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النشر الإلكتروني

This true Prometheus, first made man of earth, And shed in him a beam of heavenly fire; Now in their mother's wombs, before their birth, Doth in all sons of men their souls inspire.

And as Minerva is in fables said,

From Jove, without a mother, to proceed: So our true Jove, without a mother's aid, Doth daily millions of Minervas breed.

SECTION V.

ERRONEOUS OPINIONS OF THE CREATION OF SOULS.

THEN neither from eternity before,

Nor from the time, when time's first point begun, Made he all souls, which now he keeps in store; Some in the Moon, and others in the Sun:

Nor in a secret cloister doth he keep

These virgin-spirits, till their marriage day; Nor locks them up in chambers, where they sleep, Till they awake within these beds of clay.

Nor did he first a certain number make,
Infusing part in beast and part in men;
And, as unwilling further pains to take,

Would make no more than those he framed then.

So that the widow soul, her body dying,
Unto the next born body married was;
And so, by often changing and supplying,

Men's souls to beasts, and beasts to men did pass.

(These thoughts are fond; for since the bodies

born

Be more in number far, than those that die, Thousands must be abortive, and forlorn

Ere others' deaths to them their souls supply :)

But as God's handmaid, Nature, doth create
Bodies in time distinct, and order due;
So God gives souls the like successive date,
Which himself makes, in bodies formed new:

Which himself makes of no material thing;
For unto angels he no pow'r hath giv'n
Either to form the shape, or stuff to bring
From air or fire, or substance of the Heav'n.

Nor herein doth he Nature's service use;

For though from bodies she can bodies bring, Yet could she never souls from souls traduce, As fire from fire, or light from light doth spring,

SECTION VI.

THAT THE SOUL IS NOT EX TRADUCE.

ALAS! that some who were great lights of old,
And in their hands the lamp of God did bear!
Some rev'rend fathers did this error hold,

Having their eyes dimm'd with religious fear.

OBJECTION.

For when, say they, by rule of faith we find,
That ev'ry soul unto her body knit,

Brings from the mother's womb the sin of kind,
The root of all the ill she doth commit.

How can we say that God the soul doth make,
But we must make him author of her sin?
Then from man's soul she doth beginning take,
Since in man's soul corruption did begin.

For if God make her first, he makes her ill,
(Which God forbid our thoughts should yield
Or makes the body her fair form to spill,
Which, of itself, it had not pow'r to do.

Not Adam's body, but his soul did sin,
And so herself unto corruption brought;
But our poor soul corrupted is within,

[unto;)

Ere she had sinn'd, either in act or thought:

And yet we see in her such pow'rs divine,

As we could gladly think, from God she came : Fain would we make him author of the wine, If for the dregs we could some other blame.

ANSWER.

Thus these good men with holy zeal were blind,
When on the other part the truth did shine;
Whereof we do clear demonstrations find,
By light of nature, and by light divine.

None are so gross as to contend for this,
That souls from bodies may traduced be;
Between whose natures no proportion is,
When root and branch in nature still agree.

But many subtle wits have justify'd,

That souls from souls spiritually may spring; Which (if the nature of the soul be try'd) Will e'en in nature prove as gross a thing.

SECTION VII.

REASONS DRAWN FROM NATURE.

FOR all things made, are either made of nought,
Or made of stuff that ready made doth stand:
Of nought no creature ever formed ought,
For that is proper to th' Almighty's hand.

If then the soul another soul do make,

Because her pow'r is kept within a bound, She must some former stuff or matter take; But in the soul there is no matter found.

Then if her heav'nly form do not agree
With any matter which the world contains,
Then she of nothing must created be;
And to create, to God alone pertains.

Again, if souls do other souls beget,

'Tis by themselves, or by the body's pow'r :

If by themselves, what doth their working let,
But they might souls engender ev'ry hour?

If by the body, how can wit and will

Join with the body only in this act,
Since when they do their other works fulfil,
They from the body do themselves abstract.

Again, if souls of souls begotten were,
Into each other they should change and move :
And change and motion still corruption bear;
How shall we then the soul immortal prove?

If, lastly, souls do generation use,

Then should they spread incorruptible seed : What then becomes of that which they do lose, When th' act of generation do not speed?

And though the soul could cast spiritual seed,
Yet would she not, because she never dies;
For mortal things desire their like to breed,
That so they may their kind immortalize.

Therefore the angels sons of God are nam'd,
And marry not, nor are in marriage giv'n:
Their spirits and ours are of one substance fram'd,
And have one father, e'en the Lord of Heaven;

Who would at first, that in each other thing

The earth and water living souls should breed, But that man's soul, whom he would make their

king,

Should from himself immediately proceed.

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