astris Nec dubium est habitare Deum sub pectore nostro In coelumque redire animas coeloque venire Of the whole world we' are now possest And cleare behold our Parent blest A part of him and from these warres Make our approaches to the starres No doubt but under humane brest A sacred Deity doth rest And that our soules from heaven came And thither must returne againe Lo here how he doth signifie not onely the soules of men be divine and immortall but besides that they had not their originall from the earth or from any earthly agent with whom consenteth a Greeke Philosopher Sallustius Emescenus in his booke de Diis mundo lately published and vindicated from the moathes by Leo Allatius This Philosopher c. 8. teacheth on this sort First saith he let us know Sallustius Emasenc 8. what the soule is The soule is that which makes things living or animated differ from the livelesse or inanimate Their difference consists in motion sense phantasie and intelligence The soule devoyd of reason is a life that serves apparences and the senses but the rationall using reason beares rule over the sense and Phantasie Indeed a soule destitute of reason followes the affections of the body for it desires and is angry without reason but a rationall according to the rule of reason contemnes the body and entring into combate with the soule irrationall if it get the better doth follow virtue if vanquisht declines to vice This of necessity must be immortall because it knowes the Goddesse and no mortall thing can know that which is immortall besides it contemnes humane things as if they were belonging to some other person and being it selfe incorporeall is a verse from things corporeall which bodies if they be faire and fresh it languisheth if old it begins to flourish Also every diligent soule makes use of the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soule is not generated by the body for how should any thing that wanteth reason generate that which hath Thus Sallustius out of whose words we have first that the soule differs from the body 2. That the rationall from the irrationall or the sence 3. That the rationall is immortall and the reason why 4. That it is ingenerable and for what cause With this greeke Sallustius agrees the Roman who l. de bello Jugurth saying Ingeniiegregia facinora sicut anima immortalia sunt The egregious atcheivments of the wit are like the soule immortall and by and by Omnia orta occidunt aucta senescunt animus incorruptus aeternus rector humani generis All things which rife do fall and being ever eased doe wax old the minde is incorrupt and eternall c. Our next authority is that of Apollonius Tyanaeus that famous Pythagorean Phylosopher whose life Philostratus Lemnius hath writ at Apollonius apud Philostrat l. 8. de vita ejus large and amongst other accidents relates of him how after his decease he appeared to a young man a student in philosophy resolving him as followeth The soule is immortall and no humane thing but proceedeth from the providence divine This therefore after the body is corrupted as a swift courser released from his bonds and delivered from a troublesone servitude removeth up and downe and intermingles with the gentle aire Thus he to whom consenteth most expressely Hierocles in his commentary upon the golden verses of Pythagoras in sundry places telling us that the soule is not only incorruptible but also made immediately not by procreation but the hand of God See him of the Greeke and Latine edition of Paris pag. 101. 103 132. I will adde to these the words of the Emperour Marcus Antoninus commonly called Aurelius l. 4. n. 13. according to Merick Casaâ—bon's division If soules saith he remaine how from all aeternity Marc. Antonin l. 4. de vitasuâ— n. 13. could the aire hold them or how the earth retaine their bodies As here the bodies after they have lyen a while within the earth are changed and being dissipated leave space for other carkasses so soules carried up into the aire after they have beene there sometime whither kindled or liquefied are conjoined to the common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is unto the originall mind or great soule of the world Thus he as if he had said with Solomon the spirit returnes to God that made it for the great soule of the universe or the originall minde of all is nothing else Horace consenteth saying Melior pars nostri vitabit lebitinam and Tacitus in vit Jul. Agric. Siquis piorum manib locus sive sapientib placet non cum corpore extinguuntur magnae animae placide quiescas If to the spirits of the pious there be any place remaining if great soules be not together with their bodies extinguished mayest thou rest in peace To these Ovid subscribeth Metamor l. ult Cum volet ille dies quae nil nisi corporis hujus Jus habet incerti spatium mihi finiat avi Parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis Astra ferar nomenque erit indelebile nostrum Come when it will my Deaths uncertaine hower Which of this body only hath a power Yet shall my better part transcend the sky And my immortall name shall never die The same doctrine is constantly taught by Pythagoras as appeares by his doctrine of Metempsycosis and also both Jamblichus Porphyry in their severall histories of his life do witnesse of him as also Diogenes Laërtius I conclude this Jury with the judgement of Macrobius who c. 14. Macrob. in som scipio c. 14. in somnium Scipionis after he had recited sundry and differing fancies of severall Philosophers touching the nature of the soule concludes as followeth Obtinuit tamen non minus de incorporalitate ejus quà m de immortalitate sententia Neverthelesse the opinion touching the incorporeity of the soule as well as touching the immortality of it hath beene prevalent Against all these therefore it importes little that Dicaearchus Messenius a Peripatetique Philosopher Scholler to Aristotle or as Aristoxenus should as Cicero relateth in the first of his Tusculanes and in his second of his Academiques hold and defend it to be mortall or that both he and as Cicero reporteth out of him another more ancient Philosopher by name Pherecrates one of the linage of Deucalion did thinke there was no soule at all neither in man nor beast and forasmuch as concerneth the same Dicaearchus Sextus Emp. l. 2. Hypotyp c. 5. Fr. Picus l. 1. de Doctrin vanit Gentium c. 14. we read in Sextus Empericus and Tertullian as also in Joh. Fr. Picus of Mirandula he was of the same opinion for there is nothing so absurde which some one Philosopher or other hath not maintained Sextus Empericus was of the same minde also as he l. adv Mathematicos acknowledgeth But now by the way I note how sublimely most of these heathen wise men did Philosophize when as they conclude the soules
both be generated then both are mortall Answ Whole man is generated by man I grant it Therefore both soule and body are generated I distinguish That both soule and body are made parts of man by generation and a creature produced like in nature to him that generates I also grant and doe affirme that by doing of this onely the compleat act of generation or procreation is performed according to the received definition of generation before exhibited in the Chapter precedent But that both soule and body must be therefore made and have their Entities or beings given them by procreation that consequence I deny as false and absurde yea so absurde as it suffers a thousand instances to the contrary in all sorts of Animals For example a whole horse is generated both matter and forme and yet his matter did not receive any being by generation and so it falls out in other creatures If then it be not necessary that the matter receive the being by procreation though the whole Animal consisting of matter and forme be truly generated what reason can there be why to the generation of the whole Animal a new being of the forme by vertue of procreation should be necessary or why can one be necessary to generation when as we see evidently the other is not or why againe should we exact the new production of either of them by generation when without any such act the definition of generation See Argenter com in Aphor. 1. Hippocr is fulfilled and agrees both unto the generation of beasts whose matter is not generated and to the generation of man whose forme is not generated any more then his matter is By force of this solution all his imaginary absurdities which he labours to fasten upon the non procreation of the soule doe of themselves dissolve If the soule saith he be infused then Christ did not take whole humanity from the seed of the woman Answ He received from the seed of the woman as much of the humanity as was to be received thence and that which he tooke did not come unto him by procreation nor was it so to doe As for the fourteenth to the Hebrewes which he cites for his purpose our answer to it is that it is not found in our bookes neither Greeke nor Latine neither do the Editions of Raphelengius or Elzevir contain any more Chapters than thirteen If saith he we consist of soule and body and are not men without both and receive not our soules from him he meanes the Generatour as I suppose then Adam is the father of no man nor Christ the Son of man because his manhood 's constitutive part even that which should make him a man could not be by the seed of the woman and a man is as much a father of fleas and lice which receive their matter from him as of his children Answ Surely fleas and lice whence soever they receive their matter do not proceed from him in likenesse of Nature as by the definition they if they were generated by man ought to do Moreover they are not generated by man but of him neither is he the agent but the patient and so is of these vermin no generatour at all proper or improper Secondly men do receive their soules by force of generation although they be not generated and so notwithstanding this non-generation of the soule Adam might truly and univocally be the father of all men and also the soule of Christ might come by the seed of the woman although it were not made or procreated by it If the soule addes he be infused after the conception then there is growth before there is life which is impossible for the soule is made the vegetative as well as the motive sensitive or rationall part Answ I grant that before the infusion of the soule there may be vegetation and this by the sole virtue of the sperme but I deny that therefore there be in man more soules than one that is than the rationall for this same force of vegetation which is in the seed holdeth it selfe upon the part of the matter onely and doth not performe the office of a soule or forme the substance and operation thereof being no more than to fashion an organicall body and to make it fit for the reception of the soule and the union with it after whose infusion both the vitall and animal spirits do but serve as instruments to it and to accomplish the body in making it to be so perfectly organicall as the eminency of a rationall spirit above other formes doth require to have it If the soule be not generated but infused into a dead body then saith he it is lawfull to be Nigromancer for Nigromancy is nothing but putting a spirit into a dead body and so it is imitation of God and God the onely Nigromancer and all the men in the world but Nigromanticke apparitions whose spirits when they have done the worke for which they were put into the bodies desert them as other conjured Ghosts do Answ See the shallownesse of this man who can neither speak right nor reason with common sense and probability He calls Necromancy constantly Nigromancy and he supposes that a soule in a dead body makes a living man and can exercise vitall actions in it or actions of life and so according to his grosse capacity if the soule be infused God must be a Necromancer and men but Necromantique apparitions for this Ignoramus it seemes knowes no difference between a soule and body that are united and those that are not united but together onely nor between a body living by the virtue of the spirit and by virtue thereof doing vitall actions and another which is onely moved and inhabited by a spirit without any union with it or participation of life But supposing all were one yet were it not lawfull to be a Necromancer because nothing at all be it never so good is to be done by superstitious actions or by making any recourse unto the Devill and acknowledgement of his power by any dependency of him whatsoever more or lesse It is granted saith he that the body considered meerly sensitive cannot sin and is but an instrument or as the pen in the hand of the writer Therefore if the soule be infused then of necessity the immortall thing and not our mortall flesh is the authour of all sin and so God's immediate hand the cause of all sin That the body is onely an instrument of the soule is false for it is a See Solo of this in 4. d. 43. q. 1. a. 2. Rat. 3. living co-agent with it and a partaker both in the good and evill actions and so is both rewardable and punishable with it whether in the mean time it be created or generated for this variation makes no difference in this matter of merit or demerit neither doth the creation of the soule make God the authour of sin more than the generation of it that is to say
not at all for still the soule and body are authours of their own actions and the deformity ariseth from their misdemeanour and not from God's creation or concurrence Doctour Sennertus although he admit not of any mortality in the soule yet he holds it probable that it comes by procreation and that from the first instance of conception the seed is animated with the rationall soule which Doctrine of his by his leave inferres mortality for whatsoever is generated is corruptible and is to go out according to the ordinary Lawes of Nature at the same gate of according to the ordinary Lawes of Nature at the same gate of corruption at which it entred in Neither is it true or likely or lastly any way philosophicall to say as he doth Hypomn. 4. c. 10. that nothing created is immortall by the principle of Nature but onely by the free will or gift of God because as it is amongst bodies some are very durable as Marble and Cedar some by and by corrupted as flowers and fruits even out of the severall natures of their composition which God hath appointed for them and not out of the free will of God immediately without any further relation so in like sort some substances are perpetuall out of the nature of their being as spirituall substances and bodies that are simple and unmixt other some out of their own Natures corruptible as those that are mixt and made up of Elements which as by some naturall agents they were knit up together so by the operation of other some they are dissolvable Soules then if generated are compounds and if so may be uncompounded by the agency and operation of causes naturall wherefore to seek an immortality onely from a decree extrinsecall without any foundation in their naturall beings seemes neither to be philosophicall nor true wherefore the immortality of Soules and Angels is not to be reared upon this weak foundation according to which a Flye may be as much immortall as an Angel one by Nature according to Sennertus having no preheminence over the other the free determination of God for their perpetuall conservation being equally applicable to either of them Conformably to this position of his he will needs have the sperme alwaies animated with a reasonable soule but then consider how many Sennertus Hypomn 4. ca. 10. lib. de consens Chymic cum Arist Galeno c. 9. more soules are cast away without any bodies organicall and humane then are actuated and preserved by bodies I aske what must become of these innumerable soules must they perish or have bodies made them at the Resurreection neither of these two can be admitted without great temerity and absurdities Besides this we know God did not inspire Adam with a living spirit while he was a lumpe of clay but when he had a face and a body that was organicall and not before Againe why does the soule depart from the body but onely because it leaves to be organicall why then or with what probability can we imagine the soule is in the inorganicall sperme certainly with none at all The winde that did drive Sennertus upon this inhospitall shoare was the necessity of assigning a vis formatrix or a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say an able architect or former of humane body which though most acknowledge to be the seed yet Sennertus sees not how this can be unlesse it should be animated with the soule his reason is because the soule onely is to build an house fit for it selfe to inhabit But this reason of his is not urgent nay more it is not likely for egges and young birds do not build their own nests but the old ones for them so that it must by this account be the fathers office to erect this new building and not the childes But how sayes he can the father do this easily and well by sending his sperme as his deputy and officer Argent com in 1 Aphor. Hipp. to performe that duty as Argenterius also teacheth which entity hath derived to it from the generatour so much naturall strength and cunning as to make a sufficient architect for the effecting of this work and all this may be done with the only forme of seed without any animation of it with a soule Thus it is likely that the Acorne for example without any more forme than of an Acorne collects fit particles out of the elements and materials about it and by a virtue derived from the tree on which it grew formes out and fashions the body of an Oake and for the effecting of this worke the seed participates tmch of the nature of the tree or plant and hath ordinarily much of â—he same virtue wherefore in this abstruse question or quere that we may say something which is likely and hath for the truth thereof probable examples and instances in Nature we do conceive that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forming virtue is the seeds own forme excited and assisted by the breeding cherishing and connaturall warmth of the maternall body which doth environ it as in the procreation of birds it seemes to be where the semen of the Cocke being cherished and stirred up by the ambient and incumbent warmth of the Hen is that which changes the egge and formes it into the shape of the bird from whence it came Neither is it probable that in so small a coagulum or seed which came from the Cocke the soule or essence of a Cocke is resident Now whereas he tels us that by the blessing granted to all Creatures by the Creatour of them in these words Increase and multiply force was given to every soule to multiply another we confesse it to be true yet this not to be done by creating of the younger by the elder soules or by the giving of them new entities but rather by doing some other act out of which these formes should connaturally follow as materiall formes they do by a resultancy and immateriall by creation from a higher cause which creation is to follow and is due by a regular ordination exigence of Nature and so they may truly be said to be given and communicated though not made by the force of generation And this is the true vis prolifica and not that other which Sennertus feignes unto himselfe by which he will have one humane soule to beget another and on the instant to become with childe of it no bodie knowes how neither by what particular operation nor from what Mine it should be digged For this manner of speaking makes shew rather of some empty Magicke than of sound Philosophy and seemes altogether as hard and impossible as the eduction of them out of the potentiality of the materia prima when understood in that sense in which he himselfe impugnes it If the Parents objecteth Sennertus do not give the soule which is the forme of man they do not generate the man but for certaine they do generate the man therefore
with raking so long in such a heap of dirt and therefore at this instant I leave him to bethinke himselfe about making a timely recantation Now turning with delight unto my Reader to solace and refresh my selfe after all this travaile I desire him to look into Hierocles Commentary upon the Golden Verses ascribed to Pythagoras in Hierocles in Carm. Pyth. which he seemeth to have discovered the originall of this pernicious errour touching the soules mortality What availes it faith he with perjuries and murders and other wicked wayes to gather wealth and to seem rich unto the world and to want those good things which are conducible unto the minde But besides to be stupid and insensible of them and thereby to augment the evill or if they have any remorse of conscience for their offences to be tormented in their soules and affraid of the punishments of Hell comforting themselves with this alone that there is no way of escaping them and from hence are ready to cure one evill with another and by a perswasion that the soule is mortall to sooth up themselves in wickednesse judging they are not worthy to have any thing of theirs remaining after death that so they might avoid those punishments which by judgement should be inflicted on them for a wicked man is loath to thinke his soule to be immortall for feare of the revenges that are to follow his misdeeds Wherefore preventing the Judge who is below he pronounceth the sentence of death against himselfe as holding it fit that such a wicked soule should have no longer a being nor subsistence Behold here the fountain head of this errour opened and purged by Hierocles In fine from whatsoever puddle this errour sprung let us remember what Socrates being to die delivered touching the various condition of soules after this life He said as Cicero relateth there were two different pathes or voyages of soules at their departure Cic. l. 1. Tuscul from the bodies for all such as with humane vices had contaminated themselves and were delivered wholly up to lust with which as with domesticke vices being blinded they had by lewd actions defiled themselves or had attempted against the Common-wealth any crime or fraud inexpiable that these had a wandring way assigned for them sequestred from the assemblies of the Gods but such againe as had preserved themselves entire and chaste contracting little or no contagion from the body having alwayes retired and withdrawn themselves from it and had in humane bodies imitated the conversation of the Gods these found opened for them an easie way of returne to them from whom they proceeded at the first This is the Doctrine both of Cicero and of Socrates what then remaines to do but to hearken attentively to the wise Counsell of the Prince of Philosophers Aristotle and to suffer it to have a powerfull influence into all the passages of our life His words l. 10. Ethic. c. 9. according to the division of Andronicus Rhodius be as follow If then saith he our understanding in respect of man be a thing divine so Arist l. 10. Ethic. c. 9. that life which is lead according unto the understanding if compared with life humane is divine also neither as some perswade is it lawfull for a man to relish and follow onely that which is humane and being mortall those things onely which are mortall but as much as in him lieth he ought to vindicate himselfe from all mortality and to take speciall care that he live according to that part which is most excellent within him Now that which is best within us is our minde which though it be small in bulke and weight yet in power and excellency doth surpasse the rest And with this wise counsell of the Philosopher I conclude this whole Question which though the day of every mans departure will decide and give a finall resolution to it yet in the mean season are not disputes of this nature fruitlesse or superfluous because if they be well performed they are like burning torches which in the darke gallery of this life teach us how to direct our steppes and before that blacke day come to helpe us for the making our preparations before-hand that so with better hopes of safety we may meet our deadly enemies in the gate Without all doubting for the repressing of brutish bestiall and unworthy affections and again for our encouragement to noble and generous designements the best preparatives against Death there is no consideration so powerfull and efficacious as that one of the high perfection of mans soule and the immortall nature and condition of it for as Cicero observeth l. 1. de legib Qui se ipsum nôrit primùm aliquid sentiet se habere divinum ingeniumque in se suum sicut symulachrum aliquod dedicatum Cicero l. 1. de legib putabit tantoque munere Deorum semper aliquid dignum faciet sentiet He that doth know himselfe will forthwith finde within him something that is divine and will hold his understanding as a statue dedicated and be alwayes thinking or doing something answerable to so great munificence of the Gods That is to say he will be mindfull that as in upright shape of body and the perfection of his spirit he excelleth beasts and all creatures irrationall so he will endeavour to do in the condition of his living by disdaining to stoop to any thing which is base or to defile the house in which his soule inhabits with any unworthy or ignoble actions I will seale and signe this whole dispute with the determination and censure of the book of Wisedome which book whether it be received into the Canon or no yet is it confessedly very ancient and therefore by consent of all may claime a just precedence of authority before any Heathen Philosopher whatsoever the words are these Justorum animae in manu Dei sunt non tanget illos tormentum mortis visi sunt oculis insipientium mori illi autem sunt in pace The soules of Sap. 3. the just be in the hands of God and the torment of Death shall not touch them To the eyes of the foolish they seemed to die but they remain in peace Behold here in the judgement of this venerable Authour what kinde of people they are who hold the soules mortality namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as be destitute of true judgement and understanding This is not my censure neither is this character of my making for who am I that should presume so farre but it is the judgement of the ancient Authour of the Book of Wisedome whose yeares and credit may deserve regard even amongst those spirits that be most confident of their own conceptions and be the greatest admirers and idolaters of themselves In fine this ancient Sage brands all deniers of our soules immortality with the selfe same note of ignominy that David the kingly Prophet did marke that wretched mortall who Psalm 13. closely and in his heart had said There is no God Yet there is this ods between them two and worthy to be observed for though both of them be impious and absurd yet one of them had some shame in him and said it onely in his heart But this Adversary of ours goes further and had the face to publish his impiety in Print or at least the heart so to do it as he himselfe might lie concealed and his name unknowne which covert way of his though it appeare not altogether so bold and bad as if he had put his name unto his worke yet was it an act too bold for any Christian man or true Philosopher to exercise or to be an Authour of in Print for alas after so many great Divines and deep Philosophers whose uniforme suffrages we have for the dignity of man that is to say for the soules immortall nature and incorruptibility how could the cogitations unto the contrary of this poore worme be a matter any way considerable with men of understanding and ability FINIS
THE Prerogative of Man OR THE IMMORTALITY OF HVMANE SOVLES ASSERTED Against the vain Cavils of a late worthlesse Pamphlet ENTITVLED Mans Mortality c. VVhereunto is added the said Pamphlet it selfe GEN. 2. 7. Man became a living soule Ovid. Met. 1. Os homini sublime dedit OXFORD Printed in the yeare 1645. THE PREROGATIVE OF MAN OR His Soules Immortality and high perfection defended and explained against the rash and rude conceptions of a late Authour who hath inconsiderately adventured to impugne it I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matt. 22. 32. Printed in the yeare 1645. The Preface SO great and soveraigne to man hath been the benignity of indulgent nature as that she hath not onely bestowed upon his soule above those of other creatures the high and singular prerogative of immortality but hath moreover imparted to him light whereby he might come unto the knowledge of it and by that same knowledge be excited to make a diligent inquiry after the obligations that follow it and how also in this life he may make his best advantages and preparations for the next Neither is this same truth of immortality any new discovery but acknowledged of old by the Heathenish and Pagan nations of which thing we in the worke ensuing are to give in a large evidence by our producing the many testimonies of a full and frequent Senate of ancient Sages who being destitute of revelation had nothing but nature to instruct them To these I adde now and for a tast in the beginning present my Reader with onely two the one taken out of the 12 Booke of Marcus Antoninus Augustus the other out of Simplicius his Commentaries upon Epictetus one of these witnesses a Stoicke Philosopher the other a Peripatetique in performance of which omitting the Greeke citations as a diligence for the most part unnecessary in an English worke behold the words of Antoninus Hast thou faith he forgotten that the minde or soule of every man is a God He meanes by the word God onely an entity divine and a substance of higher and nobler extraction then other formes or soules of creatures inferiour Simplicius in his Prolegomen determines saying The soule maketh use of the body as of Organs or Instruments as also it doth of the passions irrationall and hath a substance altogether separable from them and remaining after their corruption The selfe same doctrine is delivered expressely and at large by Porphyry in his Booke De Abstinentia Against these powerfull impulsives and clearer notions of truth the adverse party hath nothing to oppose but meere surmises or suspicions such namely as the Author of the Booke of Wisedome out of their owne mouthes recordeth saying There hath not any one beene knowne to have returned from the Grave Or else such as Pliny doth imagine who grafteth the opinion of immortality not upon an innate or naturall longing and appetite as he should have done but contrariwise upon a false ambition and greedinesse in man of never ceasing to be Or againe as Lucian who brings nothing to make good what he conceiveth besides down-right impiety dressed up and set forth with facetious scoffes and derisory jestings wherewith neverthelesse sundry ill affected spirits and feebler understandings are easier perswaded then with solid arguments The Chorus of Seneca afterwards alleadged moved as it may seeme with no better or stronger arguments is driven as by a storme into darke and doubtfull cogitations touching the soules mortality and so is another Chorus consisting of Mahumetan Alfaquies in the English Tragedy of Mustapha By such shadowes also as these a late Philosopher was affrighted and before him some of the ancients so farre forth as to be made imagine that granting the soule should survive the body yet that it would not thence follow it were perpetuall but that contrarywise in tract of time it might decay and vapour it selfe at length to nothing burning or wasting out it 's owne substance like a torch or candle or at least have a period of duration set it connaturally to the principles of constitution beyond which it was not to passe but at that terme or point presently and naturally to extinguish or returne to nothing But if suspicions may come to be examined we shall finde that there be other of them perswading the soules mortality that seeme more hollow and deceiptfull then the former are as namely a depraved appetite or an unbridled and untamed sensuality that sollicites perpetually to be satisfied and is desirous without feare of future reckonings in the other world to wallow and tumble like a swine in the mire of dirty pleasures and to conceive some shadow of security for it that so with the old Epicureans it might merrily say Ede bibe lude post mortem nulla voluptas Eate and drinke and play thy fill There 's after death nor good nor ill Doubtlesse these latter perswaders seeme to be more ruinous and corrupt then the former and of more dangerous consequence And thus we see that on either side there want not suspicions as well for concluding of montality as of immortality if we will be guided by them But into this high Court of judicature wherein causes so weighty and so grave as this are to be decided suspicions and darke imaginations will not be allowed for evidence or be able to cast the businesse any way To these other proofes which after I alleadge I adde this one which I have placed in the frontispeice of this treatise namely these words of Christ Matth. 22. partly recited by him out of Exodus I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaak and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living By force of which Text the Sadduces who denied the resurrection were convinced and not onely they but this Author also against whom we deale for the place proves the soules immortality as well as the bodies resurrection Because if God be the God of Abraham after death then must his body one day rise againe to the end that being reunited with the soule there might result an Abraham againe if he be the God also of the living then must his soule continue living without any intermission from death for as without a body there is no Abraham so without a soule there is no vivens or thing endued with life If you object that it is sufficient if it live then when the body is to rise though not before I answer that this intermitted living neither is nor can be sufficient because then the soule must have a revivall resuscitation for the which we have no warrant any where feign it we must not or if we do it will want weight and be rejected It followes then that the soule of man after the departure of it from the body must either alwaies live or never and so by consequence seeing the soule
originall to be from heaven and how much above the low pitch of certaine depressed spirits of this age who after their continuall poring into objects materiall and raking in the mudde of corruptible things will needs draw out of that dirte the nobler substances of our soules and natures intellectuall by assigning for them no more perfect principle then generation of which number this sorry author against whom we now deale is one yea and one also of the grossest that ever medled about this businesse as by his demeanour in it doth appeare Hierocles in expresse termes determines saying It seemes saith he that God himselfe produced the severall soules of every particular man and left the soules of Beasts to be produced by the hand of nature according to the judgements of Plato and of Timaeus the Pythagorean so he com in carm aurea Pythagoreae pag. 133. of the Greek and Latine edition of Paris Anni 1583. I know well that amongst these ancients the word Anima or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is aequivocall because sometimes it is taken only for an exhalation of purer bloud sometimes againe for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mens or Animus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which words the ruling the spirituall and intellective and lastly the immortall part of man is signified and not any materiall or fading exhalation which here by the way I note for the avoyding of exceptions and mistakings Let us come now unto our Author who would gladly father upon Aristotle Nemesius and Ambrosius Paraeus that the soule is all the externall and internall faculties of man jointly considered Which charge is strange seeing it is well knowne that Aristotle defines the soule after no such way but saith it is Actus corporis Organici and a substance by which we live have sence and do understand and if a substance then can it not receive intension and remission as every young Logician hath learned But let us heare further All the faculties of man are mortall as well those peculiar to man as those other which are common to him with beasts and if all those with his corpulent matter compleating man be proved mortall then the invention of the soule upon that ground vanisheth which thus I prove All elementary compositions or temperatures are mortall But mans faculties a minore ad majus are temperatures Ergo mortall The minor is denyed namely that all mans faculties be temperatures for to instance neither the understanding nor the will be temperatures and yet are principall faculties of man He proves the minor That which is subject to intension and remission is a temperature But such are all mans faculties yea those of reason consideration science c. All that distinguisheth man from beast are augmented by learning education c. lessened by negligence idlenesse and quite nullified by madnesse Ergo. Of this gallant argument there be but two propositions false that is to say both the major and the minor of it and then what kinde a conclusion it hath we may easily judge For first it is false that every thing is a temperature universally speaking which is subject to intension and remission but such things only as be subject unto them per se and by their owne nature and not by accident onely and this appeares in the very businesse now in agitation betweene us for a greater clerke then this man is will hardly ever prove that the augment or diminution which is found in the acts of knowledge do arise from any internall alteration in the intellective faculty and not contrary wise from the difference advantage and alteration in the organ or the species and formes intentionall for this reason a man may understand better then a childe not because his faculty intellective is better then a childes namely for betternesse in the organe also a learned man better then an illiterate and a diligent then a negligent because those may have acquired more species or formes intentionall or else have kept them better then these other that be illiterate and negligent and not for any intension or remission in the faculty This I say may be reason of the difference and is likely so to be and not any variation in the doe usually fetch them which how more or lesse valid or perspicuous they may seeme yet have they beene held for good by the wisest Philosophers both Heathen and Christian and to be concluding But howsoever that be the verity it selfe hath beene counted certaine and evident insomuch as Aureolus himselfe although he found difficulty in sundry of the arguments yet did he not doubt to say speaking of the soules immortality in 2 Sent. dist 19. This doctrine of faith is to be held undoubtedly and it is the common conception of the minde â—ureols in 2 â—ent Dist 19. and a verity evident of it selfe though to give a reason for it it is not so easie So Aureolus with whom consenteth Cicero when as he said as hath beene before alleadged out of him that it is the consent of all Nations Now saith he if the consent of all be the voice and verdict of Nature then are we to thinke the same Besides how could so many Heathen Philosophers have acknowledged unanimously this doctrine of immortality otherwise then by the light of nature and common reason out of which it is plaine that naturall reason doth teach us this verity It followeth then that by Ciceroes judgement whatsoever the arguments be the doctrine it selfe is not onely true but also certaine and evident which thing may very well be for there be many truths which are not proved easily or evidently yea peradventure are not to be proved at all but be things most evident and indemonstrable nature and the understanding acknowledging and embracing them as legitimate without any further argument then her owne light and againe many things be knownely false which nature rejecteth as spurious and false although she be not able to demonstrate that they involve any repugnancy or contradiction so that in divers verities we are to rely lastly upon Tertullian's Testimonium animae CHAP. VII Mans being by Procreation no argument of his soules mortality THat mans soule must have the being by generation because the man himselfe hath his being by it is no good consequence and the reason why some have beene deceived in judging it to be a good one or that of due his soule ought to be generated as well as the soules of Beasts hath beene partly a false apprehension what the true nature and essence of generation was and partly also what was the perfection and essence of man As for the first misprision it was that generation was not onely to make the compositum or whole to be but also the parts by the conferring unto them not onely the being parts but also the simple being or the being Entities that is to say not onely the formality of them but even the naturality which conceipt of theirs is a false conception against all