Ambrose - Houston-Packer Collection BX5200 .A49 1674

be fo groffe and vile, to prefer the body, to negleCl: the fun! ? There were other Philo~ ,fophe~s went a pace yet further, and.they gave it a being, but wha• ? No better than an accident, that might live or d1e Without death of the fubjeCl:; this they eaU 'r""' ~umorum, a certain temper compofed of the Elements,or nothing but the Harmony of 1 eor. rs. , 9 , thofe humours in the body. Is thiS thefo~tl? then of all creatures are men (fay we ) of all men arc we (faith the Apoflle) moft miferable, moll: unhappy. Look at Bealls 'and in this refpeCl:,wc and they arc even as one condition, ~cclef. 3. 19. Look at Tree; and in their corruption, you may fee the like conf\itution both of us and them. Lo~k at Stones, and by their diifolution,we may argue the temper of compofition in them alfo. if then our foul were nothing but this •rr/.g,., not only men, but bca!l:s, and plants, and ttones, and metals have aJu~tl : far be this from your thoughts, whofe fiuls are prized to be of more worth than a world, there being nothing in the world that may git•e" recompcn~c for your fouls, Matth. 16. 26. Others have gone a little further, and they fuppofe It to be afubftance: but how? only bodily, and not fpiritual; fuch gro!fe conceits have many Idolaters of the Deity, as if this our image were of Gods ownfub. F.cclef3· 19• Ecclef. lt · J Mat. 27. )I /lfat. 16. 26 Aruiqui Phi~· lofoJhi. fiance, and thisJitbjlance nothing elfe but a bodily being. .A Sp~rit (faith our Saviour) LuB 24 39 . hath n?tflefb and bones, as yo" fee me h«ve. It is the body is the flefh, butthe foul i~ the fpir,t; the body you may fee and handle, but thefoul is not feen, not handled: as AJJim.- p~ffin:t~ melior vptlmJ COfPOre~ A;Nt· J<! vtrb. I5om. ~idtibfcwn carne l B~rn. in mediru. Plurimi Yatr~s. Di•n>f· c. 4 le divin. nom. aliqut~mulum aprincipio. JCar·.4·1 I inepifl. ad /ltarceMm. _the D•fcip:es then did Err in fuppofing a fpirit when they faw his body; no leffe is their crrour, m fuppofing a body where is only a fpirit. The worft foul is better than the beft of bodies. 0 precious foul (faithBernMd,) efpoufed to thy God, indoJVed JVith hi1 Spmt, redeemed by his Son, What art thou to the flejb, whofe being isfrom Heaven ? 0. thers again have paff'ed this opinion, and they call it" Forme: but what? only materi– al, not fubjlamial, and fuch as arc thefouls of bealh that dye with their bodies, as being deduced from the matter of fome bodies pre-exi!l:ent. It is not fo with the fouls ofmen, which though for a while they are knit and united to this houfe of clay, y~t may they be feparated from it, and fubfifl: without it; this is that goodnelfe of God, that as ourfouls are intellectual, fo their being is perpetual, not but that our fouls might dye (reeing every thing that is of nothing may return into the fame nothing whence it (prung) but that God fo fulhins them by his glorious goodneff'e, that as he gave the firfi being,fo he would continue that he gave, What have we, that 1ve ha'Vc not received? Or to fpeak of the fotd, What are we·that God, and God only hath not befl:owed upon us? our Parents begot our bodies, God only gave our funis: our bodies are buried again in the womb of our common Mother, but ourfouls return to God, as to their chiefeft good. So immaterial is the foul, that neither will nor underftanding depends on the dying Organ. What then is thefoul? a Nothing ? an .Actident? a Body? n Forme only material? No, but on the contrary, a• E.1s, a S~tbjlanre, a Spirit, 11 Forme, aSub:– ftantial being ofit felffubfifting. But we'll afcend a little higher, it is a Subfiance crMted.] Not traduced, ("s fome would have it,) I muft confeff'e the opinion ·.vas not a little firong, that as our bodies, fo our[u~tls were both propagated from our Parents. Terwllian, and the. Fathe:s of the Weft (as Jcrome witneff'eth) were moft.on that fide : the reafon of this optnton was becaufe'of Original fin, which defiling the foul, as well as the body of each man fprung fron\ -.Ad11m, they could fee no means how both were corrupted, except Withal the foul wer~propagated.-· But are not oil••fo~<ls as the Angels? and therefore if ourJu~ls, then !!Jay the Ange)s beget one another; nay, if this w.ere true, what[0111 were gene– rat~d, but another w.ere corrupted: for the rule 1s mfalhb.le, There can be no genrratron M•gis mJi tvlthoJJt a Tranfmittation, an.! fo would eyBr,y{out be fub1eCl: to corruptiOn. Concern· a~'' qu•m ing that obje:'tion of Original fin. (I( the foul were not tr~duced from the loyns ~f qwt, & qu.- Adam, how then Chould that(<n be imputed to our fouls.:') I ~ull confeffc,the quelh– rt f•·'""' . . on is intricate; we Chould rather believe it,. thar enqmre of It;. and we may bett_er 1uartJ ltnufi•gr, enquire ofit than underfl:·and it· .and yet more eafi\y ttnderftand.It, than exprelfe It.· &me tusJn- · ' I!' · h k F' 11. h ~ • · f \1 y t di rdlitit«r quam But fo weU as we can, we Cha unti.e t e ·not. "" t en, we . ay tis a a ac o - txpli~1'"'· videJoul and body, for not thefoul Without the body, nor the body Withqut the foul, but whiJak. I. '· the whole man finn'd in .Adam as the whole man IS begot of .Ada'!' ; fo foon therefore dfn~~~";,'·orr. as thefoul is conjoyn'd to the body, and of,thefo~sl a'~d body is ~on!l:~tuted whole m~n, }AUocia divi· that man being now lnade a Member'6f ;A~a>h, r: faid to fin With him, and to denve fionis; that fin from him. BtWfor a further fatisfaCl:IOn/ although the foul depend on God according to its fub!l:ance yet is it created in that body which is produced of _the Paj rents 1 thus in fome fort w~ may fay that the foul is begottcn,(N.nq~tond cj[emwn,fed . 1'""

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