A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the…A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the…

Is this the fruit, for which we fast? And by pale studies sooner waste?

Do we toil and sweat, and even melt our selves away for that which we sooner forsake than find? Do we deny our selves the contentments and satisfactions most agreeable to our corporeal condition, being without hope of accomplishing our wishes in another estate? It is natural for gaining of Knowledge to hasten unto that whereby we loose both it and our selves? and to labour for such a purchase, which like lightning is at once begun and ended, yea indeed sooner lost than gotten? Certainly were man not conscious of his own immortality, there ⟨p. 417⟩could be no stronger inducement to sottishness, luxury, riot, sensuality, and all other unbridled practises. It is registered for the impiety of Atheists; Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall dye.

Do we toyle and sweat, and even melt our selves away for that which wee sooner forsake than finde? Doe wee deny our selves the contentments and satisfactions most agreeable to our corporeall condition, being without hope of accomplishing our wishes in another estate? It is naturall for gaining of Knowledge to hasten unto that whereby we loose both it and our selves? and to labour for such a purchase, which like lightning is at once begun and ended, yea indeed sooner lost than gotten? Certainly were man not conscious of his owne immortality, there ⟨p. 417⟩could be no stronger inducement to sottishnesse, luxury, riot, sensuality, and all other unbridled practises. It is registred for the impiety of Atheists; Let us eat and drink, for to morrow wee shall dye.

Another Reason may be framed after the same manner, as was that to prove the Spirituality of the Soul from the manner of its operation. And it is grounded on those two ordinary Axioms in Philosophy, That every thing is received according to the quality of the Receiver, and that every thing hath the same manner of ssence, as it hath of operation. Now the Soul of Man can easily receive impressions and conceits of immortality, and discourse thereupon: therefore also it is in its own Essence and nature immortal. We see even between things merely corporeal, as the Object and the sensitive Organ, how small a disproportion works incapacity. Much more must it be found in so great a difference as would be between immortality of Objects and corruption of the Soul that worketh on them. We cannot picture an Angel or Spirit, nor make any immaterial stamp in a piece of wax, since a corporeal substance is capable of none but corporeal impressions. And therefore we see that even amongst Bodies, the more pure and subtle they are, the more are they exempted from the perception of the quickest and most spiritual sense, the sight. Now the mind of man in Understanding, is but as wax to the seal, or as a Table and Picture to an Object which it represents: which