A Combat betwixt Man and Death: OR A Discourse against the immoderate apprehension and fear of Death.  
Written in French by I. Guillemard of Champdenier in Poictou.  
And Translated into English by EDW. GRIMESTON Sargeant at Arms, attending the Commons House in Parliament.  
LONDON, Printed by Nicholas Okes. 1621.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL St. THOMAS RICHARDSON Knight, Sargeant at Law, and Speaker in the Commons House of Parliament:  
And To all the Knights, Citizens, and Burgeses of that honourable Assembly.  
Most worthily honoured:  
BOund by your many bounties to some public service of acknowledgement and gratitude; I could not in all my poor faculties, find any so near fit for your grave acceptance, as this last of my aged labours. Which, though a work far from all worth of receipt and countenance, of so many exempt and exemplary judgements, and learning, for elocution, and substance; yet for the good suggestion of the subject and object; I presumed you would not disdain it, even your own noble names inscriptions. Good Motives beget good actives; and the speedy way to proceed death's victor in the contemplative man, is, to practise in the School of the Active. There is no such school as yours, to teach the conquest of corruption and injustice; which every man must first subdue, before he conquer their conqueror. I suppose therefore, I set all men's steps in the way to his conquest; in showing them your Olympus (where all equal and Commonwealth Combats are consummate) in my therefore bold dedication to you. Besides, when combats were anciently intended; Hercules (the Father and Fautor of combats) was invoked; and all your united virtues, composing one Hercules; in exploring and extirpating, all the privy Thefts and violences of inhuman injustice, (whose conquest is necessary Usher to the Combats and conquest of death:) to whom but to your Herculean faculties, could this Combat, with so sacred decorum be consecrated? And your still willingto bee-well-employed old Servant, holding these humane readings and writings, no unfit contentions for his age to sweat in; he hopes your most honoured and liberal imputations will allow him; not to carry your club idly, nor for only office or fashion. But be this allusion held too light for your gravities. My humble endeavour to serve you worthily, I am sure is serious enough. And therefore, (even for the divinity of his Precedent that accepted the Will in his weak servant for the work) I thrice humbly implore, your religious imitations; resting  
Ever your most dutiful bounden, ED. GRIMESTON.   

The Preamble.  
We read of a certain Philosopher called Egesias, who had so great dexterity to describe the mournful face of this life, and such grace in setting forth the smiling countenance of death, as all men went joy fully unto it; yea, many (ravished with the love thereof) did hasten their ends: Such Philosophy at this day were very seasonable if ever; these hideous Eclipses in the firmament; these rainy clouds in the air: this contagious poison dispersed over all; that intestine alteration which doth silently murmur within the bowel of Christendom; that thick cloud of the East which threatens bourely to f●…ll upon our decayed houses; are so many defiances, which Death sends to mortal men, to summon them to the Combat. All men must undergo it, of necessity, no man can free himself by flight; there is only one remedy which offers itself unto us, that speedily and without delay we make a feigned Combat against death, to have some happy presage of victory: As Alexander the Great did, from a duel performed at pleasure, conceiving that he should get the victory of Darius; for that the soldier which acted his person did vanquish him of Darius. In like sort let us try; at the least this trial will teach us what we can d●…e, or rather what we cannot; to the end that after the knowledge thereof, we may have recourse to him who makes perfect his power in our weakness; to the Eternal, who alone can rescue us out of the paws of death. He will teach us moreover, how much many are to be blamed at this day, which live in the light of the Sun of justice, to be so fearful at the time of death, when as poor Pagans were so resolute.  
But you will say unto me, What doctrine can we expect from Pagans? by whom man's life is not instructed but ruined, as saith Lactantius; and who are the patriarchs of Heretics, as Tertullian doth witness. I answer, that if we had put on Christ after the perfect stature of a Christian man, this labour were in vain: But for this we may not utterly condemn all humane Philosophy, but the truth which it hath spoken, must be pulled away as from an unjust detainer, saith S. Augustine. Moreover, long since the maxims of Aristotle and other Philosophers, were allowed in the school of Christ, namely, in that which concerns natural things, in which rank natural death is Humane Philosophy in so much as she hath yielded herself a servant to divine truth, hath not been rejected but embraced of the first & most clear sighted fathers; of Lactantius I say, who hath written that Philosophy doth not hurt when as the spirit is seasoned with religion: Of Clemens Alexandrinus, who saith learnedly, That although the Doctrine of our Saviour be of itself sufficient, seeing it is the power and wisdom of God; yet by the doctrine of the Grecians, if it be not more fortified, it is yet unable to repel the insulting of Sophisters, and to discover their ambushes; It is the bedge and rampart of the Lords vine. These great spirits, (saith he, in another place) being free from passions, are accustomed to aim point blank and hit the marko of truth: Thus he speaks, and therefore Lipsius did not forbear to call it the means 
Manud. lib. 2. c. 19  and reconciler of divine and humane Philosophy. To conclude; that great Divine Nazianzen, as if he had undertaken the overthrow of this present objection, teacheth that this Doctrine should not be basely esteemed, 
Orat. fune in Basil.  for that it seemeth so to some.  
But we must hold them sinister and impertinent judges, who desire to have all men like unto themselves, to the end they might hide themselves with the multitude, and avoid the censure of ignorance. Finally, we confess, that in the mysteries of Christ, he that will follow the opinion of Philosophers, shall stumble continually. But the first death, whereof we treat, is no mystery of Christ, but a thing as common as life: What Ensign-bearer then shall we follow in this; Plato, or Aristotle; 〈◊〉 or Seneca? both the one and the other, but our own advice above all, and above our own advice the holy Philosophy of the Word of God, Ariadne's clue to guide us in this labyri●…th: Let Seneca undergo his own Law: I have freed myself from all, saith he, I carry no man's 
Epist. 45.  books. I yield much to the judgement of great personages, so I attribute something to my own.  
Horace saith, I am not bound to swear to the words of any master; whereas the gale of my reason shall drive me; there will I cast Anchor; he speaks like a Poet in an ecstasy. Seneca with a mo●…e settled spirit will say, That the election and direction we 
Epist. 76.  must take in this point, is from perfect reason, by the which we exceed bruit beasts, and come near unto God: ●…e might as well have named the evangelical faith, the true consu●…ation of reason, but he understood not the name.  
But before I conclude, I beseech you Gentlemen read the whole Discourse, and then give your censures; for as one Swallow makes no Summer, but many flying in divers places, and at several times; so if one reason shall not seem sufficient unto you, many joined together will chase away the apprehension of death. I mean not all apprehension, but the excess; for it is the end of this Combat, which tends to no other end but to reduce the extreme fear of death, to a just mean, and to sweeten the imaginary bitterness: but wholly to pull this fear up by the root, is neither possible nor profitable, to the ●…nd that no man deceive himself: It is not possible, for that man being naturally subject to passion, he cannot disrobe himself utterly of all passions but with his humanity; it is the work of death: why then should we fear it? seeing that by the benefit thereof we cast away all fear. Neither is it profitable during this life; for, as Architas saith, Virtue springs from passions, and prooceding from them, dwells with them; even as the best harmony is composed of a sharp Superius and a grave base: even so fear, like to other passions, being reduced to a mediocrity, to the seat of true reason, is converted into valour, a virtue most necessary in a man. Moreover, a wise and understanding man must not cast 
Stobae. Serm. 1.  himself rashly into dangers; for he cannot eclipse himself of this life, but to the great prejudice, (not of himself) but of the Church or Commonweal.  
Finally, I expect not herein to please all the world; I have b●…ene long of Solon's mind, that in a matter of importance it is a hard thing to please all men, but I will add, impossible: On the other side I know that Momus the Cynic will shoot against this butt the blackest arrows of his envy and disdain: yet I entreat you Gentlemen, not to believe his saying, until that he hath done better upon this subject; otherwise (as you know) he is not to be admitted in his opposition. There are twelve hours in the day; if this Discourse be forced to hide itself at the first, it may be it will have passage at the last: and admit it should not happen; that which one spoke bravely, I will protest freely, It is enough if I have few readers, enough if one, & enough if none at all: for in this matter the advice which Seneca gave to his friend Serenus, for a point of tranquillity, pleaseth me, and I w●…ll depend thereon. What need is there (saith he) to compose books, which last whole 
Lib. de tranquil. vir. c. 1.  ages? wilt thou break thy brain that posterity may speak of thee? Thou art borne to dye; funerals without pomp are not so full of trouble: wherefore if thou dost compose any thing, let it be in a plain style, to employ thine i●…le time, and for thine own use.  
Even so I have joyfully employed myself, (according to my poor faculty) to gather together the points of reason dispersed here and there, against the fear of Death; if it be for no other than myself, yet my labour shall not be in vain; and having done what I could, I shall be acquitted.  
But I had almost forgot to defend myself from the i●…uectiue of some severe Areopagite, to have produced the strongest objections of the most ●…rofane against the immortality of the soul: These are (he will say) stinking eruptions of pestilent excrements, which should be buried in the bottomless pit of hell, and not infect the pure air of our Horizon: To thi●… crimination I oppose four reasons for my justification; the one is, that the air of our Horizon is not pure, but much infected with such contagion, he that doth not feel it nor hear it: is a leper and deaf. There is one hath written above 20. years since, that impiety which before did but whisper in the ear, and mutter betwixt the teeth, presumed now to come into the Pulpit and to pour forth her blasphemies; and do we not see and hear in this age, (which is much impaired) that the most profane are in most favour and authority?  
In this latter plague at Paris, the chief Chirurgeons of the City assembled in their College, where they published by writing all the poison of this malignant disease, and have according to their Art, propounded counterpoisons to quench it; who will blame them? nay, who will not thank them? The plague of the souls, the damned doctrine of her death, is propounded and refuted by solid reasons, who will repine at it? The second is taken from the thing itself, which is, the immortality of the soul. Truth will not be flattered nor disguised, she contents herself with her own constancy, and her natural Ornaments; she is like the Palm tree which the more it is pressed down, the higher it grows: It is like gold, the more it is tried the brighter it shines.  
He that doubts of his cause likes not many questions; we doubt not of the immortality of the soul; the more she strikes against the stone of contention, the more the fire of her immortal extraction will appear. The third reason comes from them that contradict the truth; if you suffer them always to brave it, in the end they will proclaim a triumph. It is not the part of a brave soldier, but of a coward, to suffer his enemy to keep the field; he must chase him away, and vanquish him if it be possible. Answer the fool according to his folly, saith the wise man, to the end, he esteem not himself wise.  
Finally, the order of my disputation hath held me unto it, the equal Law of duels binds me to withstand all the attempts which my adversary shall devose to make against me; I entertayn●… him in the chief charge of the fear of death: I am b●…nd to do it in the accessary of the immortality of the soul, lest I should be held a Prevaricatour, a turnecoate and a perfidious dissembler of the cause: But it may be some consor will reply, You plant distrustful thorns in the hearts of the simple, which heretofore dia fly joyfully upon the wings of the immortality of their souls.  
I answer, That to pull up the thorns which Satan and his adherents have planted, to resolve difficulties propounded by Sophistical reasons, is not to plant. Moreover, simple souls wh●…ch have been taught in the Lord's School, the honour which they owe unto him, will not suffer themselves to be dazzled nor deceived with the illusion of carnal reasons.  
Thirdly, humane fragility is such, that these which now sail happily in the sea of this world by the favourable wind of divine grace, may to morrow str●…ke against the rocks of incredulity have a contrary wind and suff●…r shipwreck, and so have ●…eede of the answers ●…ere set down. To conclude, counterp●…ysons are not for the sound, but for the sick and infected: these confutations are not for them which be clean in heart and sound in spirit, but for such as irreligion and presumption of humane wisdom have bewitched.  
O thou the Cr●…ator of all things, the Author of our life, the Inspirer of our souls, the Father, Son and holy Ghost, one true and only God; I humbly beseech thee, illuminate the eyes of my understanding, that I may plainly see the happy issue of fearful death, that it will please thee so to purify the thoughts of my soul, that she may fully apprehend the true causes of her immortality: that it will please thee so to favour my pen, that it may write worthily upon so worthy a subject; that the work finished, thou mayest be glorified, the Reader edified, and myself fortified.  
Amen.   

The Combat betwixt Man and Death.  

The first Argument taken from the Instrumental cause of eternal life.  
The only means to attain to the perfection of that good which the world so much desireth, should not give any amazement to the world.  
Death is the only means.  
Therefore Death should not give any amazement to the world.  
THE first proposition of this Argument doth plainly justify itself; for without exception all men desire the happiness of life, the perfection of Sovereign good, which is the beatitude of the holy Spirit, called eternal life: I except not ill doers, for they err in doing ill, and either believe that it is good, or the way which tends unto it. But there is but one way to attain unto this good, which is death. Now then to abhor this death more than horror itself, greedily to desire that good which only death can give us; to desire health and reject the potion whereby we may recover it; to affect the pleasures which (they say) are in those fortunate Lands, but without any figure in that heavenly Paradise; to refuse to enter into that ship which alone can bring us thither, were to mock at himself. Let us proceed and come to the proof of the 2. proposition, for thereon is grounded the force of our Syllogism: That Death is the only means to attain unto the perfection of life, is manifest, in that the perfection of every thing is the enjoying of the ends; all the lines of our designs, all the projects of our enterprises, all our sweeting and toil tend, and aim at the end.  
Who knows not that death is the first end of life? feels not but that life in her greatest vigour drives him directly thither? all men may see that life is united inseparably unto death, by the continuance of the same succession of times, consider this time, whereof the enjoying is the life. There are three parts, that which is past, the present, and the future: the present is the bond of that which is past, and of the future: and as this article of the present time runs as violently towards the future, as the Primum Mobile turns in the heaven, so doth ourlife run vio lently towards her end. This life is a very way, as soon as thou dost enter into it, and makest but one step, it is the first pace towards the end of the way, towards the end of life, which is death: for the going out of the cradle is the beginning of the entry to the grave, whether thou wilt or wilt not, whether thou thinkest of it or not; yet it is true, yea as certain as in an hourglass, where the first grain of sand which runs is a guide unto the last to the end of the hour: Every day we pass carries away some part of our life, yea as we grow, life decreaseth; this very day which we now enjoy is divided betwixt Death and us: for the first hours of the morning being passed to the present (in their flowing) are dead to us: wherefore Seneca had often this sentence very fitly in 
2. Sam. cha. 14.  his mouth. 
Death hath degrees, yet that is not the first,  
Which divides us in twain, but of the death is the last.   
And it is the very reason why that wise Tekohite said unto David in the present 
2. Sam. 2, 14.  time: For certain we die, and slide away as the waters which return no more. So many degrees as there are in life, so many deaths, so many beginnings of another life: Let us examine them, and take special note of the first death, to judge of the latter; for herein as in all the other works of wise Nature, the end is answerable to the beginning.  
The first degree of man's life is, when being fashioned and framed, he lives in the womb of his mother; this is a vegetative life, a life proper to plants only, wherein he may receive nourishment & grow; in this life he continues commonly but nine months, at the end of which time he dies, but a happy death whereby he gains the use of the goodly senses of nature, that is to say, of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching: behold then the first death when as the Infant by the force of nature is driven out of that fleshy prison, coming from which place he strives and stretcheth out himself; he is angry with nature, and cries incessantly, but he is ill advised; it is his good, and the beginning of his perfection. Now followeth the infantive life, not differing from that of beasts, which extends unto seven years complete; of this life childhood is the death, which begins at eight years, and retains nothing of the Infancy. As for the exterior of man, which is the body, not the flesh, nor bones; not the four principal humours, if that be true which the Physicians hold for a Maxim, that our bodies change all their substance every seven years. And in truth how could our sliding nature so long subsist? if it were not maintained by drink and meat, the which by a certain virtue infused into all the members of the body, digested, purged, and applied, doth transubstantiat itself into our very bodies proportionably as the substance decays: as appears by the words in the book of Wisdom, cap. 5. Being borne we suddenly desist from that being wherein we were borne. It is no more the first body which we brought into the world, that is dead; we have an other in our childhood the third degree of life, which extends unto 18. years, at the end whereof his death encounters him; in the which begins the 4. degree of life, which goes unto 22. and then dies: but from this death riseth youth, the 5. degree which flourisheth unto 30. years, & then his flower falls and his youth is lost; but a rich loss, seeing, thereby manhood the perfect age is gotten, which being strong and vigorous climbs unto 50. years, and this is the 6. degree of life. Then comes age the 7. degree of life, and the death of manhood, at what time the spirit is fortified, and grows more ripe in good Counsel, and wiser in his actions; this life ascends unto the decrepit age as they call it, which begins at 70. years, where rests the death of age, and so runs on unto the grave all the remainder of his life: and this is the 8. degree of life. In the end succeeds in his turn the last, principal, and most to be desired death; I say the principal, for that it makes an end of all the other deaths that went before, and fears no more the miseries of life: I say to be desired; for she alone doth crown the actions of mortal life with glorious immortality; it is the hand which sets upon our heads the flourishing Diadem of eternal life.  
It is the last staff of the ladder manifested unto jacob by vision, ordained by God, to the end we may thereby ascend up into heaven: It is that dun horse, that is to say, pale and mournful to our 
Apoc. 6. 8.  opinions, but yet we must backe him to run the career of death, to pass unto that most happy abode. Poor man thou tremblest at the shadow of death, thou dost cry and howl when she lays hold on thee, even so thou didst when thy mother's strength cast thee out of her womb: if then thou hadst had thy judgement neat as now thou hast, thou wouldst have held thyself happy to have left a most filthy prison within the circuit of that round City: In like sort if now, thou hadst thy understanding and Spirit 
Rom. 12. 2.  transformed and renewed (as the Apostle speaks) thou shouldest see plainly that what doth terrify thee, is that which should assure thee.  
But yet if God hath not imparted unto thee the light of his grace, take advice of humane reason, call Seneca 
Epist. 24. & 103.  unto thee, who had but the eyes of a man, and consider what he saith; thou shalt find that in it are no ambushes nor constraint, it is only pure and simple nature, which speaks by reason; it is an undoubted Maxim, that nature always tends and attains for the most part to the perfection of her work. Man is her Master piece, all other Creatures are made for him, the perfection of man is his perpetuity in a most happy life, nature leads man by degrees to this perfection. We see she fails not in the second degree▪ seeing that the Infant borne is much more perfect than that which is newly engendered in the womb: it fails no more in the third, nor consequently to the eighth, as I have showed.  
Let us conclude thereby, that it is impossible she should fail in the principal, which is the ninth degree of life, which she must perfectly finish: we must judge of the end of the work by the beginning and progress. Finally, if the study of Philosophy be a kind of death, as Philosophers hold, for that man is sequestered from the company of men, and the vanities of the world, to have his spirit free and at liberty in his brave meditations: and if in this estate man is more accomplished, and more perfectly happy, without comparison, than they that trouble themselves continually with the affairs of this active life; Oh what shall it be when as the soul purged from the infection of the senses, freed from all commerce with the body, shall be wholly in itself ennobled with a supernatural grace; illuminated with a celestial flame, & inspired with an unspeakable joy: how beautiful, happy, and joyful shall she be? To this death then let us direct our vows, and our eyes: let us take acquaintance and be familiar with her; she is our friend, since that jesus Christ did vanquish and subdue her for our sakes; she is prepared for us as a way, into which we must of necessity enter, to go into our Country which is heaven: It is the only means ordained of God, to go unto that most blessed Mansion. Let us then stretch out our arms courageously, and with a smiling countenance (when we shall see her turned towards us, making sign that she will embrace us) let us receive her; for she is a necessary gift to our cortupted nature, which we must not reject, but embrace, as Saint Chrysostome saith. 
In 10. Mat.   

The first Objection.  
Every end of a work is not the final cause; therefore it follows not that death is the final cause of life, although it be the extreme end.  
THere are three conditions 
Arist. l. 2. Phys, c. 2.  necessary to a final cause, the one is, that it be the last point of the operation; the other is, that the work be finished for the love thereof: if the first be found in death, the second (which is the principal) falls, seeing that the actions of life tend not unto death, as to their dear and best beloved. Answer. I said not that death was the final cause of life, but the way; yea, the only way which leads us unto it, and that for the love of that great and foveraigne good, which is joining to the gate of death, we should desire it, and not be amazed at it, after the example of S. Paul, who writing to the Philippians, desired to be dissolved, 
c. 1. v. 23.  and to be with Christ, the which was far better for him, that he might be crowned with a crown of justice, 
2. Tim. 4.  and enjoy that unspeakable good, as he saith elsewhere. But some Infidels will say, I demand proofs hereof favourable to my reason. I answer, that he hath put the flame of reason into thy understanding, who doth illuminate every man which cometh into the world, hath presented his grace unto thee in the Gospel to believe, and there is nothing but the bar of thy sins that doth hinder thee: neither is this Gospel concealed from any, but such as have the eyes of their understanding blinded by the Prince of this world. But if thy reason, being blinded, cannot apprehend the sovereign Good which is in death: yet shall you plainly see a mere privation from all miseries; an absolute rest and a tranquillity which cannot be interrupted; and therefore if there were no other but this reason, death should cause no amazement, but rather give contentment, considering the estate of this life.   

The second Objection.  
All demolishings carry deformity, and cause horror.  
Death is a demolishing of man; therefore death causeth horror.  
Palaces, Temples, and other buildings, yield a pitiful spectacle when we see them ruined: and what shall man do, who exceeds in excellency all buildings; yea, the earth, the heaven, and all that we behold? what can he do, lying upon the earth in death, but perplex our minds?  
To this I answer by distinction to the similitude, and then I flatly deny the application. I say therefore to the first proposition, that there are two sorts of demolishings, the one is necessary, and wisely undertaken for a better structure; the other is prejudicial and undiscreetly done, by revenge for a total ruin; I confess that this in its deformity, should give cause of horror, but I cannot confess that the like is in death, in the demolition of man, but only the first: for as a wise master of a family, when he sees that his house threateneth ruin, that it sinks in many places, and the walls open, commands it to be pulled down, that with the ruins and materials he may raise another to continued many years: even so nature, a most expert. Architectrice, seeing man laden with wounds, dejected with misery and melancholy, consumed with age, and grown cro●…ked with the gou●…e, & catar●…es, sowe●… him co●…uptible in the grave, that 
1. Cor. 15. 42.  after many changes, she may raise him incorruptible by the powerful voice of Christ. 
joh. 5. 25.  If the earthly habitation of this mansion be destroyed, saith the Apostle S. Paul, we have a dwelling with God, 
2. Cor. 5.  that is to say, an eternal house in heaven, which is not made with hands: and therefore we sigh and desire so much to be clothed with our mansion which is in heaven, and this is for our soul, expecting the Resurrection of her body: And this body, saith the same Apostle, being sown in dishonour, shall rise again 
1. Cor. 15. 43. 44. 45.  in glory, sown in weakness shall rise in strength; and sown a sensual body, shall rise a spiritual body. What then can man produce against this, but only some murmuring of his Incredulity, that it exceeds the bounds of reason, without the which he will not assure himself of any thing? I answer, that the full persuasion of that which is written in the holy word, is well grounded upon faith, a particular gift of heaven to all true Christians, touching the returning of our bodies: as for the reasonable conjecture of our future life after death, I deny that this hath been altogether unknown to men guided only by the instinct of nature, and I will prove my assertion sufficiently in the 39 Argument, if God so please.  
To this first consolation, we will add a second, that is, nature finding the declining and wasting of the substance of man, came by a sacred marriage to stay some portion in the matrix of his dear moiety, and to fashion and bring forth many other reasonable creatures, at diverse times, creatures which have the same flesh and bones of father and mother. And if it be true, that a good friend is a second self, what shall a good son be, but himself without any addition? whereby is plainly manifested, what Macrobius saith, that the body 
Lib. 7. of his Saturnales.  recoives three advantages of the reasonable soul, that is to say, he lives, he lives well, and in succession of time, he remains immortal: Ecclesiasticus goeth ●…art her, saying That if the father of a child dies, it is all one as if he were not dead; for he hath left his like behind him, he hath seen him, and hath joyed having left one who shall take revenge of his enemies, and requite his friends.  
And this was it which moved that great Lawgiver Plato, to make a law, that every 
Lib. 4. c. 30. de Legib.  man at a comperent age should marry a wife; else he should be called before the judge, condemned in a fine and declared infamous; for that (as he afterwards saith) every man should consider in himself, that there is a certain power & efficacy of nature, which makes men to purchase an Immortality: he would infer, that whosoever leaves children doth revive in some sort in them. It is an order of nature which we must inviolably observe, engendering we perish of the one side, but we begin again of the other. If our parents by their fading and dying substance had not given us life, we could not have entered into it of ourselves; what wrong is it if nature doth that of us for our children, which she bathe done of our Parents for us? Moreover death (which is a privation of life) is a beginning of life in nature, remaining in the first matter, by the which she disposeth herself to a new form, not to continue still at this deformed spectacle. Thirdly, wha●… great deformity see you in death, which is not in him that sleeps? Fourthly, that deformity which may be, is not seen by him whom it concerns, it is to the suruiuor●… that it should be hideous: but most commonly they find it pleasing, reaping by that means large successions, elbow room, freedom from control: and if it were otherwise, the world would not be able to contain us. And thus much for the first part of the objection; 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 heap of stones and timber; the stones are not laid in order one upon another, neither is the timber raised as it ought to be: It is then the form that wants when as the materials remain: but in man, or rather a dead carcase, the soul which is the form receives no blemish, she is freed from the surprises of the grave. Thou dost not complain that the eggshell is broken, when a chicken comes forth: neither is the body of man to be lamented when as the soul flies away. But what great difformity dost thou see in a dead body? thou seest little or no difference at all with one that sleeps; this doth not terrify thee, why should the other amaze thee? especially if thou dost consider that the body which is dead, is truly asleep, the which is a subject of an other discourse, as we shall see if God please. But all things have their period, the ladder his last staff, and life her last degree. Thou didst ascend joyfully, so must come down again with the like content, if in the last step or in the midst thou be'st not carried away accidentially by some violent death; but to return to the place where thou hast been taken, thy nature doth exhort thee, yea it forceth thee. If too unjust, thou dost not willingly give thy consent: look into the degrees of life, and this contemplation will give thee consolation against death: when thou wert borne into the world, there was found in thee an appetite to some substance or meat without thyself, the which having been supplied thee, and sent by the mouth into the stomach, was converted into a conco●…ted juice, and then transformed into blood by the liver, refined into spirits by the heart, and finally fitted to thy decaying body: thou didst receive nourishment, force, and joy, these are the first degrees of life: then climbing higher thou hast extended the five faculties of thy senses, thine eye to see beautiful things, thine ears to hear melodious sounds, thy nose to smell pleasing scents, thy mouth to taste wholesome and delightful savours, and thy hand to handle smooth and well polished things; these are other degrees of the same life: At length the reasonable soul comes to play his part, the understanding desires to know whatsoever the senses apprehend: whatsoever his eye sees, his ear heareth, his hands touch; and moreover what they neither see, hear nor touch, reason flying to his age gives some light, contributes discourses and lends him Counsel; Memory a faithful register keeps a journal book of all; and will quickened by the goodly object which presents itself to the understanding, gives her consent and keeps all joyful: so as by the Imagination which is always ready at the first summons, that which hath once pleased the mind is often repeated; and these are the last and goodliest degrees▪ of life, after which a wise man should prepare himself to decline, & it he will not do it willingly, his own temper which had raised him, will draw him & force him thereunto maugre his resistance: the natural heat diminisheth, the Imagination (which consists in a certain point of heat) grows weak, the radical moisture consumes, and the memory is lost; reason dotes for that the memory is not firm enough, nor the Imagination strong▪ to conclude, the will can no more love any thing, she is still wayward and displeased, and the understanding doth nothing but doa●…e, for that the vigour and virtue of the senses is decayed; they which were wont to make a faithful report of all things in this world unto the soul, have no more any power, the sight grows dim, the hearing hardened the smelling very dull, the mouth without taste, the body without appetite, the hands knotted with the Gout. Finally, it is no more what it was. And how then should these building of the body, subsist? seeing the foun dations decay daily. This faculty which desired and received sustenance is altogether distasted, that fiery virtue which did concoct it, suffers it to go down all raw; finally, that power which did nourish and give strength unto the body, is now become unable, so a●… the body withers, grows crooked and lean, and in the end dies. Thou dost imagine (O 〈◊〉) that this last period of ●…y bodies failing is very horrible, thou dost believe it▪ but thou art deceived, seeing it gives a final end to all other defects which troubled thee & made thee wayward. Alas wouldst thou always live & languish in this pitiful infancy, to which thy many years do reduce the? remember what thou sometimes desired, seeing these old men twice children, when as thy reason and judgement (being ●…ound and perfect) made thee conceive what a pity and misery it was to live in that estate: remember (I said) that thou desiredst not to live so long, now the effect of thy desire, the end of thy life offereth itself, which thou canst not, nor mayst in reason refuse.   

The third Objection.  
The Loss of Happiness causeth an insupportable grief.  
Death is the loss of happiness. Therefore, etc.  
THe rest of the mind is the happiness of life, to the which man i●… led of himself, if he doth not wretchedly resist it; for his own reason makes him easily and distinctly to know his soul, his body, and those thing which are for his body: she teacheth him that only his soul is his, and that his body and those things which concern it, depend of an other; and therefore 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 soul: so as the spiritual and bodily infirmities to which the body is subject, as poverty, reproach and disdain of men; which may happen to a man without de●…rt, should be indifferent unto him, seeing they are out of his power. As for that which is in his power, as to allow, desire, poursue the good and good things which are honest and according unto reason; and chose to hate and fly the evil, he applies himself 〈◊〉 ●…o eas●…y, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cont●… unless 〈◊〉 death comm●… between 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 means ●…o attai●…e unto it is ve●…ue▪ But it is likewise 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 the one nor the other can be obtained in this life▪ all we can have is but a shadow of the one and the other, as far different from the ●…ffect as night is from day; for night 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 surprised 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 justice to shine upon th●…m▪ I●… they 〈◊〉 it no●…▪ they are not t●…ue ●…n but ●…tish, having taken the habit of beasts. But to answer more categorically to these S●…oicks▪ 〈◊〉 especially ●…o Epict●… from whom this objection is drawn, to say that the body and those external thing●… which happen unto man, should not be respected of him, it is the farthest from reason that can be, even to the vulgar fort, who wholly run after honour, riches and pleasure: and to say that a man in some great Infirmity either of body or mind feels no pain, were to make a jest of himself. Aristotle (called the ●…ye of reason) is not of that opinion; these are his words in his Book of Manners: It is 
Elbi. ad Nicoma●…. L. 1. c. 8.  impossible (faith he) or very hard, that any one should do well without means and preparation. Many things are effected by friends, by wealth, by credit and authority; and they that are deprived of these things blemish their happiness, like unto them that are issued from obscure parents, who neither have children, nor good children, or that are crooked.  
For he is not perfectly happy that is deformed, of a base race, and without issue. This is too much; see what Antipater one of the great authors of the Stoics saith, who attributs something, although but little, to exterior things.  
But what saith Seneca? the 
Seneca. Epis●… 92.  wise man writes, that he is happy, yet he can never attain unto that Sovereign good, unless the natural Instruments be propitious. And although the body, and the exterior things be not the soul which is the principal sea●… of happiness, yet are they accessories, Instruments and means which God hath ordained and united; and therefore they should taste of the happiness of the soul, if there be any, as the fire d●…sperseth his heat in the air that doth environ it. As for the other ground of this imaginary felicity that man doth easily apply himself to seek that only which is honest and according unto reason: it is a greater Parodoxe than the precedent; for the most virtuous man in the world hath a continual combat against vice, & is never at truce; how then hath he any peace or rest? The eye o●… his understanding is dazzled at the shining of his ●…oueraigue good; his will strays from the true end, or in aiming mistakes one for an other: and therefore most commonly if he be not directed and animated from above, he follows that which he should fly, and flies that which he should follow, so as he shall never hit the white, now win the Crown of justice, which is the true felicity of man. Let us then conclude with S. john That what 
1. john. 3. Coloss. 3.  we shallbe doth not yet appear; with S. Paul, That our life is hidden in Christ: That it is in safe keeping, and that the end of this mortal life is the beginning of the immortal. Let us say in the end, that all things have their Period, that we are borne to live. We live to die, and we die to live again, but without any more turning, for the Circle shallbe returned to his point and the light of the body shall suffer no more eclipse: Come then O gentle death, which dost make an end of the miseries of this world, and beginnest the happiness of Heaven; which dost free us from mortal pain, and bringest us to enjoy immortal good, which dost convert our tears and toils into joy & rest, which dost change our fantastical treasure into that which is certain, and our temporal into spiritual and eternal. Retire then O you deceitful vanities, for the charm of your pleasures cannot prevail with me who am resolved to die; hold your tongue also O vain deception of Philosophy and humane tradition; for I am taught by the death of my Saviour, & by his resurrection, that my greatest perfection is, to acknowledge my imperfection, my blindness, my death in my sins: and that my greatest happiness in this world is to obtain remission of my sins, and to mortify my corrupted members, to the end, that a good death may soon bring me to the haven of salvation, and eternal life,  
Amen.    

The second Argument taken from the vicious fruits of the extreme fear of death.  
That which breeds many inconveniences in the spirit & body of man, must be speedily pulled away.  
The extreme fear of death causeth great inconveniences▪  
Therefore that must be speedily pulled away.  
SOme one said truly, (speaking of the excessive apprehension of death,) that it is the ordinary object which troubleth the understanding of man, makes him to lose his judgement, to abandon all duty, and to cast himself into a shameful forgetfulness of himself. Let us. see how: He that fears death unmeasurably, he must of necessity fear every thing that may bring it, that is, all that he sees, and what he cannot discern; whereas death lies in ambush, whereby it happens that this man doth easily fall into many errors, as into foolish superstition, thinking by his voluntary submissions▪ by m●…toring of words not understood, by adoring of stocks, and stones, to move God to pity him, and to turn away death, which he imagines upon the least accident, the flying of a bird, or the croaking of a Crow should take him by the throat. So we read of Arislodemus King of the Messeniens, who being in war against his subjects, the dogs howled like Wolves, and an herb called Dogstooth grew near unto his Altar; the which being interpreted by his Soothsayers to be an ill presage, he concoived such a fear as he died. And as this disordered motion of fear, makes men credulous to the words of Satan, so doth it make them incredulous to the assured promises of the Eternal; the which provoking the wrath of God, in the end he doth execute upon them his sentence pronounced against the fearful & incredulous, casting them into the Lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death, Apocal. 21. O how fitly then did Saint Augustine say, that by too much fearing the temporal death, they did ingulfe themselves in the eternal: a fearful man not only makes himself a slave to fantastical divinity, but also a bondman to any one that is subject unto him▪ said King Lew. 11. who to assure himself against death shut himself up solitary at Plessis near Tours, yet could he not be confident; the opening of a door amazed him, he hated all those he suspected, and he suspected all the world: his most confident were dismisss and put from his person, and he remained alone melancholy, dreaming, froward, and choleric, nothing pleased him but only displeasure: he grew jealous of his son-in-law, of his own Son and his Daughter; only his Physician possessed him, controlled him and kept him in awe with his words threatening death; I know well, said he, (swearing a great oath) that one of these mornings you will send me away with the rest, but you shall not live eight days after; Thus this imperious servant kept his King captive.  
Thus this King lost his liberty more precious than his life, for maintaining whereof, good men should always strive. Whereunto Seneca had 
Epist. 71.  reference when he said, that the vilest death was to be preferred before the honestest servitude, for that this liberty cannot safely confish but in the contempt of death; as Agis King of Lacedaemon taught him that demanded an assured liberty of him: and in truth ●…hee that fears not, death; may pass freely like a Knight without fear, who shall hinder him: seeing the extrem●…▪ dangers▪ of death cannot amaze him? Moreover fearful persons are the ruin of States and Commonalties; for in the least dangers, through fear and the threats of great men, they yield easily to a mischief, and subject themselves to the favour of the wicked and the will of the base multitude. Thirdly, a man that trembles so at the apprehension of death, runs into assured misery, which deprives him of all pleasure of life, makes his facewrincle, and grow pale before his time: Which the Italian Gentleman will verify, who being imprisoned upon a certain accusation, and receiving news that without all doubt he should lose his head the next day, the fear of one night did so trouble his brain, and distempered his body with shaking, as he became all grey and worn. But o miserable men, after all your shifts and escapes, in the end you must come and yield yourselves at the Port of Death: So much the more miserable, (I do not call you miserable for that you are subject unto death, but for your extreme fear) that many thinking to free themselves from death, have run headlong into it: some thinking to escape, have cast themselves out at a window and broken their necks; others flying their pursuing enemies swords, have leapt like fishes, (but without fins,) into a deep river, as into an assured Sanctuary, where they have been drowned. Nay, besides all this, they which thinking still to delay and escape that which they fear so extremely, when they see themselves in the bed of death, then do they vomit out their rage against heaven, and exclaim injuriously against the true God; and being desperate they cast themselves into the infernal gulf.  
Let us conclude with Seneca, That the fear of death 
1. de Tranquil. 11.  will never profit any living man, but drawing him into many miseries which are much more to be feared then death itself, will make him in the end insupportable and offensive to all kind of people, yea to himself: For having his nose grovelling to the ground like a hog, he will never be able to lift up his eyes nor his spirit to heaven, where all perfect and assured contentment is to be found. If yielding to all this, you will ask me the means how to be freed of this fearful terror, I will tell you that it is to know what Deathis, as it is taught in the 13. 14. and 20. Arguments; and not to rely upon doubtful and false opinions.  

An Objection.  
Every root bringing forth fruits worthy repentance should be carefully preserved.  
The fear of death bringeth forth fruits worthy of repentance.  
Therefore the fear of death should be carefully preserved.  
Whatsoever thou 
Eccles. 7 the last verse.  sayest or dost, remember thy end, and thou shalt never sin, saith the son of Syrach. Answ. the continual meditation of death to him that knows it rightly, helps wonderfully unto virtue. And Seneca sayeth, 
Epist. 121  that man is never so divine as when he doth acknowledge himself to be mortal. Yea it avails in Christian duties; but that the fear of death is profitable to any thing, I cannot comprehend.  
I will not deny but that many have been wonderfully stirred up to piety by the fear of death, as among others, the history makes mention of Peter Vualdo in the year 1178. who in the city of Lions sometime, being assembled with many of the chief of the City to recreate themselves, it so happened that one of them fell down suddenly dead: Vualdo a rich man was more moved than all the rest, and seized with fear and apprehension, he addicted himself 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 piety, but the judgement of God, which we discern through death as through a glass? that it is the worm of Conscience which doth awaken us by the contemplation of Death, and stirs up sinners to justice & sanctity? It is the ignorant confusion of the second death with the first, which doth so strongly amaze men. Finally, it is a servile fear and not commendable, yea, condemned of the Pagan's themselves, to forbear to do evil for 
Horace Oderunt peccare mali fohmidine poenae.  fear of punishment. Let us conclude then, That this first death, which is natural and common to all men (seeing that her poison hath been quenched in the blood of Christ, as Tertullian speaks; seeing that the Cross: of jesus Christ hath pulled away her sting, triumphed over her, and given a counterpoison for the poison of sin) it is not evil, but the greatest good that can arrive to mortal men: and to fear to obtain so great a good is a vice and no virtue, before all upright judges.    

The Third Argument drawn from the Impossibility  
That only is to be feared that lies in the power of man.  
Death lies not in the power of man.  
Therefore not to be feared.  
VIce only should he feared, to be avoided; but nothing that is without the power of man is vice, as Epictetus saith in his Enchiridion. Moreover, that fear is good that can prevent an imminent danger; but to that which can neither be remedied nor foreseen, fear serves but to advance it: Man may prevent and avoid that which he holds in his own power and will: as the approbation of vice, the hatred of goodness and of true honour, rashness, passions, unlawful love, unrestrained heaviness, excessive joy, vain hope, damned despair, etc. But all that which blind man by his opinion doth affect or fear so much, as wealth, poverty, the honour or dishonour of the world, life and death, are not tied to his will, nor subject to his sceptre; And therefore the Philosopher will 
Arist. 3. Ethic. 6.  rightly say that neither poverty, nor sickness, (let us also add death) nor any thing that flows not from our own malice, are to be feared, let us follow the Doctors 
Tac●…t. 4. Histor.  of wisdom (saith Heluidius in Tacitus) which hold honest things only to be good, and dishonest bad: power, nobility, and whatsoever is without the spirit of man, reputation, riches, friends, health, life and all things that depend of the free will of man, flow necessarily & perpetually from the decree of the Eternal: and to seek to hinder their course, were to strive to stay the motion of the heaven and stars. This providence of God dispersed throughout all the members of this Universe, hath infused into every movable thing, a secret & immovable virtue, as Boetius saith, by the which she doth powerfully accomplish all things decreed in its time, and place and order; To seek to break the least link of these causes chained together, were as much as to run headlong against a rock to overturn it. I will that thou knowest the hour & place of thy decease, that to avoid it thou fliest to a place opposite unto it, that thou watchest the hour; yet shalt thou find thyself arrived and guided to the place, at the hour appointed, there to receive thy death: and that which is admirable, thou thyself insensibly wouldst have it so, and didst make choice of it. To this force let julius Caesar oppose all his Imperial power, let him scoff at Spurinus & his prediction of the 15. of March, the day being come, he must understand from his Soothsayer who was no liar, that the day was not past; he must come to the Capitol, and there receive 23. wounds, and fall down dead at the foot of Pompey's statue. Let Domitian storm for the approaching of five of the clock foretold, yet must he die at the hour, and for the more easier expedition, one comes and tells him that it had struck six; he believes it with great joy: Parthenius his groom tells that there is a packet of great importance brought unto him: he enters willingly into the Chamber, but it was to be slain at that very instant which he feared most.  
But if these histories seem over worn with age, who remembers not that memorable act at the last Assembly of the Estates at Blois, of that Duke who received advertisement from all parts, both within and without the Realm, that the Estates would soon end with the ending of his life? even upon the Eve, one of his confident friends discovered the business unto him; going to dinner he found a note written in his napkin, with these words, They will kill you. To which he answered, They dare not; but they failed not. Oh God how difficult is it to find out thy ways! Let us then conclude that the hour of death apppointed by the immoveable order of God, is inevitable, so that (as one saith) We shall sooner move God then death: So the Pagans, who erected Altars to all their counterfeit Deities, did never set us any to death.  
This firm decree of all things gane occasion to the Pagans to figure the three Destinies, whose resolution great jupiter could not alter, no not to draw his Minion Sarpedon out of their bonds. Let us speak more properly; God can do it, but he will never do it, or very seldom, to show his infinite power by miracle. Let us in the end say, That seeing death is inevitable, it must needs follow, that the fear of it is unprofitable: On the other side, let us add, that man's life is not to be cut off before the time: & therefore a careful waywardness to prolong it, avails nothing: the Destinies which have resolved immutably to spin it out till such a time, they will do it, fear it not: and in the danger of death, will rather show a miracle to preserve thee, as to the Poet Simonides, who supping with Scopas, in a Town of Thessaly, word was brought him, that two young men were at the door to speak with him: the Poet went forth, but found no body at the door, but he heard a great noise of the chamber which sunk down, and smothered Scopas and all his guests in the ruins.  
We read that Gelon then a young Infant, but appointed to live longer, to govern Sicily, was drawn out of the like, but a stranger danger: for as he was at school in the presence of his master and many of his companions, behold, a great Wolf enters into the school, comes to Gelon, lays hold of his book, and draws it by the one end: Gelon without amazement holds fast, and rather suffers himself to be drawn forth by the Wolf then to let go his hold; and in the mean time the building happened to sink, and overwhelmed both Master and scholars.  
Thus God shows his providence, preserving by his Angels those whom he pleaseth from present and most eminent dangers. So would he save Lot and his family from the fire of heaven, almost against their will: For it is written, that the Angels took them and thrust them out of Sodom; yea, it is written, that the Angel executioner, to show the force of providence, told Lot, that he could not do any thing until he were retired into a town adjoining, which was afterwards called Zohar; into the which he was no sooner entered, but the Eternal poured down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorah.  
We read of Titus Vespasian, that two famous knights had conspired to kill him, whereof he was advertised; but making no show thereof, he took them by the hands, led them forth to walk, and having called for two swords he gave to either of them one, as provoking them to that which they had resolved but being amazed both of the manner and of the Emperor's courage. You see (saith he) that destiny doth justly hold the principality of the world, and that in vain men practise murders against it, be it through hope to purchase greatness, or for fear to lose it.  
Let us therefore acknowledge, that it is not of us, but of the word of destiny, which God hath pronounced, that the lengthening, or shortening of our lives depends. The great God is to us a God of strength to deliver us, and the issues of death belong unto the Eternal: & therefore the Apostle said, that Christ is dead and risen again, that he might have power over the dead, and the living: and therefore this vexing care of life, nor that great horror of Death cannot profit us any thing. Let us then leave these things, and finishing our course resolutely & ioyfuly, let us yield all into the hands of our sovereign Master; neither to tempt him, nor to despair of him, for both the one and the other are equally hateful unto him: and if our soul puffed up with the vent of temptation be desquiet within us: let us say unto it with David. My soul, return unto thy rest, fear nothing. Every kind of death of them that are beloved of God is precious in his sight, very precious sayeth S. Bernard, as being the end of labour, the consummation of the victory, the port of life, and the entry to perfect felicity.  

The first Objection.  
If Death did flow from the enchained order of destiny, we should not see it without order sometimes to go slowly, sometimes to run headlong.  
But that is usually seen; Therefore it seems not to flow from destiny.  
THe unequal Issue of 
The Answer.  life which we see happen to men, doth not alter, but rather corroborate destiny: it is the immutable decree of the Eternal, he sees who should amend or impair in this life, he that hath made all for his glory, even the wicked for the day of calamity: And therefore he soon took up Enoch to himself, lest that malice should corrupt his spirit, saith the text. chose, if Constantine the Great, who was cruel in his youth, had been cut off, he had not been a Christian, neither had he so much extended the kingdom of Christ. There is yet another reason, which is, the deliverance of good men from the miseries of the world, when death comes: I will gather thee up with thy fathers, said God, to josias the good King, 
2. Kin. 22.  to the end thy eyes may not see all the miseries which I will bring upon this place. On the other-side a long life is a great languishing to the wicked: So Cain after his parricide committed, was cursed of God, and living, so pursued by the judgement of God, as he often cried out 
Gen. 4. 13.  that his punishment was insupportable, and therefore he should wander upon the face of the earth, and that whosoever should find him would kill him: but God provided, setting a brand upon his forehead, to the end no man should slay him. But how comes it that the death of some is sudden, as the shot of an harquebus cannot be more sudden; and so long in others which languish of some long infirmity? I answer, that to search into the Counsels of God, (which is properly the destiny whereof we speak) is more infinite then to seek the bottom of a gulf. That great Apostle rapt up to the third heaven, finds nothing but depths, incomprehensible judgements, and ways impossible to be found out. Rom. 11. Moreover I do not see (to speak truly) that death is more sudden 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 survive it or no, seeing some one hath escaped being thus strooken. Wherefore I do not see that death is more slow to one then to an other. Is it to them that lie bedrid 10. or 20. years? yea, and what know they whether they shall die the first day they take their beds?  
To conclude I say, that seeing the coming of death is imperceptible, and that it is impossible for any man to say assuredly I am dead, or I shall survive; that death cannot be sudden or slow to any man, other men judge after the event, but not before. And therefore it seems to me that the question which is made, whether a languishing death or a sudden be most to be desired, is in vain, for that we shall find that death is sudden to all men, seeing it comes so swiftly as no man can feel it: For so was the will of the Eternal, to the end that mortal man should be always ready to die, and not delay when he feels it, for it is insensible.   

The second Objection.  
It is a vain and pernicious thing to give ear to Astrologers, in their predictions.  
The former discourse seems to persuade a man unto it.  
It is therefore vain and pernicious.  
EXperience hath and doth daily verify, that they which have easily given credit to the predictions of future things, are for the most part in the end deceived: Niceas King of Syracuse found it true to his cost, for confidently believing his divines that his death was near, he wasted his treasure in all kinds of excess, and lived in want all the remainder of his life, which did far exceed the term of his prediction. Above all the lamentable taking of Constantinople by the Turks is memorable: The Grecians bewitched with a certain old prediction, that the day would come when a mighty enemy should seize upon most of the forts of Constantinople, but being come to the great place called the brazen Bull, he should be repressed and driven out by the Inhabitants, who to resist him had seized upon this place: The constantinopolitans giving credit he eunto, having abandoned their strongest defences, retire into this place, where they attend the Turk; but they falnt, are put to flight, slain and sacked, and so to the great prejudice of Greece, the Imposture of their Prophecy was manifest.  
Answer: I grant the Mayor of the proposition, and do confirm it by the Law of God. Let no diviner be among you using divinations, nor regarders of times, nor any that use predictions, nor Sorcerer, etc. Whosoever useth any such thing is abominable to the Lord. And what should not Christian Magistrates do herein, seeing they are forbidden by infidels Maecenas, speaking to Augustus the Emperor, of the government of the Common weal, saith; That there ought not to be any soothsayer in the Common weal, for all such kind of men in speaking sometimes truth, most commonly lie, and are the cause of Innovations and troubles. The Turks Empire observe the like prohibition, according to the Al●…aron which saith, that all kind of divining is vain, and that God alone knows all secrets.  
But according to this deposition I deny the Minor, and add, that in all my precedent discourse, there is not a word which tends any way to the maintaining of Astrologers, to hear and believe them. I did produce some Histories to prove that our days are so determined by God, as they cannot exceed their bounds prescribed; and this doctrine is true, holy & divine. Behold the Oracles: Man borne of a woman is of a short life, & fall of cares etc.  
His days are determined, thou hast the number of his months with thee; thou hast prescribed his limits, which he shall not pass: And David saith unto God. My times are in thy hand: and therefore Christ is dead and risen, that he might command both over the dead & living, saith S. Paul, Rome, 14. 9  
The jews would have put Christ to death before his time, but they could not; they sought (saith the Gospel) to lay hold of him, but no man did it, for that his hour was not yet come. The time of jesabels' death and the end of her wickedness was accompli shed; the time of her death & the place had been foretold by the Prophet Elias: jehu was choose to execute this decree, 
1. King. 21.  he did it without any regard till after the event. He runs furiously into the town of jesrehel, where jesabel was, after whom he sought: jesabel thought to stay him with her painted face, and with the charm of her affected looks which she cast from her chamber window, but jehu commanded 
2. King. 9 30. 31. etc.  they should cast her down; which was done, and her blood rebounded against the wall & against her houses: (the Scripture adds) being entered he did eat and drink, & after said, Go now and bury this cursed woman for she is the daughter of a king; but they found nothing remaining, but the skull, the feet & palms of the hands, whereof they made report to jehu; who said, It is the word of the Lord which he had delivered by his servant Elias, saying, that in the field of jesreel the dogs should eat the flesh of jesabel. And as God for the edification of his Church, would raise up Prophets to declare his promses or threats: so w●…uld he sometimes thirst on certain men to denounce his judgements to the world to make them amazed in their events: to these fortellers whensoenuer we find in them the Prophetical zeal of the Lord, we ought to give credit as soon as they have pronounced the word. But to these latter spirits (most commonly Liars) we must never give any credit, until after the event of that which they have foretold. For the thing being past, it is no more doubtful, we may then believe it, but not before; and this was the meaning of the former discourse. Otherwise it is not lawful to inquire of doubtful events of any Magician, ginger & Mathematician: yet a wise and judicious man may (without scruple of conscience) by certain conjectures gathered from the reading of good books, from the use of things & the observation of the like; he may (I say) conceive, presume or suspect which way the destiny tends, and what his end is, but fearfully & without confidence, not to make a profession of it. God only can search the bottom of his decrees, & none other without his particular and express assistance, no not the Angels neither good nor bad: the determination of our days is one of his decrees, it can neither be known nor stayed by us. Behold letters from heaven to the end we may doubt no more: Man saith Solomon, knows his 
Ecclesi. 9 12.  time no more than fishes which are taken in the net, and birds in the snare; so men are snared in the bad time when it falls suddenly upon them: In vain therefore do we fear that which cannot be corrected by us.   

The third Objection.  
If the cause of death be euitatabl●…, the effect also shallbe.  
But the cause of death is evitable. Ergo.  
IT is written that a wiseman shall rule the stars, for that finding himself inclined to some mortal disease by some malignant influence of the stars, he will change the air, & correct that bad complexion, that it impair not. We are also commanded to honour the Physician for necessities sake, by reason of the Physic which he ministers for the preservation of life. Moreover, God's providence hath not imposed any necessity in humane actions, whereof he is Lord, and especially of those which depend of his free will; as who can hinder a man from killing himself if he please, as many have done? We read also in the book of truth, that the period of the ruin of Niniveh, assigned to 40. days, was 
jonas 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 & tears protracted 15 years.  
Answer. Whatsoever it be, Destiny (as Boetius saith) coming from the immoveable beginnings of providence, ties together by an indissoluble bond of causes, all humane actions, and all their events, so as the divine providence is always certain, and always infallible in her events, not contradicting the means which the same divine providence hath ordained, whereof some are necessary, others contingent. The effects are necessary which have their cause near, immediate, conjoinct, & necessary: and they are contingent which have a contingent cause, and whose effect may happen or not happen; if it happens, God had so apppointed it. Thou who foundest thyself subject to a dropsy, hast left the rheumatic air where thou wert, hast abstained from water, and hast employed the Physician, whereby thou hast avoided the disease and death: God had so ordained it, not only for the cause, but also for the means. Yet let man determine in his full liberty, let him make choice according to his own will; yet shall he not choose any thing but what God hath foreseen and decreed from all eternity. I say there is a gulf in this question, whereat Tully suffered shipwreck, 
Lib. de Divinat.  rather cutting off from providence, then diminishing any thing from humane liberty; so as (wherewith S. Augustine doth tax him) seeking to make men free, he hath made them sacrilegers; wherefore I will strike sail, for the very name of Destiny was distasteful to Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory, for that the Ancients did wrest it to the disposition of the stars: but if any one (saith S. Augustine) attributes the actions of men to Destiny, for that he understands by that name the power and will of God, let him retain his understanding and correct his tongue. Let us conclude with the Poet: 
Hope not by your cries▪ to alter Destiny.   
Thus after the Divines of these times, and the opinion of Chrysippus (having been so purged, as there is no more any fear to stumble at it) may we use this word of Destiny. As for the sacred histories objected, they contradict not the doctrine propounded no more than the immutability of God's decrees. That which had been denounced to the Ninevits, to Ezekias, & to others, was with a condition, if they did not repent; they submitted themselves: so as justly, and without prejudice to the divine providence, the sentence was made void.  
But you will say, Where is the expression of this condition? It is understood, and drawn from an infallible consequence of the end of the denunciation made in the name of the Eternal by jonas and Isay: Yet forty days and Ninive shall be destroyed, cried jonas: Dispose of thy house, for thou shalt dye the death, and shalt not live, saith Isay to Ezekias. Why were these trumpets, if God meant to ruin them, & not to save them, in giving them warning? Therefore the decree of the fatal time, both for the men of Ninive, and for Ezekias was firm, seeing the denunciation of their death was but a means to advance them to the end and last period of their estate and life.   

The fourth Objection.  
If that which the divine providece hath decreed to do, were immutable, in vain then should we employ the means to advance it or hinder it.  
But we employ them not in vain, for that God hath commanded it.  
Therefore what the divine providence hath decreed to do, is not immutable.  
IF all be so disposed by a fat all necessity, why then being sick, do I call the Physician, and why am I commanded to honour him? And why, being found, do I preserve myself from diseases, especially those which are contagious?  
Answer, I deny the consequence of the mayor, for that the position of the first and principal cause, concludes not the remotion of the instrumental: the reason is, that God to bring to effect his decrees, would also have the second means and causes employed; he doth witness it in his word, and in the government of the world, and he hath commanded us to use them. As therefore it is not in vain that the Sun doth shine and is darkened, nor in vain that the fields are manured and watered from heaven: It is God which hath created light and darkness, and it is he that makes the earth to spring: In like manner it is not in vain that being sick we call for the Physician, and use his physic; it is not in vain that we avoid the infected air, and to conclude, it is not in vain that we eat and drink: although that God be the author of our health, yet it is the forsaking of 〈◊〉 grace and virtue which casts us into diseases. It is finally he, who is the powerful and sovereign arbitrator of the length or shortness of our life: The reason is, that God who by his absolute will and pleasure hath predestinated these ends, hath withal disposed of the means and ways tending to the said ends; so as it appeareth, it is not our intention to take from man all care of his life, but only to put away the superfluity, the immoderate excess, and particularly the extreme fear of death, for that it is unprofitable, yea, hurtful unto him: and therefore a wise man will willingly obey the advertisement of S. Basile, which he directs to all Christians: Submit thyself, saith he, to the will of God; if thou dost march freely after it, it will guide thee; if thou goest back thou dost offend it, and yet she will not leave thee, to draw thee whithersoever she pleaseth.  
Be it the place, the time, or the kind of thy death, these three things are uncertain unto thee, & out of thy disposition; & therefore thou shouldest rely upon him who 
Eccles. 3. 2. Psal. 3. 9  alone knows the time to be borne and to dye, and who holds thee fast both before & behind. Some one makes account to live long, but he shall dye suddenly, as it is said in job: yea at midnight a whole 
job 34.  nation shall be shaken, pass, and the strong stalk carried away. As for the place, some one shall return from bloody battles who soon after shall dye in his house; finally, some shall escape violent contagions, who shall die of slow fevers, as I have seen, & any man may easily see in every Country. Let us then conclude this discourse with the verses of Cleanthes the Stoic, which Seneca hath thus translated: 
Duc me Parens, celsique dominator poli,  
Quocunque libuit, nulla parendi est mora,  
Adsum impiger, fac nolle, 〈◊〉,  
Malusque patiar, quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Father and Ruler of the lofty Sky;  
What way thou pleasest, lead, and I  
Will follow with my will, and instantly.  
Grant I may follow with no grieved blood,  
Nor like an ill man bear what fits a good.   
Whereunto he subscribes saying, So we live, so we speak, and let us add, So we die.   

The fifth Objection  
It is not possible but humane nature should be terrified with that which is horrible of itself.  
Some kind of death hath such circumstances as it is very horrible of itself.  
Therefore it is not possible but it should terrify.  
MAny dissembling the fear which they have of death, when they come to think and speak of some kind of sickness, drawing near unto death, and especially of the plague, they cannot find black enough to set it forth, nor horror sufficient to abhor it. But let us see what reasons they can pretend: It was a great scourge, say they, of the wrath of God, executed upon the people for David's ambition, so as there died 70. thousand in less than one day; threatened in the Apocalypse to embrace the fourth 
Apoc. 6. 8.  part of the earth.  
It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Moreover, it is an unspeakable pain to be burnt with the sore, to be strangled with the plague, etc. Thirdly, it is a sorrow which exceeds all extremes, to be abandoned of wife, Father, mother, children, friends, and kinsfolks. Finally, it is a perpetual grief to die, and have no means to settle his estate.  
Answer. These reasons are but goodly shows to shadow the fear they have of death, and the shame which lies lurking in their hearts; for seeing they must leave this life, what doth it import them, whether it be by water, or by land, or by any other, means? As for the first reason, David will answer for us, that we must not judge rashly of the poor man in his torment: His son will add, that none can discern whether he be worthy of love or hatred by that which happens exteriorly: The Apostle will say, The judgements of God begin by his own house: job, the Apostles, the Martyrs will manifest by their examples, that they whom God loves are most chastised in this world.  
Finally, jesus Christ will teach us, That in the blind man so borne, neither his 
john 9  sin, nor the sin of his father and mother, was the cause that he was borne blind: that neither the Galileans so cruelly entreated by Pilate, nor the jews smothered in the ruins of the Tower which was in Silo, were more guilty than those which had escaped this disaster. A faithful man is not tempted above his strength, if affliction abounds, consolation will superabound. He dies happily which lays down his soul with a settled spirit, feeling in himself the peace & grace of God through jesus Christ, in the remission of his sins. And it is a thousand times better to be quickened by the light affliction of the plague, and to carry away an inestimable weight of glory, then to be smothered in the delights of sin, and in danger of a final ruin both of body and soul.  
The example produced of David makes for this against the Obiector. Who sinned? David in ambitiously numbering his people: who is punished? the people: the Grecians are plagued for the foolish 
Horat Quicquid dearant Reges, etc.  resolutions of their Kings, said the ancient Proverb. But where is the duty of justice, will you say? God knows it; his will is the rule of equity, it is just seeing God will have it so: And on the other side, it was not the will of God for that it is not right. But we commonly see that the plague lays hold of the poorer sort (whereupon Galen calls it Epidemique, that is to say, popular; whereof the baits are famine, sluttishness and stinks,) rather then the chief of the Town infected, who notwithstanding will be found much more faulty before God.  
Look upon that long plague which under the Empire of Gallus, and Volusian continued 15. whole years, and which coming out of Ethiopia unpeopled all the Roman provinces; read it and 
Zonara's Tom. 2.  judge of it.  
As for that pretended pain, we must not apprehend it to be greater than in simple swellings and Impostumes, or in Cauteries; the poison rather mollifying than increasing the pain. But there are two kinds of plagues, as Physicians do observe; the one is simple, when as the spirits only are infected by a venomous and contagious air, which hath been sucked in by the mouth, or the nose, or that hath gotten insensibly into the body by the pores of the skin, so as a man shall be strooken that shall not feel any thing: it may be, he shall be more faint and heavy then of custom, but with very little heat and alteration; so as he shall be sometimes smothered up before he feels any pain. The other is a compound, when as the Contagion seizing the spirits, doth communicate his poison with the four humours, infects them, and altars them, but without pain, for these humours are incapable: yet these humours being infected and altered, infect and alter the parts of the body, in the which they reside, as in the head, the heart, and elsewhere; and there grows the pain, but no greater than in Fevers and swoundings; yea, less by reason of the putrid vapour, which doth dull and mortify the members, so as the pain is no more than a small incision; yea, less than the pricking of a pin. The greatest is a certain inflammation in the hypocondriake parts, in the bowels which environ the heart: for as poison is the capital enemy of life, so this enemy of life strikes furiously at the heart. The worst is a certain heat whereof the Patient complains: as Thucydides observes in the plague which happened at Athens, but what pain 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 yield to these reasons, inquire of them which have been touched with this infection; they will answer that fear hath been their greatest pain, and if they had been assured of recovery, they had felt no pain. I know you will reply, that there is a difference betwixt them that recover, and them that die. But I will answer you, that the pain is equal, yea greater in them that recover, then in them that die: they that recover are more vigorous, and the vicious humour stings them, and is more sensible then in them that are weaker, when the parts less able to resist, are sooner gotten and lost. As a Leper, having his flesh infected with Leprosy and rottenness, feels little or no pain, in the most sensible pricking: even so a weak woman hath less torment in her delivery, although the throws be more dangerous; wherein appears the admirable wisdom of Nature, which doth not afflict the afflicted.  
Now followeth the third reason objected, the abandoning of wife, kinsfolks, and friends. Answer. It is an accident which happens seldom or not at all this day: hardly can that which life hath united by marriage, consanguinity and friendship be dissolved in death. Moreover, a wise man, who should have learned to be content 
Plato 3. de Repub.  with himself in life, should not be discontented if he die alone. It was a constant Doctrinein the resolute Stoics, that he is happy that is content with himself, and depends not upon any other man, nor upon any thing in the world; but like jupiter, lives and moves of himself, rests in himself, governs himself, & enjoys his worthy thoughts, as Seneca saith. And how can he be happy, who (being subject to another's 
Epist. 9  command) is not master of himself? Let him drag after him fetters of gold, yet he shall still be in fetters. We will not here commend the Stiloons, Timon's, and other haters of men, which like wolves, fled from all company; but those that offering themselves to company, and seeking their friendship, are wretchedly chased away, and being forsaken of others, retire themselves into themselves, lose nothing, but augment their felicity. So, as Seneca said rightly, think and 
Epist. 20.  desire this thing above all the prayers which thou shalt make unto God, to be content with thyself, and with those things that may spring from thyself: What felicity, saith he, can be nearer unto God? Whereunto Saint Ambrose subscribeth, In what Desert, saith he, is not that man accompanied, that doth enjoy a happy life?  
He than that can live alone, will never grieve to be abandoned by men in death, being accompanied by Angels, & by his Saviour the true God. Thirdly, Physicians, Surgeons and other expert men employ themselves for thee, are about they to assist thee, and to restore thee to thy health. Thy wife, thy children, thy friends, with their tears 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 proved their affection in living, why wouldst thou try it in dying? thou dost leave thy worldly friends in death, but thou goest to purchase more faithful and better in heaven, even jesus Christ, the Angels and the Saints: whereat then dost thou complain? thou a Christian, whereas a Pagan rejoiceth? Mercurius Trismegislus (by the report of Calcidius) said when he died, that he returned into his country where his kinsfolks and best friends were. Finally thou accusest thy disease, for that it takes from thee means to dispose of thy affairs. A wise man should not forbear to settle his estate until the extremity of an in curable disease; for he hath then other matters to think of then worldly affairs: he should have foreseen it, and provided in time; a good soldier when the trumpet sounds to battle, doth not begin to discourse of his house, and to think of some piece of ground, but prepares to fight for his life is in question. Even so a wise man at the point of death should not once think of the world, but of the conflict which he hath against the Devil and sin; there is question of his conscience, of the life of his soul of the inheritance of heaven, which he loseth if he be vanquished: our life is uncertain, many other diseases besides the plague, may cut it off suddenly; the Apoplexy, Lethargy, Catarrh, Squinancy, and many others, when they come leave no place for affairs. Therefore during the time of health let us compound our quarrels with our neighbours, and dispose of our estates with our children & kinsfolks, that we may be ready at the first summons of our God, prepared at the first sign of that spiritual Combat which shallbe given us, to fight well, to live or to dye, as it shall please the Lord. Watch and pray, 
Mat. 24.  said jesus Christ to his Disciples, for you know not when that time shall be. And, Let your loins be girded, and your candles 
Luk, 12.  light.   

The sixth Objection.  
The loss of that which is happy and joyful, causeth horror. Life is happy and joyful.  
Therefore the loss of life causeth horror.  
PLato is cited to prove the Minor, who writes 
3. de Repu.  that man may enjoy felicity in his body, and that he is happy above all the Creatures: therefore Galen in his book of the parts of the body, doth wonderfully extol the author of nature, for having dealt so bountifully with man: And David of more authority than all these, seems to sing the praises of the Eternal for the good he hath done unto man, saying:  

Thou Lord hast made him little less,  
Then Angels in degree:  
And thou hast crowned him in like sort,  
With glory, state, and dignity.   
ANswer. All the Philosophers except Plato, Galen and some few others, being dazzled with the brightness of some jousts remaining in man after his shipwreck in the beginning of the world, did not pour forth such praises of the condition of man, but in a manner all with one voice have called nature, not a mother, but a cruel stepdame, for the many miseries wherewith she hath overcharged man, as we see in Tully, and as 
Cic. lib. 3. de repub.  Saint Augustine reports. Even so Aristotle (who is held the Ensign bearer of 
Stob. serm. 69.  Philosophers) being demanded what man was, he is, sayeth he, the pattern of Imbecility, the booty of time, the sport of fortune, the image of inconstancy, the balance of envy and calamity, the rest is nothing but spittle and choler. Demccrites also required to give his advice of the condition of man, answered, that it was a miserable fortune, seeing that the goods which were carefully sought after, hardly came unto him; but miseries which were not sought for, nor any way expected nor suspected, ran unto him: Wherefore the Comedian Neoptolemus being demanded what admirable thing he did observe in Aeschilus', Sophocles, and Euripides: Nothing, sayeth he, in their words doth amaze me, but that which I have seen touching Philippe, who celebrating the marriage of his daughter Cleopatra, and being at a stately supper honoured with the name of the 13. god, was the next day stabbed and cast upon a dunghill.  
But you will say, This life wants no pleasures. Without doubt (if you observe them well) they are poor pleasures, bitter, pinching, and intermixed with displeasures; yea in laughing the heart shallbe grieved, & his joy end with care, sayeth Solomon in 
Pro. 14. 13  his Proverbes. He also running over briefly in Ecclesiastes, the vanity, toil of the body, vexation of mind, and heaviness of soul, concludes, That he thinks him more happy that was never borne, than the living or the dead; for, sayeth he, he hath not seen the bad works which are done under the Sun. As for that passage of the Psalm alleged, it makes nothing to the purpose, for that he considers not man as he is, but as he was in his integrity and innocence in the earthly Paradise, or as he is 
Eccle. 4.  restored in jesus 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 rank he held, and lost the privileges he had, it appeareth by the comparison of that which he is, with the titles which are given him.  
1. God had made man.  
2. Sin had undone him, and all his natural life is but a spiritual death. Ephes. 2. 1.  
3. That is to say, with a true, perfect and healthful knowledge of God, of his will and of his works.  
4. He hath lost all that, and there hath succeeded ignorance, blindness, & strange darkness.  
5. His desire and actions were conformable to the laws of God.  
6. All that is depraved, and there is nothing but a horrible confusion in his will and actions.  
7. He was absolute Lord over all Creatures, which trembled at his look, and brought him fruits according to his desire.  
8. Now they rebel and assail him; yea the earth instead of good corn, brings forth nothing but thorns & thistles.  
9 He had frequent conversation with God, inspired of him, and breathing by him.  
10. Now the Prince of the power of the air, the unclean spirit, works powerfully in the children of rebellion, which are all the sons of Adam, Ephes. 2. 2.  
11. A glorious angelical and divine Majesty did shine in his face.  
12. Now they cover their shame with leaves, they hide themselves among the trees, and cry out, Mountains fall upon us and cover us.  
To conclude, there is no greater contrariety betwixt day and night, then of these famous qualities to the infamous blemishes of man, as he lived in this world before his regeneration, in the which by little and little he recovers this justice, holiness and truth, Ephes. 4. 24. But the fullness thereof is reserved to heaven, whither death leads us, and therefore to be desired.    

The Fourth Argument, taken from the efficient cause.  
All that a good and wise mother giveth unto her Children, cannot be hurtful.  
Nature our good and wise mother gives us death. Death than cannot be hurtful.  
THe first proposition of this Argument cannot be denied after the experience which we have seen, after the comparison which God makes of himself with a mother, who cannot forget her child, nor he his people: After that jesus Christ had said, No man gives a stone instead of bread nor a Scorpion for fish, to him that he loves: And how then can nature the lively spring of so lively a love, give any thing that is very hurtful, and fail at need and in the principal, having never failed us in all the course of our life? Now to prove that the second proposition is true, and that nature hath ordained death for her children, Seneca doth teach 
Ad Polib. 3  us, saying, That death is a Law of nature, yea, that our whole life is but a way unto it. S. Cyprian also doth affirm that it is a decree intimated unto the world, that whatsoever is borne should have an end: and from whom is this decree? from God the Author of nature, the executioner of this decree: but it is a favourable decree to such as Heaven favours.  
It is a general Law, to restore that which is lent us; this life is but a loan, we must restore it at the end of the time: it is a tribute we owe, for we entered upon condition to depart when it shall please the master. Moreover what is this life, but a harmony rising from the mixture of the four elements, which are the four ingredients of our body? and what is death by the censure of Hypocrates, but a divorce of marriage of these four Elements? This divorce is as natural to man as it is natural that fire should be contrary to water, and air to earth; for their contrariety is the cause of this divorce, which is death. I know that it is not sufficient for humane life to have a body well tempered with his Organs, and to have the power of life, but he must also have a fist Effence; as a Lute well strung and well tuned, is not sufficient to make it sound, unless there be a hand to play upon it. And I also maintain that as the Musician ceaseth to play when the Instrument is vnstrung, so the soul ceaseth to give life unto the body, yea, flies out, when it is destroyed: but this destruction is natural, and by consequence death; and to that end Nature hath planted this body upon piles which take vent, upon bones not very solid, caulkt over with soft flesh, glued with a viscous humour, which may easily melt with heat or dissolve with rain; full of transparent veins easy to pierce; watered with unwholesome water, tempered with contrary qualities, which a certain temperature keeps at quiet for a season: but when every one desires to command his companion, and time in the end presenting the occasion, the common right being forced, the body suddenly falls. And this force is of nature, who must needs effect the words of the Lord, spoken unto man: Thou art dust, and shalt return to dust; Sons of men return, but whither? From whence you came, to the earth, to death; death then is of nature, and therefore Thales the Milesian said, 
Laert. lib. 1 Binson li. 7.  that there was no difference betwixt life and death, for that they are both equally according unto Nature; and as one demanded of him, why he was in life and died not? For the same cause, answered he, that the one is no more excellent than the other. It is also the reason why the Emperor Antonin the gentle seeing his servants weep, lying sick in his bed, he said unto them, Why weep you for me? and not rather the natural and mortal condition of all the world, that is to say, Why do you not rather weep for life which is of a mortal condition? The answer of Anaxagoras was more virtuous, who being advertised of the death of his dear and only Son, said; O Messenger, thou bringest me no unexpected news, I know well I had begotten a Son that was mortal: he was not insensible like a stone but he considered that nothing had chanced to his son but what he had foreseen from his birth; his long foresight and his sudden consideration of the condition of all men for to die, had tempered all sorrow in him, and brought him to reason, which should always hold the helm of this little world man. Like was the answer of Lochades, father to Siron up on the like report of the death of one of his children: I knew well (saith he) that he should dye. We shall see others hereafter, to the end 
Plut. in Lacon.  they may have no cause to say that this resolution was monstrous in the world. To conclude, nature to make us resolve joyfully unto death, seems to direct us to the sweet song of the Swan, a presaging bird, consecrated to Apollo by Antiquity, 
Cic. Tusc. Quaest lib. 1.  the which dying, nature gathers together about the heart the purest and sweetest blood, which makes him jovial and to sing a happy presage: to whom Socrates, Plato and Tully send them that have so great fear of death.  

An Objection.  
Satan, Man, and Sin are the causes of death.  
Therefore it is not Nature.  
Answer; When it is said in the holy Scripture that Satan holds the empire of death, that by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; finally that death is the reward of sin; we must not understand it of the natural death, whereof the question grows, but of the spiritual and eternal death, as many of the ancient fathers do expound it: And how else could the threatening of God against Adam be understood, touching the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Thou shalt not eat; for on that day thou shalt eat of it thou shalt die the death: observe the words, from that day, for he died not that day, but lived long after; but from that day being fallen from grace, he died the spiritual death: then what doth this Hebrew phrase to die the death mean but the principal death, which is the eternal, the second death? But this death brought in by Satan, by sin, by man, hath no power over the children of God, & good men (to whom this discourse is only directed) since that it was subdued, bound and confined into hell by jesus Christ our Saviour (as Athanasius hath well observed) that as the wasp strikes violently against a stone, but hurts it not by her incursion, but rather bruzeth herself and looseth her sting; even so death encountering Christ furiously who is life, she could not hold him in her bands, but she hath lost her sting, so as they whom she terrified before, insult over her now. So then death simply, the laying of the body into the ground, there to be putrified, the way to heaven, is good to the good, & is given of God by nature; life & death are of the Lord, saith wise Ecclesi. 11. vers. 14. It is he that gives life and death: that makes us to descend into the grave & to rise again, saith the Prophetess Anna. 2. Sam. 2. It is then our good mother that calls us to death, let us follow and obey her voice, seeing we can receive no harm and how can it be hurtful? seeing it is the sepulchre of vices, and the resurrection of virtues, saith S. Ambrose: and how how can it be dangerous? seeing it is that Toadstone which by his fecret virtue expels and rectifies all unclean things. And in truth, as Toads when they are grown old and heavy with a fat poison, are set upon by an infinite number of Ants, which suck him and devour him, so as nothing remains but the said stone, which afterwards they may freely handle, yea profitably: So death having been purged from sin, is now by the almighty power of the Eternal, converted into a most sovereign remedy, against sin.   

The second Objection.  
There is not any thing ingenerate in all Creatures by nature in vain.  
But the fear of death is ingenerate in all Creatures.  
Therefore the fear of death is not in vain.  
FOr the proof of this Argument, shall suffice the approbation of all Creatures great and small, which fly 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 love the world; he may be where he will, yet his natural disposition will draw him towards his country, although in stead of some sweet liquor which he promised to himself, he should drink wormwood: So man being borne in the world, and accustomed unto it, can hardly leave it.  
Answer. The nature of man doth sometimes affect and abhor one & the same thing, but for diverse considerations: if he beholds death nakedly, there is great fear, as we may discover in many; but if he can have the judgement and patience to see her attired in her precious ornaments, with virtue, with heaven gates, by the which only we are brought in; of the assured joy and rest of the mind, in the possession whereof she sets the soul; then do we affect it and desire it: and this desire should be held more natural in man for that it is more proper unto him, seeing it proceeds from the true judgement of reason, which makes him man.  
Moreover for a more clear solution of the argument, we must distinguish the universal nature from the particular: universal nature is that virtue that admirable & investigable proportion infused by God into the Universe, the proper Instrument of the principal agent of this sovereign essence, which having insinuated into this Chaos the first matter, hath brought it in six days too this goodly ornament, and hath preserved it many thousand of years: of this nature, we de nigh that she plants in beasts the fear of that she gives them, that is to say, death: but as to show unto the beasts of the earth all the lights of heaven; as well the fixed stars as wand'ring, she turns about the heavens; so to show unto heaven all the Creatures, she hath given the passage & returning of life & death: else it were impossible, if (as in a tree the dry leaves falling give place to green that spring) so in beasts the first should not give way to them that follow. As for particular nature (the very complexion of every one) to whom death is so terrible, I say it is an ill ordered fear. The Order is preposterous when as the particular doth not follow the Law of the general; and it is the ruin of States when as the private good is preferred before the public. The Roman Empire did flourish when as the Popilij, Scipios, Fabiuses and others did choose rather to be poor in a rich estate, then rich in a poor estate Even so is it in the society of mankind taken in all ages; every one must dispose himself to follow this general order of supreme nature, and whosoever shall contradict it, shall show himself a bad Citizen of this great City of the world: and opposing himself let him not therefore think to escape the inexorable destiny of his end, but as the bird taken in the limetwig, thinking to free herself by striving, is caught the faster; so man which is ensnared by death, the more furiously he torments himself, the more he shall advance the object of his torment. Let every one therefore look unto his duty, to his children, and to them that shall come after, to prepare himself to give them place; here to tends that great desire, the issue of particular nature to engender, that great care of fathers & mothers in the nourishing, preservation, education and bringing up of their children to the end they may sucoted them; and why then? having provided for all, & left young olive plants in our old stock, hearing the bell sound a retre●…t, wherefore, I say, should we show ourselves deaf, unwilling & faint hearted? The fat all bird drawn by the sent of thy Carcase is perched over thy window, & art thou still resty? dost thou not feel thy seditious guests with in thee which conspireth thy infallible ruin? Nature will have it so, she commands thee to depart; fear not, folthy good mother, and thou shalt do well. Let us therefore conclude, that although our particular nature, our complexion makes us to abhor death, yet we must not believe her, no more than the servant of the house which is borne to obey. It is the mistress, the universal virtue of the world which commands us to depart, and to suffer others to enter: let us follow and obey, all our trembling and horror is in vain. But to what end is it (will you say) for me to have flourishing children, if in the mean time I become worms meat? I answer: Thou art not all worm's meat, for the subtlest part of thee lives in thy children: all thy person is not food for worms, for thy soul (the most excellent part) escapes: thou art not long the food of worms, for another form; and it may be another soul shallbe soon adapted.    

The fifth Argument, from the end of Nature.  
Every end whereunto the Law of Nature doth direct all the actions of our life, is for our good.  
Death is the end whereunto the Law of Nature directs all the actions of our life.  
Therefore death is for our good.  
IT is a wonderful strange thing so to fear that passage whereunto our breathing and the course of our life seems to tend. For although the life be but a swift course of some days, running swifter than a Weaver's shettle, yet the greatest part of the world desires to have them shorter, and would see them as soon shut up as discovered: As we may see in plays, which for that they hold their eyes and spirits captives, are very pleasant unto them, for that they ravish their thoughts and senses, & expel all languishing conceits. Inquire of a Dancer, a Tennis-player, a Dicer, or a Courtier, why they live, continually in a Dancing-school, a Tennis-Court, in a Dicing-house, or in great men's houses? They will answer you (if they vouchsafe you answer) That the time would be tedious if they should not spend it in some thing; and even we ourselves being more retired, if some more profitable employment did not make us to spend the time, we would say, Oh, how long this day is, when will it be night? And if this slow night came not to interrupt our complaints, they would break out into mournful lamentations: & in the mean this night presenting herself unto us the longer through death, we are quite confounded, her countenance defaceth the remembrance of all our former misery. What inconstancy is this? we will and we will not see our end, we desire that every day should pass away swiftly, else we complain, & we will not have our life to slide away, for than we howl; and yet our life is nothing but a multiplying of many days whence comes it? It is for that this waywardness which cleaves unto us by reason of this slow course of every day of our life, proceeds from our nature, who finds neither her appointed abode, nor her settled perfection here: and this pale fear which seizeth upon us at the discovery of the gate of death, proceeds from the corruption which hath happened to our nature. For proof whereof, the table of Nature's innocence in the beginning, which is, described unto us at the entry of the Bible, doth testify sufficiently: for Adam and Eve in Eden were always cheered with delights and pleasures, they had continually the use of an hundred thousand wonders, never thinking of the future, nor desiring presently the end of the day which held them: they had their happiness in the present life; the which hath been hidden in heaven by reason of their transgression, whither we must ascend through death to enjoy it: thither our nature doth call us, from the which our corruption doth divert us. Were it not then better to obey nature so officious towards us, than a pernicious depravation which hath possessed us? And therefore the Ancients to tax this unreasonable desire of living here without end, left us in their pictures how that Tithon beloved of Aurora, obtained of the gods, at the entreaty of the Goddess, that he should not die; But this man being tired with a million of sundry calamities, and overladen with a burdensome old age, so as like unto little Infants, he was sane to be bound up, swaddled and rocked, he besought the Gods that he might be suffered to die like other men. Whereby they show that death hath been granted by the gods, as a favour unto men, as being the safe port of all the tempest of this world. Nature hath set a measure and fullness to all thing, we find it in the greatest pleasures which continuing long are in the end distasteful unto us: Even so hath she done in life, wherefore there are old men which would not willingly return back to the first beginning of their Infant's life, upon condition to 
Lib. de Senect.  run the same dangers which they passed; the which Tully affirms of himself, that if any god would give him force to become young again, he would refuse it: no (saith he) having finished my course, I will not be brought back from the end to the beginning; for what commodities hath life, nay what toils hath it not? And admit I should confess that it hath pleasure without any distaste, must she not have her full measure and satiety, who can contradict this?   

The sixth Argument taken from the Vntuersall Law.  
All freeing from a common misery carries in itself consolation.  
Death is a freeing from a common misery.  
It therefore carries in itself consolation.  
THe consolation of the miserable is to have companions, sayeth the old Proverb; for men by conference of their common misery, reap some ease and discharge, as if they carried a heavy burden in common: Now o you which dying think yourselves debarred of felicity, consider how death with an equal foot beats and overthrows the castles of Princes and the cabins of Shepherds: Search Solomon, and you shall find that neither wisdom nor riches could preserve him from death; nor Samson his force, nor Absalon his beauty; Hercules with all his exploits, is laid in the grave, Alexander with his Empires, Caesar with his happy victories, Croesus with all his pomp is gone, Xerxes is vanished with his miraculous bridge upon the sea of Helles pont; all, all gone to the Palace of Ruin, whereas death commands. Call these great Princes, in whose ambitious hearts their greatness had stirred up envious vapours, we have them all for companions in death, the Oracle hath said it, and experience doth show it. You are gods, but yet you must die: You Princes you shall pass like to one of us. Behold a great man who dying said with a mournful voice, Helas, I am rich; powerful, and mighty, and yet can I not wrest the shortest term from pale destiny. It is a great consolation, sayeth Seneca to Polib. c. 21. to think that whatsoever shall happen to us by death hath been suffered by all, and all must suffer it; and therefore he cries out in the beginning of this Chapter in these terms, What man (saith he) is so full of artogancie, and yet so unable, that will exempt himself or his from the necessity of nature, calling all things to one end▪  
In life men are unequal, but their beginning and ending are equal: all are borne with one poor nakedness, and all dye with a stinking cold, and living, no man is more certain of the next day than his neighbour; he only is happy to whom the most miserable kind of life doth not befall. Happy then are we if we compare ourselves with those people of Aethiopia called Acridophages, 
Strab l. 17. Diodor. l. 3. c. 3.  or cators of Grasshoppers, who living far from the sea, and being destitute of all succours, have no other meat but these Grasshoppers, which certain hot winds from the west, raise up and bring unto them, the which they powder up with salt and live thereon; for that growing old, which is not above forty years, they breed in them certain lice which have wings, and stink; the which in a short space eat their bellies, than the breast, and in the end the whole body; their pain begins with an itching intermixed with pleasure in scratching, which increasing by little and little leaves him not until that having torn himself with his nails he hath made an issue for the louse and stinking matter, which come forth in such abundance as there is no possibility to be cured, and so through the vehemency of their torment they end their miserable days with horrible cries. But let us return into our way, and say with the holy writ; Death is the highway of all the earth, all enter into it, let us follow them by the track. And you to whom the Ruler of the world hath given the Empire of life and death as it were at pleasure, abate the frowning of your brows; for what a poor man may fear of you, the same is threatened to you by the great Master of all, saith the tragical Poet Seneca.  
Object not unto me the beauty of your Palaces, nor the magnificence of your Sepulchers, for the Philosopher Seneca will maintain that 
Senec. Epist. 91.  we ought not to take measure of your tombs, which seem to take another course: but one and the same dust makes all men equal, if we be borne alike we must dye alike: that great Establisher of humane rights, hath made no distinction in our nativity and extraction with others, but in the time wherein we live; when we shall be come to the end of mortal men, then farewell ambition, thou must be like to all that the earth doth cover. Let us comfort ourselves in the death of great men, and therefore let us hear the last speeches and commandment of great Saladin Sultan of Egypt and Syria: I will (said he in dying) without any other obsequies, they carry an old black iuppe upon the end of a lance, & that the Priest cry out aloud all the people hearing him, I have vanquished, I have lived a great Prince; but now I am vanquished by death, and my life closed up; I have been rich, now I have nothing but a mourning weed. To this goodly table let us add a second, which the pencil of antiquity hath drawn; Croesus being upon a burning pile is preserved from the fire by Cyrus, but rather reserved to another season. Cyrus' made his profit of the words of Croesus, that no man could account himself happy before his death: he thinks of it, and wills, after his death others should think of it with him, when as he caused these words to be graven upon his tomb▪ I am Cyrus which conquered the Empire of the Persians; let no man envy this little piece of ground which covers my poor carcase. What follows? Alexander comes hunting after new worlds, and stumbles upon this tomb; he reads and considers of the words, and compassion made his heart to grieve (saith the History) for the inconstancy of things, why? for that he must in like manner dye, & soon after he died. Let us conclude and say with the Apostle, that it is decreed that all 
Heb. 9 27.  men shall die once, that no man is exempt, no, not Emperors, Kings, Princes, Lords; no, not Popes, Cardinals nor Bishops, neither rich, strong, nor healthful; and thereby let us take comfort.  

An Objection.  
Any thing that is cause of strange accidents is strange.  
Death is the cause of strange accidents.  
Therefore it is strange.  
THis reason tends to confute the precedent Argument: For that death overthrowing the highest mountains, degrading and unthroning Kings and Emperors, and consigning them into obscure caves, with simple mourning clothes, which rot in the end upon their bodies, seems wonderful terrible. Answer. The Monarches of the world have their private consolation in death; yea, I will say, that the greater they are, the greater favour they receive in death. A King's life is an unquiet life, full of ten thousand cares and troubles: he must watch for the quiet of his subjects, and against the surprises of his enemies; he hath not an hour free from amazement, and eats not a bit without fear of poison: and therefore that King of Persia did justly exclaime●… against it; O Crown (said he,) he that knew how heavy thou art; would never take thee up where he should find thee: Say not, O ambitious, they are bare words only, which never give the effects; many great men have spoken it and done it. That famous Emperor Dioclesian, rejecting the Roman Empire, shut himself in the Gardens of Salona, to manure them with his own hands. That great King and Emperor Charles 5. protested, that he had found more pleasure and content in one day in his solitary life, then in all his royal and triumphant reign.  
But to conclude, the experience of all ages doth teach us that the greatest gates are most subject to wind, the highest tops of Mountains are soon shaken, and th●… greatest Emperors are most assailed, and have no rest but in death only.    

The 7. Argument from the commendable e●…fect of the contempt of Death.  
Every thing that makes us valiant should be precious.  
The contempt of death makes us valiant.  
Therefore the contempt of death should be precious.  
THere is nothing that hath in it so great force to make a man valiant as the contempt of death; he that fears it not makes himself master of the most strong and vigorous life in the world: Seneca saith, that death is not to be feared 
epist. 24. 41. Epist. 4.  that by the benefit thereof any thing is to be preferred, or avoided. Agesilaus being demanded of one how he might purchase great fame, If thou contemnest▪ death (said he.) He whose spirit is seized on with the fear of death; will never perform any memorable thing in war this passion will benumb & withdraw men's hands from the goodliest exploits in the world. Plut. in Lacon. Alexander said that there was not any place so strong by nature or by art, that was safe for cowards. We read that Philip king of Macedon having ma●…e an irruption into Peloponesus, and that one stepping forth said, That it was to be feared the Lacedæmonians would endure many miseries, if they did not compound with Philip: to whom one Damidas answered; O Dwarf, said he, what harm can happen unto us that fear not death? Epictetus' also teacheth us, that to attempt nothing basely we must always have death before our eyes, to make her familiar & friendly unto us; where of we shall have sufficient proof in a soldier of Antigonus band, who finding himself touched with a deadly infirmity, had death in such disdain as nothing amazed him, yea he was fearful to the most hideous fear. The king saw him among the rest and admired him, and observing his pale colour he inquired of him, the cause of his paleness, and was informed of his disease; the king thinking that by his cure his force and valour would increase, caused his Physicians to recover him: but the effect proved contrary, for the soldier being cured had no other care but to live, and this care made him to fear every thing, yea the shadow of a leaf; his furious humour was gone down to his feet to fly away. Where fore we must therefore think of death, know, it and contemn it. To this end the ancients did set dead bodies at the doors of their houses to be seen of passengers; for the same reason the Egyptians did cause an image of death to be carried about in their banquets and set upon the table, not to strike terror into them, but rather a disdain by the frequent beholding of what it is. And so it was at Constantinople in the election & creation of a new Emperor, they were wont to breathe into his heart virtue & valour, when as being set in his highest Throne of glory, a mason came near to him and made a show of an heap of stones of diverse forms, to the end he might choose which did best please him to build his tomb. It is the same reason why at the Coronation of the Popes, when as he that is new called, passeth before S. Gregory's Chapel, the master of the Ceremonies holding an handful of flax at the end of a dry reed, sets fire to it, and cries with a loud voice: Pater sancte, sic transit gloria mimdi. O I would to God that both they and we did think seriously of this: that remembering how lightly this life passeth away, we might make haste, for fear to be suddenly surprised, every man to do his duty according to his vocation; even as they do which live at Court, being set at the table make what hast they can in feeding, lest the meat be taken away before they have dined. Why stay we then? Let us make haste to attain to that royal dignity, which he deserves best that is most at liberty; and he is most that least fears death. Behold what a tragical Poet saith:  

He is a King that conquers fear,  
And th'ills that dèsperate bosoms bear;  
That in his Tower set safe, and free,  
Doth all things underneath himsee:  
Encounters willingly his Fate,  
Nor grudges at his mortal state.   
From those golden verses the golden memory of Heluidius an ancient Roman shall for ever shine, who seeing the ancient liberty captivated, by Vespasian, and being commanded by him that he should not come into the Senate, he answered, That whilst he was a Senator he would come unto the Senate, Vespasian replied, Be in the Senate and hold thy peace. Heluid. Let no man then ask my opinion. V●…sp. But I must in honour demand it. Heluid. Then must I in justice speak what my conscience commands me. Vesp. If thou speakest it, I will put thee to death. Heluid. You may do what you please, and I what I ought.  
Let this example be always before our eyes, and especially to us Christians, that of the twelve Apostles, who never yielded to the cruel assaults of death, but always rejoiced with an invincible courage (as the text saith) to be held worthy to suffer reproach for the 
Act. 5. 41.  Name of Christ. Wherefore above all the world they have purchased a most holy fame, yea their twelve names are written in the twelve foundations of the celestial 
Apoc. 21. 14.  and eternal City: O what a worthy reward for so great valour in the contempt of death!   

The eight Argument taken from the work of God.  
The reward wherewith the Eternal doth sometimes recompense them he favours, cannot be evil.  
Death is that wherewith he doth sometimes reward them he favours.  
Therefore Death cannot be evil.  
IF that be true which Silenus (in Tully) and others, with reason report, that the first degree of happiness is, not to be borne, and not to fall into the dangers of the present life: That the second is, to die in being borne; without all doubt the third must be, not to continue long in the miseries of the world, but having beheld the works of God, the wand'ring couse of the stars, the swift motion of the heavens, the invariable changing of day and night, presently to die. Say not that thou art taken in thy youthful age, that is a privilege which God gives thee, to free thee from a thousand Combats of vice which thou shouldest endure; or it may be thou shouldest be conquered, as Solomon was by voluptuousnsse, or as Nero by cruelty. Look upon the insolency and corruption of that time, it will appear that thou hast more cause to fear, then to hope in living longer, said Seneca to Marullus, epist. ●…00. If this were in those times, what shall it be in this age, which is as many times impaired, as there have since slowed years and days. And admit thou wert assured to continue always virtuous and victorious, yet shouldest thoube continually covered with dust, altered with thirst, full of bitterness, and old with anguish. Enoch pleased God, and was beloved of him, he was rapt up into heaven▪ that the malice of the world should not change his understanding, sayeth the text. c. 44. Cleobis, and Biton, religious and dutiful children, for that they took the yoke and drew the Chariot of their deceased mother up the hill, for want of Mules, and the hour of the interment pressing on, they received the night following in recompense of their singular piety a happy death. Marcellus Nephew to Augustus Caesar, adopted by him: Marcellus upon whom the hope of all the Roman Empire did depend, died in the 18. year of his age; a thousand others, yea innumeraable have been cut off in their vigorous youth, the most excellent (as the ripest cherries) are the first taken, it happens to these timely wits as to the ripest fruit, they fall first; and Homer writes that the Heroes and Demigods never extended 
Odyss. l. 13  their days even unto the threshold of old age. Seneca reports that his predecessors had secne an infant of great stature at Rome, but they saw him die presently, according to the opinion of every man of judgement; whereupon he adds that maturity is a sign of imminent ruin, that whereas the increasings are consumed they desire the end. Moreover, he abuseth himself much, which thinks he hath lived long, because he hath passed many years if he show no other signs, but his pale face and his grey head.  
Behold what the wise man saith; Man is not grey for that he hath lived many years, but for that he hath lived wisely: long age must be measured by the honest conditions and manners, not by the number of days. It depends of another (saith Seneca) how long we shall live, but of ourselves how good we are: the importance is to live well, and not long; yet many times living well doth not consist in living long, saith the same, Epist. 10●…. That the injury of times do anticipate and interrupt in show the lawful course of our days, our apparent virtue will make our life more complete. Yea, but God doth promise long life to 
Exod. 20.  them that shall honour their parents. I answer, That God doth promise prolongation of a happy life to them that shall obey him. This happiness is not in this world, it is only to be found in heaven; it is therefore of heaven, whither his speech tends: And although the literal sense be of the land of Canaan, yet was it a figure of the mystical and chief abode; that is to say, of heavenly Paradise, which was the mould of this land, flowing with milk and honey, and all sorts of blessings. And if any one against this probable reason, will understand the promise to be general of the whole earth, we may answer, that God (like unto Physicians) grants unto men that have sick spirits, not what is most profitable, but what they importunately and ignorantly desire. Otherwise I will never yield that this life (with what singular and extraordinary happiness soever it be favoured from heaven) is better than the life eternal, whereunto death doth infallibly lead the chill drens of God. It is the only cause why it pleased the Eternal to take just Abel unto him by death, and would suffer cursed Cain to languish long. It is also the reason why jesus Christ doth not promise long life (as the Law doth) to those that shall honour him and follow him, but the Cross, yea death itself, Mat. 10. Mar. 13. It therefore remains true that the Oracle saith, Just men are 
Esay. 58.  taken away from the evil, enter into peace, & they rest upon their bed, etc. And in like sort it is true, that death cannot be ill, seeing it is the reward that God gives unto his for their faithful service; or at the least, it is the beginning, if it be not the total.   

The Ninth Argument taken from the rule which should measure all the desire of man.  
Man a reasonable Creature should not desire any thing but what is seasoned with reason.  
The estate of this present life is not seasoned with good reason.  
Therefore man should not desire the estate of this present life.  
THe mayor of this Argument cannot be denied, by any reasonable creature, to whom I speak: the minor is justified by the numbering of the three degrees of life, vegetative, sensitive, and intellectual; either of which being considered apart, or all three together, they have no vaileable reason to move us to love them: but let us examine them in order. In the vegetative life is chiefly observed a faculty, drawing, retaining, concocting and expulsing, to nourish and make grow; so as the chief end in the Individuum is growing, in this growing what reason of love? and in this what hath not a tree more than man? yet no man desires to be a tree: yea, should he exceed in height that at the Indies, which the portugals eye-witnesses, sailing to Goa, say to be higher than a crossbow can shoot; what avails it man to be of a monstrous height, but for a hindrance? Witness Nicomachus the Smyrnean, who growing to such a prodigious height, that being but young he could not remove out of one place, had continued an unprofitable stock, if Aesculapius by strict diets and violent exercises, had not abated him. In this then we see no reason to desire life: Let us come unto the sensitive; we perceive in creatures five senses, answering to five sensible objects, which are in the world. And let us observe, that the perfection of the sense is when it enjoyeth his proper object; as the perfection of the eye is to see colours, of the ear to hear sounds; of the nose, to smell scents; of the mouth, to taste savours; & of the hands, yea, of the whole body, to touch tactible qualities. The sight in colours observes the sorting and mixture of diverse varieties, the proportions and exact dimensions. I deny not but man may take pleasure therein, but it is a brutish & unreasonable pleasure, if it be not referred to the honour of the Author of these colours; if it be religiously referred, man will desire an increase of sight, both of body & mind; the which he finds in himself to be obscure, short and so weak, that at the brightest colours it melts and is dispersed as the lightning. This desire cannot be perfect but in the new casting of the body by death; and therefore David, said, Turn away mine eyes lest they behold vanity: Psal. 119. they had seen it in Bersabee and elsewhere, he had been almost lost: But yet if in the sight lies the point of the reason of life, why is not man another Linx, to pierce through stone walls, and to see without hindrance whatsoever is in the world?  
The hearing, in sounds distinguished, conceives a harmony, which is no other thing but an air beaten with many and diverse tunes, followed with a just proportion and happy encounter here upon earth, since that sin was brought in by man.  

Man of this Lute (the world) being special string,  
All th'other nerves, doth into discords bring:  
And renders now, for an enchanting air,  
A murmur so offensive to the ear,  
As Enion would amaze, Enion the rude,  
That th'ancient ●…arrs the Chaos made, renewed.   
Here then there is no reason to desire life, but rather the end, to go and hear the melodious sounds, which are made in heaven, divine in their measured times and proportions, which even the poor Pagans have acknowledged. Smelling of scents seems a certain exhaling vapour, tempered of heat and moisture, but he is soon loathed be it never so delightful; as of musk, some cannot endure it, but sound at the sent of it: But besides all this there are in the world many pestiferous vapours, which make man sick, yea die; and therefore by consequence herein there is no more reason to desire life then death.  
Taste feels the savours which are made by the seasoning of diverse liquors, but in those man doth soon find a distaste and repletion, if he use them without measure or discontinuance. Where is then the true reason of man's good, which must be taken without measure, without interruption and without satiety? the more it is taken, the more it is desired, and the more complete it is, the more it doth rejoice and content. In the end comes touching; the pleasure whereof cannot be but in the feeling of smooth and polished bodies: This pleasure as of the former sense, if it be continued without intermission, becomes very unpleasant, and the most excellent point thereof slides sooner away then it is perceived: this pleasure which the greatest hold to be so great, at the very instant it passeth, and gives to man two dangerous checks, one to the soul, which it deprives of understanding; the other to the body, which it drives into a falling sickness. Aristotle doth witness the first, Hypocrates the last.  
These are the differences which distinguish a living Creature from a plant, the sensitive life from the vegetative: If sensible things perceived by their sense were of themselves to be desired, without doubt the more excellent they were in their kind, the more pleasing they should be: yet contrariwise we see that the thing that is most sensible offends that sense most which is proper unto it. The fire burns with touching and doth stupefie and takes from it his sensitive virtue: the thunderclap dulls the hearing, troubles the brain, and by a long continuance of a great noise makes him deaf, and so of the other senses.  
Moreover, if the reason of life consisted in the senses, who would believe that man were the more perfect creature, seeing that many exceed him in sense? for the spider in the subtlety of touching, the Ape in the bounty of taste, the Vulture in the force of smelling, the Boar in the ventue of hearing, and lastly the Linx in the seeing faculty exceeds him far.  
Thirdly these Organs of the senses are ordained only by nature for the vegetative life, that is to say, either for the preservation of the Individuum, by eating and drinking, or of the Species by generation. It is true that man applies them also to other ends than we have observed: but those Creatures which have nothing but the two first degrees of life, whereof we treat, employ their senses to no other end, but to entertain themselves, or for generation. So the Lion will start at the sight of a stag, but it is for that he sees his prey prepared, and not simply for that the stag hath such variety of colours. The Nightingale, will answer with a melodious sound; hearing another sing; it is not for any delight it hath, for in a true declaration it sufficeth not that the sense take pleasure in the object; which is proper and proportionable unto it, but this proportion must also be inwardly apprehended & conceived; the which is neither found in the Nightingale, nor in any other creature destitut of reason. And whence then comes (will you say) the cause of this sudden answer to the voice heard? It proceeds from the complexion of the Nigh tingale, to the point whereof it mounts, when as the sound which beats the air, strikes his ear, and enters thereby into his head: as we find by experience in ourselves; whenas hearing any one yaune, we are moved to do the like; hearing one sing, we sing; seeing the world run we run after it, yet know not whither: the Quail by example willbe moved at the singing of the masse, not for any delight she takes, but from the motion to generation which she feels kindled in herself. The Dog will faun and leap upon his master, whom he had lost; and yet this doth not proceed from any natural instinct, & tends to no other end but to be kept, defended and fed by his said master. Finally he that will duly observe it, shall find that all the senses of unreasonable creatures have no other end, but preservation, & generation an end intimated in the vegetative life; a life (we saw) had no sufficient reason to move our desire; how then shall the sensitive have? Moreover, if reason and the desire of life consisted in the pleasure of the senses, why have they which were most given unto it, had wretched ends, and ignominious lives? the Emperor Vitellius Spinter thinking to find his felicity in it, encountered his ruin; he was given to lust and gormandize, so excessively, as at one supper he was served with 2000 sorts of fish, and 7000 of fowl. And what was the end of this life? He was suddenly slain, pierced through with small darts, drawn naked through the streets, and cast into Tiber, after the eight month of his Empire, and before the sixtieth of his age.  
To this we will add one in our father's time, Muleasses King of Tunis, who although he were banished from his Realm, and had succours denied by Charles the fifth, yet he was so drowned in the delights 
Paul. jou. l. 44. of his Hist.  of sensuality, as he spent a 100 Crowns for the sauce of a Peacock: and the more to be ravished with music, he caused his eyes to be banded, and to delight his smelling he was continually perfumed with Musk. What happened? He was defeated in battle by his own Son Aminda, and as he fled disguized, he was followed by the sent of his perfumes, discovered and taken, and his eyes put out with a hot Iron by his own Children. O cruelty! but a just judgement of God, for his voluptuousness.  
Then comes the sight so piercing and passionate after the fair faces of women, and stays not there only, but (O shameful sight) it will see the bodies naked, the which is condemned both by God and man: Romulus condemned that man to death which suffered himself to be seen naked by a woman; how much more is that woman to be condemned, which lays aside all modesty with her smock, as Gyges' said in Herodotus? The Emperors 
Lib. 1.  Valentinian, Gratian, & Theodosius, religious observers of chastity, did forbid upon great penalties that none should show themselves naked in public; but to Tiberius, Caligula, Heliogabalus & others, who took no delight but to defile their eyes and bodies with such shameful spectacles, God did show his horrible judgements in their deaths.  
Finally voluptuousness hath not only been the cause of the ruin of men alone, but of whole Estates: Sybarides a Town seated betwixt two rivers, in old time strong and flourishing, did rule over four bordering people, had under their obedience 25. Towns, and could bring to field 300. thousand men armed: yet by the dissolution of the Sybarites; in two months ten days she was spoiled of all her felicity and greatness, drowned and quite ruined. The like excess was the overthrow of that mighty Roman Empire, as we may easily read in them that have written of that subject.  

As long as Curius and Fabricius led 
Du Bartas in judic. lib. 6.   
The Roman Armies, that for dainties fed  
On boiled turnops; and the cresses were  
Amongst the Persians, th'only delicate cheer,  
In peace both led their lives retired still,  
And (feared in war) did with their Trophies fill  
Almost all earth: But when of th' after seed,  
(Of Syrian Ninus) Persians learned to feed  
On sugar delicacies; and that Rome,  
(With pleasure of their bellies overcome,  
In Galba's Rule, Vitellio's, Nero's living),  
No less for glory in their dishes striving,  
Then if in conflict, they the field had won  
Of Mithridates; and Alcides' son:  
All justly saw themselves, by nations spoiled,  
That they long since, had fought withal, and foiled.  
Warning those Realms, that take their courses now,  
Lest they their earth, with equal ruins strew.   

The Objection.  
The moderate use of the senses in worldly things is pleasant and lawful.  
Therefore it is reason to desire life.  
ANswer. The word moderate shows of itself that this reason is very moderate and weak, yea that there is contradiction in the adjoinct (as they say:) true pleasure admits no moderation, it tends always to the eminent & sovereign degree, and will always be continued without interruption or satiety: This is not found in the senses, in the enjoying of worldly things; not the first, for the supreme degree of the sensible thing offends, yea ruins his proper sense, the which is contrary to pleasure: not the second, for if the senses be not interrupted in their actions and tied by sleep, they evaporate all their vigour, & their action becomes odious unto them: Neither in the third, for presently our senses are glutted, and the thing is tedious unto them by a long stay, as experience doth plainly show. Moreover, vanity is so fixed to the senses and to the sensible things of the world, since that sin entered, as the beloved Disciple of jesus Christ cries incessantly to the ears of Christians Love not the world nor the things that are of the world; if any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him: for (saith he) all that is of the world, that is to say, the desire of the flesh the covetousness of the eyes, the overweening of the life, is not of the Father, but of the world. And it is the reason why S. Ambrose hath made a book of the flight of the present world, to conclude, that whosoever will be saved, must mount above the world, as he speaks. Let him seek the verity with God, Let him fly the world and leave the earth, for he cannot know him that is, & is always, if he do not first fly from hence. Wherhfore Christ meaning to draw his Disciples near unto God the Father, said unto them, Rise, let us go from hence. We must then sequester ourselves, & if he that cannot (as 
Ioha. 14.  the same author saith) soar up to heaven like the Eagle, 
Amb. c. 5. of the flight from the world.  let him fly to the mountain like a sparrow, let him leave these corrupt valleys of bad humours etc. voluptuosness is the Devil's pillow. Let man beware how he sleep upon it, lest he be smothered. If these divine words do not move them of the world, at the least let them give ●…are to that which a Pagan adviced his friend: The greater the multitude is saith he, among whom we thrust ourselves, the more we are in danger; there is nothing so pernicious to good manners as to be in theatres; by such pleasures, vice doth more easily creep into us: finally, it it is his end to sequester man from the delights of the world.  
But finally, if the pleasure of the senses contained any reason to desire life, the displeasure which accompanies them contains reason to make men loathe it, seeing it is certain that pleasure and pain are linked together; pleasure begins and passeth away lightly, pain follows and continues long: the which Boissard hath in his 38. Emblem represented excellently by a hive of Bees, to the which an indiscreet maid comes, being desirous to taste of the honey that was within it, she thrust her hand rashly into the hive; the Bees mad angry, stung her, so as for a little sweetness, she had a sharp and durable pain. Even so that man (saith he) which indiscreetly casts himself into the sink of voluptuousness, retains nothing but grief & long repentance.    

The tenth Argument. taken from the Intellectual life.  
If the life of man hath any reason why it should be desired, it is found in the intellectual life.  
But it is not found.  
Therefore there is not any.  
We have searched deep enough into the vegetative & sensitive: Let us now sound the Intellectual, and prove the truth of the Minor of our Argument. It is by the understanding that we are neither plants nor beasts, but a most excellent creature; that is by reasoning which we understand, and understanding is the proper work of man, in the which Aristotle hath fixed his last and sovereign felicity. If then there be reason in humane life, for the which it is to be desired, 
L. 10. Ethic. 〈◊〉. 7.  it must be drawn from hence: But humane life is for her actions. Of Intellectual actions, we have three degrees, the apprehension of simple things, as a stone, a tree, a horse, a man; in this single apprehension there is neither good nor evil, pleasure nor displeasure, reason nor absurdity. Then follows the second operation of the intellect, the composition and division of things like or dislike, whereby the truth or falsehood is made manifest; which truth or falsehood is better known by the third operation of the understanding, which is the discourse, inferring by one thing another, and concluding the truth.  
Here certainly should the true good of man be found, if he could attain to the knowledge of the sovereign and first truth, seeing (according unto jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life) That is eternal life to know one true and only 
joh. 17. c  God, and jesus Christ whom he hath sent: But who can do it of himself? seeing that the only means to attain unto it is folly unto the Gentiles, and scandal unto the jews, as the Apostle saith. No man can do it of himself, no more than fly to heaven: he alone obtains this knowledge, who illuminated from above, hath made his reason captive to his faith. But yet all that man knows of this first truth, is but obscurely, and as it were by a glass; which cannot but stir up a desire to dislodge out of this life, to be with Christ, and to see God face to face. As for the knowledge of the things of this world, which is gotten only by the strength of Nature, men attain unto it but in the declining, when as their eyes are darkened with age, and their spirits distempered with a thousand languish; beginning then only to learn when as life begins to leave them. And yet after they have sweat, washed, and studied, where are they? That is, knowing, or thinking to know something, they find they are ignorant of ten thousand; and if they fix the point of their contemplation in the essence of the thing which they think to know, they shall find that the greatest part is hidden from them: And it is that which Ecclesiastes teacheth, saying, I have observed that man cannot give an account of any work of God which he hath done under the Sun; the more he shall toil in it, the less he shall understand, how wise soever he boast himself. Conformable hereunto, Democritus said, that truth was hidden in the bottom of a deep well. The same reason armed the Emperor's Valentinian and Licinius against learning, as against a public plague: Faustus also Proconsul in Asia put all the learned men he could get to death, for the only hatred of learning.  
Tully by the report of Valerius, who had so much cherished learning, as he had purchased the title of The Father of Bloquence, did in the end contemn it. And what was the cause that Aristotle (called the miracle of the world, the spiritual man, for his rare knowledge) did in the end cast himself headlong in the flood Euripus, but that he could not comprehend the flowing and ebbing twice in 24. hours?  
It seems that all the sciences (as hath been observed by others) are but the opinions of men, though confidently delivered like unto the decrees of a Court of Parliament; as hurtful as profitable, more pestiferous than wholesome, bad rather then good; imperfect, doubtful, full of errors and controversies; by reason whereof Socrates the wisest in the world, will say, that he knows but one thing, which is, that he knows nothing. This saying is common to the seven wise men of Greece, Nothing too much. This is of Archilochus; The understanding of men is such as jupiter sends them daily: And Euripides saith, What wisdom do these poor men think to have? we understand not any thing, let every man do according to his own will; and in another place, Who knows whether to live here be not to die, and that to die be not reputed life to mortal men? O worthy speech of a Pagan! And what shall we say of the Pyrrhonicques, who make profession to doubt all things? Reject them not without hearing, seeing that Seneca laments their error; seeing 
7 Quaest natu. c. ult.  St. Augustine vouchsafes to write of them, that they hold that man cannot attain to the knowledge of things belonging to Philosophy. As for other things they follow appearance, not affirming, not consenting directly. See what a Divine of our time saith, conformable to this, Charron in his book of wisdom; And to the end, they should not be censured to dote without reason; these are the considerations which they produce.  
The 1. is taken from the different complexions of men and beasts, and of men among themselves.  
Hemlock is the food of Quails, it is poison to men▪ Demophon warmed himself in the shadow, and quaked in the Sun: Mithridates after long custom made poison so familiar unto him, that he could take it without any fear, peril or danger▪  
The second is taken from sensible things, the which differ of themselves, according to the diversity of the senses: An apple shall be pale to the sight, sweet in the taste; and they say commonly that the thing which is sour in the mouth is sweet at the heart: Yea, they shall be diverse to the same sense. Of an egg the yolk shall be hot, and the white cold; of some herb the root hot, and the leaf cold. The 3. is taken from the alteration of men in health and sickness, in their sleep and waking, in their youth and age; a change which doth suggest diversity of judgement upon the same thing, so as that which pleased him doth offend him: and thereof comes the proverb that he which was an Angel in his youth, is become a devil in his old age. The 4. is taken from the contrariety of Laws and customs, which make that honest in one place, which is vicious in an other: In Turq●…y plurality of wives is honourable, in Christendom it is a sin: At Sparta it was allowed to steal, so as they were not surprised in the theft; in Europe it is a vice punishable howsoever they be taken. Finally, by Lycurgus' Laws, Adultery was allowed, and by those of the Persians incestuous marriages, with the mother, sister and daughter; and by Plato's Laws the commonalty of women, sodomy, and such vices as are at this day odious to be named. The 5. is drawn from the mixture of diverse things, and of the diverse situation where they are set▪ so the purple colour seems to the eye to vary in the Sun, the Moon, & by a candle: So a Pigeons neck, or the wing of a cock takes the colour of gold, silver, green, blue, or any other according to the place: So the Chameleon takes the colour suddenly of that which doth environ and touch it. The 6. is from the want of experience of men, by reason of their short life; for sometimes we give a rash judgement of things, whereof if we had duly considered, we would change our opinions. The 7. All our knowledge is grounded upon the uncertain supposition of certain principles, which if they were changed as they might be, all our knowledge would be converted into mere ignorance. The 8. the same things shallbe great & small, square, and round, plain, and rough, if they change place, and be chose compared. The 9 is derived from our want of custom, who admire many things which we had never seen; and the Sun which exceeds all the wonders of the world, is not admirable unto us; for that since our birth we have always beheld it. Finally, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Hypocrates, and others affirm; That there are many things in the world which cannot be discerned by any of the five senses, no not by the understanding; & what knowledge then can we have? And who is assured that there are not many worlds? as many wise men maintain, not without reason, seeing that the power of God is infinite, and that he is not idle until he can do no more. And if there be but this world only, as others hold, who can comprehend that infinite Vacuum beyond the heavens? These are bottomless gulfs.  
Now what assured knowledge is there in so many doubts of worldly things? What constancy in that which is so wavering? And if in the most easy sciences appear so many objections, oppositions and obscurities, what shall it be in those which are more hidden and remote? Let Physics come, the most easy science to be apprehended; at the very entrance you shall find such a conflict of Philosophers, as all the air is darkened, and the eye troubled in his judgement. Thales Milesius maintains that water is the principle in this science. No (saith 〈◊〉,) it is the air. Heraclitus the Ephesian affirms that it is the fire, Leucip pus that they be the Atoms: Empedocles, love and hatred: Plato the Ideas; Aristotle (like a new star) he will set matter; form and privation: and he that hath contradicted all that went before him, shallbe refuted by his heirs, who will maintain even by the deposition of Aristotle himself, that Principles which have equivocation, should not be accounted for true principles: such is privation, and therefore in steed thereof some Peripaticiens will set motion, which ties the one unto the other. ay, but motion is an accident, and an accident cannot be a principle to a substance; and therefore the Hebrew Philosophers have added spirit to matter and form. Upon so many contrarieties in the foundation, what strength can there be in the building? Let us observe the like in History, which is much more easy; As many writers as you shall read upon one subject, so much contradiction shall you find. Will you for confirmation of the Pops Primacy, assure yourself what time S. Peter came to Rome? some will hold that it was at the beginning of Claudius' Empire: No, saith S. Jerome, it was in the second year; & the Bundle of times replies that it was in the 4. The Passionall on the other side will passionately maintain that it was in the 13. Will you also know the certentime of the death & passion of our Saviour? Tertullian says that it was in the 30. year of jesus Christ, and the 15. of Tiberius; but Ignatius and Eusebius witness, that it was in the 33. year of Christ and the 18. of Tiberius: Onuph rius, Mercator and other late writers will swear, that it was in the 34 year of jesus Christ; and if we yield some thing to antiquity, we shall believe that jesus Christ was 50. years old when he was crucified, and that it was not under Tiberius, but under Claudius: & to this the jews discourse tended, Thou art not yet 50. years old, and yet thou sayest thou hast seen Abraham. If in this so holy a thing, where there is not any cause of blind passion, there appears such apparent contrariety, what shall we think of History, where as the pen puffed up with passion, and transported with flattery or slander, hath either aimed too high or too low, at the white of truth, the only commendation of an history? And admit we should find writers void of all passion, the which seems impossible, (if we except the secretaries of God, who were guided with the holy Spirit) yet their Histories should be uncertain for the most part, for that they have not been spectators of the times, places and persons, necessary circumstances in a History; & how can they know them, seeing that many times that which is done in our own Town, in the street, yea, in our house, is concealed from us? Nay, the most exquisite and most certain science, is nothing but vanity & trouble of mind, saith Solomon: 
Eccles. 1. c.  And if we shall rightly observe it, we shall find the most learned most disquieted, and the most unlearned most at rest. S. Augustine hath seen it and was amazed, crying out with S. Paul, The unlearned rise up and lay hold of heaven, and we are plunged into hell with our learning. It is the reason why Nicholas de Cusa hath written books of learned Ignorance, where he commends them that make not so great account to know and understand many things, as to do well and live well.  
Knowledge then, being for the most, ignorance in this life, cannot contain any subject to love life: And therefore we will conclude, That seeing in all the degrees of life there appears no sufficient reason to desire it so vehemently; that this desire is not commendable but to be blamed, namely, in man; who being man, for that he hath a reasonable faculty, should not will any thing, much less affect it with passion, but by a true judgement of unpassionate reason.  

An Objection.  
All that is ordained for the service of God, is grounded upon good reason▪  
Life is ordained for the service of God.  
ANswer. That life is good which in all her motions, actions, and meditations, seeks nothing but the humble service of her Creator; but it it a chief point of their service, that man living should do that honour unto his Lord, to give certain credit unto his oath, and to the writings of his testament sealed with his blood. Verily I say unto you that whosoever hears my 
john. 5. 24.  words, and believes in him that sent me, hath eternal life the which is repeated in many other places: Whosoever hath this certain assurance of faith in him, what can he fear? death, nay rather desire it, seeing that in heaven by this death, (which serves us as a bridge to pass thither,) we shall be like unto the Angels, and shall do the will of our heavenly Father, obtaining the Petition which we should daily make unto him, by the express command of his Son, in the Lord's prayer: Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Let us say, the will is good, which aims directly at the honour of God, so long as it shall please him to keep it in his favour; but yet death is better which the Eternal sends, to give us thereby a better life.    

The 11. Argument taken from the description of Death.  
No Cessation from a labour unprofitably renewed is unpleasing.  
Death is a Cessation from a labour unprofitably renewed.  
THere is no need of Eagles eyes to pierce into the truth of this argument, the least attention will comprehend it: For what is this life, but a daily weaving of Penelope's Webb? it is finished in the evening, but the night undoes it, & in the morning we begin again with as great eagernes as if it had never been. The which made Seneca to pour forth 
Epist. 24.  these complaints: When shall we cease to weave daily one work? I rise, and then go to bed: I hunger & then fill my self; I am a cold, and then I warm me. There is no end, the head and tail hold fast together, whereas the same things in their courses do incessantly approach and recoil again: It is day, and night comes, summer appears, and winter doth advance, & still they walk one round: I neither see nor do any thing that is new. I do but go about this wheel, saith the same Philosopher. If I be laid, I say, when shall I rise, and when will night fill up her measure to glut me with distemperatures until day? saith job Chap. 7. It is the true body of the infernal shadow of Ixion, who tied unto a wheel turns about 
Epist. 78.  perpetually.  
There is not any one so dull but sees this earthly Labyrinth, and yet no man will leave it: Even so they that are borne in a prison affect not their liberty; so they that dwell among the Cimmerians in darkness, desire not a clear sky. So the children of Israel would not leave the house of bondage, they quarrelled with Moses who spoke unto them, they cursed him, and being come forth they would have returned often: what was the cause? custom which was become another nature, fear to find▪ worse in their journey, & ignorance a cruel beast. No man will leave this miserable earth, fearing to fall into greater misery; so much doth the love of the place & custom retain the inhabitants in their miseries, saith Seneca; Many float miserably betwixt the torments of life & the horror of death; they will not live, yet know not how to die; like to Ulysses in Homer, who took fast hold of a wild Figtree, fearing to fall into bottomless Charybdis, but yet ready to leave it, if the fear were passed. So Tiberius confessed that he held the Empire as a Wolf by the ears, the which if he might without danger have abandoned, he would willingly do it: So Seneca; and 
Epist. 4.  so experience doth teach, that many keep themselves close in life, like unto them whom a violent torrent hath carried into some rough and thorny places.  
But let us learn of a silly woman, That death is the calm port for the storms of this sea, to the end, that with her we may take pleasure in it: Monica speaking to her son S. Augustine, used these words: As for me (my son) I take no more any pleasure in any thing in this impure world; what should I do here longer in this base estate? I know not why I live having no more to do: here to fore I had a desire to live, to see thee live to Christ; I see it, why then stay I longer here? and soon after yielded up her soul to the Spirit of all power. Even so, O mortal men, live as long as you list, exceed the many years of Nestor, or the 969. of Methusalem; yet shall you not see any other thing in this world, but those four great Princesses, the four seasons of the year, holding hands together, and dancing this round continually, sometimes showing their gracious aspects, & sometimes their backs deformed, as Philo the jew speaks. It is like Sisyphus stone, which being thrust up by force to the top of the Mountain, returns presently back again to the foot of it; and like the Sun which hath no sooner touched one of the Tropikes, but he suddenly turns to the other. To conclude, it is Danae's ton pierced full of holes, they may well pour in water, but they shall never fill it: These are fictions, but they have their mystical hidden senses.  
The holy Scripture hath Parables, and Philosophy figures; let no man therefore reject them, for so did the ancient Philosopher's shadow their Philosophy. And as mercenary labourers toiling and sweeting in the longest day of Summer; rejoice when they see the Sun decline and near his setting: so we after such painful travail whereunto this life doth force us, let us rejoice when we draw near unto our declining; and let us not refuse being weary and tired, to rest ourselves in the sweet arms of death, to the which without doubt, there is no bed in the world, how pleasing soever, to be compared. There is nothing here but ignorance that keeps us back. If the Israelites had truly under stood the beauty and bounty of the land of Canaan, if they had been assured of the enjoying thereof, they had not so often murmured against Moses, being ready to stone him; they had not wished for the onions and leeks of Egypt, they would have taken courage in the midst of the desert.  
Let us then conclude, that there is nothing but the blindness of man which hinders him from seeing the joys of heaven, whereunto death is the way Wherefore let us open the eyes of our understanding, & not grieve for the gross food of this world, for in heaven there is prepared for us the meat of Angels.  

Objection.  
Any exchange from a place that is pleasing and certain for one that is uncertain, must needs cause trouble & vexation.  
Death is the exchange of the world which is pleasing and certain, for a place wholly uncertain.  
MOst part of the world when the Lamp of this life is almost wasted, are so perplexed, as they do lose themselves. In the chief City of Arragon, upon a Knight's tomb this Epitaph is written in Latin: I know not whither I go, I die against my will, Farewell survivors.  
The Emperor Titus dying, said, Alas! must I die that have never deserved it? There is to be read at Rome, upon the stone of a Sepulchre of Sextus Perpenna to the Infernal gods, I have lived as I list, I know not why I die. Whereunto may be added the verses which the Emperor Adrian a little before his death made unto his soul:  

My pretty soul, my daintiest,  
My bodies sociable Guest:  
Whither is my sweetest going;  
Naked; trembling, little knowing?  
Of that delight deprivingme,  
That while I lived I had from Thee.   
Many at this day in the light of the Gospel, show by their actions, that they are no better resolved then these were, although that shame will not suffer them to confess it, when as death approacheth.  
Answer. We deny the Minor of the Argument; for it is not true that death is of itself to be beloved: if it appears so, it is but in comparison of some extreme misery, which we apprehend in leaving it; for the living are (as we have said) like unto them which are carried away violently with a stream, who (to save themselves) lay hold of that which comes first to hand, yea if it were a bar of burning Iron. If you will then ask them how pleasing that estate is, you may easily guess what they will say, That if they were as certain (as it is most certain) that there were no harm in death (as shall appear) they would not break out into such complaints. It is also false that this place is certain. Gorgias the Rhetorician will not depose it, for 
Stob. serm. 115.  being demanded if he died willingly: Yea, said he, for I am not grieved to leave a lodging which is rotten and open of all sides. And Epicurus had often in his mouth, that against any thing in the world we might find some place of safety: but we all lived in a City which was not fortified against death: and in truth this body is but a little plot of earth, commanded of every side, flanked of none, having furious enemies without, & mutinous within. Ingeners have made many impregnable forts, but never able to resist death. Physicians have drawn out 
Maxim ser●… 36.  the quintessence of their spirits; if they have any time found a delay, yet must they in the end yield and pay the interest. Fabulous Aeson returned to youth by the Sorceress Medea, and true Lazarus raised again by the Saviour of the world, have not yet for all that escaped death.  
But you will reply, It is that which we would say, that without death, life should be certain.  
I answer, that you know not what you say, for life as it is made here, and whereof our question is, cannot be without death: to desire to be a man, and not be willing to die, is not to desire to live; for it is one of the conditions of life, as shall appear in the following Argument. Moreover I add, that what incertainty of the future Estate soever you pretend, doubtless it cannot be so miserable (except the reprobate) as that of this life. Thirdly, admit that life were certain, yet the pleasures would not be so, but rather the displeasures certain. That wise King of Macedon saw it, feared it, and protested against it. For news coming unto him of three great prosperities, that he had won the price at the Olypmpic games, that he had defeated the Dardanians by his Lieutenant, and that his wife had brought him a goodly son; he cried out with his hands lift up to heaven, O Fortune; let the adversity which thou preparest for me in exchange of thy favours, be moderate.  
But I will summon you Merchants which make a profession of traffic: There is a bargain offered unto you; in the which you find of the one side gain to be made, and of the other loss; I demand if like a good husband you will not weigh the loss with the gain, to the end that finding the loss the greater, you may break off the bargain. And why should not man observe the like in life, which is much more important? Why should be not balance the pleasures with the displeasures, and finding these greater and more grievous, why should he fear to lose the pleasures, to avoid the displeasures?  
A Poet speaking of a solitary life said, That if there be not so great joy, without doubt there is not so great pain: If death have not the joys of this world, it hath not: the torments of life which are far greater. Observe it for a certain Maxim, that there are three things here below, which march equally with an inconstant pace: the estate of the air which they call time; life, and the opinion of man. And that which is worse, there are more cloudy days then clear, more miserable days for man then happy, and more changes to bad then good.  
But that which should fully assure us going out of this life, is jesus Christ, who protests That no man shall pull his sheep out of his hands, joh. 10. We know whose we are by the faith that is in us, by the which we are fully persuaded that God will keep our pledge until that day, 2. Tim. 1. Moreover we are assured of the end, by the beginning, for to him that hath, shallbe given more. Luc. 19 Finally, we doubt no more: For the holy Spirit doth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God. Rom. 8. 16. This is certain; but admit that it were not so, there is no pleasure in the world, be it never so short, but it leaves behind a venomous sting of serious repentance. I see thy large possessions, thy stately houses, the amiable aspect of thy children, thy treasure, the greatness of thine honours, finally all the pomp in the world, raise thee up with their goodly shows; but believe me, these things are not so happy as thou dost hold them: for proof, look upon them that have them in a higher degree than thyself, if notwithstanding they be not miserable, they be transitory things; if thou leavest not them first, they will leave thee; if thou dost affect them more than as an exercise for thy spirit, thou hast neither wit nor judgement. This understanding which makes the man, should not crouch under these carnal things: it must raise up himself to those which are eternal, to the beauties, bounties & exquisite workmanship of this univers. All the pinching care which thou takest for the world, is but a toil to the body, vexation of mind, and a loss of time: do what thou wilt, enjoy all the possessions of the earth; but know this for certain, that one only hour can take them from thee. Dost thou not see that all runs to change in this world, like unto the Moon, which immediately doth govern it? Art thou mounted to the highest degree? thou must descend again: he that loves thee, will hate thee; he whom thou hast saved, it may be will kill thee (as it happened to julius Caesaer:) thou dost laugh to day, it may be to thou shalt weep to morrow. Dost thou triumph to day? an other day thou shalt be led Captive: finally art thou alive to day? another day will carry thee to the grave: and not knowing what day, if thou art wise thou wilt suspect every day; like unto that good old man Messodan, who being invited by one of his friends to a feast the next day, said unto him Dost thou put me off until tomorrow, who after so many years did never hold any one day assuredly mine? but I have held every day as if it had been my last; a resolution which differs much from these young old men, who having one footein the grave yet think they may live one year more at the least, and the year being past, yet another, and so always: what is this, but against the order of nature to think to live ever?    

The 12. Argument. from the condition of life.  
No man should hate any essential condition of that which he pursues.  
Death is an essential condition of life.  
Therefore no man should hate Death that seeks life.  
IT we consider of death, not in her introduction, but as she hath been blest by God since by his grace, it is no fearful pain to life (as we conceive) but an inseparable quality. Life is a burning Lamp, the body is the cotton, the radical humour the oil, the natural heat the fire; this fire consumes the oil and cotton by little and little, and in few hours had devoured it all, if nutriment supplied and changed by a secret virtue did not keep it repaired: yet can it not preserve life from natural ruin but for a time, for that the virtue engrafted into all the members of the body, wearing by degrees, in the transubstantiation of meats, and application thereof to the fading substance, comes in the end to waste, the humour dries up, the fire is quenched, & death follows: and seeing that we see death enclosed in the body of life, he should be very indiscreet that would seek life and hate death; and he wise and virtuous, that will no more regard death then life, seeing it concerns his duty.  
Hear what Pompey the Great (returning out of Sicily with Corn to famished Rome, in a great storm) said unto the Master of the ship; being half dead: Gowe, go we; the question is not to live, but to go. This great personage did consider that it was as natural for man to dye, as to live: and in truth all that have lived are dead, what force soever they pretended to oppose, the most puissant beasts in the world the Elephants go to dust; yea Nature willing to show how little that is which here seems great, and how upon the least occasion all force decays, she suffereth the Elephant at the sight of the least and basest creatures, of a Mouse or an Ant, to be so seized with fear, as he trembles strangely.  
The Tyrants were smothered with lightning in the Phlegraean fields. The Tyrant Maximine with his 8 foot in length, with his great thumb carrying his wife's bracelet for a ring, who drew carts laden, broke an horse teeth with his fist, and did split trees with his hands: Although he thought himself immortal, by reason of his force, yet he lies slain by his subjects.  
In the same estate is Marius, whose fillips were like blows with a hammer. Among the Moderns, George Castriot Prince of Albania, valiant and fortunate in his exploits, who with his own hands had slain 2000, Turks; who never gave but one blow to cleave a man in two, and to overthrow the strongest; yet in the end death subdued him, and laid him in his grave. Let the Idolatrous Turks search his Tomb for his bones, and from those relics draw an invincible force to themselves; yet he is dead: doth not this suffice? Behold Cities, Common weals, and kingdoms, they have their youth and vigour; so in like manner their age and death: where is Thebe●… that great City, whereof the name is scarce remaining? where are those 〈◊〉. Cities of Candie? where is Sparta and Athens, whereof there remains nothing but the base ruins? And thou the Queen of Nations, falsesly held to be eternal, where art thou? destroyed, ruined, burnt, and drowned; in vain do they seek thee, for thou art not where thou were built; And you Constantinople; Venice, and Paris, your day will come, and why not? Seeing that whole Monarchies run swiftly to their ruin, the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman are perished. You Turks; you flourish for ●…lme but, behold 〈◊〉 Sc●…thians prepare to wrest the reins of the world out of your hands, and what wonder? if that rives which by nature is apt to tive, if that which is easy to melt, melt, if that which is corruptible decays, and if that which is of a mortal condition dies. Without doubt if there be any thing to be amazed at, it is how we are borne, how we subsist, amidst a thousand deaths, which reign upon us; we have but one narrow entry into life, but we have an infinite number to go out, which are very large and slippery; And y●…t (o strange brutishness) we wonder how we die, and not how we live: Let us then conclude with the Spirit of God, That every man is dust, and shall return to dust, for such is his condition.   

The 13. Argument taken from the benefit which the thought of death brings.  
Whatsoever doth multiply life should be precious to them that love life.  
The Meditation of death multiplies life.  
Therefore the meditation of Death should be precious to them that love life.  
A Great Philosopher observing the uncertenty of the time of death and finding that life must infallibly fall, by a bullet, by iron, by a dart, a stone, a hair, as Fabius the Praetor was choked in drinking milk; with a kernel, as the Poet Anacreon; with a fly, as Pope Adrian. 4. with a splinter be he never so well armed) as Henry 2. the French King, whom a splinter of Captain Lorges lance flying into the beaver of his cask, wounded in the head, whereof he died: by the rush of a door, as Iterenius the Sicilian: in the Venerean act (a ridiculous death) as Gallus Pretorius, and Titharius a Roman Knight, who were smothered in the bed of lust; By the holding of their breath without constraint, as it happened to Common: by delight, as to Chilon, who hearing his son commended for that he had won the prized the Olimpike games▪ was so moved with affection as he died; yea, in laughing, as old Philemon, who having seen an Ass eat sigges upon his table, he commanded his servant to give him drink, whereat he did so laugh, as he fell into a hicke●… and so died. Yea, life is ruined by the prick of a needle, as in Lucia the daughter of Marcus Aurelius, who pricking herself died: By the tooth of a comb, like to Rufynius the Consul, who combing himself, hurt his head, and ended his life. That great Philosopher, I say (considering that so many accidents, and ten thousand others not to be foreseen, might in an instant take away life) gave this wholesome counsel, That we must dispose of every day in such sort as if it should close up our life within the compass of the twelve hours. Consider, saith he, how goodly a 
Sen. Epist 31.  thing it is to consummate life before death, and then to attend without care the time that may remain: and the better to induce us thereunto, let us remember the advice which jesus Christ gave unto his Disciples of himself: I must do, saith he, the works of him that sent me, whilst it is day; the night comes and then no man can work, joh. 9 By the day he signifies life, by night death; and his will is, that whilst we live we should do our duties without any procrastination, for that night is near, that is to say, death: But when a well settled soul (saith the same) knows there is no difference betwixt a day and an age, she than beholds (as it were from above) the days and success which shall follow her, and laughs at the course and continuance of years. The same Seneca doth also make a pleasant discourse of Pacu●…ius the usurper of Syria, who being at night buried in wine, (as as if he had prepared his own funeral) caused himself to be carried from the table to his bed, & in the mean time his friends clapping their hands, danced and sung; He hath lived, he hath lived; and there passed no day but this was done. And the Author adds, what he did in an unseemly manner, let us do with reason; that night approaching and ready to lay us in bed, let us sing with joy, I have run the course of my prefixed life, and if God doth add an increase of tomorrow, let us account it for gain. In doing so, every day shall be a life unto us, and by the multiplication of days our life shall be multiplied, and why not? seeing that in what day soever we die, we die in our own proper day, as the fame Seneca saith, calling the present 
Epist. 70. & 120.  day, that proper day; seeing the days that are passed are no more ours, being so lost for us, as they can be no more restored: As for the future, we cannot call them ours, being not yet come, and may be wrested from us in an instant by many accidents: Moreover, what is there in an age, that we find not in one day, the heaven, the earth, the inhabitants thereof, the day and night by the revolution of the heavens?  
But you will say, This pensive thought of death, hammering continually in our heads doth hasten our death. Answ. You are deceived, a wiseman thinks quietly of it; and in thinking of it advanceth nothing; no more than the mariner in seeing the sails still, and the wind to blow; it is by the wind and sails, not by his looking that he is carried into the Port: So by the waves of this life, not by the meditation of death, we are carried to the grave.  
Let us then end with the saying of the Philosopher Musonius, That he employs not the day rightly, who resolves not as if it were his last.   

The 14. Argument taken from a Simile.  
Every sweet and sound sleep is pleasing.  
Death is a sweet and sound sleep, Ergo.  
A Naxagoras said, there were two excellent instructions in Death, the one in sleep, the other in the time going before our birth. Let us now consider of the first instruction. We see that most of the heathen Philosophers have saluted death, with the name of sleep: Plato in the end of his Apology of Socrates: Tully in his book de Senectute: Obsenie, faith he, there is no thing so like unto death as sleep.  
Homer faith, that sleep & death are brother and sister twins. Let us observe with Plutarque that Homer shows their similitude, terming them twins, for they that are so do most commonly resemble. And in truth we cannot deny but there is betwixt them great affinity. It is one of the causes of death, the cold vapour, undigested, and quenching the natural heat, a vapour which appears upon the superficies of the body, which they also call the sweat of death. Sleep proceeds from the fume which the meat digesting; causeth: this fume mounted up and thickened by the coldness of the brain, descends again and disperseth itself over all, enters into the nerves, by the which both sense and motion is distributed throughout the whole body: so as death makes all the actions of the body to cease, even so sleep doth all the feeling of the sinews, of the senses, and all motion of the exterior members: For as we do often find children lying asleep upon the ground, thinking they were dead; so man dying doth often deceive them that stand by, being not able to judge whether he be dead or sleeps. Man cannot always watch, he must sleep; neither can he live for ever, he must dye: and as he grows idle that can take no rest, so he is mad that thinks, not to die.  
As he that stooping to his work doth stem with traffic Boat along the shore the stream, and pouring out himself in watery sweat breaks all the banks in uproar: In retreat made to his Cottage, from the labouring light, stretched on the straw sleeps soundly all the night.  
As man after that he hath sweat with tedious labour; being broken and grown crooked with age, after that he hath tossed and turmoiled, & kept a great stir in the world, being laid in the earth rests in death; he that goes to bed puts off his clothes; he that dies unclothes his body; and his soul departs. And as he that hath eaten and drunk freely feels in his stomach a gnawing and crudity which hinders his rest; so he that hath busied himself too much with worldly affairs, feels upon the approaching of rest a remorse of conscience, and an irresolution, which will not suffer him to embrace death quietly, sleep seizeth upon m●…n lying awake in his bed insensibly, so can he not observe the very moment of approaching death; when sleep comes he feels no pain, no more that the very instant of death) If men be froward and cry out when death approacheth, so do they, especially little children, who cry most when sleep comes upon them; Finally as in our soundest sleep we feel no pain, & we hold it a wrong to be awaked; so let us assure ourselves we shall feel less pain in death, seeing her sound sleep cannot be troubled, nor interrupted in any sort: and therefore Diogenes taken with a sound sleep a little before his death, the Physician enquiring if he had felt no pain, no, answered he, the brother comes before his sister. So Gorgias Leontinus, being near his end, his body without strength, he had many slumbers, so as a friend of his demanding how he found himself. Well (saith he) the brother begins to deliver me into his sister's hands. Moreover, Nature which hath made nothing in vain, seems to assure us of this proportion, by the Dormouse, which sleeps all Winter so fondly, as it will rather endure all extremities then awake: I have seen a man of good credit, put one into water boiling on the fire, the which did not awake, but only move the hinder legs a little; yet in the Spring it is nimble & leaps from branch to branch: a goodly sign of the Resurrection of the dead.   

The fifteenth Argument, taken from former experience.  
Not to be yet, and to be no more, are alike, yea the same.  
We ●…ere in peace and rest when we were not yet.  
Therefore when we shall be 〈◊〉 more●… shall be i●… peace and r●…st.  
IT is an humane Argument which takes matters at the ●…orst, and death for the 〈◊〉 privation of the wh●…le man; yet without preiudic●… of his right, if there be any sound▪ Of necessity (saith P●…o) 
Plat. Apol. of Socrat. in the end.  death must be one of these two, a withdrawing or extinguishing of all sense, and of the soul likewise: or a transmigration (as they hol●…) into some other place: if death doth extinguish all, and be like unto sleep, the which most commonly when it is not troubled▪ with dreams and fancies, bring a ●…uiet rest; O God what a gain is death 〈◊〉 etc.  
But if it be true (which some say) that death is a ●…ransport ●…o the happy regions, that our souls having shined in these mortal bodies, on this bare earth, go to shine elewhere: as when the S●…nne aft●… that he hath enlig●…ned ou●… horizon, desc●…nds to give day unto an other, and then returns to make his course anew: what decease is there of the soul mor●… then of the Sun, which runs his course through our horizon all the day, and at night seems extinct and dead to us? Or suppose there were an utter extinguishing & decease of the Soul, aswel as of the Body, what cause were there of fear in this extinguishing? since not to have been at all, and to cease to be, is all one; because the effect both of the one and the other is, not to be▪ Then why should we fear that now, when by the experience of above five thousand years, when we were not, that is to say, that we were dead, we never felt any kind of pain? Hereunto king A●…asis had regard, observing one who lamented much for the loss of his son: If (said he) tho●… didst not mourn when thy son was not at all, neither shouldest thou now grieve that he be no more.  
Let us conclude with Seneea, That (according to the opinion of all the world) he 
Eipst. 7●….  carries the supreme degree of folly, that weeps for that he lived not a thousand years since, so he doth second him which grieves that he shall not be here the like ●…e o●… o●… it i●… all on●…, ●…ou ●…d no●… be, and You have ●…ot ben●…. So spak●… the wi●…e man by the mouth of m●…, saying, We 〈◊〉 as if we 〈◊〉 not b●…▪  

Objection.  
Not to ha●… had ●…llent things, and ●…o 〈◊〉 lo●… them after the enjoing them a time are very different.  
●…t he that hath not been, is like to him that hath ●…ot had those ex●…llent things, life and the 〈◊〉 thereof; and he that is no more, like him that hath lost them, after the enjoying of them.  
Therefore not to have been, and not to be are very diff●… things▪  
THe very word ●…o los●…▪ i●… of it sel●…e 〈◊〉 he tha●… after a cl●… fight, 〈◊〉 lose his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than he which hath lo●… 〈◊〉 knowledge of his senses, o●… reason an●… 〈◊〉 ●…out th●… which we had not been? Wha●… is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not see himself swallowed up in a gu●… of darkness ●…ay, in eternal horror●…? And therefore S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name o●… the faithful ●…aith 2. Cor. 5. That we whic●… in this lodging groan under the burden, d●…sire not to ●…e unclothed, bu●… to be clothed again; to the end▪ tha●… mortal may be swallowed 〈◊〉 by life: Which shows that the desire of man is to be, & if he inclines to de●…h it is 〈◊〉 assured ●…onsideration, ●…hat by ●…ath he enters into a 〈◊〉 and mor●… perfect being; els●… he would always 〈◊〉 not to be, that 〈◊〉 to say, death, i●… we take it as the argument gives it.  
I answer: That if there be a great difference not to have been, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be, he ha●… the 〈◊〉 ●…nefit that is no more; for he hath this aboue●… the other, that he hath enjoyed life and the fruits thereof, which the other ha●… vnles●… you will deny that h●… which hath been admitted into the King's Chamber, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ass●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ ●…th not any 〈◊〉 ab●…ue ●…im that hath not been admitted at all, and that he which hath been a Mayor or a Consul in a free City, is not more honoured than he which hath never been. But the Obiector supposeth one thing which is not, That this life is adorned which most excellent gifts; being full of most sharp agonies, as is justified in the 18. Argument: and the●…fore I deny the consequence of his Minor, and to prove the falsehood, I produce that which Solomon saith, Eccles. 4. that he more esteems the dead, than those which be living; yea he esteems him that hath not been, more happy than the one or the other.  
Secondly, the loss of fight, of senses, of the habit of s●…iences, is grievous to a living man, who hath enjoyed them for a time, for that he is capable of sorrow: but to make it a conclusion to a dead man, who should be more grieved to have lost all this, and life itself▪ there is no consequence, for that death is incapable of sorrow and mourning; wherein the Proverb of Hesiodus may be verrified; The moiety is more than the whole, the loss of senses and reason are more grievous, and more to be lamented then the privation of life.  
Thirdly, I deny that man dying loseth any thing, he was but Vsufructuarie of life; God the proprietary demands it, and he restores it, what loss? Thou art not angry if any curious searcher of the most exquisite rarities of the world; if having suffered thee to see his Cabinet he afterwards draws the curtain, thou wilt take it patiently how great soever thou art: If the Seigneurie of Venice hath done the●… the honour to see their stately treasure, & have dazzled thine eyes with the glistering of those 14. Pearls, of their ducal Bonnet, of the 12. Crowns of gold, and of other most rich ornaments; wouldst thou not take it patiently to give place after some hours? Know then that it is reasonable, that the Lord of Lords, having brought thee into his house, there to behold the golden studs which adorn the firmament, & to observe the diverse motions of the 7. Planets, and among the rest, of the Sun, the eye of the world; to touch and comprehend the 4. Elements and other infinite goodly creatures; if it be his pleasure and he make sign unto thee to give place to others that survive, it is reason thou shouldest dislodge, and thank the Lord for his favour.  
Finally, I maintain, that the depth and horror is as great to reason, to live perpetually here without end, the same life which we now breathe; (for our discourse is of this life) as great I say and greater than to be dead. depth; for who can perfectly comprehend a life without end? horror, for who would always live with the fear of a hundred millions of horrible miseries, which may happen in a hundred millions of years, not making mention of the vices and sins whereunto man is subject & which a good man should fear more than death. As for the authority of S. Paul, it is not nature only, but the heavenly grace, which makes him to speak so; and they that shall be partakers of this grace in the same degree, may brave death with S. Paul▪ and say unto him, O death where is thy 
1. Cor. 15.  victory, O grave where is thy sting? &. And if S. Paul in this place did contemplate in spirit the excellent ornaments which he had seen in the third heaven in his ecstasy, and on the other side touched to the quick with the venomous sting of sin, he makes no mention but of the simple deliverance, as if it had been sufficient for him.  
O wretched man that I am (saith he) who shall deliver me from the body of this death▪ He makes mention of deliverance, for that he fel●… Co●…bate in himself, and found himself prisoner to the Law of sin, as the verse going before doth declare▪ But you will reply, There is nothing to be compared to life, it is a natural desire and common to all men.  
Ans●…▪ Man desireth not only to be and to live, but to bee●…t ease: else what is he, that like to Ixion in the Poet, would always live, to be fastened to a whe●…le? Who would always live the damnable life of Satan and his angels, in the midst of an unquenchable fire, but mad men and fools? And in truth the desire we have to roll on always from day to day, is, that by an abusive hope, we promise unto ourselves some future pleasure and content: The Apostles desire (better ordered and grounded) was to put off this mortal body, and to put on one that was b●…essed and immortal; not upon earth where it is not to be found, but in heaven, and by a divine and celestial power. But that doth contradict this assertion, That man desires as much or more to end the miseries of this life, as to continue this miserable life; and therefore certain wise men of the world, did settle their resolution unto death upon this Dilemma, saying, Either we shallbe happy in death, if the soul escapes; or else we shallbe without pain or misery, if all remain: No small advantage doubtless, seeing the greatest point of happiness in this life, is to beeleast unhappy.    

The 11. Argument taken from two resemblances of Death.  
S●…ounding is a kind of Death, and the shadow of the body is an Image of it,  
But in swooning there is no pain, nor in the shadow any amazement.  
BY Syncope. I understand the strongest and most extended swooning, not that which is gentle, which happeneth sometimes at the opening of a vein, in the which the patient neither loseth feeling nor speech, but that which carries away all the forces of a man, his natural (I say) and principally his vital. Sleep is nothing to represent death in regard of this symptom, for it is death itself; only there is in this sometimes a returning to life, and there none. I have seen it and observed it in my father being an old man. I have conferred it with some that were apparently dead, yet could I not find any difference; he lay without any show of soul in any of his ●…ects, notwithstanding that he was continually rolled up and down in a chamber; his pulse, was not to be felt, he was in a cold sweat over all, the extremities of his body were exceeding cold: And these are the very signs of a right Syncope, by the which the truth of our Mayor is justified, that to fall into the Syncope, is to fall into death; for as death is a cessation from all action, and motion, so the Syncope interrupts all motion, and all the functions both of sense and life. And that in this accident there is not any pain, experience doth witness: and the report of such as revive is to be credited, and serve for as good a testimony to the curious and incredulous, as if they were ●…isen from the dead. They depose and will depose, that in the incursion of this death, there is nothing but quiet rest, so sound a sleep, as the natural is nothing in comparison of this. And in truth when my father was restored to his health, and as it were returned to life again, he was much amazed, to see the company which came to succour him▪ and his first words were, What is the matter? Being demanded if he had felt no pain, he answered, No, & did not remember that he had any accident; so as all the time betwixt the first access of his disease and his separation, was without his feeling or memory. Thus if the body becomes so insensible, that the soul (although it be present) suspends her action and agitation, what shall it then be in death, when being separated, she shall have no communion with it, how much more shall it be without pain? As for the body's shadow, there are none but little children that are afraid, being not able for the weakness of their judgement to know what it is▪ But they that have any understanding; and take a little leisure to observe this obscure▪ Image; moving at the shaking of their bodies, find that it is only a privation of the light; in the air opposed to their bodies: for the Sun, the candle, or any other thing that shines, not able by his beams to pierce through a solid body, is forced to fall upon the Superficies, so as it cannot lighten the air, which is beyond the said body. Whereupon it remains obscure and without light, and is fashioned according to the proportion of the body.  
Man therefore being assured that death is nothing to the body but the privation of life, by reason of the le●… which happens in the light of life, which is the soul; the which notwithstanding (no less than the Sun, or a Candle) doth retain her life and remain immortal: Man, I say, being assured of this truth, he should not fear death, no more than the shadow of the body; for neither the shadow nor death have any settling of any thing, but only a simple privation of another.   

The seventeenth Argument taken from diversity, which is pleasant to man.  
That wherein the nature of man is pleased, should not displease the mind.  
The nature of man is pleased in diversity. etc.  
WE prove the mayor of our argument, by the suffrages of many wise men. No man can err saith Cicero, that follows 
1 de Legib.  nature for his guide. And again, To follow the conduct of good nature, is to follow 
Lib. de Senect.  and obey God. Chrysippus doth willingly hear nature, according to the which we must live conformably, saith Laertius, it is common nature and properly humane: whereunto Seneca will give his consē●…. Sen. de vit. beat. c. 8. Naturae rerum assentior, saith he: Moreover it is our intent to live according to nature; for, saith he, to live according to it, & to be happy is the something. This common nature is interpreted by the Stoics to be God, as Clemens Alexandrinus doth witness: The Stoics 
2. Stroma. in decore ●…aturae  saith he, have settled the end of man to live according to nature, changing the name of God into the beauty of nature. Let the world, saith Philon, consent and concur 
De mundi opi●….  with the Law, and the Law with the world. Let every good man as soon as he is made a Citizen of the world, direct his actions according to the arbitrement and will of Nature, by the which all this univers is governed: We are afflicted, saith Seneca, with diseases, but curable; 
de Ira. c. 13  for Nature which hath made us perfect, if we demand correction, helps us▪ Wherefore S. Jerome saith, 
Ad Deme●…  that in our spirits there is a certain natural sanctity, if 
2. de●…irrg.  we may so speak; the which being precedent in the fortress of the spirit, exerciseth the judgement of good and evil: which is (saith he in the same place) that Law, which by the testimony of the Apostle is infused into all men, and as it were written in the tables of the heart. Wherefore the spirit of man should never part from the motions of this nature, according to which all this world moves an●… 〈◊〉 entertained. But to come to the minor of our 〈◊〉, that nature is pleased in diverse changes, we see that this world doth never sub●…ist any moment of time in one estate, not heaven, nor the seasons, much less the earth our common mother.  

For Nature having with a varied love 
Bartas in the 2. day of the 1 week.   
Wounded the Heart; Not able to remove  
The forms of all the fauor●… to one part,  
And at one time; she takes into the heart  
Form after form so; that one face embraces  
Form by that Tract; a●…ther form defaces:   
But above all there is no poulpe nor Proteus so changeable as ma●… for what pleaseth him in the evening, is in the morning distasteful; every day he lays new foundations for his life, saith Sen●… he revives new hopes, at the end, yea before the last period 
Epist. 13.  of the thing hoped for; he often changes advice, and turns to the contrary of that which he pursued; and therefore life is to many a very sport, saith he: No man knows what he would have, and yet he is always in quest▪ still desirous to change place, as if he might there plant his change, saith Lucretius: And seeing that man delights so 
Lucre. 3.  much in change, seeing that his particular complexion leads him and forceth him unto it, seeing that the univer sall nature guides him to it, as by the hand: seeing that in this life (a death rather than life) he could not find his contentment, but misery upon misery; why doth he not run joyfully to the end of this life, and seek to find a better?  

Objection.  
Man cannot lose that which is pleasant unto him, without displeasure.  
But life is pleasant to man. etc.  
IN this Theatre of the world there is nothing so admirable as man, saith Abdala Saracen: he may, if he will, take the part of God and be happy and joyful in this world; for by his free will he may become wise, and be in a good, happy, and pleasing estate, as certain Philosophers do show. I will not (saith Seneca to his Lucilius,) 
Epist. 23.  that thou ever want content, I will that it grow in thy house, which it shall do, if it dwell within thee: other petty joys fill not the spirit, but make smooth the brows, they are light, unless thou wilt hold him joyful that laughs; the spirit should be cheerful, assured, and elevated above all: and presently after he saith, the joy whereof I speak is solid, and the greater, for that it is deep in the heart. And in another place, the spirit of a wise man is as the world above the 
Epist. 59  Moon, always clear and without clouds.  
But what is this joy? it is 
De vit. bea. c. 3. 6.  (saith Seneca) peace, concord, & greatness of spirit joined to mildness; it is to be content with things present whatsoever, and to become a friend to his affairs: It is (saith D●…critus) to have 
Cic. 3. de finibu●… 3. Offic. 1.  his spirit free from fear; and the religious Doctor Saint Ambrose will say, That tranquillity of conscience and assured innocency, make the life happy. Finally, Solomon will cry out, than a joyful spirit is a delightful banquet▪ and contrariwise, a troubled mind thinks always of things which are distasteful & mournful.  
Trust not to these mela●…cholie men, to whom adu●… choler makes white things seem black; those that are happy, unfortunate, and to fear where there is nothing but subject of assurance. Life is as we govern it, good or bad, pleasant, or displeasant; and therefore Epictetus said f●…ly, That every thing had two ends, and that by the one it was easy to bear, by the other cumbersome.  
If your brother, saith he, hath done you wrong, do not consider of ●…t of that side that he hath done you wrong for then it is uneasy to bear; but of the other, as he is your brother, that you have been nourished together, and then you will find it very tolerable.  
Du Vair, who like the industrious Be●…, hath gathered summarily together the flowers of the Stoics, writes, that nature may say unto us, as the Philosopher did unto his Disciples, What I present unto you with the right hand, you take with the left, your choice tends always to the worst, you leave what is good, and embrace the bad; Let us take things by the good end, we shall find that there is subject of love in that which we hate. For there is not any thing in the world, but is for the good of man; As for example, you have a suit with your neighbour, when you think of him, your suit comes to mind, and then you curse him and are disquieted: the reason is, you take it by the bad end; but take it by the other, and represent unto yourself that he is a man like to you, that God by a resemblance of nature calls you to a mutual affection; that he is in the same City, in the same Temple, and doth communicate in the same Laws, the same prayers, and the same Sacraments with thee, that you are bound to succour one another reciprocally.  
Finally, the Stoics hold for a Maxim, that a wise man is exempt from injury, either to give or receive: he cannot do any, being borne only to aid; & he receives none, for that being grounded upon virtue, he valiantly contemns all reproach & wrong, so as he is invulnerable, as Seneca saith; not for that he is not struck, but for that, as he saith, he cannot be hurt.  
Answer: I know that the Stoics (with whose feathers our objector decks himself) have sought to frame their wise man of that fashion, that he should not be capable of any ill, but continually possessed of a solid joy: but whatsoever they have portrayed was but a vain picture, without effect or truth▪ like unto the Chimeres and Centaurs. Who will believe that a wise man put upon the rack, feels no pain! Who can say that the life of Metellus is not more to be desired, then that of Regulus turned 
Cic. 3. de finib. 5. de finib. Sen. epist. 66.  up and down in a pipe full of nails, and that they are equal favours? That a wise man will joyfully hold his hand burning in the fire, like unto Mutius Scaevola?  
Finally, that a wise man being burnt, tormented and put in Phalaris burning bull, will notwithstanding say, O what a sweet life is this! Let them do what they list, I care not. These and such like are the Paradoxes of these Philosophers, who (as Cicero 
4. De Finib.  saith) carry admiration in their foreheads, but being stripped naked, they give cause of laughter, & of themselves (as Plutarch saith) they confess their absurdity and vanity. And in truth, who would not laugh, when among other things they say, that only a wise man is truly a king, rich & beautiful? yea though he were a slave, a beggar, or a Zopirus with his nose cut off, etc.  
But let us answer punctually to the reasons objected: The Sarazin Abdala understands, that by some excellent relics of thesoule, man is admirable to the world; but he doth not touch his felicity, for he hath nothing of that remaining; since his transgression, he is continually here below, miserable in every degree: He had the gift of free will, to have enjoyed his own happiness if he had would; but for that he abused it, he lost himself and his liberty, saith S. Augustine. He rules over all creatures, but a miserable domination, in the which the meanest subject exceeds his Lord in felicity; and twice miserable, in the which the Lord suffers more misery than the most wretched of his subjects.  
Read Plutarch, and then Homer, but above all the Spirit of God in the holy writ, who knows what we are, and qualifies man with no other titles, but of darkness, 
Ephes. 5.  and foolishness to think a good thought of himself; a brutish man, who comprehends not the things which are of the Spirit, and cannot 
1. Cor. 2.  understand them, for they are spiritually discerned.  
Finally, he shows him to 
Ephes. 2. Coloss. 2. Math. 12.  be weak, sick, dead in his sins, a viper's brood, not able to do any good thing, for that he is bad; and by consequence, cannot take part but with Satan the prince of darkness, and the father of lies and all iniquity.  
Moreover, if Seneca and others to retain men in life, teach them what they ought to do, it is no argument that they divert them from death when she shall present herself unto them: but chose, Seneca doth in a manner 
Epist. 36. Epist. 24. 31.  generally protest, That death hath no discommodity, that it is not only without ill, but without the fear of ill, and that it is a foolish thing to fear it, etc.  
As for life he calls it deceitful and vicious, for that it is always imperfect. But see how upon this question he opens his heart to sorrowful Martia for the death of her 
De consol. ad Mart. 32. Epist. 202. ad Mart. c. 20.  son; O ignorant men, saith he, of their own miseries, which do not commend death, as the goodliest invention of nature! For whether that she holds felicity enclosed, or excludes calamity; be it that she ends the satiety and weariness of old age, or that she carries away youth in his flower, in the hope of better things; be it that she calls unto her the most vigorous age, before that it hath mounted the roughest steps, yet is she to all men their end, to some a remedy, to some a vow; and those are more bound unto her, to whom she comes without calling. He goes on, but he cuts off his discourse to come to the end of his life which was cut off: for being commanded by Nero to dye, without any delay he willed his Surgeon to open a vein in his foot, holding it in a basin of warm water, and saw with dry eyes his life fade away. But S. Ambrose assures, that a good conscience makes the life happy; Be it so, but forgets to add, That in the death of the faithful this happiness is doubled, for it is precious before God: And in the end I deny that those men, in whom a melancholy humour doth most abound, suffer themselves to be so abused in their judgements: for this humour is more advised than all the rest, having some divine matter in it, as Aristotle saith; and therefore more to be credited then the rest, and particularly more than the jovial sanguine.  
As for the admonition of the Stoics, it was easy for them to speak it, but virtue consists in action: and I know not whether Epictetus did that himself which he taught to others; otherwise (as the proverb saith) I hate the Philosopher which is not wise but for others, and not for himself. You will that I take the most troublesome things on the best fide; yea, but I see no end of that side: it is like unto occasion, which hath long hair before, and bald behind. Where is that end then? I cannot see it, and admit I should, I cannot attain unto it, being borne under the planet of Saturn, & always taking things on that side which is sad. I would have my neighbour and my adversary observe your precept, and he would have me; and so neither of us do it: and we continue by reason of the one and the other, in continual vexation.  
Finally, the pleasure of this world is very small, and intermixed with many displeasures: It is a Mine where there is gold, but it is so fastened to the stones, as to draw one crown it will cost 12. So there is not one ounce of joy, but doth cost a pound of sorrow.    

The 18. Argument taken from the miseries of life.  
Every Estate that is full of calamity, should desire, and not apprehend a change.  
This present life is full of calamity etc.  
THe field of this straight life is so spacious, and so full of great dangers and extreme miseries, as the exchange thereof, to him that hath any sense, cannot be but delightful. Observe the diseases of the body, measure & number their greatness and their great number: consider the tempests & storms of the passions of the soul, the clouds and troubles of his understanding; and you will conclude; that man must of necessity change this life, or to be continually miserable in every degree. And therefore he was fitly compared to a Bull, which leapt suddenly into his Master's garden, and by chance overthrew sundry skepps of Bees, which being provoked came forth, assail him and sting him on the throat, back, in the eyes, and generally all over. And it avails him nothing to pierce the air with his homes, to beat the earth with his feet, to whip his flanks with his strong tail, to roar & make a noise; ye his stingings stick stillto him, and do not leave him: So man since that in his Creatures garden, in the earthly Paradise, he durst presume to overthrow and transgress his Master's commandments, there is no part of him from the head to the foot, which is not touched and pierced even to the marrow of his bones with many calamities: his head is subject to inflamed Frenzies, which make him mad; to the Apoplexy, which like Lightning deprives him of all motion; his eyes are touched with the Opthalmie or inflammation: the Squinancy takes him by the throat, which making the Muscles to swell with a congealed blood, stop the passage of respiration: the inflamed Pleurisy stabs him in the sides; the Fever burns him, the swollen Dropsy drowns him: the jaundice makes war against his Liver, pouring forth gall for pure blood; the ungentle Cholike wrings his bowels, straitens the passages, and makes of his mouth a stinking jakes; the bloody flux excoriates his guts: the hardened gravel staying his urine in the bladder, pricks him most horribly: the Gout knits his sinews faster than bonds of Iron: the Canker burns his flesh more than fire itself; the filthy and lousy Phtiriasis eats his skin: Finally, there is not any member either within or without the body, that is not subject to many infirmities; Who can comprehend them all, seeing the eyes alone by exact search of Physicians is assailed with 113. diseases? And who doth not see here that the estate of man is very wretched? And that which doth aggravate this, is, that even those helps wherewith they think to ease themselves the medicines are converted into worse torments than the disease: the strict diets, the bitter potions, the cutting and burning of members, which they use in Cankers and other ulcers; that tub wherein they boil the bodies of such as are infected with the venerean scab, or the French pox; with a thousand other devices to restore health and life to man: what torments, what agonies, and what cries do they not cause unto the poor patients? These miseries are great, but those of the mind are greater, which seemed for her noble extraction not to be subject to any. Come and let us run over her faculties: the understanding holds the chief place; at the very entry of life we see in infants a greater ignorance then in brute beasts: Fawns as soon as they are borne know their. dams, and without help of any, go into the most secret places to seek the dug and suck; whereas children new borne know not where they are, and being near the breast, will cry and perish with hunger rather than suck, as S, Augustine writes, and experience doth teach: This ignorance 
Lib 1. de pec. mer. & remis. c. 38.  hath taken such deep root in the spirit os man; as to root it out, and pass unto the sciences, there is found such difficulty, as most men had rather live perpetually in darkness, then to take so much pains to learn.  
Thirdly, (and that is most lamentable) man knows nothing of his last end, in the getting of which knowledge consists his sovereign good; he goes always astray, if God doth not inspire him from above. Let all the sects of Philosophers be witness, who by so many diverse ways have sought it, yet could not find it.  
Fourthly, the ignorance in man of his Essence, is a notable misery: the Angels know themselves perfectly. The soul knows nothing less than itself: and the body which was given it for an Organ of the Sciences, hinders it, that she neither knows herself, nor any other thing; for the body which corrupts, makes the soul heavy, and 
Wis. 6.  this earthly habitation pulls down the spirit, that it cannot raise itself to think of many things. For a fifth point there is a curiosity or natural itching, to observe the actions & errors of others, more willingly and diligently then his own; this misery is great: for to know his own faults is always profitable, and many times necessary; to examine other men's actions, is seldom good, and many times pernicious.  
There is for the 6. place, and for the deepest degree of the calamity of man, the depravation of his will: he wils not that which he should, and wills that which he should not: that which he should do is conformable to nature; to reason, & to virtue; whereof the Law is written in his heart, and the seed cast in his spirit. Other creatures move speedily and easily, to that which is proper unto them and seemly, and chose they go unwillingly and by force, to that which is repugnant to their nature. But men, they rejoice when they have done evil, they take delight in their impious works, saith wife Solomon: Man 
Prou. 2.  drinks sin as the fish doth water, saith job. Yea the corruption is so general, as it is become a proverb, It is a humane thing to err: he thought so, who to excuse his sin of adultery, said, The night, love, wine and my young age, persuaded me unto it, etc. Finally, will you see a great sign of great misery in the spirit of man, which is, that he is never content with his condition, an other pleaseth him better. Other creatures apply themselves easily to the course that is offered unto them, & seek no change: it is the property of sick persons to affect sometimes one thing, sometimes an other, to change beds hourly, as if in the bed only consisted the remedy of their grief; they desire one kind of meat, and are presently distasted. We (sayeth S. Gregory) borne in 
Greg. hom. 36. in Eu.  the misery of this pilgrimage, are presently loathed, we know not what we should desire; and a little lower: In the end we grow into a consumption, for that we are distasted of every thing, and we are wonderfully tired with the want of eating and drinkking.  
Saint Chrysostome doth also sharply censure this fitrious dainty, for that every man doth commonly complain of that whereunto he is most bound, as if it were an insupportable charge, Homil. 60. Cleobulus in Plutarch, observing the inconstancy and foolish demands of many, sent them for answer to the mother of the moon: On a time, said he, the moon entreated her mother to make her a little garment that might sit close to her body: And how is it possible, answer red she, seeing that sometimes thou dost increase, than thou art full, and after decreasest? If now from this most eminent part of the soul, we descend unto the sensitive, how many men are borne blind, or deaf, and dumb, or lame, or in some other part counterfeit and monstrous? who although they were not so in the beginning, yet are grown so: how few be there but feel it in their old age? Look into, other Creatures, if you find these defects.  
In man that faculty of anger, which was given him as a strong man at arms, to repulse all that outwardly should offer to trouble him; behold how it seeks to domineer over reason, how it treads it under foot, and turns man into a mad dog to bite, and into a Scorpion to flatter and sting, and into worse than that Let us proceed, and leaving those natural infirmities, Let us observe the accidental; How many have endured an unspeakable torment by thirst, which hath forced them to drink their own urine, yea that of others? Then hunger, which could not abstain from humane blood, but hath fallon upon dead carcases, and living men; not only upon strangers, but even mothers upon their own children, devowring them cruelly and greedily, whereof 
Lament. 4. 10.  the sacred history and Pagan is full.  
Thirdly, there is so great pain to maintain this dying life, that man in this world hath less rest than a Mill Ass; Man is borne to labour as a bird to fly, saith the holy writ: and the Eternal cries from heaven; Thou shalt eat thy bread with the sweat of thy brows. Do not tell me that this is no general Law: it is; for without exception, he that travels not with his bodio, travels in mind: think you that ambitious and voluptuous men, yea thieves, are not more troubled and vexed then handicraft's men? If you reply, that at the least students are happy; yea, in comparison of them that are more miserable: but being considered absolutely, they have their part of misery by their sitting life, which is necessary to meditation; they have sooner filled their bodies with diseases, than their souls with knowledge. Moreover, he that adds know ledge, adds torment, saith the wise man; and yet most part of students have no sooner learned the tongues, the instruments of sciences, nor the principles, but they must leave all, either through death, which cutsthem off; or through age, which tends unto it, & which deprives them of all ableness, memory, industry, sight etc. Wherefore one dying complains, that when he began to know many things and to govern his life well, he was called out of life. Another begins his book with these words: 
Hippoc. Aph. 1.  Life is short, the art long, the occasion hasty, the experience dangerous, the judgement difficult: as if he would say, Miserable man, who cannot possibly for his short continuance, for his week judgement, for the slowness of his flesh, for the slippery estate of the world, attain unto that knowledge which is so necessary for him. But this is not all, we have yet but lightly run over the miseries which man hatcheth in his bosom; they which assail him without are more violent: He hath his God and Lord interessed and angry against him, we are all borne the children of wrath, the whole world makes war against him; and what wonder is it, seeing that he that rules it is his enemy? he is infested with the incursions of spiritual malices, which dwelling in the most cloudy air, are always ready like carrion kites to fall upon the prey of man. Man is always to man, & in all places a troublesome enemy, and the ancient proverb sayeth, That man is a wolf to man, and the more means he hath to hurt, the more dangerous he is; and in truth never Tigers, Onces, or Lions, have so torn men in pieces, as the Phelares; the Business, the first Emperors, the Massachiers, & 
Benz. l. 3. c. 5.  the Spaniards at the West Indies.  
Fourthly, there is not any little Creature which doth not shoot out the darts of his poor spleen against man, being grieved to see such a Tyrant reign upon the 〈◊〉  
Fiftly the heaven, fire air sea & sand are armed against him, & dart out against him their wenimous influences, lightning and hail: They shake him with their earthquakes, they swallow him with there opening; they drown him, they burn him. If thou thinkest in fair weather to walk into thy Garden, to recreate thyself, the Aspic attends thee in ambush under ome flower or herb which thou dost intend to gather. If thou dost enter into a stranger's house, the mastiff will take thee by the thigh; if into thine own, yet art thou not without fear, for thine own dog may be mad, bite thee and make thee mad. Finally, that which exceeds all these miseries, is, that when thou shalt think thyself most safe, a thousand unexpected accidents may overthrow thee: some one returns from market (saith S. Augustin) sound and lusty, who falling breaks a leg, whereof he shall dye. Who seems better assured than he that is set in a strong chair? yet upon some troublesome news, he may be disquieted, fall, and break his neck; Another laughing eating and drinking, shallbe suddenly surprised with an Apoplexy rising from some unknown cause, and dye presently. What receptacle seems more safe and commodious for hunters that are weary and full of sweat and dust, than a clean house with a good fire? And yet a Prince with his train, thinking to retire him to such a place, found himself in such danger of death in the morning, as he could not escape without the loss of his nails, that fell away by the vehemency of his pain, and two of his company found smotheredin the morning whence, think you proceeded the cause of this strange Accident? It was from the wall newly plastered, which cast forth a virulent vapour, which together with the smoke of a great coal fire, fumed up into the head, & dispersed his poison throughout all the members of their bodies; Who could have foreseen this accident, but too late? Ammianus Marcellinus reports tho like to 
Hist. lib. 5.  have happened to the Emperor jovinian, who was found smothered in the morning by the like poison. And to conclude, what seems freer from breaking, than a head lying in the shadow far from any house? & yet it hap pened that the Poet Aeschilus' being so retired, an Eagle 
Val. Ma●… l. 9 c. 12.  flying in the air, thinking his bald head had been a flint stone, let fall a Tortose to break it; and to have the meat; but falling down it broke the skull os poor Aeschilus'.  

The first Objection.  
That which shall not happen unto us, is not to be accounted among our miseries.  
But these misfortunes shall not happen unto us, etc.  
THese miseries (if it pleaseth God) shall not befall us, but where is that warrant from heaven to assure us? The comical Poet saith, That man cannot be exempt from any humane accident: No man living can say without warrant, This shall not happen unto me, saith Menander. What befalls to one, think it may happen to thee, saith Seneca; for thou art a man: and therefore retain 
Epist. 7. 19  this and think of it, not to be dejected in adversity, nor puffed up in prosperity, but have always before thine eyes, the liberty of fortune, as being able to lay upon thee all the miseries she holds in her hand. Man is in continual war upon earth: Is there not a course of war ordained for mortal men upon 
job. 7.  earth? saith job. If he be freed from his enemies abroad, let him beware of some treacherous Sinon at home: Be always ready said jesus Christ, for you know not the day nor the hour: no man is no more assured against death then the bird is against the shot of a harquebus; God would (saith S. Augustine) that we should watch continually. But if changing thy tune, thou thinkest that thy neighbour is not afflicted like thyself, and that he is much more happy, thou art much deceived: Every man feels his own grief: Herodotus hath seen it and written it, saying, That if all men living 
Lib. 7.  laden with their own miseries, had brought them together upon one heap, to exchange with them of their neighbours; having well weighed them and viewed them, every man would willingly carry back his own. Without doubt this present life is so full of miseries, that in comparison thereof death seems a remedy. A long life is but a long torture, saith S. Augustine. And what other opinion can we have, seeing that jesus Christ, who was given us for a perfect precedent, is never propounded unto us laughing, but sometimes weeping? as when he approached the Tomb of his friend 
joh. 11.  Lazarus, and when as he wept upon the ingrateful City of 
Luk. 19  jerusalem: and therefore the Apostle saith, That in the 
Heb. 5.  days of his flesh, he offered himself with great cries and tears to him who could save him from death: What is that? but to show us that this life is not worthy of joy, but of lamentation; not of laughter, but of crying: as the Philosopher Heraclitus doth esteem it, who always with a weeping voice did lament the estate of this life.   

The second Objection.  
It is a cowardly consideration not to be willing to die, but to cease to live.  
This reason hath that consideration.  
TO denounce death to end the miseries of this life, is (saith one) to pro pound a carnal end to the liking of sensuality: Upon death (saith another) the privation of thislife, there is no Cataplasm, but of a better life: for the loss of earth, but the enjoying of heaven.  
Answer. Death is the corruption of the flesh, and a privation of all the senses: 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 ourselves, we must not think only to fly from humane miseries, but rather to draw near to divine favours: But betwixt doing and duty, who doth not at this day see an infinite distance? That elect vessel of the holy Ghost, that great Apostle Saint Paul, 
Rom. 7. 23.  seeles a Law in his members fight against the Law of his understanding: He complains 
2. Cor. 12. 7.  there was a thorn thrust into his flesh; the angel of Satan did buffer him: what is this but the relics of sin, of infirmity, distrust? what gloss soever they will set of it. If Saint Paul were such a one, what then are we poor dwarses, wavering and staggering? let us not flatter and seduce ourselves, for our works discover us; O God fortify us, and make thy holy Spirit to reign in us; and attending the happy effect of divine promises, let us meditate of the Testament sealed with the blood of Christ.  
But if the horror of death which doth threaten us of every side, comes to hinder our holy meditations, let us vanquish it by the darts of reason: this may be done, and it is that we ought to do; The Surgeon which hath searched a wound, hath applied a fit Cataplasime, hath made his patient without passion or pain, is to be conmended. The Philosopher which hath examined the natural death, hath found o●…t the cause of the fear it gives, & hath accommodated reasons fit to take away this fear, and to assure man's courage; is not to be contemned. I know well that he which through death hath made us see the life eternal: hath done more; but this work is of God and not of men: and if the sacred word of the eternal God do it not, no humane voice can do it. But do you say, there is no Catap●…sme fit for the loss of a pleasant life, but the hope of a better? Answer; You presuppose two suppositions here which are not; First, that life is full of pleasures. Secondly, that in death we have a feeling of the loss, against that which hath been and shall be said; to the which I will send the refutation: & in the mean time for witness of my saying; I propound that great Divine S. Augustin writing that which followeth: The present life is doubtful, blind, miserable, beaten with the flowing and ebbing of humours, weakened with pains, dried up with heat, swelled with meat, undermined with famine, confounded with sports, consumed with sorrows, distempered with cares▪ d●…lled with pride, puf●… up with riches, dejected with poverty, shaken in youth, made crooked in age, broken by diseases, and tuined by 〈◊〉 etc. Many great men who ha●… not wanted any thing for the enjoying of all pleasures; yet would they in their life time have written upon the Marble which should cover them dead, for a conclusion of the Epitaph, these last words: The life and bi●…h of mortal men is nothing but toil and death: as one wave drives on another, so one misery thrusts on another: the one is no sooner flying, but the other follows him: And as in the eye, one tear springs of another, so one sorrow riseth out of another: as Buchanan hath learnedly written in his Tragedy of jepthe.   

The 3. Objection.  
It is not lawful of himself and without other some Command, to remain in a place that is bad and troublesome. Life is a place bad and troublesome.  
It is not therefore lawful of himself, without other command, to remain in life.  
THis long Iliad of calamities of this present life, seems to persuade man to the doctrine of the Stoics, which is to depart when it is too troublesome: so speaks Seneca, A wise man lives as long as he ought not solong as he could: he will: see, how, with whom, & how he should live, and what he should do: if many things fall out troublesome & cross his tranquillity, he frees himself, and he doth it not only in the urgent necessity, but as soon as fortune seems suspect unto him, he considers that it imports not whether he give himself his end, or that he receive it. Moreover that it is wretched to live in necessity: but there is no necessity to live in necessity. Diogenès meeting one day with Speusippus being sickly, & causing himself to be carried by reason of the Gout, he called unto him in these terms, God give thee a good day Diogenes: to whom he answered, But God give you no good day, that being in this estate hast the patience to live. With the sharpness of these Cynical words Speusippus, was so moved, as contrary to the precepts of his sect, he ended his own life. But let us produce (if you please) some reasons by the which these men have debated there folly. The 1. Life and death, say they, are indifferent things, and therefore man acoording to his commodity may use them indifferently 
Lucret 3.  Wherefore saith 〈◊〉, As one that is invited, having feasted & taken his refection, retires himself so being glutted with life, why dost thou not depart? O fool why dost thou not embrace: a pleàfing rest? what interest hast thou that death should come unto thee, or thou go unto it? Persuade thyself that this speech is false, and proceeds from an indiscreet man: It is a goodly thing to dye his death, for it is always thy death, and especially that which thou 
Sen. epist. 69.  hast procured to thyself. The 2. Death is the goodliest port to liberty, which is the fruit of wisdom. I will not serve (said that Laeedemonian child) & cast him down a precipice: 
Sene●…. Epist. 26.  who learned to dye in contempt of servitude, 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 given so straight an entrance unto life, and hath presented unto man so many large issues unto death, if it shall not be lawful for him to depart when he pleaseth? On which side soever (said Seneca) thou shalt cast thy miseries, thou shalt find the end of thy miseries: 
De Ira, 3. c. 15.  dost thou see this precipice by which they descend to liberty? dost thou see this sea, this river, this pit? there is liberty in the bottom: dost thou see this little tree, crooked, cursed? Liberty hangs at it: Dost thou see thy throat, thy heart? These be the fruits of servitude: Pliny saith, that the earth our common parent hath (for pities sake) ordained poisons to this end, that being able to swallow them easily, we may with equal facility dislodge out of this world: So in old time, Kings and great men did keep certain poison ready for any sudden use in the doubtful events of fortune, as Titus Livius reports: and therefore many have poisoned themselves, being valiant, and esteemed great personages: Zeno being 98. years old, yet strong and lusty; returning from the School, he stumbled and fell; and being down he struck the ground with his hand, saying, ●…re I am, what wilt thou? And being come to his house, he laid down his life of himself. Cleanthes having an Ulcer in his mouth, and having abstained two days from meat by the advice of the Physicians, was cured; Being then persuaded by them to eat again: Oh no, said he, having past the greatest part of the way, I will not, I will not return again; and so he died of abstinence. We could produce many others much commended, as Lucrece, Cato, and others, if they were not sufficiently known.  
Answer. I deny that the swarm of miseries of this present life, is a sufficient cause to depart when we please; the great God which hath placed us here, must first come and take us away. Pythagoras in Tully, forbids to leave the Corpses de guard without commandment of the Captain: as a prisoner breaking prison aggravates his crime, so the spirit violating his body, makes himself guilty of a double torment. And he that hath so strictly forbidden to kill, meant it as well of himself as of others: And therefore Virgil platonizing, sings unto us, that they which have inhumanly slain themselves, hold the first place in hell: As for the virtue which they pretend in it, the most quick sighted Philosopher hath 
Arist. 3. Ethic. c. 7.  seen nothing but fear and foolishness, & thus he speaks It is the part of a coward, and not of a valiant man, to dye by reason of poverty, of love, 
Ethie. ad Eud. lib. 3.  or for any other thing that is troublesome; it is a faintness to fly difficult things; and after, He suffers not death as a good thing, but flying the evil.  
Finally, he that murders himself, wipes himself for ever out of the book of life; for that he dies impenitent, in the act of sin, never to have remission after this life, nor (as Saint Augustine saith) any indulgence of correction. But to come nearer to our Stoics, we will first appeal srom Seneca to Epictetus; O men! saith he, have patience, attend God until he give the sign, that he hath dismissed you from this ministry, then return unto him. But for the present, support courageously, inhabit this region in the which he hath placed you; this habitation is short, easy, not burdensome, etc. The 1. reason inferring, that life and death are indifferent, is false; for it is to tear in pieces the sacred communion of the soul with the body, of man with his neighbour, to kill himself. Man is not borne for himself, but after God for his Country, which he depriveth of a good son, such as he ought to be. Aristotle hath 
Ethic. l. 5. c. ult.  seen it, and hath written it, saying, That he that kills himself doth wrong unto the Comonalty; but to do wrong is no indifferent thing: Moreover, it is a sin against nature; for every man loves himself, naturally, 〈◊〉 and desires to preserve his being: also we do not see any other Creature, but man, to kill himself through impatiency of paive. The 2. reason which speaks so much of li berty, is frivolous 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 subject to all sorts of worms, rottenness, 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, poisons are given by the earth rather to preserve life, than to destroy it, to make antidotes & preservatives against malignant and venomous diseases, and a thousand unexpected accidents, by the biting of mad or venomous beasts: omitting the true cause of divines, that the sin of man hath infected all, pouring forth his poison upon the Creatures which e●…uiron him; & therefore as Saint Paul saith, they 
Rom. 8.  sigh and long after their future restauration. Finally, examples bind us not, but rules; we live not according unto others, but as we ought: the Law of God is plain, sealed in the particular nature of every one, Thou shalt not kill, by the which we are forbidden the simple homicide of our neighbour, for that he is of humane blood; next the parricide of father or mother, for we are their blood; which doth much augment the heinousness of the offence: 3. The murdering of ourselves, which exceeds parricide in a degree of horror. To this we must have regard, not unto what Zeno, or Cleanthes have done. And the Stoics who in all other places so much recommend unto their Disciples, seemliness, honesty and duty, seem to me in this point forgetful, blind & prevaricators: what shall we then do? That which a wise Pagan 
Curt. l. 5.  did advise us; It is for valiant men, said he, rather to contemn death, than to hate life. Many times faint hearted men are driven to a base contempt of themselues, through the weariness of labour, but virtue will try all things: Seeing then that death is the end of all things, it is sufficient to go joyfully vn to it. To his words we add, That our intent is not to take away life, but the terror of death when it comes: a wise man will live joyfully, so long as it shall please the Lord of life: He will die also more joyfully when it shall please the same Lord. This is that he ought to do, and doubtless man may without sin desire, yea pray unto the Lord that he may live long for many reasons, but especially for 2. The one concerns the glory of God, in the administration of the charge which he hath committed unto us; therefore the Son of God in dying would save his Disciples, by that voice full of virtue, which he used to the Roman soldiers and jews, If you seek me, let them go: the which preserved them long, especially his well-beloved S. john, whom he retained in life unto ninety years. The other respects our children, parents, and friends, of whom 
john 18. 8.  we may and aught in conscience have a care, seeing that (by the censure of the Apostle) he which hath not a care of his family, hath denied 
1. Tim. 5. 18  the faith, and is worse than an Infidel.  
But besides these reasons and some others which do symbolize, I say that the desire to live were not fit, if there were no other reason; sor there is no ceasing from fin so long as life doth last; so as the longer we live the more ●…lpable we are before God: So as I maintain, that the fear to undergo death, I mean death simply, is always vicious, foolish and ignorant.  
But to be a Murderer of himself, without comparison it is much more execrable; the Laws of every well governed Commonweal have thundered against it: yea the Grecians: in the midst of ●…rmes, (whereas laws are silent) would not in sign of indignity, burn the body of Aiax, according to their custom, for that he had slain himself: The virgins of Milesia for that they had furiously strangled themselves were drawn by public ignominy through the streets of the City: and in such cases God doth usually show visible signs of his revenging wrath: So in Parthenay a town in Poitou, a certain woman in the absence of her husband, was taken with a devilish despair; she took the little children, when she had smothered them and hanged them, than she came unto herself, went up on a stool and hung herself, and and thrust away the stool with her foot; but the rope broke, and she falling down half dead, found a knife, (the Devil is a ready officer to furnish instruments to do evil) which she takes and thrusts into her bosom; The next day, the matter being known, all the world ran thither with the judges, who caused her body to be cast out upon a dunghill near unto the town wall. Not far from it there was a corpse de guard, and near it a place for a sentinel; the guard being set (for it was in time of war) the sentinel heard a fearful noise in the air right against this Carcase, and after a long stay was forced to leave his stand: the guard also amazed with this noise, thought to fly away: Thus the Devils made sport with this poor desperate woman.    

The 19 Argument taken from the contradiction of man touching Death.  
Not any thing that is sometimes called for by us with joy, being come, should be trouble some.  
Death is sometimes called for by us with great joy.  
THe Pagans to describe the pitiful estate of man in this life, have feigned that Prometheus, mingling the slime of the earth with tears, made ●…antherof; whereunto a Latin Poet hath alluded, saying,  

Tears b●… the our Births;  
〈◊〉 all inteares we live.  
And Death in tears,  
Many alarms doth give.   
But what need of testimony but the continual fear and fevers which spring from the apprehension of those infirmities whereof we have made mention? Thy bowels wrong with the colic, a thousand gripes and throws at every child bearing, if thou be'st a woman; the pinching cares that trouble the mind, make thee by interruption & sudden exclaiming to desire death; & not without reason, seeing that the Prophet Elias serves 
1. Kings 19  thee for a pattern, who not knowing how to avoid the ambushes that were laid against him, did wish to dye. But let us cast our eyes upon those miseries that make us to desire Death, not as we propounded them, nor as we have found them, but as they make themselves known. If we shall indge of the stream by the spring, what may we hope for of the life of man, conceived betwixt the urine and excrements, borne naked & all in tears; but only a perpetual flux of corruption, poverty, and calamities: & therefore it is not without reason that S. Bernard said, That man is but a stinking sperm, a nourishment for worms, a sack of excrements; and such should we see him within, if the skin did not stay our sight outwardly. Do we doubt of it? seeing of this living substance there are engendered worms about an ell long, and being dead, serpents in the pith of the back, as Pliny writes, 
Lib. 10. c. ●…6.  and experience teacheth. Plutarch reports that the king of Egypt having caused the body of Cleomenes to be hanged, and the guard having discovered a great serpent wound about his head, they called the people, who running to this spectacle called Cleomenes as a demy-God. The like happened to a young man a German, who would never suffer his picture to be drawn in his life time, but only granted to his kinsfolks, (who importuned him) that some days after his interment, they might take him up, and draw him as they found him: Being taken out of the grave; they saw about the Diaphragma & the pith of the back many little Serpents, to verify what the author of Ecclesiasticus faith, 
〈◊〉. 10. ve. 13.  When man dyerh he becomes the inheritance of serpents. The life of man is a candle exposed to all winds, saith Epictetus: His body is a store-house of all sorts of diseases, saith another; his flower (his most excellent point of glory) is such as he is always in pain and martyrdom; and this point passeth away, dazzling the eye like a flash, greatness and worldly riches are no more sssured, than the waves of the sea; they flow suddenly, and ebb no l●…sse violently. Sesostris King of Egypt, causing himself to be drawn in a Chariot of pure gold, by four Kings his prisoners, one of them held his eye fixed upon the wheel, which did roll up and down by him; Sesostris observing it, demanded of him the cause of his countenance; who answered, That looking upon the wheel, and observing the spoaks to be sometimes aloft and suddenly down again, I call to mind the rolling change of myself and my companions Sesostris considers hereof, abates his pride, and gives liberty to his Captives. Such is the estate of the affairs of this world, like unto a mark, subject to infinite darts of adversity: No man knows what the night brings, said one in Titus Livius; the pleasures are uncertain, but the displeasures most certain: Nature gives us a taste at our coming into the world, where we enter weeping. And according to this instinct of nature, the Thraci. ns wept at the birth of their children, numbering what miseries they should suffer in the world! For the same reason the Geteses (a religious people) held that it was better to die then to live; therefore they lamented at their childbirths, and sung at their burials. And wise Solomon saith, that the day of death is better than 
Eccles. 7.  that of birth. Look into Erasmus upon the proverb, Optimum non nasci. Sophocles in like manner, gives advice, that it is more reasonable to weep at the birth of their children, as being entered into great miseries; and being dead, to carry them joyfully to the grave, as freed from the miseries of this life. And who will doubt any more of this, seeing he that never lies, calls this life death? joh. 5. saying, He that hears my words, and believes in him that sent me, shall pass from death to life.  
The Lycians law ordained, that they which would mourn should put on women's robes, for that it did in no sort befit grave and discreet men to weep for the dead, but for passionate women. Upon this law a Lawyer of Padova grounded his testament, although he be taxed by another. First he charged his heir upon great comminations, to banish all black cloth from his Funerals, and that he should provide singers and players on justruments, to sing and play, going among the Priests, both before and behind the Corpses, to the number of fifty; to every one of which he bequeathed half a Ducat for his pains.  
Moreover he ordained; that 12. young virgins, attired in green, should carry his body unto Saint Sophia's Temple, in which he should be interred, suffering: them to sing joyful songs with a loud voice, and for a reward he bequeathed them, a certain sum of money to help them at their marriage: All sorts of Priests and Monks might assist, except such as were barred with black, lest that colour should darken the beauty and cheerfulness of his Funerals: he had seen with Heraclitus, that during the days of this miserable life, there is no subject but of tears, and that at our departure we should rejoice with Demoeritus. And therefore Plato doth rightly call death a medicine for all miseries: and Seneca esteems it the end of servitude.  
Let us seal up this discourse with the memorable advice which Epictetus gave to the Emperor Adrian, enquiring why they set garlands upon the dead? It is in sign (answered he) that at the day of their death, they have triumphed over the diverse assaults of this life. Let us then dye when it shall please the prince of this life, to cease the tears and alarms of this life, and to begin the life of heaven, whereas God will wipe away all tears from our eyes, whereas death shall be no more, and there shall be 
Apoc. 21.  no more mourning, crying, nor labour.  

Objection.  
If men call for death, and being come refuse it so much, it is a sign that it is very horrible.  
But the antecedent is true: Therefore the consequent is also true.  
IT is reported in Laertius, that the Philosopher Antisthenes, tied to his bed by a grievous disease, (and the more grievous, the more he loved his life,) was visited by Diogenes; who knowing the man, had taken a naked sword under his gown: Antisthenes perceiving him, cried out, O God, who shall deliver me from hence? Diogenes answered presently, that shall this, showing him his sword: But Antisthenes replied more suddenly, I mean from these pains, and not from my life. It seems that most of those crier sout for death, make that their refuge, when she approacheth near them. Esope in the Apologue hath naturally described it by that old man, who being laden with a great burden, and falling into a Ditch, he grew to despair; and calling for death, death came, and commands him to follow him; O no, said he, I call thee to help me up with my burden that I may return.  
Answer. I know well that many fear death much, not for any desire to live, nor for the pleasures they have in life (for the two examples objected show the contrary) but for that they know not what death is. And thereunto tends this Combat, to kill this fear of death in man. I therefore persist in my opinion; that it is nothing but the fear, which man hath to fall into some greater misery (as we have showed) doth make him so much apprehended death. But there is no evil in this, as appears in the following argument: Therefore there is no reason of fear, which reason should govern a reasonable man.  
Let us not trust to those distrustful spies, which being returned from the point of death, cry out Horror, horror; for they fail more in courage then in body, and deserve the like punishment to them that went to discover the land of Canaan, who being returned brought nothing but bad and slanderous tidings to all the people as the holy Scripture doth witness.  
Let us rather believe wise and valiant men produced hereafter upon the Theatre, who (like unto Iosua●… spies) 
Chap. 2.  depose jointly, that God hath delivered death into our hands, that it is quenched for our sakes. Next, it is not true that all men fly death being called, many have been grieved returning to health after some great sickness, which they thought should have swallowed up their life. Give me leave to speak this truth of myself: being 120. leagues from my parents, about 14. years since, studying in a town straight besieged and famished, I fell sick of a bloody flux, whereof many died, & whereof my master was dead. In this estate I was resolved to dye, but when I found that God gave me force to vanquish my disease, I was very melancholic in the beginning, & held it a loss to be recovered.  
And therefore notwithstanding this opposition, we will close up our discourse with Seneca, saying, That 
In consolat. contra mortem. c. 20.  death is the cause that life is no martyrdom.    

The 20. Argument taken from the removing of the evil of death.  
No evil consisting in a false opinion and nothing in effect, is to be feared.  
Death is an evil consisting in a false opinion, and nothing in effect. etc.  
IT is a great advantage (as great Captains say) to have observed and measured his enemy from head to foot: Let us in like manner observe and measure death, and we shall find it is but an Anatomy, a vain name, a Picture, and Image, a scarecrow, a babble, a fantastic fear, an imaginary fire, which some men see in an evening walking in Churchyards: An idiot at the sight thereof would be amazed, & swear that he hath seen a spirit walking; but a wiseman will understand that it is an oily exhalation, which by agitation takes fire. Ignorant opinion makes man believe that death is very evil, when it is a privation from all evil, he is amazed with a false alarm: So women and weak spirits dare not remain alone in their Chambers, for that they imagine they shall see spirits and apparitions; little children are afraid to see their parents masked, Astyanax could not endure the sight of Hector armed: but lay aside these arms; take away the mask, & you shall convert their fear into assurance, and their cries into joy: So pull away these false masks of hideous looks, and the trembling cries of them that die, they are but feigned, or sorrows grounded in the air of an imaginary evil. So Cassander did tremble at the sight of Alexander's picture, dead long before; the table would not bite him, yet he quaked, as if it had been some furious beast: the reason was that his imagination being impaired, he thought that Alexander was wonderfully in choler against him. Will you have an apparent sign, that in this horrible apprehension of death man's judgement is troubled, and therefore suspected to be false? The strongest and most vigorous, the youngest and most just, do lest fear the loss of life; who in reason should apprehend it most, if it were to be feared, having more interest in it; but old men and such as are subject to the cholike & stone, and malefactors, fear it without measure. Maecenas tormented continually with a fever, was content to be cut and mangled, so as with all his pains he might prolong his life.  
How many Messales offenders would live in torture, or broken upon the wheel, so as they might not end their lives: What is the reason of this? but that his judgement is perverted, believing that all the pain he feels shall be doubled in death. If he be a reprobate, and understands it of the second death, and not of the first whereof we now discourse, his judgement is right; but for a good man to think that there is any great pain in a natural death, he errs much. It is not the death (said Aeschines) but the violent passion against death, which is horrible. If they think there be any discomodity in death (said the old man Bassus,) let 
Sen. epi. 30.  them know, it comes from them that die, not from death, which frees them of all pain.  
Pindarus saith of man, that he is but the dream of a shadow; but let us speak it (and with more reason) of death; a dream is false, and a shadow the opposition of a solid body to the light. So death the privation of life, is an evil dreamt, and false. Good God, who can represent that which is not? under what idea can the Painter imagine to draw it? he will present unto us bones bound with sinews, without flesh and naked, having a sith in his hand, this is something; but be well advised, to think that death doth subsist beyond this representation, as a living man doth subsist longer than his picture, you should be foully deceived, for take away this representation, and all other imagination, and you take away all that is of death; for it is nothing at all, therefore the portrait is false. May a man paint a voice, the which although it be invisible, yet it falls under the sense of hearing? but death in what sense so ever you take it, is incapable of all sense; and by consequence, not to be drawn by any pencel. What is death then? it is a word of few letters, which hath no subsistence but in imagination; nothing in nature, nothing in effect. We laugh at the Bourgondian spies, who in their war against the French King Lewes 11. being sent to discover the Country, fled at the sight of certain Thistles, as if they had discovered a troop of men at Arms. If we had the understanding to know death, as the sight hath to distinguish thistles, we should find that they are more ridiculous, which fly amazed from the encounter of death, for it is nothing at all; whereas thistles are at the least pricking plants.  
Let us then say boldly, That to fear that, whereof never any man yet felt the sting; to draw from a wandering fantasy, proceeding from an unsettled brain, a true and sensible pain, is a mere folly: Oh God what pain can there be at the very instant when life flies away, in a body deprived of all sense? Let a sick body endure all the extremities of pain, yet in death there is none at all: dost thou not yet believe it? take the members of a living body cut off; hack them, burn them, yet they shall not feel any thing; no more shall all the members of one body united in death. The which Diogenes hath represented wittily, although Cynically after his manner, discoursing of burials, saying, That being dead he would be only cast upon the ground.  
But said his friends unto him; Will you be eaten by Dogs, and birds? Oh no, said he, lay a●…staffe by me, that I may drive them away: How canst thou do it (replied they) when thou shalt have no sense? What then, said he, shall the devouring of beasts hurt me, when I have no feeling? To conclude, it is an apparent folly to fear death, for the love of this transitory life: for this present life gives us unto death, and death unto eternal life, as S. Ambrose teacheth, & thinks it a pertinent reason, in his book of the happiness of death, Ch. 8. And as we cannot rife up high in leaping, unless we strike the ground with the soles of our feet; so the foul cannot mount up to heaven, until she hath given a blow to this body of earth.   

The 21. Argument taken from the discommodity of life.  
Whosoever shall tremble for the loss of nothing, is unwise.  
The life of this world is nothing.  
IT is a sentence as much propounded in words by Cicero, as verified in effect of itself, That all wise men die quietly and willingly, & that such as dye murmuring and unwillingly, are indiscreet. And in truth life is such, as none but in considerate men, and such as mistake it, will grieve for it. According to the holy Philosophy, life is but a shadow which takes life from heaven, and is equal in her swift passage to the violent motion of the heavens; it is a grass yesterday green in the field, to day cut up, dried and laid up: a flower yesterday flourishing, to day withered; the watch of a night a dream, a vapour which appears for time, & then vanisheth again; And according to the voice of man, life is a languishing death, a course from one mother to another from a fleshly mother to a earthly, it is a bubble, a puff, a coming in & going out etc.  
As when an arrow is shot at a mark (saith Sal. Wise. 5: 18.) the air which is divided, suddenly closeth up again in such sort as the passage cannot be seen: So we after we are borne presently fade away: The Psalmist proceeds farther, when he saith, that who so should weigh man with nothing, he should find that nothing were more weighty. But observe what Aristotle saith, being demanded what man was: He is the example of weakness, the spoil of time, the image of inconstancy, the balance of envy and calamity, & the rest is nothing but phlegm & choler: Finally both according to God and men it is nothing. Behold how life (the which you will grant me) is the fruition of time: and what enjoy we of this time, but the very present, which flows away incessant lie? It is a moat which is indivisible and imperceptible, whereon thou dost no sooner think, but it passeth away, and whilst thou art reading these short lines many news are vanished. Make no account of that which is past, nor of the future; for all the time that is passed unto the first moment of the creation, and all the time that is to come unto the last point of the great & last day, have no being, but in your imagination: there is but this present only that hath essence, but it is a point which stayeth not, so small and so swift as nothing can hold it but it will escape.  
It is the very Saturn which devoureth all it hath engendered, pleasures, honour, riches, life: make no rampart of pleasures, for they are as suddenly changed into displeasures, Boethius hath long since written it.  

Of so frail Nature is all humane pleasure,  
That sudden griefs make there their sharpest leisure:  
And evermore those men are most afflicted,  
That most we see to their delights addicted.   
This life the seat of fluent pleasures, changeth inconstantly, like the Moon, and more: for the change of the Moon is but i●… her accident all light, her body remaining still; but living man changeth from one substance to another, there remai●…s nothing but the name: The Moon (as they say) doth daily advance or retire three quarters of an hour, and so much of her light increaseth or decreaseth, and is always different from that she was the night before; and if our sight were sharp enough, we should see this change to be made every minute: the like is of our fading bodies, which do change from moment to moment.  
Moreover, most part of the world exchange their lives for a very little; the Soldier for a poor pay, the Merchant for a little Merchandise; and others for loss: which shows that their life is nothing, or very little. Saint Augustine seeing the City of Hippona bes●…ged by enemies, who were 〈◊〉 for the spoil of it; seeing death to swim betwixt the eyes of himself and his countrymen, was wont to say; That, man is not great, who holds the ruin of buildings, and the death of men a great matter: You shall see that your life is no great matter; yea nothing, if you compare it (how long soever it be) with all the time in general that hath been, or shall be (said Seneca to Martia) you shall find that all your age is not a grain of sand in regard of the sand of Africa; a drop of water in respect of the Ocean: for this is some proportion from one grain to many, from one drop of water to the sea; but betwixt the life of man and Eternity, there is none at all. And above all, that which shows most plainly the unprofitableness, and vanity of the life of man, is, that a great part of life flies away in doing evil; a great part in doing nothing; and all in doing any other thing then well living, as Seneca doth teach learnedly in his first Epistle. If we observe it well, we will subscribe; for a great part of our life is wasted in sleep, and walking; and in our infancy to deceive and pacific our froward dispositions: and all in other things then in rest and tranquillity, or the sweet enjoying of life and the pleasures, which present themselves. Whereas fear and hope afflicting us, do possess every day, yea, every hour of our age: So as the Philosopher Zenon said rightly, that man was not so poor of any thing as of time.  
Let us then conclude the same with Seneca, That it imports not much to live, for slaves and stags' live; but it is a thing of great moment to die discreetly, valiantly, and honestly: for none but wise men can do it; the reason is, that the most ignorant (saith Calicratides) live by the benefit of nature, but to dye in the bed of honour, that is by the virtue of man. Plu. in Lacon.   

The 22. Argument. taken from things which do resemble.  
All brave Comedians bend their spirits wholly to act their parts well, and rejoice at the Comedy.  
Men living in the world are Comedians.  
Therefore brave men should bend their spirits to live well, and to joy at the end of life.  
THe Island of the Hermaphrodites begins his discourse with these verses: 
The world's a stage, and man is a Comedy,  
One bears the babble, th'other acts the folly.   
So Epictetus spoke to the men of this time. Imagine that you play a moral Scene upon this Theatre of the world, in the which you act what part it pleaseth the master; if short, short; if long, long: If he will have thee represent a beggar, or a lame man, a King or a rogue, thou must act it as naturally as thou canst, and only fear to fail; but in the end clap hands in sign of joy. The good and the end are convertible terms, saith Plato in Philebus. Aristonimus said, that the life 
Max. in serm. 67.  of man was like a Theatre, on the which the most wicked held the first ranks. Aeneas Silvius writes, that our life is a comedy, whereof the last 
Leg. comment de reb. gest. Alpbonsi.  act is death: He is then no good Poet, saith he, that doth not order all the acts well and discreetly unto the end: he would say, that it is not sufficient to live well, but we must die well, until which no man can be held happy, by the saying of Solon, yeaeof Saloman; for man, said he, shall be known by his children. Caesar Augustus lying in 
Sueton.  the bed of death, and feeling himself at the last period of life, said often to his friends. Have I acted my personage well in this place? have I pronounced my part well? had I a good grace? What think you? Go then, give a Plaudite and clap your hands. This life is a very stage, on which some mount up to be actors, others stay below to be spectators; and then after the Catastrophe, every one must make his retreat into the last house. If the ancients in their simplicity had reason to use this comparison, we in this age have much more; for we live not at this day but by shows and fictions, & in most the outward countenance is the mask of the inward man, dissembling, which hath ever increased, since the King's time, who would have his son learn no other Lative but these words, (Quinescit dissimulare, nescit regnare) not to defend himself carefully, but to practise it seriously, during his whole reign.  
In old time they detested that speech of Lysander's, That when the Lion's skin will not serve, we must sow on the Foxes: but at this day there are none more esteemed and honoured, than such as can cunningly offer their service upon all occasions; who can make a show of friendship to allure; who have their welcome, and at parting many submissions and humble congees. But it is to lull him asleep, and to practise some supercherie; they wilkisse the hand, which they would gladly see burnt. Let every man take heed of his most inward friend ●…aigh jeremy, c. 〈◊〉. Trust not in any brother, for every brother makes a practice to supplant; and a bosom friend goes away detracting: If then, how much more now?  
Let then our courteous Courtiers be suspect unto us, and see what the fore named treaty of Hermaphrodites sayeth in the Chap. of the Entregent. This book represents to the life, the wicked abominations of France, if we understand it as it is written, the prohibition for the allowance, mean thy antiphrasis. Finally, at this ●…day the most peopled town are full of Monsters, which counterfeit the voice of pastors, to draw men unto them, & eat them like bread Oh what safety is there among so many wolves disguised like sheep? among so many enemies carrying the face of friends? Upon this occasion Solomon cries out in his time, That he had beheld all the wrongs which were done under the Sun, and seeing the tears of them that suffer wrong & have no comfort, for that they which do the wrong are the stronger. Ecceles. 4. In these times, the oppressed not only find no support, but they meet with deceitful men, who under the colour of justice, devour the remainder of their substance: Oh whatsafety? This perverse age is a very Sodom: God attends but our retreat to rainedown fire, brimstone, and burning flames. Let us beware when the Angel of the Eternal shall take us by the hand; when the voice of God shall call us, let us not look back again like unto Lot's wife, by a treacherous grief for this treacherous life: but rather let us sing with joy, the song of the Lamb, who hath given himself for our sins, to 
Galat. 1. 4.  the end he may retire us out of this wretched world: as S. Paul speaks.   

The 23. Argument taken from the effects of Death.  
Whosoever hath a will to be sacred and inviolable, should affect death.  
Every living man should have that will.  
THIS Argument is drawn from the Law of nature, which speaking by Chilon & Solon, doth pronounce the dead to be very happy, and forbids to curse the dead; and in truth a man cannot wrong his honour more, then in speaking injuriously of him who cannot answer? It is the fact of cowards to fight with the tongue against them that can make no reply, and to pull a dead man out of his grave. It is a duty of piety to hold 
Laert in the name of Chilon.  them that are departed out of this world, sacred & inviolable: If the last words of a dying man be blessings, as job doth witness, desiring them to come upon him; as 
job 29.  jacob did practise it upon the patriarchs, as Saint Ambrose 
Amb. de bono mort. c. 8.  doth expound, as & experience doth teach: what esteem should we make o him, whose soul being separated from the body, doth converse with Angels in he●…n?  
And is it not very reasonable not to deprave them which cease to be, seeing they are not to be laid hold on? but it is most just to make an end of hatred by the death of thine enemy. Pausanias' King of Sparta understood it, and did practise it; who having slain Mardonius Lieutenant 
Herod l. 9  to the King of Persia in battle, he was advised by Lampon a man of great authority, to cause him to be hanged, for that he had done the like to King Leonidas: No, no, said he, that were to dishonour myself and the Country which thou dost so magnify; if I should be cruel against a dead man, it were an act befitting Barbarians, and not Grecians, who cannot allow of such disorders. And in truth it is the act of fearful confusion, to tears in sunder the skin of a dead Lion: It is an act befitting the fain the arted 〈◊〉 before Troy, to insult over dying Hector: But it is the property of a generous Lion to resist them that make head against him; and to passeon, and not, to strike him that falls flat to the earth like a dead man 〈◊〉 (Nature speaks here,) It is a villainy and an unworthy foolery to fight against the dead; it is for apparitions, shadows and walking spirits, to wrestle with them.  
The statue of Nicon the wrestler borne at Tasos, did witness it, without words, when as one who had envied and hated Nicon, at the sight of this statue, fell into his old spleen which he had borne him living; who taking a staff laid upon the image, to despite the memory of Nicon; the image to be revenged 
Suidas & Pausa. l. 6.  of this affront, fell upon him with all his weight, and crushed him to death: This was an accident, but it was well and justly ordained. But behold another more evident; Fabia wife to the Emperor Heraelius, Being carried dead to her tomb, it happened that a maiden (by mischance) did spit out at a window upon the body; for which she was taken & burnt in the same fire that was prepared to reduce the body of Fabia to ashes: In such recommendation they had in those days the honour of the dead. The rage of Sylla is justly held detestable, who not content to have done all the violence he could to his enemies whilst they lived, after their death would draw their bones out of their graves, and cast them into the river.  
The death of the Saints is precious before God; let us also say, the death of virtuous men is precious before men: and if any one hath been blemished in his life, it should be buried in his grave. Lewis 11. of France, a great King, hath verified it in his own person, towards his enemy the fair Agnes, whom some of those times supposed that the King's Father had entertained: After her death she was entombed in the Church of the Castle of Laches; and by reason of a certain rent she gave unto it, her body was laid in the midst of the Quire.  
Lewis coming thither some time after, there was suit made unto him by a Priest, that he would suffer them to remove that Tomb to some other place, for that it did incomodate them. The King being informed who lay there, answered, That which you demand is unjust; although this woman were in her time very opposite unto me, yet will I not violate her Sepulchre: Moreover, I cannot conceive that you have laid this body in so eminent 〈◊〉 place, without some rich present; perform that to your Benefactor being dead, which you promised her being al●…, and remove her not from thence: & to bind you more strictly towards her, I give you for an increase, six hundred pounds starling.  
If this were done in a life which was blemished, what shall it be in one that is all pure and untainted? If it be observed towards them that die a dry death, how much more towards them that are unjustly slain by Tyrant●… Behold a memorable history among many, which intimates that God hath a watchful eye over them. Perdinand fourth, M●…g of Spain, transported with choler, upon a suspicion ill grounded for a murder committed, commanded two brethren of the house of 〈◊〉, to be thrown headlong from the top of a rock: Going to their execution, these Gentlemen protest and cry out, that they die innocents; and seeing the King's ears were shut up to their just defence, they cited him to appear within 30. days before the sovereign judge: The days run on, and the King is careless, until that upon the 30. day he found himself seized at the first, but with a light infirmity, but it increased so suddenly, as he died the same day.  
Consider hereof you to whom honour is more precious than life, and who living, feel the stings of Envy and slander, more than your bodies are followed with their shadows: Take comfort herein, for God by your death, will prevent these unjust pursuites, and make an end of these injurious taxations.  
Envy assaults the man living, but lying in the bed of death, she leaves him at rest, 
Ouid. Pascitur in vivis livor, post fala quiescit.  as the Poet saith: and then due honour is given to men of merit. O you which meditate day and night on your learned writings, writings either to chase away ignorance, or to reform men deformed with all sorts of vices, in this debauched age: faint not for any malice they bear you living; death will smother this rancour, & consume this envy; we see it daily, and before us Cate the Cenfor did tax it sharply: I know, saith he, that many ignorant of true honour, will traduce my writings if I publish them; but I let their babbling fall to the ground (meaning the grave) whereas the sharpest stings of slander are abated and buried: and the books, which during the life of their Authors, durst not look upon the light, no more than Owls; after their death fly out like young Eagles, and behold the Sun.  

Objection.  
Whatsoever God and men hold to be evil, is evil.  
God and men judge death to be evil. Ergo, etc.  
THIS Argument is grounded upon the Divine Oracle pronounced to Adam: That day thou shalt eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt die the death; & the Apostle says that Death is the reward of sin. As for men, in Cities well governed, their laws impose the punishment of death for thieves, murderers, seditious, etc. I answer: That death in her beginning is bad, but not in her derivation; but it is good, in respect of his power and wisdom, who draws light from darkness, good from evil, & life from death; for now by the blessing of God, death serves as a ladder to the faithful to ascend up into heaven. So the diversity of tongs sent at the building of the Tower of Babel, proceeded from the fury of God kindled against the builders, to frustrate their enterprise: Yet the same tongs have been since imparted to the Apostles, upon White-sonday, by the favour of God, thereby to have the mysteries of the Lord declared. So garments were invented in token of the loss of our naked Innocency; and yet in continuance they are become an honourable ornament for our bodies, as we see Even so in the beginning God sent death in his fury; and since he sent it in favour to Enoch, to josias, and to all them, he loves. The holy Ghost speaking by the pen of Solomon, saith, that he more esteems the dead which are already dead, than the living which are yet living. As for malefactors, death is not inflicted upon them as it is simply death, but for two reasons adjacent; the one is, that depriving them of all motion, it makes them cease to commit any more evil, & frees the Country of such vermin. The other, that it is imposed for a public infamy, and therefore they are set upon scaffolds and gibbets in public place; & this deserved infamy is the true torment of the punishment, death is but an accident: and do we not see many delinquents desire an honourable grave more than life? the which they would not do, if they held death to be the worst of evils, and not rather an extreme dishonour, in which they feel their souls to survive. Bias therefore did answer wittily, being demanded which of all kind of death was the worst, That, saith he, which the Laws have ordained: inferring thereby, that a natural death is not evil, but that which crimes have deserved, the which is not given by nature, but by a hangman: and yet not so much by the execu tioner, who is but the instrument, as by a villainy perpetrated, which is the true cause. So said S. Peter, Let none of you suffer as a murderer, thief, malefactor, or too curious in other men's affairs: But if any one suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that behalf.    

The 24. Augument taken from the testimony of wise men.  
All wise men in the conflict of Death, depose that death is not evil.  
But that is true which all wise men depose, etc.  
THe troops of Christian Martyrs & heathen Philosophers, marching so boldly unto death, are so many witnesses without reproach, to convince them of falsehood, which hold death to be so great an evil. Let us be careful lest this blasphemy creep into our thoughts, that they were in despair or mad: No, no, their very enemies dare not speak it, ha●…ng known that they were for the most part, men famous in piety, justice, virtue and wisdom, and for such as were recommended by all men. The Ecclesiastical History is gored with thousands of such Martyrs; the author of the tables hath set down some in the end of his first book of whom I make no mention. But behold the manly courage of Blandina, who by her joyful countenance doth summon us unto death, whereunto she doth march with such a grace and state, as if she had gone to a nuptial feast: Then follows happy Tiburtins converted unto Christ by Vrban in the year 227: who marching upon burning coals, seemed to tread upon Roses. These Christians with infinite others, as well ancient as modern, had never any horror of death, but have desired it, yea sought it as a refreshing and refection to their bodies & souls: but for that no man doubts but the zeal of Christians hathmade them continue constant unto the death, and the divine power had so fortified their resolutions, that neither their reason could be swallowed up nor drowned by the horror of persecution; Let us come to others, & of a multitude: let a few suffice. Socrates' accused by the Athenians to think ill of the Gods, for that he rejected plurality & adored an unity, was condemned to dye; before the which he would first censure his judges, saying: To fear death, O my Lords Areopagites, is to make show to be wise, and not to be; for it is to seem to know death to be evil which they understand not. He did so little apprehend death, as when as eloquent Lisias had given him an Oration artificially penned, which he should use for his Apology, whereby he should be absolved, he read it and found it excellent; yet he said unto Lycias, If thou hadst brought me Sicionian shoes, admit they had been fit for my foot, yet would I not use them, for that they were not decent for me: So thy discourse is most eloquent and fluent, but not fit for men that are grave and resolute: The executioner than presented him poison in a cup, which Socrates took with a constant hand, and demanded of him (as a sick patient would do of the Physician to recover health) how he should swallow it: & then without any stay drunk it up, after which he walked a little & then took his bed; his boy uncovering him felt his parts to grow cold. Socrates, being waked, directed his speech to Criton, who above all others 
Eras. Lib. 3 Apoth.  wished him a longer life; and to make him think of it, had propounded unto him his children & his dear friends, that for their sakes, if not for his own, he would preserve his life, which was necessary for them: No no, answered he; God who hath given me my children will care for them; & when I shall be gone from ●…ce, I shall find friends, either like unto you, or better; neither shall I be long deprived of your company, for you must soon come to the same place. Then (as if he had by this potion recovered his health) he cried ●…ut, O Criton, we owe a Cock to Aesculapius, be not forgetful to sacrifice unto him. Let us observe that in the last passages of life, he was in no sort amazed, but dying joyfully, comforted his surviving friend: and let us not doubt, but he who was the first among the seven Sages of Greece, knew before Demosthenes, that which this Orator spoke courageously to Phi●… King of Macedon, who threatened him to cause his head to be c●…t off: Well, saith he, if thou givest me death, my Country will give me immortality. And doubtless Socrates lives, and will live eternally; so the surviving having seen the assurance of his death, held him most happy, as going to live another life, and in another place. And Aristippus (that joyful Philosopher) being demanded in what sort Socrates was dead, In that manner (said he) that I myself desire. Inferring that death was more to be wished for then a happy life. Let us hear a second, that is, 
Laert. l. 2. c. 〈◊〉.  Theramenes, to whom they presented a great cup of poison, the which he drank resolutely, and returned the cup to Criti●…, the most cruel of the 30. Tyrants, which had condemned him; Theramenes therein alluding to the manner observed at this day in Germany, which is, that he, which drinks to any one, sends him the same glass full of wine that he may pledge him.  
These deaths are full of courage: but behold a woman dying, who exceeds 
Plin. l. 3.  them all, and that only to encourage her husband to die; it is Arria the wife of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. This woman being advertised that Petus was condemned to what death he would choose, went unto him to persuade him both by word & the effect to dislodge out of this life: she had a naked dagger under her gown, and giving her husband he●… last ●…well, she thrust herself to the heart, and drawing it forth again with the like courage, she held it unto Petus, and spoke these her last words unto him. P●…, non dole●… Pete▪ O my dear Petus, it doth not pain me, and then died. Let us seal up these examples with two women, who commonly do passionately love the presentation of their children; yet a certain Lacedaemonian having heard that her Son fight 
Plut. in La con. Apoth.  valiantly had been slain in battle, O (said she) this was a brave Son; not lamenting the death of her Son, but rejoicing at his virtue. Another, hearing that her Son returned safe from battle, and that he had ●…d, shed cried out unto him, There is a bad report of thee, thou must either deface it, or not live; holding it better to dye, then to survive an Ignominy.  

Objection.  
If the greatest favourites of God have feared death, it is to be feared.  
But David, Ezechias, and others favoured by God, feared Death, and especially jesus Christ, the only and well-beloved, Son of God, feared it, etc.  
Answer. Neither David, nor Ezechias, nor the other servants of God feared death, as it was death simply alone considered, but for that God threatened them, in regard of their sins, by reason whereof it seems they had some confused apprehension of hell, which is the second death. Doubtless my fault is great (said David) but I pray thee save me 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 live. We must note that Ezekias heart was puffed up with glory, & God would humble him by the consideration of death wherewith he threatened him: But these two, and all other the servants of God, setting aside these threats, being in the favour of God, have with Saint 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, leads to death eternal, as that of Saul and judas; who being desperate slew themselves, 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, God's Divine justice to revenge the injury which hath been done him by the devil in the nature of man, the which not able to do in him without his total ruin, he hath done in his surety, in jesus Christ his Son, whom to that end he sent into the world to take humane flesh in the Virgin's womb: It is he that was wounded for our offences, broken for our iniquities, 
Esay 53. 5.  censured to bring us peace, and slain to cure us, as the Prophet speaks, and the Apostles testify. The fruits, first the glory of God is manifested in his love, in his bounty, and in his mercy towards us, to have so loved the world, as to give his own Son to death for it, to the 
john 3. 6.  end that whosoever did believe in him should not perish, but have life everlasting, as the same eternal Son doth witness. Secondly, it is our salvation, the redemption of the Church from sin and death; for it is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.  
And these are the reasons why jesus Christ was terrified in death, feeling the wrath of God upon him for our sins: But the death of the faithful is nothing like; for in the greatest torments which Tyrants can inflict upon them, it mortifies the sense and takes away all pain, by the abundance of his consolation; as Ruffinus writes of Theodorus, and as our Annals 
Lib. 10. hi. c. 36.  testify of the smiling death of Martyrs in the midst of burning fires: for God is satisfied, the passage is open, the venomous teeth of death are pulled out, seeing that the Lord wrestling with her, hath slain her, as S. Augustine speaks; and like a most expert Physician, hath made a wholesome Treacle to purge our bodies of those corrupt, burning, stinking, and deadly humours; and to make it sound, holy, impassable and immortal.   

The second Objection.  
Every just reward is proportionable to the pain.  
The reward of Martyrsis great.  
Therefore their pain is great.  
THe holy Writ, and the ancient Fathers upon it, bear witness of the honour and great triumph which the Martyrs obtain in heaven: if their conflict against death be answerable to this triumph, as equity requires, it must be exceeding great, and therefore it is no easy thing to dye; the which S. Augustine seems to confirm, Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo, 
Homil. de verb. apost. serm. 3 5.  non esset magna Martyrum fortitudo: If (saith he) there were no bitterness in death, the Martyr's valour should not be great.  
Answer. He is truly a Martyr, who for the honour of God, and for the love of his neighbour, doth constantly seal the contract of the alliance of God with his own blood: and the true cause of Martyrdom is, to suffer death for justice, and for the name of Christ, as Christians, 
Mat. 5. 1. Pet. 4. 1. Pet. 3.  and in doing well. This blood thus shed is the true seed of the Church, the very Commentary of the holy Scripture, the Trumpet of God's glory, the true Victory of the cruelty and obstinacy of God's enemies, the holy Lamp to lighten and draw to the Kingdom of Christ, those which are in the shadow of death, etc.  
In consideration whereof, these holy Champions of the faith, are honoured in heaven with a Crown of gold, clothed 
Apoc. 6.  with white garments, etc. Upon earth in the primitive Church, upon the day of their suffering, which they called their birthday; the faithful assembled upon the place of their Martyrdom, did celebrate their happy memory, repeated their combats, & commended their resolution; exhorting the assistants to do the like, if they were called to the like combat, 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 us: wherein 
Cyr. l. 6. Cont. jul.  we may see, that it was not the death, but the cause of the death, which made them to be so recompensed and recommended. And whatsoever they have had in heaven, shall be given to all others which shall have the like will to serve their master; though not the effect, the like Crown, nor the like garments. To me, saith that great Martyr, S. Paul, the Crown of justice is reserved, 
2. Tim. 4.  which the Lord, the just judge, shall give me in that day; and not only to me, but unto all those that shall love his Coming: And what Christian is it that desires not the coming of Christ? It is also written, that all the Armies which are in heaven, wherein all the faithful are, followed the faithful, the 
Apoc. 19  true, the Word of God, upon white horses, clad in white Cypress.  
Finally, in this inestimable reward (which God gives unto Martyrs) there is not so great a regard had to the merit and grievousness of their death, as to the most precious blood of his Son jesus Christ, and to his free promise: wherefore this Objection is to no purpose; and if it were, it doth incite men more to desire then to refuse death, if it be true that the enduring of the first death, in the Saints, is a freeing from the second, as Saint Augustine 
Lib. 13. de Ciu. dei c. 8.  teacheth.   

The third Objection.  
It is impossible but man should be touched with a great apprehension of every sharp combat he is to endure.  
Such is death.  
MAn hath three cruel enemies which present themselves unto him at his last farewell; a sensible pain at the dissolution of the foul from the body: sin represents unto him heaven gates shut, and hell open: and Satan tempts him, and lets him see his criminal Indictment, whereof he is ready to execute the sentence.  
Answer. It is impossible that at the soul's departure from the body, there should be any great pain; the soul leaves the body, as the light doth the air, which it doth invest, as Viues speaks after S. Augustine: We must not 
Lib. de Anima.  then imagine here a gross tearing of the soul from the body, as of a piece of cloth: for the union of the soul with the body is spiritual and incomprehensible; But of the pretended pain in death, there is sufficiently spoken in the Objection following. As for the two other enemies, it is true that the conscience presents unto a dying man the foulness of his sin: and it is true that Satan tempts man to despair, to precipitate him into eternal perdition. But for all this must a man that fears God, fear death? and fear to lose the battle? No, but he ought rather to assure himself of the victory, and present himself boldly to the Combat, as a valiant & fortunate Champion, against one that is weak and unfortunate. They that are for us are stronger than they that are against us: God which hath begun, continues his work in us, and ends it to his glory: the faith which he hath pranted in us, will quench the inflamed darts of the wicked spirit: the full assurance of the remission of sins by jesus Christ, dead for our sins, and risen for our justification, will pacify the conscience, and show him jesus Christ in heaven, sitting on the right hand of God, and stretching out his arms to him.  
Thirdly, the seals of the holy Ghost in us (for by it we are sealed to the day of Redemption,) Baptism, the Communion of the body of Christ, and the Spirit of sanctification, will terrify Satan and make him fly.  
Finally, the good Angels which from our birth, and throughout the whole course of our lives, have administered unto us, guided and comforted us, will redouble their love and courage in the like offices, at our greatest need, and at our last gasp. Let us not fear, seeing we have such assurance in the Word of God, which doth plainly witness, that the Angels are administering Spirits, sent to serve for their sakes that shall receive the inheritance 
Heb. 〈◊〉. Psal. 91. Mat. 18.  of salvation. Here then is no subject of desperate fear, but rather of an assured resolution.   

The 4. Objection.  
All pain is evil.  
In dying there is pain.  
EPicharmus (by the testimony of Cicero) said, 
Cic. lib. 1. Tus. quast.  that he would not die, but to be dead he cared not: The reason is in my opinion, for that he feared the passage of death, not death itself, which he thought with us had no pain. There are many at this day of this opinion, abhorring death like an internal gulf, for that they conceive there is some sharp and violent pain which they endure before it comes; and thereunto tends the proverb: He is in bad case that dies: And S. Augustine seems 
L. 13. de civet. Dei c. 6.  to attribute I know not what sharp feeling and force against nature, in the diwlsion of the soul from the body which were united together.  
Answer: If death be terrible by reason of the pain we apprehend in it, than life by the same reason should be more; for in it some man endures more by the colic, the stone, the sciatica, yea, by the tooth ach, and by many other infirmities without death, than an other hath felt in dying. And there is this advantage in death, that it comes but once, whereas the above mentioned infirmities are often reiterated in life. But to have a perfect view, if this pain be so great, as opinion (a bad counsellor) doth make us believe: let us search with reason into the immediate cause of that which doth engender this pain in our bodies.  
The paths which lead man to death are infinite, but all bend to one of these four high ways, outward force, subtraction of meat and drink, inward sickness, and old age. These four kinds of death may happen to all men, yea to wise men, although by injustice touching the first; by some rare accident, as touching the second; concerning the third, by ordinary corruption of humours; and by an infallible defect of nature touching the fourth. Pain (according to the definition of learned Physicians,) is the feeling of some thing that is offensive and troublesome to the nature of the body, for that it is contrary to the health thereof; the which happens either by the dissolving and cutting of his continued substance; or by the alteration thereof, which alteration proceeds from the intemperate heat or cold: for as for humidity and dryness, they are rather passive qualities then active, whose operation is very slow, and the pain in the member that is altered, is sudden not gentle; as if you be exceeding cold and come to a very sensible pain, cold settles his pain in disjoining, & heat in burning: and it is to be noted, that any sense may be wounded, yet little or nothing is his pain, in comparison of that of touching, the which is dispersed over the whole body, & from which no other vessel of the senses is exempt; which is the cause that we sometimes feel prickings in the eyes, and shootings in the ears, etc.  
Let us now come to the application, Death which comes to man by extreme age, can be no cause of pain; there being nothing in him that tortures his body, nothing that doth suddenly alter and change him by extreme cold, or heat; but his life goes out presently (like unto a Candle that wants tallow) by the loss of his radical humour, devoured by little and little since his birth by his natural heat: and although this heat doth yet strive as it hath formerly done, to convert the meat which is familiar and fit for the body, into radical humour, to repair his loss, yet she can work no more, her virtue fails her; every agent hath his virtue limited, what soever doth act, suffers in acting: through use and in continuance of time this heat decays, dissolves, is lost, and death ensues: So as it hath been disputed in vain, whether life might be continued, this radical humour being restored by some fit nutriment; for that humour being at the first a certain eyrie & only portion of that seed which doth reside in all the solid parts, it is impossible that such an humour, and so much as is needful, should be supplied in its place. The only fruit of the tree of life which was in Eden, had this secret virtue, by the divine ordinance, to make man immortal that should eat thereof; and therefore according to the opinion of the Fathers, God suddenly after the sin, chased Adam and Eve out of Eden, lest they should lay hold of that fruit, and become 
Irenae. Hilary. Greg. Naz. Theodoret. Chrysosto. and others.  immortally miserable with the devils. In process of time there happens two notable changes to this radical humour; the one in the quality, for that it degenerates by little and little, & of natural becomes strange: the other in the quantity, for that it is wholly wasted; whereunto man being once reduced, he can suffer no pain: if he complains, it is rather for grief that he must dye, or some other distemperature, and not the death, which doth cause some troublesome alteration in his sinews & sensible parts.  
As for death which proceeds from diseases, there are some long, others short. If they be long, the pain is little, for that nature doth accustom itself to that which comes by degrees; it turns to a habit, and he fears no grief, or very little, there being nothing but the sudden 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 Hectic fever they grow lean, and consume away by little and little, and dye with pain, which is in a manner imperceptible; there is nothing but an heaviness of the spirits, but in their bodies feel no pain. It is even so of the pain of the Lights, whereon the rheum 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 pain is short: What great pain can there be in a swoon ding? in an Apoplexy that happens by the sudden dissipation of the spirits? What great pain can a moment of time bring to man? But you will reply, that there are diseases wonderfully sharp: It is true; but if you will observe them, they are least dangerous for death, whereof our discourse is. Nature giving death, knows how to mortify the members so well, and to weaken the virtue of the sinews, as man cannot discern when death seizeth on him, no more than when sleep surpriseth him. It is an Aphorism of Hipocrates, When a sick body (saith he) feels no pain, plays with the covering of his bed, and pulls off the wool, it is a sign of death, and no likelihood of life & what pain then, when as hoping to recover, and feeling ease of his pain, he shall dye? As for famine and thirst, which quench the spirit of life, that happens very seldom, and the Annals in 16. ages have scarce observed two, the one under the Empire of Honorius, at what time in the Theatre at Rome there was this strange voice heard, You must set a price 
Z●…zim. 6. Annal.  upon humane flesh. The other under justinian, at what 
Procop. de bell. Goth. l. 11.  time they did not only eat man's flesh, but even the excrements of men.  
Here in truth is great horror, but little pain, neither can I believe (whatsoever they say) that he which dies of hunger feels no great torment: examine it by yourself; when you have fasted long, you shall feel a great debility, & a great appetite, or a great heat in all your members, but no great pain: it is in the sinews to feel where the pain lies, which sinews do not suffer any thing in the extremity of hunger or thirst, but the principal parts which receive the nourishment, therefore in this most pitiful; and pity is here taken for the pain. Let the death of Charles 7. the French King, be an example unto us, who being full of suspicion and way wardness, & entertained in that humour by the daily reports of his household flatterers, that they would attempt against his person; yea a Captain in whom he trusted most, assured him that they meant to poison him; he gave such credit to this advice, as he resolved neither to eat nor drink in which capricious humour he continued seven days. But in the end being pressed not with pain but by his Physicians, and house hold servants; who laid before him the danger of life, whereinto he did voluntarily bring his person when he would have eaten he could not, by reason (saith the History) the passages of the stomach were shrunk. Let us weigh these last words, and acknowledge, that this natural fire in us wherewith the lamp, of our life is kindled, is like unto the Elementary, always active; wherefore wanting his ordinary nutriment, he turns himself violently upon that which bears it, upon the radical humidity, the which it doth waste and consume in a short time; and this humidity being consumed, the members remain dry, and without vigour; so as when they offer them the accustomed remedy, having lost their usual virtue, they digest it not, but cast it up again.  
It is the same reason why such as observe a certain hour for their meals, when this hour is come they feel certain motions of an appetite in their stomach, which requires meat: But if they pass this hour, either by fasting or by diets, they lose their appetites, for that this heat being frustrated of his ordinary repast, falls either upon the peccant humour, or that failing, upon the vital humour; and as we suffer it to do more or less, so we receive more or less prejudice. Now if in the first and most sensible touches of this natural heat, we feel no great torment, as every man may try in the religious fasts of the Church, which pass the ordinary time of eating three or four hours: I conclude necessarily, that the longer they abstain from meat, the less they suffer; for the heat decaying still, by the want of nourishment, the active virtue also decreaseth, and his subject the body, suffereth less by such a languishing action; also the body which for his part decays in force, is daily less susceptible of pain, until that all his humour being exhausted, and his heat evaporated, he must die.  
Last in rank come good men, who are unjustly put to death by Tyrants, to whom the pain is sensible according to the horror of the punishment. But I answer: First, that it happens seldom, God holding in his power the Tyrannous resolutions of great men; that they may not execute their wicked designs against his servants: wickedness shall never prevail so much, she shall never conspire so strongly against virtue, but the name of wisdom shall always remain sacred and venerable. 
Sen. epi. 14.  Secondly, God who suffers it, gives them ease in their torments, & knows how to restrain and suspend their pains; (as he did to his servants, Sidrac, Mizac, and Abednego in the burning furnace:) as they go joyfully to death, and sing the praises of the Lord cheerfully in the midst of the fire, as hath been seen in the Martyrs: And thus much for this point. But if after all these reasons they persist still in a fantastical apprehension of some great pain in the article of death, we will add, that it is not fitting to accuse death; it is life, the remainders whereof cause the pain, and death is the end. Wherefore Diogenes being demanded if death were evil, How can it be (said he) seeing we never feel it present? and that which is absent cannot be hurtful to any man; whilst that man hath feeling he hath life, but if he be dead, he hath no feeling, and that which is not felt, is not hurtful.  
And therefore he concludes, that it was not death which was evil, but the way to death, which was miserable; which if we fear, what is all the life (said he) but a path tending unto death? And S. Augustine above named, 
August. de ci. Dei. l. 13 c. 9  means no other thing: whilst they have feeling, they are yet living; if living, they are rather sensible before death, then in death, by whose coming all sense is lost.    

The 25. Argument taken from the indignity.  
That which is repugnant to one of the principal virtues, is unworthy of man.  
The extreme fear of death is repugnant to fortitude, one of the principal virtues.  
WE mean not here to speak of bodily force, but of that of the mind, by the which Caesar (but of a weak body) did more brave exploits than Hercules. There is nothing more worthy of a man then Fortitude, a virtue whereunto he should aim all the actions of his life; for that alone doth never fail to yield a recompense, either alive or dead, saith Seneca, Epist. 81. and he doth not perish that dies adorned with virtue, saith another. Saint Augustine confirms this, when he 
Lib. 1. de li. arb. c. 13,  attributes the disdain of life, and the contempt of death, to the force of the mind: The greater and more desperate the danger is, the more doth magnanimity increase in a generous mind, to free all difficulties, that he shall encounter. And seeing that the end is better and more excellent than that which tends unto it, he will conclude with reason, That he were better to lose his life then virtue. But Fortitude, one of the four cardinal virtues, besides the general, hath a particular reason, why man should seek to preserve it in her greatest perfection; for by it he enjoys the true tranquillity of the mind, the which (as Cicero reports) is nothing else but a quiet, sweet, and pleasing disposition of the soul, in all the events of life: Which carries two Crowns; patience in pain, & resolution in death. By which the confirmation of the Minor is inferred, there being nothing that doth more oppugn, and in the end overthrow all force and resolution, than the extreme fear of death. Fear, and especially that of death, being destitute of reason & judgement, wounds the soul with amazement, alienates his right sense, makes it idle and without action; it doth waste him, undermine him, and consume him as rust doth Iron, and the worm an apple. A man always shaking with fear, is without heart and courage, but half a man; such as histories report Claudius Caesar, the 5. Emperor to have been, whom nature had begun, but not finished, for that he was base and faint-hearted.  
Moreover, fear by the terrible object of death, causeth the heat which is the chariot of force, to retire into the bottom of the belly, in stead of drawing it about the heart as courage doth, so as the heart is always panting: and which is worse, whereas it should extend itself by dilatation in his natural motion, he shrinks himself up against nature, whereby there follows a great debility in all the members of the body, and sometimes death, as it happened to Lycus; who upon the very report of Hercules force, was so terrified, as being retired into the corner of an Altar, died there. But a generous man resolute to death, will not fear any thing that shall present itself to cross him in the course of his duty; like unto Anaxarchus, whom Alexander threatening to hang, he said, Threaten thy Courteours, who fear death; for my part I care not whether I rot above or under the earth. Socrates also being blamed by one, for that he did a thing which would cause his death, he answered, My friend, thou art not well informed, if thou thinkest that a man of honour should apprehend danger, yea, death in his actions; but only consider whether they be just or unjust, good or bad. Such was the courage of the Prophet Micheas, when he resisted King Achas, and told Israel of his sins; being filled with virtue by the Spirit of the Eternal, with judgement and with force, as he himself 
Mic●…. 3.  speaks.  
Thirdly, fear not only hurts itself, causing his arms to fall out of his hands, and laying him open to his enemy's darts; but like unto the plague it infects others. And therefore King Agamemnon would not that a rich man and a fearful should go to the wars of Troy; but to stay him, he would have sent him a distaff, if he would not cover his shame honestly. But on the other side, a valiant man finds means to free himself in the greatest dangers. So Aristomenes a Lacedaemonian, being taken prisoner and delivered bound to two soldiers, he found means to burn his bonds and his flesh to the quick; then falling courageously upon his guards, he slew them, and so escaped. It is a common saying among men, That virtue hath no virtue, if it be not in pain: and the greatest pain in the opinion of man, is when he is at the point of death; then should a valiant heart show his invincible courage, to vanquish this terror of death. It is this courage which made Saint Paul to say▪ That if he did serve for an aspersion 
Phil. 2. 18.  upon the sacrifice & service of faith, he was joyful. It is the same Spirit that made Ignatius to say, being condemned by Infidels to be cast to wild beasts: I am the wheat of God, I shall be 
Iren. lib. 5.  ground in the teeth of beasts, to be made pure and clean bread.  
If the Trumpet which sounds an alarm, be pleasing to a valiant Soldier, what shall death be to a virtuous man, when she shall sound with her silver Trumpet, ordained by God to call the assembly, the Church to heaven, 
Num. 10. 2  and to make men leave the earth, where they have no a biding place? what fear we? They that have the colic and the gout, are not so much terrified with the return of their pain; and can virtuous men so much fear death, which hath not so much pain, no none at all? seeing that what we feel when death approacheth, is of the remainder of life, not of death▪ to what end serves this cowardly fear? Fly an honourable death of the one side, and a shameful end will find thee of the other. So Sisera left his Army and fled into 
judg. 4.  the house of jahel; but when he thought to take his rest, jahel came and drove a nail of the Tabernacle into the temples of his head, and slew him.  
But to have this courage and resolution to resist the terror of death, it is not sufficient to speak in the time of health, as Soldiers do of their valour at the table: learned discourses (saith Seneca) 
Epist, 26.  make no demonstrations of true magnanimity; the most fearful will sometimes speak more boldly than they should. We must meditate seriously of death, according to the objects which are presented unto us, and not make any difficulty to go and comfort our dying neighbours; for it is better to enter into the house of mourning then of 
Eccle. 7. 3.  seasting, saith the wise man: To offer ourselves to all dangers of death, when our vocation doth call us; like unto jesus Christ, who being dissuaded by his Disciples from going up to jerusalem, he said unto them, There are 12 hours of the day: after 
joh. 12.  the example of the Apostles, namely of Saint Paul, who was thrice whipped with rodds, 
2. Cor. 11.  continued whole days and nights in the bottom of the sea, etc.  
We ought to do it, for Christ is a gain to us both 
Philip. 1.  in life and death; for that dying, we change the dross of the world, for the gold of heaven; we going out of life, as out of a deep pit of darkness, and ignorance: and we ascend up into the heavenly University, whereas the deepest sciences are learned; and we pass from a miserable servitude, into a most happy freedom of spirit: Let us then quicken our spirits, and take courage, and not be like unto the skomme of the world, to whom dying, Nature makes this reproach, which is read in Seneca: What is this? 
Epist. 22▪  I have put you into the world without covetous desires, without fear, without superstition, without treason, and without any other such infections: As you entered into the world, so depart this life, without apprehension, fear, vexation, or passion, which torment your souls. But especially let us be careful to depart without fear of death, which among all humane passions is most desperate: it is done, if we once put on a Christian courage and magnanimity, and shall not fly, but offer ourselves, following our vocation, to the greatest dangers: As good Macedonius did, who seeing two Captains march to revenge the irreverence done to the statue of Placilla, by the express and unworthy commandment of Theodosius her husband; seeing them I say, run to a great Massacre, meets them, stays them, & pulls them from their horses, and by more than humane authority, commands them to desist from such cruelty, & to tell their master, That the greatness of his estate should not make him forget that he is a man: that he seeks to tear that a sunder which he cannot put together; deface lively Images which he cannot repair; and that this outrage should touch the Creator. By the boldness of his words and by his constancy, he amazed these Captains with the fear of God's revenging wrath, and makes them return towards the Emperor, who having heard them, pacified his rage.  

Objection.  
Whatsoever is a gift of nature, cannot be gotten by art.  
Fortitude is a gift of nature, etc.  
Answer: It is true, that fortitude hath her foundation in the irascible faculty: but her culture, her instruction and increase is purchased by labour, study, and continual exercise. If Alexander, Caesar, and other valiant Captains, had not been continually thrust into arms, hazarded themselves in war, and cast themselves into battles, they had never purchased the habit of valour, nor gotten so many triumphs upon their enemies. In like manner if we desire to conquer ourselves, and our own passions, which are most dangerous enemies; we must exercise ourselves continually in these lists of virtue, and weed out of our hearts two contrary vices; the one is dull negligence, which lulling us asleep in the world, will not suffer us to consider what this life is, how miserable, how vain & wavering; although we suppose it be perpetual, contrary to that which experience doth teach us, showing us daily that either necessity doth pull it away, or vanity doth swallow it up, or hasty nature doth end it. The other extreme vice is fear, which is the cause that we cannot once think of such necessity but with trembling and horror. And as the eye vitiated with some yellow humour, or looking through a yellow glass, thinks all it sees to be yellow; yea, the purest white: So our souls being infected with this terror, increased by faintness, and fortified by cowardice, takes quiet things to be horrible, the safest port and secu●…est from winds, to be more dangerous than the Rock Capharois: and finally, death (the happy end of all miseries) to be the beginning of most horrible pains. But let us purge this peccant hu●…, ●…ast off this 〈◊〉 scart, and cloth ourselves with this force, with this resolute v●…reue; and we shall visibly▪ see and judge with reason, that we have been miserably deceived, taking our friends for enemies, the greatest safety for horror, and 〈◊〉 happiness 〈◊〉 death for misery.    

The 26. Argument taken from the instrumental cause.  
In every expedition the means must be proper unto it.  
A good conscience is the proper means to the expedition of death.  
Therefore we must have a good conscience.  
IF we consider profoundly of the cause of this terror, which man hath of death, we shall find it is a natural feeling (though; dull, and some what brutish) to have offended his Lord, thinking that he attends nothing but death, to lay open the volume of his faults, to indite him criminally, to pronounce sentence of condemnation against him, and to deliver him over to Satan the executioner, to cast him into a fire 
De●…t. 28.  which is never quenched. Man hath a confused apprehension of all this, he sees nothing in life, he fears it in death, his conscience within accuseth him, and serves for a thousand witnesses: It is that which makes the wicked to tremble when the leaf of a tree doth fall, and lives no more assured than if his life were tied to a thread, it is the Worm which never 
Esal▪ 66.  dies, but gnaws the wicked continually: It is a bad conscience (said Diogenes) which keeps man from being courageous, and without fear. Let a man be by nature hardy, yet a bad conscience will 
8 tob. ser. 22  make him most fearful, said Pythagoras; yea he added, that the torments which he shall suffer, will be much more sharp and painful then whipping to the body, the diseases of the mind being far more grievous then of the body; which gave occasion to Poets to paint the Furies armed with burning torches, to burn the wicked. So was the Emperor Caligula entreated for his cruelties, terrified with fear waking, awaked suddenly sleeping, always troubled, never in quiet. Nero was in the same estate having slain his mother. So Saul being forsaken by the Eternal, was possessed by an evil spirit; having bad news of his speedy death, he trembles 
1. Sam. 28.  for fear, forsakes his meat and drink, is much perplexed, falls down upon the ground, as the Scripture doth observe: for then the Injustice committed against David (whom he had confessed with his mouth to be more lust than himself) came to his mind. Wherefore if we will live without fear of death, let us live without wounding of our consciences: for it alone in life doth never fear, said wise Bias: It is it 
Antonin. Melissa part 1. se●…. 66.  that makes men live in tranquillity, finding themselues not guilty of any thing. Periander said, that a good conscience 
Stob. ser. 22  made Agis King of the Lacedæmonians, triumph over 
Stob. ser. 1. de prudentia.  his enemies in death; for as he was led to execution by the ephors, seeing some (moved with compassion) to weep, Weep not for me, said he, for it is against equity and reason that I am led to this death: they which have condemned me are more unjust than I am. Inferring thereby, that he died well and honestly, 
Plut. in Lacon. Apoth.  seeing they put him to death wrongfully, and without cause.  
Plato doth teach us, that Socrates was wont to insult over death, in these terms; I have been careful, said he, to live well in my youth, and to die well in my age: I am not tormented within me with any pain; I am not unwilling to dye, for seeing my life hath been honest, I attend death joyfully. This is much, but it is nothing, in regard of Saint Paul, who protesting that he felt not himself guilty in any thing, cried out with a bold spirit, that he was assured, that neither death nor life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor powers; neither things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, should separate 
Rom. 8.  him from the love of God. Let us then be careful to polish our souls, and to settle our consciences; let us apply ourselves to a well ordered equity: let the body subject itself unto the soul, and follow her motions: Let the inferior powers of the soul obey the commandments of reason: Let reason guided by the holy Ghost, observe the Law grafted in every creature by nature, especially in man, and most of all the Law of Moses. To do this is to be virtuous, and to be virtuous is to have a good conscience. We must then direct all our actions to virtue, if we desire to live in the world without fear, without pain, in peace and joy: virtue doth first of all make the soul perfect in her intellectual part, disperseth the clouds of error & ignorance, & illuminating reason, doth adorn it with prudence.  
Secondly, she labours to polish the will of man, and having reform it by her orderly course, she gives him the habit of justice..  
Thirdly, she doth temper the angry part pulls away the extreme fear, and on the other side prunes away the sprouts of rashness, and plants betwixt both valour and ha●… die fear. Finally, it doth also bridle the faculty of concupiscence, and restrains the motions of voluptuousness, and makes them obedient to the command of Temperance. It is in a few words, the true means to get a pure and upright conscience, especially if we be careful to be as honest in our private & secret actions, as if all the world did behold us: Seneca doth recommend this unto ut in many places.  
We read of one called Virginius, whose History was written by Clwius, who presented it unto the said personage, and said unto him, If there be any thing written otherwise then thou wouldst, pardon me, and reform it: Oh no▪ answered Virginius; 
Erasin. lib. 8. Apoth.  whatsoever I have done, hath been done in that manner, & to that end, that it might be free for all to write at their pleasures: a worthy speech of a noble spirit, and content with his conscience in his actions. julius Drusus, when as one promised a great sum of money to his Master mason, that his house might not be subject to the view of any man; and I (said he) will give twice so much, if thou canst build my house in that sort, as all men may see into it what is done there: This was to save his conscience, & not to do more in secret then before all the world. And what a madness is it in most men not to fear God, nor their conscience, and yet to fear men who can do least in the correction of their faults? What shall we then fear in this world? One only God; for his fear will inspire our hearts with an hardy courage, against the greatest fears.   

The 27. Argument taken from the frequent thinking of Death.  
He that will receive Death joyfully, must propound it often to his thoughts.  
We all desire to receive it joyfully, etc.  
SOme (saith Seneca) come to their death in choler, 
Epist. 30.  but no man receives it when it comes, with a cheerful countenance, but he that hath long before prepared himself for it. Let us try this remedy, it cannot be bad: In the night after our first sleep, in bed, let us presuppose that we are dead, and by a strong imagination; let us settle ourselves in that sort, as having no sense, nor feeling, & that our soul and reason tells us that it is even so in death, & that there is no other difference, but that our soul is yet present in the body; and then let us go unto our friends, or to any other that die; let us view them, talk unto them, and touch them being dead; and we shall find that in all this there is nothing to be feared, that all is quiet, that there is nothing but opinion that 〈◊〉 abuse man.  
Let us proceed; enter the Churchyards, and go down into their graves: we shall find that 〈◊〉 the dead rest in peace, yea●… so profound 〈◊〉 peace▪ as no living creature can interrupt them. Let us yet go on farther, there is no danger; for by the saying of Plato, the knowledge of death is the goodliest science that man can attain unto. Let us do like unto john Patriarch of Alexandria, build our tombs and not finish them, but every day▪ lay one stone. Let us have some Anatomy or Mommie in our houses, and let us not pass a day without beholding it let us handle it, it is death. Little children by little and little grow familiar with that which they did strangely fly, and in the end they play with it, and know that it is but a dead image of copper▪ which so terrified them: We shall also see in death, that it was but a shadow that so amazed us. Let us yet do more; waking and not dreaming, let us dispose ourselves of purpose, as Philippe King of Macedon did by chance; who wrestling upon the sand, after the manner of the Country, saw and measured the length of his body, and admired the littleness thereof, in the shape printed in the sand, where he had fallen.  
Finally, let us not forget what the Emperor Maximilian, 2. or 3. years before his death commanded carefully to be done; that they should carry with him a coffin of oak in a chest, with an express command, that being dead they should cover his body with a course sheet; having put lime in his ears, nosestrills and mouth, and then to lay him in the ground. Let us follow these great examples, both high & low, and we shall see that when death shall present herself unto us, it will be without amazement. But if we fly from every image of death, from all thought thereof; if the ringing of bells (a show of some man's death) doth importune us; finally, if every word of death be troublesome, (as there have been such) I doubt not but to them death is wonderful terrible.  

Objection.  
If the most reasonable fear Death most, it is by reason to be feared.  
But the antecedent is true; therefore the Consequent must follow.  
SEneca, yea, experience doth teach us, that Infants, 
Epist. 36.  little children, and such as have lost their judgements, fear not death.  
Answer: We deny the antecedent: for making comparison of the most reasonable men with other of less capacity, we shall find that the most judicious fear not death; for that by their reason (as through a clear light) they see plainly that there is nothing fearful or painful in death, but all quiet and joyful.  
But they whom the Philosopher means, have a reason that is blind, weak and fantastical, apprehending Centaurs, Furies, and Cerberus to be in death; whereas there is no such matter, and therein they have less reason, than they that have none at all. Miserable is the sight of the Butterfly, who thinking through great error, that the light of the candle is the natural light of her life, flies to it, and is there burnt: Miserable in like sort is man's Reason, who imagining through error, that the vital life is the true life, which is the death; the mortal body to be her proper lodging, which is the grave; thinking then to preserve himself, he loseth himself, and to live, he dies, so as his reason doth but trouble and deceive him: And to this doth the Sun of justice aim, saying▪ He that will save his life, shall lose it; and he that shall lose it for 
Luke 14.  my sake, shall save it.    

The 28. Argument taken from things conjoined.  
Fear always as an inseparable companion, marcheth with hope.  
But nothing can give man an assured hope;  
And therefore not of fear.  
HOpe is a desire, astriving and elevation of the mind, to attain to some future good, that is difficult and yet possible: if this good be virtuous, the hope is commendable, and hereof a good man shallbe always replenished, and it will never suffer him to faint in the mid dost of adversities, but will raise him up to better things, as Apolodorus said, & more holily S. Paul, that hope confounds not, for that the love is infused into our souls by 
Rom. 5.  the holy Ghost. Finally, having our anchorhold upon God, from whom she feels all motions within, we may assure ourselves to obtain all things necessary, how difficult soever; and to repel whatsoever shallbe hurtful unto us, how painful soever: Neither shall he ever fear, but greedily desire death, as the end of his career; whereas they that have run and combated, shall receive the Crown of glory kept, promised and hoped for. But if this good he but an imaginary good, as the glory of the world, of the earth, and of this present life; then shall the hope be doubtful and deceivable, and joined to fear to lose that which we enjoy (a fear which doth always inseparably accompany hope:) she will let go the floods of troubles and disquietness upon miserable man, and will still vex him with fearful apparitions of death. Wherefore if we will not fear death, let us not hope for the prolongation of life: Thou shalt cease to fear, saith Seneca, if thou dost leave to hope▪ It is so, my friend Lucilius; although these thing seem to be contrary, yet are they tied one unto another, as one chain doth the Sergeant to the prisoner.  
So these things which seem contradictories, are alike: the greatest cause both of the one and the other, is, for that we do not measure ourselves, and stay ourselves upon present things, but let fly our thoughts far before us; so as fore sight, the goodliest ornament of man, is hurtful unto us. Beasts fly apparent dangers, and being passed, they retain no shadow of them, but live in all security and rest; and we trouble ourselves for that which is to come, & for that which is past. This is true, for either the remembrance of some wrong, or some fantastical reproach passed, doth vex us to the heart; or the future fear of dangers troubles our souls: only the present time which we hold, and which is only ours, and should chiefly concern us, seems not to touch us; wherein the stupidity is as wonderful, as the apprehension is witty. Let us then know, as Solomon doth admonish us, That there 
Eccle. 3. 22  is nothing better for man then to joy in that he doth, for that is his portion: For who will bring him back to see what shall be after him? But we have spoken enough in general of the proposition of the Argument: Let us come to the second part. Doubtless, he that shall cast his eyes upon that which doth present itself every day, and shall lend his ear to hear what hath been said, cannot doubt of the Minor of our Syllogism: we see daily (if we will not shut our eyes) the effect of Senecaes' speech, saying; That it is a 
Epist. 102.  great folly in us to dispose of our age, when we have not to morrow at our command. O how great is their vanity, saith he, which enter into long hopes! I will buy, I will build, I will lend, and then I will rest mine old age in peace. O poor man, who can promise any thing to himself that is to come! Who doth not seem to hear the Apostle Saint james contesting against covetous merchants, and saying, Now you that say, Let us go this day and to morrow to such a City, & continue there a year, let us traffic and gain; and yet you know not what shall befall the next day: for seeing the thing which we hold doth often slip out of our hands, and that of the very time we now enjoy, a part of it is subject unto hazard; it were to dream without sleeping, to hope in the incertainty of life, as Plato saith, and after him Aristotle; for that such as future hopes do lead, promise to themselves many things, which in the end prove vain: these hopes figured in the shadows of the future, wrest out of our hands the present, and make us run like unto Esop's dog after the shadow of a thing; and like unto those who having dreamed they had found a treasure, when they awaked found nothing but straw in their bed: they are nets to take the wind. I will not buy future hope with the price of present time; the 
Ter. Adel. 22 Hor. Car. 5.  reason is given by Horace, the short line of life forbids us to begin a long hope: Even at this instant night, the ghosts and Pluto's straight Mansion will hasten thy end: We hope, saith another, for some great matter by affection, but it may be to morrow will close up our destiny, and so deceive our hope, & mortify our affection.  
Man's life is like unto a game at dice; if thy chance falls not to thy desire, thou must rest contented, for thou canst not correct it by art; & therefore hope not for any thing, but what thou dost presently enjoy: otherwise if thou makest any assured account, that this or that shall happen unto thee: I will tell thee, nay common chance will thee, that it may be it will not succeed. But the divine Oracle pronounceth a curse upon him, that puts his trust in the strength of man. And hereof ages past & present do furnish us with thousands of examples; but I will produce but two for all the rest. Pyrrhus who might have lived a happy King, and have enjoyed that which the time did present unto him, yet he, transported with a hope to subdue all Italy, was graciously informed by Cineas, a servant of his, but a judicious Orator, after this manner: Sir, if the Gods make us Victors, what profit shall we reap by this victory? We shall have an easy means, saith he, to conquer all the cities that are upon the confines of Italy: and this done, replied Cineas, what shall then become of us? Sicily, answers Pyrrhus, will willingly submit unto us. Shall Sicily then (pursued Cineas) be the end of our wars? Who shall then hinder us, said the King, to pass into Africa, to Carthage, and from thence into the kingdom of Macedon? Whereunto Cineas, Well, my Prince, when all this shall be made subject to our power, what shall we do in the end? Pyrrhus smiling, answered, We will then rest quietly at our ease, with pleasure and content. Cineas having brought him to the point he aimed at, made him this last reply: Sir, seeing we enjoy all that can be desired in a happy and contented life, who can now interrupt our quiet, and trouble our felicity? and not defer it to uncertain days, and lay it upon dangerous hazards. This was more then enough to move Pyrrhus to content himself with what he had, if vain hope had not made him insensible; but he must hazard himself, & fight against the Romans, & then he must be besieged encountered and slain by a woman. Go you Princes, propound unto yourselves these haughty hopes of glory, but expect nothing but smoke: flatter not yourselves in your fortunes, she is treacherous; the more she smiles, the more she is to be feared. julius Caesar is the second example; she was his friend for a time, but in the end she betrayed him: when as he should have contented himself with that great Roman Empire, he conceived new hopes of subduing the Parthians, and makes his preparatives; but in the mean time his Citizens conspire his death, and fail not. So Esop's Falconer, whilst that he is watchful to take the Fowl, a viper which he casually trod upon, turns, and bites him by the foot, whereof he died.  
Manilius cries out, That good is always mixed with evil here below, tears follow vows, and in any thing fortune never keeps one course. The safest remedy not to be troubled nor infested with so many unquiet events, which follow one another in this life, is to quench in us the baits of them, which are two, hope, and fear: for we float betwixt these two continually, and always depending upon the accidents of fortune, we either suspect them or affect them. What then, will you say, must we wholly despair? No, it is not my meaning; there is a mean betwixt all hope and all despair, the which Seneca propounds unto thee: Hope not, 
Epist. 105.  saith he, without despair, neither despair without hope. Otherwise (as he doth wisely advertise thee) it is like the life of a fool, which is ingrateful, 
Epist. 13.  trembling, and always tending to the future: Ingrateful, for that he makes no account of that which is past, nor of the present: trembling, for that it fears more and sooner than it should: & in the end it bends to the future, for that it relies not upon the present good which presents itself; doth not taste it, nor make any account of it, but either joys with hope of the future, or else pants for fear. And this future, how short soever it be, yea, the night following, it may be, will conclude thy life. Hear what God said to the foolish covetous man, who through hope to live at ease, to eat, drink, & make good cheer, resolved to build Barns, to store up his Corn, promising afterwards to himself great joy and long life: But O fool (said the Eternal,) 
Luk. 12. 19 20.  this night thy soul shall be taken from thee.  

Objection.  
To thrust a wretched man into despair, is a cruel thing.  
To take all hope from a wretched man, is to thrust him into despair. etc.  
THe Philosopher's Elpistiques held opinion, that there was nothing did more mollify the bitterness of miseries in this present life, then hope; And by the saying of Thales it is the most common thing to men: for it never flies away with other transitory things, but continues with man even unto the end. Pindarus terms it the nurse of old age; for be he never so much broken and decayed, yet he hopes to live one year at the least. Yea, some one (as the Poet saith) hanging on a gibbet, will not lose all hope to escape; she is so faithful a companion even unto death. Plato calls it the renewing of all good fortune.  
Finally, some have described it by a hog, which thrusting his nose into the ground and hoping to find something to eat, teacheth us that passing on, we should hope for better things.  
Answer. I shall willingly grant the argument and the exposition, if they he applied to the true hope, the nurse of faith; and grounded upon the divine power and assistance, which even a wise man hath at his death, saith Solomon; but of humane hope which hath nothing to support it but riches, or humane power, or health and strength of body, or some other worldly thing, I will deny it constantly, and with reason: For there is nothing firm on 
Paradin. nil solidum.  earth, all is wavering and frail; to hope in it, is to lean unto a tottering wall, and to be crushed in the ruins: it is to ease himself being weary upon a sword's point, which will pierce him through. To warn man hereof, is not to cast him into a gulf of despair, but to retire him; for who would not despair, when having basely hoped for all prosperity, he runs into extreme ruin? But when one cries out; Beware, trust not; they are then weary, & seek some better assurance, so as nothing befalls unexpected, and by consequence, nothing can drive him into despair. Let us set before you Polycrates the most fortunate man in the world, who to shadow his fortune, cast his richest jewel into the sea, which within a short time was restored in a fishes belly, that was presented unto him: Yet must Amasis' King of Egypt, his ally and friend, write unto him, That these prosperities were to be suspected, & that this calm would bring a storm, in which he should suffer shipwreck: And lost he should be engaged with him, he renounced all the rights of friendship, which they had contracted together, according to the use & custom of those times: The which fell out so; for in the end he was taken by Orbetes Lieutenant to Cyrus, whom others say to be S●…trape to Darius, and tied ignominiosly to a gibbet. It seems S. Ambrose did meditate and make profit of this History, who having encountered a man who bragged that he had never tasted any misfortune, he presently left him, saying, That he feared to be lost with him, who had never felt any disaster: His conjecture proved true, for presently an earthquake swallowed up the lodging, with this Minion of Fortune, and all them of the family, even in the sight of S. Ambrose, being not yet far off.  
Prosperity the stepdame of virtue, plants and waters whom she pleaseth, but is soon wearied by the inconstancy of her love; she supplants, them not without amazement; she applies herself unto them for a time by some miserable happiness, but in the end she crosseth them and overthrows them; and therefore Valerius Maximus said truly, That greatness & riches were nothing but frailty & misery, and like unto little children's babies & toys; and what hope then is there in such things? But some Idolatrous flatteror of Princes, will persuade them that all things yield under their power, and undergo what yoke it shall please them to impose. To this flattery I will oppose the sincere confession made by Canute, a powerful King of England, who adds words to the effect 
Camden History of England.  for a memorable example to all the monarches of the world: Seeing the sea begin to flow, he commanded his chair to be set upon the shore, & sat himself down in it, and still observed the waves as they approached: Then the Prince begun this speech; Stay o sea, the Land whereon I sit is mine; thou art on it, and in that respect thou dost belong to me: never yet any one gainsaid me but was punished; I forbid thee to mount any higher, beware thou dost not touch nor wet thy Lords garments. The sea had no more respect than ears, but trembling at the voice of a greater Monarch, came on his course, and did wet the King's feet, which was the thing he expected; & then he added: Let all the Inhabitants of the world know, that the power of Kings is so weak, as the least creature guided by the Almighty, disdains it. Whereunto the emblem of Alc●… doth allude, representing the Beetle a little & weak animal, yet banding against the Eagle, finds means to revenge himself: for, creeping into her feathers, he is carried by her into her nest, where he breaks her eggs, and doth extinguish the race. We read of Sapores King of Persia, who having besieged Nifibis a Christian Town, he was chased away by an Army of Hornets and Wasps; which succours they did attribute to the prayers of Ieames the faithful Pastor of that Church. I omit the miserable Prelate of the Abbey of Fulden in Germany, who was pursued & in the end devoured by rats, notwithstanding all his force and devices, whereof the Tower built in the midst of the river of Rhine bears witness.  
Pliny makes mention of Coneys, which did undermine & overthrow a Town in Spain. Moules ruined another in Thessaly, Frogs made the Inhabitants of a certain Town in Gaul to abandon the place. But it is well known to all men, how God encountered the arrogancy of Pharaoh King of Egypt, with armies of diverse small beasts▪ If the l●…ast worms of the earth, opposing against the great erterprises of great men overthrow them, and what hope then is there in this world? What shall we say more, but with Lipsius, 
Lips. de const. c. 6.  That the most shining Diamond of constancy, a virtue so necessary in the inconstancy of Fortune, is not to be transported with hope nor fear? a supernatural ornament, near unto God, which makes man free from passions, exempt from the insulting of Fortune, and makes him a free King, subject to God only, whose service is to reign, as the wiseman sayeth.    

The 29. Argument taken from the unprofitableness of life.  
The freeing from a most vain vanity should not make man sad.  
Death is a freeing from a most vain vanity.  
SAlomon a powerful King, wise and rich, having sought, examined and tasted all that is excellent, pleasant & happy in this world, yet in the end he cried out with a true voice, in the book of truth; Vanity of vanities, all is but vanity. The Paraphrase upon this Sermon, doth teach us, that the end of it is, to let the world know, That they deceive themselves to their great confusion, which either within, above, or under the world, hope: to find any thing so firm, wherein there is assured contentment: no, sayeth he, there is nothing in the world but is inconstant, without stay, frail & most vain. And in truth when man hath passed his youth, and leaves his passions, coming to a more perfect age, his life promiseth felicity, yet upon condition, that he shall employ himself with all his force, either to heap up store of riches, or to purchase much credit, or to wallow in voluptuousness: but after that he hath toiled, turmoiled, and killed both body and soul, she leaves him empty & lost, finding her deceit too late. For,  

Had man of wealth such store,  
That much still heaped up more,  
And held in his free hold,  
A spring of liquid gold,  
His coffers seeing filled  
With treasures, still instilled   

Pearls, that best choises please,  
Brought from the bloody seas;  
And in rich labour could,  
(To break his fruitful mould,)  
A hundred Oxen yoke,  
Yet would desire still choke  
His throat with thirst of more.  
And yet of all the store,  
His heart affects to have,  
He carries nothing to his grave.   
Even as Boetius exclaims against senseless greediness; for in truth all she hath is nothing; she desires all she hath not, and that is infinite: she gapes always after gain, one lucre summons another, and she holds all lost that she cannot attain unto.  
Finally, Covetousness is the anvil, whereon are forged the chains of iniquity, to bind and ●…ast covetous men headlong into hell: these chains are four; Impiety, Inhumanity, forgetfulness of God's judgements, and Distrust; whereby we may infer●…e, that in stead of happiness, there is nothing here but misery.  
Now comes the second, Ambition, which knows no bounds, and hath neither end nor mean; if she possesseth this day a whole Country, to morrow she will seek to conquer a new Kingdom, & after this conquest she would seize upon all the world, and then pierce through the earth, to find new words; a strange thing, as Valerius saith, that 
Val. Max.  man should think his glory hath too streighr a lodging in this world, which notwithstanding was sufficient for all the gods: but it is more strange that man should be so tormented for the enjoying of a handful of earth, who hath the fruition of the Sun, the heaven, and of all the elements; in regard whereof this earthly Globe is nothing: for the Sun alone by the just computation of Philosophers, is a 166. times bigger than the earth. Why should a little portion of this little earth breed him so much care? He that hath more, should he care for less? Man hath the common enjoying of the principal of life, of the sea, heaven and stars; and must he for a little point of earth, deprive himself of the quiet enjoying of all these things, which be far greater? An ambitious man is always shaken with fear, and mus●…led with envy; he fears continually the crosses of fortune, his enemies terrify him, and his friends are suspect unto him: he eats not without fear of poison, he sleeps unquietly, for that his adversary's watch for his mine.  
Envy filing over the triumphs of other men, stings him continually; he thinks himself as much dejected as another is advanced; Thou thinkest him happy, and he holds himself miserable, & would confess it to thee if his ambition did not stay him: and if he feared not by this confession to make himself contemptible, the which he most abhorreth, he would show thee, that in his greatest banquets, he hath no more assurance than he, over whose head there hangs a naked sword, stayed only by a horse hair, as in old time that of the Tyrant of Sicily. But the advertisement given to Philip King of Macedon grown insolent for the victory of Cheronee, by Archidamus King of Sparta, after the Spartan manner, is notable: Philip, said he, measure thy shadow, if thou findest it bigger than of custom: as if he would say, Why dost thou thus insult over thine enemies, who in thy person hast received no increase, unless it he care and fear?  
Then follows Pleasure in eating, drinking, and in the venerean act: this pleasure if it keeps not the bounds of necessity and honesty, it is infamous and unwholesome; The throat hath slain more (faith a Physician) than the sword. Intemperance is the very bait of an impure spirit, which delights in unpure and undigested humours: drunkenness deprives a man of the use of reason, & transforms him into a beast, yea, a furious beast apt to commit many mischiefs. And therefore Saint Augustine speaks of drunkenness, that it is the mother of all villainies, the subject of offences, the root of crimes, the distemperature of the brain, the ruin of the body, the shipwreck of chastity, the loss of time, a voluntary rage, an ignominious languishing, the corruption of manners, etc. Either of these voluptuousnesses is like unto the biting of serpents, which they call Tarentula: They that are touched, laugh, sing, and dance; but it is a Sardonian laughter, which brings them to a fatal end; and what pleasure? As for the act of venery, out of the due of lawful marriage, it is by the testimony of Diogenes, wine mixed with poison, 
Laert. lib 6  which in the beginning seems sweet, but presently after it makes him feel a deadly bittemes: it is the mire wherein man doth devolve ruin, and lose himself: It is in this act only, saith Saint Jerome, that God did never touch the heart of his Prophets. Thrice, and four times wretched Ixion, who thinkest to embrace in thy arms the goddess juno, and 
7. Ethic. 11  it is but a cloud thou dost hold: The pleasure of this world is but a vain shadow of felicity, the substance is in heaven. To be short, we must abhor voluptuousness, like the sirens, as the Ancients have mystically painted them out: all that is seen of them is exceeding fair, they glister with the shining of sparkling Diamonds, they cast forth a sweet sent of Musk and Amber, their green eyes dart flames into the coldest heart; gold binds up their flaxen hair, their necks are circled with rubies, a Cypress of silver waving over their shoulders; their breasts of Alabaster open, whose paps like two round curds of milk, did seem to leap: on their foreheads were fixed two of Cupid's bows; their cheeks were crimson, and their mouths little, but their tail which is hidden under the water, is pointed, with teeth spotted, and venomous; finally, hideous and fearful, and they that are once stung, die without help; and what pleasure? These are the three careers which men in this world run by troops: hereunto the most active of mind and body, strain their sinews, and bend their spirits, who shall have most, and all for an imaginary happiness; Some in the beginning of the course fall to the ground; others end in the midst, and these not able to judge of the vanity of the world, are perished in the midst of it; The last being come unto the end, find (but it is in the extremity) that r●…ey have embraced the shadow for the body, vanity for felicity, and desolation for consolation? then they cry, O deceitful world, O miserable life! But before they can come to consider wherein the happiness of life doth consist, and settle themselves in a course to attain unto it, death seizeth on them.  

Objection.  
It is no good consequence to argue from the abuse to the thing abused.  
Your argument proceeds from the abuse to life.  
THey laugh at Lycurgus, causing the Vines to be pulled up, for that some men were drunk; and he were more mad that would cut off his nose because he is troubled with rheum: and what were he that would take away life, under colour that one useth it to covetousness, another to ambition, a third to voluptuousness? Let us banish the abuse, and retain life; that knowing with Diogenes the goods of nature to exceed them of fortune, let us refuse Alexander's silver, if he will deprive us of our liberty, and the true use of the Sun. Let us imitate Xenocrates, who gravely answered his Ambassadors, who had brought him 50. talents, or 30000. crowns, That he had not use for so much silver.  
Finally, wilt thou be rich? Do not labour to multiply thy wealth, but to make a substraction of thy concupiscence. As for the other abuse of ambition, let Socrates prescribe us a Rule, who hearing a relation of his praises in a discourse composed by Plato, interrupted him, crying out, Oh what lies this young man speaks of me! Let us consider rhat glory is mixed with the honey of Trapezonde, whose violent vapour doth strangely confound the spirits of such as use it, and makes. them forgetful of God, Apostates to the faith, and void of all natural reason.  
For Voluptuousness, let them cast their eyes upon the Curij & Fabricij, who will be more than content with turnips and beans; yea upon Epicurus, who with water and a little rice, would contend with jupiter, for his felicity. Let Cyrus, and Zaleucus King of Locres, be also heard; the first against the excess of wine; the other against whoredom: Cyrus being roughly demanded by his father in law Astyages, why he had refused to drink the cup which he had presented unto him; For that, said he, I conceived it had been poison, remembering that at your last feast, every man that used it, did stagger at every step, and his spirits so confounded, as he could not understand any thing, nor speak to purpose. Zaleucus made a law, that the Adulterer should lose both his eyes; wherein he was so strict, as his own son being convicted, he underwent the same punishment, and by a fatherly compassion, pulled out one of his sons, and one of his own eyes.  
Answer. I yield to all this, and do willingly give my voice, having never insisted but for the abuse; neither that we may deprive ourselves of life for any misery: Yea, I have maintained the contrary against the Stoics heretofore. It is the excess of the fear of death, I strive to prune and root out; showing that vanity and corruption is so united to life, that all which live, yea the greatest spirits, wallow in this mire: and therefore death which gives an end to this vanity and corruption, should cause no fears to reply, that it is the abuse and not the life: we may answer again, that the abuse is general, since the fall of the first man, no man can be exempt, if he be well observed.  
Let Diogenes go suddenly with a torch lighted into the most frequent market of Athens, nay into the most famous royal Fair of France, to search; yet shall he not find one: and I know not whether he himself which could so tax others will be found without blame; and whether he (as it hath been reproached unto him) did not more glory in his Tub, than Alexander in his Empire. Oh how easy it is to speak and lie! Virtue consists in practice and action: there will not any one be found in this age, that is not tainted more or less with one of the above named vices, or with all three; we can give no instance. All men suffer themselves to be led to some vain hope which they attend from day to day, which in the end deceives them; and death delivers them from this deception, why then should it be so terrible unto them? But represent one out of ten thousand, who hath learned wherein the true end of life doth consist, that is to say, in the tranquillity of the mind, in continual action according unto virtue, yea according unto piety, as he knoweth, and strives to have the spirit of a wise man (whereof Seneca speaks epist. 60.): that is like unto the world, above the Moon always clear. Yet must he confess, that he is in a wondeful combat, yea in insupportable pain, being tossed with contrary winds of diverse passions, which never leave him, no more than his body or flesh: Sometimes the immoderate love of transitory things stings him, sometimes the hatred of eternal things solicits him; or profane joy, or the melancholy of the mind, lays hold of him and consumes him: if vain hope leave him, then furious despair gets hold, or boldness thrusts him on to mischief, or fear retires him from good, and furious choler transports him beyond the bounds of reason: so many passions so many cords to bind him, so many assaults so many pains, if it succeed not well; and most commonly it proves contrary to his project; for this heavy flesh, this sensual concupiscence which he is to encounter, daws him still to the ground.  
But hearken how that great Apostle, more virtuous than all the Philosophers together, for that he had the gift of the Spirit of God, in a higher degree: hear how in the like conflict he cries out; Miserable man that I am, 
Rom. 7. v. 24.  who shall deliver me from the body of this death! If this servant of God living the life of jesus Christ, yet for the mortal assaults which he felt, terms this present life death, and were death a deliverance; what fear we in death, that we do not salute it rather as the safe port from all the storms and tempests of this life, full of baits and snares? as S. Augustine saith. Let us feal up this discourse with the ring of Seneca, 
De 〈◊〉. vit. c. 19  which is, That the condition of all men employed is miserable, and that most miserable which attends no other thing but his employments: he taxes the greatest part of men, who (like unto Livius Drusus,) from their infancy, to their dying day, give themselves no truce, always in action, in travel of mind or body; if they meet with any pleasure, they pass it over lightly without taste; if with displeasure, they are touched to the quick.  
Finally, they run so swiftly, as they look not to their way; they think not of their life, and cannot say what it is: all actions shall be pleasant, but that which is proper to man, which is, to have the spirit purged, given to Philosophy, and to the meditation of that which concerns man in the world. Let us then say with reason, O vanity of vanities, this is nothing but vanity.    

The 30. Argument taken from the restoring of mankind.  
Whatsoever being lost shallbe powerfully restored to us again, should not trouble us in the loss.  
Life being lost shallbe powerfully restored, etc.  
IF thou be'st a Christian, Christ commands thee, & thy faith doth bind thee to believe the Resurrection of the flesh; in the which, by the powerful voice of the Creator, raising them up which sleep in the dust, the life which thou hadst left, shallbe restored unto thee again, with most precious interests. But if deprived of the eyes of this faith, thou canst not see the beginning of the creation of the world, seeing that by faith (as the Apostle doth witness) we 
Heb. 11. verse 3.  understand that the ages have been ordained; yet as a miscreant thou dost believe the eternity and fatality of the world, let us admit this supposed truth to be true: know then, that the limited revolution of the heavens being ended and all the order of causes chained together, returned to the same point, in the which they hold all things balanced in an equal weight: know I say, that this same concatenation of causes by a necessary revolution, will restore thee to life, yea to the same estate, in the same place, & in the same positure thou art in at this present▪ so as you which read these things, or hear them read, shall be the same, at the same time, reading or hearing. It is the true extraction which moved that great Zoroastres to assure, that one day all men should take life again. Plato was of the same opinion, saying, That after the return of the eight sphere, which was in thirty six thousand years, all things should in like manner return.  
The reason; there is nothing made new under the Sun, and there is nothing, but what hath been and may return hereafter. So the Sun withdrawing his quickening influence with his body from our Zenith: the trees being 
The●…pomp l. 1. c. 17.  withered remain without fruit, without any verdure & without leaves: If thou hadst not seen it the years past, yet thou mayest in some sort believe that the Sun should return, and by his return give that vegetative virtue, that springing sap, & sweet smelling spirit to herbs and trees, which thou didst hold deprived of that power (and so they were, for this life which is in them, in the beginning of Winter descends from the branches to the body, and so to the root:) but the same gracious Star, which by his retiring had caused this death, returning, draws back by a wonderful regression and revolution of nature, this vegetative virtue, from the earth to the roots, to the body, and to the branches; and makes it to be seen and smelled by the buds, blossoms, leaves, and fruits. A dead man and one living is all one (said Heraclitus:) he 
Plut. in consol. ad Apollon.  that watcheth and the sleeper, the young and the old; for that being passed, it becomes this; and this being past, becomes that. Like unto a potter, who of one lump of clay may make beasts, and then confound them into a mass, and then fashion them again, which he may continue incessantly: It is art that doth this, and art is but an imitation of nature. Thus nature sport's itself in the common nature of all Creatures; she makes them and undoes them again, and then makes them again, and afterwards dissolves them: of water she makes snow, and of snow water, and so incessantly: of grass she makes pasture for sheep, the sheep make dung, the which is cast upon the ground, & grass grows again; and so by circumvolution in all other Creatures. Wherefore comfort yourselves, you that are discomforted in death; for what you have and what you love, shall be given you again.  
And the Proverb of the living is not admitted in death; That the term is worth the money: that the revolution of so many thousands of years to return unto the point, which they hold at this present, will put you out of patience, and so vex you, as it will far exceed the little content of so short a life: This is not in death, where there is a full cessation of all distemperatures, and of observation of times, and expectance; whereas ten millions of years cannot last so long, as one night of twelve hours, which you shall pass in a deep sleep; and yet notwithstanding the length, in the morning you will think it to have been very short: and in like manner the 5000. years from the Creation, which have past when you were not, were they of any continuance to you? your reason then should assure you of the like for that which is to come.  

Objection.  
All that passeth (according to the hazard of fortune) by a 100 thousand changes, cannot be restored to the former estate.  
A dead body according to the chance of fortune, passeth by a hundred thousand changes.  
OF body's some shall be devoured by birds, or beasts of the field; others reduced to powder; & some eaten with worms, serpents, and toads: These serpents and toads after some days are extinct, & of them a new thing is made, and so in infinitum: By what reason then can that be restored to the same estate, which hath all these changes? Moreover, it is to fall into contradiction to maintain this doctrine: The beasts which have been and shall be, are infinite in number, according to their infinite forms, which have given them being. But the common substance, the receptacle of forms, is finite and limited; by what arithmetic then can she furnish the bodies of those infinite creatures, which have been in the world, during so long a time? For it may be that a small portion of this common matter, hath served to more than a thousand creatures: in the restauration, to which of these shall it be subjected? If but to one, then what shall become of the rest? You have propounded an example of the clay, I accept it, and let you thereby see the impossibility of your assertion: take a piece of the bigness of your fist, and fashion a man: undo it, and make an horse, then make an Ape; then dissolve it to his mass, and frame an Eagle: behold four creatures fashioned of one ball of clay. Now come and make your restitution, and strive (without adding any thing to this clay) to make this man, horse, ape, and Eagle, all as great at one instant; and you will find yourself confounded, there being substance but for one of the four. Even so it is of this common substance, by the consent and testimony, both of Christian and Heathen Philosophers.  
Answer. This doctrine is drawn from the Stoics, who attribute unto the world, a certain period in his continuance, after the which there is a renewing and restoring of the same plants, creatures and men that have been at infinite times in the Eternity of the world, which after a long age resumes by deluge, or an universal deflagration, her first face: all this continuance from one term unto another, is called the great year, which Macrobius extends to fifteen thousand years, Firmic us to 30. thousand, and others to more. Behold what Seneca saith to Polybius 
Consul. ad Polib. init.  of another sect; Some (that is to say, the Stoics) threaten the world with an end: this Universe which contains all things both humane and divine, shall be dissolved in one day, if it be lawful to believe it: One 
〈◊〉 Nat. quest. 〈◊〉. ●…9.  day shall plunge this Universe into his Chaos, and first darkness. And Berosus who hath interpreted Belus, saith, that this must be done by the course of the stars, yea he maintains it so confidently, as he assigns the time of the conflagration, and of the Inundation; for he holds the earthly things shall burn, when all the stars that now hold diverse courses in the firment, shall be gathered together in the sign of Cancer, being set in such a station, as a strait line may pass through them and their heaven. And the Inundation shall then be, when the like assembly of the stars shall be in Capricorn; there is the Solstice, here the winter; that is the sign of burning summer, this of moist winter. If you inquire how this can be done, the same Author will answer you, that it may be done without any great force; for that, saith he, nothing is difficult to nature, when as she runs to her end: she is sparing of her force, in the first framing of things, but their increase being come, she disperseth herself to a sudden ruin, and descends to it with violence. What a long time is required, after the seed is received, to bring the Infant to light? with what trouble is he nourished and bred up? But how easily is he dissolved? Cities which have had a whole age to build them, are ruined in an hour: a forest which hath been so long in growing, is consumed to ashes in a moment. Numenius saith, that the Stoics hold, That all things after a long time vanish and perish, being dissolved in a celestial fire.  
Tully hath also spoken of it: After the inflammation 
2. de nat. Deor.  there shall remain nothing but fire, by the which, and of the which there shall be the renewing of the world, and the same ornaments shall appear. And Numenius in Eusebius adds, That after the fire the world should be settled & made perfect again, as it was before, yea the same men; and therefore Seneca saith, That 
Epist. 36.  death which we so much fear and fly from, doth not ravish away, but only suspend the use of life; a day will come which will restore us to light.  
Moreover, such periodical conversions happen from all eternity, eternally, and without ceasing, as Numenius sayeth. And to conclude, let us know that this opinion hath not been held so absurd among Christians, but that Octavius hath used it against the Pagans, to refute the objection which they made, That the Christians did prescribe an end to the stars, and to heaven: It is a constant opinion of the Stoics, saith he, that after all humour is consumed, this world shall burn: and Nature by whom this revolution is made, seems to give us some notice, in that the fields being burnt by the labourer, or drowned by water as in Egypt, as in pools dried up, and when the sea is retired; in that I say, this earth remaining, is found renewed, fat and producing many Creatures, yea great and perfect, as they write namely of Nile after it is retired.  
Now under the wings of these great personages I come to maintain this combat, and refel the reasons of the Obiector: We have in our Argument touched two points simbolizing together, although the one be Christian, and the other Heathen; the first is the Resurrection of the flesh, which we extend to man only, not of other Creatures: And let us say, that he who of nothing could make all, may easily overthrow the imagined difficulty, and raise up and restore to the same estate the bodies of dead men: for he that can do more, can do less without all controversy; and he that could of nothing make that which was not, may repair that which was undone.  
But how shall this Resurrection be made, and what assurance shall we have? Behold how: In the presence of all the world, of Angels, of men, and of devils, (with unspeakable joy to the good, and incomprehensible horror to the wicked) the Lord shall come with a cry of exhortation, and the voice of 
〈◊〉. Cor. 15. 1. Thes. 4.  the Archangel, and the Trumpet of God; these are the very words of the text. By the sound of this trumpet all the dead shall awake and rise out of their graves; and they that shall live and remain at this coming, shallbe suddenly changed, and of mortal shallbe made immortal, by his force and efficacy, 
Phil. 3. 2●…  who can make all things subject unto him, as the Apostle saith. The bodies of the children of God shall rise again; like the glorious body of jesus Christ, impassable, spiritual, and yet fleshly, shining like stars, subtle, light, transparent; and full of all happiness: behold the letters of heaven: 
Idem.  We attend the Saviour, who will transform our vile bodies, and make them conformable to his glorious body.  
We know, sayeth Saint john, that after he hath appeared, we shall be like 
joh. 1. 〈◊〉.  unto him: God will wipe 
Apo. 21. 4.  away all tears from our eyes, saith he; death shall be no more, there shallbe no mourning, cries, nor labour: The body sown in corruption, shall rise spiritual, 
1. Cor. 15. 45.  saith S. Paul, for that no solid thing can hinder it, it may without help or wings, fly into remote places; as jesus Christ after his resurrection, did manifest it more than sufficiently in 
A●…g 〈◊〉. Adimant. c. 12.  his body: finally, he shall be spiritual, for that he shallbe readily and willingly obedient to his glorified spirit.  
In this flesh and not in any other shall I see my Saviour, saith job, c. 1. 9 For this mortal body must put on immortality, saith the Apostle. Thirdly, they which have been 
1. Cor. 15. 13.  understood (saith Daniel 12.) shall shine like the heavens, and they that bring many to justice, shall glister like the stars for ever.  
Also the glory of the Sun is one, the glory of the Moon 
1. Cor. 25. 41.  another, and the glory of the stars is also different; even so shall be the resurrection of the dead; whereby it follows that the bodies raised again shall have no gross substance, but shall be transparent like unto glass.  
Fourthly, being raised again, we shall be taken up 
1. Thes. 4. 17.  into the clouds before the Lord, and being ascended into heaven, we shall have unspeakable joy, such as the eye hath not seen, the ear not heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man. These are wonderful things, but what assurance? the Spirit of God doth assure thee, if thou be'st of God; for God doth seal up an earnest penny 
2 Cor. 1. 22  of his holy Spirit in their hearts that are his, as the Apostle teacheth.  
Secondly, If the soul be immortal, the body must one day rise immortal, to the end, that this soul being created for the body, may give it life again being reunited. Moreover (as Saint Ambrose teacheth) it is the order and cause of justice; 
De fid. resur rect, c. 19  seeing that the work of man is common to the body and soul, and what the soul doth forethink, the body effects; and therefore it is reasonable that both should appear in judgement, to receive either punishment or glory.  
Thirdly, jesus Christ is risen for us, and to assure us that by the same divine power that hath drawn him out of the grave, we also shall be raised. I prove the antecedent by above 500 witnesses, 
1 Cor. 15. 6  which at one time have seen jesus Christ, living after that he had been crucified by the jews, as the Apostle showeth: and joseph also who was a jew, doth witness it, lib. 18. c. 2. & 4. of his Antiquities. He was seen precisely by women, believed by the incredulous: and for a full assurance thereof, he would (contrary to the nature of his body, which aspired nothing but heaven) converse forty days upon earth: here is reason sufficient in this matter of faith, whereas reason should yield herself prisoner; and yet to make it appear visibly, and to free all doubt, God would both in the ancient and new alliance raise up some that were seen and admired of the people. So Lazarus being called out of his grave, was beheld of all men, and the malicious pharisees took counsel to put him to death as well as jesus Christ.  
The same God would manifest a plot of the future Resurrection to his Prophet Ezechiel, when as he had transported him into a field full of 
Ezech. 37.  dry bones; which when he had seen, and prophesied over ●…em, behold a motion, the bones draw near one unto another, and suddenly behold they had sinews upon them, and flesh came, and then the skin covered it; and in the end after a second d●…untiation of the word of God, the spirit came, and then appeared a great army of men.  
As for this point which concerns an article of our faith, the Resurrection of the flesh, the Obiector dares not deny, but there is matter sufficient in this world to furnish for the restoring of all the dead bodies; not since an imaginary Eternity, (for we are now upon terms of divinity, whereof we must believe the principles, and not question them,) but from the first man unto the last that shall be: Herein there is nothing that involves contradiction.  
The other point was, that suppose the eternity of the world, after the revolution of all things, and the encounter of the same order in all points that is at this present, there shall be the same Superficies, the same creatures, and the same men that are at this present: this also hath no implicity, seeing we affirm not, that all things, the same creatures, which have been & shallbe for ever, shallbe restored together at one instant, but by degrees, and every one in his turn. Behold how this first matter perisheth not, and is not reduced to nothing, but flows daily under new forms. This matter is bounded, the stars and the heaven which roll about it, make it to bring forth creatures continually, and man sometimes; but by some rare constellation, as the naturalists speak. The heavens, I say, are bounded, and their motions limited: Wherefore I maintain, it is not impossible, that in an eternity of time, that which is limited and bounded, and hath once met and is joined, may yet again meet and be rejoined: if we consider that it is not by chance, but by fatal necessity: that this Universe rolls without ceasing; as all they among the Pagans which have had any understanding have acknowledged: Yea one of them said, that who so would demand proofs thereof; must be answered with a whip: but behold a most certain proof; all creatures, even those that have no understanding, tend always to their ends propounded, and all encounter in one universal end: If there were not a certain providence in the world, which prescribes to every creature that end which it knoweth not, and makes it contain itself; the world should not be a world, that is to say, a most excellent and well ordained composition, but the greatest confusion that could be imagined. Seeing then that the heavens in their motions, the stars in their conjunctions, the causes in their order, even unto the last, may encounter together: so those things which wholly de●…d of them, may be red●… 〈◊〉 the same estate. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a maxim in Physics, that the matter and the Agent have such power after the death, and destruction of the creature, as they had during his life: what then can hinder it but by the position of the same causes, and the same circumstances of time concurring, the same effect may be repaired?  
Moreover, the thing which is no more, is no farther from being then that which hath not been; and there is no impossibility but that which hath had no being, may come to light; neither is there any repugnancy but that which hath been once living, may come again to life; yea, and who knows whether that which is now, hath not been often heretofore? I should believe it, if I did give credit to the eternity of the world. As for the similitude of clay, which the Object or (not understanding me) doth press so strongly, it is very fit in this matter: for the workman which hath made a man, and then hath wrought it to make a horse, and then confounded it to make an ape, and in the end an Eagle; may if he please, return and make the same man which he had made first; and having undone it, may make a horse, and so consequently one after an other in infinitum, not that he can make them all four subsisting at one time, therein the Obiector fights with his shadow, and not with my saying.  
And to demonstrate the power of Nature turning about her circle, & returning back to the point where she had begun, and passing over all the circumference of the circle, to repair that in place and time which she had dissolved; she would leave for an earnest penny, the Phoenix, the only bird of his kind, which is seen in Arabia; and which the Egyptians in their hieroglyphical letters painted, to describe by his long continuance, the immortality of the soul. This goodly bird after many ages past, to renew himself, casts himself upon a pile of sticks laid together, the which he doth so beat with his wings, and with the help of the Sun, which hangs perpedicularly over him, as it takes fire, and consumes the body: out of which springs a little worm, and of that a little bird; which being covered with feathers, in the end flies away, and becomes the same Phoenix. You will question the truth hereof, if the same Nature did not as much or more in the silkworm, whose egg is no bigger than a grain of millet; it discovers a little woolly worm, the which without dying transforms itself into a moth, & that changeth into a fly which hath scales, and this becomes a butterfly, which beating itself continually lays eggs; of these eggs come little worms, and so consequently by an infinite circulation.  
Wherefore these divers changes and forms happening in our bodies, should not amaze us, but rather assure us, that having been carried far about, they shall return to their first estate, seeing that their walks and this Universe have their limits and bounds, and seeing (by the testimony of the wise 
Ecc. 3. 15.  man) that which hath been is now, and that which is to come hath also been: God calling back that which hath past, that is to say as the Divines expound it, that God by his administration, makes the Creatures succeeding one an other, return in their order, as if they went about a wheel; which kind of speech is taken from the celestial Spheres which govern the seasons, signifying that those things which happen by time, are wheeled about with the revolution of time, which contains them. These are the words of no vulgar Divines, whereby we may see how much they yield to this opinion.    
The end of the first Book.   

The Second Book.  

The first Argument taken from the Immortality of the soul.  
That which is free from Death in the principal part, should not fear it.  
Man in his soul (his principal part) is freed frem death,  
Therefore he should not fear it.  
IF all men could understand without doubting, & persuade themselves without wavering, that their souls at the departure from their bodies are happily immortal, there is not any one, without contradiction, but would go, cheerfully and resolutely unto death, considering the miseries of this life, and the heavy burden of the body; for it is the sepulchre of the soul, as Plato said. The soul is a plant transported from heaven into a strange soil, into a body of earth, where it sighs, pines away, and desires to depart.  
The greatest thing in the world (saith Periander) is contained in a little space: Socrates maintained, that the true man was that within, which is lodged in the body as in an Inn. S. Bernard exhorts the body, to know it, & to entreat his guest which is the soul) well: The which 
Ser. 6.ae. Aduent.  Anaxarchus did apprehend, who being beaten in a mortar, did cry out courageously to the tyrant Nicocreon, Beat beat, O hangman, the flesh and bones of Anaxarachus▪ So M. Laevius seeing Galba a great Orator with a deformed 
Erasm. Apoth.  body, said, That great spirit dwells in a poor cottage. But S. Paul shows it better than all these; If this earthly lodging be destroyed, if this body return to ashes, 
2. Cor. 5.  we have a mansion with God. And the body is the clothing of the soul, the which Aesop objected to one who abused the beauty of his body: He are my friend, said he, thou hast 
Max. ser. 44.  a fair garment: but thou puttest it off ill. Man is a cavalier his body is the horse, the spirit is the rider: if the horse be lame, blind orresty, saith one, the rider is not in fault. The body is a ship, the spirit the Pilot, the ship suffers wrack, but the Pilot saves himself by swimming, or upon some board, the body dies, the soul saves itself upon the table of faith and repentance. The body is a Lantern, the soul the Candle; if the glass be clear and transparent, the light is the greater: so by the disposition of the body, the soul is known more or less. Man is a bird shut up in the shell of the egg, expecting until the shell break of itself that he may come forth; so doth, the soul that the body my be broken, to the end she may fly to heaven.  
There are three places assigned to man, the first is the matrix, the second is this world, & the third is heaven; the first is short, the second a little longer, and the third is without end: In the first he cries at the coming forth, for that he is ignorant of the goodly spectacle of the world which God (as a table covered with all sorts of meat in a great Hall) hath prepared for him: In the second, he apprehends and desperately fears his departure, for that he knows not this third heaven, the seat of jesus Christ, of the Angels, and of the blessed, which is prepared for him, infinitely more excellent than this base earth; where he shall remain everlastingly, and perfectly happy. And these are the lively similitudes with many other likewise, which are continually in the mouths and writings of such as treat profoundly thereof; whereby man may see that he hath no subject to fear death, seeing that by it his soul, his principal part, and by which he is man, receives so great a benefit: And what shall it be when the holy Ghost shall assure his Spirit, that his body being laid in the ground, as in a sacred pawn, shallbe restored to him immortal, in the great and last day?  
But attending this incomparable good, let us prove this immortality byreason; & first of all: The soul revives, and fortifies itself in the greatest agonies of death. So Testators witness, that they are sound in mind, though very sick in body: so the disposition of a man at the point of death is of more weight, for that he hath a better conscience, & a more lively feeling of his soul. And Hypocrates gives advice 
Lib. 1. de prognost.  to observe, if in diseases there appear nothing that is Divine: meaning that we should observe the sighs, and the gestures of the sick patient; for if they be unaccustomed of heaven, or of God, it is a sign that the soul begins to discover itself, seeing it thinks of heaven her proper mansion. So Cyrus (being in the bed of death) caused his children to approach unto him; to whom he gave 
Xenoph. lib. 8.  goodly admonitions; but among others he told them, that he could never be persuaded, that the soul lying in the body did remain after the death of the mortal body, as if he would say, that until then he had studied to assure himself, but now he did not doubt of it. Nay, we shall sometimes see ignorant Countrymen, discourse exceeding well at the point of death; as we read of a certain labourer altogether unlearned, being nee●…e unto his death, had recommended his health, his wife and children, with as great Rhetoric as Cicero could have used discoursing before the Senate.  
This reason was taken as a strong defence against death, by the King of Arr●…gon, and 
●…anorm. l 4. de Alphons.  represented by Seneca to all that are fearful in death, saying, This day which thou fearest so much, as the last, is the birth day of eternity.  
The 2. is taken from religion, and from the homage which man doth owe unto God for the immortality of his soul; not in one Country but in all; not in one age, but for ever; not in one person, but generally in all by some adoration, prayer, of sacrifice, in what fashion soever, man will sooner forget his King, his father, yea himself, than his God; yet he makes no doubt but there is a King, he sees him, he knows him, he honours him: and that he hath a father, of whom he holds his life, and with whom he doth converse daily, and whom he is bound to love; finally, he tries himself, grows conceited, and many times abuseth himself with the great love of himself; and yet he holds himself more bound to God, then to all these: he will not fear to displease them, if he can no otherwise please God; and will hold for Maxims, That it is better to obey God then men: that he which doth not renounce father or mother for the love of God, is not worthy of him: he that doth not renounce himself, and take up the Cross of affliction for the service of God, deserves to be renounced of him. The uncivil wars which have swallowed up so many men in Christendom, within these 50. years, had no other pretexts than these sentences; and they had no other foundation than the conscience of the soul, that immortal seal, which God did grave in the soul when he did infuse it into the body of man, as Chrysostome saith. Let us observe it in some examples, but great in every respect. Alexander the Great, being incensed for that the jews had denied him succours, marched with his Army to ruin them, if the high Priest jaddus with his ornaments, and his holy troop, had not gone out to meet with Alexander: Who when he saw the high Priest, he admired him, and fell down at his feet; whereat his people were amazed, and troubled, and his most confident Parmenio came unto him: How comes it, saith he, since that you worship a man, you whom althe earth is ready to acknowledge for a God? It is not he (answered Alexander) but God in him, whom I worship, who appeared to me in vision in the like habit in Macedon. Whence came this sudden forgetfulness of his own revenge, & from whence this acknowledgement to the Immortal? but from an immortal soul. As Antiochus held jerusalem besieged, the feast of Tabernacles drew near, & the jews being resolved to celebrate it, they sent an Embassage unto him, to demand a truce for seven days, that they might attend the holy worship of their great God. The soul of this great King being touched with religion, not only yielded to their demand, but also he himself turned to this homage, caused oxen with gilded horns to be conducted to the City gates, with great store of Indense, and sweet smells to be sacrificed. In which action whether should we admire most, either the patience of this great King, willingly and devoutly hindering his ready victory? Or the forgetfulness of himself, suffering those sacrifices that he knew to be undertaken against his honour, his fortime, and his life?  
And what doth not this confused apprehension of God work in the immortal spirit of man? Cybel's Priests will geld themselves, thinking to please their goddess; the Athenian Priests will drink Hemlock to live chastely; the Virgins will lie upon certain leaves fit to mortify their lusts; and Cicero will cry out to countenance them, that they must come chastely to the gods: Yea, Agam●…mnon will sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to pacific Diana: Adrian in Egypt will sacrifice his Minion Axtinons: Vialerian will use the superstitious custom to offer up children; the Hetrusci had that institution in their Country; & the ancient Gauls in Provence, in 
Gaguin. lib. 19 hist. of France.  the City of Arles, had two pillars erected, and thereupon an altar of stone, to offer humane sacrifices.  
The third is taken from the wise ordinance of nature, which in many millions of things hath made nothing in vain; nothing that wavers or leans sometimes of this side, sometimes on that, as Erasistratus said: how then should it be in man, her masterpiece, in the soul the principal part? Hath she planted a vehement desire of immortality, the chief point of her excellency? hath she given her a taste in this miserable life, to leave her altered for ever?  
The fourth is from the continual action of the soul which never takes rest day nor night, like unto the Sun: sleep doth not shut her eyes as it doth the bodies, neither by consequence, death. Consider it, when as the body is in a found sleep without motion, not in the beginning of his rest, when as the vapours of his digestion fuming up into the brain, trouble it; but after midnight, and especially at the point of day: 
Then when the soul her faculties holds free,  
From serving bodily variety;  
Then when alone, and dead, to life (in fort)  
Saved from days waves, she enters nights calm port.   
It is then, that being raised above time, she reads in future (which is present: to her) the things which God is ready to do. So Asti●…ges last King of the Medes, in his dream saw the stock of a Vi●…e coming out of his daughter's belly, which covered all Asia with her branches. The Interpreters being consulted with, they answered, that his daughter should have a son, which should enjoy all Asia, and dispossess him of his Kingdom: the event failed not, notwithstanding all the opposition that Astyages could make. Tertullian 
Tertul. lib. de anima. 〈◊〉 de somno.  reports, that the daughter of Polycrates dreamt, that her father raised up on high, was washed by jupiter, and anointed by the Sun: The event expounded her dream soon after, for that Polycrates being hanged, the rain washed him, and the Sun m●…ing his gr●…ase anointed him.  
But who is ignorant of Joseph's dream of his future greatness? of Pharaohs: touching the fertility and famine which should follow in Egypt? of Daniel touching the four Monarchies of the world: of ●…ilats wise upon the false accusation of jesus Christ the just, & of infinite others; yea, and of ourselves, if we have observed them: For what is he, saith Tertullian, so void 
Idem.  of humanity, that hath not sometimes felt in himself some faithful vision?  
Thus the Eternal doth unto the good, to assure them of the immortal action of their souls; and to the wicked, to terrify them with his eternal judgement, send such dreams of future things, to amaze or assure according to his good pleasure. So he spoke by his Prophet, Your sons and your daughters 
I●…el. 〈◊〉:  shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Let us conclude with Tertullian, That seeing 
Tert. de resur. carnis.  sleep the image of death cannot seize upon the soul, that the soul being always lively and active, can not fall in Veritatem mortis, into the verity of death.  
The fifth. Man in this life is more miserable than any of the creatures, and more capable of felicity, than any of them, they being all made for him, who never here upon earth attains unto his sovereign good, which he most desireth, as Aristotle and Theophrastus have acknowledged, and as every man is a good witness in himself. Who will not then think but his true place is in heaven, and in it his sovereign good? And what part of man can fly thither but his immortal soul, which in a moment, not parting out of the body, transports itself thither in Idea? Tully in his Tusuculans, and others.  
The sixth complaint of Theophrastus (of nature as of a stepmother) seems most just, to have given a long life to no end, to certain creatures; and to have denied it unto man, who might thereby have attained unto wisdom, the greatest good in this world, if the soul died with the body; for then only we begin to be wise when we dye, and many times were prevented by death: But nature hath done nothing but most wisely; and therefore she hath satisfied this complaint another way.  
The seventh is drawn from man's conscience, which being good makes Innocency to lift up her head by the feeling of another life; and to look down for an offence by the apprehension of a future judgement.  
There is no light so clear, nor testimony so glorious, as when truth shines in the spirit, and the spirit is seen in truth, saith Saint Bernard. 
In Cant. serm. 85.  A good conscience is stronger than a brazen wall, said Horace. Let him speak boldly and confidently for himself, that hath not offended, saith Plautus; and with the shaking of his chin, retort 
Hic murus aheneus esto nihil conscire sibi, nulla palles cere culpa.  the false reports of a bad fame as Ovid speaks. This did embolden innocent Susanna against the two old men; choosing rather to dye then to offend God: This made joseph rather to leave his robe with his mistress, than his heart.  
Finally, it is that which in the midst of many deaths, gave resolution unto Cato, Photion, and many other heathen: as to Philip King of Macedon, who being animated by some to take revenge of such as spoke dishonourably of him; O no, said he, I will make them all liars in doing well.  
On the other side, there is nothing that doth more terrify and torment then a bad conscience. Let the most resolute wretch that is, come, and I will make him confess in some sort howsoever; his crime committed in secret, in the night, without witnesses, and without any accuser; yea although he had his pardon, or were acquit before men, or were so advanced as he were not justifiable before any man: yet he must needs confess that he is inwardly troubled, and furiously tormented: the Swallows by their importune noise will publish the parricide attempted by a cauterised conscience, as hath happened in old time: Or imaginary flies, will buzz continually in the ears of the servant that hath killed his master, until the fact be revealed. Whence is the spring of this lively feeling in the soul, but from the apprehension of immortal pain? God's will being that for the love of justice, judgement should rather go against the life of the body, then that which is hidden should not come to light.  

Objection.  
Counsel given by favour, upon weak conjectures, doth rather shake then support a right.  
Such are these reasons.  
THE steps of such as bring good tidings are pleasing and welcome; and they that bring bad, distasteful and rejected: So the 400. Prophets which promised victory unto Achab against 
〈◊〉. Ki. c. 22.  Ramoth of Gilead were welcome; but only Miche●…s, who pronounced the contrary was put in prison: and yet they were false, and this true. Let us beware of the like, lest that favour and grace deceive us in this matter. Let us take the balance of equity, and weigh the reasons propounded; if they be good they will weigh down whatsoever shallbe opposed; and if they be currant, they will endure the touch: let us then try the first.  
Huart, a great Philosopher of Spain, maintains that the understanding hath his beginning, his increase, and his constitution, and then his declining, like unto a man; (he means his body, for the understanding is the most excellent part of man) and like other Creatures, and plants: And for this cause, he that will learn at what age hi●… understanding is most strong and vigorous, let him know that it is from 33. unto fifty, at what time the gravest Authors should be made, if during their lives they have had contrary opinions: He that will write books should compose them at this age, neither before, or after; if he will not retract or alter them.  
Hitherto Huart, which experience doth confirm; for we see that as a man doth advance in age, he grows in wisdom; and jesus himself made true man, advanced in wisdom and stature. chose, age declining, the spirit decays in memory, in quickness, in understanding; so as man being very old, he becomes twice a child, fumbling with his tongue, & doting in mind. As for that the Testators say, that they are sound in mind, it is to show that neither age nor sickness hath as yet made them lose their spirits; and therefore it is a true sign of their decay, concluding contrary to the intention of the Author.  
And whereas the labourer spoke so divinely, it did not proceed from the nearness of death, but from the alteration of the temperature of his brain, grown hot in the first degree by the force of his infirmity: so some women have prophesied and spoke Latin, yet never learned it, by the same reason of the temperature required, & yet they die not suddenly in this estate.  
To the 2. Religion proceeds partly from nature, partly from institution; from nature who to rule all Creatures, 
Prim●…s in orbe Deos fecit timor.  & to make them follow the train of his order, graves in them all a certain terror & indistinct apprehension; The Creatures fear man, and by this fear are contained in their duties: man fears a hidden superiority, and maintains himself in society, & many times he fears he knows not what, nor wherefore; and therefore it happens that women who are commonly more fearful, are more religious. Yea they report of certain bruit beasts which adore the deity as Elephants; yet they do not say that their souls are immortal. From institution, for as vessels do long retain the sent of their first liquor wherewith they are seasoned, so children maintain unto the end the religion wherein they are bred and brought up, although it were the most fantastic and strange in the world: yea, if in stead of saving it should dam them; as we may see, if we will open our eyes, in these times so fertile in religions.  
To the 3. If the soul be mortal, it followeth not that nature hath made any thing in vain; if she hath hope or fear to be immortal, it is to encourage it to virtue, that is to say, to the preservation of that goodly order, and to terrify it from the infraction thereof, if she dies, her alteration of the immortality dries away. Nature hath also given unto the Bat a desire to see the light of the Sun, & yet this desire never takes effect. Finally, every creature flies death, and desires life, not for a time but for ever; and by consequent, in their kind desire to be immortal, and yet they attain not to it.  
To the 4. The heart beats continually and is immortal; Dogs sleeping dream, and are mortal; therefore the unquiet and uncessant action of the soul, can be no certain sign of her immortality.  
To the fifth. john de Seres, almost throughout the whole course of his history of France will answer, That man finds no misery but what he seeks The philosophers yea Divines will say, that felicity proportionable unto humane nature, consists in an upright disposition of his will, to carry himself according to the reason that is in him, towards all things that shall present themselves, to make his profit of all things, not to trouble himself with any thing that can happen in this world, and to nourish the seeds of virtue which are sown in his mind.  
To the sixth, Solon will answer, that it is a hard matter to please all men: some complain of the shortness of life; if we observe it, these are such as have prodigally consumed themselus at cards & dice, and have not found it but toolate.  
Others complain of the length, and cut it off before their time: But Seneca wiser than either, well say, that we must not be careful to live 
Epist. 94.  long, but enough; to live long is a work depending of destiny, to live enough is of the mind.  
The life is long if it be full, and it is full when the spirit affects her good, and tranfers her power to herself. O excellent speech, he that hath ears let him hear. Let us proceed; certain creatures live longer than man, and which? Ravens, Stags, the Phoenix. I doubt it much: as for the Phoenix, it is a fabulous thing; for Stags, we know not any thing but by a writing which was found about a Stag's neck, Caesar gave me this: if it were the first Caesar, it is long since, but it might be some other, whilst that the Emperors reigned in France, and that is not long. As for the Raven a most importune and unfortunate bird, who hath tried it? But admit this were true, there were but two or three excepted out of the general rule of nature; which is, that man her chief work lives longer than any other creature; and it is her pleasure to except from the general, as we see else where: cease then to blame that which you should commend and admire To the Seventh and last, simbolizing much with the second, you must receive the same answer. And moreover there is not found any generous instinct in the soul of man, which appears not as great in brute beasts, for the preservation and defence of their young.  
As for the confession (pretended so easy) of an offence committed, the divers kinds of tortures invented to wrest it out in justice, belie it: but you will say they are inwardly tormented; how know you that, who can see nothing but the exterior part?  
Answer: The doctrine of the humane soul depends of a superior knowledge, that is, of the Metaphysic, whereof the rule is the Canon of the old and new Testament: man must not presume to think he can fully comprehend it; her perfect intelligence is reserved for us exclusinely for ever, when we shall behold it in heaven in the glass of the Trinity and divine unity: here this is an Article of our faith, understood in the resurrection of the flesh and life eternal. When there is any question of faith, reason must be silent and yield; and therefore S. Bernard confesseth that 
In the dedic. of the Temple Homily. 5.  when he thinks of the estate of the foul, he thinks to see two things in it in a manner contrary: if he beholds it with his humane discourse, as she is in herself, and of herself, he can say nothing more certain but that she is reduced to nothing etc.  
Next, it was affirmed that man was very credulous to ●…uill, & incredulous to good: suspicion turns always cunningly to the worst part, said an Ancient; he swallows down slanders and impostures sweetly, and distrusts honest and virtuous things; such is his misery. If he think that the immortality of the soul cannot be grounded solidly upon any humane argument, let him also think that there cannot instance be given to the contrary, which is not easily overthrown, so as he bring a spirit that is tractable & not prejudicate. And above all, that he do not persuade himself that he may see it or feel it, as the smoke or heat going out of the fire, so the soul going out of the body; for it is a spirit, and therefore not possible to be comprehended but by reason and understanding, which are spiritual operations, but let us answer him to every point.  
It seems the Obiector takes an ill presage of the immortality of the soul; for that she is favourable: as if it were not the nature of man (if he be not brutish) to court those things which are worthy & excellent, as the soul of man is above all the world. All men applaud men in great authority; we esteem precious things, as siluergold Pearl: what a sot or rather a mad man is he, that will have a concoit that the thing is not excellent, because it is respected? As for the 400. Prophets, they spoke unto the King according to humane sense, and were found false; Micheas according to the word of God revealed unto him, and it was true. The Obiector reasons according to carnal sense, & he shall be taxed with falsehood; We speak according to the spirit of God in his holy writ, & we shall be found true. He desires in the end (or makes a show to desire it) that we should balance our reasons. I am content, and I protest it will be to his confusion; for the Father of light will not suffer Satan the father of lies to triumph over the truth. For the first instance than we say, that Huart doth not mean the soul by the under standing, but the intellectual spirits, whereof she hath need to argue and to understand the things of this world, and to write worthily; and these intellectual spirits holding of the vital body, it is not strange if they be more vigorous according to the estate of the body; and contrariwise if they perish, when the body perisheth: for although they be of a celestial substance, exceeding what, exceeding light, and most substantial, that they may be more ready to serve the soul, yet are they mortal: but the soul in her substance receiveth no increase nor diminution) since the moment of her creation, & infusion into the body; at all times, yea in all men she is equally perfect, as complete in the Idiot as in the learned, in the coward as the courageous: these are the diverse instruments of the body, whereof she makes use, which make her diverse in her effects; & these instrument 〈◊〉 divers, for that they are diversely mixed of the four first humours. Moreover this Spanish Philosopher defines the immortality of the soul against Galen, which he calls a substantial act and form of a humane body. Cap. 7. of his Examen of spirits: Here the impostor: doth impertinently confound mortal spirits with the immoral spirit: and our reason grounded upon this, that the soul (the body dying) thinks of the delightful places in heaven, and foretells things to come with much certitude, according to the opinion of Tully and our own.  
To the Second. This general submission of all menin, all places, and at times under a powerful Majesty, shows the natural bond which man hath to do his homage by reason of the immortality of his soul; and that he doth rather worship, vain, ridiculous and abominable things, than none at all: doth not deface this bond, but confirms it more; yet showing, that he wanders in the darkness of this world, and in steed of taking the way of the East to go unto heaven, if he be not guided and directed from above, he takes the contrary way, and wanders far: The which we yield; but it is a terror (answers he) to keep man in his duty: it is true, & therefore; religion is not in vain, for without it, for one disorder man would commit ten thousand; it proceeds, say you from nature and institution. I answer, it is from nature only that she takes her beginning; education doth manure it & better it; but what do you understand by nature? For the Philosophers have been accustomed to signify 4. distinct things by the same name, which yet symbolise together; the lowest is the temperature of the 4. humours in the body of man: The 2. is the soul which gives motion unto the body; The 3. is the ordinance and rule which God hath established in the world: The 4. is God himself, called by some in that regard nature naturant. If the Obiector means that fear and religion proceed only from the temperature of the 4. humours in the body of man, he is condemned of falsehood & contradiction by his own saying, in that he attributes fear to other creatures, the which he knower differ from man, in the same temperature and in truth, it is in the soul that the reverence of the De●…ie, that is, of God, is graved, it comes from this universal rul●… and whereas he would infer that in women great fear causeth great religion, he must understand that religion in man hath conscience for her chief, foundation, which applies the natural apprehension of a superiority to an acknowledgement there of; and for accessories she hath contemplation in the superior part, and fear in the lower. As for the principal foundation, it is common to men and women; the two others are diverse: Contemplation is greater in men, and fear in women. Contemplation doth stir up the will to the service of God by two considerations; the one is of the divine power & bounty, to have had will and power to give life, when as we dreamt not of it; to have drawn us out of endless dangers, and to have continued the course of his graces, notwithstanding our ingratitude. The other consideration is, from the baseness, and weakness of man, which makes him to feel his imperfections, and to repair unto the fountain of all good: fear doth stir up to humility, to contrition of heart, to confession of mouth, and to satisfaction by works. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, saith the wise man. Man then being raised a degree higher than woman in contemplation, if he doth use his knowledge rightly, submitting himself wholly to God, he shall be much more zealous to his service, as it happened to S. john the Disciple which jesus Christ loved above the rest: but for that they are often puffed up they abuse it, for pride is a spiritual poison which spoils all, as it happened to Belzebub; & therefore most of our learned men are not so religious as women & ignorant people, who being governed by a moderate contemplation, do husband with all humility their moderate knowledge of God; & the affection in this feminine sex is commonly more zealous then in the other.  
Finally, by the reverence which is stronger in him, this sex fears to offend God, and to make the holy Ghost heavy, by whom he is sealed until the day of redemption, as S. Paul speaks: it is not fear only then that begets religion, for then Dear, Coneys, and other fearful Creatures should be more religious.  
Moreover, it is no general rule that women are more religious, if it be not at this time, which is as barren in devout men, as it is fertile in many religions: for we shall find as many men recorded for Martyrs as women; and in the Catalogue of the Apostles, the first Architects of the Christian Churches, we shall not find the name of any women: they are not suffered to speak in the Church. And if the Elephant doth therein seem to imitate man, they are but shows and gesticulations, having no devotion in the heart, which is the essence of religion: and what he doth, is by the instinct of his own temper, which approacheth near unto that of man; And what doth Aelian & others report so memorable of him, but that he turns up his s●…out towards the Sun and Moon, as if he did worship them? & doth not the flower called Heliotropium more? it being weighty, turns round about lightly as the Sun goeth.  
To the 3. The impostor saith, that the soul is kindled with a desire of immortality, to the end it may be stirred up to vortue: it is well spoken, for true virtue in this world, is the sole and true good of man, which makes him worthy of the heavenly beatitude, which lays hold of a virtuous soul; but this virtue without this immortality is a poison to man, keeping him from running headlong to all carnal and vicious pleasures, so as they be delightful; and as many Philosophers and men of God, as shall cry out against the riots of the flesh, they are so many torments: but the soul is immortal, and virtue is or should be requested: and therefore one said long ago, That a man were better to cast himself headlong into the sea, then to be tyrannised by vice; And on the other side Plaustus will say, that there is no price so excellent as virtue, that it marcheth before all things; liberty, health, life, goods, kinsfolk, country, & children are defended and maintained by it: And Claudian sings, 
Ex 〈◊〉 mortalia despicit arce.  that from a high Tower she laughs at mortal things, for that she is certain of her immortality.  
Finally, she is rightly painted treading death under her 
Cur tibi mors premitur? ●…sciosola mori.  feet, for she alone swims, & is assured to escape spoil & shipwreck, as the Philosopher Stilpon did fitly teach King Demetrius, who enquiring of him if he had lost nothing in the wars, No, said he, for that virtue which I esteem above all thing, is not subject to pillage. But beasts, replies he, fly death also. Answer. To speak properly beasts fly not from death, for they are wholly ignorant what it is: they will see the knife made sharp to cut their throats and not be moved; but being endued with the sense of feeling as with the other senses, they will cry & struggle when they feel a pricking, or cutting, or any other pain.  
Some beasts of pleasure, some birds for delight, are cunningly taken by men, to be nourished daintily; the which in their taking will torment themselves more, then if they had the stroke of death.  
To the 4. he saith, that the heart, (let us add to help him) mills, clocks, and such like, are in continual action, which notwithstanding cease in the end of their motion: but let us answer, that there is difference betwixt a natural action or one that is artificially forced, and that which flows freely and voluntarily without intermission or rest; such as is the action of the soul in her thoughts and desires, which we maintain to be a true sign of her immortality: & as for that which we did allege of her continual Vigilancy, whilst the body sleepeth, when as by assured dreams she falls upon the time to come, he cannot reply any thing to this but that dog's dream. I deny it: Their barking and the other actions they do sleeping, as well as waking, proceed from a certain temperature, into which they fall; as in ourselves in the brutal part, by the gathering together of certain gross humours about the heart, being pressed, we are forced to cry out.  
The objection to the 5. is his confirmation; for if man abused by his imagination, seeking the good encounters that which is bad, he is twice miserable in his designs & in his events. True it is, man is subject to so many miseries in this life, as at every step he meets with a thousand; if he thinks to have found any pleasure, it is suddenly drowned with a flood of tears: this did the Comedian Plautus understand, saying, that man's age is so composed, 
In Amphi.  as it hath pleased the gods, that pleasure should have care for companion; yea, if any good happeneth, presently some discommodity follows in greater abundance: And Ovid said, it was a virtue to abstain from a smiling pleasure: Horace, he bids chase away pleasure, it cost too dear.  
And this made Lucretius though an Epicure, to blame men who were too greedy of this life, in these words: 
What is there here, (O man) of such delight,  
Whose want so ruthless seems in her despite?  
Thou fearest (O fool,) and shak'st at thought of death,  
That through all tempest brings where blows no breath.   
Our adversary goes on, and presumes that man may live happily in this world if he will.  
Answer: Without doubt he would, for no man takes counsel, if he shallbe happy, he never troubles himself to choose felicity, but for the means to attain unto it, as Aristotle saith: he never desires 
Lib, 3. Ethic. c. 2. & 3.  any hurt but under a show of good, for that goodness is the proper object of the will, the devil chooseth our evil for his own good, holding it a great benefit un to him if many perish Man then by this desires to be happy if he may, (by the discourse of the adversary) how is it possible that no man in the world, neither hath nor shall be truly happy by his own faculties? The true felicity of man is to be perfectly complete, by the aggregation of all sorts of happiness; but there was never any such seen, neither shall there be in that estate; he shall always want more good things than he doth enjoy, as the earth doth not bear all sorts of fruits, nor man enjoy all manner of good; if he abound in some gifts of the mind, he is defective it others: gifts are diverse, as the Apostle teacheth, 1. Cor. 12. yea contrary one unto another, as a great judgement to a great memory, and both these to a great imagination. Moreover, if he have a vivacity of spirit, he hath a debility of body; if he be fortunate to the good of this world, he is barren of heavenly graces so it hath pleased God to entertain humane society, not to make man happy in all points 
Nemo est ab omni pa●…? beatus.  as Horace hath said.  
Now if to this defect of good things, we make an addition of an infinite number of bad which cross him, what shall become of this poor man? But he will reply with the Stoics, that virtue may so frame and dispose the soul of man, as he will not be troubled at any thing that shall happen unto him, but will apply all to his own good.  
Answer. This is not so easy to be spoken, but it is as hard to be performed. If virtue were not difficult to learn, to what end doth S. Augustine speak of so many Schoolmasters, so much severity, rods, whips, and so much discipline? and why doth the holy Scripture say, that we must often whip the well-beloved child, lest he should become stubborn? and than it will be hard, yea, impossible to tame him.  
And farther, what signify those notable punishments invented by our Elders, the Scaffolds, gibbets, strapadoes, wheels, fires, and others, but that such severity is necessary, to suppress the sury of man to vice?  
Finally, there is nothing so difficult as virtue, saith Aristotle. 
2, Ethi. e. 3  But that which is worst of all, when we think after a thousand crosses to have attained to this throne of virtue, what a combat do we feel in ourselves, seeking to put it in execution? now we will, and instantly we will not the same thing. What a monster is this, saith S. Augustine, and whence comes it? 
Confess. l. 8. c. 9  If the spirit commands the body, it presently obeys: but if he commands himself, he finds nothing but resistance: and in the chapter following, I had disposed myself, saith he, after a good resolution to serve my God and Lord; it was I that would, and I that would not: I neither had an absolute will, nor a full power to resist; wherefore I had a battle within me, and was divided within myself, and this division happened in despite of me. Hitherto S. Augustine: that good man so fashioned to virtue, confesseth to be in a continual war, and where there is war there is no peace nor rest.  
Moreover we must not wonder at these rodomontadoes of the Stoics; they have spoken others more strange, but more unsavoury. A wise man, saith Seneca, is always joyful, active, quiet, and assured 
Epist. 59  as a rock; and living equal to the gods. Cicero playing the Stoic, A happy life, saith he, subsisteth by the 
2. De nature. dear.  virtues, like unto that of the gods, and yielding in nothing unto them but in the immortality, which is of no moment to live will. But behold the fullness of folly: There is something, saith Seneca, 
Epist. 53.  wherein a wise man surpasseth God; he is wise by the benefit of nature, not by his own: a strange case, to have the imbecility of man, compared with the assurance of God. So Crysippus both impudently and flatteringly, compared Dion of Syracuse to jupiter his sovereign God, and maintained that he was not inferior unto him, neither in knowledge nor in virtue.  
These are goodly fantasies, or rather frenzies, I will advise such people not to take Elleborum, nor to purge, or never to awake out of their doting dreams: for being in health or awake, they shall find themselves naked and miserable; like unto the mad page, who thought himself to be the greatest Emperor in the world, & that all Kings were his vassals, and did him homage: but being cured, he found himself to be only but a poor Page, and bound the next day to serve him whom he would not have accepted (being sick) for his lackey.  
In the sixth objection he avers, that Solon hath determined how hard it was to please all.  
I answer. That Solon's meaning was to speak of man to man, whereas the defective work is often censured by a weak brain: but of God it is otherwise, his work is so excellent, as there is not any thing but is admirably commendable, and not to be censured in any point, but by fools; And if man had not in his soul another life, than this terrestrial, the most resined brains would be to seek, for that man the most excellent of Creatures, is of no more continuance; but he doubts of this proposition. He doubts of that which all the world hold for certain: if the Phoenix in his first breeding, and in his sole Individuum be strange, yet it follows not but that there may be such a bird, most rare, and very long lived. Moreover, the Stag found in the Forest of Senlis, during the reign of Charles 6. whereof Belle forest makes mention: Admit we should take the computation, from the time that the Emperors reigned in France, yet should we find five hundred years, which is the age they give unto a Stag. As for the Ralien, Virgil assigns him 
Alipicem Cervum ter vincit Corvus.  much more age. He thinks he hath well satisfied when he saith, that it is nature's sport to make exception in general rules: For as true as it is in matters indifferent, of small consequence, and without prejudice to the creature that is found excepted from the generality; so is it as false in matters of great consequence, and which turn to great harm.  
I will then that the divine providence be observed, sporting itself to make Laws, and to give exemptions, that all beasts have the ends of their hair bending towards the tail, and that the Origes is exempt, having it towards the head: that all beasts can move their ears, and not man: that whatsoever flies hath feathers, but the Bat hath none. Finally, that all things in the world are in perpetual motion, the earth not.  
But what doth this import? But for the last instance, which God would have for the great good of the earth: 
She should rest firm still in her fixed fight,  
Not to her left hand stirring, nor her right.   
As it is in the 104. Psalm. But man if he have nothing but this life, he hath need of a very long life: Who shall see and judge of this goodly frame, this goodly order of the world, but man the goodliest workmanship of nature? and how can he do it but by along life? he doth not equal nor exceed the long continuance of the celestial motions, before they be returned to their first point; motions which give life to every thing by their diverse course●…. How can he in his soul get wisdom, so necessary for the conduct of life, seeing that use engenders it, and memory brings it forth, as Afranius saith, if by a number of years he gets not the use and experience of so many affairs involved in this world? Also how can he preserve his bodily heath, or restore it being decayed, if he have not the knowledge of Physic, seeing it is a long art, and life is short? saith Hypocrates.  
Lastly, he lightly passeth over the last and strongest reason of conscience, for that I assure myself his conscience did belly, his pen; and therefore he will entertain us with a certain instinct of the unreasonable creatures, which he concludes in a manner to be Conscience.  
Answer. Creatures without reason and without teaching, are skilful from their first being, in that which is profitable unto them, to affect it, seek it, and find it; and to abhor and fly from that which is hurtful: and in that they are so courageous to defend their young, proceeds from the blood of the arteries, moved with the hearing or sight of their adversaries, which they do naturally apprehend: for then the blood being moved, it runs luddainly to the heart, and doth quicken the power of choler, and thrust him on to resist and revenge: all which proceeds from the temper of the beast. But conscience is a divine virtue engraven in the soul (which S. Paul calls the spirit of understanding, Ephes. 3.) which applies the knowledge of our spirit to the work, witnessing 
To. 1. quaest, 79. art. 13.  for us, or against us, of that which we know we have done, or not done; whereof grows the proverb, That a man's conscience serves for a thousand witnesses: she withholds us, or thrusts us on, we as shall think the thing fit to be done, or not. Finally, she doth excuse us or accuse us, as we shall judge to have done well or ill: This quality, or rather act, is not found but in a reasonable soul, and is a true sign of her immortality, and of an other life, where she is to give an account of all her actions. And although that in a wicked and depraved man, this inward and immortal 
Esay 66. Marc. 9  worm bo so deeply hidden; as they must sometimes have outward tortures to draw it out; yet this doth not argue but he hath it inwardly, and that in the end it will appear in despite of him, when the apprehension of an ighominious punishment shall cease a little. Yea most men confess, before they come to the torture; and therefore what the Obiector hath opposed doth nothing infringe our reason.    

The 2. Argument taken from the goodly order of Nature.  
It is not possible that goodly justice should fail in the principal point.  
If the soul of man were mortal, this goodly justice of nature should fail in the principal point.  
It is not therefore possible, the soul of man should be mortal.  
EVEN as in this world there is no Catbuncle more glistering, not virtue more eminent than 
Cic. de office c. de justi.  justice; and as man is the goodliest piece in the world, and contains in himself the model of all the perfections of other Creatures, it is reasons will that this justice should adorn and beautify this head of the world; and yet it is in him, (if we well observe it) that she is most obscure and blemished; in all other things (man only excepted) she shines and glisters. The heavens and their Stars observe the law of the Eternal inviolably, in their motions, in their influences, and in their alterations; the Elements change themselves one into another, to preserve the sundry kinds of plants and Creatures in the world, and obey their Creator religiously: Plants and unreasonable Creatures have always effects and virtues concurring with the it proper essence. It is that which moved David to say, That the heaven, the Sun, and all the host of heaven, did declare the power and wisdom of God, Psal. 19 And in the 148, the water, fire, trees, and unreasonable Creatures are stirred up to praise the Lord; the which being faithfully performed by them man should die with shame, that he alone is defective in his duty, being most bound unto it.  
And hereof God complains by Esay, Hearken you 
Isay 1. 5.  heavens, and thou earth give care; for the Eternal hath spoken, saying, I have nourished children and have bred them up, but they have rebel led against me. The Ox knoweth his owner, and the Ass his master crib etc.  
And the Philosophers propound for an infallible Maxim, That man is the most unjust of all Creatures, and they search out the causes: the grossest precepts of justice, are, to live honestly, to do no man wrong, to give every man his own: no man is ignorant hereof, his natural reason being more than sufficient to instruct him, and yet who doth it?  
Yea they are all made abominable, and there is not any one that doth good, sayeth the Oracle. They are given over to the covetousness of their own hearts, to filthiness to pollute their own bodies, saith the Apostle. If this complaint were true & just then, it is a thousand times more at this present: I call you to witness, who travelling have passed through Italy, Spain, and France: I say to witness, of the adultery, Incest, Sodomy, and filthiness, you have seen there; or if your chaste eyes could not endure the sight, yet what you have heard. Then the robberies, spoils & injustice, under the cloak of justice, which reign now in this realm, and their goodliest houses are built upon these foundations. But it is not at this time only, but hath been in all ages; for from the infancy of the Church, there never wanted some swelling iniqui tie, and a patient justice, saith S. Jerome. As for murders, 
Epist. to Castritian  they were never so frequent; to kill a man is but a sport, & great men make it their pastime. But that which is worse, they not only commit such injustice, but they also allow of it, they favour it, & they are advanced to the highest dignities. The mischief is committed sometimes furiously, when as blind rage commands; but the approbation proceeds slowly from a settled spirit, and is much to be condemned, so as S. Paul doth rightly make it the second degree of Injustice. 
Rom. 1. 32.  But come and lift up your eyes, see and judge who they be which hold the seat of justice; they are for the most most part the most disloyal, the most impious, the most unjust, & the most malicious among men.  
It is not in this age alone that this Injustice hath sprung up, it hath been in all seasons. I have seen, saith Solomon; under the Sun, Impiety in the place of judgement, & iniquity in the fear of justice: Offices be the reward of such as make strait things crooked, saith Terence. 
In Phorm●…one. Ouid. Meta Iwen. 6. Sene. in Octa.  Other Poets using the voice of the people of their ages, cry out that Pity lies desolate, that the virgin Astraea, that is, justice, hath been forced at the last to yield to Master saores & extortions upon the earth. This is not all, there is a third degree yet more abominable, & more injurious to justice; when as good men are oppressed by the wicked, and justice trodden under foot by Injustice; what good or just man is there but sees it and feels it? Why dost thou hold thy peace, said Abacuch to the Lord, the wicked oppressing 
Abacuk, 1.  the just? So Cain slew Abel, so Esau persecuted jacob: so the Pagans' have always molested 
August. l. 1 c. 9, de, civet. dei.  the Israelites & sought to ruin them: so the jews & Infidels have afflicted Christians: so the Arrian Heretics did with all violence persecute the Catholics; Pompey with the just Senate was vanquished by Caesar, Cato murmurs, and despairing kills himself. So the Roman Emperors have even glutted their rage upon the innocence of Martyrs; so the Goathes & Barbarians tormented the romans as soon as they were become Christians: 
Theodos. l. 5  Thirty Tyrants invade and ruin that goodly Commonweal of Athens: The Turk at this day holds the reynes of the Empire of the world, triumphing every where over Christian armies: Finally, what are these great kingdoms, but great thefts? as a Pirate did fitly object to Alexander the Great, who made him to keep silence with 
Plut in the life of Alex.  shame.  
This injustice being observed by many, hath given occasion to think that all things are turned by chance, as Claudian doth represent it Graphically; and David himself 
Lib 1. in Rusfin.  confesseth, that he hath been ready to leave the good way, and to forsake the party of God: for that he saw the wicked in such abundance.  

These men, says he, for all that they possess,  
Are nothing worth; yet still we see they spend  
There lives whole length in varied happiness,  
Pampered with all things to their very end.   
What shall we then think; yea, whereon can we assure 
Rom. 2. 6. Apo. 22. 12  ourselves without wavering, that the life of man in this world, is a List and Career, in which as he hath wrestled and combated, so being departed, he shall receive either the Crown of glory, or the shame of infamy? and this shall be when as justice shall appear in her greatest beauty and lustre. But in the mean 〈◊〉 this divine providence will that the good (as corn in the air) be thrashed, fanned and sifted, to the end at their departure, they may be laid up in the granier; and on the other side, the chaff, that is to say, the wicked who have been always in joy, shall be cast into the fire, that is never quenched. Affliction is the narrow way, into the which he must enter who desires to come into the Kingdom of heaven: The reproach of Christ is the honour of the child of God, the Cross of Christ is his Sceptre, his stripes & torments are roses and gilliflowers. So Moses, saith the text, held the 
Hebr. 11.  reproach of Christ to be greater riches, than the treasures of Egypt; yea he did rather choose to be afflicted with the people of God, then to enjoy for a time the pleasures 
2. Cor. 11. 22.  of sin. So S. Paul did rather choose the travels, imprisonments, beat, and death, than all the honour he could expect to be a Pharisian Doctor among the jews. So a million of Martyrs have rather made choice of chains fires, and of death of serve Christ, then of Diadems, triumphs, and worldly felicity.  
So Regulus did choose rather to be tormented in a pipe stuck full of nails, at Carthage, then to give prejudicial counsel to his country. Socrates had rather dye then adherre to Pagan Idolatry. Seneca preferred death before the flattering of his vicious Prince, verifying by effect the words of his Epistle, I love not torments, 
Epist. 67.  saith he; but if there be question to suffer them, I desire to carry myself bravely, courageously, and honestly. Cato spoke more, as the Poet reports: 
Gaudet patientia duris, Letius est quories magno sibi constat honestum.  
Patience most joys when most her cross abounds,  
Most honour costs most, and most joy redounds.   
But for what reason? S. Ambrose saith, The wise man is not broken by the pains of the body, nor vexed by the discommodities: in the midst of miseries he is always happy, for that the happiness of life doth not consist in the tickling pleasures of the body, but in the conscience purged from all filth of sin.  
What wilt thou then do in this secure peace of the wicked, in this continual warefare of good men? have a little patience; 
And thou in the'nd shalt say, with comfort driven,  
Thy vows are heard, even from the highest heaven.   
The Gods, saith Homer, suffer not the sins of men to 
Iliad, l. 4.  pass unpunished, & although they deserre the punishment, yet by the weight they recompense the slowness: If the divine wrath be slow, yet it is 
Iuut●…al, Satyr 13.  violent, saith another. It is that which did most fortify Cyrus, in the assurance of the 
Xenoph. lib. 8. Cyrop  immortality of the soul, seeing the wicked in this life to prosper, & good men decay. And what shall we Christians than do. We will attend with David, that the measure of sin may be full; and then when they have made an end to fill up the measure of their fathers, they cannot avoid the judgement of Hell fire, saith jesus 
Mat. 23.  Christ I know for a certain, saith David, that God will 
Psal, 140.  do justice. 
I know the Lord th' afflicted will  
Revenge, and judge the poor.   
All these wicked ri●… men which have had their pleasures and abundance in this world, shall have miseries in the other; and 〈◊〉 ●…se poor Lazares which have been here diversely tormented, shall be comforted, and enjoy an eternal rest, as the Evangelist 
Luke, 16.  speaks. Finally, the wicked after this life, changing opinion, and sighing with the anguish of theirminds, will say among themselves: Behold him whom we have sometimes derided, & made proverbs of dishonour; wemad men held his life to be mad, and his death infamous; and how is he accounted of a'the children of God, & his portion among the Saints? 
Wised. 5.  And thus doth a wise man discourse. We may therefore conclude, that seeing justice, this precious pearl, doth east forth but sunbeams in this world, upon unreasonable creatures: and that her body beautiful in perfection, is in heaven, whither she was forced (flying the earth) to have recourse, there to receive such as had cherished & sought her upon earth; and contrariwise to banish for ever such as had persecuted her with all violence: We may, I say, necessarily conclude That the souls of men are immortal, to the end that the happy may be crowned with this justice, and the wicked cast by the heavy burden of their injustice to the bottomless pit of hell. Amen.  

Objection.  
If the soul did escape the grave, she might fing the praises of God.  
But she cannot.  
THE Minor is proved directly by a text of the holy Scripture: There is no mention of thee in death, who shall worship thee in the 
Psal 66.  grave? saith David, being grievously 
Ps. 115, 17.  sick: And, The dead do no more praise the Lord, neither they which descend whereas they speak not. Ezechias fearing death, speaks 
Isay 38. 10.  thus unto the Lord: the grave shall not worship thee, death shall not praise thee, and they that descend into the pit attend no more thy truth.  
Answer: These holy men have never thought, much less spoken, that the soul was mortal, but only that they whom death takes away, do no more declare the glory of God to the living, & that a dead mouth cannot preach the wonderful works of the Eternal: And for proof hereof, David doth assure us in another place, where he saith, I shall not die, but live, and declare the 
Ps. 118, 17.  works of the Eternal; and, If I descend into the pit, what profit shall there be in my blood? Shall the dust praise thee, and preach thy truth? By which words he shows that he meant not to speak, but of the praises of God made by the mouth among the living.  
As for Ezechias, when he delivered these words, he had been then assured to live by Esay; so as he makes it known, that whereas God prolonged his life, it was to magnify him in the world, and to declare his mercy: and yet that the Saints deceased sing the praises of God in heaven, appears by many texts, but that in the Apoc. is sufficient, of the 4. beasts, 
Apo. 5.  and the 24. Elders, who sung a new song. Moreover those innumerable multitudes of all Nations, Tribes, people, and tongues, attired in long white robes, and having branches of palm in their hands, crying with a 
Apo. 7.  loud voice, Salvation to our God, who is set upon the throne, and to the Lamb.  
But some one will reply, seeing the Saints in heaven sing most melodiously and holily the praises of the Lord, how comes it that they allege this reason to prolong this life, that they may celebrate the name of the Eternal? I Answer, that the heavens have no need of these holy sounders out of the Lords praise: that they have from the beginning the Angels which sing continually, Holy, holy, holy, is he which-hath been, which is, and which shallbe; and moreover, the faithful deceased. But the earth is altogether desert, wherefore the children of God desire to remain 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 loss, yet the service of God, and the glory of their Master, is more dear unto them, than their own health, as Moses and S. Paul among others have witnessed.   

The second Objection.  
If the soul being immortal, had been (as they say) infused into the body of man, immediately from God, it is not possible but there should remain some knowledge.  
But there remains none.  
IF the Soul be created immediately by God and infused into the body, from the very moment of this creation and infusion, she is perfect in her essence, and therefore should have a certain knowledge; but we do not remember our birth, nor our Baptism, 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 spoke as soon as they were borne) we had had the temper of the brain, requisite to the understanding and memory, we should then have understood, and we should now remember as well, as those things which we have seen within a year, and since that time which brings all things to maturity, hath ripened our nature: But if the soul be immortal and not subject to time, and if from the beginning of her creation, she hath received her perfect stature, how can time deface her understanding? and how is it that she remembreth not any thing, no not in dreaming, when she was put into the body? Some will reply, That this sinful mortal body is the cause of this misery, but I may answer, that the corporal cannot work upon the spiritual; and that the Divines hold, that man by his offence hath lost all supernatural gifts & privileges which were freely given him; but not such as were natural, & conferred upon him by the right of Creation; and who doth not see, but that to understand & to remember, are natural gifts?  
Answer: The soul of man is extracted immediately from God, and being once infused into the body, she receives not in any age, neither in her substance or forces, any change, alteration, or increase. Yet by virtue of the sentence of condemnation which God pronounced against Adam, and all his posterity, the Creator not confirming the soul in her excellency and innocency, but leaving it to itself, she hath in an instant lost her dignity, is become ignorant and vicious; and the infection of carnal senses which she hath sucked up being in the body, doth augment her depravation, so as she is not able to remember any thing of this action proceeding from God, in her creation and union to the body: So Adam and Eve not confirmed in their felicity (as the Angels and Saints are now in heaven by the benefit of jesus Christ) as soon as they had committed the transgression, were in an instant made mortal, ignorant and vicious. A plate of iron flaming in the fire, hath no sooner felt the fresh air, but it loseth his fiery colour; Even so the soul is no sooner gone out of the Eternall●… forge, but she loseth her colour and brightness, and the body is as cold water to the burning, iron; so as now the soul hath no knowledge in the body, but what she gets by the senses: and they that are deaf by nature are also naturally dumb; for being unable to hear the words di stinguished, neither can they l●…e them: And they that are borne blind, cannot distinguish of colours, etc.  
Let us conclude with S. Augustine, That the spiritual 
Lib. 12. de genesi ad Literam.  light, in the which man had been created to know his Creator, himself, and things that are profitable for him, was quenched by sin: Let us add with Nicholas de Cusa, 
L. 9 exercitat.  That the soul of man sent in to a moral body, is like unto 〈◊〉 infant, which as soon as it was borne was carried into 〈◊〉 strange country, wholly 〈◊〉 of inhabit a●…, & nourished by a she Wolf; being grown 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 soul which lived ●…appy and knowing in the co●…panie of the Gods, being confined into this prison of the foul infected body, to frame it & give it life, hath in stantly lost ●…l her happiness & knowledge, by reason of the bad temperature of the body.    

The 3●… Argument taken fr●… the voice of all the world.  
The voice of the people is the voices of God, and by consequent, of the truth.  
But the Soul is immortal according to the voice of the people.  
MAny writers have collected the opinions of people and of ages, upon the judgement of the soul as Macrobius upon Scipio's Dream, Marsilius Ficinus, & others: And among the Moderns Mons de Plessis, Crepet the Celestin with others, to whom I send the reader; where he may see a wondered consent of men to conclude that the soul is immortal, as holding it not from any other Master then themselves from their understanding, & from their conscience, from which knowledge proceeds the love of justice, the desire of honour, and the care of interring their bodies etc.  
And as in old time, so at this day there is no nation but believes it. john de Lyra in his voyage of America, writes, 
Chap. 〈◊〉.  that it is constantly believed there; They have found the inhabitants of the Western Lands to be very brutish, yet have they a taste of the immortality of the Soul. Thomas Heriot in his History of the inhabitants of Virginia, a country not long since discovered, writes that these people make the same profession, and hold that presently after the soul is separated from the body, she is carried away according to the works which she hath done, either into the mansion of the Gods to be there happy for e●…er; or into a Gulf, which they call Popogusso, to burn eternally. Finally there can be no instance given against this general belief of Nations, dispersed over the face of the whole earth: If any one will oppose himself, it is the excrement and scum of the people; to which Hierocles a Pythagorean hath long since given a holy precaution, saying That a wicked man will not have his soul immortal to the end he may not be punished for her offences; but he prevents the sentence of him that must judge him, condemning himself to death, and yet shall be therein deceived, for whereas he thought this death would be without pain, he shall feel it as sharp lie as it shall be long. But some one will object, that to find out a hidden verity, one man's deep judgement is of more force, than a hundred thousand that are mean, such as the vulgar have commonly; for that to the understanding invention serves more than number; for it is not of him & his virtue, as of corporal forces, the which may be united together, and take up a great burden: wherefore to make a peace, sayeth the Wiseman, many are required, but for coum sell, one among a 1000 Moreover Seneca doth still exhort not to follow the multitude.  
Answer: It is true, that the best things do not please many; & matters are so ordained as one saith, that we sooner follow the evil than the good. Yet this doth not impeach, but the general testimony of all men concerning the soul, should be of great moment, for that there be no opposite parties here, one for the mortality, another for the immortality: and not only the simple people, but even the learned, assure the immortality of the soul. Moreover, it is not an institution of life to survive, but a truth to believe; and therefore this objection doth in no sort weaken this reason of the immortality of the soul.  

Objection.  
If the soul were immortal, no man would doubt, especially, the learned and wise.  
But many doubt, and in a manner none but the simple and ignorant believe it to be immortal,  
THe consequence of the proposition is good, for who is he that doubts whether he be a man, a dog, or a wolf? Who seeing and feeling, doubts whether he sees and feels? etc.  
As for the Assumption, it is sufficiently verified by them that have not doubted, but have constantly believed that the soul was immortal. We read of Sardanapalus a powerful King of Assiria, who 
Atheneus l●…b. 1. de dip nosophistis  not only held this belief, but would have posterity know it, commanding that upon his tomb there should be carved the Image of a woman, holding her hand upon her head, and some of the fingers closed like unto them that sound their cliquets, with this inscription, as if the Image had spoken it: Sardanapalus Son of Anacyndaraxes, built Anchiale and Tarsis in one day: Eat, drink and sport, for the rest is not worth the playing with the fingers: that is to say, A point for all the rest.  
In the Town of Brescia, there is another Tomb to be seen, whereon is written, D. M. and among other profane words, these of a milder temper: I have lived, and have believed nothing besides this life, and have wholly dedicated myself to pleasing Ven●…s.  
The Antiquaries observe, that among the Pagans, such as held the soul to be mortal, caused the doors to be hanged close shut upon their graves, and of this sort there are many noted.  
The Philosopher Aristoxenus (by the report of Lactantius) durst maintain that the 
Lib. 7. c. 13.  soul of man was nothing, yea, during the time she was in the body; but as the strings of an instrument being tuned make an accord, so in man's body, the gathering together of the bowels, and the vigour of the members, produce all that harmony which appears in man.  
The Saducees in the Church of God, have denied the immortality of the foul. Barbara wife to the Emperor Sigismond, in the year 1400. derided her women for that they prayed and fasted, saying, that they must live merrily, and embrace all pleasures, for that after death the soul did perish with the body; And many at this day show by their lives, that only for civility and outward honesty, they must confess the soul to be immortal.  
And what a great wisdom is it to believe nothing inwardly? Du Bartas in his Triumph of faith speaks of one:  

I mean that Monster Theodorus hight,  
Who shameless says, there is no God at all;  
And that the wise may (when occasions fall,)  
Be Liar, Traitor, Thief, and Sodomite.   
And he adds that this kill offspring hath passed to Rome, from thence into France, and that it buds forth in the Courts of Kings, in seats of justice, and in the Church; finally, there are scarce any other imps that put forth at this day: to have no God, and the souls to be mortal, are held equal things.  
Answer: I should wonder at the admirable patience of God, to suffer that the seed of Atheism should produce such branches of profanation, if I did not see blasphemers and such as make a profession to deny God, parricides, yea, devils to be tolerated by him, who with patience attends until the measure of their sins be full: But to answer categorically, I deny the consequence of the proposition: It is true, there hath been such a one, who hath doubted whether he were a man; witness the Philosopher Pyrrhon, who makes profession to doubt all, and maintain, that whatsoever we think to be, say, or do, is but by an uncertain opinion. Moreover, you shall find some one so wounded in the imagination, by the force of some deep melancholy, as he hath thought himself to be transformed into a wolf, and also hath gone out of his house by night, howling and imitating the actions of 
Vuierus l. 4. c. 23.  a wolf; the which bred the opinion of becoming wolves. In like manner I say, that the dark fumes of voluptuousness, the depraved humours of wickedness, may also overthrow the understanding of some men, and make them doubt of that which they would not understand, the immortality of the soul; lest that the apprehension of an eternal judgement, should trouble their carnal pleasures.  
As for Sardanapalus, he hath also doubted whether he were a man, since that he took upon him a woman's habit among his Courtesans, and handled a distaff with them. For my part I believe that he had the humour and spirit of a beast; as Tully reports, that Aristotle having 
Lib. 5. Tus.  read this Epitaphe, said that they should have written it upon the pit of a beast, not on the grave of a King: The same answer shall serve for the like thing pretended at Brescia. As for the third, their ignorance and malice would force a belief of mortality of souls; what others more honest and more wise have done, shall serve to confute them: For the same antiquaries write, that many caused to be drawn upon their tombs, doors half open, showing thereby that their souls escaped from the tomb. If one Philosopher would dispute of it, there are others, who to get fame have questioned matters more apparent; as Cardan, the fourth Element of fire; Copernicus: the motion of heaven, maintaining by the illusion of reason, that it is the earth & not the heaven that moves: There have been always and shall be such fantastic humours, who would make themselves famous, with the prejudice of the truth.  
As for the Empress Barbara, he should have added that she was an insatiable Lecher; & therefore she had great interest, (not to give an account of her dissolute life,) to persuade herself that all was extinguished in death. Now followeth this depraved age, into the which as into the bottom of a sink, all the filth of precedent ages have seemed to run; yet there are (God be thanked) who believe it in their hearts, and deliver it with their mouths, that their spirit is immortal, and they that speak it only with their mouths, it is sufficient that natural shame will not suffer them to discover the villainy of their hearts; and this bashfulness (an impression of God) is sufficient to make them inexcusable in the great day of the Lord. Moreover, they that with a furious impudence have believed that the soul died with the body, have for the most part in their miserable ends made known the judgements of God, who punished them for their frantic opinion; as Lucian, who was torn in pieces by dogs; Lucre tius who grown mad, cast himself down a precipice: Caligula who was cruelly slain; with infinite others: Or else they have showed it in their confused and irresolute carriage, the distemperature and trouble of their souls impugning their damnable opinion.  
To conclude; As for Theodorus, and the swarm of his disciples, who in a manner alone hold the chairs in all estates, I will suffer them to be led in Triumph before the triumphant chariot of faith: that which Duke Bartas saith in the beginning of the second song, is sufficient to confound them.    

The 4. Argument.  
That which proceeds immediately f●…om God, is everlasting.  
Such is the soul.  
I will prove the consequence of the Mayor, for the rest is plain of itself: whilst the Sun shall last he will cast fo●…th his beams; whilst there is fire there will come forth heat; whilst the heart beats in the body, there remains life; for that the position of the sufficient cause, very near and immediate, doth of necessity establish the effect, the which continues as long as the cause, if there happens no inpeachment: But God is a sufficient cause, never hindered in his effects; he is the near and immediate cause of the soul which he breathes into the body, as soon as it was disposed and fit to receive that breathing; he is immortal, and by consequent the soul is immortal. So he created the Angels, & the Angels shall subsist for ever; so he made the heaven & earth, and they shall never perish. If they reply that the heavens shall pass; & that God will consume them as a flaming pile of wood, as the Poet speaks after S. Peter: 
2. Epist. 3.  The answer is, That it is not to be understood of the substance of the world, but of the qualities, which being vain and corrupted by reason of man, shallbe changed, 
Rom. 8.  and renewed by fire, to shine more purely like refined gold.  
They may again object, That God with his own hands had moulded and fashioned the first man, who not with standing is dead. I answer, that God was the efficient and immediate cause of man, but not the formal nor the material; his substance was the slime of the earth, which might be dissolved; his form was his soul, which might be separated: But in the soul, and of the soul of man, God holds immediately the four kinds of causes; the efficient, for he hath made it of himself, without any help; the material, not that it is of his essence, but that he hath created it of nothing, as he did the world: the formal in like manner, his continual inspiration retains it, as his continual providence preserves the world from ruin; and therefore Christ said, my Father works hitherto, and I with him. Finally, he is the final cause for man lives to know and serve God. If they reply again, that God being a voluntary cause in his actions, should not be numbered among the natural causes, which necessarily produce their effects, if there be not some let: that is most certain; but where the word of God is evident, we must not doubt of his will; but it is apparent in the passages alleged, that the soul is immortal. And therefore we may profitably and safely conclude, That if from the sufficient and near cause the effect doth necessarily flow, and that this effect doth continue as long as the cause, if there happen no lets: that undoubtedly the soul is immortal, seeing that God her most sufficient cause, and who fears no disturbance, is immortal; so as to deny this immortality, is to deny the Deity.  

Objection.  
That which hath been always required to be sufficiently testified, yet hath been still denied, cannot be certain.  
The immortality of the soul hath been always required to be sufficiently testified, yet hath been still denied.  
NO great joy doth at any time accompany a deep silence. If the soul going out of the body, felt itself immortal, (she should feel it if she were so, for going out of the body, as out of a dark prison, she should have the fruition of all her light:) if she felt her self, as I say, immortal, she would witness it by some sign to the poor kinsfolks that survive, being desolate by reason of his departure, to comfort, fortify and make them joyful. And although the souls which are in heaven be there detained by a voluntary prison, hindering them from coming down; and on the other side those that are in hell, are tied there by a will that is captive, as one hath affirmed: But the souls that go out of the bodies which are yet on earth, even upon the lips of them that die, why have they not instantly, before they fly to heaven, being so often required, given some small proof of their immortalitle?  
Answer: This Objection seems subtle, but to speak truly it hath but the show & not the effect, for it is subject to many pertinent answers: First to allege an inconvenience is not to dissolve the question. 2. It is a consequence ill applied, to say Such a one hath not spoken, therefore he is no man.  
We have digged very deep into the earth, and yet we never heard any of them that go with their feet against ours; therefore there are no Antipodes; So the souls speak not upon dead men's lips, therefore they have none: for being thus hindered, is the cause they neither hear nor see any sign of their life.  
Thirdly, the tears of the dead man's kinsfolks are ill grounded: Socrates a Pagan knew it well, when he said, that we must leave the soul at rest, and not trouble it with lamentations. The holy Ghosts goes farther, and assures, That blessed are the 
Apoc. 14.  dead which die in the Lord: yea, for certain, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours, and their works follow them: this should assure and rejoice, and not discomfort (by a foolish desire) that joy of the soul of the deceased.  
Fourthly, God will not that we should be inquisitive of the dead, he forbids it expressly in his law, & pronounceth 
Deut. 18. Levit, 12. Esay 8.  abomination against them that do it. He hath given Moses and the Prophets, let us add the Apostles; if they will not believe them, neither will they believe the souls of the deceased. If that the living are forbidden to inquire, how then can the dead have leave to speak?  
Fifthly, the souls are pressed at the departure from their bodies, to yield an account of their administration in this life, undergoing a particular judgement.  
This is believed rightly, and wholesomely, saith S. Augustine, that the souls are 
Llb. 2. de orig. animae, 〈◊〉. 4.  judged at the departure from their bodies, before the coming to this judgement, at the which having taken again the same bodies, they must appear. Also S. Hilary saith, that immediately without 
Upon the 2 Psnl. at the end.  any delay, after death we undergo a judgement, and pass into Paradise, or into Hell.  
Finally Solomon, to the end we should not doubt, saith, That God will easily render unto man according to his works, at that day of his decease; That the affliction of one hour makes him forget all pleasures, and that the end of man is the manifestation of his works.  
6 S. Athanasiws sayeth, It is not the will of God that the 
Quest. 15.  souls should declare the estate wherein they are, for that many should be deceived, & many errors would grow; the Devils being ready to make men thus abused, to believe what they would suggest; as 
2. Tom. Lib 1. discourse 5, of death and the in mortality of thesoule.  Crepet the Celestin doth well observe: and he adds, that the like happened lately to a poor woman of Verum, seduced by a devil which appeared unto her in the form of her Grand father; persuading her to go in Pilgrimage, & to do other things which were impossible. So S. Augustin writes that Vincentius the Donatist was counselled 
Lib. 3. c. 11. arduers. Vincent. Donatist.  to write against the Christian religion, by a spirit which appeared unto him.  
7. The Soul destitute of the Organs of her body, being not yet glorified nor illuminated with the Celestial splendour, nor adorned with the supernatural gifts, which God confers upon her for her felicity, cannot satifsie the will of the kinsfolks that be present, desiring a testimony of her blessedness and life: for the soul, saith S. Athanasius in the former passage, as soon as she hath laid down her body, can work neither good not evil. And as for visions that appear from them, God by a certain dispensation, shows them as it pleaseth him.  
For as a Lute if there be no man to play of in, seems idle and unprofitable: so the soul and body being separated one from another, have no operation. The which Ecclesiastes doth confirm, saying, Certainly the living 
Eccie. 9  know that they shall dye, but the dead know nothing, neither do they get any thing, for their memory is forgotten: in like manner, their love, their hatred, and their envy perish, and they have not any portion in the world of whatsoever is done under the Sun. Wherefore let us conclude and say, That the soul (whilst that she gives any life to her dying body) with the last puff of life, yields a certain testimony of her joy and immortality, by the inspiration of the holy Ghost; as it happens to many good men: But to demand instantly upon death some token from the soul dislodging, were to tempt God, to mock at the deceased, acd to be an unjust demander, and therefore justly to be refused.    

The 5. Argument taken from the aspect of the face.  
Whatsoever is represented by a just mirror or glass, is true.  
The immortality of the soul is represented by the just mirror of the face.  
AS the soul of man is the Image of God, so the face is the Image of the soul, and therefore the Eternal creating the soul of man, did breathe it 
Genes. 2,  in his face, which the holy Ghost calls respiration of life: so the property of man is to paint in his face by his diverse colours, the diverse affections of his soul. Wisdom, saith Solomon, clears the face of man, and his fierce and sour 
Eccles. 8.  aspect is changed. The Latins have called it vultus, for that the will is read in the forehead: the manners of the soul follow the humours of the body, saith Galen; and if some one belies his inclination, it is a mask which he puts on, and therefore Momus did unjustly blame God, for that he had not made man with an open heart. Thereon is all the Art of Physiognomy grounded, an Art (which without this feigning) every man would learn without teaching.  
By the face that Diviner Egyptian, familiar to Marc. Anthony, did know the diverse dispositions of men. These marks of the face, are imprinted with the seal of the soul: and he that will not judge by such marks engraven, of the brightness and immortality of the soul, is without judgement.  
Homer writes that Ulysses having escaped from shipwreck, was graciously entertained and reverenced by the Pheagues, having no ornament then, but this virtue & generous disposition, the beauty & excellency whereof appeared in his forehead. Man in like sort carries on his forehead the marks of his immortal soul: Whereof the first is the carrying his countenance strait up to heaven, proper to man, at all times, to him alone, and to all the generation of mankind; which shows his be beginning to be celestial and immortal: for that only is perishable which is under the region of the Moon, & whatsoever is above it, is not subject unto destiny.  
The 2. is that foresight afar off, those beams, I say, cast far and wide by the piercing sight, without staying upon that which doth touch it, or environ it near; which shows that the flight of the soul must go far. If any one say, that certain birds, & four footed beasts see far; but it is not to the same end, for man doth it only for the pleasure of the sight, & to observe the beauty of his celestial habitation: whereas other creatures are sharp sighted either to observe their enemies, & to fly from them; or to look after their prey, to devour it: not to heaven, to observe heaven, and to send up thither by the beams of their sight, their most ardent vows, as man alone doth.  
Moreover, this far flying sight of man, is a noble sign of his spiritual knowledge, which uniting the time passed to the present, doth always casts her goodly thoughts upon the future. The third is the reverend majesty of the whole face, that sparkling fire of the eyes, striking a cold fear into the fiercest creatures; and a flying amazement, which are eye-witnesses of some hidden nature very divers to that of beasts. We read of the Emperor Ma●…imilian, I. who being detained a prisoner by them of Bruges, & entreated unworthily, reduced to extreme, dangers, and hourly ready to be slain, yet nothing daunted, nor abating the greatness of his courage, his cruelest enemies durst not behold him in the face; the most mutinous did him reverence, and the beams of his eyes (saith the History) did amaze, and pierce the consciences of the Rebels, to the quick. We may say as much of the French King, Francis I. taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia; for he had no prison, but a royal 
F●…calel. li. 3. of the french Mon.  Court. What cause was there of such amazement in their victorious enemies, in regard of their prisoners? if it were not that in them (being in that estate) appeared marks of their royal dignity, of their spiritual unction, of their divine lieutenancy; which did melt and co●…found the hearts of their adversaries. Let us say the same of man; for although he be a prisoner, sold under sin, and slave to Satan, yet hath he in him the divine character, the breathing of the mouth of God, the lively Image of the living God, who gives him a royalty over all creatures; who terrifies them with his only look, puts them to flight by his bare words, and makes them obey and serve by his commandment: And if at any time they make show to revenge themselves, they are either pressed on by famine, or thrust on by fear to defend their lives; or else God would have it so by reason of the sins of man.  
The fourth are his goodly words, expressing the divine conceptions of the soul, proper to man only: The speech is the Image of the soul; he that shall mince and digest it, shows himself ●…o be an hypocrite. See farther what Serres saith in the first 
Serre. epist. 115.  of the signs. Let no man object the speaking of parrots, for these words found nothing of their intention, but rashly give again the sound of the words which are tuned into their ears, without any understanding, As for Balaams' Ass, which spoke with sense to her unjust master, saying, What have I done that thou hast beaton me thrice? am not I thine Ass? have I▪ been accustomed to do so unto thee? showing that there was some strong reason that forced her to stay. It is so rare a miracle, as it may be neither before nor since, the like hath not happened: & therefore Moses saith, that the Eternal opened the Ass' mouth, or framed by his pow er, a humane voice in the Ass' mouth.  
As for the Oaks of Done and the Oxen which drawing at Plough in the second Punic war, spoke these words (Beware Rome) either it is fabulous, or the Devil spoke by them. But the most excellent. words of man, being set down immortally in writing, or flying eternally in memory of men, shows that their spring is immortal, as much as the effect can represent the cause. Oh God, how could this knowledge of the immortality, this ardent desire thereof, the expression of this desire by immortal words come into the thought of man, and from man, if all in him were mortal?  
And to finish it, we may add the quickness of hearing, understanding the singing of birds, the music of voices and the harmomie of instruments. Let no man object other creatures unto me, they hear the sound, but not the ac cord of tunes. Moreover this hearing of man is so persuaded by the charms of a divine tongue speaking from a Pulpit of truth, as she would willingly leave the world to enjoy the heavenly felicity; no small conjecture that the soul is capable of immortality, seeing she hath such power over the ear her Organ, to make it understand & desire, at the declining of the dying body, See moreover what john de Serres saith, in the 45. proof of the immortality of the soul.  

The first Objection.  
Whatsoever is built upon an uncertain foundation, is doubtful and wavering.  
The immortality of the soul is built upon an uncertain foundation.  
IT seems that the reason of the preaching of the soul in her exemption from the grave, flows originaly for that she understands immortal things, & that by the joining of time passed with the present she infers the future; wherein she is chiefly distinguished from beasts which are mortal: but this groundwork is not solid. Some one speaking of the soul, to show her immortality, saith, that they did not judge her eternal, for that no man could comprehend the Eternity, that is to say, that long term passed without beginning: If this be admitted, the question is decided, and the soul will be found mortal, seeing that she cannot perfectly comprehend the immortality; for it is as difficult to conceive a continuity to come without end, as it is of that which is passed without beginning. More over the difference of a reasonable man, hath no advantage by his continuance over beasts, seeing that continuance is but an accident, and beasts are not longer lived then trees, yea shorter, yet are they are as much above trees, as men are above beasts. Thirdly they whom we wholly follow, as Aristotle, (that miracle of the world) Galen the first favourite of nature, Hypocrates surnamed the divine, and others, have spoken doubtfully, or denied it flatly; Galen, Aristoxenus and Dicearchus Aristotle's disciples, yea and Plutarch himself do witness, that Aristotle denied it: Hypocrates said, that the soul went always on unto death.  
Finally, if she be of heaven and immortal, why doth she not participate of heaven & immortality? why are her thoughts fixed upon earth and perishable things? The plant retains something of the soil, what hath the soul of heaven?  
Answer, Man's understanding comprehends in a certain fashion a continuance without end, and for proof, give him a term of an hundred Millions of years: he will extend his spiritual sight an hundred Millions beyond that; and if you will, as far beyond it, for that this visible force cannot be in any sort limited by time. The heavens and stars in their substance shall continue without end, yet in their qualities they must change; but the soul doth well comprehend this sustenance. Moreover it is no good consequence to say, Bulls feel not the vigour of their force, therefore they have none. A man being borne and bred in the bottom of a dark cave, thinks that he hath no faculty to see, is he the therefore blind? the soul being buried in the darkness of a mortal body as in a grave, sees not her immortality, hath she therefore none? Thirdly, we do not say that man is immortal, for that he differs from beasts, but for many reasons delivered & to be delivered. Fourthly, the Philosophers above mentioned would see and touch the soul in her immortality, & she is not subject to any sense S. Basile hath seen it in spirit 
Lib. 2. de anima.  & written it with his hand: The soul, saith he, cannot be seen 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 fabric of corporal nature, he said that it was not the charge of a Physician to treat of all sorts of souls, as is the intellectual, which he pronounceth to differ from the sensitive & vegetative, from which, he saith, she may separate herself, as the perpetual from the corruptible. Galen had his eyes fixed only upon the body (the subject of Physic) and therefore he said freely, that it did not import him in his art, if he were ignorant how the souls were sent into the bodies, or whether they passed from one to an other; But if it please Galen, leaving the limits of his art, to take the fresh air of divine Philosophy, presently his goodly conception is followed with these words The soul is distilling from the universall Spirit, descending from heaven, etc.  
Which having left the earth, recovers heaven, and dwells with the Moderator of all things in the Celestial places. As for Hypocrates, his words sound more of the immortality, then of the death of the soul, having this sense, That the soul goes always increasing until the death of the body. But if you desire effects and not words, what conceit could Aristotle, Galen and Hypocrates have of the soul to be mortal, who by an immortal labour have purchased such great same throughout the world? and whose authority is the cause that they are now produced, and maintained?  
Finally, that which he objects of the soul's thoughts, fixed for the most part on the frail things of this passing world, it is no small sign of the corruption of mankind; but no argument, that the soul is perishable, seeing she retains still the immortal seal which God hath set upon her in her first creation.   

The. 2, Objection.  
The container, and that which is contained, should entertain themselves by a just proportion.  
The body and the soul are the container, and contained.  
IF the soul be immortal, seeing the body is mortal, what proportion were there betwixt the soul and body? How hath nature (which doth all things by a just weight, number, and measure) joined things together which are so dislike? It serves to no purpose to produce the bird kept in a cage, which as soon as she can get out flies away; for he is kept there by force, and not as form in substance.  
Answer: We grant the whole argument, and we add, that it is sin which came by accident, that hath caused this great disproportion. Otherwise man before sin, in his estate of innocency, had his body immortal: & therefore jesus Christ our Saviour, like a cunning Logician, drew the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soul, for that God was called the God of 
Mat. 22. 31  Abraham, of Isaac, and of jacob; but God saith, he is not the God of the dead but of the living. So saith Saint Augustine, and Saint Bernard, that the soul is so separated from the body, as there remains still a natural inclination to resume it again, & to minister to his body; and this only doth hinder her, that she is not affectionate towards God withal her virtue and force, as be the Angels; and therefore her blessedness is imperfect: For the souls, o flesh (saith Bernard) cannot without thee be accomplished 
In sermo. 5. de festo omnium Sancto.  in their joy, nor perfect in their glory, nor consummated in their felicity; and in the same place he distinguisheth their degrees or places for the soul; in this life as in a Tabernacle; before the resurrection in heaven, as in a gallery; and then after the resurrection in the house of God. But you will say, this answer is Metaphysical, I desire one that is natural. Answer: This goodly order which you recommend in nature required this ordering, that as there are some Creatures merely spiritual, others merely corporal, so there were some which were mixed, both spiritual and corporal, and that is man, who in that small form represents all that is in the world, and who by his senses doth communicate with the Creatures, and by his understanding with the Angels, giving his right hand to heaven, and his left to the earth.   

The 3. Objection.  
If reason loads us to the immortality of the soul, by the same means she should guide us to the resurrection of the body.  
But that is not true.  
I Prove the Minor by this known Maxim of reason, That there is no return from privation to the habit, nor (by consequence) from death to life, no more then from stark blindness to sight. Wherefore they of Athens (where one writes that the men are borne Philosophers) hearing S. Paul discourse of many points of heavenly 
Act. 17, 32.  doctrine, they gave an attentive hear unto him; but when he came to the Resurrection of jesus Christ, they interrupted him, mocking at him as one that doted. Ans. I deny it, that the resurrection of the dead is absolutely beyond the apprehension of nature; The West-Indians who are without the Church of Christ, believe it and practise it, as well by the ceremonies of their interrements which aim directly at it, as by the usual entreaties they make to the Spaniards, digging for the gold of their Sepulchers, that they should not take out & carry away the bones, to the end they may rise again speedily, as Benzo reports. 
Lib, 2. c. 20  At, Rome this Epitaph is yet to be read in Latin upon a Pagan's tomb: The public hath given a place unto Aurelius Balbus, a man of an unspotted life; I rest here in hope of the resurrection. But that which is most wonderful and exceeds all credit, if they that write it were not eye witnesses and worthy of credit, that in Egypt in a place near unto Cain, a multitude of people meet on a certain day in march, to be spectators of the resurrection of the flesh, as they say; where from Thursday, to Saturday inclusively, they may see and touch bodies wrapped in their sheets after the ancient manner; but they neither see them standing nor walking, 
2. tom. l. 4. of the bisto. meditations. c. 13.  but only the arms or the thighs, or some other part of the body which you may touch: If you go farther off and then return presently, you shall find these members to appear more out of the ground, and the more they change place, the more diverse these motions appear.  
This admirable sight is written by Olaus Magnus, by certain Venetian Ambassadors, by a jacopin of ulme's & others; but I leave the interpretation free to the judgement of the reader. Thirdly, if it were a work without the compass of reason, Plutarque, Herodotus, nor Plato would ever have been credited in writing, that one Thespesius, Aristeus, and Erus, were raised up again. Pliny, who believed nothing but what he saw; among many that were raised up, he reports of a woman which was dead seven days, and raised again: and that one Gabienus a valiant soldier of Caesar's, being put to death by order of justice, and left upon the public place, was found afterwards speaking, and ask for Pompey, who came unto him and had much speech with him. Melchior Flavian makes mention of a woman whom he had seen, whose name was Mellula, near unto Damas' in Syria, raised up again the 6. day after her death, in the year 1555. God will bring such tokens, to assure the world of a future and universal Resurrection.  
As for the Maxim, that there is no returning again to the habit, it is abusive not only to God, who can do all, but even to nature, and to the order of the world, which hath his forces limited: So in a little child, whose teeth have been pulled out, the vegetative virtue will bring up new.  
So we read of a certain Abbess, who being an 100 years old, grew young again, had her monthly courses, her teeth put forth again, her hair grew black, the wrinkles of her face filled up: Finally, she became as fresh and as fair as she had been at the age of 20. years. And if we may believe histories, she was not alone, but followed and preceded by many others. The natural virtue at a certain time, as trees in the Spring, did renew her work even four times; as to that man seen in the year 1536, by the Viceroy of the Indies, who examined it carefully, and found out the truth. Fourthly, that which shows an insenfible impression of nature of the future Resurrection, is the earnest and general care to bury the dead honourably, yea to keep them from corruption, by balms and Aromatical scents, by images of brass, and nails fastened in the bodies, for that brass hath a special virtue against corruption. There are yet other devices, which the Egyptians have, and do use, and particularly observed by them of Arran, an insularie region, whereas the bodies hang in the air and rot not; so as the families without any amazement, know their Fathers, Grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, and a long 
Ortel. in his great Theal tab. 10.  band of their predecessors. Peter Martyr of Milan, writes 
2. Decad. l. 2.  the same of some West-Indians of Comagra.  
Moreover, I deny that man may always see the tail of that whereof he sees the head; the resurrection of the body, seeing the immortality of the soul; that he must needs see the consequent, if he discovers the Antecedent: for the one hiding itself, the other appears, sometimes to the sight of the understanding. And to conclude, I deny not but that it is true which man's reason cannot verify, until it hath found out why the Adamant doth so powerfully draw iron unto it, and holds it fast by an unknown virtue; & why forked sticks of Elder are proper to discover veins of gold and silver? Why long aftrr a man is dead, the blood will gush out if the murderer approacheth? Why if some desperate man hang himself, will there rise sudden storms and tempests? Why the stone called the Amede, draws iron to it on the one side, and rejects it on the other? with infinite other secrets of Nature.   

The third Objection.  
We only fear that which we think should be hurtful unto us.  
The soul feareth death.  
Therefore the soul thinks death should be hurtful unto her.  
SOme make a question how the soul can be immortal, seeing she hath so great fear of death. Men laugh at the attempt of little children, be they never so in choler; for that they cannot hurt them: why should not the soul then mock at death? Doth she not in like manner see the immortality, & feel it in herself, without giving so great apprehension to the poore●… body, which, of itself without her should never fear death, no more than a bruit beast? Why is not the power of death dissolved, whereas the authority of immortality intercedes? as Tertullian speaks in the first book of the Trinity.  
Answer. This is a most evident sign, not of the mortality of the soul, but that man is degenerate and corrupt. 
That her Port is no more so free and brave,  
But casts her eye down, like a fearful slave.   
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 punishment; he feels in this life, some small touch; he fears & not without reason (if by faith & repentance his pardon be not inrowled, and his absolution sealed) that at the departure from this life, the executioner of divine vengeance should stand lurking behind death, to take him by the throat, and to punish him according to his merits. Wherefore if corruption did not generally possess all men, she would suppress this fear, reverence her Creator, and do her duty unto him; and then she should see that by that respective fear to offend her God, she should be fully delivered from all other fear: she should see, that fearing only the death of the soul, (which is only to be feared) she should not fear that of the body, which is to be desired. But for that most men (as S. Augustine doth teach) fear the separation of the 
Tom. 2. in Psal. 48.  soul 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 soul being willing to shake off this fear of the Creator, she must needs fear every creature, even the smallest, frogs, mice, and flies; which flying about, awake him suddenly, and many times trouble him much; but in the end death is above all extreme fears the most fearful: And why is this? if like unto bruit beasts all died in him; and if in death there were nothing to be feared. Wherefore Propertius saith: 
The spirit is something death leaves it in store,  
The palest shadows 'scapes to the burning shore.   
But to conclude: The soul having been too familiar with the flesh, she hath gotten a habit, she hath drawn such corruption, as being ignorant) of the happiness which attends her in heaven, she cannot leave this valley of misery, this obscure prison, but with great grief: being like unto the man, which being carried away an Infant by a she wolf, was nourished by wolves, did howl with them, and did live, and would live among them: and if he were taken by other men, he would leave them to return to his wolves, as the History makes mention of one, verifying the Proverb, That nourishment passeth nature.    

The sixth Argument from the efficient cause, of Immortality.  
The elevation above time and place, is the efficient cause of Immortaliti.  
But the soul is elevated above all time and place.  
IT is without all question, that only time ruins all things, yet the understanding is not subject to time; for the time past is present unto it: And therefore man shall see an act played before him, and yet he shall have another in his understanding, which was done 10. 20. or 30. years before: and shall have it so present in his mind, as the spiritual intuition thereof, will steal from his corporal eyes that which is presently acted before them. So Scipio Affricanus said, that he was never less alone, then when he was alone; why? For that his acts past, his armies led, and his triumphs, presented themselves unto him in the most solitary walks of his garden. Observe a horse; he doth not see, seal, nor think of any thing, but the object that is before his eyes: But contrariwise, the soul is there where she stays least; she studies, and calls to mind what is past, & becomes wise for the future before she sees; and of three times makes but one, for that she is not subject to time; this is plainly seen in the Prophets, to whom the future is revealed in the spirit as it were present, by him that hath made time. And this is the true reason why the Prophets speak without lying, of things to come, as if they had been done: So Esay chap. 9 spoke of jesus Christ; A child is borne unto us, a child is given us; for he saw him borne with his Prophetical eyes, dead and risen again. I would insist upon this Argument if it were not as plain as it is firm.  
As for the natural place of the Soul, she is not definite, for she is all in the brain, all in the heart, all in the liver, all in the Matrix; & so of the other parts of the body, not according to the total of her virtue; for she is one in the head, an nother the feet, another in the sight, another in the hearing. But she is thus diffused according to the total of her essence, which makes her in some sort infinite, and by consequent, immortal. It is not then of her as of the mover of a great wheel, which touching one part makes all the rest turn; Nor as a King who sitting in his Palace stretcheth out his hands to the farthest confines of his kingdom: But as God in the world, who is in heaven, on earth, and all in all.  

The first Objection.  
All that is distempered by heat and drought, is perishable.  
Such is the Soul.  
GAllen thinking that the Soul burns in the body by a burning fever; is lost with the great loss of blood, and that a strong poison doth poison it, he protests plainly, that until that time he had doubted what the substance of the Soul was; but then grown wiser, as well by practice, as by age, he durst boldly swear, that it was nothing but the temperature of the body.  
And therefore calling Plato out of his grave, he demands of him, how it is possible the soul should be immortal?  
Answer: The heat of a fever, and the corporal force cannot work upon the soul, neither can she suffer; and although the actions which the soul doth by means of the Organs of the body, be depraved or interrupted by the depravation and interruption of the Organs, yet for all that the soul loseth nothing of her virtue, nor of her hability.  
He that even now played excellently well on the Lute, must not be held to have lost his cunning, if taking a Lute ill mounted and with 〈◊〉 string●…, he play ill; or if having no strings at all, he ceaseth to play: It is even so of the spirit in the body for in the sinews flowing from the brain, there distils a certain vital spirit, as a beam of the Sun, of whose force the soul makes use first, to handle the sinews, and by them the Muscles; which being afterwards moved, revive every member apart, and altogether. Now if any malign disease come to deprave this subtle humour, the functions of the soul feel it, but not the soul.  
Moreover, as certain unclean spirits, remaining in some dark and filthy house by reason of the vapours agreeing with their disposition; if it be cleansed, the door & windows set open, if a good air, a comfortable Sun, and wholesome wind enter into it; if it be inhabited by many, who pass the time joyfully, and especially if they play upon many Instruments, these spirits quit the place: So by a contrary analogy, the soul is kept and entertained in the body by certain spiritual qualities and fit for her exercises; which coming in time to change to the contrary, they chase away the soul, being glad upon that occasion to dislodge from a place which was not to be held.  
Thirdly, if the temperament be nothing but the Quint●…ssence of the mixtion of the four elements, whereof man's body is compounded as the harmony is the fifth sound, rising from all the parts in Music: and if Galen means not to speak but of this soul which he hath felt in the touching of the pulse, in the Anatomy of the body; I say, of the vegetative and the sensitive soul, we may yield unto him; But of the reasonable soul which contains these two, within her compass (as the fifth angle doth a triangle & quadrangle) & which makes use of the temper to the body, as of an instrument, to rule and govern it, as the Pilot doth the Helm to conduct his ship; that cannot be: for to confound the instrument with the principal agent, the Pilot with the Helm were no reason: In the actions of a vegetative & sensitive life, although there be a mature temperature required, yet shall they never prove, that this temper is necessary to understand and contemplate, seeing that out of all question the most exquisite contemplation consists in the sequestration of the soul from the communion of the body; for that contemplation is the more certain, the more it is sequestered from gross circumstances of matter, place and time; things which with their accidentary attires are perceived by the senses, do often deceive. How often hath our sight and our hearing deceived us? thinking to see & hear one thing, which proved another. But the sciences as the Mathematics, which extract the Essences out of bodies, are never deceived following their art; and much less the Metaphysic, which contemplates the pure spirits, free from any contagion of matter. But if the reasonable soul were nothing but the temperament of the body, it could not be but among a million of beasts which are in the world, some one should be found which had the same mixture of the the four first humours which are in man, and by consequence, the same reasonable faculty: and if any reply that the chief difference is in the brain, I will answer, that the Anatomy doth not show any difference of the brain of men and beasts.   

The 2. Objection.  
If the soul lived out of the body, she should have some actions without the body.  
But this is not true.  
ARistotle saith, that the soul in the body understandeth nothing, but by her conversation with the Ideas, which the imagination represents unto her, whether that she gets new knowledge, or contemplates that which is gotten. But the Ideas perish with the body, and by consequence, the soul.  
Answer. The excellent effects of the soul, suffice to convince her presence and essence; as for the understanding it is double, passive and active; and these two faculties remain still, although the figures which imagination hath furnished, be vanished. So a man in the bottom of an obscure Cave hath not lost his faculty of seeing, although he, cannot plainly judge of colours. But the soul, you will say, understands not any thing being out of the body, seeing that within it she understands not any thing without him. It follows not. That great Workman, who after a manner incomprehensible to us, hath united and joined the soul unto the body, two such different natures, without any apparent mean to reconcile them: that great workman, I say, is powerful to furnish new means to her operations, when he hath called it unto him: and what? we shall know when it shall be fit. In the mean time, if we will believe Thomas Aquinas, it shall be by the conversion 
〈◊〉. quest. 86. ●…al, 1.  of the soul to things which are simply intelligible as the other spiritual substances do.  
jesus Christ also hath vouchsafed to teach us, that in heaven we shall be like unto the Angels. Let us not then trouble ourselves here no more, then for the child coming into the world: In the mother's womb it lived by the navel: this means is cut off by his birth, but nature hath provided him a mouth, another passage in another life. It is even so of the soul; it is nourished in this corruptible life, by a carnal means, and in the heavenly by another, which is spiritual. But you will reply, that the soul is to return into the body; and not the infant into the womb. I answer, That it is sufficient the similitude explaining the thing, shows it not to be impossible.  
Moreover, it is not likely that in the Resurrection, the body which shall be spiritual, should furnish the same means for the actions of the soul, as it doth in this life; but this business is too intricate.  
Let us put in practice what S. Augustine propounds unto us; Let not the soul, saith he, labour do foreknow itself absent, but to know itself well being present, and how much she differs from other things: Aso, she hath not taken her form from Christ, but her salvation; and therefore the Son of God descended, and took upon him man's soul, not to the end the soul should know itself in Christ, but that she should know Christ within herself; for by the ignorance of herself, her salvation is not only in danger, but by the ignorance of the eternal word, as Tertullian doth learnedly teach, lib. de Car. Christ.   

The third Objection.  
If the soul of man were immortal, it should also be immaterial.  
But she is material.  
IF the soul be material, she is dissoluble into her first matter, with all other sublunary things: but she is material if she proceeds from the Father's seed, as Tertullian, Origen, and other ancient & modern Divines think, and maintain it by their written books. And in truth how can it be said, that the infant is the son of his father, if he hold nothing from him but his basest part, the body, not his form, not his soul: how could the holy Ghost say, that all the souls which came out of Jacob's thigh, were 66? How can 
Gen. 46.  original sin flow from the father upon the son, which hath no seat but in the soul? And this made S. Augustine doubt in his fourth book of the beginning of the soul, the which he did write being old; to doubt, I say, of this beginning, not daring to deliver his opinion: and some more hardy have maintained that she proceeded from the congression of the two seeds of man and woman, as by the striking of the iron against the stone fire comes forth.  
Answer. The principal foundation of the immortality of the soul is the word of God: so they which have had more feeling of this word, have better acknowledged it; as Zoroastres, Mercurius Trismegistes, Pythagoras, and Plato, surnamed the Divine for that effect: but Aristotle, Galen, and others, who would measure all by humane reason, have wonderfully deceived themselves in matters which exceeded this measure, as in this Doctrine.  
If then the Obiector will believe this witness, of whom he cities a passage, the question will be soon ended: the holy Scripture saith, that the Eternal breathed the spirit of life into the nosestrills of Adam, he being framed of the slime of the earth; the which is not spoken of any other creature: In Ecclesiastes it is said, that the spirit returns to God that gave it: jesus dying cried out, Father into thy hands I commit my soul. He promiseth to the believing thief, that he shall be that day with him in Paradise; finally, S. Stephen dying made this prayer, Lord jesus receive my soul; with a thousand other passages. As for that which he speaks of the generation of the soul, we first will oppose the authority of Tertullian, lib. de Anima c. 13. You mothers, sayeth he which are newly delivered, answer, the question is of the truth of your nature, if you feel in your fruit any other vivacity from you but what your arteries do breath. And for this cause the infant is said to be the true son of his father and mother, from whom the body with his Organs proceeded; to make which perfect God infused the spirit, so as this spirit is made for this body, and not the body for this spirit simply. Moreover, the generation is not ended, nor consisteth in the production of the form or of the matter only, but of all that is composed: therefore he that composeth or that joins the matter with the form, the flesh with the soul, he doth truly engender man. But it is he that makes this conjunction, who disposeth so of matter and form, as the soul follows infallibly, and it is that which makes man in the generation, and man and woman are the begetters of the infant.  
As for the passage of Moses, who doth not see the intellectual figure, who means one thing for another, the body for the soul by reason of their strict union? Finally, that which made S. Augustin doubt of the generation of the soul, was, that he could not comprehend how the sin which dwells in the soul of the father, doth pasfe unto the son: But that is so plainly fet down by the Divines at this day, as it is needless to speak of here, neither were it to the purpose: It sufficeth that the Pagan's themselves have acknowledged that the soul came into man otherwise then from man. Aristotle says plainly, that it is something from without us: Seneca, The soul, saith he, if thou lookest unto her first beginning, is not made of that mass of heavy flesh, but is descended from the celestial Spirit: Epictetus calls the soul a branch pulled from the divinity: Plutarque in the Platonical questions saith, that the soul participating of the understanding and reason, is not only a work of God, but a part of him, and not only made by him, but of him; these are Hyperbolical Eulogies, but by them these personages have made it known how reverently they did esteem of a reasonable Soul, having no thought that she was material.    

The 7. Argument taken from the effects of the Immortality of the soul.  
Manifest effects do manifestly show their cause.  
Consolation in the greatest heaviness, hope in the most desperate events, fortitude in the sharpest assaults, are effects in man proceeding from the immortality of the soul.  
MAn floating upon the sea of this world, at every puff of wind of adversity would swoon away and perish, if the consideration of the immortal being of his soul, as a most sure anchor, did not comfort & forti fie him they that have struck against the rocks of adversity can witness it; and such as have not, must prepare themselves for it; for prosperity which seemeth to be married unto them, will cross them and overthrow them in the end, if they be not very wary: for that her greatest happiness is miserably to supplant her favourites; & therefore every man should in time make provision of a strong Antidote against fortune: And the true Antidote is a full persuasion of the immortality of the Soul. For happen what can happen, let the heavens rive, let the earth open, let the waves overflow the world; such a man will 
Medijs tran quillus in: undis.  continue constant & undaunted. By this resolution, Crates, Diogenes, Socrates, the Curij, Fabricij; Deccis and others, desired rather to leave their riches, Sceptres, favours, the quiet rest of their bodies, yea their own lives; then to abandon the least point of their duty and honour. By this belief Regulus did joyfully suffer the inhuman torments of the Cathaginians to maintain the Majesty of his Country.  

Attilius stood unstirred at death that grew,  
And with a deathles spirit overflew  
Foes highest inflictions: smiling in disdain  
At all the terrors in the Punic pain.   
It is also the only assurance which gives firm footing to the doctrine of Christ, and makes a Christian hope in the midst of despair, which seems hourly ready to swallow him up, either in the outward gulf of persecution; or in the inward gulf of his flesh, of his senses, of his own reason; which he must renounce to reverence this doctrines of the Cross of Christ, which is a scandal unto the jews, and folly unto the Gentiles; which offends the most devout, and is rejected by most learned of this world.  
How shall he hope (as some have said) in things so far from reason? what, shall a man joy when he is a daptive, and force his reason by the which he is a man, to give glory to God immortal? Whence can it flow but from the spring of his immortal soul? doubtless it was an admirable thing, that contrary to the Edict of Nere (whereby whosoever confessed himself a Christian, without any farther search should be put to death, as an enemy to mankind:) men and women went by thousands to Christian Assemblies, and to death, not sadly but joyfully.  
But this exceeds all wonders, that all thief miseries endured, have no other foundation, but to believe in a man whom no man sees; to have one for King who hath been hanged on the cross, and to have him sor the only and true God, whom they had seen to have but the disfigured form of an infamous servant: to men of judgement, and to such as the truly faithful are, this would seem impossible, if their immortal spirits did not at●…end after this life (nay rather, this miserable death) a most happy life, as after a sharp Winter, a most sweet Spring.  
Finally, the only apprehension of the immortality of the soul, is it which gives force in the fiercest alarms, and sharpest temptations: which made weak David to triumph over strong Goliath; Deborah and judith, of powerful Tyrants: this made Scevola a prisoner to amaze king Porsenna, & to raise his siege from before Rome; with many other examples both ancient and modern: all which had no other reason to move them in their brave exploicts, but the glorious breathing of their immortal Souls.  

The first Objection.  
From deluding opinions many times there follow strange and true effects.  
Therefore the effects do not always argue their cause to be true.  
THE false Prophets of Baal did cut themselues; the Anabaptists at this day do strange acts; & many others deceived with vain fancies, which in them hold the place of certain knowledge, act terrible things.  
Answer: That false pastor, that very impostor, as counterfeit as lying, being directly opposite to the truth, cannot be conceived but by comparing with the truth, whereof he is the shadow and privation. Even so false religion presupposeth the true necessarily; for having held her place, she makes terrible work, as in the false Prophets above mentioned, in the Anabaptists and other Heretics.  
As then all religions have for their first foundation the adoration of the Divinity, although diverse and variable, which more or less follow the pattern which hath been given us by God in his holy word: so all the Heroic deeds, all the worthy actions, though thrust on diversely by diverse passions, yet have they all the immortality of the soul for their first foundation, without the which men like unto beasts, would only care for the belly, and not perform any worthy act; much less endure so many reproaches and miseries in this world, as hath been showed, and as is daily seen.   

The second Objection.  
If the soul were immortal, it should be an evident Principle to every man by his own light, as that two & 2. make 4. that the whole is bigger than the part, that we must fly evil and do good & ●…, things which we know without learning.  
Answer: I grant the consequence of the Mayor; for that the soul is immortal, it is clear by her own brightness, although she hath been much darkened by sin: This is known to all men, in all places, and at all times, which are the very conditions of the Principle.  
And all that which they allege, is but to defend this truth against the cunning & Sophistry of the wicked spirit and of his supporters, labouring by cavilings to dazzle the eye of the soul; that not seeing her immortality, she might be entrapped in the snatos of Satan, and suffer shipwradke of her faith.   

The third Objection.  
If the soul were an essence subsisting of herself, she should be known of all.  
But no man could ever know it.  
ALL men that enter into this question of the soul, cry out, O darkness, o pity! That which leads us to the knowledge of things, is unknown unto us. that we have a soul, saith Seneca, by whose commandment we are thrust on and called back, all men confess it; but what this soul, this Lady and Queen is, no man can decide, neither yet where she abides. Laertius, or rather Heraclitus for him: Let us pass over the soul (saith he) for no man can find it, yea, if he should employ his whole life; so profound is the reason thereof. Do not urge that the eye seeth every thing but itself; for the eye seeth another eye, but one soul knoweth not another soul: yea, the eye seeth itself, not his image, but his proper substance, in the reflection of his visual beams, by the means of the lookingglass; as for the soul, all they that have delivered their opinions, have seemed to dote. Varro hath said, that 
Lact. de opist. c. 17.  it was an air conceived in the mouth, purified in the lights, made lukewarm in the heart, & diffusedly spread over the whole body: Zeno, that it was a fire kindled in our bodies by the celestial fire: Empedocles, and Circias', that it was nothing but the blood; Hypocrates, that it was a subtle spirit insinuated throughout the whole body: Thales, that it was a nature moving of itself without rest: Asclepiades, a common exercise of the senses: Hippoc. that she goes always on until death, 6 Epistle part 5. come. 5.  
Finally, if it were ever, it is in this, That so many heads, so many opinions.  
Answer: The soul flowing from the divine essence, hath that common with God, that we see many negations of her, but few or no affirmations: but we know with Aristotle, that it is the perfection of a natural body which may have life; that it is the beginning of nourishment, feeling, motion, and understanding: And yet more than that, although we cannot climb so high: the reason is, that the knowledge which the soul hath of things, is from the senses by means of the Ideas; but the soul cannot be perceived by the senses: of her there are no Ideas, nor by consequence any knowledge. And as for this air, this fire, these spirits, such as they are fashioned in the brain, they are but organs and vessels fit for the soul; seeing that we see them waste and consume every moment, without loss of life, the which notwithstanding cannot subsist without the ministry of the soul.  
Finally, as for the different opinions of diverse men, they show that they know not what it is; but withal they demonstrate that they know there is a soul which they strive to know; but who is he that would study to know that which is not in nature, unless he were mad?   

The second Objection.  
If the soul were endowed with a special motion, she would express it by her body.  
But she doth not express it.  
IF the soul at the departure out of the body, had her flight towards heaven, she would give some sign of it to the body, stirring it with some special motion. Simple Creatures move themselves in all sorts of motions, differing from plants, which without moving from their place, do but grow up and spread abroad, for that their souls are diverse: and why should not man, who hath a special soul, have a special motion? As for that he bounds and skips, therein a goat or a cat hath more than he; neither is that the reasonable soul that doth it, but rather the vegetative, the mixture of the natural fire which raiseth him: wherefore as soon as a man breathes and exhales: this fire, he falls from his leap; but of any proper or particular motion of this flying soul, he feeleth nothing.  
Answer: Servius upon the 6. of Virgil will answer, That the soul in the body is like unto a Lion shut up in a straight cage, which notwithstanding loseth nothing of his force, although he cannot show it; but if he once escape, you shall see him as strong as before, so as a man would think his force had been abated in his prison. Moreover, some have been so active as they have flown; as at Paris in the year 1551. there was one undertook to fly from the Tower of Nefle unto the Lowre, the river being betwixt both, the King expecting him: and although he could not get to the end of his enterprise, yet he got up into the air after such an admirable manner, as he came to the midway. But the flying of the Creature doth not prove his essence immortal, for then birds should be immortal. And how then can the souls mount up to heaven going out of the bodies? If thou dost believe the holy Scriptures, the Angels sent to serve them lovingly which shall receive the inheritance 
Hebr. 1, 14  of salvation, will carry them as the Angel did poor Lazarus. 
Luke 16, 22   
Hereunto that good Father Macarius had regard: There is a great Mystery, saith 
Hom, 22, of the estate of them that die.  he, accomplished in souls going out of the bodies; for if they be guilty of sin; troops of devils and bad angels flocking about them, seize upon those souls, as their slaves, and carry them away etc. But if they be in good estate, the companies of good Angels carrying them to a better life, present them unto the Lord; yet we will not deny but in the soul there is an intrinsical virtue to climb up to heaven, with a swiftness equal to her desire: if that fire hath a secret force to mount up to his proper place, being a dead Element, what then shall the soul separated do, being so active, and so quick, and whose proper Country is Heaven? And although that heaven, especially that which is the mansion of happy souls, be so many leagues distant, as Astrologers which have sought to take the height, have found millions, & being much amazed have mounted near to two thousand millions of leagues; yet we must not believe that the soul is long in passing this great distance; for that her motion, not being continued, but divided like to that of spirits, departing out of the body she is presently in heaven, even as in this corruptible body, in a moment she sends the beams of her sight and thoughts up to heaven. But wholly to stop the mouth of our adversary, we say that the true knowledge of the soul in her immortality, is no humane invention, but a divine revelation, as justine Martyr saith; and that since she is fallen 
Dial. cont Triph.  from her first integrity, which fall hath so amazed & dulled her, as she knows not truly what she hath been, what she is, or where she is, nor whither she shall go, of whosesinne she is the subject, as Iron is of rust; it hath wholly spoilt her, dulled her quickness, and weakened her vigour; which is the cause that she stumbles in the way of health, is blind in the knowledge of the least things & is interrupted in the course of her bravest discourses by a fly or any toy: To conclude, she is so troubled, as she dreams of a thousand fancies, & in a manner mistakes every thing.   

The fifth Objection.  
To allege the desire of a morsel of fruit, for the only reason of so great a misery, is to show himself ridiculous.  
Moses' for all the miseries of Adam and his descendants, produceth no other reasons.  
DV Bartas hath seen this Objection, & hath written in these terms:  

Who shall direct my pen to paint the Story  
Of wretched man's forbidden bit-loft, glory?   
And,  

Though Adam's doom in every Sermon common,  
And founded on the error of a woman,  
Weary the vulgar; and be judged a jest  
Of the profane, zealefcoffing Atheists?   
Answer: The offence of the first man is not so small as it seems to an eye troubled with carnal sense  
But i was a chain where all the greatest sins, Were one in other, linked fast as twins.  
Let us examine them and condemn them; The 1. is Ingratitude, to have received from God these sovereign blessings, as wisdom, justice, felicity, the government over all Creatures; and then to have more honoured the Devil then his benefactor.  
Secondly, Pride; not to content himself with his honest condition, but to seek 
G●…. 2. 22.  to make himself equal to his Creator.  
Thirdly, his Infidelity, not to give credit to the threatenings of God, Thou shalt die the death: and to believe Satan, mocking at the threats of God, and accusing him of envy; You shall not dye, but God knows that what day you shall eat 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 revolt from God to his adversary, from whom he hopes & attends his imaginary greatness: the which the Doctors of the Church weighing, they have found that it was no small sin, but the greatest in certain cases that man could commit; for three reasons set down by S. Augustine, and these are 
Aug. lib. 4. de Ciu. D●…. c. 12. & 15.  the contents,  
1. Never man had that facility to keep himself from sin that Adam had; for he had but one Commandment, and that most easy; he had no concupiscence that induced him to evil; but he had divine authority, & that grievous threat to divert him.  
2. Man was most happy in the earthly Paradise; but we although we have great blessings from our God, yet we have them partly in faith, as th' Incarnation of jesus Christ; partly in hope, as eternal life: which is the cause that not tasting them yet, we feel many doubts crossing our mind. Besides, in the midst of God's consolations, we are stung with many afflictions, so as it is no wonder if many leaving the way of heaven, turn themselves to the goods of this world. But Adam had received infinite blessings of God, with a perfect knowledge of him, and no vexation; and yet he was an Apostata unto God.  
3. That sin is greatest which brings most ruin unto mankind: but there is none committed since, that hath made a greater spoil; By it (saith S. Augustin in the former place) the universal Mass of humane nature is condemned; for that he which did first commit it, is punished with his posterity, which was in his rheines. It follows then, that it is a most horrible sin, and they that speak otherwise, have never duly considered thereon: or else they are very bad disputers, concluding it a small fault in breaking an easy commandment of a light thing; for it is that which gives most weight unto the sin, as hath been already declared. To the King of heaven, immortal, invisible, to God only wise, be honour and Glory, for ever and ever,  
Amen.    
FINIS.   

The Errata.  
FOl. 227. l. 11. for death read life. In M. fol. 254. verses set in prose. fol. 161. l. 7. for men read wise men. fol. 398. l. 13. for Creatures read Creator. fol. 306. l. penul. for dainty read vanity. fol. 313. l. 7. re●… Massachres, ead. l. 16. for sand read ●…and, fol. 330. l. 7. read who hath learned, fol. 344. l. 17. r. alarms, fol. 355. l. 7. read apology. fol. 361. l. 6. read thousands of offenders. fol 372. l. 4. read seizure, fol. 374. l. 1●…. read for there. fol. 382. l. 7. read seen. fol. 404. l. 14. for joyful read pleasant.