nothing else but the deduction of the whole man out of Adam according to the course of nature that is the turning of our potentiall being in him into act by naturall generation which is the onely meanes whereby Adams nature is derived unto us Difference betweene generatiō and creation And here to conclude it shall not be amisse to observe the differences between naturall generation and immediate creation the chiefe whereof are these First Creation is the worke of God by himselfe Generation is the worke of nature from God Secondly Creation is wrought onely by the word command of God by his onely becke and will generation is performed in a naturall order pre-ordeined of God Vide Polan Synt. lib. 5.6.2 Thirdly Creation is meerly of nothing not of any matter or substance but of nothing at all generation is of some matter pre-existing indeede old matter putting on new formes Fourthly Creation is done in a moment without any time being by an infinite vertue which is not capable of any time generation cannot be but in time being perfected by degrees and in succession of time Fifthly In Creation things are not made of the same substance with the creator but in generation that which is generated hath the same substance with the generator Sixthly Creation is performed without any motion or mutation but in generation there is both motion and mutation the same matter being varied into diversitie of formes Lastly the order of creation is one and of generation another for in creation the privation is before the habit power before act darknesse before light but in generation the habit is before the privation sight before blindnesse light before darknesse And so much for the generall description of Originall sin Creation and Propagation CHAP. XVI How the nature of the sin descending confirmes the soules propagation The nature of the sinne IT appeareth by the former description of Originall sinne which is proved by the scripture confessed by all that it is not onely a losse of originall righteousnesse but an hereditary infection or spirituall corruption which hath over-spread the whole nature of man which two as they are the maine things in originall sin so the one necessarily followeth the other For the soule ceasing to be good it must needs become evill and being turned out of the right way goes on in a wrong for it cannot stand still or be idle but must be doing either good or evill and therefore being deprived of goodnesse corruption follows as darknesse succeeds in the place of light The meanes of deriving it Whereas therefore some make originall sin to consist of guiltinesse corruption as the parts of it and to be derived from Adam by imputation and propagation guiltinesse by imputation and corruption by propagation it appeareth that guiltinesse is no part of originall sin but an effect of it and consequently that imputation is not properly the meanes of conveying it to us but an effect of the other And as that depravation or corruption onely is properly originall sin and guiltinesse comes onely by reason of corruption so propagation onely is properly the meanes whereby it is derived unto us and imputation is onely in regard of propagation For as we should not have beene guilty if we had not beene corrupt so sin should not have been imputed if it had not beene propagated And as we were potentially guilty in Adam because potentially corrupt so by like reason it followeth that it is now actually imputed to us because we are actually propagated from him I conclude therefore that the nature of this sin consists in the corruption of nature and the streame thereof runs in naturall propagation Objectiōs from the nature of sinne But here it will be objected that sin is such an accident as cannot by the course of nature be communicated to posteritie 1. It is nothing For if we consider the matter or substance of it it is indeed nothing it is non ens in rerum naturâ no substance for then it should be created by God but a meere of privation the want of that which should be and not any thing that should not be as darknesse is a privation of light not any thing that succeeds in the place of light For there is nothing in the dark night which was not in the day onely light is absent and such a manner of thing or nothing rather is sin said to be And if it should be grāted that it is somwhat more namely an evill qualitie besides that then it must needs be created of God as good qualities are it must needs be either in the soule or in the body yea in the soule and not in the body for sin is a spirituall thing if it be any thing 2. Not by the soule Now if it be a qualitie of the soule it cannot be conveyed to posteritie for such habits and indowments of the minde as are not engrafted into nature but happen from without as this did cannot be propagated according to the Proverbe Ex grammatico non nascitur grammaticus but they are gotten by art and industry and so they will grant that Adams sin may be derived to us by imitation but not by generation 3. Not by the body On the other side if it be a corporall and elementary qualitie besides that it cannot then be sinfull it cannot descend to posteritie neither because it is not inherent in the principles of nature but an externall accident which nature hath no sense of for what is nature the worse for Adams taking the forbidden fruit yea what if he had cut off his owne armes his children should not have bin borne without for nature followeth the first institution yea more if it had caused some distemper in the body yet it is not necessary it should be communicated to posteritie for all children have not the sicknesses of their parents how much lesse their sins then which are not naturall either to soule or body These things Ans I confesse have a shew of truth but I deny the power of it in them all for disproving originall sin not doubting to make it appeare that all these doe agree together to confirme this onely way of sinnes propagation 1. Privation of good For first let it be granted that sin in regard of substance is nothing but a privation of goodnesse then it will follow that it cānot subsist without some subject which must also be good because every substance is created by God It is in a good subject so that evill cannot be but in a good subject Againe being a privation it can have no efficient cause 2. Hath no efficient cause for to speake properly it is no effect but a defect rather And if evill can have no cause 3. It comes from a good God much lesse can it be caused by the chiefe good For God who is summum bonum being as the habit unto this privation
Ezek. 18.20 for the son shall not beare the iniquitie of the Father but because by his sin they are made sinfull or rather sinned in him and so for their owne sin are justly subject to the same punishment So that in truth propagatiō is the main if not the onely streame of originall corruption Now if wee receive onely the least parts of our selves that is our body from Adam which cannot be the subject of sin not onely because it wants the soule but because not parts but whole persons sinned in Adam how can this satisfie any reasonable man that it is possible for us to be guilty of Originall sinne if the soule comes immediately from God CHAPTER V. The meane chosen and the question resolved Further satisfaction needfull THis therefore is a most profound question full of wonderfull difficulties this is that intricate Meander and that endlesse Maze wherein St. Augustine wandered all his life long and could finde no issue and to conclude this is that wherein Divines to this day have rather shewed their modesty in not searching than their judgement in determining the truth If not rather too much searing least they should seeke too farre they have thereby failed in finding But how soever it is very commendable to walk soberly herein yet we may not through too much modesty leave a gap open to be trodden downe by the feet of beastly Atheists and therefore notwithstanding it is a Labarinth where it is hard to wade out safely yet we may and must indeavour to give satisfaction in such a needfull question The Authors apologie for this singularitie And here I most humbly crave leave to step a little out of the cōmon path or rather to make the same path straight which as to me it seemeth is a little crooked in this place bearing out against Philosophy on the one hand and Divinitie on the other and if force of reason doe not prove my assertion I will willingly beare the blame that is due which yet I hope cannot be much though I should erre First because it is a most difficult point wherein the greatest Clearkes can scarce tell which way to turne themselves Secondly because the premisses being confessed it can be no fundamentall errour Thirdly being in the meane it must needs be confessed neerer the truth at least them that which hath yet beene maintained by the most wise and godly of the antient Fathers in former ages Fourthly those opinions which I oppose were never maintained as necessary doctrines but onely as probable opinions Lastly I am not peremptory much lesse obstinate but willing to submit to better judgements and propound this onely by way of tryall as one that would gladly be a means to find out the truth How man propagates man That we may therefore saile even between this Scylla Charibdis seeing we see it can neither be meerely propagated by man nor yet immediately created by God my conclusion is that it is partly from both That is to say that the whole man consisting of soule and body doth propagate a creature like himselfe consisting of the same parts by vertue of that efficacious word of God in the beginning increase and multiply and the concurrence of his own immediate power therewith And that therefore God hath set a stedfast law in nature for the generation of mankind both soule and body as well as other creatures But yet partly mediately and partly immediately Mans propagation naturall himselfe having a more peculiar worke in this than in any other For besides this generall providence in conseiving the naturall order that himselfe hath instituted as the nature of the soule is more excellent Gods act in the production of the soule so answerable thereunto the act of his providence is more immediate therein than in any other creature whatsoever And thus the soule may be propagated as well as the body after a manner convenient to either nature God having so much in it as to make it immortall and man so much as to make if sinfull yet not as if there were any separation in their generation Soule and body not to be divided the body of the body onely and the soule of the soule onely for this is but to multiply difficulties without end no man being able to say directly here it is either for the one or the other but the whole of the whole generation being not of parts but of persons For nature it selfe teacheth that neither soule nor body can properly be said to be generated but the creature consisting of soule and body neither is there any thing that seemes to me more absurd than that when God and nature hath thus conjoyned them the Scripture alwayes speaking of the generation of the whole man and nature we see alwayes bringing forth the whole we should notwithstanding make a seperation fetching one part from heaven and another from earth and then vainely tyre our selves to bring both ends together againe How the soule is propagated of the soule Now if the soule and body may not be seperated in this case much lesse should we take upō us to assigne the proper cause of every effect herein and yet because such is the curiositie of mans nature that it will not otherwise rest satisfied if we must needs in reason distinguish what in nature cannot be severed I should thus determine The essentiall causes distinguished That the parents by Gods immediate assistance doe out of their owne spirituall nature informe their issue with a reasonable soule in the instant of conception for the preservation of humane kinde So that I conceive the power of God to be the externall efficient cause 1. Efficient who as he made the first soule immediately of nothing so by reason of the purity of it it can have no other externall efficient cause but his owne immediate power The procreating cause is the parents 2. Procreant who are as instruments in Gods hand to bring forth what how and when he please according to his own eternall decree The materiall cause is the spirituall matter of the parents souls 3. Materiall It will be said the soule is immateriall be it so then I say the soule is made of that matter which is immateriall For though it be not corporeall yet it is spirituall and being a spirit and not a body it is rather an act than a matter Mark this mystery so that according to the course of nature I confesse more is to be ascribed to the efficient cause yea so much that the latter is almost extinguished in the former And hence it is that though the soule be congenerated with the body yet by reason of the pure nature of it God being the efficient it is as neere to a creation as possibly it can be and as it were a meane between creation and propagation 4. Formall Touching the formal cause as it selfe is the forme of the body or rather
end and use of it is in all things naturally to worke mediately by the body For the soule is not such a strange nature dwelling in the body miraculously as some imagine but lovingly united by a sweet union and fit concordance in nature And therefore without question as the nature use end and all ordinary faculties and workes are naturally and mediately by these corporall natures so also is the originall and could not otherwise have such union and sympathy with the body But yet as the nature and workes also are some wayes extraordinary without and above all elementary natures so proportionably thereunto God hath an extraordinary and supernaturall worke in producing of it 5. The faculty of propagation seated in the soule Another reason that the soule is propagated may be because the faculty of propagation belongs as well to the soule as the body yea hath originally the chiefe seate in the soule onely For the body alone is but a dead instrument as the pen in the hand of the writer and therefore must needs be in the soule which is the first principle and principall cause of all actions unlesse wee should graunt more soules than one and disturbe yea destroy the uniforme government of nature by placing divers commanders in one body Now if the soule hath a part yea the chiefest power in propagation it were most absurd to say that all is spent in the producing of I know not what brutish thing which is neither nan not beast And seeing according to the rule of reason such as the cause is such also is the effect how can it be but the soule must produce a soule and coÌ„sequently the whole man the whole man 6. The soule present in conception Adde hereunto that the soule doth accompany the seede and perfecteth the body from the very first conception which not onely the ancient Philosophers acknowledge as most agreeable to nature and reason whence it is that nothing is more coÌ„mon with Aristotle Arist deâ— gen anim l. 1. cap. 3. than that the power of the soule is in the seed making its owne house fitly framing the bodily organs and bringing them to the highest perfection that the first constitution of the matter is capable of but even amongst our modern Philosophers and Divines it is acknowledged for such effects cannot be done without a soule as the most acute Scaliger abundantly proveth Scal. Exerc 6. Sect. 5. And if the soule informes the seede at the very instant of perfection when there are as yet no organs is it not more probable that it is mediately propagated with the seede than immediately created by GOD Yes doubtlesse Neither need any doubt how the rationall soule can 〈◊〉 the seede without organs know that the chiefe yea the only immediate organs of the soule are the spirits and these are as well in the seede as in the most perfect body The souls worke in the Embrio Although therefore there are as yet no eyes or eares for the soule to heare or see with yet there is worke enough for it to heate and coole moysten and dry and thereby to seperate and conjoine to thicken and thinne to extend and contract to make rough and smooth to harden and soften these and such other are the workes of the soule whereby it doth ordaine place number and forme the seede For though they be the prime and secondary qualities of the elements yet in such a naturall body all are doâ—â— by the power of the soule and none of all can be done without it 7. God the efficient cause Lastly It appeareth that not nature but God is the efficient cause of the soules procreation because even elementary bodies cannot be produced without a more excellent efficient than themselves For wee see that all naturall things yea every plant that growes out of the earth besides the materiall cause the elements whereof it is compounded and the seede whence it receiveth the forme hath also an externall efficient cause which certainly is the influence of the celestiall Orbes who by causing motion gives it the first hint and power of growing And seeing the soule hath such similitude with these corporall natures that though they have not matter and forme as they have yet having a spirituall kinde of composition which for likenesse justly meriteth the name therefore as the spirituall matter and forme thereof is propagated from the parents by the seede so it must also have a spirituall externall efficient cause more excellent than it selfe which can be no other but the immediate power of God the father of spirits For as all naturall bodyes have an efficient cause correspondent to their natures which in course of nature cannot be good immediately with whose nature they have so small affinitie yea so great contrarietie but these heavenly powers with whom they have such sympathy being of the same corporall nature though of a more excellent temper so the efficient cause of our soules must needs be agreeable to their natures which cannot be the Starres which are far inferior but God who is also a spirit and of a more excellent nature than our spirits even as the Sunne is more glorious than these earthly substances betweene whom there is such sympathy that even as plants welke and fade without the force of their efficients that heavenly lampe the Sunne and the rest of those celestiall orbes but grow and flourish with them so how a soule seperated from God and one united unto his and injoying the beames of his grace is either miserable or happy we know in part but cannot perfectly comprehend CHAP. XXVIII Reasons from other considerations Rarenesse of humane conceptioÌ„ BEsides these arguments taken from the ordinary course of generation and the nature of the soule divers other probable reasons may be produced As first the often failing and indeed rarenesse of humane conception in comparison of other creatures as common experience teacheth Now if the soule be created after the perfecting of the body then the first conception and breeding beeing by the power of nature onely why shoud there not bee as much frequency and certainty in the propagation of mankind as of other creatures This rarenesse of humane conception doth intimate unto us that it is not by the power of nature alone that man is conceived in the wombe but that there is some more speciall worke of God in it than in the generation of other creatures And if it cannot be denyed but God hath such a speciall worke in the conception of man why should we not thinke that the soule hath its beginning then also rather than with reverence be it spoken to put God to a double labour and to set him twice on worke in every man generation 2. God shuld be tyed to nature And this may farther appeare not only by testimony of Scripture which makes conception to be a speciall worke of God and never mentioneth any extraordinary power in the
can no more be the cause of sin than light can be of darknesse which cannot possibly be for light alwayes inlightens and no darknesse can proceed from light for though we reade that God commanded light to shine out of darknesse yet for darknesse to proceede from light is altogether impossible and even so it may stand with the nature of God to bring good out of evill but not evill out of good 4. There can be no evill God And for that sin is no positive thing but a privation of good hence it followeth also that there cannot be a summum malum as well as a summum bonum for the one is not and if it were the one should destroy the being of the other in as much as there cannot be two chiefes contrary to the devillish conceits of the Manichees of a good God and an evill God 5. It may be propagated Lastly Though it be an accident yea a privation yet it is not a meere negation though it be but an accident yet even an accident is his imperfection and sometimes the accident of a substance prevailes as much as the substance it selfe so that though it be but a privation yet it may have a being in nature Malum est in rerum naturâ etiamsi per se nihil est else Aristotle was much over-seene in making privation one of the principles of nature and if that be so necessary in generation why should we thinke this impossible to be generated and though it cannot hang in the ayre but must cleave to some subject yet it followeth not but it may be propagated together with the subject wherein it is 2. An inclination to evill But if this will not satisfie it is farther to be considered that originall sin is not onely a privation of goodnesse but also a corrupt qualitie and inclination to evill as appeares by the former description an◠the proofe of it and may farther be manifested by the punishment and consequents of the same For a meere privation of happinesse were a sufficient punishment for a meere privation of goodnesse but we know that Adam and all his posteritie have not only lost Paradise but gained a great deale of labour paine sorrow and misery Neither was the earth onely deprived of that excellent condition wherein it was created but in the place thereof hath succeeded a curse making it barren of good fruit and fruitfull of evill Gen. 3.17 18. thornes thistles and the like Teaching us that there is an evill qualitie in sin as well as a privation of goodnesse 3. Seated in the Soule Against this it is objected that if it be an evill qualitie it must cleave either to the soule or to the body or both If to the soule it cannot descend because such endowments of the mind as are not ingrafted into nature cannot be propagated according to the proverbe c. To which I answer Ans 1. first that even those arts which are least naturall are not altogether excluded in generation nay experience proves that children for the most part are like their parents even in such faculties as these whether they be inclined to Husbandry Horse-manship Merchandise Navigation or the liberall sciences howsoever they are often crossed in their inclinations Secondly 2. It is commonly seene that children are like their parents also in the faculties of the minde as in acutenesse of understanding firmnesse of memory soundnesse of judgement and the like Thirdly 3. It is well knowne that the affections of the soule which are yet neerer to the nature of sin are very commonly cōmunicated to posteritie whether concupiscible or irascible as covetousnesse wrathfulnesse mirth sadnesse feare boldnesse and the like whence is that other Proverbe Partus ventrem sequitur Lastly 4. It is manifest that sin cleaves to the will it selfe which is the fountain of the affections For as there are certaine naturall principles of knowledge as of good and evill which were at the first ingrafted into the understanding so there are certaine naturall inclinations in the will as of love and hatred which at first were carried to their proper objects and so were created good but now through mans failing and Gods curse upon it they are carried a contrary way by meanes whereof we are now corrupt and sinfull Now if sin cleaves thus to the will whence these affections proceede yea pierceth into the most inward and purest parts of the soule whence it spreads it self through the whole man it must needs be propagated much better or rather than the affections which are removed a degree farther from the soule and how much more then better than those externall acts which are not naturall but meere habits gotten by use and industry which neverthelesse in regard of naturall aptnesse unto them may also after a sort be propagated unto posteritie 4. Cleaving to the body Yet is not sin so seated in the soule as that it should not affect or rather infect the body also For though it cannot dwell in the body alone nor be propagated by it yet together with the soule the body is infected and by them both sin propagated Which may further appeare First if we consider that not the soule or body alone but the whole man or person is the subject of this sin especially for not parts but persons sinned and so were corrupted with sin in Adam and thu◠the body is sinfull not of it selfe but as a part of the person of man Secondly being a corrupt qualitie of the body though accidentall and not ingrafted into nature at the first yet why may it not be propagated as well as the gout leprosie whereunto sin is resembled in the Scripture especially considering these are no lesse accidentall unnaturall yea and contrary to created nature at the first and are not now common to all mankinde as sin is Lastly If it be granted that nature does alwayes follow the first institution notwithstanding externall accidents yet this is such an externall accident as it is also internall yea farther I affirme that sin is now no lesse ingrafted into our nature I meane the whole nature of man 5. Ingrafted into nature it selfe How sin is ingrafted into mans nature and propagated with it consisting of soule and body than if the first and yet without fault in God Which that I may plainly manifest and so cleare all in a word I would know of the adversaries of this doctrine whether that wisdome and holinesse which was at first in Adam was such as might and should have beene communicated to his posteritie if he had not sinned or no If yes as no reasonable man can deny it then it must follow by that rule of reason Contraria contrariorum sunt consequentia that so may sin and corruption now since the fall All that can be objected to the contrary is this Obj. that these vertues which were in Adam were good qualities created by God
person of our Lord Jesus Christ and that in the same moment that it was being by that union enriched w th supernaturall gifts and exalted above all men and Angels And thus also was his substance sinlesse although it was the substance of the sinfull Virgin And to conclude Ioh. 1.29 1 Pet. 1.19 thus is he the immaculate Lambe that taketh away the sinnes of the world 2. Why his conception was extraordinary Now all this was effected by the immediate working of the holy Ghost at the instant of his conception For it neither might nor could be performed after the manner of mans sinfull propagation 1. It could not be by man Because if man had ministred the matter of his humanitie after the ordinary way it should have been sinfull in part that is as man gave it to be a part of Christs person or indeavoured the subsistence of that nature in the person of the Son which nature alone would have made a person and consequently a sinner For by the law of nature in ordinary generation so much as man begets another person he begets another sinner which yet if the soule were immediatly created were so little as there could be no originall sin as we heard before So that by propagation the humanity of Christ which is the whol person so farre as man could in this cause have effected should have beene sinfull And though not meerely as humanitie yet as a nature sinfully propagated from man wherewith it was impossible the divine nature should be united Seeing therefore it could not be by man and the Virgin neither might nor could conceive alone for corruption must have no hand in it it was necessary therefore that it should be done by the supernaturall power of God And seeing it must be done extraordinarily by the immediate power of God no person was so fit for it as the holy Ghost whose office it properly concerns from the Father and the Son to consecrate and set apart for holy uses and especially to indue mens soules with supernaturall gifts therfore most of all in the incarnation of our Saviour Christ which was absolutely the most holy of all GODS externall workes And this as I am undoubtedly perswaded is the true doctrine of the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Phil. 2.6 7 Heb. 4.15 2-6 who was like unto us in all things sin onely excepted made of the same substance both for soule and body and therefore true man and yet not sinfull He was in Adam in respect of his humanitie as well as we and yet sinned not in him as we did In the consideratiō of all which we may well say with the Apostle Without controversie 1 Tim. 2.16 great is the mystery of godlinesse Why this truth hath beene so long obscured Thus I hope I have sufficiently manifested both by Scripture and reasons drawne from them that soules are not immediately created of God of nothing but all mediately propagated from Adam yea Christs as well as ours though his after an extraordinary manner because he was an extraordinary man From all which it plainly appeareth that the holy Ghost hath not left us to wander in uncertainties concerning the soules originall but clearely enough revealed it had not men set up two false opinions one of which they thought must needs be true and neither having sure footing in the Scripture because both false the truth hath beene long obscured and both accounted doubtfull and almost curious because difficult to be knowne CHAP. XXV Naturall reasons proving the soules propagation The nature and validitie of naturall reasons HItherto wee have proved the soules propagation by testimonies and reasons drawne out of the Scripture and now wee are to proceed to naturall reasons which in worth and authoritie are to be regarded next the former they being the word of God wrought as the other is his written word the one we call the voice of nature the other the word of grace the one mediatly manifested in the creatures the other immediately revealed by himselfe For if nature be as is no lesse commonly than truly said ordinaria dei potentia the ordinary power of God as miraculous workes are his extraordinary power then by like reason it followeth that the voice of nature is the ordinary voice of God even as the divine Oracles are his extraordinary voice Now as this question chiefly concerneth nature so the resolution thereof ought chiefly to be fetched from nature whose sentence is therefore so much the more to be respected yea so much that though the Scripture said nothing yet natures testimony were in this of sufficient credit alone And if we will hearken to nature I doubt not to make it appeare that there is nothing more manifest in nature than this mediate manner of the souls propagation and when as well nature as divinite concludes for it I see not with what reason it can be gainsaid 1. Reason from the nature of reason The first naturall reason which I will produce shall be from the nature of reason it selfe which teacheth not to beleeve any thing for which wee have no reason Scripture nor experience Some things our senses teach us to beleeve as the vertues of the Loadstone for which we can render neither Scripture nor reason but only experience Some things reason teacheth us It hath neither Scripture sense nor reason 1. as that the whole conteines the parts which we would beleeve without Scriptures or experience onely by reason And some things wee receive from Scripture as the Trinitie in the Unitie which cannot appeare either by sense or reason but onely by faith 2. But none of these can manifest the soules immediate creation for it is confessed to be above sense or reason neither is there any Scripture to prove it For who ever heard of a soule newly created since the first in the beginning is it likely that God should continually do such wonderfull workes which the Scripture never spake of and whereof there can no example be given yea is it not contrary to all sense and reason that God should worke a perpetuall miracle and that the most omnipotent worke that can be and yet this onely among all the workes of God should be omitted in the Scripture If there were such a thing as this wee should neede none other Arguments to confute all the Atheists and Epicures in the world this therfore of all other should have beene revealed if it had beene so 2. From the order of nature Seeing therefore there is no divine testimony to warrant it there had need be strong reasons to make a man beleeve it Neither is it unreasonable onely but as it seemeth to me a most unnaturall opinion cleane contrary to the whole order of nature and end of all GODS extraordinary workes For although the supreame goodnesse of GOD would not content it selfe without producing more good for which cause he created the world
Why God made the world Why he instituted nature yet for as much as his essence is chiefly manifested in the vertues which are essentiall to himselfe onely and the end of all his workes is to manifest himselfe which as it is the greatest good is this greatest glory he therefore could not without disparagement to his own excellency worke alwayes immediately in the matters of his creatures as in creating new substances of nothing but onely in bringing to an higher perfection by qualifying them with his owne essentiall vertues so farre as the creature is capable and for this cause at their first creation he disposed all things in such order as they might persist of themselves without his immediate working any more in their matter or substance which order we call nature It breeds a disturbance in the course of nature Now seeing this is true in Angels and all other creatures that ever God created were it not unreasonable unnaturall too to disturbe the order of all Gods workes in exempting man onely Nay then let nature goe to wracke and every thing be done miraculously for the whole order of nature is broken and instituted in vaine And for my part I thinke that God would have rather created men together when he made Adam as he did Angels than thus to continue creating to the worlds end 3. From the end of GODS workes But it pleased the wisdome of God to make choice of this course not onely for the former reason namely because it was most fit for the excellency of his nature 1. This is a disparagement to God which might worke no more in the substāce of his creatures than needs must but also for the meanness of ours which require his working by meanes after a naturall order 2. Unfit for us proportionable to that reason he hath given us which onely our nature was capable of the better to manifest himselfe unto us 3. Against the order of grace Againe that so he might propagate his Church of mankinde successively by course of nature 4. A vaine worke against nature who thus according to his decree might and did all fall most fitly and justly in one Adam by nature as they are restored againe most fitly and justly in another Adam Christ Jesus by grace And lastly that he might not work perpetuall miracles which onely manifest his power one of the meanest of his attributes which yet is so fully manifested without it in the first creation of all things of nothing and still preserving them that it should be in vaine for him to doe so at the best and therefore certainly he doth not Arist De Caelo lib. 1. cap. 4. according to the Rule Deus natura nil frustra faciunt CHAP. XXVI Reasons from the nature of generation Man can father no more than he begets NOw by this mediate manner of Gods working I meane the rules of nature and that order which God instituted for all creatures in the beginning it is impossible that Adam should be our father and we his children if wee have not our whole man as well soule as body from him For if we receive onely the least part of our selves that is our bodies from him then he doth not beget a man that is to say a reasonable creature but onely I wot not what formelesse matter or dead carkase for such an uncouth thing is the body without the soule and though a soule comes afterward from another Obj. Ans that 's nothing to the parents for they beget onely the former and I trow it is unjust to make them father that which they never begate So that by the course of nature if man doe not beget the whole man he cannot possibly be said to be a father to the whol man No father without giving the forme This farther appeareth for that by the law of nature it is not the giving of the matter alone much lesse the matter of the body onely that makes a father for that is of the elements in the conveyance whereof the father is as it were an instrument onely but the forme is properly and immediately his which if he doe not propagate to his of-spring he can no more be a father to his children than to fleas or lice that breed of his matter but without his forme than which what grosser absurditie can be in nature 3. Else he cannot be a father to the body Besides man should then be so farre from being a father to the whole man that he could be father to no part of him For he can be but partly a father that begets but part of a creature and so not a whole father to any part And if fatherhood consists especially in giving the forme and that comes only from God he onely is a father to the whole man rather yea is not there much more reason to say God onely is our father because the soul the more noble part comes from him than that Adam is because the baser part the body and yet not the body neither but something like the body comes from him I suppose any reasonable man will graunt it without any farther reason 4. Else he can beget nothing And thus he cannot be father to our bodyes unlesse to our soules also yea it is impossible in nature that he should beget any thing without the soule For there can be no naturall body without forme and no forme of a humane body but the soule If therefore man doth not propagate the soule together with the body he cannot propagate any thing but a meere nullity viz. nothing at all 5. Else he cannot beget at all Moreover I say he cannot propagate at all for generation is not of parts but of creatures the matter and forme simply considered cannot be said to be generated but the creature consisting of matter and forme and therefore when I say the soule is generated or produced it is to be understood joyntly with the body because the whole is otherwise neither can properly be said to be generated but rather congenerated so that if man begets not both he begets not at all 6. Else man shall be inferior to beasts Againe If man cannot beget man he is by nature herein inferior to brute beasts yea even the basest creatures who yet can propagate their like both in regard of soule and body And to make man herein inferior to beasts Ob. Ans what can be more absurd Neither is it not any disparagement so long as his soule comes from an higher principle for it is not onely an indecorum and a grosse deformity in nature that man should be left destitute of that power which is given to brute beasts in so maine a thing yea even the highest degree of naturall perfection but also it casts an aspersion upon GOD himselfe as if he were overseene in endeavouring to make a creature subject to the lawes of nature of so high