left hand Semblable to which is the rule and Dominion which Impetuous and Implacable flesh usurpeth and excerciseth over the Souls of Mortal men in their Pilgrimage here below leading them Captive to the Law of sin and death This is that miserable Bondage under which the Sons of men in this Vale of â—ars do groan from which Bondage of Corruption and body of sin they wait with earnest expectation to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And not onely they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies not that we should be found naked and our bobodies unclothed but clothed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of life It is not a change of our bodies but of our Raiment and Vestments which we do look for a Crown of glory for a Crown of thornes the Robes of Righteousness for the Raggs of Sin This change must be inâ—hoate here though compleated hereafter the Foundation must be layed on Earth in Grace but finished in Heaven in Glory the Garments of the Old man laid aside and the Garments of the New man put on the lusts of the flesh mortified the fruits of the Spirit quickned Ephe. 4.22 23 24. We must put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceiptful lusts and be renewed in the Spirit of our mind and we must put on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness that we may henceforth serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter For if we live after the flesh wee shall die but if we through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live Woe is me that I am constrained to live in Mesech to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar my Soul hath long dwelt with them that are Enemies to peace they are daily fighting and troubling it the Body with all its sinful lusts rebel against my Soul and when I labour for Peace they make them ready for Battel they will not have her rule over them whom thou O Lord hast made the Monarch and sole Empress of this little World but attempt by continual Insurrections and Intestine Wars to introduce an Arbitrary Power over an Athenian and Popular Government For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned in the inward Man in the spirit of my mind by the might and Power of his Spirit who raised up Jesus from the dead that as he died for my sin and rose again for my justification so I may die to sin and live unto righteousness and being buried with Christ into death by Baptism may walk in newness of life that being planted together in the likeness of his death I may be also in the likness of his Resurrection kowing this that my old man is Crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth I should not sin And though I live and walk in the flesh yet that I may not war after but against the flesh the weapons of my warfare being Spiritual and mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds to the casting down of Imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the Knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience of the flesh against the Law of my mind which is onely subject to the Law of God Help me O God so to keep under my body and bring it into subjection that I my self be no a castaway Thy will O Heavenly Father be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and as thou hast praepared an Heaven and fitted the body with all Obsequiousness to serve and the Soul to rule and command with all just Authority and moderation all this in the Resurrection of the body at the last day when Soul and Body meet again in a glorified estate to Possess the Heavenly Mansions so fit and and prepare them here that whilst they are in this Earthly Tabernacle all Schism being abandoned all Rebellion Anathemaâ—ized the heel may not kick against the body or the foot tread upon the head but however it fareth in the body Politick there may be such an orderly subjection in the body Natural that my flesh may be subject not Predominant to my Spirit my Body unto my Soul and both Soul and Body subject unto thee O my God do thou thus set my foot over the threshold of thy Heaven Chap. 2. Book 3. put thou my Soul into this happy condition of an inchoate blessedness so shall I cheerfully spend the remaindâ—r of my daies in a joyful expectation of the full Consummation of my glory Amen Bish Hall his Susurium cum Deo CHAP. II. Of the Organs of the body and the Exercise of the Sensitive faculties of the Soul by them in the state of glory AS the appearance of the Bride newly come from her Chamber in the daies of her Espousals on the Solemnity of her brideale and other Nuptial Rites bedecked and adorned with all the Ornaments both of body and mind that may render her gratious and Amiable in the eyes of her Betrothed or like the Kings Daughter all glorious within and without in clothing of wrought Gold brought into the Kings Palace attended on among the Honorable VVomen by a Train of Virgins that be her fellows Even such is the inward grace and outward Magnificence Pomp and State of the body in the morning of her Resurrection and Ascension from the Chamber of death to be Espoused again to the Soul in an everlast-VVedlock the Bill of Divorcement being cancelled and Nullified by an Act of perpetual Oblivion Her Soporiferous bed of rottenness she thenceforth lotheth and outrunneth leaving behind her load of inward Corruption all waywardness of mind and frowardness of disposition and her Troops of Natural Imperfection Deafness Dumbness Blindless Lameness c. such Sons of sorrow and servants of sin and perdition presume not to approach the marriage Chamber all other her Companions in the flesh that were faithful and serviceable to her and instrumental to the Soul in the Acts of grace are still her attendants and are admitted into the Royal Palace and invested with the Robes of Glory and Immortality as a badge and livery of the glorified Soul whose Servants and Ministers they are Those Organical parts of the body in which the Soul was exercised and without which it could not Operate in which respect the Soul as to such faculties and Operations might be termed Mortal are revived with the body and useful to the Soul in their several Stations I do not I dare not here affirm that all the parts of
accidens but the first act of the body not Artificial nor Mathematical but of a Natural body nor of every Natural but that Natural body which is Organical and consists of many parts and members and this body Natural and Organical having life not actu sed potentia this is the Definition given by Aristotle in his book De anima where he also defines the soul to be that beginning by which we have life sense Lib. 2. ca. 1. Another Definition of the soul Lib. 2. c. 2. and understanding chiefly the which as it is a full and perfect definition of the Rational soul so take it disjunctively in it several parts and it will agree with the soul of Plants and of Beasts for the Soul of Plants is principium quo primò vivunt the soul of Beasts quo primò vivunt ac sentiunt the soul of Men quo vivunt sentiunt ac intelligunt primò the Soul is the beginning of life and Vegetation chiefly for when the soul is gone out of the body it ceaseth to live or grow any longer the soul is the beginning of Sense chiefly for the soul being absent the body is altogether insensible and the soul is the beginning of Understanding chiefly for the carcass or cadaver is voyd of understanding when the soul is departed out of the body And it is sayd chiefly because though the body Natural and Organical may be said to be the beginning of life sense and reason yet that is but Organically and Secondarily the Soul is the begining chiefly and primarily TotuÌ„ composituÌ„ dicatur principium ut quod cum sit illud quod agat forma vero principium ut quo cum agat beneficio formae instrumenta denique per quod cum per ipsa operetur Sennert These are the Definitions given by Aristotle the former being drawn from those things which are notiora secundum naturam though nobis ignotiora the latter from those things which are secundum nos notiora though secundum naturam ignotiora and those are the Effects and Faculties of the soul which are called the second act of the soul not the first act and are the companions associates of the soul neither of which do we reject but make use of both since in the subsequent Chapters we shall consider the soul not onely as it is principium corporis animalis tanquam forma or the act and perfection of a Natural Organical body which is according to the former Definition but as it is principium operationum tanquam eftrix as it is considered in the latter so making of two one Definition thus The Soul is the act the perfection and beginning of a Natural Organical body endued with life sense and understanding And now having traced thee O my soul from thy original the place and person à quo to the place and person ad quem from Heaven to Earth from God to Man and find thee clothed in humane nature I shall not raise a consideration from that close conjunction and mysterious union which is betwixt the soul and body flesh and spirit that being formerly couched in the first Chapter of this Book but finding thee seated in humane nature intombed and imprisoned in a body of flesh consider O my soul into what a body thou art come the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato is quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul's prison and sepulcher a dungeon foul and noysom in materiâ primâ even in its first and best matter of which it is made slime and mud red earth and clay For God made man saith the Text of the dust of the ground And again Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return And again Behold I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes And this first matter if we look into its original it was of meer nothing not of any other praeexistent matter for then it would not be materia prima It's true in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth but as true not out of another Heaven and Earth but of meer nothing and thus much of the first matter of this body of flesh But if we look into the second matter this body of sinful flesh contracted by the fall of our first Parents what is it but sanguis menstruus worse than a menstruous cloth or polluted rag which is a thing so vile and filthy as cannot be expressed the eyes refusing to b hold and the hands to touch it and the mind abhorring to think of it into to such a dungeon art thou cast O my soul fettered and fast bound in the chains of carnal lusts and concupiscence having thy Understanding darkned and thy Will and reason captivated and scarce the essence and definition of a soul remaining in thee thy act being turned into power nay rather impotency and weakness thy perfection into much imperfection thy beginning of life into a beginning of death and misery There was a time when the soul of man enjoyed more immunities and though a prisoner as it were in the body yet as Joseph who was made ruler and overseer of the whole house and had the command of all in the prison and whatsoever was done there that did he The soul was not a captive to the flesh so long as man continued in his innocency but contrariwise had the care and command of all the body was subject to the soul the flesh unto the spirit the inhaerent justice in which man was created subjected the inferior and Sensual parts to the superior Intellectual faculty without the least predominancy at any time so long as the superior continued in obedience and subjection to God the body was obedient to the command of the soul but after that the soul had rebelled against God the body took occasion to rebel against the soul so that to this day there hath bin a continual civil war within us the law of our members warring against the law of our mind and bringing us captive to the law of sin which is in our members this is the miserable estate of mankind by nature that in the deep sense thereof we may all cry with Saint Paul O wretched creature that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death But stand thou still O my soul and see the salvation of our God seest thou thy self in the state of nature dead in trespasses and sinnes an heathen an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel without hope without God in the world There is a law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made thee free from the law of sin and death this Christianity teacheth to this Christian Religion not Heaâ—henish superstition leadeth There is a state of Grace which is Christian as well as a state of Nature corrupt and hea henish Rom. 6.14 they that are under this law sin hath power on but they that are under Grace sin shall have no power over Vnto this state
from the mouths of others straight the Devil shoots his arrows of Anger Malice Strife Envy Murther and the like I would please my palate and behold I am presented with all the delicates the World affordeth the Devil shoots his darts of excess of Gluttony Drunkenness and the like to my feeling is presented the Worlds various Objects of Warm and Moist and soft and Smooth the Devills darts are Adultery Fornication c. Thus whether I See Hear or Speak Tast or Touch I am assaulted on every hand by these my Enemies who bear a Tyrannous hate against me and which way soever I turn me I find no safety Perills and Dangers Temptations and Trialls Snares and Ginnes Bonds and Imprisonment whither soever I goe do attend me darts are continually cast close Siege is laid to my Soul sometimes they assault me vi armis in open field sometimes by underminings sleights and Stratagems somtimes overtly sometimes covertly alwaies maliciously To thee do I fly for help against these evills O my God for vain is the help of Man unto thy Word have I recourse where I find present cures and remedies for all such as will faithfully apply them and first of the remedie against the evils of the eye this I find set down by holy Job and practised by himself I have made saith he a Covenant with my eyes that I will not think upon a maid The words are not I will not lock but I will not think for look I may but not so long look till that aspect doth pierce to my heart and I begin to think of her beauty and to lust after her imbraces St. Augustines rule for chastity accordingly is occuli vestri si jaciantur in aliquem sigantur in neminem we may cast our eyes on some but fasten on none for simple aspect cannot be avoyded nor can that hardly hurt the Soul unless it be continued therefore saith Augustine not the beholding but the continuance in beholding is perilous The remedy against the evill of hearing the Prophet David laies down Psalm the 39. I said I will take heed unto my waies that I offend not in my tongue I will keep my mouth as it were with a bridle whilst the ungodly is in my sight Speak I may that 's not prohibited but a caution given to take heed what I speak I may speak with discretion if I speak with deliberation warily and wisely rashly and foolishly therefore saith David I will take heed to my waye that I offend not in my tongue that is I will ponder and consider beforehand what to say my words shall not be many and ex tempore but few and with premeditation I will keep silâ—nce awhile and muse though it be pain and grief to me and whilst I am musing the fire kindle and at last I speak with my tongue And this rule Saint James prescribes Jam. 1.19 that every man be slow to speak so Saint Bernard Verba antequam proferantur pensanda we must stay to weigh our words before we utter them and b cause we many times receive hurt from others tongues as well as our own Saint Bernard 's rule is for slow hearing as well as slow speaking for the prophane and scandalous speeches of others doe suddenly infect our souls if we lend a willing ear thereto for words saith Democritus are the shadow of deeds for what we doe hear with delight we will as readily act and therefore saith he many lose the benefit that comes by refraining their tongue because they refrain not their ears from others tongues Now against Gluttony and Drunkenness the sins of the Palate and against Adulteand Fornication which come by the Sense of Feeling the Remedies are such as Physicians use to prescribe their Patients in their sick and weak condition viz abstinency from much meat and drink a spare and moderate diet 1 Tim. 5.2 such as Paul prescribes Timothy a little wine for his stomacks sake and his often infirmity a little wine to strengthen him against his often infirmities and but a little wine to avoyd Luxury In lib. de arte bene moriend for in wine is Luxury saith Bellarmine Again Physicians use Phlebotomie lanching and cutting of Veins and prescribe bitter Pils and Potions all which are enemies to Nature and the body of man such are all fastings and watchings and humbling of the body which though they turn to the Mortification of the Flesh yet tend to the Vivification of the Soul and this is the chastising of the body which St. Paul speaks of Cor. 1.9 saying Castigo corpus I chastise I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away But for further remedy against such evils as come to the Soul by these Senses I will shew how the Soul hath five Senses by which it is cured as the Body hath five by which it is wounded As the Body hath five Senses so hath the Soul there are five Organical Corporeal Senses there are also five Inorganical and Spiritual Senses the Body hath five by which it is joyned to the Soul in life the Soul hath five by which it is united to God in love De natura dignitate amoris divini cap. 6. f. 1155. serm 16. parvis sol 481. c. Et de vita quinque sensibus animae fol. 374 a. Et in caena domini serm 5. fol. 1360. 'T is Saint Bernard 's observation his words are these There are five Corporeal Senses by which the Soul gives sense to the body which are beginning with the lowermost and so upwards to the noblest of them Feeling Tasting Smelling Hearing Seeing There are also five Spiritual Senses by which Charity quickens and enlivens the Soul viz. Paternal Love Social or Conjugal Love Natural Love Spiritual Love and Divine Love or the Love of God and as the body by the means of life is joyned to the soul by five Organical Senses so is the soul by the means of Charity joyned to God by these five Spiritual Senses the Love of Parents is the meanest Spiritual Sense and answereth the bodily sense of Feeling the Love of God the highest and noblest Sense and answereth the bodily sense of Seeing So Love runs through the whole Soul and without this Love the Soul is dead to God Love I say not Lust the Soul's Love Chap. 7. Book 1. not the Senses Lust Love the action of Virtue not the passion of Vice Love the fruit of the Spirit not Lust the weed of the Flesh Of which Love we shall speak more in the Chapter of the Affection of the Soul CHAP. VII Of the three Internal Senses viz. Common Sense Phantasie Memory THus much of the External Senses which are seated in the body whose Organs are extra to judg of things out of themselves Now come we to the Internal which are intra cranium seated in the Brain not outward
Essence or yet of the Operations of these Angels and Spirits Intellectual as a Doctrine less useful and necessary for Mans salvation than of the Nature of Man or God yet so much hath it imparted to her Disciples as may evidence by necessary consequence the truth of this Metaphysical Science of Natures Angelical the Fathers and Doctors of the Church having little varied in judgement from the Curiousest Naturalist and Philosopher in this point all concurring in this particular the School of Christ and School of Nature teaching one and the same thing without any grand Variation and dissenting The Creation of Angels though holy-Churches-creed is no where plainly pointed out in holy Writ otherwise than in the first daies Creation under that General notion of Heaven and Earth which may contain the whole host of Heaven so those words Genesis 1.1 In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth are by most understood viz. by Heaven not onely it but all things therein contained as Angels and the like whose proper seat is Heaven which may seem to be thus also explicated by St. Paul Col. 1.16 For by him are all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth Visible and Invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers viz. four of the Orders of Angels further also by God himself in the 38 Chapter of Job saying where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth when the morning Stars sang together and the Sons of God shouted for joy that is to say the holy Angels who were created together with Heaven and Earth even in the beginning or morning of that first day as some have hence gathered Of all created substances some were created Visible Material Corporeal others were created Invisible Incorporeal Spiritual of their own Nature that the Angels are such created Invisible Incorporeal and Spiritual substances may be gathered out of the word of God David and Paul Prophet and Appostle both terming them Spirits and if Spirits then Invisible by Mortal eye and then Incorporeal at least as unto Humane or other natural body of their own Nature for so our Saviour hath resolved it saying a Spirit hath not flesh and bone as I have And the Schoolmen have decreed and concluded that Angels are meerly Spiritual and Incorporeal substances and no bodies or Corporeal Natures and with them agree the Fathers not a few though Origen and after him Saint Jerome would seem to maintain that Angels as oft as they sinned and fell away were thrust into bodies and there remained as a punishment unto them which opinion is exploded by all both Antient and Modern as savouring of Platonism more than Christianity Yet may we not deny but that Angels have been in bodily shapes and so seen and appeared unto our Fathers of old wherefore we must either grant unto them real bodies or that they did delude and deceive the Patriarches with Phantasms and meer Apparations which is not to be conceived of the holy Angels and therefore St. Bernard put a kind of necessity in it that Angels should have bodies otherwise how could they be ministring Spirits sent out to minister unto them who shall be Heirs of Salvation to men who yet live in the body how shall they perform this Ministerial Function of discoursing of walking and talking of eating and drinking and the like without a body all which notwithstanding Angels have done as sacred Writ accordeth But it may be objected if we do grant unto them true real Visible bodies then must we also grant them all motions and mutations incident to such Bodies to wit of Generation Corruption Augmentation Diminution Altricion alteration then such as may be borne fed and nourished may die may suffer and the like as other corporeall Creatures doe how then are they meerly Spirituall and of an Incorporeall nature To which may be answered First 1 Negatively negatively True humane bodies Angels have not humane nature no spirituall substance ever assumed except the Son of God the second Person in the ever blessed Trinity of whom it is said He took not upon him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham and by whom it is verified A spirit hath no flesh and bone so no humane or fleshly Bodies are ascribed to Angels 2 Affirmatively Secondly affirmatively True reall bodies they have not newly generate created or begotten but assumed of Air and other Elements so condensate consolidate and contract together as that it may be seen felt touched c. Beyond the very nature of Air such a Body as is not essentiall but accidentall taken up for a time as we do put on our Cloathes and may be dissolved again at pleasure as soon as their Ministery is accomplish'd now such a Body is not subject to those Mutations of Generation Corruption and the like nor may it be said to die to suffer to feel o feed or the like as a humane Body may Thus is the nature of Angels Spirituall not carnall Incorporeall not corporeall and surpasseth the humane Nature in Understanding freedom of Will and externall Operations First in Understanding in regard of that Intuitive Vision they have of God per lumen Gloriae besidâ—s those superexcellent naturall Endowments Intellectual of seeing God per lumen naturae alwayes beholding his Face Vid. Hockers Eccles pol. 1. Sect. 4. fol. 53. as the Text expresseth they are so acquainted with the Mind and Will of God that Irrepercussa mentis acie divinorum judiciorum abyssum intuentur as St. Bernard hath it in comparison of which knowledge Angelicall all ours is but as that of Babes and Sucklings Out of whose Mouth notwithstanding God hath perfected his praise See Mr. Hooker his first book of Eccles pol. Sect. 6. fol. 56. or ordained strength as the Psalmist hath it here on Earth till such time as we grow up to perfect Man-hood to the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ where shall be given to us little ones an equality of knowledge with the Angels to be like unto them who alwayes behold the Face of their Heavenly Father As touching their Freedom of Will and Power of working the Angelical far surpasseth the Humane Nature Bellarmine puts these differences betwixt them First in the Power and Rule over Bodies The humane Soul can onely move his own Body at his pleasure it cannot move others after the same sort Again the humane Soul moves its own Body upon the Earth in a slow motion step by step it hath not power to bear it upon the Water or elevate it above the Air or carry it whither it pleaseth but the Angels by the Power and Freedom of Will by the meer force of their spirit can lift up mighty Bodies and carry them whither they please Thus did an Angel take up Habacuc and in a short space brought him to Babylon with a Dinner for Daniel and carried him back again into the Land of Palestine Again