Chapter 2: In What Cases the Dependence of the Soul on the Body Is Lessened
But yet this dependence on the body is not so necessary and immutable, but that it may admit of variation, and the soul be in some cases vindicated from the impression of the body: and this first, in extraordinary; and next, in more common actions. In actions extraordinary, as those pious and religious operations of the soul, assent, faith, invocation, and many others wherein the soul is carried beyond the sphere of sense, and transported to more raised operations: for to believe and know, that there are laid up for pious and holy endeavors those joys which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and to have some glimpses and foretaste of them, which Saint Paul calls the earnest, and first fruits of the Spirit; what is this, but to leave sense behind us, and to outrun our bodies? And therefore it is, that religion, I mean chiefly, the principles, foundations, articles, and evangelical mysteries, were always not to be urged by disputes of secular learning, but to be sacredly and secretly infused; not so much persuading to the knowledge of apparent truths, as drawing to the belief of true mysteries. Divine truths do as much transcend reason, as Divine goodness does the will of man. That one nature should be in three persons, and two natures in one person: that the invisible God should be manifested in the flesh, and a pure virgin bring forth a Son; that death should be conquered by dying, and not be able to digest and consume the body which it had devoured: that dead bones should live, and they who dwell in the dust awake and sing: these are mysteries, not only above the reach of human, but even of evangelical disquisition; insomuch, that even to principalities and powers they were not otherwise made known, but by Divine revelation delivered to the Church. Sarah laughed, when Abraham believed; and the philosophers mocked, when Paul disputed; and reason expected, that the apostle should have fallen down dead, when contrarily, faith shook the viper into the fire. There is a great difference between the manner of yielding our assent to God and nature: for in philosophy, we never resign our belief, nor suffer our judgments to be wholly carried to any conclusion, till there be a demonstrative argument grounded on induction from the sense, for the enforcement thereof. But divinity, on the other side, [reconstructed: when] God speaks to us, works science by faith, making us so much the more assured of [reconstructed: those] truths which it affirms, than of any [reconstructed: natural] conclusions, (notwithstanding they may [reconstructed: seem] sometimes to bear opposition to human reason) by how much Divine authority is more absolute and certain, than any natural demonstration. And this freedom from bodily restraint, have (according to the Schoolmen) those raptures and ecstasies, which raise and ravish the soul, with the sweetness of extraordinary contemplations. And yet even religion itself has so much condescended to the senses of men, as to give them manner of room and service in this great mystery. And therefore generally, the doctrine of Christ is set forth in parables and similitudes, and the faith in Christ confirmed by sacraments; things most agreeable to the perception and capacity of the senses.
Now, for the exemption of the more ordinary actions of the soul from any predominance of the body, it is chiefly wrought by these three means, education, custom, and occasion. For the rule of Aristotle, though in agents purely natural and peremptory (which are not directed by any degree of knowledge inherent) it held true; yet in man it is not universal, that anything which comes from nature, is unalterable by custom: for we commonly observe, that the culture of the mind, as of the earth, does many times deliver it from the barrenness of its own nature.
Exercetque frequens tellurem atque imperat arvis;
As frequent husbandry commands the emptiest and most barren lands.
Education then, and custom, do as it were revenge nature; insomuch, that though the outward humors and complexions do work the mind to an unhappy temper, yet by a continual grappling with these difficulties, it gets at the last some victory, though not without much reluctance.
And for occasion; that alters the natural inclination of the will and affections, rather than of the understanding: for so we see, that the bias and force of men's desires are often times turned, by reason of some sudden emergent occurrences, contrary to the standing temper and complexion of the body. Thus we read sometimes of men in war; who notwithstanding of themselves timorous and sluggish, yet when the disadvantage of the place had taken away all possibility of flight, and the cruelty of the adversary all hope of mercy, if they should be conquered, have strangely gained by their own despairs, and gotten great and prosperous victories, by a forced and unnatural fortitude.
Una salus victis, nullam sperare salutem.
The only weapon which did win the day, was their despair, that they were cast away.
An example of this, we have in the Philistines: when the Israelites brought forth the ark of the Lord in the camp, they were sore afraid, and cried out, Woe to us, woe to us; who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty Gods? And thereupon resolved to quit themselves like men, and fight. And Caesar in his Commentaries tells us of a people who when they went out to war, would burn their houses; that having no home of their own, to fly to, they might by that despair, be urged to gain one by the sword. The historian reports of a band of Scythians, who though they were of themselves bond-slaves, did notwithstanding, upon occasion of their master's absence, endeavor to shake off their inbred civility; usurping to themselves a freedom, of which the baseness of their condition was incapable: nor could they be removed from this insolence, till the sight of rods and staves, and other the like instruments of fear, had driven them back into their nature again.
