Who euer sees these irreligious men,
With burthen of a sicknesse weake and faint;
But heares them talking of Religion then,
And vowing of their soules to euery saint?
When was there euer cursèd atheist brought
Vnto the gibbet,[147] but he did adore
That blessed Power, which he had set at nought,
Scorn'd and blasphemèd all his life before?
These light vaine persons still are drunke and mad,
With surfettings and pleasures of their youth;
But at their deaths they are fresh,[148] sober, sad
Then they discerne, and then they speake the truth.
If then all Soules, both good and bad, doe teach,
With generall voice, that soules can neuer die;
'Tis not man's flattering glosse, but Nature's speech,
Which, like God's Oracle, can neuer lie.
Reason V.
From the benerall Desire of Immortalitie.
Hence springs that vniuersall strong desire,
Which all men haue of Immortalitie:
Not some few spirits vnto this thought aspire,
But all mens' minds in this vnited be.
Then this desire of Nature is not vaine,
"She couets not impossibilities;
"Fond thoughts may fall into some idle braine,
"But one assent of all, is euer wise.
From hence that generall care and study springs,
That launching and progression of the mind;
Which all men haue so much, of future things,
That they no ioy doe in the present find.
From this desire, that maine desire proceeds,
Which all men haue suruiuing Fame to gaine;
By tombes, by bookes, by memorable deeds:
For she that this desires, doth still remaine.