And yet these sparks grow almost infinite, Making the world, and all therein, their food; As fire so spreads, as no place holdeth it, Being nourish'd still with new supplies of wood. And though these sparks were almost quench'd with Yet they whom that just One hath justify'd, [sin, Have them increas'd with heav'nly light within; And like the widow's oil, still multiply'd. SECTION XXVII. THE POWER OF WILL, AND RELATION BETWEEN THE WIT AND WILL. AND as this wit should goodness truly know, We have a will, which that true good should choose, Though will do oft (when wit false forms doth show) Will puts in practice what the wit deviseth : Will is the prince, and wit the counsellor, Wit is the mind's chief judge, which doth control Of fancy's court the judgments false and vain: Will holds the royal sceptre in the soul, And on the passions of the heart doth reign. Will is as free as any emperor, Naught can restrain her gentle liberty: No tyrant, nor no torment hath the pow'r To make us will, when we unwilling be. SECTION XXVIII. THE INTELLECTUAL MEMORY. To these high pow'rs a store-house doth pertain, SECTION XXIX. THE DEPENDENCY OF THE SOUL'S FACULTIES UPON EACH OTHER. THIS is the soul, and these her virtues be; Yet each on other mutually depends. Our wit is giv'n Almighty God to know; And as the wit doth reap the fruits of sense, So doth the quick'ning pow'r the senses feed: Thus while they do their sundry gifts dispense, "The best the service of the least doth need." SECTION XXX. THAT THE SOUL IS IMMORTAL, 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: And, to do this, she must eternal be. How senseless then and dead a soul bath he, Which thinks his soul doth with his body die : Or thinks not so, but so would have it be, That he might sin with more security? For though these light and vicious persons say, Water in conduit-pipes can rise no higher Of which swift little time so much we spend, Than the well-head, from whence it first doth Then since to eternal God she doth aspire, [spring: She cannot be but an eternal thing. "All moving things to other things do move, Of the same kind which shows 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 Long doth she stay, as loath to leave the land, Yet Nature so her streams doth lead and carry, As that her course doth make no final stay, Till she herself unto the ocean marry, Within whose watry bosom first she lay. E'en so the soul, which in this earthly mould The spirit of God doth secretly infuse, Because at first she doth the earth behold, 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, And mounts not up with her celestial wings: Yet under Heav'n she cannot light on aught That with her heav'nly nature doth agree: She cannot rest, she cannot fix her thought, She cannot in this world contented be. For who did ever yet, in honour, wealth, While some few things we through the sense do Who ever ceas'd to wish, when he had health? 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) In vain this appetite and pow'r hath giv'n; Or else our knowledge, which is here begun, Hereafter must be perfected in Heav'n. God never gave a pow'r to one whole kind, But most part of that kind did use the same: Most eyes have perfect sight, though some be blind; Most legs can nimbly run, though some be lame. But in this life, no soul the truth can know If then perfection be not found below, An higher place must make her mount thereto. REASON 11. Drawn from 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? Or, having wisdom, was not vex'd in mind? Then as a bee which among weeds doth fall, Which seem sweet flow'rs, with lustre fresh and She lights on that, and this, and tasteth all; [gay; But, pleas'd 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, And never rests till it the first attain: Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends; But never stays till it the last do gain. Now God the truth and first of causes is; God is the last good end, which lasteth still; Since then her heav'nly kind she doth display, The soul compared to a river. |