_For how_ can that be false, which euery tongue Of euery mortall man affirmes for true? Which truth hath in all ages been so strong, As lodestone-like, all hearts it euer drew. For, not the _Christian_, or the _Iew_ alone, The _Persian_, or the _Turke_, acknowledge this; This mysterie to the wild _Indian_ knowne, And to the _Canniball_ and _Tartar_ is. This rich _Assyrian_ drugge growes euery where; As common in the _North_, as in the _East_; This doctrine does not enter by the _eare_, But of it selfe is natiue in the breast. None that acknowledge God, or prouidence, Their _Soule's_ eternitie did euer doubt; For all _Religion_ takes her root from hence, Which no poore naked nation liues without. For sith the World for Man created was, (For onely Man the vse thereof doth know) If man doe perish like a withered grasse, How doth God's Wisedom order things below? And if that Wisedom still wise ends propound, Why made He man, of other creatures King? When (if he perish here) there is not found In all the world so poor and vile a thing? If death do quench vs quite, we haue great wrong, Sith for our seruice all things else were wrought; That _dawes_, and _trees_, and _rocks_, should last so long, When we must in an instant passe to nought. But blest be that _Great Power_, that hath vs blest With longer life then Heauen or Earth can haue; Which hath infus'd into our mortall breast Immortall powers, not subiect to the graue. For though the Soule doe seeme her graue to beare, And in this world is almost buried quick; We haue no cause the bodie's death to feare, For when the shell is broke, out comes a chick. THREE KINDS OF LIFE ANSWERABLE TO THE THREE POWERS OF THE SOULE. _For_ as the _soule's essentiall_ powers are three, The _quickning power_, the _power of sense_ and _reason_; Three kinds of life to her designèd bee, Which perfect these three[160] powers in their due season. The first life, in the mother's wombe is spent, Where she her _nursing power_ doth onely vse; Where, when she finds defect of nourishment, Sh' expels her body, and this world she viewes. This we call _Birth_; but if the child could speake, He _Death_ would call it; and of Nature plaine,[161] That she would thrust him out naked and weake, And in his passage pinch him with such paine. Yet, out he comes, and in this world is plac't, Where all his _Senses_ in perfection bee; Where he finds flowers to smell, and fruits to taste; And sounds to heare, and sundry formes to see. When he hath past some time vpon this stage, His _Reason_ then a litle seemes to wake; Which, thogh she spring, when sense doth fade with age, Yet can she here no perfect practise make.