[The Bell rings out; the pulse thereof is changed; the
tolling was a faint, and intermitting pulse, upon
one side; this stronger, and argues more and
better life. His soule is gone out; and as a Man,
who had a lease of 1000. yeeres after the expiration of a short
one, or an inheritance after the life of a man in a
consumption, he is now entred into the possession of his
better estate. His soule is gone; whither? Who
saw it come in, or who saw it goe out? No body; yet
every body is sure, he had one, and hath none. If I will
aske meere Philosophers, what the soule is, I shall
finde amongst them, that will tell me, it is nothing, but the
temperament and harmony, and just and equall
composition of the Elements in the body, which produces all those
faculties which we ascribe to the soule; and so, in it
selfe is nothing, no separable substance, that overlives
the body. They see the soule is nothing else in other
Creatures, and they affect an impious humilitie, to
think as low of Man. But if my soule were
no more than the soul of a beast, I could not thinke so; that
soule that can reflect upon it selfe, consider it selfe,
is more than so. If I will aske, not meere Philosophers,
but mixt men, Philosophicall Divines, how the
soule, being a separate substance, enters into
Man, I shall finde some that will tell me, that it is by
generation, and procreation from parents, because
they thinke it hard, to charge the soule with the guiltiness of
originall sinne, if the soule were infused into a
body, in which it must necessarily grow foule, and
contract originall sinne, whether it will or no;
and I shall finde some that will tell mee, that it is by immediate
infusion from God, because they think it hard, to maintaine
an immortality in such a soule, as should be begotten,
and derived with the body from mortall parents. If I
will aske, not a few men, but almost whole bodies, whole
Churches, what becomes of the soules of the
righteous, at the departing thereof from the
body, I shall bee told by some, That they attend an
expiation, a purification in a place of torment; By some, that
they attend the fruition of the sight of God, in a place of
rest; but yet, but of expectation; By some, that they passe
to an immediate possession of the Presence of
God. S. Augustine studied the nature of the soule,
as much as anything, but the salvation of the soule; and he
sent an expresse Messenger to Saint Hierome, to consult
of some things concerning the soule: But he satisfies himselfe
with this: Let the departure of my soule to salvation be evident to
my faith, and I care the lesse, how darke the entrance of my
soule, into my body, bee to my reason. It is the going
out, more than the comming in, that concernes
us. This soule, this Bell tells me, is gone out;
Whither? Who shall tell mee that? I know not who it is;
much less what he was; The condition of the man, and the course
of his life, which should tell mee whither hee is gone, I know
not. I was not there in his sicknesse, nor at his death;
I saw not his way, nor his end, nor can aske them, who
did, thereby to conclude, or argue, whither he is
gone. But yet I have one neerer mee than all these; mine owne
Charity; I aske that; and that tels me, He is gone to
everlasting rest, and joy, and glory: I owe him a
good opinion; it is but thankfull charity in mee,
because I received benefit and instruction from him when
his Bell told: and I, being made the fitter to pray by
that disposition, wherein I was assisted by his occasion, did
pray for him; and I pray not without faith; so I
doe charitably, so I do faithfully beleeve, that that
soule is gone to everlasting rest, and joy, arid
glory. But for the body, how poore a wretched thing is
that? wee cannot expresse it so fast, as it growes
worse and worse. That body which scarce three
minutes since was such a house, as that that soule,
which made but one step from thence to Heaven, was scarse
thorowly content, to leave that for Heaven: that body
hath lost the name of a dwelling house, because none
dwells in it, and is making haste to lose the name of a body,
and dissolve to putrefaction. Who would not bee affected, to
see a cleere and sweet River in the Morning, grow a
kennell of muddy land water by noone, and condemned to
the saltnesse of the Sea by night? And how lame a
picture, how faint a representation is that, of the
precipitation of mans body to dissolution! Now all the parts
built up, and knit by a lovely soule, now but a statue
of clay, and now, these limbs melted off, as if that
clay were but snow; and now, the whole house is
but a handfull of sand, so much dust, and but a
pecke of rubbidge, so much bone. If he, who, as
this Bell tells mee, is gone now, were some excellent
Artificer, who comes to him for a clocke, or for a
garment now? or for counsaile, if hee were a
Lawyer? If a Magistrate, for Justice? Man, before
hee hath his immortall soule, hath a soule of
sense, and a soule of vegetation before that:
This immortall soule did not forbid other soules, to be
in us before, but when this soule departs, it carries all with
it; no more vegetation, no more sense: such a Mother
in law is the Earth, in respect of our naturall
mother; in her wombe we grew; and when she was
delivered of us, wee were planted in some place, in some
calling in the world;]1 In the wombe of the earth,
wee diminish, and when shee is deliverd of us, our
grave opened for another, wee are not transplanted, but
transported, our dust blowne away with prophane
dust, with every wind.