The Answere to the Obiection.
Thus these good men with holy zeale were blind,
When on the other part the truth did shine;
Whereof we doe cleare demonstrations find,
By light of Nature, and by light Diuine
None are so grosse as to contend for this,
That soules from bodies may traducèd bee;
Betweene whose natures no proportion is,
When roote and branch in nature still agree.
But many subtill wits haue iustifi'd,
That soules from soules spiritually may spring;
Which (if the nature of the soule be tri'd)
Will euen in Nature proue as grosse a thing.
Reasons drawne from Nature.
For all things made, are either made of nought,
Or made of stuffe that ready made doth stand;
Of nought no creature euer formèd ought,
For that is proper to th' Almightie's hand.
If then the soule another soule doe make,
Because her power is kept within a bound,
Shee must some former stuffe or matter take;
But in the soule there is no matter found.
Then if her heauenly Forme doe not agree
With any matter which the world containes;
Then she of nothing must created bee,
And to create, to God alone pertaines.
Againe, if soules doe other soules beget,
'Tis by themselues, or by the bodie's power;
If by themselues, what doth their working let,
But they might soules engender euery houre?
If by the body, how can wit and will
Ioyne with the body onely in this act?
Sith[108] when they doe their other works fulfill,
They from the body doe themselues abstract?