restore and bring men backe ageine vnto vnitie Let vs proceede further Morall Philosophie subdeweth many diuers passions and affections vnto one reason in one man How shold gouernment bringeth many men to the obeying of one householder Ciuillgouernment reduceth many households into one Commonweale which is nothing but an vnitie of many people whether it be vnder one Lawe or vnder one magistrate insomuch that eueÌ„ the most popular Comonweales haue in their extremities taken a Dictator and in their ordinarie course of gouernment a Consull the one after the other Now then all that euer man conceiueth inuenteth and disposeth doth leade vs alwayes to an vnitie Where vnitie is lost there things goe to wrecke Artes are confounded and Common-weales are dissolued Then like as in vnvnited diuersitie wee finde waste and subuersion so must we looke in vnity for the
and our so curious searching out of Pedegrees maketh vs too confesse it whether wée will or no. And if any thing in the worlde might haue any true pretence or lykelyhod to boast of an eternitie our Soules might doe it which without mouing themselues doe doe cause a thousand things to remoue They moūt vp vnto Heauen and go downe to the déepe without shifting their place They hoord vp the whole world in the storehouse of their memorie without combering of any roome there They packe vp all tymes past present and to come together without passing from one too another To be short they conceyue and conteyne all things and after a sort euen themselues also And yet shall we be so bold as too say they be eternal without beginning Nay how can that be sith we sée that they profit and learne yea and oftentimes also appayre and forget from age to age and from day to day How I say can that be sith we sée that they passe frō ignorance to knowledge from darkenesse to light from gladnesse to sadnesse and from hope to despayre and that not by yeeres but euen in minutes and moments And which more is wee sée them receyue great trouble and alteration by and for the things that are mutable and transitorie which florish in the morning and are withered and parched as in an Ouen at night Now to be altered and chaunged importeth a mouing and he that graunteth a mouing graunteth also a beginning and to be moued by things mutable sheweth an ouer great inconstancie of nature which is a thing tootoo contrarie vnto eternitie To be short how can that thing be eternall or euerlasting which cannot so much as by any imagination resemble aught that this word eternitie betokeneth And yet this soule of ours is the thing which in man ioyneth Heauen and Earth togither marketh the chaunges in things aboue and for the most part worketh them in the things beneath carying vp a handfull of dust aboue the skyes and after a sort bringing downe Heauen vnto the Earth Much more reason then is it that neither in the Heauen nor in the Earth nor in all the Harmonie of the whole world which wee so greatly wonder at there should not be any approching at al vnto eternitie Some man perchaunce will say vnto mee that in the partes of the World there is no eternitie but yet there may be in the whole Nay how can a Whole bee eternall which is composed of brittle and temporall parts And what call they the Whole but the huge frame of Heauen whose mouing proueth that it had a beginning Againe some other will perhaps say there is a beginning of moouing in the world as well in the whole as in the parts thereof but yet it doth not therefore followe that it had beginning of béeing Nay if the being thereof was euerlastingly afore the mouing therof how could it be called in Latine Mundus in Gréeke Cosmos that is to say A goodly or beautifull order seeing that for the most part Order dependeth vppon moouing For take from the Heauens their turning about and from the Sunne his course and set them fast in some place where you list and you shall make the one halfe of the Earth blynd and the whole Earth eyther scorched with his continuall presence or desert and vninhabitable by his absence and ye shall make the Sea for the most part vnsayleable and the Ayre vnfruitfull or vntemperate Therefore it will followe at the least that the World hath not bin inhabited euerlastingly nor the Plants thereof bin eternall nor the liuing Creatures no not euen Mankynd bin without beginning Surely I wote not what eyes these Philosophers had who had leuer to eternise the Stones Rocks and Mountaines than themselues for whom those things were made And againe to what purpose serued the Sunne and the Moone at that tyme Wherefore serued Ayre wherefore serued Sea when nothing did yet liue see and breathe It remayneth then that afore mouing it was but a confused heape masse or lump of things without shape and that in processe of tyme as some say a certeyne Soule wound it selfe into it and gaue shape to that bodie and afterward life mouing and fence to the partes thereof according as he had made euery of them capable to receiue insomuch that the world is nothing els but that confused heape now orderly disposed indewed with soule and life so as of that soule and confused lumpe together there is now made one perfect liuing wight A proper imagination surely and méete for a very Beast to father his so orderly essence vppon the shapelessenesse of a Chaos that is to say of confusednesse remoued away rather than vpon the wisedome power of a quickning Spirit But seeing that this Chaos could not receyue eyther shape or order but by the sayd Soule if they be both eternall how met they together in one poynt being of so contrary natures the one to shape and the other to be shaped If it were by aduenture how did that Soule by aduenture so set things in order and how happeneth it that it hath not since that tyme put them out of order againe Or if it were by aduise of whom should that aduise be but of a Superiour And who is that Superiour but God Againe eyther this Soule was tyed really and in very déede to this bodie of the world from all eternitie or els it did but onely pearce through it by his power as seemed best of the owne freewill If it were tyed specially to such a confused masse by whō but by force of a higher power And then what els could that confused Chaos be to him but an euerlasting graue And what els also were that to say than that the sayd Chaos was as a shapelesse Child yet newly begotten and scarce set together in the moothers wombe which within a few daies after by the infusion of a Soule beginneth to haue shape mouing and sence and afterward in his due tyme is borne and being growne vp decayeth agayne and so endeth as our bodies doe Or if a Soule pearced into it and went through it by a freewil and power let vs not striue about termes for a Soule is so named in respect of a bodie whereto it is tyed the same is the liuing GOD who at his pleasure gaue it both shape life and mouing But I will shew hereafter that he not only gaue the Worlde his shape but also created the very matter stuffe and substance thereof But it suffiseth mée at this tyme to wrest from them that he is the maker and shaper thereof Let vs yet more clearely set forth the originall of the World I aske what the world is of it selfe If it moue not it forgoeth both his order and his beautie as I sayd afore And if it moue it sheweth it selfe vncapable of eternitie But there is yet more These lower spaces of the world are the harbrough of liuing creatures and
beeing In the outward man we haue a Counterfet of the whole world and if ye rip them both vp by percelmeale ye shal find a woonderfull agreement betwixt them But my purpose in this booke is not to treate of the things that perteyne peculiarly to the body In the inward man wee haue a summe of whatsoeuer life sence and mouing is in all creatures and moreouer an Image or rather a shadowe for the Image is defaced by our sinne of the Godhead it selfe And that is the thing which wee haue to examine in this Chapter In Plants we perceyue that besides their bodies which wee see there is also an inward vertue which wee see not whereby they liue growe bud and beare fruite which vertue wee call the quickening Soule and it maketh them to differ from Stones and Mettalles which haue it not In sensitiue liuing things we finde the selfesame vertue which worketh while they sléepe are after a sort as the Plants and therewithall we finde another certeine vertue or power which seeth heareth smelleth tasteth and feeleth which also in many of them doth hoord vp the things brought in by the sences which maner of power the Plants are voyd of This do we terme the sensitiue Soule because the effects thereof are discerned and executed by the Sences In man we haue both the quickning and the Sensitiue the former vttering it selfe in the nourishing and increasing of him and the later in the subtilitie of sence and imagination wherethrough he is both Plant and Beast together But yet moreouer wee see also a Mynd which considereth and beholdeth which reapeth profite of the things that are brought in by the Sences which by his séeing conceiueth that which it seeth not which of that which is not gathereth that which is finally which pulleth a man away both from the earth from al sensible things yea and after a sorte from himself too This doe we call the reasonable Soule and it is the thing that maketh man to bée man and not a Plant or a brute Beast as the other two doe and also to bee the Image or rather a shadowe of the Godhead in that as we shal say hereafter it is a Spirit that may haue continuance of being alone by it selfe without the bodie And by the way whereas I say that the inward man hath a quickening power as a Plant hath a sensitiue power as a Beast hath and a power of vnderstanding wherby he is a man my meaning is not that he hath thrée Soules but onely one Soule that is to wit that like as in the brute Beast the sensitiue Soule comprehendeth the quickening Soule so in man the reasonable Soule comprehendeth both the sensitiue and the quickening and executeth the offices of them all thrée so as it both liueth feeleth and reasoneth euen as well and after the same maner as the mynd of a man may intend to his owne household-matters to the affayres of the Commonweale and to heauenly things all at once Or to speake more fitly these three degrees of Soules are thrée degrées of life whereof the second excéedeth and conteyneth the first and the third excéedeth and conteyneth both the other two The one without the which the bodie cannot liue is the Soule or life of the Plant and is so tyed to the bodie that it sheweth not it selfe in any wise out of it The second which cannot liue without the bodie is the Soule or life of the Beast which doth well vtter foorth his power and force abroad but yet not otherwise than by the members and instruments of the bodie whereunto it is tyed The third which can of it selfe liue and continue without the bodie but not the bodie without it is the Soule of man which giueth life inwardly to all his parts sheweth foorth his life abroad in the perceyuing of all things subiect to Sence and reteyneth still his force as shal be sayd hereafter yea and increaseth it euen when the strength of the bodie and the very liuelinesse of the sences fayle And in very déede ye shall see a man forgoe all his sences one after another as the instruments of them decay and yet haue still both life and reason vnappayred The cause whereof is that some of the instruments of life and sence doe fayle but the life it selfe which quickeneth them fayleth not And therefore the Beast forgoeth not life in losing sence but he vtterly forgoeth sence in forgoing life And that is because life is the ground of the abilities of sence and the sensitiue life is a more excellent life than the quickening life as wherein those powers and abilities are as in their roote To bee short he that bereaueth man or beast of the vse of Sences or man of the right vse of reason doth not thereby bereaue him of life but he that bereaueth the beast or the outward man of their life doth therewithall bereaue them of sence and reason Therefore it is a most sure argument that the Soule which causeth a beast to liue and the Soule that causeth it to haue sence are both one that is to wit one certeyne kynd of life more liuely and more excellent than the life that is in Plants And likewise that the Soule which causeth man to liue to haue sence and to reason is but one that is to wit one certeyne kynde of life more excellent more liuely and of further reach than the life of the Beast But like as sence is as it were the forme or Selfebeing if I may so terme it of the life of a beast so is reason or vnderstanding the very forme and Selfebeing of the Soule of man and to speak properly it is the Soule or life of the Soule like as the apple of our eye is the very eye of our eye And in very déede when the mynd is earnestly occupied the sences are at a stay and when the sences are ouerbusied the nourishment and digestion is hindered and contrary wise which thing could not come to passe if the Soule were any mo than one substance which by reason that it is but one cannot vtter his force alike in all places at once but yéeldeth the lesse care one where so long as it is earnestly occupyed anotherwhere In this Soule of man which yet notwithstanding is but one the diuersitie of the powers and abilities is very apparant The quickning power doth nourish increase and mainteyne vs and Reason and Sence meddle not therewith neyther haue they power to impeach the working thereof The trueth whereof appeareth in this that those things are best done when our mynd is at rest and our sences are asléepe insomuch that oftentymes we forgo the sence and mouing of some parts by some Rhewme or some Palsey and yet the same parts ceasse not to bee nourished still Also the sensitiue life seeth and perceiueth a farre of yea oftentimes without setting of the mynd therevpon or without considering what the Sence conceyueth Some men which haue
but weake Sences haue very quicke vnderstanding and likewise on the contrary part Agayne some fall into a consumption which â—ant not the perfect vse of their Sences Sometyme the reasonable part is so earnestly bent and occupyed about the things that iâ— liketh of that by the increasing of it self it hurteth and diminisheth the part that quickeneth Also it standeth in argument against the Sences and reproueth them of falshoode and concludeth contrary to their information And it may bee that the man which hath his digestion perfect and his Sences sound hath not his wit or reason sound in like case Now were the Soule but onely one abilitie it could not be so But now is the same diuided manifestly into wit or vnderstanding and will the one seruing to deuise and the other to execute For we vnderstand diuers things which we will not and wee will diuers things which wee vnderstand not which contrary operations cannot be attributed both to one power Neuerthelesse the vniting of all these powers together is with such distinctnesse and the distinguishing of them is with such vnion that ordinarily they méete all together in one selfesame action the one of them as readily by all likelyhood as the other howbeit that euery of them doth his owne worke seuerally by himselfe and one afore another as in respect of their obiects Thus haue we thrée sorts of men according to the thrée powers or abilities of the inwarde man Namely the earthly man which like the Plant myndeth nothing but sléeping and féeding making al his sences and al his reason to serue to that purpose as in whom the eare of this present life onely hath deuoured and swallowed vp his sences and vnderstanding The Sensuall man as S. Paule himself termeth him who is giuen wholly to these sensible things imbacing and casting downe his reason so farre as to make it a bondslaue to his sences and the pleasures and delights therof And the reasonable man who liueth properly in spirite and mynd who entereth into himselfe to knowe himselfe and goeth out of himselfe to behold God making this life to serue to the atteynment of a better and vsing his Sences but as instruments and seruants of his reason After as any of these thrée powers doe reigne and beare sway in man that is to wit after as a man yéeldeth himselfe more to one thaÌ„ to another of them so becommeth he like vnto the Spirites the brute Beastes or Plants yea and the very Blockes and Stones But it is our disposition euen by leynd to be caryed away by our corrupt nature and by the obiects which hemme vs in on all sides but as for against our nature yea or beyond our nature our nature is not able to doe any thing at all Now it is not enough for vs to knowe that wee haue a Soule whereby wee liue feele and vnderstand and which beeing but one hath in it selfe alone so many sundrie powers or abilities for it will be demaunded of vs by and by what this Soule properly is And soothly if I should say I cannot tell what it is I should not belye my selfe a whit for I should but confesse myne owne ignorance as many great learned men haue done afore me And I should doe no wrong at all to the Soule it selfe for sith wee cannot denyâ— the effects thereof the lesse that we be able to declare the nature and béeing therof the more doth the excellencie therof shine forth Againe it is a playne case that no thing can comprehend the thing that is greater than it selfe Now our Soule is after a sort lesse than it selfe inasmuch as it is wrapped vp in this body in like wise as the man that hath gyues and fetters on his féete is after a sort weaker than himselfe Neuerthelesse let vs assay to satiffye such demaunds as well as wee can And forasmuch as it is the Image of God not only in respect of the gouernment and maintenance of the whole world but also euen in the very nature thereof as wee sayd heretofore when we spake of the nature of GOD if we cannot expresse or conceyue what it is let vs at leastwise be certified what it is not First of all that the Soule and the Body be not both one thing but two very farre differing things and also that the Soule is no part of the body it appeareth of it self without further profe For if the Soule were the body or a part of the body it should grow with the body as the other parts of the body doe and the greater that the body were the greater also should the Soule be Nay contrarywise the body increaseth to a certeyne age and then stayeth after which age is commonly the tyme tha the Soule doth most grow and those that are strongest of mynd are commonly weakest of body and the Soule is seene to be full of liuelinesse in a languisshiâ—g body and to growe the more in force by the decay of the bodie The Soule then groweth not with the body and therefore it is not the body nor any part of the body And whereas I speake of growing in the Soule by growing I meane the profiting therof in power and vertue as the body groweth in greatnesse by further inlarging Againe if the Soule were the body it should lose her strength and soundnesse with the body so as the maimed in bodie should therewith feele also a mayme in his vnderstanding as well as in his members whosoeuer were sick of any disease should also bee sicke in his reason he that â—impeth or halteth should therewith haâ—â— in Soule also the blynd mans Soule should bee blynd and the lame mans Soule should be lame But we see coÌ„trariwise that the maymed and the sicke the Cripples and the blynd haue their Soule whole and sound and their vnderstanding perfect and cléeresighted in it selfe To be short many a man dyeth whose body is sound and differeth not a whit in any part from that it was wheÌ„ it was aliue and yet notwithstanding both life mouing sence and vnderstanding are out of it Let vs say then that in the body there was a thing which was not of the body but was a farre other thing than the body Some wilfull person will obiect here that the force and strength of the Soule groweth with the body as appeareâ—h in this that a man growen wil remoue that which a child cannot and that a child of two yéeres old will goe which thing a babe of two moneths old cannot doe But he should consider also that if the selfesame man or the selfesame child should haue a mischaunce in his legge or in his arme he should thereby forgoe the strength and mouing thereof whereas yet notwithstanding his Soule should haue her former force and power still to moue the other as she did afore Therefore it is to be sayd not that the childs Soule is growen or strengthened by tyme but rather that his sine wes are dried and
hardened which the soule vseth as strings and instruments too moue withall and therefore when age hath loosened and weakened them a man hath neede of a staffe to help them with although he haue as good a wil to runne as he had when he was yoong The soule then which moueth theÌ„ all at one becke hath the selfsame power in infancie which it hath in age and the same in age which it hath in the prime of Youth and the fault is only in the instrument which is vnable to execute the operations thereof like as the cunning of a Luteplaier is not diminished by the moystnesse or slacknesse of his Lute strings nor increased by the ouer high streyning and tytght standing of them but in deede in the one hee cannot shewe his cunning at all and in the other he may shewe it more or lesse Likewise the spéech of Children commeth with their teeth howbeit that the speech doe manifestly vâ—ter it self first in that they prattle many things which they cannot pronounce and in old men it goeth away agein with their teeth and yet their cloquence is not abated thereby Asfor Demosthenes although hee surmounted all the Orators of his tyme yet were there some letters which he could not pronounce Giue vnto old age or vnto infancie the same sinewes and teeth and as able and lustye Limmes and members as youth hath and the actions which the soule doeth with the body and by the body I meane so farre foorth as concerne the abilities of sence and lyuelynes shal be performed as well in one age as in another But haddest thou as greate indifferencie in iudging of the force and power of thyne owne soule as of the cunning of a Luteplayer I say not by the nimblenes of his fingars which are perchaunce knotted with the gout but by the playne and sweete Harmonie of his Tabulatorie as they terme it which maketh thée to déeme him to haue cunning in his head although hee can no more vtter it with his hanos so as thou wouldest consider how thou hast in thy selfe a desire to go though they féete be not able to beare the a discretion to iudge of things that are spoken though thyne eyes cannot conuey it vnto thee a sound eloquence though for want of thy teeth thou cannot well expresse it and which is aboue all the rest a substantiall quicke and heauenly reason euen when thy body is most earthly and drooping Thou wouldest soone conclude that the force and power of quickening moouing and perceyuing is whole and sound in thy Soule and that the default is altogether in thy body Insomuch that if she had a newe body and new instruments giuen vnto her she would bee as â—ustie and chéerely as euer she was and that the more she perceyueth the body to decay the more she laboreth to retyre into her self which is a playne proofe of that she is not the body nor any part of the body but the very life and inworker of the body And sith it is so there néedeth no long skanning whether the Soule be a substance or a qualitie For seeing that qualities haue no being but in another thing than themselues the life which causeth another thing to be cannot be a qualitie Forasmuch then as the Soule maketh a man to be a man who otherwise should be but a Carkesse or Caryon doubtlesse vnlesse we will say that the only difference which is betwixt a man and a dead Carkesse is but in accidents we must néedes graunt that the Soule is a forming substance and a substantiall forme yea and a most excellent substance infinitly passing the outward man as which by the power and vertue thereof causeth another thing to haue being and perfecteth the bodily substance which séemeth outwardly to haue so many perfections But herevpon inseweth another controuersie whether this substance bee a bodily or an vnbodily substance which case requireth somewhat longer examination Soothly if we consider the nature of a body it hath certeine measurings and comprehendeth not any thing which is not proportioned according to the greatnesse and capacitie thereof For like as it selfe must bee fayne to haue a place in another thing so must other things occupye some certeyne place in it by reason whereof it commeth to passe that things can haue no place therein if they be greater than it without anoying the one the other To be short if the thing bee lesse than the body that conteyneth it the whole body shall not conteyne it but only some part thereof And if it be greater then must some part thereof néedes be out of it for there is no measuring of bodies but by quaÌ„titie Now we see how our Soule comprehendeth heauen and earth without anoying eyther other and likewise tyme past present and to come without troubling one another and finally innumerable places persons and Townes without combering of our vnderstanding The great things are there in their full greatnesse and the small things in their vttermost smalnesse both of them whole and sound in the Soule whole and sound and not by parcelmeale or only but in part of it Moreouer the fuller it is the more it is able to receiue the moe things that are touched in it the moe it still coueteth and the greater the things bee the fitter is shee to receyue them euen when they be at the greatest It followeth therfore that the Soule which after a sort is infinite cannot be body And so much the lesse can it so bee for that whereas it harboreth so many and so great things in it it selfe is lodged in so small a body Agayne as a thousand diuers places are in the Soule or Mynde without occupying any place so is the Mynd in a thousand places without chaunging of place that erewhiles not by succession of tyme nor by turnes but oftentymes altogether at one instant Bid thy Soule or Mynd goe to Constantinople and foorthwith to turne backe agayne to Rome and straight way to be at Paris or Lyons Bid it passe thorowe America or to go about Affricke and it dispatcheth all these iourneys at a trice looke whether soeuer thou directest it there it is and or euer thou callest it backe it is at home agayn Now is there a body that can bee in diuers places at once or that can passe without remouing or that can moue otherwise than in tyme yea and in such tyme as within a little vnder or ouer is proportioned both to his pace and to the length of the way which it hath to goe Then is it certeine that our Soule is not a bodily substance which thing appeareth so much the more plainly in that being lodged in this body which is so mouable it remoueth not with the body Also it is a sure ground that two bodies cannot mutually enter eyther into other nor conteyne eyther other but the greater must alway néedes conteyne and the lesser must néedes bee conteyned But by our Soules we enter not
only eyther into others bodies but also eyther into others mynds so as wee comprehend eyther other by mutual vnderstanding and imbrace either other by mutual louing It followeth then that this substance which is able to receiue a bodilesse thing can bee no body and that so much the rather for that the body which seemeth to hold it conteyneth it not Nay verely this Soule of ours is so farre of from being a bodily substance and is so manifestly a Spirit that to lodge all things in it selfe it maketh them all after a sort spirituall and bereueth them of their bodies and if there were any bodylinesse in it it were vnable to enter into the knowledge of a bodie So in a Glasse a thousand shapes are seene but if the cléere of the Glasse had any peculiar shape of it owne the Glasse could yéeld none of those shapes at all Also all visible things are imprinted in the eye but if the sight of the eye had any peculiar colour of it owne it would be a blemish to the sight so as it should eyther not see at all or els all things should seeme like to that blemish Likewise whereas the Tongue is the discerner of all tastes if it be not cléere but combered with humours all things are of tast like to the humour so as if it be bitter they also be bitter and if it be watrish they be watrish too yea and if it bee bitter it can not iudge of bitternesse it self That a thing may receyue al shapes all colours and all tastes it behoueth the same to be cléere from all shapes from all colour and from all sauour of it owne And that a thing may in vnderstanding knowe and conceiue all bodies as our Soule doth it behoueth the same to bée altogether bodylesse it self for had it any bodylinesse at all it could not receiue any body into it If wée looke yet more néerely into the nature of a body wée shall finde that no body receiueth into it the substantial forme of another body without losing or altering his owne ne passeth frō one forme into another without the marring of the first as is to bee seene in wood when it receyueth fire in seedes when they spring foorth into bud and so in other things What is to be said then of mans soule which receiueth and conceyueth the formes and shapes of al things without corrupting his owne and moreouer becommeth the perfecter by the more receyuing For the more it receyueth the more it vnderstandeth and the more it vnderstandeth the more perfect is it If it bee a bodily substance from whence is it and of what mixture If it be of the fower Elements how can thei giue life hauing no life of themselues Or how can thei giue vnderstanding hauing no sence If it bee of the mixture of them how may it bee sayd that of diuers things which haue no beeing of themselues should bee made a thing that hath being Or that of diuers outsides should bee made one body or of diuers bodies one Soule or of diuers deaths one life or of diuers darknesses one light Nay rather why say wee not that he which beyond nature hath made the mixture of these bodies hath for the perfecting of our body breathed a Soule also into the body To be short the propertie of a body is to suffer and the propertie of our Soule is to doe And if the body bée not put foorth by some other thing than it selfe it is a very blocke wheras the mynd that is in our Soule ceasseth not to stirre vp and downe in it selfe though it haue nothing to moue it from without Therefore it is to bee concluded by these reasons and by the like that our Soule is a bodylesse substance notwithstanding that it is vnited to our body And herevpon it followeth also that our Soule is not any material thing forasmuch as matter receyueth not any forme or shape but according to his owne quantitie and but onely one forme at once whereas our Soule receyueth all formes without quantitie come there neuer so many at once or so great Agayne no matter admitteth two contrary formes at once but our Soule contrarywise comprehendeth and receyueth them together as fire and water heate and cold white and blacke and not only together but also the better by the matching and laying of them together To bée short seeing that the more wee depart from matter the more wée vnderstand surely nothing is more contrary to the substance of ou◠Soule than is the nature of matter Furthermore if this reasonable Soule of ours is neither a bodily nor a materiall thing nor depending vpon matter in the best actions therof then must it néedes be of it self and not procéede eyther from body or from matter For what doth a body bring foorth but a body and matter but matter and materiall but materialles And therefore it is an vnmateriall substance which hath being of it selfe But let vs see whether the same bee corruptible and mortall or no. Soothly if Plutarke bee to beléeued it is in vayne to dispute thereof For he teacheth that the doctrine of Gods prouidence and the immortalitie of our Soules are so linked together that the one is as an appendant to the other And in very déed to what purpose were the World created if there were no body to behold it Or to what ende behold wee the Creator in the world but to serue him And why should wee serue him vppon no hope And to what purpose hath he indewed vs with these rare giftes of his which for the most part doe but put vs to payne and trouble in this life if we perish like the brute Beast or the Hearbes which knowe him not Howbeit for the better satisfying of the sillie Soules which go on still like witlesse Beastes without taking so much leysure in all their life as once to enter into themselues let vs indeuer héere by liuely reasons to paynt out vnto thē againe their true shape which they labour to deface with so much filthinesse The Soule of man as I haue sayd afore is not a body neyther doth it increase or decrease with the body but contrarywise the more the body decaieth the more doth the vnderstanding increase and the néerer that the body draweth vnto death the more fréely doth the mynd vnderstand and the more that the body abateth in flesh the more woorkfull is the mynd And why then should we think that the thing which becommeth the stronger by the weakenesse of the body and which is aduaunced by the decay of the body should returne to dust with the body A mans Sences fayle because his eyes fayle and his eyes fayle because the Spirits of them fayle but the blynd mans vnderstanding increaseth because his eyes are not busied and the olde mans reason becommeth the more perfect by the losse of his sight Therfore why say we not that the body fayleth the Soule and not the Soule
with the same mouing then doth it vndoutedly moue therewithall Nay contrariwise whether the mynd rest or whether it be buzyed about the proper operations thereof it is not perceiued eyther by any panting of hart or by any beating of pulses or by any breathing of Lungs It is then as a Shippe that carieth vs away with it whether we walke or sit still the stickingfast whereof or the tying thereof to a poste hindereth not our going vp and downe in it still Ageine if the Soule be subiect to the finall corruption of the body then is it subiect to the alterations thereof also and if it be subiect to the alterations it is subiect to tyme also For alterations or chaunges are spices or rather consequents of mouing and moouings are not made but in tyme. Now man in respect of the body hath certeine full poynts or stoppes at the which he receiueth manifest chaunges and thereafter groweth or decayeth But commonly where the decay of the body beginneth there beginneth the cheef strength of the mynd Houbeit that in some men not only their chinnes are couered with downe but also their beards become gray whose minds for want of exercise shewe no signe at all either of rypenesse or growing Moreouer time as in respect of the body cannot be called ageyne but in respect of the mynd it is alwayes present Yea and tyme perfecteth accomplisheth and increaseth our mynd and after a sort reneweth and refressheth it from day to day whereas contrarywise it forweareth wassheth away and quight consumeth both it self and the body with the life thereof It followeth then that the reasonable Soule is not subiect to time nor consequently to any of the chaunges and corruptions that accompanye tyme. Nay we may say thus much more That nothing in the whole World is nurrished with things better than itself neither dooth any of them conteyne greater things than itself But the things that are corruptible do liue of corruptible things and cannot liue without corrupting them as for example beasts liue by herbes men by beasts and sofoorth And therefore things which liue by vncorruptible things and can so receiue and digest them as to turne them into the nurrishment of their nature and yet not corrupt them are vncorruptible them selues to Now the Soule of man I meane the reasonable soule or mynd conceiueth reason and trueth and is fed and strengthened with them And reason trueth are things vnchaungeable not subiect to tyme place or alteration but stedye vnchaungeable and euerlasting For that twice two be fower and that there is the same reason in the proportion of eight vnto six that is of fower vnto three or that in a Tryangle the three inner angles are equall with the too ryght angles and such like are truethes which neither yeeres nor thousands of yeeres can change as true at this day as they were when Euclyde first spake them And so foorth of other things It followeth then that the Soule comprehending reason and trueth which are things free from corruption cannot in any wyse be subiect to corruption Agein who is he of all men that desireth not to be immortall And how could any man desire it if he vnderstoode not what it is Or how could he be able to vnderstand it vnlesse it were possible for him to atteyne vnto it Surely none of vs coueteth to be beginninglesse for none of vs is so neither can any of vs be so And as we cannot so be so also can we not comprehend what it is For who is he that is not at his witts end but only to think vppon eternitie without beginning On the contrarie part there is not so bace a mynd which coueteth not to liue for euer insomuch that wheras we looke not for it by nature we seeke to obteyne it by skill and pollicie some by bookes some by Images and some by other deuices and euen the grossest sort can well imagine in themselues what immortalitie is and are able both to conceyue it and to beleeue it Whence comes this but that our soules beeing created cannot conceiue an euerlastingnesse without beginning and yet neuerthelesse that forasmuch as they be created immortal they doe wel conceiue an immortalitie or euerlastingnes without end And whereto serues this vniuersall desire if it be not naturall or how is it naturall if it be in vaine and not onely in vayne but also too bring vs to Hell and to Torment Let vs wade yet déeper Who can dispute or once so much as doubt whether the Soule bee immortall or no but he that is capable of immortalitie And who can vnderstand what difference is betwixt mortall and immortall but hee that is immortall Man is able to discerne the difference betwéene that which is reason and that which is not and therevpon wee terme him reasonable Whosoeuer would hold opinion that a man is not reafonable should neede none other disproofe than his owne disputing thereof for he would go about to proue it by reason Man can skill to discerne the mortall natures from the immortall And therefore we may well say he is immortall For hee that should dispute to the contrarie shal be driuen to bring such reasons as shall of themselues make him to prooue himselfe immortall Thou sayest the Soule can not be immortall and why Because sayest thou that to be so it would behoue it to woorke seuerally by it selfe froÌ„ the body When thou thinkest that in thy mynd consider what thy body dooth at the same tyme. Nay yet further who hath taught thee so much of the immortall nature if thou thy selfe be nor immortall Or what worldly wight can say what the inwoorking of a reasonable wight is but the wight which in it selfe hath the vse of reason Yet sayest thou still if the Soule be immortall it is frée from such and such passions How enterest thou so farre into the Nature that is so farre aboue thée if thou thy selfe beest mortall All the reasons which thou alledgest against the immortalitie of the soule doe feight directly to the proofe of it For if thy reason mounted no higher than to the things that are mortall thou shouldest knowe neither mortall nor immortall Now it is not some one couetous man aboue all other that desireth immortalitie nor some one man excelling all others in wisdome that comprehendeth it but al mankind without exception It is not then some one seuerall skill or some one naturall propertie that maketh such difference betwéene man and man as we sée to be betwéene many but rather one selfesame nature common to all men whereby they be all maâ—â— to differ from other liuing wights which by no deede doe shewe any desire too ouerliue themselues ne know how to liue therefore their Lyues doe vanish away with their bloud and is extinguished with their bodies If euer thou hast looked to dye consider what discourse thou madest then in thy mynd thou couldest neuer perswade thy conscience nor make thy reason
or in any thing that beareth life in the world In his moothers wombe he liueth the life of a Plant howbeit with this further that he hath a certeyne commencement of sence and moouing which excéede the Plant and doe put him in a readynesse to be indewed with Sences as a Beast is In this life he hath sence and mouing in their perfection which is that propertie of a sensitiue wight but yet besides these he hath also a beginning to reason and vnderstand which are a beginning of another life such as the sensitiue wight hath not this life is to be perfected in another place In the life to come he hath his actions free and full perfected a large ground to worke vppon able to suffise him to the full and a light to his vnderstanding in stead of a light to the eye And like as in comming into this world he came as it were out of another world so in going yet into another world he must also goe out of this world He commeth out of the first world into the second as it were fayling in nourishment but growing in strength vnto mouing and sence and he goeth out of the second into the third fayling in sences and mouing but growing in reason and vnderstāding Now seeing we call the passage out of the first world into the second a birth what reason is it that we should call the passage out of the second into the third a death To be short he that considereth how all the actions of mans mynd tend to the tyme to come without possibilitie of staying vppon the present time how pleasant and delightful soeuer it be we may well discerne by them all that his being which in euery thing as sayth Aristotle followeth the working thereof is also wholly bent towards the tyme to come as who would say this present life were vnto it but as a narrowe grindle on the further side whereof as it were on the banke of some streame or running water he were to finde his true dwelling place and very home in déede But now is it tyme to sée what is sayd to the contrarie wherein we haue to consider eftsoones that which we spake of afore namely that if all that euer is in vs were transitorie and mortall wee should not be so witty to examine the Immortalitie as we be for of Contraries the skill is all one If a man were not mortall that is to say if he had no lyfe he could not dispute of the mortall lyfe neither could he speake of the Immortal if he himself also were not Immortall Therefore let vs goe backe retryue Some man will say that the Soule dyeth with the body bycause the Soule and the body are but one thing and he beléeueth that they be both but one bycause he seeth no more but the body This argument is all one with theirs which denyed that there is any God bycause they sawe him not But yet by his dooings thou mayst perceyue that there is a God discerne lykewise by the dooings of thy soule that thou haste a Soule For in a dead body thou seest the same partes remayne but thou séest not the same dooings that were in it afore When a man is dead his eye seeth nothing at all and yet is there nothing chaunged of his eye but whyle hee is aliue it séeth infinite things that are dyuers The power then which séeth is not of the body Yet notwithstanding how lyuely and quickesighted so euer the eye be it séeth not it self Woonder not therefore though thou haue a soule and that the same soule sée not it self For if thyne eysight sawe itself it were not a power or abilitie of séeing but a visible thing lykewise if thy Soule sawe itself it were no more a Soule that is to say the woorker and quickener of the body but a verie body vnable to do any thing of it self and a massie substance subiect to suffering For we sée nothing but the body and bodily substances But in this thou perceiuest somewhat els than a body as I haue sayd afore that if thyne eye had any peculiar colour of it owne it could not discerne any other colour than that Seeing then that thou conceyuest so many dyuers bodies at once in imagination néeds must thou haue a power in thee which is not a body Be it say they that we haue a power of sence yet haue we not a power of reason for that which we call the power of reason or vnderstanding is nothing but an excellencie or rather a consequence of sence insomuch that when sence dyeth the residew dyeth therewith also Soothely in this which thou haste sayd thou haste surmounted sence which thing thou haddest not done if thou haddest nothing in thee beyond sence For whereas thou sayest if the sence dye the rest dyeth also it is a reason that proceedeth from one terme to another and it is a gathering of reasons which conclude one thing by another Now the sences do in deede perceyue their obiects but yet how lyuely so euer they be they reason not We sée a Smoake so farre extendeth the sence But if we inferre therefore there must needes be fire and thereupon seeke who was the kindler thereof that surmounteth the abilitie of sence We here a péece of Musicke that may any beast do as well as we But his hearing of it is but as of a bare sound whereas our hearing therof is as of an harmony and we discerne the cause of the concords and discords which either delight or offend our sence The thing that heareth the sound is the sence but the thing that iudgeth of that which the sence conceyueth is another thing than the sence The lyke is to be sayd of smelling tasting and feeling Our smelling of sents our tasting of sauours and our feeling of substances is in déede the woorke of our Sences But as for our iudging of the inward vertue of the thing by the outward sent thereof or of the wholsomnes or vnwholsomnes of foode by the taste thereof or of the whotnesse or vehemencie of a feuer by feeling the pulse yea and our procéeding euen into the very bowels of a man whether the eye beeing the quickest of all sences is not able to atteyne surely it is the woorke of a more mightie power than the sence is And in verie déede there are beasts which do here see smell taste and feele much better and quicklyer than man doth Yet notwithstanding none of them conferreth the contraries of colors sounds sents and sauours none sorteth them out to the seruing one of another or to the seruing of themselues Whereby it appeareth that man excelleth the Beasts by another power than the Sences and that whereas a man is a Peynter a Musician or a Phisition he hath it from elswhere than from his sences Nay I say further that oftentymes we conclude cleane contrarie to the report of our sences Our eye perchauce telleth vs that a Tower
garment of the mynd and the garment of the Soule is a certeyne Spirit whereby it is vnited to the bodie And this Mynd is the thing which wee call properly the Man that is to say a heauenly wight which is not to bee compared with Beastes but rather with the Gods of Heauen if he be not yet more than they The Heauenly can not come downe to the earth without leauing the Heauen but Man measureth the Heauen without remouing from the earth The earthly man then is as a mortall God and the heauenly God is as an immortall man To bee short his conlusion is That man is dubble mortall as touching his body and immortall as touching his Soule which Soule is the substantiall man and the very man created immediatly of God fayth he as the light is bred immediatly of the Sunne And Chalcidius sayth that at his death he spake these wordes I goe home againe into myne owne Countrie where my better forefathers and kinsfolk be Of Zoroastres who is yet of more antiquitie than Hermes we haue nothing but fragments Neuerthelesse many report this article to be one of his That mens Soules are immortall and that one day there shall be a generall rysing againe of their bodies and the answers of the Wise men of Chaldye who are the heires of his Doctrine doe answer sufficiently for him There is one that exhorteth men to returne with spéede to their heauenly father who hath sent them from aboue a Soule indewed with much vnderstanding and another that exhorteth them to seeke Paradise as the peculiar dwelling place of the Soule A third sayth that the Soule of man hath God as it were shut vp in it and that it hath not any mortalitie therein For sayth he the Soule is as it were dronken with God and sheweth foorth his â—â—â—uders in the harmonie of this mortall body And agayne another sayth It is a cléere fire procéeding from the power of the heauenly father an vncorruptible substance and the mainteyner of life conteyning almost all the whole world with the full plentie thereof in his bosome But one of them procéedeth yet further affirming that he which setteth his mynde vppon Godlinesse shall saue his body frayle though it bee And by those words he acknowledgeth the very glorifying of the bodie Now all these sayings are reported by the Platonists namely by Psellus and they refuse not to be acknowne that Pythagoras and Plato learned theÌ„ of the Chaldees insomuch that some think that the foresayd Hermes and Zoroastres and the residewe aforementioned are the same of whom Plato speaketh in his second Epistle and in his eleuenth booke of Lawes when he sayth that the auncient and holy Oracles are to be beléeued which affirme mens Soules to bee immortall and that in another life they must come before a Iudge that will require an account of al their doings The effect whereof commeth to this That the Soule of man procéedeth immediatly from God that is to say that the father of the bodie is one and the father of the Soule is another That the Soule is not a bodily substance but a Spirit and a light That at the departure thereof from hence it is to goe into a Paradise and therfore ought to make haste vnto death And that it is so farre from mortalitie that it maketh euen the body immortall What can wee say more at this day euen in the tyme of light wherein we be Pherecydes the Syrian the first that was knowne among the Greekes to haue written in prose taught the same And that which Virgill sayth in his second Eglog concerning the Drug or Spice of Assyria and the growing thereof euerywhere is interpreted of some men to bée ment of the Immortalitie of the Soule the doctrine whereof Pherecydes brought from thence into Greece namely that it should be vnderstood euerywhere throughout the whole world Also Phocylides who was at the same time speaketh therof in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say The Soule of man immortall is and neuer weares away With any age or length of tyme but liueth fresh for ay And againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Remnants which remaine of men vnburied in the graue Become as Gods and in the Heauens a life most blessed haue For though their bodies turne to dust as dayly we doe see Their Soules liue still for euermore from all corruption free And in another place he sayes agayne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We hope that we shall come agayne Out of the earth to light more playne And if ye aske him the cause of all this he will answer you in another verse thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because the Soule Gods instrument and Image also is Which saying he seemeth to haue taken out of this verse of Sibils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In very reason Man should bee The Image and the shape of mee Of the same opinion also are Orpheus Theognis Homer Hesiodus Pindar and all the Poets of old tyme which may answer both for themselues and their owne Countries and for the residue of their ages Likewise Pythagoras a disciple of Pherecides held opinion that the Soule is a bodylesse and immortall substance put into this body as into a Prison for sinning And whereas the fléeting of soules out of one body into another is fathered vpon him although the opinion be not directly against the immortalitie of the Soule yet doe many men thinke that hee hath wrong doone vnto him And his Disciple Timoeus of Locres reporteth otherwyse of him For what punishment were it to a voluptuous man to haue his Soule put into a beast that he might become the more voluptuous without remorse of sinne Soothly it is all one as if in punishment of Murder or theft yée would make the Murderer to cut the throtes of his owne Father and Mother or the Théef to commit trecherie ageinst God Howsoeuer the case stand he teacheth in his verses that man is of heauenly race and that as Iamblichus reporteth he is set in this world to behold God And his Disciple Architas sayth that God breathed reason and vnderstanding into him Likewise Philolaus affirmeth that the Diuines and Prophets of old time bare record that the Soule was cuppled with the body for hir sinnes and buryed in the same as in a Graue Of Epicharmus we haue this saying If thou beest a good man in thy heart Death can doe thee no harme for thy Soule shall liue happyly in heauen c. Also of Heraclides we haue this saying We liue the Death of them that is to say of the blessed his meaning is that we be not buried with our bodyes and we dye their Lyfe that is to say wee bee still after this body of ours is dead Of the like opinion are Thales Anaxagoras and Diogenes concerning this poynt yea and so is Zeno too howbeit that he thought the Soule to bee
begotten of Man wherein hee was contrarie too himselfe To bée short scarsly were there any to be found among the men of old time saue onely Democritus and Epicurus that held the contrary way whome the Poete Lucre immitated afterward in his verses Yet notwithstanding when Epicurus should dye hée commaunded an Anniuersarie or Yéermynd to bee kept in remembrance of hym by his Disciples so greatly delighted hée in a vayne shadowe of Immortalite hauing shaken off the very thing it self And Lucrece as it is written of him made his booke béeing mad at such times as the fittes of his madnesse were off him surely more mad when he thought himselfe wysest than when the fits of his phrensie were strongest vppon him Whosoeuer readeth the goodly discourses of Socrates vpon his drinking of poyson as they bee reported by Plato and Xenophon hymselfe can not doubt of his opiniō in this case For he not only beléeued it himself but also perswaded many men to it with liuely reasons yea and by his own death much more then by all his lyfe And so ye see we be come vnto Plato and Aristotle with consent of all the wyse men of olde tyme vngeinsayd of any sauing of a two or thrée malapert wretches whom the vngraciousest of our dayes would esteeme but as dronken sottes and dizards Certesse Plato who might paraduenture haue heard speake of the bookes of Moyses doeth in his Timaeus bring in God giuing commaundement to the vndergoddes whom he created that they should make man both of mortall and of immortall substances Wherein it may be that he alluded to this saying in Genesis Let vs make man after our owne Image and lykenesse In which case the Iewes say that GOD directed his spéeche to his Angels but our Diuines say hee spake to himselfe But anon after both in the same booke and in many other places Plato as it were comming to him himselfe ageine teacheth that GOD created Man by himselfe yea and euen his Lyuer and his Brayne and all his Sences that is to say the Soule of him not onely indewed with reason and vnderstanding but also with sence and abilitie of growing and increasing and also the instruments whereby the same doe woorke Moreouer hee maketh such a manifest difference betwéene the Soule and the body as that hee matcheth them not toogither as matter and forme as Aristottle doth but as a Pilot and a Ship a Commonweale and a Magistrate an Image and him that beareth it vpon him What greater thing can there be than to be like God Now sayth Plato in his Phoedon The Soule of Man is very like the Godhead Immortall Reasonable Vniforme Vndissoluble and euermore of one sorte which are conditions saith he in his matters of State that can not agree but to things most diuine And therefore at his departing out of the world he willed his Soule to returne home too her kinred and to her first originall that is to wit as hée himselfe sayth there to the wyse and immortall Godhead the Fountaine of all goodnes as called home from banishment into her owne natiue countrie He termeth it ordinarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of kin vnto God and consequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Euerlasting and of one selfesame name with the immortall ones a Heauenly Plant and not a Earthly rooted in Heauen and not in Earth begotten from aboue and not héere beneath and finally such as cannot dye heere forasmuch as it liueth still in another place To be short séeing sayeth he that it comprehendeth the things that are Diuine and immortall that is to wit the Godhead and the things that are vnchaungeable and vncorruptible as trueth is it cannot be accounted to be of any other nature than they The same opinion doth Plutarche also attribute vnto him which appeareth almost in euery leafe of his writings As touching the auncienter sort of Platonists they agree all with one accord in the immortalitie of the soule sauing that some of them deriue it from God and some from the Soule of the World some make but the Reason or mynd onely to be immortall and some the whole Soule which disagreement may well be salued if we say that the Soule all whole together is immortall in power or abilitie though the execution and performance of the actions which are to be doone by the body be forgone with the instruments or members of the body The disagréement concerning this poynt among such as a man may voutsafe to call by the name of Philosophers séemeth to haue begonne at Aristotle howbeit that his Disciples count it a commendation to him that he hath giuen occasion to doubt of his opinion in that behalfe For it is certeine that his newfound doctrine of the Eternitie or euerlastingnesse of the World hath distroubled his brayne in many other things as commonly it falleth out that one error bréedeth many other Because nature sayth he could not make euery man particularly to continue for euer by himself therefore she continueth him in the kind by matching Male and Female together This is spoken either grossely or doubtfully But whereas he sayth that if the Mynd haue any inworking of it owne without any helpe of the Sences or of the body it may also continue of it selfe concluding thereuppon that then it may also be separated from the body as an immortal thing from a thing that is transitorie and mortall It followeth consequently also that the Soule may haue continuance of it selfe as whereof he vttereth these words namely That the Soule commeth from without and not of the seede of Man as the body doth and that the Soule is the onely part in vs that is Diuine Now to be Diuine and to be Humane to be of séede and to be from without that is to say from GOD are things flat contratrie whereof the one sort is subiect to corruption and the other not In the tenth booke of his Moralls he acknowledgeth two sorts of lyfe in man the one as in respect that he is composed of Body and Soule the other as in respect of Mynd onely the one occupied in the powres which are called humane and bodily which is also accompanyed with a felicitie in this lyfe and the other occupied iu the vertues of the mynd which is accompanied also with a felictie in another lyfe This which consisteth in contemplation is better than the other and the felicitie thereto belonging is peculiarly described by him in his bookes of Heauen aboue Tyme as which consisteth in the franke and frée working of the Mynd in beholding the souereine God And in good sooth full well doeth Michael of Ephesus vppon this saying of his conclude that the Soule is immortall and so must al his morals also néedes do considering that too liue wel whether it be to a mans selfe or towards other men were els a vaine thing and to no purpose
Porphirius and Proclus notwithstanding that now and then they passe their bounds suffering their wits to runne royet For in their Philosophie they had none other rule than only the drift of their owne reason It was commonly thought that Alexander of Aphrodise beléeued not the immortalitie of the Soule because he defined it to be the forme of the body proceeding of the mixture temperature of the Elements Surely these words of his doe vs to vnderstand either that he ment to define but the sensitiue lyfe onely as many others doe and not the reasonable soule or els that he varieth from himselfe in other places And in very déede hee sayeth immediatly afterward that he speaketh of the things which are subiect to generation and corruption But speaking of the Soule he sayeth it is separable vnmateriall vnmixed and voyd of passions vnlesse perchaunce we may thinke as some doe that by this Soule he meane but onely God and not also the Soule that is in vs for the which thing he is sharply rebuked by Themistius who notwithstanding speaketh neuer a whit better thereof himselfe Howsoeuer he deale elsewhere these words of his following are without any doubtfulnes at all The Soule sayth he which is in vs commeth from without and is vncorruptible I say vncorruptible because the nature thereof is such and it is the very same that Aristotle affirmeth to come from without And in his second booke of Problemes searching the cause why the abilities of the Soule are oftentimes impeached If a mans brayne be hurt sayth he the reasonable soule dooth not well execute the actions that depend thereon But yet for all that it abydeth still in itselfe vnchaungeable of nature abilitie and power through the immortalitie thereof And if it recouer a sound instrument it putteth her abilities in execution as well as it did afore But I wil reason more at large hereafter against the opinion that is fathered vpon him What shall we say of Galene who fathereth the causes of all things as much as he can vpon the Elements and the mixture and agréeble concord of them if after his disputing against his owne Soule he be constreyned to yéeld that it is immortall Surely in his booke concerning the manners of the Soule he doeth the worst that he can against Plato and in another place hee doubteth whether it be immortall and whether it haue continuance of it selfe or no. Yet notwithstanding in his booke of the doctrine of Hippocrates and Plato It must needes be graunted sayeth hee that the Soule is either a sheere body and of the nature of the Skye as the Stoiks Aristotle himself are inforced to confesse or els a bodilesse substance whereof the body is as it were the Chariot and whereby it hath fellowship with other bodyes And it appeareth that hee inclyneth to this latter part For hee maketh the vitall spirit to be the excellentest of all bodily things and yet he graūteth the Soule to bee a farre more excellent thing than that What shall we then doe Let vs wey his words set downe in his booke of the conception of a Child in the Moothers Wombe The Soule of Man sayeth he is an influence of the vniuersall Soule that descendeth from the heauenly Region a substance that is capable of knowledge which aspyreth alwayes to one substance lyke vnto it selfe which leaueth all these lower things to seeke the things that are aboue which is partaker of the heauenly Godhead and which by mounting vp to the beholding of things that are aboue the heauens putteth it selfe into the presence of him that ruleth all things Were it reason then that such a substance comming from elsewhere than of the body and mounting so farre aboue the body should in the ende dye with the body because it vseth the seruice of the body Now hereuntoo I could adde infinite other sayings of the auncient authors both Greeke and Latin Philosophers Poets and Orators from age to age wherein they treate of the iudgement to come of the reward of good men of the punishment of euill men of Paradise and of Hell which are appendants to the immortalitie of the Soule but as now I will but put the reader in mynd of them by the way reseruing them to their peculiar places To bée short let vs runne at this day from East to West and from North to South I say not among the Turkes Arabians or Persians for their Alcoran teacheth them that mans Soule was breathed into him of God and consequently that it is vncorruptible but euen among the most barbarous ignorant beastly people of the Wold I meane the very Caribies and Cannibals and we shall find this beléefe receiued and imbraced of them all Which giueth vs to vnderstand that it is not a doctrine inuented by speculations of some Philosophers conueyed from Countrie to Countrie by their disciples perswaded by likelyhods of reasons or too be short entered into mans wit by his eares but a natiue knowledge which euery man findeth and readeth in himself which he carieth euerywhere about with himselfe and which is as easie to bée perswaded vnto all such as viewe themselues in themselues as it is easie to perswade a man that neuer sawe his owne face to beléeue that he hath a face by causing him to behold himselfe in a glasse There remayne yet two opinions to be confuted The one is the opinion of Auerrhoes and the other is the opinion of Alexander of Aphrodise who affirme themselues to hold both of Aristotle namely in that they vpholde that there is but one vniuersall reasonable Soule or mynd which worketh al our discourses in vs howbeit diuersly in euery seuerall person And this thing if wee beléeue Auerrhoes is done according to the diuersitie of the Phantasies or Imaginations wherewith the mynd is serued as with instruments But if we beléeue Alexander it is done according too the diuersities of the capable mind as they terme it that is to say of the abilitie or capabilitie that is in men to vnderstand things by receyuing the impression of the vniuersall mynd that worketh into euery of them which in respect thereof is called of them the woorker Soothly these opinions are such as may bee disprooued in one worde For this onely one Mynd whether in possibilitie or in action could not haue receiued or imprimted in euery man one selfesame common beléef and conceit of the immortalitie of the Soule in so great diuersitie of imaginations and in so many Nations as we sée doe beléeue it considering that the very same conceit is directly repugnant against it Nay it may well bée sayde that Auerrhoes and Alexander had very diuers conceits and imaginations one from another and very contrary to all other mens seeing they had so diuers and cōtrarie opinions imprinted either in their mind or in their imagination Howbeit forasmuch as there may be some the will make a doubt of it Let
vs examine them seuerally yet more aduisedly First Auerrhoes will néedes beare Aristotle on hand that Aristotle is of that opinion Let vs see how this surmize of his can agrée with the propositions which Aristotle hath left vs. Aristotle telleth vs that the Soule is knit to the body as the forme or shape too the matter that the Soule hath thrée chiefe powers namely of lyfe of sence and of vnderstanding and that the vnderstanding part conteineth in his power both the other two powers as a Fiuesquare conteineth both a Fowersquare and a Triangle Whereupon it followeth that if any one of the three powers of the Soule be ioyned to the body as a forme to the matter all the thrée be ioyned so to as which are all in one soule as in their roote Now Auerrhoes neither can nor will deny that the powers of growing and of perceiuing by the sences are ioyned after that maner too the body and therfore it followeth that the vnderstanding power is to ioyned also and consequently that according to Aristotle as euery body hath his forme so euery body hath his Soule The same Aristotle findeth fault with the former Philosophers for holding opinion that a Soule might passe out of one man into another because sayeth he that euery certeyne Soule must needes be apportioned and appoynted to some one certeine body Now looke by what Soule a man liueth by the same Soule doth he vnderstand for it is but one Soule indued with three diuers abilities as hee himselfe teacheth opently One vnderstauding or Mynd therefore must according to Aristotle worke but in one seuerall body and not in many bodyes Also according to Aristotle a Man a Beast agree in this that both of them haue one sensitiue power and one selfsame imagination of things perceiued by the Seuces that they differ in this that man hath yet further a mynd and reason aboue the beast which thing the beast hath not Now if this Understanding or Mynd be without the man as the Sonne is without the Chamber that it shineth into and inlighteneth then cannot he be called reasonable or indewed with vnderstanding neither doth he consequently differ from a beast For the difference must bee in nature and not in accident And so should it insue that Aristotles foresaid definition of a man is false as if he should define a Chāber by the shyning of the Sunne into it Or say that a Dog differeth not from a man in kind yea and that Beasts are eapable of vnderstanding forasmuch as they haue Imagination ready aforehand to receiue the influence thereof as well as wee But Aristotle is alwaies one in his defining both of beast of man and Auerrhoes also holdeth himself to it without doubting thereof at all This conclusion therfore cannot in anywise be vpheld by such grounds Againe if there bee not in euery seuerall man a seuerall mynd but onely one vniuersall mynd common to all men which becommeth diuers by the onely diuersitie of our imaginations Then in respect that we haue sundrie imaginations wee shall bee sundrie liuing wights and in respect that we haue al but one mynd we shall bee all but one man For man is not man in respect of the sensitiue power but in respect of the reasonable part which is the mind But Aristotle graunteth that we be not only diuers liuing wights but also diuers men And therefore he must néedes meane also that we haue not only diuers imaginations but also diuers mynds Now besides many other Reasons that might be alledged ye might add this also That otherwise Aristotles Moralles and his discourses concerning Iustice Fréewill the Immortalitie of the Soule the happie blisse the reward of the good and the paynes of the wicked were vtterly frutelesse and to no purpose For as our fancies or ymaginations did come and goe so would al those things come and go likewise and so should they haue no continuance of themselues but only be as a shadowe and vayne fantasie But let Aristotle alone for he hath wrong and let vs come to the matter it self The Philosophers doe ordinarily make a dubble mynd the one which they call possible or in possibilitie which is capable and of abilitie to vnderstand things and this they liken to a smooth table the other they call working or workfull which bringeth the abilitie into act whereas notwithstanding they be not two mynds but two seuerall abilities of only one mynd Now as for this abilitie or possibilitie of vnderstanding we affirme it to be in the Soule of euery man Contrarywise Auerrhoes affirmed onely one vniuersall capable mynd to be shed abroad euery where throughout all men and that the same is diuersly perfected and brought into act in euery seuerall man according to the diuersitie of the imaginations which the man tonceyueth euen by the helpe or influence of the sayd vniuerall workfull mynd which he sayth is also a substaunce seuered from man and in respect of the vnderstanding in possibilitie is as the Sunne is to the sight of our eyes and the vnderstāding in possibilitie is to the imaginations as the sight is vnto colours Now I demaund first of all whether these vniuersall Mynds of his bee substances created or vncreated If they bee created where becommeth then his conclusion That the world is without beginning and without ending seeing that he will haue them to be continued euerlastingly in all men that haue bene are or shall be If they bee vncreated how can so excellent substances bee made subiect to our fond imaginations to yéeld influence into them at their pleasures Or rather how happeneth it that they correct them not How happeneth it that thei leaue them in such errors yea euen in the knowledge of themselues seeing that by the erring of the imaginations the very vnderstanding and reason themselues must also néedes be so often beguyled Againe as concerning these substances which extend into so many places are they Bodies or Spirits How can they be Bodies seeing they be in infinite places at one instant and do infinite things yea and flat contraries And if they be Spirits doth it notfollow thervpō that they be wholly in al men wholly in euery man that is to say that euery man hath them whole to himselfe And therefore that if they bee deceyued by the fantasie of any one man they be consequently deceyued in all men And wherof comes it then that one man ouercommeth his imaginations and another man not Or that one man resisteth them and another suffereth himselfe to be caryed away by them Moreouer who can denye that a man willeth things whereof he hath vnderstanding and likewise that he willeth some things which he vnderstandeth not and that he vnderstandeth some things which he willeth not And also that he willeth things euen contrary to his appetites and concludeth oftentymes contrary to his imaginations as commeth to passe in Dreames and in Lookingglasses which thing the brute
Seede but that he corrupted it afterward Anotherwhile hee sayth that he delt with reason as perfumers doe with Oyles which neuer ceasse medling and mingling of them till there remayne no sent of Oyle at all And in one place perceiuing by all likelihod this corruption to be so vniuersal he saith further that at the very beginning and from their first comming into the Worlde men intangled and confounded themselues with sinne Whereby we may perceiue that had the thing bin declared vnto him in such sort as wée beléeue it surely hee would willingly haue imbraced and receiued it as the only solution of so many perplexities wherein he was intangled Let vs come to the Platonists All of them agrée in these points That the Soule of Man is a spirit and that a spirit cannot naturally receiue any affection from a body neither which may cause it to perish nor which may doe so much as once trouble it Yet notwithstanding on which side so euer they turne themselues they cannot deny but that our mynds are trubbled with infinite affections and passions in this body and that they be subiect one while to starting besides themselues through pryde anger or enuie an another while to be cast downe with Riottousnes Gluttonie and Idlenes yea and to receiue diuers impressions not only from the body but also from the aire the water and from Mistes and finally from euery little thing in the world Now how can this contrarietie be reconciled except their meaning be as ours is that naturally our Soules are not subiect to any of these things but that they bee put in subiection to them beyond the course of nature If it bee beyond the course of nature by whome is it doone but by him that commaundeth nature to whome it is as easie to put a spirit in Prison as to lodge a man in a house If it be done by him who is the rightuousnes it selfe doth it not followe that it was for some fault committed by the Soule If for some fault then seeing that the punishment thereof is in all men in whome should that first fault be but in that man which was the originall of all men as in whom all of vs say I were materially Now againe this fault cannot bee imputed to the body for it is in the will and the body of it selfe hath no will neither can it be imputed to any â—â—fection receiued first from the body for the Soule could not be wrought into by the body In the Soule therefore must the fault of mankind néedes be and for the soules offence doth the Soule itself suffer punishment and make the body also to suffer with her Howbeit that we may the better iudge of their opinions let vs heare them in the chief of them one after another Plotine hauing considered that the Soule is of nature diuine heauenly and spirituall concludeth that of itselfe it is not wrought into by the body But afterward perceiuing how it is defiled ouermaistred by sinne and by force of necessitie linked vnto lust he commeth backe to this solution That hir béeing here beneath is but a banishment too her which he termeth expresly a fall and otherwise as Pato doth a losing of hir wings That the vertue which she hath is but a Remnant of hir former nature That the vyce which she hath is taken by dealing by these bace and transitorie things and too bee short that al the vertue which is learned is but a purging of the Soule which must be fayne to be as it were newfurbished to scoure of the greate Rust that hath ouergrowen it In these Contradictions therefore hee maketh this question to himselfe What should bee the cause sayth hee that our Soules being of a diuine nature should so forget both God their father and their kinred and themselues Surely answereth he the beginning of this mischeef was a certeine rashnes ouerboldnesse wherethrough they would needes plucke their neckes out of the collar and be at their owne commaundement by which abuse turning their libertie into licentiousnes they went cleane backe and are so farre gone away from GOD that like Children which being newly weaned are byanby conueyed away from their Fathers and Moothers they knowe neither whose nor what they be nor from whence they came Now in these words he agreeth with our Diuines not only in this that corruption came in by sin but also in the kind of sinne namely Pryde wherby we be turned away froÌ„ our Maker In another place The Soule saith he which was bred for heauenly things hath plundged itselfe in these materiall things and matter of itselfe is so euill that not onely all that is of matter or matched with matter but also euen that which hath respect vnto matter is filled with euill as the eye that beholdeth darknes is filled with darknes Here ye sée not onely from whence we be turned away but also too what that is too wit from God to vanitie from the Creator to the creature from good to euill But of this inclyning to the materiall things he sometymes maketh the body to be the author as though the body had caried the Soule away by force of his imaginations and he acquitteth the mynde thereof as much as he can insomuch as hee sticketh not to affirme that notwithstanding all this marrednesse yet the Soule liueth and abideth pure and cleane in God yea euen whyle the Soule whereof the Mynd is as yee would say the very eisight or apple of the eye dwelleth in this body Howbeit besides that he is reproued for it by Porphyrius Proclus and others his owne reasons whereby he proueth that the Soule is not naturally subiect to the body be so strong that it were vnpossible for him too shift himself from them In this the great Philosopher is ouershot that he will needes seeke out the cause of sinne in Man as Man is now Where finding Reason caried away by Imagination and Imagination deceiued by the Sences he thought the fault to haue procéeded of that wheras in deede he should haue sought the cause in Man as he was first created when he had his Sences and Appetites absolutely at commaundement whose wilfull offending hath brought vppon vs the necessitie of punishment which we indure And in good sooth this saying of his in another place cannot be interpreted otherwise namely that the cause why the Soule indureth so many trubbles and passions in this body is to be taken of the life which is led afore out of the body that is to say that the subiection of the Soule to the Body is not the originall cause of the sinne therof but rather a condemnation thereof to punishment Neither also can he scape froÌ„ these conclusions of his owne namely that the Soule beeing separated from the body hath her wings sound and perfect and that the Body being ioyned to the Soule hath no power to breake her wings and yet that she findeth herself there
impaire men than amend them Or howe can that bee our chéefe marke to shoote at which of all things turneth vs most froÌ„ the true marke that is to wit from God as in trueth there is not a readier way to driue vs quite and cleane from God than to drawe vs néerer and néerer to worldly riches And what is Ambition We might discourse of that tyme without end for in very déede it hath no end Some atteyne to some certeyne poynt othersome be quite excluded Which of them in our opinion are the happiest Soothly they that are excluded are disappoynted of their pretensed felicitie That is al the harme they haue by it They that atteyne to honor are in continual torment spightfull or spighted doing mischiefe or receyuing mischiefe ouermated or ouermating What is this but many euilles for one and a multiplying of miseries without number for the obteynement of one sillie shadowe of felicitie We will leaue the residue to declamers what are the fruites of these hellish torments what are they Forsooth Honour Reputation and Power or Authoritie What is all this but wynd which cannot fill vs nor scarsly puffe vs vp I shall be saluted as I goe abroade I shall sit highest at méetings In hauing these things what haue I which a wicked man may not rather haue than I And if it be a good thing how is it giuen to euill men I shall haue reputation If it bee among euill men O how shal I be blamed among good men Perhaps I shal haue it among good men If for vertue who seeth not that reputation is but a shadowe made to followe vertue And who will runne after the shadowe to forgoe the body If freely for nothing as men say vpon Credite who knoweth not that thing to be nothing worth which is giuen for nought and by such as are noughtworth And who will beléeue that we be borne to such an end as that Nay rather how many be the slaunders wherewith good men be charged insomuch that diuers tymes they bee fayne to forgoe their reputation for the preseruation of their Conscience Finally I shall haue obteyned power and authoritie If that be the end of Man how happeneth it that for one mans hauing of it so many millions are fayne to goe without it And if it be his souereine good whereof commeth it that not only it is turned to euil but also commonly turneth the possessors thereof to euill But let vs put the case that all this is good To whom For euery one that is honored as a Prince ten thousand are fayne to knéele For one that tryumpheth a hundred thousand are led in captiuitie For one that reigneth ten hundred thousand serue as Slaues By this reckoning some only one man should be the end of many men and the felicitie of thrée or fower should bee the infelicitie of a whole world Now our séeking is for the end and felicitie not of some one or two men but of all the whole kynd What willye say then if euen those fewe haue it not I take to witnesse the happiest Courtiers that are whether one wrye looke of their Prince do not sting them more at the heart than a thousand flatterers and as many crouchers and cappers can delight their eares and eyes Nay I report me euen to the greatest Princes themselues whether one Rebellion of their Subiects against them doe not vex them more than all their honorable tryumphs doe reioyce them And were it not a shame to say that mans souereine good should stand in awe or depend vppon a grim looke What els then are all these things but resemblances of the Apples that grow about Sodome which being pleasant to the eye and prouoking to the appetite doe vanish into smoake or into soote as soone as a man puts his téeth to them Besides this the felicitie of man ought to abyde in the thing it selfe But the contentment of the ambicious person dependeth vppon another Also it ought to be euerlasting But ambition endeth with the body and is buryed with it in the same graue Againe the things that ambition craueth are fought sometymes for some other things sake but wee demaund an end wherevpon to rest and not a meane to an ende To bee short so farre of is ambition from being a way to bring vs to souereine good or felicitie that in very trueth as I haue sayd afore it casseth vs miserably downe and maketh vs to fall quite and cleane from it Now seeing we cannot finde the thing we seeke for neyther among men nor in these worldly things doth it not follow that we must seeke it in our selues Surely the world is not of it selfe nor for it selfe but was made by another and for another neyther hath man his owne beginning of himself and therefore he cannot be the end of himselfe The maker of a thing maketh it not for the things sake but for his owne sake and therefore he himselfe is the ende of his worke Againe the thing that is made is not good in respect of it self but for the â—fe or end whereto the maker maketh it and therfore the maker himself is the souereine good thereof But let vs discouer the matter â—et more largely Man is composed of Bodie and Soule the Bodie mortall the Soule immortall Now if wee set mans felicitie in his bodie only we doe too great wrong both to the Soule and to the whole man For if it consist in the bodie it perisheth and â—adeth away with the bodie And then what remayneth to the Soule which ouer liueth but wretchednesse But wee looke for 〈◊〉 which belongeth to the whole Man and to his whole life both together Againe what should be this felicitie of the body vnlesse perhaps it bee Beautie which gladdeth more the beholder than the hauer thereof and yet within a while after is lost by some wound soone sore some pimples or some Sunburning In the Soule ioyned with the bodie wee haue thrée abilities namely of life of 〈◊〉 and of vnderstanding Let vs sée in which of these three mans souerâ—ine welfare and end may be harbered The Soule giueth life to mans bodie and the perfection of life is health If our life serue to none other end than that what had the first man to doe with it who was created healthfull If it must bee the end of vs now after our corruption what is more vnhappie than man Nay what is more vncapable of happinesse than man A bodie subiect to a thousand diseases a thousand harmes a thousand daungers weake frayle fraught with miseries within wrapped in them without alwaies vncerteyne of life alwaies sure of death whom a Worme an Hearb a grayne of dust may kill who if he looked for none other happinesse than that were much better to bee a Plant than a Man Againe who is so sound and healthie of bodie or so diseased in mynd which if he were put to the choyce had not leuer
step and so doth Plutarke also who counterfetting Plato bringeth in one Thespesius raysed from the dead and maketh him to discourse of the lyfe to come And without calling in Plotine Porphyrius Proclus Hierocles such others whome it would be ouerlong to heare only Iamblichus shall suffice whose words are these The good Soule shall dwell with GOD and walke vp and downe in Heauen where it shall haue a dwelling place But the Soule that is defiled with cursed deedes shal be sent vnder the Earth to the iudgements which are there executed vpon Soules Now what can we demaund more of the Philosophers than that which they confesse Namely that the happines and the ende of man are not in this lyfe but in the other and that the marke which man should shoote at is to imploy this in the knowing of GOD that in the other lyfe he may euerlastingly enioy all good things in him So then let vs conclude both by mans reason and by the authoritie of all Philosophie That as the body of man relyeth vpon his Soule so his mortall lyfe relyeth vpon the immortall lyfe that is to come That the end wheretoo man was created in this world is to know and serue God and to possesse him wholy aboue Howbeit for asmuch as by our fall wee bee falne from knowledge into ignorance and therfore although we haue some little glimmering sight of our end which wee ame at yet wee wote not how to shape our selues to it And again by the same fall we be falne from our souereine welfare into a bottomlesse pit of misery where we créepe so lame as it is not possible for vs to returne ageine to our former state Let vs see whether God of his mercie haue not left vs some remnants whereby to get vp ageine and to bee directed into our right way and whether hee himselfe also doe not reache vs out his fatherly hand through the cloudes of darknes wherewith we bee ouerwhelmed to pull vs backe and to call vs home ageine to him as very Bastards Rebelles and vnworthy Caytifes as we he The xx Chapter That the true Religion is the way to atteyne to the sayd end and souereine welfare and what are the markes of that Religion I Haue proued alreadie That there is but one God the father of Mankynd That he created the world for mans vse and that he gouerneth both the World and Man by his prouidence Herevppon the leaâ—t man among all will conclude by and by That â—ith he is our father we owe him obedience sith wee hold all things of him in fee wee owe him fealtie and homage sith he prouideth all things for vs we ought to call vpon him in all our doings and in all our necessities Also I haue shewed that Man is of nature immortall and therefore he must applye himself withall his heart to immortall things That by sinne he is falne from God and from himselfe and therefore he must craue forgiuenesse of him that his wrath may bee appeased That this offence was a certeyne pride and ouerwéening of himselfe and therefore he must acknowledge his frayltie and wretchednesse and humble himself before GOD. Now in one word what is all this to say but that as there is butâ— one God and one Mankynd so there ought to be but one ReligioÌ„ that is to say one ordinarie duetie seruice of man towards God For what els are all the exercises of Religion but appertenances of the Articles which we haue proued that is to wit of the creation of the world and of Gods Prouidence of the Immortalitie of the Soule and of Mans fall and of Mans souereine welfare In Religion men 〈◊〉 men knéele men haue ordinances to obserue this is done in token of obedience Againe they giue thankes 〈◊〉 praise vnto GOD and they giue him the firstfruites both of their Cattell and of their Corne that is a signe of acknowledgement that they be but as his Tennants They call vpon him in their aduersitie and they aske prosperitie of him in all their doings be they neuer sosmall It is properly a commending of themselues to his prouidence Also in Religion there is wéeping forrowing fasting putting on of sackcloth and besprinkling of themselues with duâ—t This is in token that wee ought to humble our selues beneath the very earth Againe there be Sacrifices both generall and particular and what are those but protestations that all of vs and euery of vs haue deserued death In the end of all this there commeth a promise and a pretence of euerlasting life to such as discharge their duetie towards God which is as much to say as that those Ceremonies and obseruations are not the things that wee must rest vpon but are meanes to leade vs to our right end which is to lift vs vp on high But betwéene these two last Articles namely betwéene the death which wee protest our selues to haue deserued and the euerlasting life that is behighted vs to inherit there is a maruelous waste distance to bee filled vp and yet notwithstanding eyther it must néedes bee that man is set in the world in vayne or els that there is a way or a bridge ordeyned for the passing thereof Therefore Religion which hath brought vs to the pits brim must also shewe vs this bridge that she may vnyte and linke vs againe vnto God from whom we be gone so farre and so strangely by our fall and that she may reconcyle vs as bastardly children to our father and as rebellious Subiects to our Prince without which reconciliation or according to the Latin deriuation Religion God ceasseth to be our father and wee to bee his children and all Religion how gay and glorious show soeuer it haue is vtterly vnprofitable and vayne Now the end that man should ame at in this life is to returne vnto God and it cannot be in vayne but in vayne it should be if there be no way to leade man vnto GOD or rather to bring God vnto man To the intent therefore that neither GOD be defrauded of his glorie nor man of his end and felicitie there must according to my former profes néedes bee a way that is to say a meane to reconcyle man vnto God and to vnite him againe vnto him that he may bee saued which way wee will according to the common spéech call Religion Now all the auncient men agree fully that there ought to be a Religion among all men as in déede there is not a thing that doth more necessarily followe than a GOD a Man and a Religion a Father a Sonne and an Obedience a Mayster a Seruant and a seruice a Giuer a Receyuer and a reward or rather a Lender a Detter and a Bond. And therfore full well doth one say The Philosophers ought to haue bin the first Diuines For inasmuch as we make towards GOD with two wings that is to say with Wit and Will Wit can no sooner conceyue that God is our
which is the second marke of the true Religion That throughout the whole processe of the Bible or olde Testament there are things which caÌ„not proceed but froÌ„ God That the things which seeme most wonderful in our scriptures are confirmed by the heathen themselues Also the solutions of their obiections That the meane which God hath ordeyned for mans saluatioÌ„ hath bene reuealed from time to time to the people of Israel which is the 3. mark of the true religion That the mediator or Messias is promised in the Scriptures to be both God man that is to wit the eternall Sonne of God taking mans flesh vnto him That the time whereat the mediator was promised to come is ouerpast therfore that he must needes bee come already as wel according to the Scriptures as according to the traditions of the Iewwes That resus the Son of Mary came at the time promised by the scriptures that he is the mediator and Messias A solution of the Obiections which the lews alledge against Iesus that he might not bee receiued for the true Christ or Messias That Iesus Christ was is god the son of god coÌ„trary to the opinioÌ„ of the Gentiles A solution of the obiections of the Gentiles against the Sonne of God That the Gospell doth in very deede conteine the historie and doctrine of Iesus Christ the Sonne of God ¶ The Conclusion of the whole booke OF THE TREWNES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION The first Chapter That there is a God and that all men agree in the Godhead SUch as make profession to teach vs doo say they neuer finde lesse what too say then when the thing which they treate of is more manifest and more knowne of 〈◊〉 selfe then all that can bee alledged for the setting foorth thereof And such are the principles of all the Sciences and specially of the certeynest as which consist in Demonstration The whole will Euclyde say is greater then his part And if from equall things ye take equall things the Remaynder shall be equall This is rather perceiued of euery man by commoÌ„ sence then prooued by sharpnesse of Reason And like as they that would goe about too proue it doo shewe themselues worthie to bee laughed at as which should take vpon them to inlighten the Sunne with a Candle so they that deny it doe shewe themselues to bee wranglers and vnworthie of all conference as contenders against their owne mother wit yea and against their owne confession according to this common saying of the Schooles That there is no reazoning against those which deny the Principles Now if there bée any matter wherein this Rule is found trew it is most peculiarly in this that there is a God For it is so many waies and so liuely paynted foorth in all things and so peculiarly ingrauen in mans hart that all that euer can bée deuized sayd and written thereof is much lesse then that which is séene thereof euery where and which men feele thereof in themselues If yée looke vpward yée see there infinite bodies and infinite mouings diuers and yet not trubling one another If yée looke downeward yée see the Sea continuasly threatening the Earth and yet not passing his bounds and likewise the Earth altoogither heauie and massie and yetnotwithstanding settled or rather hanged in the Ayre so as it stirreth not awhâ— These bodies direâ— vs incontinently too a Spirit and this orderlines too a certeine Gouerner forsomuch as it is certeine in nature that bodies haue of themselues no mouing and that euen those bodies which are quickened could not agrée stedfastly either with other bodies or with themselues but by the ordering and gouerning of a Superiour But when wée enter afterward intoo our selues and finde there an abridgement of the whole vniuersall a bodie fit for all sorts of mouings a Soule which without remouing maketh the bodies too mooue which way it listeth a Reazon therein which guydeth them euerychone in their dooings and yetnothwithstanding this Soule too bée such as wée can neither see it nor conceiue it It ought in all reazon too make vs all too vnderstand that in this great vniuersall masse there is a soueraine Spirite which maketh mooueth and gouernâ—â—â— all that wée see there by whom wée liue moue and bée who in our bodies hath framed a Counterfet of the whole world and in our Soules hath ingrauen an image of himself This is it that caused one auncient Philosopher too say that whereas our eyes cannot pearce vnto God he suffereth himselfe too bée felt with our hands And another too say that the very first vse of Reazon is imployed in conceiuing the Godhead not properly by knowing it but as it were by feeling it which is more certeine yea and that the béeing of our Soule is nothing els but the knowing of God vpon whom it dependeth And Auicen speaketh yet more boldly saying that he which acknowledgeth not the Godhead is voyd not of Reason but euen of Sence Now if these Sences from whence our first knowledge proceedeth doo witnesse the thing vnto vs and wée do firmly beléeue a thing when we feele it and that as they teach vs wée may féele GOD as well in the world as in our selues Surely vnto him that treateth of ReligioÌ„ it ought too bée graunted as an vnuiolable Principle That there is a God and all men ought too bée forbidden too call it into question vpon paine of â—ot being men any more For if euery Science haue his Principles which it is not lawfull to remoue bée it neuer so little much more reason is it that it should be so with that thing which hath the ground of all Principles for his Principle Neuerthelesse let vs with the leaue of all good men bestowe this Chapter vpon the wickednesse of this our age and if there bée any which by forgetting God haue in very déede forgotten their owne shape and mistaken their owne nature let them learne heereby too reknowledge themselues againe It is a straunge cace that these men which ordinarily speake of nothing but the world will not see in the world the thing which the world sheweth and teacheth in all parts For let vs begin at the lowest mount vp too the highest and let vs consider it whole together or in his parts and wée shall not finde any thing therein either so great or so small which leadeth vs not step by step vntoo a Godhead In this world too consider it first in the whole we haue fower degrées of things to wit which haue Béeing which haue Life which haue Sence and which haue Reason Some are indewed with all these giftes and some but with some of them The Ayre the Sea and the Earth are great and haue a great scope They beare vp and susteyne all things that haue Life all things that haue Sence and all things that haue Reason And yet notwithstanding they themselues haue not any more then onely bare Béeing without Life without Sence without
Caligula who threatened the Ayre if it rayned vpon his Gameplayers and yet notwithstanding he wrapped his Cape about his head or hid himselfe vnder his Bed at euery flash of lightening I beléeue saith Seneca concerning the same matter that this threatening of his did greatly hasten his death for so much as folke sawe that they were too beare such a one as could not beare euen with the Goddes Among the learned although the libertie of Sects was lawlesse yet the chiefe that men counted for Atheists were one Diagoras a Melian Poet one Theodore a Cyrenian one Ewhemere a Tegean and a very fewe others But to say truely these rather skorned the Idolles and false Goddes of their tymes then denyed the true God Accordingly as we sée many of them yet still among vs which hold themselues cōtented with the knowing of vntrueth without seeking after the trueth and with mocking of Superstitions without seeking the pure and true Religion Of the sayd Diagoras it is reported that as hee was burning an Image of Hercules in his fire he sayd Thou must now doe me seruice in this thirteenth incounter as well as thou hast done to Euristheus in the other twelue This was but a skorning of Idolles For notwithstanding this his Uerses began thus that all things are gouerned by a Godhead Also it is reported of the other that he should say to the Egiptians If they be Gods why bewayle ye them and if they be dead folkes why worship ye them This also was a disprouing of the false Gods And as for Ewhemere of Tegea men are of accorde that the cause why he was called an Atheist was for that he wrate the true Historie and Genealogie of the Heathen Gods shewing that they were Kings Princes and great Personages whose Images being kept for a remembrance of them were turned into Idolles their woorthie doings into yerely Gaming 's and their honorings into worshippings And which of vs at this day beleeueth not as much There were in deede a kinde of Philosophers called Scepticks that is to say Dowters which did rather suspend their Iudgement concerning the Godhead then call it in question But yet it ought to suffize vs that they be the selfsame which deny al Sciences yea euen those which consist in Demonstration and which professe themselues to doubt of the things which they see and feele in so much that they doubt whether they themselues haue any beeing or no. But yet for all that let vs see after what maner these kind of people doe reason Against the thing which the world preacheth which Nations worship and which wise men wonder at these folke say at a worde for all how shall wee beleeue that there is a God sith we see him not O foole and which worse is O foole by being wise in thyne owne conceyt Thou beléeuest that there is a Sunne euen when thou art in a Dongeon or in the bottome of a Prison because his beames are shed in at thy windowes and doubtest thou yet still whether there be a God or no when he sheweth himself to thee through the Sunne the Moone and the Starres in the Ayre the Earth the Sea in all things that they conteyne yea and euen in they selfe If thou haddest neuer seene Tree afore thy wit at the very first sight of it would leade thée to the roote which is vnder the Tree and the sight of a Riuer would leade thee to the welspring thereof which may peraduenture be two hundred Leagues of And whosoeuer should tell thee the contrarie thou wouldest stand at defiaunce against him O man like as the Tree leadeth thee to the roote by his braunches doth not the roote leade thee likewise to the kernell and the kernell to him that made it And as the Riuer leadeth thée to his head shal not the head leade thée to the originall spring therof seeing thou canst not doubt but it hath a beginning sith thou seest that it runneth with a streame If thou shouldest arriue among the Indians and finde but some sislie Cottage in the desolatest Countrey thereof Thou wouldest by and by conclude this I le is inhabited some man hath passed heere And why Because thou seest there some tokens of mans wit and knowest well that the Goates which thou hast seene raunging or skipping vpon the Rockes can build no such thing Now when thou beeing borne beneath seest here a hundred and a hundred thousand things which are not possible to be made by man nay which more is which it is not possible for him to knowe nor to vnderstand oughtest thou not to say immediatly Gods spirite hath passed this way needes must here haue bene some higher thing then man Mention is made of certeyne precize persons which beléeued nothing but that which they sawe and the Wizards made them to see Deuilles Wherevpon they came to beleeue also that there is a God It was a mad kinde of conuersion to beleeue in God by the ministerie of the Deuill But what a number of other things beleeuest thou which thou seest not Thou beleeuest that the Plants haue a kinde of Soule that is to say a certeyne inward power or vertue which maketh them to shoote foorth in their season Thou seest them but thou seest not it neither knowest thou whence it commeth or where it lyeth Thou beleeuest that the Beastes also haue one other kinde of Soule which maketh them to mooue and yet thou seest it as little as the other Also thou beleeuest that thou thy self besides these hast an abilitie of reasoning both vpon them and vpon thy selfe and vpon such as are like thy selfe And yet as touching the bodie thou seest not any thing altered in the partes thereof after death neither within nor without Where is that Soule then or where hast thou euer seene it If thou beleeue therof because of the effects which thou seest which cannot come from any thing els I assure thée euen by the same effects that if thou beléeue nothing thereof but that which thou seest with thyne eyes thyne eyes see not but by thy Soule and thyne eyes themselues see not thy Soule To be short thou beléeuest that thou hast a face which without a looking Glasse thou seest not And wilt thou not beléeue there is a God whose face shineth foorth in all things Othersome to shewe themselues more fineheaded haue argewed thus If there bee a GOD he must needes be a bodily liuing wight or els he should be sencelesse And if he haue sences then is he chaungeable and if he be chaungeable then may be perish that is to say he is no longer God Beasts are they in very deed which can conceiue no better then that which is common to Beasts Others haue sayd thus If he be without bodie he is also without Soule and consequently without action Or if he be a bodie he is subiect to the chaunges therof Alas that they should not be abls to conceiue a Spirite without
a bodie nor to see that euen in our selues it is the onely Soule that worketh and that the bodie stirreth not but as it is moued by the Soule Others againe do reason that if there be a God he must needes be perfectly happie and if he be perfectly happie he is vertuous if vertuous he ouermaistereth his affections and if he ouermaister his affections he is tempted of his lustes a thing altogether vnbeseeming the Godhead And by these incouneniences they conclude that there is no God at all not perceiuing or rather wilfully refusing to perceiue that which Plutarke sayth very well namely that the person which ouermaistereth his affections is but halfe vertuous but the stayed person is wholly vertuous because the one doth but bridle his passions by force of reason whereas the other hath them alreadie settled according to reason But there is yet more in God for he is reason it selfe and there is nothing in him but reasou Soothly this kind of reasoning of theirs agréeth in effect with this saying of Xenophanes that if Beastes were able to paynt they would portray God like to themselues because they could not naturally conceiue any further Such and other like are the arguments of these goodly Philosophers which euen little babes might laugh to skorne but els they could not haue bene against so manifest and euident a trueth And yet dare I also well assure you that they themselues knewe the falsenesse of those arguments but that they were as it were sworne to doubt of all things and to gainsay all things Let vs then conclude with the learned and the ignoraunt the Greekes and the Barbarians Men and Beastes things sensible and sencelesse the whole and euery part thereof That there is a God And if there bee yet any folke that caste doubts thereof indeuouring to race out not onely God but also man himselfe out of their hearts let vs boldly appeale euen vnto themselues not doubting at all but that their owne Conscience which cannot be defeated will one day make them to vnderstand it The second Chapter That there is but onely one God LEt vs studie further in the booke of nature and see whether that as it hath taught vs a Godhead it teach vs not also that the same consisteth in onely one God I haue tould you already that of things some haue being some haue being and life some haue being lyfe and sence and other some haue being lyfe fence and reason These fower sortes fall into three from three into two and from two into one and that one is Beeing afore the which as I haue proued already there went a Notbeeing The residue therefore how diuers so euer they be are all conueied in the one Beeing and this one Beeing must needes rest in the power of one first Being whereof the being which we sée is but a shadowe Againe in all the things which we sée we reduce the particulars too an vnderkind the vnderkinds to an vpperkind and the vpperkind to a most generall As for example we reduce all particular humane persons vnder the terme of man All men vnder the terme of Wight all wights vnder the terme of liuing things and all liuing things vnder the terme of things that are or be alwayes referring euery diuersitie to some vnitie and the same vnitie to another vnitie which is more vniuersall It remaineth then that when we can mount no higher we must distinguish the things that are into the thing which is of it selfe and the thing which is not of it selfe That which is not of it selfe is the World and all that euer is therein as I haue proued afore That which is of it selfe is the thing which we cal God beyond whom nothing can bee imagined and by whome all things both are and haue bene as which could haue no beeing of themselues Now to produce from Notheeing into beeing requireth an infinite power For betweene nothing and something is an infinite distance and two infinites cannot be abidden no nor imagined together For the infinitenesse of the one doth incloase and bynd the power of the other and looke whatsoeuer is giuen too the one is taken away from all others Therefore like as there must néedes be one Infinite so must there be but only one yea and most simply one from whose vnitie neuerthelesse flowe all the diuersities which we sée in the whole world like as from a Pricke procéedeth a Lyne an outside and all substantiall bodies And of vnitie or one in nombering proceedeth euen and odde round and square and all the multiplicities proportions and harmonies which wee sée sauing that the Pricke and the vnitie of nomber are intermingled and interlaced with all things whereas the foresayd most single and alonly One abyding still one in it selfe bringeth foorth all the other vnities and conteineth them all Let vs examine euery sort of things seuerally by them selues and we shall learne the like still in them In the Elements wee see contrarie qualities operations And where contraries are there néede but two heads to set them at warre For they cannot dwell together neither can they match together and much lesse can they reigne together The further that any of them extendeth his power the lesse can hee away with any fellowe Now then if one reigned ouer the Heate and another ouer the Colde one ouer the Dryth and another ouer the Moysture so as there were diuers makers or gouerners of the worlde wee should also see diuersities of factions Element against Element in the whole worlde and in euery thing that is compounded and continual warre in the middes of their Bowels But now see we no such thing but euery of them imbraceth other both in the whole and in euery seuerall thing notwithstanding that naturally they displace and destroy one another Furthermore they stand not at defyance alone by them selues but the Sea becleapeth the Earth the Sea and Earth togither are lapped vp in the Ayre the Ayre is compast about with the Skye and euery of them stoopeth vnder other insomuch that of their contrarieties ye see there procéedeth a goodly vniformitie Séeing then that there are not two factions there is but one maker and seeing they yeeld all into one it cannot be but also by one In the Earth wee see Riuers which runne a very long race but yet from one head and againe many streames which yeeld themselues all into one which one is the Sea and the Sea also being vndiuidable passeth through the whole inferiour world Like as they come out of one vnitie so doe they yeeld themselues vp into one other vnitie In the Heauen wee obserue infinite diuers mouings but yet all obeying vnto one There is one light which sheadeth it selfe throughout all places but yet it procéedeth from one onely which seemeth to multiply it selfe infinitely yet cannot by any meanes be parted I meane one Sunne whose beames spreading out on all sides doe reach from the Skye
end were both of the Father But yet were they diuided by a Fyre of vnderstanding and as it were by destinie distributed into other vnderstandings For afore the making of this sundry-shaped world God had conceyued an incorruptible patterne thereof as a world subiect only to mynd and vnderstanding In the mould whereof this present World being stamped became full of al those shapes of the which there is but one only gracious Fountaine And againe in another place he sayth as followeth That is to say The loue of God being a fyrie bond issued first from his vnderstanding and clothed it selfe with fire to temper the conueyances of the watersprings by spreading his heate vpon the same These are their accustomed obscurities wherein notwithstanding it is clerely enough vttered that there is a Father a Sonne and a Loue that linketh them together and moreouer that the sayd begotten Mynd or Understanding is he by whom God framed the World and that from him procéedeth the diuine Loue as I haue sayd heretofore In another place they say that the sayd Fatherly Mynd hath sowed and planted in our Soules a certeyne resemblance of the sayd begotten vnderstanding and that our willes be not acceptable vnto him vntill wée awake out of forgetfulnesse and bethinke our selues againe of the pure fatherly marke which is in vs. And againe that the same Understanding being of power to beget or bréede of it selfe did by considering cast a fyrie bond of Loue vpon all things wherby they be continued for euer But it is enough for vs that in the sayings afore alleadged wee haue a briefe Summe of the diuinitie of the Magies who held thrée beginnings whom as wee reade in other places they called Oromases Mitris and Ariminis that is to say God Mynd and Soule And surely wee should wonder at them much more if we had their whole bookes as we haue but péeces of them remayning Now the Magies were first in Chaldye and we reade in Moyses how highly Balaam was estéemed in that he was thought able to blesse Nations and Armies And these Chaldies are the same of whom the Oracle of Apollo answered That only they and the Hebrewes had wisedome parted betwixt them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All wisedome certesse parted is betweene The Chaldies and the Hebrewes as is seene Mercurius Trismegistus as we haue seene in the third Chapter acknowledged but only one God who cannot well bee named but by two names to wit Good and Father And because the same God is indewed with vnderstanding sometymes he calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 howbeit that most commonly he makes a differece betwéene the Father and the Understanding which he calleth Mynd likewise Which thing appeareth in this saying of his I am Poemander the Feeder of Men the vnderstanding of the Beer which is of himself But behold here records as cléere as can bée God sayth he who is also Mynd and Life and Light Male-fâ—male begate or bred Logon the Speech or Word which is another Mynd and the workmayster of all things with that Speech another which is the fyrie God and the Spirite of the Godhead Lo here a Mynd begotteÌ„ of a Mynd Understanding of Understanding and Light of Light and besides that moreouer a Spirit And againe This Speech that proceedeth from GOD being altogether perfect and fruitfull and Workmistresse of all things lighteth vpon the water and maketh it fruitfull It is the same thing that is spoken of in Moyses where God sayth And the waters immediatly brought foorth To be short vnto this holy spéech as he termeth it he attributeth the begetting ingendring spreading foorth of al things from ofspring to ofspring as is to be seene But here is yet more I thy God sayth God am Light and Mynd of more antiquitie than the nature of moysture that is issued froÌ„ the shadow And this lightsome Speech which proceedeth from the mynd is the Sonne of God That which heareth and seeth in thee is the word of the Lord and the Mynd is God the Father these differ not one from another and as for their vnion it is the vnion of life c. And againe This Speech being the workman of God the Lord of the whole World hath chiefe power next him and is vncreated infinite proceeding from him the Commaunder of all things which he made the perfect naturall firstborne Sonne of the most perfect To be short he calleth him the myndly spéech euerlasting vnchaungeable vncorruptible vnincreasing vndecreasing alonly like him and firstbeknowne after God and moreouer his onely Sonne his welbeloued Sonne the Sonne of the most holy whose name 〈◊〉 be named by mouth of man And is not this as much as to call him Coessentiall Coeternal and the Creator of all things And what more can we say thereof Of the third parson he speaketh more dackly Al kind of things in this World saith he are quickened by a Spirit One Spirit filleth all things the World nourisheth the bodies and the Spirit the Soules and this Spirit as a toole or instrument is subiect to the will of God But here is yet somewhat more All things saith he haue neede of this Spirit it beareth them vp it nourisheth them it quickeneth them according to euery of their capacities it proceedeth from a holy fountaine and is the mainteyner of all liuing things and of all Spirits Here yee sée the reason why we call him the holy Ghoste namely because he procéedeth from the fountayne which is the very holynesse it selfe And least we should thinke him to be a Creature There was saith he an infinite shadowe in the Deepe whereon was the water and a fine vnderstanding Spirit was in that confuzed masse through the power of God From theÌ„ce there florished a certeine holy brightnesse which out of the Sand and the moyst nature brought foorth the Elements and all things els Also the Gods themselues which dwell in the Starres tooke their place by the direction appoyntment of this Spirit of God Thus then hee was present at the creation of things and it is the same spirit whereof it is sayd in the Byble That the spirit of the Lord houered vpon the outside of the déepe But in some places he matcheth all thrée persons togither O lyfe sayth he saue that life which is in mee O light and God the Spirit inlighten mee wholy O worker which bearest thy Spirit about let thy word gouerne mee Lord thou art the only one God Againe there was sayth he a light of vnderstanding afore the light of vnderstanding and there was euer a mind of the lightfull Mind and besides those there was not any thing els than the vnion of them by one Spirit vpholding all things without which there is neither God nor Angel nor other Substance For hee is Lord Father and God of all and in him and vnder him are al things And hauing said so sayth
of shape and also that a shape is nothing els than the forme or fashion of a substance Moreouer what greater absurditie can there be than to make that a beginning of being which hath by it selfe no being at all nor can haue any being but in another thing as if a man would make blindnesse to bee the beginner of sight or darknesse the beginner of light Agayne seeing that neither substance nor shape haue of themselues any being at all how can they cause other things to bee Or how comes it to passe that two things which haue had no being at all doe méete together in one essence or being but by vertue of the souereine Béeer who hath willed and determined that it should be so And if his willing or determining be the cause of the being of them who is he that did set or appoynt him the terme wherein to doe them But to excuse one vntrueth a man telles a thousand and to shift of one error he falleth into ten thousand and yet it cannot bee eschewed but that the trueth will sparkle out of the Contrarietie of vntrueths as fire sparkles out of the knocking of one Flintsâ—â—one against another In his booke of Problemes which seeme notwithstanding to bee of many mens gathering he sayth concerning the ingendring of liuing things that the small things as Woormes Cutfoules and such other are ingendred by the ordinarie alterations of the tyme the greater by the greater alterations as things that haue néede of greate â—â—â—ginnings or grounds and that there hath in tyme past bin such an alteration as of it selfe hath ingendred them yea euen the notablest liuing things and man himselfe supplying therein both the roome of the efficient cause and also of the materiall both at once And it may bee that that is the cause why Vaâ—ro sayth that Aristotle beléeued that there was no beginning of liuing things or that liuing things haue bene from euer without beginning Also in another place he sayth that there was such an alteration at the same tyme that liuing things were first brought foorth and that if it behoue Nature to bring foorth any mo of them there must be such another alteration going afore namely by a rare Coniunction of some Starres And in another place he sayth further that if Man and other liuing wights had a beginning it was eyther in egge in séede or in woorme and so foorth What a number of Monsters are héere for the stablishing of one Monstar and yet he hath not alledged any thing which is not against himselfe The lesser Coniunctions sayth he doe bréede the smaller liuing things the meane bréede the meane and the great ones bréede the great Well be it so Yet these Coniunctions méet not but by the course of the Starres and that course is a mouing and euery mouing hath a beginning and therefore it followeth that wights had a beginning Againe if the mouing of the Skye and of the Starres be euerlastingly the CoÌ„iunctions thereof are euerlastingly also as Aristotle himselfe concludeth and so on the contrary For if it haue turned about from euerlasting the Coniunctions haue likewise incountred from euerlasting But euerlastingly they could not incounter for the small ones the meane ones and the great ones are not all at once together but they come seuerally one after another with the space of certeyne hundred yéeres with diuers reuolutions betwixt them whereas if they were eternall none of them could goe or come afore another Therefore it followeth that there is a beginner of liuing wights and a beginner of the goings about of the Skye and of all the whole order which we see And that is euen God himself How much better had Aristotle done if he had hild himselfe to that which he sayth well in other places namely that forasmuch as most things cannot haue a perpetuall continuance in the particular that is to say in themselues by reason of being too farre distant from their beginning therefore God hath continued them by the spreading foorth of their kind and to that end hath made them male and female and ordeyned copulation betwixt them For if we make the liuing things without beginning doe we not make them to be euerlasting And if we ground their beginnings vpon some reuolutions of the Skyes can those Reuolutions be euerlasting Also how shall they haue bene brought foorth in full growth or young seeing that at the bringing foorth of al things the things are tender and vnperfect And if the things be not euerlasting where then is the euerlasting mouing of the Heauen that is to say where is Aristotles eternitie become The same followeth also of that which he sayth in another place namely that he which did first gather men together was the author of very great good For in acknowledging that there was a tyme wherein folke liued like the men of Brasilie or like the wandering Nomades he acknowledgeth also an infancie of the World For els what should let that men haue not bene either euerlastingly dispersed or els euerlastingly vnited together And how comes it to passe O Aristotle that there haue not bene Aristotles from euerlasting Agayne who shall choose out the very instant in eternitie for the bréeding and bringing foorth of any thing perticularly but he that is the Lord of eternitie it selfe Aristotle in his Moralles commendeth godlinesse and be highteth blessednesse to them that followe it teaching vs that it consisteth in Contemplation Now seeing that this Contemplation or beholding is the meane to make vs blessed it must néedes bee the beholding of a thing that is right blesfull but blesfull it cannot bée if it consist in these inferiour things which are base and subiect to so many miseries and turmoyles Therefore he meaneth the Contemplation which is the beholding of the only one God Also in other places he sayth that our Soules are of a diuine nature that they be immortal that they come into vs from without that they be after a sort a kin to the Gods and his Disciples would be offended at him that should say that their Mayster dowted of the immortalitie of the Soule And whereto is all this if the World bée eternall If it be eternall eyther our Soules also be eternall that is to say without beginning or els they be not eternall If they be how happeneth it that they haue imprisoned themselues in these our bodies Or if they bee so imprisoned at the appoyntment of an other who shall that other be but God And if God appoynt or allot them to this newe state in tyme certeyne who hath made one eternitie subiect to another And what is then become of this Maximée of theirs that the World is eternall because God maketh not any thing there a newe Moreouer if they be euerlasting who hath made them proportionable to their bodies that is to wit infinite Soules to infinite Bodies And theÌ„ what becomes againe of this other Rule of
theirs that Nature cannot abyde any infinitenesse Or if they bee euerlasting and yet of some certeyne number going and comming into newe bodies by course is not that the opinion of Pythagoras which Aristotle doth so greatly mislike And if our Soules at their departing out of our bodies doe goe to the enioying of the blessed immortalitie doth it not followe that from after the passingouer of that reuolutiō men must moue without Soule dispute without reason and iudge without mynd yea and that euen Aristotle himselfe speaketh and reasoneth without wit To bee short what hooteth it to bee godly or religious if our Soules acknowledge no better thing than themselues What auayleth it to looke for the blessed Contemplation if they bee perfectly blessed of themselues But perfectly blessed they be if they be eternall And whereto then serueth the rewarding of them with immortall life if they haue the eternitie or immortalitie alreadie What els then is his vpholding of the world to be eternal than a turning of the whole world vpside downe But there are sayth Aristotle Godlinesse Blessednesse Immortalitie then doth it follow that our Soules are not eternall And if they be not eternall then haue they a beginning and that beginning haue they either of God or of the world Of the world they haue it not for as I haue sayd were the world eternall the Conuersions or turnings about thereof should bee eternal too and consequently so should our Soules be also as which should be bred of their power But now are all things mortall that are ingendred by those Conuersions as Aristotle himself graunteth But we put the case that they haue an originall notwithstanding that they be immortall Therfore it remayneth that the same is from God Now they could not procéede from God as beames of his substance for all of the Philosophers vphold that he is a single and vndiuided substance vnited in it selfe and most perfectly one but we be subiect to alteration to ignorance to euill affections and such other things It remayneth therefore and otherwise it cannot bée that our Soules are the worke of Gods power Now if our Soules which after a sort doe comprehend the Worlde and all things therein bee the effects of Gods power which through his goodnesse vttereth it selfe when he listeth shall not the world it selfe and the senslesse and transitorie things which serue vs yea and our bodies also which are but the Cotes or Instruments of our soules be so in likewise Now then let Aristotles Disciples choose whether they will giue ouer the eternitie of the world or the immortalitie of their Soules the euerlasting turning about of a whéele or the immortal settlednesse of blessed state for both of them together cannot stand But surely his Disciple Theophrastus seemeth to haue perceiued these inconueniences and contradictions well when he procéedeth so farre as to say that God created the world yea euen of nothing And so doth Algazel the Saracen against Auerrhois vnto whom he sayth that God for the creating of the world néeded neither stuffe nor newe aduisement but that like a most perfect workman hauing all things in a readinesse he tooke his owne leisure for the performance of his worke when it pleased him And yet it seemeth that Aristotle towards the ende of his life repented him of that doctrine insomuch that in his booke of the world he sayth that GOD is the bréeder and preseruer of all things in the world after what maner soeuer it be And euen in his Metaphisicks hauing reiected the opinions of many men concerning these things he sayth thus He that sayth that GOD or the souereyne Mynd is the Cause Author not only of liuing things but also of Nature it selfe and of the World and of all the order therein seemeth to speake discreetly and wel aduisedly and they that speake otherwise speake vnaduisedly And they that are of the former opinion haue very well set downe that Cause for the ground of all things that are as the which is such a beginning as giueth mouing to all things And in his booke of Wonders if it be his he speaketh yet more euidently saying that naturally the Sea should couer the Earth as higher than it but that God hath caused the Sea to withdraw it self that the Earth might be vncouered for the vse of man and of other liuing wights And this is in effect a commingbacke to the opinion of his predecessors from the which he would so fayne haue departed afore Howsoeuer the case stand all the auncient Philosophers doe eyther conclude the Creation of the world with vs or els yéeld vs arguments into our hands wherewith to conclude it against themselues To bee short whē Aristotle who was the first that stepped out of the high way sayth that the world is without beginning he seemeth to bee Aristotle no more he doth so often gainsay himself and offend against his owne rules And where he chaunceth to say that the world was created he seemeth to be minded to yéeld himself to vs. And where the case concerneth not at leastwise expressely the one nor the other he leaueth vs many Conclusions which doe quite ouerthrow and destroye the sayd opinion of his and make him whether he wil or no to conclude on our side The Latins fel to Philosophie somewhat later than the Greekes by reason wherof they had the more cause to ouershoote themselues in the case of Eternitie but yet wee see that the most part of them followed the opinion of Plato That man sayth Cicero that first gathered together men afore dispersed was surely a great Personage And as sayth Pythagoras so was he which did first giue names to things and which first comprised within a certeyne number of letters the sounds of mans voyce which seemed to bee infinite and which marked the Courses and proceedings of the wandring Planets and which first found out Corne Cloth building defences against wilde Beasts and the rest of the things that make our liues the more ciuill What els is this than an acknowledging of a beginning For if mē were from euerlasting did they not from euerlasting speake Did they not from euerlasting giue names to things Could they not inuent euery thing from euerlasting Yes and therfore he concludeth We be not created by haphazard but surely there was a certeyne Might or Power which had a care of Mankynde and which would not haue begotten him to fall into the mischiefe of endlesse death after hee hath outworne the great and innumerable aduersities and toyles of this world Now if we were created and that there bee a souereyne power which hath had care of Mankynd surely then hath there bene a beginning seeing that the sayd power had a care of vs eyther when as yet wee were not at al or after the tyme that we were And in another place he saith That God created and furnished man and that it was his wil that he should haue
the Soule of man hath his beeing from without and not from the elements or from matter as the bodye hath And that all Soules are formes and all formes are substances Dooth hee not make God to bee the creater of substances yea and of better substances than the elements Ageine when he sayth that the knitting parts that is to wit the bones the skin the Sinewes and such lyke may be made of the mixing togither of the elements and that the vnknitting parts as the Head the Leg the Arme and so foorth cannot be so made but are made by nature and heauenly skil insomuch that the proper essence and forme of the knitters procéedeth neither of heate nor of cold of moysture nor of drythe Dooth hee not acknowledge in euery seuerall part a seuerall forme and substaunce which commeth from some other where than of the matter or of the mixture of the elements And sith hee sayth in another place that it were possible to haue such a coniunction of the heauenly bodyes as myght produce not only an efficient cause but also euen matter it self for the creating and bringing foorth of liuing things yea and of mankind also why should he haue thought it vncredible that GOD who dwelleth verye farre aboue such Coniunctions should be able to doo the like Also we see that Theophrast the greatest Clark of all his Disciples findeth himself so graueled in his booke of Sauors or Sents by reason of the particular natures of things that hee bursteth out into expresse woords and sayeth that God created all things of nothing And Algazel the Arabian disputing ageinst Auerrhoes sayeth that the cause of all things did also make matter it selfe Also Aphrodiseus declareth in his problemes that the philosophers were fayne to referre the effects and vertues of many things to some other thing than to the Elements And if they coulde not father them vppon the Elementes howe could they father them vppon matter or stuffe séeing that the Elements haue power and force to do wheras matter hath abilitie but only to suffer or to be wrought vppon And if they could not father them vppon matter vppon what else should they father them than vppon God who hath created both the propertie and the substance of them togither The Platonists that wrate since the comming of Christ haue giuen libertie too their owne braynes to gad out into a thousand imaginations But whereas Plotin telleth vs that Gods actions and effects are contemplations which imprint in nature the séedes of all things hee teacheth vs too thrust farre from vs such brutish questions as these namely Of what kind of stuffe did God frame the world And with what tooles did hee it which are further of from the nature of the Godhead than our dooings are from mere contemplations For what else is contemplation according to their owne docttine than to be wholy seuered from matter He speaketh often of the first matter but how doth he descrybe it He sayeth that the very matter it selfe which is ioyned too the forme hath not any true béeing and he termeth it The beeing of a Notbeeing that is to say a thing that in deede is not and that dooth hee too distinguish theis transitorie natures from the verye Beeing of God which he termeth The Supersubstantiall Beeing But as for the first matter he calleth it The very Notbeeing that is too say an imaginatiue thing which hath not any béeing at all in déede as if yée would say as hée himself addeth a certeine vnshapednesse which is the cause of all mishapennesse the chéef default or want which is the cause of all the defaults or wants that are in particâ—lar things the very euill which is the originall of all euils and to be short a thing that can neither bée knowen nor imagined otherwise than we imagine what Darknesse is by the knowledge of light namely an vtter absence of all light Yea but will some man say Although it be not an Essence yet ought it at the least to bee a Qualitie and by his terming of it an Euill he séemeth after a sort to make it a qualitie Nay like as saith he when we call the first of all Beeings by the name of Goodnesse we meane not that that Goodnesse is in him a Qualitie but a very substance yea and more than a substance So when wee call Matter by the name of Euill our meaning is not that it is a Qualitie or hath any Qualitie in it But that it is no Qualitie ne hath Qualitie in it For had it any Qualitie in it then should it bee a Substance and consequently a shape or forme too but it is not any forme at all That in effect is the summe of his booke concerning euill and the originall thereof In his booke of Matter he declareth that there was a matter for he would not els haue made bookes thereof in vayne but yet he sayth that the same was neither essence qualitie nor quantitie nor had any essence qualitie or quantitie in it ne differed any whit from priuation sauing in this respect that priuation is verifyed as in respect of some subiect or substaunce that is bereft of some thing that is peculiar or incident vnto it wheras Matter is an vniuersall and vtter want of all things that is to say a thing farre worse than priuation And yet for all this he will not haue it to be vtterly nothing at all but as a wast or emptie space a thing without bounds a being without being And what or where theÌ„ shall that be At length he findeth it in the world that is to be conceyued but only in vnderstanding that is to say in God in whom he will haue it to abide as a forme or patterne of the vniuersall masse of all things What a raunging is here abroade to fall alwaies into one selfesame path againe Might he not with more ease haue confessed plainly that God is both the formall and the materiall cause of all things that is to say the Creator former and shaper of all things by his wisedome and power Agayne whereas in other places he telleth vs that Matter being it self no essence at all cannot be the cause of the particular beings of so many sundrie things nor hauing no life bée the cause of life but that both life and béeing are breathed into all things from without euen from the souereyne mynd doth he not iumpe with vs which say that GOD created all substances of nothing And if he could create that which was and giue vnto it both being and life could he not also forbeare the thing that was not that is to say matter Atticus and his adherents would néedes beare Plato downe by reason of certeyne sentences of his Timeus and of his Commonwealematters misunderstood that matter was eternall as well as God howbeit that the same being voyd of reason was brought vnto reason by him that is the very reason it self
With these fellowes wee our selues shall not néede to deale but only heare Porphyrius disprouing them after this maner If neither God sayth he be of Matter nor Matter of God but both of them be Beginnings alike whereof then commeth it that there is so great ods betwixt them sith we hold opinion that God is Good and the very worker or Doer and contrarywise that Matter is Euill and but only a Sufferer The cause of this difference cannot proceed from the one to the other at leastwise if our saying be true namely that the one of them is not of the other And much lesse proceedeth it of any third considering that wee acknowledge not any higher cause which beeing admitted it followeth that these two so disagreeable Beginnings met and matched together by chaunce and consequently that all things are tossed and tumbled together by Fortune Agayne If God sayth he bee apt to the beautifying and orderly disposing of Matter and Matter be apt to receiue beautie and orderlines at Gods hand I demaund froÌ„ whence this mutuall aptnesse and disposition commeth For considering that they bee so disagreeing and so full contrary one to another surely they could neuer haue agreed of themselues but must of necessitie haue had a Third to make the attonemeÌ„t betwixt them Now I am sure you will not say that there was any third to commaund them Neither wil I beleeue that they fell to greement by aduenture To bee short seeing that Matter is not sufficient of it self to be in happie state but needeth Gods helpe thereunto but God is of himself abundantly sufficient both to be and to be happie who seeth not that GOD is of more excellencie than Matter and that Matter is not of it selfe so much as able to be For were it able to bee it were also able to be happie And therefore it is not to be denyed but that he whom wee confesse to haue perfected Matter was also the very first maker and Creator of Matter But how could he make it of nothing Let vs heare once agayne what the sayd Porphyrie sayth vnto this poynt Handycrafts saith he haue need of instruments or tooles For their working is outwaâ—â—â— and they haue not their matter or stuffe at commaundment But the naturall Powers as more perfect being within things doo performe all their doings by their only being After that sorte the Soule by his essentiall life doth nourish growe ingender breathe feele and so foorth So likewise the Imagination by the only one Inworking of it selfe giueth diuers qualities and mouings to the bodie all at one instant So also the bodilesse Spirites themselues as the Diuines report doe worke wonderous things by their imaginations without instrument or action Much rather therefore shall the workemayster of the whole world who is a Mynd giue substance to the whole by his owne only being that is to wit to this diuidable world himselfe being vndiuidable For why should it be thought strauÌ„ge that a thing which is without a bodie should produce things that haue bodies considering that of a very smal seede there groweth so great a Beast composed of so many so great and so differing parts For though the seede bee little the reason of the seede cannot bee small seeing it worketh so great things neither on the other side can it be great forasmuch as it vttereth and sheweth it selfe euen in the smallest percelles Now this reason of the seede needeth matter to worke vppon but so doth not the Reason of God for he needeth not any thing but maketh and frameth all things and notwithstanding that he bring foorth and moueth all things yet abydeth he still in his owne proper nature Now when as the sorest and learneddest enemie that euer ChristiaÌ„s had acknowledgeth this doctrine in good faith and in so expresse wordes who dareth open his lippes any more against it Dare the Epicures with their motes doo it How can they alledge any reason for them selues being by their owne opinion made by haphazard at aduenture without reason Or shal the naturall Philosophers do it with their temperings and mixtures First let them examine their Maister Galene concerning the things which I haue alledged out of him in the former Chapter and if that will not suffize them they shall heare him yet agayne in this Chapter Certesse as it cannot bee denyed but that as he laboureth by all meanes possible to father the causes of all things vppon the Elements and vppon the mixture of them together so is he driuen at euery turne to acknowledge somewhat in them which he is ashamed to father vpoÌ„ them In discoursing how the babe is formed in the moothers wombe he findeth himselfe turmoyled with many opinions But yet in the end Soothly concludeth he I see so great a wisedome and so mightie a Power that I cannot thinke that the Soule which is in the child that is begotten maketh the shape thereof considering that it is altogether voyde of reason but rather that it is formed by that which we call Nature In his booke of the tempering of things a place that serued best for the exalting of the powers of the Elements to the vttermost he very sharply reproueth those which father the cause of the forming of the parts of the bodies of liuing things vpon the qualities of the Elements Notwithstanding saith he that these Qualities be but instrumeÌ„ts and that there bee another that is the framer or fashioner of things In his booke of the opinions of Plato and Hippocrates he maketh the vitall spirite to bee the excellentest of all things that haue a bodie and yet for all that he will not haue it to be eyther the substance or the dwelling place but only the instrument of the Soule And in his booke of Flesshes he procéedeth further sayth that in treating of Leachcraft he spake often according to the common opinion but that if it came to the poynt of vttering the opinioÌ„ that he himslfe hild he declared that both man and Beast haue their beginning from aboue and that their Soules are from Heauen and finally that the Soule procéedeth neither from the qualities of the Elements nor from any of all the things that wee see here beneath Now if the Soule of man or of the very Beastes procéede not of the Elements how should it possibly procéede of the Matter And if it procéede not of the Matter must it not néedes procéed of the forme or rather must it not néedes be the very forme it selfe And what els is so excellent a forme than an excellent substance And from whence is that by his owne saying but from a former fashioner or shaper And what els shal that former be than a Creator seeing that euen shaping is a creating of a substance Now therefore let vs conclude for this Chapter both by vnsoluble reasons and by the testimonies aswell of our enemies as of our friends that God both was able to create and also did
making a Clocke of great compasse where the very greatnesse if selfe diminisheth the estimation thereof If thou bee afrayd least the spirit of God should soyle it selfe in these corruptible things remember that looke with what mynd Cincinnatus commaunded his men of Warre and ruled the Commonweale with the very same mynd did he both till and dung his ground and yet thou coūtest him neuer the more defiled or imbaced thereby The selfesame Sunne which giueth light in the Skye pearceth through the darke Cloudes and foggie Mistes dryeth vp drawghts and Sinks and sheadeth foorth his beames euen into the things which seeme most filthie and lothly and yet he himselfe is not blemished or defiled therewith Now then art thou afrayd least God who careth for all things without care moueth them without touching them and atteyneth to them without putting himself foorth is not able to wéeld these lower things without defyling himself by them But it were more conuenient sayth Aristotle that God should deale with the great things himself as the King of Persia doth in his priuie Chāber and that he should leaue the care of the smaller things to his Princes As who would say that the Gardyner which hath sowed both the great Cabbage and the little Turnippe both the Gourd and the Melone should make more account of the one for the greatnesse therof than of the other for the smalnes therof Or as though thou wouldest not also the more woonder at the King if without stirring out of his priuie Chamber he could appoynt all things to be done or rather doe all the things himselfe which other men doe What is the thing I pray thée which thou commendest in Mithridates but that he could call all his Souldiers euery one by his owne name Or in Phillip King of Macedonie but that he him selfe made the prouision for all his whole Hoste euen for their cariages and for fodder for their Beastes Or in the great Captaynes of our tyme but that they can skill not onely to make Warre and to order their Battelles but also to set downe what the dayly expences of their Armies will come vnto euen to euery loafe of bread and euery bottle of Hay and welnere within one or two shot how many shot of the Cannon will make a breach in such a wall or such a Bulwarke and so foorth Or finally in this Captayne or that sauing that this Captaine could skill to set the Sunne vpon the face of his enemies and another to cast the winde the dust or the smoke in their eyes and another to serue his owne turne by a Marris and some other to drawe his enemie into a myrie and dirtie Countrie And what viler or baser things can there be than these aforerehearsed Finally what is it that ye commend in the skilfullest Warriours of them al but that they could skill to serue their own turne Or in the most glorious Conquerours but that they gat the victorie in the ende And so thou must néedes graunt that whereas the Counterparties fayled to doe the like it was not for want of courage or goodwill but for want of power or skill Now whatsoeuer is in the whole World is the Armie or Hoste of God an Armie or Hoste I say not which he hath gathered of his neighbours but which he hath created with his owne hands He knoweth all the Starres by name for he made them He hath prouided foode for all liuing things and one of them is no greater to him than another for they haue no being at all any longer than he listeth If he make warre here beneath all his Armies are readie to do him seruice and to wage battell vnder his Banner yea euen the ambitiousnesse of Princes to punish themselues one by another If Nations wexe proud he armeth against them the Grashoppers and the Locusts the Horefrostes and the Blastings the Windes and the Uapors of the Earth In euery of vs he hath his inlookers to chastize vs in our flesh our corruptions in our mynde our passions and in our Soules our sinnes and disorders There is not so small a thing which serueth not him to very great purpose nor thing so vyle which serueth not his glorie nor thing so enemylike which fighteth not to get him the victorie nor thing so wrongfull which executeth not his Iustice nor thing so much against him which hitteth not the marke that he ameth at Therfore pleade not in this behalf vnaduisedly for Gods glorie For the more stirring the more chaunge the more disorder there is here beneath the more doth he shewe the vnmouable decree of his euerlasting Prouidence which will they or nill they directeth all the vncoustancies of this world to one certeyne end And if perchaunce thou be afrayd least GOD should bee tyred with the payne and trauell for he hath néede of thyne vngodlines to reléeue him consider how thyne own Soule without any toyle to it selfe and without thy priuitie doth at one selfesame instant both prouide for the susteyning of thée and make all thy parts to grow euery of them according to his peculiar portion and proportion giuing sence euen to thy nailes and the heares of thy head which are but outgrowings and not parts of thy bodie And if thou wilt know how this Prouidence is occupied without toyle consider how that thy Soule notwithstanding all the businesse which thy Soule doth without thy thinking theron forbeareth not also in the meane while to mount vp euen vnto heauen and by the discourses thereof to turmoyle the whole Earth to lay for the maintenance and defence of innumerable howsholds likewise for the decay and ouerthrow of as many others and to search into the dealings of the enemie to make them to serue his owne turne to treate both of Warre and Peace together at one tyme and with the selfesame persons both at once And darest thou now thinke that God is toyled in the things which thou thy selfe doest without toyle Or that he is tyred with the gouernments wherein thou wouldest take pleasure Or that he being a free and infinite Spirite doth not that in a limited bodie which thy Soule being finite in it selfe doth in thy bodie where it is as in a prison To bee short seeing thou presumest to doe thy will with the things wherof thou canst not make one heare shall GOD be vnable to doe his will with the things which he of his owne only wil hath made and created The vertue that is in a kernell or a Plant sheadeth it selfe from the roote to the vttermost braunches yéelding nourishment seuerally to the stocke or stalke to the pith to the barke to the flowers to the leaues and to the fruite to euery of them according to the proportion and nature thereof The Sunne it selfe in kéeping his course and without mynding any such thing yéeldeth heate to innumerable Plants and to innumerable people and yet heateth not himself one whit the more Now if a creature doe so what shal
we say of the Creator What shall we say of him which is not the Soule of the Plant or of the Beast or of Man but the maker of al things yea which made thē of nothing who is not as some Philosophers haue vphild the Soule of the World but rather if he may be so termed the very life and Soule of all life and Soule in the World But as we see dayly if the Counsell of a Realme can not ceasse one wéeke without confusion of the Commonweale nor the Soule of a man or a Beast forbeare woorking bee it neuer so little without the death of the partie nor the life that is in Plants stay without withering of the Plant nor the Sunne goe downe without procuring darknesse or suffer Eclips without some notable chaūge much more reason haue we to beléeue that if the world and al that is therein were not guyded vphild and cared for by the same power wisedome and goodnesse that created it and set in such order as it is it would in one moment fall from order into confusion and from confusion to nothing For to haue no care of it is to mislike of it and to mislike of it is in God to vndoe it forasmuch as Gods willing of it was the very doing of it Now if Gods Prouidence extend it selfe throughout to all things aswell in Heauen as in Earth wee cannot doubt but that it extendeth also vnto man For what thing is there of so greate excellencie either on Earth as mans body or in Heauen as mans Soule And in extending it selfe to man it must needes extend it selfe equally to all men For who is either greate or small poore or riche in respect of him which made both of nothing Or what oddes is there betwixt them sauing that whereas both of them bee but slaues to him that setteth foorth the tragedie he appareleth the one in Cloth of Gold to play the King and the other in a course Pilche to play the Begger making them to chaunge their apparell when he listeth But hehold here commeth almost an vniuersall grudge For if there be say they a Prouidence how commeth it too passe that ill men haue so much prosperitie and good men so much aduersitie that some be so long vnpunished and othersome so long vnrewarded And to be short that one for his wickednes commeth to the Gallowes and another for the same cause obteineth a Diademe or Crowne This question hath combred not onely the most vertuous among the Heathen but also euen the most Religious of all ages But it were best to take héere a little breth and to put it ouer among diuers other things which remayne to bee treated of in the next Chapter following The xij Chapter That all the euill which is doone or seemeth to be doone in the world is subiect to the prouidence of God I Sayd héeretofore concerning GOD that all things teache vs that there is but one and yet notwithstanding that all things togither cannot sufficiently teache vs what hee is Also let vs say concerning Prouidence That in all things wee see a manifest Prouidence but yet to séeke out the cause thereof in euery thing is as much as to sound a bottomlesse pit if it be not much worse séeing that the will of God is the cause of all causes Surely if a man will blame Gods prouidence because it agreeth not with his owne opinion he is a thousandfold too bee more mislyked than hee that should find fault with the maister of an household for the order of his house where hee hath not lodged aboue one night or controll the Lawes Counsell of a straunge countrie wherof he hath had no further experience than by resorting too the Tauernes and common Innes Or than the Babe that should take vpon him to giue sentence of his fathers doings or than the Uarlet that should presume to iudge of the determination of a Court of Parliament vnder pretence that he had hild some mans Male at the Palace gate or I will say more than the brute beast that should vndertake too déeme of the dooings of men For what are wee to be admitted to the Counsell of God which cannot so much as abyde the brightnesse of his face And what vnderstand we further of him than he voutsafeth too reueale vnto vs What Princis Counseler is so wyse that he can giue his Lord good aduice vnlesse his Lorde doe first make him priuie to his purpose as well present as past and to all the other circumstances perteyning thereunto Or what Husbandman comming from a farre will presume to vnderstand better what tilth what séede what compost and what time of rest such or such a péece of ground requireth than he that hath bin acquainted with it all the dayes of his lyfe And how farre greater thing is it to create than to till But forasmuch as God is reason it self and we through his grace haue some sparke thereof let vs sée whether it bee not so euident in all his dooings that in this poynt it inlighteneth euen the darknesse of our reason And if wee perceiue it not so cleerly in all things let vs acknowledge our selues to be but men betwéene whom and God there is no comparison whereas in very déede there were no difference betwixt him and vs if we could throughly conceiue all his deuices Now then whereas it is sayd that if there be a prouidence why haue good men so much euill and euill men so much good afore wée deale with the matter let vs agree vpon the words I aske of thee which men thou callest good and which thou callest euill and likewise what things thou meanest to bee properly good or euill If I should aske thée why healthy men haue so many diseases and diseased men so much health thou mightest with good reason laugh mée to skorue for health maketh healthy and sicknesse maketh sicke But whereas thou askest mée why good men haue so much euill and euill men so much good pardon me though I cause thée to expound thy meaning for naturally I cannot conceiue that either good men haue euill or euill men haue good For if by good men you meane rich men men of honour and men that are healthy and that ye take riches honour and health to bee the good things then is your question absurd For it is al one as if ye should demaund why hearded men haue heare on their chinnes and beardlesse men haue none But if as I heare thée say thou estéemest Solons pouertie to be better than the gold of Crassus and Platoes honestie better than Dennysis tyrannie and the Collick and the Stone of a wiseman with his wisedom to be better than the health and soundnesse of bodie of the foole with his follie then art thou deceyued with the fayre name of Good for it is another thing than these goodes which causeth thée to preferre them and to estéeme them the better Therfore let vs say that the
good are those which séeke after the true good things and that the true good things are Godlinesse and Uertue and contrarywise that the euill folkes are those which are wedded to the things that are euill in déede that is to say to sinne and vngodlinesse and let vs not confound things together the good with the bad and the bad with the good For what goodes soeuer a man can haue or to speake after thyne owne maner whatsoeuer euilles he can méete with he cannot bee good though he haue all the goodes in the world so long as he himselfe is not good neither can he be in euill case as long as he himself is not euill As for the goods which goe about to beguyle vs vnder that attyre let vs say they bee outward things common to the one sort as wel as to the other for the which a man can no more bee termed good or bad blesfull or wretched than he can bee called wise or learned for wearing a rich garment And contrarywise that as all these false goodes are instruments to the wicked to make them woorse as riches to corrupt both themselues and other men authoritie to doe vyolence health to make them the lustier and stouter to doe mischief and so foorth so the euilles which thou termest euilles are helpes to good men to doe good and furtherers of them in the exercise of vertue as pouertie to bridle their lustes bacenesse to humble them sicknesse to méeken them and all maner of comberances to driue them to flee vnto GOD and to teach them to succour their neighbours in the like when God shal haue drawne them out of them euen after the same maner that a sickly bodie turneth all things that are ministred vnto it into the vnsound humor which getteth the vpper hand wheras on the other side the sound healthy bodie turneth to his nourishment euen the meates that are worst of digestion Now then let vs come to the poynt Wilt thou knowe why riches and honour are common both to good and bad It is because that God euen in spight of the wicked cannot but bee good insomuch that he maketh the showers to rayne and the light to shine vpon the one as well as on the other notwithstanding that the one sort doe curse him for wetting them or for making them to sweate and the other sort doe blesse him for moystening and ripening the fruites of their labours It is because God déemeth it not agréeable eyther to his owne honor or to the greefes and trauelles of his seruants to reward them with trifling things least they should set their myndes vpon them like as a father that kéepeth his heritage for his sonne thinketh it not to bee for his behoofe to apparell him in the liuerie of his seruants and slaues To bee short it is because he dealeth like a Prince who maketh his pay common to all his Souldiers but as for the Garlond of Oke he giueth it only to such as are the first that in scaling doe enter the breach or get vp vpon the wall of a Towne that is assaulted Likewise Kings doe cast their largesse at aduenture among the people but as for their honors and dignities they bestow them vpon those whom they especially fauour It misliketh thée that this man tilleth his ground with moe Ploughes than thou but aduise thy selfe well whether thou couldest find in thy hart to exchaunge that inward gifts of grace which GOD hath bestowed vppon thée with his Oxen and his Ploughes Another is in greater reputation and authoritie with the Prince than thou art But consider thou therewithall the hartbytings the enuie the hartburnings and such other things which he indureth and see whether the meanest degrée in Gods house where thou seruest being free and exempted from all those things be not much better than the best roome about any King The King for his seruice done by him rewardeth him with Lands fees and offices but if thou be so bacemynded and wrongfull to thy selfe as to foster thy body with the seruices and charges of thy Soule consider that God being liberall and iust intendeth to reward spirituall incounters with spiritual Garlonds and to recompence thée according to his own honor and not according to the bacenesse of thy heart and that so much the more because that in very déede he rewardeth not thy workes but his owne workes in thée Moreouer the reward is giuen not according to thy desart but according to the worthinesse of him that bestoweth it The recompence of one selfsame seruice is farre other at the hand of a King than of a meane Lorde If thou say thou couldest bee contented with a thousande French Crownes Alexander would answere thée that it might perchaunce be enough for thée to receyue but not enough for Alexander to giue And if thou wouldest haue GOD to giue thée no greater reward than plentie of Wine and Corne if thou knewest him well thou wouldest bee ashamed of thy selfe for it is the foode that is common to all men and not peculiar to those that are his Neuerthelesse if thou step not so farre but art desirous to knowe what be the goodes which good men haue in this world I speake of them that seeme not to haue them Seneca telles thée that they make their life allowable to God who knoweth them in him they repose themselues they haue peace in their Consciences if he increase not their present state they also doe abate their desires their enemies cōmend their vertue all the world bemoaneth their want and those that haue the distributing of goodes and honors are blamed for leauing them vnconsidered To bee short the very asking of that Question be thou a Christian or an Heathen man is vnto them an inestimable reward namely that whereas concerning the most part of other men it is wont to be demaunded wherfore they be aduaunced to riches honor and authoritie and they themselues are oftentymes ashamed to tell how they came by them euery man asketh how it happeneth that the good men are not rich honorable and in authoritie Now if thou haue the courage of a man wouldest thou not choose as Cato did that men should rather aske why thou haddest not an Image of thyne set vp in the open place and why thou wast not admitted to that honour than otherwise Yes sayst thou But if God listed not to giue mee them why haue I at leastwise forgone those which I had Why hath hee taken them from mée It may be sayth Seneca that if thou haddest not forgone them they would haue fordone thée I tell thée that if hée had not taken them from thée they would haue taken thée from him I pray thée how often hast thou taken from thy Childe a puppet or some other toye that he played withall to see whether he would be stubborne or no How oft haste thou plucked the knife out of his hand euen when he cryed to haue it still And what
man the Countie of Mirandula praying them to consider at least wyse whether the greate studye and peynes which those greate Clerks haue takâ—n to disprooue this destinie can by any meanes bee fathered vppon destinie Now then for a small conclusion of this whole discourse let vs say that God is a souereine Beeing and a souerein mynd and that Beeing and Mynding are all one in him and therefore that as in creating things the might and power of his Beeing extended euen to the least things or els they had not bin at all so the Prouidence forecast and direction of his mynd extend to all things or else they could not continue Let not the confusion of things which we see â—eere belowe trubble vs for the greater the same is the greatâ—â— doth Gods prouidence shewe it self therein as the skill of a Phisition doth in the intricatenesse of a disease But who is he that can limit the sight of the Euerlasting God Surely not the prosperities of the wicked for they be but visors nor the aduersities of the godly for they be but exercises nor the Deathes of the giltlesse for it is but a poudering of their vertewes to preserue them to the vse of posteritie Nay let not euen sinne it selfe which is the very euill in deede cause any grudge of mynd in vs for God Created Nature good but euill is sproong thereof He Created freedome and it is degenerated into Loocenesse But let vs prayse God for giuing vs powers and let vs condemne our selues for abusing them Let vs glorifie him for chastising vs by our owne Loocenesse for executing his Iustice by our vniust Dealings and for performing the ordinaunce of his rightfull will by our inordinate passions It we see a thing whereof we knowe not the cause let vs acknowledge our ignorance and not name it fortune The causes that are furthest a sunder are neere at hand vnto him to performe whatsoeuer he listeth If we do any vnreasonable thing let vs not alledge necessitie He can skill to vse all things without marring them the moouable according to their moouings the things indewed with will according to their passions and the things indewed with reason according to their reasonings In thinking to do our owne will we bring his to passe We be free to followe out owne Nature and our Nature is becomme euill through sinne O wretched fréedome which bringeth vs vnder such bondage And aâ—fore this nature of ours we can neither shun it nor driue it from vs for we be bonâ—â—laues to it and it to sinne and there behoueth a stronger than our selues to rid vs thereof Therefore let vs pray God to bring the fréedome of our wills in bondage to his will and to frée our soules from this hard and damnable kind of fréedome and to graunt vs by his grace not as to the wicked to doe his will in béeing vnwilling to do it but as to his Children at least wise to be willing to doe it euen in not doing it The xiiij Chapter That the Soule of Man is immortall or dyeth not HIthertoo I haue treated of the world that is to be conceiued in vnderstanding and of the sensible World as the Platonists tearme them that is to say of God and of this World Now followeth the examining of the Little World as they terme it that is to say of man Concerning God we haue acknowledged him to be a Spirit and as touching the World we haue found it to be a body In man wee haue an abridgment of both namely of God in respect of Spirit and of the World in composition of body as though the Creator of purpose to set forth a mirror of his woorks intended to bring into one little compasse both the infinitenesse of his owne nature and also the hougenesse of the whole world together Wee see in mans body a Woonderfull mixture of the fower Elements the veynes spreading forth like Riuers to the vttermost members as many instruments of sence as theere be sensible natures in the world a greate nomber of sinewes Fleshstrings and knitters a Head by speciall priuiledge Directed vp too Heauen-ward Hands seruing to all maner of seruices Whatsoeuer he is that shall consider no more but onely this instrument without life without sence and without mouing cannot but think verily that it is made to verie greate purpose and he must needes krie out as Hermes or as the Sarzin Abdala doth that man is a miracle which farre surmounteth not only these Lower Elements but also the verie Heauen and all the ornaments thereof But if he could as it were out of himself behold this body receiuing life and entering into the vse of all his motions with such forewardnesse hands bestirring themselues so nimbly and after so sundrie fashions and the Senses vttering their force so farre of without stirring out of their place think you not that he would be woonderfully rauished and so much more woonder at the sayd life mouing and sence than at the body as he woondered afore at the body to behold the excellencie of the proportion thereof aboue the masse of some stone For what comparison is there betweene a Lute and a Luteplayer or betweene a dumb instrument and him that maketh it to sound What would he say then if he could afterward see how the same man being now quickned atteyneth in one moment from the one side of the earth to the other without shifting of place descending downe to the centre of the world and mounting vp aboue the outtermost circle of it both at once present in a thousand places at one instant imbracing the whole without touching it kreeping vpon the earth and yet conteyning it beholding the Heauens from beneath and beeing aboue the Heauens of Heauens both at once Should hee not be compelled to say that in this sillie body there dwelleth a greater thing than the body greater than the earth yea greater than the whole world togither Then let vs say with Plato that man is dubble outward and inward The outward man is that which we see with our eyes which forgoeth not his shape wheÌ„ it is dead no more than a Lute forgoeth his shape when the Luteplaier ceasseth from making it to sound howbeit that both life mouing sence and reason be out of it The inward man is the Soule and that is properly the very man which vseth the body as an instrument whereunto though it be vnited by the power of God yet doth it not remoue when the body ronneth It seeth when the eyes be shut and sometymes seeth not when the eyes be wyde open It traueleth while the body resteth and resteth when the body traueleth that is to say it is able of it self to parforme his owne actions without the help of the outward man wheras on the contrarie part the outward without the help of the inward that is to wit the body without the presence of the Soule hath neither sence mouing life no nor continewance of
the body and that the Glasses are out of the Spectacles but the eysight is still good Why should we déeme the Soule to be forgone with the Sences If the eye be the thing that séeth and the eare the thing that heareth why doe wee not see things dubble and heare sounds dubble seeing we haue two eyes and two eares It is the Soule then that seeth and heareth and these which wee take to be our sences are but the instruments of our sences And if when our eyes bee shut or pickt out wee then beholde a thousand things in our mynd yea and that our vnderstanding is then most quicksighted when the quickest of our eysight is as good as quenched or starke dead how is it possible that the reasonable Soule should bee tyed and bound to the sences What a reason is it to say that the Soule dyeth with the sences séeing that the true sences do then growe and increase when the instruments of sence doe dye And what a thing were it to say that a Beast is dead because he hath lost his eyes when we our selues see that it liueth after it hath forgone the eyes Also I haue prooued that the Soule is neither the body nor an appertnance of the body Sith it is so why measure we that thing by the body which measureth al bodies or make that to dye with the body whereby the bodies that dyed yea many hundred yéeres agoe doe after a certeine maner liue still Or what can hurt that thing whom nothing hurteth or hindereth in the bodie Though a man lose an arme yet doth his Soule abide whole still Let him forgoe the one halfe of his body yet is his Soule as sound as afore for it is whole in it selfe and whole in euery part of it selfe vnited in it felfe and in the owne substance and by the force and power thereof it sheadeth it selfe into all parts of the body Though the body rot away by péecemeale yet abideth the Soule all one and vndiminished Let the blud dreyne out the mouing wex weake the sences fayle and the strength perish and yet abideth the mynd neuerthelesse sound and liuely euen to the ende Her house must bee pearced through on all sides ere she bee discouraged her walles must be battered doune ere she fall to fléeting and she neuer forsaketh her lodging till no roome be left her to lodge in True it is that the brute Beastes forgo both life and action with their blud But as for our Soule if wee consider the matter well it is then gathered home into it self and when our sences are quenched then doth it most of all labour to surmount it selfe woorking as goodly actions at the tyme that the body is at a poynt to fayle it yea and oftentymes farre goodlyer also than euer it did during the whole lifetyme thereof As for example it taketh order for it selfe for our houshold for the Commonweale and for a whole Kingdome and that with more vprightnesse godlynesse wisedome and moderation than euer it did afore yea and perchance in a body so forspeâ—â—â— so bare so consumed so withered without and so putrified within that whosoeuer lookes vpon him sees nothing but earth and yet to heare him speake would rauish a man vp to heauen yea and aboue heauen Now when a man sees so liuely a Soule in so weake and wretched a body may he not say as is said of the hatching of Chickens that the shell is broken but there commeth forth a Chicken Also let vs sée what is the ordinary cause that things perish Fire doth eyether goe out for want of nourishment or is quenched by his contrary which is water Water is resolued into aire by fire which is his contrary The cause why the Plant dyeth is extremitie of colde or drought or vnseasonable cutting or vyolent plucking vp Also the liuing wight dyeth through contrarietie of humours or for want of foode or by feeding vpon some thing that is against the nature of it or by outward vyolence Of all these causes which can we choose to haue any power against our Soule I say against the Soule of man which notwithstanding that it be vnited to matter and to a bodie is it selfe a substance vnbodily vnmateriall and only conceiuable in vnderstanding The contrarietie of things Nay what can be contrarie to that which lodgeth the contraries alike equally in himselfe which vnderstandeth the one of them by the other which coucheth them all vnder one skill and to bee short in whom the contrarieties themselues abandon their contrarietie so as they doe not any more pursewe but insewe one another Fire is hote and water cold Our bodies mislike these contraries and are gréeued by them but our mynd linketh them together without eyther burning or cooling it selfe and it setteth the one of them against the other to knowe them the better The things which destroy one another through the whole world do mainteine one another in our mynds Againe nothing is more contrary to peace then warre is and yet mans mynd can skill to make or mainteyne peace in preparing for warre and to lay earnestly for warre in seeking or inioying of peace Euen death it selfe which dispatcheth our life cannot bée contrary to the life of our Soule for it seeketh life by death and death by life And what can that thing méete withall in the whole world that may bee able to ouerthrowe it which can inioyne obedience to things most contrary What then Want of foode How can that want foode in the world which can skill to feede on the whole world Or how should that forsake foode which the fuller it is so much the hungryer it is and the more it hath digested the better able it is to digest The bodily wight feedeth vppon some certeyne things but our mynd feedeth vpon all things Take from it the sensible things and the things of vnderstanding abyde with it still bereaue it of earthly things and the heauenly remayne abundantly To be short abridge it of all worldly things yea and of the world it selfe and euen then doth it feede at greatest ease maketh best chéere agréeable to his owne nature Also the bodily wight filleth it selfe to a certeyne measure and delighteth in some certeyne things But what can fill our mynd Fill it as full as ye can with the knowledge of things and it is still eager and sharpe set to receyue more The more it taketh in the more it still craueth and yet for al that it neuer feeleth any rawnesse or lack of digestion What shall I say more discharge our vnderstanding from the mynding of it self and then doth it liue in him and of him in whom all things doe liue Againe fill it with the knowledge of it selfe and then doth it feele it self most emptie and sharpest set vpon desire of the other Now then can that dye or decay for want of foode which cannot be glutted with any thing which is nourished and mainteyned with
which we see afarre of is round whereas our reason deemeth it to be square or that a thing is small which our reason telleth vs is greate or that the ends of lyues in a long walke do meete in a poynt whereas our reason certifieth vs that they runne ryghtfoorth with equall distance one from another For want of this discretion certeine Elephants sayth Vitellio which were passing ouer a long bridge turned backe beeing deceyued and yet they wanted not sight no more than we do But they that led them were not deceyued Their Leaders then besides their eysight had in them another vertue or power which corrected their sight and therefore ought to be of hygher estimation In lyke â—ase is it with the rest of the other sences For our hearing telleth vs that the thunderclappe is after the lyghtening but skill assureth vs that they be both togither For there is a certeine power in vs which can skil to discerne what proportion is betweene hearing and seeing Also the tong of him that hath an Agew beareth him on hand that euen sugre is biâ—â—er which thing he knoweth by his reason to be vntrew To be short those which haue their sences most quicke and lyâ—ely be not of the greatest wisdum and vnderstanding A man therefore differeth from a beast and excelleth men by some other power than sence For whereas it is comonly sayd that such as haue séene most are comonly of greatest skill we see that many haue traueled farre both by sea and land which haue come home as wise as they wentfoorth A horse hath as good eyes as he that rydes vpon him and yet for all his traueling neither he nor paraduenture his Ryder whom he beareth become any whit the wyser by that which they haue seene whereby it appereth that it is not enough to see things vnlesse a man do also mynd them to his benefite Now there is great difference betweene the lyuelynes of the Sence and the power that gouerneth the Sence lyke as the report of a Spye is one thing and the Spye himself is another and the wisdum of the Capteine that receyueth the report of the Spye is a third Nay who can deny that Sence and Reason are dyuers things or rather who wilnot graunt that in many things they be cleane contrarie Sence biddeth vs shun and eschew greef whereas Reason willeth vs to profer our leg sometyme to the Surgion to be cut of Sence plucketh our hand out of the fire and yet we our selues put fire to our bare skin He that should sée a Sceuola burne of his owne hand without so much as once gnashing his téeth at it would thinke he were vtterly senslesse so mightily dooth Reason ouerrule sence To be short Sence hath his peculiar inclination which is appetite and Reason lykewyse hath his which is will And lyke as reason doth oftentymes ouerrule sence and is contrarie to it so will correcteth the sensuall appetyte or lust that is in vs and warreth ageinst it For in an Agew we couet to drink and in an Apoplexie we couet to sleepe and in hungre we couet to eate and yet from all those things doth our will restreyne vs. The more a man followeth his lust the lesse is he led by will and the more he standeth vpon the pleasing of his Sences the lesse reason vseth he ordinarily Againe let vs consider the brute Beastes which haue this sensitiue part as well as we If we haue no more than that how commeth it to passe that a little child driueth whole flockes and heards of them whether he listeth and sometymes whether they would not Whereof commeth it that euery of them in their kynd doe all liue nestle and sing after one sorte whereas men haue their lawes Commonweales maners of buylding and formes of reasoning not only diuers but also commonly contrary Now what can harber these contrarieties together but onely that which hath not any thing contrary vnto it and wherein all contrary things doe lay away their contrarietie Surely it is not the Sence that can doe it whose proper or peculiar obiect is most contrary to the sence Besides this as I haue sayd afore whereas we conceyue wisedome skill vertue and such other things which are all bodilesse our sences haue none other thing to worke vpon than the qualities of bodily substances And whereas we make vniuersall rules of particular things the Sences atteyne no further than to the particular things themselues And wheras we conclude of the causes by their effects our Sences perceyue no more but the bare effects And whereas concerning the things that belong to vnderstanding the more vnderstandable they bee the more they refresh vs Contrarywise the stronger that the sensible things are the more do they offend the Sence To be short the selfesame thing which wee speake in behalfe of the Sences procéedeth from elswhere than from the Sences And we will easely discerne that he which denyeth that besides the common Sence there is in man a reason or vnderstanding distinct and seuered from the Sence is voyd both of vnderstanding and of Sence But see here a grosse reason of theirs This reason or power of vnderstanding say they which is in man is corruptible as well as the power of perceyuing by the Sences I thinke I haue prooued the contrary alreadie neuerthelesse let vs examine their reasons yet further The forme or shape of euery thing say they doth perish with the matter Now the Soule is as ye would say the forme or shape of the body therfore it corrupteth with the body This argument were rightly concluded if it were ment of the materiall forme But I haue proued that the Soule is vnmateriall and hath a continuance of it selfe And in déede the more it is discharged of matter the more it reteyneth his owne peculiar forme Therefore the corrupting of the matter toucheth not the Soule at all Again if mens Soules liue say they after their bodies then are they infinite for the world is without beginning and without ending and as wee knowe nature can away with no infinite thing therefore they liue not after their bodies Yes say I for I haue proued that the world had a beginning and that with so substantiall reasons as thou art not able to disproue Therefore it followeth that the inconuenience which thou alledgest can haue no place Another saith If dead mens Soules liue still why come they not to tell vs so And he thinketh he hath stumbled vpon a woonderful suttle deuise But how doth this followe in reason There hath not come any man vnto vs from the Indies of a long tyme ergo there be no Indies May not the same argument serue as well to proue that wee our selues are not because wee neuer went thether Againe what intercourse is there betwéene things that haue bodies and things that haue no bodies or betwene heauen and earth considering that there is so small intercourse euen betwéene men which liue all vnder
one selfsame Sunne He that is made a Magistrate in his own Countrey doth not willingly returne to the place of his banishment Likewise the Soule that is lodged in the lappe of his God and come home into his natiue soyle forgoeth the desire of these lower things which to his sight beholding them froÌ„ aboue are lesse than the point of a Néedle On the other side he that is put in close prison how desirous soeuer he bee cannot goe out so the Soule which is in the Iayle of his souereine Lord God hath no respit or sportingtyme to come tell vs what is done there Unto the one the beholding of the Euerlasting God is as a Paradize wherein he is wiling to remayne and vnto the other his owne condemnation is an imprisonment of his will But we would haue God to sende both the one and the other vnto vs to make vs to beléeue As who would say it stoode him greatly on hand to haue vs to beléeue and not rather vs that we should beléeue And in effect what els is al this but a desiring that some man might returne into his mothers wombe againe to incourage young babes against the pinches and paines which they abide in the birth whereof they would be as shye as we bee of death if they had the like knowledge of them But let vs let such vanities passe and come to the ground Yee beare vs on hand say they that the Soule of man is but one though it haue dyuers powers Whereof we see the sensitiue and the growing powers to be corrupted and to perish therefore it should seeme that the vnderstanding or reasonable power also should do the lyke At a woord this is al one as if a man should say you tell mee that this man is both a good man a good Swoordplayer aud a good Luteplayer altogither that bycause his swoord falls out of his hand or his hand itself becommeth Lame therefor he cannot be a good or honest man still as you reported him to bee Nay though he lose those instruments yet ceasseth he not therefor to bee an honest man yea and both a Swoordplayer and a Lute-player to as in respect of skill Lykewyse when our Soules haue forgone these exercises yet ceasse they not to be the same they were afore To inlyghten this poynt yet more of the powers of our Soule some are exercysed by the instruments of the bodie and othersome without any help or furtherance of the bodie atall Those which are exercysed by the bodie are the sences and the powers of the Sences and the powers of the growing which may carye the same likenesse that is betweene a Luter and a Lute Breake the Luters Lute and his cunning remayneth still but his putting of it in practise faileth Giue him another Lute and he falles to playing newe againe Put out a mans eyes and yet the abilitie of seeing abydeth still with him though the very act of seeing bée disappoynted But giue vnto the oldest Hag that is the same eyes that he had when he was young and he shall see as well as euer he did After the same maner is it with the growing or thriuing power Restore vnto it a goodâ— stomacke a sound Liuer and a perfect heate and it shall execute his functions as well as euer it did afore The power that worketh of it selfe and without the body is the power of reason or vnderstanding which if we wil we may call the mynd And if thou yet still doubt thereof consider when thou myndest a thing earnestly what thy body furthereth thy mynd therein thou shalt perceyue that the more fixedly thou thinkest vpon it the lesse thou seest the things before thée and the more thy mynd wandreth the more thy body resteth as who would say that the workings of the body are the greatest hinderance and impediment that can bée to the peculiar doings of the mynd And this abilitie of vnderstanding may bee likâ—ned to a man which though he haue lost both his hand and his Lute ceasseth not therefore to bee a man still and to doe the true déedes of a man that is to wit to discourse of things to mynd them to vse reason and such like yea and to be both a Luter and a man as he was afore notwithstanding that he cannot put his Luteplaying in exercise for want of instruments Nay which more is this vnderstanding part groweth so much the stronger and greater as it is lesse occupyed and busied about these bace and corruptible things is altogether drawen home wholly to it selfe as is to be seene in those which want their eyes whose mynds are commonly most apt to vnderstand and most firme to remember Doe we debate of a thing in our selues Neither our body nor our Sences are busied about it Doe wee will the same As little doe they stirre for that too To vnderstand and to will which are the operations of the mynd the Soule hath no néede of the bodie and as for working and being they accompany one another sayth Aristotle Therefore to continue still in being the Soule hath not to doe with the body nor any néede of the body but rather to woorke well and to be well the Soule ought eyther to be without the bodie or at leastwise to be vtterly vnsubiect to the bodie Yea say they but yet we see men forgoe their reason as fooles and mealancholike persons and seeing it is forgone it may also bée corrupted and if corrupted it may also dye for what is death but an vtter and full corruptnesse Nay thou shouldest say rather I haue seene diuers which hauing seemed to haue lost their right wittes haue recouered them againe by good dyet and medicinable drinkes But had they bene vtterly lost and forgone no Phisicke could haue restored them agayne and had they bene vtterly perished the parties themselues should haue had neither sence nor life remayning Therefore of necessitie the sould of them was as sound as afore But our Soules wee see not otherwise than by the bodie and by the instruments of the bodie as it were by Spectacles and our mynd which beholdeth and seeth through his imaginations as it were through a Clowde is after a sort trubbled by the dimining of the Spectacles and by the smoakinesse of the imaginations After that maner the Sunne seemeth to be dimmed and eclipsed and that is but by the comming of the Moone or of some Clowdes betwéene him and vs for in his light there is no abatement at all Likewise our eysight conceyueth things according to the Spectacles wherethrough it looketh or according to the colour that ouerthwarteth the things which it looketh vpon Taâ—â— away the impediments and our eyes shall see cléere purge away the humours and our imagination shall bee pure and so our vnderstanding shall see as bright as it did afore euen as the Sunne shineth after the putting away of the Clowdes And it fareth not with our Soules as it doth with
our bodies which after a long sicknesse reteyne still eyther a hardnesse of the Splene or a shortnesse of breath or a falling of the Rhewme vppon the Lungs or a skarre of some great wound that cannot bee worne out because of the breake that was made in the whole For neither in their vnderstanding neither in their willes do our Soules feele any abatement sauing that there abydeth some mayme or blemish in the instruments to wit as I will declare hereafter so farre foorth as it pleaseth GOD for a iust punishment to put the Soule in subiection to the bodie whose souereyne it was created to haue bene because it hath neglected the will of the Creator to followe the lustes and lykings of the bodie This appeareth in Lunaticke folkes and such others which haue their wittes troubled at tymes and by fittes For they be not vexed but at the stirring of their humours beeing at other tymes sober and well enough stayed in their wittes The like is seene in them that haue the falling sicknesse For their vnderstanding seemeth to be eclipsed and as it were striken with a Thunderclap during the tyme of their fittes but afterward they bée as discréete as though they ayled nothing To bee short the body is subiect to a thousand diseases wherewith wée see the vnderstanding to bee no whit altered because they touch not the instruments of the Sences and of the Imaginations which moue the vnderstanding Troubled it is in déede by those fewe things only which infect the Sence and the Imagination which by that meanes report the things vnfaithfully whereon the mynd debateth Therfore ye shall neuer see any bodie out of his wittes or out of his right mynd in whom the Phisitions may not manifestly perceyue eyther some default of the instruments as a mishapen and misproportioned head or els an ouerabounding of some melancholike humour that troubled and marred his bodie afore it troubled or impayred his mynd And like as the wisest men being deceyued by false Spyes do make worng deliberations howbeit yet grounded vpō good reason which thing they could not doe vnlesse they were wise in déede So the reason that is in our mynd maketh false discourses and gathereth wrong conclusions vppon the false reports of the imaginations which it could not doe if it were eyther diminished or impayred or done away Whereunto accordeth this auncient saying That there bee certeyne follyes which none but wise men can commit and certeyne Errors which none but learned men can fall into because that in some cases discretion and wisedome are requisite in the partie that is to be deceyued euen to the intent he may bee deceyued and learning is required in a man that he may conceyue and hold a wrong opinion As for example to be beguyled by a dubbledealing Spy or by the surprising of a cosening letter belongeth to none but to a wise man For a grosheaded foole neuer breaketh his brayne about such matters as might bring him to the making of false conclusions by mistaking likelyhoods in stead of truth Likewise to fall into Heresie by misconceyuing some high and déepe poynt befalleth not to an ignorant person for he is not of capacitie neyther doth his vnderstanding mount so high To be short whosoeuer sayth that mans Soule perisheth with the bodie because it is troubled by the distemperature or misproportionatenesse of the bodie may as well vphold that the Child in the moothers wombe dyeth with his moother because he moueth with her and is partaker with her of her harmes and throwes by reason of the streyt coniunction that is betwéene them howbeit that many children haue liued safe and sound notwithstanding that their moothers haue dyed yea and some haue come into the world euen by the death of their moothers And whereas some say that because our mynd conceyueth not any thing here but by helpe of Imagination therfore when the Imagination is gone with the instruments whereunto it is tyed the Soule cannot worke alone by it self nor cōsequently be alone by it selfe surely it is al one as if they should say that because the Child being in his moothers wombe taketh nourishment of her blud by his nauill therfore he cannot liue whē he is come out of her womb if his nauillstrings be cut off Nay contrarywise then is the tyme that the mouth the tongue and the other parts of the Childe doe their duetie which serued erst to no purpose sauing that they were prepared for the tyme to come After the same maner also doe wee cherish our mynd by Imagination in this second life which in the third life being as ye would say scaped out of prison shall begin to vtter his operations by himselfe and that so much the more certeynly for that it shall not be subiect to false reports nor to the sences eyther inward or outward but to the very things themselues which it shall haue seene and learned To bee short it shall liue but not in prison it shall see but not through Spectacles it shall vnderstand but not by reports it shall list but not by way of lusting the infirmitie which the bodie casteth vpon it as now shall then bee away the force which it bringeth now to the body shal then be more fresh and liuely than afore Now then notwithstanding these vayn reasons of theirs let vs conclude That our soule is an vnderstanding or reasonable power ouer the which neither death nor corruption haue naturally any power although it be fitted to the body to gouerne it And if any man doubt hereof let him but examine himselfe for euen his owne doubts will proue it vnto him Or if he will stand in contention stil let him fall to reasoning with himselfe for by concluding his arguments to proue his Soule mortall he shall giue iudgement himselfe that it is immortall And if I haue left any thing vnalledged which might make to this purpose for why may I not séeing that euen the selfsame things which I haue bin able to alledge on the behalf of myne aduersaries do driue them thereunto let vs thinke also that he which feeleth himself conuicted in himselfe and for whose behoofe and benefite it were greatly both to beléeue it and to confesse it néedeth no more diligent proofe than hath bene made alreadie But if any man will yet of spyght stand wilfully still against himselfe let him trye how he can make answer to my foresayd arguments and in the meane while let vs see what the sayd opinion of the wisest men yea and of the whole world hath bene vpon this mater The xv Chapter That the immortalitie of the Soule hath bene taught by the Philosophers of old tyme and beleeued by all people and Nations SOothly it had bene a very harde case if this mynd of ours which searcheth so many things in nature had not taken some leysure to search it selfe and the nature therof and by searching atteyned to some poynt in that behalfe And therefore as there
haue at al tymes bene men so shall we see also that men haue at all tymes beléeued admitted the immortalitie of the Soule I say not some one man or some one Nation but the whole world with generall consent because all men vniuersally and perticularly haue learned it in one Schoole and at the mouth of one Teacher namely euen their owne knowledge in themselues The holy Scripture which teacheth vs our saluation vseth no schoole arguments to make vs beléeue that there is a God and that is because we cannot step out of our selues neuer so little but wee must néedes finde him present to all our Sences And it seemeth to speake vnto vs the lesse expresly of the immortalitie of our soules specially in the first bookes therof because we cannot enter into our selues be it neuer so little but we must néedes perceiue it But inasmuch as from the one end thereof to the other it declareth vnto vs the will of God in so doing it doth vs to vnderstand that it is a thing wherof it is not lawfull for vs to doubt And whereas it setteth foorth so precisely from age to age the great and manifold troubles and paines which good and godly men haue susteyned in indeuering to followe that will it sheweth infallibly that their so doing was in another respect than for this present wretched life For who is he that would depart with any péece of his owne lyking in this life but in hope of better things and what were it for him to lose his life if there were not another life after this This serueth to answer in one word to such as demaund expresse texts of Scripture and are loth to finde that thing in the Byble which is cōteyned there not only in euery leafe but almost in euery sine For whereas God created man after the world was fully finished and perfected it was as much as if he had brought him into a Theatre prepared for him howbeit after another sort than all the other liuing things which were to do him seruice As for Beastes Birds Plants and such other things the Elements brought them foorth but Man receyued his Soule by inspiration from God Also the brute Beasts are put in subiection to man but man is in subiection onely vnto God And the conueying of that good man Henocke out of this life for his godlinesse was to none other end but to set him in another life voyd of all euill and full of all good But when we reade the persecutions of Noe the ouerthwartings of Abraham the banishment and wayfarings of Iacob and the distresses of Ioseph Moyses and all the residewe of the Fathers they be all of them demonstrations that they did certeynly trust and beléeue that the Soule is immortall that there is another life after this and that there is a iudgement to come For had they bene of opinion that there is none other life after this the flesh would haue perswaded them to haue hild themselues in quiet here and they would haue liked nothing better than to haue followed swéetly the cōmon trade of the world Noe among his frends Abraham among the Chaldees Moyses in Pharaos Court and so foorth So then although the Scripture seeme to conceale it yet doth it speake very loude thereof in déede considering that all the cryes of the good and godly and all the despayres of the wicked which it describeth vnto vs doe sound none other thing vnto vs if we haue eares to heare it And it may bee that in the same respect this article of the Immortalitie of the Soule was not put into the auncient Créede of the Iewes nor also peculiarly into the Créede of vs Christians because wee beléeue beyond reason and this is within the bounds of reason and whosoeuer treateth of Religion must néedes presuppose God eternall and man immortall without the which two all Religion were in vayne Also when we see that Godlinesse Iustice and vertue were commended among the Heathen of all ages it is all one as if wee should heare them preach in expresse words the Immortalitie of the Soule For their so doing is buylded euery whit vppon that as vppon a foundation without the which those things could not stand I will spend my goodes or my life for the maintenance of Iustice. What is this Iustice but a vayne name or to what end haue I so many respects if I looke for nothing out of this present world here I will sayd a man of olde tyme rather lose euen the reputation of an honest man thā behaue my selfe otherwise than honestly But why should I doe so if I looke for no good in another world seeing I haue nothing but euill here Surely if there be none other thing than this life then is vertue to be vsed no further than profite and commoditie may growe vpon it and so should it become a Chaffer and Merchandise not vertue in déede Yet notwithstanding those are the ordinary spéeches euen of such as speake doubtfully of the Immortalitie of the Soule Therefore they doe but denye the ground and yet graune the cōsequence which is all one as if a man bauing first bin burned should fall to disputing whether fire be hot or no. But now which is better for vs I will here gather together their owne spéeches one after another Hermes declareth in his Poemander how at the voyce of the euerlasting the Elements yéelded forth al reasonlesse liuing wights as it had bin out of their bosomes But when he commeth to man he sayth He made him like vnto himselfe he linked himself to him as to his Sonne for he was beautiful and made after his owne Image and gaue him al his works to vse at his pleasure Againe he exhorteth him to forsake his bodie notwithstanding that he woonder greatly at the cunning workmanship thereof as the very cause of his death and to manure his Soule which is capable of immortalitie to consider the originall roote from whence it sprang which is not earthly but heauenly and to withdraw himself euen from his Sences and from their traiterous allurements to gather himself wholly into that mynd of his which he hath from God and by the which he following Gods word may become as GOD. Discharge thy selfe sayth he of this body which thou bearest about thee for it is but a cloke of ignorance a foundation of infection a place of corruptiō a liuing death a sensible carryon a portable graue and a household theefe It flattereth thee because it hareth thee and it hateth thee because it enuieth thee As long as that liueth it bereueth thee of life and thou hast not a greater enemie than that Now to what purpose were it for him to forsake this light this dwellingplace and this life if he were not sure of a better in another world as he himselfe sayth more largely afterward On the other side what is the Soule The Soule sayth he is the
now euerlasting sayth he and in the best state berest of this earthly baggage which was none of his set free to himselfe For these bones these sinewes this coate of skin this face and these seruiceable hands are but fetters and prisons of the Soule By them the Soule is ouerwhelmed beaten downe and chased away It hath not a greater batterll than with that masse of flesh For feare of being torne in peeces it laboureth to returne from whence it came where it hath readie for it an happie and euerlasting rest And agayn This Soule cannot be made an Outlaw for it is a kin to the Gods equall to the whole world and to all tyme and the thought or conceyt thereof goeth about the whole Heauen extending it self from the beginning of al tyme to the vttermost poynt of that which is to come The wretched coarse being the Iayle setters of the Soule is tossed to and fro Vpon that are tormeÌ„ts murthers and diseases executed As for the Soule it is holy and euerlasting and cannot bee layd hand on When it is out of this body it is at libertie and set free from all bondage and is coÌ„uersant in that beautifull place wheresoeuer it be which receyueth mens Soules into the blessed rest thereof as soone as they bee deliuered from hence To bee short he seemeth to pricke very nere to the rysing againe of the dead For in a certeyne Epistle to Lucilius his words are these Death wherof we be so much afrayd doth not bereue vs of life but only discontinew it for a tyme and a day will come that shall bring vs to light agayne This may suffise to giue vs knowledge of the opinion of that great personage in whom wee see that the more he grewe in age the nerer he came still to the true birth For in his latest bookes he treateth alwaies both more assuredly and more euideÌ„tly therof Also the saying of Phauorinus is notable There is nothing great on earth sayth he but Man and nothing great in Man but his Soule If thou mount vp thether thou mouÌ„test aboue Heauen And if thou stoope downe agayne to the bodie and compare it with the Heauen it is lesse than a Flye or rather a thing of nothing At one word this is as much to say as that in this clod of clay there dwelleth a diuine and vncoruptible nature for how could it els be greater than the whole world As touching the Nations of old tyme we reade of them all that they had certeyne Religions and diuine Seruices so as they beléeued that there is a Hell and certeyne fieldes which they call the Elysian fields as we see in the Poets Pindarus Diphilus Sophocles Euripides others The more supersticious that they were the more sufficiently doe they witnesse vnto vs what was in their Conscience For true Religion and Superstition haue both one ground namely the Soule of man and there could be no Religion at all if the Soule liued not when it is gone hence Wee reade of the Indians that they burned themselues afore they came to extreme oldage terming it the letting of men loose and the fréeing of the Soule from the bodie and the sooner that a man did it the wiser was he estéemed Which custome is obserued still at this day among the people that dwell by the Riuer Niger otherwise called the people of Senega in Affricke who offer themselues willingly to be buryed quicke with their Maisters All the demonstrations of Logicke and Mathematicke sayth Zeno haue not so much force to proue the immortalitie of the soule as this only doing of theirs hath Also great Alexander hauing taken prisoners ten of their Philosophers whom they call Gimnosophists asked of one of them to trye their wisedome whether there were moâ—men aliue or dead The Philosopher answered that there were moe aliue Because sayd he there are none dead Ye may wel think they gaue a drye mocke to all the arguments of Aristotle and Callisthenes which with all their Philosophie had taught their scholer Alexander so euill Of the Thracians we reade that they sorrowed at the birth of men and reioyced at the death of them yea euen of their owne chidren And that was because they thought that which wee call death not to be a death in déede but rather a very happie birth And these be the people whom Herodotus reporteth to haue bene called the Neuerdying Getes and whom the Greekes called the Neuerdying Getes or Thracians Who were of opinion that at their departing out of this world they went to Zamolxis or Gebeleizie that is to say after the interpretation of the Getish or Gotish tongue to him that gaue them health saluation or welfare and gathered them together The like is sayd of the Galles chiefly of the inhabiters about Marsilles and of their Druydes of the Hetruscians and their Bishops and of the Scythians and their Sages of whom all the learning and wisedome was grounded vpon this poynt For looke how men did spread abroad so also did this doctrine which is so déeply printed in man that he cannot but carie it continually with him Which thing is to bee seene yet more in that which wee reade concerning the hearers of Hegesias the Cyrenian who dyed willingly after they had heard him discourse of the state of mens Soules after this life and likewise concerning Cleombrotus the Ambraciote who slewe himselfe when he had read a certeyne treatise of the immortalitie of the Soule For had it not bene a doctrine most euident to mans wit they would neuer haue bin caried so farre by it as to the hurting of their bodies And if among so many people there be perchaunce some fewe wretched caytifes that haue borne themselues on hand the contrarie which thing neuerthelesse they could neuer yet fully perswade themselues to be out of all doubt or question surely wee may beléeue that they had very much adoe and were vtterly besotted like Drunkards afore they could come to that poynt so as wee may well say of them as Hierocle the Pythagorist sayde namely That the wicked would not haue their Soules to bee immortall to the intent they might not be punished for their faults But yet that they preuent the sentence of their Iudge by condemning themselues vnto death afore hand But if they wil neither heare God nor the whole world nor themselues let them at leastwise hearken to the Deuill as well as they doe in other things who as sayth Plutark made this answer to Corax of Naxus and others in these verses It were a great wickednesse for thee to say The Soule to be mortall or for to decay And vnto Polytes he answered thus As long as the Soule to the body is tyde Though loth yet all sorowes it needes must abyde But when fro the body Death doth it remoue To heauen by and by then it styes vp aboue And there euer youthfull in blisse it doth rest
As God by his wisedome hath set for the best Not that any saying of the Deuilles owne is to bee alledged in witnesse of the trueth furtherfoorth than to shewe that he speakes it by compulsion of Gods mightie power as wicked men diuers tymes doe when they be vpon the Racke Now we bée come to the time or nere to the time that the heauenly doctrine of Iesus Christ was spred ouer the whole world vnto which tyme I haue proued the continuall succession of that doctrine which could not but bee vnseparably ioyned with the succession of men But frō this tyme foorth it came so to light among all Nations and all persons that Sainct Austin after a sort tryumphing ouer vngodlinesse cryeth out in diuers places saying Who is now so very a foole or so wicked as to doubt still of the immortalitie of the Soule Epictetus a Stoikphilosopher who was had in very great reputation among all the men of his tyme is full of goodly sayings to the same purpose May wee not bee ashamed sayth he to leade an vnhonest life and to suffer our selues to be vanquished by aduersitie we be alyed vnto God we came from thence and wee haue leaue to returne thether from whence we came One while as in respect of the Soule he termeth man the ofspring of GOD or as it were a braunch of the Godhead and another while he calleth him adiuine ympe or a spark of God by all which words howbeit that they be somewhat vnproper for what wordes can a man finde to fit that matter he sheweth the vncorruptiblenesse of the substance of mans Soule And whereas the Philosopher Simplicius hath so diligently commented vppon his bookes it doth sufficiently answer for his opiniō in that case without expressing his words here Plotinus the excellentest of al the Platonists hath made nine treatises expressely concerning the nature of the Soule besides the things which he hath written dispersedly heere and there in other places His chiefe conlusions are these That mens Soules procéede not of their bodies nor of the seede of the Parents but come from aboue and are as ye would say graffed into our bodies by the hand of God That the Soule is partly tyed to the body and to the instruments thereof and partly franke frée workfull continuing of it selfe and yet notwithstanding that it is neither a body nor the harmonie of the body but if wee consider the life and operation which it giueth to the body it is after a sort the perfection or rather the perfector of the body and if wee haue an eye to the vnderstanding whereby it guydeth the mouings and doings of the body it is as a Gouernour of the body That the further it is withdrawne from the Sences the better it discourseth of things insomuch that when it is vtterly separated from them it vnderstandeth things without discoursing reasoning or debating yea euen in a moment because this debating is but a certeyne lightening or brightnesse of the mynde which now taketh aduisement in matters whereof it doubteth and it doubteth wheresoeuer the body yéeldeth any impediments vnto it but it shall neither doubt nor séeke aduisement any more when it is once out of the body but shall conceyue the trueth without wauering That the Soule in the body is not properly there as in a place or as in a ground because it is not conteyned or comprehended therein and may also bee separated from it but rather if a man had eyes to see it withall he should see that the bodie is in the Soule as an accessary is in a principall or as a thing conteyned in a conteyner or a sheading or liquid thing in a thing that is not liquid because the Soule imbraceth the body and quickneth it and moueth it equally and alike in all parts That euery abilitie thereof is in euery part of the bodie as much in one part as in another as a whole Soule in euery parte notwithstanding that euery seuerall abilitie thereof seeme to bee seuerally in some particuler member or part because the instruments thereof are there as the sensitiue abilitie seemeth to rest in the head the yrefull in the heart and the quickning in the Liuer because the Sinewes Hartstrings and Uaynes come from those parts Whereas the reasonable power is not in any part sauing so farre foorth as it worketh and hath his operation there neither hath it any néede of place or instrument for the executing of it selfe And to be short that the Soule is a life by it selfe a life all in one vnpartable which causeth to growe and groweth not it selfe which goeth throughout the bodie and yet is not conteyned of the bodie which vniteth the Sences and is not deuided by the Sences and therfore that it is a bodilesse substance which cannot bee touched neither from within nor from without hauing no néede of the bodie eyther outwardly or inwardly consequently is immortall diuine yea and almost a very God Which things he proueth by many reasons which were too long to bee rehearsed here Yea he procéedeth so farre as to say that they which are passed into another world haue their memorie still notwithstanding that to some mens seeming it goe away with the Sences as the treasury of the Sences Howbeit he affirmeth it to be the more excellent kynd of memorie not that which calleth things agayne to mynd as alreadie past but that which holdeth and beholdeth them still as alwaies present Of which two sorts this latter he calleth Myndfulnes and the other he calleth Rememberance I will add but onely one sentence more of his for a full president of his Doctrine The Soule sayth he hath had companie with the Gods and is immortal and so would we say of it as Plato affirmeth if we sawe it fayre and cleere But forasmuch as we see it commonly troubled we thinke it not to bee eyther diuine or immortall howbeit that he which will discerne the nature of a thing perfectly must consider it in the very owne substance or being vtterly vnmingled with any other thing For whatsoeuer els is added vnto it doth hinder the perfect discerning of the same Therfore let euery man behold himself naked without any thing saue himselfe so as he looke vppon nothing els than his bare Soule and surely when he hath vewed himselfe in his owne nature merely as in respect of his Mynd he shall beleeue himselfe to bee immortall For he shall see that his Mynd ameth not properly at the sensible and mortall things but that by a certeine euerlasting power it taketh hold of the things that are euerlasting and of whatsoeuer is possible to be conceiued in vnderstanding insomuch that euen it self becommeth after a sort a very World of vnderstanding light This is against those which pretend a weakenesse of the Soule by reason of the inconueniences which it indureth very often in the bodie Of the same opinion are Numenius Iamblichus
the Sunne doe shed his beames he doth both inlighten it and heate it howbeit diuersly according to the nature and condition of the places and things that receyue him some more and some lesse some brightlyer and some dimlyer But howsoeuer the case stande his light yéeldeth no darknesse nor his heate any cold So then if the diuersities of mens imaginations doe cause diuersities of effects in the inspiration or influence that floweth into the capacitie of our vnderstanding surely it must néedes bee after this maner namely that one man shall vnderstand one selfesame thing more and another man lesse but not in that any man shall take vntruth for truth vnright for right or one thing for another Now we see vnto how many errors wee bee subiect I meane not in such things as this namely that one man seeth better a farre of and another better at hand but that one man seeth white and another seeth blacke which are things contrary in one selfesame ground and at one selfesame tyme. It followeth therefore that diuers and sundries mynds doe worke in diuers persons and not one selfsame mynd in al persons By force of which reasons and of such others I say that euery mā shall finde in himselfe and of himselfe That euery man hath a particular Soule by himself that is to say a spirituall substance vnited to his body which in respect of giuing life to the body is as the forme therof and in respect of giuing reason is as the guyde of our actions That in euery man there is a certeyne Sunbeame of Reason whereby they conceyue things and debate vpon them wherethrough it commeth to passe that oftentymes they agrée both in the Reason it selfe which is one and in the manifest grounds therof and in whatsoeuer dependeth euidently vpon the same That euery man hath also a peculiar body by himselfe and likewise peculiar complexion humours imaginations education custome and trade of life whereof it commeth that euery man takes a diuers way yea and that one selfsame person swarueth diuersly from the vnitie of Reason wherof the path is but one and the waies to stray from it are infinite That this Sunbeame of reason which shineth and sheadeth it self from our mynd is properly that vnderstanding which is termed The vnderstanding in abilitie or possibilitie which is increased and augmented by all the things which it seeth heareth or lighteth vppon like fire which gathereth increase of strength by the abundance of the fewell that is put vnto it and becommeth after a sort infinite by spreading it selfe abroad Also it is the same which otherwise we call the Memorie of vnderstāding or myndfull Memorie and it is nothing els but an abundance of Reason and as it were a hoorder vp of the continuall influences of the Mynd That the Mynd from whence this floweth as from his spring is properly that which they the sayd Auerrhoes and Alexander doe terme the working or workfull Mynd which is a certeyne power or force that can skill to extend reason from one thing to another and to procéede from things sensible to things vnsensible from things mouable to things vnmouable from bodily to spirituall from effects to causes and from beginnings to ends by the meane causes This Mynd is in respect of Reason as cunning is in respect of an Instrument or toole and Reason as in respect of imagination and of the things that are sensible is as an Instrument or toole in respect of the matter or stuffe that it workes vpon Or to speake more fitly this Mynd is vnto Reason as the mouer of a thing is to the thing that is mouable and Reason is to her obiects as the mouable thing is to the thing whereunto it is moued For to reason or debate is nothing els but to procéed from a thing that is vnderstoode to a thing that is not vnderstoode of purpose to vnderstand it and the vnderstanding thereof is a resting that inseweth vppon it as a staying or resting after mouing That both of them as well the one as the other are but onely one selfesame substance and like as a man both when he moueth and whē he resteth is all one and the same man or as the power that moueth the Sinewes is one selfesame still both when it stirreth them and when it holdeth them still so the reasonable or vnderstanding Soule that is in euery man is but onely one selfesame substance bodylesse and immateriall executing his powers partly of it selfe and partly by our bodies And seeing that Auerrhoes and Alexander make so great estimation and account of the effects which are wrought in vs that they bée inforced to attribute them to some vncorruptible and euerlasting Mynd let vs take of them that in very trueth the thing which worketh so great woonders in the body can be neither sence nor body nor imagination but a diuine vncorruptible and immortall mynd as they themselues say But let vs learne the thing of mo than them which al wise men teach vs and which euery of vs can learne of himself namely that this Understanding or Mynde is not one vniuersall thing as the Sunne is that shineth into all the windowes of a Citie but rather a particular substance in euery seuerall man as a light to leade him in the darknesse of this life for surely it was no more difficultie to the euerlasting GOD to create many sundrie Soules that euery man might haue one seuerally alone by himselfe than to haue created but onely one Soule for all men together But it was farre more for his glorie to bee knowne praysed and exalted of many Soules yea and more for our welfare to prayse exalt and knowe him yea and to liue of our selues both in this life and in the life to come than if any other vniuersall Spirit Soule or Mynd whatsoeuer should haue liued and vnderstoode eyther in vs or after vs. Now then for this matter let vs conclude both by reason and by antiquitie and by the knowledge that euery of vs hath of himselfe That the Soule and the Body be things diuers That the Soule is a Spirit and not a Body That this Spirit hath in man three abilities or powers whereof two bee exercised by the body and the third worketh of it selfe without the body That these three abilities are in the one onely Soule as in their roote whereof two doe ceasse whensoeuer the body fayleth them and yet notwithstanding the Soule abideth whole without abatemēt of any of her powers as a Craftsman continueth a Craftsman though he want tooles to worke withal And finally that this Soule is a substance that continueth of it selfe and is vnmateriall and spirituall ouer the which neither death nor corruption can naturally haue any power And for a conclusion of all that euer I haue treated of hetherto in this booke let vs mainteyne That there is but only one God who by his owne goodnesse and wisedome is the Creator and gouerner of the
vs in his seruice and that wee contrarywise turne all things to our selues as to their proper ende yea and euen our selues to our selues which are nothing If we kept a reckoning of our life how small a part thereof do we bestowe vpon God How fewe of our steppes doe wee walke in his seruice How fewe of our thoughts are directed vnto him And if wée looke vppon our very prayers what are they but continuall offences seeing that euen in the middest of our greatest vehemencie we vanish away by and by into vayne imaginations and are caried as farre away from our prayers into wandering conceyts as heauen is distant from earth and further What Sonne will not fall out with him that speakes euill of his Father or els all that stand by will count him a coward if he passe it ouer with silence Contrarywise which of vs is moued when he heareth Gods name blasphemed or if he be moued that setteth himselfe in defence of him or if he set himselfe in defence doth not by and by forget it What then doth this argewe but that in very trueth our Soule liueth not but our Body and that our Soule hath not her mouings and actions free and liuely seeing it is not moued at the iniuries that are done to the Soule and to the father that made the Soule but at the wrongs that are done to the body and to the father of the bodie If a man breake the Scutchions of our Armes wee take it to bee a great disgrace to vs and a touching of our credite and if hée breake our Images or Pictures we fall out with him and will neuer be reconciled And if it be done to a Prince he makes it a poynt of high Treason and that we doe not the like it is not for want of pride but for want of power to reuenge it On the contrary parte which of vs is greeued at the wrong that is done to his neyghbor or rather which wrongeth not his neyghbor euery day Or which is much moued when he seeth a man slayne before his face vnlesse he be his brother or néere friend Nay which of vs our selues doth not daylie kill his brother eyther in very déede or in heart eyther with the Sword I meane or by hatred euen for the least offence that can be pretended and so teareth or breaketh not the Image of God which he hath paynted and ingraued in man euen euery hower without any regard Now what els is this but that we know not this Image of God to bee in our selues For otherwise how durst wee bee so presumptuous as to offer any hurt or harme vnto it but because the secret consent of all mankinde in such outrage confesseth it to be quite and cleane forgone or at leastwise to bee so disfigured and defaced and so straungely berayed that it can scarsly bee discerned any more And because the kindred that is betwéene all men deriued from the father of their Soules moueth vs very little but the vyle kindred of the flesh moueth vs very much which is as farre inferiour to the other as there is oddes betwixt the soule and a lump of earth or betwéene the fathers of eyther of them that is to wit betwéene GOD and Man Yet notwithstanding seeing that the wickeddest man in the world and such a one as seemeth to bee touched with nothing hauing once slayne him whom he hated most of all men doth by and by after the deede done feele a hart◠byting in his mynd and a torment in his Conscience which thing he feeleth not for the killing of a thousand beastes euery day what can we say to be the cause thereof but only the remaynder of Gods Image common to all men which putteth him in mynd of the wickednesse that he hath done and is highly offended at his owne offence and which according to this saying The good blud lyeth not maketh our indytement of it self and would fayne euen it self be reuenged of vs within vs Therfore let vs say which thing we cannot denye vnlesse wee denye our selues that God created man to be to him as a Child and that man is growne out of kynd yea straungely growne out of kynd not regarding as wee see in most men to bee knowne eyther of his father or of his brethren which thing notwithstanding the bastards of this world do seeke to their vttermost to doe but by his will going about to abolish his pedegrée and al his titles of kindred that he might be called the Sonne of the earth which was the name of Bastards in old tyme rather than the some of him that begate him and created so many things for him to inioye For proofe whereof to be true what ame we at in all our studies and indeuers but the earth and earthly things Had we continued still in our originall creation wee should according to the spirituall substaunce of our Soules haue naturally pursewed spirituall things yea and haue mounted vp aboue the very heauenly things But where seeke wee now our inheritance our welfare and our felicitie but in these transitorie things And whereof are al our suites and quarrels in this world but of Cattell of Corne and of Land Wherefore we must néedes confesse that it is a witnesse of the dishereting of Mankynd from the heritage of his father and that he is in his fathers displeasure and dissauour and that he doth but runne after Peasecoddes as the prodigall Childe did when he had wasted his inheritance licentiously But now to come to those which make most profession of godlinesse whence thinke we commeth the distrust that all of vs haue naturally of Gods goodnesse and assistance but of the feeling of our iust disherison which our conscience is greeued at within vs The sonne of a good and rich father behighteth himselfe as much reléefe as his father is able to yéeld and as he himselfe hath néede of If not but that the Child doubt thereof we presume so farre of the fathers goodnesse that we conclude that his sonne hath offended him and made himself vnworthy of his goodnesse by some great cryme Now then seeing that God is the very goodnesse and riches themselues wherof commeth it that no man can assure himself of them that no man can rest himself boldly enough vpon him that no man can trust vnto him so assuredly as his goodnesse requireth and finally that our requestes are so full of distrust and our hearts so full of vnbeléefe Surely séeing the fault cannot be in Gods goodnesse which is a fountayne that cannot be dreyned drye it must néedes be that the fault remayneth alonly in the naughtinesse and frayltie of our selues which dare not hope for good at the hand of him which is most excellently good because our whole nature telleth vs that we bee vnworthie of his grace by reason we haue offended him too gréeuously If we consider the gouernment and order of the World wee may euen there also find apparantly
that man holdeth not himself in his state but is falne from the seate of honour wherein God had placed him God had set him aloft aboue the Stones aboue the Plantes aboue the Brute beastes yea and aboue the world it selfe If he abyde still in his degree whence commeth it that so many men make themselues bondflaues to Gold and other mettals and that so many men doe leade the life of Plants and brute beastes in the bodyes of men some giuing themselues to nought els than to eating drinking and sléeping and neuer lifting themselues vp any higher and othersome consuming and wasting themselues in most beastly delights pleasures For what beast is there that would be a Plant or Plant that shooteth not vp to get out of the ground To be short what thing is there in the whole world sauing onely man which doth not very precisely kéepe the owne state and degree I pray you if a man should see one with a princely Crowne al myry on his head tilling the ground and following the Plough what would he thinke but that he were deposed from his Throne and that some mischief were befalne him And what then is to be sayd of that man which toyleth in Doonghils and skulketh into corners to wallowe himselfe in a thousand sorts of filthines and imployeth all his wit vpon such things but that he is falne from the toppe of his mynde and that by the greeuonsnes of that fall he hath so lamed and maymed all his abilities that it lyeth not in him to returne againe from whence he is falne For who can deny but he is borne to greater things than hee doeth Or who can thinke that GOD hath giuen him an immortall Soule to the intent he should imploy himselfe altogether about things which are not so much as worthy to be mortall Or a countenance which he calleth continually to the mynding of Heauen to looke groueling on the myre Or a Scepter to play the dizard with it in a Playe Or a triple Mace to rake Dounghilles withall or too digge the ground withall Againe how is the Lawe and order of gouernement which shineth forth in the whole world and in all the partes thereof turned vpside downe in man who is the Litle World by the disobedience of the Body to the Soule In Plantes in Trees and in brute beastes the soule distributeth nurrishmēt by proportion Their bodyes obeye the direction of their Soules without geynsaying and euery abilitie performeth his duetie accordingly The nurrishing abilitie followeth his appetites and goeth not beyond them The sensitiue followeth his naturall delights but it violateth them not But as for man what shall wee say of him Surely that his body commaundeth his Soule as if the Plough should drawe the Horses as they say that his will suffereth it selfe to be ruled by his appetites that his reason is an vnderling to his sences and that his very whole nature is most commonly quite out of order So must we needes confesse an ouerthrowe of nature in him for whom neuerthelesse nature it selfe was made and that man was swarued aside from his right way seeing that all other partes of the World doe followe their Nature and that Nature itselfe teacheth vs it What is to be sayd then but that man is not onely falne from the state wherein he was to be set in lower degree than he was afore but also that he is falne in himselfe and from himselfe in and from his owne peculiar nature Moreouer it is manifest that the world was created for mans vse for the world knoweth not it selfe nor the creatures that are therein And ageine as for the Angels they needed it not and as for the brute beastes they haue no skill to vse it Onely man hath vnderstanding to vse the seruice thereof and a body that hath neede of their seruice Sith it is so who can doubt that God created man with a knowledge of his creatures and also gaue him power ouer them Whereof commeth it then that the beastes doe naturally knowe their seasons the remedies of their diseases and the Herbes that haue a proprietie of nature to heale them and that only man among all other liuing things knoweth them not insomuch as he is fayne to goe to Schoole to the brute beastes to learne them Also whereof commeth it that these creatures which surely GOD made not to be snares to man for that had bene repugnant to the goodnes of the Creator but for mans benefite and seruice doe now kicke and spurne ageinst man yea euen those which haue no power or strēgth at all to withstand him Let vs omit Woolues Leopards and Lyons which seeme to haue some force to ouermatch the weakenes of man What meaneth it that wormes make vs warre within our Bowels that vermin deuoureth our Corne and that the earth yeeldeth vs not any kind of fruit which hath not a peculiar enemie in it to marre it ere it come to our hand but to driue vs to confesse that man must needes haue offended his maker right greeuously and that whereas Gods putting of his creatures in subiection to man was to the end that man should haue continued in obedience vnto GOD now because man hath rebelled against Gods Maiestie God also suffereth those to rebell against man whom he had put in subiection to man yea euen to the very off kourings of the earth For what els is this contrarietie of the earth to him that tilleth it of the Sea to him that sayleth it and of the aire to the successe of all our labours and trauels but a protestation of whole nature that it disdeineth to serue a creature that was so presumptuous as to disobey his Creator a creature I say which by doing seruice to the creatures hath forgone the authoritie which he had receiued of this Maker Now consequently let vs consider man towards man What is there more disordered or more cōtrarie to nature than is the nature of man himselfe If beastes of one kind doe kill or eate one another wee take it for an ougly thing What an ouglynesse then ought it to be vnto vs when wee see how men who alonly be indued with reason doe euery howre kill one another and roote out one another Nay rather is it not a great wonder to see good agreement and frendship not among Nations not betwéene Coūtries not among Companies but euen in households yea and betweene Chamberfellowes Wolues are cruell but yet in what race of Wolues shall wee find Caribies and Cannibals Lyons also are cruell but yet where were they euer seene in Battell one against another Now what is warre but a gathering and packing vp together of all the sorts of beastlines that are in the world And yet what is more common among men than that A Beast say some will barke or grunt ere he byte a house will cracke ere it fall downe and the Wind whistleth ere it breake things But contrariwise what is man towards man
who euen in laughing threatneth in saluting sleaeth vnder faire countenance of courteous interteynement cloketh a thousand Serpents a thousand Lyons a thousand Quickesands and a thousand Rockes at once Well let vs leaue the wicked which discouer themselues too much What doe wee in all our bargayning buying and selling but beguyle one another or what doe we in our dalying but delude one another And what els is the whole societte of man which we so highly commend but a selfgaine and a very incroching one vppon another the greater sort as tyrants vppon the meaner the meaner vpon the inferiour sort and the inferiour sort one vppon another too take him in some trippe To bee short if wee doe any good it is but to the end to bee seene asfor in secret wee will doe none at all Ageine if wee forbeare to doe euill it is but for feare least the World should knowe it and were that feare away wee would stick at nothing Wherto then serueth vs our reason which should further vs vnto all goodnes but to couer our naughtinesse that is to say to make vs woorse and more vnreasonable yet notwithstanding how vnreasonable so euer wee bee in all our doings we cannot but knowe that there is a reason and were it not in vs we could not conceiue it and were it not corrupted we should not swarue from it and yet if we examine oure selues we shalnot bee able to deny but that we digresse very farre from it Therefore we may well deeme of our reason as of an eysight that is either impayred or inchaunted It hath the ground of sight still but yet it standeth the partie in no stead but onely to beguyle him by false images and illusions Let vs come to man in himselfe and see whether at leastwise he loue himselfe better than other men and the more wee stirre him the more shall we feele the stinche of his corruption When a diseased man feeles peine wee say there is corruption in his body and furthermore that there is a default in Nature or that the partie hath taken some great surfet which hath brought him to that case Nowthen what shal we say of the great nomber of diseases wherwith mankind is peyned and wherewith he is so wholy ouerwhelmed that there is not any age of his life any part of his body or any small string in any part of his flesh which hath not some peculiar disease Nay I say further that man alone is subiect too mo diseases than all other liuing things in this World togither The Philosophers sawe it and haue made bookes expresly thereof and are vtterly amased and graueled in seeking out the cause thereof and they could neuer yet yéelde any Reason thereof which might satisfie others or themselues Neuerthelesse the most parte of them come to this point that man is the most vnhappiest of all liuing wights and they find fault with God and nature for it whom notwithstanding they confesse to haue doone nothing but iustly in that behalfe One sayes that onely Man fleaeth himselfe through impatience of greef Another sayes That the lyfe of man is such as that death is rather to bee desired of him than lyfe And of such speeches doe all their Schooles ring There is another which with great woonderment reckeneth vp certeine hundreds of diseases whereunto the eye alone is subiect Now which of all the beastes hath so much as the thirtith part of them in his body Is it likely that God which hath giuen to Man so great preheminence aboue all his creatures created him of purpose to torment him aboue all other creatures Or rather is it not to be sayd that man in his originall was created farre after another sort than he now is whether it be in respect of the Creator himselfe or of the ende for which hee created him Surely then let vs say as we haue sayde afore that the very cause why Man alone hath mo diseases in his body than all other Creatures toogither is for that hee hauing abused Gods gracious gifts hath doone more euill than all they could skill too doe and that the very euill and vntowardnes that is in them is but to punish man withall as for example the Hayle and Snowe serue not to hurt the earth or the fruites of the earth but to punish him that should take the benefite of them Againe when we come to consider the Soule and the body knit together what a number of affections doe we méete withall there which as saith Plutark are so much more sorowfull and gréeuous than the bodily diseases as the Soule is more sinfull and blame-worthie than the bodie To bring these passions to some reasonable order the Philosophers haue made bookes expresly of Morall vertue and giuen precepts say they to bring them to obedience wherein they confesse the rebelliousnesse that is naturally in vs against reason But who feeleth not in himselfe that their remedies serue not so much to take away the mischief as to cloke it Which is a playne declaration that it is not a spot which may bee washed away but a déepe impression bronded in nature as it were with a fearing yron which in very déede is not to bee wyped out agayne but couered nor to be subdewed and ouercome but with much a do to be restreyned and hild short Furthermore seeing that reason is so much more excellent than passion or affection as the forme shape or fashion say they is more excellent than the matter or stuffe wherin it is whence commeth this infection in vs that maketh the matter to ouermayster the forme and causeth the forme as ye would say to receyue shape and fashion of the matter that is to say which putteth reason in subiection to affection to the impressions which affection yéeldeth contrary to the order which is obserued in all the whole world beside For what els is this Intemperance of ours but reason such as it now remayneth imprinted with lust and concupiscence And what els is anger but reason atteynted with choler and so foorth of the rest And if a man will say that these things are naturall in vs whereof commeth it that of these affections wee conceyue inwardly remorse and outwardly shame yea and that so naturally as wee must of necessitie néedes feele them whether wee will or no and can no more let them than we can restreyne the beating of our Pulses or the panting of our Hearts but because that shame and remorse for sinne are naturall in vs but the sinne it selfe is against nature As for example there be things the doing wherof is in vs vyce and in brute Beasts nature for they be angry they aduenge themselues and they company together indifferently and in open sight and of so doing they bee not ashamed because it is their nature Now were these affections and fleshly pleasures as naturall in vs as in the Beastes as little should we bee ashamed of them as they But
of the Creator and the sentence of his iust wrath vppon his creature wherethrough it came to passe that the same was not onely bereft of all the grace wherewith it was replenished by beholding it selfe in him but also was made an vnderling to the selfesame things which were made to haue done it seruice Now what this sinne was wee cannot better vnderstand than by the punishment thereof For punishment and sinne haue a mutuall respect one to another as a sore and a salue and may after a sort be knowne the one by the other Order would that our wit should obey GOD and that all our sences and appetites should obey our reason but wee see that as now our sences and appetites hold reason vnder foote This punishment ought to set our fault before our eyes when as wee see our selues falne downe and thrust vnder our selues namely that man intended to haue mounted vp aboue God The same order would also that all the whole world and worldly things should haue serued man and man haue serued GOD that God might haue bene the marke of man as man should haue bene the marke for all other things to haue amed at But wee see that at this day man is an vnderling to the least things that are insomuch that euen those which haue neither sence nor life doe resist him and he pitcheth the ende of all his desires in earthly things as if they were of more valewe than himselfe accordingly as all of vs know that the end is alwaies better thā the things that tend to the same Séeing then that nature is reuolted from man it is certeyne that man is reuolted from God for it is the ordinary punishment of rebellious Subiects that their owne seruaunts and vnderlings also do kicke and spurne agaynst them And moreouer seeing that man not only findeth all maner of mischiefe and misfortune in himselfe but is also so blynd as to seeke his felicitie in the myre and in the durtie dunghils of this world it is a token that he sought his happinesse in himself and elswhere than in God To bee short wée bée striken in our Soules with ignorance of the things that are most néedfull for vs and in our bodies with continuall infirmities and finally with death and that is because we haue bene curious in seeking trifeling things as not contented with the lesson that GOD had giuen vs and would néedes haue made our selues immortall howbeit not by the euerlasting power of Gods quickening spirit but by the forbidden vse of transitorie things yea euen which had no life in them Thus see we now whereof the corruption of mankynd is come namely euen of our owne transgression and of the punishment that followed vpon the same But it is demaunded of vs yet further how long it is ago since this befell If wee had espyed this corruption in vs but from some certeyne hundred yéeres hence it were not for vs to seeke any further for it But let vs hold on our course vp the streame of Mankynd euen to the Riuers head and wee shall finde it still alwaies foule and muddy and we shal from age to age heare these outcryes euen among the best I loue well the good but I cannot doe it and to bee short that man is inclyned to doe euill and subiect to receyue euill which are in one word both the fault and the punishment Agayne were it but in some households or but in some Nations only men would not sticke to father the fault vppon the Clymate and the Soyle or vppon the misteaching or misexample of the Parents But when we see that in that respect all men are in one selfesame taking aswell the men of old tyme as the men of our daies sauing that sinne increaseth continually as well vnder the Equinoctiall lyne as betwéene both the Tropicks and as well on the further side as on the hether side of them sauing that some take more payne to keepe it from sight thā others and that those which haue most wit are woorst forasmuch as I haue alreadie sufficiently proued the creation of the world and of the first man wee be driuen to mount vp agayne to the same man and to say that as he is the roote of our ofspring so is he also the welspring of this corruption which reigneth in vs as in whom our whole race was both atteinted with sinne and attached with punishment In this behalfe it is not for vs to pleade against GOD but to submit our shoulders to his Iustice and to lift vp our eyes to his mercie For necessarily from poynt to poynt doth this consequence ensewe The Soule is corrupted in all mankynd Who is so corrupted that he feeleth it not This corruption cannot procéed from the Creator For when did euer purenesse yéeld forth corruptiō The other creatures could not haue defiled it For what maketh a thing vncleane but the taking of vncleannesse vnto it and what causeth the taking of vncleannesse vnto it but the touching thereof and what touching one of another can there be betwéene a Spirit and a Bodie It remayneth therefore that our Soule corrupted it self by forsaking her duetie eyther of her owne accord or by the admitting vnto it of some wicked Spirit that is to say by perswasion of that Spirit which perswasion is vnto Spirits as touching is vnto bodies And agayne this coruption is from all tyme then comes it not of trayning And in all Nations then comes it not of Constellation And in all ages both old young and middle sort then comes it not of imitation or exampletaking Therefore it must néedes procéed both from one only man and from the firstcreated man who turned away from God through pride whervpon God also did iustly turne away from him as wee reade of our first father Adam in the holy Scripture Now then what remayneth more for vs but to conclude that thing by nature which wee beléeue through Scripture namely That God created man good That he told him his will That man chose to liue after his owne lyking and would néedes become equall with God That therevpon he was banished from Gods presence and fauour That the Earth became rebellious against man and man against himselfe and to bee short that man was wrapped in the wretchednesse of this world intangled with sinne in himself driuen to liue euer dying in this life and were not Gods wrath appeased towards him sure to dye euerlastingly in the life to come The xvij Chapter That the men of old time agreed with vs concerning mans corruption and the cause thereof IT followeth that wee gather the voyces and iudgements of the wisest sort yea of all men in generall the which in myne opinion ought to beare the more sway with vs because it is a kindly thing with vs both to loue our selues and also to thinke ouerwell of our selues For what cause hath a man to complayne if being made Iudge in his owne case he frame his
owne indytement and willingly beare witnesse against himselfe by his owne voluntarie confession Surely that man is straungly infected with vyce it is witnessed sufficiently by the Histories of all ages which in effect are nothing els but registers of the continuall Manslaughters Whoredomes Guyles Rauishments and Warres And when I say Warres I thinke that in that worde I comprehend all the mischief that can be imagined And that these vyces were not created in mans nature but are crept into it it appeareth sufficiently by the bookes of the Ceremonies of al Nations all whose Church-seruices are nothing but Sacrifices that is to say open protestations both euening and morning that we haue offended God and ought to bee sacrifized and slayne for our offences according to our desarts in stead of the sillie Beastes that are offered vnto him for vs. Had man bene created with vyce in him he should haue had no conscience of sinne nor repentance for it For repentance presupposeth a fault and conscience misgiueth the insewing of punishment for the same And there can be neither fault nor punishment in that which is done according to creation but onely in and for our turning away from creation Now the Churchseruice and Ceremonies of all Nations doe witnesse vnto vs a certeyne forthinking and remorce of sinne against God And so they witnesse altogether a forefeeling of his wrath which cannot bee kindled against nature which he himselfe created but against the faultinesse and vnkindlynesse that are in nature Also what els are the great number of Lawes among vs but authenticall Registers of our corruption And what are the manifold Commentaries written vppon them but a very corruption of the Lawes themselues And what doe they witnesse vnto vs but as the multitude of Phisitions doth in a Citie namely the multitudes of our diseases that is to wit the sores and botches whereto our Soules are subiect euen to the marring and poysoning of the very playsters themselues Againe what doe the punishments bewray which we haue ordeyned for our selues but that wee chastise in vs not that which GOD hath made or wrought in vs but that which wee our selues haue vndone or vnwrought nor the nature it selfe but the disfiguring of nature But yet when we consider that among all Nations that Lawmaker is beléeued and followed by and by which sayth Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steale thou shalt not beare false witnesse whereas great perswasion is required in all other lawes which are not so naturall It must néedes be concluded that the Consciences of all men are perswaded of themselues that the same is sinne and that sinne deserueth punishment that is to wit that sinne is in nature but not nature it selfe But to omit the holy Scripture which is nothing els but a Lookingglasse to shewe vs our spots and blemishes what are all the Schooles of the Philosophers but instructions of the Soule And what els is Philosophie it selfe but an arte of healing the Soule whereof the first precept is this so greatly renowmed one know thy selfe Aristotle in his Moralles sheweth that the affections must be ruled by reason and our mynd bee brought from the extremes into the meanes and from iarring into right tune Which is a token that our mynd is out of tune euen of it owne accord seeing that it néedeth so many precepts to set it in tune agayne And yet is not Aristotle so presumptuous as to say that euer he brought it to passe in his owne mynd Theophrast his Disciple was woont to say that the Soule payd wel for her dwelling in the bodie considering how much it suffered at the bodies hand And what els was this but an acknowledgement of the debate betwéene the bodie and the mynd But as sayth Plutarke he should rather haue sayd that the bodie hath good cause to complayne of the turmoyles which so irksome and troublesome a guest procureth vnto him Plato who went afore them sawe more cléerly than both of them He condemneth euerywhere the companie and fellowship of the body with the soule and yet he condemneth not the workmanship of God But he teacheth vs that the Soule is now in this bodie as in a prison or rather as in a Caue or a graue And that is because he perceiued euidently that contrarie to the order of nature the Soule is subiect to the bodie notwithstanding that naturally it should and can commaund it The same Plato sayth further that the Soule créepeth bacely vpon these lower things and that it is tyed to the matter of the bodie the cause whereof he affirmeth to be that she hath broken her wings which she had afore His meaning then is that the soule of her owne nature is winged and flyeth vpward that is to say is of a heaueÌ„ly diuine nature which wings she hath lost by meanes of some fall But to get out of these bonds and to recouer her wings the remedie that Plato giueth her is to aduaunce her selfe towards God and to the things that concerne the mynd By the remedie we may coniecture what he tooke the disease to be namely that our Soule hauing bin aduaunced by God to a notable dignitie the which it might haue kept still by sticking vnto God fell to gazing at her gay feathers till she fell headlong into these transitorie things among the which she créepeth now like a sillie woorme reteyning nothing as now of her birdlike nature saue onely a rowsing of her feathers and a vayne flapping of her wings Now he sayth that he learned all this of a secret Oracle the which he had in great reuerence And of â—â—â—cueth in this doctrine of the originall of our corruption wee haue to marke the same poynt which wee haue noted in some other things afore namely that the néerer wee come to the first world the more cléere and manifest we finde the matter Empedocles and Pythagoras taught that the Soules which had offended God wâ—â— condemned and banished into bodies here belowe And Philâ—â—â—aus the Pythagorian addeth that they receyued that opinion from the Diuines and Prophets of old tyme. Their meaning is that the body which ought to be the house of the soule is by Gods iust iudgemeÌ„t turned into a prison to it and that which was giuen it for an instrument is become Manicles and Stocks So then there is both a fault and the punishment and the fault must néedes procéede from one first man euen in the iudgement of those men of olde tyme which acknowledged the Creation of the world Also those auncient fathers seeme to haue heard what prouoked the first man to sinne For Homer speaketh of a Goddesse whom he calleth Até that is to say Waste Losse or Destruction which troubled heauen and therefore was cast downe to the earth where she hath euer since troubled Mankynd And herevpon Euripides calleth the Féendes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Falne from Heauen And the
to be weake and without wings except he hold with vs that the Soule hath by her fall forgone her strength and that the body by the feeblenes of the Soule and the sentence of the Creator is strengthened in his weakenesse that is to wit in so much as the body as I haue sayde afore is of a House become a Prison to the Soule To be short graunting Gods Iustice as he doth hee can neuer wind himselfe out of this question which he himself maketh namely why the sinnes are imputed to the Soule seeing it doth them not but by infection of the body vnlesse he make this infection to be a punishment of the fault which the Soule had committed afore in the body But Porphyrius who perceyued these inconueniences hath spoken more distinctly of the matter than his Mayster did agréeing with him neuerthelesse in the corruption of man and in the cleansing of the Soule Which cleansing of the Soule sayth he is so needfull a thing as that it cannot possibly bee but that God hath prouided some vniuersal meane of cleansing mankynd How is it possible then sayth he that the fall of the Soule should come of Imagination which knitteth the Soule to the bodie seeing that the higher things are not drawne downe by the lower but contrarywise the lower are drawne vp by the higher Nay rather sayth he the higher substances come downe in themselues from vnderstanding into imagination from spirituall things to bodily things from high things to lowe things froÌ„ perfect things to vnperfect things And wheras by sticking fast vnto God they might haue abidden firme not so much by their owne strength as by his and might haue liued and wrought as vnder his forme they bee come to a fall of themselues by stooping to matter And therfore sayth he in the substaunces which are inclinable to such things there is befalne as men say a sinne and a certeyne vnbeleef which is condemned because they fell in loue with the Creatures and turned away to them from the Creator To be short he commeth to this poynt that the fall of mens Soules is like the fall of the Féendes that is taught by the Iewes and that through the fault of the wit and the will which he termeth vnbeleefe or vnfaithfulnesse man is falne into the folly of concupiscence that is to say from the fault into the punishment thereof from the rebellion of the Soule into the bondage thereof to the bodie And ye must not thinke wee speake contraries when wee say one while that man sinned by aduauncing himself too high and by presuming to become as it were equall with God and another while that he sinned by stooping downe to these bace and lowe things For in very déede the lifting vp of a mans selfe to Godward is the true abacing and humbling of himselfe for who is hée that can rightly looke vp to God and make account of himselfe or rather not bee abaced in himselfe And to inclyne to a mans selfe is in very trueth a presuming to make himselfe equall to God For it is a seeking of that thing in our selues which is not to bee found but in GOD namely of welfare and felicitie and what els is pride but a selfestimation or an ouerwéening of a mans selfe Proclus doth ordinarily call the inclyning of our nature vnto euill a descending or comming downe and the corruption thereof a fall because the highest that our Soule can atteyne vnto is the beholding of God and the descending stooping or comming downe thereof is to fall into estimation of our selues and the fall is to bee thrust downe in subiectioÌ„ vnder our selues like a body that falleth from some high place But as touching the cause of the corruption he fathereth it vppon our Mynd that is to wit the highest part of our Soule saying that if the same had continued sound and sticked fast vnto God as sayth Plotin it had also hild reason sound still which is the Sunbeame thereof and consequently all our actions should haue bene found so as wee should not haue bene subiect to sinne Séeing then that the punishment is come euen to the highest part of vs which we sée combered with so many passions dimmed with so much darknesse and defiled with so many vyces surely the fault procéeded onely from thence Herevnto we might ad many other sayings but wee will content our selues as now with onely Simplicius the famous interpreter of Aristotle As long as mans Soule sayth he cleaueth fast vnto God the author thereof it abydeth sound and holdeth her perfection wherwith she was created of God but fall she once to shrinking away from him by and by she withereth as hauing lost her roote and comes to nothing neyther can she recouer her former liuelynesse except she be reunited agayne to her former cause Now perceyue we euerychone of vs that our nature is withered and therefore let vs say that we be slipped from our roote And the roote leaueth not the braunches but contrarywise the braunches leaue the roote Let vs say then that we haue bereft ourselues of the gracious goodnesse of God who would haue mainteyned vs still for to nourish and quicken is the propertie and nature of the roote In one only thing doe the Philosophers differ from vs in this behalfe namely that they vphold all mens Soules to haue sinned euery one in himselfe and wee say That the onely first man sinned and thereby hath bound all his whole ofspring to the punishment But yet doe both come backe agayne to one poynt seeing that euen by their owne reasons I proued the creation of the world which of necessitie leadeth vs to one man the father of vs all whereas the Philosophers hang wauering still vnresolued in that poynt Among all people wee see there were prayers to craue pardon for sinne Sacrifices to appease Gods wrath Misticall washings and Satisfactories or Uotaries that were 〈…〉 â—he sinnes of some whole Realme Citie or 〈…〉 as I haue sayd afore are publick protestations of a publick 〈◊〉 The Philosophers were sore combered in finding a meane 〈…〉 Mankynd from his filthinesse some would haue done it by the Morals some by the Mathematicals and some by Religious Ceremonies but in the end they confesse that all these â—â—â—ngs can doe nothing in that behalf They be fooles in their remedies but wise in discerning the disease Wee reade of the people of Affricke at this day who bee giuen enough to contemplation that they fall into great conceyts of mynd and are not able to perswade themselues that all their Churchseruices are sufficient to make them cleane And that is a proofe that they féele a mischief within them whereinto neither the eye of the Phisition can see nor the medicine that he ministreth can atteyne Also the Persians were woont to hold a holyday euery yéere which they called The Death of vyces In the which Feast for a token of deuotion they killed
to haue a sound mynd in a sicke bodie than to bee out of his wittes hauing perfect health of bodie Soothly then it is a very cléere argument that our chiefe happinesse resteth in our mynd seeing wee can finde in our harts to redéeme it with the miseries of our bodie Let vs come too the sensitiue parte The happines thereof seemeth to consist in Uoluptuousenes or Sensualitie If that make vs happy then happy be brute beastes as who doe vse it both more freely and with more delyght than wee and vnhappy is man who cannot wholy becone a beast do what he can The beast taketh his pleasure without regard who sees him without remorse of conscience and without any argewing ageinst himselfe Contrarywise what man is hee which féeleth not a Lawe in himselfe that goes about to brydle him which feeleth not a hartbyting in the mâ—â—ds of his pleasure or whose greatest delyghts leaue him not a sting of repentance behind them And what happynes can that be whereof we be ashamed and which compelleth vs to seeke couert for the dooing thereof Also what a fond woorkman was he that framed vs so farre vnfit for such a purposeâ— insomuch that wheras al our body is lyable too aches stiches both within without and on all sides we scarsly haue aboue two or three parts vpoÌ„ vs capable of pleasure and euen those also subiect to greef and peyue Let there be a man sayeth Plutarke that hath led his whole lyfe in pleasure and sensualitie and about a two or three howers afore he drawe towards death let him be put to his choyce whether he had leuer too delight his sences by lying with his Lais or delyght his mind with deliuering his Country from some greate peril wil be think you be so very a beast as to dout which of them he shal choose who séeth not then that the pleasure of the mind is both greater than the pleasure of the body and more peculiar to man and more agreeable too his end We seeke a souereine good if it be good it will amend vs. But what doth marre vs and impayre vs more both in bodie and soule than fleshly pleasure Also we meane it should be perfect If it be so it will make vs perfect too But what consumeth vs what decayeth vs more than sensualitie Agein we seeke an end but yet an endlesse end not which maketh an end of our pleasures but which doth still feede our desires Contrarywise what is there which is sooner at an end in it selfe which sooner maketh an end of vs or which sooner wearieth vs and lesse contenteth vs than the bodily pleasures considering that as the Poet sayth the pleasure and payne goe both together Moreouer how may that be the souereine good which is not so much as a meane good For who can denye but that abstinence is taken for a vertue euen among the vicious sort And what maner of good is that which may become euill by increasing if it were not euill of it selfe afore Finally al bodily pleasures consist in the Sences and are executed by the sensitiue parts Now the Sences are oftentymes forstalled in vs eyther by diseases or by old age and the sensitiue parts are dispatched at the least by death Now albeit that a man haue a dubble life the one in this world the other in another the one dying the other immortall the first which is here tending to the second as the woorse to the better yet is not our seeking for such an end or such a felicitie as dyeth with vs but for such a one as maketh vs happye quickeneth vs 〈…〉 sheth vs euerlastingly the which surely is not to be found in mortall things Now followeth therefore the Understanding part which is occupied one whyle in itself another while in the gouernment of the world and another while in contemplation of heauenly things and of theis three operations spring three perfections namely Uertue Policie and Wisedome Let vs see yet in which of these 〈◊〉 consisteth our souereine felicitie and contentation Soothly it is not to bee doubted but that our end will bee found to consist in that part for whether can the mynd of man reach beyond the world and man and him that made them both But let vs see if we come néere it in this world I pray you what is Uertue The calâ—edesse of our affections What are these affections of ours The waues and stormes of our Soules raysed with euery little â—last of winde which doe so â—osse and turmoyle it vpside downe that euen the best Pylots are fayne to strike Sayle and reason it selfe is driuen welnere to forsake the Helue If Mâ—n were created to this end why was he created with calmenesse of mynd Or if his souereine good consist now in ouermaystering his affections what more contrarietie can there bée than to bée â—oyd of affections and to be a man Let vs put the case that some man atteyne therevnto shall he also stay there No for valiantnesse hath an eye to warre warre to peace peace to the prosperitie of the Common-weale weale and so soorth of others Now that which tendeth vnto another cannot be the vtmost end But wil man at leastwiâ—e be contented therewith Nay let vs commend Uertue as much as wee list and let vs busie our selues in making bookes of it yet if it extend no further than to the things on earth I dare well say there is not any thing I say not so happie but so wretched miserable as man Folke will say he is an honest man but yet as honest as he is they will let him starue for hunger The Prince will say he is a faithfull a sound and an vpright dealer neyther led by couetousnesse nor caryed away with ambition but yet he will not put him in trust with the managing of his affayres in this world The foulest vyce in the world shall finde a mate but if Uertue runne through the whole world she shal scarce find a husband Now then if we séeke our felicitie in this life what is Uertue but very miserie And if we séeke it in the other lyfe what shal become of this vertue where we shall haue no affections to encounter with Surely then is not Uertue our end for the end that we seeke hath not an eye to a further thing neither dooth the souereine good thereof which goes ioyntly with it come to any end What then Is Policie that end We call Pollicie the right vse of reason in the gouerning of worldly affaires Besides that it may also properly be defined to be an art or skill of guyding mens doings to a certeine end Now the skill and the end that it ameth at cannot be both one thing But to be short what is this world Strife Warre Discord Enuy Rancor Burning Sacking wasting Spoyling and destroying a miserable ground for man too buid his felicitie vpon What is the gouerning and disposing of al these things
can make men happie To bee short what will they say to their owne companions who for the vpholding of this their surmised felicitie do vnderprop it with wealth health courage and measurable pleasure as vnsufficient to stand alone without ayde But I haue ripped vp this poynt sufficiently in the Chapter going last before What then do the Peripateticks set vs downe As the Stoiks left the Bodie to mount vp to the Soule so these mount vp from the Soule to the Mynd There are sayth Aristotle two sorts of Blessednesse The one ciuill and publike called Policie which consisteth in action and the other priuate of household called Wisedome which consisteth in Contemplation He thinkes verely that he hath sayd somewhat But how can Policie be this blessednesse considering that according to his own saying Policie is but a cunning or skill to leade things to a certeyne end and is not the end it self Or how can Wisedome be it seeing that as he himself saith our vnderstanding seeth as little in matters concerning God as the eye of an Owle doth when she commeth nere the Sunne Our vnderstanding is dull our iudgement vncerteyne and our memorie deceytfull The déepest of our knowledge sayth Socrates is ignorance and all Philosophie as Porphyrius vpholdeth is but mere coniecture easie to bee ouerthrowne with euery little push Now then how may this bee a happinesse vnlesse we will graunt that the Owle is happie in comming neere the Sunne or a blynd man happie in beholding colours His Disciples Alexander and Auerrhoes perceiuing that all our contemplation is but vexation of mynd most commonly to no purpose haue found vs out another deuyce Which is that all our happinesse consisteth in ioyning the capacitie of our mynde or rather of our imagination vnto certeyne separated substances to be informed by them in all maner of knowledge for the which deuyce they bee reproued of most Philosophers and as I beléeue in the end they laughed themselues to skorne for it But as I haue sayd alreadie what are these separated substances of theirs Or rather why did they not set our felicitie in being knit vnto GOD whom they confesse to be better than all these things Againe who is he were he neuer so fantasticall euen though it were Auerrhoes himselfe that could vaunt himselfe to haue euer atteyned to that imagined Coniunction of theirs in this life And seeing that as they beare vs on hande the knowledged of the nature of all sensible things is required to the atteynment of that felicitie of theirs how shall we atteyne to the full heyghth thereof if wee stop at the very beginning The Academikes therfore who take vpon them to weare Platoes liuery mounted vp one step higeher and considered very well that all our contemplation is but a continuall wrestling one whyle against the darknesse of the things and another whyle against the darknesse of our owne mynd And as they acknowledged our hurt to proceede of a fall whereby we brake our wings which as Plato interpreteth them were Morall vertue and contemplation so conceiued they therevpon that it were a great good turne for vs to recouer them againe But whether to bee caried by them Let vs heare that of Plato All the things in this world sayth he which we cal goods as Beautie Riches Strength Nobilitie and such other are so farre of from being goods in deede that they be rather corrupters and hinderers of good Then are they very farre of from beeing the Souerein good of man or consequently the End whereat he out to stay Againe It is vnpossible sayeth Plato that men should be happy in this lyfe doe what they can that is to be had in another lyfe where the vertuous shal receiue felicitie for a reward In vayne then doe wee seeke that here beneath by our deedes and contemplations which is not here to be found and in vayne doe we set our vtmost end heere where is not the furthest end of our lyfe But in the end what is this felicitie It is sayth Plato to be ioyned vnto GOD and to become lyke vnto him who is himselfe the highest top the furthest end and the vtmost bound of all felicitie Thus yee see that by Platoes iudgement the two things which we seeke doe meete both togither alonly in God The end of our life is to be ioyned vnto God And our Blessednes or felicitie which ought to content vs which consisteth in the full fruition of all good things is the possessing of God who is the very felicitie itselfe Yet neuerthelesse Aristotle seemeth to haue come at length to the same point in that he sayth That God is the beginning the middle and the end of all things and againe that mans felicitie consisteth in the same thing wherein the felicitie of the Gods consisteth that is to wit in perfect contemplation of that which is aboue all mooueable things Pythagoras sayde that the ende of this lyfe is Contemplation that the end of all Contemplation is God and that the felicitie of man is to be lifted vp vnto God Also he taught vs that we be but as Pilgrims in this world and as folke banished from Gods presence and what doth the banished man desire more than to be restored home into his owne Country And Mercurie sayeth that our end is to liue in Soule which in this world is as good as buryed That in this world there is not any thing that is woorthy to be sayd to bee well or good It is in another place therefore that man must liue and inioy his welfare namely as he sayth in being become one againe with God And Zoroastres saith that we must trauel with al our power towards the brightnes of the father who is the giuer of our Soule Also he hath told vs that we be falne away from this brightnesse of light into thicke darknesse and haue lost Gods fauour by going about to set our selues free from his seruice But as the world hath taught vs more and more that there is no good in the world so the later Philosophers haue discoursed yet more largely thereof than those that went afore Here therefore wee might rehearse a good part of Seneca and Cicero and others whose opinion forasmuch as I haue alledged already in the Chapter of the Immortalitie of mans Soule where it may be knowen wellynough I will content my selfe for this tyme with a fower or fâ—ue of them Surely Plutarke is wonderfull in confuting the beastlynes of the Epicures and the awk opinions of the Stoicks setting against the Epicures the pleasure that a good man receyueth in seeing God well serued here on earth and in hauing hym for his Leader from aboue and against the Stoiks the stryfe which man hath ageinst hymself which all their Philosophy is not able to appease and therefore he resolueth hymselfe in the end that as in the misteries of the men of olde tyme the looking
a bringging of vs to Hellgate or rather a shewing of Paradise vnto vs a farre of howbeit with such a horrible and infinite gulfe betwixt vs and it as man and all the whole world can neither fill vp nor passe ouer Yet must there néedes be a passage For the end of Man is to be vnited vnto God and this end is not in vaine the meane to be vnited aboue is to be reconcyled here beneath and the meane to be reconcyled here beneath is as I haue sayd alreadie but onely one which is that God himselfe acquit vs without our discharging of the debt which wee owe vnto him Onely that Religion then and none other which leadeth vs streight to the said passage and by the following whereof we find it is the true Religion as that which allonly atteineth to the ende of Religion which is the sauing of man May not men wil some say worship God diuersly some lifting vp their eyes to heauen and othersome casting their faces downe to the ground Yes for the worshipping is but one and the humbling of mens selues is but one still though there bee difference in the signes But our disputing here is not of the Ceremonies but of the substance of them Also may not men offer Sacrifice diuersly Yes But if thy Sacrifices haue no further ende then the sheading of the blud of a beast then as sayth Hierocles they be to the Fyre but a feeding thereof with fewell and vapors and to the Préestes a superfluous maintenance of butcherie It is requisite therefore that sacrifices should bee referred to somewhat namely that by them thou shouldest protest that whereas the sillie innocent beastes doo suffer death it is thou thy selfe that hast deserued it both in body and Soule Againe if thou haue nothing els in thy Religion but Sacrifices and prayers how goodly a showe soeuer they make thou hast nothing but a confession of thy fault and a sentence of death against thee for the same For if those Ceremonies aime not at a certein marke they be trifling toyes and if that be the end whereat they aime then come they short as which doe but leade thee vnto death and there leaue thee There are some that would beare vs on hand that Religion is but an obseruation of certeyne Ceremonies in euery Countrie by which reason that which is holy here should be vnholy in another place and that which is godly in one Land should be vngodly in another To be short they make it lyke the Lawes that depend vppon Custome which passe no further than the bounds of the place where they be vsed If Religion be nothing else but so what science art or trade is more vayne than that Or rather what is to be sayd of it but that in deede it is no Religion at all Leachecraft is vncerteine in many respects as of aire of water of age and of clymate but yet the which is Leachecraft in one Countrie is not manquelling in another Lawecraft hath almost as many sundry Lawes as caces and the caces that are in the world are infinite Yet notwithstanding who séeth not that all these diuersities of caces are brought vnder one vpryghtnes and reason and that they which yéeld not thereunto are not reputed for men but rather for enemies of mankynd and wyld beasts Also vertue hath the affections to woorke vpon a ground more mouable than the Sea and the wind And yet who wil say that that which is hardines betweene the too Tropiks is Cowardlines in all other Countryes or that that which is stayednesse in one half of the world is vnstayednesse in the other half To be short what thing is more subiect to rising and falling or to be cryed downe or inhaunced than coyne of siluer and gold as which séemeth to followe the willes of princes And yet notwithstanding for all their ordinances and proclamations both gold and siluer do alwayes kéepe a certeine rate and valew What shall we say then to Religion which hath a firmer and substantialler ground than all these I meane not mennes bodies goods affections or fantasies but the very soule and mynd of man who also hath such a rest to stay vppon as is settled vnmouable and the Lord of all Chaunges that is to wit God How much more wysely doth our Pythagorist Hierocles teache vs that Religion is the gouernesse of all vertewes and that all vertewes tend to her as to their certeine end as who would say they be no vertewes if they swarue from her insomuch that hardynesse being referred to any other than godlynesse becommeth rashnesse wisedome becommeth wylynes lynes and Iustice becommeth Iuggling and at a woord all vertue is but masking and hipocrisie If Religion be the end of all vertewes must it not needs be fixed and vnmouable Or if it be mouable what is there then that is iust good or vertuous And if the case stand so what thing in the world is more vnauaylable than man or to speake more ryghtly what thing is to lesse purpose in man than his mynd But there is vertue and the wickeddest man that is will auow it Therefore there is also a certeine Religion which maketh it to be vertue and whereunto vertue referreth itself and the vngodlyest man that is cannot scape from it Let vs looke yet further into the absurdities of this opinion Who can denie but that among the diuersities of Religions there were many sorts of wickednes and vngodlynes openly executed some woorshipping the creatures in Heauen yea and on earth as the Egiptians did in old time and as the Tartarians do at this day some offering vp men in Sacrifice as the Carthaginenses did in old tyme and as the Westerne Iles do yet at this day and othersome permitting things not only contrarie to all Lawes but also euen horrible and lothsome to nature If all this be good I pray you what good is there or rather what euill is there in the world But if it be euill in itself who can deny but that there were wicked and vngodly Religions in the world I vse the woord Religion after the comon maner and that a man had neede of a Rule whereby to discerne the good Religion from the bad And in verie deede it is so rooted in nature to beléeue that there is but one Religion to be had as well as to beleeue that there is but one God that as we may daily see a man will rather indure the change of a temperate aire into an extreme whot or into an extreme cold of freedom into bondage and of Iustice into Tyrannye than any alteration atall though neuer so little in the case of Religion verily as who would say it were not so naturall for a man too loue his natiue Countrie to be frée and to be at his easie as to haue some one certeine Religion to gwyde him to saluation Now my meaning hath bin to lay foorth this trueth after the mo sorts of purpose to
tymes so as no man can atteine to the same naturall veyne the same zeale and the same efficacie vnlesse he be led by the same hand moued by the same spirit and pricked with the same spurre that Moyses Dauid and the Prophetes were To be short if it be hard to father a booke vppon Plato Herodotus and Hipocrates but that hee which shall haue read them aduisedly will by and by espie it euen a farre of So is it as vnpossible to father the other bookes vppon those which haue a stile sofarre differing from other writings vnlesse a man wil beare himselfe on hand that such bastardbookes were made in the same ages or néere about the same tymes that those Authors liued in Let vs sée how it may be possible to haue bene doone in the same ages Moyses published the Lawe before all the people and he curseth the partie with death both of body and soule which shall adde diminish or alter any thing Hee bindeth the people household by household to take fast hold thereof His bookes are deliuered to euery Trybe they be read openly euery Saboth day they be kept carefully in the Arke and the Arke is kept as carefully by all the Trybes And that this was doone it appeareth not onely by his booke but also by the effects that insewed therof from time to time and by the footesteps therof which are euident euen yet among the Iewes If it be possible for a booke to bee preserued from falsifying and foysting what booke shall that be but the Byble which was garded by ten hundred thousand men and copyed out not by some Scriueners onely but also by all the people Afterward came Iosua who renewed the same Couenant proclaymed the Lawe and yéelded record vnto Moyses Lykewise the Iudges succéeded Iosua Samuell succéeded the Iudges the Kings and the Chronicles succéeded Samuell and the Prophets succéeded them all These bookes followed one another immediatly and without interpâ—â—â—â—tion and euery one that followed presupposed the things to be an infallible trueth which had bene written by them that went afore neither was there any that did cast any douts or reproue any of the former histories as is found to be doone in other Histories as for example Hellanicus reproueth Ephorus Ephorus finds fault with Timeus and consequently Timeus reprehendeth them that wrote afore him But Iosua gathereth a certeine and vnfallible consequence of Moyses the Iudges of Iosua Samuell of the Iudges Dauid of them all and so all the rest And to speake of the Prophets they bee not lyke the bookes of our Astrologers which reforme one anothers Calculations and controll one anothers Prognostications But as they shoote all at one marke so they agrée in one thing notwithstanding that they wrote in sundrie times and sundry places Nay which more is wée see that the people were so sure of that Lawe that from age to age they chose rather to abyde all extremities than to giue it ouer insomuch that they defended it ageinst the Chananites the Philistines the Assyrians the Babilonians the Persians the Greekes and the Romanes Who then durst be so prowd and bold as to voilate or imbace the thing that was hild to be so holy defended with so many lyues and confirmed with so many deathes If yee say the Heathen Their intents was not to marre it but to make it quyte away For what profite could haue redounded vnto them of that payne to what ende should they haue done it or how could they haue corrupted it in the sight in the knowledge of so many folke Moreouer who knoweth not that the Scriptures were caryed by the banished Iewes into diuers countryes of the world afore they came into the hands of the Gentiles as of the Greekes or Romanes As for the Iewes their shooteanker and felicitie consisted in the kéeping of them the reward of corrupting them was death and what could it theÌ„ haue benefited them to haue corrupted them Nay yet further which of them would haue dyed afterward for a Lawe which they knewe to bee corrupted or counterfetted And soothly we see throughout their Histories that there passed not so much as any one halfe hundred yeeres without persecutions and warres for that Lawe And whereas it myght be sayd that some suttleheaded fellow among the Iewes had done it to abuse the rest how could that be ageine séeing it was not in the hands of fower or fiue Prestes only as the Ceremonies of the Hetrurians and Latins were but in the hands of the whole people so as one sillable could not be chaunged but it was to be espyed euen by yoong Children Considering also that we reade not of any king how wise so euer he were that euer durst presume to ad diminish or alter any whit thereof whereas notwithstanding all other Lawes of the world were made by péecemeale and Kings and Senats haue alwaies reserued to theÌ„selues a prerogatiue to correct them and alter them at their pleasure specially when they limited their authoritie and serued not for the mayntenance of their possession And if any man to beréeue vs of this argument will stepfoorth and say that our Scriptures are as an Historie gathered out of the Registers of many ages by some one author as we sée Berosus hath done for the Chaldees Duis for the Phenicians Manetho for the Egiptians and such others let him tell vs then I hartily pray him in what age of the world that Author is lykely to liued If in the tyme of Moyses of Iosua or of the Iudges how commeth it to passe that he wryteth of the reignes of the kings If in the tyme of the first Kings how wryteth he of the last Kings If in the tyme of the last Kings how is it possible that the Iewes being afore that time caryed away into diuers places of the world and scattered abroade euerywhere lyke the members of Pentheus should carie keepe with them the books of Moyses which by these mens reckoning were not yet made according to which booke both themselues did notwithstaÌ„ding then liue and also taught other Nations I meane the ten Trybes by name which by three former remouings were scattered ouer the whole Earth whereof the marks are to apparant to be denyed The first in the the tyme of Achaz King of Iuda and of Placea King of Israell by Thiglath Phalassar King of the Assirians who caryed away Ruben Gad and the halfe trybe of Manasses the second in the tyme of Ose by Salmanasar who caryed away Isachar Zabulon and Nepthaly into Assiria and the third anon after by the same Salmanasar who conueyed away Ephraim and the other half of Manasses as is witnessed both by the auncient Records of many Countryes and also by the Chronicles of the Hebrewes And at that tyme whyle Printing was notyet in vse what meane was there to disperse those books so soone and so farre of Nay which more is what will they say when they shall find the bookes of
God and Man able to discharge mā of euerlasting death ageinst God and to purchase him the souerein felicitie of lyfe And this is it that I meant in the beginning of the chapter namely that this marke is so of the very substance and inshape of Religion that Religion without that should be vtterly vnauaylable and vayne The Heathen séeme to haue perceyued this necessitie by many examples They knewe that man was created to liue for euer and that hee could not inioy that benefite but by turning again vnto God But in this they fell short that they considered not that from vs to God the way is vnpossible to man if God himself be not our way whereby to come thither It may be that they haue heard that it behoued a man to dye for the sinnes of the world And therevpon the diuell did put in their heads to sacrifice men and so to lay the sinnes of a whole Citie or countrie vpon the backe of some one poore wretch And looke who was the greatest offender of all others and whom they had vowed to the gallowes for the multitude of his misdéedes him did they put to the pacifying of Gods wrath towards them Such are the accustomed Apish toyes of the Diuell But how shall he that is in Gods displeasure appease his displeasure And what shall the worst doo if the best can doo nothing The Emperour Iulian could not tell how to rid his hands of this necessitie in his disputations ageinst the Christians By reason whereof perceiuing that there must néedes bee a meane betwéene God and man for the cleansing of mens Soules hee bare himselfe on hand that Esculapius the Sonne of Iupiter was manifested to the world by the lyuely ingendring of the Sonne and that hee shewed him selfe first in Epidaurus and afterward in diuers other places to heale mens Bodies and to amend their Soules Which is a proof that the impossibilitie of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God which is pretended by some séemed not to him to be vnpossible forasmuch as the Iucarnation of Esculapius the sonne of Iupiter God in the opion of Iulian and the sonne of God seemed to him not onely possible but also come to passe And in verie déede why should it seeme strange that he which hath knit the Soule of man being a spirituall substance vnto his body being an earthly should bee able to vnite himselfe vnto man But I haue shewed afore that this Esculapius was a man and that the spirit which abused his name was a diuell and that both of them were wicked creatures And moreouer who euer beléeued or setfoorth this Fable of Esculapius but onely Iulian Nay verily Porphyrius hath outgone all antiquitie in this behalfe For hauing laid this foundation That the souereine welfare of the Soule is to sée God That it cannot see hym vnlesse it be first cleansed from the silth thereof and therefore that by Gods prouidence there must be some meane procured to cleanse mankind whē he commeth to the seeking of it out he saith That the Artes and Sciences doo well cleare our wits in the knowledge of things but they cannoth so cleanse vs that wee may come vnto God And wheras many men deceiued themselues in séeking this cleansing by Magik and Theurgie he sayd that imagination and common sence might well bee helped thereby in the perceyuing of bodily things but they atteyned not to the purging of the vnderstanding of the Soule neyther could they make a man to see his GOD or the trueth it selfe Againe whereas some Philosophers sought this clensing in the Misteries of the Sonne and of Iupiter that is to say in communicating as they surmised not with Deuils but with such as were estéemed to be good Gods he declareth that there was as small likelyhood thereof in their Misteries as in the Misteries of the rest and moreouer that those things extended but to very fewe men whereas this clensing ought to be vniuersall to the benefite of all mankind In the end hauing reiected all other clensings his conclusion is that the Beginnings onely and none others can worke and bee the meane to worke this vniuersall Clensing What he meaneth by the Beginnings the Platonists can tell well enough and I haue declared it by many sentences of his in my fifth and sixth Chapters that is to wit the persons or proprieties that are in God whom Porphyrius calleth expressely the Father the vnderstanding of the Father and the Soule of the World He could not almost haue come any néerer vs vnlesse he should haue met iumpe with vs and surely he seemeth to haue had this of the Chaldees from whom he acknowledgeth himselfe to haue receyued many diuine Oracles concerning this matter But it is enough for vs that wee haue gayned these poynts of him That there must of necessitie be some meane ordeyned of GOD for the clensing and sauing of mankynd That none can worke that Cleannesse except it bee some one of the Beginnings that is to say except it hee God himselfe and that he neuer met yet with any Sect in all Philosophie that setteth foorth the meane thereof Therefore it standeth vs on hand to seeke it not in Philosophie but in our Scriptures For seeing they bee of God and are reuealed for the welfare of Man they ought to direct vs to the only meane of the Saluation which we long for And like as Religion was bred and borne as soone as Man as I haue sayd afore so must it needes be that the meane of Saluation was reuealed as soone as Religion and set foorth in the holy Scriptures from tyme to tyme. And if we finde it so it will be an vnfallible testimonie both of our Religion and of our Scriptures together Let vs then begin with the Creation of man The Scripture sayeth that as soone as he was created God gaue him this Lawe If thou eate of the tree of the skill of good and euill thou shalt dye the Death That is to say If thou turne away neuer so little from the obeying of me thou shalt fall into my displeasure and from my displeasure into endlesse death Byandby after man is seduced by the Serpent that is to say by the diuel and breaketh the Lawe of his Creator by meane whereof he is in his displeasure and by sinne is become subiect to endlesse damnation Now seeing that this man was alone and that the world was made for him what should haue followed but the vtter destruction of the world out of hand and the burning of man euerlastingly in Gods wrath But see how Gods wisdome stepped in for the sauing of man and for the preseruing of his owne woorke and sinne was no sooner bred but the scripture immediatly sheweth vs the remedie thereof I will set emnitie sayeth the Lord to the diuell betweene thy seede and the womans seede Hir seede shall crush thy head and thou shalt byte it by the heele That is to say I will
Cloke too Thou shalt not beare false witnesse not only in word either false or hurtfull but also ydle Thou shalt not commit aduoutry No for if thou doe but looke vpon a woman with a lust vnto her thou hast committed adultrie already Moreouer so little leaue hast thou to couet any mans goods that to succor him thou must dispossesse thy selfe and sell all that euer thou hast Finally Thy God is only one God and no mo but thy neighbour is euery man whom thou meetest of what Countrie state condicion or calling soeuer he or thou be To bee short worshippest thou God doe it with the knees of thy heart Doest thou fast When thou doest it annoint thy face Doest thou almes Let not thy left hand knowe it giue of thy néede and not of thine abundance I demaund now whether the exhibiting of the substance and body of the Lawe in sted of the counterfet or Portrayture thereof and the requiring of the mynd in sted of the flesh be an abolishing or defacing of the Lawe whether the stablishing thereof bee the disanulling thereof The clearing and inlightening thereof be the quenching thereof or the fulfilling therof in himself and the spreading thereof ouer all Nations of the Earth bee the breaking thereof Nay moreouer the Lawe say the Cabalistes was giuen to man for the sinne of the Serpent that is to say accordiâ—g to our doctrine not for vs to accomplish for wee cannot atteine thereto but to shew vnto vs how farre the infection of that venome hath caried vs away from that duetie which God and nature it selfe require of vs. Which end of the Lawe is greatly inlightened vnto vs by the comming of our Lord Iesus in that he teacheth vs that the Lawe is not satisfied with an outward and pharisaicall obedience that is to wit to speake fitly by hipocrisie but by the vncorrupt obedience of the Heart yea euen much more by an vnfeyned acknowledgement of our disobedience than by the greatest profession of obedience that a man can shewe If they vrge yet further why then was not this lesson of yours giuen vs at the beginning I answere that euen from the beginning foorthon Moyses and the Prophetes gaue it you in willing you to circumcise your hearts to offer vp the sacrifice of prayse and obedience to absteine from vnhalowing the Saboth day with vnrightuousnes and such otherthings And in speaking to you of the land of Canaan they haue told you lowd inough by all their dooings that it behoued you to haue a further reache of mynd namely to the things which as Esay saith neitheir eye hath séene nor eare heard nor heart of man conceiued The seruice then which God required of you is spirituall and the reward which we ought to looke for is spirituall also But you lyke Children as ye be thought not but as the most part of you doo still at this day vpon the body and the world whereas GOD spake to you concerning your Soules and the welfare of them which lyeth in him Euen so the Schoolemaister promiseth his yoong Scholer a Marchpaine or some other banketing stuffe to make him to learne not that vertue shall not like the Child much bettter and be a greater reward to him when he hath atteyned vnto it but because that if he should talke to him of vertue or of honour at that tyme he can no skill of any of them both and he would bee the negligenter to his lesson and the more vnable to conceiue a greater thing And truely ye would haue sayd vnto Moyses Let not God speake vnto vs but to thee and yet was he fayne to couer his face because ye could not abide it To the same purpose doth Esay say that ye were fayne to haue line after line and precept after precept and lisping Prophets to dallie with you like newe weaned children that they might make you to vnderstand Also S. Paule sayth in the same sence that ye were trained vp like babes vnder the discipline and tutorship of the law To bee short all Mankind after the maner of one only man hath his birth his Childhood and his youth and his spirituall nourishment proportionable to euery age as well as euery of vs hath by himselfe Nature ought to be a Lawe vnto vs. And verely GOD ment to make vs to feele how sore it is corrupted in vs and because that in those first ages wee did transgresse it and breake it so many and so sundrie waies like yoong Scholers which to speake rightly cannot write one right letter without a sample therefore God gaue vs the Law written and there remayned at leastwise so much conscience in vs all as that none of vs could say but it was most iust Neuerthelesse it was Gods will that wee should trye our strength for a tyme in the doing thereof whereby we perceyued in the end that wee could not atteyne thereto like as the Child that indeuereth to followe the Copie of a good Skriuener and cannot atteyne to the fashioning of one letter aright furtherfoorth than his maister guideth his hand At length came Gods grace brought by Iesus Christ when our accusation I meane the accusation of all Mankynd and specially of the Church was made and concluded both by Nature and by the Lawe the Interpreter of Nature and that so apparantly as none of vs can denye but that he deserueth very great punishment nor any of vs say that he deserueth any reward at the hand of the euerlasting God whose reward being proportionable if I may so terme it to the giuer cannot be but euerlasting So then Nature hath made man readie to receiue the Law the Lawe hath made him readie to imbrace grace and God as séemed conuenient to his wise prouidence hath in this last age of the world caused his grace to be brought and preached vnto vs by his Gospell euen vnto vs which were as folke standing on the Scaffold readie to bee executed to the intent that such as perish should acknowledge his Iustice such as are saued should acknowledge his onely grace in Iesus God and Man the onely Sauiour and Redéemer of Mankynd Amen The xxxij Chapter That Iesus Christ was and is GOD the Sonne of GOD against the Heathen NOw then wee haue Iesus Christ such a one as hée was promised vnto vs in the Scriptures namely God and Man the Mediatour of mans saluation as sayth S. Paule manifested in the flesh crucified by the Iewes preached to the Gentyles beléeued on in the world and taken vp into glorie And forasmuch as I haue alreadie prooued the trewnesse and diuinenesse of the Scriptures and that according to them the Mediatour was to be such a one as Iesus was here I might make an end of this work for the coÌ„clusion followeth of it self The Scriptures are of God In them we haue found Iesus to be the Messias the Mediator and the Redéemer of Mankynd therefore it followeth that we ought to receiue him for
Preachers of the comming of the Mediator and witnesses of the antiquitie trueth and vncorruptnes of the Prophestes ageinst the effect whereof neuerthelesse they set themselues with all their power For what better witnesses I pray you could the Gentyles haue than the Iewes themselues namely in that they being the putters of Iesus and of his disciples to death were ready notwithstanding to dye for the trueth soundnesse of the bookes wherein he was foreshewed foretold and fore-promised vnto them at all tymes Furthermore that this King promised by the Prophetes and the Sibyls should deliuer the Law of good lyfe to the whole world Cicero séemeth to haue had some vnderstanding howsoeuer he came by it or els I caÌ„not tell wherto I should apply this goodly sentence of his in his third booke of his Commonweale Soothly the very Lawe in deede sayth he is right reason shed into all men constant euerlasting which calleth all men to their duetie by commaunding and frayeth them from fraud by forbidding which yet notwithstanding neither biddeth nor forbiddeth in vayne to the good nor by bidding or forbidding moueth the bad From this lawe may nothing be taken to it may nothing be put neither may it be wholy abrogated Neither Senate nor Pope can discharge vs of this Lawe neither needeth there any interpreter or expounder thereof to make it playne There shall not bee one Lawe at Rome and another at Athens one tooday and another toomorrowe But one selfesame Lawe being both euerlasting and vnchaungeable shall conteyne all Nations and at all tymes and there shall be but one common mayster and commaunder of all euen God He is the deuiser the discusser and the giuer of this Lawe which who will not obey shall flee from himselfe as if he disdeined to be a man which dooing of his must needes be a sore punishment vnto him though hee were sure to scape all other punishments Who seeth not here that this Heathen man espyed that all Lawes of man are but vanitie and that he looked that God himselfe should come openly into the sight of the world to giue a good lawe to Mankind Now Iesus hath manifestly giuen this Lawe causing it to be published by his Apostles and their voyce sounded to the vttermost bounds of the earth And for proof hereof what is more conuenient and meete for man in the iudgement of conscience than to loue God with all his heart and all his Soule and his neighbour as himself which yet notwithstanding doth more surmount our abilitie to performe and more bewray our corruption and more condemne whatsoeuer is in vs of our owne than doth the Lawe it selfe vniuersally in all mankind On the contrarie part what find we in all the writings of the Heathen but a Hireling vertue and a teaching to cloke vice that is to say Hipocrisie But as this Lawe is verily of God so let vs see whether the bringer thereof bee God And I beseech all worldly wise men not to hearken vnto mee by halues nor to looke vpon things at a glaunce for I come not to daly with them but to yeeld mée both their eares and to looke wistly to bend all their wits aduisedly for the néerer they looke vnto the matter the more deliberatly they consider of it the sooner will they yeeld to our doctrine as to the vndoubted trueth yea as to very nature it self Iesus therefore is borne in the little Countrie of Iewrie subdewed by the Romaines of poore parents in a sorie Uillage destitute of friends and of all worldly helpes and yet was he to be Emperour of the whole world to giue the Law to the whole world Let vs see the procéeding of this Emperour of his Empyre Amend sayth he and beleeue the Gospell for the kingdome of Heauen is at hand If we consider the maiestie of the Romaine Empyre the eloquence and learning of the great Clerks and the pride of the Sophists and Orators of that tyme what greater fondnesse could there be to all seeming than to talke after that maner Who would not haue thought folly both in Christ and in his Apostles for their preaching so But what addeth he Whosoeuer wil come into this kingdome let him forsake goodes father moother wife children yea and himselfe too And let him take vp his Crosse and followe me Let him thinke himself happie that he may suffer a thousand miseries for me and that in the end he may dye for my names sake What maner of priuiledges are these I beseech you to drawe people into that kingdome What a hope is it for them that serue him What are these promises of his but threatnings and his perswasioÌ„s but disswasions What say we to a friend whom we turne from some other man but thus eschewe that mans companie for ye shall haue nothing with him but trauell and trouble And what worse could the veriest enemies of his doctrine say than he himselfe sayd Also what a saying of his was this to S. Paule a man of reputation among the Pharisies and greatly imployed afore in following the world I wil shew thee how great things thou hast to indure for my names sake And yet notwithstanding what a sodeyne chaunge insewed from apprehending and imprisoning to bee apprehended and imprisoned from being a Iudge to be whipped and scourged from stoning of others to death to offer himselfe from Citie to Citie to bee stoned for the name of Iesus Let vs heare on the contrarie part the voyce of a worldly Conquerour Whosoeuer will followe me sayth Cyrus to the Lacedemonians if he be a footman I will make him a Horseman if he bee a Horseman I will giue him a Charyot if he haue a Manor I will giue him a Towne if he haue a Towne I wil giue him a Citie if he haue a Citie I will giue him a Countrie and as for Gold he shall haue it by weight and not by tale What â—ddes is there betwéene the spéeches of these two Monarkes and much more betwéene their Conquests And therefore what comparison can there bee betwixt the Conquerours themselues This Cyrus as great an Emperour as he was could not haue the Lacedemonians to serue him for all his great offers But Iesus being poore abiect and vnregarded did by his rigorous threats euen after his own suffering of reprochfull death and his manacing of the like to his followers drawe all people and Nations vnto him and not only Souldyers but also Emperours nor only Cities but also whole Empyres Cyrus dyed in conquering and Iesus conquered by dying The death of Cyrus decayed his owne kingdome as a bodie without a soule But the death of Iesus inlarged his kingdome euen ouer the Empyres And how could that haue bene but that the death of Iesus was the life of all Empyres and all Kingdomes Who seeth not then in the mightinesse of the one a humaine weakenesse and in the weakenesse of the other a diuine mightinesse Wee woonder
Gamalielles was sent with Commission to persecute the Christians In his way sayth Luke a light shone about him and being smitten to the ground he heard this voyce Saule Saule why persecutest thou me To bee short of a Iewe he became a Christian and of a Persecuter a Martir And if thou beléeuest not S. Luke S. Paule himselfe toucheth his owne historie in diuers places What hath vnbeléefe to bring against this saue onely peraduenture a bare denyall according to common custome If Peter sawe it he is but a Fissherman say they If Paule heard it he is an Orator So then belike if God offer thee his grace in an earthen vessell thou mislykest of it and if he offet it thee in a vessell of some valewe thou suspectest it eyther the one is beguyled or the other beguyleth thee sayest thou What wilt thou haue God to doe to make thee to beleeue him Examine this case well Paule in the way to growe great he is in good reputation with the Magistrate the Priestes and sodeinly he chaungeth his Copie out of one extremitie into an other to bee skorned scourged cudgâ—led stoned and put to death Put the case that neither S. Luke nor S. Paule did tell thee the cause thereof What mayst thou imagine but that it was a very great and forcible cause that was able to chaunge a mans heart so sodeynly and so straungely Is it not daylie sâ—ene wilt thou say that men are soone changed and vpon light causes Yes fooles are But he debateth the matter he vrgeth his arguments and he driueth his conclustons to an ende The best learned of his enemies finde fault with his misapplying as they terme it of his skill and yet commend his writings Yea and he knoweth that vnto thee his preaching will seeme folly and yet that as much folly as it is it is the very wisedome of God and that by following it he shall haue nothing but aduersitie and yet for all that he doth not giue it ouer How shall he be wise that counteth himselfe a foole or rather which of the wiser sort is not rauished at his sayings and doings But if he be wise learned and weladuised as thou seest he is what followeth but that his chaunge proceedeth of some cause And seeing the chaunge was great the cause must néedes be great also and seeing it was extreame and against 〈◊〉 surely it must needes proceede of a supernaturall and souereine cause Uerely the reason that leadeth thee to this generall conclusion ought to leade thee to the speciall also that is to wit that it was a very great and supernaturall cause that moued him namely the same which Sainct Luke rehearseth and which he himselfe confirmeth in many places for the which he estéemeth himselfe right happie to â—ndure the miserie which he caused and procured vnto others and in the end after a thousand hurts and a thousand deaths he willingly spent his life Also the death of Herod striken by the Angell for not giuing glorie vnto God is reported vnto vs much more amply by Iosephus than by S. Luke Herod sayth he made showes in Caesarea and the second day of the solemnitie he came into the Theatre being full clad in robe or cloath of Siluer which by the stryking of the Sunnebeames vppon it made it the more stately Then began certeyne Clawbacks to call him God and to pray him to bee gracious vnto them But forasmuch as he did not refuse that flatterie he sawe an Owle sitting vpon his head and by and by he was taken with so straunge torments that within feawe daies after he dyed acknowledging Gods iudgement vpon him and preaching thereof to his flatterers This Historie is set out more at large by Iosephus which in effect is all one with that which is written by S. Luke who sayeth that the people cryed out It is the voyce of God and not of a man and that thervpon an Angell of God strake him and he was eaten with wormes and so dyed These bee the things which they finde scarce credible in the historie of our Euangelistes which yet notwithstanding are coÌ„firmed by the histories of the Iewes and Gentyles who report the things with words full of admiration which our Euangelistes set downe simply after their owne maner And seeing that in these things which exceede nature they bee found true what likelyhoode is there that they should not also deliuer vs Christes doctrine truely specially being as I haue shewed afore miraculously assisted with the power of his spirit according to his promisses and moreouer hauing witnessed the sinceritie of their writings by suffering so many torments and in the end death Seeing then that the new Testament conteyneth the trueth of the doctrine of Iesus and proceeded from the spirit of Iesus whom I haue shewed to be the Sonne of God what remayneth for vs but to imbrace the Scriptures as the worde of life and Soulehealth and as the will of the Father declared vnto vs by his Sonne and to liue thereafter and to dye for the same considering that by the same wee shall be raysed one day to glorie and reigne with him for euer But forasmuch as we make mention of rysing ageine from the dead that is yet one scruple more that remayneth What lykelyhod is there of that say they séeing that our bodyes rotte Woormes deuour vs yea our bodyes do turne into woormes and a nomber of other chaunges â—o passe ouer them This is a continewall stumbling alwayes at one stone namely to stand gasing at Gods power who can do all things when ye should rather rest vpon his will He will do it for he hath knit the body and Soule togither to be parttakers of good and euill togither and hee hath giuen one Lawe on them both togither so as they must suffer togither and ioy togither yea and suffer one for another and one by another in this lyfe and what Iustice then were it to separate them in another lyfe He will do it for he made the whole man who if he were but Soule alone were no man atall He will do it for to the intent toâ— saue man his Sonne hath takeÌ„ the flesh of man vnto him Now to saue the Soule it had bin inough for him too haue taken but a Soule but he that made the whole man will also saue the whole man To be short he will do it for he hath sayd it and he will doo it for he hath done it already He hath sayd it by his Sonne and he hath also done it in his Sonne and his sonne adorneth vs with his victorie and he will surely adorne vs with his glorie Looke vpon the grayne that is cast into the ground if it rotte not it springeth not vp if it spring not vp it yeldeth no foyson Agein of one graine come many Eares of Corne of a kernell a goodly Tree of a thing of nothing as yée would say a perfect liuing Creature
coÌ„pany with thy wyfe Man is both Soule body In Man are three Abilitieâ— of Soule The Body and the Soule be not one selfsame thing That the Soule is a substance Bodilesse Vnmateriall The Soule hath beeing of it selâ— Plutark in his treâ—yâ—e why God deferreth the punishment of the wicked Vncorruptible What is death Cleuâ— lib. 1. Three lyues iâ— Man Obiections The opinion of the Men of old tyme. The beleefe of the Patriarkes c. The wise Men of Egipt Hermes in his Poemander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermes in his Poemander cap. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermes in his Esculapius AEnaeas Gaz. concerning the immortalitie of the Soule Ghaâ—deans The Greekes Pherecydes Assyrium vulgo nascetur Amonium Phocylides Sybill Pindar in the second song of his Olympiads Homer in the Funeralles of his Iliads Pythagoras Heraâ—litus as he is reported by Philo. Epicharmus as he is reported by Clement of Aleâ—andria Thales Anaxagoras Diogenes and Zeâ—o Epicurus Lucretius Socrates Plato and XenophoÌ„ Plato in his Timaeus Plato in his Timaeus and in his third booke of a Comonweale Plato in his Phoedon in his matter of state in his Alâ—ibiades and in the tenth booke of his Comonweale Plato in his fifth booke of Lawes Aristotle in his second booke of liuiÌ„g things Aristotle in the third book of the Soule Aristotle in his tenth booke of moralles Michael of Ephesus vpon Aristotles Moralles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In his second booke of the Soule In the last booke of the parts of beasts In the tenth of his Supernaturalles In his first booke of matters of state The opinion of the Latin writers Cicero in his first booke of his Tusculane Questions in his booke of Comfort Cicero in his second booke of the Nature of the Gods and in his fust booke of Lawes In Scipioes dreame Ouid in his first booke of Metamorphosis Seneca writing to Gallio and to Lucillus Seneca concerning the Lady Martiaze SoÌ„ne and the shortnesse of this life In his Questions and in his hooke of Comfort Fauorinus The common opinion of all nations Porphyrius in his 4. booke of Abstinence Which with their owne hands made the fire to burne their bodies in and sawe aliue the kindled flame that should consume their Skinne Gebeleizie that is to say Register or Giuer of caze rest Gebeleizie that is to say Register or Giuer of caze rest Plutarke in his treatise of the flow punishing of the wicked The opinion of the later Philosophers Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simplicius Plotinus Plotin lib. 1. Ennead 4. coÌ„cerning the Beeing of the Soule lib. 2. cap. 1. lib. 3. cap. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. lib. 4 cap. 11. the seauenth book throughout Plotinus in his booke of the Sences of Memorie En. 4. lib. 3. and in his booke of doubts concerning the Soule chap. 26. 27. Alexander of Aphrodise in his bookes of the Soule In his second booke of Problemes Galen in his booke of the Manners of the Soule In his booke of the doctrine of Hippocrates and Plato In his booke of Conception The vniuersall consent In the AlcoraÌ„ Azo 25. and 42. It appeareth by the storyes or the East and West Indyes Ageinst Auerrhoes Let the Reader beare these termes their significations in Mynd for al the discourse here ensewing Auerhoes vppon Aristotles third booke of the Soule Aristotle in his second booke of the Soule Aristotle in his first booke of the Soule Aristotle in his â— booke of Supernaturalls Aristotle in his third booke of of the Soule Against Alexander of Aphrodise Mans corruption appeereth in his respect to Godward The sonne of the earth In respect of the World In respect of Man Man in respect of himself Diodorus lib. 4. Herodotus in his Clio. Austin in his woork of the Citie of God lib. 14. Chap. 17. and 18. * The Catopleb and also the Cockatryce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence mans corruption coÌ„meth How long ago corruption came into maÌ„ The Conscience of Sinne. The opinion of the Auncient Philosophers Aristotle Theophrast Plato in his Phedrus Empedocles and Pythagoras Philolaus Pherecydes alledged by Origen against Cellus Hermes in his Poemander Zoroastres Gemistus Hierocles the Stoic against Athâ—â—â—ts Plutarke in his booke of Morall vertue and in his booke of the mutuall loue betweene Parents and their Children and That Beastes haue Reason Plotin Enn. 3. lib. 2. Also Enn. 1. lib. 6 Cap. 5. Also Enn. 1. lib. 8. Cap. 14. Enn. 6. lib. 9 Cap. 9. Plotin lib. 1. Enn. 5. Cap. 1. Plotin Enn. 1. lib. 8. Cap. 4. Plotin Enn. 3 lib. 5. Cap. 5. Enn. 3. lib. 3. Cap 4. Plotin Eun. 1. lib. 8. Cap. 14. lid 3. Cap. 4 S. Austin in the Citie of God lib. 10. Cap. 23. and 32. Porphyrius in his booke which sheweth how to do the things that are to be conceyued alonly by reason and vnderstanding Also in his third booke of Abstinence Proclus concerning the Soule and concerning the Feend cap. 4. Simplicius vppon Epictus Vniuersall consent Agathias in his secoÌ„d book of the Persian Warres The generall Historie of the Indyes ca. 122. Obiections Things are said to be good either by cause they come to good end or were purposed to a good end Mannes end or amingpoynt and his welfare consist or rest both in one thing The Markâ—â— whereby to knowe the amingpoynt and welfare of Man The world is not the end to which man was made God is the end or Marke that Man ameth aâ— The false ends and the false Welfares Riches Honor. Powre Authoritie and Soucreintie The vtmost end â—â—uerein good of Man are not in himself Beautie Helth Bodily Pleasure Voluptuousenes or Sensualitie Vertue Policiâ— Wisdome or Religiousnes Faith or Beleef Agazel in the beginning of his Supernaturalles Austin in his xix booke and first cap. of the Citie of God The Epicures Antisthenes answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stoiks The Peripatetikes or walkers Aristotle in his Moralles lib. 5 Porphyr in his first booke of the Soule to Byrithius and Anebon The Academiks Plato in his Common-weale lib. 10. In his Epinomis In his Theeteâ—â—s Laertius in the life of Plato-Plato in his Phoedon Aristotle in his booke of the World And in his Morals and in his first booke of the Heauens The Philosophers of old tyme. Pythagoras Mercurius Trif megistus otherwise called Hermes Zoroastres Plutarke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iamblichus Plotin Enn. 1. lib. 4. cap. 15. 16. Plotin Enn. 6. lib. 9. Cap. 10. Porphyrius in his worke of abstinence lib. 1. cap. 2. Porphyrius concerning the Soule to Byrithius and Anebo the AEgiptian Simplicius vpon the Naturalles and vppon Epictetus Vpon these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alexander in his booke of Prouidence cyted by Cyâ—illus The ends both of the good of the bad In their booke of shame concealed Hermes Trismegistus in his Poemander Orpheus Pythagoras Pindarus Diphiluâ— Sibylla 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tat is to say they
haue had a beginning all of them Againe when we consider that the Earth receyueth his Seasons from the Sunne the Sea his Tydes from the Moone the Ayre his Windes from an outward power that is vnseene ought wée not to seeke the beginning thereof aboue and not beneath without them and not within them seeing that nothing héere belowe hath mouing of it selfe And if the Elements which are accounted for the very grounds and beginnings of things acknowledge a beginning of their mouings ought we not to acknowledge the same in all other things Again if we consider how this Moone which maketh the Tydes in the Sea hath no light but from the Sunne which maketh the Seasons on the Earth doe we not conclude by and by that the Seasons of the Earth and the Tydes of the Sea and the continnall chaunges mouings and as ye would say backebreathings of the Elements haue one commoÌ„ beginning But it may bee that these mouings haue place but onely vnder the Moone and not in that fifth Quintessence of the Heauen the substantialnesse and eternitie whereof Aristotle doth so highly commend Nay what if the higher wee mount vp they proclayme their beginning still the lowder What if the thing which we most chiefly wonder at in the Heauen be most repugnant to eternitie The Sunne maketh there his naturall course in the Zodiacke betwéene the two Tropicks or Turnepoynts so as the Zodiacke is as it were his race and the Tropicks are his vtmost listes both the which are so distinguished by degrées and minutes that hee cannot passe one hearebredth beyond them The poynts of his two stops are his vtmost bounds the which so soone as he commeth at by and by he turneth head back againe Must he not theÌ„ néedes haue had a place to set out from seeing he hath a place whereat to stop Euery fower and twentie howers hee is caryed from East to West by the mouing of the Skye and like as by his natural mouing he maketh the Sommer and the Winter so by this violent moouing he maketh Day and Night Can such succession of tymes and Seasons be made otherwise than in tyme or rather be any other thing than tyme The Moone likewise finisheth her course euery Moneth we see how she chaungeth groweth becommeth full and waneth Euery Planet hath his prefixed tyme and his ordinary course To be short men see the rising and the going downe of the Starres and likewise their appearing and their tarying out of sight and the very Heauen it selfe which with himselfe caryeth all the rest about doth it not but by moouing Now whatsoeuer is moued is moued in tyme and all goings or whéelings about must néeds begin at some one poynt like as in the drawing of a Circle the one shanke of the Compasses is set fast in some place and the other shanke is caryed round about What followeth theâ— but that the mouing of the Heauen and of al the things which the Heauen beareth and caryeth about hath had a beginning Then let vs not wonder at the brightnesse and light thereof as Aristotle did for that bewrayeth the matter so much the more apparantly in that it hath not that light but by distribution of mouing nor at his perpetuall mouing for that sheweth the more his streyt seruice whereto he is subiect nor at his Constancie for that is necessitie nor at his huge greatnesse for he is so much the more hugely bowed downe Surely the Skye is as the great whéele of a Clocke which sheweth the Planets the Signes the howers and the Tydes euery one in their tyme and that which seemeth to be his chiefe wonder proueth him to bee subiect to tyme yea and to bee the very instrument of tyme. Now seeing he is an instrument there is a Worker that putteth him to vse a Clockkéeper that ruleth him a Mynd that was the first procurer of his mouing For euery instrument how mouable so euer it be is but a dead thing so farre foorth as it is but an instrument if it haue not life and mouing from some other thing than it it selfe Yea but will some man say the Heauen goeth about continually and in so many worlds and ages as haue bin we perceiue no alteration at all Wretched man that thou art Thy Hart and thy Lights also haue a continuall mouing and neuer lye still and thou with all the witte thou hast canst neither increase it nor restreine it The Phisitions themselues feele it but can find no cause of it The Philosophers ouertyre themselues in seeking it and yet canst thou not tell the ende and the beginning thereof Doest not thou things thy selfe which men as thou art doe déeme to be without end as straunge Milles and Trindles and such other kind of selfmouings of whose beginnings not euen Children are ignorant And yet vnder colour that the great whéele of Heauen hath now of long tyme turned about without ceasing wilt thou be so childish or so bliâ—d as to beléeue that it hath turned so from euerlasting O man the same workmayster which hath set vp the Clock of thy hart for halfe a score yeares hath also set vp this huge engine of the Skyes for certeyne thousands of yeares Great are his Circuits and small are thyne and yet when thou hast accounted them throughly they come both to one Let vs come to the things that haue lyfe and feâ—ce The PlaÌ„ts shoote foorth into branches and beare both bud and fruite but yet either the plant springeth of the kernell or the kernell of the plant and both of theÌ„ procéede of a maker Of liuing wights some bring foorth their yong ones alyue and some lay Egges and we knowe which is ingendred of which but whether the Egge come of the Hen or the Hen of the Egge it must néedes bée confessed that the one of them had a beginning But I will leaue this vayne disputing whether of them was the first which question the holy scripture will discusse in one word Yea and nature it selfe also will discusse it which requireth to haue the first things brought foorth in their perfect being For it is enough for our purpose that they may find themselues conuicted of a beginning throughout all things And I pray you if they cannot tell whether the mouing of their Heart or of their Loongs began first with shutting or with opening at the thrusting of the breth foorth or at the drawing of it in whereof notwithstanding they cannot but knowe that there was a beginning ought they to be admitted to deny that things had a beginning because it might be douted at which poynt they began Now if the Dumb and spéechelesse things â—ry out so lowd and the things that are voyd of reason conclude so reasonably shall only man whom God hath indued both with spéech and reason be either so vnhonest as to hold his peace or so shamelesse as to resist Soothly as touching our bodyes we know the beginning of them
thereof falleth downe into asâ—hes And in all liuing wights aswell as in man the outward lump which thou wilt haue to be composed of the mixture of the Elements remayneth whole after they be dead But as for the Soule whereby the things haue their life sence and reason which Soule is the peculiar forme both of Trées Beastes and Men each after their kynd that appeares no more when the thing is once dead And therefore it followeth that besides the matter which is liuelesse and the mixture of the Elements there is also a substantial forme which maketh the thing to be a Trée a Beast or a Man and without the which it is not a Trée but a blocke nor a Beast or a Man but a dead Carkesse or Carrion Furthermore when a Trée is dead there remayne still certeine vertues both in the bark and in the wood and in the leaues thereof which vertues are not only diuers but also sometyme contraries and those vertues procéed not of the matter but of the substantiall forme Whereof it followeth that besides the forme of the Plant which fadeth by the death of the Plant it selfe there are also other formes peculiar to euery part thereof which abyde after that the forme of the whole Plant is perished Now if the mixture of the Elements cannot make the forme whereby the vpperkyndes differ one from another as the sencelesse things from the things that haue sence and the things that haue but only sence from the things that haue reason too can it make the difference that is betwéene the vnderkynds that are comprehended vnder euery of the vpperkynds or betwéene the particulars that belong to euery vnderking or betwéene the seueral parts that are in euery particular If the mixture of the Elements say I make not a Trée to liue that is to say to bee a Trée shall it make it to heale both some certeyne diseases and also some certeyne parts of it some certeyne parts of man And if it make not a Beast to haue sence that is to say to bee a Beast can it make it to bee a Lyon an Elephant or a Stagge And if it make not a man to haue life sence and mouing can it make him to speake and to reason one of one thing and another of another each man according to his seuerall inclynation But how should the Elements giue life which they themselues haue not or free mouing they themselues being caried vp doune whether they will or no or also sence being themselues but the obiects of our sences Then must wee conclude that the difference of the vpperkynds from the vnderkynds of the vnderkynds from the Particulars and of their parts one from another consisteth not in the matter whereof they bee made but in their forme and that the same forme is the peculiar substance of euery thing and that looke how many sundrie sorts of formes there are so many sundrie sorts of creations there haue bene all procéeding from the power of the Former or giuer of them And so he that attributeth vnto God the forming or fashioning of the World must whether hee will or no attribute vnto him the power of creating it also For without creating of a new substance what matter soeuer ye presuppose to haue bene afore he had not created the World in such sort as it is And he that was able to create any one of theÌ„ was able to create them all For like might and power is requisite to the creating of an Emet as of an Elephant of a Ponde as of the Sea of a péece of the world as of the whole world They procéede on still with their Chimere God say they draweth the forme out of the Abilitie of the matter Let vs examine this doterie yet further Abilitie sayth Aristotle is the beginning of mouing and of chaunge Also there are say his Disciples two sorts of Abilitie the one which worketh the sayd beginning in the other and that is God and the other which suffereth the mouing and chaunge at the others hand and that is matter or stuffe which by the mouing wrought into it by the other receyueth his perfection which is termed Forme Now I demaund whether this passiue Abilitie of the matter bee a qualitie or a substance They dare not say it is a substance for were it a substance then euen by their owne doctrine it were a forme also and wheresoeuer is a forme there is also an act and that is more than an abilitie but matter as they say is a mere abilitie And if they say it is a Qualitie as Aristotle himselfe affirmeth then followeth it that God draweth a substance out of the qualitie of an accident Now he that draweth the very Essence or béeing of things out of the passiue abilitie of an other can much more drawe it out of his owne actiue abilitie or workfull power For shal he be barraine of himselfe which maketh a qualitie yea and lesse than a simple qualitie fruitfull in bringing foorth so many things And seeing that Qualitie and Substaunce and all the highest kynds of Contraries bee as they teach further differing one from another than fire from water and also that qualitie and accident are nothing of themselues shall it not follow that God is able to create substances of nothing Surely it is the saying of Trismegistus in many places that God created the World and all that is therein and man with al his parts by his most fruitfull word and also that the will of God was the bréeder of the Elements Pythagoras and all the old Diuines affirme that God or the only One is the beginner of al things yea euen of the first matter as Simplicius reporteth in alledging the record of Eudorus And Syrian the Maister of Simplicius sayth that in that behalfe Plato followed Archenetus and Brotinus which agréeed with Pythagoras And in very déede he telleth vs that to speake properly Matter is no Essence at al nor can be conceiued otherwise than by a bastard reason that is to wit by imagining it voyd of al shape and consequently also voyd of all being As touching Aristotle he maketh matter to be the first beginning of all things But if he beléeued the world to haue bin beginninglesse according to his owne teaching where is this beginning become Also he disprooueth the Chaos with very lyuely reasons and to scape that he holdeth himself to the eternitie which is quite and cleane ageinst him But howsoeuer the case stand it is fully agréed vpon among his most approued interpreters that these names of Matter Forme and Priuation serue not too betâ—ken things truely béeing the same whereof they pretend the names but onely are inuented to teache their schoâ—lers after what maner things are bred corrupted by putting of one shape and putting on another And wheras he saith that the power of all life séemeth to be partaker of some diuine thing better than the Elements and that
to conceiue that thy Soule should dye with the Body but euen in the selfesame tyme when it disputeth ageinst it selfe it shifteth it self I wote not how from all thy conclusions and falleth too consider in what state it shall bee and where it shal become when it is out of the body The Epicure that hath disputed of it all his lyfe long when he commeth to death bequeatheth a yerely pension for the keeping of a yéerely feast on the day of his birth I pray you to what purpose serue feastings for the birth of a Swyne séeing he estéemeth himselfe to be no better than so Nay what els is this than a crying out of his Nature against him which with one word confuteth all his vaine arguments Another laboureth by all meanes possible to blot out in himselfe the opinion of immortalitie and bicause he hath liued wickedly in this world he will néedes beare himselfe on hand that there is no Iustice in the world tocome But then is the tyme that his owne nature waketh and starteth vp as it were out of the bottome of a water and at that instant painteth againe before his eyes the selfsame thing which he tooke so much paynes to deface And in good sooth what a number haue wee seene which hauing bene despisers of all ReligioÌ„ haue at the hower of death bin glad to vow their Soules to any Sainct for releefe so cléere was then the presence of the life to come before their eyes I had leuer sayd Zeno to see an Indian burne himselfe chéerefully than to heare al the Philosophers of the world discoursing of the immortalitie of the Soule and in very déede it is a much stronger and better concluded argument Nay then let vs rather say I had leuer see an Atheist or an Epicure witnessing the immortalitie of the Soule and willingly taking an honorable farewell of nature vpon a Scaffold than to heare all the Doctors of the world discoursing of it in their Pulpits For whatsoeuer the Epicures say there they speake it aduisedly and as ye would say fresh and fasting wheras all that euer they haue spoken all their life afore is to bee accounted but as the wordes of Drunkards that is to wit of men besotted and falne asléepe in the delights and pleasures of this world where the Wine and the excesse of meate and the vapors that fumed vp of them did speake and not the men themselues What shall I say more I haue tolde you alreadie that in the inward man there are as ye would say thrée men the liuing the sensitiue and the reasonable Let vs say therefore that in the same person there are thrée liues continued from one to another namely the life of the Plant the life of the Beast and the life of the Man or of the Soule So long as a man is in his moothers wombe he doth but only liue and growe his Spirit seemeth to sléepe and his sences seeme to bee in a slumber so as he seemeth to bee no thing els than a Plant. Neuerthelesse if ye consider his eyes his eares his tongue his sences and his mouings you will easely iudge that he is not made to be for euer in that prison where he neither seeth nor heareth nor hath any roome to walke in but rather that he is made to come forth into an opener place where he may haue what to see and behold and wherewith to occupye al the powers which wee see to bee in him As soone as he is come out he beginneth to see to féele and to moue and by little and little falleth to the perfect vsing of his limbes and findeth in this world a peculiar obiect for euery of them as visible things for the eye sounds for his hearing bodily things for his feeling and so forth But besides all this we finde there a mynd which by the eyes as by windowes beholdeth the world and yet in al the world finding not any one thing woorthy to rest wholly vppon mounteth vp to him that made it which mynd like an Empresse lodgeth in the whole world and not alonly in this body which by the sences and oftentymes also without the sences mounteth aboue the sences and streyneth it self to goe out of it selfe as a child doth to get out of his mothers wombe And therefore wee ought surely to say that this Mynd or Reason ought not to bee euer in prison That one day it shall see cléerely and not by these dimme and clowdie spectacles That it shall come in place where it shall haue the true obiect of vnderstanding and that he shall haue his life free from these fetters and from all the affections of the body To be short that as man is prepared in his moothers wombe to be brought foorth into the world â—o is he also after a sort prepared in this body and in this world to liue in another world We then vnderstand it when by nature it behoueth vs to depart out of the world And what child is there which if nature did not by her cunning driue him out would of himself come out of his Couert or that commeth not out as good as forlorne and halfe dead or that if he had at that tyme knowledge spéech would not call that death which we call birth and that a departure out of life which we call the enterance into it As long as we be there we see nothing though our eyes be open Many also doe not so much as stirre except it bee at some sodaine scaring or some other like chaunce and as for those that stirre they knowe not that they haue eyther sence or mouing Why then should wee thinke it straunge that in this life our vnderstanding seeth so little that many men do neuer mynd the immortall nature vntill they be at the last cast yea and some thinke not themselues to haue any such thing howbeit that euen by so thinking they shew themselues to haue part thereof And imagine wee that the vnborne babe hath not as much adoe by nature to leaue the poore skinne that he is wrapt in as we haue hinderance in our sences and in our imprisoned reason when we be at the poynt to leaue the goods and pleasures of this world and the very flesh it selfe which holdeth vs as in a graue Or had the babe some little knowledge would he not say that no life were comparable to the life where he then is as we say there is no life to the life of this world wherein we be Or would he not account the stage of our sences for a fable as a great sort of vs account the stage that is prepared for our Soules Yes surely and therfore let vs conclude where wee began namely that man is both inward and outward In the outward man which is the bodie he resembleth the béeing and the proportion of all the parts of the world And in the inner man he resembleth whatsoeuer kyâ—nd of life is in all things