A Golden Chain

And to proceed: It is not here said, the resurrection of the soul, but of the body only; what then (will some say) becometh of the soul? Divers have thought, that the souls then, though they do not die, yet are still kept within the body (being as it were asleep) till the last day. But Gods word saith to the contrary. For the souls of the godly lie under the altar, and cry,¹ How long Lord Jesus? Dives in soul did suffer the woe and torments of hell:² and Lazarus had joy in Abraham's bosom. Again some others think, that mens souls after this life do pass from one mans body to an other: and Herod may seem to have been of this opinion:³ for when news was brought him of Christ, he said, that John Baptist being beheaded was risen again, thinking that the soul of John Baptist was put into the body of some other man. And for proof hereof, some allege the example of Nebuchadnezzar, who forsaking the society of men, lived as beasts, and did eat grass like a beast: & they imagine that his own soul went out of him, and that the soul of a beast entered in the room thereof. But this indeed is a fond conceit: for even then he had the soul of a man when he lived as a beast, being only stricken by the hand of God with an exceeding madness, whereby he was bereft of common reason; as doth appear by that clause in the text, where it is said, that his understanding or knowledge returned to him again.⁴ Again, some other think, that the soul neither dieth nor sleepeth, nor passeth out of one body into an other, but wandereth here on earth among men, and oftentimes appeareth to this or that man: and this is the opinion of some heretics, and of the common people, which think that dead men walk: & for proof hereof some allege the practise of the witch of Endor, who is said to make Samuel to appear before Saul: but the truth is, it was not Samuel in deed, but only a counterfeit of him. For not all the witches in the world, nor all the devils in hell are able to disquiet the souls of the faithful departed, which are in the keeping of the Lord without wandering from place to place. For when men die in the faith, their souls are immediately translated into heaven, and there abide till the last judgement: and contrariwise if men die in their sins;