confess of the Body they consequently disbelieve the Traduction of Original sin which cannot be derived by the body alone because only the Soul is the seat and subject of sin Let them also consider whether by affirming that God doth dayly create new Souls they do not thereby charge God to be the Author of sin seeing sin is only in and by the Soul Those Scriptures which they use to alledge for the dayly creation of Human Souls will in no wise serve their turn As God giveth life to all and In him we live Acts 17. 25. 28. and move and We are his off-spring for it is true that God giveth life although it be by Propagation of life and we live by his gift and we are his off-spring because the first Soul was created by Him immediately from which first Soul all succeeding Souls were are and still will be derived That Saying in Ecclesiastes the Spirit or Soul shall return to God who gave it This Eccles 12. 7. doth not in the least gainsay the Doctrine of Propagation of souls from Adam's Soul nor doth it at all prove a daily Creation of new Souls We confess that God gave the first Soul to the first Man immediately by himself and we affirm that God daily gigiveth Souls but this daily Gift is not by way of any new Creation but only by way of Propagation from that First Soul which Propagation is effected by his daily Concurrence and Divine Cooperation with his Creatures and not otherwise And so also God daily is Operative in making Human bodies although not by way of Creation but by his Concurrence and Assistance with the ordinary means of Generation So that if we be asked who made us We may truly answer God These are the ways whereby God hath wrought from the Beginning untill this Day and this upon a most Mercifull design viz. To make us capable of Redemption by the Union of our bodies and Souls with the Body and Soul of the Redeemer Hitherto Good Reader we have endeavoured to shew the Vnion of Christ with Mankind which we have said to consist in this that Christ hath assumed both his Body and his Soul from that One and the same Root and Fountain from which all Men with Him received their Bodies and Souls and wherein He and we were originally united Now we are necessarily to enquire how Christ can be quitted more than we from that stain of corruption which is propagated from the loyns of the First Man and is called Original sin of which we are next to consider CHAP. XXIV CHrist being the Redeemer must necessarily be untainted and free from all sin not only Actual which no Christian will deny him to be but also from Original sin otherwise he cannot take away the sins of others but would require another to take away his sin The legal Type of the Redeemer was a Lamb without blemish and himself being Ex. 12. 5 the Evangelical Antitype is just so described by St. Peter A Lamb without blemish 1. Pet. 1. 19. or spot he is described by the Prophet to be lead like a Sheep to the slaughter Sheep Isa 53. 7. 2 Cor. â— 21. 1 John 3. 5. have no sin St. Paul saith he knew no sin St. John saith In him was no sin And that it was needfull for us that he should be so we are taught by the Apostle Such an High Priest became us who is holy harmless Heb. 7. 26. John 8. 46. undefiled Christ challenged his most malitious Censurers the Jews Which of you convinceth me of sin But how it came to pass that Christ could be free from that Universal contagion wherein all the other whole Race of Mankind are involved is now our Question To this Question I have answered at large in one of my former Books and I trust Satisfactorily which I shall not need Lib. 3. c. 11. De Incarn to rehearse fully in this place but only to point at the most concerning and principal Passages thereof summarily and as briefly as I can The First sin that was charged on our first Parents was their eating of the forbidden fruit but that sin was not by them transmitted to their Posterity for we did not eat thereof nor can their Posterity be charged with the Sin but only with the Curse For that first sin made them and all their Off-spring Christ and all liable and subject to the Curse denounced upon sin which was Mortality In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Hence Gen. 2. 17. it is that not only we but Christ also by taking his Flesh and his Soul from them became liable to death yet He without sin therefore the Apostle saith Christ was made Gal. 3. 13 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. a Curse for us and by Man came death and in Adam all die The Curse was Death and that Curse fell not only upon us but also upon Christ as St. Austin very truly observeth that Christ derived mortality from the substance and mortality of his Aug. cont Julia. Pelag. l. 5. Ro. 6. 23. Mother but not sin The Apostle saith The wages of sin is Death the Death of Christ was the wages of the sin of Adam and Eve but not of the sin of Christ for he had no sin therefore the Apostle very warily declareth That God sent his Son in the likeness Rom. 8. 3 of sinfull flesh he doth not say in the likeness of flesh for his Flesh was real and true flesh not only a bare similitude thereof as the Manichees said but he saith Aug. Epist 74. in the likeness of sinfull flesh that is although the Flesh of Christ was not sinfull yet it was like the flesh of other Men which is sinfull in them He was in all parts tempted Heb. 4. 15. like as we are yet without sin The second sin of our first Parents which is properly that Original sin which is from them propagated and transmitted into all their Posterity which have proceeded from the loyns of Adam and the womb of Eve by the ordinary natural way of Copulation and Generation is that sin which the Scripture calleth Concupiscence or Lust in which lust or concupiscence all children are begotten and the lust wherein they are begotten is transmitted into them from their Parents and remaineth in them as long as they live He that will carefully peruse the History of our first Parents both before and after their fall may discern what sin of theirs that was which they left as an inheritance entayled upon all their Posterity which naturally proceeded from them We find that before the Fall they were both naked Gen. 2. 25. and were not ashamed but after the Fall they were ashamed and affraid because they were naked and hid themselves and to cover that of which they were most ashamed they made them Aprons of fig-leaves Perizomata which served to cover Gen. 3. 7 10. only their Secret parts
that we look for both and that all Men shall rise with their Bodies and shall give an account All therefore Good and Bad. This being evident we are further to enquire what is the efficient or true cause of the Immortality of Human Souls and of the Resurrection of Human Bodies more than of the souls and bodies of other inferior Creatures although their bodies and souls were at first Created by God as ours were and therefore the Mahumetans say that there shall be a Resurrection of Brute creatures as Armachanus reporteth and Arm. f. 161. Heathens said that in their Elysium a place was for Birds as Ovid. Amorum L. 2. Eleg. 6. Colle sub Elysio nigra nemus illice frondet Ovid. Amorum li. 2. El. 6. Vdaque perpetuo gramine terra viret Si qua fides dubiis volucrum locus ille piarum Dicitur obscoenae quo prohibentur Aves To this our Answer is That because Human bodies and Souls are united with the Body and Soul of Christ in the first Original Soul and Body therefore our Souls are Immortal and our Bodies shall rise immortal but so shall not the other Creatures because they are not so united The reason is clearly declared by Christ himself in these words He that eateth me even he shall live John 6. 57. by me For as the Body and Soul of Christ are now Immortal because united with the Divine Spirit as himself saith I live by the Ibid. Father so our Souls are and our Bodies shall be Immortal because they are united with the Body and Soul of the Son of God and this not by vertue of his meer Soul and his meer Flesh both of them being of themselves but Creatures but because his Soul and Body are and ever were personally united with the Divine Spirit or Godhead that is it only which caused this kind of Vitality in all Mankind for of his meer Flesh alone Christ saith The Flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 6. 63 But of the Spirit or Godhead united with his Flesh he saith It is the Spirit that quickneth the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life and therefore the Apostle saith of the whole Person of Christ The last Adam was made a quickning 1 Cor. 15. 45. Spirit that is He was made so by Union with the Godhead for the Flesh of Christ alone was mortal but by this Union it became both Vital and Vivifical They that say that our Souls are Immortal only by Creation being Reasonable Souls and should have been Immortal though God the Son had not united himself with our Nature These to me seem to gainsay the words of Christ for it is not by the Reasonabless but their Union with the Soul of Christ that makes them immortal I suppose they will not say that our Bodies shall rise from death only because they are human Bodies No for both these are the effects of this Union which Christ called the Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood and nothing else and therefore St. John saith God hath given to us Eternal Life and this 1 John 5. 11. 12. Life is in his Son he addeth He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life To this most Holy Son of God and Son of Man our ever blessed Redeemer and Saviour together with the Eternal Father and the Divine Spirit of both Benediction Honour and Thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Amen FINIS THE CONTENTS Chapter 1. THE Vnion of Christ with Mankind in Adam in order to our Redemption signified by the Eating and Drinking the Flesh and Blood of Christ the different understanding thereof by Romanists Lutherans and Zuinglians from the Church of England 2. The signification of eating of the Tree of Life of the Tree of Knowledge of Manna of Sacrifices and of the Paschal Lamb. 3. That Eating the Flesh of Christ is not meant of Oral Eating of St. Peters Eating parallel'd with our Eating of Christ 4. That the necessity of our real Vnion with the Flesh of Christ is called Eating how we are united with his Body and the benefit thereof 5. The Doctrine of the Fathers concerning our Vnion with the Body of Christ of his Body natural mystical Of the Subjection of Christ 6. Why this Vnion is described by eating the Flesh of the Son of Man and not rather of the Son of God 7. That the Redeemer was necessarily to be the Son of Man and also the Son of God 8. Why this Vnion is expressed by such Tragical words of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood Why the Primitive Church mingled water with Wine in the holy Chalice 9. The practice of some Hereticks in eating Human flesh in their Sacrament compared with the Doctrine of Transubstantion The calumny of Anthropophagy charged upon Christians and removed 10. That this Eating the Flesh of Christ is now to be done for that it was performed at our first Conception in the Womb that the Fathers and all other Latin Translators render those words of Eating the Flesh of Christ otherwise then we do 11. How our Vnion with the Flesh of Christ is more beneficial to us than our Vnion with the flesh of the Patriarks Prophets and Apostles 12. Of Eating the Flesh of Christ Spiritually what is meant by it and whether such an Eating be sufficient to the right end 13. Of Eating by Faith whether believing the Articles of Faith be that Eating which is thereby meant Of those words of St. Austin Crede Manducasti how to be rightly understood The three states of Mankind 14. Of the Blood of Christ that it is not literally to be understood nor to be drank Orally 15. Of the forbidding of Blood by the Law and the Gospel that it was but a Temporary Discipline Why Fornication was forbidden to the Gentiles converted by the Apostolical Council 16. That the Blood of Christ signifieth the Life or Soul of Christ 17. That Drinking the Blood of Christ signifieth only the Vnion of our Souls with his Soul Of the 3 Ingredients in Christ The Godhead Flesh and Soul 18. To what end and special purpose the Holy Supper was instituted the abuse by witholding the Chalice from the People that the corporal Presence of Christ is not in the Saments but in the Communicants 19. That the Soul of Christ and all other Human Souls are derived from the Original soul of Adam that the Doctrine of daily Creation of new Human Souls is erroneous that our Souls proceed immediately from our Mothers and in the Womb. 20. Of the Traduction or Propagation of the Soul of Christ and of all other Human Souls from Adam Some doubts and objections cleared The true cause of the Immortality of Human Souls and of the Resurrection of our Bodies more than of brute Creatures 21. Of the time when Conceptions receive life and soul in the Womb which is called Quickning Of Barrenness That the Vnion of our souls with the Soul of Christ is at our Quickning in the Womb the Doctrine of the Church of England therein 22. That the Soul of Christ must as necessarily have proceeded from Adam as his Flesh Of some Heresies which gainsayed the Traduction of Souls The Doctrine of daily Creation of new Souls examined 23. The judgment of the Fathers concerning Traduction of Souls The error of the Pelagians therein and the evil consequences thereof 24. That Christ was free from Original sin although his Soul and Body were derived from Adam 25. That although the Mother of Christ were conceived in sin yet her Son Jesus was free from her Sin and how That she was a pure Virgin at the Birth of Christ That her perseverance in Virginity to her Death though it is true yet it is not necessarity pereinent to this question Conclusion The Effects of our Vnion with Christ viz. 1. The Immortality of all Human Souls 2. The Resurrection of all Human Bodies which are called Eternal Life and Raising at the last Day FINIS
Three Divine Persons all of them being but One God of Truth as St. John saith There are Three 1 John 5. 7. that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these Three are One. Vpon these premised Reasons it is as I conceive that the Apostle calls Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Surety or Fide-jussor Heb. 7. 22. In order to the performance of this Covenant we are next to consider that God the Son assumed our Human Nature and became perfect Man and in that Human Nature did actually and perfectly perform that whole Law or Covenant for which he was engaged in the behalf of Mankind whereupon it is said of the Son In the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy Heb. 10. 7. will O God in Capite libri that is in notitia Praedestinationis aeternae saith the Dionys Car. in loc Expositor The Writing in the Volume of the Book signifies that he was preordained or predestinated from Eternity so to do He had said before Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a Body thou hast prepared for me then said I lo I come all which words were taken out of the 40th Psalm From hence it is that God the Son is called the Angel or Messenger of the Mal. 3 1. Govenant because he was interested and sent for performance of the said Covenant And therefore the whole Flock of Mankind was committed to him as his Sheep to be ordered and governed for so it is expresly said that the Father gave them to him John 10. 29. 1 Pet. 2. 25. and He is therefore called by St. Peter the great Shepherd of the Sheep This Engagement of the Son as Surety for Mankind occasioned those words of the two great Apostles for thus St. Paul writeth of God He hath chosen us in him Eph. 1 4. Christ before the Foundation of the World and He hath saved us according 2 Tim. 1. 9. to his own purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began And In hope of Eternal Tit. 1. 2. life which God that cannot lie promised before the World began Just so St. Peter saith upon the same reason You were not 1 Pet. 1. 18. redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious Blood of Christ who 19. 20. was fore-ordained before the Foundation of the World These expressions of Chosing us in Christ and of Grace given us in Christ and of Christ fore-ordained and of Life promised and that before the Foundation of the World And all these only in and for Christ must needs relate to that aforesaid Eternal purpose Covenant or Agreement beeween God the Father and God the Son before the Creation For to whom could the Promise be made before either Man or Angel or Archangel or any Creatures were made but only to the Eternal Word or Son of the Father And why to him but only because the Son entred into that Covenant and thereby became the Surety and Vndertaker for Mankind Therefore to him only was this Promise made and in him and for him to Mankind And by vertue of this Covenant the Lord Jesus became necessarily obliged both to perform the Law and also to under go his bitter passions of death as himself often acknowledged Mat. 16. 21. and all the four Evangelists have recorded Mar. 8. 31 Luke from his mouth that He must suffer many things and be killed 24. 46. Joh. 3. 14 All this being presumed and granted there is yet one thing more of the greatest concernment to us to be considered viz. how his Obedience in performing the Law and his Death for the transgressions thereof can be satisfactory to Divine Justice for us seeing God hath often declared that one shall not be punished for another especially an Innocent for a malefactor which seems to be our case for we are the Transgressors but Christ is innocent yet he is punished and we quitted Our Answer is that Christ and Mankind are not to be looked on as Two but as One. Nor is his death the death of one for another but of the same He as a Surety and we as the principal Debtor He as the Head and we as the Members of the same Body The Surety and the principal are but one Person in Law and the Head and the other parts are both one and the same Body in Nature Therefore that the proceedings of the Godhead concerning the work of Mans Redemption might appear to be contrived not only with infinite Mercy but also with exact Justice God at the beginning so ordered that the Redeemer and the Redeemed should be united in One original Fountain who to that end planted all the Bodies and Souls both of Christ and of all Mankind in that One First Man from whose Flesh and Soul both Christ and all Mankind have derived their Bodies and their Souls In this consisteth our Union with Christ and hence it is that Christ and we are accounted but One and this is that Union which was meant and described by Christ under those figurative words of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood The clear demonstration and proof whereof is the whole and only design of this ensuing Treatise The learned Romanists I conceive do perfectly understand that the benefits which come by Christ cannot otherwise with justice be communicated to Mankind but only by the Vnion of Christ with us viz. of his Flesh with our flesh and of his Soul with our souls And therefore they have phansied this Vnion to be effected by an Oral and carnal Eating of his living Flesh and Drinking his Blood in the Sacred Eucharist by their way of Transubstantiation For the learned French Cardinal of Perron in his Book of the Eucharist written in French affirmeth that the real natural Presence of Christ in the Sacrament is to greatest purpose because the Residence of Christs Natural Body in our bodies doth really and substantially joyn us unto God establishing a true and real Vnity between God and Men. Thus far he which is observed by Dr. Jer. Taylor in his Book intitled The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Sacrament pag. 50. We also confess the necessity of this Vnion but by another way which is plain evident and comfortable as it is described in this Book as I trust will appear to the Reader So that no need will be of that Roman Subterfuge and pretence of their horrid unreasonable and impossible Mode by an Oral gross carnal and literal Eating of his Flesh and Drinking his Blood with which Imposture a great part of the Christian World hath been a long time abused but by the cool and sober perusal of this Discourse the Ingenuous Romanist may happily in some measure be undeceived The most compleat and perfect Vnion of Christ with Man consisteth in five things 1. Carne in Flesh 2. Anima in Soul 3. Spiritu in Spirit 4. Vadimonio
believing they tremble and although they believe as we do yet they have not so eaten nor are so united with Christ as Mankind is I may truly say of Angels Credunt sed non edunt because they are not so united they are utterly uncapable of the benefit of Christs Incarnation and therefore of Redemption by him There have been and still are many Millions of People in the World who never believed the Christian Faith as Pagan-Infidels and Jews and such as are above-mentioned Cap. 10. and many barbarous and uncivilized People that still sit in darkness and in the shadow of death who never so much as heard of Christ Yet all these being the Redemtion is as broad as Human nature Bish Bedels Letter pa. 26. race and posterity of Adam have every one so eaten the flesh of the Son of Man as is here meant that is they are united with the flesh of Christ in the loyns of the first Man which Union was actuated at their conceptions in the Wombs of their mothers although they never were or perhaps never will be Believers of all such I may say Edunt sed non credunt therefore this Eating cannot be meant only of Believing St. Austin in his 25. Tractate on St. John Aug. in Joh. writing upon those words in the 6. Chapter This is the work of God that ye believe Joh. 6. 29 on him whom he hath sent saith Quid paras dentes ventrem crede manducasti Why preparest thou thy teeth and thy stomach believe and thou hast eaten by which passage some have thought that St. Austin meant that Believing was the only way of Eating the flesh of Christ But the contrary is proved before and if St. Austin were of that Opinion he is not to be followed therein yet I am confident that he did not so mean because I find that this learned Father hath divers times otherwise expounded those words which mention the Eating and Drinking the flesh and blood of Christ to be meant of our Incorcorporation in him which must signifie the union of our flesh with his Flesh for so he Aug. lib. 3. con Pelagian c. 4. to 7. n. â—9 saith of those words John 6. Nisi manducaveritis carnem nemo potest vitam aeternam habere nisi incorporetur Christo No man can have Eternal life except he be incorporated in Christ And in another place he bringgeth in Christ saying Qui venit ad me incorporatur Id. in Joh. Tract 25. Ibid. Tract 27. mihi he that cometh to me is incorporated in me Again he saith Manducare illam escam est manere in Christo Christum manentem in se habere to eat that Food is to abide in Christ and to have Christ abiding in him And in the same Tractate he thus sheweth the union or conjunction of Christs Flesh with our flesh Siquis liquefactae cerae c. If a man shall Id. ibid. melt wax and then put other melted wax into it he wholly mingleth the one with the other Just so is it with the flesh of Christ and our flesh whereby it comes to be truly said by Christ He that eateth my Joh. 6. 56 Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him for certainly that God the Creator might effect this Union of Mankind with the Redeemer he extracted all out of one as Prosp very judiciously observeth Deus ex uno fecit omnes ut in Christi corpus Prosp de Prov. n. 39. venirent God made men Christ and all out of one Adam that all Men might come into the Body of Christ If now it be granted that St. Austin did intend those words to signifie so as is above said then they will amount no farther than this which to me seemeth a true gloss and as much as if he had said think it not needfull to prepare thy mouth to eat the Flesh of Christ for Crede manducasti thou hast so eaten his Flesh already as he meant by being united with him in the very Conception only believe in him and thereby that Eating or Vnion shall be profitable for thee and not otherwise because the Union or Concarnation of our flesh with his without Faith cannot reach so far as to Salvation for the very worst of men as is said before are united in flesh with the Flesh of Christ The Wisdom of the Godhead with Justice and Mercy designed this our Union with the flesh of God the Son on purpose to qualifie and prepare our foreseen lapsed Nature so as by this way to put Mankind into a condition and capacity of Redeemableness and so of Salvation possibly which could not otherwise be consistent with Divine Justice as neither could it become his Mercy to have created Mankind on purpose to torment us for ever in Hell Our perdition is not from him but from our selves for he would not the death of a Ezek. 18. 32. sinner therefore hath he set us into this way and possibility of Life For the Nature of Mankind hath been in three several conditions which Divines express by these three words 1. Natura Instituta 2. Natura Destituta 3. Natura Restituta By which they mean the state of Innocency the state of our Fall and the state of our Recovery by Christ The first was whilst our first Parents who were created pure and holy continued in that Original Integrity without sin The second was after their Fall or Sin by which they became destitute and were deprived of their prime Graces and Purity and we by them The third condition is our restitution to Grace and Pardonableness by Christ who being the Son of God to effect this Restitution became the Son of Man by assuming the same Nature which we have and in that Nature perfectly performed that Law of God which was imposed upon us in our behalf and for us and moreover bare in his own Body the punishments due for the sins of our lapsed Nature All the wisdom of Men and Angels could not find out a way whereby lapsed Mankind could with justice be restored but the mercifull Godhead effected it by God the Son to become Emanuel this was the Lords doing only Or if any creature had known or discovered the same means what Man or Angel or Archangel durst presume to have suggested it to the Godhead so as to say Thou O God hast imposed a Law on man which Mankind by all its own power being lapsed cannot possibly perform And thou hast threatned death for transgression thereof which no Man possibly by himself can escape therefore do thou O God thine own self perform thine own Law and to this end abase thy self and assume mans Nature on thee and suffer the punishment due to Man for otherwise the whole Generation of Mankind must perish everlasting How unlikely or rather impossible would this suggestion seem to any Creature ever to take effect Yet the mercifull Godhead in great power and wisdom
necessarily to have been united in soul as well as in body otherwise he could be but an Half-Redeemer and we but Semiredempti i. e. redeemed but in one part or half-redeemed for it would prove but a Redemption of our Bodies only and not of our Souls Gregory Nazianzen in an Epistle to Cledonius Naz. Orat 51. a Priest which goes under the title of the 51 Oration thus writeth The Son of God took upon him the Nature of Man and all that of Man which needed help and recovery therefore he must needs have taken the Soul as well as the flesh from Man for otherwise he would be like to a Man who having a sore eye and a sore foot and should apply a Medicine to the foot only and quite neglect the eye Thus he so that although our bodies were well provided for by having a Redeemer yet the souls would want a Redemption for themselves and so the sentence of God would be executed on them The Soul that sinneth it shall die Eze. 18. 4 But the Mercifull Godhead took care both of our bodies and of our Souls and therefore sent God the Son as the Apostle saith in the likeness of sinfull Flesh and Rom. 8. 3. for sin condemned sin in the flesh So likewise did he send the same Son of God in the likeness of a sinfull Soul thereby to condemn sin in the Soul the Lord Jesus is a Saviour not only of bodies but of souls also and is therefore called by the Apostle the Sheepherd and Bishop of Souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. as Moses and Aaron had formerly stiled him The God of the Spirits or Souls of all Num. 16. 22. Flesh The Son of God was the Creator not only of bodies but also of souls and the Son of Man was and is the Redeemer of both For this gracious purpose only God did unite himself with Mankind not only in Flesh but in Soul also and thereby he became a Compleat Emanuel And this union or conjunction of God with Man was effected by the Propagation or Traduction of the Flesh and Soul of Christ from the flesh and soul of the first Man as all our Bodies and Souls have been and now are and will be to the end of the World Of the Traduction of our bodies no Man boubteth but of the Original and Traduction of Souls great disputes have been and yet are of which we are next in order to consider CHAP. XX. THE Doctrine of the Original of the Soul of Christ and of all human Souls and consequently the Doctrine of the Redemption of our souls by the Soul of Christ hath been much obscured by the vain and trifling Arguments of some natural Philosophers and as much by the frivolous Queries of some late Theologues whereas some learned Physicians to whom Jacobus Horstius Geor. Horstius Animas propagari ab animabus parentum putat Keckerman Phys p. 630. Truth is more beholding in this point have with great judgment and by their Experiences shewed and proved that our Souls are derived by Traduction from the Souls of our Mothers in the Womb as the Soul of Christ certainly was and as one of them saith Instar surculi ex trunco as a young grift sucketh life from the stock And the Souls of all Mothers as is beforesaid are derived from the Soul of the first Man unto which Doctrine all men who do rightly apprehend and understand the order and method of Redemption to consist in the Vnion of Christ with Mankind will be driven at last to consent Those Men that oppose the Traduction of Souls from the Soul of Adam demand how it is possible that such an innumerable company of Souls can be derived from one single Soul seeing the Soul is a Spirit and indivisible and therefore not to be parted by Decisions and mincings into such several parcels for so in time it would have nothing left to it self but would be utterly annihilated But these Men may as reasonably doubt how so many thousands of Bodies could proceed from that one single Body of the first Man during the 930 years of his life without any diminution of the quantity or dimensions of his Body seeing they were all Originally in his Loyns Or how the Sun communicates his light to every star in Heaven without any diminution or lessening his Light nothing is more like the Soul than light The Philosophers called the Soul of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter cognationem cum lumine as Plutarch saith because it is Plut. con Colot so like to light and Christ is said to Enlighten every Man because he hath given a John 1. 9. reasonable Soul to all Men as Expositors agree St. Austin resembles the traduction of the Soul to the Light of a lamp Ignis Aug. cont Pelag. T. 7. n. 63 lucernae integer manet licet altera de illa accendatur Millions of Tapers may receive light from one single Taper without diminishing the light of that one Taper and so our Souls are propagated from that one Original Soul without any division or diminution thereof Let it be considered that the Soul of the first Man was created immediately by God of which it is said God breathed into his Gen. 2. 7. Bucan p. 86. 88. nostrils the breath of Life or of Lives this Breath of God was Spiraculum Omnipotens of which the Psalmist saith By the Breath Psal 33. 6 of the Lord the Heavens were made and all the Host of them by the Breath of his mouth The human Soul hath a prerogative of its Original above other inferiour Animals of whom it is never said that God breathed into them the Breath of life That first Soul of Man especially was like unto Fire as one saith of all Human souls Igneus est Ollis Virg. Aen. 6. vigor It surely had the vigour of fire and did extend it self into the grand Corporation of all Mankind as one spark of fire may enflame a whole City The brute Creatures ever since their first Creation did propagate their Souls to their kind and to this day those Creatures do receive their souls by Traduction from their Dams The greatest Sciolists in Natural Philosophy cannot reasonably prove any other Original of those brute Souls but only by propagation which yet they deny to human Souls It must be confessed by Christians that the souls of brute Creatures were at the beginning created by God as the reasonable Soul of Adam was yet the souls of Brute Creatures are mortal but the reasonable Souls of Men are immortal the reason is because the Divine Nature did personally unite it self with our whole human Nature which is the only reason why human Souls do not die and that human Bodies after death shall rise again to Life at the general Resurrection But the Divine Nature did not so unite it self with the nature of those other inferiour Creatures which are therefore left to perish utterly Of which something