S. =Cyril= in his 11. booke & 36. cha. vpon S. =Iohns= gospell saith: We ought to beleeue, that when yͤ soules of holy men are gone away from the bodies, they are commended vnto the goodnesse of God, as into the handes of a most deare father, and yͭ they do not abide in yͤ earth, as some of the Heathens beleeued, vntill such time as they abhorred their graues: neither that they are carried as the soules of wicked men, vnto a place of excéeding torment, which is hel, Christ hauing first prepared this iourney for vs, but that they rather mount vp aloft into their heauenly fathers hands, &c. [Sidenote: The Glosse of the canō law.] [Sidenote: _Deut._ 18.] And in the Popes canon law, _Causa._ 13. _quæst._ 2. _Fatendum_, we read, that many do beléeue that some come from yͤ dead to the liuing: euen as on the other side holy Scripture doth witnesse that =Paule= was caught vp from the liuing into Paradice. Vpon these words the glose saith, that some doo indéed so beleeue, but falsly, sith they be but fansies and vain imaginations, as it is in _Causa_.26. _quæstione_.5. _Episcopi_. What farther may bee saide to those men that knowe these things, and neuerthelesse do beléeue that soules straie on the earth, I know not: and yet that I may laie out all thinges plainly, I will heere confute their chiefest arguments. CHAP. VI. A confutation of those mennes arguments or reasons, which affirme, that dead mens soules doo appeare: And first that is aunswered whiche certaine doo alleage, to witte, that God is omnipotent, and therfore that he can worke contrary to the ordinary course of nature. First our aduersaries do laie against vs, that by the vsuall and common course of things, the soules of the godly abide in heauen, and the soules of the wicked in hell, vntill the last day, and do not walke at all: but yet that God may dispence with them to appear here sometimes, therby to instruct and admonish vs: And then =Samuel= did appeare after his death vnto king =Saule=, and =Moses= also which forsooke this life many yeres before: Likewise =Elias=, who was taken vp in to heauen in a firie charet, appeared vnto Christ our sauior & his thrée disciples, whom he tooke with him at his transfiguration in the mount. =Lazarus= also of _Bethanie_, returned from death into yͤ earth, and many other also were raised from death by Christ, his Apostles, and Prophets. Farther they alledge this, yͭ Christs Apostles beléeued, that yͤ spirit or soule either of Christ, (as som of the fathers vnderstand it) or of som other person did appear vnto them. Besides to proue this matter, they alledge places out of the fathers, decrées of councels, & the common report yͭ hath bin bruted of those yͭ returned frō the dead. To al these reasons by Gods assistance, we will briefly and orderly answere. [Sidenote: The soules do returne to instruct men contrary to the common course of nature, by the omnipotent power of god.]