broken, might have made a breach likewise upon the discretion of their owners. h 6. Give not an easy ear to reports, nor an easy entertainment to suspicions; be not greedy to know who or wherein another hath wronged thee. That which we are desirous to know, or apt to believe, we shall be the more ready to revenge. Curiosity and credulity are the handmaids unto passion. Alexander i would not see the woman, after whom he might have lusted: nor Cæsar search Pompey's cabinet, lest he should find new matter of revenge; he chose rather to make a fire of them on his hearth, than in his heart. Injuries unknown do, many times, the less hurt: when I have found them, I then begin to feel them, and suffer more from mine own discovery, than from mine enemies' attempt. k 7. Be candid in interpreting the things wherein thou sufferest. Many times the glass through which I look, makes that seem formidable,-and the wave, that crooked,-which, in itself, was beautiful and straight. Haply, thou art angry' with that which could not intend to hurt thee: thy book, thy pen, the stone at which thou stumblest, the wind or rain that beats upon thee: be angry again, but with thyself, who art either so bold, as to be angry with God, or so foolish, as to be angry with nothing. Thou art displeased at a childish or ignorant miscarriage: call it not injury, but imprudence; and then pity it. Thou art angry with counsel, reproof, discipline: why dost thou not as well break the glass, in which thy physician ministereth a potion unto thee? Be angry with thy sin; and thou wilt love him that takes it from thee. Is he that adviseth thee, thy superior? Thine anger is undutiful. Is he thy friend? Thine anger is ungrateful. 8. Give injuries a new name; and that will work a new affection. In blind agents, call it chance;' in weak persons, infirmity;' in simple, ignorance;' in wise, 'counsels ;' in superiors, discipline;' in equals, familiarity;' in inferiors, confidence.' Where there is no other construction to be made, do as Joseph and David did; call it 'providence;' and see what God says to thee by it. Get a mind h Plut. Apoph.-Sen. de Ira, 1. 3. c. 40.-Cœl. Rhod. 1. 12. c. 52.-Sen. de Ira, 1. 2. c. 22, 23, 24. Cass. 1. 41. i Plut, in Alex. et lib. de Curiosit. 1 Sen. de Ira, 1. 8. c. 26. k Dion. conversant with high and noble things; the more heavenly, the less tempestuous. " m 9. Be not idle, sluggish, luxurious. We are never more apt to be angry, than when we are sleepy or greedy. Weak resolutions and strong desires are sensible of the least exasperation; as an empty ship, of the smallest tempest. Again, be not over-busy neither: That man can hardly be master of his passion, that is not master of his employments. A mind ever burdened, like a bow always bent, must needs grow impotent and weary, the fittest preparations to this distemper. When a man's business doth not poise, but press him, there will ever be something either undone or ill done, and so still matter of vexation. And therefore our minds, as our vessels, must be unloaded, if they would not have a tempest hurt them. " Lastly, Wrestle not with that which pincheth thee. If it be strong, it will hurt; if cunning, it will hamper and entangle thee. He that strives with his burden, makes it heavier. That tempest breaks not the stalks of corn, which rends asunder the arms of an oak; the one yields, the other withstands it. An humble weakness is safer from injury, than a stubborn strength." I have now done with the passions of the mind; and briefly proceed to those honours and dignities of the soul of man, which belong unto it in a more abstracted condition. CHAP. XXXII. Of the original of the reasonable Soul, whether it be immediately created and infused, or derived by seminal traduction from the parents. Of the derivation of original Sin. THE dignity of man, in respect of his soul alone, may be gathered from a consideration either of the whole, or of the parts thereof. Concerning the whole, we shall consider two m Minimas rerum discordia turbat: Pacem summa tenent. Lucan. Vid. Sen. 1. 4. c. 33. Sen. de Ira, 1. 2. c. 25, 26. " Plutarch. wep opyŵs. Sen. 1. 3. c. 6. Sen. de Ira, 1. 3. c. 16. • Χειμάρροις ὅσα Δένδρων επείκει, κλῶνας ὡς ἐκσώζεται, τὰ δ ̓ ἀντιτείνοντ ̓ αὐτόπρεμν ̓ ἀπόλλυται. Soph. Αntig. 725. Plut. Sympos. 1. 4. q. 2. things; its original, and its nature. Concerning the original of the soul, divers men have diversely thought: for, to let pass the opinion of Seleucus, who affirmed that it was educed out of the earth; and that of Origen and the Platonists, who say that the souls of men were long ago created, and after detruded into the body as into a prison; there are three opinions touching this question. The first, of those who affirm the traduction of the soul by generation:-some of which so affirm, because they judged it a corporeal substance, as did Tertullian :-others, because they believed that one spirit might as easily proceed from another, as one fire or light be kindled by another: as Apollinarius, Nemesius, and divers in the western churches, as Saint Jerome witnesseth. The second, of those who deny the natural traduction, and say that the soul is by creation infused into bodies, organized and pre-disposed to receive them; of which opinion amongst the ancients were Saint Jerome, Hilary, Ambrose, Lactantius, Theodoret, Æneas Gazeus, and of the modern writers the major part.-The third is of those who do hæsitare,' stick between both, and dare affirm nothing certain on either side; which is the moderation of Saint Austin and Gregory the Great", who affirm that this is a question incomprehensible, and unsolvible in this life. Now the only reason which caused Saint Austin herein to hesitate, seemeth to have been the difficulty of traducing original sin from the parents to the children. 'For,' saith the, (writing unto Saint Jerome, touching the creation of the soul) if this opinion do not oppugn that most fundamental faith of original sin, let it then be mine; but if it do oppugn it, let it not be thine.' Now since that opinion which denieth the traduction, seemeth most agreeable to the spiritual substance of the soul, c Aug. de Hæres. a Philostr. de Hæres. Seleuci, &c. b Justinian. Tract. ad Medinam, contra Orig. Hieron. Epist. ad Marcell. et Anapsychiam.-Theophyl. Alex. Ep. Pasc. 2.---Anastat. Sinaita Anagog. contemp. lib. 11. 86. Ep. 157. de Gen. ad lit. 1. 10. c. 25. Tertul. de Anima, c. 5, 6, 7, 22, 25, 27. d Hieron. Epist. ad Marcellinum. Nemesius de natura hominis, 1. 2.-Luciferian. apud Aug. Hæres. 81. Hieron. ep. ad Pam. contra Joan. Hieros. Ambros. de Noah et Arca, c. 4. h Lactant. f Hil. de Trin. 1. 10. de op. Hom. c. 9. i Theod, de curand, Græc. affect. Ser. 4. Gaz. in suo Theophrasto. k Æneas 1 Aug. ep. 7. 28, 157. et Retract. 1. 1. c. 1. de m Greg. 1. 7. ep. 53. I shall here produce some few reasons for the creation, and solve an argument or two alleged for the traduction of the soul, reserving notwithstanding unto myself and others, the liberty and modesty of Saint Austin's hesitation, which also I find allowed by the Holy Ghost himself. " Two things there are of certainty in this point: 1. Thàt the soul is not any corporeal mass or substance, measurable by quantity, or capable of substantial augmentation. 2. That the traduction of one thing out of another, doth connotate these two things: That the thing traduced doth derive being from the other, as from its original principle; and that this derivation be not any other manner of way, but ratione seminali, et per modum decisionis,' by a seminal way, and the decision, separation, or effluxion of substance from the other which things being laid, the arguments against traduction are these. First, The testimonies of Holy Scripture, calling God the Father of Spirits,' as our natural parent the father of our bodies.' (Job xxxiii. 4. Eccles. xii. 7. Isai. lvii. 16. Numb. xvi. 22. xxvii. 16. Heb. xii. 9. Zach. xii. 1) Which though they do not, according to the judgement of Saint Austin, conclude the point by infallible consequence, yet do they much favour the probability of this opinion. 2. To have being by traduction, is, when the soul of the child is derived from the soul of the parent, by the means of seed: but the seed of the parent cannot reach the generation of the soul, both because the one is a corporeal, the other a spiritual substance, incapable of augmentation or detriment. Now that which is spiritual, cannot be produced out of that which is corporeal; neither can any seed be discinded or issue out from the soul, being substantia simplex, et impartibilis,' a substance simple, and indivisible. 3. That which is separable from the body, and can subsist and work without it, doth not depend in its being or making upon it for if, by the generation of the body, the soul be generated, by the corruption of the body it would be corrupted: for every thing that is generable, is corruptible; but the soul can subsist and work without the body: therefore it doth not from corporeal generation derive its being. a Eccles. xi, 5. 4. If the soul be seminally traduced, it must be either from the body or from the soul of the parents: not from the body; for it is impossible for that which is not a body, to be made out of that which is a body,-no cause being able to produce an effect out of its own sphere, and more noble than itself: not from the soul, because that being a spiritual and impartible substance, can therefore have nothing severed from it, by way of substantial seed, unto the constitution of another soul. : 5. If there be nothing taken from the parents, of which the soul is formed, then it is not traduced by natural generation but there is nothing taken from the parents, by which the soul is formed for then in all abortions and miscarrying conceptions, the seed of the soul would perish; and, by consequence, the soul itself would be corruptible, as having its original from corruptible seed. These, and divers other the like arguments, are used to confirm the doctrine touching the creation of the reasonable soul. Unto which may be added the judgement and testimony of some of the forecited fathers. St. Jerome telleth us that the original of the soul in mankind is not as in other living creatures, since, as our Saviour speaketh, the Father worketh hitherto.' And the prophet Isaiah telleth, that "he formeth the spirit of man within him, and frameth the hearts of all men ;” as it is in the Psalms. And so Lactantius, (whom I wonder to find numbered amongst the authors that affirm the traduction of the soul, by Ruffinus, and the author of the Dialogue amongst the works of Jerome). "It may be questioned," (saith he) "whether the soul be generated out of the father, mother, or both. Neither of all three is true, because the seed of the soul is not put into the body by either, or both of these. A body may be born out of their bodies, because something may be out of both contributed; but a soul cannot be born out of their souls, inasmuch as from so spiritual a substance nothing can issue forth or be severed for that use."-So also Saint Hilary P; "The soul of man is the work of God; the generation of the flesh is always of the flesh." And again, "It is inbred and an impressed belief in all, that our souls • Hier. ad Pammach. et in 1. 32. Eccles. 12. contr. Ruffinum, 1. 2. c. 1. 2. et Dialog. de Orig. Anim. inter opera ejus, Tom. 8. P Hilar. de Trin. 1. 10. et in Ps. 62. |