God, only wise, to punish pride of wit, Among men's wits hath this confusion wrought; As the proud tower whose points the clouds did hit, By tongues' confusion was to ruin brought. But Thou, which didst man's soul of nothing make, "To make it new, the form of man didst take, And God with God becamest a man with men." Thou that hast fashioned twice this soul of ours, Thou only knowest her nature and her powers; To judge herself, she must herself transcend, But Thou bright morning star, Thou rising sun, Lay hid in darkness and eternal night, Thou (like the sun) dost with an equal ray This lamp through all the regions of my brain, Where my soul sits, doth spread such beams of grace, As now methinks I do distinguish plain Each subtle line of her immortal face. The soul a substance and a spirit is, Which God Himself doth in the body make, Which makes the man; for every man from this The nature of a man and name doth take. And though this spirit be to the body knit THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL PROVED BY SEVERAL REASONS. HER only end is never-ending bliss, Which is the eternal face of God to see, Who last of ends and first of causes is; How senseless then, and dead a soul hath he For though these light and vicious persons say, And when we die doth turn to wind at last;" Although they say, "Come, let us eat and drink; Therefore no heretics desire to spread Their light opinions like those Epicures; Yet though these men against their conscience strive, Which cannot be extinct, but still revive, That though they would, they cannot quite be beasts. But whoso makes a mirror of his mind, And doth with patience view himself therein, His soul eternity shall clearly find, Though other beauties be defaced with sin. REASON I.-THE DESIRE OF KNOWLEDGE. FIRST, in man's mind we find an appetite To learn and know the truth of every thing, Which is co-natural and born with it, And from the essence of the soul doth spring. With this desire she hath a native might, To find out every truth if she had time; Th' innumerable effects to sort aright, And by degrees from cause to cause to climb. But since our life so fast away doth slide, As doth a hungry eagle through the wind; Or as a ship transported with the tide, Which in their passage leave no print behind. Of which swift little time so much we spend, While some few things we through the sense do strain, That our short race of life is at an end, Ere we the principles of skill attain. Or God, who to vain ends hath nothing done, God never gave a power to one whole kind, Most eyes have perfect sight, though some be blind; But in this life no soul the truth can know So perfectly as it hath power to do: If, then, perfection be not found below, An higher place must make her mount thereto. REASON II.-THE MOTION OF THE SOUL. AGAIN, how can she but immortal be, When with the motions of both will and wit She still aspireth to eternity, And never rests till she attain to it? Water in conduit-pipes can rise no higher Than the well-head from whence it first doth spring: Then, since to eternal God she doth aspire, She cannot be but an eternal thing. "All moving things to other things do move Of the same kind, which shews their nature such;" So earth falls down, and fire doth mount above, Till both their proper elements do touch. And as the moisture which the thirsty earth Sucks from the sea to fill her empty veins, From out her womb at last doth take a birth, And runs a lymph along the grassy plains. Long doth she stay, as loth to leave the land From whose soft side the first did issue make; She tastes all places, turns to every hand, Yet nature so her streams doth lead and carry, Till she herself unto the ocean marry, Within whose watery bosom first she lay. E'en so the soul, which in this earthly mould And only this material world she views, At first her mother earth she holdeth dear, And doth embrace the world, and worldly things; She flies close by the ground and hovers here, Yet under heaven she cannot light on aught For who did ever yet, in honour, wealth, Or pleasure of the sense, contentment find? Who ever ceased to wish when he had wealth? Or having wisdom was not vexed in mind? Then as a bee, which among weeds doth fall, Which seem sweet flowers with lustre fresh and gay, She lights on that and this, and tasteth all; But pleased with none, doth rise and soar away: So when the soul finds here no true content, And like Noah's dove can no sure footing take, She doth return from whence she first was sent, And flies to Him that first her wings did make. Wit, seeking truth, from cause to cause ascends, Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends; Now God the truth and first of causes is; God is the last good end which lasteth still, Being Alpha and Omega named to this, Alpha to wit, Omega to the will. |