Page images
PDF
EPUB

Gen. i. 22, 28. Thus it was from one of the ribs of the man that God made the mother of all mankind, without the necessity of infusing the breath of life a second time, Gen. ii. 22. and Adam himself begat a son in his own likeness after his image, v. 3. Thus 1 Cor. xv. 49. "as we have borne the image of the earthy;" and this not only in the body, but in the soul, as it was chiefly with respect to the soul that Adam was made in the divine image. So Gen. xlvi. 26. "all the souls which came with Jacob out of Egypt, which came out of his loins." Heb. vii. 10. "Levi was in the loins of Abraham :" whence in Scripture an offspring is called seed, and Christ is denominated the seed of the woman. Gen. xvii. 7. "I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." 1 Cor. xv. 44. "it is sown a natural body." v. 46. "that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural."

But besides the testimony of revelation, some arguments from reason may be alleged in confirmation of this doctrine. Whoever is born, or shapen and conceived in sin,3 (as we all are, not David only, Psal. li. 5.) if he receive his soul immediately from God, cannot but receive it from him shapen in sin; for to be generated and conceived, means nothing else than to receive a soul in conjunction with the body. If we

anima constarent, producendi; quemadmodum et cæteris animantibus, quibus benedixit, talem communicavit ...... Nec vero dixisset Moses Adamum genuisse, &c. Gen. v. 3. nempe ut ipse ad imaginem Dei factus erat. Ista enim Dei imago præcipue in anima consistit Et rursus dicit Moses, cuncta animæ, &c. Gen. xlvi. 25, Ergo non solum corpora, sed etiam animæ liberorum et nepotum Jacobi ab eo prognatæ sunt.' Curcell. Instit. III. 4.

[blocks in formation]

Abundantly his gifts hath also pour'd

Inward and outward both, his image fair.

Paradise Lost, VIII. 219. On which passage, in answer 'to Warburton's insinuation, that one would think by this outward that Milton was of the sect of Anthropomorphites, as well as Materialists, Mr. Todd has well observed that the poet only meant to allude to the complete nature of man, the animal and the intel lectual parts united, which the learned Hale, treating of the words in the image of God made he man, minutely and admirably illustrates. See also above, page 18, and the note there.

3. Proclivitas ad malum, cumqua infantes nascuntur, huic etiam opinioni favet. Nam ea a Deo non est, ut omnes fatentur, neque etiam a corpore, quod non est vitii moralis capax.' Curcell. Instit. III. 8.

receive the soul mmediately from God, it must be pure, for who in such case will venture to call it impure? But if it be pure, how are we conceived in sin in consequence of receiving a pure soul, which would rather have the effect of cleansing the impurities of the body; or with what justice is the pure soul charged with the sin of the body? But, it is contended, God does not create souls impure, but only impaired in their nature, and destitute of original righteousness; I answer that to create pure souls, destitute of original righteousness,—to send them into contaminated and corrupt bodies,―to deliver them up in their innocence and helplessness to the prison house of the body, as to an enemy, with understanding blinded and with will enslaved,-in other words, wholly deprived of sufficient strength for resisting the vicious propensities of the body-to create souls thus circumstanced, would argue as much injustice, as to have created them impure would have argued impurity; it would have argued as much injustice, as to have created the first man Adam himself impaired in his nature, and destitute of original righteousness.

5

Again, if sin be communicated by generation, and transmitted from father to son, it follows that what is the prov dexTixò, or original subject of sin, namely, the rational soul, must be propagated in the same manner; for that it is from the soul that all sin in the first instance proceeds, will not be denied. Lastly, on what principle of justice can sin be imputed through Adam to that soul, which was never either in Adam, or derived from Adam? In confirmation of which Aristotle's argument may be added, the truth of which in my opinion is indisputable." If the soul be equally diffused

4 Yet evil whence? in thee can harbour none,

Created pure.

Paradise Lost, V, 99.

5 Subjectum distingui potest in recipiens, quod Græce dεкTIкòv appellant, et occupans, quod objectum dici solet, quia in eo adjuncta occupantur.... Sic anima est subjectum scientiæ, ignorantiæ, virtutis, vitii, quia hæc animæ adjunguntur, id est, præter essentiam accedunt.'-Artis Logica plenior Institutio. Prose Works, VI. 220.

6 See Aristot. Tɛpi Yuxñs, I. 9.—' Per omnes ejus particulas tota simul adest, nec minor in minoribus, et in majoribus major, sed alicubi intensins, alicubi remissius, et in omnibus tota, et in singulis tota est.'—Augus tinus De Origine animæ hominis ad Hieron. Ep. 166. Edit Benedict.

Spirits that live throughout

Vita in every part, not as frail man
In entrails, heart or head, liver or reins.-

throughout any given whole, and throughout every part of that whole, how can the human seed, the noblest and mos intimate part of all the body, be imagined destitute and devoid of the soul of the parents, or at least of the father, when communicated to the son by the laws of generation? It is acknowledged by the common consent of almost all philosophers, that every form, to which class the human soul must be considered as belonging, is produced by the power of

matter.

7

It was probably by some such considerations as these that Augustine was led to confess that he could neither discover by study, nor prayer, nor any process of reasoning, how the doctrine of original sin could be defended on the supposition of the creation of souls. The texts which are usually ad

All heart they live, all head, all eye, all ear,

All intellect, all sense.

if it be true

That light is in the soul,

She all in every part.

Paradise Lost, VI. 344.

Samson Agonistes, 91.

in

7 Milton frequently uses the word forma in its philosophical sense. his English works he commonly expresses it by the word shape.

saw

Virtue in her shape how lovely.

Paradise Lost, IV. 8.16.

'Discipline is not only the removal of disorder; but if any visible shape can be given to divine things, the very visible shape and image of virtue.' The Reason of Church Government, &c. Prose Works, II. 442. 'Regenerate in us the lovely shapes of virtues and graces.' Ibid. 446. Truth indeed came once into the world with her divine master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on.' Speech for Liberty of Printing. Ibid. 89.

[ocr errors]

8 'We cannot deny but that besides Origen, several others of the ancient fathers before the fifth council seem either to have espoused the preexistence of souls, or at least to have had a favour and kindness for it; insomuch that St. Augustine himself is sometimes staggering in this point, and thinks it to be a great secret whether men's souls existed before their generations or no, and somewhere concludes it to be a matter of indifferency, wherein every one may have his liberty of opinion either way without offence.' Cudworth's Intellectual System, chap. v. 'Hujus igitur damnationis in parvulis causam requiro, quia neque animarum, si novæ fiunt singulis singulæ, video esse ullum in illa ætate peccatuin, nec a Deo damnari aliquam credo quam videt nullum habere peccatum.' Augustinus De Origine animæ, &c. ad Hieron. Quære ubi, vel unde, vel quando cœperint [animæ] damnationis meritum habere, si novæ sunt, ita sane ut Deum non facias, nec aliquam naturam, quam non condidit Deus, vel peccati earum vel innocentum damnationis auctorem. Et si inveneris quod te quærere admonui, quod ipse adhuc, fateor, non inveni, defende VOL. IV.

vanced, Eccles. xii. 7. Isai. lvii. 16. Zech. xii. 1. certainly indicate that nobler origin of the soul implied in its being breathed from the mouth of God; but they no more prove that each soul is severally and immediately created by the Deity, than certain other texts, which might be quoted, prove that each individual body is formed in the womb by the immediate hand of God." Job x. 8-10. "thine hands have made me.... hast thou not poured me out as milk?” Psal. xxxiii. 15. "he fashioneth their hearts alike." Job xxxi. 15. "did not he that made me in the womb make him?" Isai. xliv. 24. "thus saith Jehovah.... he that formed thee from the womb." Acts xvii. 26. "he hath made of one blood all nations of men." We are not to infer from these passages, that natural causes do not contribute their ordinary efficacy for the propagation of the body; nor on the other hand that the soul is not received by traduction from the father, because at the time of death it again betakes itself to different elements than the body, in conformity with its own origin.

With regard to the passage, Heb. xii. 9. where the fathers of the flesh are opposed to the Father of spirits, I answer, that it is to be understood in a theological, not in a physical sense, as if the father of the body were opposed to the father of the soul; for flesh is taken neither in this passage, nor probably any where else, for the body without the soul; nor the father of spirits for the father of the soul, in respect of the work of generation; but the father of the flesh here means nothing else than the earthly or natural father, whose offspring are begotten in sin; the father of spirits is either the heavenly father, who in the beginning created all spirits, angels as well as the human race, or the spiritual father, who bestows a second birth on the faithful; according to John iii. 6. “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which

quantum potes, atque assere animam infantium ejusmodi esse novitatem, ut nulla propagatione ducantur; et nobiscum quod inveneris fraterna dilectione communica.' Augustinus Ep. 157. (190. Edit. Benedict.) ad Optatum.

9 Sunt quædam scripturæ loca, quæ id asserere videntur, ut Joo xxxiii. 4. Eccles. xii. 9. Zach. xii. 4. Respondeo, ex eo quod Jobus ait, spiraculum Omnipotentis vitam sibi indidisse, non magis sequi id factum esse immediate a Deo, quam ex eo quod idem dicit, nonne sicut lac mulsisti me, c. Job x. 8. colligi legitime potest corpora nostra a parentibus non gigni, ed immediate a Deo ipso formari.' Curcell. Institutio. III. 10. 9.

is born of the Spirit is spirit." The argument, too, will proceed better, if the whole be understood as referring to edification and correction, not to generation; for the point in question is not, from what source each individual originated, or what part of him thence originated, but who had proved most successful in employing chastisement and instruction. By parity of reasoning, the apostle might exhort the converts to bear with his rebuke, on the ground that he was their spiritual father. God indeed is as truly the father of the flesh as of the spirits of flesh, Numb. xvi. 22. but this is not the sense intended here, and all arguments are weak which are deduced from passages of Scripture originally relating to a different subject.

With regard to the soul of Christ, it will be sufficient to answer that its generation was supernatural, and therefore cannot be cited as an argument in the discussion of this controversy. Nevertheless, even he is called the seed of the woman, the seed of David according to the flesh; that is, undoubtedly, according to his human nature.

There seems therefore no reason, why the soul of man should be made an exception to the general law of creation. For, as has been shewn before, God breathed the breath of life into other living beings, and blended it so intimately with matter, that the propagation and production of the human form were analogous to those of other forms, and were the proper effect of that power which had been communicated to matter by the Deity.

Man being formed after the image of God, it followed as a necessary consequence that he should be endued with natural wisdom, holiness, and righteousness. Gen. i. 27. 31. ii. 25. Eccles. vii. 29. Eph. iv. 24. Col. iii. 10. 2 Cor. iii. 18. Certainly without extraordinary wisdom he could not have given names to the whole animal creation with such sudden intelligence, Gen. ii. 20.1

have

1 In this illustration the chief stress is laid upon the suddenness with which Adam was enabled to give appropriate names to the brute creation, as it passed in review before him. Milton has two other allusions to this event, and the same circumstance is marked as the prominent feature of the case in both passages. There is nothing in the scriptural narration to suggest the particular idea, or the coincidence would have been less remarkable

« PreviousContinue »