The portraiture of the image of God in man: In his three estates, of creation. Restauration. Glorification. Digested into two parts. The first containing, the image of God both in the body and soule of man, and immortality of both: with a description of the severall members of the body, and the two principall faculties of the soule, the understanding and the will; in which consisteth his knowledge, and liberty of his will. The second containing, the passions of man in the concupiscible and irascible part of the soule: his dominion ouer the creatures; also a description of his active and contemplative life; with his conjunct or married estate. Whereunto is annexed an explication of sundry naturall and morall observations for the clearing of divers Scriptures. All set downe by way of collation, and cleared by sundry distinctions, both out of the schoolemen, and moderne writers. The third edition, corrected and enlarged. By I. Weemse, of Lathocker in Scotland, preacher of Christs Gospel.

CHAP. VIII. Of the conjunction of the Soule with the Body.

THe Soule is joyned to the Body immediatly. [Prop.]

The forme is joyned to the matter without any middle, but the Soule is the forme to the Body: [Illust. 1] therefore the Soule is joyned to the Body without any middle.

The Soule is joyned to the body; [Consequence.] hence wee may gather that there are intellectuall Spirits or Angels which have no bodies; for if two things be joyned to∣gether, the one perfect, the other more imperfect; if the more imperfect be found alone, much more is the more perfect: wee see that there are bodies without spirits; * 1.1 therefore there must be spirits without bodies. Second∣ly, those things that are inseparable, the one cannot bee found without the other, * 1.2 but those things that are ac∣cidentally joyned together, the one may bee found without the other, as whitenesse and sweetenesse are but accidentally found in Sugar, for whitenesse may be found, where there is no sweetnes; as in Snow; so sweet∣nesse may be found where there is no whitenesse, as in a Figge: therefore sweetnesse and whitenesse are but ac∣cidentally joyned together in the Sugar; so the body & the Spirit are but accidentally joyned together; there∣fore

there are spirits that subsist by themselves without bodies.

Object. But how is the Soule joyned accidentally to the body, seeing the soule is the essentiall forme to the body which animates it?

Answ. The soule, as the soule, is the essentiall forme to the body, and so it is inseparable, but the Soule as it is an intellectuall Spirit is accidentally joyned to the bo∣by, and may be separate from it.

Object. But it might seeme that the Apostle puts the Spirit betwixt the soule and body, as a middle to joyne them together, therefore the soule and body are not joyned immediatly. 1 Thess. 5.23. He prayes, that God would sanctifie them in their Spirits, Soule, and Bodies.

Answ. By the Spirit is not meant here a third thing, which joynes the soule and body together; but by the Spirit hee meanes the gift of sanctification, which is through the whole man both in Soule and body oppo∣site to the Old man, Rom. 7.

The soule is joyned immediately to the body, [Conseq.] there∣fore Averrois erred, who held that the phantasies or imaginations were a middle to joyne the soule and the body together. So these who held that the soule was joyned to the Body, by corporall Spirits: and so these who held that they were joyned together by light.

The soule being one, yet hath three distinct Faculties, the Vegetative, [Prop.] Sensitive, and Reasonable faculties.

In the conception the Vegetative and Sensitive facul∣ties are vertually in the seede, [Illust.] untill the fortieth day, and after the fortieth day the reasonable soule is infused, * 1.3 they give place, and it animates the body. Exod. 21.22. If two strive together, if one of them strike a woman with child, that she part with her child, and there bee no hurt, neither to the mother nor to the child, then the striker

shall not die; but if there follow death of either of them, then the striker shall die. If shee part with the child before it bee quicke in her belly, then shee shall not die; but if it bee a quicke child, and shee part with it, then hee shall die. Physitians and Canonists hold, that before the forty dayes it is not a living child; it is then called Golem, Psal. 139. vers. 16. Massa rudis, corpus imper∣fectum before the members bee fashioned in it; The seventie reade these words, Exod. 21. verse. 22. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Non signatum; which they referre to the imperfect child when the woman abhorts, and the Ra∣bins call it Asiman, which word they borrowed from the Greekes, as money not sealed or stamped; therefore the Law saith, Si exierint jeladébha, nati ejus, her sonnes the Law then meaneth of a perfect and a formed infant, when a resonable soule quickens it; Why should one give life for life, when as yet the life is not perfect? Adams body perfectly fashioned, saith Augustine, received life and not before. So infants bodies perfectly fashioned receive the reasonable soule.

The soule is joyned to the body to make up one person. [Prop.]

The soule is not in the body, [Illust.] as a man dwelling in his house, or a Sayler in the shippe; for a house will stand without the man, but the body decayeth without the soule; shee is not in the body as the Spider in her web, as Chalcidius held, determinate to one part of the body, and from thence giving vertue and influence to the whole body; as the spider dwelling in the middle of her Cob-web, feeles the least touch in the webbe, either within or without. Neither dwels the soule in the body as water into a vessell; or as one liquor into another: or as the heate in the fire; but as the morning light im∣parts the beames here and there, and in an instant doth unite her selfe to the transparent ayre, in all and every part thereof, still resting whole when the ayre is divi∣ded,

abiding pure when the ayre is corrupted. So the soule filleth the body, beeing all in all, and all in every part; and as the Sunne bringeth light from a∣bove, although we behold it in the ayre; so the soule springs from eternall light, although shee shew her powers in the body; and as the Sunne in diverse places worketh diverse effects, here Harvest, there Spring; here Evening, there Morning: so doth the soule in our little world worke diversely, upon diverse objects, here shee attracts, there shee decocts, here shee quic∣kens, there shee makes to grow; the light shines by it selfe, without the ayre, but not the ayre without the light: so the soule lives by it selfe, but the body cannot live without the soule. But as in all comparisons there is some dissimilitude, so it is here; for the light is but a qualitie, but the Soule is a substance, the light comes from the substance of the Sunne, but the Soule is not of the Essence of God. This conjunction betwixt the soule and the body is so neere, that it makes up one Person, and this is the reason, why the soules long for the bodies. Revel. 6.10. to bee joyned againe to them in the resurrection.

The soule was joyned to the body to make up one Person, [Consequence.] and to dwell perpetually in the body, but since the fall, the soule is from home in the body, and absent from the Lord, [Prop.] 2. Cor. 6.

The Soule is appointed onely to animate one Bo∣dy. [Illust.]

The body of a flee must onely have the life of a flee in it, * 1.4 the Soule of a man cannot animate the body of an o∣ther Man, or an Elephant, Materiae individuales ejusdem speciei sunt ita determinatae; ut nullam aliam formam e∣jusdem speciei recipere possunt, that is, Every body of that same kinde is so determinate, that it cannot receive any other forme of the same kind, but the owne.

The soule can animate no body but the owne body of it: [Consequence.] therefore they erre who thinke that the Soule of Man may enter into the body of a beast and animate it, 2. The Pythagareans and the Iewes erre, who held that the soules went from one body to another. Marke 6.16.

The soule was placed in the body, [Prop.] to animate and to rule it.

There are two things required in a forme. First, [Illust. 1] that it give a being to the matter. Secondly, that the forme and matter make up one thing; so doth the Soule of man give being to the body, and makes up one Person with the body.

Object. But seeing the soule is a spirituall thing, and the body corporall of two different natures, how can they make up one person?

Answ. The more excellent that the forme is, the more nearely it is joyned to the matter; and makes the neerer conjunction with it. So the soule of man joyned with his body makes a more stricter conjunction then the life of the beast joyned with his body. But if the body were of the same nature with the soule, it should not make up one person, as the life of the beast joyned with the body makes not up one Person, because of the base∣nesse of the forme which is onely drawne out of the mat∣ter.

Wee beleeve that Christ tooke upon him the nature of Man, and therefore a soule: [Illust. 2] which would not follow, if the soule were not an essentiall part of man, but onely a ruler of the body. Christs Divi∣nity might have ruled his humanity; But Apollinaris was condemned for taking away of Christs Soule, and putting onely his Divinity in place of a soule to rule the body.

There are some formes which rule onely the body,

but doe not animate them, as the Angels, when they tooke bodies upon them; Angelorum operationes in cor∣poribus non fuerunt vitales, Those things which the An∣gels did in the Bodies were not vitall; They ruled the bo∣dies, but they informed them not; and they onely mo∣ved the bodies. Secondly, there are some formes that in∣forme things, but doe not rule them, as the formes of things without life. Thirdly, there are formes which in∣forme and rule, as the Soule of man in the body.

Object. It is said that the Angels did eate and drinke, Gen. 18. Therefore they have exercised these vitall fun∣ctions in the body.

Answ. Theodoret answers, Metaphorice non propriè dicuntur edere: * 1.5 They are said to eate by way of meta∣phor, but not properly, because of the manner of the true eating: and the Philosopher saith, that, Vox est actus animati corporis, The voyce is the act of the living crea∣ture: but when a Lute giveth a sound, it is but meta∣phorically a voyce (saith hee:) So the eating of the An∣gels was but metaphorically a eating, for they eate not to digest, or to nourish their bodies.

In this that the Soule is joyned to the body as the forme, [Consequence.] wee may admire the mervailous worke of God, for if David wondered at the mervailous fashioning of the body in his mothers wombe, Psal. 139. much more may wee admire the mervailous conjunction of the Soule with the body, for we may observe that the high∣est of the lowest kind, is joyned alwaies to the lowest of the highest kind, as the lowest of living creatures (which have life) is the shell-fish; as the Oyster diffe∣reth little from the life of the plant, is comes nearer in order to the beast then the plant doth, because it feeles; therefore it is well said by one, * 1.6 Sapientia Dei conjungit fines superiorum principijs inferiorum; the wisedom of God hath conjoyned the ends of the superiour with the begin∣ning

of the inferiour; as the shel-fish to bee the basest a∣mongst the sensitive, and more noble then the vegeta∣tive. So the body of man is the most excellent and high∣est in degree of the inferiour creatures; the soule (againe) of man is the lowest of intellectual Spirits; marke thē how these two are joyned together. Therfore fitly the soule of man hath beene compared by some to the horizon for as the horizon separates the upper parts of the world from the nether, to our sight, and yet the sphere is one; so doth the soule separate the intellectuall substances from the earthly bodies: and yet is one with them both And as Hercules was said to be Partim apud superos, par∣tim apud inferos; so is the Soule, partly with the Spirits above, and partly with the bodies below.

The body joyned to the soule, [Prop.] maketh the soule a compleate spirit.

The Angels without bodies are spiritus completi; [Illust.] but our soules without the bodies are incompleate spirits. The Angels when they assumed bodies, it was not to their perfection, but for their ministery, Non quibus ju∣ventur, sed quibus invent: Not that they were helped by these bodies, but that they might helpe us. They have a double action, one of contemplation, another of mi∣nistery; for contemplation, to behold the face of God continually, Matth. 18.10. They tooke not bo∣dies upon them; but onely for the ministry to us; but the soule of man is an incompleate Spirit, without the bodie.

The soule was joyned to the body, [Prop.] to goe upward to God, and not to be depressed by the body.

When water and oyle are put together, [Illust,] the oyle be∣ing more aeriall goeth above, and the water being heavie goeth under; so the soule being more celestiall went upward, and was not drawne by the body, when man stood in innocency.

The Soule hath sundry operations in the body. [Prop.]

When it groweth; [Illust.] it is called anima; when it con∣templates, * 1.7 it is called a spirit; when it seeth and heareth, it is called sense; when it is wise, it is called animus; when it discernes, it is called reason; when it remembers, it is called memory; when it assents lightly, it is called opinion: when she defineth a truth by certaine principles, then it is called judgement.

God hath wisely placed the faculties of the Soule and the Body. [Prop.]

Hee hath placed the intellectuall facultie in the Braine, [Illust.] as highest: the affections in the Heart, the naturall part in the Liver and Stomacke: hee hath placed the under∣standing in the Head, as in the throane; in the Heart as in the chamber: but the rest of the inferior faculties hee hath placed below, as it were in the Kitchen: and as it were an unseemely thing for a Prince to be sitting in the Kitchen, and never to minde matters of estate: so it is a base thing for the soule to have minde of nothing but of eating and drinking, and to choose Martha her part, but never Maries, Luke 10.42.

Man before his fall lived the life of God, * 1.8 but since the fall hee lives onely the naturall life, and few live the life of grace. There is so little life in the shell-fish, that wee cannot tell whether they live the life of the plant or the sensitive life. So the life of God is so weake in many men, that we cannot tell whether it be the na∣turall life or the spirituall life which they live. Zeuzes the Painter painted grapes so lively, that hee deceived the birds, and made them come fleeing to them. Deda∣lus made 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, images mooving by themselves, hee made men beleeve that they were living; but Pygma∣leon made an image so lively, that he fell in love with it himselfe. So hypocrites which live onely the life of Nature, they will so counterfeit the actions of the faith∣full,

that they make men beleeve indeed that they live the life of God; and some times they deceive themselves, thinking that they are living when they indeede are dead: the quickning power of the soule desires one∣ly being, and so it rests: the sense would not onely bee, but also bee well: but the understanding aspires above all these to eternall blisse: these three powers make three sorts of men, for some like plants doe fill their veines onely, some againe doe take their senses pleasure like beasts onely, and some doe contemplate like An∣gels: therefore the Poets in their fables doe faine, that some were turned into flowers, others into beasts, and o∣thers, into gods.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Duplex inseparabilitas, logica & physica.
• * 1.2

  Inseparabile logicum quod cogitatione potest separari tantum ut ri∣fibil it as in homine. In∣separabi••e physicum cum unum non dependeat ab alio necessario ut •• gre∣do in corvo.
• * 1.3

  Anima vegetativa & sensitiva, est virtussemi nis, praeparans materiam ad recipiendem formam intellectualem.
• * 1.4

  Anima non est unibilis omni corporised orga∣nino, & naturall ad sus∣ceptionem corporis apto.
• * 1.5

  Atistot. 2. de anim.
• * 1.6

  Tho. Aquin. contragent.
• * 1.7

  Anima est simplex in essentis & multiplex in potentia.
• * 1.8

  A collation betwixt the innocent and old Adam