t Then is the soul from God; so Pagans say, 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 VII. REASONS FROM DIVINITY. Goo 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, 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, And which to God's own chair doth fix'd remain? O could we see how cause from cause doth spring! 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, cach single part doth see. So, though God make the soul good, rich, and fair, Which makes the man, which man is Adam's heir, SECTION IX. WHY THE SOUL IS UNITED TO THE BODY. THIS substance, and this spirit of God's own making, So that if man would be unvariable, He must be God, or like a rock or tree; For e'en the perfect angels were not stable, But had a fall more desperate than we. God first made angels bodiless, pure minds; Then other things, which mindless bodies be; Last, he made man, th' horizon 'twixt both kinds, In whom we do the world's abridgment see. Besides, this world below did need one wight, Which might thereof distinguish ev'ry part; Make use thereof, and take therein delight; And order things with industry and art: Then let us praise that pow'r, which makes us be Admire God's counsels, which we cannot know. Which also God might in his works admire, And here beneath yield him both pray'r and praise; As there, above, the holy angels choir Doth spread his glory forth with spiritual lays. Lastly, the brute, unreasonable wights, Did want a visible king, o'er them to reign: And God himself thus to the world unites, That so the world might endless bliss obtain. SECTION X. IN WHAT MANNER THE SOUL is UNITED TO THE BODY. BUT how shall we this union well express? Naught ties the soul, her subtlety is such; She moves the body, which she doth possess ; Yet no part toucheth, but by virtue's touch. And let us know that God the maker is Of all the souls, in all the men that be; Yet their corruption is no fault of his, But the first man's that broke God's first decree. Then dwells she not therein, as in a tent; Nor as a pilot in his ship doth sit; Nor as the wax retains the print in it; Nor as a vessel water doth contain ; Nor as one liquor in another shed; But as the fair and cheerful morning light Doth here and there her silver-beams impart, And in an instant doth herself unite To the transparent air, in all and ev'ry part: Still resting whole, when blows the air divide; Abiding pure, when th' air is most corrupted; Throughout the air, her beams dispersing wide; And when the air is toss'd, not interrupted: So doth the piercing soul the body fill, Being all in all, and all in part diffus'd; Indivisible, incorruptible still; .Nor forc'd, encounter'd, troubled, or confus'd. And as the Sun above the light doth bring, |