The first Obiection.

THere are three cōditi­ons Arist. l. 2. Phys, c. 2. necessary to a finall cause, the one is, that it be the last point of the opera­tion; the other is, that the worke bee finished for the loue thereof: if the first bee found in death, the second (which is the principal) falls, seeing that the actions of life tend not vnto death, as to their deare and best beloued. Answer. I said not that death was the finall cause of life, but the way; yea, the onely [Page 17] way which leades vs vnto it, and that for the loue of that great and foueraigne good, which is ioyning to the gate of death, we should desire it, and not bee amazed at it, af­ter the example of S. Paule, who writing to the Philip­pians, desired to be dissolued, c. 1. v. 23. and to be with Christ, the which was farre better for him, that he might bee crow­ned with a crowne of Iustice, 2. Tim. 4. and enioy that vnspeakeable good, as hee saith else-where. But some Infidels will say, I demand proofes hereof fauo­rable to my reason. I answer, that hee hath put the flame of reason into thy vnderstan­ding, who doth illuminate e­uery man which commeth into the world, hath presen­ted his grace vnto thee in the [Page 18] Gospell to beleeue, and there is nothing but the barre of thy sinnes that doth hinder thee: neither is this Gospell concealed from any, but such as haue the eyes of their vn­derstanding blinded by the Prince of this world. But if thy reason, beeing blinded, cannot apprehend the soue­reigne Good which is in death: yet shall you plain­ly see a meere priuation from all miseries; an absolute rest and a tranquility which can­not be interrupted; and ther­fore if there were no other but this reason, death should cause no amazement, but ra­ther giue contentment, con­sidering the estate of this life.

The second Obiection.

PAllaces, Temples, and other buildings, yeeld a pittifull spectacle when we see them ruined: and what shall man doe, who exceedes in excellency all buildings; yea, the earth, the heauen, and all that we behold? what can hee doe, lying vpon the earth in death, but perplexe our mindes?

To this I answer by distin­ction to the similitude, and then I flatly deny the appli­cation. I say therefore to the [Page 20] first proposition, that there are two sorts of demoli­shings, the one is necessary, and wisely vndertaken for a better structure; the other is preiudiciall and vndiscreetly done, by reuenge for a totall ruine; I confesse that this in its deformity, should giue cause of horror, but I cannot confesse that the like is in death, in the demolition of man, but onely the first: for as a wise master of a familie, when hee sees that his house threatneth ruine, that it sinks in many places, and the walls open, commands it to be pul­led downe, that with the ru­ines and materials hee may raise another to cōtinue ma­ny yeares: euen so nature, a most expert. Architectrice, seeing man ladē with woūds, [Page 21] deiected with misery and me­lancholy, cōsumed with age, and grown cro [...]ked with the gou [...]e, & catar [...]es, sowe [...] him co [...]uptible in the graue, that 1. Cor. 15. 42. after many changes, she may raise him incorruptible by the powerful voice of Christ. Ioh. 5. 25. If the earthly habitation of this mansion bee destroyed, saith the Apostle S. Paule, we haue a dwelling with God, 2. Cor. 5. that is to say, an eternal house in heauen, which is not made with hands: and therefore we sigh and desire so much to be cloathed with our mansi­on which is in heauen, and this is for our soule, expect­ing the Resurrection of her body: And this body, sayth the same Apostle, being sown in dishonour, shall rise againe 1. Cor. 15. 43. 44. 45. in glory, sowne in weakenesse [Page 22] shall rise in strength; and sowne a sensuall body, shall rise a spirituall body. What thē can man produce against this, but onely some murmu­ring of his Incredulity, that it exceedes the bounds of rea­son, without the which hee will not assure himselfe of a­ny thing? I answer, that the full perswasion of that which is written in the holy word, is well grounded vpon faith, a particular gift of heauen to all true Christians, touching the returning of our bodies: as for the reasonable coniec­ture of our future life after death, I deny that this hath beene altogether vnknowne to men guided onely by the instinct of nature, and I will proue my assertion sufficient­ly in the 39. Argument, if [Page 23] God so please.

To this first consolation, we will adde a second, that is, nature finding the declining and wasting of the substance of man, came by a sacred ma­riage to stay some portion in the matrix of his deare moi­ty, and to fashion and bring forth many other reasona­ble creatures, at diuers times, creatures which haue the same flesh and bones of fa­ther and mother. And if it be true, that a good friend is a second selfe, what shal a good sonne bee, but himselfe with­out any addition? whereby is plainly manifested, what Ma­crobius saith, that the body Lib. 7. of his Saturnales. recoiues three aduantages of the reasonable soule, that is to say, he liues, he liues well, and in succession of time, he [Page 24] remaines immortall: Eccle­siasticus goeth [...]art her, saying That if the father of a childe dyes, it is all one as if hee were not dead; for hee hath left his like behind him, hee hath seene him, and hath ioyed hauing left one who shall take reuenge of his ene­mies, and requite his friends.

And this was it which mo­ued that great Law-giuer Plato, to make a law, that e­uery Lib. 4. c. 30. de Legib. man at a comperent age should marrie a wife; else he shuld be called before the Iudge, condemned in a fine and declared infamous; for that (as he afterwards sayth) euery man should consider in himself, that there is a certen power & efficacie of nature, which makes men to purchase an Immortalitie: he would [Page 25] inferre, that whosoeuer leaues children doth reuiue in some sort in them. It is an order of nature which we must in­violablie obserue, ingendring we perish of the one side, but we begin again of the other. If our parents by their fading and dying substance had not giuen vs life, we could not haue entred into it of our selues; what wrong is it if nature doth that of vs for our children, which she bath done of our Parents for vs? Moreouer death (which is a priuation of life) is a begin­ning of life in nature, remay­ning in the first matter, by the which she disposeth her selfe to a new forme, not to continue still at this defor­med spectacle. Thirdly, wha [...] great deformitie see you in [Page 26] death, which is not in him that sleeps? Fourthly, that de­formitie which may be, is not seene by him whom it concernes, it is to the sur­uiuor [...] that it should be hide­ous: but most commonly they find it pleasing, reaping by that meanes large succes­sions, elboe roome, freedome from comptroll: and if it were otherwise, the world would not be able to con­taine vs. And thus much for the first part of the obiecti­on; As for the 2. which re­sembleth the demolishing of building to death, this simili­tude hath no proportion, yea it is contrary to the state of the question; for what makes a ruined building deformed? It is the disorder we see in it, it is but a heape of stones and [Page 27] timber; the stones are not layd in order one vpon ano­ther, neither is the timber raised as it ought to be: It is then the forme that wants when as the materialls re­maine: but in man, or rather a dead carcase, the soule which is the forme receiues no blemish, she is freed from the surprises of the graue. Thou doest not complaine that the egge-shell is broken, when a chicken comes forth: neither is the body of man to be lamented when as the soule flies away. But what great difformitie doest thou see in a dead body? thou seest little or no diffe­rence at all with one that sleeps; this doth not terrifie thee, why should the other a­maze thee? especially if thou [Page 28] doest consider that the body which is dead, is truely a­sleepe, the which is a subiect of an other discourse, as we shall see if God please. But all things haue their period, the ladder his last staffe, and life her last degree. Thou did­dest ascend ioyfully, so must come downe againe with the like content, if in the last steppe or in the midst thou beest not carried away acci­dentially by some violent death; but to returne to the place where thou hast beene taken, thy nature doth ex­hort thee, yea it forceth thee. If too vniust, thou doest not willingly giue thy consent: looke into the degrees of life, and this contemplation will giue thee cōsolation against death: when thou wert borne [Page 29] into the world, there was found in thee an appetite to some substāce or meat with­out thy selfe, the which ha­uing beene supplied thee, and sent by the mouth into the stomacke, was conuerted in­to a conco [...]ted iuyce, and then transformed into bloud by the liuer, refined into spi­rits by the heart, and finally fitted to thy decaying body: thou didst receiue nourish­ment, force, and Ioy, these are the first degrees of life: then climing higher thou hast extended the fiue facul­ties of thy senses, thine eye to see beautiful things, thine eares to heare melodious sounds, thy nose to smell pleasing sents, thy mouth to tast holesome and delightfull sauours, and thy hand to [Page 30] handle smooth and wel poli­shed things; these are other degrees of the same life: At length the reasonable soule comes to play his part, the vnderstanding desires to know whatsoeuer the sences apprehend: whatsoeuer his eye sees, his eare heareth, his hands touch; and moreouer what they neither see, heare nor touch, reason flying to his age giues some light, con­tributes discourses and lends him Counsell; Memorie a faithfull register keepes a Iournall booke of all; and will quickned by the goodly obiect which presents it selfe to the vnderstanding, giues her consent and keepes all ioyfull: so as by the Imagi­nation which is alwayes rea­dy at the first sommons, that [Page 31] which hath once pleased the minde is often repeated; and these are the last and good­liest degrees▪ of life, after which a wise man should pre­pare himselfe to decline, & it he will not doe it willing­ly, his owne temper which had raised him, will draw him & force him thereunto mau­gre his resistance: the na­turall heate diminisheth, the Imagination (which consists in a certaine point of heat) growes weake, the radicall moysture consumes, and the memorie is lost; reason doats for that the memorie is not firme enough, nor the Imagi­nation strong▪ to conclude, the will can no more loue any thing, shee is still way­ward and displeased, and the vnderstanding doth nothing [Page 32] but doa [...]e, for that the vi­gour and vertue of the sences is decayed; they which were wont to make a faithfull re­port of al things in this world vnto the soule, haue no more any power, the sight growes dimme, the hearing hardned the smelling verie dull, the mouth without tast, the bo­dy without appetite, the hands knotted with the Goute. Finally, it is no more what it was. And how then should these building of the bodie, subsist? seeing the foun dations decay daily. This fa­cultie which desired and re­ceiued sustenance is altoge­ther distasted, that fierie ver­tue which did concoct it, suf­fers it to goe downe all rawe; finally, that power which did nourish and giue strength [Page 33] vnto the body, is now be­come vnable, so a [...] the bodie withers, growes crooked and leane, and in the ende dyes. Thou doest imagine (O [...]) that this last period of [...]y bodies fayling is very horri­ble, thou doest beleeue it▪ but thou art deceiued, seeing it giues a finall end to all other defects which troubled thee & made thee wayward. Alas wouldest thou alwaies liue & languish in this pittifull in­fancie, to which thy many yeares doe reduce the? re­member what thou some­times desired, seeing these old men twise children, when as thy reason and iudgement (being [...]ound and perfect) made thee conceiue what a pittie and miserie it was to liue in that estate: remember [Page 34] (I said) that thou desiredst not to liue so long, now the effect of thy desire, the ende of thy life offereth it selfe, which thou canst not, nor maist in reason refuse.

The third Obiection.

THe rest of the minde is the happinesse of life, to the which man i [...] led of himselfe, if he doth not wretchedly resist it; for his owne reason makes him easely and distinctly to know his soule, his bodie, and those thing which are for his body: she teacheth him that onely [Page 35] his soule is his, and that his body and those things which concerne it, depend of an o­ther; and therfore should not affect them but so far as they are profitable: and not be troubled for any accident that shall befall them, as not concerning him, seeing it toucheth not the soule: so as the spirituall and bodily in­firmities to which the bo­dy is subiect, as pouertie, re­proach and disdayne of men; which may happen to a man without de [...]rt, should be in­differēt vnto him, seeing they are out of his power. As for that which is in his power, as to allowe, desire, poursue the good and good things which are honest and according vn­to reason; and contrariwise to hate and flye the euill, hee [Page 36] applyes himselfe [...] [...]o eas [...]y, [...] ▪ [...] he [...] cont [...] vnlesse [...] death comm [...] betweene do [...] inter [...]pt this happi [...], and [...].

The Answer▪ It is true that the [...] of [...] doth [...] in [...] parts▪ at all [...] a [...]d in [...] ­uery place. And it is also true that the very meanes [...]o at­tai [...]e vnto it is ve [...]ue▪ But it is likewise [...] that [...] the one nor the other can be obtained in this life▪ all wee can haue is but a shadowe of the one and the other, as far different from the [...]ffect as night is from day; for night [Page 37] is the shadow, and the day is the light of the Sun: which is [...] cause [...]hat they which in [...] o [...] a [...] full of dagerous beasts, being surpri­zed by night, desire nothing more [...] to see day appa [...] so [...] that are in this life should desire nothing but to see the day of the Lord, & the Sun of Iustice to shine vpon th [...]m▪ I [...] they [...] it no [...] ▪ they are not t [...]ue [...]n but [...]tish, hauing taken the ha­bit of beasts. But to answer more categorically to these S [...]oicks▪ [...] especially [...]o Epict [...] from whom this obiection is drawne, to say that the bodie and those ex­ternall thing [...] which hap­pen vnto man, should not bee respected of him, it is the farthest from reason [Page 38] that can be, euen to the vulgar fort, who whollie runne after honour, riches and pleasure: and to say that a man in some great Infir­mitie either of bodie or minde feeles no paine, were to make a iest of himselfe. Aristotle (called the [...]ye of reason) is not of that opini­on; these are his words in his Booke of Manners: It is Elbi. ad Nicoma [...]. L. 1. c. 8. impossible (faith hee) or verie hard, that any one should do wel without means and preparation. Many things are effected by friends, by wealth, by credit and authoritie; and they that are depriued of these thinges blemish their happinesse, like vnto them that are issu­ed from obscure parents, who neither haue children, [Page 39] nor good children, or that are crooked.

For he is not perfectly hap­pie that is deformed, of a base race, and without issue. This is too much; see what Antipater one of the great authors of the Stoicks sayth, who attributs something, al­though but little, to exterior things.

But what sayth Seneca? the Seneca. Epis [...] 92. wise man writes, that he is happie, yet he can neuer at­taine vnto that Soueraigne good, vnlesse the naturall Instruments be propicious. And although the bodie, and the exterior things be not the soule which is the prin­cipal sea [...] of happines, yet are they accessories, Instruments and meanes which God hath ordayned and vnited; and [Page 40] therefore they should tast of the happinesse of the soule, if there be any, as the fire d [...]s­perseth his heat in the ayer that doth enuiron it. As for the other ground of this imaginarie felicitie that man doth easily apply himselfe to seeke that onely which is ho­nest and according vnto rea­son: it is a greater Parodoxe then the precedent; for the most vertuous man in the world hath a continual com­bate against vice, & is neuer at truce; how then hath he any peace or rest? The eye o [...] his vnderstanding is daze­led at the shinning of his [...]o­ueraigue good; his wil straies from the true ende, or in ayming mistakes one for an other: and therefore most commonly if hee be not di­rected [Page 41] and animated from a­boue, he followes that which he should fly, and flyes that which he should follow, so as he shall neuer hit the white, now win the Crowne of Iu­stice, which is the true feli­citie of man. Let vs then con­clude with S. Iohn That what 1. Iohn. 3. Coloss. 3. we shalbe doth not yet ap­peare; with S. Paul, That our life is hidden in Christ: That it is in safe keeping, and that the ende of this mortall life is the beginning of the immortall. Let vs say in the ende, that all things haue their Periode, that wee are borne to liue. We liue to die, and wee die to liue againe, but without any more tur­ning, for the Circle shalbe returned to his point and the light of the bodie shall suffer [Page 42] no more eclipse: Come then O gentle death, which doest make an end of the miseries of this world, and beginnest the happinesse of Heauen; which dost free vs from mor­tall paine, and bringest vs to enioy immortall good, which doest conuert our teares and toyles into ioy & rest, which doest change our fantasticall treasure into that which is certaine, and our temporall into spirituall and eternall. Retire then O you deceitfull vanities, for the charme of your pleasures cannot pre­uaile with me who am resol­ued to die; hold your tongue also O vaine deception of Philosophie and humane tra­dition; for I am taught by the death of my Sauiour, & by his resurrection, that my [Page 43] greatest perfection is, to ac­knowledge my imperfection, my blindnesse, my death in my sinnes: and that my grea­test happynesse in this world is to obteyne remission of my sinnes, and to mortifie my corrupted members, to the end, that a good death may soone bring mee to the ha­uen of saluation, and eternall life,

Amen.

An Obiection.

[Page 53] WHatsoeuer thou Eccles. 7 the last verse. sayest or doest, re­member thy end, and thou shalt neuer sinne, sayth the son of Syrach. Answ. the continuall meditation of death to him that knowes it rightly, helpes wonderfully vnto vertue. And Seneca say­eth, Epist. 121 that man is neuer so di­uine as when hee doth ac­knowledge himselfe to bee mortall. Yea it auailes in Christian duties; but that the feare of death is profitable to any thing, I cannot compre­hend.

I will not deny but that many haue bene wonderfully stirred vp to piety by the feare of death, as among o­thers, the historie makes mentiō of Peter Vualdo in the yeare 1178. who in the city of [Page 54] Lyons sometime, being as­sembled with many of the chiefe of the Citty to recre­ate themselues, it so happe­ned that one of them fell downe suddenly dead: Vualdo a rich man was more mooued then all the rest, and seized with feare and apprehension, he addicted himselfe more to do penance, and to meditate true piety.

But who doth not see that it is not properly death which causeth this inclination to pietie, but the iudgement of God, which wee discerne through death as through a glasse? that it is the worme of Conscience which doth a­waken vs by the contempla­tion of Death, and stirres vp sinners to iustice & sanctitie? It is the ignorant confusion [Page 55] of the second death with the first, which doth so strongly amaze men. Finally, it is a seruile feare and not com­mendable, yea, condemned of the Pagans themselues, to forbeare to doe euill for Horace Oderunt peccare ma­li fohmidi­ne poenae. feare of punishment. Let vs conclude then, That this first death, which is naturall and common to all men (seeing that her poyson hath beene quenched in the bloud of Christ, as Tertullian speaks; seeing that the Crosse: of Ie­sus Christ hath pulled away her sting, triumphed ouer her, and giuen a counter-poyson for the poyson of sinne) it is not euill, but the greatest good that can arriue to mor­tall men: and to feare to ob­tayne so great a good is a vice and no vertue, before all [Page 56] vpright Iudges.

The first Obiection.

THe vnequall Issue of The An­swer. life which we see hap­pen to men, doth not alter, but rather corroborate destinie: it is the immutable decree of the Eternal, he sees who should amend or im­paire in this life, he that hath made all for his glory, euen the wicked for the day of calamitie: And therefore [Page 69] he soone tooke vp Enoch to himself, lest that malice shold corrupt his spirit, sayth the text. Contrariwise, if Constan­tine the Great, who was cruel in his youth, had beene cut off, he had not bin a Christi­an, neither had hee so much extended the kingdome of Christ. There is yet another reason, which is, the deliue­rance of good men from the miseries of the world, when death comes: I will gather thee vp with thy fathers, sayd God, to Iosias the good King, 2. Kin. 22. to the end thy eyes may not see all the miseries which I will bring vpon this place. On the other-side a long life is a great languishing to the wicked: So Caine after his parricide committed, was cursed of God, and liuing, so [Page 70] pursued by the Iudgement of God, as he often cried out Gen. 4. 13. that his punishment was in­supportable, and therefore hee should wander vpon the face of the earth, and that whosoeuer should finde him would kill him: but God pro­uided, setting a brand vpon his fore-head, to the end no man should slay him. But how comes it that the death of some is suddaine, as the shot of an harquebuze cānot bee more suddaine; and so long in others which lan­guish of some long infirmi­tie? I answere, that to search into the Counsells of God, (which is properly the desti­ny wherof we speake) is more infinite then to seeke the bot­tome of a gulph. That great Apostle rapt vp to the third [Page 71] heauen, finds nothing but depths, incomprehensible Iudgements, and wayes im­possible to be found out. Rom. 11. Moreouer I do not see (to speake truely) that death is more suddaine to one then to an other is it to them that being sound and vi­gorous, are so strooken as they die presently? Yet be­ing thus strooken they know not whether they should sur­uiue it or no, seeing some one hath escaped being thus stro­ken. Wherefore I do not see that death is more slow to one then to an other. Is it to them that lie bedred 10. or 20. yeares? yea, and what know they whether they shal die the first day they take their beds?

To conclude I say, that see­ing [Page 72] the comming of death is imperceptible, and that it is impossible for any man to say assuredly I am dead, or I shal suruiue; that death cannot be suddaine or slow to any man, other men iudge after the e­uent, but not before. And therefore it seemes to mee that the question which is made, whether a languishing death or a suddaine be most to be desired, is in vaine, for that we shall find that death is suddaine to all men, see­ing it comes so swiftly as no man can feele it: For so was the will of the Eternall, to the end that mortall man should bee alwayes ready to die, and not delay when hee feeles it, for it is insensible.

The second Obiection.

EXperience hath and doth dayly verifie, that they which haue easily giuen credit to the predicti­ons of future things, are for the most part in the end de­ceiued: Niceas King of Syracu­sa found it true to his cost, for confidently beleeuing his di­uines that his death was neere, he wasted his treasure in all kinds of excesse, and li­ued in want all the remain­der [Page 74] of his life, which did far exceed the terme of his pre­diction. Aboue all the lamen­table taking of Constantinople by the Turkes is memorable: The Grecians bewitched with a certaine old prediction, that the day would come when a mighty enemie shold seaze vpon most of the forts of Constantinople, but being come to the great place cal­led the brazen Bull, he should be represt and driuen out by the Inhabitants, who to resist him had seazed vpon this place: The Constantinopoli­tanes giuing credit he eunto, hauing abandoned their strongest defences, retire into this place, wher they attend the Turke; but they falnt, are put to flight, slaine and sackt, and so to the great preiudice [Page 75] of Greece, the Imposture of their Prophecie was mani­fest.

Answer: I grant the Maior of the proposition, and doe confirme it by the Law of God. Let no diuiner be a­mong you vsing diuinations, nor regarders of times, nor any that vse predictions, nor Sorcerer, &c. Whosoeuer vseth any such thing is abo­minable to the Lord. And what should not Christian Magistrats doe herein, seeing they are forbidden by infidels Mecaenas, speaking to Augustus the Emperor, of the gouern­ment of the Common weale, sayth; That there ought not to be any Soothsaier in the Common weale, for all such kinde of men in speaking sometimes truth, most com­monly [Page 76] lie, and are the cause of Innouations and troubles. The Turkes Empire obserue the like prohibition, accor­ding to the Al [...]aron which sayth, that all kinde of diui­ning is vaine, and that God alone knowes all secrets.

But according to this de­position I denie the Minor, and add, that in all my pre­cedent discours, there is not a word which tends any way to the maintayning of Astro­logers, to heare and beleeue them. I did produce some Histories to proue that our dayes are so determined by God, as they cannot exceed their bounds prescribed; and this doctrine is true, holy & diuine. Behold the Oracles: Man borne of a woman is of a short life, & fall of cares &c.

[Page 77] His daies are determined, thou hast the number of his moneths with thee; thou hast prescribed his limits, which he shal not passe: And Dauid sayth vnto God. My times are in thy hand: and therefore Christ is dead and risen, that he might cōmand both ouer the dead & liuing, sayth S. Paul, Rom, 14. 9.

The Iewes would haue put Christ to death before his time, but they could not; they sought (sayth the Gospell) to lay hold of him, but no man did it, for that his houre was not yet come. The time of Ie­sabels death and the ende of her wickednes was accompli shed; the time of her death & the place had bin foretold by the Prophet Elias: Iehu was chosē to execute this decree, 1. King. 21. [Page 78] he did it without any regard till after the euent. He runnes furiously into the towne of Iesrehel, where Iesabel was, af­ter whom he sought: Iesabel thought to stay him with her painted face, and with the charme of her affected looks which she cast from her chā ­ber window, but Iehu com­manded 2. King. 9. 30. 31. &c. they should cast her downe; which was done, and her bloud rebounded a­gainst the wall & against her houses: (the Scripture addes) being entred he did eate and drinke, & after sayd, Go now and burie this cursed woman for she is the daughter of a king; but they found nothing remayning, but the skull, the feete & palmes of the hands, whereof they made report to Iehu; who said, It is the word [Page 79] of the Lord which he had de­liuered by his seruant Elias, say ing, that in the field of Iesreel the dogs shold eate the flesh of Iesabel. And as God for the edification of his Church, wold rayse vp Prophets to de clare his promses or threats: so w [...]uld he somtimes thurst on certen men to denounce his Iudgements to the world to make them amazed in their euents: to these fortel­lers whensoēuer we finde in them the Propheticall zeale of the Lord, we ought to giue credit as soone as they haue pronounced the word. But to these latter spirits (most com­monly Lyars) we must neuer giue any credit, vntill after the euent of that which they haue foretold. For the thing being past, it is no more [Page 80] doubtfull, we may then be­leeue it, but not before; and this was the meaning of the former discourse. Otherwise it is not lawful to inquire of doubtfull euents of any Ma­gitian, Astrologer & Mathe­matician: yet a wise and iudi­cious man may (without scruple of cōscience) by cer­ten coniectures gathered from the reading of good books, from the vse of things & the obseruatiō of the like; he may (I say) conceiue, pre­sume or suspect which way the destinie tends, and what his ende is, but fearefully & without confidence, not to make a profession of it. God only can search the bottome of his decrees, & none other without his particular and expresse assistance, no not the [Page 81] Angels neither good nor bad: the determinatiō of our dayes is one of his decrees, it can neither be knowne nor stayed by vs. Behold let­ters from heauen to the end we may doubt no more: Man saith Solomon, knowes his Ecclesi. 9. 12. time no more then fishes which are taken in the net, and birds in the snare; so men are snared in the bad time when it falls suddenly vpon them: In vaine therefore doe we feare that which cannot be corrected by vs.

The third Obiection.

[Page 82] IT is writtē that a wiseman shal rule the stars, for that finding himselfe inclyned to some mortall disease by some malignant influence of the stars, he will change the ayre, & correct that bad com­plexion, that it impaire not. We are also commanded to honor the Physition for ne­cessities sake, by reason of the Phisicke which he ministers for the preseruation of life. Moreouer, Gods prouidence hath not imposed any neces­sity in humaine actions, whereof he is Lord, and espe­cially of those which depend of his free will; as who can hinder a man from killing himselfe if he please, as many haue done? We reade also in the booke of truth, that the periode of the ruine of Nini­uie, [Page 83] assigned to 40. daies, was Ionas 3. 4. 10 Isat. 38. 1. 5 altered by their repentance. also the execution of the sen­tence of death pronounced to Ezekias, was by his prayers & teares protracted 15 yeares.

Answer. Whatsoeuer it be, Destiny (as Boetius saith) comming frō the immoue­able beginnings of proui­dence, ties together by an indissoluble bond of causes, all humane actions, and all their euents, so as the diuine prouidence is alwayes cer­taine, and alwayes infallible in her euents, not contradic­ting the meanes which the same diuine prouidence hath ordained, whereof some are necessary, others cōtingent. The effects are necessary which haue their cause neer, immediate, conioinct, & ne­cessary: [Page 84] and they are contin­gent which haue a contin­gent cause, and whose effect may happen or not happen; if it happens, God had so ap­poynted it. Thou who foun­dest thy selfe subiect to a dropsie, hast left the reuma­ticke ayre where thou wert, hast abstained from wa­ter, and hast imployed the Phisition, whereby thou hast auoyded the disease and death: God had so ordained it, not onely for the cause, but also for the meanes. Yet let man determine in his full liberty, let him make choyce according to his owne will; yet shall hee not choose any thing but what God hath foreseene and decreed from all eternity. I say there is a gulfe in this question, where­at [Page 85] Tully suffered shipwracke, Lib. de Di­uinat. rather cutting off from pro­uidence, then diminishing a­ny thing from humane liber­ty; so as (wherewith S. Au­gustine doth taxe him) see­king to make men free, hee hath made them sacrilegers; wherefore I will strike saile, for the very name of Desti­ny was distastfull to Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory, for that the Ancients did wrest it to the disposition of the starres: but if any one (saith S. Augustine) attributes the actions of men to Desti­ny, for that hee vnderstands by that name the power and will of God, let him retaine his vnderstanding and cor­rect his tongue. Let vs con­clude with the Poet:

[Page 86] Thus after the Diuines of these times, and the opinion of Chrysippus (hauing beene so purged, as there is no more any feare to stumble at it) may we vse this word of De­stiny. As for the sacred histo­ries obiected, they contradict not the doctrine propoūded no more then the immuta­bility of Gods decrees. That which had beene denounced to the Nineuits, to Ezekias, & to others, was with a condi­tion, if they did not repent; they submitted themselues: so as iustly, and without pre­iudice to the diuine proui­dence, the sentence was made voyde.

But you will say, Where is the expression of this condi­tion? It is vnderstood, and [Page 87] drawne from an infallible consequence of the end of the denuntiation made in the name of the Eternall by Io­nas and Isay: Yet forty dayes and Niniue shall be destroy­ed, cried Ionas: Dispose of thy house, for thou shalt dye the death, and shalt not liue, saith Isay to Ezekias. Why were these trumpets, if God meant to ruine them, & not to saue them, in giuing them warning? Therefore the de­cree of the fatall time, both for the men of Niniue, and for Ezekias was firme, seeing the denuntiation of their death was but a meanes to aduance them to the end and last period of their estate and life.

The fourth Obiection.

IF all bee so disposed by a fat all necessity, why then being sicke, doe I call the Phisition, and why am I commanded to honour him? And why, being found, doe I preserue my selfe from disea­ses, especially those which are contagious?

[Page 89] Answere, I denie the con­sequence of the maior, for that the position of the first and principall cause, con­cludes not the remotion of the instrumentall: the reason is, that God to bring to ef­fect his decrees, would also haue the second meanes and causes imployed; hee doth witnesse it in his word, and in the gouernement of the world, and he hath comman­ded vs to vse them. As there­fore it is not in vaine that the Sunne doth shine and is dar­kened, nor in vaine that the fields are manured and wa­tered from heauen: It is God which hath created light and darkenesse, and it is hee that makes the earth to spring: In like manner it is not in vaine that being sicke wee call for [Page 90] the Physitian, and vse his physicke; it is not in vaine that wee auoyd the infected ayre, and to conclude, it is not in vaine that we eate and drinke: although that God be the authour of our health, yet it is the forsaking of [...] grace and vertue which casts vs into diseases. It is finally hee, who is the powerfull and soueraigne arbitrator of the length or shortnesse of our life: The reason is, that God who by his absolute will and pleasure hath predestinated these ends, hath withall dis­posed of the meanes and wayes tending to the said ends; so as it appeareth, it is not our intention to take from man all care of his life, but onely to put away the su­perfluitie, the immoderate ex­cesse, [Page 91] and particularly the ex­treame feare of death, for that it is vnprofitable, yea, hurtfull vnto him: and there­fore a wise man will willingly obey the aduertisement of S. Basile, which he directs to all Christians: Submit thy selfe, saith he, to the will of God; if thou doest march freely af­ter it, it will guide thee; if thou goest backe thou doest offend it, and yet she will not leaue thee, to draw thee whi­thersoeuer she pleaseth.

Be it the place, the time, or the kinde of thy death, these three things are vncer­taine vnto thee, & out of thy disposition; & therefore thou shouldest rely vpon him who Eccles. 3. 2. Psal. 3. 9 alone knowes the time to be borne and to dye, and who holds thee fast both before & [Page 92] behind. Some one makes ac­count to liue long, but he shal dye sodainely, as it is said in Iob: yea at midnight a whole Iob 34. nation shall be shaken, passe, and the strong stalke carried away. As for the place, some one shall returne from blou­dy battailes who soone after shall dye in his house; finally, some shall escape violent contagions, who shall die of slow feuers, as I haue seene, & any man may easily see in e­uery Countrie. Let vs then conclude this discourse with the verses of Cleanthes the Stoicke, which Seneca hath thus translated:

Whereunto he subscribes saying, So wee liue, so wee speake, and let vs adde, So we die.

The fift Obiection

MAny dissembling the feare which they haue of death, when they come to thinke and speake of some kinde of sicknesse, drawing neere vnto death, and especially of the plague, they cannot finde blacke e­nough to set it forth, nor hor­rour sufficient to abhorre it. But let vs see what reasons they can pretend: It was a great scourge, say they, of the wrath of God, executed vp­on the people for Dauids am­bition, [Page 95] so as there dyed 70. thousand in lesse then one day; threatned in the Apo­calipse to embrace the fourth Apoc. 6. 8. part of the earth.

It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the liuing God. Moreouer, it is an vnspeakeable paine to be burnt with the sore, to bee strangled with the plague, &c. Thirdly, it is a sorrow which exceeds all extreames, to bee abandoned of wife, Father, mother, children, friends, and kinsfolkes. Final­ly, it is a perpetuall griefe to die, and haue no meanes to settle his estate.

Answer. These reasons are but goodly shewes to shad­dow the feare they haue of death, and the shame which lies lurking in their hearts; [Page 96] for seeing they must leaue this life, what doth it import them, whether it be by water, or by land, or by any other, meanes? As for the first rea­son, Dauid wil answere for vs, that we must not iudge rash­ly of the poore man in his torment: His son will adde, that none can discerne whe­ther he be worthy of loue or hatred by that which hap­pens exteriorly: The Apostle will say, The iudgements of God beginne by his owne house: Iob, the Apostles, the Martyrs will manifest by their examples, that they whom God loues are most chastized in this world.

Finally, Iesus Christ will teach vs, That in the blind man so borne, neither his Iohn 9. sinne, nor the sinne of his fa­ther [Page 97] and mother, was the cause that hee was borne blind: that neither the Galile­ans so cruelly intreated by Pi­late, nor the Iewes smothered in the ruines of the Tower which was in Silo, were more guilty then those which had escaped this disaster. A faith­full man is not tempted a­boue his strength, if afflicti­on abounds, consolation will superabound. He dies happi­ly which layes downe his soule with a setled spirit, fee­ling in himselfe the peace & grace of God through Iesus Christ, in the remission of his sinnes. And it is a thousand times better to be quickned by the light affliction of the plague, and to carry away an inestimable weight of glory, then to be smothered in the [Page 98] delights of sinne, and in dan­ger of a finall ruine both of body and soule.

The example produced of Dauid makes for this against the Obiector. Who sinned? Dauid in ambitiously num­bring his people: who is puni­shed? the people: the Greci­ans are plagued for the foo­lish Horat Quicquid dearant Reges, &c. resolutions of their Kings, sayd the ancient Pro­uerbe. But where is the duty of Iustice, will you say? God knowes it; his will is the rule of equitie, it is iust seeing God will haue it so: And on the other side, it was not the wil of God for that it is not right. But we commonly see that the plague layes hold of the poorer sort (whereupon Galen calls it Epidemique, that is to say, popular; where­of [Page 99] the baites are famine, slut­tishnesse and stinkes,) rather then the chiefe of the Towne infected, who notwithstand­ing will be found much more faulty before God.

Looke vpon that long plague which vnder the Em­pire of Gallus, and Volusian continued 15. whole yeares, and which comming out of Ethiopia vnpeopled all the Ro­mane prouinces; reade it and Zonaras Tom. 2. iudge of it.

As for that pretended paine, wee must not appre­hend it to be greater then in simple swellings and Impo­stumes, or in Cauteries; the poison rather mollifying then increasing the paine. But there are two kinds of plagues, as Phisitions do ob­serue; the one is simple, when [Page 100] as the spirits onely are infe­cted by a venemous and con­tagious ayre, which hath bin suckt in by the mouth, or the nose, or that hath gotten in­sensibly into the body by the pores of the skinne, so as a man shal be stroken that shal not feele any thing: it may be, he shall be more faint and heauy then of custome, but with very little heate and al­teration; so as hee shall bee sometimes smothered vp be­fore he feeles any paine. The other is a compound, when as the Contagion seazing the spirits, doth communi­cate his poyson with the foure humours, infects them, and alters them, but without paine, for these humours are incapable: yet these humours beeing infected and altered, [Page 101] infect and alter the parts of the body, in the which they reside, as in the head, the heart, and elsewhere; and there growes the paine, but no greater then in Feauers and swoundings; yea, lesse by reason of the putrid vapour, which doth dull and morti­fie the members, so as the paine is no more then a small incision; yea, lesse then the pricking of a pinne. The greatest is a certaine in­flammation in the hypocon­driake parts, in the bowells which enuiron the heart: for as poyson is the capitall ene­my of life, so this enemy of life strikes furiously at the heart. The worst is a certaine heate whereof the Patient complaines: as Thucidides obserues in the plague which [Page 102] happened at Athens, but what paine in this heat, that is not greater in the burning of a little finger, or in a Tertian Ague? But if your opinion will not yeelde to these rea­sons, inquire of them which haue beene toucht with this infection; they will answer that feare hath beene their greatest paine, and if they had been assured of recouery, they had felt no paine. I know you will reply, that there is a difference betwixt them that recouer, and them that die. But I will answer you, that the paine is equall, yea grea­ter in them that recouer, then in them that dye: they that recouer are more vigo­rous, and the vicious humour stings them, and is more sen­sible then in them that are [Page 103] weaker, when the parts lesse able to resist, are sooner got­ten and lost. As a Leper, ha­uing his flesh infected with Leprosie and rottennesse, feeles little or no paine, in the most sensible pricking: euen so a weake woman hath lesse torment in her deliuerie, although the throwes bee more dangerous; wherein ap­peares the admirable wise­dome of Nature, which doth not afflict the afflicted.

Now followeth the third reason obiected, the abando­ning of wife, kinsfolkes, and friends. Answer. It is an ac­cident which happens sel­dome or not at all this day: hardly can that which life hath vnited by marriage, consanguinity and friendship be dissolued in death. More­ouer, [Page 104] a wise man, who should haue learned to bee content Plato 3. de Repub. with himselfe in life, should not be discontented if he die alone. It was a constant Do­ctrinein the resolute Stoicks, that he is happy that is con­tent with himselfe, and de­pends not vpon any other man, nor vpon any thing in the world; but like Iupiter, liues and moues of himselfe, rests in himselfe, gouernes himself, & enioies his worthy thoughts, as Seneca saith. And how can hee bee happy, who (beeing subiect to anothers Epist. 9. command) is not master of himselfe? Let him drag after him fetters of gold, yet hee shall stil be in fetters. We wil not heere commend the Sti­loons, Timons, and other ha­ters of mē, which like wolues, [Page 105] fled from all company; but those that offering them­selues to company, and see­king their friendship, are wretchedly chased away, and being forsaken of others, re­tire themselues into them­selues, lose nothing, but aug­ment their felicity. So, as Se­neca said rightly, thinke and Epist. 20. desire this thing aboue all the prayers which thou shalt make vnto God, to bee con­tent with thy selfe, and with those things that may spring from thy selfe: What felici­ty, saith he, can be neerer vn­to God? Whereunto Saint Ambrose subscribeth, In what Desart, saith hee, is not that man accompanied, that doth enioy a happy life?

He then that can liue alone, wil neuer grieue to be abādo­ned [Page 106] by men in death, being accompanied by Angels, & by his Sauiour the true God. Thirdly, Physitions, Sur­gions and other expert men imploy themselues for thee, are about they to assist thee, and to restore thee to thy health. Thy wife, thy chil­dren, thy friends, with their teares would bathe thy bed, increase thy sorrow, and be infected with thy disease; It this then better both for thee and them that they be absent. Thou hast proued their affection in liuing, why wouldst thou try it in dying? thou doest leaue thy worldly friends in death, but thou goest to purchase more faith­full and better in heauen, euen Iesus Christ, the Angells and the Saints: whereat then [Page 107] doest thou complaine? thou a Christian, whereas a Pagan reioyceth? Mercurius Trisme­gislus (by the report of Calci­dius) sayd when he dyed, that he returned into his countrie where his kinsfolkes and best friends were. Finally thou ac­cusest thy disease, for that it takes from thee means to dis­pose of thy affayres. A wise man should not forbeare to settle his estate vntill the ex­treamitie of an in curable dis­ease; for he hath then other matters to thinke of then worldly affayres: he should haue foreseene it, and proui­ded in time; a good souldier when the trompet sounds to battaile, doth not begin to discourse of his house, and to thinke of some peece of ground, but prepares to fight [Page 108] for his life is in question. E­uen so a wise man at the point of death should not once thinke of the world, but of the conflict which he hath a­gainst the Diuell and sinne; there is question of his con­science, of the life of his soule of the inheritance of heauen, which he loseth if he be van­quished: our life is vncertain, many other diseases besides the plague, may cut it off so­denly; the Apoplexie, Lethar­gie, Catarre, Squinancie, and many others, when they come leaue no place for af­fayres. Therefore during the time of health let vs com­pound our quarrells with our neighbors, and dispose of our estates with our children & kinsfolks, that we may bee ready at the first sommons of [Page 109] our God, prepared at the first signe of that spiritu­all Combate which shalbe giuen vs, to fight well, to liue or to dye, as it shall please the Lord. Watch and pray, Mat. 24. sayd Iesus Christ to his Dis­ciples, for you know not when that time shall be. And, Let your loynes bo girded, and your candells Luk, 12. light.

The sixt Obiection.

PLato is cited to proue the Minor, who writes 3. de Repu. that man may enioy feli­citie [Page 110] in his body, and that he is happy aboue all the Crea­tures: therefore Gallen in his booke of the parts of the bo­dy, doth wonderfully extoll the author of nature, for ha­uing delt so bountifully with man: And Dauid of more au­thoritie then all these, seemes to sing the praises of the E­ternall for the good he hath done vnto man, saying:

ANswer. All the Philoso­phers except Plato, Gal­len and some few o­thers, being dazeled with the [Page 111] brightnesse of some guists re­maining in man after his shipwracke in the beginning of the world, did not poure forth such prayses of the condition of man, but in a manner all with one voice haue called nature, not a mo­ther, but a cruell stepdame, for the many miseries where­with shee hath ouercharged man, as we see in Tully, and as Cic. lib. 3. de repub. Saint Augustine reports. E­uen so Aristotle (who is held the Ensigne bearer of Stob. serm. 69. Philosophers) being deman­ded what man was, he is, say­eth he, the patterne of Im­becillity, the booty of time, the sport of fortune, the i­mage of inconstancy, the ballance of enuy and calami­ty, the rest is nothing but spittle and choller. Demccri­tes [Page 112] also required to giue his aduice of the condition of man, answered, that it was a miserable fortune, seeing that the goods which were care­fully sought after, hardly came vnto him; but miseries which were not sought for, nor any way expected nor suspected, ranne vnto him: Wherefore the Comedian Ne­optolimus being demanded what admirable thing hee did obserue in Aeschilus, So­phocles, and Euripides: No­thing, sayeth hee, in their words doth amaze mee, but that which I haue seene touching Philippe, who celebrating the marriage of his daughter Cleopatra, and being at a stately supper ho­nored with the name of the 13. god, was the next day [Page 113] stabbed and cast vpon a dunghill.

But you will say, This life wants no pleasures. Without doubt (if you obserue them well) they are poore plea­sures, bitter, pinching, and in­termixt with displeasures; yea in laughing the heart shalbe grieued, & his ioy end with care, sayeth Salomon in Pro. 14. 13 his Prouerbes. He also run­ning ouer breefely in Ecclesi­astes, the vanity, toyle of the body, vexation of mind, and heauines of soule, concludes, That he thinkes him more happy that was neuer borne, then the liuing or the dead; for, sayeth hee, he hath not seene the bad workes which are done vnder the Sunne. As for that passage of the Psalme alledged, it makes no­thing [Page 114] to the purpose, for that he considers not man as he is, but as he was in his in­tegrity and innocencie in the earthly Paradice, or as hee is Eccle. 4. restored in Iesus Christ man, as the Apostle expounds it in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Chap. 2. That no man was for his transgression degraded from the rancke he held, and lost the priuiledges he had, it ap­peareth by the comparison of that which he is, with the titles which are giuen him.

1. God had made man.

2. Sinne had vndone him, and all his naturall life is but a spirituall death. Ephes. 2. 1.

3. That is to say, with a true, perfect and healthfull knowledge of God, of his wil and of his workes.

4. Hee hath lost all that, [Page 115] and there hath succeeded ig­norance, blindnes, & strange darkenesse.

5. His desire and actions were conformable to the lawes of God.

6. All that is depraued, and there is nothing but a horri­ble confusion in his will and actions.

7. He was absolute Lord ouer all Creatures, which trembled at his looke, and brought him fruits accor­ding to his desire.

8. Now they rebell and assaile him; yea the earth in­stead of good corne, brings forth nothing but thornes & thistles.

9. He had frequent con­uersation with God, inspired of him, and breathing by him.

[Page 116] 10. Now the Prince of the power of the aire, the vn­cleane spirit, workes power­fully in the children of rebel­lion, which are all the sonnes of Adam, Ephes. 2. 2.

11. A glorious angelical and diuine Maiesty did shine in his face.

12. Now they couer their shame with leaues, they hide themselues among the trees, and crie out, Mountains fall vpon vs and couer vs.

To conclude, there is no greater contrariety betwixt day and night, then of these famous qualities to the infa­mous blemishes of man, as he liued in this world before his regeneration, in the which by little and little hee recouers this Iustice, holinesse and trueth, Ephes. 4. 24. But [Page 117] the fulnesse thereof is reser­ued to heauen, whither death leades vs, and therefore to be desired.

An Obiection.

ANswere; When it is said in the holy Scrip­ture that Satan holds the empire of death, that by one man sinne entred into the world, and by sin death; finally that death is the re­ward of sinne; we must not vnderstand it of the naturall death, whereof the question growes, but of the spirituall and eternall death, as many of the ancient fathers doe ex­pound it: And how else could the threatning of God a­gainst Adam be vnderstood, touching the tree of know­ledge of good and euil? Thou shalt not eate; for on that [Page 126] day thou shalt eate of it thou shalt die the death: obserue the words, from that day, for he died not that day, but li­ued long after; but from that day being fallen from grace, he dyed the spiritual death: then what doth this Hebrew phrase to die the death mean but the principall death, which is the eternall, the se­cond death? But this death brought in by Sathan, by sin, by man, hath no power ouer the children of God, & good men (to whom this discourse is onely directed) since that it was subdued, bound and confined into hell by Iesus Christ our Sauiour (as Atha­nasius hath wel obserued) that as the waspe strikes violently against a stone, but hurts it not by her incursion, but ra­ther [Page 127] bruzeth her selfe and looseth her sting; euen so death incountring Christ fu­riously who is life, she could not hold him in her bands, but she hath lost her sting, so as they whom shee terrified before, insult ouer her now. So then death simply, the laying of the bodie into the ground, there to be putrified, the way to heauē, is good to the good, & is giuen of God by nature; life & death are of the Lord, sayth wise Ecclesi. 11. vers. 14. It is he that giues life and death: that maks vs to descend into the graue & to rise againe, saith the Pro­phetesse Anna. 2. Sam. 2. It is then our good mother that calls vs to death, let vs fol­low and obay her voice, see­ing we can receiue no harme [Page 128] and how can it bee hurtfull? seeing it is the sepulcher of vices, and the resurrection of vertues, sayth S. Ambrose: and how how can it bee dange­rous? seeing it is that Toad­stone which by his fecret ver­tue expels and rectifies all vn­cleane things. And in truth, as Toades when they are growne olde and heauy with a fat poyson, are set vpon by an infinite number of Ants, which sucke him and deuour him, so as nothing remaines but the said stone, which af­terwards they may freely handle, yea profitably: So death hauing beene purged from sinne, is now by the al­mighty power of the Eter­nall, conuerted into a most souereigne remedy, against sinne.

The second Obiection.

FOr the proofe of this Ar­gument, shall suffice the approbation of all Crea­tures great and small, which flye from death; the same rea­son is for man, whom the complexion of his flesh, be­ing proportionable to the quality of the Elements, in­clines him to loue the world; he may be where he will, yet his naturall disposition will draw him towards his coun­trey, [Page 130] although in stead of some sweete liquor which he promised to himselfe, hee should drinke wormewood: So man beeing borne in the world, and accustomed vnto it, can hardly leaue it.

Answer. The nature of man doth sometimes affect and abhorre one & the same thing, but for diuers conside­rations: if he beholds death nakedly, there is great feare, as we may discouer in many; but if he can haue the iudge­ment and patience to see her attired in her precious ornaments, with vertue, with heauen gates, by the which onely we are brought in; of the assured ioy and rest of the minde, in the possession whereof shee sets the soule; then doe wee affect it and de­sire [Page 131] it: and this desire should be held more natural in man for that it is more proper vnto him, seeing it pro­ceeds from the true iudge­ment of reason, which makes him man.

Moreouer for a more cleare solution of the argument, we must distinguish the vniuer­sall nature from the particu­lar: vniuersall nature is that vertue that admirable & in­vestigable proportiō infused by God into the Vniuerse, the proper Instrument of the principall agent of this soue­raigne essence, which hauing insinuated into this Chaos the first matter, hath brought it in six dayes too this good­ly ornament, and hath preser­ued it many thousand of yeares: of this nature, we de [Page 132] nie that she plants in beasts the feare of that shee giues them, that is to say, death: but as to shew vnto the beasts of the earth al the lights of hea­uen; as well the fixed stars as wandring, she turnes about the heauens; so to shew vnto heauen all the Creatures, she hath giuen the passage & re­turning of life & death: else it were impossible, if (as in a tree the dry leaues falling giue place to green that spring) so in beasts the first should not giue way to them that follow. As for particular nature (the very cōplexion of euery one) to whom death is so terrible, I say it is an ill ordered feare. The Order is preposterous when as the particular doth not follow the Law of the generall; and it is the ruine [Page 133] of States when as the priuate good is preferred before the publike. The Romaine Em­pire did flowrish when as the Popilij, Scipios, Fabij and o­thers did choose rather to be poore in a rich estate, then rich in a poore estate Euen so is it in the societie of man­kind taken in all ages; euery one must dispose himselfe to follow this generall order of supreme nature, and whosoe­uer shall contradict it, shall shew himselfe a bad Cittizen of this great Cittie of the world: and opposing himselfe let him not therfore think to escape the inexorable desti­nie of his end, but as the bird takē in the limetwig, thinking to free her selfe by striuing, is caught the faster; so man which is ensnared by death, [Page 134] the more furiously hee tor­ments himselfe, the more he shall aduance the obiect of his torment. Let euery one therefore looke vnto his du­tie, to his children, and to them that shall come after, to prepare himselfe to giue them place; here to tends that great desire, the issue of par­ticular nature to ingender, that great care of fathers & mothers in the nourishing, preseruation, education and bringing vp of their children to the end they may sucoted them; and why then? hauing prouided for all, & left yong oliue plants in our old stock, hearing the bell sound a re­tre [...]t, wherefore, I say, should we shew our selues deafe, vn­willing & faynt hearted? The fat all bird drawn by the sent [Page 135] of thy Carcase is perched ouer thy window, & art thou still restie? doest thou not feele thy seditious guests with in thee which cōspireth thy infallible ruine? Nature will haue it so, she commands thee to depart; feare not, fol­thy good mother, and thou shalt do well. Let vs therfore conclude, that although our particular nature, our com­plexion makes vs to abhorre death, yet wee must not be­leeue her, no more then the seruant of the house which is borne to obey. It is the mi­stresse, the vniuersal vertue of the world which commands vs to depart, and to suffer o­thers to enter: let vs follow and obey, all our trembling and horror is in vaine. But to what ende is it (will you [Page 136] say) for me to haue flourish­ing children, if in the meane time I become worms meat? I answer: Thou art not all wormes meat, for the subti­lest part of thee liues in thy children: all thy person is not food for wormes, for thy soule (the most excellēt part) escapes: thou art not long the foode of wormes, for another forme; and it may be another soule shalbe soone adapted.

The first Obiection.

THese miseries (if it plea­seth God) shall not be­fall vs, but where is that warrant from heauen to as­sure vs? The comicall Poet saith, That man cannot be ex­empt from any humane ac­cident: No man liuing can [Page 318] say without warrāt, This shal not happen vnto mee, saith Menander. What befalls to one, thinke it may happen to thee, saith Seneca; for thou art a man: and therefore retaine Epist. 7. 19. this and thinke of it, not to be deiected in aduersity, nor puft vp in prosperity, but haue alwayes before thine eyes, the liberty of fortune, as being able to lay vpon thee all the miseries shee holds in her hand. Man is in continu­all warre vpon earth: Is there not a course of warre orday­ned for mortall men vpon Iob. 7. earth? saith Iob. If he be freed from his enemies abroad, let him beware of some treache­rous Synō at home: Be alwaies ready sayd Iesus Christ, for you know not the day nor the houre: no man is no more as­sured [Page 219] against death then the bird is against the shot of a harquebuze; God would (saith S. Augustine) that wee should watch continually. But if changing thy tune, thou thinkest that thy neigh­bour is not afflicted like thy selfe, and that hee is much more happy, thou art much deceiued: Euery man feeles his owne griefe: Herodotus hath seene it and written it, saying, That if all men liuing Lib. 7. laden with their owne mise­ries, had brought them toge­ther vpon one heape, to ex­change with them of their neighbours; hauing well weighed them and viewed them, euery man would wil­lingly carry backe his owne. Without doubt this present life is so full of miseries, that [Page 320] in comparison thereof death seemes a remedy. A long life is but a long torture, saith S. Augustine. And what other opinion can wee haue, seeing that Iesus Christ, who was giuen vs for a perfect presi­dent, is neuer propounded vn­to vs laughing, but somtimes weeping? as when hee appro­ched the Tombe of his friend Ioh. 11. Lazarus, and when as he wept vpon the ingratefull Citie of Luk. 19. Ierusalem: and therefore the Apostle saith, That in the Heb. 5. dayes of his flesh, hee offered himselfe with great cries and teares to him who could saue him from death: What is that? but to shew vs that this life is not worthy of ioy, but of lamentation; not of laughter, but of crying: as the Philosopher Heraclitus [Page 321] doth esteeme it, who alwayes with a weeping voice did lament the estate of this life.

The second Obiection.

TO denounce death to end the miseries of this life, is (sayth one) to pro pound a carnall end to the li­king of sensuality: Vpon death (sayth another) the pri­uation of thislife, there is no Cataplasme, but of a better life: for the losse of earth, but the enioying of heauen.

Answere. Death is the corruption of the flesh, and a [Page 322] priuation of all the sences: to the end therefore that the remedy may be proportiona­ble to the flesh, it must also be fleshly, sensible and palpa­ble. I grant that in retiring ourselues, we must not think only to fly from humaine mi­series, but rather to draw neere to diuine fauours: But betwixt doing and duty, who doth not at this day see an infinite distance? That elect vessell of the holy Ghost, that great Apostle Saint Paul, Rom. 7. 23. seeles a Law in his members fighting against the Law of his vnderstanding: He com­plaines 2. Cor. 12. 7. there was a thorne thrust into his flesh; the angel of Satan did buffer him: what is this but the relikes of sin, of infirmity, distrust? what glosse soeuer they will set of [Page 323] it. If Saint Paul were such a one, what then are we poore dwarses, wauering and stag­gering? let vs not flatter and seduce our selues, for our workes discouer vs; O God fortifie vs, and make thy ho­ly Spirit to reigne in vs; and attending the happy effect of diuine promises, let vs medi­tate of the Testament sealed with the bloud of Christ.

But if the horror of death which doth threaten vs of e­uery side, comes to hinder our holy meditations, let vs vanquish it by the darts of reason: this may be done, and it is that we ought to doe; The Surgion which hath sercht a wounde, hath appli­ed a fit Cataplasime, hath made his patient without passion or paine, is to be cō-mended. [Page 324] The Philosopher which hath examined the naturall death, hath found o [...]t the cause of the feare it giues, & hath accomodated reasons fit to take awaie this feare, and to assure mans cou­rage; is not to be contemned. I know well that hee which through death hath made vs see the life eternall: hath done more; but this worke is of God and not of men: and if the sacred word of the e­ternall God doe it not, no humaine voice can doe it. But doe you say, there is no Catap [...]sme fit for the losse of a pleasant life, but the hope of a better? Answer; You pre­suppose two suppositions heere which are not; First, that life is full of pleasures. Secondly, that in death wee [Page 325] haue a feeling of the losse, a­gainst that which hath beene and shab be said; to the which I will send the refutation: & in the meane time for witnes of my saying; I propound that great Diuine S. Augustin writing that which follow­eth: The present life is doubt­full, blind, miserable, beaten with the flowing and ebbing of humors, weakened with paines, dried vp with heate, swelled with meate, vndermi­ned with famine, cōfounded with sports, consumed with sorrowes, distempered with cares▪ d [...]lled with pride, puf [...] vp with riches, deiected with pouertie, shaken in youth, made crooked in age, bro­ken by diseases, and tuined by [...] &c. Many great men who ha [...] not wanted [Page 326] any thing for the enioying of all pleasures; yet would they in their life time haue writtē vpon the Marble which should couer them dead, for a conclusion of the Epitaph, these last words: The life and bi [...]h of mortall men is no­thing but toyle and death: as one waue driues on ano­ther, so one miserie thrusts on another: the one is no sooner flying, but the other followes him: And as in the eye, one teare springs of an­other, so one sorrow riseth out of another: as Buchanan hath learnedly written in his Tragedie of Iepthe.

The 3. Obiection.

THis long Iliade of ca­lamities of this pre­sent life, seems to per­swade man to the doctrine of the Stoicks, which is to de­part when it is too trouble­some: so speaks Seneca, A wise man liues as long as he ought not solong as hee could: he will: see, how, with whom, & how he should liue, and what he should doe: if many things fal out troublesome & crosse his tranquillitie, he frees him­selfe, and he doth it not on­ly in the vrgent necessitie, but [Page 328] as soone as fortune seemes suspect vnto him, he cōsiders that it imports not whether he giue himselfe his ende, or that he receiue it. Moreouer that it is wretched to liue in necessitie: but there is no ne­cessity to liue in necessitie. Di­ogenès meeting one day with Speusippus being sickly, & cau­sing himselfe to be carried by reason of the Gout, he called vnto him in these tearmes, God giue thee a good day Diogenes: to whom he answe­red, But God giue you no good day, that being in this estate hast the patience to liue. With the sharpnes of these Cynicall wordes Speu­sippus, was so moued, as con­trarie to the precepts of his sect, he ended his owne life. But let vs produce (if you [Page 329] please) some reasons by the which these men haue deba­ted there follie. The 1. Life and death, say they, are indif­ferent things, and therefore man acoording to his com­moditie may vse them indif­ferently Lucret 3. Wherefore saith [...], As one that is inui­ted, hauing feasted & taken his refection, retyres him­selfe so being glutted with life, why dost thou not depart? O foole why doest thou not imbrace: a pleàfing rest? what interest hast thou that death should come vnto thee, or thou goe vnto it? Perswade thy selfe that this speech is false, and proceeds from an indiscreet man: It is a goodly thing to dye his death, for it is alwayes thy death, and especially that which thou Sen. epist. 69. [Page 330] hast procured to thy self. The 2. Death is the goodliest port to libertie, which is the fruite of wisedome. I will not serue (said that Laeedemoniā child) & cast him down a precipice: Sene [...]. Epist. 26. who learned to dye in con­tempt of seruitude, he is free from all power: what doth a prison, a dungeon or fetters touch him? he hath an open port. The 3. Wherefore hath nature giuē so streight an en­trance vnto life, and hath pre­sēted vnto man so many large issues vnto death, if it shal not bee lawfull for him to depart when he pleaseth? On which side soeuer (said Seneca) thou shalt cast thy miseries, thou shalt finde the end of thy miseries: De Ira, 3. c. 15. doest thou see this precipice by which they descend to li­berty? doest thou see this sea, [Page 331] this riuer, this pit? there is li­berty in the bottome: doest thou see this little tree, croo­ked, cursed? Liberty hangs at it: Doest thou see thy throat, thy heart? These be the fruits of seruitude: Plinie saith, that the earth our common parēt hath (for pitties sake) ordai­ned poysons to this end, that beeing able to swallow them easily, we may with equall fa­cility dislodge out of this world: So in old time, Kings and great men did keepe cer­taine poyson ready for any suddaine vse in the doubtfull euents of fortune, as Titus Li­uius reports: and therefore many haue poysoned them­selues, being valiant, and e­steemed great personages: Zeno being 98. yeeres old, yet strong and lusty; returning [Page 332] from the Schoole, hee stum­bled and fell; and being down hee strooke the ground with his hand, saying, [...]re I am, what wilt thou? And being come to his house, hee layd downe his life of himselfe. Cleanthes hauing an Vlcer in his mouth, and hauing ab­stained two dayes from meat by the aduice of the Phisiti­ons, was cured; Beeing then perswaded by them to eate a­gaine: Oh no, said he, hauing past the greatest part of the way, I will not, I will not returne againe; and so he died of abstinence. We could pro­duce many others much cō ­mended, as Lucrece, Cato, and others, if they were not suf­ficiently knowne.

Answer. I deny that the swarme of miseries of this [Page 333] present life, is a sufficient cause to depart when wee please; the great God which hath placed vs here, must first come and take vs away. Py­thagoras in Tully, forbids to leaue the Corpes de guarde without commandement of the Captaine: as a prisoner breaking prison agrauates his crime, so the spirit violating his body, makes himself guilty of a double torment. And he that hath so strictly forbiddē to kil, meant it as well of him­selfe as of others: And there­fore Virgil platonizing, sings vnto vs, that they which haue inhumanly slaine themselues, hold the first place in hell: As for the vertue which they pretend in it, the most quick sighted Philosopher hath Arist. 3. Ethic. c. 7. seene nothing but feare and [Page 334] foolishnesse, & thus he speaks It is the part of a coward, and not of a valiant man, to dye by reason of pouerty, of loue, Ethie. ad Eud. lib. 3. or for any other thing that is troublesome; it is a faintnesse to flie difficult things; and af­ter, He suffers not death as a good thing, but flying the e­uill.

Finally, he that murthers himselfe, wipes himselfe for euer out of the booke of life; for that he dies impenitent, in the act of sinne, neuer to haue remission after this life, nor (as Saint Augustine sayth) any indulgence of correcti­on. But to come neerer to our Stoickes, wee will first appeale srom Seneca to Epictetus; O men! sayth hee, haue pati­ence, attend God vntill hee giue the signe, that hee hath [Page 335] dismist you from this mini­stery, then returne vnto him. But for the present, support couragiously, inhabite this region in the which he hath placed you; this habitation is short, easie, not burthen­some, &c. The 1. reason in­ferring, that life and death are indifferent, is false; for it is to teare in pieces the sacred communion of the soule with the body, of man with his neighbour, to kill him­selfe. Man is not borne for himselfe, but after God for his Country, which hee depri­ueth of a good son, such as he ought to bee. Aristotle hath Ethic. l. 5. c. vlt. seene it, and hath written it, saying, That he that kils him­selfe doth wrong vnto the Comonalty; but to doe wrong is no indifferent thing: [Page 336] Moreouer, it is a sinne against nature; for euery man loues himselfe, naturally, [...] and de­sires to preserue his being: al­so wee do not see any other Creature, but man, to kill himselfe through impacien­cy of paiue. The 2. reason which speakes so much of li berty, is friuolous and ridicu­lous; for what liberty is there in a dead man? who hath neither the power nor the will to chase away a fly that stings him; who is made sub­iect to all sorts of wormes, rottennes, and stench what is liberty, but a power to do what we list? but death nei­ther hath will, action, nor my power: it a [...]s mos [...] dry in my opinion to produce this de­fence.

As for the third, poysons [Page 337] are giuen by the earth rather to preserue life, thē to destroy it, to make antidotes & pre­seruatiues against malignant and venimous diseases, and a thousand vnexpected acci­dents, by the biting of mad or venimous beasts: omitting the true cause of diuines, that the sinne of man hath infe­cted all, powring forth his poyson vpon the Creatures which e [...]uiron him; & there­fore as Saint Paul sayth, they Rom. 8. sigh and long after their fu­ture restauration. Finally, examples binde vs not, but rules; wee liue not according vnto others, but as we ought: the Law of God is plaine, sealed in the particular na­ture of euery one, Thou shalt not kill, by the which we are forbidden the simple homi­cide [Page 338] of our neighbor, for that he is of humaine blood; next the parricide of father or mo­ther, for we are their blood; which doth much augment the hainousnes of the offēce: 3. The murthering of our selues, which exceeds parri­cide in a degree of horror. To this we must haue regard, not vnto what Zeno, or Cleanthes haue done. And the Stoickes who in all other places so much recommend vnto their Disciples, seemelines, honesty and duty, seeme to me in this point forgetfull, blind & pre­uaricators: what shal we then do? That which a wise Pagan Curt. l. 5. did aduise vs; It is for valiant men, sayd he, rather to con­temne death, thē to hate life. Many times faint hearted mē are driuen to a base cōtempt [Page 339] of thēselues, throgh the wea­rines of labor, but vertue will trie al things: Seeing thē that death is the end of all things, it is sufficiēt to go ioyfully vn to it. To his words we adde, That our intēt is not to take away life, but the terror of death when it comes: a wise man wil liue ioyfully, so long as it shall please the Lord of life: He wil die also more ioy­fully when it shall please the same Lord. This is that he ought to do, and doubtlesse man may without sin desire, yea pray vnto the Lord that hee may liue long for many reasons, but especially for 2. The one concernes the glory of God, in the administratiō of the charge which hee hath committed vnto vs; therefore the Son of God in [Page 340] dying would saue his Disci­ples, by that voice full of ver­tue, which he vsed to the Ro­maine souldiers and Iewes, If you seeke me, let them go: the which preserued them long, especially his well-beloued S. Iohn, whom he retained in life vnto ninety yeares. The o­ther respects our children, parents, and friends, of whom Iohn 18. 8. we may and ought in consci­ence haue a care, seeing that (by the censure of the Apo­stle) hee which hath not a care of his family, hath deni­ed 1. Tim. 5. 18 the faith, and is worse then an Infidell.

But besides these reasons and some others which doe simbolize, I say that the de­sire to liue were not fit, if there were no other reason; sor there is no ceasing from [Page 341] finne so long as life doth last; so as the longer wee liue the more [...]lpable we are before God: So as I maintaine, that the feare to vndergo death, I meane death simply, is al­wayes vicious, foolish and ig­norant.

But to be a Murtherer of himselfe, without compari­son it is much more execra­ble; the Lawes of euery well gouerned Common-weale haue thundred against it: yea the Grecians: in the midst of [...]rmes, (whereas lawes are silent) would not in signe of indignitie, burne the body of Aiax, according to their custome, for that hee had slaine himselfe: The virgins of Milesia for that they had furiously strāgled themselues were drawne by publike ig­nominie [Page 342] through the streets of the Citie: and in such cases God doth vsually shew visi­ble signes of his reuenging wrath: So in Parthenay a towne in Poitou, a certaine woman in the absence of her husband, was taken with a de­uilish despaire; she tooke the little children, when shee had smothered them and hanged them, then she came vnto her selfe, went vp on a stoole and hung her selfe, and and thrust awaie the stoole with her foote; but the rope brake, and she falling downe halfe dead, found a knife, (the Diuell is a readie officer to furnish instruments to doe euill) which she takes and thrusts into her bosome; The next day, the matter being knowne, all the world ranne [Page 343] thither with the iudges, who caused her bodie to be cast out vpon a dunghill neere vnto the towne wall. Not far from it there was a corps de gard, and neere it a place for a sentinell; the gard being set (for it was in time of warre) the sentinell heard a fearfull noise in the ayre right against this Carcasse, and after a long stay was forced to leaue his stand: the gard also a­mazed with this noyse, thought to flie awaie: Thus the Diuells made sport with this poore desperate woman.

Obiection.

ANswere. Neither Dauid, nor Ezechias, nor the o­ther seruants of God [Page 408] feared death, as it was death simply alone considered, but for that God threatned them, in regard of their sins, by reason whereof it seemes they had some confused ap­prehension of hell, which is the second death. Doubtlesse my fault is great (sayd Dauid) but I pray thee saue mee by thy great bounty. These are Psal. 6. the words of God to Ezechi­as, Dispose of thy house, for Esay 38. thou shalt die shortly, and shall not liue. We must note that Ezekias heart was puft vp with glory, & God would humble him by the conside­ration of death wherewith he threatned him: But these two, and all other the ser­uants of God, setting aside these threats, being in the fa­uour of God, haue with Saint [Page 409] Paul desired to die, and to be freed from this mortal body, to be with Christ, with God. Man here below should not apprehend any thing but the conscience of another life, a life which, dying without re­pentance & grace, leades to death eternall, as that of Saul and Iudas; who being despe­rate slue themselues, quench­ing the match of a vicious life, to kindle it in the fire of hell, where there is a Lake of fire and brimstone.

As for the death of Christ, the great difference it hath both in the cause and the ef­fects, from that of the faith­ful Christians, makes it to dif­fer a world: The reason is, Gods Diuine Iustice to re­uenge the iniury which hath beene done him by the diuell [Page 410] in the nature of man, the which not able to do in him without his totall ruine, hee hath done in his surety, in Iesus Christ his Son, whom to that end hee sent into the world to take humaine flesh in the Virgins wombe: It is he that was wounded for our offences, broken for our ini­quities, Esay 53. 5. censured to bring vs peace, and slaine to cure vs, as the Prophet speakes, and the Apostles testifie. The fruites, first the glory of God is ma­nifested in his loue, in his bounty, and in his mercy to­wards vs, to haue so loued the world, as to giue his owne Son to death for it, to the Iohn 3. 6. end that whosoeuer did be­leeue in him should not pe­rish, but haue life euerlasting, as the same eternal Son doth [Page 411] witnes. Secondly, it is our saluation, the redemption of the Church from sinne and death; for it is the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world.

And these are the reasons why Iesus Christ was terrifi­ed in death, feeling the wrath of God vpon him for our sinnes: But the death of the faithfull is nothing like; for in the greatest torments which Tyrants can inflict vpon them, it mortifies the sence and takes away all paine, by the abundance of his conso­lation; as Ruffinus writes of Theodorus, and as our Annales Lib. 10. hi. c. 36. testifie of the smiling death of Martirs in the middest of burning fiers: for God is sa­tisfied, the passage is open, the venimous teeth of death [Page 412] are pulled out, seeing that the Lord wrestling with her, hath slaine her, as S. Augustine speakes; and like a most ex­pert Phisition, hath made a wholesome Treacle to purge our bodies of those corrupt, burning, stincking, and deadly humors; and to make it sound, holy, impassi­ble and immortall.

The second Obiection.

THe holy Writ, and the ancient Fathers vpon it, beare witnesse of the honour and great triumph which the Martyrs obtaine [Page 413] in heauen: if their conflict a­gainst death bee answerable to this triumph, as equity re­quires, it must bee exceeding great, and therefore it is no easie thing to dye; the which S. Augustine seemes to con­firme, Si nulla esset mortis a­maritudo, Homil. de verb. apost. serm. 3 5. non esset magna Mar­tyrum fortitudo: If (saith hee) there were no bitternesse in death, the Martyrs valour should not be great.

Answer. He is truely a Mar­tyr, who for the honour of God, and for the loue of his neighbour, doth constantly seale the contract of the alli­ance of God with his owne bloud: and the true cause of Martyrdome is, to suffer death for iustice, and for the name of Christ, as Christi­ans, Mat. 5. 1. Pet. 4. 1. Pet. 3. and in doing well. This [Page 414] bloud thus shed is the true seede of the Church, the very Commentary of the holy Scripture, the Trompet of Gods glory, the true Victo­ry of the cruelty and obstina­cy of Gods enemies, the holy Lampe to lighten and draw to the Kingdome of Christ, those which are in the shad­dow of death, &c.

In consideration whereof, these holy Champions of the faith, are honored in heauen with a Crowne of gold, clo­thed Apoc. 6. with white garments, &c. Vpon earth in the primi tiue Church, vpon the day of their suffring, which they cal­led their birth-day; the faith­full assembled vpon the place of their Martyrdome, did ce­lebrate their happy memo­ry, repeated their combates, [Page 415] & commended their resolu­tion; exhorting the assistants to doe the like, if they were called to the like combate, as well by reading of their bloo­dy history, as by the sight of the place where their blood was newly spilt. It is that which Cyrillus in the epistle to Smyrne, & the Paraphrase of Rufynus doth teach vs: where­in Cyr. l. 6. Cont. Iul. we may see, that it was not the death, but the cause of the death, which made them to bee so recompenced and recommended. And what­soeuer they haue had in hea­uen, shall bee giuen to all o­thers which shall haue the like will to serue their master; though not the effect, the like Crowne, nor the like gar­ments. To mee, saith that great Martyr, S. Paule, the [Page 416] Crowne of Iustice is reser­ued, 2. Tim. 4. which the Lord, the iust Iudge, shall giue mee in that day; and not onely to me, but vnto all those that shall loue his Comming: And what Christian is it that desires not the comming of Christ? It is also written, that all the Armies which are in heauen, wherein all the faithfull are, followed the faithfull, the Apoc. 19. true, the Word of God, vpon white horses, clad in white Cypres.

Finally, in this inestima­ble reward (which God giues vnto Martyrs) there is not so great a regard had to the merit and grieuousnesse of their death, as to the most precious blood of his Sonne Iesus Christ, and to his free promise: wherefore this Ob­iection [Page 417] is to no purpose; and if it were, it doth incite men more to desire then to refuse death, if it bee true that the enduring of the first death, in the Saints, is a freeing frō the second, as Saint Augustine Lib. 13. de Ciu. dei c. 8. teacheth.

The third Obiection.

MAn hath three cruell enemies which present themselues vnto him at his last farewell; a sensible paine at the dissolution of the foule from the body: sinne re­presents vnto him heauen [Page 418] gates shut, and hell open: and Satan tempts him, and lets him see his criminall Indite­ment, whereof he is ready to execute the sentence.

Answer. It is impossible that at the soules departure from the body, there should be any great paine; the soule leaues the body, as the light doth the ayre, which it doth inuest, as Viues speakes after S. Augustine: Wee must not Lib. de Anima. then imagine heere a grosse tearing of the soule from the body, as of a piece of cloth: for the vnion of the soule with the body is spirituall and incomprehensible; But of the pretended paine in death, there is sufficiently spoken in the Obiection fol­lowing. As for the two other enemies, it is true that the [Page 419] conscience presents vnto a dying man the foulenesse of his sinne: and it is true that Satan tempts man to des­paire, to precipitate him in­to eternall perdition. But for all this must a man that feares God, feare death? and feare to lose the battaile? No, but hee ought rather to assure himselfe of the victory, and present himselfe boldly to the Combate, as a valiant & fortunate Champion, against one that is weake and vnfor­tunate. They that are for vs are stronger then they that are against vs: God which hath begunne, continues his worke in vs, and ends it to his glory: the faith which he hath prāted in vs, wil quench the inflamed darts of the wicked spirit: the full assu­rance [Page 420] of the remission of sins by Iesus Christ, dead for our sinnes, and risen for our iusti­fication, will pacifie the con­science, and shew him Iesus Christ in heauen, sitting on the right hand of God, and stretching out his armes to him.

Thirdly, the seales of the holy Ghost in vs (for by it we are sealed to the day of Re­demption,) Baptisme, the Communion of the body of Christ, and the Spirit of san­ctification, will terrifie Satan and make him flie.

Finally, the good Angels which from our birth, and throughout the whole course of our liues, haue administred vnto vs, guided and comfor­ted vs, will redouble their loue and courage in the like [Page 421] offices, at our greatest need, and at our last gaspe. Let vs not feare, seeing we haue such assurance in the Word of God, which doth plainely witnesse, that the Angells are administring Spirits, sent to serue for their sakes that shall receiue the inheritance Heb. [...]. Psal. 91. Mat. 18. of saluation. Here then is no subiect of desperate feare, but rather of an assured resolu­tion.

The 4. Obiection.

EPicharmus (by the testi­mony of Cicero) sayd, Cic. lib. 1. Tus. quast. that he would not die, but to be dead he cared not: The reason is in my opinion, [Page 422] for that he feared the passage of death, not death it selfe, which hee thought with vs had no paine. There are ma­ny at this day of this opini­on, abhorring death like an internall gulfe, for that they conceiue there is some sharp and violent paine which they endure before it comes; and thereunto tends the pro­uerbe: He is in bad case that dies: And S. Augustine seemes L. 13. de ciuit. Dei c. 6. to attribute I know not what sharpe feeling and force a­gainst nature, in the diuulsi­on of the soule from the body which were vnited toge­ther.

Answere: If death be ter­rible by reason of the paine we apprehend in it, then life by the same reason should be more; for in it some man en­dures [Page 423] more by the cholicke, the stone, the sciatica, yea, by the tooth ach, and by many other infirmities with­out death, then an other hath felt in dying. And there is this aduantage in death, that it comes but once, wher­as the aboue mentioned in­firmities are often reitera­ted in life. But to haue a per­fect view, if this paine bee so great, as opinion (a bad counsellor) doth make vs beleeue: let vs search with reason into the immediate cause of that which doth en­gender this paine in our bo­dies.

The pathes which leade man to death are infinite, but all bend to one of these foure high wayes, outward force, subtraction of meate [Page 424] and drinke, inward sicknesse, and old age. These foure kinds of death may happen to al men, yea to wise men, al­though by iniustice touching the first; by some rare acci­dent, as touching the second; concerning the third, by or­dinary corruption of hu­mors; and by an infallible defect of nature touching the fourth. Paine (according to the definition of learned Phisitions,) is the feeling of some thing that is offensiue and troublesome to the na­ture of the body, for that it is contrary to the health thereof; the which happens either by the dissoluing and cutting of his continued sub­stance; or by the alteration thereof, which alteration proceeds from the intempe­rate [Page 425] heate or cold: for as for humidity and drinesse, they are rather passiue qualities then actiue, whose operation is very slow, and the paine in the member that is altered, is suddaine not gentle; as if you be exceeding cold and come to a very sensible paine, cold settles his paine in disioy­ning, & heate in burning: and it is to bee noted, that any sence may be wounded, yet little or nothing is his paine, in comparison of that of touching, the which is disper­sed ouer the whole body, & from which no other vessell of the sences is exempt; which is the cause that wee some­times feele prickings in the eyes, and shootings in the eares, &c.

Let vs now come to the [Page 426] application, Death which comes to man by extreame age, can be no cause of paine; there being nothing in him that tortures his body, no­thing that doth suddainely alter and change him by ex­treame cold, or heate; but his life goes out presently (like vnto a Candle that wants tallow) by the losse of his ra­dicall humour, deuoured by little and little since his birth by his naturall heate: and al­though this heate doth yet striue as it hath formerly done, to conuert the meate which is familiar and fit for the body, into radicall hu­mor, to repaire his losse, yet she can worke no more, her vertue failes her; euery agent hath his vertue limited, what soeuer doth act, suffers in a­cting: [Page 427] through vse and in con­tinuance of time this heate decayes, dissolues, is lost, and death ensues: So as it hath bene disputed in vaine, whe­ther life might bee continu­ed, this radicall humor being restored by some fit nutri­ment; for that humor being at the first a certaine ayery & onely portion of that seede which doth reside in all the sollide parts, it is impossible that such an humour, and so much as is needefull, should be supplied in it's place. The only fruite of the tree of life which was in Eden, had this secret vertue, by the diuine ordinance, to make man im­mortal that shold eate ther­of; and therefore according to the opiniō of the Fathers, God suddenly after the sin, [Page 428] chased Adam and Eue out of Eden, least they should lay hold of that fruite, and be­come Irenae. Hilarie. Greg. Naz. Theodoret. Chrysosto. and others. immortally miserable with the diuells. In processe of time there happens two notable changes to this radi­call humour; the one in the quality, for that it degene­rates by little and little, & of naturall becomes strange: the other in the quantity, for that it is wholy wasted; whereun­to man being once reduced, he can suffer no paine: if hee complaines, it is rather for griefe that hee must dye, or some other distemperature, and not the death, which doth cause some troublesome alteration in his sinewes & sensible parts.

As for death which pro­ceeds from diseases, there are [Page 429] some long, others short. If they be long, the paine is lit­tle, for that nature doth ac­custome it selfe to that which comes by degrees; it turnes to a habite, and hee feares no griefe, or very little, there be­ing nothing but the suddain alteration which nature can­not endure: that which cau­seth pain is that which chan­geth the good temperature, the which in very long languishing diseases comes slowly and insensibly. As for example, in an Hectick feuer they grow leane, and consume away by little and little, and dye with paine, which is in a manner imperceptible; there is nothing but an heauinesse of the spirits, but in their bo­dyes feele no paine. It is e­uen so of the paine of the [Page 430] Lights, whereon the rheume distilling, it doth consume them by little and little, as a spout of water doth a stone, so as in the end this infirmity brings the patient insensibly to death.

As for short diseases, the paine is short: What great pain can there be in a swoun ding? in an Appoplexie that happens by the sudaine dissi­pation of the spirits? What great paine can a moment of time bring to man? But you wil reply, that there are disea­ses wonderfully sharpe: It is true; but if you will obserue them, they are least dange­rous for death, whereof our discourse is. Nature giuing death, knowes how to mor­tifie the members so wel, and to weaken the vertue of the [Page 431] sinewes, as man cannot dis­cerne when death seazeth on him, no more thē when sleep surprizeth him. It is an A­phorisme of Hipocrates, When a sicke body (saith he) feeles no paine, playes with the co­uering of his bed, and pulls off the wooll, it is a signe of death, and no likelihood of life & what paine then, when as hoping to recouer, and feeling ease of his paine, hee shall dye? As for famine and thirst, which quench the spi­rit of life, that happens very seldome, and the Annales in 16. ages haue scarce obser­ued two, the one vnder the Empire of Honorius, at what time in the Theater at Rome there was this strange voyce heard, You must set a price Z [...]zim. 6. Annal. vpon humane flesh. The o­ther [Page 432] vnder Iustinian, at what Procop. de bell. Goth. l. 11. time they did not only eate mans flesh, but euen the ex­crements of men.

Here in truth is great horror, but little paine, neither can I beleeue (whatsoeuer they say) that he which dies of hun ger feeles no great torment: examine it by your selfe; whē you haue fasted long, you shall feele a great debility, & a great appetite, or a great heate in all your members, but no great paine: it is in the sinewes to feele where the paine lies, which sinewes do not suffer any thing in the extreamity of hunger or thirst, but the principal parts which receiue the nourish­ment, therefore in this most pittifull; and pitty is here ta­ken for the paine. Let the [Page 433] death of Charles 7. the French King, be an example vnto vs, who being full of suspition and way wardnesse, & enter­tained in that humor by the dayly reports of his house­hold flatterers, that they would attempt against his person; yea a Captaine in whom he trusted most, assu­red him that they meant to poyson him; he gaue such cre­dit to this aduice, as he resol­ued neither to eate nor drinke in which capricious humor hee continued seuen dayes. But in the end being prest not with paine but by his Phisitions, and house hold seruants; who laid before him the danger of life, whereinto he did voluntarily bring his person when hee would haue eaten he could not, by rea­son [Page 434] (sayth the History) the passages of the stomake were shrunke. Let vs weigh these last words, and acknowledge, that this naturall fire in vs wherewith the lampe, of our life is kindled, is like vnto the Elementary, alwayes actiue; wherefore wanting his ordi­nary nutriment, hee turnes himselfe violently vpon that which beares it, vpon the ra­dicall humidity, the which it doth waste and consume in a short time; and this humidi­ty being consumed, the mem­bers remaine dry, and with­out vigour; so as when they offer them the accustomed remedy, hauing lost their vsuall vertue, they disgest it not, but cast it vp againe.

It is the same reason why such as obserue a certaine [Page 435] houre for their meales, when this houre is come they feele certaine motions of an appe­tite in their stomacke, which requires meate: But if they passe this houre, either by fa­sting or by diets, they lose their appetites, for that this heate being frustrated of his ordinary repast, falls either vpon the peccant humor, or that failing, vpon the vitall humour; and as we suffer it to do more or lesse, so we receiue more or lesse preiudice. Now if in the first and most sensible touches of this natural heate, we feele no great torment, as euery man may try in the religious fasts of the Church, which passe the ordinary time of eating three or foure houres: I cōclude necessarily, that the longer they abstaine [Page 436] from meate, the lesse they suf­fer; for the heate decaying still, by the want of nourish­ment, the actiue vertue also decreaseth, and his subiect the body, suffereth lesse by such a languishing acti­on; also the body which for his part decayes in force, is daily lesse susceptible of paine, vntill that all his hu­mor being exhausted, and his heate euaporated, hee must die.

Last in ranke come good men, who are vniustly put to death by Tyrants, to whom the paine is sensible according to the horror of the punishment. But I an­swere: First, that it happens seldome, God holding in his power the Tyrannous resolu­tions of great men; that they [Page 437] may not execute their wic­ked designes against his ser­uants: wickednesse shall ne­uer preuaile so much, she shal neuer conspire so strongly a­gainst vertue, but the name of wisedome shall alwayes re­maine sacred and venerable. Sen. epi. 14. Secondly, God who suffers it, giues them ease in their torments, & knowes how to restraine and suspend their paines; (as hee did to his ser­uants, Sidrac, Mizac, and A­bednego in the burning fur­nace:) as they go ioyfully to death, and sing the praises of the Lord cheerefully in the middest of the fire, as hath bene seene in the Martyrs: And thus much for this point. But if after all these reasons they persist still in a fantasticall apprehension of [Page 438] some great paine in the arti­cle of death, wee will adde, that it is not fitting to ac­cuse death; it is life, the re­mainders whereof cause the paine, and death is the end. Wherefore Diogenes being demanded if death were euil, How can it be (sayd hee) se­ing we neuer feele it present? and that which is absent can­not bee hurtfull to any man; whilest that man hath fee­ling he hath life, but if he bee dead, hee hath no feeling, and that which is not felt, is not hurtfull.

And therefore hee con­cludes, that it was not death which was euill, but the way to death, which was misera­ble; which if we feare, what is all the life (said he) but a path tending vnto death? And [Page 439] S. Augustine aboue named, August. de ci. Dei. l. 13 c. 9. means no other thing: whilst they haue feeling, they are yet liuing; if liuing, they are rather sensible before death, then in death, by whose com­ming all sense is lost.

Obiection.

THE Minor is proued directly by a text of the holy Scripture: There is [Page 636] no mention of thee in death, who shal worship thee in the Psal 66. graue? saith Dauid, being grie­uously Ps. 115, 17. sicke: And, The dead do no more praise the Lord, neither they which descend whereas they speake not. Eze­chias fearing death, speakes Isay 38. 10. thus vnto the Lord: the graue shall not worship thee, death shall not praise thee, and they that descend into the pit at­tend no more thy truth.

Answere: These holy men haue neuer thought, much lesse spoken, that the soule was mortall, but only that they whom death takes a­way, do no more declare the glory of God to the liuing, & that a dead mouth cannot preach the wonderful workes of the Eternall: And for proofe hereof, Dauid doeth [Page 637] assure vs in another place, where he sayth, I shal not die, but liue, and declare the Ps. 118, 17. workes of the Eternal; and, If I descend into the pit, what proffit shall there bee in my blood? Shall the dust praise thee, and preach thy truth? By which words hee shewes that he meant not to speake, but of the praises of God made by the mouth among the liuing.

As for Ezechias, when hee deliuered these words, hee had bene then assured to liue by Esay; so as hee makes it knowne, that whereas God prolonged his life, it was to magnifie him in the world, and to declare his mercy: and yet that the Saints deceased sing the prayses of God in heauen, appeares by many [Page 638] texts, but that in the Apoc. is sufficient, of the 4. beasts, Apo. 5. and the 24. Elders, who sung a new song. Moreouer those innumerable multitudes of all Nations, Tribes, people, and tongues, attired in long white robes, and ha­uing branches of palme in their hands, crying with a Apo. 7. loud voyce, Saluation to our God, who is set vpon the throne, and to the Lambe.

But some one will reply, seeing the Saints in heauen sing most melodiously and holily the praises of the Lord, how coms it that they alledge this reason to pro­long this life, that they may celebrate the name of the Eternall? I Answer, that the heauens haue no neede of these holy sounders out of [Page 639] the Lords praise: that they haue from the beginning the Angells which sing con­tinually, Holy, holy, holy, is he which-hath beene, which is, and which shalbe; and more­ouer, the faithfull deceased. But the earth is altogether desert, wherefore the chil­dren of God desire to re­maine there the course of their prefixed age, to the end they may publish the praises of God to the ignorant world: and although it be to their losse, yet the seruice of God, and the glory of their Maister, is more deere vnto them, then their owne health, as Moses and S. Paul among others haue witnessed.

The second Obiection.

IF the Soule be created im­mediatly by God and in­fused into the body, from the very moment of this creation and infusion, shee is perfect in her essence, and therefore should haue a cer­taine knowledge; but wee do not remember our birth, nor our Baptisme, by reason of the great imperfection of our nature in that age: If then (as those Infants, of whom Aristotle makes mem­tion, 11. sect. pro. 27. who spake as soone as they were borne) we had had the temper of the braine, re­quisite to the vnderstanding [Page 641] and memory, we should then haue vnderstood, and wee should now remember as well, as those things which we haue seene within a yeare, and since that time which brings al things to maturity, hath ripened our nature: But if the soule be immortal and not subiect to time, and if from the beginning of her creation, shee hath receiued her perfect stature, how can time deface her vnderstand­ing? and how is it that she re­membreth not any thing, no not in dreaming, when shee was put into the body? Some will reply, That this sinfull mortall body is the cause of this misery, but I may an­swere, that the corporall can­not worke vpon the spiritu­all; and that the Diuines [Page 642] hold, that man by his offence hath lost all supernaturall guifts & priuiledges which were freely giuen him; but not such as were naturall, & conferred vpon him by the right of Creation; and who doth not see, but that to vn­derstand & to remember, are naturall guifts?

Answere: The soule of man is extracted immediatly from God, and being once in­fused into the body, shee re­ceiues not in any age, neither in her substance or forces, a­ny change, alteration, or in­crease. Yet by vertue of the sentence of condemnation which God pronounced a­gainst Adam, and al his poste­rity, the Creator not confir­ming the soule in her excel­lency and innocency, but lea­uing [Page 643] it to it selfe, shee hath in an instant lost her dignity, is become ignorant and vici­ous; and the infection of car­nall sences which shee hath suckt vp being in the body, doth augment her deprauati­on, so as she is not able to re­member any thing of this actiō proceeding from God, in her creation and vnion to the body: So Adam and Eue not confirmed in their felici­ty (as the Angells and Saints are now in heauen by the be­nefit of Iesus Christ) as soone as they had committed the transgression, were in an in­stant made mortall, ignorant and vicious. A plate of iron flaming in the fire, hath no sooner felt the fresh ayre, but it loseth his fiery colour; Euen so the soule is no soo­ner [Page 644] gone out of the Eternall [...] forge, but shee loseth her colour and brightnes, and the body is as cold water to the burning, iron; so as now the soule hath no knowledge in the body, but what she gets by the sences: and they that are deafe by nature are also naturally dumbe; for being vnable to heare the words di stinguished, neither can they l [...]e them: And they that are borne blinde, cannot distinguish of colours, &c.

Let vs conclude with S. Augustine, That the spiritual Lib. 12. de genesi ad Literam. light, in the which man had beene created to know his Creator, himselfe, and things that are profitable for him, was quenched by sinne: Let vs add with Nicholas de Cusa, L. 9. exer­citat. That the soule of man sent in [Page 645] to a morrall bodie, is like vn­to [...] infant, which as soone as it was borne was carried into [...] strang countrie, wholy [...] of inhabit a [...], & nou­rished by a she Wolfe; being growne great he could in no for [...] know the place of his birth, [...] his father & mo­ther. [...] had a con [...]sed fee­ling of this truth, writing, that the soule which liued [...]appy and knowing in the co [...]panie of the Gods, being confined into this prison of the foule infected body, to frame it & giue it life, hath in stantly lost [...]l her happines & knowledge, by reason of the bad temperature of the body.

The first Obiection.

IT seemes that the rea­son of the preaching of the soule in her exēption from the graue, flowes originaly for that she vnderstāds immortal things, & that by the ioyning of time past with the present she infers the future; wherein she is chiefely distinguished from beasts which are mor­tall: but this ground-worke is not sollid. Some one spea­king of the soule, to shew her immortalitie, saith, that they [Page 686] did not iudge her eternall, for that no man could compre­hend the Eternitie, that is to say, that long terme past without beginning: If this be admitted, the question is de­cided, and the soule will be found mortall, seeing that she cannot perfectly compre­hend the immortalitie; for it is as difficult to conceaue a continuitie to come without end, as it is of that which is past without beginning. More ouer the difference of a rea­sonable man, hath no aduan­tage by his continuance ouer beasts, seeing that continu­ance is but an accident, and beasts are not longer liued then trees, yea shorter, yet are they are as much aboue trees, as men are aboue beasts. Thirdly they whom [Page 687] we wholy follow, as Aristotle, (that myracle of the world) Gallen the first fauorite of na­ture, Hippocrates surnamed the diuine, and others, haue spoken doubtfully, or denyed it flatly; Gallen, Aristoxenus and Dicearchus Aristotles di­sciples, yea and Plutarke him­selfe do witnesse, that Aristotle denyed it: Hippocrates sayd, that the soule went alwayes on vnto death.

Finally, if she be of heauen and immortall, why doth she not participate of heauen & immortalitie? why are her thoughts fixt vpon earth and perishable things? The plant retaines something of the soyle, what hath the soule of heauen?

Answer, Mans vnderstan­ding comprehends in a cer­ten [Page 688] fashion a continuance without end, and for proofe, giue him a terme of an hun­dred Millions of yeares: hee will extend his spiritual sight an hundred Millions beyond that; and if you will, as farre beyond it, for that this visible force cannot be in any sort limited by time. The hea­uens and starres in their sub­stance shall continue without end, yet in their quallities they must change; but the soule doth well comprehend this continaunce. Moreouer it is no good consequence to say, Bulls feele not the vigour of their force, therefore they haue none. A man being borne and bred in the bot­tome of a darke caue, thinks that he hath no facultie to see, is he the therefore blinde? [Page 689] the soule being buried in the darkenesse of a mortall body as in a graue, sees not her im­mortalitie, hath she therfore none? Thirdly, we doe not say that man is immortall, for that he differs from beasts, but for many reasons deliuered & to be deliuered. Fourthly, the Philosophers aboue mentio­ned would see and touch the soule in her immortalitie, & she is not subiect to any sence S. Basile hath seene it in spirit Lib. 2. de anima. & written it with his hand: The soule, sayth he, cannot be seene with eyes, for that she is not illuminated by any colour, nor hath any figure or corporal character. Aristotle knew it whengoing out of the fabrike of corporall nature, hee sayd that it was not the charge of a Physition to treat [Page 690] of all sorts of soules, as is the intellectuall, which hee pro­nounceth to differ from the sensitiue & vegetatiue, from which, he sayth, shee may se­parate her selfe, as the perpe­tuall from the corruptible. Gallen had his eyes fixed on­lie vpon the body (the subiect of Phisick) and therefore hee sayd freely, that it did not im­port him in his arte, if hee were ignorant how the soules were sent into the bodyes, or whether they past from one to an other; But if it please Gallen, leauing the limites of his arte, to take the fresh ayre of diuine Philosophy, pre­sently his goodly conception is followed with these words The soule is distilling from the vniuerfall Spirit, descen­ding from heauen, &c.

[Page 691] Which hauing left the earth, recouers heauen, and dwells with the Moderator of all things in the Celestiall places. As for Hippocrates, his words sound more of the immortalitie, then of the death of the soule, hauing this sence, That the soule goes alwayes increasing vntil the death of the bodie. But if you desire effects and not words, what conceit could Aristotle, Gallen and Hippocrates haue of the soule to bee mortall, who by an immortall labour haue purchased such great same throughout the world? and whose authoritie is the cause that they are now produced, and maintained?

Finally, that which he ob­iects of the soules thoughts, fixed for the most part on [Page 692] the fraile things of this pas­sing world, it is no smal signe of the corruption of man­kind; but no argument, that the soule is perishable, seeing she retaines still the immor­tal seale which God hath set vpon her in her first creati­on.

The. 2, Obiection.

IF the soule bee immortal, seeing the body is mortall, what proportion were there betwixt the soule and body? How hath nature [Page 693] (which doth all things by a iust weight, number, and measure) ioyned things to­gether which are so dislike? It serues to no purpose to produce the birde kept in a cage, which as soone as shee can get out flies away; for he is kept there by force, and not as forme in substance.

Answere: Wee grant the whole argument, and wee adde, that it is sinne which came by accident, that hath caused this great dispropor­tion. Otherwise man before sinne, in his estate of innocen­cy, had his body immortall: & therefore Iesus Christ our Sauiour, like a cunning Logi­tian, drew the resurrection of the body from the immor­tality of the soule, for that God was called the God of Mat. 22. 31 [Page 694] Abraham, of Isaacke, and of Iacob; but God sayth, hee is not the God of the dead but of the liuing. So sayth Saint Augustine, and Saint Bernard, that the soule is so separated from the body, as there re­maines still a naturall incli­nation to resume it againe, & to minister to his body; and this onely doth hinder her, that shee is not affectionate towards God withal her ver­tue and force, as be the An­gells; and therefore her bles­sednesse is imperfect: For the soules, ô flesh (saith Bernard) cannot without thee bee ac­complished In sermo. 5. de festo omnium Sancto. in their ioy, nor perfect in their glory, nor consummated in their felici­ty; and in the same place hee distinguisheth their degrees or places for the soule; in this [Page 695] life as in a Tabernacle; before the resurrection in heauen, as in a gallery; and then after the resurrection in the house of God. But you will say, this answere is Metaphisicall, I desire one that is naturall. Answere: This goodly order which you recommend in na­ture required this ordering, that as there are some Crea­tures meerely spirituall, o­thers meerely corporall, so there were some which were mixt, both spirituall and cor­porall, and that is man, who in that smal forme represents all that is in the world, and who by his senses doth com­municate with the Creatu­res, and by his vnderstanding with the Angells, giuing his right hand to heauen, and his left to the earth.

The 3. Obiection.

I Proue the Minor by this knowne Maxime of reason, That there is no returne from priuation to the habit, nor (by consequence) from death to life, no more then from starke blindnes to sight. Wherefore they of Athens (where one writes that the men are borne Philosophers) hearing S. Paul discourse of many points of heauenly Act. 17, 32. doctrine, they gaue an atten­tiue heare vnto him; but [Page 679] when hee came to the Resur­rection of Iesus Christ, they interrupted him, mocking at him as one that doated. Ans. I deny it, that the resurrectiō of the dead is absolutely be­yond the apprehension of na­ture; The West-Indians who are without the Church of Christ, beleeue it and practise it, as well by the ceremonies of their interrements which aime directly at it, as by the vsuall intreaties they make to the Spaniards, digging for the gold of their Sepulchres, that they should not take out & carry away the bones, to the end they may rise a­gaine speedily, as Benzo re­ports. Lib, 2. c. 20 At, Rome this Epitaph is yet to be read in Latine vp­on a Pagans tombe: The pub­like hath giuen a place vn­to [Page 698] Aurelius Balbus, a man of an vnspotted life; I rest heere in hope of the resurrection. But that which is most won­derfull and exceedes all cre­dit, if they that write it were not eye witnesses and worthy of credit, that in Egypt in a place neere vnto Caine, a mul­titude of people meete on a certaine day in march, to bee spectators of the resurrection of the flesh, as they say; where from Thursday, to Saterday inclusiuely, they may see and touch bodies wrapt in their sheetes after the ancient manner; but they neither see them standing nor walking, 2. tom. l. 4. of the bisto. meditati­ons. c. 13. but onely the armes or the thighes, or some other part of the body which you may touch: If you go farther off and then returne presently, [Page 699] you shall finde these mem­bers to appeare more out of the ground, and the more they change place, the more diuers these motions ap­peare.

This admirable sight is written by Olaus Magnus, by certaine Venetian Ambassa­dors, by a Iacopin of Vlmes & others; but I leaue the inter­pretation free to the iudge­ment of the reader. Thirdly, if it were a worke without the compasse of reasō, Plutar­que, Herodotus, nor Plato wold euer haue beene credited in writing, that one Thespesius, Aristeus, and Erus, were rai­sed vp againe. Plinie, who be­leeued nothing but what hee saw; among many that were raysed vp, he reports of a wo­man which was dead seuen [Page 700] dayes, and raised againe: and that one Gabienus a valiant souldier of Caesars, being put to death by order of iustice, and left vpon the publike place, was found afterwards speaking, and asking for Pompey, who came vnto him and had much speech with him. Melchior Flauian makes mention of a woman whom hee had seene, whose name was Mellula, neere vnto Da­mas in Syria, raysed vp againe the 6. day after her death, in the yeare 1555. God will bring such tokens, to assure the world of a future and v­niuersall Resurrection.

As for the Maxime, that there is no returning againe to the habite, it is abusiue not only to God, who can do all, but euen to nature, and to [Page 701] the order of the world, which hath his forces limited: So in a little child, whose teeth haue beene pulled out, the vegetatiue vertue will bring vp new.

So we reade of a certaine Abbesse, who being an 100. yeares olde, grewe young a­gaine, had her monethly courses, her teeth put forth againe, her haire grew black, the wrinckles of her face fil­led vp: Finally, shee became as fresh and as faire as shee had beene at the age of 20. yeeres. And if wee may be­leeue histories, she was not a­lone, but followed and pre­ceded by many others. The naturall vertue at a certaine time, as trees in the Spring, did renue her worke euen foure times; as to that man [Page 702] seene in the yeere 1536, by the Viceroy of the Indies, who examined it carefully, and found out the truth. Fourthly, that which shewes an insenfible impression of na­ture of the future Resurrecti­on, is the earnest and generall care to burie the dead hono­rably, yea to keep them from corruption, by balmes and Aromaticall sents, by images of brasse, and nayles fastened in the bodies, for that brasse hath a speciall vertue against corruption. There are yet o­ther deuices, which the Egyp­tians haue, and doe vse, and particularly obserued by thē of Arran, an insularie region, whereas the bodyes hang in the ayre and rot not; so as the families without any amaze­ment, know their Fathers, [Page 703] Grandfathers, and great­grandfathers, and a long Ortel. in his great Theal tab. 10. band of their predecessors. Peter Martir of Milan, writes 2. Decad. l. 2. the same of some West-Indians of Comagra.

Moreouer, I deny that man may alwayes see the tayle of that wherof he sees the head; the resurrection of the body, seeing the immortality of the soule; that he must needes see the consequent, if he disco­uers the Antecedent: for the one hiding it selfe, the other appeares, sometimes to the sight of the vnderstanding. And to conclude, I deny not but that it is true which mans reason cannot verifie, vntill it hath found out why the Adamant doth so power­fully draw iron vnto it, and holds it fast by an vnknowne [Page 704] vertue; & why forked sticks of Elder are proper to dis­couer veines of gold and sil­uer? Why long aftrr a man is dead, the bloud will gush out if the murtherer appro­cheth? Why if some despe­rate man hang himselfe, will there rise suddaine stormes and tempests? Why the stone called the Amede, drawes i­ron to it on the one side, and reiects it on the other? with infinite other secrets of Na ture.

The third Obiection.

[Page 705] SOme make a question how the soule can be im­mortall, seeing she hath so great feare of death. Men laugh at the attempt of little children, be they neuer so in choler; for that they cannot hurt them: why should not the soule thē mock at death? Doth she not in like manner see the immortality, & feele it in her selfe, without giuing so great apprehension to the poore [...] body, which, of it selfe without her should ne­uer feare death, no more then a bruit beast? Why is not the power of death dissolued, whereas the authority of im­mortality intercedes? as Ter­tullian speakes in the first booke of the Trinity.

Answer. This is a most eui­dent signe, not of the morta­lity [Page 706] of the soule, but that man is degenerate and corrupt.

He seeles in his Conscience, that he is guilty of high trea­son to God; that this volun­tary offence must soon or late bring a necessary punishmēt; he feels in this life, some smal touch; he fears & not with­out reason (if by faith & re­pentance his pardon bee not inrowled, and his absolution sealed) that at the departure from this life, the executio­ner of diuine vengeance should stand lurking behind death, to take him by the throat, and to punish him according to his merits. Wherefore if corruption did [Page 707] not generally possesse al men, she would suppresse this fear, reuerence her Creator, and do her duty vnto him; and then she should see that by that respectiue feare to offend her God, she should be fully de­liuered from all other feare: shee should see, that fearing onely the death of the soule, (which is onely to be feared) shee should not feare that of the body, which is to be desi­red. But for that most men (as S. Augustine doth teach) feare the separation of the Tom. 2. in Psal. 48. soule from the body, and not the true death, which is the separation from God: it hap­pens, that fearing that, they fall often into this: So the soule beeing willing to shake off this feare of the Creator, she must needes feare euery [Page 708] creature, euen the smallest, frogs, mice, and flies; which flying about, awake him sud­dainely, and many times trouble him much; but in the end death is aboue all ex­treame feares the most feare­full: And why is this? if like vnto bruite beasts all dyed in him; and if in death there were nothing to bee feared. Wherefore Propertius saith:

But to conclude: The soule hauing beene too familiar with the flesh, shee hath got­ten a habite, she hath drawne such corruption, as being ig­norant) of the happinesse which attends her in heauen, [Page 709] shee cannot leaue this valley of misery, this obscure pri­son, but with great griefe: be­ing like vnto the man, which being carried away an In­fant by a she wolfe, was nou­rished by wolues, did houle with them, and did liue, and would liue among them: and if hee were taken by other men, he would leaue them to returne to his wolues, as the History makes mention of one, verifying the Prouerbe, That nourishment passeth nature.

The first Obiection.

GAllen thinking that the Soule burnes in the body by a burning feauer; is lost with the great [Page 714] losse of bloud, and that a strong poyson doth poy­son it, hee protests plainely, that vntill that time hee had doubted what the substance of the Soule was; but then growne wiser, as well by practise, as by age, he durst boldly sweare, that it was nothing but the temperature of the bodie.

And therefore calling Pla­to out of his graue, hee de­mands of him, how it is pos­sible the soule should be im­mortall?

Answer: The heate of a fe­uer, and the corporall force cannot worke vpon the soule, neither can she suffer; and al­though the actions which the soule doth by meanes of the Organes of the body, be depraued or interrupted by [Page 715] the deprauation and inter­ruption of the Organes, yet for all that the soule loseth nothing of her vertue, nor of her habilitie.

He that euen now played excellently well on the Lute, must not be held to haue lost his cunning, if taking a Lute ill mounted and with [...] string [...], hee play ill; or if ha­uing no strings at all, he cea­seth to play: It is euen so of the spirit in the body for in the sinewes flowing from the braine, there distills a cer­tain vital spirit, as a beame of the Sun, of whose force the soule makes vse first, to han­dle the sinewes, and by them the Muscles; which being af­terwards moued, reuiue eue­ry member apart, and alto­gether. Now if any maligne [Page 716] disease come to depraue this subtile humor, the functions of the soule feele it, but not the soule.

Moreouer, as certaine vn­cleane spirits, remaining in some darke and filthy house by reason of the vapors a­greeing with their dispositiō; if it be clensed, the doore & windowes set open, if a good aire, a comfortable Sun, and wholsome wind enter into it; if it be inhabited by many, who passe the time ioyfully, and especially if they play vpon many Instruments, these spirits quit the place: So by a contrary analogie, the soule is kept and enter­tained in the bodie by cer­taine spirituall qualities and fit for her exercises; which comming in time to change [Page 717] to the contrarie, they chase away the soule, being glad vpon that occasion to dis­lodge from a place which was not to be held.

Thirdly, if the tempera­ment bee nothing but the Quint [...]ssence of the mixtion of the foure elements, where­of mans body is compounded as the harmonie is the fift sownd, rysing from all the parts in Musicke: and if Gallen meanes not to speake but of this soule which hee hath felt in the touching of the pulse, in the Anato­mie of the body; I say, of the vegetatiue and the sensitiue soule, wee may yeelde vnto him; But of the reasonable soule which contaynes these two, within her compasse (as the fift angle doth a triāgle & [Page 718] quadrangle) & which makes vse of the temper to the bo­die, as of an instrument, to rule and gouerne it, as the Pilot doth the Helme to conduct his ship; that cannot be: for to confound the in­strument with the principal agent, the Pilot with the Helme were no reason: In the actiōs of a vegetatiue & sensi­tiue life, although there be a mature tēperature required, yet shall they neuer proue, that this temper is necessary to vnderstand and contem­plate, seeing that out of all question the most exquisite contemplation consists in the sequestratiō of the soule from the communion of the bo­dy; for that contemplation is the more certen, the more it is sequestred from grosse [Page 719] circumstāces of matter, place and time; things which with their accidentarie attires are perceiued by the sēses, do of­ten deceiue. How often hath our sight and our hearing de­ceiued vs? thinking to see & heare one thing, which pro­ued another. But the sciences as the Mathematicks, which extract the Essences out of bodyes, are neuer decei­ued following their art; and much lesse the Metaphisicke, which cōtemplates the pure spirits, free from any conta­gion of matter. But if the reasonable soule were no­thing but the temperament of the body, it could not bee but among a milliō of beasts which are in the world, some one should bee found which had the same mixture of the [Page 620] the foure first humors which are in man, and by conse­quence, the same reasonable facultie: and if any reply that the chiefe difference is in the braine, I will answer, that the Anatomy doth not shew any difference of the braine of men and beasts.

The 2. Obiection.

ARistotle saith, that the soule in the body vn­derstandeth nothing, but by her conuersation with the Ideas, which the imagi­nation represents vnto her, whether that shee gets new [Page 721] knowledge, or contemplates that which is gotten. But the Ideas perish with the bo­dy, and by consequence, the soule.

Answer. The excellent effects of the soule, suffice to conuince her presence and essence; as for the vnderstan­ding it is double, passiue and actiue; and these two faculties remaine still, although the fi­gures which imagination hath furnished, bee vanished. So a man in the bottome of an obscure Caue hath not lost his faculty of seeing, al­though hee, cannot plainely iudge of colours. But the soule, you will say, vnder­stands not any thing beeing out of the body, seeing that within it she vnderstands not any thing without him. It [Page 722] followes not. That great Workman, who after a man­ner incomprehensible to vs, hath vnited and ioyned the soule vnto the body, two such different natures, with­out any apparent meane to reconcile them: that great workeman, I say, is powerfull to furnish new meanes to her operations, when hee hath called it vnto him: and what? wee shall know when it shall be fit. In the meane time, if we will beleeue Thomas Aqui­nas, it shall be by the conuer­sion [...]. quest. 86. [...]al, 1. of the soule to things which are simply intelligible as the other spirituall sub­stances doe.

Iesus Christ also hath vouchsafed to teach vs, that in heauen we shall be like vn­to the Angels. Let vs not [Page 723] then trouble our selues heere no more, then for the childe comming into the world: In the mothers wombe it liued by the nauell: this meanes is cut off by his birth, but na­ture hath prouided him a mouth, another passage in another life. It is euen so of the soule; it is nourished in this corruptible life, by a car­nall meanes, and in the hea­uenly by another, which is spirituall. But you will re­ply, that the soule is to re­turne into the body; and not the infant into the wombe. I answer, That it is sufficient the similitude explaining the thing, shewes it not to be im­possible.

Moreouer, it is not likely that in the Resurrection, the body which shall bee spiritu­all, [Page 724] should furnish the same meanes for the actions of the soule, as it doth in this life; but this businesse is too intri­cate.

Let vs put in practise what S. Augustine propounds vnto vs; Let not the soule, saith he, labour do fore know it selfe absent, but to know it selfe well being present, and how much shee differs from other things: Aso, shee hath not taken her forme from Christ, but her saluation; and therefore the Sonne of God descended, and tooke vpon him mans soule, not to the end the soule should know it selfe in Christ, but that shee should know Christ within her selfe; for by the ignorance of her selfe, her saluation is not onely in danger, but by [Page 725] the ignorance of the eternall word, as Tertullian doth lear­nedly teach, lib. de Car. Christ.

The third Obiection.

IF the soule bee materiall, she is dissoluble into her first matter, with all other sublunary things: but she is materiall if shee proceedes from the Fathers seede, as Tertullian, Origen, and other ancient & moderne Diuines thinke, and mainetaine it by their written bookes. And in truth how can it bee said, that the infant is the sonne of his father, if hee hold no­thing [Page 726] from him but his basest part, the body, not his form, not his soule: how could the holy Ghost say, that all the soules which came out of Ia­cobs thigh, were 66? How can Gen. 46. originall sinne flow from the father vpon the sonne, which hath no seat but in the soule? And this made S. Augustine doubt in his fourth booke of the beginning of the soule, the which he did write being olde; to doubt, I say, of this beginning, not daring to de­liuer his opinion: and some more hardy haue maintained that she proceeded from the congression of the two seedes of man and woman, as by the striking of the iron against the stone fire comes forth.

Answer. The principall foundation of the immorta­lity [Page 727] of the soule is the word of God: so they which haue had more feeling of this word, haue better acknow­ledged it; as Zoroastres, Mer­curius Trismegistes, Pithago­ras, and Plato, surnamed the Diuine for that effect: but A­ristotle, Gallen, and others, who would measure all by humaine reason, haue won­derfully deceiued themselues in matters which exceeded this measure, as in this Do­ctrine.

If then the Obiector will beleeue this witnesse, of whom he cites a passage, the question will be soone ended: the holy Scripture sayth, that the Eternall breathed the spi­rit of life into the nosestrills of Adam, he being framed of the slime of the earth; the [Page 728] which is not spoken of any other creature: In Ecclesia­stes it is said, that the spirit returnes to God that gaue it: Iesus dying cryed out, Father into thy hands I commit my soule. Hee promiseth to the beleeuing theefe, that he shal be that day with him in Para­dise; finally, S. Stephen dying made this prayer, Lord Iesus receiue my soule; with a thousand other passages. As for that which he speakes of the generatiō of the soule, we first will oppose the authori­tie of Tertullian, lib. de Anima c. 13. You mothers, sayeth he which are newly deliuered, answer, the question is of the truth of your nature, if you feele in your fruite any o­ther viuacitie from you but what your arteries do breath. [Page 729] And for this cause the infant is sayd to be the true sonne of his father and mother, from whom the bodie with his Organes proceeded; to make which perfect God in­fused the spirit, so as this spi­rit is made for this bodie, and not the body for this spirit simply. Moreouer, the gene­ration is not ended, nor con­sisteth in the production of the forme or of the matter onely, but of all that is com­posed: therfore he that com­poseth or that ioynes the matter with the forme, the flesh with the soule, he doth truly ingender man. But it is he that makes this con­iunction, who disposeth so of matter and forme, as the soule followes infallibly, and it is that which makes man in [Page 730] the generation, and man and woman are the begetters of the infant.

As for the passage of Mo­ses, who doth not see the in­tellectuall figure, who means one thing for another, the body for the soule by reason of their strict vnion? Finally, that which made S. Augustin doubt of the generation of the soule, was, that hee could not comprehend how the sin which dwells in the soule of the father, doth pasfe vnto the sonne: But that is so plainely fet downe by the Di­uines at this day, as it is need­lesse to speake of here, neither were it to the pourpose: It sufficeth that the Pagans themselues haue acknowled­ged that the soule came into man otherwise then from [Page 731] man. Aristotle sayes plainly, that it is something from without vs: Seneca, The soule, sayth he, if thou lookest vn­to her first beginning, is not made of that masse of heauy flesh, but is descended from the celestiall Spirit: Epictetus calls the soule a branch puld from the diuinitie: Plutarque in the Platonicall questions sayth, that the soule parti­cipating of the vnderstan­ding and reason, is not onely a worke of God, but a part of him, and not onely made by him, but of him; these are Hyperbolicall Elogies, but by them these personages haue made it knowne how reue­rently they did esteeme of a reasonable Soule, hauing no thought that shee was ma­teriall.

The first Obiection.

THE false Prophets of Baal did cut thēselues; the Anabaptists at this day do strange acts; & many others deceiued with vaine fancies, which in them hold the place of certaine know­ledge, act terrible things.

Answere: That false pas­tor, that very impostor, as counterfeit as lying, being directly opposite to the [Page 739] truth, cannot bee conceiued but by comparing with the truth, whereof he is the sha­dow and priuation. Euen so false religion presupposeth the true necessarily; for ha­uing held her place, shee makes terrible worke, as in the false Prophets aboue mentioned, in the Anabap­tists and other Heretickes.

As then all religions haue for their first foundation the adoration of the Diuinity, although diuers and varia­ble, which more or lesse fol­low the patterne which hath bene giuen vs by God in his holy word: so all the Heroicke deeds, all the worthy actions, though thrust on diuersly by diuers passions, yet haue they all the immortality of the soule for their first foundati­on, [Page 740] without the which men like vnto beasts, would onely care for the belly, and not performe any worthy act; much lesse endure so many reproches and miseries in this world, as hath beene shewed, and as is dayly seene.

The second Obiection.

ANswere: I grant the consequence of the Maior; for that the [Page 741] soule is immortal, it is cleere by her owne brightnesse, al­though she hath beene much darkened by sinne: This is knowne to all men, in all pla­ces, and at all times, which are the very conditions of the Principle.

And all that which they alledge, is but to defend this truth against the cunning & Sophistrie of the wicked spi­rit and of his supporters, la­boring by cauillings to da­zle the eye of the soule; that not seeing her immortality, she might be intrapt in the snatos of Satan, and suffer shipwradke of her faith.

The third Obiection.

ALL men that enter in­to this question of the soule, cry out, O darke­nesse, ô pitty! That which leades vs to the knowledge of things, is vnknowne vnto vs. that we haue a soule, sayth Seneca, by whose commande­ment wee are thrust on and called backe, all men confesse it; but what this soule, this Lady and Queene is, no man can decide, neither yet where shee abides. Laertius, or ra­ther Heraclitus for him: Let vs passe ouer the soule (sayth hee) for no man can finde it, yea, if hee should imploy his whole life; so profound is the reason thereof. Do not vrge [Page 743] that the eye seeth euery thing but it selfe; for the eye seeth another eye, but one soule knoweth not another soule: yea, the eye seeth it selfe, not his image, but his proper substance, in the reflexion of his visuall beames, by the meanes of the looking­glasse; as for the soule, al they that haue deliuered their o­pinions, haue seemed to doate. Varro hath sayd, that Lact. de opist. c. 17. it was an aire conceiued in the mouth, purified in the lights, made lukewarme in the heart, & diffusedly spred ouer the whole body: Zeno, that it was a fire kindled in our bodies by the celestiall fire: Empedocles, and Circias, that it was nothing but the blood; Hippocrates, that it was a subtile spirit insinuated [Page 744] throughout the whole body: Thales, that it was a nature mouing of it selfe without rest: Asclepiades, a common exercise of the senses: Hippoc. that she goes alwayes on vn­till death, 6 Epistle part 5. com. 5.

Finally, if it were euer, it is in this, That so many heads, so many opinions.

Answere: The soule flow­ing from the diuine essence, hath that common with God, that we see many nega tions of her, but few or no af­firmations: but we know with Aristotle, that it is the perfec­tion of a natural body which may haue life; that it is the beginning of nourishment, feeling, motion, and vnder­standing: And yet more then that, although wee cannot [Page 745] climbe so high: the reason is, that the knowledge which the soule hath of things, is from the senses by meanes of the Ideaes; but the soule cannot bee perceiued by the senses: of her there are no Ide­as, nor by consequence any knowledge. And as for this aire, this fire, these spirits, such as they are fashioned in the braine, they are but or­ganes and vessells fit for the soule; seeing that wee see them wast and consume eue­ry moment, without losse of life, the which notwithstand­ing cannot subsist with­out the ministery of the soule.

Finally, as for the different opinions of diuers men, they shew that they know not what it is; but withall they [Page 746] demonstrate that they know there is a soule which they striue to know; but who is he that would study to know that which is not in nature, vnlesse he were mad?

The second Obiection.

IF the soule at the depar­ture out of the body, had her flight towards heauen, she would giue some signe of it to the body, stirring it with some speciall motion. Simple Creatures mooue themselues in all sorts of mo­tions, differing from plants, which without mouing from [Page 747] their place, doe but grow vp and spread abroad, for that their soules are diuers: and why should not man, who hath a speciall soule, haue a speciall motion? As for that he bounds and skips, therein a goate or a cat hath more then hee; neither is that the reasonable soule that doth it, but rather the vegetatiue, the mixture of the naturall fire which raiseth him: wher­fore as soone as a man breathes and exhales: this fire, hee falls from his leape; but of any proper or particu­lar motion of this flying soule, hee feeleth nothing.

Answere: Seruius vpon the 6. of Virgil will answer, That the soule in the body is like vnto a Lyon shut vp in a streight cage, which notwith­standing [Page 748] loseth nothing of his force, although he cannot shew it; but if he once escape, you shal see him as strong as before, so as a man would thinke his force had bene a­bated in his prison. Moreo­uer, some haue bene so actiue as they haue flowne; as at Pa­ris in the yeare 1551. there was one vndertooke to flie from the Tower of Nefle vnto the Louure, the riuer being betwixt both, the King ex­pecting him: and although hee could not get to the end of his enterprise, yet hee got vp into the aire after such an admirable manner, as hee came to the mid-way. But the flying of the Creature doth not proue his essence immortall, for then birds should be immortall. And [Page 749] how then can the soules mount vp to heauen going out of the bodies? If thou doest beleeue the holy Scrip­tures, the Angells sent to serue them louingly which shall receiue the inheritance Hebr. 1, 14 of saluation, will carry them as the Angell did poore La­zarus. Luke 16, 22

Hereunto that good Fa­ther Macarius had regard: There is a great Mistery, saith Hom, 22, of the estate of them that die. hee, accomplished in soules going out of the bodies; for if they bee guilty of sinne; troopes of diuells and bad angells flocking about them, seaze vpon those soules, as their slaues, and carry them away &c. But if they bee in good estate, the companies of good Angells carrying them to a better life, present [Page 750] them vnto the Lord; yet wee will not deny but in the soule there is an intrinsecall vertue to climbe vp to heauen, with a swiftnesse equall to her de­sire: if that fire hath a secret force to mount vp to his pro­per place, being a dead Ele­ment, what then shall the soule separated do, being so actiue, and so quicke, and whose proper Country is Heauen? And although that heauen, especially that which is the mansion of happy soules, bee so many leagues distant, as Astrologers which haue sought to take the height, haue found millions, & being much amazed haue mounted neere to two thousād millions of leagues; yet we must not beleeue that the soule is long in passing [Page 751] this great distance; for that her motion, not being conti­nued, but diuided like to that of spirits, departing out of the body she is presently in heauen, euen as in this cor­ruptible bodie, in a moment shee sends the beames of her sight and thoughts vp to heauen. But wholy to stoppe the mouth of our aduersarie, we say that the true know­ledge of the soule in her im­mortalitie, is no humaine in­uention, but a diuine reuela­tion, as Iustine Martyr sayth; and that since shee is fallen Dial. cont Triph. from her first integritie, which fall hath so amazed & dulled her, as she knowes not truely what she hath beene, what she is, or where shee is, nor whither she shall goe, of whosesinne she is the subiect, [Page 752] as Iron is of rust; it hath who­lie spoyled her, dulled her quicknesse, and weakned her vigour; which is the cause that she stumbles in the way of health, is blynde in the knowledge of the least things & is interrupted in the course of her brauest discourses by a flye or any toye: To conclude, shee is so troubled, as shee dreames of a thousand fan­cies, & in a manner mistakes euery thing.

The fift Obiection.

DV Bartas hath seene this Obiection, & hath writ­ten in these termes:

And,

Answer: The offence of the first man is not so small as it seemes to an eye troubled [Page 754] with carnall sence

But i was a chaine where all the greatest sinnes, Were one in other, linked fast as twinnes.

Let vs examine them and condemne them; The 1. is Ingratitude, to haue recei­ued from God these soue­raigne blessings, as wisdome, iustice, felicitie, the gouerne­ment ouer all Creatures; and then to haue more honoured the Deuill then his bene­factor.

Secondly, Pride; not to content himselfe with his ho­nest condition, but to seeke G [...]. 2. 22. to make himselfe equall to his Creator.

Thirdly, his Infidelitie, not to giue credit to the threat­nings of God, Thou shalt die the death: and to beleeue Satā, mocking at the threats [Page 755] of God, and accusing him of enuie; You shall not dye, but God knowes that what day you shall eate thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as Gods.

Fourthly, the contempt of God, wilfully disobeying, and touching the forbidden Tree.

Fiftly, his reuolt from God to his aduersarie, from whom hee hopes & attends his ima­ginary greatnesse: the which the Doctors of the Church weighing, they haue found that it was no small sinne, but the greatest in certaine cases that man could commit; for three reasons set downe by S. Augustine, and these are Aug. lib. 4. de Ciu. D [...]. c. 12. & 15. the contents,

1. Neuer man had that facillitie to keepe himselfe [Page 756] from sinne that Adam had; for hee had but one Com­mandement, and that most easie; hee had no concupi­scence that induced him to e­uill; but he had diuine autho­ritie, & that grieuous threat to diuert him.

2. Man was most happy in the earthly Paradise; but we although we haue great bles­sings from our God, yet wee haue them partly in faith, as th' Incarnatiō of Iesus Christ; partly in hope, as eternall life: which is the cause that not tasting them yet, wee feele many doubts crossing our minde. Besides, in the mid­dest of Gods consolations, wee are stung with many af­flictions, so as it is no won­der if many leauing the way of heauen, turne themselues [Page 757] to the goods of this world. But Adam had receiued infi­nite blessings of God, with a perfect knowledge of him, and no vexation; and yet hee was an Apostata vnto God.

3. That sinne is greatest which brings most ruine vn­to mankinde: but there is none committed since, that hath made a greater spoile; By it (sayth S. Augustin in the former place) the vniuersall Masse of humaine nature is condemned; for that hee which did first commit it, is punished with his posteritie, which was in his rheines. It followes then, that it is a most horrible sinne, and they that speake otherwise, haue neuer duly cōsidered thereon: or else they are verie bad dis­puters, concluding it a small [Page 758] fault in breaking an easie com mandement of a light thing; for it is that which giues most waight vnto the sinne, as hath beene already declared. To the King of heauen, im­mortall, inuisible, to God onely wise, be honor and Glory, for e­uer and euer,

Amen.