And when he took the woman from man's side,
Doubtless himself inspir'd her soul alone:
For 'tis not said, he did man's soul divide,
But took flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone.

Lastly, God being made man for man's own sake,
And being like man in all, except in sin,
His body from the virgin's womb did take;
But all agree, God form'd his soul within.

Then is the soul from God; so Pagans say,
Which saw by Nature's light her heav'nly kind;
Naming her kin to God, and God's bright ray,
A citizen of Heav'n, to Earth confin'd.

But now I feel, they pluck me by the ear,

Whom my young Muse so boldly termed blind! And crave more heav'nly light, that cloud to clear; Which makes them think, God doth not make the mind.

SECTION VIII.

REASONS FROM DIVINITY,

GOD doubtless makes her, and doth make her good, And grafts her in the body, there to spring; Which, though it be corrupted flesh and blood, Can no way to the soul corruption bring :

Yet is not God the author of her ill,

Though author of her being, and being there:

And if we dare to judge our Maker's will,
He can condemn us, and himself can clear.

First, God from infinite eternity.

Decreed, what hath been, is, or shall be done; And was resolv'd that ev'ry man should be, And in his turn his race of life should run:

And so did purpose all the souls to make,
That ever have been made, or ever shall;
And that their being they should only take
In human bodies, or not be at all.

Was it then fit that such a weak event
(Weakness itself, the sin and fall of man)
His counsel's execution should prevent,
Decreed and fix'd before the world began?

Or that one penal law, by Adam broke,
Should make God break his own eternal law;
The settled order of the world revoke,

And change all forms of things which he foresaw?

Could Eve's weak hand, extended to the tree,
In sunder rent that adamantine chain,

Whose golden links, effects and causes be;

And which to God's own chair doth fix'd remain?

O could we see how cause from cause doth spring!
How mutually they link'd and folded are!
And hear how oft one disagreeing string
The harmony doth rather make than mar!

And view at once how death by sin is brought; And how from death a better life doth rise! How this God's justice, and his mercy taught! We this decree would praise, as right and wise.

But we that measure times by first and last,
The sight of things successively do take,
When God on all at once his view doth cast,
And of all times doth but one instant make.

All in himself, as in a glass, he sees;

For from him, by him, through him, all things be; His sight is not discoursive, by degrees;

But seeing th' whole, each single part doth see.

He looks on Adam as a root or well;

And on his heirs as branches, and as streams: He sees all men as one man, though they dwell In sundry cities, and in sundry realms.

And as the root and branch are but one tree,
And well and stream do but one river make;

So, if the root and well corrupted be,

The stream and branch the same corruption take.

So, when the root and fountain of mankind
Did draw corruption, and God's curse, by sin;
This was a charge, that all his heirs did bind,
And all his offspring grew corrupt therein.

And as when th' hand doth strike, the man offends, (For part from whole, law severs not in this)

So Adam's sin to the whole kind extends;

For all their natures are but part of his.

Therefore this sin of kind, not personal,
But real and hereditary was;

The guilt thereof, and punishment to all,
By course of nature and of law doth pass.

For as that easy law was giv'n to all,

To ancestor and heir, to first and last, So was the first transgression general;

And all did pluck the fruit, and all did taste.

Of this we find some footsteps in our law,

Which doth her root from God and Nature take; Ten thousand men she doth together draw, And of them all one corporation make :

Yet these, and their successors, are but one;
And if they gain or lose their liberties,
They harm or profit not themselves alone,
But such as in succeeding times shall rise.

And so the ancestor, and all his heirs,

Though they in number pass the stars of Heav'n, Are still but one; his forfeitures are theirs, And unto them are his advancements giv❜n:

His civil acts do bind and bar them all;
And as from Adam all corruption take,
So, if the father's crime be capital,

In all the blood law doth corruption make.

Is it then just with us, to disinherit

Th' unborn nephews, for the father's fault; And to advance again, for one man's merit,

A thousand heirs that have deserved nought?

And is not God's decree as just as ours,
If he, for Adam's sin, his sons deprive
Of all those native virtues, and those pow'rs,
Which he to him and to his race did give?

For what is this contagious sin of kind,
But a privation of that grace within,
And of that great rich dowry of the mind,
Which all had had, but for the first man's sin?

If then a man on light conditions gain

A great estate, to him and his, for ever;

If wilfully he forfeit it again,

Who doth bemoan his heir, or blame the giver?

So, though God make the soul good, rich, and fair,
Yet when her form is to the body knit,
Which makes the man, which man is Adam's heir,
Justly forthwith he takes his grace from it:

And then the soul, being first from nothing brought,
When God's grace fails her, doth to nothing fall;
And this declining proneness unto nought,
Is e'en that sin that we are born withal.

Yet not alone the first good qualities,
Which in the first soul were, deprived are;
But in their place the contrary do rise,
And real spots of sin her beauty mar.

Nor is it strange that Adam's ill desert

Should be transferr'd unto his guilty race, When Christ his grace and justice doth impart To men unjust, and such as have no grace.