ken to, in the following difcourfe. All that I fhall add is, That in this, as well as in fome other respects, our fouls are made a little lower than the angels; but when they are uncloathed of the body, and have received it again, in a new edition, a fpiritual body, then they shall be año, equal unto angels, in the way and manner of life and action. Thus I have, as briefly as I can, difpatched the first thing propounded, viz. the nature of the foul, in the explication of these feven particulars: it is a fubftance, a vital, spiritual, and immortal fubftance, a fubftance endued with underftanding, will, affections, and an inclination to the body. And now we are come to the II. Branch, viz. Its original and infufion. I. As to its original, I have defcribed it to be immediately from God, in the way of creation: an honour done to no o ther living creature except angels. The world hath been troubled with a great many extravagant, and wild notions about the original of the foul of man; a (certain mark and argument of its apoftacy from God.)" Solinus writes of one, who by a wound in the hinder part of his head, fell into fuch a de"gree of ignorance and oblivion, that he forgot his own name, "and could not tell whether he had any name at all." But oh! what a stunning blow did man receive by the fall, that he fhould forget the very Author of his being, and rather claim alliance, and derive the being of his foul from any thing than God; though it bears the very marks and characters of its divine Author and Father upon it! The principal errors about the origin of the foul (for that wild notion of Epicurus hath been laid fo flat by the pens of many learned men, that it is a vanity to strike one blow more at it) may be reduced to these three heads. (1.) Some affirm it to be by way of traduction, or natural generation from the parents to the child. This opinion is very ancient; Tertullian, and divers of the Weftern Fathers, clofed with it, as judging it the best expedient to folve the difficulties of the foul's taint and defilement with original fin. Solinus refert de quodam, quod accepto vulnere in occipitio, ad tantam devenit ignorantiam, ut nefciret fe habuisse nomen, Auguftodun. de Philofoph. Mundi, lib. iv. c. 24. Datur agens phyficum quod aliud effe non poteft quam parens; qui ei feminis animam e materia finu eliciat. i. e. There is a phyfical agent which can be no other than the parent, who produces the foul of feed from the bofom of matter. "He But antiquity is no paffport for errors. The grey hairs of opinion, as one well notes, are then honourable, when they are found in the way of truth. Doctor Brown* tells us, "fhould rather incline to the creation, than the traduction of the foul, though either opinion, (faith he,) will confift "well enough with religion, did not one objection haunt him, and this is a conclufion from the equivocal and "monftrous productions by unnatural copulation, as of a man " and beaft: for, if the foul of man, (faith he,) be not tranfmitted and transfufed in the feed, why are not thefe productions merely beasts, but have alfo an impreffion and tincture of reafon in as high a measure, as it can evidence itself in thofe "improper organs?". ...Which way the doctor's judgment had inclined in this controverly, had been of no great confideration to the determination of it; though it is a pity we should lofe his confent and company, for the fake of fuch a beastly, objection as this, which haunts his mind: for, if there be any fuch creatures that feem to have a tincture of reason, it is but a tincture, and a feeming, not a real tincture neither, which many other brutes have. P The doctor is too well acquainted with philofophy, and a man of too much reafon to allow himself to think that fuch a production, as he speaks of, hath two natures and effential forms in one body, as of a man and a horle. He knows that every entity hath but one fpecial effence, and can have no more, except he will place one and the fame thing under diverfe fpecies in the predicament of fubitance. And as there cannot be two diftinct forms, fo neither can there be a mixion of them in the Centaur or monstrous birth: for, ex duobus entibus per fe, non fit unum ens per fe. But he confeffeth this objection was bred among the weeds and tares of his own brain, (a rank foil no doubt) and I am pretty confident he had weeded it out in his latter years; for I find this notion of the Centaurs, (that is, halfhorfes, half man), but into its proper place among his vulgar errors, B. 1. chap. 4. And fo I fuppofe that rub being out of the way, he returned again to us. (2.) A fecond opinion was, That they were procreated by angels: and that which gave the ground, fuch as it is, to this opinion or fancy, is the fimilitude or refemblance which is found betwixt angels and the fouls of men. But this fancy needs not any industry to overthrow it; for though it be certain there is a • Religio Medici, Sea, 36, fimilitude and refemblance + betwixt angels and fouls, both being immaterial and spiritual substances, yet angels neither pro pagate by generation, nor is it in their power to create the leaft Ay or worm in the world, much lefs the foul of man, the higheft, and nobleft, and most excellent being. Great power they have, but no creating power, that is God's ipcommunicable property; and procreate our fouls they did not, for though they are fpirits, yet fpirits of another fpecies. The coetaneous creation of fouls rejected. (3.) A third fort there are, who deny that fouls are created fubftances, and proceeded from God; but affirm withal, that he created them fimul, et femel, together and at once, as the angels were, and not one by one, as men are born into the world, "Of this opinion was Plato; who thought "all human fouls to be created together before their bodies, "and placed in some glorious and fuitable mansions, as the stars; *till, at last, growing weary of heavenly, and falling in love "with earthly things, for a punishment of that crime, they "were caft into bodies, as into fo many prifons t." Origen fucked in this notion of the pre-existence of fouls: and upon this fuppofition it was that Porphyry tells us, in the life of Plotinus, he blushed as often as he thought of his being in a body, as a man that lived in reputation and honour, blushes when he is lodged in a prifon. The ground on which the Stoics bottomed their opinion was, the great dignity and excellency of the foul, which inclined them to think they had never been degraded and abased, as they are by dwelling in fuch vile bodies, but for their faults; and that it was for fome former fins of theirs, that they flid down into grofs matter, and were caught into a vital union with it; whereas, had they not finned, they had lived in celeftial and fplendid habitations, more fuitable to their dignity. But this is a pure creature of fancy; for, (1.) No foul in the world is confcious to itself, of fuch a pre-existence, nor can + That is perfect, which produces fome other thing like itfelf: but fubftances that are immaterial, are far more perfect than those which are material; therefore, if these last make others like in kind to themselves, much more muft angels be able to procreate, fome other incorporeal fubftance of an inferior nature, namely, the human foul. D. Dionyf c. 4. de divinis nominibus. + Plato in Timao finxit Deum omnes animas humanas ante corpora fimul creaffe, et incomparibus ftellis conftituiffe: tum eas caleftium rerum tedio, et terrenarum amore captas, ut tanti fceleris ponas luerent, in corpora tanquam in carcerem conjectas. (2.) it now dwells in. remember when it was owner of any other habitation than that Nor doth the fcripture give us the leaft Some indeed would catch hold of that "God refted the feventh day from all the works which he had made:" and it is true, he did fo, the work of creation was finished and fealed up, as to any new fpecies or kind of creatures to be created; no other fort of fouls will be created, than that which was at firft: but yet God still creates individual fouls, (My Father worketh hitherto, and I work), of the fame kind and nature with Adam's foul. And, (3.) For their detrufion into thefe bodies as a punishment of their fins in the former ftate; if we speak of fin in individuals, or particular perfons, the fcripture mentions none, either original or actual, defiling any foul in any other way but by its union with the body. Pre-existence therefore is but a dream. But to me it is clear, that the foul receives not its beginning by traduction or generation; for that which is generable, is alfo corruptible; but the fpiritual immortal foul, (as it hath been proved to be), is not fubject to corruption. Nor is it imaginable how a foul fhould be produced out of matter, which is not endued with reafon: or, how a bodily fubftance can impart that to another, which it hath not in itself. If it be faid, the foul of the child proceeds from the foul of the parents, that cannot be; for fpiritual fubftances are impartible, and nothing can be difcinded from them. "*And it is abfurd to think the foul of "Adam fhould fpring from one original, and the fouls of his τι offspring from another, whilst both his and theirs are of one "and the fame nature and species." To all which let me add, That as this affertion of their creation is most reasonable, so it is moft fcriptural. It is reasonable to think and fay, "That *no active power can act beyond, or above the proper sphere "of its activity and ability." But if the foul be elicited out of the power of matter, here would be an effect produced abundantly more noble and excellent than its cause. And as it is most reasonable, fo it is moft fcriptural. To this purpose diverfe teftimonies of fcripture are cited and produced by our di vines, amongst which we may single out these four, which are of fpecial remark and ufe; Heb. xii. 9, "Furthermore, we had * Abfurdum eft aliunde effe animam noftram, aliunde animam Ada: cum omnes funt ejufdem fpeciei. Zanch. ↑ Nulla virtus activa agit ultra fuum genus, fed anima intellectiva excedit totum genus, corporea natura, cum fit fubftantia Spiritualis, &c. Conimbr. 66 "fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; fhall we not much rather be in fubjection to [the "Father of fpirits,] and live?" Here God is called the Father of fpirits, or of fouls, and that in an emphatical antithefis, or contradiftinction to our natural fathers, who are called the fathers of our flesh, or bodies only. The true fcope and fenfe of this text, is, with great judgment and clearnefs, given us by that learned and judicious divine, Mr. Pemble ‡, in these words: [Nothing is more plain and emphatical than this antithefis; "We receive our flesh and body from our parents, but our 66 fouls from God: if then we patiently bear the chastisements "of our parents, who are the authors of the vilest part, and "have the leaft right or power over us; with how much more "equal a mind fhould we bear his chaftifements, who hath the "fupreme right to us, as he is the Father and only giver of that "which is moft excellent in us, viz. our fouls or fpirits ?]" Here it appears evident, that our fouls flow not to us in the material channel of fleshly generation or defcent, as our bodies do, but immediatly from God, their proper Father, in the way of creation. Yet he begets them not out of his own effence or fubftance, as Chrift, his natural Son, is begotten, but, ex un ortar, out of nothing that had been before, as Theodoret well expreffeth it. Agreeable hereunto is that place also in Zech, xii. I. "The Lord which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth "the foundations of the earth, and forméth the spirit of man "within him:" "Where the forming of the fpirit, or foul " of man, is affociated with these two other glorious effects of "God's creating power, namely, the expanfion of the heavens, "and laying the foundations of the earth;" all three, are here equally affumed by the Lord, as his remarkable and glorious works of creation. He that created the one, did as much create the other. Now the two former we find frequently inftanced in fcripture, as the effects of his creating power, or works implying the Pemble de origine animae, p. 56. Nihil apertius et su patixorije ifta Antitheft, cranem corpufque a parentibus, animas a Deo accipimus; quod fi vilioris partis authores, et qui in nos minus juris habent, patienter caftigantes ferimus; quanto aquiore animo feremus eum qui fupremum in nos jus obtinet, utpote partis, quæ in nobis eft præftantiffima, unicus Dator Conditorque. Teftimonium fatis clarum, quo docemur, pari paffu hæc tria ambulare; expanfionem cæli, fundationem terræ, et formationem anima rationalis. |