both be generated then both are mortall Answ Whole man is generated by man I grant it Therefore both soule and body are generated I distinguish That both soule and body are made parts of man by generation and a creature produced like in nature to him that generates I also grant and doe affirme that by doing of this onely the compleat act of generation or procreation is performed according to the received definition of generation before exhibited in the Chapter precedent But that both soule and body must be therefore made and have their Entities or beings given them by procreation that consequence I deny as false and absurde yea so absurde as it suffers a thousand instances to the contrary in all sorts of Animals For example a whole horse is generated both matter and forme and yet his matter did not receive any being by generation and so it falls out in other creatures If then it be not necessary that the matter receive the being by procreation though the whole Animal consisting of matter and forme be truly generated what reason can there be why to the generation of the whole Animal a new being of the forme by vertue of procreation should be necessary or why can one be necessary to generation when as we see evidently the other is not or why againe should we exact the new production of either of them by generation when without any such act the definition of generation See Argenter com in Aphor. 1. Hippocr is fulfilled and agrees both unto the generation of beasts whose matter is not generated and to the generation of man whose forme is not generated any more then his matter is By force of this solution all his imaginary absurdities which he labours to fasten upon the non procreation of the soule doe of themselves dissolve If the soule saith he be infused then Christ did not take whole humanity from the seed of the woman Answ He received from the seed of the woman as much of the humanity as was to be received thence and that which he tooke did not come unto him by procreation nor was it so to doe As for the fourteenth to the Hebrewes which he cites for his purpose our answer to it is that it is not found in our bookes neither Greeke nor Latine neither do the Editions of Raphelengius or Elzevir contain any more Chapters than thirteen If saith he we consist of soule and body and are not men without both and receive not our soules from him he meanes the Generatour as I suppose then Adam is the father of no man nor Christ the Son of man because his manhood 's constitutive part even that which should make him a man could not be by the seed of the woman and a man is as much a father of fleas and lice which receive their matter from him as of his children Answ Surely fleas and lice whence soever they receive their matter do not proceed from him in likenesse of Nature as by the definition they if they were generated by man ought to do Moreover they are not generated by man but of him neither is he the agent but the patient and so is of these vermin no generatour at all proper or improper Secondly men do receive their soules by force of generation although they be not generated and so notwithstanding this non-generation of the soule Adam might truly and univocally be the father of all men and also the soule of Christ might come by the seed of the woman although it were not made or procreated by it If the soule addes he be infused after the conception then there is growth before there is life which is impossible for the soule is made the vegetative as well as the motive sensitive or rationall part Answ I grant that before the infusion of the soule there may be vegetation and this by the sole virtue of the sperme but I deny that therefore there be in man more soules than one that is than the rationall for this same force of vegetation which is in the seed holdeth it selfe upon the part of the matter onely and doth not performe the office of a soule or forme the substance and operation thereof being no more than to fashion an organicall body and to make it fit for the reception of the soule and the union with it after whose infusion both the vitall and animal spirits do but serve as instruments to it and to accomplish the body in making it to be so perfectly organicall as the eminency of a rationall spirit above other formes doth require to have it If the soule be not generated but infused into a dead body then saith he it is lawfull to be Nigromancer for Nigromancy is nothing but putting a spirit into a dead body and so it is imitation of God and God the onely Nigromancer and all the men in the world but Nigromanticke apparitions whose spirits when they have done the worke for which they were put into the bodies desert them as other conjured Ghosts do Answ See the shallownesse of this man who can neither speak right nor reason with common sense and probability He calls Necromancy constantly Nigromancy and he supposes that a soule in a dead body makes a living man and can exercise vitall actions in it or actions of life and so according to his grosse capacity if the soule be infused God must be a Necromancer and men but Necromantique apparitions for this Ignoramus it seemes knowes no difference between a soule and body that are united and those that are not united but together onely nor between a body living by the virtue of the spirit and by virtue thereof doing vitall actions and another which is onely moved and inhabited by a spirit without any union with it or participation of life But supposing all were one yet were it not lawfull to be a Necromancer because nothing at all be it never so good is to be done by superstitious actions or by making any recourse unto the Devill and acknowledgement of his power by any dependency of him whatsoever more or lesse It is granted saith he that the body considered meerly sensitive cannot sin and is but an instrument or as the pen in the hand of the writer Therefore if the soule be infused then of necessity the immortall thing and not our mortall flesh is the authour of all sin and so God's immediate hand the cause of all sin That the body is onely an instrument of the soule is false for it is a See Solo of this in 4. d. 43. q. 1. a. 2. Rat. 3. living co-agent with it and a partaker both in the good and evill actions and so is both rewardable and punishable with it whether in the mean time it be created or generated for this variation makes no difference in this matter of merit or demerit neither doth the creation of the soule make God the authour of sin more than the generation of it that is to say
before such time as by the operation of seminall causes formes be accomplished and made to appeare in their owne likenesse upon this theater This is also the judgement of Athanas Kircherius a late learned writer l. 3. de magnete part 3. c. 1. where he shewes how rich compounds earth and water be as Chymique industries for seperation have discovered insomuch as in them as he noteth is conteined a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or generall magazine the common matter being from the first creation not leane and hungry but faeta and praeseminata with formes partiall and incompleate This also is the inchoations of formes and the rationes seminales praeëxistent which many learned men have often favoured and which being thus explained and in which this sence of ours can suffer nothing from the objections of Gandavensis or Durandus This lastly is nothing else but in a good sence an eduction of formes ex potentia materiae which is Aristotles and his Disciples Doctrine for it cannot be thought that Aristotle ever intended to presse or squeeze any formes out of the dry skeleton of materia prima which matter is a principle onely receptive and no promptuary out of which to educe a forme by virtue of any naturall agent whatsoever for in such a spare entity as that what fecundity is imaginable And so much touching the originall of formes which is one of the abstrusest and nicest points in all philosophy and that which by vulgar authors is meanliest handled and by the wisest is knowne but by conjecture Thus his maine argument is answered after which all the rest will fall downe headlong with any light touch though but of a finger Immediately after this he argueth out of Gen. 3. 19. where Adam is told that for his disobedience he must turne into that dust of which he was made out of which he concludes that all and every part of Adam must be converted into dust which if it be so as he sayeth then not only his earthly particles but his aiery watry and fiery partes must to dust also and not only his body but his soule if he have any must be turned into the same matter See what fine conclusions follow out of this mortall soules philosophy It sufficed then that so much of his body or of the whole man was to returne to dust as had beene made up of it And by this alone the commination of God is fullfilled without any more adoe After this he comes upon us with his false Latin saying as followeth Death reduceth this productio entis ex non ente ad Non-entem returnes man to what he was before he was that is not to be c. and by and by citing impertinently two or three places of Scripture falls to another argument drawen from the resurrection As for the Latine word Non-entem whether it be right or no we will not examine but apply our selves to the consideration of the sense which is as faulty as the Latine can be know therefore in breife that death did not reduce Adam to non ens but to non Adam it did not cause him absolutely not to be but onely not to be man or Adam any longer And forasmuch as concernes his body it is confest and certaine that it was not turned by death or mortality into nothing or non ens but into dust which is an ens or something that is to say his body was not annihilated but corrupted and to dye is not wholly to be destroyed but partially only which act is all one with dissolution Now if to the totall mortalizing of man it be not necessary that his body be destroyed then can it not be needfull that his soule should be so and thus our adversaries stout argument is more then mortalized for it comes to nothing which man by dying does not We will not deny him but that the soule of man did die and die againe as much as it was capable of death for first it dyed by the being seperated from the body secondly by being subjected unto damnation which as we know is called in scripture a second death But as for the annihilation of it or of the body that is it which we deny and so to doe we have just reason In fine as generation is nothing but the union of the parts and not the creation or absolute production of them so againe Death and Corruption is nothing but the disunion or dissolution of them and in no wise the annihilation according as this wise Author would perswade us As for the article of the Resurrection it proves nothing against the perpetuity of the soule for we never read of any resurrection besides that of the body wherefore to averre a resurrection of soules were a grand foolery and a doctrine never debateable or heard of amongst Christians till this silly Author came to teach it And so much for his first chapter CHAP. III. Scripture no way a favourer of the soules mortality HIs places cited out of scripture in favour of his errour are so impertinent as that it were no small peice of folly to examine them one by one They all of them signifie that man shall dye or sometimes that Joseph or Simeon is not as Gen. 42. 36. all which how they are to be expounded and understood may sufficiently appeare by that which hath beene said in the precedent chapter and how againe they make nothing at all against the soules immortality Touching the words of Ecclesiastes c. 3. the answer is that they were no determinations or resolves but a history or an account given of what sometimes came into his thoughts and what obscurities and desolations of soule he had and what lastly was one of the first difficulties that troubled him and stirred him up unto a sollicitous enquiry for certainely this one verity of the mortality of mans soule is that which is to order his designes to regulate his actions and to put life and vigour into them this being a truth most fundamentall We see this one was it which moved Clemens Rom. if he be the true Author of that which passeth under his name to a serious inquiry and care Clem. l. 1. recogn for the finding out what he was to do whom to consult what to esteeme most and in fine what to feare or hope most and how to order all the passages of his life This is the question that usually troubles men first of all and till a resolution be had suffereth their hearts not to be at quiet every man at first suspiciously as Solomon did asking of himselfe as Seneca gallantly expresseth saying Senec. in Troade Verum est an timidos fabula decipit Vmbras corporibus vivere conditis Cum conjux oculis imposuit manum Supremusque dies Solibus obstitit Et Tristes cineres urna coërcuit Non prodest animam tradere funeri Sed restat miseris vivere longius An toti morimur nullaque pars manet Nostri cum profugo spiritus
not at all for still the soule and body are authours of their own actions and the deformity ariseth from their misdemeanour and not from God's creation or concurrence Doctour Sennertus although he admit not of any mortality in the soule yet he holds it probable that it comes by procreation and that from the first instance of conception the seed is animated with the rationall soule which Doctrine of his by his leave inferres mortality for whatsoever is generated is corruptible and is to go out according to the ordinary Lawes of Nature at the same gate of according to the ordinary Lawes of Nature at the same gate of corruption at which it entred in Neither is it true or likely or lastly any way philosophicall to say as he doth Hypomn. 4. c. 10. that nothing created is immortall by the principle of Nature but onely by the free will or gift of God because as it is amongst bodies some are very durable as Marble and Cedar some by and by corrupted as flowers and fruits even out of the severall natures of their composition which God hath appointed for them and not out of the free will of God immediately without any further relation so in like sort some substances are perpetuall out of the nature of their being as spirituall substances and bodies that are simple and unmixt other some out of their own Natures corruptible as those that are mixt and made up of Elements which as by some naturall agents they were knit up together so by the operation of other some they are dissolvable Soules then if generated are compounds and if so may be uncompounded by the agency and operation of causes naturall wherefore to seek an immortality onely from a decree extrinsecall without any foundation in their naturall beings seemes neither to be philosophicall nor true wherefore the immortality of Soules and Angels is not to be reared upon this weak foundation according to which a Flye may be as much immortall as an Angel one by Nature according to Sennertus having no preheminence over the other the free determination of God for their perpetuall conservation being equally applicable to either of them Conformably to this position of his he will needs have the sperme alwaies animated with a reasonable soule but then consider how many Sennertus Hypomn 4. ca. 10. lib. de consens Chymic cum Arist Galeno c. 9. more soules are cast away without any bodies organicall and humane then are actuated and preserved by bodies I aske what must become of these innumerable soules must they perish or have bodies made them at the Resurreection neither of these two can be admitted without great temerity and absurdities Besides this we know God did not inspire Adam with a living spirit while he was a lumpe of clay but when he had a face and a body that was organicall and not before Againe why does the soule depart from the body but onely because it leaves to be organicall why then or with what probability can we imagine the soule is in the inorganicall sperme certainly with none at all The winde that did drive Sennertus upon this inhospitall shoare was the necessity of assigning a vis formatrix or a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say an able architect or former of humane body which though most acknowledge to be the seed yet Sennertus sees not how this can be unlesse it should be animated with the soule his reason is because the soule onely is to build an house fit for it selfe to inhabit But this reason of his is not urgent nay more it is not likely for egges and young birds do not build their own nests but the old ones for them so that it must by this account be the fathers office to erect this new building and not the childes But how sayes he can the father do this easily and well by sending his sperme as his deputy and officer Argent com in 1 Aphor. Hipp. to performe that duty as Argenterius also teacheth which entity hath derived to it from the generatour so much naturall strength and cunning as to make a sufficient architect for the effecting of this work and all this may be done with the only forme of seed without any animation of it with a soule Thus it is likely that the Acorne for example without any more forme than of an Acorne collects fit particles out of the elements and materials about it and by a virtue derived from the tree on which it grew formes out and fashions the body of an Oake and for the effecting of this worke the seed participates tmch of the nature of the tree or plant and hath ordinarily much of â—he same virtue wherefore in this abstruse question or quere that we may say something which is likely and hath for the truth thereof probable examples and instances in Nature we do conceive that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forming virtue is the seeds own forme excited and assisted by the breeding cherishing and connaturall warmth of the maternall body which doth environ it as in the procreation of birds it seemes to be where the semen of the Cocke being cherished and stirred up by the ambient and incumbent warmth of the Hen is that which changes the egge and formes it into the shape of the bird from whence it came Neither is it probable that in so small a coagulum or seed which came from the Cocke the soule or essence of a Cocke is resident Now whereas he tels us that by the blessing granted to all Creatures by the Creatour of them in these words Increase and multiply force was given to every soule to multiply another we confesse it to be true yet this not to be done by creating of the younger by the elder soules or by the giving of them new entities but rather by doing some other act out of which these formes should connaturally follow as materiall formes they do by a resultancy and immateriall by creation from a higher cause which creation is to follow and is due by a regular ordination exigence of Nature and so they may truly be said to be given and communicated though not made by the force of generation And this is the true vis prolifica and not that other which Sennertus feignes unto himselfe by which he will have one humane soule to beget another and on the instant to become with childe of it no bodie knowes how neither by what particular operation nor from what Mine it should be digged For this manner of speaking makes shew rather of some empty Magicke than of sound Philosophy and seemes altogether as hard and impossible as the eduction of them out of the potentiality of the materia prima when understood in that sense in which he himselfe impugnes it If the Parents objecteth Sennertus do not give the soule which is the forme of man they do not generate the man but for certaine they do generate the man therefore
with raking so long in such a heap of dirt and therefore at this instant I leave him to bethinke himselfe about making a timely recantation Now turning with delight unto my Reader to solace and refresh my selfe after all this travaile I desire him to look into Hierocles Commentary upon the Golden Verses ascribed to Pythagoras in Hierocles in Carm. Pyth. which he seemeth to have discovered the originall of this pernicious errour touching the soules mortality What availes it faith he with perjuries and murders and other wicked wayes to gather wealth and to seem rich unto the world and to want those good things which are conducible unto the minde But besides to be stupid and insensible of them and thereby to augment the evill or if they have any remorse of conscience for their offences to be tormented in their soules and affraid of the punishments of Hell comforting themselves with this alone that there is no way of escaping them and from hence are ready to cure one evill with another and by a perswasion that the soule is mortall to sooth up themselves in wickednesse judging they are not worthy to have any thing of theirs remaining after death that so they might avoid those punishments which by judgement should be inflicted on them for a wicked man is loath to thinke his soule to be immortall for feare of the revenges that are to follow his misdeeds Wherefore preventing the Judge who is below he pronounceth the sentence of death against himselfe as holding it fit that such a wicked soule should have no longer a being nor subsistence Behold here the fountain head of this errour opened and purged by Hierocles In fine from whatsoever puddle this errour sprung let us remember what Socrates being to die delivered touching the various condition of soules after this life He said as Cicero relateth there were two different pathes or voyages of soules at their departure Cic. l. 1. Tuscul from the bodies for all such as with humane vices had contaminated themselves and were delivered wholly up to lust with which as with domesticke vices being blinded they had by lewd actions defiled themselves or had attempted against the Common-wealth any crime or fraud inexpiable that these had a wandring way assigned for them sequestred from the assemblies of the Gods but such againe as had preserved themselves entire and chaste contracting little or no contagion from the body having alwayes retired and withdrawn themselves from it and had in humane bodies imitated the conversation of the Gods these found opened for them an easie way of returne to them from whom they proceeded at the first This is the Doctrine both of Cicero and of Socrates what then remaines to do but to hearken attentively to the wise Counsell of the Prince of Philosophers Aristotle and to suffer it to have a powerfull influence into all the passages of our life His words l. 10. Ethic. c. 9. according to the division of Andronicus Rhodius be as follow If then saith he our understanding in respect of man be a thing divine so Arist l. 10. Ethic. c. 9. that life which is lead according unto the understanding if compared with life humane is divine also neither as some perswade is it lawfull for a man to relish and follow onely that which is humane and being mortall those things onely which are mortall but as much as in him lieth he ought to vindicate himselfe from all mortality and to take speciall care that he live according to that part which is most excellent within him Now that which is best within us is our minde which though it be small in bulke and weight yet in power and excellency doth surpasse the rest And with this wise counsell of the Philosopher I conclude this whole Question which though the day of every mans departure will decide and give a finall resolution to it yet in the mean season are not disputes of this nature fruitlesse or superfluous because if they be well performed they are like burning torches which in the darke gallery of this life teach us how to direct our steppes and before that blacke day come to helpe us for the making our preparations before-hand that so with better hopes of safety we may meet our deadly enemies in the gate Without all doubting for the repressing of brutish bestiall and unworthy affections and again for our encouragement to noble and generous designements the best preparatives against Death there is no consideration so powerfull and efficacious as that one of the high perfection of mans soule and the immortall nature and condition of it for as Cicero observeth l. 1. de legib Qui se ipsum nôrit primùm aliquid sentiet se habere divinum ingeniumque in se suum sicut symulachrum aliquod dedicatum Cicero l. 1. de legib putabit tantoque munere Deorum semper aliquid dignum faciet sentiet He that doth know himselfe will forthwith finde within him something that is divine and will hold his understanding as a statue dedicated and be alwayes thinking or doing something answerable to so great munificence of the Gods That is to say he will be mindfull that as in upright shape of body and the perfection of his spirit he excelleth beasts and all creatures irrationall so he will endeavour to do in the condition of his living by disdaining to stoop to any thing which is base or to defile the house in which his soule inhabits with any unworthy or ignoble actions I will seale and signe this whole dispute with the determination and censure of the book of Wisedome which book whether it be received into the Canon or no yet is it confessedly very ancient and therefore by consent of all may claime a just precedence of authority before any Heathen Philosopher whatsoever the words are these Justorum animae in manu Dei sunt non tanget illos tormentum mortis visi sunt oculis insipientium mori illi autem sunt in pace The soules of Sap. 3. the just be in the hands of God and the torment of Death shall not touch them To the eyes of the foolish they seemed to die but they remain in peace Behold here in the judgement of this venerable Authour what kinde of people they are who hold the soules mortality namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as be destitute of true judgement and understanding This is not my censure neither is this character of my making for who am I that should presume so farre but it is the judgement of the ancient Authour of the Book of Wisedome whose yeares and credit may deserve regard even amongst those spirits that be most confident of their own conceptions and be the greatest admirers and idolaters of themselves In fine this ancient Sage brands all deniers of our soules immortality with the selfe same note of ignominy that David the kingly Prophet did marke that wretched mortall who Psalm 13. closely and in his heart had said There is no God Yet there is this ods between them two and worthy to be observed for though both of them be impious and absurd yet one of them had some shame in him and said it onely in his heart But this Adversary of ours goes further and had the face to publish his impiety in Print or at least the heart so to do it as he himselfe might lie concealed and his name unknowne which covert way of his though it appeare not altogether so bold and bad as if he had put his name unto his worke yet was it an act too bold for any Christian man or true Philosopher to exercise or to be an Authour of in Print for alas after so many great Divines and deep Philosophers whose uniforme suffrages we have for the dignity of man that is to say for the soules immortall nature and incorruptibility how could the cogitations unto the contrary of this poore worme be a matter any way considerable with men of understanding and ability FINIS