The Female Physician / Containing all the diseases incident to that sex, in virgins, wives, and widows; together with their causes and symptoms, their degrees of danger, and respective methods of prevention and cure: to which is added, the whole art of new improv'd midwifery; comprehending the necessary qualifications of a midwife, and particular directions for laying women, in all cases of difficult and preternatural births; together with the diet and regimen of both the mother and child.

by John Maubray

CHAP. IV.
Of the SOUL.

THE SOUL is a certain divine Light, created after the Image of God; figured by a Seal, whose Character is the eternal Word.

THE SOUL is a certain divine Substance, individual, and entirely present in every Part of the Body, depending only upon the Power of Him, who is the ultimate End, and efficient Cause of all things; whose Body (according to Plato) is Truth, whose Shadow is Light, and whose Name is God.

AND this divine Substance of Light, the SOUL, immediately proceeding from that divine Fountain of all Things, God, (according to the Opinion of the Platonists) is join’d, by competent Means, to the grosser Matter of the Body. Which Means these Heathens account for in manner following: viz.

THE SOUL, in its Descent, is involved in an etherial Body, which they call the celestial Vehicle, or Chariot of the Soul; thro’ which Medium, by the Command of God, (who is the Center of the World) it is first infus’d into the middle Punct of the Heart, which is the Center of the Body; whence it is diffus’d thro’ all the Parts and Members of the Body, joining itself to the natural Heat. As a Spirit, generated by Heat from the Heart, it plungeth itself into the Humours; and thus inhering in all the respective Parts, it becomes equal in degree of Proximity to all the Members.

THUS the immortal SOUL is, by an immortal Engine, convey’d to, and included in the mortal Body: But when by Diseases, or otherways, these Mediums (the Heat and Humours) begin to dissolve, the Soul recollects itself, and flies back betimes to its first Receptacle, the Heart: When the Spirit of the Heart also fails, the Heat extinguishes, and the Spirit leaves the Man; He dies, and the SOUL flies away in its original Vehicle: When the Body returns to Earth, whence it came, and the Spirit to God, who gave it a sacred Nature and divine Offspring: which Spirit judging the SOUL, if it has liv’d ill, subjects it to some general and some particular Torments of Hell, abandoning it also to the Pleasure of the Devil: Whereas, if it has done well, it mounts its celestial Chariot, rejoicing together with the Spirit, and passes freely to the Choirs of Heaven; where it enjoys all its pure Senses and Faculties, the perfect Knowledge of all things, a perpetual blessed Felicity; and at last, the divine Vision, the Possession of the eternal Kingdom, &c.

THUS far I have prosecuted the Platonick Doctrine of the SOUL; so that even by This, the gross Opinion of such as deny the Existence of so divine a Spark in Man, may be confuted.

AND this being sufficient for that purpose, I need not introduce any Christian Arguments to second it; which, however important, are commonly deem’d light by an obstinate Sett of Men. Wherefore I shall only add, that from the Disparity of Manners, Affections, Dispositions, Capacities, Judgments, Opinions, and Passions of Men, it appears most probable and evident, that every one of us is individually indued with a Soul, and that with a proper Soul, peculiar to our respective Bodies, according to the wise Proverb; So many Men, so many Minds: as well as Horace’s[^[2]] Saying,

“Millia, Quot Capitum vivunt, totidem Studiorum.