1st, That

the soul

though they lose their currents in one place, they rise up again in another. One general council is not able to extirpate one single heresy: it may be cancelled for the present; but revolution of time and the like aspects from heaven, will restore it, when it will flourish till it be condemned again. For as though there was metempsychosis, and the soul of one man passed into another, opinions do find, after certain revolutions, men and minds like those that first begat them. To see ourselves again, we need not look for Plato's year:* every man is not only himself; there hath been many Diogenes, and as many Timons, though but few of that name: men are lived over again, the world is now as it was in ages past; there was none then, but there hath been some one since that parallels him, and as it were his revived self.

VII. Now the first of mine was that of the might, in Arabians,† that the souls of men perished with

lates (Ovid. Metam. v. 574) her transformation into the stream which bears her name, and with which the waters of Alpheus vainly sought to unite, Diana opening a way for her under ground and bringing her out again in Ortygia, near Syracuse in Sicily.

* A revolution of certain thousand years, when all things should return unto their former estate, and he be teaching again in his school as when he delivered this opinion.

"It was not only in the point now mentioned, that the doctrine of the Gospel suffered, at this time, from the erroneous fancies of wrong-headed doctors. For there sprung up now, in Arabia, a certain sort of minute philosophers, the disciples of a

perish, and

body.

their bodies, but should yet be raised again at some sort, the last day. Not that I did absolutely con- rise again ceive a mortality of the soul; but if that were, with the which faith, not philosophy, hath yet thoroughly disproved, and that both entered the grave together, yet I held the same conceit thereof, that we all do for the body, that it should rise again. Surely it is but the merits of our unworthy natures, if we sleep in darkness until the last alarum. A serious reflex upon my own unworthiness did make me backward from challenging this prerogative of my soul: so I might enjoy my Saviour at the last, I could with patience be nothing almost unto eternity. The second was that of Origen, that God would 2a, That not persist in his vengeance forever, but after should a definite time of his wrath, he would release finally be the damned souls from torture: which error I fell into upon a serious contemplation of the great attribute of God, his Mercy; and did a

master whose obscurity has concealed him from the knowledge of after ages, who denied the immortality of the soul, and believed that it perished with the body: but maintained, at the same time, that it was to be recalled to life with the body, by the power of God. The philosophers who held this opinion were called Arabians, from their country. Origen was called from Egypt, to make head against this rising sect; and disputed against them in full council, with such remarkable success, that they abandoned their erroneous sentiments, and returned to the received doctrine of the Church." Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. vol. i. ch. 5, § 16, p. 307.

all men

saved.

we might

pray for

little cherish it in myself, because I found therein no malice, and a ready weight to sway me from the other extreme of despair, whereunto melancholy and contemplative natures are too 3d, That easily disposed. A third there is which I did never positively maintain or practise, but have the dead. often wished it had been consonant to truth, and not offensive to my religion, and that is the prayer for the dead; whereunto I was inclined from some charitable inducements, whereby I could scarce contain my prayers for a friend at the ringing of a bell, or behold his corpse without an orison for his soul: 't was a good way, methought, to be remembered by posterity, and But these far more noble than a history. These opinions I never maintained with pertinacy, or endeavinto here- oured to inveigle any man's belief unto mine, nor so much as ever revealed or disputed them with my dearest friends; by which means I neither propagated them in others, nor confirmed them in myself; but suffering them to flame upon their own substance, without addition of new fuel, they went out insensibly of themselves: therefore these opinions, though condemned by lawful councils, were not heresies in me, but bare errors, and single lapses of my understanding without a joint depravity of my will. Those have not only depraved understandings, but diseased affections, who can

he suffered

not to grow

sies.

not enjoy a singularity without an heresy, or be the author of an opinion without they be of a sect also this was the villany of the first schism of Lucifer, who was not content to err alone, but drew into his faction many legions of spirits; and upon this experience he tempted only Eve, as well understanding the communicable nature of sin, and that to deceive but one, was tacitly and upon consequence to delude them both.

ture of

ever mul

VIII. That heresies should arise, we have of the manthe prophecy of Christ; but that old ones should ifold nabe abolished, we hold no prediction. That there schism, must be heresies, is true, not only in our church, tiplying but also in any other: even in doctrines hereti- itself. cal, there will be super-heresies; and Arians not only divided from their church, but also among themselves: for heads that are disposed unto schism and complexionably propense to innovation, are naturally indisposed for a community; nor will be ever confined unto the order or economy of one body; and therefore when they separate from others, they knit but loosely among themselves; nor contented with a general breach or dichotomy with their church, do subdivide and mince themselves almost into atoms. 'Tis true, that men of singular parts and humours have not been free from singular opinions and conceits in all ages; retaining

Mysteries

in divinity

in faith.

something not only beside the opinion of their own church or any other, but also of any particular author; which notwithstanding a sober judgment may do without offence or heresy; for there is yet, after all the decrees of councils, and the niceties of schools, many things untouched, unimagined, wherein the liberty of an honest reason may play and expatiate with security, and far without the circle of an heresy.

IX.* As for those wingy mysteries in divinonly to be ity, and airy subtleties in religion, which have approached unhinged the brains of better heads, they never stretched the pia mater of mine: methinks there be not impossibilities enough in religion for an active faith; the deepest mysteries ours contains, have not only been illustrated, but maintained by syllogism, and the rule of reason. I love to lose myself in a mystery, to pursue my reason to an O altitudo! 'Tis my solitary recreation to pose my apprehension with those involved enigmas and riddles of the Trinity, with Incarnation and Resurrection. I can answer all the objections of Satan and my rebellious reason, with that odd resolution I learned of Tertullian, Certum est quia impossibile est. I desire to exercise my faith in the difficultest point; for to credit ordinary and visible objects,

*See Aids to Reflection, p. 151.