Which Him selfe makes, of no materiall thing;
For vnto angels He no power hath giuen,
Either to forme the shape, or stuffe to bring
From ayre or fire, or substance of the heauen.
Nor He in this doth Nature's seruice vse;
For though from bodies, she can bodies bring,
Yet could she neuer soules from Soules traduce,
As fire from fire, or light from light doth spring.
Objection:—That the Soule is Extraduce.
Alas! that some, that were great lights of old,
And in their hands the lampe of God did beare;[106]
Some reuerend Fathers did this error hold,
Hauing their eyes dim'd with religious feare!
For when (say they) by Rule of Faith we find,
That euery soule vnto her body knit,
Brings from the mother's wombe, the sinne of kind,
The roote of all the ill she doth commit.
How can we say that God the Soule doth make,
But we must make Him author of her sinne?
Then from man's soule she doth beginning take,
Since in man's soule corruption did begin.
For if God make her, first He makes her ill,
(Which God forbid our thoghts should yeeld vnto!)
Or makes the body her faire forme to spill,[107]
Which, of it selfe it had no power to doe.
Not Adam's body but his soule did sinne
And so her selfe vnto corruption brought;
But the poore soule corrupted is within,
Ere shee had sinn'd, either in act, or thought:
And yet we see in her such powres diuine,
As we could gladly thinke, from God she came;
Faine would we make Him Author of the wine,
If for the dregs we could some other blame.