to Ethnick authority We have touched a ticklish cause and a grave controversie A young man one Vincentius Victor as Chemnitius relateth when learned Augustine demurred and would not determine this point concerning the originall of a rationall soul censured boldly the Fathers unresolvednesse and vaunted that he would undertake to prove by demonstration that souls are created de novo by God For which peremptory rashnesse the Father returned the young man a sober reprehension But I therefore lest I should be obnoxious to the like reproof have not so much determined the point evident as argued it probable However it is res quaestionis not res fidei It standeth not upon our salvation to believe the one or the other either that it is or it is not created As he then concludeth his Rhetoricks so I this little discussion of this great controversie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third respect wherein we are Gods offspring is the Union of body and soul together which maketh our third proposition as we formerly propounded it We are Gods offspring in respect of body and soul together I will not here runne into the nice dispute whether A B be Ab Whether the whole man really differeth from the parts taken together and so whether God in the uniting of them be a cause of a new Entitie God almighty who made bodies and souls though in a different manner betwixt the first bodies namely of our first Parents and the rest and in a different manner betwixt bodies and fouls made one for the other the body to receive the soul the soul to enlive and inform the body And here we are to consider the time of the creation of the soul according as we apprehend it in probability to be created And here we have the way how we are the offspring of God in respect of body and soul together in that the form is framed in the matter prepared As God made man when all things in the world were ready and dressed to shew him enterteinment so likely he maketh the soul when the body the house is furnished with rooms for the abode and working of it And that he maketh not the soul extra materiam without the body but in it Biels argument may evince beside whatsoever may be said out of the places in Scripture before named against the contrary His argument is this Quia tunc anima haberet aliquem actum volendi vel intelligendi priusquam infunderetur If the soul were created out from the body then it would exercise some act of understanding and willing before it were infused For such a divine creature cannot be idle and unactive If it should exercise any act before the union it should merit before the union as he saith We deny his merit but we cannot well imagine how the soul should exercise any act of understanding and will before it be in the body And this S. Paul supposeth as Biel noteth Rom. ix 11. For the children not being yet born neither having done good or evil Neither good nor evil is done before birth Moreover how that good act if any though not meritorious yet should be rewarded to the soul peculiarly besides the reward for those actions of it in the body we cannot well conceive For every man shall recieve according to what he hath done in the body The Person shall receive according to the actions of the person the Soul is not a Person A question here may arise Why God should unite this soul to this body Why should this glorious soul dwell in this corruptible body this royall tenant in so low a cottage this vast spirit in a circumscribed skin as if not onely Galba's wit but all our souls did malè habitare For answer 1. The highest cause is the best Gods pleasure Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his reason as we may say and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his will the Egyptian Doctour taketh for the same 2. Likely for the order of the Universe that as there is a created rationall spirit without a body namely the Angel so there should be a created rationall Spirit though not rationall in that degree of perfection in a body 3. The Poet Et quod dominari in caetera possit Natus homo est Lombard upon this question in his first Distinction of the second book giveth another That by the conjunction of the soul with the body so farre its inferiour man might learn and believe a possibility of the union of man with God in glory notwithstanding the vast distance of nature and excellence the infinitenesse of both in God the finitenesse of both in man But our soul in the moment of union with the body is defiled with originall sinne But our nature sinned in Adam and the order of the Universe and the glory of Christs redemption are of greater moment as Zanchie Now out of the conjunction of soul with body we might have the resultance of deductions and inferences many and important ones We might have raised an exhortation peculiar unto the soul That it is the bravest substance under heaven and therefore that we should fit it with the purest accident We should adorn it with the best habit of Faith of Love of Hope That when we think we should think of our selves when we think upon our selves we should think upon our soul when we think upon our soul we should think that it is from God absolutely and that it is immortall and that we should provide for it accordingly Get this soul beautified with white and red Christs Bloud his Righteousnesse And when thou thinkest of thy self composed of body and soul for who in the body even while he thinketh of the soul will forget his body 1. consider what is due from hence to him that made thee a man not a beast what piety what devotion what obedience what rationall service what rationall or reasonable sacrifice as Trismegist speaketh 2. from hence also consider what an ingagement there is of love and friendship and justice unto our neighbour since he who made him made us We are all of the same make all of the same nature Job is moved hereby to do no wrong no not to his very servant Job xxxi 15. Did not he that made me in the wombe make him and did not one fashion us in the wombe 3. from Gods conjunction of both together we are bound to maintein the union As in the conjunction of man and wife so in the conjunction of body and soul What God hath joyned together let no man put asunder no private man no Magistrate unjustly not our selves for no cause Let both grow together as we may speak untill the harvest untill thou beest fairly cut down by that common sickle of Death and laid in the granary of the grave 4. We learn hence humility Our best excellence is in our soul Our soul is in an earthly tabernacle easily resolved into its principles undone with a flie destroyed with a grape-stone cracked with a shell All our learning is soon refuted with one black o which understanding us not snappeth us unrespectively without any distinction and putteth at once a period to our reading and to our being Look we upon our black feet nay below our feet unto the dust reade we and meditate and learn meeknesse and humilitie in this originall 5. It is our duty since God is thus our Father in regard of body and soul to rely upon his care and providence for a living in the world and infinitely more then upon the care of the fathers of our flesh God is more principally our Father They of the body subordinately unto God God of the soul excluding them They men not God therefore not able to see what is best for us They men not God therefore not able to foresee all dangers They men not God therefore not able alwayes to help us They men not God therefore changeable in their affection They men not God therefore changeable in their being What power the Father of our flesh hath he hath from God what goodnesse from God God susteineth his nature concurreth with his action blesseth the effect 6. Lastly we have hence S. Pauls conclusion in the next verse which shall be mine For as much then as we are the off-spring of God we are not to think that the Godhead is like unto silver or gold or stone graven by art and mans devise Whereby is intimated that the Heathens did make memorials of God by creatures which they represented in images of filver of gold of stone This conclusion we have touched before to prosecute it were to begin another text FINIS
strict and clear substance of the words will be this We are Gods offspring The question now is concerning the supposition of the subject of the proposition WE how much it importeth If we consider the words without any reference unto Saint Pauls consequence out of them in the next verse this WE may signifie in a double acception reduplicativè specificativé First reduplicatively most universally comprehending all Entities all creatures whether of Being onely or Life besides Being or Sense besides both or Reason besides all or pure Reason without Sense as Angels all of him and from him from the highest Angel in heaven to the lowest in hell Bad ones as of men so of Angels as ones his Gods as bad their own It is a rationall creatures weaknesse to be able to sinne It is Gods omnipotence to create from the king to the begger from Dan to Beersheba from the greatest mountain to the slenderest atome all of all all proceed from him who proceedeth from none But this all is too much for S. Pauls drift and for the common expression WE This sense is fit for the proposition but too wide and redundant for the inference Secondly then WE specificativè or indeed specially We men So the Apostle meaneth it in the next verse Since then we are the offspring of God we are not to think that the Godhead is like to gold or silver or stone graven by art or mans devise as if man should be the image by which God should be worshipped if he would be worshipped by any In man is the image of God though defaced by that originall sinne And no better Embleme for representing the God of the whole or of all as Ignatius in his Epistles and Theodoret in his Questions calleth him then Man who is the Epitome of the whole of all the Docquet of the book of the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a whole world in a world a little one in a great one so that Democritus in his opinion of more worlds was out but in quantity for there be many little worlds And we are Gods offspring in a threefold respect in respect of our bodies in respect of our souls in respect of both together These severall considerations for our more distinct proceeding may serve if you please in lieu of a division First of the first we are Gods offspring in respect of our body Now God is the Authour of our bodies to speak in an universalitie two wayes immediately or mediately immediately of our first Parents though in some difference of manner mediately of the rest The immediate production is also twofold Ex parte Materiae ex parte Efficientis Immediate production in respect of matter maketh a simple creation when somewhat is made out of no praeexistent subject at all So Adam was not made in respect of his body it being formed of the dust of the earth Gen. ii 7. And God formed man of the dust of the ground The second immediate production is in respect of efficient So Adam was created immediately by God no other Agent coming betwixt and helping the Divine omnipotence in raising so glorious a fabrick out of so unlikely a subject And therefore this is also called a Creation secundùm quid no created virtue being able out of such an indisposed matter to make such a work And as Adam was thus immediately produced by God in respect of his body so was his wife Eve They had a different matter but the same efficient of their being God made the woman off the rib of man Indeed Constantinus Manasses saith that Adam was to Eve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Authour spake here as a Poet as the Fathers sometimes like Rhetoricians Adam concurred not in any way of Agency towards the production of his Wife he was not maried to his daughter God took the rib from him when he was in a deep sleep and off it framed the body of Eve Matter in the beginning of time was taken from man to make a woman and matter in the fulnesse of time was taken from a woman to make a man even the man Christ Jesus So God was the Authour without any other of the bodies of Adam and Eve God by this immediate production had a sonne and a daughter as we may speak And this sonne and daughter immediate causes of our ordinary generation are the causes why to us God is not the immediate God almighty who shewed what he could do in that extraordinary production of our first parents is now pleased to bring men into the world in way of a successive traduction by them Parents we have and God will have us account them so for he giveth us a law to honour them by reverence by obedience by gratitude as it is expounded Yet not so are they the authours of our being according to the flesh not so fathers of our flesh as they are called Hebr. xii 9. as if God were excluded from being our Father also according to a common manner of expression God by a proper generation a generation naturall hath but one Sonne the second person in the Trinitie yet God in Scripture is commonly called a Father without any reference unto the second Person God saith Mal. 1. If I be a Father where is my honour And he is a Father as Creatour expressely Mal. ii 10. Have we not all one Father hath not one God created us What more usuall in the Greek then to expresse Authour by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is scarce any other word for it So Martiall for the Latine calleth his books his children So God is said to be the Father of Spirits Heb. xii so the devil the father of a lie in S. John And thus we have expounded how God is said to be our Father and how in the text we are called Gods offspring not in strict proper speech but according to the common use of expressing the producer of any thing by the Father or Parent of it So Tertullian to our purpose in his book De Anima Omne quod quoquo modo accipit esse generatur But more directly in the following words Nam factor ipse parens facti dici potest sic Plato utitur Now that God is the Authour of our bodies by our Parents that he hath a finger nay a hand nay hands in framing our bodies we have the expresse testimony of the Prophet David Psal cxix Thy hands have made me and fashioned me And again Psal cxxxix 12. For my reins are thine thou hast covered me in my mothers wombe I will give thanks unto thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mirificatus sum mirabilibus operibus tuis as Montanus rendreth it I am fearfully and wonderfully made I am moulded I am made as it were and composed altogether in wonders beyond all understanding and expression so strangely so subtilly so beyond the power of man The
incorruptible and therefore how generative Or if the soul be generated then what is in its nature incorruptible must be corruptible by generation for generation importeth corruption This is in effect Zanchie's argument in the forecited place Secondly as we argue à priori from the Immateriality of the soul unto the Immortality of it so reciprocally we may argue à posteriori from the Immortalitie of the soul to the Immaterialitie of it And we need not fear a circular demonstration in diverso genere demonstrationis Now if we prove it immateriall then it is not ex traduce not by our parents and if it be immortall then it is not materiated Now the immortality of the soul those Ecclesiasticall writers could not deny who yet would not grant that it is created but thought it might be produced cum semine Aquinas part I. quaest 118. art 2. concludeth that it is hereticall to hold the traduction of the soul Sure much more is it hereticall to hold the Mortality of it And indeed he giveth his reason why it is hereticall to maintein the traduction of it in regard of the consequent because so it would be mortall if mortall where is our resurrection if no resurrection where is our Christianity The immortality then of the soul we may take as confessed and granted which was assevered even by the learned Heathen Trifmegist Plato Thales Plutarch Pindar Virgil as we might see by their severall testimonies if it were necessary to recite them they being so well known As for Aristotle in this point it is commonly said of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he were a Vertumnus determined neither pro not con Yet were he well inquired into we should find him to be on our side But thirdly Bonaventure's Argument as Biel citeth it is worth the naming though it be not fit for urging as being drawn from convenience onely Since the soul is the image of God nata immediatè fieri in Deum made to be happified in him by a clear vision of him and by a fruition in loving him with all our soul by which love our soul is spiritually united unto him it becometh it is fitting that the whole being of it should be immediately from God with whom it is to be wholly united And so much or rather so little in respect of what might be said for the third way of the triall of our Thesis The fourth and last is the inartificiall argument of Ethnick authority This assertion of the creation of the soul by God is not destitute of humane suffrages Besides all their opinions who hold that the souls were created from eternall we have other testimonies I will give you one or two which may be a signe of more Learned Zanchy quoteth Pythagoras Epictetus Trismegist Simplicius Zoroaster Aristotle First Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be of a valiant spirit since Mans descent is Divine which he supposeth Pythagoras understood in regard of the soul as surely he did As for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transanimation if it concerned very much our purpose it were not very difficult to vindicate him from it and many other absurdities which either ignorant or envious men attributed to him as Reuchline observeth in his second book Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are akin to God from him we came Suffer us to go from whence we came Simplicius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soub is said to proceed from God as a beam from the sunne Zoroaster very clearly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou must make speed unto the light and the glories of thy father from thence was thy soul sent down endued with much understanding Trismegist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the question now is how we shall construe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth with Trismegist Salvo meliori judicio I cannot see what sense or notion may be framed of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to our purpose He seemeth not to understand hereby the Mind or Soul For he often distinguisheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and immediately after the place which Zanchie quoteth he speaketh thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in men is a Divinity and therefore some men are Gods Me thinketh he intendeth hereby some intelligent power separated from the soul To passe him therefore Aristotle may be next who bringeth in as clear an authority for our behalf as any Nay none so clear as that in his second book De generat animal c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the reason followeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It remaineth that the mind cometh from without and is onely divine because no corporeall operation is mixed with its by which place and another in his De Anima we may inferre Aristotle's opinion concerning the immortalitie of the soul He saith in his first book De Anima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there be any operation proper and peculiar to the soul it may be separated if separated then immortall Here he assumeth The bodily operation is not mixed with the operation of the mind therefore separable therefore immortall Parisiensis in his treatise De Legibus saith Omnes enim animae creantur in corporibus suis sicut declarat Aristoteles He nameth not where Aristotle declareth himself thus but surely there cannot be a clearer passage for that opinion then the forenamed in his second De generat anim If it be objected that Aristotle taketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Trismegist doth it may be answered 1. we may understand his meaning by the title of the book according to the rule Titulus libri saepe est legendus 2. he discusseth in that chapter the production and the time of the production of souls Tully is plain in the first of his Tusculane questions Animorum nulla in terris origo inveniri potest Pindar also as I find him quoted speaking of the soul which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This onely cometh from heaven Seneca in his cxx epistle Maximum inquam mi Lucili argumentum animi ab altiori venientis sede A very great argument of the souls coming down from heaven it is if it accounteth these things wherein it is here below conversant base and low and too strait for it if it fear not to go out for knowing from whence it came it knoweth whether it is going To these testimonies more might be added as Morney collecteth them in his fifteenth chapter where he treateth de immortalitate anima Zanchie believeth that this was Aratus his meaning not onely That God was the first and universall cause of the soul as he is of the body and all things else but That the substance of the soul is not made of the Elements or of any heavenly substance but that it is a creature absolutely divine Thus we have seen our Thesis agreeable to sacred Scripture to Fathers to reason