which necessarily serves to make up the perfect person of a sinner and so much so is sinfull and must and shall be punished in it selfe or Christ Sixthly There is no law given to substances but to creatures not to parts but persons neither can any other be accused condemned or convicted of sin Now where no law is Rom 4.15 there is no transgression saith the Apostle not simple parts therefore but onely persons can be sinfull Seventhly It is manifest it could have no actuall sin and originall sin is not of that nature as was before shewed that it cannot come to us neither by the soule nor body nor union of both if it be created and by propagation onely if it be propagated for which cause Christ onely was freed from the ordinary course of propagation Lastly If meere substances be sinfull it cannot be shifted but Christ was infected with originall sin for his substance was in Adam in as much as he was his sonne and so by this doctrine must needs be sinfull This doctrine not so well cleared of old But this seemes to be graunted by Divines and therefore they say that the holy Ghost did in the same moment that it was assumed cleanse that masse whereof his body was made from sin and so it was sanctified from the first conception in the Virgins wombe Whereof we give this reason that it became not the eternall sonne of God personally to assume unto himselfe a nature stained defiled and polluted with sin And farther they say that indeed Mary was a sinner but the masse of flesh which was taken out of her substance was at the same instant sanctified by the operation of the holy Ghost So that it is graunted that the substāce wherof Christs humanitie was made was sinfull before it was assumed This point not being so well cleared hath much troubled the Church in former ages being assailed with divers dangerous errours why else did the Marcionites and Manichees hold that Christ had an incorporeall or heavenly body which was not takē from the Virgin but only passed through her and what else caused Apollinarius to hold that Christ had no humane soule but only a body which was insould with the deity but to free him from sin 2. If it had been sinfull it could never have been sanctified That we may therefore fully cleare this truth from all such phantasticall opinions I deny that it can be truly and properly said that Christs humanitie was ever sinfull And not onely for the former reasons but because if it had beene sinfull it could never have beene sanctifièd the Sonne of God could never have beene incarnate nor any man ever saved For who should have purged away that sin the holy Ghost nay there is one onely Mediatour between God and man the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 and it is through his blood that wee have redemption Eph. 1.7 even the forgivenesse of sinnes Col. 1.14.20 and it is the blood of his crosse that reconcileth all things 1 Pet. 1.2 And againe Heb. 9.22 it is the sprinkling of the blood of Christ that giveth power to the purging away of sin and therefore also it is said that without shedding of blood there is no remission So that the bloud of Christ onely cleanseth from sin Yea but the holy Ghost also sanctifies It is true Obj. Mat. 3.11 Ioh. 3.5 Rom. 8.14 the holy Ghost doth now sanctifie the elect purg out sin infuse grace but all by vertue of Christs redemption For if he had not first I meane in the order of nature takē away the guilt by his bloud no man could have been sanctified by the Spirit Now this he could not doe by his own humanitie for it was impossible that he shuld purge sin by that blood which he had not therfore if it had been necessary that Christ should have takē away the guilt corruption of his own nature which could not be but by the same nature taken before he tooke it it had been impossible that ever Christ could have bin incarnate Yea but God is omnipotent True Obj. 2. but his omnipotency cannot work cōtradictions such is this we must take heed therefore how we hold this lest at unawares we shut out Christ from being a Saviour and our selves and all other from salvation by him Now then if his substance was never sinfull the worke of the holy Ghost herein was not to cleanse it from sin but to seperate that which was not sinfull in it selfe from a sinfull creature that so being free it might be assured by the divine nature subsist in the person of the same CHAPTER XXIV How Christs Incarnation was free from corruption How Christ was free from sin THis ground being laid wee have a faire way opened for the freeing of our Saviour Christ from sin in every respect although his soule and body came from Adam as well as ours which we shall more fully conceive by shewing how it was 1. How free and why it was so 1. His person free For the first seeing neither the substance of soule or body can be sinfull as it is substance but as both together are a person for as much as Christs soule body is no person but as it is united with the divine nature he namely his person never was and so never could sin in Adam And thus is his person free If then it be said that though his person was not His humanitie free nor could sin in Adam yet seeing his humanitie was in him and came from him else he were not true man that must needs sin in him It cannot possibly be neither 1. From imputation For as is said his humanitie without the divinitie never was a person and not being a person but substance only 2. By propagation he is thereby exempted from the common condition of men and originall sin could not justly be imputed unto him 3. His substance in the Virgin free Neither could it be propagated because he was conceived after an extraordinary manner without man and thus is his humanitie free also If it be further said that though he be not sinfull as Christ nor yet as having the meer substance of man yet he must needs be sinfull as his substance was belonging to the person of corrupt Adam in whom it was and afterwards to the sinfull Virgin that cannot be neither For though it were sinfull as a part of their persons yet as it was so it was none of his Christ never assumed the person of the Virgin for one person cānot be another though sin were not but he tooke her nature or substance only which because it was good in it selfe though sinfull as hers the holy Ghost did seperate it by an unusuall course from belonging to her person and so being by it selfe it was sinlesse and then it was instantly assumed by the eternall Word and so made the
right therein proceed wee now to their titles and so if it be possible to find out the truth in this most intricate questioÌ„ viz. whether the soul be naturally propagated from Adam or supernaturally created by God Not generated If we say the first it must needs be generated of the soule or of the body if of the body then it will follow that it is by nature corruptible and so not immortall And if we say it is spiritually produced of the soule that seemeth contrary to reason unlesse we should overthrow the excellent nature of the soule for if it be a spirituall and immateriall substance indivisibly subsisting by it selfe how can it be that one should ingender another Besides many other inconveniences would follow thereupon as afterward we shall see Not created Now if on the other side we say that they are daily created by God of nothing besides the oppositioÌ„ that this hath to Gods first institution of nature whereby all things were setled in a course to increase and multiply of themselves and God hath rested from the works of creation ever since it is no lesse opposite to divinitie For if this be true it cannot be conceived how there can be any originall sin without impeachment to Gods Justice Originall sin denied by some of the Ancients Whenee it is that not onely the old Anabaptists the Pelagians and our new Pelagians the Anabaptists holding that the soule is immediately created by God deny that there is any originall sin otherwise then by imitation but even divers of the antient Fathers seeme to be of the same minde and not onely Hierome and Chrysostome Zan. de operibus par 3. li. 2. c. 5. thes 1. but as Zanchy wintnesseth this was the chiefe reason that moved the chiefest Divines and most famous Doctors of those times to choose rather to hold the propagation of the soule than to fall into so many absurdities as follow upon â—he former Doctrine And as â—hey could not see how these two could stand together so neither can I see how it can be seene Not cleared by our moderne Divines Nay I dare say farther themselves that hold this opinion themselves cannot see it clearely neither can they herein satisfie either themselves or others As appeareth plainly first 1. because throughly urged they put it off by accounting it a curious question and so restraine diligent searching under a colour of modesty 2. Secondly they plainly confesse they cannot satisfie such 3. Thirdly they urge exhort us to faith without reason 4. Lastly they turne us from searching after the originall to make a good end with it and that indeed is good counsell but in the meane while if this opinion be contrary to the truth and staineth God by consequence they must give others leave to doubt and to dissent For as it is ridiculous folly to neglect quenching to finde out who fired our house so it is a great wickednesse to lay it upon him that did it not 1. Not by the soule For if the soule comes immediately from God the question is how we come to be defiled with originall sin this infection cannot proceed from the soule for if God created it he maketh it exceeding good and it is not good to say God forsakes it before it sinnes or it sinnes before it comes into the body or God punisheth for anothers fault a good soule for a mans sin 2. Not by the body Againe it cannot be polluted by the body for neither can the body be sinfull without the soule nor yet if it could could the divine nature of the soule be corrupted by the body and if it could be yet not with originall sin 3. Not by union Neither can it be by the union of both for that is done by God And how can it possibly stand with Gods Justice to put a new created soule that is good and without sin into such a condition as wherein it shall be straight way liable to eternall damnation for the fault of another that doth nothing perteine unto it or how can it belong to a good soule newly created of nothing that not a soule but a man some thousand yeares since sinned Neither will it availe any thing to say it is created in the infusion and infused in the creation for that is all one as if we should say in plainer word It s made in the marring and marred in the making for being a spitituall substance and nature distinct from the body if it come from another principle it must have a proper existence of its owne before it can be made part of another and if not in time yet in nature I am sure it must first be before it can be united to the body Neither can it helpe to say it is Cods decree for that cannot be proved and being unjust is most justly disproved 4. By neither by law of Iustice insufficient But the last and best refuge is that originall sin passeth neither by the soule nor by the body but by the offence of our first parents who standing in the roome of all their posteritie as looke what gifts they ieceived was no lesse for their posteritie than for themselves so what they lost they lost also for their posteritie And therefore in the instant that God createth souls although he creates them good yet for Adams sin he deprives them of those supernaturall gifts which otherwise they should have had which deprivation although it putteth no evill into the soule yet evill necessarily followeth and hence is Originall sin The reason why This indeed comes somewhat nearer the matter for if it be granted that the soule is not propagated from Adam it must be granted withall that we are not guilty of Originall sin simply because wee proceed from Adam but by some other means as namely because he stood in our roomes and we are men as he was but yet this will not serve the turne neither For first it stands not with the Justice of God that Adams sin should be imputed to us any other way then as it is our own 1. It must be our owne that is as we sinned potentially in him it being Gods just ordinance in nature Rom. 11.16 that all things should be potentially in their principles and pertake of their natures secondly 2. Not by imputation onely it is confessed as the truth is that originall sin is not onely by implication as this is but also by propagation yea I will say more and yet according to the truth that it is not by imputation 3. Chiefly by pâ—opagation but onely in respect of propagation For if wee could be without sin of our owne as a new created Soule is his sinne could not justly hurt us True it is that God may justly punish all mankinde for the sin of Adam yet this is and must be his posteritie onely neither they for his sin properly
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
of the man so it s owne form is the specificall difference or individuall existence which it hath as a reasonable soule in the coÌ„mon nature of man proceeding from the concurrence of all those causes 5. InstrumeÌ„tall And herein that body or rather the corporal seed the perfection of the body especially the pure spirits therein wherewith the soule naturally unites it selfe 1 by reason of sympathy and familiarity which is betweene them becomes an assisting or instrumentall cause Lastly 6. Finall the finall cause is the preservation of mankinde and his owne glory by them according to his first institution Now all this is done in conception soule and body beginning both in the same moment of time Time and neither being before or after other And thus we may conceive how the soule is propagated of the soule after a spirituall manner as the flame of one Lamp lighteth another by promotion or multiplication being blowne by the power of God Simile and sed with the oyle of the animall spirits And that this may not seeme strange Conclusions concerning the soules originall before I come to the proofe of it I desire that these few Conclusions might be considered 1. Of the union of the body and soule First that there is no such diametrall opposition betweene the soule the body but that they may be naturally coupled together Indeed the soule is far from such a grosse visible substance as the body is compounded of yet is it not without some spirituall kind of substance and that not altogether simple Neither doe I think the creatures of God to differ so much in kinde as in degree Besides it is manifest that the soule is of the lowest degree of spirits and not onely capable of but coveting union with corporall natures and so according to the course of nature may as well be propagated with them as united with them Secondly 2. Of the union of the soule with God as any nature is more excellent so it hath a neerer union with that first being wheron it depends is more immediately moved by it Now because all natures doe subsist and are sustained more or lesse immediately by that first being according as their natures are neerer unto it or farther removed from it answerable whereunto the worke thereof is more or lesse immediate in them Hence it followeth that the soule being more excellent and confequently neerer to God than any corporall creature can be as he workes more immediately in them than in others after they are made so by like reason it followeth that he doth so in their first propagation 3. The efficient cause in generation Thirdly there is nothing generated in the world but it hath some externall efficient cause Now this in corporall generations all grant to be the heavens which being of a more excellent nature send downe their influences to inferiour creatures by vertue of which next unto God they continue their kinds But the soule being a spirit is above all corporall creatures and being made by Gods owne immediate hand onely at first it can have no other externall efficient but the same immediate power still So that whereas it is commonly said Sol homo generant hominem it may more truly be said Deut homo generant aniâ—nam Neither is it absurd that man should have two efficients it is rather an honour that God nature should concurre together in his generation 4. The true cause of mortality Fourthly Mortality proceeds not so much from generation as divine malediction For had not â—an sinned it is confessed that â—he body should have beene immortall as well as the soule Alâ—hough therefore the soule were compounded and generated after a corporall manner without any immediate act of GODS power none of which are true yet if would not presently follow that it must needs be mortall 5. The cause of immortalitie Lastly Whatsoever hath the being immediately from God cannot be annihilated but by the same immediate power so that it is the act of his immediate power that is the proper cause of immortalitie and hence it appeareth that though the body which is produced by the power of nature onely may dye and perish yet the soule whose production is not without an immediate act of the Deity can never dye but by the same power omnipotent by which it lived How man is sinfull and the soule immortall Thus then it appeareth that though the soule be propagated in the manner aforesaid yet it is neverthelesse immortall since it is neither made of any corporall matter nor produced onely by the power of nature and God is never the more faulty though wee be sinfull because being wholy in Adam according to the just law of nature so sinning potentially in him he with us and we with him being then actually one the whole nature of mankinde is thereby so corrupted and this pure ordinance of God in producing soules so defiled that corruption passeth in the very conception and we are stained with originall sinne and so are liable to Gods eternall wrath Psal 51.5 Eph. 2.3 Rom. 11.16 Mat. 7.18 Gal. 6.7.8 so soone as we begin to be It being a just and necessary law in nature that as the roote is such are the branches and look what the tree is such must the fruit be CHAP. VI. Scriptures to prove the soules immediate creation answered The methode and reason of it HAving thus declared the manner of the soules creation or rather procreation for the better satisfying of the sober minded and silencing such as shall be wilfully contentious it behooveth me in the next place more fully to explaine prove the same Wherefore after this generall entrance having presumed to determine this so intricate a question that wee may have the freer passage my next indeavour shall be to cleare the same by removing out of the way such obstacles and objections as may seeme to oppose it And the rather because they are such as whereby I shall best explaine my selfe and shew that it may be so and so afterward prove the more clearely that it is so and thereby also take away that prejudice wherewith mens minds are forestalled before I proceed to the proofe of it Objections marshalled Here therefore I must first encounter with a whole army of Arguments that seeme to be set in battaile aray against me and then pitch a new field of reasons to maintaine what I have spoken The arguments that come marching against me seeme to be ranged in two severall battalions the former mainly intending to fight for the immediate creation of the soule the latter altogether against the propagation of the soule Those that most establish the soules immediate creation are of two sorts partly Testimonies of Scripture and partly reasons drawne from them Being thus greatly beset with enemies I have notwithstanding great hope of victory not onely because I have before well
of a part onely unlesse a woman may be a womā without a soule as some silly ones have foolishly imagined Fourthly Gen. 2.22 Zan. de operibus par 3. li. 1. c. 1 Gen. 2.23 those that hold the contrary opinion yet graunt that God did not onely take out the bare bone only out of Adams side but some flesh together with it which made Adam to say this is not onely bone of my bone but flesh of my flesh And it seemeth an unlikely thing that being done instantly by the almighty power of GOD he should take out a dry and dead bone onely and not the life spirit soule that was in it after the manner of the soules being in such a substance together with it Now it he tooke it thus whole together as it was the soule not being shut out of any part of the body how easie is it to conceive how God might miraculously in the first creation seperate the whole matter of her person from Adam onely and so of that bone as of a living body produce a new creature in a short time which now in longer time usc to be seperated from both sexes and so perfected by degrees in naturall generation yea why may not this originall affinitie between the two sexes give strength to the course of nature in producing more by uniting them againe in generation Fifthly This is the more probable because herein we have a clear type of Christs incarnatiō whose whole humanity as we shall herafter see was also miraculously made of the substance of the virgin onely as Eves onely of Adam a man of a woman onely as a woman of a man only both being insensible of it and as is probable both asleep◠when it was done Lastly when she was brought to Adam he confessed that shee was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh that is of the same humane nature that he himselfe was both for soule and body and also taken out or him Neither needed he to say soule or my soule for flesh is usually put for the whole person as where even in the same book it is said All flesh had corrupted their wayes Gen. 6.12 which notwithstanding is chiefly in regard of the soule And least any should doubt of it he presently addes Shee shall he callea woman because shee was taken out of man where he plainly affirmes that her whole person was taken out of man and for that cause was named woman which cannot possibly be understood of the body onely I will therefore hereunto subjoyne the forgoing words of our Saviour Let no man seperate what God hath joyned together Mat. 19.6 and conclude that her whole person as well soule as body was taken out of man So that in this also that of the Apostle is true God hath made all of one blood even Adams Act. 17.26 Wherefore from this reason I also conclude the contrary that seeing in all probabilities Adams soule was of such a nature as thereon could be made another and ours are of the same nature that his was it is not absurd but very likely that others may be made of ours also The third and last reason of any weight is 3. that Christs soule was created of nothing and he is like unto us in all things sinne onely excepted ergo c. But first if it be necessary 1. From the creation of Christs soule that wee should be like unto him in all things except sin then it would follow that we should be conceived by the Holy Ghost as he was for that was without sinne especially if he might have been conceived without sin without that worke as by this doctrine it seemes he might as afterward wee shall see 2. Secondly it is not yet proved that Christs soule was immediately created of nothing yea it may be denied by the same reason for then wee should not be alike to him in all things except sin If it be said that if Christs soule had beene traduced by ordinary generation it must needs have beene sinfull I graunt it and therefore I say it was that his conception was extraordinary and supernaturall for it being impossible in nature for a Virgin to conceive without man therefore this was brought to passe by the miraculous power of the Holy Ghost who seperated a part of the Virgin for that purpose and supplied what was wanting in nature by supernaturall power which is signified in that it is said Shee was overshadowed by the holy Ghost But although he was not conceived after the manner that other men are that so he might be without sinne yet it followeth not from hence but his whole humanitie both soule and body might be made of the same matter that other mens are so as he be not corrupted with sinne Which how it may be we shall heare in the proper place where this also shall be brought as an Argument to prove the contrary so weake are objections against the truth Lastly Though it should be granted that Christs soule was immediately created by God as the first Adams was because it could not be propagated after the manner of mankinde without sinne yet it would not follow that all ours are therefore so as they collect Nay the contrary plainly appeareth for for the same cause that his must be created immediately to be without sinne ours must be mediately that they may be sinfull and tor the same cause he cannot be propagated without sinne we cannot be sinfull unlesse propagated And thus much for the Scripture and reasons drawne from them to prove the immediate creation of soules Whereby all men may see upon what weake grounds this opinion is fatherred upon the Scriptures And now I am to encounter with the other troope of Arguments taken from the impossibilitie of the soules propagation CHAP. VIII Whether propagation can stand with the spirituall nature of the Soule Objection ordered From the probabilitie of the Creation proceed wee now unto the impossibility of the propagation of the soule And indeed the reasons oppugning the soules propagation are very many and forcible and such as doe sufficiently prove that man cannot of himselfe alone without some more special work of God propagate his like as beasts doe theirs 1. From the nature of the soule The reasons that wee may not be confounded with the number of them are either such as do more specially respect the nature of the soule not without some respect to propagation or else such as doe more specially respect the nature of propagatiō not without some respect to the soule But before I come to the particulars the generall answer to all may be this 2. From the nature of propagation That all naturall reasons are taken from corporall generations and so doe onely prove that soules cannot be propagated as bodies are which is not denyed For neither doth the body propagate the soule neither yet is it propagated after a bodily manner but the whol
resemblance in this case the soule of man may well be compared to a spirituall flame united to the body by the spirits as the flame of the Lamp by the oyle now as in the lighting of a Lamp every touch of fire doth not kindle it but as after blowing and fit applying of fire thereunto it sometimes flameth with a touch so the soule is not kindled at every conjunction of seedes but onely then when as I said before it is blowne by the efficient power of God which meeting with all other naturall causes out of the matter of these flames applied this new heavenly flame the soule is produced And as in that elementary inflammation the Lamp is not turned into the flame but inflamed by another so the corporall seede is not turned into the soule but informed with a soule by others Which soule being a spirituall flame not nourished by any elementary matter as the other is nor kindled without that everlasting breath whence it first came it can never after be extinguished as the other may And hence it commeth to passe not onely that soules perish not when any seede is lost but also that in case mans seede be mingled with other creatures as if sometimes happeneth such unkindly conceptiōs are never informed with reasonable soules not onely for that there is a want in the concurrence of all naturall causes but because God doth not conferre his efficient power but where and when he pleaseth To conclude therefore it appeareth that soules are neither lost nor choaked in the wombe nor yet constrained to live alone without bodyes when the seede proves not effectuall for then there is no soule produced I will not say but there may be fire but in that case I dare say there is no such flame kindled CHAPTER X. How one soule can proceede from two soules THe former objection being taken away 2. Obj. That the soule must be mingled of the parents soule we are to proceed to the second which is that if the soule be traduced from the parents it must needs be as well from the mothers soule as the father and if from both then either there must be two soules or else two soules must be mingled together and so grow into one both which are no lesse than impossible to which although it seemes unanswerable these things which shall be spoken being throughly considered I trust will give sufficient satisfaction For first why might wee not for the same cause say that there must be two bodyes also one from the father and another from the mother and if it be said that one partakes of both how comes it to passe then that it is sometimes like the father onely sometimes onely like the mother yea oftentimes a son like the mother and a daughter like the father In all other things most contrary to that part from whence the sex is received And if it must be confessed that the worke of nature herein is above reason what wonder if it be so in the soule also yea why should it not be so in that much rather than in this and if the former draw us onely to an admiration but not to a negation of if because the thing is apparent why should not the latter doe so also seeing in nature it is no lesse manifest then the former both being brought forth together as wee see To come a little neerer the matter One creature cannot be made of two souls I would first of all demand how it commeth to passe that among all living creatures of two divers seeds that is to say of the male and female is notwithstanding generated but one creature of the one kinde Since as Philosophers truely teach the species of things cannot be mingled no more than soules Vide Scal. de subti exer 268. and the essence of every thing is indivisible and two formes cannot be made one Now seeing the seede of any creature conteines in it both matter and forme thereof and is the same in potentiâ as they speake differing from the creature it selfe onely so much as power differeth from act that is ability to be or doe from being or being done how therefore can it possibly be that one creature can be produced from two seedes in univocall generations seeing also that vegetative nature have therefore but one seede These reasons made Aristotle deny that females had any seede at all being onely as the ground wherein seede is sowen Now if this be true the point is cleare without any farther opening for then the soule proceeding from the soule of the father onely there shall not need be two soules nor one mingled of two How the soule is from both as both are one But this is denied therefore some further answer is to be sought out For though the sex proceed not from the sex yet they say if this were true neither by the course of nature could ever be propagation by both Be it so yet I say that as two seeds produce but one creature because the seeds of male and female though they be two in number are but one kind else there must be two bodyes also so it is cōcerning the soule more plainly I say The seede of both but one seede that as the seede of either apart cannot properly be called seed-seed because neither of them alone conteines the matter and forme of the creature and is not Animal in potentiâ but at the instant of conception when both seedes are so mingled that therein is conteined the power of producing the like then onely it is rightly called seede and before onely because it may be thus for that is to be actually seede to have this potency in it so as the seede is properly but one in all sensitive creatures aswell as in vegetative in that sense that theirs is so in like manner I say that the spirituall seede of the soule if by way of resemblance I may so call it is not in the severall seede of either sex for there is no such materiall or locall division but rather in both when but one For in generation wee may not conceive one act to be made of two but two in act doe make one The mystery of which union lyes in this that the nature is one and the sexes two which againe united in one produce a third For by the spirituall seede of the parents soules What the soules seed is how generated I doe not meane any seperated matter as the bodies is but far otherwise namely that potentiall vertue in the parents soules which in conjunction uniting their forces together out of their owne matter doe enforme their seede with their nature that is a soule apprehended and united by the spirits therein It being the ordinance of God that mans nature should be distinguished into two sexes that by the more forcible union of both the whole kinde might be preserved And because the soule is rather facultie than matter
therefore by marriage God made them one flesh againe and for that cause others should be so united also besides divers other reasons alledged before which need not here to be repeated 4. The promised seed Fourthly When our first parents had committed sin before they had brought forth any children God made a comfortable promise to Eve Gen. 3.15 saying that the seed of the woman should breake the Serpents head Now the body it selfe being without reason what is it being compared to the Serpent Wherefore by seede in this place must needs be meant the whole nature of man which Christ tooke of the Virgin Mary For whole man was conceived and borne of her except sin onely as afterward we shall see Neither is this to prove one doubtfull thing by another for it is out of doubt that by seede is here meant both body soule unlesse we shall say that Christ redeemed us by a body without a soule And if this soule was received from Eve as her seede as well as his body I thinke there is none will make question of ours 5. Adams ofspring Gen. 5.3 Fifthly Very forcible also if it be well considered is that where Moses saith Adam gat a sonne in his owne likenesse after his owne Image Whence it appeareth manifestly that he was the parent of the whole nature and not of one part onely for this Image is opposed to the Image of God spoken of in Adam before which Image and likenesse was not in the body for then it Would follow that God had a body but in his soule in respect of his minde and reason and those other divine gifts whereby Adam excelled the rest of the creatures So that if we will make a true opposition it will follow from this place that as God made Adam in his innocency in his own Image and likenesse chiefly in regard of the soule and those divine gifts wherewith it was endued so Adam in his corrupted estate begat a sonne in his own Image and likewise not in regard of the body only but chiefly in respect of the soule and in that corrupt and sinfull like himselfe 6. Gods promise to Abraham Gen. 17.7 Sixthly Such is that place also where God made a promise to Abraham saying I will be thy God and the God of thy seede after thee Where by seede must needs be meant that which is borne of seede to wit whole man and not the body onely for that without the soule of it selfe is dead and as our Saviour speaks in another case Matth. 22.32 God is not the God of the dead but of the living And if God will not style himselfe the God of the dead unlesse the soule at least be still living much lesse will he call himselfe the God of a senslesse substance inferiour to the issue of brute beasts Obj. Either thorefore GOD must here promise to be the God of an unreasonable brute or else Abrahams seede must conteine more than a body yea extend in selfe as indeed it doth to the whole man as well soule as body that is to say persons consisting of both for to such onely is this promise made Ans Neither is it for any man here to except say that the whole man may be said to proceede from man though the soule comes from God because he prepares the body and gives the existence to the creature for besides that it is contrary both to nature and reason as afterwards we shall see that a man should be a father to that to which he gives onely the least part of the matter and nothing at all of the forme it cannot be avoided but the Scripture doth here plainly affirme that the whole man consisting of soule and body is the seed issue and of-spring of man consequently begotten born and brought forth by the seed of man 7. The souls that descēded from Jacob. Seventhly When the Scriptures doe expresly affirme that sixty-six soules descended from the loynes of Jacob doth it not plainly teach that the soules of children doe descend from their parents Neither can the force of this place be avoyded by saying that the soule is here by a Metonymy put for the body or by a Synecdoche the whole soule put for the vegetable and sensible part of the soule neither yet that it is only for that denomination is taken from the better part or for that man disposeth the matter of the body for the receiving of the soule The falshood of these conceits doth plainly appeare out of the Antecedent and consequent of the Text for a little before it is said these are the sonnes of Rachel which were borne unto Jacob fourteene soules in all and immediately after the sonnes of Joseph were two soules so that it is evident in the text the soules signifie sonnes viz. the whole person and nature of man Although therefore hereby is not meant soules onely but persons according to the proprietie of the Hebrew tongue yet why in this case should the holy Ghost speake of the whole person if onely the least part of him be thereby meant Neither can I thinke the Hebrew tongue so double or the holy penman so much mistaken as to say onely soules descended if bodyes onely did yea how absurd is it when by the rules of interpretation the proper litterall sense is alwayes to be retained unlesse some manifest falshood or absurditie doe necessarily follow upon it and When wee must fly unto some tropicall sense it must be fetched out of the Text it selfe if it may be here we should depart from both onely to confirme a fancy which hath no apparent warrant in the whole Scripture and that when in all other places we understand the whole to comprehend the parts yet in this case above when the Scripture speakes of the whole we must understand but the least part and when it names the soule yet it meanes the body onely 8. Scriptures that purposely speake of mans generation Eighthly As this doctrine is cleare by the testimony or Moses from the creation of the world and the first institution of nature so also from those Scriptures which doe purposely speake of the propagation of man according to the ordinary course of nature since the creation Two places there are especially where this matter is purposely handled in the Scripture in both which the soule is said to be conceived in the wombe and brought forth by the vertue of generation as well as the body The first wee finde in the booke of Job 1. Iob 10.8.10 11. where in making his moane to God he useth these words Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about Hast thou not powred me out as milke and curdled me like theese Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinewes The other we have in the Book of the Psalmes where David speaketh unto God in this manner Thou hast possessed my
are sinfull from him onely as wee are from him Wherefore as if the whole man was not potentially in Adam the whole man did not sin in him so if the whole man did not proceed from him the whole man cannot have originall sin from him For it is impossible wee should be in him and sin in him in that respect wherein we neither were in him nor could sin in him that i◠without the whole man and therefore if the whole man neither was nor could be in him nor from him the whole man neither have nor can have fin in him or from him So that if we say we were in him in our bodyes onely then they onely and not wee sinned in him yea even they did not sin in him for bodyes simply considered cannot sin as wee heard before and therefore to say wee sinned in our bodyes onely is as much as to say we did not sin at all Besides The whol man is the subject of sin it is manifest that neither the body nor the soule alone is the subject of sin but the person or whole man For if according to the rule of reason that be the proper subject to which the accident properly cleaveth then either the whole man is the subject of sin or else the whole man is not properly sinfull Obj. And why else is the law given to the whole man and the whole man rewarded or punished Ans according to his vertuous or vitious manner of living If any object Obj. 2. that the soule cannot be punished alone after death Ans 2. I answer Neither is it simply as a soule but as the soule of a wicked man If they reply that so our soules sinned in Adam not as our soules but as the soules of-men I answer nay they must answer themselves that according to their doctrine the soule never was before and so had no being in nature no not potentially much lesse was it the soule of a man and least of all could it sin in Adam 5. Scriptures Seeing therefore I could not sin in Adam but as I was in him I sinned in him in my whole person consisting of soule and body and that not by I wot not what imaginary imputation but really and truly as I was potentially in him by the law of nature it necessarily followeth that I was naturally and really in him in my whole person both soule and body and so have proceeded from him And hereto serve the former Scriptures in him all men sinned and Rom. 5.12 1 Cor. 15.22 in Adam all dye speaking of the whole person and therefore so must wee For what is mortall man that he should contradict the holy Ghost or seeke a new way when God hath chalked out the old Wherefore I conclude that as none can partake of Christs righteousnesse unlesse the whole man be regenerated and borne againe by and from his grace Ioh. 3.3 so none can partake of Adams sin unlesse the whole person be generated by and from his nature CHAP. XXI That the whole man cannot be propagated unlesse the soule be 1. The whol cannot be without the essentiall parts IN the last place it remaines to prove that if the whole man doe the soule also must needs come from Adam for this must also be proved be it never so manifest because some seeing the former grounds unanswerable would make us beleeve that the whole man may be said to be in Adam though the soule comes from God I deny not but it may be said but I cannot see how it can be said truely For what can be more false and absurd than to say the whole was in Adam but not the essentiall parts whereof the whole consisteth And indeed such a manner of being must be an idle imagination or nothing for it is impossible to be either really or rationally But what is their reason man gives the subsistence to the person and the soule comes from Adam quoad existentiam though not quoad essentiam But I deny this too man does indeed something in the subsistence of the person but that as they say is onely to provide I know not what a body it should be without a form which at the most is but the least part and therfore not the whole nor halfe 2. The conjunction if it put them in one case cannot yet bring them from one place But they say man conjoynes both natures together whereby it doth subsist by it selfe as a person But neither is this true for the conjunction is they say no body knows how long after cōception and therefore not man but the woman must doe it alone And yet hot shee neither for they say God doth create it in the infusion and infuse it in the creating But say that God gave the soule to the parents and they did unite them would it follow that the conjunction of both makes both to come from Adam Why doe they not rather come both from God and not at all from Adam it were more reason the greater should draw the lesser than the lesse the greater that the baser should attend the more noble rather than the most noble to waite on the baser verily if the whole man may be properly said to proceed from Adam because the body doth much more may the whole man be said to proceed from God because the soule doth The vanitie of this reason that the whole man comes from Adam because the body doth may appeare by the like If a lame man should have a woodden leg joyned to his body Simile might it be said his whole body grew in the wood because his leg did nothing lesse And yet is not the woodden leg so much inferiour to the body as the body is to the soule Any childe therefore may take away these stilts from such a lame reason as this is 3. It could not be in Adams time nor ours And if any will still urge it in good earnest let him tell me when the whole man was in Adam since the former Scriptures say plainly it was it must needs be in Adams time or ours yea in both but according to this doctrine it could be in neither so not at all It could not be in Adams time for the whole man had not being in nature nor not potentially in respect of the soule many hundred yeares after neither could it be in our time for Adam was dead likewise many thousand yeares before we had any being especially in respect of the better part of the soule and so consequently never was contrary to those Scriptures and the doctrine of originall sin It must needs be therefore that the whole man as well soule body forme as matter even the whole compound was potentially in Adam as the whole tree in the roote or seede many graines of wheat in one and so being naturally propagated from him doth partake of his nature both in soule and body Else marke
he might well have bin propagated without sin But the assumption that this could not be is no lesse apparent if for no more but this that if it could no question it should For God and nature doe nothing in vaine and wee cannot deny the truth of that saying Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora So that either this extraordinary worke of the holy Ghost was in vaine or else Christs soule was not immediately created 6. The confession of the adversaries Lastly For the confirmation hereof I will only adde one reason more taken from the reasoning of the Adversaries unto this Doctrine who therefore prove the holy Ghost not to be Christs father though he overshadowed the Virgin because the matter of his humanitie was not from the holy Ghost but from the Virgin From whence I might conclude First That Christs soule comes not immediately from God for then the greatest part of his humanitie should have beene from the holy Ghost because all externall workes of God are common to each person in Trinitie Secondly 2. That his soule was taken from the Virgin for they say his humanitie was whereof I am sure the soule is the principall part yea that without which it cannot be humanitie But that which I doe especially conclude from hence is that if the holy Ghost cannot be Christs father because he gave not the matter of his humanitie Christ cannot be the son of Adam nor David according to the promise no nor the son of man and so no Saviour unlesse he receive the matter of his humanitie whereof the soule is the chiefe part from them And herein indeed they speake the truth for it is impossible to be a naturall father to that whereunto we give not the whole matter yea and forme too as wee shall see when wee come to the rules of nature which God hath instituted and from whence the truth of this is also to be fetched How Christ was true man I conclude therefore that Christs whole humanitie both soule and body was traduced from Adam that is deduced out of his substance though not after the common manner but seperated from the person of the Virgin onely by the miraculous worke of the holy Ghost which useth to be takē from both sexes in ordinary generation And though a soule cannot by the power of nature be produced of one soule no more than a body yet it being performed by supernaturall power it is a true soule no lesse than the body is a true body and both together makes a true man no lesse than Eve was a true woman whom Adam called bone of his bone Gen. 2.23 and flesh of his flesh even his other selfe-woman although shee was taken onely out of man For that which the Apostle spake in a spirituall sense is true also litterally that Wee are members of his body of his flesh of his bones Eph. 5.30 consequently so is he of ours which could not be if he had not the true nature of man though taken out of a woman onely as well as Eve who was made onely of a man yea much more because she was immediatly made perfect at the first and he conceived of seede formed nourished and brought forth by degrees like unto us in all things excepting onely the manner of his first conception that so he might be free from sin And here let us stay a little to behold and wonder at the admirable correspōdency yea double concordancy in the four-fold production of mankinde to wit in Adam and us Eve and Christ immediately and mediately after this manner A double harmony in the four-fold productiō of mankinde Adam made immediately without man or woman Other men mediately both of man and woman Eve partly both waies of man and woman Christ also both wayes of no man but woman Thus by the same authoritie that they would prove our soules created of nothing Conclusion because Christs was I can prove they were not because his was not yea by so much more as there are abundance of Scripture and reasons to confirme this and none of all for but against that CHAP. XXIII That Christs humanitie was never clensed from sinne The puritie of Christs Incarnation COncerning the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ it is cōmonly said that the holy Ghost did sanctifie a part of the Virgins substance which was then assumed by the divine nature to make the person of Christ Which words must be warily interpreted and wisely understood for by a part we are not to understand a part of her body onely but of her whole person aswell soule as body whereof his humanitie was formed and by sanctifying we are not to imagine cleansing it from sin but only the consecrating it to this holy purpose and endowing it with gifts fitting such a divine union The former is already proved namely that his whole humanitie both soule and body was taken from the substance of the Virgin and the latter how thus it could be free from sin wee are now to shew For the ground whereof I will first prove 1. that it was not cleansed from sin 2. and then shew how he could be incarnate without sin The former I will prove first 1. because it could not be sinfull and secondly 2. if it had beene sinfull it could never have beene sanctified That Christs humanitie was not sinfull The first that that part of the Virgins substance which was assumed by the divine nature was never sinfull may appeare First Because all substances as they are meere substances were created by God exceeding good have their dependance on him yea even the substance of the devils themselves Secondly Meere substāce cannot possibly be capable of sinne because that cannot be without a personall subsistence knowledge and will to encline and move it selfe to good or evill which meere substance simply considered cannot doe whether it be of the soule or body Thirdly Sin is not essentiall to the nature of man but onely an accident or evill qualitie cleaving to the person of him in whom it is and so cannot properly be said to the substance of mans nature Fourthly Even evill affections and actions themselves though they be so called are not simply sinfull but the man that commits them For not the matter of the action which proceeds from God but the will and intent of the doer makes it to be sinfull Now if those be not much lesse can the bare substance of man be sinfull but onely the man whose substance it is Fifthly If every part of mans substance should be sinfull then it followes that the haires upon our heads are even infected with it and much more such abortives as perish before the soules infusion and consequently must all rise at the day of Judgement againe to suffer without Christs sarisfactiō infinite punishments None therefore is to be accounted sinfull but onely that
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