traduction or generation ; for that winch is generable, is also cor- ruptible ; but the spiritual, immortal soul (as it hath been proved to be) is not subject to corruption. Nor is it imaginable how a soul should be produced out of matter, which is not endued with rea- son : or, how a bodily substance can impart that to another, which it hath not in itself. If it be said, the soul of the child proceeds from the souls of the parents, that cannot be ; for spiritual sub- stances are impartible, and nothing can be discinded from them. " * And it is absurd to think the soul of Adam should spring from " one original, and the souls of his offspring from another, whilst " both his and theirs are of one and the same nature and species." To all which let me add, That as the assertion of their creation is most reasonable, so it is most scriptural. It is reasonable to think and say, " ■(• That no active power can act beyond, or above the " proper sphere of its activity and ability." But if the soul be elicited out of the power of matter, here woidd be an effect pro- duced abundantly more noble and excellent than its cause. And as it is most reasonable, so it is most scriptural. To this purpose diverse testimonies of scripture are cited and produced by our di- vines, among which we may single out these four, which are of special remark and use ; Heb. xii. 9. " Furthermore, we had " fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them re- " verence ; shall we not much rather be in subjection to [the Fa- " ther of spirits] and live ?" Here God is called the Father of spirits, or of souls, and that in an emphatical antithesis, or con- tradistinction to our natural fathers, who are called the fathers of our flesh, or bodies only. The true scope and sense of this text, is, with great judgment and clearness, given us by that learned and judicious divine, Mr. PembleJ, in these words; "[Nothing " is more plain and emphatical than this antithesis ; We receive " our flesh and body from our parents, but our souls from God : " if then we patiently bear the chastisements of our parents, who " are the authors of the vilest part, and have the least right or " power over us ; with how much more equal a mind should we " bear his chastisements, who hath the supreme right to us, as he " is the Father and only giver of that which is most excellent in
* Absurdum est aliunde esse cnimam nostra?n, aliunde animam Adce : cum omnes sunt ejusdem speciei. Zanch.
f Nulla virtus activa agit ultra suum genus, sed anima intellcclioa excedit toium genus, cvrporece naturce, cu?n sit substantia spiritualis, cfc. Conimbr.
| Pemble de origine anima, p. 56. Nihil apertius et (fJ,<pa,riX,or£go\> ista Antithesis carnem corpusque a parentibus, animus a Deo accippimus ; quod si vilioris partis authored, et qui in nos minus juris habeut, patienter castigantesferimus ; quanto <v>piinre animojere- mus eum qui supremum in nos jus obtinet, uptote partis, qua' in nobis est pravstantissi/na-, unicua Dator €ondkorque.
-516 a Tii i:\tisf: of the sot'l of man.
" us, viz. our souls or spirits ?"] Here it appears evident, that aur souls flow not to us in the material channel of fleshly genera- tion or descent, as our bodies do, but immediately from God, their proper Father, in the way of creation. Yet he begets them not out of his own essence or substance, as Christ, his natural Son, is begotten, but, sx ^ o\rm, out of nothing that had been before, as Theodoret well expresseth it. Agreeable hereunto is that place also in Zech. xii. 1. " The Lord which stretcheth forth the hea- " vens, and layeth the foundations of the earth, and formeth the " spirit of man within him :" " * Where the forming of the " spirit, or soul of man, is associated with these two other glori- " ous effects of God's creating power, namely, the expansion of " the heavens, and laying the foundations of the earth :" all three are here equally assumed by the Lord, as his remarkable and glo- rious works of creation. He that created the one, did as much create the other.
Now the two former we find frequently instanced in scripture, as the effects of his creating power, or works implying the Al- mighty power of God ; and therefore are presented as strong props to our faith, when it is weak and staggering for want of visible matter of encouragement, Isa. xl. 22. and xlii. 5. Jer. x. 12. Job ix. 8. Psal. civ. 2. q. d. Are my people in captivity, and their faith nonplussed and at a loss, because there is nothing in sight that hath a tendency to their deliverance, no prepared matter for their salvation ? Why, let them consider who it was that created the heavens and the earth, yea, and their souls also, which are so per- plexed with doubts, out of nothing ; the same God that did this, can also create deliverance for his people, though there be no pre- existent matter to work it out of.
Add to this that excellent place of f Solomon, in Eccl. xii. 7. " Then shall the dust return to the earth, as it was ; and the spi- " rit to God who gave it."" Where he shews us what becomes of man, and how each part, of which he consists, is bestowed, and disposed of after his dissolution by death, and thus he states it : The two constitutive parts of man are a soul and a body : these two parts have two distinct originals: the body, as to its material cause, is dust ; the soul, in its nature, is a spirit, and as to its origin, it
* Testimonium sutia clarum, quo docemur, pari passu hccc tria ambulare; expansionem cccli, fundutbiiwm cerrce, et formotionem animcc rationalis.
f Solomon resolves both the parts of man into their first principles ; as therefore he resolves the body into the dust, whence it was taken ; so also, if the soul had been made of an heavenly substance, or, (as Plato says) of the soul of the world, Solomon would have resolved the soul into it ; but when he says simply of the soul, that it returns to God who gave it, he teaches us, That it was created of nothing, into which it could not be resolved. Zanch*
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 517