NO Knowlege in the world hath more attendant difficulties, then that of our selvs; Those slie spiri­tuall Essences being too subtile for the Senses anatomy. Hence is it, that both Philosophers and Divines, in their dark con­tests, have as yet fill'd the world onely with doubts concerning the Original of the humane and immortal Soule, and its con­junction with the mortal Body.

The variety of dissenting o­pinions (to speak in a Physical sense) comes little short of in­finitude▪ Nor is there scarce that considerable part of Na­tures large circumference to be ramed, which hath not been [Page 2]thought a worthy material, by some tume-sick brain, to be car­ved out into a Soule.

But I will not trouble you with a Relation of the many se­veral guesses of doting Anti­quity; some of which, to our present Age, will seem to be dreams and fancies risen from the grosse vapours of over-fed bodies.

The more select are these five, which I shall set down in order.

The first is attributed to the ancient Physician Galen, (with whom I believe the Sadduces agree) who (it seems aiming to bring soul as wel as body with­in the dominion of his Profes­sion) affirms that the soul, as of men, so of bruit beasts, is a meer due temper or active spirit a­rising [Page 3]from the commixture of Elements and Humours, and mortal, with their dissoluti­on.

The second is, of certain an­cient Arabians, and of our mo­dern Cardane; which is, That all Particular soules are but the emanation of the Universal soule of the world; or rather, that there are no particular soules at all, but that the Uni­versal Spirit necessarily enacts all matter duly prepared for life; which it can no more sub­stract from it, then the Sun can bridle its beames, or divert its light from rendring a perspicu­ous body translucid.

These two opinions are main­tained either by Epicures, or as the Apostle calls them, men [Page 4]without God in the world; the folly of which, not onely our Religion, but the joint-consent of the wiser Heathens hath rejected.

The third is that of the Pla­tonicks, who affirm the Earth on which we now live, not to be our native soile; and the Bo­dies which we weare, to be fet­ters of our slavery, ensignes and badges of our transgression, to which our soules are confin'd for offences committed of old against their Creatour: That being all of them created by God in an equal and immacu­late estate, of rare perfection, the fountain & firmament of which being coaduntion with the will of God, they fell to their own will, and by that meanes were [Page 5]cast out from the presence of God, and confin'd to this world; in which, if under the dire School-mistresse of miseries, in­constancies, mischances, morta­lities, they learned to reseek that Eternal Immoveable, they are by the mercy of God reassumed into their own Country, being unchained from the gally of the Body.

This opinion is maintained by Hermes, Plato, Iamblichus, Plo­tinus, and by the whole School of the mystical Philosophy, and as I guesse, believed by most of the ancient and late Jewes, and in our Christian Schools by the famous Origen.

Notwithstanding, some of that way do in this differ from the generality, That they sup­pose [Page 6]all the legion of souls were not partakers in the transgres­sion, but are some in every Age sent down into undefiled bodies by divine dispensation, as guar­dians, instructers, and promo­ters of the captived soules into their ancient inheritance and lost freedome. But that those soules whom the hard apprenti­ship and servitude under things mortal, finite, empty, dark, could not stirre to a desire and preparation to things eternal, immense, and infinite; those are either winnowed over again in humane bodies, or descend into irrationality, and are clo­thed with bodies suitable to their groveling minds, and after fall down into plants, till at last they vanish into their first nothing.

But surely this opinion, not­withstanding its glorious de­duction, and that it hath spirit and light in it beseeming those Heroick wits that brought it forth; yet to us Christians that have freed our understandings by a voluntary captivity to Sa­cred Writ, which delivereth to us mans first creation, his fall, and the contagion on his whole progenie; Adde also the bodies resurrection, its union again with the soule, and everlasting punishment in hell-fire for the wicked: These, I say, being con­sidered to be in an exact oppo­sition, we will without further examination bury it with ho­nour, as the best and noblest Essay natural man hath attained unto.

The fourth is maintained by the greatest part of the Divines in Christendome, and is, That the soule of man, immediately upon the compleating of all the parts of the body, at least those of absolute use, is created of no­thing, and in the instant of cre­ation infus'd into the body.

The fifth, seems to be the opi­nion of the learned Respondent, yet without any impetuous dis­approbation of the former; with whom many famons Wits of this Age do concurre, nor doth it want some approbation from reputed Antiquity. And thus they deliver it: That the humane soul of the Infant hath its original from the Parents seed.

Now which of these be trucst, [Page 9]no demonstrable Reason hath yet decided. At this present time with the favour of the Noble Auditors, we shall cast anchor upon neither, but in a free dis­cussion sound each its bottome.

The grounds they build up­on are taken either from the sa­cred Scriptures, or principles of Philosophy: the latter I shall omit, as having cleerly been dis­cuss'd by the acutenesse and judgment of the late Disputants; and for the authorities taken from Sacred writ, I shall weigh them in the balance of these two small Conclusions.

First, that nothing is either so peremptorily or plainly de­livered in Sacred writ, in deter­mination of either opinion, that it excludes the question from all [Page 10]further debate, or renders the favourers of either opinion He­retical or unbelieving.

Secondly, that all the places of Scripture ingenuously com­pared together, give more strong evidence and authority to the maintainers of the Soules deri­vation from the loines of the Parent, then to those that af­firm that God is immediately assistant to the production of every Individuall.

These two conclusions I shall joyntly prosecute.

Object. 1.] That then which meets us in the first place, viz. That in the beginning of the Worlds creation, we finde the Earth and Water made the first Mother and Nurse of all inferi­our living soules, by the com­manding [Page 11]word of the Almighty; but God himself declared the Father of mans soule, in giving him life by the divine efflux of his breath.

Ans. 1.] This, if urged for the first fountain of mans soule, hath some weight in it; but no deductive evidence to exempt the humane off-spring from self-multiplication or seed in it self, with which God endued all kindes of life besides; nay, rather it is from the Epilogue of the Creation otherwise evi­dent, [Increase and multiply] un­der which command Adam and his Consort were expressely in­cluded; and in the processe of the story, it is declared, Adam did fulfill that command, and begot a Son in his own Image; [Page 12]and afterwards seventie Soules are said to have issued out of Jacobs loins.

But I am not ignorant, that the word Soule in Scripture, is of very ambiguous interpreta­tion; nor is alwayes significant of that superiour part, of which the question is stated: but is sometimes used for flesh and bo­dy, as in the 21. of Leviticus, [He shall not come at a dead soule,] (so runs the Original expres­sion) yet most generally it de­noteth the Soule and its affecti­ons, or the intire person made up of the soule and body joint­ly: but that in this place it on­ly signifieth the Soule, I am hence convinced.

In the comparison and pre­lation of Christs Priesthood be­fore [Page 13]the Levitical, the Apostles proofs are thus; that Levi in Abraham's loins paid tithes to Melchisedeck. If here the soule of Levi be not jointly meant, the argument destroyes it self: for the body likewise of Christ was in Abraham's loins, and paid tithes to Melchisedeck, whereby the preheminence would cease; and as for conviction from the argument, the two Priest­hoods remain still in equall ho­nour.

But I return whence I straied. God in the beginning, is suppo­sed by an immediate presence to have applyed himself not onely to the framing of mans soule, but the kneading of his body too: but since that time, it is confessed, he hath delivered the [Page 14]worke of the body to mediate instruments. How invalid there­fore is that argument of Gods immediate assistance to the fra­ming of the original piece, to evince so close an assisting to the production of al successive souls?

The Earth likewise in the be­ginning brought forth every Beast and Plant; the Water, Fish, and Fowl: but now both Earth and water have ceased teeming, and the whole Creation moves into infinite particulars, by the inexhaustible force of multipli­cation infused into the Earth's and Waters first fry, by God Al­mighty. Be it therefore far from us, to think that the manner and circumst [...]nces of the first Creation should be the perpetu­all mode of all future producti­on [Page 15]of soules; affixing sterility, that curse of Gods creatures, to the divine off-spring; and not rather think that the divine issue of Gods mouth was as full of radiant life, and as through­ly furnisht with possibilities of propagation into thousands of thousands in its own kinde, as that childe of the drossie Earth, the Brutall spirit, is fruitfull in his kinde:

But they say, that by many places of Scripture it is evident that God yet attendeth the no­ble work of creation of Soules; as in that place, [The Soules would faile before me, that I have made:] and that other; [Who formeth the spirit of man in him] with that of Eliphaz, [The breath of the Almighty enlivened me.]

To these the maintainers of Traduction answer with much ease and satisfaction; That all these places argue no other then the fatherly care and providence of Gods intent over man, as our Saviour expresses it, more then Sparrows: his more carefull pre­sidence over the nativities and production of men then beasts; and this not over their soul on­ly, for which those places are urged, but over their bodies al­so; as in the 33. Psalm, (if the infusiats will grant us but an e­quall latitude with them of in­terpreting) [framing severally one by one the hearts of them,] the like of w^ch expression is not through out concerning the Soule: and that of Job, [Thou hast powred me out like Milke, and crudled me [Page 17]like Cheese. Thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh, and hast fen­ced me with bones and sinewes] Now if the mention of Gods immediate workmanship of each particular body, hath no force of argument to affirm that they have no relation of a ple­nary Son-ship to the naturall visible Parent; neither doe all those other of the Soule.

Ob. 3. & 4.] But there re­main Scriptur [...]s of more and greater force, in which God is set forth as the authour and maker of the Soule, in a peculiar and distinct manner from the body, where he is called [the Father of spirits] and in Ecclesi­astes, where the body is said to [return to the Earth from whence it came, and the spirit to God that gave it.]

Ans. ad 3.] For the first Scri­pture, if no Gospel had been, nor our Saviours dispute with Nicodemus recorded by Holy writ, wherein that deep point of Regeneration is opened, and the relation of our soul's son-ship to God, that Scripture had had some difficulty in it: but our second birth is there clearly intended, in which sense God is frequenlty called our Father, we his Sons, a new creature, born not of flesh and blood, or by mans carnall affection, but by the will of God: and me thinks, that from these very Scriptures wee may elicite no contemptible deduction in fa­vour of the Souls processe from the visible Parent; arguing, That the subject of generation and re­generation [Page 19]being the same, it is true Logick, if we say, Because regenerate, therefore first gene­rated.

The other place of Ecclesiastes I confess is somthing more strin­gent, and all the knots not easily loosed by the Propounders of it: For if the soul be there un­derstood, the soules of wicked men shall go thither whence all Scripture hath debarr'd them. But it will be said (without violence to Scripture) that all souls return to God, seated in his several thrones of judgment and mercy; to Gods love, or wrath; yet both to God.

Ans. ad 4.] What the return of the soul to God is, with the manner of it, I shall at this pre­sent make no curious disquisi­tion: [Page 20]But as to the purpose why this place is urged, I propose this more genuine interpretati­on. [The spirit shall return to him that gave it] (that is) to the first Author of that divine particle of breath inspired to our first Father. And that this place re­lates to the first original of mans soule, and not all succeeding, that place in Zachary makes it very evident, where the effor­mation of the humane spirit is joined with the coagulation of the earth, and expansion of the heavens. [Thus saith the Lord which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.]

And in this very sense we are frequently called in Holy Writ [Page 21]dust and ashes; and yet from A­dam untill this time, flesh hath begot flesh.

Therefore the application must necessarily be, either to the ultimate terme of resolution, or first matter of our bodies exi­stence.

There remains one place of Scripture, which is the sword and speare of those that defend the continued creation of souls: and it is in the 21. of Exod. v. 22. the Septuagint render the place thus: ‘[If a man smite a woman, and the fruit come from her unfashion­ed, the smiter shall onely undergoe such a mulct as the womans hus­band shall set down: but if it come from her formed, soule shall be re­quired for soule.’

Hence (say they) it is evident, that the soul comes not into the body, till it have forme and fa­shion befitting such a guest, and therefore not transmitted from the Parent, but first created, and then infused.

But certainly that argument bears neither weapon of offence nor defence: For be the soule either Gods immediate off­spring, or issue of an inferiour agent; maintain but no actual existence before the completion of at least the vital parts, the crime of murder ariseth equally from both opinions.

Some, to fill up the number, are pleased further to argue, Gods being yet busied in the creation of soules; from those words of Christ related by St. [Page 23] John; [My Father worketh hither­to, and I work.] But to this I must needs answer, That these men, certainly, (except they take for granted, that God sate idle till he roused himself up to the cre­ation of the world) intend only by this reasoning to make the Reader sport: yet if any will morosely exact another answer, take this further reply, extreme­ly well proportioned to the rudenesse of the Argument.

God doth as yet operate by his co­operating concourse with the crea­tures, according to their severall na­tures.

Thus far haue Authorities of Holy Writ been examined: one Argument remains thought un­explicable, drawn jointly from Philosophy and Divinity, by [Page 24]the Patrons of the Soules infu­sion: And this it is.

Obj. 6.] If the soul be a natu­rall proceed, then either from the paternal or maternal seed, or both jointly. The mothers solely all reject: If only the fa­thers, it had been as good man had been alone: If both, then is the soule a compound, divisible, mortal: besides, if either both, or the paternal solely, from whence shall Christs soul be de­rived, who had no mortal fa­ther; And then by what rules of the Traduciaries Philosophy shall we call Christ true man?

But let us retort this argu­ment, and so we shall soon finde that it hath more noise then force: change but the term of Body for Soule, and I shall [Page 25]point the argument, as sharp for our own purpose.

The body of man is either of paternal or maternal seed, or of both: none entitles the Mother solely; if onely the Father, or or both, whence was Christs body, who had no humane Fa­ther; or, how is he truly man? So the infusiasts must either leave this argument, or let the Body also partake in their high pri­viledge of immediate crea­tion.

But as to those things which concern the Person of Christ, the Scripture poseth mankinde with an explanation of his ge­neration: His Birth, Life and Death, being a successive miracle, A God born, a man not begotten, a Virgin-Mother, the God of Life [Page 26]himself suffering death. These are horrid spectres to humane reason, and silences that god of man­kinde, amongst the rest of the Heathen Oracles.

All which considered, though they are a sufficient confutation of the last recited argument, and exempt his birth from the Laws of inferiour creatures: yet to make the busines more perspicu­ous, I shall propose these three things.

First, Though we determine that all Soules have a naturall production; yet we may, with­out any inconsistence, exempt the first and second Adam: nor let any man wonder, that we here slip the cover from Prince Arthur's Shield; since Gigantick instances are introduced, to o­ver-rule [Page 27]the ordinary measures and proportions of the propa­gation of man-kinde.

Secondly, We affirm, that if Souls be proceeds from visible agents, no valid objection hin­ders us from determining the original solely from the Fa­thers seed; yet with this con­cession, that the concourse of the woman is of absolute neces­sity to elicite from man the vital ferment, and to substantiate it into visible existence; which o­therwise would participate of the lot of the three miscarrying handfuls of seed, mentioned by our Saviour, that brought no fruit to perfection: Adding fur­ther, That the mother is not much more assistant to the pro­duction of living Souls, then the [Page 28]great Beldame Tellus (Mid-wit't by the Horns of Aries) is to her numerous progeny of Vegeta­tives.

Thirdly, For those Bug-bears of Divisibility and Mortality, that would haunt the poor Soul, if the father and mother were joint Parents of it; that causeth to sound reason no matter of fear, so long as we free them from the power of any natural agent to reduce that possibility into act, submitting it onely to the benigne strength of Gods omnipotency.

Thus farre in favour of Tra­duction is sufficient: One word concerning Creation of the Soule: for, when, what a Soule is, and what Creation is, is well understood, The night is past, and the day will appear.

'Tis therefore carefully to be observed, that in every crea­ture partaking of that which we properly call Intellect, whether Man or Angel, there are three essentiall parts; Spirit, Soul and Body; the distinction of which might evidently be made ap­pear, by reason and sacred Phi­losophy, if we were not pin-folded within set limits of time.

By the Spirit, here, I under­stand not that common tye of the Body and the Soul; but the supreme region of man, or that divine principle, by the media­tion of which we have fellow­ship with God: nor by the Bo­dy, that unprofitable carcasse, but a concrete notion of the gross spirits of sense and vegeta­tion. [Page 30]And by the Soule, (if we we may speak as things are) I understand that middle Essence, placed betwixt that heavenly, and that brutal spirit: but in this present controversie, the word Soule comprehends a Hotch-potch of all these; and all that is purely opposed to the Body, is in this controversie cal­ed Soul.

As for the notion of Crea­tion, that which the Schoolmen and their followers obtrude up­on us, [viz. that 'tis a framing of something out of nothing] wants both truth and reason to support it; for the word [...] in the original tongue and holy writ, from whence the word Creation was first taken up, hath no such signification; but per­petually [Page 33]eternall; to wit, God, and the great deep; that is to say, an infinite immeasurable space, in every imaginable point whereof dwelt the whole Deity.

Secondly, This Deep, or more truly called space-infinite, in all dimensions, is not purely no­thing; seeing two points divers from each other, might in it be assigned, in which God was able to create so many worlds; and a line extended from the one to the other would a be measure of the distance of one from the other: and al­though this space be not quan­tity particularly determinate; yet seeing that of two lines drawn in it, that is to be said the longer, that takes up more [Page 34]parts of this Deep: from hence it may challenge all the deno­minations of quantity and di­mension.

Thirdly, Although that this bottomlesse Immensurable par­take (next under God) most highly of the reality of being, yet is it not God himself, be­cause its divisibility and severall other properties are diametri­cally opposite to the many at­tributes of the perfect Divine life and essence; And therefore in an apt signification it may be termed the Body of the Deity, or more fitly, the eternal habi­tation of the Godhead.

Fourthly, To this Deep or Abysse may be attributed all what the Philosophers ascribe to their Materia Prima, to wit, [Page 35]that it is neither quid, quantum, nor quale; to wit, none of these in a definite essence or tircum­scrib'd figure or shape, but inter­minately all. The meaning of which is, ‘That the narrow speech and expressions of man­kind, with which they mea­sure out and circumscribe their finite essences, applied to this Infinite, are too narrow, nay contradictory in the e­nunciation of it, and extend onely to declaration of a ne­gative glimpse of its unima­ginable vastnesse.’ Yet foure properties are especially assign'd to this Abysse.

• 1. Desire and inclination to corporeity, or a force con­tracting, crudling and con­stringing.
• [Page 36]2. Contrary to this, a force impetuously resisting coagula­tion.
• 3. From the joynt strife of these, ariseth a spirit of anguish, gnawing the bowels of the first matter.
• 4. A great burning or pit­chy dark fire.

Of all these properties of the eternall Abysse, I can with ease make a visible resemblance, in the conflict of Mettals, with Waters corrosive, especially in the dissolution of Iron with the oyle of Vitriol, or in the coa­gulation of the oyle of Vitriol by Iron; for the worke is one and the same.

Here, upon the instant of the infusion of the oyle, the coagu­lative spirit of Mars and Venus, [Page 37]begins to worke to a sweet em­bracement of each other, and marriage into one body; but almost in the very same mo­ment, ariseth another furious force impatient of this union and incorporation, ejecting both water and oyle with sud­den violence over the brim of the highest Cucurbit; and from this conflict of the constrictive power with the contrary spi­rit, a third force ariseth, which grates those hard filings of Iron into a soft and tender Chrystal; and fourthly, followeth that darke fire without chearing light, yet sensible by the adven­turous hand of him that dares touch the glasse.

Whosoever shall curiously be­hold this combate, may well per­ceive [Page 38]the hideous stormes of the vast Ocean, depainted to the most exact possibility of so small an Epitome, and smelling those rancid fumes dispersed through­out the roome (such as are said in the Apocalypse to ascend from the bottomlesse pit) belcht out from this whirpoole, I believe he shall need no further illustra­tion of the Poets Tartarus, or the Christians Hell; having with some difficulty escaped stifling, with overlooking this so well­limb'd a Breviate. And to de­clare my thoughts plainly, I ac­count that part of this great A­bysse from whence God shall re­tire himselfe within his own Center, to be truly Hell; but do not believe, that before the fall of Lucifer it did break forth in­to [Page 39]its hellish actuality, but was so becalm'd by the benigne ef­fluence of the all-present Deity, that it greatly further'd the ma­nifestation of the eternal God­head.

Fifthly; Out of the friendly wrestling of the beams flowing from the Center of the Deity, and the properties of the eter­nal Immense or Abysse, there ariseth (let the Reader under­stand that our expressions desig­native of a time, must be under­stood from all eternity) a maje­statick light filling all this infinite space; A slight resemblance of which we may perceive in our fire; which when it hath dige­sted the darknesse of its nourish­ment, triumphs in a radiant flame, having wrought through [Page 40]the clung prison of dark mat­ter.

This light, or at least its vital and chearing rayes breathing a sweet gale through the circuit of the infinite Abysse, the holy Scripture, especially the Apo­cryphal book of Solomon called by the name of Wisdome.

Sixthly; Hence it may truly be affirmed, that there was from all eternity, is, and shall be a di­vine World, whose omnipresent Center is the Eternall Unity, whose body and soule is the A­bysse, and its spirit is the divine Wisdome it self, born of God the everlasting Father, and of its mother the Abysse; by which name I understand not any of the Divine Attributes, but a cer­tain Essence on all parts eternal, [Page 41]living, intelligent, inferior only in dignity to the eternal Unity, from whence this divine world hath all its ornament and vari­ety, and in which as in a glasse God hath from all eternity had a lively and most delightful pro­spect of his own lovely visage, and incomprehensible beauty.

And now I desire the Auditors would attend whither all these notions carry them. We have hitherto explained the first two Principles only: by the first, I understand the eternall Abysse; by the second, the Wisdome, such as we have clearly described.

From these two principles it pleased the highest Creator, after infinite revolutions of Eternity, to create another world, to wit, the Angelical, distinguished into [Page 42]three Regions, like a nest of spheres, whose inhabitants were Angels, severed into three Hie­rarchies. The middle, and ful­lest of Light which is now our World, was the habitation of Lucifer and his Angels; whose Souls and Bodies, as likewise of all other Angels, were from the Abysse; their Spirit, from the fruitfull womb of the Eter­nal Wisdome.

This Lucifer, beautifullest of all the rest, and who resembled (after whose Image, its like, he was made) the Son of God, with his Legions: contemning the Milk of Gods divine Breast, which was ordained to be the food and support of his spirit; by an enormous appetite look­ed downward, for the suste­nance [Page 43]of his life, to the menstru­ous efflux of the Nurse and Mo­ther of his two inferiour Prin­ciples, whereby his minde and will was choaked, and his An­gelick wings lim'd in unpro­portionable mire. By this means, the Spirit of Wisdome, whose sweet rayes before had temper'd the bitter corrosions of the foure properties of the Matrix, being stifled and extinct, the sore-recited properties of the Abysse budded forth and flourished in their naturall vi­gour, by whose dark and filthy fumes those proud Spirits be­ing intoxicated, fell then, and still fall, (being in a bottom­lesse) into this following irre­coverable condition.

First, A desire to appro­priate [Page 44]the beauty of all the other Hierarchies; yea, of the whole Deity to themselves. This ari­eth from the contractive and co­agulative power of the Abysse.

Secondly, To aspire beyond the limits of the whole Crea­tion; and to erect themselves a Throne in the Highest, where­by they might subject God and all their fellow-creatures to a footstoole of their feet.

This desire began from the second Property, which vio­lently resists Coagulation or Confinement, and whose mo­tions are alwaies from the Cen­ter to the Circumference; for they scorned to be pin-folded within the created Spheres, but would make themselves in all points equall to the [Page 45]immense and infinite Creator.

Thirdly, When this violent rising received a check by the limits wherein God had set all created Being; there arose from the aforenam'd Properties, a spirit of anguish and envy, gnawing it self.

Fourthly, and lastly, broke forth that smoldering heat of darke fire; whose proud force filled all their Region with flames and smoak, and sulphu­rous tempest.

And here you may see the first originall of sinne, and Hell-fire; especially those foure Bases, or corner-stones upon which 'tis founded; Covetousnes, Pride, Envy, and Wrath; For from these apo­state Souls the spirit had retired to its mansion. God had with­drawn [Page 46]drawn himself to his own Cen­ter; the Wisdomes sweet light becalm'd the raging Deep, or properties of the Abysse, no more: and what now remains, but that these unhappy bran­ches fallen from that commu­nion with the Divine stock, con­tinue in their own sphere, the eternal fewel of the fire them­selves have kindled.

And now at last, not without much toile under the difficul­ty of expressing these unheard of Notions, we are arriv'd at a known Land, describ'd ofold by the Poets, to wit, the Chaos; the ancientest terme from whence they deduce all their story: really, no figment, but a true adumbration of the top­sie-turvie Regiment of Rebelli­ous [Page 47]Lucifer in this mundane space, before this new Creation. And we may well suppose, th [...]t by the strength of this venome, (the fel force of which we feel in our selves) the other Hierar­chies had soon been infected, had not Gods seasonable right arme check't this magick va­pour.

For the Eternal Father, un­willing that so large a space, de­stined above the rest for a seat of glory, should eternally be bereft of his good influence; and himself frustrate of his bounti­full purpose to communicate happinesse to so many creatures on this stage, applied himself by his powerfull word to ap­pease these tumults, (that is) created this sensible World out [Page 48]of that disordered heap.

And first of all, He digested those particles or atoms of crass matter (congealed by the con­stringing force of the Abysse) into one body, or (if we may speak with the Copernicans) into severall opake spheres, separa­ting them from the fluid matter: and this is called in Scripture, the Creation of Heaven & Earth. Then proceeding, he gathered the darknesse which was disperst through the whole Luciferian region, together with its Au­thor, into a narrow compasse, framing thereof a stiffe dungeon for a receptacle of their all-comprehending Pride. And this in Scripture is called the Cre­ation of Light, and the work of the first day. And this was the [Page 49]first victory over Lucifer.

It would take up too much time to recite all the degrees of conquest: but it is most cleare by the series of divine story, that the holy Spirit of God desisted not from his conflict with this Chaos, before it had perfected an absolute victory, and overcome all the enflamed dark matter, captivating it to some peculiar use subservient to the necessities or ornament of this world, the temple and habitation of man­kind.

And it is worthy our obser­vation, that God, after the per­fection of every dayes work, did with the whole Quire of Angels sing a triumphant song over the spoils of repulsed Hell; of which himselfe beares witnesse in the [Page 50]book of Job. And it is probable that the Seventh day being the utter subduing of the Luciferian tyrannie, rendred that day a day of songs and jubilation to all created beings. And although what I am about to say, will be received with derision; yet I shall utter my thoughts with freedome, to wit, That the 148. Psalm, and the 104. were in the seventh day, that great day of triumph, (and perhaps in all succeeding Sabbaths) carol'd out by the Angels, and after­wards dictated to the holy Pro­phets, that Gods will might be done on earth, as it is in heaven. But if the naming of Israel, and other expressions of the like na­ture in these Psalms, should be to any man an occasion of the [Page 51]disrelish of this opinion; Let that man know, that there was an Israel in Heaven, before Jacob was borne; and a Tabernacle, from whence Moses-his was co­pied out: And who-so reads the Song of the Angels at our Saviour Christs birth, and com­pares it with Davids Psalms, he will judge them both composed for one Quire, and sent down from thence to be learnt by those holy souls which shal be thought worthy to assist that Musick.

But this is but a Notion en pas­sant: I return to the matter in hand You had before a delineation of the two first Principles: and now out of what hath been last delivered, you may frame to your selves a definition of the third Principle.

For under that name I com­prehend the Spirit, and Body, yea the whole Compages of this our late created sensible world. And now as I conceive, it suf­ficiently appeareth, that Creati­on was not out of nothing; and you likewise understand what I mean by the Three Principles; the first and second of which, namely the Abysse, and the Wise­dome, are on all parts eternal, and all things proceeding from them are finally eternal and im­mortal; but what proceeds or is created out of the third Prin­ciple, is as it self, frail and mor­tal

That I may therefore touch the matter at last, at which all these No­tions are levelled.

After the region of Lucifer was [Page 53]again made habitable, and he re­legated into sublunary darknes; it seemed good to the Creatour to create in his place another Hierarch, who with his numer­ous progenie might people this Region, the dominion and pos­session whereof, the former by his transgression had forfeited. And that was Adam; who though in reference to the predominant part of his composition, he he called Earth of Earth, yet it is very probable that every one of the Elements yielded of its finest parts, to the composure of so goodly a Fabrick.

But whether in the begining, his body were so grosse & dark, such as we now weare, or rather such as we hope for in the Re­surrection, I am not yet satisfied with my self.

But concerning these myste­ries, with the sleep of Adam, and formation of Eve, they concern not the matter in hand.

Into this body of Adam, per­fect in all parts, God breathed the breath of life; by which breath, if we ingenuously com­pare Scriptures, we must neces­sarily understand the threefold life issuing from the three fore­mentioned Principles; to wit, The life of the Spirit, from the Wisdome; the life of the Soule, from the Abysse; the life of the Body, from the Mundane spirit: by the mediation of all which, he is enabled to communicate with all the three Worlds. And although the life of the Spirit did (according to Gods just commination) fall asleep in A­dam; [Page 55]yea so deep asleep, that (he being in truth dead as to that spirit, and it as to him) it is in Scripture called death; yet did it not utterly perish, but is to­gether with the body and soules conveyed from our first parents into their posterity; asleep still, except it be revived and re­enlivened in that great mysteri­ous work of the Regeneration, after the consumation of which we are able by its ministry to search the hidden things of the Deity. For as being carried in the chariot of the Worlds spirit with the five attendant Senses, we view all its frame, and know its motions: so by our Soul we have a prospect into the eternal Abysse; and by the Spirit, into the magick glasse of the Wisdom [Page 56]and depth of the Deity: and herein is our dignity above the brute beasts, whose composition participates onely of the last principle; we, besides that, of the first and second.

But if any man wonder that three such noble and spiritual Essences should croud themselvs up into so mean and contempti­ble a vehicle, and not presse into freedome; let that man likewise consider and begin first to won­der, that such a spiritual and vi­vacious essence as the Soul is by all supposed to be, should be coop'd in so pervious a cask as the Body is; and know, that that full-grown bulk is as un­proportionable to her greatnes, as this contemptible Epitome. And let this be a further answer: [Page 57] ‘That the Spirit which out­stretched the branches of the mustard-tree that our Saviour speaks of, in which the fowls of the aire made their nests, sate with as much elbow-room in that smallest of seeds from whence that greatest sprung.’

Further more they affirm, that this threefold life is not yet actu­ally and visibly existent, no more then the body, such as it appears afterwards in all its dimensions; but that therein are three roots of substances lodged, which in processe of time bud forth to­gether with the Body into a th [...]e fold life: where if any dark impervious matter hinder their joint progresse, each retires to its mother-Ocean from whence it issued.

These things premised, and well weighed, it will not be difficult to determine either of the Creation or Traduction of Soules; when the terme and manner of both, well under­stood, differ in no real concern­ment. For seeing we have pro­ved that Creation neither is, nor ever was from nothing; I un­derstand not why we may not affirm, that both Body and Soul were and are created by God, but of matter derived from the Pa­rents: But the Soul, not of that visible and sensible, which the obtuse beams of our Senses can penetrate, but such as disappears from all material anatomy. Yet if any man shall think that these opinions in this are stil at odds, in that an immediate creation [Page 59]and infusion of the soul is main­tained by the one; The other builds it by the same hand, but mediately and of secondary ma­terials:

This difference too will be easily reconciled: for we affirm (and doubt not to an unbiass'd judgment to prove it) that both our bodies and soules do yet as immediately proceed from God as that of our first father Adam. A great illustration of the mat­ter in hand, is that vision of Eze­kiel, of the dry bones timbred into bodies, and inspired with life. It is in the 37. Chapter of Ezekiel, from the first to the e­leventh verse.

• 1. The hand of the Lord was up­on me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the [Page 60]midst of the valley, which was fill of bones.
• 2. And caused me to passe by them ro [...]nd about, end behold there were very many in the open valley, and lo they were very dry.
• 3. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God thou knowest.
• 4. Again he said unto me, Pro­phecie upon these dry bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones heare the word of the Lord.
• 5. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.
• 6. And I will lay sinewes upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and pul breath in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
• 7. So I prophecied as I was com­manded; [Page 61]and as I prophecied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together bone to his bone.
• 8. And when I beheld, lo the sinewes and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them a­bove, but there was no breath in them.
• 9. Then said he unto me, Pro­phesie unto the wind, prophesie son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, ô breath, and breath upon these slain that they may live.
• 10. So I prophe ied as he com­manded me, and the breath came in­to them, and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great Army.

In this Vision is shadowed forth (though the primary scope was a thing different from both) not onely the Resurrection, [Page 62]but the Creation also; though I conceive that the life of the Third Principle only activated these bones, which (the Vision ended) returned to its fountain: and as God out of them did cre­ate living men, and breathed in­to them the breath of life by the ministration of the wind, and not his own mouth; so in the relation of the first forming of Adam, the Scripture puts Gods actions in the garment and po­sture of humane, descending to our mean capacities, expressing Gods actions like ours: Not that it is to be imagined he stood over like a man tempering his clay, or kneading a piece of dough; into which being shaped into a humane figure, he should in a posture ridiculous for us to [Page 63]fancy, breathe life into his no­strils; but 'tis rather probable, that as man by the mediation of the Microcosmick spirit inhabi­ting the seed cast into the womb generates his like; so (God in like manner ordaining it) the Earth impregnated by the spirit of this world lodged in the ve­hicle of the Elements and influ­ences of the Stars, brought forth a quintessence, which, nourished in the womb of some dark cave, grew in few houres to the per­fect dimensions of a body: then, a spirit or wind blown from the lungs of the threefold World, animated its compleated mem­bers, whereby at last the man broke through the dark entrails of the Earth, as a chicken its shel, or an infant the wombe of its mother.

And I doubt not at all, but that if some young Scripling, unbiass'd by any forme or prin­ciple, had been an eye-witnesse of Adam's birth, he would have deem'd him a meer son of the Earth, as not being able to reach that invisible Principle, that moves the grosse matter, and is the original of life.

Since then, to affirm Adam to be created by God and inspired by him, and withall to be framed out of the dust and animated by the wind, are no repugnancies; ‘and what seems to us, or is recorded to be done by the mediation of visible Agents, is but Gods inward power dis­guised in a cloud:’

We conclude, [Page 65] That the Soule's Traduction from the Parents, and its Cre­ation by God; are not onely either of them probable, but both true.

Notwithstanding. If we will speak in the dia­lect of Angels (which the Scri­pture often useth) we affirm they are created of GOD: If with the tongues of men, They are an off-spring of their Fathers loines.

ANd now at last (most wor­thy VICE CHANCELLOR, with the rest of this grave As­sembly, and hopeful Youth) having sailed over this sturdy sea of Disputation, touching by the way at several shores of the Intellectual world, and disco­vering many unknown Regions of the Soule; our ship is at last entred its wished haven, torne and weather-beaten, yet safe­moor'd upon the Jetty of your favour.

And if as yet your benummed thighs are not crampt in your uneaseful seat; If sleep, the har­binger of the approaching even­ing, have not set his leaden paw upon your eye-lids: We must be thankful to your vivid patience, that hath with so much spirit [Page 67]attended our droning words.

These heavenly Dainties that have been by your Servants in this dayes Exercise presented unto you, according to our mean poverty, in a Woodden Dish; be pleased to pardon, and guild with your divine accept­ance.

One thing only remains to be further desired: That these pre­gnant Young-men (who have to day adorned this Philoso­phick Scene with the flagrant flowers of their Wits) together with those graver men, who have done far above the reach of my praise, may have their de­served applause and thanks di­stributed by your hands; My self, in the sense of my failings, kneeling under the same for my [Page 68]pardon; that if any error which may have overslipt my h [...]dlesse tongue, have displeased you, you may be appeased by this submission.

So shall the gentle gale of your clemencie transmit a new Soule into my overwearied and faint­ing Spirits.

This shall be my second birth­day; and the native characters of your favour, no stupifying streames of oblivion shall be able to blot out,

And lastly, 'twill appear more clear then by natures noon-day-light, That all this Dayes per­formance hath received its life and acceptation, not from the poverty of our merit, but from the royal Mine of your Can­dor.

These things if (which I doubt not) I shall be so happy as to ob­tain, then I who was the first that bid you welcome to this place, shall with the same cheir­fulnesse bid this Honourable As­sembly the last Farewell.