the body therefore to be separated from the body and to exist and continue separatly is coÌ„trary to its naturall inclination and in some sort violent But Violence perpetuity are incompatible Not the later I meane that sometime after its separatioÌ„ the soule is to be restored and reunited with the body because from hence it would follow that the resurrection of the body should be naturall and due to the naturall course of things which point is not to be granted both because it is a high mistery of Christian fayth as also in that all ancient Heathen Philosophers were vtterly ignorant of this doctrine of the resurrection of bodyes I answere first that Origen and the Platonicks vtterly denyed the reasonable soule to be the forme of the body who placed the same in the body not as a forme in its naturall subiect for the commodity and benefit of the subiect but as one that is guilty and detained in prison for a reuenge of its former errours Whereupon they taught that one substance to wit Man was not properly compounded of the soule and the body but they auerred that only the soule was man and the body the prison therfore they said that euery body was to be auoyded But for confutation of this errouâ— it is manifest that it is repugnant to reason For if the soule be with-houlde in the body as in a prison why then doth it so much feare and auoid death Or why is it so grieuous to the soule to be disioyned and separated from the body Why is it not painful to the soule to stay in a body so stored with filth and impurity As we see it is most displeasing to a man of worth accustomed to places of note and regard to be kept in a sordid and obscure dungeon Why doth it so much affect the commodities and pleasures of the body and is so greatly delighted therewith Why at the hurt and losse of the body is it so infinitly afflicted and molested since otherwise it hath iust reasoÌ„ to reioyce at these corporal endomages no otherwise then captiues and imprisoned persons who are glad to see their chaines fall asunder their prison laid leuell with the ground Therefore seing the reasonabie soule is no lesse seÌ„sible of ioy or griefe touching the pleasures or aduersities of the body then the soules of beasts are it is euident that the reasonable soule is the naturall forme of mans body and that it doth affect and couet to be vnited with it Yet because it is not so immersed in the body as that it ought to be extinguished with it but is able through the benefit of its owne subâ—ilty and spirituall substance to subsist by it selfe Hence then it riseth that it predominateth ouer the affections of the body contemning them at its pleasure so as it yealdeth if it selfe will neither to pleasure nor griefe nor death it selfe which priuiledge is not found in irrationable creatures This opinion then being reiected we affirme that the soule is not to continue separated but sometimes to be â—eunited to the body because it was not first ordained to be an entyre and complete substance as an Angell is but to be only a part of a substance to wit the forme and consequently an imperfect and incomplete substance Whereupon it is needfull that we admit the resurrection of bodies And yet we cannot tearme this to be naturall for although the forming of the body and the vnion of the soule with the body be a naturall thing and due to the naturall state perfection of the soule yet this cannot be accomplished by naturall causes but only by diuine power and therefore it is to be called supernaturalis euen as giuing sight to the blynd is so reputed or restoring of decayed and feeble parts of the body and the curing of incurable diseases Neither ought it to seeme strange that the soule of man cannot obtaine for euer its naturall perfection without the power of God and his extraordinary assistance the reason here of being in that it is capable of a double as it were of a contrary nature to wit spirituall and corporall mortall and immortall Therefore the Soule requireth the body once lost to be restored to it but to be restored so firmely strongly as that it is neuer more to be lost is supernaturall since otherwise there ought to be infinite tymes a resurrection of bodyes The Philosophers were ignorant of this resurrection either because they thought the soule not to be the naturall forme of the body but a complete substance or els in that they thought it lesse inconuenyent to teach that the soule remained after death perpetually separated then to introduce bring in as a new doctrine the resurrectioÌ„ of the body For though it be naturall to the soule to be in the body yet in that respect only as it is separated from it it feeleth no griefe but rather it is freed therby from all the inconueniences and discoÌ„modities of this life obtaineth a more high and more worthy degree and becomes more neere to diuine celestial substances Wherefore I do not thinke that the soule being separated doth of it selfe much couet to be reunited with the body though by the force and weight of nature it hath a propension therto And the reason her of is because those goods and priuiledges it possesseth as it is separated are more to be esteemed then those are which it enioyeth in the body Neither is it true that this separation is violent to the soule for although the want of this vnion be in some sort violent to it to wit by way of negation as it is a priuation of that to which the very essence of the soule doth efficaciously propend and inclyne yet that liberty which it then enioyeth and that vigour of the Soule maÌ„ner of vnderstanding is not in any sort violent but most agreable to its nature as it is in state of separation The third Argument The structure of the body may seeme to intimate imply the mortality of the soule for it is almost wholy framed for the temporal vses of this mortall life to wit that the body may be maintained and preserued and nature propagated and continued Thus the teeth and stomacke are ordained to chew and concoct meate the intestines and bowels to auoyd the superfluous and excrementall matter the liuer to confect bloud the gall to receaue the sharper more bitter parts of the nutriment the splen or milt to containe the more grosse bloud the reynes to part and diuyde the serasus wheish matter of the nourishment from the bloud the bladder to receaue and send out this wheish matter the instruments of the sexe to procreatioÌ„ But after this life there shal be no need either of the vse of meates or of procreation therfore there ought not to be these members which are ordayned to those ends and consequently there ought not to be the soule which
may make our selues apt to enioy it that we ought to lead our life in such sort as it may be approued of God who is the beholder of al things The like matter hereto we may find in Plato Plotinus Cicero Epictetus and other heathen wryters But now it next followeth in Methode that we produce such arguments and after dissolue and answere them as may seeme to impugne the former verity of the Soules Immortality THE ARGVMENTS OBIECTED against the Immortality of the Soule and their Solutions or Answeres CAAP. XXIV THE first may be this That Soule all whose operation and function depends vpon a corporal Organ or instrument cannot consist separated from the body But the reasonable Soule of man is such Therefore the reasonable soule cannot consist separated from the body And thus is this first argument contracted I answere and distinguish of the Maior or first Proposition Two wayes then may the operation of the Soule depend of a corporall or bodily organ or instrument First by it selfe immediatly Secondly accidentally and mediatly Yf the operation and working of the Soule depend of the body in the first manner then is it euident that such an operation cannot be performed without the helpe and assistance of the body and consequently that that Soule whose working dependeth after this sort cannot exist separated from the body And such is the soule of beasts And so in this sense the Maior Proposition is true But if the operation of the soule depend of a corporall instrument after the second māner then is the foresaid Proposition false And the reason hereof is because what agreeth to another thing per accidens as the phraze is per aliud that is accidentally casually and in regard only of a third thing may be taken away Therefore seing the function of the vnderstanding which is an essentiall faculty of the reasonable soule doth not depend of the body by it selfe necessarily and immediatly but only accidentally mediatly there is no hinderance but that it may be performed without the body Now that the function or operation of the vnderstanding doth not depend of the body by it selfe and immediatly may be proued by many reasons And first the function of the vnderstanding chiefly consisteth in iudging but to iudge of a thing the phantasy which is a corporeall internall sense or any Idea or image framed therein is not in any sort furthering or cōducing but rather an impedimēt therto as giuing an occasion oftentimes of erring For the vnderstanding ought not to follow the imagination and conceit of the phantasy neither ought it in iudging to be guided thereby but rather it is to correct the phantasy that it selfe may by this meanes arryue vnto the truth Now if the force of the vnderstanding be so great that it is able to correct the errours and mistakings of the phantasy and to attaine vnto the cleare truth of things which transgresseth the nature or working of the phantasy then may we frō hence conclude that the working of the vnderstanding doth not immediatly or in its owne nature depend of the phantasy Secōdly the former point is further proued because we chiefly couet to know things spirituall of which things the phantasy is in no sort capable Thirdly because the knowledge of truth is not reckoned among the goods of the body but of the mind only and therfore is to be desired for the perfection only of the mind Fourthly because deuout and holy men are somtimes eleuated in an Extasis to that spirituall contemplation which cannot be expressed in words and consequently not to be represented by the imaginatiō or phantasy as may be gathered out of the Apostle in his second Epistle to the Corinthians c. 12. But because I stryue to be short therefore I omit heere to iterate diuers things aboue set downe touching the force of vnderstanding and desiring But some here may demaund How thē cometh it to passe that we cannot vnderstand any thing except we forge a certaine image of it in the phantasy And frō whēce procedeth this necessity To which I answere that this procedeth from the present state of the soule to wit because the soule is the forme of the body actually informing and giuing life to it For as during al that tyme that the soule remaineth in the body it after a certaine manner putteth vpon the state and nature of the body and becometh in a sort grosse and dull that thereby it may better accōmodatate it selfe to the body So all things which then it conceaueth it conceaueth apprehēdeth vnder a certaine corporal shew and forme For it is an axiome in Philosophy that the manner of working followeth the manner of existence But when the soule shal be separated from the body and shal be gathered as it were into it selfe and subsist by it selfe then shall it enioy another degree or kind of vnderstanding neither shall it haue any necessity of framing the Idea's images of things in the phantasy no otherwise then the Intelligences haue which wee call Angels To conclude as long as the Soule is in the body it cānot rightly exercise the vnderstanding and reason except it haue the externall senses loose and it liberty as is euident euen from those dreames which we haue in sleepe Now the cause hereof is not that the function of the senses do aduantage the function of the vnderstanding or that this doth depend of that other but because the faculty of the vnderstanding is the supreme and most excellent faculty of the soule Wherupon it riseth that for the perfect exercise of the vnderstanding it is requisite that the soule be altogether free vnbounded that so it may bend bestow all the force and power of its essence vpon such an operation And of this point a signe is that when we vehemently apply our mind to vnderstand and apprehend any thing we scarcely obserue and note such things as do occurre our sense the force of the soule busiyng it selfe in its most supreme and most noble action of all Ad hereto that there is such a connexiō association and sympathy of the powers of the soule in the body as that the soule cannot exercise the highest most worthy of thē if at the same present it doth alienate and estrange it selfe from the lowest Here I meane of the reciprocall affinity of these powers only which belong to knowledge The second argument Yf the soule after it is disuested of the body be immortall then shall it eyther continually remayne separated from the body or els sometime be restored to it But it seemeth that neither of these can be warranted with reason Not the first because it so should continue in a state which is violent and aduerse to nature for seing the soule of man is the lowest meanest of all spirituall substances it requyreth to be in the body as the forme of it therefore it hath a naturall propension to be vnited with
requireth such members and a body so framed and compacted For those members are to be accounted in vayne superfluous of which there neuer shal be any vse I answere This argument directly immediatly oppugneth the resurrection secundarily and by way of coÌ„sequence the immortality of the soule For the composition and structure of mans body prooueth that in it selfe and by its owne nature it is mortall but it doth not prooue the soule to be in like sort mortall But although the body be disolued and do perish yet it is a facill easy matter for God to frame it againe in its due tyme to reinfuse the soule into it and so to cause that the body shall neuer after be dissolued for as Plato in his Timaeo teacheth Quod natura sua solubile est c. VVhat in its owne nature stands subiect to dissolution and obnoxious vnto death the same by the commandement and will of God may be made immortall so as it shall neuer dye Certainly those functions of the members which belong to nourishment of the body and to generation shall cease notwithstanding it followeth not that those members shal be superfluous because they shall serue to the naturall constitution of the body as parts necessary to its perfection and beauty for this is their chiefe and principall vse to wit to conduce to the making of a perfect and complete body and such as is fitting to the condition state of the soule Now these functions are only a secondary end because they are ordained only for the tyme and serue only to repayre the ruines of mortall body the naturall heat feeding vpon and consuming the substance of the flesh whereupon it followeth that as the augmentation or increase of the bodyes greatnesse ceaseth when it once hath attained its iust stature Euen so shall nutrition or nourishment of the body cease and the functions belonging thereto when the body by a diuine hand and power shall become immortall For seeing these functions are oâ— the lowest degree as agreeing to the soule according to its meanest faculty and parte wherein it participateth with plants and is heerein attended with much drosse filth rottennes it was not conuenient that they should be perpetuall but that in due tyme they should be taken away God reducing the body into a better forme Notwithstanding the function of the senses because they are made after a spirituall manner without corruption they shal be perpetuall In like sort the function of the voyce and speach shal be perpetuall to the which those members shall after their manner either neerely or remotely be seruiceable and therefore in this respect also they shall not be in vaine superfluous The fourth argument may be taken froÌ„ those words which Pliny in his seauenth booke of his history c. 55. setteth downe though they be of small force and validity First then he to this purpose saith Omnibus a suprema die c. The same happeneth to all things after thâ—ir last day which was at their beginning Neither after death is there more sense to the body or soule then there was before its birth I answere and say that that is heere assumed which is first to be prooued and therefore it is denyed with the same facility wherwith it was affirmed And that this saying of his is false it is prooued from the whole schoole of the Platonicks and the Pithagoreans For there is no necessity why that which once begun should sometimes cease especialle if it be a simple and vncompounded substance as the soule and euery spirituall nature is But indeed it is otherwise of corporall things consisting of the Elements of whome only that sentence is verifyed Omne genitum potest corrumpi Euery thing that is made may be corrupted Certainly materia prima because it is simple and vncompounded though it had a beginning yet can it not be corrupted The same also according to the doctrine of the Platonicks is to be said of the celestiall Orbs. Therefore although there was no sense of the soule before its creatioÌ„ yet followeth it not that therefore after death it shall haue no sense And the reason hereof is because though the birth as it were of the soule be ioined with the birth of the body and thereupon the soule did exist before the birth of the body notwithstanding the destruction of the soule doth not follow the destruction of the body for death is not a destruction or extinguishmeÌ„t of them both but only a separation of the body from the soule In the next place Pliny demandeth Cur corpus c. why the body followeth and coueteth the soule I answere that no body followeth the soule departing from hence because the soule as being a naked and simple substance can consist without the body Then saith he Vbi cogitatio illi From whence hath the soule separated its cogitation or discourse The soule being in state of separation hath no need of a braine or a body that it may thinke imagine and discourse euen as we grant that God spirituall substances haue not those Organs because the force of vnderstanding by how much it is more remote distant from the body by so much it is more excellent Next asketh Pliny Quomodo visus auditus From whence hath the soule separated seeing and hearing Whereto it is replyed that the soule needeth not the function and operation of the outward senses seing that it perceaueth all things in its mynd For the the mynd then doth not only serue to cogitate or thinke or to know things abstractiuely but also to behold and apprehend all things which in this life we apprehend with our externall senses euen as Pliny himselfe speaketh of God Quisquis est Deus c. VVhosoeuer God is he is all sense all sight all hearing all soule all vnderstanding all himselfe In like sort we say of the soule being separated that it is all sense all sight all hearing all vnderstanding all vigour and life Againe he questioneth Quid agit qui vsus eius What doth the soule separated Or what vse is there of it Of whom by retortioÌ„ I demand what do other spirits and incorporeall substances As if it were nothing to contemplate praise and loue God and to enioy the fellowship of celestiall spirits Certainly the cecity and blindnesse of this man is wonderfull who may be thought not to haue acknowledged the being of any spirits Therefore how much more wisely deliberatly did the Platonicks and the Peripateticks teach who placed maÌ„s chiefe felicity in conteÌ„plating of the first beginning and cause of all things Pliny proceedeth yet further Quid sine sensibus bonum VVhat can be good which is not to be apprehended by the senses I say to acknowledge no good of the soule without the senses is incident to swyne and beasts not to Philosophers next Quae deinde sedes VVhat seate or mansion for the soules seperated The answere is expedite and ready
inuested with their bodies did liue wickedly in al affluence and abundāce of riches and pleasures and in committing of wrongs and which before their departure from hence made no recompence for the same should after this life be equall in state to those who wrongfully haue suffred many tribulations and yet liued very vertuously and that there is to be had no account for things committed here therefore it followeth that there ought to be a Prouidence which is to giue a retributiō answerable to euery ones deserts And hence it is that all Philosophers and all religions who maintayned the soule to liue after the body did withall maintaine that there were future rewards and punishments and did confesse a Prouidence of a supreme spirit by the which these rewards punishmēts are iustly dispensed S. Chrysostome in his fourth sermon de Prouidentia handleth this point elegantly in these wordes If nothing be to follow after this life then is there no God for granting that there is a God that God must needs be iust and if he be iust then doth he recompence euery one according to his deseruings And if nothing be after this life then where shall euery one be rewarded according to his deserts Many wicked men do liue here in all pleasure and honour a◠also many vertuous suffer great pressures and afflictions If therefore nothing be to follow hereafter the iust shall finally depart remaining still wronged and the vniust with vndeserued felicity If then this should be so where is iustice For if Man do not receaue retaliation for such things as he hath done then is God not iust and if not iust then he is not God c. But that there is a God all Creatures do preach it therefore it followeth that that God is iust and if he be iust then dispenseth he iustice to euery one And if he giueth what is iust to euery man then followeth it that there must be a tyme after this life in the which al shal receaue answerably to their liues and actions Thus far this Father Therefore once grāting the immortality of the Soule it necessarily is to be inferred that there is a God and that he exerciseth his prouidence vpon all mens affaires as also on the other side taking away and denying the Soules immortality then is all Iustice and Prouidēce of God yea God himselfe is taken away flatly denyed to be Therfore it resteth vpon to proue and demonstrate the immortality of it but because this point requireth a more long and prolixe discourse it shal be handled largely in the second booke here following seposed and appointed only to that end THE 14. REASON TAKEN FROM DIuers examples of diuine reuenge and benignity CHAP. XVI ALTHOVGH the chiefest punishmēt of sinne be reserued to bee inflicted in the world to come when there shal be made to all a iust recompensation for their demerits neuertheles euen in this world oftē tymes there are shewed diuers examples to put men in mind that God doth not sleepe but that he watcheth and obserueth mens actions and to intimate vnto them how seuere punishments do attend wicked men after this life Therefore though the bridle and liberty of liuing according to ech mans will and mind be giuen in this life and that diuers things may be thoght to be carried so troublesomly confusedly as that for the time no Prouidence of any diuyne power may seeme to be in mens affaires the wicked doing all things according to their sensuality and the vertuous being miserably oppressed and afflicted Notwithstanding if Man will take into his consideratiō the passages of all tymes he shall see that Gods prouidence is not so quyet still and silent but for the most part after some tyme passed the measure of the sins being once complete and filled vp in any one Country it discouereth bewrayeth it selfe by taking reuenge of the said coūtry with some heauy and notable punishment of which point there are many examples extant both in the sacred Scripture as also in prophane Authours the store whereof being so great we will insist in some of the most remarkable of them The first then may be the generall deluge in the which al mankind except eight persons was vtterly extinguished for their enormous liues The great Prophet Moyses hath discribed most elegantly this heauy punishment with al its due circumstances in the 6. 7. and 8. of Genesis in the procedure whereof the diuine Prouidence hath seuerall wayes displayed it selfe First in decreeing the abolishment and death of mankind in reuenge of their sinnes and in foretelling it to Noe a hundred and twenty yeares before it came to passe Secondly in that God for a new increase of the world caused an Arke to be made in that prescribed forme measure which might contayne the kinds of all liuing Creatures both vpon earth such as did fly and might reserue thē from destruction to wit it being 300. cubits in length fifty in breadth thirty in height which measure and largenes that it was sufficient for the receite not only of all liuing Creatures but also for meat for them for one yeare may easily be demonstrated and hath already bene made euident by learned men so as it is cleare that this proportion or quantity was appointed not by mās aduise but through the speciall direction of the diuine Wisedome Thirdly because it proceeded from the foresaid Prouidence of God that at the beginning of the deluge euery kind of liuing Creature should resort to the Arke take its fitting mansion Fourthly in that the globe of the water with the increase of the raine which fell continually for the space of forty daies and forty nights was so great as that it exceeded in height the highest hils fifteene cubits Now that so much raine could cause so great an inundation ouerflowing of water may be made iustifyable partly by reason and partly by experience Fiftly the prouidence of God was further manifested in that both so much water could fall vpon the earth and yet after could be exhaled vp in vapours and clouds all this in the space of one yeate for at the end of forty dayes the floud was come to its height and so continued during a hundred and fifty dayes the rest of that yeare to wit 175. dayes it was so wasted away dissipated dissolued into clouds that the last day of the yeare the earth being become dry Noe with his whole family and the liuing Creatures came out of the Arke therefore he continued in the Arke a whole yeare measured by the course of the Sunne that is 365. dayes for he entred into the Arke the six hundreth yeare of his life in the second moneth 17. day and he came ou◠in the 601. yeare the second moneth and 27. day so as he continued therein twelue moneths of the moone and eleuen dayes which make precisely one solare yeare Sixtly in giuing to those miserable men
man cannot possibly performe except it continueth after this life immortall Now the perfection of Mans Soule consisteth in wisdome vertue with the which her chiefest powers are beautifyed adorned and by meanes of which those powers obtayne their ends chiefe perfection But few there are who in this life giue themselues to the obtaining of wisdome and therefore the greatest part of men make small or no progresse therein and those who spend their tyme in the search or purchasing of it do scarcely get the hundreth part of that abundance of wisdome wherof the mynd of man is capable for though a man should liue a thousand yeares yet might he daily profit and increase therein yet not obtaine it in its highest measure Therfore it is necessary that the Soule of Man doth liue after the death of the body that in the next life seing in this it cannot it may come arryue to its perfectioÌ„ since otherwise in vaine should that capacity and extension of the Soule be giuen her in vaine should that vnquenchbale desire of knowledge be engrafted in her for that capacity and desire is in vayne which cannot be filled and satisfyed Besides it is most absurd to say that Nature which in the smallest most despicable things neuer doth any thing without a due purpose end should in the most noble creature of all worke and labour so much in vaine and to no designed drift or proiect THE XIIII REASON CHAP. XV. IT is certaine that the Soule of man cannot know it selfe in this life except it be very obscurely and confusedly euen as he which seeth a thing farre of through a cloud perceaueth it imperfectly as not being able to discerne the colours or lineaments of it Now this want of the Soules perfect knowledge of it selfe was the cause of so many different opinions of the Philosophers touching its owne substance some of them teaching it to be of a fiery substance others an â—yery and some others that it was a substance taken from the ayre from the soule of the world as their phrase was The Soule then knoweth not either what it selfe is or of what quality whether a simple or pure spirit or consisting of a most thin body whether it hath distinct faculties and powers in it selfe or that it performeth all her operations immediatly by it selfe what is the power and nature of those faculties how they performe their functions how the obiects do meet and associate themselues with their faculties how the organs and instruments of the senses do concurre and cooperate with the animal spirits In these and almost all other things belonging to her selfe the Soule is strangely blind and diuineth and coniectureth of them as it were in a dreame Therfore if the Soule doth perish togeather with the body she neuer knoweth her selfe but remaines ignorant thereof both when she is first ingendred whyle she liueth and after her death But now it is most fitting both in nature and reason that sometimes she might be able to contemplate her selfe to see and perfectly to apprehend her owne beauty nature and ornaments for as nothing more clearly belongeth to the Soule then her owne Nature and such things as are intrinsecall and inward to her so no knowledge is more necessary to her then the knowledge of her selfe and things appertaining to her for she is most neere and deâ—re to her selfe Therefore it must necessarily be granted that she is not extinguished after this life but that after she is once freed of the body and of all corporall obiects which afore she apprehended by helpe of the externall senses and that by meanes thereof she enioyeth her owne simplicity then shall she see her selfe distinctly and clearly and shall daily esteeme those her goods ornaments which in this life she so smally prized For one kind of vnderstanding agrees to her whiles she is tyed to this mortall body another when by meanes of the bodyes death she shal be set at liberty shal nakedly exist by her selfe For while she remaynes in the body she can know nothing perfectly but what is corporall and vnder a corporall shew wherupon it followeth that she cannot see or know her selfe but after she is once diuorced from the body she shall then take the forme and manner of vnderstanding answerable to spirits and then shall discerne spirituall things as now she apprehendeth by her eyes corporall things For the manner of knowing doth euer answere to the manner of existence and agreeth to the state of the thing which knoweth since euery thing worketh according to the manner of its owne nature THE XV. REASON CHAP. XVI THIS corporeall World as also all things contained therein were made for man as is aboue shewed for all things are disposed in that sort as they may best serue to the benefit and profit of man Thus the world seemeth nothing els then a vast house furnished withall things necessary whose inhabitant possessour or Fructuarius is man So that supposing man were not then were there no vse of the world but it should be as a desart seruing only for a denne of wild beasts and for a wood of thornes Therfore seeing all things are first instituted for man it followeth that man is a most excellent thing and created for a far greater and higher end then it can attaine in this life for seing so many different seruices of things and so wonderfull riches are prepared for man for his better and more easy leading of this short and mortall life how can it be thought that no good or happynes expecteth him after his death but that his Soule vtterly decayeth with his body Doubtlesly this is a great argument that he is ordained to enioy after his emigration passing out of this life a most noble honourable and admirable felicity happines This point is further confirmed If the Soule doth perish with the body theÌ„ it followeth that the world and al its admirable furniture was only framed by nature that man for a short season and tyme might liue eate drinke sleepe in gender and then presently for euer decay Thus this should be all the good the end and the â—ruite oâ— so worthy and admirable a worke But it is not likely that to so meane small an end the heauens should be incessantly caryed about with such a daily motion That the Sunne Moone and Starrs should still continue their courses that the change of day and night and the vicissitude or continuall circles of tymes and seasons as spring summer autumne and winter should be ordained Againe that winds should blow the clouds should be gathered togeather the showers should be powred downe that the earth should cause so many kinds of flowers and fruits should containe within its bosome such inestimable treasure that the Sea should bring forth such seuerall sorts of fish the ayre should abound with so great store of byrds Nature her selfe should so painfully labour in the producing
to wit the mansion for the pious and vertuous soules in heauen for the wicked Hell And this opinion all Antiquity euer did hold Next he asketh Quanta multitud◠c. how great a multitude is there of soules as of shadowes for so many ages To which is to be answered that the multitude of soules is as great as there is number of men which haue liued from the beginning of the world vnto this day For seeing the world tooke a beginning the number of the soules is not infinite but it is comprehended within a certaine number and that not exceedingly great for it were not very difficult to shew that this number exceedeth not two or three Myriades of millions Now the soules are ignorantly called by Pliny Vmbrae Shadowes seing that they are like vnto light and the body is to be resembled rather to a shadow as the Platonicks were accustomed to say After this Pliny thus expostulateth Quae dementia c. VVhat folly is it to maintaine that life is iterated and begun againe by meanes of death But herein as in all the rest he is deceaued for the life of the soule is not iterated after the death of the body but the body dying it continueth and perseuereth After he further enquireth Quae genitis quies c. VVhat rest can euer be if the sense vigour of the soule remaineth aloofe of in so high a place To which is to be answered that not only rest quyet and fredome from the troubles and miseries of this life belongeth to the soules separated but also wonderfull pleasures and ioy if they haue here liued well but misery if they haue spent their tyme in wickednes without finall repentance And this the Platonicks also acknowledge In the next place he thus further discourseth saying that the feare of what is to succeed after this life doth lessen the pleasures of this life Thus we heere see that this is the chiefe reason why wicked men are loth to belieue the immortality of the soule to wit because this their beliefe confoundeth all their pleasures woundeth their mynds with a continuall feare of what is after to come For being conscious and guilty to themselues of their owne impiety and of what they iustly do deserne therefore they wish that their soule might dy with their body since they cannot expect with reasō a greater benefit For so they should be free from misery and torments which hang ouer their heads And because they earnestly desire this they are easily induced to belieue it to come to passe Now the extinguishing of the soule is not the chiefe good of nature as Pliny thinketh but the chiefe euill rather of nature since euery thing chieffly auoydeth its owne destruction as losing al it goodnes in Nature thereby For how can that be accounted the chiefe good of nature by the which all iustice is ouerthrowne all reward and remuneration is taken away from vertue and all chastisement from vyce For though it were for the good of the wicked that the soule were mortall yet it were most iniurious to the vertuous and hurtfull to the publick good of the vniuerse no otherwise then it would be inconuenient to the good of a temporal commonwealth if no rewards should be propounded for vertue nor reuenge for exorbitancy and transgression of the lawes Certainly the cogitation of death the soules immortality increaseth the anxiety and griefe of the wicked since they do not only complaine for the death of the body which depriueth them of all pleasure of this life but also and this with far greater vehemency for the punishments which after the death of the body they are perswaded through a secret feeling of nature their soules are to suffer But now on the contrary part the former cogitation doth increase the ioy and comfort of the vertuous seing they not only reioyce at the death of the body by meanes whereof they are discharged of al the afflictiōs of the world but also and this in far greater measure at the certaine expectation of that felicity and happines wherwith after their death they shal be replenished Now from all this heretofore deliuered set downe it is euident that the obiections and reasons of Pliny are most weake friuolous as proceding rather from an inueterated hate and auersion of the contrary doctrine then from any force and ground of reason But here one perhaps may reply say Be it so that the soule is immortall notwithstāding it may so be that after this life it shall suffer no euill but enioy great liberty busiyng it selfe in the contemplatiō of things Or if it shall suffer any punishmēt yet this sufferance shall not be perpetuall but longer or shorter according to the proportion nature of its offences committed in this world and that greater sinnes shal be expiated with a more long punishment or at least with a more grieuous and lesser with a shorter or more gentle chastisemēt Indeed I grant the iudgement of the Stoick to haue bene that the soule after this life suffered no euill but that instantly after death it returned to some one appointed starre or other and there remayned either vntill the generall exustion and burning of the world if it were vertuous wise or els only for a short tyme if it were wicked and foolish which period being once ended the soule was to be turned into the Element from whence it was taken But these assertions are friuolous and not warranted with any reason for granting that soules do liue after this life what then is more easy to be belieued then that they receaue either rewards or paynes according to their different comporttments in this world Since otherwise where should the Prouidance of God be Or where Iustice But of this point we haue abundantly discoursed aboue Furthermore if Soules for a certayne tyme can subsist without a body why can they not for euer continue so For seing they are simple and vncompounded substances they cānot in processe of tyme grow old or loose their strength and vigour as bodyes compounded of Elements do Now if they can but for one instant exist and liue without a body thē can they for all eternity perseuer in that state as being not subiect to any extinguishment or destructiō as the whole schoole of the Peripatetiks and Aristotle himselfe do teach For there is nothing which can destroy or corrupt a simple substance subsisting by it selfe And therefore it is houlden that Materia as being a simple substance and inhering in no other thing as in a subiect is incorruptible and inexterminable Now touching that which is spoken of the burning of soules in that sense as if they could be dissolued and vanish away into ayre by meanes of fyer as bodyes is no lesse absurd For the soule is not a body or an oyle-substance which can be set on fire but it is a spirit more thin pure and light then either ayre or fyer But what is
dissolued with fyer ought to be corporeall and more grosse and corpulent then the fyre it selfe or that into the which it is dissolued It may be further added hereto that the foundation of the Stoicks wherupoÌ„ they grounded theÌ„selues that soules were to suffer no euill after this life notwithstading their great sinnes and enormities here committed was because they were perswaded that our soules were certaine particles or relicks of a diuinity And this diuinity they did hold to be anima mundi the soule of the world from which soule they further taught as being the common and vniuersal soule of al things that the particular soules of liuing Creatures chiefly the soules of men were decerpted takeÌ„ the which being after freed of their corporeall bonds and chaynes were to returne to that principle from whence they are deryued meaning to that vniuersall soule of the world with the which they finally close themselues All which assertioÌ„s are in their owne nature so absurd as that they need not any painfull refutatioÌ„ For if the soules be parcels of God how can they be dissolued with fyre Or finally how caÌ„ they be depraued with so many facinorous crymes and impieties Yea it would from hence follow that Diuinity it selfe should consist as bodyes do of parts and should be obnoxious to all euils and inconueniences whatsoeuer Therefore this vayne imaginatioÌ„ of the Stoicks is to be reiected which heretofore hath bene well refelled by Tully Origen did indeed confesse that soules were immortall and that they were neuer to lose their owne proper kind and nature notwithstanding he taught that the punishments of them were not sempiternall but were to take an end after certaine ages The same he in like sort affirmed of the paynes torments of the Diuels But this errour of Origen which he borrowed of the Platonicks was further accoÌ„panied with many other errours 1. First that all Soules Diuels Angels were of the same nature and consequently that soules were as free from all corporall commere as Angels were 2. That Soules before they were adioyned to the body did sinne and for guilt of such their sinnes were tyed to bodyes and inclosed in them as in prisons 3. That soules were coupled with bodyes in a certayne prescribed order As first with more subtill bodyes then if they continued sinning with grosser bodyes lastly with terrene and earthly bodyes further Origen taught that these seueral degrees of these soules desceÌ„ding into bodyes were represented by the ladder which appeared to Iacob in his sleepe Genesis 24. 4. That all soules as also the Diuels should after certaine ages be set at liberty and restored to an Angelicall light spleÌ„dour to wit when they had fully expiated their sinnes with condigne punishmeÌ„ts 5. That this vicissitude and enterchaÌ„ge of felicity misery should be sempiternal for euer in reasonable creatures so as the same soules should infinite tymes be both blessed and miserable for after they had continued in heauen for many ages blessed and happy then as being againe satiated and cloyed with the fruition of diuyne things they should contaminate defyle themselues with sinne for the which they were againe to be detruded into bodyes in the which if they liued wickedly they were to be cast into the paines of hel which being for a tyme suffered they were to be restored vnto Heauen This condition state Origen imposed vpon euery reasonable creature by what name soeuer it was called whether Angels Principalities Powers Dominations Diuels or Soules See of this poynt S. Ierome in his Epistle ad PaÌ„machâ—um against the Errours of Iohn of IerusaleÌ„ and Augustin l. de hâ—resibus c. 43. But Origen extremely doteth in these things 1. As first in affirming that all spirituall substances are of one nature and condition 2. That Soules are not the formes of their bodyes but separated substaÌ„ces which are inclosed in the bodyes as in certaine prisons 3. That all soules were created from the beginning of the world 4. That blessed spirits could haue a fastidious cloyed conceit of diuine contemplation and that they could sinne 5. That for such their sinnes they were sent into bodyes there for the tyme to be detayned as in prisons 6. That the torments of the Diuels of all soules are once to be expired and ended 7. That all the damned are at length to be saued 8. Finally that this Circle by the which the Soule goeth from saluation to sinne from sinne into the body from the body to damnation from damnation to saluation is perpetuall and continueth for euer Al which dreames of Origen might be refuted by many conuincing and irrefragable reasons but this is impertinent to our purpose would be ouer tedious to perform Only it shall suffice at this present to demonstrate out of holy Scripture that the paines of the wicked and damned are to be most grieuous neuer to receaue a cessation and end Of the Punishments of the life to come out of the holy Scripture CHAP. XXV ALTHOVGH it be most sorting to naturall reason that Gods diuine Prouidence should allot after this life to euery one a iust retribution according to the different comportment of each man in this world Notwithstanding what this reward shal be whether it be conferred vpon the good or the bad and of what continuance neither can mans reason nor the disquisitioÌ„ and search of the best Philosophers giue any satisfying answere hereto The cause of which inexplicable difficulty is partly in that it dependeth of the meere free decree of God and partly because the nature of sinne and consequently the puuishment due to it is not made sufficiently euident and perspicuous by naturall reason Therefore to the end we may haue some infallible certainty herein we are to recurre to the diuine Oracles of Gods written word in the which we are able to see what the holy Ghost by his Prophets other pious men haue pronounced of this point and especially of the paines of the wicked whereof we now intreate 1. The first testimony then may be taken out of Deuteronomy c. 23. in that most admirable and propheticall Canticle or song of Moyses Ignis succensus est c. Fire is kindled in my wrath and shall burne vnto the bottome of hell and shall consume the earth with her encrease and set on fire the foundation of the mountaines In which words fiue things are to be considered First that the fire with the which sinners shal be punished is already kindled both because the fire of hell is prepared from the beginning as our Lord insinuateth in Matth. 25. and the like is in Esay 30. as also in that though that fire with the which the world shal be consumed be not already enkindled yet it now existeth in Gods most certaine prescience and preordinance For what is certaine to come by the force of Gods decree is said after a propheticall manner now to exist or to be
to the â—â—ue doctrine of the being and not being of a Deity For if there be no supreme oâ— celestiall power then all these acts by the which he is contemned and ignominiously treated are good both because they are certaine protestations of an infallible and secret truth as also in that they fitly serue are of force to take away from mens mynds the false perswasion of the being of a God and his Prouidence no otherwise then as Contumelyes and disgraces committed against the Idols of the Gentils are laudable and good because by those actions we testify no true diuinity to be in those Idols for nothing is more coÌ„temptible then that which neither is nor cannot be Seauenthly it might seeme to follow that the world were as a ship floating on the sea without any Mast or Pylot or as a mighty Commonwealth consisting of all kynds of men in the which there is no lawes no Iudge no gouernour nor any Procurer of tranquillity peace and common good And if it be so how then can the world continue especially seing it consisteth of so different contrary and repugnant things For as a ship without a directour is violently tossed to and fro till it fall vpon some Rock or sands or be ouerwhelmed with flouds or as a Commonwealth wanting a magistrate and ruler wasteth it selfe away with intestine seditious murthers and other calamities so must the world be most exorbitantly and inordinatly menaged and in the end be dissolued through a colluctation and fight of contraries if there be no power which is to sterne the same and to procure a simpathy and accord amoÌ„g those contraries Eightly it followeth that all this vniuerse and disposition and framing of the parts thereof existeth thus by chance For if there be no diuyne power which framed the parts of it digesting them into this forme which now we see then is it necessarily to be acknowledged that it hath its being by chance according to the opinion of Democritus who maintained that all things were first framed of a casual force concourse of Atomi or smal indiuisible bodyes But what is this but mere doting madnes and want of reasoÌ„ for how can it be that that whose frame and making existeth with so great reason prouidence and iudgement should haue its being by chance One seeth a most sumptuous building framed withall art skill all Architects admire the structure of it question being asked who made this curious edifice It is answeared that it is made by no body but that there was long since a mountaine in the same place stored with trees that it falling a suÌ„der through an Earth quake the parts of this mountaine being thus shiuered did through meanes of this collision and fall cast and frame theÌ„selues casually into this curious forme of a pallace Now who is so simple that would belieue this And yet such is the like case in the stupeÌ„dious fabrick of the whole world maintayned not to be made by the hand of any diuine Power These and many other like absurdities incongruences and impossibilities do rise and result from the foresaid deniall of a Deity a Prouidence all which how aduerse they are to all shew of truth how repugnant to the very light of reason how fearefull and dreadfull to be but spoken in words who seeth not Wherefore it followeth that that principle which is the fountaine of such pudled aud stinking waters must of necessity be most far distant estranged from all truth But heere some may reply that euen a false perswasion in matters of religion conduceth much to the deterring and withdrawing man from wickednes and to the perswading and inuiting them to probity iustice and other vertues For the Heathens who belieued diuers Gods to be according to the multitude and diuersity of humane affaires and that their negotiations businesses were guyded by the prouidence of the said Gods that they rewarded and chastised men according to their different deserts al which things were false and impossible did notwithstanding from this strong setled coÌ„ceyt of theirs abstaine from many iniuries offences and enormities as thinking the Gods to be offended therewith and that themselues should be punished by them for the same either in this world or in the world to come I answere hereto and say that this perswasion of the heathens was false in particuler to wit in thinking that there was such a multiplicity of Gods as also in thinking that such and such were Gods as Iupiter Saturne Pallas c. the like and that they had the charge of mens affaires but their persuasion was true in generall that is in thinking that there was a diuyne power that mens affaires were subiect to his prouidence and that he exacted an account of them Wherefore when the Heathens either abstained from euill or did good through feare of offending their Gods or desire of pleasing them they were moued thereto not through any perswasion as it was false in respect of such a God but as it was true in generall Only they did â—rte in the Obiect to wit in ascribing a diuinity and Prouidence to those to whome they ought not and in worshipping it in them Therefore they did not take away or deny the true and formall reason of a deity and of Prouidence but they affirmed and maintayned it and therefore retayned after a certaine manner the true foundation of Politicall iustice But if there were no diuine Power nor any Prouidence then were this foundation of theirs most fictious and false euen in generall and consequently it could haue no force towards vertue and probity of maÌ„ners or if it hath any as by experience we find it to haue then followeth it euideÌ„tly that it is not a thing forged and inuented but most true and vndoubted THE 13 REASON DRAVVNE FROM the Immortality of the Soule CHAP. XV. IF it be so ordayned that the reasonable soule shall not be extinguished with the body but after the death of the body it shall liue and be immortall then there can be no reason pretented for the denying of a diuine power a Prouidence for if the lowest spirit be incorporeall intelligent and immortall why should not then there be a supreme spirit endued with the same proprietyes Since where there are seuerall degrees of natures it is as necessary that there be found one supreme degree as well as the lowest and midle degrees Now it is shewed aboue that there are certaine degrees of spirits far more excellent then mans soule but vnder the soule of man â— there is no lower degree for it selfe is the lowest seing that it is manifest that the soules of beasts do dye with their bodies Furthermore if mans soule be immortall then can we not doubt but there must be after this life a retribution of deeds actions to wit reward for vertue and punishment for vyce for it is most absurd to affirme that those Soules which while they were here