pate 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 were 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 year3: 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 Arabians*, that the souls of men perished with their

from Mr. Montaigne, pt. 2, des Ess. cap. 12, where he hath these words: Comme toutes autres choses, aussi les créances les jugements et opinions des hommes elles ont leur revolutions; and that Montaigne took his from Tully: Non enim hominum interitu sententiæ quoque occidunt. Tull. de Nat. Deorum l. 1, etc. Of the river Arethusa thus Seneca: Videbis celebratissimum carminibus fontem Arethusam limpidissimi ac perlucidissimi ad imum stagni gelidissimas aquas profundentem, sive illas primum nascentes invenit, sive flumen integrum subter tot maria, et a confusione pejoris unda servatum reddidit. Senec. de Consolat.

3 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.

4 For this heresy, the author here sheweth what it was; they are called Arabians from the place where it was fostered; and because the heresiarch was not known; Euseb. St. Aug. and

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bodies, but should yet be raised again at the last day. Not that I did absolutely conceive a mortality of the soul; but if that were, 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 rise again. Surely it is but the merits of our unworthy natures, if we sleep in darkness until the last alarm. A serious reflex upon my own unworthiness did make me backward from challenging this prerogative of my soul: so that I might enjoy my Saviour at the last, I could with patience be nothing almost unto eternity. The second was that of Origens, that God would not persist in his ven

Nicephorus do all write of it. The reason of this heresy was so specious, that it drew Pope John xxii to be of the same persuasion. Where there then was his infallibility? why, Bellarmine tells you he was nevertheless infallible for that: for, saith he, he maintained this opinion when he might do it without peril of heresy, for that no definition of the church whereby 'twas made heresy, had preceded when he held that opinion. Bellar. 1. 4, de Pontif. Roman. cap. 4. Now this definition was first made ('tis true) by Pope Benedict in the xiv age: but then I would ask another question, that is, if till that time there were nothing defined in the church touching the beatitude of saints, what certainty was there touching the sanctity of any man? and upon what ground were those canonizations of saints had that were before the xiv, age?

5 Besides St. Agustine, Epiphanius, and also St. Hierom, doth relate that Origen held, that not only the souls of men, but the devils themselves should be discharged from torture after a certain time: but Genebrand endeavours to clear him of this. Vid. Coquæum, in 21 lib. Aug. de Ci. Dei, c. 17.

geance for ever, but after a definite time of his wrath, he would release 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 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 easily disposed. A third there is which I did never positively maintain or practise, but have 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: 'twas a good way, methought, to be remembered by posterity, and far more noble than a history. These opinions I never maintained with pertinacy, nor endeavoured to enveigle 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 cannot 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.

VIII. That heresies should arise, we have the prophecy of Christ; but that old ones should be abolished, we hold no prediction. That there must be heresies, is true, not only in our church, but also in any other: even in the doctrines heretical, 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 indis

6 For to make an heretic, there must be not only error in intellectu, but pertinacia in voluntate. So St. Aug. Qui sententiam suam quamvis falsam atque perversam nulla pertinaci animositate defendunt, quærunt autem cauta solicitudine veritatem, corrigi parati cum invenerint, nequaquam sunt inter hæreticos deputandi. Aug. cont. Manich. 24, qu. 3.

posed 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 something not only beside the opinion of his 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 divinity, and airy subtleties in religion, which have 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,