[Footnote 148: = active, vigorous: an uncommon use of the word. G.] REASON VI. FROM THE VERY DOUBT AND DISPUTATION OF IMMORTALITIE. _And though_ some impious wits do questions moue, And doubt if _Soules_ immortall be, or no; That _doubt_ their immortalitie doth proue, Because they seeme immortall things to know. For he which reasons on both parts doth bring, Doth some things mortall, some immortall call; Now, if himselfe were but a mortall thing, He could not iudge immortall things at all. For when we iudge, our minds we mirrors make: And as those glasses which materiall bee, Formes of materiall things doe onely take, For _thoughts_ or _minds_ in them we cannot see; So, when we God and angels do conceiue, And thinke of _truth_, which is eternall too; Then doe our minds immortall formes receiue, Which if they mortall were, they could not doo: And as, if beasts conceiu'd what Reason were, And that conception should distinctly show, They should the name of _reasonable_ beare; For without _Reason_, none could _Reason_ know: So, when the _Soule_ mounts with so high a wing, As of eternall things she _doubts_ can moue; Shee proofes of her eternitie doth bring, Euen when she striues the contrary to proue. For euen the _thought_ of immortalitie, Being an act done without the bodie's ayde; Shewes, that her selfe alone could moue and bee, Although the body in the graue were layde. THAT THE SOULE CANNOT BE DESTROYED. And if her selfe she can so liuely moue, And neuer need a forraine helpe to take; Then must her motion euerlasting proue, "Because her selfe she neuer can forsake. HER CAUSE CEASETH NOT. _But though_ corruption cannot touch the minde, By any cause that from it selfe may spring; Some outward cause Fate hath perhaps designd, Which to the _Soule_ may vtter quenching bring. SHE HATH NO CONTRARY. _Perhaps_ her cause may cease, and she may die; God is her _cause_, His _Word_ her Maker was; Which shall stand fixt for all eternitie When Heauen and Earth shall like a shadow passe. _Perhaps_ some thing repugnant to her kind, By strong _antipathy_, the _Soule_ may kill; But what can be _contrary_ to the minde, Which holds all _contraries_ in concord still? She lodgeth heat, and cold, and moist, and dry, And life, and death, and peace, and war together; Ten thousand fighting things in her doe lye, Yet neither troubleth, or disturbeth either. SHEE CANNOT DIE FOR WANT OF FOOD. _Perhaps_ for want of food the _soule_ may pine; But that were strange, sith all things _bad_ and _good_, Sith all God's creature's _mortall_ and _diuine_, Sith _God Himselfe_, is her eternall food.