The immortality of mans soul, proved bothThe immortality of mans soule, proved both

CHAP. 3. Of the Essence of the Soul.

CHAP. 3. Of the Essence of the Soule.

IT is not enough to know we have a soul, say some, whereby we live, feel, and understand, &c. and which being but one, hath in it self alone, so many powers, faculties, and abilities, but it will be demanded, what this soul is: and truly, if I should say I cannot tell what it is, I should not belly my self, I should but confess mine own ignorance, as many learned men have done before me, and I should do no wrong at all to the soul it self, sith we cannot deny the effects of it; and truly, in my opinion, the less we are able to define the nature, and being thereof, the more doth the Excellency thereof shine forth, ⟨p. 17⟩and appear, the dullness of the understanding is such by the fall of man in Adam, that it cannot conceive of the nature of spirits affirmatively, but by the effects, or negatively, and those that went about to define it, ran into many errors and absurdities; yet it follows not, that man hath no soul; were it not a worthy and learned Argument, for a man to reason thus: I know not what the soul is, therefore there is none, or the learned differ in the definition of it; therefore there is none: its just, as if a man should say, I know not where the Indies are; therefore there are none; since it is so then, it needs no long scanning,¹ whether it be a substance or a quality; for qualities have no being but in another thing then themselves; the soul which causeth another thing to be, cannot be a quality; for as much as the soul maketh man to be man, who otherwise were but a carcass, or carrion; therefore we must needs grant, that the soul is a forming substance, and substantial form; yea, and a most excellent substance, infinitely passing the outward man, which by the power and virtue thereof, causeth another thing to have being, and perfecteth the bodily substance, which seemeth inwardly to have so many perfections.