The doctor is too well acquainted with philosophy, and a man of too much reason to allow himself to think that such a produc- tion as he speaks of hath two natures and essential forms in one body, as of a man and a horse. He knows that every entity hath but one special essence, and can have no more, except he will place one and the same thing under divers species in the predicament of substance. And as there cannot be two distinct forms, so neither can there be a mixture of them in the Centaur or monstrous birth : for, ex dfuobus entibus per se, nonjit unum ens per se. But he con- fessed! this objection was bred among the weeds and tares of his own brain, (a rank soil no doubt) and I am pretty confident he had weeded it out in his latter years ; for I find this notion of the Cen- taurs, (that is, half horse, half man), put into its proper place among his vulgar errors, B. 1 . chap. 4. And so I suppose that rub being- out of the way, he returned again to us.
(2.) A second opinion was, That they were procreated by an- gels : and that which gave the ground, such as it is, to this opinion or fancy, is the similitude or resemblance which is found betwixt angels and the souls of men. But this fancy needs not any industry to overthrow it; for though it be certain there is a similitude and resemblance * betwixt angels and souls, both being immaterial and spiritual substances, yet angels neither propagate by generation, nor is it in their power to create the least fly or worm in the world, much less the soul of man, the highest and noblest, and most ex- cellent being. Great power they have, but no creating power, that
* That is perfect which produces some other thing like itself: but substances that are immaterial, are far mere perfect than those which are material ; therefore, if the^e last make others like in kind to theraseJves, much more must angels be able to pro- create some other incorporeal substances of an inferior nature, namely, the huma; If. Dionyb. c 4, de dicinu n^mi/iibus.
514 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAX.
is God's incommunicable property ; and procreate our souls they did not, for though they are spirits, yet spirits of another species. *
(3.) A third sort there are, who deny that souls are created sub- stances, and proceeded from God; but affirm withal, that he crea- ted them simid, et semel, 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 souls to be created " together before their bodies, and placed in some glorious and suit- " able mansions, as the stars ; till, at last, growing weary of hea- " venly, and falling in love with earthly things, for a punishment of u that crime, they were cast into bodies, as into so many prisons *.*" Origen sucked in this notion of the pre-existence of souls: and upon this supposition 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 prison. The ground on which the Stoics bottomed their opinion wa«, the great dignity and excellency of the soul, which inclined them to think they had never been degraded and abased, as they are by dwelling in such vile bodies, but for their faults ; and that it was for some former sins of theirs, that they slid down into gross matter, and were caught into a vital union with it ; whereas, had they not sinned, they had lived in celestial and splendid habitations, more suitable to their dignity.
But this is a pure creature of fancy ; for, (1.) No soul in the world is conscious to itself, of such a pre-existence, nor can re- member when it was owner of any other habitation than that it now dwells in. (2.) Nor doth the scripture give us the least hint of any such thing. Some indeed would catch hold of that expres- sion, Gen. ii. 2. " God rested the seventh day from all the works " which he had made ;" and it is true, he did so, the work of creation was finished and sealed up, as to any new species or kinds of creatures to be created ; no other sort of souls will be created, than that which was at first : but yet God still creates individual souls, (My Father worketh hitherto and I worli) of the same kind and nature with Adam's soul. And, (3.) For their detrusion into these bodies as a punishment of their sins in the former state ; if we speak of sin in individuals, or particular persons, the scrip- ture mentions none, either original or actual, defiling any soul in any other way but by its union with the body. Pre-existence there- fore is but a dream.
But to me it is clear, that the soul receives not its beginning by
* Plato in Timeeofinxil Detcm omnea aninias humanas ante corpora simul creasse, et in- comparibus steltis constituisse ; turn cas ccclestium rerum tcedio , ct tcrrenarum amore capias, ui t'juti ceteris poenas Iverent, in cor]>ora tanquamin carcerem coyijsctas.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 5l5